i know birthday marathon doesn't start till tomorrow, but tomorrow is a travel day and may not be on the web. so i say this now. happy birthday everyone.

live action Transformers movie? .....Spielberg...?

NU KUL LAR POWER

This doesn't look half bad for a free RPG. If nothing else Matthew Baldwin of defective yeti fame has it listed as his current obsession. Dammit I just don't have time to finish everything I want to start.

I started looking up some research on this idea and I found a FANTASTIC article about SPS (solar powered satellites) here.

I definitely recommend you guys read it. It's only 2 pages long and it's really informative and actually pretty interesting.

It figures that such a well-written and researched article on the practical application of this technology should be written by Ben Bova. These days it sometimes seems like there is only one type of person who takes this stuff seriously, and Ben Bova is one of those types. Who is Ben Bova, you ask? One of the world's best science-fiction authors, that's who.



But anyway, if I can't convince you to read such an excellent article, I at least implore you to read these facts which I took from it:

Yeah, I agree: thermal depolymerization is an EXCELLENT technology which needs to be put to better use. I also agree that solar power is an excellent alternative, but there are difficulties with building solar collectors on the ground; they take up large areas of space, the photovoltaic cells are only as effecient as the weather permits, as well as other similar problems. However, if NASA were properly funded like they should have been in the first place, we would have had solar-collection satellites in space by now that would transmit beams of energy (in the form of either lasers as japan is currently proposing, or also in the more traditionally accepted form of microwaves) to receiver stations on earth with around-the-clock reliability. In 1979 NASA completed a study which proved the feasibility of this concept, however they obtained no funding to build the first prototype, and no plans have been made to resurrect the concept.

Japan on the other hand is currently planning to go ahead with their own version of the concept. As I said before, they plan to transmit the energy via laser to low-orbit shuttles which would then send the energy to ground-based receiver stations as microwaves (although I'm not sure what the reasons are for doing a 4-step energy conversion is). I hope Japan can accomplish this project. If they do, they could become an economic powerhouse by simply selling reciever stations to other countries.

Also, today I read in DOSE that they are working on converting the braking-power of freight trains into energy which would be stored in massive battery cells. The energy it takes to stop a single freight train over the course of a year is enough to power 160 homes in that same year!!! HOLY SHIT!!! 160 HOMES!!!! Apparently trains run on deisel these days and they use a RIDICULOUS amount of it!!!


I had no idea trains were so fuckin insane!!!


But anyway, I'm getting off topic. Like I've been trying to argue from the get-go... space research is under-funded to a point that is detrimental to the entire planet. If we can't find ways to sustain the way we are living, then we won't just be fucking ourselves, but inevitably our entire planet's global ecosystem!!!

I still say that thermal depolymerization is a great start. It's not reducing the need for oil at all, but it's not extracting it from the ground and adding more CO₂ to the surface/atmosphere. Better yet the technology is already here, it's just being held back by the U.S. regulations because for some reason they don't count it as biofuel. Therefore they don't get the biofuel subsidy and it takes longer to develop to mainstream. Still, it's a really good system at 85% efficiency.

Taylor - interesting statements. I'd just like to say that, uh, we're already depleting our natural resources... hence the whole war for oil thing... [[and it would seem as though Alberta is next in line for American imperialism if the US Treasury guy has anything to say about it. (read the journal for Saturday or Sunday) He talked about how the Oil Sands' proven oil reserves are quite possibly a key step in American energy security. in other words: we're fucked.]]

It takes more energy - and clean burning natural gas at that - and water to remove the oil from the tarsands than we actually get from it. How is that a good thing? How is that even remotely sustainable?

I say we go solar and wind-powered NOW, it's the only way we can continue to have things like cars and plastic even possible in our futures. If we continue using oil at the pace we are, we will soon run out, and we'll be stuck back in some draconian dark age with no back-up plan. If we, however, start to wean ourselves off oil and gas, it'll last longer and we'll have those things that we can't live without that come from oil and gas, like asphalt roads, and plastic containers, and surgical materials, and computers. Do we not think that maybe it would be a good idea to start while we're ahead, and move towards something new and more sustainable before our current way of life extinguishes itself?

moving forward is good, making plans to accept what has to change in the future is also good. but we have to start it now, and we have to do it en mass, or nothing's going to change. You can start using glass containers instead of tupperware, you can start wearing wool instead of fleece or nylon or lycra, but if everyone else still thinks we're fine wearing our synthetic clothes, living in our man-made wonders of houses and cars and stuff, nothing's going to change.

The G-8 finally managed to get George Bush to admit that climate change is happening NOW, but he also said he's not going to do anything about it. Can we change everyone else so that he's a minority?

uhh... excellent... a rant. Sorry folks. I guess that's because I've been working in such formerly beautiful land, that's all being destroyed by logging, oil and gas, and coal mining... all for the insatiable appetites of people like us. Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon to show you what I mean.

Black Dice: Starlite Room, October 1st.
With: wolf eyes? (I don't know for sure)
and special guests: The All-Purpose Voltage Heros (again, this is only hearsay)
and lesser special guests: !!!!????

so apparently my other site is out of bandwidth. Let's try this AGAIN.

Photos I took of the 12-hour-draw-a-thon at the Latitude 53 gallery on Friday night:





If you're interested in seeing this stuff in person (for some strange reason), the artwork will be on display at the Latitude 53 gallery for about the next 2 weeks.