SpecialOlympicsGate: summarized

Yah know what I love about SpecialOlympicsGate?

Not just that Obama immediately apologized for his slip of a tongue (... something Bush never did for any of his intentional lies...)

Not just that Obama made this mistake in the context of deprecating himself (...remember folks, he was making fun of his own inability to bowl ...)

But that by focussing on SpecialOlympicsGate, the Obama-haters are making one thing VERY CLEAR to the American people:

They Got Nuthin'

Tesla: Where We SHOULD Invest $$$

Instead of ... or in addition to ... keeping an ailing gasoline-powered auto industry on life support, why not invest in the future? As blogger ProgressiveTokyo writes:

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"Why don't we take a huge chunk of those BILLIONS we are throwing at GM et. al. and throw them to a company which is at the forefront of design and technology which could wean us away from foreign oil, and move us in the Green direction?

Lets take a look at Tesla's newest offering:
Tell me this is not a sexy car that you wouldn't be proud to own and sport around town? Its range before recharge? 300 miles!

I remember when I was working as an advertising executive for a small yellow pages firm back home, I used to have to travel all over the county meeting clients and making sales pitches. I dont think I EVER drove more than 300 miles in a day.

How long to recharge? 4 hours on a regular 220V plug. If you get a home 480V outlet you can charge this baby up in just 45 minutes.

The current cost? That is the part that would need serious government and private investment to bring down (the former would encourage the latter):
around 50,000 dollars.

If the US Government was serious about "going Green" and building a 21st century transportation infrastructure why not invest in a company which could be scaled UP right now, creating high paying manufacturing jobs and helping the environment in one fell swoop?

For more info on the Model S see here

Here is something the comments that I think everyone should see:

Lead Story In Tomorrow's Times, meanwhile, concerns a new Chinese govt. initiative to corner the electric car market.
China Vies to Be World’s Leader in Electric Cars
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 1, 2009
TIANJIN, China — Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, suggests that Detroit’s Big Three, already struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign competition on the next field of automotive technology than they do today.

“China is well positioned to lead in this,” said David Tulauskas, director of China government policy at General Motors."

Please give a thanks and a rec to Mogolori for finding this new piece. We will keep falling behind if we don't invest NOW!"

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Kudos to ProgressiveTokyo for a smart piece, linking important information together in a helpful way! You have just made us all a little bit smarter.
Now: where can I get me one of those Teslas???

Technophobia 2:An iPod for the Queen

What better shows paleocon fear of information technology than the blogflogging of President Barack Obama's gift of the latest video ipod to the queen?

The silly faux outrage could be mocked on mere factual rounds:

• The gifting also included a vintage book autographed by the queen's favorite american composer
• The queen's reciprocal gift was equally prosaic: a picture of herself and her husband
• We men just aren't that good at shopping; anyway, the president has one or two other things to think about right now, like wars and recessions and stuff.

But dwelling on the mere facts is playing defensive ball; iPodGate is really about reichwing fear of ipods and indeed all modern means of freely sharing information.

You see, any information sharing device, be it ipod, blackberry, laptop or 3×5 card, has no value on its own. The value is the information, and the ease with which the device makes it available. When information can be controlled by central authority, that authority can be subverted and We The People kept under control. But when information can be shared freely and easily, it makes people smarter, faster, stronger ... and THAT bothers reichwingers.

They feared Gutenberg's movable type, and they were right to do so, for it enabled the Reformation by freeing information from the tyranny of church scribes.

They fear the teleprompter, and they are right to do so. It lets obama deliver crisp remarks from notes without bobbing his head to look at 3x5 cards or ... as their leader Rush prefers ... simply to add words and whole phrases to our constitution when it suits his purpose.

They fear the ipod, and they are right to do so, for handheld information system empower people to assemble and share information without relying on centraled authority. President Barack Obama's gift ipod included selections personnalized for the queen, such as video of her recent visit to America. In the hands of ordinary citizens, handheld information devices can share almost unlimited amounts of information, much of it embarassing to central authority.

In its information quantity, the video iPod is larger than the gutenberg bible. In its impact on information freedom, and therefore on freedom itself, it embodies something larger than movable type.
Reichwing technophobes are right to fear this.

But let us encourage them to flaunt their technophobia. Our upcoming generation gets it.

D20 Protestors Rampage In London!

A small number of D20 gamers protested corporate domination of entertainment at a central London food court after rolling for initiative and making their evasion check.
Hundreds of shoppers looked on stunned as the protesters deployed gaming equipment including lovingly-detailed figurines and hundreds of dice. Riot police wielding batons managed to force the geeked-out crowds back, as the gamers ran a homebrewed adventuring module.

The gamers' simulated rampage will raise questions about the effectiveness of Chaotic Evil as a viable ideology for world domination. The dungeon was known to be a target of Good-Aligned forces in advance of the gaming sessions, but the efforts of defenders had concentrated on stabbing each other in the back and making sacrifices to chancey deities of uncertain humour. Twenty-three non-player characters were dispatched as party clashed with orcs and an evil high priest bent on world domination.