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Flying Cars
60 Minutes via Yahoo!News
Have you ever dreamt of the day you can buzz around in your own flying machine? Well the inventors you’re about to meet are trying to make their dreams your reality. . . a world where you can commute to work by air in your own personal flying machine. And the folks at NASA have even begun to figure out how to prevent traffic jams in the sky.
(14 May 2008)
From the 60 Minutes Archives. Recommended by termoil.
The Surge (in lame excuses)
Hans Noeldner, Entropic Journal
Madison, Wisconsin (Delphic Newswire) — The US Commerce Department reported today that production of lame excuses surged to an all-time high in April as millions of Americans manufactured billions of reasons to do absolutely nothing themselves to avert global warming, stop wars for oil, or prevent sprawl, obesity, isolation, and physical atrophia. Surprisingly, even places like Wisconsin’s Dane County – known for its self-righteous proclamations of progressive leadership – rank well above average in per-capita output of pathetic evasions.
“Soccer mom” Sue Viego from the Ravenoaks country estate subdivision ten miles south of Madison offered a typical justification. “Hey, get off my case! My little Justin needs to play soccer just like all the other normal kids. I need to drive him to practice and games, and it takes a big vehicle like my Ford Excursion to keep him safe from all the idiot drivers out there.”
Gwen Emitmoore of Verona noted that she bought a “whole bunch” of compact fluorescent light bulbs when they were on sale more than a year ago, but hasn’t had the time to install them yet. “It’s dark and depressing with the curtains and shades drawn; I like to leave the lights and TV on to cheer me up. Anyway, why should I be forced to conserve? There are plenty of people who use more than me!”
Joe Sechsgepaecken from the Town of Burke on Madison’s north side was surprised to hear that his family wasn’t making progress. “Mildred wanted a new fridge, so we got one of them energy efficient models. Naturally I moved the old fridge to the shop – I keep beer in it now. What do you mean our electric went UP? Ain’t I done everything I’m supposed to?”
William Heifen-Aetname from Monroe Street in Madison represents one of the few people who are choosing to act. “I put a big ‘No War/No Warming’ bumper sticker on my Subaru, right next the “Coexist” sticker, and I’m driving all over to make sure people see it. I park at the front door everywhere I go – then everybody has to walk by and read it when they come in from the parking lot.”
(18 May 2008)
Satire.
When cars compete with people for food
Rosamond L. Naylor,Walter P. Falcon; San Francisco Chronicle
… In its starkest form, the global food crisis is about rising agricultural commodity prices that place hundreds of millions of poor people at greater risk of malnutrition. Most of the 800 million people globally who survive on a dollar a day or less live in rural areas and work on farms.
The two- to fourfold jump in prices during the past 18 months for internationally traded commodities, such as rice, wheat, corn, soy and vegetable oils has resulted in fewer and smaller meals for the poor. The rise in the number of malnourished people globally is only beginning to be tallied.
High food prices have been associated with high petroleum prices. The cost of crop production is up, the value of the dollar is down, and biofuels are an attractive alternative to fossil fuels for transportation. Diverting one-fifth of the U.S. corn crop to corn-ethanol production and setting a renewable fuels mandate of 20 percent of U.S. motor fuel consumption by 2022 – a fourfold increase in 15 years – has driven up prices for corn and substitute crops, especially soybeans.
…The world can produce plenty of crops at reasonable prices for food and feed, if appropriate agricultural investments are made. But it cannot produce enough crops for food, feed and fuel at prices affordable to half of the world’s population.
Rosamond L. Naylor and Walter P. Falcon are, respectively, the director and deputy director of the Program on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University.
(18 May 2008)
