Radical Change calls for Radical Ideas

So, of all the places I'd expect to hear about new green initiatives, this one actually comes from my boss. He forwarded me an e-mail yesterday that said:

As an outgrowth of my decades of focus on state capitals and Governors around the country, I have been working with a coalition of environmental groups, trade associations, and businesses to organize and promote what will be the nation’s biggest virtual march to support the passage of a new energy bill through Congress that will take the next critical steps in finally declaring America’s independence from foreign oil. This is now not just an energy issue, but an environmental issue and a national security issue. The Stimulus bill put the necessary incentives in place for renewable energy investments, but now we need the next piece: green transmission, a national renewable portfolio standard and incentives to get our nations heavy trucks off diesel and onto natural gas.

The March is being led by Robert Kennedy Jr. and T. Boone Pickens – a pairing that surely makes the point that this is an issue that transcends politics and party and is the patriotic cause of our lifetime.

Over 1.9 million people have agreed so far to participate. It is our goal to stimulate over 1 million contacts to the Congress over that three-day period.

So, at first I was naturally skeptical, but then I started reading about T. Boone Pickens' investements and recent green-business developments. The gist of the "Pickens Plan", as it's called, is to shift existing technologies in a way that will enable/cause us to use more American energy sources and become more self-sufficient. Right now, 22% of our electricity is generated from Natural Gas. The Pickens Plan calls for tax dollars/incentives to utilyze Wind Power to generate that 22% of electricity production, and shift the Natural Gas volume over for use in transportation. Figures supplied by the Pickens Plan indicate that doing so could replace 36% of the current gasoline/diesel usage with Natural Gas harvested in America.

In the interest of full disclosure, Pickens and the group he chairs, own the largest wind farm and the largest chain of Natural Gas fueling stations in the U.S., so enacting these measures would cause a large financial reward to Pickens. That said, last year Pickens made $2.7 billion as the manager of BP Capital hedge fund, mostly on profits from Suncorp & Exxonmobile, the largest oil companies in North Amercia; so whichever way you go on this proposal, he's still making money. This makes me clearly side with the route that helps the environment.

For more info on the Plan, and how you can help, visit:
http://www.pickensplan.com/virtualmarch/

How have I never found this before

Just got done watching Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog, and this is awesome

1.) NPH
2.) the uber-cute Felicia Day (in a nerdy way, like Zooey Deschanel)
3.) Freeze Rays
4.) made by Joss Whedon (of Buffy/Angel/Firefly/X-Men/Dollhouse fame)

I recommend checking it out right away. A solid 43 minutes of sweet!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343/dr-horribles-sing-along-blog

I didn't think it was possible, either...

...but Scarlett Johanssen just got even hotter now that I know she'll be playing Black Widow in Iron Man 2.

Damn you Cobra Starship

Just like everything else Pete Wentz touches, you started out cool & rocking, and now you're just trendy fodder.

"You Can't be missed if you never go away" was such a great song, made me look up the rest of your first album... .then you follow it up with what? 83,000 MTV-commercial mini-appearances and 1 dud of a sophmore album.

Then again, I guess you were just preparing me for the lump of coal that would be GCH's recent album.

I should have seen the warning signs, but I just couldn't quit you...

Now I'm back to brit-rock!!

Twitter-pated?

Learned about Twitter on Thursday and it's been off-to-the-races since then. Now to just avoid this:
http://tinyurl.com/cx723z

Absense

Notice how I didn't post anything in February?
Yeah, that was supposed to be Sweeps Month, in which I would provide a life-changing series titled "Random & Awesome Solves the Problems".
As such, the problem I could not solve was procrastination.


Five Things I did in February Instead of Blogging
1.) Ignored the Cardinals and told people "real sports start in March" (Baseball & UEFA Champions' League Playoffs, if you weren't clear)
2.) Drank less beer. Yeah, not sure how/why that happened
3.) Continued not saving money. Don't worry, I'm like a one-man stimulus package
4.) Somehow missed out on all the great "stimulus package = frat-humor wang jokes" opportunities
5.) Kept being tricked into eating potatoes. See what happens when you're a regular among the breakfast burrito community?

Btw, I learned via twitter today that London does not have burritos. Someone ship a mexican over there, stat!

Super Secret Message enclosed

(tricked ya, just made an empty post on accident and thought it looked cool...)

Echoes of Doom??

From TIME's SciTechBlog: (scroll down for commentary...)

Creating artificial muscles

Posted: 03:01 PM ET

What can operate in temperatures above the melting point of iron (1,538 degrees Celsius) and below the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius)?

A sheet strip of carbon nanotube aerogel: The muscles of the future? Courtesy University of Texas

Answer: Artificial muscles made up of carbon nanotubes.

I’m sure that was the first thing that came to mind, right?

This is the latest innovation coming out of the field of carbon nanotechnology.

The application of these microscopic carbon tube structures has peaked the interest of many engineers and scientists in recent years. Individual carbon nanotubes can measure in at roughly 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, don’t let their size fool you.

They can be as stiff as steel and can have very high thermal and electrical conductivities. But getting them to work in tandem with each other has been a challenge for scientists.

Using a material called aerogel (a type of gel in which the liquid portion has been replaced with gas to create a low-density solid), researchers at the University of Texas in Dallas’ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute have found a way to make carbon nanotubes work together in extreme temperatures — such as those found in space. Their findings will be published in this week’s Science journal.

These carbon nanotube sheets or aerogels have properties unlike any other raw material. Individual carbon nanotubes have been woven together to make interconnected bundles that collectively give the sheet its unique properties. By injecting charges into the carbon nanotube sheet, scientists create repulsion between the individual nanotubes, causing the material to contract.

Artificial muscles have similarities to human muscles but are usually electroactive polymers whose shape can be modified when voltage is applied. These artificial muscles are capable of providing 30 times the force and contracting 1,000 times faster than human skeletal muscles.

“My guess is that this story will have a happy ending in terms of new products that benefit humankind,” said Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the NanoTech Institute.

The applications of these artificial muscles stretches far beyond the walls of the lab. You can expect to see them at work someday in medical devices, fuel cells, aerospace and even robots.

Here's what immediately scares me

1. can operate in temperatures above the melting point of iron (1,538 degrees Celsius) and below the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius)
2. These artificial muscles are capable of providing 30 times the force and contracting 1,000 times faster than human skeletal muscles.
3. Individual carbon nanotubes can measure in at roughly 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair

Whoever that fool was that said “My guess is that this story will have a happy ending in terms of new products that benefit humankind,” has clearly never seen The Matrix. Yeah, let's help make robots that we can't freeze or melt and can crush our skeletons! Great, where do I sign up?! Seriously, wtf folks! Really, the only good thing I can see here is a possibility for a real-life Wolverine, and even that has it's up's and down's.

And they can git 10,000 of them in the width of a human hair. Those shits can get anywhere. Great, now on top of Bacon Scrotum we all have to fear the probability of 10,000 nano-Wolverines invading our bodies.

You're Welcome for the heads-up.

it's a nice day for a manifesto

I saw this on twitter from Felicia Day (of hilarious gaming satire fame), and I think this has some points I've been following for years and some others that I should prolly intergrate.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Of topic, but also hilarious to me are random tweets from Jeff Sutterman, Art Director of Marvel Comics that go something like:
"OK, now it's time to ruin someone's day. Clear."
or
"Learn how to take direction. Knucklehead."

Maybe this is a new habit I could adapt. random threats and tell-offs posted on my twitter page instead of directly at the person, eh?

I'm so glad this hasn't happened to me

I unscrupulously stole this from www.worstcartoonsever.com. Enjoy

“Bacon Lodged in Scrotum.”

Posted by: Chris_Ward on 03-19-2009 @ 5:22 am | Filed under: Uncategorized —

So I get a text message from my friend today that is both the most horrible and wonderful text message I’ve ever received. Names will be withheld due to the sensitive nature of the subject:

“Dude…My brother got a piece of undigested bacon lodged in his scrotum!”

Immediately, all the blood in my brain rushed to my Anterior Laugh Muscle, the strongest and most deadly muscle in my body, sending me into a berserker coma. When I awoke, I had to get details. Here’s all I know.

It was from a Subway sandwich…it somehow didn’t digest properly and worked it’s way down there. The doctor had to cut it out! he’s fine now. I’ll call to get details.

First things first: He’ll never be “fine” again. Never again will he eat smoked meats without imagining them traveling down his throat, defiantly taking the off-ramp by his stomach that says “BRIDGE OUT,” crashing through that wall Smokey and the Bandit style, and leading all major blood cells on a Thelma and Louise chase that ends with a painful dive into Scrotum Gulch.

I’m a worrier. I come from a family of worriers. Not once have I worried that bacon that goes down my throat may end up in my balls. Now it’s all I can think about. I don’t know whether to give up bacon, or Subway, or just solid foods in general.

“What’s all this have to do with cartoons,” you ask? Here’s a Porky Pig short to keep us on topic. It’s got bacon and cursing rolled into one…just like my friend’s brother experienced first hand.