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Books

Late Night Thoughts While Reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Penguin Press, 464 pages.

“Sustainable”is a great word and a great philosophy. Not just a philosophy of life, but of economy, politics, morals, etc. From now on, I’m going to make a concerted effort to ask myself, “Is it sustainable?” and try to get some direction from the answer. It seems like our whole country – and especially our government – is not paying any attention at all to this. Everyone is only concerned about right now, this minute, today.

Secrecy is killing us all. It’s not just the government. A totally private company, Cargill, won’t allow any documentation of its industrial processes – in other words, how is corn actually converted into all those various substances? They have nothing to lose or to hide – they are a private company, so no stockholders or SEC to worry about. They’re nearly a monopoly, so they can’t be worried about trade secrets. It’s just plain old paranoia.

It seems that nowadays, the default choice is “keep it secret”. Instead it should be the other way around – things should be kept secret and private only if it is an absolute necessity, and even then it should be for as short a time as possible. I remember a long time ago hearing that the ideal government should be completely transparent: It should have no secrets at all about anyone. That should be our golden standard. No secrets by default. Always.

Martin Schmitt was right all along, even though I still don’t like to eat my vegetables. I have no idea where Martin is these days – I just assume he’s still living at the top of Saddle Peak Road in Topanga – but he’d probably laugh heartily to hear me say that, 20 years later. Now I’m trying hard to live a sustainable life and eat organic food and use renewable energy… and I’m in my mid-forties, just now coming to this realization. Better late than never, I guess.

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Thoughts and Comments

We’re Going Solar!

Yesterday, we signed a contract for installing solar heat for our swimming pool and our hot water. We should have it installed in about 2 weeks! We’ll have 11 panels on our roof for heating the pool, an 80-gallon hot water heater for the house, and a small photovoltaic solar electricity panel to provide power to run the hot water heater.

Neither Frank nor I have ever been “Mr. Environmental”. Yes, I like low pollution, and given a choice, I’d rather breath clean air than dirty. And I’m willing to pay more to have something environmentally safe than not. But… I’ve never joined Greenpeace or the Sierra Club or anything at that level. So what gives?

It really boils down to lack of confidence in the government and the energy market. I simply do not trust them. I think they’ll go on blindly thinking there is no problem at all, pinning all their hopes on some “future” solution that’s always 10 years away. Well, I’m tired of waiting for the “perfect” alternative engergy source. I don’t believe them, and I don’t trust them. So I’m taking matters into my own hands. I’d much rather pay a lot more money up front now in order to be independent and secure.

For much the same reasons, Frank is seriously thinking about trading in his sportscar for a Mercedes E320 CDI diesel sedan. Diesel gets a lot better gas mileage, and – you can make your own from vegetable oil if you have to. Plus, in the near term, it’s a little bit cheaper than regular gasoline.

I think Biodiesel is very likely to be one of the those alternative fuels that catches one, and I’m happy to be at the forefront.

And after the solar hot water project is in place, we’re going to slowly start to add photovoltaic electricity (solar electriciy) as well. That will be an even bigger investment, with an even bigger return!

So wake up, folks. Oil is never going to be cheap again, at least not unless the idiots in Washington do something stupid like subsidize it. سباق حصان It’s time to start using other ways, other methods. If Bushy had declared a “war on petroleum” instead of a “war on terrorism”, we’d be 5 years closer to enerby independence and security than we are now… رهان اون لاين and we’d have less to worry about with regards to global warming.

And that’s the other thing. Just as the price of oil is not going to come down, the weather is probably not going to get any better. Scientists now conclude that the 2005 hurricane season was very likely kicked into high gear by global warming. That means we can expect another bad season in 2006… الكزينو and on and on. Which means more power outages, and higher energy costs.

Indepedence and security. It’s worth the money and the aggravation. Tell Bush to go to hell. We’ll just have to fix the country ourselves, one at a time.

Categories
Books Politics

American Theocracy

American Theocracy (2006) by Kevin Phillips. Viking, 480 pages.

I’ve just finished reading a terrific book, American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips. This book crystalizes a lot of what I’ve felt and believed about the last six years of American politics, and provided me with a lot of information I didn’t have before.

Despite its title, American Theocracy is actually about three separate-but-related trends in early 21st century America: the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in politics, the economic dependence on petroleum, and the debtor status of not just the nation itself, but all its citizens.

I find the conclusions of the book hard to shake. I have personally become resigned over the past few years to the inescapable fact that my home country is well on its way to decline as a world power. Phillips just helps me to understand in detail exactly why this is so, and how the scenario is likely to play out.

As I’m just about to turn 44, I therefore must accept the fact that the rest of my working career, and my eventual Golden Years, are going to be spent in a country that grows increasingly less relevant and less connected to the world at large. Whatever new discoveries are to be made in the fields of science and technology… will be made by other nations. Whatever new medical marvels and biotechnological revolutions occur, they will not be in this country. How do I feel about that?

Surprisingly, by the time I reached the end of the book, I felt OK. Holland, Britain, and Spain (as detailed in the course of the book) all had their time in the sun, and their time has long since passed. Yet, each country still has a vibrant heratige and a proud populace. And each country has long since shed its previous prejudices and religious judgements.

So, much like people in Holland and Spain today, I look forward to spending my years in a country that, while still a vital and proud force in the world, will have less and less to do with the forward course of humanity. I’ll do my part to ease the transition, but I expect to see a lot of disillusionment over the next few decades.

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Audio Visual

When you have a home repair plan, your life can be simpler when something goes wrong with your covered systems or appliances. In addition to helping you keep things in working order and minimize your costs, an energy inspection can identify potential problems and help prevent them from occurring. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) provides a checklist of recommendations for home energy inspections. However, when it comes to home repairs, we still recommend you to work with a home warranty company like First American that can back you up in case of any emergencies.

Have an energy audit

Even if you’re not yet registered with an energy auditor, you can conduct an energy audit through an energy audit service that is certified by the NFPA. This service can help you to identify potential issues related to energy use and identify ways to improve your home’s energy performance. A complete home energy audit can cost anywhere from $200 to $250. Before you enter the energy audit market, it’s important to check that the audit company offers services. Check to see if the services offered by an energy auditor include performing an energy audit and assessing your home’s energy use. These types of services generally have higher start-up costs, so consider hiring the service that offers you the lowest rate. If you do hire an energy auditor, it’s important to see that the audit company has proper licenses and qualifications.

Get an estimate on the cost of an energy audit from the online energy audit comparison tool.

Energy audits and home energy testing: What can you do?

Energy audits provide valuable information about your home’s energy use and performance. In addition to the information you can gain about your home’s energy efficiency, an energy audit can identify problems with your home’s home energy system and suggest ways to improve your home’s performance. For more information, see Energy audits and home energy testing.

Elevating your energy use

Using the free Home Energy Report application on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) website gives you easy access to energy efficiency information. Home energy reports help you monitor how much electricity you’re using and track energy usage trends. If you’re interested in seeing your energy use patterns and get a sense of where you may be headed, the report is a great tool. To see an example, see how your energy use has changed.

 

Categories
Technology

Motorola SLVR MP3 Bit Rate Limitations

This evening I spent some time figuring out how to use iTunes in my new cell phone – the Motorola SLVR L7. And some might say “Uh… figure out how to use iTunes? And you’re a geek??“

Yes, that’s how I felt as well. I kept trying to add songs to the phone, and iTunes would respond with this cryptic message: “Some of the songs were not copied to the mobile phone… because they cannot be played”. What? Why not? I kept scratching my head trying to figure out, “Why? What is wrong with these songs? They work everywhere else… and it’s not a DRM issue.”

I rip all my songs at 320k, variable bit rate, highest quality. I have no trouble playing them on my Mac, on my PCs, or on my iPod. But the Motorola SLVR apparently has some sort of bit-rate limit. What is the limit? I don’t know. I searched everywhere, and could not find any mention of any such limit anywhere.

So, I began trial and error. 320k without variable bit rate – nope. 128k – yes. 256k? Nope. 192k? Yes. But… what about all the music I already have, which is all at 320k VBR?

After an hour of googling, I found mention of a new “Phone” tab that gets added to the iTunes preferences panel (or dialog, in Windows speak). gry hazardowe bez rejestracji Then I figured out that the phone has to be physically connected to get this tab to show up. Then I studied the tab, and checked an item that says “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128kbps AAC”. I checked this – and problem solved.

Now iTunes, when the phone is connected, converts my songs to a lower-bit rate and then copies them to the phone. Needless to say, this takes forever, added on top of the already long time it takes for the SLVR to sync up to the computer in the first place (apparently, it’s a USB 1.1 device).

This is the latest and greatest in the “non-helpful error message” category. Would it kill Apple to create an error message that tells me the problem – like “This phone only supports bit rates up to 128K. Please change the settings in the Phone section of iTunes preferences”.

Also… nowhere (or at least nowhere that I can find) on Motorola or Apple’s site is any mention made of this bit-rate limitation. It just says “Plays MP3s”. Again, would it kill them to add a statement “Mp3s up to 128k bit rate”, or something to that effect? sts pl pl oferta zakłady bukmacherskie zakłady sportowe

I hate it when I have to spend hours figuring out something that the people who created this could have easily written down. I expect better from Apple. And why is the phone limited in this way? Every iPod I’ve owned can play whatever bit rate is thrown at it.

Having vented all of that, I will say that now that I’ve got that all figured out, it works fairly well. Awfully complicated to keep track of, however.