Accountable Infinity However (Letters to Myself)
29 abr 2009
Bangs may work for Lily Allen and Rachel Grace, but i look goofy and maybe 16 years old. Whoops. On the plus side, in the past week i don't think i've talked to a single person without my hardhat on, so maybe by the time i'm back in real life this haircut disaster will have fixed itself.
¶ 12:15 1 comments 
28 abr 2009
"The nation that leads the world in 21st century clean energy will be the nation that leads in the 21st century global economy."--Obama--
Obama gave a speech to NAS yesterday, outlining a plan for a possible Manhattan Project -type energy thing. OMG it's nice to have a president whose ideas relate to reality.
Congress better not mess this up.
EDIT: OMG IT GOT PASSED! The nation will finance 46 institutions for the next 5 years to do basic energy research!
i just spent the entire day on the Oak Ridge website, etc... but clearly it's early to know who exactly is going to be hiring for what. i'm sure all the scientists are celebrating tonight, not blogging about it quite yet...
(also, all these blocked sites here at work is really getting aggravating. Okay, maybe no facebook i understand... but no NPR? seriously?) ¶ 08:27 0 comments
Obama gave a speech to NAS yesterday, outlining a plan for a possible Manhattan Project -type energy thing. OMG it's nice to have a president whose ideas relate to reality.
Congress better not mess this up.
EDIT: OMG IT GOT PASSED! The nation will finance 46 institutions for the next 5 years to do basic energy research!
i just spent the entire day on the Oak Ridge website, etc... but clearly it's early to know who exactly is going to be hiring for what. i'm sure all the scientists are celebrating tonight, not blogging about it quite yet...
(also, all these blocked sites here at work is really getting aggravating. Okay, maybe no facebook i understand... but no NPR? seriously?) ¶ 08:27 0 comments
27 abr 2009
And in lighter news, Joe D. has a blog about fishing. The photo of Joe, Meldahl, and Nik grinning with that Muskie made my day.
¶ 18:04 0 comments
too little too late
The article "You've Bought Your Last Car" gave me a stomachache... to say the least. Especially the line, "A recession has followed every significant oil price increase," gave me a heart attack, so i decided to try to independently verify this:
1865-Present GDP & Oil Prices VS. Time
(Data from Measuring Worth, Oil/Barrel Prices, Oil Prices)
Now, i am not an economist, so i'm not exactly sure how precise Angelantoni's numbers are. This First graph is from 1865-present, and before 1950 his correlation is not true. However;
1950-Present GDP & Oil Prices VS. Time
in this graph we can see that a recession has followed every significant oil price increase quite clearly. Red highlights are increases in oil prices, blue highlights are recessions (or at least when the economy was not growing... need to look up more on this!) (forgive my poor highlighting job, first time doing that in excel). Now, if economists knew that (and they should have, given that i spent an hour with the data and proved it, at least to myself), why wasn't anyone talking about it last year? Especially since easy production of oil is starting to end, and even if it weren't we should be reducing our use of it anyway.
This just makes me wonder about a lot of other things. Did the economy track to any one commodity pre-WW2? And if so, what commodity? Also, i gotta say that i've seen the GDP graph a billionty times, and never thought about it so much. The Great Depression is barely a ripple, right after it was back on the 1.8% growth track; and wow was the war was good for the economy. Also, i need to learn more about using excel, i think to really get good numbers out of this i need to do more than just eyeball where the slopes are 'high' or 'low.'
Yeah, if i wasn't already all about building a post-capitalist utopia, this would put me over the edge. As i said to mom yesterday, economics has had the wrong paradigm for too long: economics is a subset of the environment, not vice versa. i think this graph, showing how strongly easy energy input into the system influences earnings, really shows that.
And back to the original post that started this day-long rant out... what happens if we really are too poor to replace the oil-based infrastructure? (i'm getting worried that we can't mitigate fast enough... please, please, please let things like Better Place and Transition Cities take off).
We've always known we live in a unique era. I bet/hope for/try for the Great Turning, but today i'm afraid it won't happen fast enough.
i'm seriously going to faint. (and why can't i just read novels or watch TV like any normal person with too much time on their hands?)
"I just don't need none of that Mad Max Bullshit"--modest mouse-- ¶ 13:56 0 comments
The article "You've Bought Your Last Car" gave me a stomachache... to say the least. Especially the line, "A recession has followed every significant oil price increase," gave me a heart attack, so i decided to try to independently verify this:
1865-Present GDP & Oil Prices VS. Time
(Data from Measuring Worth, Oil/Barrel Prices, Oil Prices)
Now, i am not an economist, so i'm not exactly sure how precise Angelantoni's numbers are. This First graph is from 1865-present, and before 1950 his correlation is not true. However;
1950-Present GDP & Oil Prices VS. Time
in this graph we can see that a recession has followed every significant oil price increase quite clearly. Red highlights are increases in oil prices, blue highlights are recessions (or at least when the economy was not growing... need to look up more on this!) (forgive my poor highlighting job, first time doing that in excel). Now, if economists knew that (and they should have, given that i spent an hour with the data and proved it, at least to myself), why wasn't anyone talking about it last year? Especially since easy production of oil is starting to end, and even if it weren't we should be reducing our use of it anyway.
This just makes me wonder about a lot of other things. Did the economy track to any one commodity pre-WW2? And if so, what commodity? Also, i gotta say that i've seen the GDP graph a billionty times, and never thought about it so much. The Great Depression is barely a ripple, right after it was back on the 1.8% growth track; and wow was the war was good for the economy. Also, i need to learn more about using excel, i think to really get good numbers out of this i need to do more than just eyeball where the slopes are 'high' or 'low.'
Yeah, if i wasn't already all about building a post-capitalist utopia, this would put me over the edge. As i said to mom yesterday, economics has had the wrong paradigm for too long: economics is a subset of the environment, not vice versa. i think this graph, showing how strongly easy energy input into the system influences earnings, really shows that.
And back to the original post that started this day-long rant out... what happens if we really are too poor to replace the oil-based infrastructure? (i'm getting worried that we can't mitigate fast enough... please, please, please let things like Better Place and Transition Cities take off).
We've always known we live in a unique era. I bet/hope for/try for the Great Turning, but today i'm afraid it won't happen fast enough.
i'm seriously going to faint. (and why can't i just read novels or watch TV like any normal person with too much time on their hands?)
"I just don't need none of that Mad Max Bullshit"--modest mouse-- ¶ 13:56 0 comments
26 abr 2009
Just got lost in The Oil Drum, Element and Etsy for days.
(god i want this well to be done...) ¶ 09:37 0 comments
(god i want this well to be done...) ¶ 09:37 0 comments
10 abr 2009
Somewhere in Utah:
RGE: Let's play 20 questions.
Me: Okay. Is it bigger than a breadbox?
RGE: No.
Me: Is it something you own?
RGE: Yes! OMG!
Me: Does it fit in your pocket?
RGE: OMG! Yes!
Me: Is it silly putty?
OMG, a few rounds of that game were obnoxiously easy.
So, Rachel roadtripped with me back to the southwest... but... not much fun happened due to the snow in South Dakota. We drove through Nebraska instead, it was crazy boring, though we did see the original Pony Express cabin. At night, in the cold... but we still saw it. We drove highway 70 through Colorado and Utah, which goes through the fabulous Glenwood Canyon... and then more hours of flat, dry western land. After the snow storm and being forced to drive really slowly for most of Nebraska, we didn't get to Arches during daytime, which was also pretty dissappointing after being DENIED the GLORY of YELLOWSTONE.
Rachel did get to see palm trees in person, and experience the lights of Las Vegas. The rest of LV was a letdown, though, as much as it would have been fun i couldn't rationalize spending 70 on a Beatles Cirque du Soleil thang or 120 on David Spade. Even though RGE loves David Spade. i'm a horrible sister. Horrible.
So i'm back near Brawley now, i miss having RGE with me, and this well is going slowly. Slow wells are nice, though, time to read and make sure everything's clean and solve mysteries (like today's Mystery of the Black stuff that the Mudman For Sure Didn't Put in There but is Not a Rock (still not solved))
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Just read through my blog, and realized i hadn't actually said anything about my roadtrip to Wisconsin. Which i did, otherwise how would i have been there?
i visited Elyse & Sarah Ivory in Tuscon, then Ben in Albuquerque, then Allison & Jason in Las Vegas (the little LV, not the glitzy/expensive one), then Anne & Doug near Kansas city. It was wonderful to see everyone, to see where they live, and in Allison's and Anne's cases actually get to know their boyfriends/spouses. Pictures from this adventure have already been posted, and since the last part of the drive (Kansas! Iowa! Really?) were pretty unbearable, and since Ben invited me, i'm thinking of staying in New Mexico for a week or two next time i have a week or two off. Should check with Allison too, but she's only an hour or two from Albuquerque, and a few days at Ben's hiking with him/his awesome dog and then a few days knitting with Allison would be wonderful.
i picked up Tony for the very last leg of my trip, from Minneapolis to Eau Claire, and so got to spend a few days with him while tracking down other EC people and generally lounging about in that fair city. i had a good time at home, but nothing terribly exciting happened. Mom made me wallpaper her cieling, et cetera; i conned Kirk into helping with some Fun Mom Tasks like that; made some jewelry with RGE & Donna; drank with Bryan, drank with Nik; so on. Ratty, Katie D. & i went shopping for dresses at MoA, which actually did end with a new dress for me for Ratty's wedding, which should be good. Again, pictures of some of this has already been posted, and pictures of the dress will someday be taken.
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Why hasn't Lauryn been born yet? Huh? ¶ 11:16 0 comments
RGE: Let's play 20 questions.
Me: Okay. Is it bigger than a breadbox?
RGE: No.
Me: Is it something you own?
RGE: Yes! OMG!
Me: Does it fit in your pocket?
RGE: OMG! Yes!
Me: Is it silly putty?
OMG, a few rounds of that game were obnoxiously easy.
So, Rachel roadtripped with me back to the southwest... but... not much fun happened due to the snow in South Dakota. We drove through Nebraska instead, it was crazy boring, though we did see the original Pony Express cabin. At night, in the cold... but we still saw it. We drove highway 70 through Colorado and Utah, which goes through the fabulous Glenwood Canyon... and then more hours of flat, dry western land. After the snow storm and being forced to drive really slowly for most of Nebraska, we didn't get to Arches during daytime, which was also pretty dissappointing after being DENIED the GLORY of YELLOWSTONE.
Rachel did get to see palm trees in person, and experience the lights of Las Vegas. The rest of LV was a letdown, though, as much as it would have been fun i couldn't rationalize spending 70 on a Beatles Cirque du Soleil thang or 120 on David Spade. Even though RGE loves David Spade. i'm a horrible sister. Horrible.
So i'm back near Brawley now, i miss having RGE with me, and this well is going slowly. Slow wells are nice, though, time to read and make sure everything's clean and solve mysteries (like today's Mystery of the Black stuff that the Mudman For Sure Didn't Put in There but is Not a Rock (still not solved))
------------------
Just read through my blog, and realized i hadn't actually said anything about my roadtrip to Wisconsin. Which i did, otherwise how would i have been there?
i visited Elyse & Sarah Ivory in Tuscon, then Ben in Albuquerque, then Allison & Jason in Las Vegas (the little LV, not the glitzy/expensive one), then Anne & Doug near Kansas city. It was wonderful to see everyone, to see where they live, and in Allison's and Anne's cases actually get to know their boyfriends/spouses. Pictures from this adventure have already been posted, and since the last part of the drive (Kansas! Iowa! Really?) were pretty unbearable, and since Ben invited me, i'm thinking of staying in New Mexico for a week or two next time i have a week or two off. Should check with Allison too, but she's only an hour or two from Albuquerque, and a few days at Ben's hiking with him/his awesome dog and then a few days knitting with Allison would be wonderful.
i picked up Tony for the very last leg of my trip, from Minneapolis to Eau Claire, and so got to spend a few days with him while tracking down other EC people and generally lounging about in that fair city. i had a good time at home, but nothing terribly exciting happened. Mom made me wallpaper her cieling, et cetera; i conned Kirk into helping with some Fun Mom Tasks like that; made some jewelry with RGE & Donna; drank with Bryan, drank with Nik; so on. Ratty, Katie D. & i went shopping for dresses at MoA, which actually did end with a new dress for me for Ratty's wedding, which should be good. Again, pictures of some of this has already been posted, and pictures of the dress will someday be taken.
--------------------------------------------------------
Why hasn't Lauryn been born yet? Huh? ¶ 11:16 0 comments
