Who Killed The Electric Car?

Saw a great movie the other night - Who Killed The Electric Car?

It's a fascinating, convoluted story of technology, politics, economics, marketing, statistics and human foibles as well as human potential. It is full of interviews with people who drove (and loved) GM's EV1, and explores the reasons for GM's decision to recall and crush every single one of them (the cars, not the people, although the people did feel crushed to see their cars destroyed).

Obviously, this is a film with a point of view and an opinion to express. The filmmaker wants to see electric cars on the roads, and in my opinion he makes a pretty good case that 1) the technology is mature, 2) the market demand exists (or could exist, if a company would just try a little). I happen to share those opinions, but I think it's important to recognize them for what they are - opinions. The engineer in me would have liked to see a little more hard data, but I also realize a movie isn't the best way to present the kind of deep data I want, so I'll let them off the hook.

The film answers the title question with Guilty verdicts for Oil Companies, Car Companies, the Government and, perhaps surprisingly, Consumers. Who gets the "not guilty" verdict? The batteries. In fact, an engineer explains that recent improvements to battery technologies could extend the EV1's range significantly (to 300 miles, as I recall).

Now, this is not a simple issue by any means. We do need to ask about the environmental impact of generating enough electricity to power these cars. Zero emissions at the tailpipe doesn't mean zero pollution overall, and if we're burning coal to produce electricity, it's the equivalent of coal-burning cars. Sort of defeats the purpose. We also need to look hard at consumer demand, etc. But I sure would love to see us stop buying so much oil (see Post-Oil era post1 and Post 2)

(For another interesting alternative, check out MDI's Air Car, which I blogged about previously)

Andrew Keen - Comic Genius

Andrew Keen is a comic genius. Andy Kaufman has NOTHING on this guy.

How else can we explain his blog post on Encyclopedia Britannica’s blog (Encyclopedia Britannica has a blog?), railing against the inappropriate liberties and "destructive consequences" of Web 2.0? And he did it with such a straight face, I almost missed the irony (actually, his photo sort of gave it away).

You can also check out his "Against You" manifesto at ChangeThis.com, bemoaning all these new online mechanisms which allow anyone to do an end-run around traditional media outlets and become an author. You know, things like ChangeThis.com. Here are a few quotes, starting with one where he expresses deep concern for the well-being of established media sources:

What about the tradition owners and distributors of culture and information— the mainstream media companies, the Hollywood studios, the big record labels, national newspapers and magazines, book and magazine publishers, and the television and radio networks?

Yes, in contrast with Web 2.0’s Generation Y, my generation is audience. We don’t want to be authors. We want to consume rather than create. My generation is appropriately deferential. We know our place in the cultural order of things. We revere the expert creators of our culture rather than seeking to be those professional artists ourselves. Like Rob in High Fidelity, my generation collects music rather than wanting to make it ourselves.

Taste resides with an elite of cultural critics able to determine, on behalf of the public, the value of a work-of-art. The digital utopia seeks to flatten this elite into an ochlocracy. The danger, therefore, is that the future will be tasteless.

Oh stop, Mr. Keen, stop please, my sides really hurt, you're killing me. Hold on while I catch my breath...

Brilliant stuff. Absolutely brilliant. I'm LOL'ing and ROTF'ing. Gotta go twitter about it now.

(he is joking, right?)

Boomer Sisters update

I got a note from someone at North Country Public Radio (NCPR) saying they want to do a review of The Boomer Sisters Meet Champy, and could I please send them a copy?

Why, yes I can! How exciting!

Fun with Trains

Kim and the girls took a train from Utica to Albany yesterday, where her mom met up with them and drove everyone down to NYC for a few days (I'm driving down on Friday to join them, and then we'll all drive back together). It was the kid's first ever train trip, and they were really looking forward to it. However, it just might be their last.

The train was supposed to leave Utica at 1:20 and arrive at Albany by 3:30. No big deal, right? I drove them to the station, where we found out the train was 2 hours late. The station is 30 minutes from the house, so it didn't make sense to go home to wait, since we'd just have to turn around again (so we thought). As clever readers have probably guessed, there were more delays, and they didn't end up leaving until after 5!

It gets better.

A storm blew through and knocked out the signal (whatever that means). I got a call from Kim around 8 (thank goodness for cellphones!) saying the train was stopped... somewhere. They didn't hit Albany until close to 9, at which point they were very much ready to eat some dinner. They finally got to NYC sometime after 11...

The girls were real troopers, well behaved, and made lots of friends on the train. Kim is amazing and was well prepared with snacks, games, books, and awe-inspiring patience (I'm SUCH a lucky man). All's well that ends well, but I don't imagine we're going to do much rail travel again anytime soon. I'm amazed that Amtrak turned what could have been a 90 minute drive into a 9 hour ordeal. Yikes!

I'm sure Amtrak isn't always this bad, but gosh, it was worse than flying... and not only could they not tell us when the train would arrive, most of the time they couldn't even tell us where the train was (information a cheap GPS receiver and a cellphone would easily provide).

I'm glad we weren't planning for it to be a two-way trip!

Anyone else have any train stories, good or otherwise?

Alarming Alarms

I found some crazy little alarm clocks over at ThinkGeek. One of them rolls away from you when the alarm goes off, forcing you to chase it around the bedroom to turn it off. The other launches a helicopter, which you have to retrieve and replace before the alarm stops.

Now, even though they made me laugh at first, the more I think about it, the more I can't stand them.

From a systems engineering perspective (or problem solving in general) they are solving the wrong problem, and doing it too late. They address the symptom (oversleeping), not the cause (fatigue). If you consistently sleep through your alarm, it's not because the snooze button is too convenient. It's something deeper, which even an army of mobile alarm clocks can't address. These alarms are clever in a twisted way, but they just can't be good for you.

Now, I realize my own experience with sleep is sort of unusual in America these days. Most of the time, I go to bed rather early (i.e. before 11), fall asleep immediately, and wake up easily. I understand that for chemical, biological, psychological, physiological or family reasons (or a combination of all 5), many people just can't do that. They have my sympathies.

But then there are those who just choose to deprive themselves of sleep, figuring their magic rolling/spinning/flying alarm clock will compensate for their behavior. To them, I say "Hey, here's an idea - how about laying off the caffeine, turning the TV off and going to bed at a decent time? You might have to do that a few nights in a row before you fully catch up, but missing a few episodes of The Daily Show won't kill you (and sleep deprivation just might)." Or better yet - how about taking a day off in the middle of the week and sleeping in or otherwise resting? (you can always watch The Daily Show online, afterall).

Fun with Lulu!

I finally got around to ordering some clean copies of my own books. Until now, I only had my "author's review draft" for most of them, which were full of typo's, corrections, notes in the margins, etc.

But now I've got a good, readable, updated copy of The Desert, The Radical Elements, The Best of Rogue Project Leader and - most excitingly - The Simplicity Cycle.

Actually, this is the first hardcopy of The Simplicity Cycle I've ordered. I have to say, it looks gorgeous (imnsho). I'm quite proud of it, and at $8.99 (plus shipping) it's a real bargain. Of course, the free PDF version is even more of a bargain, but there's something special about holding an actual book in your hands.

Having a hard time with B3

This third Boomer Sisters book has been harder to write than the first two. I'm sure part of it is that I haven't done any traveling (for work) this month. With the first two, I had long plane trips when I could do some writing (I do a lot of writing at 30,000 feet).

Part of it is that I'm typing it directly in a word processer, instead of spiral notebooks like the first two. That makes it harder to sneak away during lunchtime to do some writing. I'm pretty much limited to the time I have at home in the mornings.

But I think a big part of it is that there is no peril in this book. No underwater adventures, no creepy mind-control books, no flying bicycles... And that lack of peril means it lacks a certain amount of tension. And that makes it harder to write.

I am also starting to suspect this book isn't as good as the second one was. It's too soon to tell, but I think the second one might be better than this will be. That's not necessarily bad, but it's a strange thought.

But the 4th one will be full of tension and peril (it's about pirates). And I think I'm going to write it in a spiral notebook...

(the good news is - I got a new idea for the ending of B3 - and it's very cool!)

Fun With Blogs...

Recently, I went back through the archives of several of my favorite blogs, to read the first post for each one. Most of these first posts said something along the lines of "Hey, I started a blog!" or "Please be patient - I'm still trying to figure this blog thing out," or simply "Test."

But the coolest first post was Andy Nulman's, which started with the following lines:

Hello and thanks for coming. Chances are that if you're reading this, you are backtracking to see how this whole thing got started, 'cuz during the first couple months of posting, I think NASA's Mars Rover saw more traffic than I did.

That was a cool surprise, and totally cracked me up.

So... if you've got a moment and a few spare mouseclicks, you might want to click the archive link on your favorite blog or two, and see what people were blogging about when they first started posting...

B3 Excerpt

Here's another little excerpt of my current Work-In-Progress: The Boomer Sisters In The City. It's from the end of the first chapter. The girls and their family are going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) on a hot summer day. I like the way this scene shows their personalities...

At first, BJ and Jekka were distracted by the artists and vendors who lined the sidewalk outside the Met, offering paintings and little sculptures for sale. Then, an unusual color caught BJ’s eye, and she gasped.

“Look!” She grabbed Jekka’s arm. “Someone painted all over the Met!”

Jekka looked up from a painting of a fairy eating french toast, and laughed out loud at the sight. The front of the Met was a wild artsplash of color. It looked like the work of a crazy giant with a dozen cans of spray paint and too much time on his hands. The building was covered with strange symbols, bubble-shaped letters, and pictures of people and animals neither girl recognized.

“It says ‘graffiti’ over there – is that the name of the person who did this?” Jekka asked.

No, kiddo,” Mr. Boomer answered. “Graffiti means writing or drawing on a wall, and this summer, the Met is doing a special exhibit all about graffiti art.”

“Oh, good,” said BJ with a sigh of relief. “I thought it was going to stay like this forever.”

“I wish it would,” Jekka replied. “I like this better.”

“Well, it is cool,” said BJ, tentatively, “But I think I like the building better the way it was.”

“Wait until you see the inside,” Nana added.

Buy Some Art!

Elena Nazzaro, aka French Toast Girl, is an amazing artist and blogger and one of my favorite daily reads.

She's offering very reasonably priced prints of her artwork, and I just placed my order for a couple - one of a fairy reading a book (for Beth), one of a girl singing (for Jenna), and one of a girl with a unicorn (for Beth & Jenna to share). I can't wait to see them and give them to the girls.

Go check out the French Toast Girl blog, surf through her collection of artwork, and place an order. A 5x7 is only $5, and that includes shipping.

I hope she sells a million!

Exact Science...

"Exact science is not exact science..."
- Tesla (played by David Bowie), in The Prestige.

Francis Buck Livesey

This is my great-great grandfather, Francis Buck Livesey. They called him "America's Champion Letter Writer" (or maybe that's just what he called himself). A farmer in Maryland, he wrote over 20,000 letters to newspapers across the country, mostly on the topic of education reform (he got a 2-line obit in Time Magazine when he died in 1925 at the age of 80).

He was quite a character. His letters advocated abolishing public schools and radically revising the American educational system. The Baltimore American called him a "strong and rugged character whose pen cleaves like a sword." I really like him.

In 1959, Time Magazine quoted him in an article about educational reform (it's the only quote from him I've found online):

Pamphleteer Francis B. Livesey blamed public schools for "the Negro problem, the servant problem, the labor problem, the tramp problem, the unemployment problem, the divorce problem, the eyesight problem, the juvenile problem, the bribery problem and the pure-food problem.

I can guess what the unemployment, divorce and bribery problems are... not too sure what he meant by the juvenile problem or (sorry!) the Negro problem. From his other writings, it is clear he was concerned about the treatment of African-Americans. In fact, there's a funny story about some KKK members threatening him, in response to something he wrote in a letter to a newspaper. Apparently, he and his sons waited on the front porch, shotguns in hand, and the KKK left him alone.

My mother's mother's mother (my great-grandmother) was his daughter. He named her Lavinia, but let her chose her own name when she was "old enough." She picked Mabel.

I have one of his papers at home somewhere... I'll try to track it down and may post an excerpt one of these days.

Happy Life Photos

I made lemonade...

and the cup was half-full

'cause life is like

Some Things I've Learned...

Inspired by a posting on Lisa Mikulski's blog, here's a short list of some uncommon bits of wisdom I've picked up over the years.

• On selecting projects: If it looks like fun and looks like it will make a difference, do it. If it's only one or the other, think hard before doing it. If it's neither, run away.
• On Action: The "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach is way better than "Ready... Ready... Ready..." It's also better than"Fire! Fire! Fire!" (inspired by Tom Peters).
• On Work: Networking is working (from my good friend Chris Quaid)
• On Surviving as an Innovator: If you keep moving around, the bureaucrats who want to fire and/or kill you won't be able to catch you or stop you, because they're slow (also from Quaid).
• On Trust: People who are trusting tend to also be trustworthy. People who are distrustful tend to not be trustworthy. One way to help people become trustworthy is to trust them.
• Being tired makes you stupid and cynical. Being stupid and cynical makes you tired. Sleep is not the only way to break that cycle and feel rejuveinated. In fact, it's probably not even the best way. (inspired by Churchill's wonderful essay/book Painting as a Pastime).
• Conformity is optional (from my dad).
• Innovation is criticism (from J. Rufus Fears, in a lecture from The Teaching Co. I LOVE their stuff!)
• Fear is a terrible motivator.
• There is something profoundly cool about being punished for doing the right thing.
• God did good when he created everything. He is still doing good today, and He knows what he's doing.

How about you? Any nuggets to pass along?

B3 excerpt

Here's a brief excerpt from "The Boomer Sisters In The City," my current work-in-progress. It is set in NYC, and the main themes are patience and art. The Uncle David character in this scene is a television news reporter (loosely based on my brother-in-law)

“It’s show time!” Uncle David said with a fierce grin. He adjusted his brightly-colored fedora and someone handed him a microphone. Then he stepped in front of the camera, with his back to the workers.

“I’m here at the corner of Chesterton and Lewis Street, where a cleanup crew from the Urban Graffiti Law Enforcement bureau, or UGLE, is about to go to work. The mural behind me was begun in 1991, and has been maintained and updated by the neighborhood residents ever since. Despite attempts by local community leaders to have the mural declared a protected landmark, the UGLE team has determined that it is graffiti and ought to be erased.”

BJ and Jekka held each others hands tight, wincing as the men in gray took their rollers and put huge swaths of white paint over the beautiful dancers. Jekka couldn’t bring herself to take a picture of that.

“Mr. Keith Ott, the UGLE director, has launched an UGLE war against what he calls art crime. The wave of mysterious graffiti across the city which began with the phrase ‘soon it will be’ has now expanded to include paintings of white horses, blue flowers and, most recently, diamond rings, leading some to speculate that a certain cereal-box leprechaun is behind it all.” David laughed at his own joke. “But regardless of who is responsible, Mr Ott and his UGLE team have made it their mission to protect the citizens of this fine city from any criminal decorations.”

Tears were flowing freely down BJ’s cheeks now, as she watched the dancers disappear under the merciless white paint. Jekka whimpered, but neither girl could look away. Somehow, they felt it was important to be here and watch the mural’s last moments, as if they were keeping the dancers company or holding the hand of a dying person.

I Can Has Cheezburger?

OK, so the internet is full of attempts at humor, some more successful than others. I generally don't pay a whole lot of attention to them, but I'd heard about this "lolcat" thing and had to check it out.

The first few didn't strike me as particularly funny, but as I looked at a few more, I found them funnier and funnier. It's not that any individual image is amazingly funny, but the whole thing, the lolcat gestalt, if you will, had me actually lol'ing.

ICanHasCheezburger.com has a pretty good collection. So does lolcats2.com.

Privacy & Authenticity

I don't play video games much (at all) anymore... partly because I'm 34 and my definition of recreation has changed since I was 20, partly because I'm a dad & husband and would rather spend time with the beautiful ladies in my life than with a computer, and partly because any spare moments (i.e. at 5am) are spent doing productive things like writing books. Also, I can't justify spending the money on these game consoles (although I have to admit, I think the Wii looks crazy cool and part of me really, really wants one).

But even though I'm not a player, I do try to keep up with what's happening in the world of gaming, particularly as it applies to other areas I'm actively interested in. For example, I think the MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) is fascinating, at least partly because it reminds me of the metaverse from Snowcrash (yes, SecondLife resembles the metaverse more closely - but that's not the point.

Anyway, I came across an interesting article by Clive Thompson in Wired this morning, about the social dynamics of WoW. Specifically, the use of voice chat among players. The article talked about the challenges of following a leader who has the voice of an 11-year-old boy... and about the fact that text chat allows a certain degree of privacy.

Some (older) players tend to prefer text chat, while others (younger players) are skeptical of those who don't use their voices. Like anonymous bloggers, the text chat users are often trying to maintain privacy while still participating. The younger generation tends to view that approach with suspicion. As Mr. Thompson wrote:

"They regard personal revelation not as an incursion of privacy but a marker of authenticity."

I tend to agree - and as this younger generation grows up, I think we'll see privacy becoming less and less important. What will matter most is authenticity and honesty. What matters is being yourself.

The Fairytale Project

I have a new writing project on my mind. It's a fairytale... or, rather, a series of fairy tales. Three in all, and I figure they'll fit together nicely into a single book.

I know, I know, Boomer Sisters #3 isn't finished yet, so it's a bit crazy to be thinking about the next project, but I just can't help myself. It's actually something I've been thinking about for a long time now, and the idea is (finally) starting to really take shape. The three stories are titled The Helper In The Sun, The Moon Friend, and The Invisible Giants. The first two are related, and the third is completely independent. I started writing the last one a year or two ago. Same with the first one, come to think of it. The Moon story? Haven't written anything on it yet. But I think they're going to be a lot of fun to do.

I re-read George MacDonald's amazing fairy tale The Golden Key yesterday, and it's just the most perfect story ever. Really got me inspired (and I'll try not to copy it word for word...).

So... I don't know when I'll start this one in earnest, but not until B3 is finished. But I will write these stories. Oh yes, I will. And I've already started sketching out the framework...

RPL R.I.P.

My old webzine, Rogue Project Leader.com, is officially off-line. It was a lot of fun, but I've decided blogging makes more sense than a monthly webzine, and am in the process of (slowly) moving that old content onto DanWardOnline, my research/reference page.

Of course, nothing online ever really goes away, and if you google Rogue Project Leader, you can just click the "cached" link in the search results to see the old stuff in it's original glory. Or, you can order the book version of Rogue Project Leader, Year 1 at Rogue Press.

Stories on Ginkworld

Well this is cool.

I submitted three stories from The Desert to Ginkworld, and hey - there they are!

There aren't any comments or ratings on any of them yet - for that matter, I'm guessing nobody has read them yet either (although one of them shows 39 "views," but I'm not sure what that means exactly).

So... I'd love it if a few of you would check them out and leave a comment or two. The stories are all short (very short), but I think they're cool, and people say they are funny.

If you've got a moment and a few spare mouse clicks...