The only drawback I see is that it is a completely electronic instrument. I suppose the tapping could be considered percussion but otherwise, after an apocalypse, you’re kind of screwed. Still, awesome instrument!

So I did research and eventually settled on two kits from Survival Kits Online. I chose them because of the quality and thoroughness of their kits primarily, but also because their price was hard to beat. I picked up a two-person kit and a four-person kit. The first for the car so that Rosa would be covered where ever she was, and the bigger kit for home.

I had ordered the kits almost immediately after the disaster in Japan and didn’t receive them after several weeks. I wasn’t terribly worried as I figured they were inundated with a back log from people like me. When the kits finally arrived I also got a personal email from the proprietor apologizing for the delay. He let me know that the delay was caused by their charitable aid to the victims in Japan. For some reason this news actually made me happy; they cared enough to prioritize helping survivors in Japan despite potentially alienating me, their customer. I love this. I want a company I do business with to genuinely care about the world we live in and still be able to produce a quality product I can use (even if a little slow to arrive this time).

If you need to resupply your survival kit, or get one in the first place, I highly recommend Survival Kits Online. Please note that aside from being a happy customer, I receive no benefit from this endorsement with this single caveat: if you buy a ton of kits from the link above I might make a few cents from the Amazon affiliates plan.

* exceptions are reviews of book, movies, music and other media types.

With best estimates, hemp can produce about 100 gallons per acre.

Using outdated information from 2004, America consumes about 140,000,000,000 gallons of gas per year.

Hemp can be harvested every 120 days, which gives about 3 harvests a year in an idealized world (which we do not have).

140,000,000,000/100 = 1,400,000,000 acres required from a single hemp harvest to equal gasoline consumption. However, let’s go with the hypothetical three harvests a year:

1,400,000,000/3 = 466,666,666 acres needed if we can get three harvests a year.

466,666,666 acres = 729,166 square miles. America is 3,537,441 square miles, which seems like a lot. However, of that land only 635,038 square miles are usable (based on 406,424,909 acres of cropland).

635,038 is less than 729,166, so not only could we not grow enough hemp, but we wouldn’t be able to produce any crops and we would starve. Incidentally, hemp will not grow in some environments so usable acreage is actually smaller. Even more damning is the fact that gasoline is already processed for consumption; hemp oil would need to be processed as well, which would reduce the volume actually produced. There is also hemp’s lesser fuel efficiency to factor into the equation. Clearly hemp oil cannot replace gaoline on any sort of equal footing.

All of this only addresses automobiles gasoline consumption; it doesn’t touch upon electrical or natural gas consumption.

The problem with the whole argument isn’t necessarily that my coworker was wrong. It’s that he listens to and blindly agrees with pundits that say things like, “Hemp oil can replace gasoline!” The best thing for the world would be to stop believing people on the radio, television and in books who talk like they know what they are saying but possibly don’t. Look up the facts for yourself. Use a critical mind even -and maybe especially- with people you agree. Don’t get sucked into the belief, so prevalent today, that one way is absolutely correct and everything else is wrong. Remember wise Yoda: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

In this case The Suffering is our world and so many people on it. Our inability to find fact-based solutions to problems because so many people are blinded by ideas and beliefs has, and will continue to, give rise to too many evils.

Any help?

What I don’t know is what makes some writers, like Amanda Hocking and many others, choose to distribute their work directly through existing online publishers like Smashwords instead of other services like Manfred Macx. What drives their choices? Further, what are the choices? Can you distribute through multiple channels or do you get locked into one single distribution point?

Much of this is a mystery to me. What is yet clear, though, is that having an agent is still important. What might be more important, however, is having an agent who is aware of all of these choices and will advise you fairly.

It used to be said that if you self published then you were dooming yourself to never getting a traditional book deal. As technology is advancing it is becoming clear that, at least for some individuals, this is less and less of an issue. In Amanda Hocking’s case she probably has a better deal going it on her own than if she had a book deal. I say “probably” because who knows? If she had a regular book deal she might have turned into the Next Big Thing™ and would have loads more sales and opportunities on all fronts.

But you never know, and she’s doing quite well on her own, and she’s calling her own shots within the context of having an agent. Apparently going indie or traditional, the job of an agent is still going to be important… And since one of her series has been optioned to be a movie it’s possible we’ll hear a lot more from this young 26 year old.

I’m not exactly jealous. Envious might be a better word. You can check out Amanda’s blog here.

Lenses. Fisheye and macro. Telephoto, please? Video and camera stabilizing system. OWLE Bubo. I can imagine the usefulness.

Fun stuff. Do want!

io9′s new, terrible facelift

But they’ve changed their interface. Now it’s not only ugly, but useless. WTF, io9? This facelift is TERRIBLE! You can make a “feature” article in other ways, and you can list the other articles better than a narrow column that doesn’t even resize to fit a page properly. Change is good, yes, but if you need a bloody manual to explain the interface then you have already FAILED. If you want the page to load faster, dump all the Flash banner crap and limit the article count to a reasonable 10 or 20 instead of the 50 or so that it was before. Please put the old one back or you’ll lose at least one avid fan and reader.

I’m a huge not-fan of large gatherings but I just might have to go to this io9 meetup and complain in person.

PS: Your “classic view” is broken.
PPS: If you look at the picture closely you’ll see a few tabs… Yep, that’s research for the new blog, interest in picking up Stargate: Atlantis, the io9 meetup and research of location shooting. Fun!

My friend Josh was out and about with his brother recently, and visited Scuderia West where they are now selling the Brammo Enertia, an all electric motorcycle. After talking about it I wanted to look a bit more into how practical electric motorcycles are and, after reading some specs from Brammo, Zero Motorcycles and Native, and my conclusion is these things aren’t ready. At least they aren’t ready as marketed.

They’re being touted at motorcycles which, strictly speaking, they are (two-wheeled motorized vehicles). However, when I think of a motorcycle I think of something that can go pretty fact, reasonably far, and when out of fuel can be topped off for a quick departure. On average these motorcycles can go about 60 miles on a single charge and can take around eight hours to recharge. This means that if I were to travel to San Luis Obispo (about 250 miles along Highway One) it would take me at least four stops with eight hours to charge. That’s a 36 hour trip for something that can take me around six on my Thruxton. That’s not good, and doesn’t fit my idea of a motorcycle.

However, it does fit my description of a commuter vehicle, especially here in California where we can cut lanes when the cages (cars) back up. Most people hopefully aren’t commuting more than 40 miles or so in any one direction, and with all day at work to recharge the battery they can commute the 40 miles home. These things are being sold (from what I’ve seen) as fun and recreational motorcycles but they are not. Running out of gas miles on a motorcycle sucks but with a borrowed gallon of gas you can get yourself to any gas station nearby. When you run out of a charge on one of these new electric vehicles your are stuck, dead in the water, for eight hours. NOT FUN.

Commuting to work isn’t fun, but if these folks would to the unglamorous thing and market themselves as extremely practical, safe (personally and environmentally) commuter vehicles I think they would have a successful product. It will take some changes (better ergonomics, blatant safety measures, effective gear for safety and weather easily available, etc) but I think it would work. They’re already a step ahead since these vehicles do not have clutches. That’s right, newbies wouldn’t have to learn how to drive clutch which, as lamentable as that seems, is a great boon to those coming into the two-wheeled fold for commuting purposes.

The day they come up with an electric motorcycle that can go at least 100 miles on a single charge and can be recharged in minutes, not hours I’ll get excited (look at Subaru’s engine for an idea of the possibilities upcoming). Until then I wouldn’t mind trying one out for my commute; I just won’t think of it as a motorcycle.