Regruntled.com

These ads are seen in the Toronto transit system. No one seems to know exactly who is behind the ads or what the point is.

See also: Schroedinger’s Lolcat.

What’s bright yellow, flies through the air, weighs 48 tons, and was exhibited at the South London Gallery in 2006?

Scientists at Los Alamos have figured out how to make liquid fuels from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water for $4.60 per gallon, according to the NY Times. So what’s the big deal? We can already do this: sugar cane to ethanol, or soybeans to biodiesel. The trick is doing it without chlorophyll. No sunlight needed, just electricity, and the electricity can be from any source, even… nuclear.

$4.60 per gallon is not competitive now, but sooner or later it will be. If the process works at all, it will be improved and made cheaper and more efficient. We already know one way run automobiles on nuclear energy: generate electricity in nuclear power plants and charge up the batteries in electric cars. It works, but not very well, mostly because batteries are heavy. Greenhouse gasoline might be another way. The technology is centralized, easy to control, and it doesn’t displace farmland used to produce food. It would work with existing cars and distribution systems; no massive network of charging stations needed.

Greenhouse gasoline would mean that a civilization based on liquid fuels and internal combustion engines could be sustainable. People drive around in their gas-guzzling monster trucks, spewing carbon dioxide into the air. The greenhouse gasoline factories scrub the carbon dioxide back out of the air and make gasoline and the circle is complete.

An article at Physorg.com says the concept is called Green Freedom… is that brilliant marketing or what?

At the heart of the technology is a new process for extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and making it available for fuel production using a new form of electrochemical separation. By integrating this electrochemical process with existing technology, researchers have developed a new, practical approach to producing fuels and organic chemicals that permits continued use of existing industrial and transportation infrastructure. Fuel production is driven by carbon-neutral power.

It seems to me that Obama’s message is a peculiar combination of dissatisfaction, hope and helplessness. The dissatisfaction is no surprise; advertising runs on dissatisfaction, and politics is advertising for votes. If there is no dissatisfaction, there is no need for change. There is plenty to be dissatisfied about, but the Obamas point out dissatisfactions that people didn’t know they had. John Edwards talked about the “two Americas” and I always felt like he was talking about someone else. Michelle Obama talked about “raising the bar” and I felt like she was talking about me.

Let’s suppose that Obama is not just another weaselly politician… it will be almost a year before he is inaugurated. If he gets past Hillary. If he gets past McCain. If he gets his programs through Congress. Obama has to simultaneously convince people that their situation is urgent enough for them to vote in the primaries right now, or click the PayPal button right now, but not so urgent that it can’t wait a year or so for Obama to do something about it.

Helplessness is the flip side of hope. If “yes we can”, and if “we are the people we’ve been waiting for”, then why wait? Why not do something right now? The flip side of the message is “no we can’t”, not without Obama’s help a year from now.

Suppose an Amish farmer’s barn burns down. (I like to use the Amish as examples, because they embody, today, some of the values and technology of our ancestors 150 years ago.) Do the Amish talk about “change” and “the audacity of hope”? Do they gather before a charismatic leader and chant “yes we can”? Do they send him to Washington to create a Department of Barn Reconstruction in a year or so? No, they build a new barn. They don’t need change because they’re not dissatisfied, and they don’t need hope because they’re not helpless.

This guy is only a few days past hatching. The parents will take turns on the nest, bringing small meals with each shift change. In a few weeks, the young albatross will be big enough to defend himself and maintain a constant body temperature, and the parents will leave him alone in the nest while they gather food.

People driving trucks through mud puddles, literally destroying the landscape… and this is a hobby, a sport, a fun thing to on a Sunday afternoon. What is wrong with us? When are we going to stop destroying the Earth with gas-guzzling monster trucks, and start destroying it with biodiesel-guzzling monster trucks?

Precinct chairman Albert Ross explains:

“I’ve waited all my life to vote for someone who’s half white, half black. Besides, he’s not Hillary.”

Cubicle humor for jihadists, found at eXile.ru.