Fascinating.

From Jetson Green, this announcement contains an amazing little kernel that will likely become one of those things in the future where people look back with wonder and ask, "They seriously didn't think of that before?" Kind of like with wheels on suitcases.

Masdar, which I mentioned before, has picked a Chicago firm to develop its 'headquarters' (kind of ominous if you ask me - why can't it be a city hall? Is Masdar going to be a quasi-corporate entity?) which is being billed as the world's first positive energy, mixed use building. Jetson Green follows up with a number of stats that it may or may not achieve, like generating more energy than it consumes, using 70% less water than similar buildings, etc. Impressive and imperative, but those will be accomplishments of scale and process, not in my mind nearly as surprising as one of their other bullet point achievements: They intend to "be the first building in history to generate power for its own assembly, through development of its solar roof pier before the underlying complex."

What a cool idea, and I bet it's one of the first to harness biomimicry from this direction. Everyone is trying to use structural and chemical biomimicry to develop better materials, and reexamining natural processes to tease out better ways of dealing with production and treatment cycles, but this goes right to the source by realizing the simple truth of how life propagates itself sustainably using what is around it, and providing only the seed, which is just an algorithm for future development using those available resources as efficiently as possible. Obviously this is only a first step and won't be fully realized in the immediate sandy environment, but just the fact that people are thinking this way is a huge step. Add in concepts like self-constructing buildings that synthesize micro-local materials (neighboring abandoned buildings?), and you've truly got the cities of our future.

More pix available at the Jetson Green site, from which I borrowed this one.

18 days. Be afraid.

"Don't underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory," Mr. Obama said. "Don't underestimate our ability to screw it up."

Lincoln's spinning in his grave

Yesterday when I answered her question about what I thought of the second presidential debate, a relative shot me the same look I reserve for only my most stupefyingly ignorant coworkers. Guess she didn't share my lack of enthusiasm. So it goes.

In celebration of their mutual embrace of mediocre performances, I've mixed up bullets from two different summaries of the debate, one a liveblog by Defective Yeti, the other FactCheck's after-action report:

• Obama said, “I favor nuclear power.” That’s a stronger statement than we've heard him make before. As recently as last December, he said, “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.”
• Aww rats. Obama and McCain just came out wearing their normal attire. After the "I've got a bracelet" / "oh yeah, well I also have a bracelet" exchange of the first debate, I was hoping they'd arrived encumbered by layers and layers, and would spend the whole debate stripping off articles of clothing and sharing the personal anecdotes associated with each. "This stocking cap was given to me by a grandmother who lost her retirement in the stock market", "well these cuff-links were given to me by an unaborted fetus" ...
• Words that will not escape Obama's lips tonight: "I agree with John."
• McCain says that fixing Social Security is not very hard, all we have to do is "sit down at the table" ZOMG WHY DIDNT ANYONE EVER THINK OF THAT BEFORE?!
• Both candidates oversimplified the causes of the financial crisis. McCain blamed it on Democrats who resisted tighter regulation of federal mortgage agencies. Obama blamed it on financial deregulation backed by Republicans. We find both are right, with plenty of blame left over for others, from home buyers to the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
• McCain namecheck tally: Leiberman: 3, Palin 0.
• For the record, here are all the issues that Obama does not think are "central": The next poet laureate, The redesign of the penny, Whether the toilet paper rolls in the whitehouse crappers will be "over" or "under"
• Before the third debate McCain should take a Sharpie and write the following on his hand: "DON'T FORGET: YOU SUCK AT JOKES".
• iObama: "We will nuke bin Laden from orbit, even if he's discovered in Tampa."
• McCain lamented that the U.S. was forced to “withdraw in humiliation” from Somalia in 1994, but he failed to note that he once proposed to cut off funding for troops to force a faster withdrawal.
• It's hard to keep track of all of McCain's heroes. So far he's mentioned Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt, and Gimli.
• McCain misstated his own health care plan and Obama’s in one sentence.
• Brokaw has pretty much given up. Unrelated: what's with the weird black rectangle behind these guys. Are individual cable channels photoshopping Cialis ads into that space or what?
• McCain: "We're not going to have another cold war ... with Russia." Oo, I wonder who it's going to be with, then? I'm gonna guess Chad.
• Yay, another "strategy vs. tactics" semantics fight! This is like hanging out with boardgame nerds.
• Obama said his health care plan would lower insurance premiums by up to $2,500 a year. Experts we’ve consulted see little evidence such savings would materialize.
• "Part of the challenge for the next commander-in-chief is to foresee the challenges that we'll face. That's why I'll establish a Department of Precrime."
• "Gamechanger", drink! But where the hell is "Maverick"? I should have done three or four dozen shots by now.

not for the faint of heart

Education and critical thought are the only things that will save our species from the yawning black maw of our lesser selves. Too bad many are past saving.

(at a rally in Clearwater, one man hurled a racial epithet at a television cameraman).

Ms. Palin appeared relieved at her exuberant reception. “It’s really great to be around friendly crowds,” she said at a fund-raiser in Boca Raton on Monday evening. “Boy, you guys just get it!”

Ms. Palin was asked if she thought voters who are worried about the economy are turned off by the “attack politics” of bringing up Mr. Ayers on the trail. “It is, though, about the economy about creating jobs and about resource development and energy independence here,” Ms. Palin said. “It comes down to one ticket’s proposal that can be trusted, and another ticket’s proposal to deal with some of these issues and maybe questioning the truthfulness and the intention there. I think it’s very relevant there.”

Elizabeth Dolan, 31, a single mother and waitress, said she counted Mr. Bush among one of the great presidents. “He was really good for my family,” Ms. Dolan said. “We’re hurting financially, but he shares our values just like Sarah Palin does.”

fotD 24

Ruggles Mine NH, originally uploaded by kdc123.

Hollywood hates teh gay

I’ve obviously been mistaken for a very long time. I’ve been under the impression that celebrities (like Paris and Penn, but not Fred Thompson of course) should keep their mouths shut and make movies. I’ve also thought that the media and Hollywood are corrosive to American values and toxic to babies, impressionable young white women, and the elderly. At least I thought that's what Fox has been telling me.

But if all that were true, OPM Deputy Director Howard Weizman wouldn’t possibly have referred to Adam Sandler’s movie “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” on the floor of the Senate September 24th as a valid explanation of why the administration opposed Joe Lieberman’s bill to extend benefits to same-sex partners. He cites L.A.'s deep analysis on the subject (from 9/29 print version of Federal Times):

“This is not farfetched. Even Hollywood has discussed this.”

Oh. Well, then… Hollywood, you say? Carry on, dumbass.

consider this article

DFW thinks about lobsters and the people who consign them to boiling water.

Two good lines:

Even in the harsh penal environment of early America, some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats.

As I see it, it probably is good for the soul to be a tourist, even if it's only once in a while. Not good for the soul in a refreshing or enlivening way, though, but rather in a grim, steely-eyed, let's-look-honestly-at-the-facts-and-find-some-way-to-deal-with-them way... As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.