"History is a wonderful thing, if only it was true"
-Tolstoy

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Continuing to stir the pot

Op-Ed Contributor - ‘Peak Oil’ Is a Waste of Energy - NYTimes.com:

"A careful examination of the facts shows that most arguments about peak oil are based on anecdotal information, vague references and ignorance of how the oil industry goes about finding fields and extracting petroleum. And this has been demonstrated over and over again: the founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil first claimed in 1989 that the peak had already been reached, and Mr. Schlesinger argued a decade earlier that production was unlikely to ever go much higher."

Next year?

The Blues fly every other year at the National Cherry Festival
Last year they added a spectacular "twilight" where, by the end of the show all you could see was the glow of the afterburners ... followed by fireworks




Shot is looking north at Old Mission over Traverse City

Monday, August 24, 2009

Time for a good old fish fry?

PETA wants Grand Haven lighthouses for fish empathy center | detnews.com | The Detroit News

"We want to renovate the Grand Haven lights as a memorial to the billions of fish killed annually by sport fishermen, as well as for their flesh (commercial fishing industry)," said Lindsey Rajt, manager of PETA's campaigns department. "We also want to make it a fun and educational place."

Man vs the "Natural" Environment

Ancient Man Hurt Coasts, Paper Says - NYTimes.com:

"...anthropologists in general were not used to thinking that people exploited marine environments before 4,000 or so years ago, when sea levels that had been rising since the end of the last ice age more or less stabilized. Much of the evidence of earlier coastal settlements has vanished under the waves, he said."

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Mistake?

Toyota Holds Back in the Race to Go Electric - NYTimes.com

Or maybe they know better.
Leader in popularizing hybrids, Toyota is taking a slower path to "all electric"

"“The time is not here,” Masatami Takimoto, Toyota’s executive vice president, said during a factory tour this year.

Electric cars “face many challenges,” he said, adding that “to commercialize pure E.V.’s, we need a battery that far exceeds the current technology.”

If Toyota is right, its competitors will have spent billions on a technology that will be slow to take off."

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll

Review of Eric Bogosian's one man show ... 1991

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll | Movie Review | Entertainment Weekly

"In Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, the monologist Eric Bogosian, appearing on a mostly bare stage in Boston's Wilbur Theater, creates 10 vividly diverse characters. The facility with which he leaps from one to the next — from crotchety New York street person to narcissistic rock star, from complacent suburban consumer to impoverished, self-loathing urban lunatic — is so staggering that his chameleonic brilliance practically becomes the subject of the movie."

Some sensible ideas on Health Care

John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare - WSJ.com:

'The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people's money.'

—Margaret Thatcher"

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Bookmarking

WiMax's last best hope - Feb. 9, 2009

About Craig McCaw's Clearwire

Salesforce hits its stride - Feb. 17, 2009

About ... Salesforce

Gray Is The New Green - Forbes.com Sept 15, 2008

About High Temp CoGen /Recycled Energy Development

On Multitasking

gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": welcome to the overextended class:

"'If ever these was a time to be overextended, this is it.'"

to which I replied:

I prefer the term "engaged"
As long as I'm enjoying, and/or getting some mental gratification the project ... It ain't "work" if it's fun.

The modern world of communication/connectivity allows engagement in a multitude of projects, partnering with those with different skill sets.
This also allows enhanced cross fertilization of projects with application of ideas generated from one to another.

It also allows business as a non-zero-sum game.
You can end up with multiple winners.

Even a decade ago, this might be considered "overextended", today, it's only the ability to apply more mental energy, fire more synapses, keep more neurons busy.

But just wait till we can "jack in"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer


Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Dead Fish?

Larry on Health Care Reform
Hospitals, AMA, Big Pharma and Insurance have been "signed on" (aka bought?) and who's left to pay?

The patients?
Dead fish in the sun?

video clip here : Lawrence Lindsey on the Economy - CNBC.com

Monday, August 10, 2009

On getting a better price

Caught the following on NPR while headed to a breakfast meeting ... note that I did not haggle over the breakfast, even though we're semi-regulars.

I do always ask about rates on the few print subscriptions I have, when I renew, and sometimes have gotten an additional 50% trim.

Haggling Picks Up Steam During Recession : NPR:

"'Before you ever go into the ring, you can't be afraid,' Lee says. 'Because if you are, you've already lost. And you've got to recognize, in haggling, there's really nothing to lose. If you don't ask for a discount, the answer is already no.'

For example, Lee says tell a vendor what you're worth to them, and then ask what they can do for you. Then there's the hard part: sit and wait.

'The next person who speaks — loses,' Lee says."

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Caution

Published last April 27th issue

The Biofuel Bubble - BusinessWeek:

"A horde of startups have smart ideas. But the challenges are many, and the winners likely will be Shell, BP, DuPont, and other majors"

Last month, Exxon Mobil struck a deal with Craig Venter to invest up to $600 Million in his research in genetically modified algae - a sensible move as algae will be engineered to secrete lipids, not sugars, therefore more easily used by existing infrastructure - refineries and transportation.

Knock Deserved

Ivory Tower darkened by the recession
Black eye over assuming that players are "rational" not swayed by emotion.

What Good Are Economists Anyway? - BusinessWeek:

"The rap on economists, only somewhat exaggerated, is that they are overconfident, unrealistic, and political. They claim a precision that neither their raw material nor their skill warrants. Too many assume that people behave like the mythical homo economicus, who is hyperrational and omniscient."