Geek Habitat

Just as the documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” is coming to theatres, and the general public is poised to learn about the EV1 and its premature demise, the Smithsonian has opted to remove the EV1 from display with no plans to exhibit it in the future.

Source: Smithsonian Removes Electric-Car Exhibit (AP)

The above decision ties back to a quote Al Gore uses in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth:

Apparently, even the venerable Smithsonian would rather hide history than confront it, if said history makes a financial supporter uneasy. This is the “uncomfortable truth” that is part and parcel of our problems accepting and addressing the inconvenient truth of global warming and related issues.

We all learned something from it, and we all thought it was a well produced documentary and that Gore did a good job communicating it. I will be buying a copy on DVD for our home theatre library. His delivery was perfect. My only aggravation were the overt political bits — flashing back to the election, etc., but I’ll grant him that; politics aside that kind of personal/career setback can create a paradigm shift in one’s focus, and in that respect it fit the rest of the documentary. In multiple ways he addressed why this issue is so important and why he’s been so focused on it for so long, and in a renewed manner in recent years.

I wish everyone would go see this, regardless of their political or environmental views.

Incidentally, the marquee at the theatre (inside and outside, both) only had enough room for the movie to be listed as “INCONVENIENT”. It was rather comical. Vertical list of movies on the interior marquee:
LAKE HOUSE
FAST & FURIOUS
CARS
INCONVENIENT

Truer words have never been put into print …

I hesitantly clicked this link, Female GPS, noting to Justin “This is going to be sexist and insulting …”

Sexist? Naw… Right-on-the-money!

If you get an opportunity to view the PBS documentary Lion in the House (airdates), I heartily recommend doing so. It will shred your heartstrings, but like some of the other things I’ve posted about recently (Hotel Rwanda), it’s something everyone should see.

Here is a discussion forum related to the documentary.

Think conserving non-renewable fuel sources is just something hybrid drivers and other fuel economy-minded consumers are doing?

Think again:

UPS is beginning a pilot program with hydraulic hybrid delivery trucks. (more)
– Estimated savings: 1,000 gallons of fuel, annually. (Every little bit counts; UPS spends more than $1.4 billion annually on fuel!)

American Airlines has asked its pilots to taxi to airport gates using a single engine, not two, to cut the fuel consumption in half. It’s also working to reduce the weight and increase the efficiency of each aircraft through some inventive means. Cost-savings are the primary driver as the company struggles to remain viable. (more; Warning: difficult to read in Firefox; thanks, Microsoft)
– Estimated savings: $4 to $7 million, annually, in fuel costs alone.

NASA ignores the dissent and warnings of its own? Again.

NASA’s chief safety officer (a former Space Shuttle Commander) and the Space Shuttle Program Manager do not agree with the decision to go for launch of STS-121, but pressures force both to amend/table their dissent and sign off on launch for July 1, 2006. You can find their amended sign-offs on the last two pages of the Certificate of Flight Readiness PDF posted on NASA.gov.

NASA is also handling its employees, including top level safety and Shuttle program officials, preventing them from discussing concerns with the media. Statements are written and approved by the NASA Public Relations office for media dissemination.

SNAFU: Situation Normal, All F’ed Up!

NASA: Not Again, a Shuttle Accident.

{Or the old and heartless “Need Another Seven Astronauts” that went around post-Challenger.}

I’m sure analysis paralysis was mentioned multiple times, but in this case analysis from one failed mission and one completed (with an in-flight repair, “just in case”) mission have shown direct evidence of the foam-shedding problem and its direct threat to loss of crew and loss of vehicle.

We have had Hotel Rwanda from Netflix for at least a month. We kept putting off watching it, not ready for the drama and downer.

We almost put it off again, but I mentioned today happens to be World Refugee Day, and that was that. We watched it.

What a horrific world we live in. The Holocaust? … never again? We humans never, ever learn, and who has the shortest and most self-serving memories? Answer: We, the peoples of nations who consider themselves “superpowers” and “First World” nations (as opposed to “Third World” nations; our language devalues them in every way.)

And I couldn’t help but think, we as Americans after the loss of life in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina had more media dedicated to “Should pets be evacuated by FEMA, as well as people?” than we devote to the ongoing crisis in Darfur and elsewhere…

I love my pets, and would be heart-striken to lose them for any reason, but by God pets aren’t more important than people… (and if someone from P.E.T.A. reads this, you and your “a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy” assinine attitude can fuck off!)

Sorry…

Do see the movie, Hotel Rwanda, if you haven’t. I figure we’re pretty typical (sadly) Americans in that we had not seen the movie when it was in theatres (2005) and only got around to putting it on our Netflix list for viewing… and promptly kept putting it off in favor of feel-good or totally fictional action flicks.

More on Rwanda & Rwandan genocide (Wikipedia)