I haven't posted anything educational in a long while -- I guess I am just wrapping things up for A.
Princess: I saw "Pirates" -- Orlando Bloom, Johnny Depp, and Billy Nighy (finally getting to see his face) are the only reasons I saw this flick. And oh yeah, Mr. Richards.
Amanda/Calletta: I'll be lurking (around your blog).
Becky: Ditto. Because you know your blog intimidates me.
L at MySchola: See you Down Under if you don't come back here.
Everyone else: Thanks for coming by. I really do enjoy your emails and letters and thingys I get sent. They are really sweet.
Here at work, I was the recipient of many fan emails and nuts (fans of a certain show who wanted their show back on the air after it was cancelled -- I guess you can check the CNN archives about that one). That these fans actually got their show back gives me hope in grass-roots activism again, and the power of the people.
If you were around during my Campaign For The Club, you will understand my happiness for them. We *can* make things happen. We *can* change things.
Which reminds me -- please consider Ron Paul (R) and Barack Obama (D) when you drop your ballot in 2008.
I'll be starting another blog in the fall - I guess that'll be my next life. Which is what we have to look forward to when our kids get so big that they really do have lives of their own. *We* get our second wind. Our second life. Our Next Big Gig.
See you later.
And please: don't relinquish your kid's brain to somebody else unless you're comfortable with what's going in it.
6.08.2007
6.05.2007
The other night...
sweaty and feverish, and very much asleep, A swatted my hand away from his forehead.
DON'T TOUCH.
DON'T TOUCH ME.
GET OFF.
NOT UNTIL THE TRICK OR TREAT.
OKAY? NOT UNTIL THE TRICK OR TREAT.
DON'T TOUCH.
DON'T TOUCH ME.
GET OFF.
NOT UNTIL THE TRICK OR TREAT.
OKAY? NOT UNTIL THE TRICK OR TREAT.
from the New York Times
Reconsideration
Current Thinking
HEATHER ROGERS
Published: June 3, 2007
When Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced his vision of development in New York City over the next 25 years, he highlighted a plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent. To anyone who has studied the history of power consumption in the United States, his proposal sounded a curious echo. New York, after all, was home to one of the country’s first central power stations, built by Thomas Edison in 1882. No individual deserves more credit, or blame, for America’s voracious electricity consumption than Edison, who conceived not only that generating station but also the notoriously inefficient incandescent bulb and a slew of volt-thirsty devices.
Yet Edison, godfather of electricity-intensive living, was also an unlikely green pioneer whose ideas about renewable power still resonate today. At the turn of the 20th century, when Edison was at the height of his career, the notion that buildings, which now account for more than a third of all energy consumed in the United States, would someday require large amounts of power was only just coming into focus. Where that power would come from — central generating stations or in-home plants; fossil fuels or renewable resources — was still very much up for debate.
A 1901 article about Edison in The Atlanta Constitution described how his unorthodox ideas about batteries could bring wattage to the countryside: “With a windmill coupled to a small electric generator,” a rural inhabitant “could bottle up enough current to give him light at night.” The earliest wind-powered house was fired up in Cleveland in 1888 by the inventor Charles Brush, but Edison aspired to take the technology to the masses. He made drawings of a windmill to power a cluster of four to six homes, and in 1911 he pitched manufacturers on building a prototype.
Edison’s batteries also fueled some cars and trucks, and he joined forces with Henry Ford to develop an electric automobile that would be as affordable and practical as the Model T. The Constitution article discussed plans to let people recharge their batteries at plug-in sites along trolley lines; the batteries could also be refreshed courtesy of the home windmill.
Talented not only at devising new technologies, Edison was an entrepreneur keenly skilled at selling them. If residents in areas without central power gained access to electrical current, he surely knew that more consumers might buy his batteries, bulbs and phonographs. Finding ways to get voltage to people without it made good business sense.
Edison also, like other scientists of his day, was beginning to understand even then that fossil fuels wouldn’t last forever. In 1913 Scientific American published an issue on energy problems, observing: “The question of the possible exhaustion of the world’s oil supply deserves the gravest consideration. There is every indication that we are face to face with this possibility.” Articles delved into technologies to capture the power of the sun, the wind, the tide and even the earth’s rotation. Inventors like Edison were modernizers who couldn’t bear the inefficiency of letting an abundant energy source like wind go untapped.
In 1912 Edison unveiled an energy-self-sufficient home in West Orange, N.J. Billed as an experimental “Twentieth Century Suburban Residence” and designed to showcase his batteries, it bulged with luxuries like air heating and cooling units, a clothes-washing machine, an electric cooking range and, of course, plenty of light bulbs. Completely off the grid, the house received its juice from a generator that charged a bank of 27 cells in the basement. For this first attempt, Edison used a gas-run motor, but evidence suggests that he hoped to hook up to a wind turbine. The system would allow the prospective homeowner to be, according to The New York Times, “utterly and for all time independent of the nearness or farness of the big electric companies.”
The conglomerates struggling to control the nascent energy sector regarded that as precisely the problem. For them, a world of independence, in which householders created their own power using renewable resources, was a nightmare. The companies’ profits depended on electricity from power plants run on cheap fossil fuels.
In the end, Edison’s proudly free-standing Suburban Residence was hooked up to the grid, and neither his in-home wind-generated electricity plant nor his battery-powered vehicles ever reached the mass market. In 1931, not long before he died, the inventor told his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone: “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
Heather Rogers is a filmmaker and the author of “Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage.”
Current Thinking
HEATHER ROGERS
Published: June 3, 2007
When Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced his vision of development in New York City over the next 25 years, he highlighted a plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent. To anyone who has studied the history of power consumption in the United States, his proposal sounded a curious echo. New York, after all, was home to one of the country’s first central power stations, built by Thomas Edison in 1882. No individual deserves more credit, or blame, for America’s voracious electricity consumption than Edison, who conceived not only that generating station but also the notoriously inefficient incandescent bulb and a slew of volt-thirsty devices.
Yet Edison, godfather of electricity-intensive living, was also an unlikely green pioneer whose ideas about renewable power still resonate today. At the turn of the 20th century, when Edison was at the height of his career, the notion that buildings, which now account for more than a third of all energy consumed in the United States, would someday require large amounts of power was only just coming into focus. Where that power would come from — central generating stations or in-home plants; fossil fuels or renewable resources — was still very much up for debate.
A 1901 article about Edison in The Atlanta Constitution described how his unorthodox ideas about batteries could bring wattage to the countryside: “With a windmill coupled to a small electric generator,” a rural inhabitant “could bottle up enough current to give him light at night.” The earliest wind-powered house was fired up in Cleveland in 1888 by the inventor Charles Brush, but Edison aspired to take the technology to the masses. He made drawings of a windmill to power a cluster of four to six homes, and in 1911 he pitched manufacturers on building a prototype.
Edison’s batteries also fueled some cars and trucks, and he joined forces with Henry Ford to develop an electric automobile that would be as affordable and practical as the Model T. The Constitution article discussed plans to let people recharge their batteries at plug-in sites along trolley lines; the batteries could also be refreshed courtesy of the home windmill.
Talented not only at devising new technologies, Edison was an entrepreneur keenly skilled at selling them. If residents in areas without central power gained access to electrical current, he surely knew that more consumers might buy his batteries, bulbs and phonographs. Finding ways to get voltage to people without it made good business sense.
Edison also, like other scientists of his day, was beginning to understand even then that fossil fuels wouldn’t last forever. In 1913 Scientific American published an issue on energy problems, observing: “The question of the possible exhaustion of the world’s oil supply deserves the gravest consideration. There is every indication that we are face to face with this possibility.” Articles delved into technologies to capture the power of the sun, the wind, the tide and even the earth’s rotation. Inventors like Edison were modernizers who couldn’t bear the inefficiency of letting an abundant energy source like wind go untapped.
In 1912 Edison unveiled an energy-self-sufficient home in West Orange, N.J. Billed as an experimental “Twentieth Century Suburban Residence” and designed to showcase his batteries, it bulged with luxuries like air heating and cooling units, a clothes-washing machine, an electric cooking range and, of course, plenty of light bulbs. Completely off the grid, the house received its juice from a generator that charged a bank of 27 cells in the basement. For this first attempt, Edison used a gas-run motor, but evidence suggests that he hoped to hook up to a wind turbine. The system would allow the prospective homeowner to be, according to The New York Times, “utterly and for all time independent of the nearness or farness of the big electric companies.”
The conglomerates struggling to control the nascent energy sector regarded that as precisely the problem. For them, a world of independence, in which householders created their own power using renewable resources, was a nightmare. The companies’ profits depended on electricity from power plants run on cheap fossil fuels.
In the end, Edison’s proudly free-standing Suburban Residence was hooked up to the grid, and neither his in-home wind-generated electricity plant nor his battery-powered vehicles ever reached the mass market. In 1931, not long before he died, the inventor told his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone: “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”
Heather Rogers is a filmmaker and the author of “Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage.”
6.03.2007
Free performances
Get there by 7:30 AM, and you'll get a good spot to see the performers listed below. Performances by 9:00 AM and maybe another set before 10:00 AM.
ABC is broadcasting from Bryant Park --- show up before 7:30 AM and enter by the Sixth Avenue side.
ABC's "Good Morning America"
June 8: Robin Thicke
June 15: Brad Paisley
June 22: Hannah Montana (a k a Billy Cyrus' daughter, Miley)
June 29: Patti LaBelle
July 6: Norah Jones
July 13: Fantasia
July 20: John Mayer and special guest
July 27: Sugarland
Aug. 3: John Legend
Aug. 10: Mika
Aug. 17: To be announced
Aug. 24: To be announced
NBC's "Today" (Rockefeller Center)
June 8: Rihanna
June 13: "Legally Blonde" musical cast
June 15: Enrique Iglesias
June 19: Bon Jovi
June 22: Chicago and America
June 29: Hilary Duff
July 6: Fall Out Boy
July 13: KT Tunstall
July 20: "Hairspray" musical cast
July 27: Marc Anthony
Aug. 3: Vince Gill and Amy Grant
Aug. 10: Natasha Bedingfield
Aug. 17: To be announced
Aug. 24: Martina McBridge
Aug. 31: Chris Brown
ABC is broadcasting from Bryant Park --- show up before 7:30 AM and enter by the Sixth Avenue side.
ABC's "Good Morning America"
June 8: Robin Thicke
June 15: Brad Paisley
June 22: Hannah Montana (a k a Billy Cyrus' daughter, Miley)
June 29: Patti LaBelle
July 6: Norah Jones
July 13: Fantasia
July 20: John Mayer and special guest
July 27: Sugarland
Aug. 3: John Legend
Aug. 10: Mika
Aug. 17: To be announced
Aug. 24: To be announced
NBC's "Today" (Rockefeller Center)
June 8: Rihanna
June 13: "Legally Blonde" musical cast
June 15: Enrique Iglesias
June 19: Bon Jovi
June 22: Chicago and America
June 29: Hilary Duff
July 6: Fall Out Boy
July 13: KT Tunstall
July 20: "Hairspray" musical cast
July 27: Marc Anthony
Aug. 3: Vince Gill and Amy Grant
Aug. 10: Natasha Bedingfield
Aug. 17: To be announced
Aug. 24: Martina McBridge
Aug. 31: Chris Brown
6.01.2007
ring, ring...
This morning me and A talked about the yummy vegetarian place in Chinatown from this past weekend. The swan-shaped dumplings were soooo good. "Can I go today for lunch?" A asked me. Sure, I tell him.
Then I received a frantic phone call from A this morning around 11:30 AM.
"Mom, I don't know how to get to Buddha Bodai."
I had a stack of press releases in front of me, and one publicist needed a press guide NOW.
"Erm...Buddha Bodai? Hon, just go up Canal and make a right on Mott."
A: But where is Mott?
Me: What do you mean, where is Mott? Head east on Canal toward the Manhattan Bridge, and you can't miss Mott.
A: I don't see it on this Mapquest map.
I get pinged a Mapquest map on MSN instant messenger. He was right. Mott wasn't on it.
Me: Stop reading Mapquest maps! They're horrid!
A: Mom, how do I get to Buddha Bodai?
Me: Erm...
[the publicist sends me yet another email wanting her press guide NOW]
A: OH Wait...I see Mott. It's so far away from the star. It crosses Canal. You're right. Okay, thanks, mom, byeeeeee....
Then I received a frantic phone call from A this morning around 11:30 AM.
"Mom, I don't know how to get to Buddha Bodai."
I had a stack of press releases in front of me, and one publicist needed a press guide NOW.
"Erm...Buddha Bodai? Hon, just go up Canal and make a right on Mott."
A: But where is Mott?
Me: What do you mean, where is Mott? Head east on Canal toward the Manhattan Bridge, and you can't miss Mott.
A: I don't see it on this Mapquest map.
I get pinged a Mapquest map on MSN instant messenger. He was right. Mott wasn't on it.
Me: Stop reading Mapquest maps! They're horrid!
A: Mom, how do I get to Buddha Bodai?
Me: Erm...
[the publicist sends me yet another email wanting her press guide NOW]
A: OH Wait...I see Mott. It's so far away from the star. It crosses Canal. You're right. Okay, thanks, mom, byeeeeee....
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