From the article:” A 36-page document called “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road” contains 10 Commandments covering everything from road rage, respecting pedestrians, keeping a car in good shape and avoiding rude gestures while behind the wheel. “Cars tend to bring out the ‘primitive’ side of human beings, thereby producing rather unpleasant results,” the document said.”

Cell Phone Karma

From the article:” That’s what Boeing said Tuesday at the Paris Air Show, when it announced an $8.8 billion, 60-plane sale of its forthcoming and much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner to the leasing company ILFC, according to Reuters. The deal comes on the heels of Airbus announcing Monday more than $30 billion in orders, a move much needed by the beleaguered British/French plane consortium. Its hugely hyped A380 super-airplane has disappointed critics because it was very late to market and incredibly over budget. “

From the article:” A very dark spot on Mars could be an entrance to a deep hole or cavern, according to scientists studying imagery taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The geological oddity measures some 330 feet (100 meters) across and is located on an otherwise bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes on the red planet.The hole might be the sort of place that could support life or serve as a habitat for future astronauts, researchers speculated.”

A coat of paint… some throw rugs, a few pillows and some oxygen… I’m sure it will be a lovely summer home for the first astronauts.

From the article:” Boeing’s big project for this year is to get a dream project off the ground–literally. The aviation giant’s first 787 Dreamliner is scheduled to emerge from the factory on July 8, with a first flight anticipated for later in the summer. This is Boeing’s first all-new airplane in about a decade. On Monday, Boeing touted its last big step along the way: the opening of the Everett, Wash., final-assembly facility for the 787. The plane is being assembled there from large composite structures from various worldwide partners, rather than many smaller components. The nose–section 41–was built by Spirit AeroSystems of Wichita, Kan. The first 787 will take weeks to complete; eventually, Boeing expects to churn out a new plane every three days.”

From the article:“Commenting on the future prospects for tidal current energy, Martin Wright, Managing Director of Marine Current Turbines said: “We will build on the success of SeaGen to develop a commercial tidal farm, of up to 10MW in UK waters, within the next three years. With the right funding and regulatory framework, we believe we can realistically achieve up to 500MW of tidal capacity by 2015 based on this new SeaGen technology.”

It’s interesting to read some of the comments at the bottom of the story — some are crying found because “two huge blades spinning in the water” are bound to kill sea life — -however… what do you think will cause more of an impact, this kind of tidal power generation, or the millions of pounds of pollutants that would be poured into the environment due to an equivalent power generation via fossil fuel?

From the article:” The companies displayed on Monday six Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrid vehicles modified to run partly on electricity from the power grid, allowing the vehicles to go up to 75 miles on a gallon of gas, nearly double the number of miles of a regular hybrid. They also modified one vehicle to give electricity back to the power company. ”

This is something that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. If you’ve followed the saga of power generation in California, you already know that the most difficult load on the system occurs only for a few hours (or minutes) during the day. The problem then has been to built a power system that can provide a constant level of electricity with the occasional INSANE spike. In the past, we’ve relied on “peaking facilities” that can come online quickly during times of peak demand, then shut down when the 24×7 power generating plants can cover the load.

This system had worked relatively well, but the problem is that the DELIVERY of that energy becomes problematic once you factor in the aging state of our power distribution grid. The answer? — micro-generation at the local level that can provide peaking power without taxing the major interconnects of the power grid. (I’ve long been a proponent of the micro-generation of power and a plug in hybrid that could reverse its flow during peak times of power drain on the grid could be a least-resistance path to that type of power.

I have had both Cable and Satellite Television… in my old house, I had Direct TV, when I moved I got Comcast Cable, and recently replaced that with DishNetwork.  Since my DirectTV experience is pretty far back I won’t be discussing that option, but as far as the other two… What are the differences and which is better?

More after the Jump »

From the article:“This fall, Troy University in Alabama will begin rolling out the new camera technology for many of its approximately 11,000 online students, about a third of whom are at U.S. military installations around the world. The device, made by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Software Secure, is similar in many respects to other test-taking software. It locks down a computer while the test is being taken, preventing students from searching files or the Internet. The latest version also includes fingerprint authentication, to help ensure the person taking the test isn’t a ringer.”

From the article:“The breakdown related to TVH system was discovered for the first time on March 24, 2007. Fishermen illegal cut the cable to sell as waste at a price of VND10,000-15,000 ($0.6-0.9) per kilo, or even VND2,000 ($0.12). According to Mr Lai, the awareness of fishermen is limited. They don’t know what is bronze cable, what is optical cable or what was used and what is being used. “They just think that they can earn money from the cable so they cut it,” he said. Improving the awareness of people through the media, thus, is an important measure to prevent the thieving of telecom cable. ”

This is a problem that is unique neither to Vietnam nor to the Telcom industry. All sorts of cable (telephone, power, fiber, etc.) has long been a target of those who either don’t understand what it is, or are successfully tempted by quick cash to be made in the salvage market. Unfortunately, the “education campaign” that many governments believe will solve the problem is really not an option if you look at the people who are taking the cable — usually the poorest of the poor. Until living conditions improve enough for all for whom the $.12 cents a pound of scrap represents far more than they could earn doing “honest work”, we can only wince and rerun the cable.

From the article:“Using municipal waste to produce energy or reduce pollution is not an unusual practice. Landfill operators siphon off methane gas that is given off by decomposing organic trash. Incinerators burn garbage to produce steam that turns a turbine that makes electricity.
Ze-gen’s plant, currently under construction, is an attempt to demonstrate that different technologies–in this case gasification–can be used to convert waste to energy in a cost-effective and less polluting way. ”

I would love to see more of these plants get built, especially with the waste disposal system in this country being as astronomically inefficient as it is. However, there has always been one major stumbling block — at least in the cities that I have lived it — There is no incentive for a county or principality to HAVE a landfill and waste-powered electricity generation system on THEIR LAND. If we could cut through the red tape and reward the cities, towns and counties that built these plants within their borders then we could expect to see more of this tech become mainstream.

I’m not naive enough to believe that this is a “smackdown”, but it’s nice to see O’Reilley getting riled enough to call the young man a “pinhead” for quoting both the transcripts of the speaker O’Reilley disliked as well as Bill’s very own book. — You know… I foresee a time when the outrageous political talking-heads get taken to task each time they contradict something that they’ve said or written previously — Information is just too easy to find, clip and mashup in today’s techno-centric society.

In “Dance Dance Revolution” a wrong move might get you booed… perhaps even lose you the game… In “Dance Dance Immolation” a wrong move could get you a date with a flamethrower!

From the article:“Chinese court has jailed two officials after they let a blind contractor build a bridge which collapsed during construction and injured 12 people, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday. Huang Wenge, township head of Bujia in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, and colleague Xia Jianzhong were sentenced to 18 months and one year in jail, respectively, for not stopping the project, Xinhua said.”

I bet they didn’t see that once coming!

From the article:“As companies in countries like China and India move away from performing behind-the-scenes functions, they’re selling products and services under their own brand names directly against U.S. and European counterparts. Since high-level executives and other white collar professionals in Asian companies typically make less than their Western equivalents, these companies potentially will have a cost advantage. ”

Some will read this article and cry foul, stating that the only reason why Chinese Executive’s pay is not as ridiculously high as their U.S. counterparts is because China has yet to make the “big league” of global innovation and fierce capitalist competition. To them I say…. “WAKE UP!”

From the article:“The Bush administration on Thursday blasted a congressional proposal that would shield a broad swath of news gatherers, including some bloggers, from revealing their confidential sources. The latest draft of the Free Flow of Information Act would pose a grave threat to national security and federal criminal investigations by protecting far too large a segment of the population, a U.S. Department of Justice official told Congress. ”

Does anybody else find it deliciously ironic that the Bush “Everybody in the Administration is immune from questioning” Company is trying to remove a protection in which they have consistently cloaked themselves?

From the article:“Unlike other potential biofuel feedstocks like canola, camelina can grow in arid conditions, can produce more oil from its seeds for a lower price and doesn’t require the excessive use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. “We actually think it might be the next wonder crop,” said Tom Todaro, the chief executive of Targeted Growth, a Seattle biotech firm that hopes to produce enough seed to plant 1 million acres by 2009.”

This is something that the biofuel critics never take into account when they publish FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) articles that doubt the potential of the Biofuel movement — Biofuel isn’t limited to corn… or even traditional crops for that matter. As we refine our methods of extracting energy from these crops we are bound to stumble upon discoveries like this — but if we had listened to their FUD and stopped the biofuel push when they confidently announced that “it can’t be done”, we would be no closer to a sustainable alternative fuel than ten years past.

From the article:“A man has been charged in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with filming police officers during a routine traffic stop and faces up to seven years in prison for “wiretapping”. Brian D. Kelly is charged under a state law that bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone’s oral conversation without their consent, reports the Patriot News. The criminal case relates to the sound, not the pictures, that his camera picked up. ”

Hmm… if this charge goes through, wouldn’t the Police themselves and popular shows like “America’s most Wanted” that use “dashboard” cameras be in flagrant violation of said wiretapping statutes?