Tuesday, July 31, 2007

think: another electric car

i just read this cnn money article about a new electric car concept.  it's actually not all that new, since ford experimented with it for several years.  however, the concept has been retooled to take advantage of new developments in both energy technology and consumer web concepts.  they're getting some advice from the google founders, so that can't hurt.  i really like the idea of a smart car, prius, or electric car as a commuter car.   it makes perfect sense for a family to have 1 of these vehicles for commuting to a local job and to have a more typical larger vehicle for hauling the whole family as well as all the stuff we buy.  the key thing to get adoption in the u.s. will be safety and speed.  if americans can't drive 75 mph on the interstate and feel safe, then they probably won't adopt this.  but it would still serve a very large niche of urban commuters that don't have much interstate travel.

Monday, July 30, 2007

another mind-boggling 60 minutes segment

awhile back i posted a clip from 60 minutes on the state of our fiscal irresponsibility in the u.s.  i believe that some sort of spending limits need to be enacted and enforced on our lawmakers that are running up the bill for future generations.  the prescription drug bill was mentioned as the worst example of this out-of-control spending.  just watch the segment and see if you do not feel the same way.  i can't believe the senators that blocked the bill to renegotiate prices can face their constituents.  there should be riots in the streets.  every time i pay a medicare tax, too much money is going straight to the pharmaceutical industry just because medicare does not negotiate the prices.  it's absolutely disgusting.

Friday, July 20, 2007

steak night!

about once a quarter a group of my buddies get together for a nice steak, and last night was the night at ruth's chris steak house downtown chicago.  what a great night it was.  great food and lots of laughs as we talked about a wide range of subjects including bathroom habits.  sometimes it feels really good to be a primitive guy.

Monday, July 16, 2007

sicko and health care

emily and i went to sicko last week.  it was a very thought-provoking film that i recommend to anyone.  even if you don't like michael moore, you should put that aside and check out the ideas and stories discussed with an open mind.  the thing that struck me as one of the most powerful points is that our system is fundamentally motivated by different objectives than canada, the united kingdom, and france.  their motivation is "maximize health" and that's how those systems are judged.  our system mandate is "maximize profit".  so given those 2 very different motivations, it's no wonder that we have issues.  i'm not anti-business, but unless we are able to change our system such that companies profit by maximizing health, then we will never reach our potential and our system will lag behind the others that are chartered that way.

another compelling side story to this is a piece done by 60 minutes on the nature of our deficit and how it relates to our health care costs.  i highly encourage you to check out this story.  every citizen should be obligated to understand the concepts here as it may be more important to grasp this than any other issue.  it's probably more important than terrorism, crime, taxes, or any other typical issue we are presented with in politics.

Monday, July 2, 2007

utility crush - JDiskReport

my buddy bill witchger put me on to this handy disk space utility called JDiskReport.  i'm a big fan.  after running out of space this morning, i was quickly able to find the offending files clobbering up my drive and able to get rid of them.  it's very easy to navigate to find your largest files.  so intuitive you'll never need to ask anyone how to use it.