Alternative Fuels...success at last?

The subject of alternative energy has been a hotly contested issue among politicians, economists, and environmentalist for nearly the last decade. Fossil fuels are expendable, dirty burning, expensive, and almost exclusive account for our unwarranted interest in the Middle East. Perhaps most frightening, fossil fuels produce greenhouse gases which are the principle contributor to global warming. I'll spare you the global warming lecture because if you don't know what going on by now you most likely have had your TV, radio, and computer unplugged for the past eight years or so. There are a myriad of other reasons why burning fossil fuels is a bad idea, among them the fact that there are many other useful employments for oil, such as the manufacturing of plastics. So why isn't our government doing more to prevent the world from entering another ice age or a watery Armageddon?
While I would prefer not to bash the Bush administration as I believe they have already taken their fair share of heat for this matter, it is important to note that the prospect of ethanol which had everyone so excited just a few years ago may be one of the biggest environmental shams of the 21st century. Just this past week Time magazine's cover story explains what many of us already knew, that the fertilizers used to grow the corn used to make ethanol actually contained more petroleum than the gas itself. Although Time was perhaps a little slow on the uptake, I applaud their efforts to expose ethanol for the fraud that it is to mainstream America. Hybrids too have unfortunately do not exactly accomplish what they claim. Although they use less gas, they do not save the owner money (at least at current gas prices) since they have a large and expensive battery (costs around $2000) which must be replaced every 6 years. Not the mention the fact that the manufacturing process for this battery combined with standard emissions rates results in more pollution than normal operation of a standard car, however it is mostly in the form of toxic waste rather than greenhouse gases, which is better... I guess.
However none of these really address the issue here, and whats more they do nothing for this nation's coal burning power plants which are extremely dirty and inefficient and account for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. While this years presidential candidates have spend ample time discussing what they would do about global warming, virtually the only headway that has been made has come from the Judaical branch. Mass v EPA most likely was the most important environmental case of time. In this case the state of Massachusetts along with several others who had all most coastal land as the result of global warming sued the Environmental Protection Agency for not doing anything to prevent or reduce it. The courts have not reached a decision yet, however the US Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts did have standing so the case could continue and it was remanded back down to the lower courts. A BC law professor has also made headway in attacking these power plants with a public nuisance torte, an innovative concept which would result in an injunction of these companies if the courts rule in his favor.
There is, admittedly, a bill in the house right now, presented by Barbara Boxer, which would put some regulations of on greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants, but it remains to be seen whether Bush or the next president will sign it (McCain has said he would not, Hilary and Obama are for it.)
Despite all this doom and gloom emanating from our government, there is hope in the private sector. Here we get at the crux of this article and the reason why I wrote it, and I hope if you just skimmed this piece you will at least take the time to watch the video which I have included(come on, its a video, you can do it.) This man has found a way to make hydrogen a viable fuel.

Rather than summarize the video, I will just assume you watched it or will watch it and proceed. Is this the answer? I don't know, and I don't think anyone does. However what it is is a step in the right direction. Hydrogen is actually possible now. GM has announced plans of producing Hydrogen powered cars in the next few years, and Shell has agreed to include hydrogen fuel pumps at their stations in the GM's test regions. At this point, it is hard to tell what side effects hydrogen as a fuel may have, other than we know it explodes (but so does gas so why should this scare us?) GM has also announced plans to produce a totally electric car which can run for 40 miles in between charges and has a small combustion engine which turns on to charge the battery as necessary. It is reported to receive somewhere around 250 mpg. Much of this information has come out in the past few weeks. I believe we are closer to overcoming global warming than ever. And what a surprise, the solution came out of Adam Smith's Laissez-Faire economy. The government has proven itself simply too slow and inept to attack such a pressing issue as this. Fortunately we have received and I believe we can in the future expect more solutions to come out of the private sector to make the fear of global warming just a distant memory.

PS: The Clean Air Act does not address greenhouse gases or global warming in any way shape or form in case you were wondering

March Madness

I pride myself on having only a few relatively unnecessary obsessions.  Okay, probably not true.  One of them is the NCAA tournament.  No other sporting event reaches the proximity to perfection that "March Madness" does.  So we're one weekend down, and only need one more to put the final coffin in Slayhouse's bracket and ruin my hopes at winning lots of money.  Upside:  I only spent 40 of my allocated 50 dollars for this event.  More upside:  Free mp3s!

Forgive the bad punnery:

Dedicated to: A Certain UCLA Center

Skinny Love - Bon Iver

Dedicated to: A Certain Set of Stanford Seven-footers

Twin Killers - Deerhoof

Dedicated to: Stephen Curry

Time For Heroes - The Libertines

Dedicated to: (Hopefully) Kansas

Champion - Professor Murder

Dedicated to: Tim Shea's Bracket After the First Weekend

Fuck Forever - Babyshambles

Game Boys strike back

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

80%

Let's just get out with it. Electro is hot. From Justice's break out hit "D.A.N.C.E." to Daft Punk's best selling Alive 2007 album to Kanye West sampling the French duo on his chart crushing single "Stronger". Digital destruction has run rampant across the music scene with a deluge of dance hall obliterating, synth fueled jams. One of these electro groups is the much talked about Crystal Castles. The Toronto duo of multi instrumentalist Ethan Kath and Alice Glass became darlings of the blog scene with remixes of everything from the Klaxons to Bloc Party to LA noise punks Health. The album is mostly an amalgamation of tracks that have been released over the past year or so on vinyl. Put together these tracks show evidence of influences ranging from riot grrl to electro clash to goth to pop. Even though Kath and Glass are not doing anything novel in terms of electro 8- bit, their melodic sensibilities are what make this record a stand out release in the deluge of digitally created tunes as of late. Each track seems to burrow into your skull, leaving the unique, dark, haunting melodies branded into your mind like a cowboy searing his name into his steer. While some might deride them as pop glitch, you cannot ignore the fact that Kath and Glass have an ear for something here.

The record itself sounds like a combinations of an Atari one haywire overlaid on driving drumbeats and an affected synth tinkling away a melody that wont let its stranglehold upon you go. "Alice Practice and "Xxzxcuzz Me, Glass snarls and yelps incomprehensible words over a constant stream of Game boy glitch that still comes together into something that you can't put down. On tracks like "Magic Spells" and "Courtship Dating" glimmering synth and haunting ambient noise sticks inside your ear drums causing you to replay it over and over inside your head even after listening to the song 3 hours ago. On the last two tracks however, Crystal Castles show that they should be watched in the future. The only two tracks of the album that hadn't been released in some way, shape or form before the record was released was "Black Panther" and "Tell Me What To Swallow". On the closer "Tell Me What To Swallow" an acoustic guitar strums as Glass sings ethereally, taking the listener on a haitus from the computer glitch rollercoaster of an album. It is in stark contrast to the rest of the record, but fits in an odd way. "Black Panther" is a frantic upbeat race between one synth line and the next over a pounding beat. However, the song still maintains an almost anthemic quality to it with Glass shouting incomprehensible, but why should it matter? Crystal Castles seem to have a knack for simple sound. The combination of Atari pops and snaps with hooks that could kill, Crystal Castles have released an impressive debut, but the future most certainly will hold something even more exciting.

Gustav Klimt

I may be a little late on the uptake on this one, however I believe this a necessary post none the less. This past February marked the 90th aniversary of the passing of Gustav Klimt. Klimt was one of the most influencial artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is noted as an instrumental contributor to the Vienna Succession, an artistic movement which in my opinion shaped the direction of art for year to come. He and his followers broke away from the past conventions of art as being "pretty." Painters had become contractors to beautify the home and little more. Klimt rejected this idea, and began painting what he saw as reality. He was very unpopular in his own time simply because his work was not nice to look at. Famously he was contracted to produce a series of paintings for a European university. After completing the first, entitled Philosophy (shown left), he was fired. Philosophy was free from order and convention and generally reflected the philosophical views of the time. The black circle with a face in it at the bottom of the page represents knowledge and the inherent separation between it and true philosophy, an unpopular view of the time. Instead of being celebrated as an acheivement in transfering truth onto canvas, it was rejected as pornographic, ugly, and ambiguous. Many years later, artists now revere Klimts work as innovative and in some ways as a savior to the sanctity of fine art. He broke down limits, and did away with the artistic restraint imposed by the conventions of the society of the day. For those who wish to learn more, he leaves us with this quote: "Whoever wants to know something about me - as an artist which alone is significant - they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want."

Some Final Words of Advice...

It seems that this entire Democratic race has come down to Texas and Ohio. With so much nonsense being thrown around in the media recently, who should Dems in these states support? Although vigorous debates and shameless campaigning have magnified their differences, these candidates are very, very similar. They have very similar voting records (outside of the Iraq vote, which the Obama front has etched into our minds) and despite Hillary’s experience claims, both are relatively new to the senate. But four more years of “Bushism” would not be a good thing. While McCain is not as conservative as the Limbaughs of the world would like; the idea of the Straight-Talk Express attempting to run train on Iraq frightens me. So the choice is clear. It is unsurprising because I fancy myself liberal, but my premier goal is to have either democratic candidate prevail over McCain. It is in my best interest that whichever candidate gets the nod from the Dems is capable of defeating McCain. Who would I vote for Texas and Ohio? Barack Hussein Obama. Although many things about him can easily be pointed out by the McCain crew to detract from his credibility, he can easily surf this “wave of excitement,” as his support has been characterized, right to the oval office. Obama’s deft rhetoric, which has been criticized by many as being only that, could help him derail the inevitable attempts which will be made by the Straight-Talk Express to discredit him. He is charismatic and likeable and has shown a unique ability to connect with people. Meanwhile, Hillary, although she has amassed much support and respect, is simply disliked by many for various pathetic reasons. Whether it is because she “seems like a jerk,” “wears ugly necklaces,” stayed with Bill after he “knew” Monica in the oval office, or simply because she is a woman and America is subconsciously (or for chauvinists everywhere consciously) not ready for that, she has many detractors. It would be very difficult for her to attract enough independent voters in November to take the White House back. So liberals of Ohio and Texas, the polls should open in about six hours. Get down there and ensure that the next president is one whom we can at least work with. P.S. Damn it Nader you got your point across. Stop making it harder on us!