Rocco is fond of saying, “Hydrogen is the fuel of the future. And always will be.”
But check the multi-million dollar prototype of the GM Highwire.
Impressive.
Click PLAY on the video below or watch the clip on YouTube.
Category: economics
Adbusters – get mad about corporate disinformation
I have long appreciated Adbusters.
Adbusters offers … activist commentary from around the world addressing issues ranging from genetically modified foods to media concentration. In addition, our annual social marketing campaigns like Buy Nothing Day and TV Turnoff Week have made us an important activist networking group.
Ultimately, though, Adbusters is an ecological magazine, dedicated to examining the relationship between human beings and their physical and mental environment. We want a world in which the economy and ecology resonate in balance. We try to coax people from spectator to participant in this quest. We want folks to get mad about corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons.
Big issues. Surprisingly, Adbusters has a sense of humour.
I want to make clear that adbusters is not really about “busting ads”. They have their own website visuals that almost look like ads:
Adbusters are about educating folks about useless consumption. Stupid consumption. Manipulating children to empty consumption.
As for me, I actually want better advertising. For example, I really want to know when new Lonely Planet travel guidebooks are published. But in 2006 neither the Lonely Planet website nor Amazon offer this functionality. I wish they would email me a daily advertisement on new travel guides.
Instead I get a daily dose of an ad for Clean and Clear zit cream with my MTV video podcast. A waste of their time and mine.
the miracle of Dubai
Dubai is a success story like Hong Kong and Singapore. It’s arisen as a super trading port. Increasingly, tourism is bringing in cash as well. I’d like to visit myself.
UPDATE: I have a friend working in Dubai between about Dec. 21st to Feb 18th, 2007.
While Lebanon is in ruins, Dubai on the Persian Gulf is booming.
Yet less than 10% of the income of the country is from oil.
The view from the world’s highest hotel, Burj al-Arab, must be amazing.
Perhaps I will pick up a place on the Palm Islands, astonishing new resort homes built on artificial islands.
Dubai is not without problems, but I am impressed.
Ski Dubai. Indoor ski hill in the desert.
By the way, I am looking to post positive news about the Islamic world. We need it.
would you download a movie for $.49?
Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Guba starts price war on movie downloads
View-On-Demand (VOD), a 24 hour rental priced from $1.79 to $2.99 will drop to $.49 for catalog titles to $.99 for new titles.
bunks for drunks
In the past I dismissed the homeless.
That was until I moved to the downtown East side of Calgary. In the centre of the homeless area. Those folks became part of my daily existence.
The homeless normally claim they “like the freedom”. They cannot hold a job because they refuse to knuckle under authority.
They cannot live in a shelter because of the tyranny of rules imposed there.
Sounds believable.
Then I heard an NPR podcast: Homeless Alcoholics in Seattle Find a Home
Bill Hobson is a homeless advocate in Seattle who runs a government program that one critic calls “bunks for drunks.” It’s a facility that offers a home for alcoholics in exchange for nothing. They can even continue drinking while living there. Renee Montagne speaks with Hobson about the logic behind the program.
Of 79 chronic, oft-hospitalized alcoholics offered a chance at shelter — 75 accepted.
Seems the real reason for homelessness, normally not admitted by the homeless, is addiction. At least for alcoholics.
This is a brave, honest experiment in how to truly help the homeless. Congratulations Bill Hobson.
Not everyone agrees with me. Especially regarding the funding of the project:
New York Times – Homeless Alcoholics Receive a Permanent Place to Live, and Drink
helping the homeless
Is money the answer?
What would happen if you gave homeless man $100,000?
That’s the question posed by a Showtime documentary called Reversal of Fortune. Ted Rodrigue lives under a bridge in Pasadena and agrees to participate in a documentary about the homeless, though he doesn’t know he’s goint to get any money.
He finds it unexpectedly in a dumpster half way through the film.
Reversal of Fortune (2005 film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I quite liked Ted Rodrigue before he got the money. He had adapted to decades of living on the street and had a “life” of sorts.
As you probably guessed, money was not the answer for Ted. You could say it ruined his life.
wind power
Treehugger: Largest Wind Turbines Being Installed Offshore
A German company called RePower Systems is in the process of installing the world’s largest wind turbines offshore in the Scottish North Sea. The turbines are rated at 5MW, and have a rotor blade diameter of 126 metres (413 feet) – the size of two soccer fields when spread out.
IMAX theatre
A hotel I’m at has on demand video of all description: movies, award winning TV, documentaries. All commercial free, pay per view.
On demand video, when and where I want, is essential.
Next on my list is quality. In future, video content must be more interesting. Happily, this is already here.
I love IMAX cinema.
I just saw Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag, the largest aerial war games in the world. Fantastic experience! (though the film is not as accurate as it could be).
IMAX quality is the future. I can’t understand why it has never achieved the kind of popularity it deserves.
Digg.com – Kevin Rose
I dig Digg.
Digg.com is now the 24th-most popular Web site in the U.S., nipping at the The New York Times’ (No. 19) and easily beating Fox News (No. 62) …
Digg.com is the #1 new news site right now. Compare it with (copycat) Netscape.com.
This magazine cover is a laughing stock on the internet, though. The number is almost a complete fabrication.
Rick McCharles 