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It’s been about ten minutes since I finished listening to AC/DC’s new album, Black Ice, and even though I’ve got a mountain of reading and writing ahead of me, I just had to say a few words about my favorite band (in the Southern Hemisphere).

With the whirlwind first cut, Rock N’ Roll Train, the band’s homage to public transit, the band proves that in our quest for alternative energy we forgot one source, the raw, unending, bone-shaking power of rock n’ roll.  As we’ve learned from previous albums, rock n’ roll ain’t noise pollution, rock n’ roll will never die, which makes it an excellent companion for solar and wind.  Just put these guys in the boiler room of the Empire State Building and they’ll have the whole place humming before you can say “Highway to Hell.”

The rest of the album unfolds as a delightful confabulation of driving rock anthems, riffed-up power chants, and double entendres; par for the course for any AC/DC album.  These are all fine and good, but the real test, the test that makes it or breaks it, requires a more refined appreciation for the music.  Namely, “Can I kick someone’s ass to this song?”

Well, my friend, why don’t you put on track 7, Spoilin’ For a Fight, and we’ll see what happens…

Apparently, of the 50,000 or so chemicals commonly used in this country almost all of them have not been tested for, ahem, negative health effects.

In twenty years, when we all have cancer of the digestive tract from eating too many Doritos, I guess we’ll know why.  (Or maybe we still won’t!)

But seriously folks, take a couple of research or scientific graduate classes in a hand-full of universities and have this be part of their curriculum for a semester.  Who knows what they’ll find lurking…

As the economy crumbles around us (along with everything else those in power have managed to screw up in the past eight years) I’ve been watching major news media over and over and over (tough to do when you don’t own a television), as much as I can get, any channel, any format, any medium.  And I keep hearing talk of two things: the “free market” and this “government bail-out.”

I hear a lot of people in interviews, on C-SPAN, around the water-cooler, on the street, everywhere, all talking about how they’re against any government action because they “believe in the free market.”  I keep resisting the urge to directly ask them, “So do you believe in Santa Clause too?”  Now, I’m not an economist, but the conditions of a free market system, as described in economics textbooks are tantamount to “enlightened capitalism” in my mind.  Namely, in the textbook, everyone has a lot more information and understanding than they do in real life.  Basically, in the free market, everyone is invested in the system.  Where we start running into problems (in real life) is when we try to apply those same free market principles to consumers (not necessarily “invested in the system” so to speak).  Where in free market theory does the Wow Factor fit in, or keeping up with the Jones’, or the reality distortion field, or taking out a variable rate mortgage because some guy in a three-piece told you you could (but didn’t stop to tell you if you should), or any other senseless reason that money seems to fly out of people’s pockets.  These are the reasons why the free market will never be more than a sound-byte for people who think they understand the economy.  I’m not saying I understand the economy either, but I’ve learned that the smartest thing you can do is to understand that there is a lot you don’t know.  For instance, I don’t know what the hell is going on three blocks away from me (I work right next to Wall St.), I do know that the guy in line at the movies who’s spouting off to the bimbo he’s trying to impress that he knows what really should be done is full of shit.  So, to sum up, as Clinton reminded us that the same skills that get you elected also get you laid, this economic disaster will remind us, the same deregulation that got us rich put us in the poorhouse as well.  Free market indeed…

And the other thing I want to put my two cents in about: the “government bail out.”  If that’s too hard to swallow, try this on: the “citizen bail out.”  Remember, folks, our elected officials may have chosen to spend this money they way it’s being spent, but remember where the money is coming from.  Sure, government is pointing the spotlight, but the outlet, the transmission lines, the whole damn power plant, it’s all made of citizens.

So government, business, on behalf of the ones who ultimately bail you out every time either of you screw up: You’re welcome.

Typical afternoon with the Kennedys…

hands off! my new iphone from Mad Kaw on Vimeo.

I like going under the radar, cause I get to make a bunch of crap up about what I’ve been doing for the past few months.  Like this one…

I started off at a nice romantic dinner for 4.2  (One of us was already ready to be seated.)

But my date wouldn’t have anything to do with me.

It looked like there would be an alliance against me.

But Chihuahua’s have long memories and don’t take kindly to yellow sweatshirts.

I needed someone new.  And almost on cue…

Right out of the pack…

A Guru pup!!

(Don’t worry, Gypsy, you’re still #1)

I’m starting to think that the country would run a lot smoother if my parents were in charge of Congress.   And I don’t mean house speakers or committee chairs or anything, I mean, everything that congress did would have to be run by them.  Want to put a bill to a floor vote?  As long as the floor is clean.  Sleep-over party with a lobbyist?  Make sure it’s okay with your father.  I don’t care if you’re under oath or not; I can tell when you’re lying!

Case in point: When I was 17 a guy at work was trying to sell me his old 1980 Mercury Cougar, and it was a pretty easy sell cause I wanted this thing bad. Real. Real. Bad.  Granted, it smelled weird, was already 17 years old when I was looking at it (born the same year I was), ate gas, couldn’t stop in the rain, couldn’t stop on a hill, couldn’t stop pretty much anywhere, but none of that really mattered.  The car was freedom, and I wanted to be free.  Free to pick up and go in a vehicle that was mine and mine alone.  Free to have no-one tell me what to do or where to be.  I wanted the special kind of unrealistic freedom that a 17 year old kid assumes is just around the corner at nearly all times, provided he makes a couple of “good” decisions.

Anyway, I approached my parents with the idea, and they sat me down and without telling me no, told me that if I indeed wanted to buy my own car, that meant that I’d also be buying my own insurance and paying for my own repairs.  Sure, the initial $800 price tag on the car was low, but after that, and after insurance payments, and after new brakes, and after everything else, I’d basically be working my entire job each week, all the hours, just to break even.  I was welcome to buy the Cougar, but I was also welcome to share the use of my mom’s car at no additional cost to me.  Freedom averted!

So you can imagine my chagrin when I read the following graph in a New York Times article titled: Call for Change Ignored, Levees Remain Patchy.

Come on guys.  Really?  Really?!  Seems just one conversation with my parents would have completely avoided this whole thing from getting as bad as it has.

Now, how to approach the Highway Appropriations Bill.  Might want to wait until after dinner…

I read a New York Times article over the weekend (which I’ve been trying to find for about ten minutes without success) about how it’s getting increasingly more difficult to sift through all the trumpeting green messages out there.  Indeed, even after you tune out the plain old greenwashers, even if you ignore advertising completely, it’s still a tough job to try to live sustainably.

The article raises some good points. In addition to discussing the din of green marketing, it profiles several people who are faced with such conundrums as: New Hybrid or a used car with good gas mileage to save the extra energy that would have gone into producing a new one?  And…  Recyclable milk containers or reusable glass ones that need to be washed repeatedly and took much more energy to make?

And what I have to say about that is…  At that point, pick something and be happy with it already!  The way I see it.  Living sustainably is like having a balanced stock portfolio.  You try to make the best decisions that you can as much as you can.  But no matter how much research you do.  No matter how many people you talk to about carbon footprints, or embedded energy, or anything like that, you’re always going to find out that you were wrong about something.  The best thing that you can do is to try, and to keep trying.  And while you’re trying, keep reading.

As one person, none of your choices are going to have a drastic impact on the condition of the planet.  However, your attitude will have a much bigger impact, as even if you aren’t doing the best job at living more sustainably, you might impress your values upon your neighbor, or the town you live in, or a local member of government.

A couple of summers ago I bought a book on biodiesel and without even getting a chance to read it, loaned it to my roommate, who wanted her cousin-in-law to read it.  Her cousin-in-law is a Connecticut State Senator and see what came of that?  Though I can’t take full credit, it’s nice to think that my choice as a consumer played a small part in helping to reduce Connecticut’s total emissions.

Blogged with Flock

A couple of years ago I tried to spread a rumor that Tron was coming back as Tron on Ice.  Though a couple of people nibbled at my idea, I couldn’t secure any investors and eventually the rumor was consigned to development hell.

So you can imagine my pleasant surprise when, while searching for a completely unrelated video on youtube, I happened across this video!

This guy sings the plots of famous movies to the tune of their orchestral overtures.  He’s got more, too!

Check out this one.

And this one.

And this one.

He’s got the characters in Jaws down pretty good.

My personal favorite is Halloween, mainly because of the bald mask.

I need to do one of these for Smokey and the Bandit…

The “special” at my local pizzeria went from $5.00 to $5.50 today.  I asked the guy behind the counter why the price went up.

“Ethanol,” he said, and shrugged his shoulders.

Which got me to thinking.  Lately, I’ve been pretty much immune to things like rising gas prices and fare hikes.  In fact, the last time I remember buying gasoline consistently it was under $2.00 a gallon (eek!).  So you can only imagine how miffed I was when I learned that because the global demand for corn went through the roof that I had to pay 10% more for my slices.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind paying a little extra for something that is helping us all out in the long run (like organic food or phosphate-free detergent), hasn’t this little ethanol charade gotten a little old?

I see that I may have gotten a little ahead of myself, so like the intrepid explorers that we all are at heart, let’s follow this little scenario downstream and see if we find anything lurking.

My pizza costs went up because the cost of milk went up.  The cost of milk went up because the corn that the cows are fed is now more expensive due to increased demand.  More demand means more corn to keep pace with the demand (cause we can’t have cows or ethanol, we’ve gotta have both).  More corn means more fertilizer.  Most of the fertilizer consumed by agri-business is made using the Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia.  And what fuels the Haber-Bosch process?

Natural Gas.

You can see where I’m going with this.  Ethanol is not fixing the problem, it’s just tucking it under the rug so the common consumer can’t see it anymore.  Ride around in all the green cars you like, it still won’t make a lick of difference.

If we really want to fix the problem we have to change our land use, not our car use.

(Or:  We, as a country, could do away with the flush toilet and pool our collective resources to create the world’s largest humanure industry, eliminating both the water deficit and the fertilizer problem in one fell swoop.  Who’s with me?!)

Is that a word?  Just googled it, guess it is…

Okay, now that the mic-check is over, I’ve got something to say.

I’ve been reading a lot about biomimicry lately.  Biomimicry, in a nutshell, is looking to nature for cues on how to design something.  The Wright brothers did a lot of this when they studied birds for years before building the first airplane, termite colonies offer us a lot to learn about temperature and humidity management, and infomercial producers have a lot to thank to the Venus Fly Trap.  But I’m not here to wax philosophic about whale fin-shaped fan blades, or bug-shaped cars.

In my web-travels the other day, I was introduced to this video:

Pretty cool, eh?  Solar towers look to be made of much cheaper materials then conventional photo-voltaic solar energy collectors.  Looks to be just a bunch of concrete and plastic sheeting (with a very expensive turbine inside, of course.  I’m fairly certain that it’s pretty expensive in its own right, but I’m positive that it earns out a lot faster then a PV system.

However, as I was checking the thing out, it struck me.  There’s a huge concrete stack outside of my bedroom window.  And more throughout the city.  In fact, they’re ubiquitous in this great country of ours.  So why not start building these puppies all over the place, or converting existing stacks in buildings that have outlived their usefulness.  Take an industrial complex with a couple of huge stacks, use the roof of the buildings to collect heat (hell, even plant low maintenance seedums under the plastic canopy and you’ve got yourself a lot better something from nothing.  The trick would be to retro-fit the stack to allow the air inside, house the turbine, and still not impinge upon the structural integrity.   Easy problem to solve, engineers love challenges.

Or better yet, think of this structure.  (Photos courtesy of this very cool airport.) Imagine building the center of this thing hollow and using the very air that is superheated on the tarmac around it to power all its systems.  Sure, you’d have to build it a little bigger and keep the area around it clear, but if you’re already building the thing, you might as well make it work for you too.

Bout time someone finally turned the stack effect to our advantage.