Friday, April 27, 2007

Laughing is better than crying


Every once in a while the onion delivers up a great article. Check this one out:

Middle East Conflict Intensifies As Blah Blah Blah, Etc. Etc.


"In an attempt to increase public support of whatever the fuck it is he thinks he's doing, President Bush trotted out the same old whoop-de-do you've heard over and over at a solemn-yet-resolute speech attended by soldiers, or religious leaders, or firemen, or some mix of ethnic-looking people from one of those countries."

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/middle_east_conflict_intensifies

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

An end to oil?

Whilst in beautiful Utah this spring I bumped into an old friend from college. She's living in Boulder working on a PhD in Geophysics, after becoming disillusioned by her job working for an oil company. It was fun to catch up and talk. At some point during the day of climbing she mentioned this crazy woman named Leslie that would climb at Rifle. Leslie would use aid-climbing gear to work on sport routes by herself since no one would belay her for the length of time she needed to work on the moves -lashing herself to these routes for days and constantly telling everyone about the progress that she was (not) making towards sending the route. But apparently, she pales in comparison to the man who has a crush on her. The man who invented the electric windmill car. The man that could bring an end to oil. That's all they would tell me. He has a crush on Leslie, and he invented the electric windmill car. Google it. Actually, don't Google it. I've done that for you. Here, just click this: http://www.inventor-warp-speed.com/ and then after that, you'll probably want to know what the hell is going on.

This article from Total Drek really gives you a nice tour of Greg's website and offers up some interesting excerpts. It's a good introduction to Greg, and a nice article overall, but I have to disagree with some of their conclusions as to the feasibility of an electric windmill car. I think they've missed an important facet. First of all, as Total Drek stated details are "sketchy". I agree with them having completed my own research on the topic and come up with little information. Though, I should state that by "research" I mean: "downloaded one of Greg's 30 minute poems that Total Drek recommended and iTunes happened to start playing it randomly while I was out getting a burrito." I got back just in time for Greg to talk a little bit about the electric windmill car, his love for Leslie and an accident at a construction site. From what I could gather it's obvious that Greg lives a very special life. He is closely monitored by the government (and Leslie (maybe)) via hidden cameras. All of his life is recorded on video tape by the government, and this is part of what makes his claims to the electric windmill car so bullet-proof. When he invented the electric windmill car, he ran home and told it to the hidden camera behind his mirror. So, the government observers have a copy of the video tape of him inventing the electric windmill car. That proves it. I'm not sure what "it" is, but I'm sure you can define "it" in a way that makes the preceding sentence true.

So anyway, I listened to about 6 minutes of the tail end of his poem, flipped through a few links on his webpage and decided I was qualified to write this article. Details are sketchy. Details are sketchy, but I agree with Total Drek when they say:

"The basic idea appears to be that as the car drives, the windmills will turn, generating electricity to recharge the batteries. Thus, one need only charge the car once and it will be able to drive forever more with the assistance of its windmills."

And I agree with them again when they say:

"[Y]ou will have to spend power to get power out of the windmills, and the amount you spend will exceed the amount recovered by the windmills because of friction. So, far from eliminating our need for fossil fuel, the electric windmill car would actually increase it."

But, does that really mean that an electric windmill car is impossible? I think we're both missing something. Greg is special, and he knows special things that we can't know. Maybe, due to some weird synergistic twelfth dimensional coupling affect, when you put windmills on cars friction "flows" "backwards". Maybe if the wind blows on the car while it's parked, and the windmills have some method of efficiently storing that wind energy it could power the car. I'm pretty sure that's impossible, but hey, Greg knows a lot of things I don't. Maybe these windmills run on sunlight? It's gotta work somehow! I mean, look at the energy and passion that he's put into the webpage, into his poems. That electric windmill car has got to be real in some sense of the word. Greg knows things that we don't. What a crazy world.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Joe's Valley Photos

Joe's Valley Photos are posted on my flickr page now. They've actually been up for a couple days but I'm just now getting around to mentioning it. It's funny, I went to Joe's Valley to go bouldering but I have no good pictures of Joe's Valley, or of bouldering. When I was there the weather was great the rock was fun, and there were lots of folks to talk to. So I didn't really take any pictures. Plus, I'd seen so many pictures of Joe's before I left that I felt like taking pictures of people bouldering wouldn't be original enough. So, I didn't take any pictures till I hurt my finger in the Triassics. I decided to just walk around and take pictures.
I also took some pictures from the car while driving out and back. Most of them were crap, but, a couple turned out. They're on Flickr. Someday soon I'll put up the whole story.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

April 1st




Google TiSP is a new service from Google that allows for free internet access through your home's plumbing. Seems like you'd still need to be in a large municipal area. I don't think this would work for people with septic systems. The graphic alone is pretty funny. Check out the PHD with the snorkel in the sewer connecting your flushed cable for you. Awesome. I Hope someone I know goes for this!