Just finished buffering a bit over 3,000 new images for new updates and sent out the memberships and coupons for them… I'm now only six days behind. Tomorrow I'll try and half that number again, and then be fully caught up by Thursday. As soon as the new drive is in (I'm not sure why it didn't happen today), I'll do some nice hefty updates as well, although I'm going to let a little bit of a buffer creep up so that I can keep updating from Africa even if my connectivity or time is strained.
I'm kind of tired so I'm not going to write in detail but I'll mention a few links I've bookmarked in the last few days. ExxonMobil, yet another company making huge profit from war, just posted their income numbers for 2004, listing a whopping $25 billion in net (not gross) profits. Along those lines, a new Pentagon Strike video just got posted (much better than the one that was making the rounds last year) — watch it, have a beer, then another, and ask yourself this question:
Could (and would) a company that makes $25 billion annually — to say nothing of a consortium of such companies — that has deep and high-level government ties commit such an act?
Follow that up with 22 more beer and you might feel better.
Treehugger is reporting on a remarkably ugly but extremely efficient British four-seater car that gets 100mpg and can do 144kph, currently fighting to retain its funding… and how do they get this mileage? They just use a slightly smaller engine, and build the car so it's a little lighter. However, because it's not using any “new and revolutionary” technologies, the government isn't interested. I'm reminded of various RQ Riley projects, and of course the California Commuter kit car which in 1980 was cruising at over 155mpg at highway speeds. Doug Malewicki, the inventor (also known for Robosaurus), is currently working on a car that can drive all the way across the US on a single 25 gallon tank of gas.
Taking extreme efficient travel technology to new heights though is this proposal to sail to Mars on a microwave laser beam — with a total trip time of about a month, and using only a 100m (very small) solar sail. It's not using “traditional” solar sail technology — they're actually using the sail as fuel. I need off this planet, strap me on — I hear Mars is a peaceful place! Well, at least ExxonMobil probably won't kill anyone over this one, since I imagine one of their corporate possessions manufactures the paint.
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