the same but different

A while ago I was speculating wildly about start-up companies claiming they can make cars, having never done so before. The WSJ got in on the action. Here's there list. Fisker and Tesla are the only ones with the slightest chance.



I also talked a bunch of trash about gas prices. So have these guys but it's probably not worth reading.



Here's some stuff about robots but this guy is just painting a target on his back. (i think robots are becoming the new fetish of the indie-crowd that zombies seized a couple years back. It makes me feel dirty)

I recommend "Iron Man" and the HBO movie, "Recount." Unfortunately the former will make you constantly question the validity of their science and the latter will so the same, but differently.

Best of Luck to our comrade Notorious:

Save yourselves!

Do not watch the new Indiana Jones Movie. It is fucking pants-on-head retarded. The only purpose it serves it to occasionally remind us of movies from our childhood via lame and uncreative references to the previous movies. The plot is a fucking predictable joke but no one is laughing and the only time you will be surprised is when something so unthinkably insane happens that you're questioning whether you actually left the house this evening or if perhaps you just blacked out from fumes emanating off the cocktail of deadly cleaning agents you were employing to clean up last night's solo-circle-jerk, and this is all just an unimaginable hallucination.


It is not.

do not watch this movie.

I've got a lot of other topics i want to cover here but i'm too. fuck. tired. However, i could not allow this movie to be released on the world and not at least warn the others as soon as possible.

no proof.

or whatever

The Sophist Institute of Wizardry has been running some numbers. It goes like this:

1) By July $4/gal gas will seem like a dream so sweat we won't even know for sure if it ever happened. $5 easy. $6 in 16 months. Eventually the feds will step up and do something stupid to help rather than implement worth-while and long term solutions like public transportation or funding for impotent battery technology.

2) People become desperate for cheaper transportation. 12 year old electric cars (even with shit batteries) will continue to sky rocket in price. Other wares to invest in 6 months ago:

Permanent magnet DC motors
Electric bike motors and conversion kits
Rickshaw services
Electric car conversion kits
Gas Scooters
Used Honda Civics
LiFePo batteries
Bicycles

3) Pain ensues but we all survive (unless gas tops $6/gal- then i think we may all die.)

3) The market is finally flooded with decent quality, high MPG cars. Bikes and scooters and motorcycles are finally available in electric versions with batteries in decent supply at a realistic price. Supply and demand balances and everything is fine.

In related news, the sophist e-bike is back on the road after be sidelined by catastrophic metal fatigue. Now i can finally get that shopping list wrapped up.

Deathwedding!

Everyone needs to watch this.

For reals. It is totally worth it and stuff.





"It's fun to watch somebody go through family hell"

















okay, okay... I can't help but drop a hint. It involves strip clubs in Wisconsin.

yeah, I knoW!

F.I.A.T.

You'd be surprised how hard it is to post a link in craigslist to a webpage with the title "fornicating in a topless" and have a post contained "italian redhead," even if you are trying to sell a Fiat.

You will get flagged like a mutha-fucka

anyway, updates.

Green

Speaking of green, finally some noise on the wind front. They pretty much hit on the head:

-20% is the projected amount of unreliable wind/solar energy you can run a national power grid with. I've always heard 40%. Regardless, if we had some sort of energy storage system to smooth out those inconsistencies... some kind of battery of storage systems... yes.

-The grid is the current weakness. Think of it as the matrix, but more likely to fall on it's face.

-Distributed power is the ultimate hippie dream. Of course, hippie or not, it doesn't mean you can't disconnect and run your shit of the grid. I recommend it.


Then again, carbon emissions are often the least of our worries.

watch your popped collar

bro rape

insert vague reference to the following:

Been some pissing and moaning about lack up updates. Fair enough.

Been staying busy:

-Rode the motorbike for the first time around the lot and ordered me this helmet. Jay-Fry says I need fork seals and new tires. Chain needs a little help too but all that stuff should be pretty easy. Also, damn thing won't idle at zero choke but that might clear itself up when i get it on the open road

-Made my way to Stos' and repaired the Fiat (see image below). Turns out the engine ate the impeller blades on the water pump. I also replaced the radiator which amazingly even though it was stated as being a '79 part, it refused to fit into a '79 front end. Self tapping screws played a big roll in that opera.

Technically it's still for sale but now that it runs i may need to enlist it again. That is unless you got $3400 burning a hole?

-Some other stuff.

-Saw the movie Iron Man. (Get ready for mild spoilers) Overall I'd say it was very good. More science fiction than science fact, but i do not penalize it. Was doing a good job of blearing the lines between good and bad until the end when they inserted the absolutely evil guy who is absolutely evil for seemingly no good reason other than to fight Iron Man.

-Teaching myself how to use fiberglass matte to build stuff.

-Playing Urban Dead for 6 minutes a day.

-Wrap it all up with some humorous comment. Cant quite care to exert.