News Article Round-Up: Electric Cars and Elizabeth Smart

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/11/10/leaf.volt.electric.cars/index.html?hpt=Sbin

This is good.  One of the big problems of fully-electric cars is that miles-per-charge is low and there's no electric infrastructure analogous to to the existing gasoline infrastructure, but an advanced hybrid design like Volt eliminate that problem by having a gasoline engine run the generator when the batteries get low.  Obviously this won't eliminate the need for gasoline entirely, but 37.1 MPG is a big improvement over current gas mileage.

(I've divided miles driven by gas in the tank and I've deduced my Accord gets around 24 MPG on average, although I can't differentiate between highway and city driving since I don't drive in only one environment while on a single tank of gas.)

Hopefully the prices will go down as technology improves so the tax credits can be phased out and the cars will stand on their own two feet.  And hopefully they'll improve the Leaf's mileage-per-charge or build more charging stations so owning an all-electric car is practical for all uses, not just in-town driving.

http://www2.wspa.com/news/2010/nov/10/elizabeth-smart-outwitted-captor-win-freedom-ar-1073303/

I'm impressed at how clever Elizabeth Smart was to use religion (and the possibility of getting his hands on more "wives") to manipulate the vile SOB who'd kidnapped her into taking them to a place she'd be more likely to be recognized.  Good job.  And based on her testimony and how she bears herself in the courtroom, kudos to her for getting on with her life and being such a strong person.  She's orders of magnitude higher on the food chain than that lowlife Brian Mitchell is.

And for the record, I don't believe Mitchell is insane.  From her accounts of the nine months he held her, he strikes me as far too clever and manipulative.  Methinks he's cranking the loony prophet act up to be put in a mental hospital rather than an ordinary prison where the other inmates will tear him apart*.  I'll give his defense attorney credit for being gentle with Smart, unlike the way some accused rapists' defense attorneys behave toward rape victims, but he's got to be almost criminally naive if he really thinks Mitchell is nuts enough to merit "not guilty by reason of insanity."

*Rapists and especially child molesters are not very popular in prison.  Not at all.

Another News Article Round-Up

Got a bit behind blogging because I've been chatting on the Starcraft 2 section of the Battle.net forums, workling on my planned pitch to Blizzard, reading Windmaster's Bane and Liberty's Crusade, and working on my book, so I'll post all the interesting news articles I've found over the last few days:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/685071

The imam who wants to expand the mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center has apparently been very helpful in U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.  This is one reason why I've been a big defender of allowing the Muslims of Lower Manhattan to expand their facility--needlessly irritating American Muslims is going to make them less likely to cooperate in anti-terrorism efforts and might encourage cultural separatism rather than assimilation.

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/wind-power-industry/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

This is very interesting.  Although I'm a staunch free-trader, I recognize the usefulness of an industrial base.  Widespread adoption of wind-power is something that would keep factory jobs here (and maybe even expand them) because they're difficult to outsource due to the transportation costs.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/mars-farming/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

On my alternate-history forum, we had a big debate about the morality and practicality of space colonization.  This is something that's really interesting, as the ability to farm on another world is important for long-term viability.

The Second News Article Round-Up

I've been sending myself interesting Internet links back from the office, but due to more immediate personal concerns and blogging topics (my personal writing projects, Starcraft 2), I did not dedicate blog posts to each topic.  So now it's time for another news-article round up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/politics/29gamble.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/national/index.jsonp&adxnnlx=1280412045-krjqe7Q9grW/zg4hK/tjpA

It would be good if the ban on Internet gambling was lifted.  The imposition on the ban was a bad idea in the first place, propelled by rent-seeking behavior by the casino industry, moralism from the Religious Right, and a general nanny-statist attitude.  Not only is it an unjustified infringement on citizens' rights, but it also deprived the government of potentially valuable source of revenue.  $42 billion is a substantial chunk of tax revenue, which could be spent on deficit/debt reduction or other useful tasks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/business/global/20renthorium.html

Now this is interesting.  Not only is it safer than ordinary nuclear reactors, but it could also be used to "burn" nuclear waste rather than let it pile up indefinitely, bury it under a mountain for 10,000 years, or reprocess it using existing techniques.

Unfortunately, it seems it will require more work before the technology is ready, but now we know what we need to do, there's a strong chance will be able to do it.  Let's get cracking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/business/energy-environment/28storage.html?src=me&ref=business

Batteries.  Gigantic batteries.  That's a pretty simple concept to solve one of the inherent problems of wind power--it's lack of reliability in comparison to other sources.

Google Invests in Wind Power

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20011040-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Applause to Google for making a long-term investment in wind energy.  It's a bit strange, Google having its own energy company, but given how data centers need to be kept powered-up at all times lest power outages lead to data loss, them investing in energy generation makes sense.

Viable alternative energy needs long-term investment and people aren't going to invest in something like that if there's too much risk.  A long-term contract with an entity like Google helps reduce that risk.  And if Google expands its physical networks and data centers and makes it a policy to invest in alternative means to fuel them as much as possible, it will encourage further investment in alternative energy, the green industry, etc.

News Article Round-Up

I periodically send myself Internet links home to blog about, but they stack up in my Inbox because I find something else more immediately interesting before I can get to them.

So I'm going to put all of them together in this entry, with commentary.

http://www.slate.com/id/2255385/

This article compares the Drug War to Prohibition and does a good job proving why the Drug War, like Prohibition, is a bad idea.  The author also compares the end of Prohibition during the Depression--to get tax revenue from alcohol--and said the current economic climate provides an incentive to legalize and tax currently-illegal narcotics.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20006930-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

An offshore wind farm in the Great Lakes.  This would be a really good idea.  It might cost a bit in the short run, but it would reduce coal/fossil fuel consumption in the long run and provide high-tech jobs.  And luckily, there aren't any Kennedies to muck up this project like they did with Cape Wind in Massachusetts.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/17/lawmaker-warns-drug-cartel-danger-public-parks-intensifying/

Okay, this is getting ridiculous.  We can't go into our bloody parks because hooligans have taken it over.  Although legalizing and taxing drugs will take business away from the cartels, getting that accomplished will take far more effort than changing the laws to allow the Border Patrol and other law enforcement to use vehicles in national parks.  The criminals are already damaging the environment in the parks and are going to keep on doing it, so it's not like avoiding using vehicles in this scenario is going to be a net benefit for the environment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100617/wl_time/08599199697300

Some good news from Afghanistan.  The Iraq War was an unnecessary distraction from fighting al-Qaeda and other Islamists, but copying the successful "Sons of Iraq" model used to help quell the Sunni insurgency seems to be working in Afghanistan.

Of course, we need to be sure these militias are being integrated into the Afghan government as to ensure long-run stability after we leave.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20008016-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

This deals with one of the problems with electric cars--where to recharge--rather nicely.  Some privacy concerns, but electric-usage data is something the power company already collects (and the government could subpoena if it wished), so no need to flip out.

Gym Cyclists Help Power Hotel

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002995-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Now this seems like something that benefits everyone--the hotel's power bill is somewhat reduced, there's a good chance it might make some extra money in the restaurant (if the meal ends up costing more than the voucher), and the guests get exercise.

If all facilties that had cardio equipment used them to generate power, that would be beneficial both economically (saves on the power bill) and environmentally (less fuel burned).

Two Green-Technology News Articles

Here are a couple of articles I found on Wired at various points this week pertaining to Green technology.

The first one is about electric cars. Ford's first EV isn't going to be a car (which would require an infrastructure of recharge stations that don't yet exist), but fleet trucks. In theory, those would require fewer recharge points. Cost of additional power vs. cost of gas could be an issue though.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/fords-first-ev-isnt-sexy-but-its-smart/all/1

Here's an article about using compressed air in old mine shafts to generate power.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/compressed-air-plants/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Clever. Very clever. I would have never thought of that myself. The fact it requires power to make power (compressing the air prior to release it) seems a bit difficult, but if the compressing is done during off-peak times and the release is done during peak times, there'd be a net profit.

(Peak power is pricier. Try saying that five times fast.)