StudioGlyphic

Category: News

  • Using Nazi technology…

    …to turn coal into unleaded.

    Yahoo! News / Reuters: Montana’s governor eyes coal to solve U.S. fuel costs

    Montana’s governor wants to solve America’s rising energy costs using a technology discovered in Germany 80 years ago that converts coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.

    The Fischer-Tropsch technology, discovered by German researchers in 1923 and later used by the Nazis to convert coal into wartime fuels, was not economical as long as oil cost less than $30 a barrel.

    But with U.S. crude oil now hitting more than double that price, Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s plan is getting more attention across the country and some analysts are taking him very seriously.

    Montana is “sitting on more energy than they have in the Middle East,” Schweitzer told Reuters in an interview this week.

    “I am leading this country in this desire and demand to convert coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. We can do it in Montana for $1 per gallon,” he said.

    “We can do it cheaper than importing oil from the sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks that we’re bringing it from right now.”

    The governor estimated the cost of producing a barrel of oil through the Fischer-Tropsch method at $32, and said that with its 120 billion tons of coal — a little less than a third of the U.S total — Montana could supply the entire United States with its aviation, gas and diesel fuel for 40 years without creating environmental damage.

    Not sure that excavating the state of Montana to supply more fossil fuels is the long-term solution, but it’s worth looking into.

  • Little Joshy Grows Up

    My friend Josh Dysart has been writing Swamp Thing for a little while now, and they’ve finally collected the first two story arcs in a book for all of us to buy.

    A word from Josh:

    WARNING A) This book is not for kids. It’s heady and violent and has an experimental narrative structure that they probably won’t dig on anyway. B) This is a complicated character with a great deal of back story, so while it is a self contained read, it also does rely on past “occurrences” for much of it’s emotional resonance. It’s sort of like tuning into a soap opera mid-season–except that this soap opera has monsters fucking in it!! And remember, you don’t have to read it, you just have to buy it.

    …

    You can buy it at Amazon.com (or just look at the cover)–of course
    comic book stores really do need you’re business more than some
    massive corporate conglomerate.

    I guess I got nothing better to spend my $15 on.

  • Death by Video Game Addiction

    Sounds like some poker players I know.

    Reuters: S. Korean man dies after 50 hours of computer games

    SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said on Tuesday.

    The 28-year-old man, identified only by his family name Lee, had been playing on-line battle simulation games at the cybercafe in the southeastern city of Taegu, police said.

    Lee had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play on-line games on August 3. He only left the spot over the next three days to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed, they said.

    …

    Lee had recently quit his job to spend more time playing games, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported after interviewing former work colleagues and staff at the Internet cafe.

    After he failed to return home, Lee’s mother asked his former colleagues to find him. When they reached the cafe, Lee said he would finish the game and then go home, the paper reported.

    He died a few minutes later, it said.

    I wonder if we can find Mike partially liable for this?

  • La Vida Robot

    Good morning. Jet lag sucks. This story doesn’t.

    La Vida Robot
    How four underdogs from the mean streets of Phoenix took on the best from M.I.T. in the national underwater bot championship.

    The winter rain makes a mess of West Phoenix. It turns dirt yards into mud and forms reefs of garbage in the streets. Junk food wrappers, diapers, and Spanish-language porn are swept into the gutters. On West Roosevelt Avenue, security guards, two squad cars, and a handful of cops watch teenagers file into the local high school. A sign reads: Carl Hayden Community High School: The Pride’s Inside.

    There certainly isn’t a lot of pride on the outside. The school buildings are mostly drab, late ’50s-era boxes. The front lawn is nothing but brown scrub and patches of dirt. The class photos beside the principal’s office tell the story of the past four decades. In 1965, the students were nearly all white, wearing blazers, ties, and long skirts. Now the school is 92 percent Hispanic. Drooping, baggy jeans and XXXL hoodies are the norm.

    The school PA system crackles, and an upbeat female voice fills the bustling linoleum-lined hallways. “Anger management class will begin in five minutes,” says the voice from the administration building. “All referrals must report immediately.”

    Across campus, in a second-floor windowless room, four students huddle around an odd, 3-foot-tall frame constructed of PVC pipe. They have equipped it with propellers, cameras, lights, a laser, depth detectors, pumps, an underwater microphone, and an articulated pincer. At the top sits a black, waterproof briefcase containing a nest of hacked processors, minuscule fans, and LEDs. It’s a cheap but astoundingly functional underwater robot capable of recording sonar pings and retrieving objects 50 feet below the surface. The four teenagers who built it are all undocumented Mexican immigrants who came to this country through tunnels or hidden in the backseats of cars. They live in sheds and rooms without electricity. But over three days last summer, these kids from the desert proved they are among the smartest young underwater engineers in the country.

    The rest of the article is available here.

  • Who needs guns anyway?

    Heard this afternoon on NPR:

    Cultural Differences Seen in Male Perceptions of Body Image

    All Things Considered, March 15, 2005   Preliminary results of a study from the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital finds that Taiwanese men are not as dissatisfied with their bodies as Western men. Sean Cole explores the permutations of body image perception among men.

    Poor BadBlood. He’s gunorexic!