three, two, one, let's jam

[solarbird]

Here, this is cool: a vertical windmill intended to be installed on corners of office buildings. It claims to generate power at about 2.4c/Kwh, which is very good. (Found via Slashdot; tipped off to its existence by stickmaker.)

Here, this is also cool: further development of a non-rare-earth fuel-cell that could possibly run on methanol and ethanol. This would be a much higher-value return than any other previous form of fuel-cell. The fuel-cell industry is infamous for overly-optimistic claims, so keep that in mind, but this approach may have promise. It's certainly heading in a better direction than the hydrogen mess.

I finished reading "Computation in a Single Neuron: Hodgkin and Huxley Revisited" yesterday; I understood the main point of the paper and a decent bit of the higher-level analysis, but just don't have the background for a lot of the actual data. This is definitely one I'll be re-reading later.

Why, why, why, why, why hasn't Rumsfeld been sacked? At this point, I have to wonder if President Bush is afraid of the book he'd write, or something else on that level. I honestly cannot imagine why else this complete disaster of a defense secretary hasn't been thrown overboard yet. Meanwhile, what the is administration going to claim the point is of being there at all if US defense forces won't help keep a peace if full-fledged civil war breaks out? Nicely fucked up again, Rummy!

Comments

[brazilrascal.livejournal.com]

You're confusing the Bush administration with an entreprise isntead of a cabal. They only sack people when doing otherwise would endanger the group as a whole. Scooter Libby had to be put under the crosshairs to be dismissed, and even so they haven't withdrawn -support- from him.

Rumsfeld as he is now is merely an embarrassment, to them. He can still be salvaged in the coming strike on Iran, and the press still mysteriously attaches worth to his lunacy.

Letting people go means admitting mistakes, and that is poison to most administrations, this one in particular.

[brombear.livejournal.com]

Rummy is still in there because of the amount of stock he has in the defence industry. Before he could become SecDef, didn't he have to liquidate something like $5Mil in defence stock?

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

Actually, none of the designs on that page are the one I saw in that TV segment. The blades in that were helical, resembling an old reel mower.

Guess it's a good idea, if more than one group is working on it. :-)