December 2008
50 posts
Technology Review: Lifeline for Renewable Power →
A great article on the “Smart Grid” and why it is so cruicial for the move to renewable power and less greenhouse gases.
Milk
Kita and I saw Milk last night. It was great. It was a great historical window into San Francisco in the 70s. It was a great macro depiction of the gay civil rights movement. And it was a great micro personal story of the people involved.
More than anything the acting was phenomenal, particular Sean Penn, who was amazing.
I never knew much about gay civil rights history. There is a lot of...
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Asia in LA
One thing I’m finding about L.A. living is that is provides much better Asian goods and services than the East Coast. At great price value.
I’ve written about the great, well-priced sushi that’s here. Last night I got a massage at Bankgkok Thai Massage. $40 for an hour. And it was the best massage of my life.
Forget Swedish. Thai is the best. No foolish table. You’re on...
I like this post from Broken Sidewalk, a Louisville urban planning blog.
You ever come across something like this?:
I do all the time, particularly in LA, where pedestrian or bike movement is an afterthought.
If we really paid as much concern for walkers and bikers as drivers, the blog then considers, then why don’t we encounter these?:
A nice mellow Dylan-esque song, “Furr”...
Baz Luhrmann eyes 'Great Gatsby' →
Luhrmann did “Moulin Rouge,” one of my favorite movies, and The Great Gatsby is an eternal American story. While Luhrmann’s “Australia” seems to be a flop, I still look forward to this.
Watchbest performance of the Buzznet Holiday Party
What will renew Wall Street?
Two really good articles in the NY Times this morning. One told the story the fixed income unit at Merrill Lynch. It describes the huge bonuses—$5MM to $20MM per year—paid to members of that team despite the fact that the deals that earned those bonuses ended up over time generating huge losses for the firm. The losses, it points out, were greater than all of the profits of the firm...
Rick Warren, Obama Invocation Choice, Causing... →
I think that it’s great that Rick Warren is giving the Invocation for the Inauguration. Sure, there’s a lot I don’t agree with him on.
But for progressives to cry that through the move Obama is betraying the liberal agenda that he ran upon misses the point. Obama plans not to be the President of the Progressives, but of the United States, all people. And we all need to recognize...
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green... →
author: Thomas L. Friedman name: toby average rating: 4.06 book published: 2008 rating: 5 read at: 2008/12/15 date added: 12/15/08 shelves: energy, environment, globablization review:…
Mayor of Minneapolis = Secretary of...
My friend Mike is always telling me that I’d love his hometown, Minneapolis.
This article caught my attention … maybe he’s right?
That said, the best guy for the [Secretary of Transportation] job may well be R.T. Rybak, the forward-thinking mayor of Minneapolis. He’s made sensible and sustainable transportation policy a hallmark of his tenure. His Access Minneapolis...
Charter Schools Make Gains On Tests →
Great article in the Washington Post on the success of charter schools.
Last night, Kita and I watched “Coal...
Nice super mellow song from Mike: “Cheap...
AMEE - New Energy Web Service →
A new venture that just announced funding from Union Square Ventures. They describe their mission as:
AMEE’s aim is to map, measure and track all the energy data on Earth
Basically they’re building a big web API that will help businesses and consumers be better informed about the energy impacts of all sorts of goods & services. Cool idea.
My wife has always told me that there’s...
Obama makes pick for energy chief: Nobel-winning... →
It is thrilling to me how Obama is filling up his cabinent with a team of all-stars. Steve Chu, the pick for Secretary of Energy, is yet another. How cool to have a Nobel-winnning physicist in the cabinent?!
McKibben and Berry call for civil disobedience at... →
Bill McKibben, one of my favorite writes, is calling for a massive protest outside a Capitol Hill coal power plant on March 2nd. The act of peaceful civil obedience expects to get all of the protesters arrested but is seen as a necessary action to urge our leaders to change.
“It would be great if Obama’s [stimulus infrastructure] spending, instead of just...”
– From a great op-ed by David Brooks about how the coming stimulus spending should be used to further the community-centric development trend in the U.S.
Washington Takes Risks With Its Auto Bailout Plans... →
This article discusses the risks of the federal government becoming the owner of the auto companies. I think that the “sturctured bankruptcy” scenario—where the companies don’t actually go bankrupt but all of the same processes occur—is the way to go. The government should assist in putting the car companies under new management and ownership with new balance sheets...
Governor Is Held in Inquiry Into Filling Obama’s... →
You don’t expect this level of corruption in the U.S. It makes you wonder just how corrupt all of our politics might be.
New in Gmail: Tasks →
This missing feature in Gmail finally is launched. Hooray.
Get your weekend off to a rocking start, courtesy...
Op-Ed Columnist - Who Will He Choose? -... →
Interesting column from David Brooks: will Obama choose reform or status quo in Secretary of Education? Let’s hope for reform …
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We're All Connected
In the locker room of the gym today, the Today Show was on the TV, and there was a piece about a study on “The Contagiousness of Happiness.” The study’s authors looked at a lot of data from the study’s participants, including their social connections. The study find that if your close social connections were happy, it greatly increased the chances that you were happy.
...
Charlottesville - DC Rail?
Charlottesville is a dream city (Kita and I once considered living there) but the hard question about it is “where to work?” Many consider doing a DC - C’ville commute, and then kill themselves and the planet in the process.
It is now being reported that a once-a-day train between DC and C’ville is near implementation. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Found this story on...
Villaraigosa unveils solar plan for Los Angeles →
That’s the way LA! The Mayor here is up to great stuff in his Green LA plan.
