Quick question: I’m looking for the political party that says “Let’s build nuclear power plants to replace our oil, coal, and natural gas plants.” Better yet, the party that says “It’s okay for you to ship nuclear waste to Utah. Burying things in a geologically inactive desert is safe and cheap.” How about the party that says “Solar, hydro, and wind technology are harder on the environment than oil or coal, thanks to the massive areas of land they require and the highly toxic substances they must employ to store energy (PCBs, anyone?).”

I don’t want to vote for the “let’s stop Global Warming” camp, because they’re as badly tainted by partisan politics as the “Oil is great” camp. Also, they don’t seem to be pro-nuke… it’s as if they think there is some magical “new way” to get more energy out of the environment than our local star puts into it. That’s all it comes down to, really: depend on the energy the Sun sends us (and the most efficient ways to collect it still seem to involve Vast Tracts Of Land, whether you’re farming photosynthetic step-down, water-cycle energy states, or air-pressure gradients), or make energy the same way the Sun does. Leave the Solar Energy for folks who can’t get their energy any other way: plants and the animals who eat plants.

Even TPD (Thermal Depolymerization), which is being billed as the best renewable energy source around (summary: hydrocarbon wastes from agriculture and industry can be reduced very efficiently into fuel oils, leaving existing carbon sinks like natural gas and oil reserves intact. Link.), is just a slightly better method of photosynthetic step-down than Exxon uses.

Okay, true geothermal systems are a little different: the temperature gradient introduced by Earth’s active tectonic processes is more “leftovers from the planet’s formation,” with a mix of heat induced by Lunar tides, but those systems still require Vast Tracts of Land, and are subject to disruption by the very processes they seek to tap. We could also tap the magnetosphere for power, and though this WOULD slow the Earth’s spin over time, it would take a Very Long Time.

Gimme nukes. Who do I vote FOR (not AGAINST. FOR.)

*sigh*

Last night I went to Kiki’s art class. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this art academy out-of-somebody’s-home was very impressive. There were three or four classes running while I was there, one of which had adults in it making me feel guilty for considering myself an “artist.” They asked me what mediums I work in, and I told them “line art.” That sounds better than “comics,” right?

I sat next to her and whipped out Schlock Mercenary character portraits to add to the stack that has to go out with Sandra’s birthday thank-you notes. Each one took about 10 minutes. I finished five during Kiki’s one-hour class, and had time to walk around and look at stuff, too. Kiki’s instructor commented on how quickly I was going. “That’s the difference between art for art and art for money,” I told her. “Art for art can take its time. Art for money has to go FAST.”

And on that note, I’ve got some Schlock to crank out. This buffer won’t rebuild itself.

–Howard

The Academy is snubbing Michael Moore:

From CNN.com:

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- ineligible for a best documentary nomination because the film was not submitted for that category -- was shut out across the board.

This is great on two counts:
1) Apparently whoever submits these things recognized that the picture wasn’t really a documentary, and shouldn’t try to compete as one.
2) The Academy doesn’t want to get any of whatever the picture IS on themselves.

There is current passing the contacts on the old clue-meter. The needle wiggled!

I’m happy.

–Howard

I’m feeling much better now.

My trick for getting through these things is as follows:

1) The minute I feel myself getting sick, I start the Vitamin C front-loading: 2000mg per hour, with at least 4oz (preferably 8oz) of water per hour. I do this every hour on day 1, or until my urine turns yellow-green. At that point I know I’m just peeing away the C, so I cut the dose in half.
2) Zinc. It’s a metal, so I don’t take lots. I just make sure I get about double the RDA for day 1.
3) Rest. I nap as I need to. Hang work, I need to get THROUGH this.
4) On Day 2, depending on how I feel, I take 1000 mg of C per hour. Again, the urine check tells me when to cut the dose.

Often this method will allow me to skate on the surface of the cold, feeling “like I’m getting sick” for two to three days without actually getting SICK sick. Sometimes it knocks the cold back so hard I feel perfectly well by Day 2. In this most recent case, I felt great by about midnight. I’d only taken (only!) about 10,000 mg of C, at the staggered doses so that my body could assimilate it JIT-style, and I forgot about Zinc altogether, because I forgot.

Anyway, I feel great today. I’ve had a little extra caffeine to make sure I stay perky (caffeine is a medication, not a food additive as far as I’m concerned. Anything with caffeine in it is to be treated like medicine) and I’ve gotten lots done with only a 30-minute power-nap at 3:00pm.

–Howard