Category Archives: Alt Energy

Quick Thursday round up

  • An interesting profile of Robert Levy, who spearheaded the successful DC gun ban lawsuit. I met him several years ago when I was interning at Cato. A very smart and nice guy.
  • More future of the automobile, this time from CNN. The big three American automakers and their Japanese counterparts seem to be hopelessly stuck in the past and burdened with vast wastelands of legacy costs and outdated equipment. I still have hope for American cottage industry to fill some of the gap, but I expect most of the “new” ideas to come from China. My reasoning is: The single largest unrealized opportunity for efficient cars is not the propulsion, it’s in the weight of the car itself. With new advances in carbon fiber and plastics (to replace the body, windshield, axels, and so on) you can lighten the vehicle considerably while keeping safety and performance constant. Lighter vehicle=greater fuel efficiency (by whatever measure). I think the existing players have too much invested in the current scheme and will get whupped by Chinese auto manufacturers when China reaches the necessary level of industrial sophistication (my prediction, 2015).
  • Microsoft is giving away a new accounting program. I’ll have a field review in a few days.
  • A pretty cool homemade fuel cell system. Not commercially viable (yet), but a good start at the grass roots.
  • I just got John Boyd’s biography.

Thursday rapid fire

  • Hitchens reviews Stein – personally I don’t think the demographic argument carries much weight – look at the performance of Japan vs China and Germany vs Russia in WWII. A productive culture beats a backward one in a life or death struggle. It’s an interesting read though. To clarify – the reason that Japan and Germany lost was American material and military support. While they could die bravely, that doesn’t lead to many wins.
  • Toddler’s Temper Ousts Family From Plane –

    She was removed because “she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn’t get in her seat” during boarding, Graham-Weaver said.

  • Police in Tijuana Issued Sling Shots –

    The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

    Yet the war on drugs continues. This time for sure!

  • Battery Breakthrough – Well worth reading. If true, this changes American society for the better in ten years or less. Sadly, most scientific breakthroughs tend to be either false or meaningless
  • Diane Feinstein and conflicts of interest
  • Winning the battle for freedom – RTWT – from the founder of Whole Foods no less.

The Church of Global Warming

I’ve had these pages open in FireFox forever

The Parris essay is superb, and summarizes my feelings on everything perfectly. I’ve held off doing anything with the links until I can come up a more detailed ranting of my thoughts, but Parris says it much better than I could. Plus it doubles as my general thoughts on community based views of religion.

Quick Monday rapid fire