The Future's So Bright

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You can't drill a hole in it.
Because it's made of titanium.

A new supermaterial recently discovered at Ohio State University is made from a hybrid of plastics, molybdenum and titanium.

The researchers who invented the novel solar cell material think it may have the potential to achieve nearly 100% efficiency.

Go Buckeyes! You deserve a cheer for that!

Farmer-in-Chief: Food as a National Security Issue

Many of you may already be familiar with the food writer, Michael Pollan, who recently wrote the NYT bestseller In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
On yesterday’s NPR Fresh Air, he talked about his proposal for a new U.S. food policy in an excellent interview with Terry Gross:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95896389

Enjoy real good food!

UPDATE (11/18/08): We have a new president-elect, and he's assembling his cabinet and team of advisors. Grist.org provides a detailed and insightful look at who might be chosen to be the all-important chief of the USDA. So far, the options on the table are not all roses.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/19/6373/9820

ah, yeah... the rock, it WORKS

Heya! thanks to everybody who helped us make our latest show at All Asia a SOLD OUT one!

First time in a while (perhaps ever?) that we've sold out a show, and I have never seen All Asia sold out. The waning moon obviously exerted its gravitational pull on a disproportionate number of Miller High Life-craving fans.

Our friend Pardis and her rock crew, Thousand Days, set the stage on fire with the most blistering set I've seen them perform yet. The night also featured the compellingly eclectic acoustic stylings of Glenn Michael and the Janis-like swagger of The Wrong Noises. As always, All Asia's infallible proprietor, Marc Schulman, up'ed the ante- this time by installing a permanent giant screen video projection system that can remotely switch between 6 different views of the room and the band, all from the comfort of a bar stool. Take that, FOX News. You are no longer the focal point.

(mighty fine hi-res photos courtesy of Shay Tal)

setlist, for the die-hard groupies:

1. move right move left
2. other hip hop
3. george washington
4. tambourine man
   
5. yer so confident
6. mack truck
7. it's really working
8. don't cost nuthin'
9. disco 3000
10. bizarre love triangle (new order)
11. makeout song
    

Energy? Fair dinkum, mate!

(l-r: saul, dan, grant, joe, jeff / photo by cha-ling o'connell)

On Tuesday night, gathered in South Boston around the Absolut-ly-almost-ready-to-be-shipped-to-Linz Quartet, we reunited with our good old Aussie friend, Saul Griffith.

Saul is (ir?)responsible for introducing Dan and I back in school, when we all worked together on a class project to develop a low cost prescription device (aka autorefractor aka autophororetinoscope 4000) for Low Cost Eyeglasses, now known as Optiopia.

These days, Saul's still very involved in technology development, especially around clean energy solutions and educational projects.

His latest work on Energy Literacy is important to all of us, and he's got a really great way of sharing the story. Long story short, I recommend you WATCH THIS and then VISIT HERE.

It's probably as excellent a take on energy and climate change management as you'll find today...

"Do everything for peace..."

..."Piss for peace, or smile for peace, or go to school for peace, or don't go to school for peace. Whatever you do, just do it for peace."

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace.


Peace y'all. Peace!

Eat Gooder

Our good friend Kenji Alt (incidentally a former bandmate in a past life) is launching a Boston and New York-based blog about sustainable eating today.

www.goodeater.org will be updated daily with:
- short features on sustainable eating projects throughout the New York and New England area
- open discussions of subjects related to sustainable eating and the moralities involved in choosing food today
- seasonal and local recipes, and whole foods related food projects
- links to related articles, workshops, and products
- a calendar of local sustainable food-related events
- interviews with important chefs
and much more.

Recent posts have included "Ducking Out Early," about the troubles and pleasures of killing to eat, and "Buying South African Wines," about the state of South African vineyards, and the families that own and work them.


Chefs, writers and eaters alike are invited to share in the feast of delicious content.

Tasty!

Straight Talk on Raising Kids, Download the whole album.

If you head on over to our homepage, http://electriclaserpeople.com/, then you can download our first album for free in it's entirety. 55mb of goodness. If you want higher quality mp3s or a physical cd, you can still buy those through various outlets. That is all. Despite all the gloom and doom, we wish you a pleasant day. Rock!

"Rappin's a way of sayin', 'Knock Knock!'"

"Who's there?"

"It's me, open the door and listen to what I got to say!" - Mr. T

beat the stock market

The wisdom of the past is not the wisdom of today. Time has come to create the wisdom for the future that brings real sustainability forever. If we only teach our children what we know they will only do as badly as we do. We need to create that space with a degree of freedom to imagine new pathways towards sustainability. System design is one of the new pathways.

IUCN Red List reveals world’s mammals in crisis

Climate change, extreme consumption habits, fishing side-effects, and a host of other human activities have put roughly 1/4 of the world's mammals at great risk of extinction according to the latest publication of the IUCN's Red List.

It's high time to re-evaluate everything we are doing. As my friend Peter Dean (Marion Institute, ZERI, RISD faculty) reminds me, "sustainability requires a shift in mindset to begin reunderstanding our natural relationships with the ecosystem. Otherwise, by simply adhering to regulations, it's at best a guarded stand-off."

the future was yesterday

The Future Was Yesterday from Electric Laser People on Vimeo.

Where's the Law?

Watch the whole thing if you can, but at least from 1:11:00 into the film. Watch the list read past. Stand up, learn, educate, ask what's going on.




This movie was deeper than I ever expected it to be.

VOTE

Hey! Are you registered to vote? You can check here, and register if yer not.

Make Green, Not War

Grist.org posted a great article this morning. The piece shares the opinions of several prominent folks on connections between the financial crisis, the bailout and green investment.

This quote really drives it home for me.

"Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on present and future wars that have nothing to do with our national security is simply obscene. And yet Congress has been corrupted by the military-industrial complex into believing that by voting for more defense spending, they are supplying 'jobs' for the economy. In fact, they are only diverting scarce resources from the desperately needed rebuilding of the American infrastructure and other crucial spending necessities into utterly wasteful munitions. If we cannot cut back our long-standing, ever-increasing military spending in a major way, then the bankruptcy of the United States is inevitable. As the current Wall Street meltdown has demonstrated, that is no longer an abstract possibility but a growing likelihood. We do not have much time left."
- Chalmers Johnson



So true. Let's MAKE THINGS GROW.