"In speech after speech, the Democrats pointed to Senator Barack Obama’s plan to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on American roads by 2015—and to rebuild the American auto industry in the process—as the cornerstone of his plan for energy independence." - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
Like to plug-in hybrids, dislike to direct Governmental manipulation of auto industry. Give me a tax credit if you like, but a president can't and shouldn't rebuild any industry. - David Knight
The subsidy going to a half-solution like plugin hybrids could fund a grad student's work for a few months. Research is the only option to get an alternative energy source that is cheaper than coal. - Ivan Kirigin
plug-in hybrids... designed to compromise here and there just for sake of oil industry NOT dying in very short time... - silpol
Short terms solutions DO have a place (esp. if you want to get elected), but I agree I'd love to see the gov't get more into the R&D business. It may not be entirely logical or cost effective but the push to Mars excites me for this reason (and you know, all the dorky sci-fi reasons) - David Knight
@David Knight - re: govt manipulation: agreed on principle, but what about in the case where an industry is stonewalling out of greed and plain stubbornness? Don't the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? I'm buying a car right now and I'm shocked that 11 years later after my previous purchase, cars are _still_ getting the same mileage (other than select few hybrids)! That is just disgusting. - Steve
Hybrid sales and production are rising and hopefully the costs will be coming down (maybe are already?) Demand and profits are hard for companies to ignore, and if they do then the shareholders will eventually take care of that. I have no problems with legislating MPG requirements, but manipulation coming from the Executive branch (as the quote seems to indicate) seems very wrong. - David Knight
If lots of people had been buying cars based on fuel efficiency, carmakers would be competing to get better fuel efficiency. If people instead buy cars based on how many cupholders and DVD players they have, carmakers will compete to get more cupholders and DVD players. - Amit Patel
morons. hybrids are not America's future. they are Japan's past - Noah David Simon
I see your point, no technology more popular in another country could ever be useful here and with the stagnant state of technology in general we'll certainly never see any useful advancements in our lifetimes. Thank you for showing me the light!!! I'll head over to the car lot and order my Flintstones car tomorrow. - David Knight
funny but America made a huge gamble by not investing in hybrids, but in full electric cars instead. We need to stop kicking ourselves for not making that compromise. We did the right thing. - Noah David Simon
Now, now boys. Play nice. I grew up in the States so for me those comments are just silly but for some citizens of the True North, them's fighting words. :) - Abby Martin
actually canada is the second biggest country by land area (just behind russia) - if this whole global warming thing ever takes off, they will be the big winners :P http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... - bob
well, "just" behind it by 7Msq km, or almost half, or by an area larger than all but 6 countries. - j1m
I'm so annoyed by this article, the title is effed and MA is pure hating on Canada :# - Mo Jawhari
haha j1m, perhaps i shouldve used 'only' - the point being that just because its mostly empty doesnt mean that canada is small :P - russia will be an even bigger winner with the global warming - bob
This is really cool... One thing though, the reason I gravitate towards coffee shops that have latte art is that there is a high correlation between latte-art and good coffee... Now with these machines, it might no longer be the case :( - Bindu Reddy
you know who has good latte art? cafe del dogge in palo alto. very creative stuff - Charles Hudson
@Jim Not as good as my Guinness shamrocks on St. Patrick's Day! - Anne Bouey
I love that one of their demo images is the Utah teapot. - seth
Cafe del Doge: Venice, Cairo, Tokyo, Palo Alto. - j1m
@ April - I'm with a bunch of my university girl friends....We're from all over US/Canada, and we just met up in Miami for a few days... - Karen Padham Taylor
Hey!!! It's been over 15 years since we saw each other...... Hope you're doing well.....I need to get your email, so we can catch up! - Karen Padham Taylor
I know it's been a long time... I'm doing great... how r u? congrats on getting married.... my email is angel_0790@hotmail.com - Sabrina Tilochand-Tuttle
"Ikea's innovation was to cut storage and transport costs with flat-pack furniture, and at the same time bring some simple and attractive design to mass manufacturing. Now the Swedish company plans to bring this buying power to alternative energy. Johan Stenebo of Ikea spinoff company Greentech will invest $75 million in solar companies and wants the retail giant to start selling the products in Ikea store in two to four years." - Karen Padham Taylor
Not exactly what you asked, but as a child I refused to even taste anything with Parmesan cheese - Didi Chanoch
anything spicy - couldnt even have pepper on my food. Now I throw Tabasco sauce on just about everything... - Kim via feedalizr
I not so much hated, but was terrified of all sorts of foods when I was a kid. Nowadays I love eating at all sorts of ethnic restaurants. I still hate crunchy onions and mushrooms though (exemption for mushrooms if I'm drunk though... they taste AWESOME when I'm fully buzzed). - Tad - just Tad
Beer, coffee, graperuit juice, anything that was bitter. Now I only eat bitter things. - Meg versusMeg
*Crunchy* onions? Interesting. I definitely grew up a texture eater. Enjoy food with substance. Hate biting into food with give, ie: mushrooms. But I LOVE mushroom flavor. Well-pureed mushroom soup is the bomb. - Lisa L. Seifert
Lisa - that's how I feel about crunchy onions. I hate hate hate the texture and that crunch, but I love the flavor. Yeah, that's weird. - Tad - just Tad
For a different perspective I asked my four year old what she dislikes most to eat: cheese, fish and garlic top the list. Let's check back in a decade.... - Abby Martin
Fully loaded pizzas. I just wanted cheese or pepperoni; now I want the works! - MiniMage via NoiseRiver
I still dislike all my childhood hates: cubed steak, lima beans, radishes, liver, and collard/mustard greens. Blech! - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)
Tomato sauce. My pizzas were crust with cheese. My spaghetti was noodles and butter. Now it's one of my favs. - Alix Whitmire
I'm the opposite. I used to eat EVERYTHING when I was a kid. Now, I am one of the pickiest eaters out there. Friends of mine don't like eating at restaurants with me because of how picky I am. - Candace Holly
Ketchup. Although I'm still pretty picky about what I'll put it on. - JMS
It was the Stove Top Stuffing that made me want to puke as a kid. Love the stuff ing now. - Dale Adams
now I love: peas, onions, bell peppers, spinach, avocado, pears, plums. things i used to like as a kid but don't anymore: raisins, bananas, applesauce, macaroni and cheese, string cheese. things i still hate: green beans, peaches. - Hannah
"Yang Peiyi was replaced by Lin Miaoke who mimed "Ode to the Motherland" as her face was "not suitable" for the Olympics opening ceremony" - Karen Padham Taylor
"Dr Hamermesh's work shows that ugly people earn below the average income while beautiful people earn more. In Britain, attractive women enjoy a +1% premium. But in Shanghai, the figure was +10%" - Sanjeev Singh
Lin Miaoke is a very pretty little girl. There's nothing fake about that. - Alex Mendes da Costa
god like beaties,,,keso 's right ,we are all Yang Peiyi,我们生活在国家荣誉的包围之中 - qian
I am a chinese, and I hate the fake, especially in children. But this is only one small example. In the whole school, the children are taught by teachers who are doing bad example. - zgjie
This is a shame...though quite Chinese way.. - WooParadog
"Circles are sized by the number of medals that countries won in summer Olympic Games. Use the slider to view past Olympics, or click on a country to display a list of its medal winners." - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
This is just amazing infoviz. The most telling elements to me are how much being the host country influences the number of medals you win (presumably a 'home court advantage' and a larger number of competitors), and how many more countries have been participating in the games in the last 20 years compared to previously. It's really amazing. - Kevin Fox
That's pretty damn cool. I thought 1936 was especially interesting. - Cyrus Lendvay
It's cool to see that as time passes, especially from 1988 on, there are a lot more countries winning medals. - tim
This is amazingly cool. I love when I can bend time and space to my will. - Jonathan Terleski
It should be possible to produce this with the Google visualization tools. I'd love to see this with a population size and/or GDP axis. - Nick Lothian
"Looking to get the most value out of your laptop? Then check out these unusual ways of using your old trusty notebook (Note: actual results may vary, DRB can not be held responsible for the accompanying data loss)" - Anne Bouey via Bookmarklet
I bet I can cook an egg on my MacBook Pro. It only takes it a few minutes until it gets super hot. - Karen Padham Taylor
"We're familiar with drug testing for athletes, but officials at the Beijing Olympics will be taking things one stage further and examining competitors whose sex is in doubt. And it is far from being a new problem, as Emine Saner discovers" - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
Tudor, i've been under a rock. :) Didn't know about the fourth part (thanks!)... can now look fwd to it! - Dan Hsiao
I'm boycotting this because they use Hulu which isn't available outside of the US - Bjorn Stromberg
@Bjorn: apparently, according to a comment above, Dr Horrible *is* playing outside of the US. Hulu obeys the media companies' distribution rights, and, well, most of them just plain suck. - Tudor Bosman
I'm really happy but a bit surprised. I assumed they were gonna keep this For Pay at this point to try to earn back some of what they spent on this cool but not-free-to-do endeavor. - Adam Lasnik
I imagine they're getting some form of payment from Hulu's sponsored-ads? - Dan Hsiao
I finally watched this last night and it's great. - Piaw Na
I just watched some of the web specials and I really didn't like it.... - Karen Padham Taylor
I heard AT&T is sponsoring it on Hulu now. - Hao Chen
"The Portland Business Journal reports that Oregon has just been given the go-ahead by The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council to build a 909 MW wind farm in the north-central part of the state. That’s enough energy to power 200,000 homes." - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
That might offset the power bill for one small corner of Google's facility in The Dalles. - Bill Sodeman
Love. Now if my state (Washington) could do the same thing... - Jonathon D. Colman
“There are at least two other Kevin Foxes in the internet industry, including a prominent one in SF, and I've never spoken to any of them. It's weird. What would you say to your not-you you?”
There can only be one...then pull out your Hattori Hanzo. - Hao Chen
Woah dude, way to bust out with the double reference! Makes me wonder if O-Ren Ishii was actually an Immortal, what with her penchant for head collecting. - Kevin Fox
When I called for my bar exam results and gave my name, the lady on the other end of the phone asked: which one? "There's more than one Robert Reed who took the bar this year?" "Yes," she said, "which one are you?" "The one that passed," I said. Fortunately, we both passed, so I'd say: "Congrats, my not-me me!" or better yet, I might just give him a commiserating "I'm sorry." - Rob Reed
This is why I am "the other Martin Taylor" - a famous Jazz guitarist beat me to it. - Martin Taylor
When I was living in Berkeley after graduating from UCB, there was a graduate student there with the same name as me. We never talked, but I would get his calls and vice versa. If we met, I'd probably have focused on the logistics of making sure people reached the right person. - Stephen Mack
How about "So, what are you changing your name to and when will the paperwork be all processed?" - Cyrus Lendvay
I was still in high school and a sports stringer at the L.A. Daily News. I was typing up a story on some high school baseball game when I heard over the office intercom, “Chris Reed, please report to the security desk.” So I leave the newsroom, go downstairs and the security guard gives me a mop and pail and tells me to clean up the men’s bathroom. I’m just a kid so I figure, “OK. Guess when you’re a young writer, you take on all the lower duties at the newspaper.” Just before I go off to attempt a cleaning only a sportswriter can give, in pops the janitor. Turns out he was also named Chris Reed. Needless to say, I was the fodder of the Daily News sports staff for weeks. - Chris Reed
There's another Hutch Carpenter down at the University of Texas. IT guy, I think. I sometimes wonder if he checks Google and wonders, "who is that guy up in San Francisco?" - Hutch Carpenter
There are 3 Rob Schonbergers in Sydney. One of the other guys works across the street, and i've met his kids, but never met him. Hi Rob! - Rob Schonberger
There are 3 other Sally Church's that I know of in the world and we are all academic Drs, oddly enough. One is a pastor at Cambridge University in the UK, one a Veterinarian in Australia, another in social services in Oklahoma and little old me, a life scientist. I often wonder what their lives are like and whether they know we all exist since we are all Googlable. - Sally Church
I'm pretty sure I'm the only Jason Wehmhoener, but my middle name is Reed (no joke!) - Jason Wehmhoener
"Really, your name is Andrew Smith too... Huh, imagine that." One of them is clearly evil though judging by the looks I get whenever I fly. - Andrew Smith
There is only one Russell Limprecht. My uncle in LA received calls for Ken Norton, boxer. I found there is a author named Russell R Reno after I selected that name. - Russellreno
@Andrew: Neat! I found a second Chris Reed here on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/chrisr. No, he doesn't clean up the place but turns out he's also a PR guy. - Chris Reed
There's one more of me on FF: http://friendfeed.com/settings... Considering how many contacts we have in common, I'm almost surprised neither of us is subscribed to the other. - Kevin Fox
There used to be a not-particularly-famous NFL player and another not-particularly-famous NBA player named Shannon Taylor (my maiden name). Now that I'm Shannon Jimenez, my name's a lot less common, but Google tells me there are others out there (I still show up first, though!). - Shannon Jiménez
Huh, I haven't done a vanity search for a while... I'm all of the results on the first page except one. That's... never happened before. I feel weird. The only other me that came up lives in Texas and works for a foundation repair company. She's definitely a relative. Weird. - Karen
The not-me crowd includes a professional bodyboarder in hawaii, a drummer for a punk rock band, and a CS PhD who lives in LA. The last one and I had very similar email addresses, so I would often get emails from people trying to reach him, including his Mom. I like that they all exist-- they provide security-through-obscurity on google searches for me. - Josh
I know there's at least one with my name. I don't know how else the AIM name "robertdebord" could have been taken :p Also, from what I gather via google it seems there's a Robert DeBord that's a Native American Indian which for some reasons strikes me as very fascinating. - Robert DeBord via twhirl
The problem with having an Indian(East) name is that, it is impossibly long to be used in full, and there are several hundreds if not thousands of people sharing the short form. FF being a geek only site (for now), has 2 shivanand's and 20 results for shiva, (7 with firstname's as "shiva"). http://friendfeed.com/settings.... How in the world someone supposed to find me! :) - Shivanand Velmurugan
"You really like grapes, don't you?" Do a Google search for Steve Spalding, and you'll understand. - Steve Spalding
Folks, you need to search http://HowManyofMe.com. Seriously. It tells me 500 John Lams live in the US. I wonder how well it finds uniques. - John Lam
howmanyofme.com says "More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Harvey are male." um... - Harvey Simmons
HowManyOfMe.com said there are 2 or less of me, or possibly none at all. But in fact there are 3: a guy in Flushing, a guy in Morro Bay, and me. I know this because they appeared on my cr
