To paraphrase an Obamanism, hehey. Combining the basic tenent of classic idealism, "I think therefore I am" with the Obaman (standing on the shoulders of Ghandi,etc.) political/philosophical ethos: become the change you wish to see in the culture, politics, and world. Yes we can! "Those who learn from history are doomed to watch other's repeat it" (drx), yes that's truism. But with pragmatic idealism maybe we can cancel the murderous sequels, like oil wars, climate disaster, and economic depression? It's worth a try.    more »

Maybe yes, but not exactly for the reasons I outlined previously. It seems tht the governator took a test drive in their 100mpg hybrid hummer yesterday. Just as the hummer itself is cancelled?   more »

Google has a new way to surf the stream of conciousness internet hive mind. I have wondered if google was responding to the need for real time search that twitter has faltered on. Would google buy twitter? Or just tap the revenue/ad stream of all social networking sites by building a search engine?   more »

Tweeters need to know that the tweople you recommend they follow actually converse like real, live humans. Celebrities usually do not respond, often they have assistants do their tweeting when they do reply. So why follow them? And why follow spam/adbots who just regurgitate tweets automatcally? Only recommend following tweople who actually reply to your tweets. They are right there on your replies list. Gather them around the #tweetablethursday hashtag, just list them and include the tag. Let's have a twitter quality revolution!!!   more »

It seems that an idiot radio talk show host who rants about how torture keeps us all safe and Obama has doomed us by ending torture, has done what Sean "the manatee" Hannity is apparently afraid of. He went onto the dreaded water board! And lasted 6 seconds!   more »

Yes, you heard right, the "Oracle of Omaha" is betting on drx's favorite plugin hybrid car company. When will Walmart open up BYD auto showrooms in their stores? That was my next prediction, after the prediction that BYD has won the plugin hybrid race   more »

It's a really nice touch, just add them frozen awhile before serving, they'll thaw nicely and still be crisp. Don't forget to give a nod to civilan defense industry workers either, they came through for US especially during WW II. Ask someone who was around at the time how it felt to have an enemy like the axis powers. Contrast and compare with the comparatively puny threat we now face. "Mushroom clouds" you say? Germany was close to the bomb, and during the cold war we actually faced a nuclear threat. So let's listen to those who lived through past life-as-we-know-it threatening times and do what they did back then. Out manufacture the enemy.   more »

All sorts of rewards are built into our marvelous organic human computer, mind/body joining with our surroundings to produce wonder. Evolution gave us a reward when we smell a flower or eat a peach. And even when we get angry, anger/fear is part of the fight or flight response, so integral to survival. With all the over stimulation of our modern age, the reception becomes cloudy. Dopamine, the brain chemical that transports the reward stimulation runs low after a day of drinking high fructose pop and eating grease, salt, and sugar and playing violent video games. Not to mention injesting speed, cocaine, caffiene, booze, ritalin, and nicotine.   more »

It seems that scammers are using twitter, "I'm schocked!", hehey. oner pgishing scam mentioned is a fake twitter login page, from which they collect your password and take over your twitter account. Beware! If you have a feeling you have been "phished" in, just change your password.   more »

Cheney's AEI speech makes it clear that by attacking Obama on torture/gitmo he is actually aligning his political/moral position with terrorists. If/when another 9/11 happens, he is setting up a political I-told-you-so, in order to revive his radical neoconman wing of the GOP. He is in effect asking terrorists to attack!   more »

Of course it is, like global climate change, renewable energy, plugin hybrids, hi-speed commuter rail, local organic ag, farm based energy, etc. It's obviously leftist propaganda. Like science itself   more »

Local/organic ag is at around a 50% demand level and under a 10% supply level. That's why walmart is taking notice and carefully gtreenwashing their image. When supply of local organic food begins to rise, prices will drop and we are off to the races.   more »

Great "Christian Science Monitor" article on the commercial pressure on journalism. A case in point that is turning this trend around is the rise of MSNBC due to Olbermann's bold foray into factual reporting. Then he got Rachel Maddow on, even more quality reportage, including interviews with all kinds of people who had boycotted the continual craven bush-licking tabloid nonsense of most main stream media.   more »

This really is the kind of technology that will work, they need to cool these with liquid and collect the waste heat. Solar cogeneration adds efficiency. 10 sun concentrating collectors have reached 38% efficiecy in NREL testing. triple the power output per area of collector with 1/10nth the silicon, that is a winning combination if it can be done practcally.   more »

How to save twitter from dissallusionment/dissolution? Gasp! Are things that bad? Get these ad/spambots out, unfollow multilevel marketing auto-tweeters with extreme prejudice (hehey). Apply the Turing Test (a theoretical method to tell a human from a bot). Can we the tweople perhaps develop a twitter turing test (TTT) that functionally indicates 90% of ad/spambots so we can unfollow them?   more »

Here is some ominous support for the theory I espoused earlier in an article on possible volcanic induced cooling of the climate This would suggest that drought over areas like Yellowstone could indeed dry up aquifers, relieving the containing overpressure of ground water pushing against magma ptessure and cooling the rock, thus maintaing it's strength against eruption.   more »

Is there a reward built into our brain chemistry for anger? Undoubtedly! Fight or flight respoise is the main reactionary system, so we actually get a biochemical reward for anger. Which is why as Bukowski puts it at the end of Factotum, "We are angry not just for a few hours, no. But anger takes over. Years, decades, our whole lives spent in anger, wasted."   more »

My tweet: Fareed Zakaria! On CNN, required viewing to understand global/local politics.all politics is local...and global? Apply empathy to politics! Just as Elizabeth Warren is for government response on the economic crisis, Farid Zakaria is for political media. Some people the public know when to trust, human instincts are sometimes, not always, right. As Obama says and does, become the change you wish to see. Integrity means a lot.   more »

Yes it's true, the Obama administration's EPA failed to halt this disaster. When will it stop? Only when renewable energy and conservation make coal obsolete as an energy source.   more »

When I first started to tweet, it seemed to work fairly well and have the potential to replace all the glitchy blogs that go along with various public sites. now I'm finding that it is constantly messed up, just like those interactive sites everywhere else. Update: I guess going through the following lit to dump all the spam/adbots and multilevel marketing shills works, as long as twitter limits we the tweople to 2000 followings. I can't follow anyone, the button simply does not work, here is the only "help" from twitter. Is it hackers, errors, or by design for commercial purposes? I would guess all of that and more that we can't understand.   more »

The chairwoman of the TARP oversight committee, Harvard professor Elizabeth warren rides again! She made the whole case for re-regulation even clearer than she did in her Daily Show appearance. She detailed the boom/bust cycle in our economy since 1792, the first credit freeze. Warren explained how in the 1930's rules were put in place that gave US a 50 year span of prosperity free of these severe business cycles. Warren is the only one to trust with re-regulation, she should be put in charge of the effort ASAP!   more »

Suzanne, Leonard Cohen. Video. Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river You can hear the boats go by You can spend the night beside her And you know that she's half crazy But that's why you want to be there And she feeds you tea and oranges That come all the way from China   more »

Quick fix for #fixreplies, just open a twitter search on your own name, like this! It seems that for some arcane technical (probably make-twitter-more-spam-friendly management rationale) reason, twitter management wants to prevent people who do not following you from seeing tweets you direct @them.   more »

The trouble with dismissing this nonsense is that it is the tip of the iceberg. For instance: Up until about 15 years ago, foamy pollution was evident just below the papermill dam here on the Wisconsin River. How was it "cleaned up"? large golding tanmks were installed to mix the contaminated water exiting the plant with river water, so the foam would not be evident in the much diluted effluent. A fake fix. But legal! Why? Because pollution is measured as a percentage of water/air, and industry has virtually unlimited water use. This green (stream) washing has been repeated 10s of thousands of times across the country. Did it help stop pollution?   more »

Yes it looks like these both are true. From the latest Colbert, mitchel Joachim talks up a nerf car, a soft vehicle with in wheel motors. I have been talking about a different nerf car design for a few years now. It lends itself to donor car conversion to plugin hybrid. You get a used car with all the legally titled drivetrain and safety parts, and install them on an aluminum spaceframe. Then install carbon fiber passenger tubs.   more »

Contrast Colbert's 2006 performance with Wanda's   more »

Great wonkery on Grist! All we need now is a translator. Hehey. Here's a tip wonk squad, try to explain this from the point of view of taxpayers, farmers, consumers, and small business owners. What regulatory change will pay us (a reasonable rate) for the renewable energy we sell into the grid from our solar panels, wind machines, and biogas energy plants? Which rule changes will allow us to drive around on electric "fuel" instead of oil obtained through murderous wars based on lies and support of tyrants like Saddam.   more »

A recent NYT article details a typical hedge fund scam in vivid detail. This is a simple ponzi based con game. It is time to start implimenting some sort of depression era reform like the Glass Steagall Act to rein in hedge fund and other market manipulation. They stole 12 trillion is it, so far? I have been pleading the case for reasonable regulation that would actually restore real free market trading, with fairness restored, no more insider manipulation and worthless derivative pump and dump schemes.   more »

Say it again! Great article about composting toilets as a solution to the sludge problem on Grist. As the comments indicate, it got to the stinky heart of the matter. Catherine might want to do an article on Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion bathroom. Dymaxion Bathrooms are to be equipped with "Fog Gun" hot water vapor showers that use only a cup of water to clean hygienically without soap. Remarking that "Nature had designed humans to separate urine and excrement. Both are valuable chemistry, and should be collected for further use,"   more »