9/24/2002
There is an excellent article in the current edition of Newsweek on the topic of organic food: what 'organic' means, why it's probably better for you, and why it's definitely better for the planet and for farmworkers. They also mention how agriculture has shifted for the worse over the last 50 years (thanks to pesticides), and how organic farms are using a little "lost knowledge" to keep pace with (and even outpace) conventional "spray-everything-until-it's-dead" farms.

The article also mentions the new federal "Organic" standard coming into being on Oct. 21 of this year, which will standardize the meaning of "Organic" (whereas before it varied from state to state). The new "certified organic" label will mean that the food was grown with no hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, insecticides, chemical fertilizers, genetic modification or germ-killing radiation.

9/23/2002
I finished Michael Moore's latest book, Stupid White Men, today. Overall satisfaction level: EXCELLENT. A MUST-READ. I don't know what on earth took me so long to get around to reading it; once I started it, I finished it within a few days. (Granted, there was a little pressure to return it to a friend after borrowing it for... oh, N months...) The beginning of the book did turn me off a bit; it was hypercritical, and even began to sound like conspiracy theory. But I stuck it out, and it came around. The book hits on just about every topic in the universe - from modern racism, to how the U.S. is #1 (in the bad categories), to the Clinton record, environmental issues, rich vs. poor, black vs. white, men vs. women, and many other fine topics. Mike is an interesting guy, and even if he can be a bit crazy, he's entertaining. The book is chock full of humor, but also jam-packed with real content, statistics, and facts... and I was stoked to see that he documented all his sources! The last 17 pages of the book cite sources for just about everything in there.

Did you know that out of the top 20 industrialized nations, the U.S. is #1 in:

• military spending (in fact, we spend more than the next 25 nations, combined - my factoid)
• lowest eighth-grade math scores
          (...gee, maybe we shouldn't spend 17% of our entire budget on the military? - my factoid)
• lowest voter turnout
• per capita energy use and municipal waste
• hazardous waste produced (by a factor of 20 over the runner-up, Germany!)
• oil consumption, natural gas consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions
• millionaires & billionaires
• firearm deaths
• reported rapes

9/19/2002
I test-drove a Honda Insight today. It was very fun. [For those of you who don't know, the Insight is a hybrid-electric car that runs ONLY on gasoline; it just charges some batteries when you slow down - hence the 'hybrid electric' part - and then uses the batteries when speeding up. As a result, the manual transmission Insight gets 61-68 miles to the gallon (city-highway).]

Anyway, back to the test drive: sure enough, the engine does shut off at stop lights (provided the battery is doing okay and the A/C isn't cranked), and it handles great - it really does feel space-age. And when I needed to merge onto the freeway, it had plenty of kick - far more than I was expecting. I would feel 100% safe merging onto highways in it. Also, the dash is *really* cool - it shows you your instantaneous mpg rating, as well as the current gasoline & battery levels (all digital), and it indicates when the battery is charging or draining, with little bars popping up on either side of a neutral midpoint.

I am not without my concerns, though. For one, it has very little cargo space, and only two seats. However, at the forefront of my concerns is that the Insight is a very funky car, and if I were to buy one, what kind of support will there be for it in 10 years? It's hard to say. The Civic Hybrid, on the other hand, gets 46/51 mpg (manual transmission), actually has back seats, and since it's just like a Civic except for the engine, should have good support years from now. That's about double what my '96 Accord gets (~25 mpg mixed driving), but unfortunately, the Civic Hybrid has pretty much average emissions; the Insight has about 1/8 as many emissions, and to me, that's where the real environmental impact is.

So the Civic Hybrid seems quite good, except for the emissions. But I have this problem: I already own a Honda, and it only has 74,000 miles on it. If mine lasts to the many- hundred-thousands-of-miles mark like most of them, it will be a long time before I need a new car. Sigh. I really want to see how far I can make this car go, before moving on.

By the way, here it is again: the best & worst fuel-efficient cars of 2002. The list also has data for all cars - check yours, it's probably not as good as you thought it was...

9/09/2002
If one believes in democracy, then shouldn't that person shun unilateralism? The two are in stark contrast with each other. Democracy is the cooperation of many voices within a state; multilateralism is the cooperation of the combined voices of many states. Unilateralism can be dangerous, and often lends itself to Injustice. Just a reminder of the basics.

Just imagine having a leader who actually said real things, like Jacques Chirac or Gerhard Schröder. They present real arguments and talk genuinely, and they even actually consider what other states think...

9/05/2002
According to today's Washington Post, the NAS (National Academy of Sciences - the guys and gals that establish our Recommended Daily Allowances) has issued new dietary guidelines (nutritional recommendations). In terms of how I think a person can eat with a healthy diet, this article is right on the money. For one thing, it warns of the differences between "okay fats" and "bad fats", namely polyunsaturated fats. (now for some info that wasn't in the article...) These are also called trans-fats, and are the worst kind of fats you can eat; the ones that cause heart disease - and they are omnipresent in today's junk aisle foods & long-shelf-life baked goods (chips, cookies, crackers, noodles, etc.) usually in the form of "partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil." If you see this high up in the ingredients list, don't buy it! That stuff will kill you. Even worse is that these foods often contain cottonseed oil, which is extracted from cotton, which, since it isn't a food product, isn't subjected to standard pesticide limits for food growing.

The new standards also recommend getting more exercise, and avoiding products with added sugar, such as soft drinks and candy.

Next all they need to do is factor in the length of the ingredients list, the amount of processing, and that magical word "organic"... =)

9/03/2002
The BBC is running an informative environmental special about our Disposable Planet. I was especially interested in the section on energy. If you go to that link and then click "Alternatives to Oil" on the left, it provides a good overview of the pros and cons of the various alternatives: nuclear, hydroelectric, hydrogen, wind, and solar. Most importantly, this is one of the few articles I've seen in the media that addresses the important "catches" involved with hydrogen (instead of sensationalizing it as a panacea).

7/15/2002
I got this question in an e-mail recently:

          > im just curious why you badmouth the U.S so much

And responded as follows, because I want the record to be straight:

We do a lot of good things, and you're right; I'm sure I don't spend enough time covering the positive. But just because I fail to cover that, doesn't mean I don't see it. We give out more aid than any other country, and I'm extremely proud of that. I *love* this country, and I *love* our extensive freedoms. That doesn't mean I like it that 80% of the media is owned by a tiny handful of corporations, for example... I still have my complaints. But I'm extremely grateful for my freedom of speech, and other freedoms. In fact, I've always thought of myself as having a pretty good grip on this one; frequently I hear (or used to hear, back in Ohio) people complaining about things they should be grateful for, and it drives me crazy. (i.e. if you were born in any other country, at any other time, there's a 99% chance you wouldn't have it this good - at least, materially and in terms of liberties).

BUT I want us to do better. That's it. I want my country to join the ICC, sign the Kyoto, cut cancer and asthma through cleaner water and air and higher auto/appliance standards, invest in renewable energy, stop using Depleted Uranium munitions, land mines and cluster bombs, stop being the #1 exporter of arms, stop giving Israel $5+ billion a year in aid, get tough on Saudi Arabia and China (for human rights violations), and so on (my list is long). Are things things okay with you? Not with me! That's why I bitch about it... I want people to be more aware of it. What's the harm in trying to push your country to do better? All of my ranting is about trying to do better... exposing what's still wrong (in my opinion), facing it, and fixing it.

BTW, I would like to point out that I didn't say I entirely agreed with the 3 recent quotes (from 7/7/02) that I put on my website... I was hoping I wouldn't have to say that, that I could just keep it simple and people would give me the benefit of the doubt. I just wanted to expose people to those thoughts.

I hope that clears up my stance.

          > you have to look at what we've done
          > relative to all other civilizations throughout the worlds history.

This is valid... but it's not enough for me. Unless the 'competition' is already morally perfect, I believe that judging my country by my own moral standards will result in far more progress. Also, just because we do so much good doesn't give us free license to commit a few "minor" atrocities here and there, or to waste the planet away as we do. We do a lot of good, but we can always do better, and it's never an excuse to do wrong.

Anyway... my 2¢.

7/8/2002
To anyone who suggested "turning Afghanistan into a parking lot" after September 11th, I suggest you read this article.

7/7/2002
A few letters to the editors of Adbusters: (Mar/Apr 2002 issue) (note: I do not agree with everything said here; I am just reprinting a few of these because I believe that there is something to learn from exposure to these opinions.)

"Whether we get our set of symbols from TV ("Oh she's just like Jerry from Survivor) or from fireside stories ("This is like when grandfather told us of how Raven stole the sun"), their net effect is the same. The real danger is the homogenization of thought. If every kid grows up picking up the same symbols and icons, and these form the basis of how they interpret the world around them, what you get is a generation without diversity of thought. In nature, a species without diversity is a species bound for extinction. Same goes for the mental landscape."

Another:

I am a male, 27-year-old high school teacher in Canada, and I've noticed myself becoming more depressed over the past three years. I just bought my first house. My career is doing well. I have lots of close friends. I play soccer and hockey year round. You'd think I'd be satisfied with all this. I feel selfish to say I am not. I think I am depressed because I grew up watching television sitcoms and movies of "normal" lives. But these lives are not normal. I grew up expecting the "TV life." I have also spent a lot of my life worrying about money - how much money I have and how much I'll have in the future. Now I see other cultures have survived and fluorished without focusing on money. They focused on the primary needs of humans - food, water, fresh air, community and love. I was hoping my new insight would allow me to be a happier person, but I think it will make me even more depressed. Happiness will only come about with social change. Corporate rule can only be addressed after more people really analyze and reflect on what is really important in life. It's time to fill up the emptiness.

And another:

America, where was your "Christian" outrage and MTV-style grieving in 1994 while genocide was happening in Rwanda? You are a fanatical, immature, hypocrite of a nation that wants to drive SUVs even though your country has no oil. I lost a friend on Sept. 11, and I'm grieving, not spending, because I would rather live in a shitty economy than a shitty country. And guess what? I'm not a "communist", and I will never leave America.

Just some food for thought.

6/3/2002
Exciting environmental news today: the Bush Administration has officially recognized that human activity (mainly, activity that results in the release of greenhouse gases) is the most likely cause of global warming, which poses serious threats to our ecosystem and agriculture. Also, last friday, the 15-nation European Union signed the Kyoto Protocol; and if Russia and Japan sign by the end of the year (as they say they will), the 55% majority would be achieved so that the U.S. would have to comply. Unfortunately, though, we're still not signing the Kyoto protocol, despite today's acknowledgement.

5/27/2002
Laura & I got back from an amazing trip yesterday afternoon; we had a great time in Paris, and spent some time in Spain (Barcelona, Córdoba, Granada, and Madrid). Some of the highlights of the trip were seeing Gaudi's gooey architecture in Barcelona, seeing the breathtaking Mont St. Michel (in Brittany), getting to drive a tiny little Peugeot around the French countryside, eating gobs of Tortilla Española and gazpacho (and one serving of Spanish couscous), and seeing the Mezquita in Córdoba (a beautiful Cathedral and Mosque in one... what a very, very nice thing). It was superfun.

Sigh... now back to the world of programming...

5/13/2002
WHOA! A 5.2 earthquake just shook the house here, just outside Santa Cruz. I was amazed to find out that Justin (Frankel) even felt it in San Diego. ¡Aieeee!

5/4/2002
Laura had this really great dream last night, where there were three women in our bathtub. One of them happened to be Britney Spears. So, Britney decided it would be fun to jump up and do a cannonball into the bathtub, so she did it, and slipped and hit her back really hard on the edge of the tub. So Laura came out and slapped her really hard - once and then twice, slap! slap!, in the face, and told her she was really stupid.

5/2/2002
Rad. Honda has just come out with a hybrid-electric version of the Civic that gets 46 mpg in the city and 51 mpg on the highway. This is about 21% better gas mileage than the #1 most efficient (non-diesel, non-hybrid) car on the market in 2002... which just so happened to be: the Civic HX (36 city, 44 highway).

The new Civic hybrid comes nicely equipped for about $21,000 (...don't they get some kind of prize for this stuff?!).

5/1/2002
Okay, sometimes I rant about how I think the U.S. does a lot of things that I consider irresponsible or unethical. And a lot of people write me off as a conspiracy theorist for it. I tend to find this saddening, because the information I have is factual and widely available, and those who don't believe it either aren't reading the news or haven't done their research. Or, when I pull a factoid out of the 2-factoid-FIFO in my brain and present it to someone, they might actually believe it (gasp! the U.S. did that?), but ignore it, because in the grand scheme of things it's not that big of a deal. But these things add up; just check out this master list.

4/21/2002
Laura & I saw Monsoon Wedding last night, with the theater at about 99% capacity, even though the movie has been out for several weeks now... perhaps it was because only one theater was showing it? Regardless - what a great movie. It's centered around a wedding in India, and is chock full of good messages. It's also quite educational, giving an interesting and (what seemed to be) a down-to-earth view of a very different culture and place. Perhaps the most striking thing about the film is how central a role family still plays in some cultures, and how divergent suburban life is from what most of the rest of the world experiences. Not only is the movie superb on all these counts, but it's consistently funny, entertaining, and interesting all the way through. Five stars.

4/21/2002
We made marble paper a few times this week. Making marble paper is really cool. First, go to your art supply store and pick up a marbling dye kit, they cost around $15. Then go home & get out a large cooking tray (like a casserole dish) and fill it with 1" of water. Then, apply little drops of the dyes to the water's surface. In between drops, try stirring the surface up with a matchstick or blowing on it. Then, take a piece of paper (plain white paper works great; so does construction paper, but it has to be light; heavyweight papers (like watercolor) don't work well at all) and lay it gently on the water. Let it sit for 1-2 seconds, then quickly peel it up, and let it dry. Repeat many dozens of times (with new sheets of paper). We found that replacing the water often helps keep the dyes from bleeding too much on the water surface, and that the way in which you pick up the paper strongly effects the outcome; you have to "peel" it off somewhat quickly, and get it to its resting (drying) place somewhat quickly and with no jerky motion, to keep the colors from bleeding.

Here's a photo of the results, although it looks much better in real life; there isn't much of a dynamic range of brightness between the dyes, so although your eye can pick them up nicely, the camera can't. The second image is a posterized version of the first, emphasizing the contours. Click either for enlargement.

4/13/2002
National Arbor Day (in the U.S.) is coming up on April 26! If you want to order some trees to plant and get some good information about how/where/what kinds to plant and how to care for them - or if you want to pay $10 to have 10 trees planted in National Forests deforested by fires, insects, etc. (natural causes) - check out The National Arbor Day Foundation.

Or, if you want your trees for free, you can always go dig some tiny babies up where the forest is quite dense (and it will easily & naturally recover) and move them to areas where it is less dense. Trees provide shade, foster wildlife, and help process the 2.5 billion tons of CO2 the electricity industry releases into the atmosphere each year, mitigating the greenhouse effect. And they're also usually quite nice to look at.

3/17/2002
I wrote an article over the weekend, entitled The Green Revolution. It has little to do with agriculture, though; it explores the pros and cons of 'green' (renewable and sustainable) energy sources, which ones have the most potential, and how we can realistically use them to replace the burning of fossil fuels and nuclear power in the very near future. If you're at all interested in these topics, please give it a read - it should prove quite interesting and educational.

3/14/2002
There is so much silence. You never hear George W.'s actions questioned in/on the news, except maybe in a newspaper editorial. Even congress - who is supposed to keep the executive branch in check - falls in line like sheep. Why is there such silence? What is everyone so afraid of? Doesn't anyone realize that this is not a free country if social and political pressures keep you from speaking your voice? It's driving me crazy, because so many people I know are outraged, moreso every day, at everything he has said and done. Why are there no questions? Why isn't the media covering this? Doesn't anyone care that fuel efficiency is at a 20-year low, that no new fuel economy laws are even close to being passed, that the Bush Administration tried to allow 4X as much arsenic into our drinking water (and thankfully failed), that wetlands were opened to toxic dumping in january, that power production is increasing, that air pollution standards are being lowered, and that key EPA officials are resigning in protest? Or that our military budget is increasing by $60 billion, the Bush Administration is saturated with cold-war-era-warmongers, we are developing new nuclear weapons, and we are threatening to use them? Or that one of the president's best friends is "Kenny Boy" of Enron? Or that we dropped out of the 1970 U.S.-Russia anti-ICBM treaty, we won't sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, we still use land mines and cluster bombs, and we support Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China even though they're all notorious human rights abusers? And this is all "real" information from mainstream newspapers, so please don't tell me that nothing is wrong!

So, the point of this whole thing is that there is a bestselling book right now - #1 at amazon.com! - for those of use who are sick of the silence: it's called STUPID WHITE MEN by Michael Moore, and it's about what's going wrong, why, and why everyone is so quiet. I am definitely buying a copy (from a local independent bookseller, of course). =) The link takes you to the author's webpage, which is quite an interesting browse in itself. Please check it out.

3/9/2002
This entry has been removed following my friend Davion's advice, who pointed out that it was extremely emotionally charged and somewhat subjective. 3/9 was the day that the news broke that the pentagon is developing new nuclear weapons and has authorized their use in three cases, the third being "surprising military developments." The most striking new information, though, was that we are now open to a first-strike possibility; that we no longer subscribe to the doctrine that we wouldn't use nuclear weapons unless/until they were used against us.

Two hard facts:
1) The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 12 kilotons.
2) The (publically disclosed) bombs we have today are 25,000 kilotons.

I guess I just got a bit emotional when I thought about the potential ramifications - no matter how improbable - of policy changes like this. I thought of how nations set precedents for each other, and follow each other's examples - like Israel suddenly waging war on terrorism, U.S.-style.

1/29/2002

There was an interesting article in Wired last week about Bush scrapping Clinton's almost-finished plan for making more efficient automobiles - the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles - started in 1993. They're letting the car companies right off the hook, 100%, even though they should have met their goals by 75% by now. Why not keep some kind of incentive for car companies to continue researching fuel economy? Obviously, consumers don't care - they've voted with their dollar for the gas-guzzling SUV, and now fuel economy is at a two-decade low; so it seems wise to put some kind of pressure (beyond market pressures) on automakers to increase fuel economy. But the technology already exists to give cars a nice boost in efficiency, and we're fairly certain that they could economically get 40+ MPG by 2012 (source here), yet the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards haven't been updated since about 1990 (source here), and no changes are likely until 2005 (source here). So, instead of sticking to Clinton's almost-finished plan, Bush is scrapping it and launching a new 10-year fuel cell initiative (not to mention trying to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). This seems like a good long-term plan, and government intervention will be very helpful in proliferating fuel cells** (see footnote), but 1) we don't know for sure that fuel cells will pan out, and 2) fuel cells are just an energy storage medium, NOT a source of energy! Creating hydrogen requires electrolysis or reforming, which requires ELECTRICITY. So the fuel cell plan is a good one - if it works - to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The flipside is, our electricity needs will skyrocket. I'd like to know how the Bush Administration plans to handle this one - or do they? So where will this electricity come from? Currently it comes from 79.8% fossil fuels, 11.1% nuclear, and 9.1% renewable (if you stretch & count large hydro) (source here - note data is not in % form). As far as producing more, burning more fossil fuels is scary because of the emissions and the fact that they won't last forever. We'd be insane to go with more nuclear power, because the waste we already have is sitting around the plants, since decades ago the federal government promised to handle its disposal & still haven't figured out where to put it. Do we see the Bush Administration increasing subsidies to pure renewable (solar/wind/small hydro) power providers? NO! Instead you see them announcing that they will repeal vital parts of the Clean Air Act of 1970, so that power plants can make huge modifications without respecting modern pollution restrictions (source here), producing more cancer & more global warming. And burning more coal means easily topping the 2.5 BILLION TONS of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in 1998 from electricity production in the U.S. alone! (source here, see table 7) It's especially sad when you consider the Administration's FY2002 budget includes a $60 billion increase in military spending (which is already 16% of every tax dollar the government gets, ridiculously higher than any other nation), while the Clinton PNGV plan cost less than $1 billion per year and had made substantial progress, which was already 75% paid for and was just thrown away. 85% approval? Please. All this from a man who shouldn't even be president; who lost to Gore by a million popular votes. (www.fairvote.org) Don't forget: if you don't like what's going on, you can change it. You can write, call or e-mail your senators & representatives (the 3 methods are weighted equally) and make a difference. (Zip To It!) Get a bumper sticker, hang a banner on your house - get people thinking about living in a responsible and sustainable way. Please Note: If you find that a statement I made is false or a statistic I cited is wrong, please mail me at and I will correct it. **adoption of hydrogen as an automotive fuel is likely to be a catch-22 situation: it will be difficult to convert from gasoline to hydrogen on a mass scale because no one will buy hydrogen cars unless there is a hydrogen filling station close to their house; yet, few filling station owners are going to want to equip their stations for hydrogen if there are no customers.

1/3/2002
Hmm, nice article exposing Monsanto Corporation (reknowned makers of most of the most deadly, polluting chemicals on the earth) in the Washington Post today.


1/2/2002
I finished Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible (a novel) last night. An excellent book. Set mostly in the 1960's, it depicts the harsh conditions of life in the Congo (where hardly anything of nutritional value can even grow) through the story of a missionary family that moves there to spread the word. The book also deals with the atrocious effects of foreign interests (Belgium, the U.S., and the Soviets) in the lives of the people of the Congo (and some on Angola as well). Overall the book was fantastic - it keeps you reading, gives you some great history, teaches you a lot about culture and beliefs in the Congo, and of course, it does a great job putting the material excess of life in the 'developed world' into perspective.


12/22/2001
I can never get over the amazing 3D patterns you get when you let your Miso soup sit still for 30+ seconds. Have you tried this? Go get yourself some sushi & a bowl of miso and check it out. Waaaay too cool.


12/21/2001
Laura, Forrest, Anaiis & I planted four trees for the solstice today! These trees will not only be pleasant to look at, but they will also help clean the air, offsetting the annual release of 2,500,000,000 tons of CO2 into the earth's atmosphere due to the production of electricity in the U.S. alone (straight from the DOE's website! - see table 7).


12/18/2001
Here's one good reason to eat organic food: Organic farming reduces not only the production of pesticides in the first place, but more importantly, pesticides don't contaminate our foods or ground water. In addition, organic farming means nobody cheats; you have to grow food in a healthy, symbiotic environment where the things will actually grow, instead of just pumping them with steroids or miracle grow or whatever. This is all just one piece in my Big Cancer Theory. The other pieces include car exhaust, 30 years of nuclear power (now 11% of our nation's electricity supply), and some unknown factors. Heh... I wonder if they'll ever "crack the mystery."

Oh, and the fact that kids now drink twice as much coke as they do milk (when 20 years ago it was the opposite) is frightening, but probably unrelated.


12/13/2001
Wow, we notified our pal Putin today that we're dropping out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in six months. Good to see our country still honors its word! [sarcasm] And even better to see that we're even slightly concerned with the even the *image* of our foreign policy in the wake of September 11th. [more sarcasm] It's an especially dishonorable move because Russia is almost solely responsible for our ultra-low oil prices right now; a few months ago, OPEC was trying to get the world to join it to limit production & raise prices, but Putin instead increased production, to help the U.S. out in its dire economic straits. And this is how we thank him? Our current administration sucks, in my humble opinion.

The really sad thing is that when it comes down to it, most people in this country, when exposed to the facts, would probably still choose to run over the rest of the world in order to sustain our way of living. Would you?


12/5/2001
I found a nice report on the web today of the line of cars for 2002 with the best & worst gas mileages. The Honda Insight comes out on top, with 61/68 mpg (city/hwy). Next is the Totoya Prius, with 52/45 - definitely a city car. Both of these cars run on ordinary gasoline. After that come four of volkswagen's diesel cars, getting 42/49; then the Honda Civic with just 36/44. So, it turns out that the vast majority of the cars on the market get half the gas mileage of the Insight, or less. Note that the vast majority of SUV's get less than ~23/26.

Just think - if half the population bought hybrid-electric cars by 2010, our nation's automobiles would only use 3/4 the gasoline they use now (ceterus paribus). The positive global effects of this would be tremendous - both political and environmental - in my humble opinion. But judging by the astounding number of SUVs I see on the roads these days, I appear to be a minority.

Oh, and I'd like to thank Honda for leading the way with the R&D necessary to make something like the Insight - and for the fact that they are currently producing them at a loss - in an effort to kickstart the public awareness & further scientific R&D that are stepping stones to making a world of environmentally friendly transportation.

You can guess what my next car will be... =)

Links to more information:
      (best & worst gas mileages for 2002 automobiles)
      CNN review of Insight, Prius, and Civic
      Honda Insight homepage
      Toyota Prius homepage



11/27/2001
I see a lot of bumper stickers these days that say "United We Stand" and the like... but I haven't seen one yet that says: "Buy American."

Buying American products in a time like this will help your 400,000+ laid off fellow citizens get their jobs back, and if millions of people were to consider this when they bought their q-tips, sneakers, and t-shirts, it would also help dissuade multinational corporations from building more factories in poor third-world countries. Indeed, those factories do provide jobs to the locals; but they're crappy blue-collar jobs. All of the *profits* go back to U.S. corporations; you don't see some entreprenurial native making millions of dollars that he or she reinvests into new businesses & infrastructure in their own country; instead, you see some U.S. CEO getting a larger bonus and lobbying the WTO to open things up so they can build more sweatshops. For every factory built in Mexico, the country grews even further away from the true "development" that is preached about but never practiced.

Globalization has made the U.S. a very rich nation and cemented its position as one - but at a grave expense. If you're interested in helping fight globalization, you can start by simply trying to buy American products over imported products, when there's little other difference. (Don't forget, you can also favor the product with less packaging, or more-recyclable packaging!)

<note on 5/27/02: please realize that I am by no means an expert on either globalization or economics, so please, take this with a grain of salt. I could be wrong. But who knows... I could also be right!>


11/27/2001
President Bush has talked a lot about killing terrorists, but I haven't heard him say much about addressing the root causes of terrorism, and American media has avoided the topic like the plague. Apparently, some European governments have actually given it some thought. I read an article today at the Christian Science Monitor that addressed what the civilized world can do to work toward a world that is less prone to terrorism. Their take on the root causes of the hatred that drives terrorism, as well as how these roots might be addressed, felt very close to what I've been thinking over the past few months: that globalization is the cause, and helping "developing" countries to develop is the solution.


11/12/2001
Remember, kids: November 23 - the day after Thanksgiving - is "Buy Nothing Day." Alternet posted a pretty good article on BND vs. the current suggestion that we shop our way through the current economic crisis. It says a lot of things that echo amazingly strongly with my thoughts over the past few months... especially when it addresses the consumers's role in reinforcing global inequalities, and what kinds of things to keep in mind to make a positive difference for the future - in so many ways.


10/11/2001
Today, five major news networks - ABC, CBS, NBC/MSNBC, CNN, and Fox - all agreed to censor future Bin Laden videos. Condoleeza Rice's big concern, according to Neil Shapiro of NBC News, was "that here was a charismatic speaker who could arouse anti- American sentiment getting 20 minutes of air time to spew hatred and urge his followers to kill Americans" Considering this, censoring future videos makes some sense to me. However, this wasn't the main reason given to the public - this was just what Ms. Rice told Mr. Shapiro.

In yesterday's press conference, though, Ari Fleischer offered a different reason for censoring the videos: that terrorists could be using the broadcasts to send coded messages to other terrorists. I just wanted to point out, for any non-computer scienctists out there, how ridiculous this pretense is. Sure, they could encode messages in there... even though it's a pain to do it. Also, decoding is almost as complicated, even when you know the encryption scheme (it's nearly impossible when you don't). Plus, this video signal was probably transmitted via analog lines at points, so the quality isn't perfect, which might well botch the decoding. Finally, consider the number of his 'friends' that would be sophisticated enough to decode the message, given the encryption scheme in advance; it's probably small, maybe a few dozen at best. So why wouldn't he just call or e-mail them?

Summing up, I think this is a ridiculous pretense that relies on ignorance to be a reasonable explanation. The White House should just come out and say the real motivation for censorship, as in paragraph 1. As long as the 10% of Americans that actually follow real news - e.g. New York Times, BBC World News, Christian Science Monitor, NPR, etc. - can still access the full story, we should be okay.

(quotes are from this article in the NYTimes.)


10/02/2001
There are two main reasons people seem interested in solar energy. One reason is that fossil-fuel-based elecricity generation is the most polluting industry in the world, and they'd like to do what they can to help fight this, so they keep their conscience clean by using only pure renewable energy. The second reason is to save money; after you pay the price of the solar energy system off (takes about 9 years), you get free electricity forever.

However, you have to have about $10-20 grand to finance a large system, and not many people can do this. This prevents a lot of the #2 people from going solar. However, the #1 people probably don't have this kind of cash either, so it looks like everyone is screwed. But they're not!

What if you could pay a 20% higher electric bill, and know that your money is going to purely renewable energy providers (primarily wind and sun) somewhere in the country? Keep in mind that we're all on the grid, so it doesn't really matter where the energy is produced and consumed - it's all about market share, and whether you're helping to finance fossil fuel-burning electric companies, or green energy companies.

Well, guess what? - you can do this! No hassle of installing solar panels, and you feel better knowing that the electricity *your* household uses isn't harming the earth - in fact, you're vastly helping it, by increasing the market for green energy and helping to start a much-needed energy revolution. All this for just 20% more than you pay now. (You could even grab yourself a half dozen compact fluorescent (CF) light bulbs for about $8 a pop, which use one fourth the energy, and you'll probably make up for that 20% difference immediately!)

To read about the plan, go to EnergyGuide.com, enter your Zip code, and find offers for 'electric' and 'home'. More than likely, you'll see Sterling Planet's various plans there. You can even sign up online.

Our atmosphere has 30% more carbon dioxide in it today than it did 150 years ago... quite a scary statistic. But solar & wind energy release no carbon dioxide, nor do they upset any other balances, and they have zero global warming effect. Considering this, 20% is a small price to pay for dramatically extending the longevity of our planet, and increasing the quality of the lives of our grandchildren.

If you sign up, please let me know (e-mail: ) as it would totally make my day. (Don't worry, there's no kind of kickback or amway/referral scheme going on here.)

Peace.


9/24/2001
Afghanistan made a public statement today. Here it is, as processed by (1) international news and (2) U.S. news:

BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1561000/1561090.stm CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/09/24/ret.afghan.taliban/index.html

All CNN would say was that the Taleban declared Bush's demands "unacceptable", making the Taleban look uncooperative. But CNN forgot to mention that not only did Bush demand they hand over Bin Laden, but every member of his support group as well - a tall order. CNN also failed to cite the Taleban's reasons, which are in the BBC article:

'America shouldn't be mistaken. My death or the death of Osama (Bin Laden) will not bring America out of this crisis. If America wants terrorism to end, it should withdraw its forces from the Gulf and end its partisanship in Palestine...'

Regardless of whether or not the Taleban's reasons are legit, we should be able to *hear* them without having to resort to international news. How are we supposed to have informed opinions, and make fair decisions, if we don't hear both sides of the issue? The result is that we don't get valuable feedback from the rest of the world as to what drove terrorists to this, which might aid in understanding, reconciliation, and future prevention.

The above opinions are my own, as a free individual, and do not express the voice or opinion of any organizations of which I am a part.


9/20/2001
You might have heard president bush's speech this evening. In this speech, he explained to America why terrorists hate us:

"Americans are asking 'Why do they hate us?' They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

In my book, this sounds a lot like propaganda. If Bush's reasoning doesn't sate you, you might want to read this take on why the terrible acts of September 11th transpired:

http://www.fpif.org/commentary/0109why.html

9/12/2001
My friend Alex (who lives in Manhattan) and I have been writing a few e-mails back and forth over the past two days, concerning the disaster. He writes:

"Up at Union Square on 14th Street (2 blocks north of me), people have taped huge rolls of paper to the ground for people to write on. The predominant sentiment is "love not war" - I think indicative that New Yorkers are wanting a peaceful response to this - punish those responsible, but leave everyone else out..."

9/11/2001
Today, one of the most horrible acts of violence imaginable happened. Many thousands of innocent people died. It makes me nauseous and fills me with emptiness, especially when I think of the families of those people. There are just no words.

However, there is an additional reason why this is all so terrible.

If someone punched you - out of the blue - would you immediately punch back, or would you think for a second - "why did they punch me?"

The World Trade Center was chosen for a reason. These terrorists, and the billions of American-government-despising people around the world, have reasons for their feelings; and if your mind is open just a crack, you have to ask yourself whether or not those reasons are valid. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't; but you should THINK about it.

I fear the mass reaction of americans - and of our beloved president - to these attacks. Our reaction should be, "why was this done? why are we hated? how can we stop giving people a reason to hate us?" Not "this means war", as, sadly, our senators are belting out.

WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER. TREATING THE REST OF THE WORLD FAIRLY OVER THE COMING DECADES - IS.

The above opinions are my own, as a free individual, and do not express the voice or opinion of any organizations of which I am a part.


8/28/2001
Ween was awesome. There are simply no words.


7/2/2001
Saw an incredible movie tonight: The Witness. It's a 45-minute documentary on a man who grew up in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, and later in life, found that he had strong compassion for animals. Soon afterward, he dedicated his life to helping animals, primarily by educating people on the reality of how what we do affects animals, such as buying a coat with fur trim, or eating a chicken wing. The film shows just enough to reveal how horribly what we do affects animals, but with minimal gore, so it should be palatable to most. (As a documentary, the film is masterfully crafted, in my opinion.) Though it focuses on the fur trade, I hope if you see it, that you'll also think twice the next time you eat a hamburger, or chicken breast, or turkey sandwich, because 200 times as many animals are killed each year for meat than for their furs (9 billion, versus 45 million).

Please see this film; you might be a much happier person afterwards. (You'll probably understand that statement better after seeing it, of course.)


6/14/2001
Happy Birthday to me, I'm 23, and the number of years I've lived is once again a prime number. And if you convert that number to hexadecimal and treat it as a gzip file, unzip it, then treat the contained file as TI-81 hex machine code and run it on said graphing calculator, it will draw a picture of a man pushing a wheelbarrow full of... well, I can't just tell you, that would spoil it!!!


6/10/2001
Today my friend Kelly showed me a quote by Walt Whitman that I found particularly enjoyable. Here it is:

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body...."

5/27/2001
We went caving today! I've posted a large number of pictures and a general account of it here. This will be updated with some pictures that actually have a decent resolution, and good lighting (Peter's camera has a good flash on it), later this week.


5/25/2001
Hooray - after years of wanting to do this, I finally gathered a bunch of pictures to post online! Click here to have a delight with these fabulous photon captures.


5/24/2001
A few weeks ago I went vegetarian; the transition was surprisingly easy. I thought I should write about it because I realized that I should have done it long ago, and that maybe some people out there are in the same boat. So here's my spiel:

One night about a month ago I ordered a chicken salad in a restaurant, and as I ate it, for some reason I finally allowed myself to see that I was eating an animal that was raised, (treated horribly,) and then killed for me. It seems to me that eating meat was okay thousands of years ago, when people had to hunt to survive; but in an age when we have everything we need to easily get a healthy vegetarian diet, I think it's the right thing to do to at least eat a lot less meat, if not stop altogether. I think that most people, if they sat down and truly thought about it for five minutes, would make the same decision I did; but eating meat is so native to our society (in most of the U.S.) that we don't even think twice about it. All I have to say is, think twice - judge your actions by the standards of your own heart and mind, not by the lenient standards that society sets for you. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's okay. I'm not militant about this topic, by any means, but I'm just a bit shocked by my own self-imposed blindness on this issue (until recently).

UPDATE, 7/2/02: Knowing this sure makes me feel good about my decision...