who killed the electric car?
Who Killed the Electric Car has certainly lit up a few neurons in the outrage areas of my brain. In fact, this Electrical Vehicle (EV) neuron storm has extended beyond my outrage
processors, and gone on to ignite nearby areas of disgust, despair, and heck, I’ll admit
that there was some action in the more sociopathic regions of my psyche, as I flirted with
ideas of targeted terrorism against automobile manufacturers. But I’m getting ahead of
myself here.
The scenerio has the depressingly familiar hallmarks of the typical american conspiracy story. California car manufacturers (GM) reluctantly put an electric car on the
market under pressure to comply with California’s new air standards. Enter the EV1 — an
efficient, sexy, vehicle that is easy to use, a pleasure to drive, and has the added benefit
of extremely low environmental impact. Consumers respond favourably, in spite of the
manufacturers’ best efforts to sabotage the vehicle’s success through anti-marketing,
highlighting the vehicle’s shortcomings, and deliberate use of inferior battery technology
to limit its appeal.
Why on earth would GM go to such lengths to sabotage it’s own product? Why on earth has the entire industry not galloped off together in pursuit of this new technology — one that has not only enormous environmental benefits, but the potential to release us from dependence on foreign oil? Read the rest of this entry »
short fitted jacket and straight leg jeans
Sooo I can’t help but have noticed a visually pleasing but still kind of depressing trend in women’s clothing — the above named short jacket and straight leg jeans combo a la every single style program to hit the cablewaves since, I dunno, when did this “What Not to Wear” thing start? Granted, the new uniform is a heap easier on the eyes than most people are dragging out of their pre-makeover wardrobes, but it’s so eye-pleasingly boring in it’s endless variations, I think it might be somehow worse. I don’t know…I kind of like seeing the scary funny things people crawl out of the house in. And I respect their right to have impeccably bad taste. I guess at the end of it, it’s the homogeneity that depresses me. I just get bummed out when I see people mindlessly mirroring these fierce fashion trends. Kitsilano was rife with it. I could walk down the beach and see a hundred copies of the same airbrushed look. Do these girls look at each other and realise that they are wearing identical clothes on identical bodies and are swishing around identical haircuts? I mean it. I don’t think they do. I guess we all dress to show our affiliation with our ideas, whatever they may be. In this case “my ideas are exactly like everyone else’s”. What then of the anti=hero? The lone wolf who sees the world his own way, on his own terms, with his dyed blue hair, studs in his ears, nose, elbows, and throat. Well, I guess he’s screaming too. But it’s a different kind of scream.
In summary, the straight leg jeans + jacket thing — it’s gotta go. Thank you.
blast from the past: Evel Knievel
I used to have this game on our old Apple IIe that used to entertain me endlessly. It was a frighteningly dull game by today’s standards — no graphics whatsoever — just a cursor flashing on the text entry line:
Choose number of buses (0-99)? 99 (duh!)
Choose ramp angle (0-180 degrees) ummmm how about 45
Choose speed (0-100mph): okay, 100?
You were then invited to press the spacebar, which would compel our intrepid hero, Evel Kneivel, to race at whatever breakneck speed towards a ramp positioned just so, with a hope that he and his motorcycle would clear the 99 buses that you set up in his way.
Regardless of what combination of buses, speed, and ramp angle I chose, I would invariably crash and burn. So what exactly made this game so much fun? Why, the MEDICAL REPORT, of course! After every failed attempt, the program would calculate the extent of your injuries:
You have broken both arms, both legs, fractured your skull, cracked 5 ribs, and crushed your pelvis.
Would you like to try again?
For all of you out there who always answered a resounding YES!!, have I got some great news for you. Evel Knievel did not go the way of the Apple IIe. He still exists in collectible form, and is waiting to perform whatever cunning stunts you can contrive for him, in full 3 dimensional plastic glory.
Check it out: Evel Knievel
Things you should know about cellphones
Well this is very very interesting indeed. Who would have thunk it possible to use the humble cellphone in place of the mighty and technologically advanced key??
Read on: cellphone tricks via shorttext
i’d rather go naked than wear fur… pass me my leather boots
As a committed moral vegetarian, I think it’s excellent that there are animal rights campaigns out there designed to raise awareness about cruelty to animals, animal testing, and the treatment of animals used for food. They’ve even managed to make the issues ‘sexy’ with the famous “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaign, in which we’re treated to a full view of whatever celebrity du jour has been convinced that showing their naked skin is the best they can do for the animal rights movement:
“Okey dokey, I’ll just roll off my leather couch, zip over to the photoshoot in my vanity car with leather interior, set down my trendy little leather clutch (containing my leather wallet and mobile phone holster), slip off my leather FMBs, take off my bone jewelry, my leather belt…and make my stand against cruelty to animals.”
…Does anyone else see a problem here?
signs shmines — i goes where i likes
So these guys are up to something interesting. Having recently entered the world of nanotechnology and quantum physics, the sudden awareness of this verbotensphere does’t really surprise me — I’ve been primed for alternate universes.
the high art of scavenging
I have an enormous respect for using things outside of their intended purpose. I get so much satisfaction from seeing things for what they are, rather than just what they are made for. Example: using a treadmill to run upon vs doing what these folks have done. This video is absolutely superb.
sublime…
So we’ve had a pretty incredible week. We have somehow manifested a beautiful space out of thin air. I don’t know what I love more — the fact that it happened, or that I’m no longer surprised at all.
You know, it’s really hard not to feel like Doogie Howser sitting here at my computer. Cue music.
sorting the wheat from the chaff
If aliens landed on earth, would you go to work the next day?
share all along
I am fascinated by the concept that all of the world’s problems are solvable.
At least in theory.
Isn’t it boggling to imagine what would happen if we all simultaneously just gave away what we didn’t need so no one person, city, or country went without? Theoretically, it is possible. What if all of those aid missions or what have you that are way too expensive to contemplate suddenly just happened? What if the money didn’t matter anymore, and we all just did what was right?
