20090730   

Hipsters

Michael considered fate at 14:11   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Having a hard time understanding pop-culture? Don't get teh kiddies these days? Want to understand why there is so much Pabst everywhere?

Well, luckily, the stooges at Time are here to help with Hipsters: A Brief History:

Though the subculture is met with derision in wider society, hipsters have been able to eke out enclaves across the country, chief among them the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Williamsburg. But now even that is threatened. The hip have been hit with a double whammy of economic reality (more are struggling to pay rent as parental support dries up) and population changes (the carefully gentrified neighborhood is gradually being infiltrated by squatters inhabiting Williamsburg's stalled building projects). Hipsterdom's largest natural habitat, it seems, is under threat.

Dead wood media is so.. dead.

And unintentionally hilarious.

And sad.

        20090727   

Peak Oil (again? *sigh*.. no, for the first time!)

Michael considered fate at 16:00   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

“Within the lifetime of most of the present drivers of automobiles there will be no more gasoline. It is a serious thing to contemplate, particularly from the standpoint of the manufacturer. Estimates based on the most complete data now available place the end of our gasoline supply between ten and twenty years, with the odds in favor of ten rather than twenty.”

What? This isn't news anymore? Well, apparently it was in 1925 where, in a New York Times editorial, this quote was written by D.H. Killefer, secretary of the New York section of the American Chemical Society.

Via the interesting GreenTechHistory.com.

I don't mean this to imply that we don't have a peak oil problem rearing its ugly head over us these days, or that we do, just that our so called pundits are often very very wrong. In fact, they are probably far more wrong than they are ever right. Remember that the next time you are convinced. Op-Ed does not equal Higher-Ed. Never, ever, believe anything you read. Research, reconfirm, retread, retry, whatever it takes, don't believe anything at face value. An uninformed position is no position at all. An entire field of strawmen will burn faster than a single truth.

Are maybe I'm just wishfully thinking?

Book of the Dead @ Geno's in Portland Maine, Thursday July 16th 2009

Michael considered fate at 14:28   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

        20090722   

EROI

Michael considered fate at 13:55   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

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Comment posted by  Anonymous @ 7/27/2009 2:21 PM:

maybe the carbon tax is actually to help pay for the extraction of oil. Hehe. 

EROI, or Energy return on investment, as measured by the amount of energy attained over the amount of energy consumed in the attainment, is going down. In other words it is taking more and more energy (oil) to extract and refine energy (oil) from the earth.

In the 1930's the ratio was roughly 100:1. It took a barrel of oil worth of energy to extract 100 barrels of oil. In the 1970's that ratio was down to 30:1 and by the turn of the century it was all the way down to 11:1.

Anyone who doesn't believe that these numbers indicate an increasing concern for us (and in the very near-term, to boot) is fooling themselves and doing no favour to the rest of us.

        20090721   

More from the Johnny Cremains shoot

Michael considered fate at 16:22   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

First sail of '09!

Michael considered fate at 11:31   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

        20090714   

Johnny Cremains photoshoot at Pettingill Pond, Windham, Maine

Michael considered fate at 10:52   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

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Comment posted by  Elise @ 7/14/2009 4:27 PM:

Nice hats! 

        20090713   

Pew, that smells.

Michael considered fate at 22:00   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

This Pew Internet survey suggests that more adult Americans blog than participate in online auctions. Really? Come on America, I thought you were good at buying?

The truly amazing thing to me is that a majority of folks just use the internet for news, weather, and politics.. but what's the point, really, when cable tv does just that (not that I'm claiming to be a big consumer of news, weather, or politics through the tv or anything). Of all the useful things the innernectors have given us, nobody wants to buy or make travel reservations online? Weird.