blue_banshee

so I really do think there would be a market for a hand powered espresso grinder. or adjustable burr grinder at that. it could be cheaper than motorized burr grinders, and better than motorized blade grinders. best of both worlds? it should be really easy to make, too.

another product idea I had ages ago that I really think would work is the strap on bike cleat. if you make it out of strong plastic and nylon and velcro, it will be lighter, and easier to use and look and feel better. been using the ones I made, and they really work. they're not perfect, but sure are effective.

Here's an article from 2009 that explains how the green economy, and renewable energy in particular, create more jobs than the oil industry or the military. Well worth a read, especially if you're interested in the keystone XL tar sands pipeline. So many articles I've read on the subject mention that "supporters say" the pipeline will make jobs, reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and reduce the price of gasoline. So few of them take the time to find out if those claims are true. They aren't, and here's just one piece of the puzzle explaining why.

Where the Jobs Are: Compared to Spending on the Military or Oil Industry, Green Investment Can Improve Both Job Quantity and Qualitity http://prospect.org/article/where-jobs-are

Another article, from Time's website, says a lot of good things about climate change and the political quagmire that the process is stuck in. It links the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions with economic growth, by pointing out that when the majority of energy comes from fossil fuels, growth will always equal emissions. Read it, and then comment with your thoughts!
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2098887,00.html?xid=gonewsedit

My thought is this: here is one more piece of evidence saying that we need to get away from a growth economy. And fast. What we need is jobs- not profits. So the solutions are all in line with one another. Sustainability is the only way forward for prosperity, in this country or anywhere on earth. Humanity is reaching the natural limits of its habitat, and we are not responding well to the situation. The good news is, something better is possible! More jobs with less growth is the only way for our planetful of people to be happy and healthy and safe. We might be earning less, but we will still have access to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What I am talking about is a sort of austerity measure, but it is necessary; at the risk of seeming repetitive to the point of pedantic, a growth economy is inherently unsustainable. The only way forward is to break free of the idea that profits are always necessary and good, and return to a more values based society where livelihoods are more important than quarterly earning reports.

time management.
documentation.
happiness.

pick two.

looking up dubstep on wikipedia gave me a small inspiration-
I was reminded of another time I was listening to audio samples on wikipedia;
if it hasn't already been done, somebody should make a track from samples of the unidentified NOAA sounds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unexplained_sounds

http://xkcd.com/941/

I really want to do this. I mean, maybe not the whole smartphone + reading glasses thing, but

havent you wondered whether a cloud you were looking at was just really big and very far, or REALLY mutherfuckin' HUGE and a very, VERY far away?

what I need to do is
find a girl who could break my heart
give it to her
and ask her not to break it

here's an interesting article by noam chomsky, excerpted from the reprinting of his book on 9/11. it's interesting to read stuff like this, because it makes me realize that I spend far too much time not reading into things. I guess I let the mainstream media set the focus on my lens on the events of the world, too often. it doesnt change my perspective, because I still value my beliefs. but it does limit my awareness, and I guess it means that I'm generally pretty ignorant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/noam-chomsky/was-there-an-alternative-_b_950216.html?ir=Yahoo

I'm going to go to washington DC and get arrested while protesting the tar sands pipeline!
I'm also going to use that as my college's community service requirement. it was marlene fried, our interim president, who got me thinking that this was the right thing to do. she asked me if I was going to be div III next semester, and I said that it depended on whether I got my shit together and passed div II or not. and mentioned that I didn't know what I was going to do for community service. and she said, "oh, how could you NOT?" and went on to express the opinion that every hampshire student should know what they're going to do for community service. so I had been thinkning about that, and realized that really, the issue that motivates me is the environment, rather than anything more localized or social.

then this open letter got printed on some websites that I read:

http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-06-23-join-us-in-civil-disobedience-to-stop-the-keystone-xl-tar-sands

so, that's what I'm going to do.

here's another article that I think is worth reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/devon-swezey/the-coming-clean-tech-cra_b_892582.html it talks about the dangers of subsidizing green energy projects. the bubble and crash cycle applies here, because the funding is intermittent and uncertain. a lot of money from the stimulus package got sent in the direction of green energy projects, but that money will dry up and those proects wont be able to compete. the article suggests that instead of spending money on conventional wind and solar technologies, we should be funding innovations that improve or replace those technologies, because the conventional technologies can't compete on the energy market without the subsidies, while the innovations and new technologies might be able to.

that's all well and good, but I think a more important step will be to raise the price of fossil fuels. that will accomplish all of those goals, by bringing all technologies closer to price parity, including the new and innovative ones. and it won't take money from the government. as james hanson has been saying for years and years now, just tax the dirty fuels and give the money back to the people. look, here he is saying it:



they'll spend it on efficiency and green energy for entirely capitalistic reasons. motivation is the real issue, and money is the real solution. make the bad things cost more. it's the only sensible thing to do. as olifhar pointed out on my last post, this is called a pigovian tax. the sad thing is that not enough people even know that term, nor do they understand the basic principle. everyone should take economics 101.

everyone should also have a greenhouse. I think it would be a good thing to make a greenhouse be a mandatory part of every new structure. but then I havent really thought through that idea thoroughly. I just know that it could help with heating structures as well as decentralization of food production.

I'm going to go to washington DC and get arrested while protesting the tar sands pipeline! I'm also going to use that as my college's community service requirement. It was Marlene, our interim president, who helped me come to this conclusion. I was at the lunch event they put on at the president's house, and she was making the rounds shmoozing with peopl,e nad when she came round to where the painters were sitting, we started talking about allthe plans that everybody has fo r the real world, and what they're going to do, because