"Please help a dear friend, Sarah Kirsch, an important figure and driving force in the ’90s Bay Area punk scene and beyond. She continues to be an important part of our community, our culture, our music scene, and many of our lives.
Even if you don’t recognize this name, you probably know Sarah. She has been a huge part of the punk/radical community for decades as Mike Kirsch (Fuel,Sawhorse, Pinhead Gunpowder, John Henry West,Torches To Rome, Bread And Circuits, Please Inform The Captain This Is A Hijack, Baader Brains, Mothercountry Motherfuckers, etc.). She not too long ago came out as a proud trans-woman, and almost immediately was confronted with these terrible health problems."
Sarah Kirsch has died of
Fanconi Anemia.
[more inside]
posted by josher71
on Dec 6, 2012 -
21 comments
Something For Nothing.(1940)
Cartoonist Rube Goldberg discusses the perpetual motion device, celebrates America's inexhaustible supply of fossil fuels, and mocks hydroelectric power and other whacky inventions.
(A 1930s Jam Handy/GM production.)
Previously.
posted by Stagger Lee
on Feb 29, 2012 -
14 comments
In September, a privately held and highly secretive U.S. biotech company received a patent for a genetically adapted E. coli bacterium that feeds solely on carbon dioxide and excretes liquid hydrocarbons.
Joule Unlimited, co-founded by
George Church, appears ready to forever alter the way we produce fuel.
[more inside]
posted by Baby_Balrog
on Jan 18, 2011 -
140 comments
Today Boeing completed the
first test flight of a commercial jet-liner using a mix of conventional jet-fuel and a fuel created from algae and the african weed
jatropha. Boeing hopes that biofueled flights will be common in
just three years.
posted by Artw
on Jan 8, 2009 -
28 comments
Steam locomotives are dead, right?
Awe-inspiring though they might be, labor issues and diesel fuel at 4 cents a gallon killed them in the 1950's and 60's, and they survive only in isolated pockets around the world and on tourist railways.
[more inside]
posted by pjern
on Apr 3, 2008 -
51 comments
Genetically Modified Bacteria to make
"Renewable Petroleum" (A biotech startup describes how it will coax petroleum-like fuels from engineered microbes within three to five years).
posted by ItsaMario
on Aug 2, 2007 -
66 comments
John Kanzius can make
salt water burn using radio waves. It is not yet practical for energy generation, more energy is consumed than produced, but increases in efficiency could make salt water a viable replacement for fossil fuel.
posted by stbalbach
on Jul 6, 2007 -
70 comments
Boundless energy or bad math? Randell Mills thinks he has the solution to our energy problems. In his company's patented
process,
"energy is released as the electrons of atomic hydrogen are induced to undergo transitions to lower energy levels producing plasma, light, and novel hydrogen compounds." It also implies that quantum mechanics is wrong.
posted by Espoo2
on Nov 5, 2005 -
73 comments
Petroleum Industry Christmas Wishlist Conservative pundits are quick to point out that no "
new refineries have been built since 1976", and even quicker to blame "environmentalists". But the facts just don't support that. Refiners have chosen the environment that they do business in, and in some cases have willingly contributed to it. (
Plenty of data here.) Here's why:
- The government has allowed the industry to merge, consolidate, and restrict refining capacity, thus impacting pricing, supply, and demand.
- The quest for profits has caused the need to run extremely lean supplies (ie. no stockpiles of crude - it arrives when you need it, not before) and has resulted in susceptability to wild volatility in prices, but has allowed refiners to operate at very high efficiency but with no margin of excess capacity for temporary shortages, disasters, etc.
- Oil refiners trimmed back capacity after the Oil Crash of the early 1980s and have been unwilling to reinvest in new technologies unless environmental restrictions and local fuel cleanliness mandates are reduced.
As one would expect, Bush's solutions nicely match up with the wishlists of
OPEC and
US refiners, who in the past few decades have largely undone the breakup of Standard Oil (
via) via mergers and joint ventures. Representative
Joe Barton, (R-TX), Chairperson of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, incidentally up for reelection and
well funded, by "
the industry" through various
Political Action Committees, has released a draft of the predictably named (to be
found here when released)
Gasoline for America's Security Act of 2005 (committee discusion and
webcast are scheduled for 9/28 at 8 am.) Given that new refineries are years away, there is still no solution for current prices or the (90%?)
increase in prices since January of 2001.
posted by rzklkng
on Sep 27, 2005 -
22 comments
Can't beat a good protest, and when
Less Tax On Fuel (catchy..) start then this definitely
won't be a good protest. It'll be about as much fun as their last one, although their
Forum's good for a laugh and will let you voice support when you're stuck at home cause the pumps have ran out as a result of their actions!
While everyone I know agrees that we pay too much for petrol here in the UK, blocking the roads and disrupting supplies isn't going to help. I don't know of
anyone who supports a return to the
protests of 2000.
And besides, there are some motorways in the UK where they'll be lucky to reach 20mph at rush hour. They might even speed things up..
posted by Nugget
on Sep 11, 2005 -
41 comments
Shell Eco Marathon UK is coming up in England (6-7 july). It is a race not for the swift, but for those who can drive immense distances in super-efficient vehicles. Two years ago, the current world record of
10,706 MPG was set at one of these events. The lessons learned are useful in development in other fuel-efficient cars, such as the 100 MPG
Honda Insight. Interesting in these times of high oil prices, then, when considering that
despite tactical driving, normal petrol cars rarely get better than 45 MPG. Diesels are slightly better, as
illustrated on BBC Top Gear, where Clarkson drives an Audi A8 from London to Edinburgh and back on a single tank of diesel. That's 800 miles.
posted by SharQ
on Jun 25, 2005 -
13 comments
Gas Pump Hacker. "CHICAGO -- In a bold and outrageous theft staged in broad daylight, a driver pumped about $900 worth of gasoline at a suburban gas station.
The man removed the panel of a pump in Country Club Hills and manipulated the mechanics of the pump so that it would continue to pump gas without registering inside the station...
Other cars then pulled up to the pump and, apparently, cut deals with the thief, who then filled up their tanks and took off..."
posted by azul
on Apr 16, 2005 -
31 comments
I know this has been on
everyone's mind, but I just read
this article today and was astounded at my lack of foresight.
Silly me, here I was worrying about global warming when what I need to be fretting about is the decrease in fuel's impact on the
structure of international banking! Will we run out of fossil fuel before
it's too late to
save the environment from pollution and greenhouse gasses? The
abiotic nuts think we've got plenty more.
Personally, I think we can kiss the marvel that is
suburbia goodbye and start contemplating the fact that the focus on the post-post industrial revolution will not be information, but rather
agriculture.
And since solar panels and windmills and the like are made of materials that are extracted, transported, and fashioned by using oil-powered machinery, my money's on the folks who're
stockpiling uranium for all those shiny new nuclear plants we're going to need.
So, do we have a plan?
You bet we do! Oh. Well, we'll just rely on the
advancement of technology to allow us to weasel out of it!
Me? I've actually always wanted a
horse.
posted by Specklet
on Apr 14, 2005 -
67 comments
Ocean Power Technologies is one of the leading Ocean Wave Power alternative energy companies. The technology is
simple to understand, easy to deploy and costs about the same as fossil fuel power 3 to 4 cents. OPT just
signed a deal for a 1M farm off the coast of Spain with a 100M farm by 2006, a major step forward for wave power generation.
posted by stbalbach
on Mar 2, 2004 -
16 comments
The real reason we're going back to the Moon? "Researchers and space enthusiasts see helium 3 as the perfect fuel source: extremely potent, nonpolluting, with virtually no radioactive by-product. Proponents claim it’s the fuel of the 21st century. The trouble is, hardly any of it is found on Earth. But there is plenty of it on the moon."
posted by kablam
on Jan 21, 2004 -
35 comments
Sure, we all know the story about how Detroit developed, and then kept under wraps, a 100mpg carburetor is
false. However, affordable 80mpg family sedans
are real: behold the
Supercar! They are the results of a nearly decade-long partnership between
The Big Three and the Clinton administration. However the program was quietly shelved last June, the victim of the Bush administration, and corporate backpedaling. Read the whole sordid tale
here.
[use username/password for login] In the meantime, you'll have to settle for one of
these.
posted by thewittyname
on Dec 13, 2002 -
22 comments
GM are looking to the future with plans to get a fuel cell vehicle (dubbed
AUTOnomy) on the road by 2010, unlike past attempts where fuel cell powerplants were
shoe-horned into conventional cars GM are redesigning it from the ground up with a six inch flat chassis that contains the fuel cell and powertrain allowing them to plonk a variety of different bodies on top all the while cutting costs by being far simpler to produce than conventional cars.
posted by zeoslap
on Jul 9, 2002 -
16 comments
How green is your car? If it's the Honda Insight (at 57 MPG), it's very green... if it's the Dodge Ram 2500 Pickup (at 11 MPG), well, shame on you. Check out the
"Green Book: The Environmental guide to Cars and Trucks".
posted by hotdoughnutsnow
on Feb 6, 2002 -
9 comments
If you're on the road this summer and on a budget, you might want to check out
Gas Price Watch. Volunteers report on gas prices in their area around the country and in Canada.
posted by aflakete
on Jun 1, 2001 -
4 comments
