The “cubic mile of oil”–a metric roughly equivalent to the amount of oil consumed worldwide each year–is frequently used to explain the challenge facing solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power.

So what would it take to replace the amount of energy in a cubic mile of oil? Roughly 4.2 billion solar rooftops, 300 million wind turbines, 2,500 nuclear power plants or 200 Three Gorges Dams, according to Menlo Park, Calif., nonprofit research institute SRI International.

In other words, no single category of renewable energy is growing anywhere near the speed it needs to bear the full brunt of displacing carbon-emitting fossil fuels anytime soon.

[...]

While there is no doubt that wind, solar and geothermal [power] have ample energy to power the planet–the sunlight that hits Earth in a single hour contains enough energy to fuel the human population for a year–they will need years to mature before they reach anything approaching their potential. Oil has had more than a century to mature, and its shortcomings remain painfully obvious even now.

Hopefully this isn’t a surprise to most, but it looks like we’ll need a lot of hard work—certainly not just a bunch of people and companies “going green” in name—to really effect environmental change. That’s a glass of cold water.

As a matter of fact, computer problems existing has little to do with what OS you use. I’ve seen Mac owners complain about various Mac problems and Linux users complain about various Linux problems. There is no such thing as “just works.” Windows does not just work. Mac OS X does not just work. Linux does not just work.

The only way around this I can see is a redefinition of the phrase just works. Here’s my new working definition:

Fill-in-the-blank operating system has caused me personally (and no one else necessarily) fewer problems than other operating systems I have used, and when I do encounter problems, they are ones I can tolerate and not big enough for me to abandon this platform for another one.

As someone who works in tech support, I can say that this is definitely true. It’s pretty much a level playing field with regards to the problems you will encounter.

For me, GNU/Linux is free, has a more consistent user experience, and has a great community in which to play a part (e.g. seeking the inevitable support, learning more, contributing yourself). That’s what gives it the advantage over Windows/OS X in my book.

I actually know the feeling here!

I had intended to write a longer post about how I think a pro-life stance must be holistic, incorporating not only the issue of abortion, but I have not. So I will be borrowing words.

Tim pointed me to an article by Jim Wallis from Sojourners Magazine talking to James Dobson. Dobson takes a very conservative (and narrow, in my opinion) Christian viewpoint on the election. Wallis responds on the issue of abortion and what it means to be “pro-life”:

You [Dobson] make a mistake when you assume that younger Christians don’t care as much as you about the sanctity of life. They do care—very much—but they have a more consistent ethic of life. Both broader and deeper, it is inclusive of abortion, but also of the many other assaults on human life and dignity. For the new generation, poverty, hunger, and disease are also life issues; creation care is a life issue; genocide, torture, the death penalty, and human rights are life issues; war is a life issue. What happens to poor children after they are born is also a life issue.

And there was an interesting point from the article to which Wallis links:

While many Christians disagree on the legal questions surrounding abortion, together we can and must pursue practical steps that actually reduce abortion rates. Three-fourths of women who have an abortion say a primary reason is that they cannot afford to raise a child, so reducing poverty and supporting low-income women is a good place for our candidates to start.

I became Catholic this year and while we discussed pro-life issues in RCIA, I was never told (nor in Mass today) which way to vote in this election.

I advise everyone, of any moral background, to vote with your conscience on Tuesday. Each of us must make an estimation of which candidate will do the best for our country and everyone therein—and such decisions are difficult and are hardly cut and dry. In my opinion, on every matter other than abortion, it is clear that Obama has (and I would argue Democrats in general have) more respect for life, and that plays a very big part in my upcoming vote on Tuesday.

I knew that import tariffs made sugar expensive and have driven producers to use corn (cheap and abundant here in the US) for sugar. I recently learned that fructose (and thus high-fructose corn syrup) more or less suppress the body’s hormonal signals to stop one’s appetite. (And, for my own part, I knew that it caused problems with my own energy and headaches.)

What I didn’t know was the sugar industry’s and our government’s effect on ethanol and alternative fuels:

Deal Sweeteners: The New Yorker

Our current policy is absurd even by Washington standards: Congress is paying billions in subsidies to get us to use more ethanol, while keeping in place tariffs and quotas that guarantee that we’ll use less. And while most of the time tariffs just mean higher prices and reduced competition, in the case of ethanol the negative effects are considerably greater, leaving us saddled with an inferior and less energy-efficient technology and as dependent as ever on oil-producing countries.

(I understand that ethanol may not be the proverbial basket in which we put all of our proverbial eggs; apparently too much reliance on corn could drive up food prices.)

And regardless of the timing though, this is no partisan affair:

A recent study by Amani Elobeid and Simla Tokgoz, scientists at Iowa State University, projected that if the tariffs were removed prices would fall by fourteen per cent and Americans would use almost three hundred million gallons more of ethanol.

But that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon: the Bush Administration proposed eliminating the ethanol tariff this past spring, but Congress quickly quashed the idea—Barack Obama was among several Midwestern senators who campaigned in support of the tariff—and the sugar quotas appear to be as sacrosanct as ever. Tariffs and quotas are extremely hard to get rid of, once established, because they create a vicious circle of back-scratching—government largesse means that sugar producers get wealthy, giving them lots of cash to toss at members of Congress, who then have an incentive to insure that the largesse continues to flow.

We’re protecting domestic corn farmers, but in a very odd way and with odd consequences.

This idea deserves a full essay, but for now, consider: In the same way that Apple took Mac OS X and Cocoa and shrunk them to serve as a handheld device OS, I think Google could take Android and grow it to serve as a PC OS. Wine would be to Android what Classic was to Mac OS X.

The big win is saying “screw you” to KDE and Gnome and all those crap Linux interfaces and APIs. Start over with something new, cohesive, better, and, most of all, which is not, conceptually, a watered down clone of Windows.

I’m really not sure where Gruber is going with this. Google seems to like Wine for various reasons (mainly Picasa), but I don’t really understand how it could vault Android into desktop fame. It seems Wine is a “watered down clone” of Windows (its internals, anyway) and I don’t really see much future in it.

Obviously Gruber and I disagree on the various successes of the “open-source desktop” mission, but I don’t think Wine is the way to success.

John, I await your full essay; perhaps I misunderstand?

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday slammed Sen. Barack Obama’s political relationship with a former anti-war radical, accusing him of associating “with terrorists who targeted their own country.”

Palin’s attack delivered on the McCain campaign’s announcement that it would step up attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate with just a month left before the November general election.

“We see America as the greatest force for good in this world,” Palin said at a fund-raising event in Colorado, adding, “Our opponent though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Is this really happening now? Wasn’t this more or less settled as “not a terribly big deal” a while ago?

As Tim said, “What do you do when you can’t win on your own merits? Answer (apparently): Slander your opponent.”

To that end, here is my favorite tip for keeping up on comments: Co.mments.com, a great site to subscribe to comments on any blog. You simply track a page and it will update you via email or RSS (your choice). It works on a majority of sites/blogs/forums, and there’s a handy bookmarklet you can use in your browser that works on any page. Check it out and see what you think.

I prefer using this to other methods because it doesn’t require anything on the part of the blog author (and many don’t opt in to this kind of functionality). Also, I prefer seeing comments in RSS to email, and co.mments gives me one RSS feed, so I don’t have to keep subscribing to a new feed for every post—I simply track new conversations and the feed is updated automatically.

Also, putting my proverbial money where my proverbial mouth is, here are a few things I’ve done on my blog to offer you some choices:

• You’ll see the ability to subscribe to comments via RSS below. (OK, I didn’t actually do this; it’s a WordPress feature.)
• Since I like co.mments.com so much, I’ve also added the ability to track a post’s comments via co.mments.com. (See underneath the comment form.) The link is kludgy, but using Javascript in WordPress is an obstacle I haven’t tackled (yet).
• Lastly, you can also track comments via email, as per the Subscribe to Comments plugin. (Also underneath the comment form.)
• If you’re someone who wants all comments on all posts, you can subscribe to my blog’s comments feed. WordPress doesn’t offer that to the browser as an available feed, and I’m disinclined to add it given the other choices above. (However, if you want this, make the case; I’ll be pretty easily convinced.)

Sorry I hadn’t done these sooner. “Comment management” is definitely a feature I have wanted to offer on my blog, I just hadn’t put in the time yet to implement them. (Thanks for the kick in the pants, Steve!)

The audio of the debate isn’t music. But, here is a bit of visual poetry based on the candidates’ utterances during the debate via Wordle.

Well, NPR beat me to the idea, but I’m glad someone did it.

For the record, here are McCain’s and Obama’s from last week’s debate.

(One heads-up: the OpenID plugin encourages you to install the XRDS-Simple plugin. The description is there, but I missed it.)

My general goal is to make my domain as useful as possible, and this is definitely a big step.

I’ve been disappointed with them for a while. Their fees are incredibly steep: $2 to use a non-Wachovia ATM, $32 if I overdraw my account (which hasn’t happened for quite a while, thankyouverymuch), $10 to transfer money between accounts in any kind of automated way, and delays and failures with their Bill Pay service (like coming-out-of-the-wrong-account failures).

They do have very good customer service though—most of the time.

(Seriously though, I wonder where all the money goes. With the high fees and the terribly low salary there—I made $17,000/year as a teller there in 2005—what are they doing with my money?)

And now they’re being bought by Citigroup. Whom I hate with an incredible passion. (I have a small student loan with them.) They have a terrible website, terrible customer service, are terribly slow about sending mail, simply don’t reply to email, don’t send me statements anymore (even though I’ve called them to correct that), and are just plain terrible.

I’m interested in the idea of a credit union, since it does things differently, but Wachovia has one thing going for them: they’re the biggest bank in Philadelphia and they’re probably more ubiquitous still in Atlanta (where I’m probably moving next year). Is the convenience worth it? I’m dubious.

So, other banks: Bank of America is certainly a choice, but that feels like exchanging apples for apples. ING seems like a solid bank, but I don’t know how their checking accounts or fees are. My ideal case, off the top of my head: a credit union with low fees that makes up for the fact that it doesn’t have branches everywhere by letting me use ATMs for free and offering a robust website for my daily needs.

I’m going to do some research in the next few weeks, but in the meantime, what bank would you recommend?

I haven’t looked back since I switched from Tumblr to WordPress. Hosting my own blog is much more satisfying and I have much more control and flexibility over my content and its appearance. It’s reassuring to see that others have found the same.

So I realized last week that Tumblr doesn’t honor pingbacks/trackbacks; two friends linked to my blog and I got nothing. WordPress does them automatically, and I’d think Tumblr should (to fit the no-nonsense blogging platform that it is.) I guess it fits the somewhat solipsistic nature of Tumblogs, but it certainly doesn’t help build an online reputation.

One wonders whether the Democrats, and Senator Obama, ever had any intention of delivering this bailout, or whether they always thought there was more to gain, politically, from letting the package die on the House floor.

JohnMcCain.com - Where Was the Leadership?

What bothers me about this article is that it doesn’t paint a complete picture.

According to the New York Times, the final vote was 205-228. For Democrats, that was 140-95, or 60% for. For Republicans, that was 65-133, or 33% for. How is this possibly Obama’s fault?

At the end of the day, I don’t think this is really a matter of blaming either McCain or Obama (I don’t even think you could blame Pelosi or her speech), but this kind of politicizing for the sake of your campaign, John, is simply ludicrous.

Comcast has established a 250GB monthly data usage threshold for all residential Comcast High-Speed Internet accounts. This threshold will be in place to provide a clear definition of excessive use of the service.

The new monthly data usage threshold will go into effect starting October 1, 2008.

Starting tomorrow, Comcast will be enforcing a 250GB/month bandwidth cap on their residential internet customers.

There has been some clamor in the past about Comcast throttling their customers’ speeds, but of course there’s no mention here of that. Last I heard, they were going to continue that course of action as long as possible.

I do think 250GB/month seems pretty reasonable, and while I may suggest that those who oppose it on principle shop around for other internet providers, I don’t think I care that much at the end of the day.

The only thing that does concern me is how they plan on enforcing those that reach the limit:

[The excessive customer] may receive a call from Comcast’s Customer Security Assurance (”CSA”) group to notify them of excessive use.

If a customer who has been contacted by Comcast’s CSA team is contacted again for excessive use within six months of the first contact that customer’s service will be subject to termination for one year. [...] If a customer’s account is terminated, after the one year period expires the customer may resume service by subscribing to a service plan appropriate to his or her needs.

Two strikes, you’re out? I can’t see myself even getting into this situation in the first place, but I can imagine scenarios in which this could happen inadvertantly. I don’t know, I guess I see nothing with a three-strike policy; allowing one more chance seems natural to me.

The device won’t have an impressive design and it won’t be as easy to use as an iPhone, but it will certainly be able to run a lot of interesting applications.

Android’s first iteration, released last week, is certainly less of a watershed than Apple’s iPhone debut, but then again Google has been very open about their project. While Apple has built a reputation on carefully constructed excitement about the unveiling of their new projects, Google was very upfront about Android and the Open Handset Alliance—to the point of attracting doubts of the project’s fruition.

You can read the reviews of T-Mobile’s/HTC’s G1 elsewhere; after a week there are plenty of good ones (and I haven’t held one myself). But here are a few of my initial impressions of Google’s Android project itself.

I saw the Android coming five years ago... and approved.

I mentioned that Android’s default synchronization with Google applications is pretty slick, and definitely a way to get out of the gate quickly. However, I’m not sure if that’s only for the G1 or if Android will include that in every iteration. (I only really wonder because it’s not available in the emulator yet.)

It will be interesting to see how the Applications fare; Apple has proved that there is a business here, and they have a jump start on their App Store. While Apple has attracted a lot of developers, they have their own problems keeping their trust at the moment, and certainly for myself I’m more motivated to write for a multi-process, open-source operating system where my application will definitely be available for users. I’m encouraged that there have already been some interesting applications rolling out.

Speaking of development, it is very promising to see that the Android team has released an emulator for all major operating systems. Apple’s developer program seems robust, but I don’t plan on switching to OS X anytime soon. (Then again, I’d rather avoid Java, but that’s not a dealbreaker for me.)

The Android is certainly the biggest competitor to the iPhone thus far, but it’s certainly not just trying to imitate the superficial qualities (like, say, the LG Dare); it seems to have slightly different motivations that have shaped the project thus far. Either way, competition is a good thing.

It seems likely that AT&T will be producing Android phones but even if so, the question is when. I’m imminently looking for a new phone, so the sooner the better; I have no plans to switch to T-Mobile and I would really appreciate the ability to give each one of these platforms an even chance.

So a few weeks ago I asked about keeping up with politics. I’m interested in balanced opinions that clearly address issues while informing readers about context (so someone like me, who’s new to some of the specifics, can keep up without getting overwhelmed). A few results:

• Donklephant remains strong. I’ve been reading them for a year and they’re still my favorite. Their daily Gallup/Rasmussen polls for the upcoming presidential election are icing on the cake.
• Politico is a favorite of Donklephant that is similarly balanced. (A bit busy though, so I just subscribe to the Top Stories feed.)
• I found FiveThirtyEight because of their election projections, but their news reporting is also good.
• The New York Times’ Opinion section is always a good read, particularly David Brooks’ articles. (While I don’t always agree with him, his writing is solid, and he is not partisan.)
• I’ve also found that Wikipedia (with a healthy dose of objectivity) can be a good source of background information for buzzwords and political history. I know it can’t be counted on for facts, but it’s as unbiased a source as there is and can quickly catch you up on a variety of topics.

I’ve also attempted to keep up with Pennsylvania state and local politics (though no one has helped me here, for shame). This one’s a bit harder, as there is obviously less attention, but so far I’ve found that Keystone Politics has enough news to keep me informed enough.

Of course, this is a very dynamic subject—and a very dynamic time—so I’d appreciate any comments about things I’ve missed!

Anne and Dylan next to the tree.

My cousin and her family recently had a close call: an 80-year old oak tree fell right in front of their house. They (and a lot of Ohio) got the tail end of Hurricane Ike, and you can see the severity in the video their neighbor posted:

What I didn’t realize until my grandma told me was that my aunt and my grandma were also there. I’m glad everyone’s alright!

(Photo courtesy Jeffry Konczal)

• Take a picture of yourself right now.
• Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
• Post that picture with NO editing.
• Post these instructions with your picture.

Here’s mine:

Me on Friday, looking tired. I'd encourage you not to zoom in.

Let’s see yours!

(via Ken)