There probably isn’t one true meaning of Christmas, but there certainly are some common and quite wonderful themes that run through this entire season, one of which is belief. It’s a time marked by what Shakespeare reminded us: thinking makes it so. (more…)
I’m sure many readers here know Bill Moore of electric vehicle fame; he’s made sure to add some level of understanding on the subject via his website EVWorld.com every single day since it was first published in 1997. This, of course, was a time during the infancy of the Internet; the site was one of the first 3000 to be “indexed.” It’s easy for everyone to admire a man of such constancy to a good cause.
But only Bill’s friends recognize his core, heartfelt belief in the unity of humankind. To make this point, I’ve produced his Christmas card below, to which I wrote back: I love your subtle message of peace, tolerance, grace, and inclusion. (more…)
I received a comment from one Hugh Haskell on my recent post in which I expressed my displeasure at my fellow Americans for their failure to “get it” with respect to environmentalism in general and climate change in particular. Since most readers don’t spend too much time on the comments, I wanted to post it here to ensure as many people saw it as possible:
I don’t think you need to trash the American public to that extent. It’s not all their fault. (more…)
Every week or so, someone sends me an article from a popular magazine that covers futuristic sources of energy. I’d sound rather like the Grinch if I said I objected to publications like this, though I have to confess that I disapprove of presenting malarkey to the man/woman-on-the-street. Developing the right energy is a tough job, and it’s not made any easier by confusing people. (more…)
My colleague who sent me this piece on ocean wave energy jokingly disapproved of my unenthusiastic response: “Always the cynic! Merry Christmas!” I write back:
Ha! Well, I believe in consolidation, since I’ve seen it happen so many times. In 2008/09, I used to go to all the electric vehicle shows when they were geographically convenient. There were hundreds of booths, mostly occupied by vendors who were hopeful to be successful in this budding industry—maybe a dozen of would-be OEMs, and scads of purveyors of charging infrastructure and other accoutrements. Now, there are so few potential players in the EV community, most of those shows no longer even exist. (more…)
Those following the progress the world is making in wave energy may be interested in the website of these folks in Peru: Atmocean. I have to say that I love the name. It contains the word “ocean” and it’s pronounced “at motion?” That’s seriously clever stuff. (more…)
A few years ago I wrote this post expressing my displeasure at my countrymen, as they had adopted wholesale the explanation that our government provided for invading Iraq.
Immediately before the attack, this message, without a comma’s worth of variation, was broadcast on every major channel, not only in the U.S., but all around the world: “The G8 has today endorsed an American plan to bring democracy to the Middle East.” It was short, understandable, and credible to the vast majority of people onto whose ears it fell—if only because of its ubiquity: the rice farmers in Indonesia got it on their radios every 30 minutes for 24 consecutive hours, just as did the corn farmers in Iowa when they tuned in their morning, evening, and nightly news programs–across every network. The tactics for promoting a constant, unified message were solidly in place then (as they remain today) though, as we all learned just a few years later, there wasn’t a particle of truth in it.
This is a good time to bring this up, as we normalize U.S. – Cuban relations; this is another watershed event in mass communications that itself has great import. (more…)
Ever wonder about the scientific validity of the claims made by guest bloggers? To be honest, I normally don’t, but here’s an exception that I thought I’d share, this one concerning the recent post on iron pyrite and solar PV.
Rep of Blogger: Thank you so much for placing the article live. It looks great! Can I ask you a small favor? I hope you are okay with it. Is it possible to move this disclaimer: “From a Guest Blogger” at the end of the article?
Craig: The problem is that if I do that, my readers will think I wrote it personally. I can’t deal with that. No offense. (more…)
For the first time in the history of Hollywood, filmdom is caught in a no-win situation: if Sony Pictures airs its movie exposing the insane brutality of the Kim Jong Un regime, it’s a near certainty that North Korea is more than crazy enough to kill innocent Americans—probably an enormous number of them. I chose the picture for this post specifically for those who may be wondering if the regime is, in fact, sufficiently deranged; it features a few of the 80 Koreans who were executed by firing squad one recent afternoon for watching foreign films. Thus Sony’s conundrum: releasing the film results in death; not releasing it endorses and encourages censorship—imposed first from the criminally insane—but what next?
Speaking of censorship, but on a completely different scale, for the first time in the history of 2GreenEnergy I told someone just last night that I wanted to sever dialog. (more…)
My colleague Gary Tulie sent me this, explaining how energy use in the UK is falling, despite an improving economy.
I feel sorry for people whose job is predicting the energy markets of the future—and for precisely this reason. (more…)
