inkbluesky

japanese garden II 

Big Is Beautiful 

Large utility-scale renewable energy offers important economies of scale. In Denmark industrial-scale wind farms already supply 20 percent of the country’s power; Germany and other European countries are close behind. The American Council on Renewable Energy estimates that with “consistent public policy” and enough investment, 70 percent of America’s energy consumption could be generated from renewable, carbon-free sources by 2025.

I thought this was interesting in that besides saving me from wading through tons of dry scientific literature to find that we could have 70 percent renewable energy by 2025 that America is such a slacker in renewables. We all grow up taking a certain pride in American innovation, in frequently being the best, the biggest at this or that endeavor and yet when it comes to embracing modern energy technologies we let the oil industry and their Washington lobbyist lead the way or rather lead us astray.

MySpace Enters News Business 

MySpace News is best described as a combination of Google News and Digg –MySpace News offers news from a variety of news outlets, but users are able to rate published stories.  User votes help determine which articles make it to the front page of the web site.

The wisdom of crowds phenomenon is already wearing thin. Leave it to MySpace to come on at the tail end. I like some of the sites - I used to like Digg anyway and de.licio.us can be very useful. The new Netscape isn’t great, but its not bad either. The big problem is the crowd doesn’t always know what is best, the most useful or significant.

in the right shoes. a man can do anything. it might take more then shoes actually. a good education and some luck don’t hurt.

Maybe Gonzales Won’t Recall His Painful Day on the Hill

Explaining his role in the botched firing of federal prosecutors, Gonzales uttered the phrase “I don’t recall” and its variants (”I have no recollection,” “I have no memory”) 64 times. Along the way, his answer became so routine that a Marine in the crowd put down his poster protesting the Iraq war and replaced it with a running “I don’t recall” tally.

Al Gonzales has had the benefit of a good education and more then his fair share of luck. America has been good to Al, the least we could expect in return is respect. Instead the Attorney General general looked America in the eye and spewed excuses so weak that they would make a nine year old making excuses to his mom look like a genius in comparison.

No sale

A portrait of a young girl that some believe is the only known painting of English novelist Jane Austen failed to sell at auction on Thursday.

Christie’s said no one offered the owner’s minimum price for the painting that had been expected to fetch between $400,000 (U.S.) and $800,000.

The owners who “offered it up” to the National Portrait Gallery in London ( ‘offered up’ I assume to mean give) and the NPG wouldn’t take the painting because they had doubts about it’s provenance. While no real evidence has been presented that would prove it is not the real deal I wonder at this point if, because of all the controversy the painting doesn’t have considerable value just because of the controversy.