Just look at this recumbant design with the kevlar shell. So if this biker can go 82 mph, why can't we ride our 750 watt battery electric assisted velomobiles around town and cruise safely inside a kevlar shell right along with traffic?   more »

I just saw Obama in Green Bay today, so I now know what to say about the proposed big three US automaker bailout. And Lutz' latest stupidity on the Colbert Report. He thinks "global warming is a crock of shit". If GM had not killed the original electric car, way back 8 years ago. And instead, installed a backup generator and better batteries, thus producing the still promised but never produced "Volt". Back in the day it would have saved US from this economic disaster. Well then Lutz would have credibility wether or not he believed in GHG climate change.   more »

Combine this, Palin's admiration for the witch hunting preacher who lead prayers for her to become governor.. ..to her appropriation of $400,000 of taxpayer funds to "educate" alaskans (who voted against aerial hunting) on the benefits of shooting wolves and bears from airplanes.   more »

HBO's "True Blood", making vampirism really cool again. 'Thanks to a Japanese scientist's invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures "coming out of the coffin." Religious leaders and government officials around the world have chosen their sides, but in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the jury is still out.'   more »

Given this Palin threat to start a war with russia, maybe Bob Z needs to update "Talkin' John Birch Society Blues"? Palin's former political party, the AIP, boasts of being far to the right of John Birch.   more »

Check the video of Charlie Gibson's interview, a very cheering event. Cheering for those of us opposed to nuclear rapture that is. Not so much for her, very embarrassing, I almost feel sorry for her. She's the Sgt. Schultz of VP candidates, "I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know noth..thing!" I'm working on a dynamite Palin imitation though. All her favorite phrases with her special church lady rapture intonation.    more »

This is better than the usual schtick we get from him.  He tells why McCain is wrong at least.

But still the same old Friedman.

Better to talk about it this way Tom.

Demand reduction.  Sure renewable energy technology is key, but at first it is all about recognizing that only demand reduction can save our economy.  Without that rescue from stagflation produced by soaring oil prices, we won't have the capital to develop the new technology.

We need a plan somewhat like Obama's.  He is going in the right direction by proposing an incremental 4% per year increase in mileage standards.

But more is needed, we need an actual incremental oil demand reduction, say 4% per year, 1% per quarter.  It's easy to measure, and at first it is easy to attain. 

Simple fuel economy measures, like tire inflation and engine tuneups and consumer moves towards higher mileage cars, bikes, and mass transit would get us through the first year or two.  This is the sort of thing that can be done with encouragement, like FDR used during WW2. 

Patriotic sacrifice, the president making it clear that these savings are necessary to revive the economy and keep our leadership position, financially, politically, and militarilly in the world.  Obama is the kind of leader who can inspire that.

As the currency strengthens, inflation wanes, and investor, consumer, and business confidence is restored by this steady progress, bolstered by the feeling of participation and collective success through sacrifice, the capital will be there for the next phase.

As oil war ends, finally, with the realization that we are now getting control of the oil supply/demand equation, by steadily reducing demand; capital will become available for investment in a shift to plugin hybrids, freight rail instead of long haul trucking, and ground source heating/cooling.

This will be the source of years of gradual oil demand reduction.  And as manufacturing and job and tax base are restored, the boom will power itself, with continuing innovation, to finally eliminate oil imports completely after 10 to 15 years.

The foreign policy and trade leverage gained will allow our leaders to spread peace worldwide by facing down dictatorships economically, with negotiation, techniological aid, and deomcratization of politics and freedom of markets through example.  Rather than the vain attempt to use military force.

This is the sort of simple plan a leader like Obama can initiate.  And the huge fledgling manufacturing and resource market economies of this world, like China, Russia, and India,now under kleptocratic rule, will see that our way is better and emulate it voluntarilly.

Then along with help from wind, solar, wave, ocean current, hydro, and biogas from waste energy systems powering the new energy economy through smart grids, GHG climate disaster will be only a bad dream that never really happened.

Palin is a human bumpersticker. You can't interview a bumpersticker or question a slogan. Another fine mess they are getting us into. 70% believe we can consume our way out of this energy crisis.   more »

Another romantic revival movie, for those of us still foolish enough to believe in true love. "Stranger Than Fiction". It's strange alright and great.   more »

Obama crafts compromise, McCain wants to go forward with coal, nuclear, and oil/gas as it is used now. But just expand the supply somehow. By invading, occupying, and nation building country after country that happens to be located over oil? Witness McCain's "Bomb, bomb, bomb..bomb, bomb Iran" joke? The "drill, drill, drill" strategy is not a strategy, it's an anti-thinking slogan like "9/11" has become.   more »

An environmental run down on Palin's policies in Alaska. But what is this picture about? At least at the "Miss Buffalo Chip" contest, kids are excluded. Is that a child in the lower left hand of this party picture?   more »

It was written for him, as was Palin's, by the same guy. Here's the important part that really highlights democratic values. The personal part about his torture. The part right from his heart, that no speech writer could fake: (The full text)   more »

Kind of ironic eyyh? Palin is a GHG climate change denier. Denying the scientific graphical anaysis of temperature and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere indicating the exponential rise in both due to human GHG producing activities. The hockey mom denying the proof of GHG climate change evidence known as the "hockey stick". Dana Carvey needs to reprise his SNL "Church Lady" to imitate Palin.   more »

Yes, considering that more domestic drilling on the few areas left won't effect the supply or price of oil. In fact McCain voted for a bill that prohibits selling Alaskan oil into US markets to US consumers. Here's an awful joke to reply to their joke (since it is mainly designed to make the rest of US angry).   more »

Unbelievable, but true!  Read about the flip-flopping.  Corruption.  McCain lies, and attempted coverup.

What's next?  How could Palin surprise us now? 

Neeehaaaww! Gov Palin is a confederate? Yep a former member of the Alaska Independence Party, a secesionist movement in Alaska. They want to form a more perfect state, one that is not part of these United States of America. She was a party member as a Wasilla city council member, before becoming mayor. Here's her address to the confederates.    more »

Any toe-tappin' gon' on, on that oil rig?  Sarah's hubby is away from home for long periods of tiime spent on manly pursuits.  Oil riggin', commercial fishin', and snowmobile racin'.  A wide stance for any man to take!

Men can get mighty lonely away from their wimin folks.  Stay tuned!  Hehey.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

At least a Palin vice and eventually presidency as McCain leaves office, one way or another, will be great fodder for comedy.

I'm not saying she is alaskan trailer trash, I'm just saying, click here and try to cheer up.  The trailer trash swimming pool is especially great!   One of these on whitehouse grounds would be excellent.

How about a condo for Bristol and her new family?  Just wheel one in!  What could be easier?

It's official, a vote for McCain/Palin is a vote for a whole new wave of glamor behind underage teenage motherhood.  Isn't it wonderful?  Just think, a teen mom in the whitehouse.  Every other teen girl will want one too.  That's Palin family values for america.

Fundamentalist (creationist) abstinence?  Whoops, not so much.  Population growth unlimited to provide cheap labor, cannon fodder, and faithbased voters to power the corporate war machine?  Let the voters decide.

 

Reuters: "The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
   
Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said. 'We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,' the Palins' statement said. 'Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support,' the Palins said."

Hear the robot Stepford wife audio of Palin on the great news for her family!

You thought Wolf killer cheney was THE Darth Vader of modern politics?  Alaska Governor Sarah Palin makes him look like Casper the Fiendly (sic) Ghost.  It's hard to imagine a worse "sport" than this. 

But there is one, namely running down Wolves and Coyotes on snowmobiles until their hearts burst from exhaustion.  Does Palin support that too?  Hard to say, but her husband is a snowmobile racer.

As Kate sheppard writes in Grist:

"Palin has also drawn heat from conservationists for pushing to let citizens shoot wolves from the air, and for supporting looser bear-hunting rules aimed at reducing bear populations in order to inflate numbers of moose and caribou, which draw big-game hunters to the state. She opposed a ballot initiative to change the law so that only Department of Fish and Game personnel could shoot wolves or bears from the air."

Volunteer at your local Obama campaign office NOW!  These corporo-sadists disguised as humans must not win this time around.

An interesting take on McCain's VP pick.  check the video from an alaskan tv station.

"The taser incident (requested by the son, not that that justifies it), an illegal moose killing (moose eaten by Sarah Palin and other family members), and the beer drinking occurred in 2002-2003. It was only in 2005- after a nasty divorce- that Palin and her family reported the ex-brother-in law.

They filed 36 complaints against the ex, including for behavior they had COVERED UP for years. The trooper has had no other complaints filed against him other than from Palin family members.

That was before she was governor. The trooper was disciplined, perhaps not adequately for many people.

Then Palin becomes governor, and she, her husband and senior staff all try to get the DPS commissioner to fire the trooper. The commissioner refuses, and is fired.

Palin denies any pressure; senior staff won't comment (they will when they are put under oath shortly) or "can't recollect."

Palin has been so busy pointing fingers at other politicians that people didn't realize that she was as much "politics as usual" as anyone.

There's considerable sentiment in Alaska that she has engaged in a major coverup. As we know, the coverup is usually worse than the crime."

You have to see this video. Just click below the fold. Scarborough is so enraged at the suggestion that Iraqis themselves want a timeline for withdrawal of US troops (just what Obama has recommended for months) that he says he will enjoy watching their leader get the same treatment Mussolini got after WW2.   more »

Why is this such a popular search? Would this make you dream stronger? Or maybe keep mental drafts out of your dreamscape like silicone caulk for the mind? Hehey.   more »

A strange compelling blog by an LA woman. Shhhh, she doesn't want to know we are reading it. Don't disturb the endangered creature in her natural habitat.   more »

That is what is important to get this renewable/conservation energy re-evolution going. This critique of his plan highlights the problems this emphasis could cure. Remember what happened to the Clinton effort to get national healthcare in 92-93? It was killed by democrats in congress in the pocket of the healthcare industry. We are in danger of that happening again, across the board, on healthcare, energy, and oil war. Winning this election is just the beginning of the reform battle.   more »

And the local government does almost nothing about it. So you thought your local officials were incompetent? Hehey. Here's a picture from the weird rat video posted on youtube by the neighbors who sued over it all.    more »

Will the arctic conveyor, the salt/fresh melt water driven current that drives the Gulf Stream, stop once the Arctic ice cap melts? That depends on how fast Greenland ice melts.   more »

Since only demand reduction can really fight GHG climate disaster and recession due to soaring oil prices. There ought to be quarterly targets on oil use reduction. That would be real energy security. It would be a good way to counter the drill our way out of this notion taking hold in mass media. Miss two quarters in a row and rationing kicks in until the target reduction is back on track.   more »

Wow, what a price rise in coal generated electricity. Natural gas is expected to go up 30% over for next heating season too. It would seem that this is the time to invest in a storage and energy use timing system to lower electric bills by getting off peak power rates. Add that to ground source heat pump heating and the extra costs would dissapear.   more »

Check this discussion of globalization, to me it boils down to considering the advantages and disadvantages of global trade and investment. Including the huge carbon footprint and environmental destruction it can bring with it. First and foremost, GHG intensive fuel for trans oceanic shipping should be eliminated. There is plenty of wind out there to do the job   more »

This is good news. Audi's A1 will be out in 2009 with an initial production of 100,000 per year. How many of that number will feature the plugin hybrid option? Hard to tell. But VW also has a model based on the same platform.    more »

It may seem like a joke, the energy policy mensch (!?!) Paris Hilton responds to the McCain ad that tries to ridicule Obama. Paris really gets the energy plan right. Secretary of energy maybe, Barack? She could charm powerful capitalists with this: Click and check her video below the fold.    more »

How about a list of worthy sacrifices people would be happy to make for a cured climate and a revived booming renewable/conservation energy economy. A job in every town, for everyone. Better than a chicken in every pot. Redesign the grand energy plan to include voluntary sacrifice, that could speed things up signifigantly.   more »

More of the old texas oil shill (industry lobbyists) three step. Divert (attention from real energy solutions like plugin hybrids), delay (the manufactire of those alternatives), in order to keep on guzzlin', neeehaaaaww! The majical hydrogen economy revisited, yet again. Truly astounding! The scientific illiteracy in this MIT press release.   more »

But could that really happen? Well here is the radical (renewable energy) revolutionary reasoning behind that astounding claim of 100% rooftop solar in 20 years, hehey.   more »

You can sacrifice convenient, always on, always maximum peak load power from your utility. For that small individual inconvenience of adjusting your high power uses around power grid inputs, like solar, water, wind, and biogas, it can be done.   more »

So the opposition says we need baseload power? That only nuclear or coal power plants can provide? Actually renewables do provide baseload now. Thanks to concentraing solar furnaces that store heat as molten salt for 24/7 power generation from turbines. These can be mounted on factories to proviode process heat and baseload power for the grid, with cogeneration efficiency. Making factories net energy grid electric producers, rather than consumers.   more »

The old "energy density" talking point against renewables repeated once again? Yep. This one is easy to overcome. Renewables and conservation need not use up signifigant land areas. Nuclear does. The operation, mining, processing, transport, waste storage all put land at risk of long term contamination, groundwater and surface water too. The land used has to be restricted for centuries from human use.   more »

Mass production vehicle conversion to plugin hybrids and eventually to pure plugins, that don't need fuel at all, that recharge in a few minutes and don't need backup power; could procede in stages. Without needing a new car. Avoiding the cost and energy use needed to manufacture a new car. The steps:   more »

Our valiant (Gristmill) advocate for kinder gentler GMO supposes this hypothetical, we need to sway people like this to our organic ag point of view. "Suppose you are growing, say potatoes, organically and occasionally have to apply a natural fungicide or pesticide derived from another plant grown somewhere else." You grow the natural plants that repel or suppress parasites along with the potatoes. Even using crop rotation and mixing mulch made from the repellant plants into the soil for the next potato crop. Mulch that stops fungus and pests. And suppresses weeds. Why not? Copy nature's own strategy. Walnut trees prevent competing plants from invading their area with natural herbicide built into their genes. Cedar trees discourage competing fungus and bacteria with genetically coded cedar oil, evolved for that purpose.   more »

Why? Because organic fertilizer does not release nitrous oxide, chemical fertilizer does. It is a 296x worse GHG than CO2. Chemical fertilizer releases this GHG in an amount that is equivalent to 2/3 of the CO2 uptake of the crop fertilized. Organic farming build the soil ecosystem to act as a living carbon sink, the praies were 20 to 30 feet thick with organic carbon rich soil when they were first plowed. The fertility was gone in 10 years, then chemical fertilizer burned the remaining organic matter out.   more »

What is at the root of the problem of fuel farming, ethanol, biodiesel, or biomass for combustion? It is the false claim that consuming biomass in flames as either solid or liquid fuel is carbon neutral. That it only emits CO2 that has been absorbed by plants and that makes it "green", instead it makes this false claim "greenwashing". Consider this. Think about the natural carbon cycle, before industrialized humanity appeared on the scene.. Prairie soil was 20 to 30 feet thick, soil stored a huge millenial amount of carbon. Wetland peat bogs were even thicker, storing more carbon. Coral reefs stored carbon as calcium carbonate made by the coral.   more »

Someone else noticed this. Thanks. Keep up the good work Ken. "Cap & trade was a deal by which certain corporations -- primarily Enron -- could gain an enormous new profit center, while others were provided political cover to support climate action under the guise of a "free market" solution. By splitting the monolithic bloc of private sector opposition, EDF and others hoped to cobble together a power base strong enough to overcome the oil/auto axis."   more »

How to replace all those big GHG spewing power plants with solar panels on buildings, wind farms, and distributed biogas power generation plants? And control the flow so that the grid still operates consistently as with the old central power plant design. You do that with this. A smart grid, this Xcel energy project is very encouraging.   more »