Ever seen a flying fire truck?



How about a porta-mansion?



These are things I see on my way to work. Pretty neat, huh.

Just got back from yet another depressing lecture at MIT on Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Not familiar with CCS? In a nut: We are in the global warming shitter because we drive too much, fly too much, and can't control our rate of needless consumption. All of this requires energy, much of which comes from burning coal in power plants, and results in a runaway train of carbon emissions that's destroying the earth and the air we breathe. So scientists are trying to figure out a way to suck the carbon from these plants and then inject them deep into underground geological formations or even beneath the ocean -- which if they ever do figure out how to make work, then has the potential to wreak even more catastrophic results, like ocean acidification, ecological destruction, blah blah blah. On top of that, if they do miraculously figure it all out, it's only a fraction of what we need to do to make it all...not so bad. Because no matter what, it's gonna be bad.

I spend my time learning and obsessing about this problem, the enormity of it and perhaps the futility of trying to fix it, wondering if I'll ever be able to use a disposable plastic fork without feeling overwhelming guilt or not despise a culture which perpetuates mass retailers of overpriced superfluous junk. But mostly, I wonder why so many bikers have to be killed by cars and their drivers.



This morning, when I pedaled across the intersection of Harvard and Cambridge in Allston, like I do almost everyday, I saw yet another ghostbike chained to a light pole, memorializing the life and death of a 23-year-old girl who was killed riding her bike a week or so ago. Her friends had covered the street corner with flowers, notes, pictures, even a giant graffitied message saying, "Kelly, we love you." Bikers, you see, whether they are conscious of this or not, are doing us a huge favor by choosing not to pilot giant heaps of gas-guzzling, carbon-emitting, war-inducing metal. Yeah, I'm a biker, so it sounds like I'm just wanking one off, but you can't really argue with it. Just try to.

So, wear a helmet, ride a bike, ride safe, save the world.

The Bicycle Film Festival is back on. Go.

Should we be glad that Jeff Vandergrift and Dan Lay were fired? Not if you're a believer in the first amendment, but maybe if you have half a brain. Like I said, what were they thinking when they re-ran the show after the Imus precedent had been set?

The other day at my office, somebody burned popcorn in the microwave. (And why, when it seems there's always a button specifically designed so you can avoid that...?) Usually, I don't care so much, but this particular time, it really got on my olfactory nerves, in an old-hot-dog, dry-pee smell kind of way. And now we have this to contend with:



Apparently, this beautifully simple molecular structure, diacetyl, which gives microwave popcorn (and other synthetically enhanced foods) its strangely artificial buttery taste, rapes the lungs of those who breathe in its noxious fumes, potentially causing bronchiolitis obliterans aka "popcorn workers' lung" : "Usually found only in people who are poisoned by chemical fires or chemical warfare ...(it) renders its victims unable to exert even a little energy without becoming winded or faint" -- and the only cure is a lung transplant.

My point isn't to tell everyone to boycott Orville Redenbacher -- people should be able to figure these things out on their own. But the fact is, this is actually old news; two years ago, a popcorn plant worker won $2.7 million for his PWL. And if people really cared, this stuff, not to mention half the crap you find in supermarkets, would be banned already. Right?

Read the grist.org and the Times story.

Dear Goldstar microwaves,

How does one differentiate between a "plate of food" and an "entree"? Or for that matter, heat settings for Oriental vs. Italian or Spanish foods?



There is probably a rather simple explanation for this, something to do with fat molecules and rotation of, but I just don't see how the atomic structure of leftover meat lasagna could be that much different from braised pork belly over Shanghai noodles...or a "plate of food" for that matter. Please explain.

Sincerely yours.