Big ups from the House to Dick Ashbrook , a great Abu el Banat.
Jun 25, 2008
...you liberals hated voting for a candidate who is the pocket of big business. Particularly agribusinesses that ruin the environment and kill local farming. Maybe one you read this you'll see that McCain is the man for '09-17
Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.
“We made a series of mistakes by not adopting a sustainable energy policy, one of which is the subsidies for corn ethanol, which I warned in Iowa were going to destroy the market” and contribute to inflation, Mr. McCain said this month in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, O Estado de São Paulo. “Besides, it is wrong,” he added, to tax Brazilian-made sugar cane ethanol, “which is much more efficient than corn ethanol.”
Mr. Obama, in contrast, favors the subsidies, some of which end up in the hands of the same oil companies he says should be subjected to a windfall profits tax. In the name of helping the United States build “energy independence,” he also supports the tariff, which some economists say may well be illegal under the World Trade Organization’s rules but which his advisers say is not.
Jun 24, 2008
Can someone explain to me why this isn't a bigger deal?
Jun 20, 2008
Massachusetts Town Faces Teen Pregnancy Boom
So here's yet another story that I'm proud to say is not in Michigan. I could see it happening there, but this sounded more like a Texas story than anything else. Maybe that's just cause the word "Boom" is in the title. Not sure. Some highlights:- 17 girls expecting over summer vacation
- Some girls were more upset to find that they were NOT pregnant from the school clinician
- One of the fathers is a 24 year old homeless man
Jun 17, 2008
Watch out if anyone approaches you asking for money to support MS charities. Its probably a scam. And don't be fooled if its one of your close friends or even a young innocent looking girl. Nefarious plots come in benign packages.
Jun 16, 2008
This guy says high gas prices are good for the American auto industry. Which makes sense since any big shift in consumer needs comes with demand for new purchases. This obviously equates to more sales for the industry and presents a huge opportunity for the U.S industry.
The interesting thing to me is that the U.S. auto industry hadn't realized this long ago. Instead they have dug in their heals since the 1950's - generally ignoring peak oil, environmentalism, fuel efficiency, safety or any other issue that didn't jibe with the impractical but romantic notion of speed and power. The industry spends billions in advertising, public relations, and lobbying to maintain the status quo in customer preference and governmental regulations. They've done this with great success in some respects (e.g. SUV demand in the 90's, defeating California's aggressive emissions standards). But despite their successful efforts to control customer demand, global changes have overpowered their efforts. By fighting change at every turn, they lost ground to more innovative and responsive foreign firms. As a result, the U.S. auto industry is now playing catch-up to Germany and Japan.
Given all this, it seems their interest lies in major changes, one way or the other. Since the U.S. industry has been anti-environmental regulation, pro-cheap oil, and in general anti-change and pro-big business, it is no surprise that they have traditionally contributed strongly to the Republican party. Democrats have been more friendly (read: less unfriendly) to environmental concerns and funding the research of "green" technologies. The oil industry is obviously very Republican. The general shift of funding from lowering gas prices to making alternative fuels viable is generally associated with Democrats. So if auto industry interests now match with Democrat's interests in alternative energy and environmental regulation, will we see a major swing in the affections of this faltering but still powerful industry?
Jun 13, 2008
Every now and then (usually seems to coincide with when I'm not too busy at work) I get obsessed with some topic of Internet research, go totally overboard, with 100's of windows open on my desktop, following every random story line, until I get so overloaded with information that I blank out and know less then when I started.
To cut to the chase, this has been one of those weeks. My topic you ask? Energy. To be more specific Mrs. Tramp has been rightfully worried about of gas used by the two of us (actually more Mrs. Tramp and her work commute). She set me loose on finding an acceptable solution. Easy enough, right?
Sadly, no. Turns out there are no good options. Let's break it down.
Worst Fuels:
Gasoline and Diesel: Obviously both are petroleum based, limited in quantity, and the worst polluters of the bunch. In other words, they suck and the sooner we stop using them the better.
Kinda Better Pseudo-alternative Fuels:
Natural Gas and Propane: People pretend these are alternatives, but they're really not. Both are still fossil fuels, though more abundant then oil. They are cheaper, and pollute slightly less (something like 30% or so). So, slightly better then oil, but still crappy.
Decent Alternatives:
Biodiesel and Ethanol: Both pollute less when burned then the previous, but then there's the production, which uses energy. And the competition for food stocks. Plus biodiesel is just plain expensive. As it stands we are currently producing only about half as much as we could due to the expense of producing it.
Good, but Flawed Alternatives:
Electricity and Hydrogen: The only two fuel types that do not pollute at all (well, at least they don't when being used to move a vehicle. Production on the other hand...). The drawbacks, minus the fore mentioned production of each, for electricity: The cars lack usability. Currently you'd be hard pressed to find an electric car that can go much further then 100 miles on one charge, or much faster then 65mph or so. Fine for a commuter car, but try a road trip. As for hydrogen powered cars, just try buying one (or even some hydrogen for that matter).
Okay, so that's the basics. After looking into that, I looked into converting a regular old car into one that uses each of the above fuel types. Biodiesel is easy, just buy a diesel car and pump biodiesel into it (and if you're interested VW is coming out with a new diesel Jetta that gets 60mpg). You can also buy a used natural gas car from a fleet, or modify a gas one to also use natural gas. Ethanol is a little more problematic. The conversion is much more intensive, as ethanol has a nasty habit of corroding different parts of an automobile (can also be true for biodiesel, but it sounds like much less of a problem). That's it for the boring ones, what about the fun ones?
Hydrogen:
You can convert a gas powered car to use Hydrogen, it'll cost you though. You need a carbon fiber storage tank that'll cost at least $5,000 on it's own. Plus you might want coat your cylinders and exhaust system in ceramic to help with heat dissipation and inhibit rust formation. While researching this I came across this fun little pamphlet that tells you how to build a water powered car (actually it tells you how to build a converter that will transform water into hydrogen and oxygen, which your car then burns). It's pretty fun, until you remember that the laws of thermodynamics sort of say that what they're claim is impossible. Oh well.
Electricity:
There are all kinds of kits out there that enable you to convert a gas powered car into an electric. You pull the old internal combustion engine and plop in a new electric motor, add some batteries, and some other crap, and away you go! Pretty cool (if you want to check it out, here's one site that makes a kit for a Porsche 914), but also not all that cheap. The kits cost around $10,00o, and the resulting car will go around 65mph with a max range of about 100 miles (am I repeating myself already?). Still, here's a cool article about people who use EV (electric vehicles) in conjunction with solar panels to erase their cars carbon foot print. Or you can also buy a new EV, here's my favorite:
None of those solutions really seemed like the answer to me, so I kept looking, and came across something cool: Wood powered automobiles! And, they aren't even steam powered, though that would be pretty cool as well. There's a process known as Gasification, by which you take some dry carbon based material (wood's the easiest) and you heat it in an oxygen limited environment, and with a few other steps you end up with CO and H2 (or carbon monoxide and hydrogen for those not in the know). Guess what you can do with that, you can burn it to power a car!
Problem solved! Now I just need to convince Mrs. Tramp that this is a good idea. So, who wants to come and help me build one of these babies onto our Altima?
I live in San Francisco. Like many large cities in the US SF is a minority majority. Unlike any other US city (I think) homosexuals count as one of the larger minority groups. It's estimated that 1 in 5 adult males is gay. To be honest I sometimes still find myself walking on egg shells so as to not offend any of my fellow residents. I am far from being a bigot and yet I do make lots of inappropriate jokes. I gravitate towards hetero and homo sexual friends who can take these jokes or even find them hilarious (as I do). I was joking about being gay with one of my gay friends and he told me about this bit.
This entire blog was my attempt at making this worthy of being part of men vs. CULTURE....
Enjoy....
Jun 10, 2008
Space Zombie's not going to explain why he reads blogs about old paper--just realize that it's something he does, Culture Bloggers, and accept it--and sometimes he's missed enough sleep to think that what he reads is interesting enough to share with people who don't read those kinds of blogs (zombies are not known for their cognitive skills). Here's an (allegedly) interesting posting SZ read today about the link between politics and material culture...
It basically says that (yes, Space Zombie is summarizing the post--skip if you have read it) the sale of ephemera (specifically stickers, but SZ can't see why products such as air fresheners wouldn't essentially be as indicative) predicted the outcome of the Democratic primary.
Sounds legit. Space Zombie suggests we get rid of that damn voting altogether and base everything on who can sell the most car air fresheners.
SWPL on NYT on PDX--clever people clash with douche bags!
Jun 8, 2008
Here you go Culture Bloggers--following the trend of every other hip-hop producer ever, SZ is out of the studio and on the mic...!
Space Zombie – Space Zombie Comes to Hawthorne
Jun 7, 2008
Here you go, culture bloggers: because you demanded it, Space Zombie has now enabled mobile blogging for Men vs. Culture! That's right, now you can safely and easily blog from wherever you may find yourself via email or text message. Instructions below:
Blog via email:
1. Address your email to: gardamin.mvsc@blogger.com
2. Write your blog title in the Subject Line
3. Compose message as usual--attach images etc as you normally would.
4. Send email.
Blog via phone:
1. Address message to go@blogger.com
2. Write your blog title in the Subject Line
3. Compose message as usual.
4. Send message.
Boo-yeah!
Now we can blog from anywhere!
Yo--culture bloggers of the world--SZ is raining down tracks!
Space Zombie – the Yak Herder Funk
Space Zombie – Space Zombie Finds His Math Book
Y-heard!
Jun 6, 2008
Ol' Kwame tried to give a Red Wing shout out at the victory parade today:
You can click here if you're interested in what he actually had to say. Hint: he was booing himself.
Go Wed Wings!
Bush weighs new measures to help stimulate economy.
Ah snap! Every time Bush says stimulus I get $600 directly deposited into my checking, which is immediately withdrawn by my student loan company. Yeah, graduate school...
Jun 5, 2008
Sam the Ugliest Dog
Originally uploaded by Irish Typepad
Ok culture bloggers--I know you've all seen some ugly dogs before, but you ain't never seen anything like Sam. Sam is a multiple winner of the World's Ugliest Dog Award.
Jun 4, 2008
Matrix-Style Brain Downloads in 30-Years?
Perhaps the most thrilling sequence in the original film, 'The Matrix' was the rooftop helicopter escape scene. It begins with Neo seeing a helicopter and asking Trinity "Can you fly that thing?" She replies "Not yet," then proceeds to download the required knowledge straight into her cranium. It's science-fiction right now, but will be for real within 30-years, according to a senior member of Britain's Ministry of Defense.Chris Parry, who is also Chief Executive of the Independent Schools Council, a group of private schools, believes that soon kids will be able to download certain lessons straight into their brains. He gives entire foreign vocabularies as an example, enabling you to effectively learn the basics of a language instantly, only having to actually take the time to study the grammar rules afterward. This of course will mean a drastic change in the way kids are taught, potentially turning years-long educational programs into instantly downloadable files.
Part Three of the Cornetto Trilogy
Good news for all who enjoyed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The team are at it again, this time in an apocalyptic sci-fi flick. It won't come until 2010 but that gives us all time to get excited, right?
For (slightly) more information:
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/04/03/edgar-wright-and-simon-pegg-going-to-the-worlds-end/
When SZ awakened this morning, as on many mornings, he was immediately searched out by his cute little buddy, Space Kitty. While scratching Space Kitty's head, the blurry image before SZ's eyes began to come into focus and SZ was presented with an interesting sight:
Space Kitty had dyed his head yellow in the night!
WTF Space Kitty?
Jun 2, 2008
Word up, Culture Bloggers, Space Zombie highly recommends this site: Dogs Caught in the Act. 
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