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Dancing For Energy! Partying Powers Dutch Nightclub

LibertySugar — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:00:47 -0700

All music is ~~electronic~~ electric at Rotterdam's Club Watt. A newly installed dance floor traps energy generated from dancing, and then converts it to electricity.

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Yesterday's New York Times profiled the sustainable dance club, explaining that people can see the results of their energy creation. The floor powers a light show displayed around the dancers. At Watt, other green innovations help keep the party going: rainwater fills the toilets, and everything from the bar is recycled. When it's cold, band amplifiers and other musical equipment generate the heat.

The head of the group behind the Dutch club says: "Our idea is that there’s enough energy in this world, you just have to use it the right way. If you have a full dance club, there’s lots there, you just have to turn it into a usable product.” Sounds like a great idea to me!

Are We There Yet? Long Campaign Devolves Into Party Favors?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:16:22 -0700

It seems impossible to remember a time BC: Before Campaign. That may be because we've been at this game seriously since 2006. By the time the US votes, it will be a vote two years in the making (at that rate, isn't it time to start the 2012 campaign?) Perhaps because of this stretched out schedule, the capacity for substantive debate has been also stretched — to the snapping point.

Whether a function of the campaigns themselves running out of ways (gimmicks?) to keep themselves in the public eye for an interminable amount of time, the media's fatigue with covering yet another town hall in yet another town, or the public's appetite for newer, better, flashier, the campaign we're seeing now, well it's a little stinky.

Case in point: the Obama Energy Plan tire gauge. I admit, I saw it and winced. Because now that we've seen it all, every move, especially during these lazy days of summer, is heightened in import to a major event — and when McCain is actually out there and talking about his plan in a more conventional way.

Now, the gauge itself, kind of funny. Obama did say we should inflate our tires. The doohickey just takes a statement and gives it legs in a party favor format. And I don't doubt it was meant as a joke — McCain is famous for them, like when Obama was on his big trip abroad, and the McCain team handed out gag press credentials to the domestic-bound crew traveling with him that read "JV Squad: Left Behind to Report in America." I mean just using the word "JV" in an adult setting is inherently funny — but what does it say about the discourse? To find out, and see Paris Hilton's response to the celebrity ad with an energy plan of her own,

Energy Crisis Greater Threat Than Terrorism

CitizenSugar — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:40:11 -0700

Energy Crisis Greater Threat Than Terrorism Rep. John Peterson (R-PA) said Wednesday that the nation’s energy problem “is more important and threatening to America’s future than terrorism.” During an interview on C-SPAN, Peterson stressed the need for Congress to act now to address the nation’s energy crisis. Amid the partisan bickering on Capitol Hill, Peterson and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) are leading a bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking consensus on energy legislation.

Barack Obama is Jesus Christ, George W. Bush the Devil?

LibertySugar — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:00:35 -0700

Barack Obama and George W. Bush share one thing in common: they produce strong reactions. Filmmaker Spike Lee has recently likened Obama to Jesus Christ, while over at John McCain's camp they've released a statement that suggests showing McCain with George W. Bush is enough to constitute an attack ad.

Spike, confident that Obama will win, uses the Jesus imagery to suggest that after Obama becomes president we will no longer use BC and AD to chronicle time, but BO and AO. Spike explained:

"When that happens, it will change everything . . .You'll have to measure time by "Before Obama" and "After Obama." It's an exciting time to be alive now."

Meanwhile, the George W. Bush embrace of McCain in Obama's new energy ad, used to show the two Republicans' similarity on energy, has made the devil out of President Bush. The ad goes on to debunk distortions included in McCain's ad on energy. To see the latest Obama ad

T. Boone Pickens Is Going to Save the Economy With Hot Air

CitizenSugar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:15:44 -0700

I'm saying it right now: T. Boone Pickens for president. The former oil-man-billionaire-turned-wind-power revolutionary is suddenly everywhere and it's like a breath of fresh air. Pickens of his eponymous Pickens Plan is building the world's largest wind farm. His website, which launched today, is determined to shock the US into becoming the Saudi Arabia of wind.

The hemorrhaging of $700 billion dollars a year, an increase of about 50 percent more reliance on foreign imports since the 1970s, is ruining our country. Pickens says, "I've been an oil man my whole life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of."

To see a consciousness-rocking explanation of the Pickens Plan by T. Boone himself (oh, and also changing my name to T. Boone)

Fighting the New American Revolution — Energy Independence

CitizenSugar — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:00:26 -0700

The US is gearing up to celebrate Independence Day, the day when citizens vowed to fight against crushing taxes, inflation, and a rising price of necessities — Americans took a stand then against tyranny, and fought. Now as the country picnics and watches fireworks to commemorate that fight, is the situation any different?

Taxes, inflation, cost of necessities — what was once tea, is now Texas Tea — oil, all factors point to another fight. Is energy the new American Revolution? In this new battle for independence, are citizens willing to sacrifice to win freedom from the tyrannous and costly addiction we have to standard forms of energy?

John McCain's plan for a modern energy revolution takes that parallel seriously — he's dubbed his energy revolution the "Lexington Project," named for the town where, according to his speech last week, "Americans asserted their independence once before." To see the battle plan for energy independence,

You Drive Me Crazy? McCain's Car Prize and Obama's Ethanol

CitizenSugar — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:00:32 -0700

John McCain is putting money where his energy mouth is: he's just announced he's proposing a $300 million government prize for the successful development of a car battery that far surpasses existing technology. The prize haul is equal to $1 for every man, woman, and child in the country, which he says is "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency."

If you're thinking about entering, the winning device should deliver power at 30 percent of current costs and have "the size, capacity, cost, and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars." Looking toward rewarding success in finding eco-autos, he's also promoting a Clean Car Challenge that will give US automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell.

McCain says of the prize, "In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure. From now on, we will encourage heroic efforts in engineering, and we will reward the greatest success."

Get out of my dreams, get into my car? Perhaps.

Who's driving Barack Obama's "Pink Cadillac?" To find out,