Goldman CEO says Matt Taibbi’s writing about them is “gonzo”

He probably meant it as an insult. But really, it means that Taibbi’s article must have drawn blood. Somewhere Hunter Thompson is smiling.

Bike dancing

European Junior Championships Indoorcycling 2009, Carla Hochdorfer and Henriette Hochdorfer

Apparently they somehow managed to repeal the law of gravity during their performance because there is no other explanation.

Why the Austrian, Keynesian, Marxist, Monetarist, and Neo-Liberal economists are all wrong

I’m continually stuck at how financial blogs are 1) providing the most incisive analysis of the current crisis and 2) are getting seriously pissed at what’s happening. They genuinely thought our markets were free and open. Now that it’s become obvious to all that the game is rigged (and at the highest levels too), [...]

Energy storage for renewable power

Proposed 4GW energy storage from renewable power for California

The output from renewable energy sources fluctuates massively. But when the grid needs power, it needs it instantly.

Megawatt Storage Farms wants to build at least 4 GW of storage in California, about 5% of the total load. All sorts of regulatory and turf [...]

GM is doing it again

Damn. That didn’t last long. Remember the plug-in hybrid Buick that General Motors announced two weeks ago? The one that was basically a re-badged Saturn Vue? GM just killed it.

GM has a long, tired history of announcing or doing innovative things then killing them or backtracking

Retrofitting dams to produce energy

Only 3% of US dams produce power. American Municipal Power in Ohio thinks that’s a waste and will retrofit five dams to produce 350 MW, a simple, great idea that in retrospect seems so obvious you wonder wht it wasn’t done before.

Energy-aware Internet routing coming soon

Researchers from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and the networking company Akamai recently published results from a study that suggest big Internet companies could save up to 40 percent on their electricity bills by using an algorithm to send Internet traffic to data centers where electricity is less expensive.

Wow. Imagine what such a smart grid [...]

Marc Cooper on the ongoing disintegration of KPFK and Pacifica

First off, Cooper details (Pt. 1, Pt. 2) how listenership for KPFK has dropped off a cliff. It has the strongest signal in the western US and a potential reach of 20 million people yet its average listenership in any given quarter hour now has plunged to a pathetic 1,800, down from 7,000 in [...]

I’m afraid of Americans: Understanding the new threat of domestic terrorism

So right wingers brought guns to a town hall meeting? Black Panthers on the California State Capitol steps 1968. Both actions were quite legal. And the world didn’t end.

UJ, writing in Enduring America.

The domestic terror groups are not dangerous for their extremism, their paranoia, or their particular calibration of ideology. Rather, the [...]

NEETs: (They belong to the) blank generation

16% of those between 18-24 in Britain are NEETs, “Not in Education, Employment or Training,” a staggeringly high number.

David Osler, who was an unemployed member of that last blank generation sees a bad moon rising here.

It will also be vital to address the almost total unavailability of apprenticeships anywhere other than at [...]