$35M to walk in space: 20 large for the trip to the International Space Station (via the Ruskies, natch) and 15 bones to step outside.

This is one of the few areas where I think our massive and possible immorally inequitable distribution of wealth might pay off. If this catches on, it should drive innovation and competition to improve space access for the rest of us.

I've never owned a car, let alone a new one, but it seems likely to happen sooner or later. This is the kind of thing I long for. Saab Unveils World’s First Biofuel Hybrid.

It's ethanol rather than Biodiesel, and it's a concept car, but it shows that automakers may be at least attempting to move in the right direction.

My ideal is a Biodiesel Hybrid light pickup. Here's hoping.

Ok, getting back to that fund-drive I put up a video for about about a month ago, the pitch is coming together. Gimme feedback on this:

http://www.looseconspiracy.net/

Comment here or hit me up private-like via LE COURIER ELECTRONIQUE.

Ok, getting back to that fund-drive I put up a video for about about a month ago, the pitch is coming together. Gimme feedback on this:

http://www.looseconspiracy.net/

Comment here or hit me up private-like via LE COURIER ELECTRONIQUE.

Ok, getting back to that fund-drive I put up a video for about about a month ago, the pitch is coming together. Gimme feedback on this:

http://www.looseconspiracy.net/

Comment here or hit me up private-like via LE COURIER ELECTRONIQUE.

How about an "OC" parody set against the backdrop of Humbold County? Everyone here seems to think it'll be grand fun. Basically we intermingle people's local drama (names changed, etc) with the forms and structures of Fox's TV-show, and have a bunch of fun making little five-minute episodes.

Could be a good little project.

How about an "OC" parody set against the backdrop of Humbold County? Everyone here seems to think it'll be grand fun. Basically we intermingle people's local drama (names changed, etc) with the forms and structures of Fox's TV-show, and have a bunch of fun making little five-minute episodes.

Could be a good little project.

Going back through old photos... I used to be so young!

One of the things you'll hear a lot if people talk about the National Debt (that is, the cumulative deficit between spending and revenue run by the Federal Government), is that it's no big deal, because other countries have a proportionally higher amount of debt in relation to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is a rough measure of total economic outpuut.

This obscures the fact that Americans have vast amounts of consumer and morgage debt compared to other nations. While our Federal Debt stands at around $8 Trillion, we collectively carry more (around $8.5T) in personal debt. This is in contrast to most other nations, where government debt is higher than personal debt.

BLS Numbers, via the Agonist:

Median weekly earnings of the nation's 105.9 million full-time wage and salary workers were $659 in the second quarter of 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This was 2.5 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 4.0 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period.

That 4.0 inflation excludes energy prices. So not counting increased costs of gasoline, electricity, natural gas and heating oil, wage-earning people (that's all of us non-CEOs) saw our real pay decline by 2.5% in the past year.

But we got rid of that estate tax, so things are bound to pick up soon.

It boggles my mind how blind most people in the corporate/government/media power elite are to the dangers of our current economic situation. We've got income inequality the likes of which we haven't seen since right before the damn depression, personal debt levels (mortgage and credit cards) the likes of which we haven't seen since, well, ever, and an economy that's based on "financial products," cheap oil, and crappily-made shit from China that we sell out of giant concrete boxes.

This is the kind of thing people talk about when they use the term "house of cards." It won't be appocalyptic if (when) it collapses, but it would be a hell of a lot better if this was something we did intentionally rather than just playing Jenga as long as we can.