TameBear: Big Ideas

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:24:06 GMT

We Can Solve It: The Challenge of Fossil-Free Electricity Within Ten Years: There will be a lot of pressure in the near future to open up protected areas for oil drilling. Oil companies and oil company lobbyists benefit the most from America's addiction to oil, but in the long run, what's truly best for America? My vote is for switching to 100% clean, renewable electricity within 10 years. If you've been watching the Olympics this week, maybe you've already seen a new TV message from "The WE Campaign", illustrating this positive switch from fossil fuels to environmentally friendly renewables. Here it is again: Within ten years many more of us will be generating our own electricity in our backyards, using it to power our electric cars, and burning much much less oil, coal, and natural gas than we do now. Within ten years, these changes will have a dramatic positive impact on the health of our planet. I believe this ambitious goal -- to have fossil-free electricity within ten years -- is doable, and we can all participate in making it happen, starting today. [wecansolveit.org]

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:29:53 GMT

Air Car Coming to U.S. by 2010: How would you like to be getting 868 miles on a single fill-up? A startup funded by Indian car company Tata Motors plans on bringing a car powered by compressed air to the U.S. automobile market sometime in 2009 or 2010. They company, named Zero Pollution Motors, has developed a car that runs entirely on compressed air for around-town driving, and uses minimal amounts of gasoline at highway speeds. [CNET News.com]

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:06:40 GMT

Kepler: The Search for Microbial Life in the Universe: "If we find a single microbe on just one extraterrestrial rock out in space, then we will know... that life is everywhere." This compelling 7-minute video suggests our search for life elsewhere in the universe should focus on microbes instead of on civilizations. Modern technological civilization on our own planet is a brief moment in time, a mere millenium. Meanwhile life has existed here on Earth for most of the planet's existance (3 out of the 4 billion years since our planet first formed). [European Space Agency/NASA via The Speculist]

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 12:14:02 GMT

Texas Startup Says It Has Batteries Beat: The patent application from EEStor of Austin Texas claims "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," and if so, they're onto something big. Many in the industry view their claims with great cynicism... but that has not dissuaded Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers from investing $3 million in the little company. [Yahoo News]

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:40:21 GMT

Heavenly Bodies: Whenever the Bear comes across such atronomical comparisons as these, it inspires awe, tinged with a great humility at our smallness in the celestial void, and gratitude and wonder that we even exist at all. [YouTube]

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:17:36 GMT

Dick Cheney's Quagmire: The Bear does not usually comment on politics, but this truth-telling from our 2nd in command -- Dick Cheney -- was just too significant to pass up. Here is the Vice President, nine years prior to our invading Iraq, on why such an imperial conquest would be a bad, BAD idea... [YouTube via MoveOn.org]

Sun, 20 May 2007 12:13:31 GMT

Two-Time Physics in Four Dimensions of Space: A new theory about time, developed by USC College physicist Itzhak Bars postulating two dimensions of time may prove to be the missing link connecting quantum physics with general relativity. [What's Next In Science & Technology]

Sun, 20 May 2007 11:41:05 GMT

Aluminum Alloy Extracts Hydrogen From Water On Demand: While cleaning some lab equipment, a Purdue University engineer inadvertently stumbles upon a new method for producing hydrogen from water. The hydrogen is generated on demand, so you only produce as much as you need, when you need it. It's possible the technique could be used to replace gasoline in cars. [What's Next In Science & Technology]

Tue, 15 May 2007 12:09:47 GMT

Peak Uranium: "Limited supplies of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants may thwart the renewed and growing interest in nuclear energy in the United States and other nations, according to an industry expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology." [Reuters News via Futurismic]

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:52:09 GMT

How Apple TV Changes the Economics Of TV: Not only will niche content change the economics of television, but long before that happens many viewers will drop their cable TV service and instead use Apple TV to buy their TV shows and movies a la carte from iTunes -- all for less than the cost of their monthly cable bill. [Micropersuasion via MyAppleMenu]

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:32:00 GMT

High Hopes for Pond Scum: Solix Biofuels is betting on commercial algae production. Their algae feeds on CO2 and produces oil, lots of oil. The company hopes to give soy some competition in the emerging market for renewable biofuels. [Popular Mechanics via The Speculist]

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 11:00:19 GMT

Apple of Our Eye - Macs Save Money: According to this viewpoint, there's been a distinct sea change in the way people think about Apple Inc. in the last few weeks. People have been saying the strangest things about Apple and Macintosh computers; everything is topsy-turvy. Pundits aren't trotting out the old conventional wisdoms any more. They're saying odd stuff, like Macs are good for business; Macs can save money; and that Apple's stock -- at $90 a share -- is a bargain. As a long-time Mac user, The Bear was convinced many years ago of the benefits of Macintosh computers -- especially regarding price. You see, my time is valuable. Therefore when I pay a bit more for a Mac (and mind you it's never been a lot more), the time I save in wasted days not spent in useless troubleshooting has always been a huge benefit. Macs just work, period. My current laptop has been in service for over six years, and it just works. And as for Apple's stock price, well, as an Apple shareholder I can tell you the increase in share price over the past several years has more than paid for all the Apple toys I care to buy. [Wired News]

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:06:39 GMT

The Secret: It's an enticing offer: "Fragments of a great secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it." Rhonda Byrne's The Secret is currently #2 at Amazon.com, just behind only the new Harry Potter. The Speculist offers a cynical take on the idea that our thoughts create reality. The Bear thinks we get everything we wish for, but it never turns out quite like we imagine. [The Speculist]

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:56:40 GMT

A New Theory of the Universe: Robert Lanza, VP of science research and development at Advanced Cell Technology, holds to a biocentric view of the universe, in which our perception of the world around us is mediated by our central nervous system. Quantum theory suggests that observation physically alters the world in fundamental ways. We cannot separate ourselves -- the observers -- from the observed phenomena around us, and so everything we know about the world is intimately linked to our biology of perception. In some measure, our biologic-based modes of sense perception create all the world we know of. [The American Scholar via Wired News]

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:08:55 GMT

iPods Set to Usurp CDs: The Beatles settlement clears the way for Apple to begin selling iPods loaded with music. As the cost of flash drives continues to fall, a low-cost shuffle loaded with tunes begins to compete head-to-head with CDs. [Wired News]

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:44:05 GMT

75 Percent of Vista Reviewers Compare Mac OS X: Sample quotes from a dozen different reviews demonstrate how favorable comparisons with the more mature Mac OS X operating system are irresistable. More reviewers are acknowleging features of Vista have been in Mac OS X for years. [Ars Technica via MyAppleMenu]

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:56:35 GMT

Buzzoo.net: Here's one to watch - a news links site started by three Goshen College grads seeks to aggregate the top aggregators. They started with reddit, digg, slashdot and del.icio.us; now they're drawing from the top news on google, netscape, dzone, gigaom, techcrunch, arstechnica, cnn, shoutwire, yahoo, boingboing, furl, and more. See what floats to the top on all your favorite news aggregators, by visiting just one site: Buzzoo. [TameBear Radio]

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 12:00:57 GMT

U.S. Servers Suck More Power Than Mississippi: Power-hungry servers consumed 45 million kilowatt-hours of power in 2005 - twice the power usage of 2000. One obvious solution: solar powered servers. [CNET News.com]

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:34:40 GMT

Why Vista's DRM is Bad: Computer security expert Bruce Schneier explains why Microsoft pandering to the entertainment industry has made their new Vista operating system less secure. "Windows Vista includes an array of 'features' that you don't want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you." [Forbes Magazine via Futurismic]

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:12:04 GMT

How Yahoo Blew It: In 2002 Yahoo had a chance to buy Google for $5 billion. Didn't happen - Yahoo CEO Terry Semel thought that was too much to pay, and bought Overture instead. This tale of the text-ad-against-search competition between the two search giants, Yahoo and Google, focuses on the relative merits of deals and marketing vs. engineering and technology. In the winner-takes-all ecosystem of the global net, has second place become last place? [Wired News]

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:59:25 GMT

Light Theory - Transcripts: In response to our growing audience of listeners, we've begun publishing transcripts of some of our more notable "TameBear Radio" podcasts. Three episodes in particular have been getting a lot of attention, and so we're featuring them here. These are the initial episodes in what is likely to be an ongoing theme regarding the Bear's "Theory of Light and Existence"...

Into the Light - Everything we perceive of the material world, including ourselves, is made of light, and is moving through space at light speed. (Also known as the "To Be Or Not To Be" episode.)
Choices, Choices - Every moment is a decision point, and every choice we make splits the universe. All possible choices exist in a multverse of overlapping existence. (Also known as the "To Do Or Not To Do" episode.)
Riding Waves - The light that we and all things are made of exists as both particle and wave simultaneously. Particles are the physical stuff we are made of; waves are the ephemeral sensory processing, thoughts, and dreams of our mind. There exists a unity of light, mind, and body.

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 11:11:13 GMT

The American Energy Vision: A hopeful new report from the Worldwatch Institute is titled "American Energy: The Renewable Path to Energy Security". The report shows that an energy future based on abundant and clean renewable resources is not only urgently needed, but achievable. In advocating the thoughtful expansion of renewable technologies, American Energy presents a clear and practical path to end this country's troublesome addiction to fossil fuels, and in the process make headway against the equally challenging problem of global warming. The report is available in downloadable PDF format. [Worldwatch Institute]

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 12:52:21 GMT

Riding Waves: We are everything we perceive in the world, everything we think, everything we belive and everything we imagine. We are, at our core, the merest stuff of substance and dream. This week's podcast expounds further on the unity of mind, matter, and light. The Bear's conjecture that we and everthing we see around us is made of light, implies that everything we are, and everything we do, and all the ways we impact our sphere of influence and partipate in the repetitive march of history, is a matter of waves emmanating through space. The quality of our lives is directly related to how well we ride those waves. [TameBear Radio 2006]

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:38:00 GMT

One Million Ways To Die: This one well-sourced story does more than all the 9/11 anniversary editorials combined to put the risk of terrorism in its proper perspective. As the article notes, you are at greater risk of dying from a hernia than from a terrorist attack. Consider how different things would be if the $400 billion spent on the false-pretenses pre-emptive war in Iraq had instead been used to develop and implement new highway safety technology to alert drivers when they are drifting off the road. Or any of a hundred other good uses. Imagine what GOOD our federal tax dollars could accomplish, and how much better our national reputation would have fared on the world stage, if our elected representatives had exercised more sense and wisdom in setting our national spending priorities. [Wired News: Top Stories]

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:44:16 GMT

A Supreme Power: Our reputation as a kind nation ready to help others in need was squandered by this administration: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a cowed House and Senate that had no spine to stand against the new doctrine of pre-emtive war they constructed out of our national tradgedy. Five years after 9/11, America -- which could have shed God's grace on the whole world -- has instead made itself a nation worthy of reproach, of ill repute, a war-mongering global bully. Our leaders in Congress and the Whitehouse lost sight of the essential task: bringing the 9/11 criminals to justice. [TameBear Radio 2006]

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 10:55:44 GMT

Schwarzenegger Signs Solar Law: California will take the lead in producing renewable energy with a bill that aims to produce 3000 clean megawatts of power by 2018, by encouraging installion of a million rooftop solar panels across the state. That's equivalent to five pollution-free power plants. [Red Herring via Futurismic]

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 01:30:27 GMT

What If They Gave a War...?: Writer Tony Long asks why Americans aren't marching in the streets to protest our government's ongoing military incursions and the escalating repression of civil liberties. "By the principles established by the Nuremberg Tribunal and international law, our president is a war criminal." Does anybody out there have a conscience anymore? [Wired News]

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:23:58 GMT

THC Slows Onset of Alzheimer's Disease: One more reason to legalize pot? Medical investigators at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla CA have discovered that the active ingredient in Marijuana is more effective at blocking the formation of beta amyloid plaques than currently available medications. "While we are certainly not advocating the use of illegal drugs, these findings offer convincing evidence that THC possesses remarkable inhibitory qualities," says a new study published this month. [Scripps Research Institute via FuturePundit]

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:31:08 GMT

Apple Thrashes Dell on Mac Pro Pricing: Apple is clearly bent on busting the long-standing myth that Macs cost more than Windows boxes. A well-reasoned price shopping comparison conducted just days after the release of the new high-end Intel-based Mac Pro demonstrates how some configurations can save buyers as much as $462 over an equivalent Windows system from Dell. (And while the Mac can also run the Windows OS and any Windows apps, the Dell will never be able to run Mac OS X!) [The Inquirer via Insanely Great]

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 11:56:28 GMT

Quantum Leap: Fortune speculates on the future of computing in this imaginative piece based on recent developments in quantum computing. Their take: it's all closer than you may think, and they point to Freescale's commercial production of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) as first evidence. The quantum effect known as "Spintronics" in Freescale's MRAM will first be used in cameras for instant storage of images. Later it will be used for instant startup on laptops and other computers, and eventually will be used for extremely fast and complex calculation. [The Speculist]

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 12:24:45 GMT

What Kind of Genius Are You?: A new theory about creativity suggests there are two distinct types -- quick and dramatic "conceptual innovators" that produce their greatest work at a young age and then decline into obscurity; and careful and quiet "experimental innovators" who learn and build on their previous efforts to produce their greatest works late in life. [Wired News]

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 10:29:12 GMT

Choices, Choices: In this latest episode of "TameBear Radio", the Bear presents a theory of The Multiverse - multiple universes all unseen by us. As we make choices, moment by moment, we pass from one universe to another. The universe divides and multiplies, driven by our freedom to choose one way or another, in a fomenting torrent of splitting and growing. [TameBear Radio 2006]

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:28:38 GMT

Into the Light: What a marvelous place we inhabit, a mystical world awash in a bright glow of light, on a scale that truly challenges the imagination. Come along this week on a descent into the subatomic realm as Tame Bear presents a theory of existential being, a jig of mass and light, from the tiniest particles of matter we scale up rapidly to the grand expanse of the universe. All to comprehend the essential core of our existence. [TameBear Radio 2006]

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 11:56:49 GMT

Biotown, USA: The town of Reynolds, Indiana -- population 533 -- is also home to some 150,000 hogs. Some smart state officials have conviced Reynolds to become a showcase "biotown", generating all their electricity from biogas produced by the decomposition of pig manure. Looks like they're planning to power municipal vehicles on ethanol or biodiesel too. [theWatt: Energy News and Discussion]

Sat, 27 May 2006 03:54:34 GMT

Solar Powered: In this followup to last year's "Preparing for Solar" episode, the Bear interviews webmaster Peter Oakley to learn more about the solar electric power system that was installed at his home office this Spring. Pete describes how solar panels work, the components of the system, interconnection with the electric utility grid, battery backup, environmental reasons for going solar, total cost and payback. A very informative episode for everyone interested in reducing their ecological footprint. [TameBear Radio 2006]

Fri, 05 May 2006 16:27:23 GMT

Native Speaker: Tame Bear surmised back in January (see "Apple Rosetta Stealth", Jan 20, 2006) that Apple was laying the groundwork for everyone to run Windows apps on Intel Macintosh computers -- without running the Microsoft Windows OS! Now Robert X. Cringely has picked up this same theme, reminding readers that Apple already has a license to implement the Windows XP API, and they can do it natively on their new Intel Macs. So Windows XP users could get a Mac to run all their current software apps, and ditch the security-flawed Windows OS in the same move. Can't wait for Windows Vista? Why bother when everything it offers is already available and shipping in Mac OS X? [PBS.org]

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:00:38 GMT

Peak Oil resolution in U.S. House of Representaives: Echoing the essential message of Tame Bear's recent "The Race for Space" podcast, a newly formed "Peak Oil Caucus" in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced a resolution: As fossil energy resources become depleted, new, highly efficient technologies will be required in order to sustainably tap replenishable resources... The United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency of the 'Man on the Moon' project to develop a comprehensive plan to address the challenges presented by Peak Oil. [Global Public Media via Renew Energy Blog]

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 23:29:43 GMT

TMA's Vertical Axis Wind Turbine: Another story about the new wind generator design unveiled by Terra Moya Aqua this past week. This article has two pictures, both a bit sketchy. The company is reportedly holding back any new pictures of their engineering design pending completion of an initial patent filing. Here is a quote from the article:

Ten years in the making, with seven iterations, and countless hours in a wind tunnel being tested by a premier wind engineering firm, as well as years of data collected from prototypes installed just outside of Cheyenne (one of the more windy locations in the U.S.), the TMA design is now ready for commercialization.

Anyone out there in the Cheyenne area want to go snap some photos of the test models there? [Open Source Energy]

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 12:49:54 GMT

Video Podcasting Will Be Huge: After picking up his own 30GB iPod Video, Russell Beattie writes,"I'm telling you right now, Video Podcasts are going to be huge. HUUUUGE. ... I'm positive. It's a no brainer." And not just because of the bright gorgeous screen and simplicity of downloading -- much of the content will be highly original and free. [Russell Beattie via Wired News]

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 22:34:25 GMT

The Coming Bush Economic Crisis: The bear rarely links to political commentary, but this one was just too smart-on-target to pass up. Describing President George W. Bush as "the most financially reckless president in history," it recounts W's profiligate spending combined with tax breaks for the wealthiest top-20. It's a recipe for spiraling inflation, dollar devaluation, and government bankruptcy. [CNET News.com]