2005 Subaru Outback only vehicle to gets 5 star NHTSA crash rating in every category

But why doesn't Subaru have a diesel model? Until Fuji Heavy Industries releases a diesel Suby they won't be getting any more of my money.

[Via: AutoBlog]

Tree-destroying beetle discovered in Petoskey

[Via: the Record-Eagle]

Northern Snakehead found in Lake Michigan

The Chicago Sun Times reprots that a northern snakehead was caught in downtown Chicago at Burnham Harbor.

[Via GLIN Daily News]

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

Relate movies and actors to each other

I came across Cinema FreeNet today. From it I was able to relate Kate Winslet to John Cusack (winslet, kate appeared in hamlet, which starred hopkins, anthony who appeared in road to wellville, and it starred cusack, john).

Michigan Farm Market, U-Pick, and Ag-Tourism Directory

[via ResearchBuzz]

To boost US security, an energy diet

What you learn from the article is that it is better to call it "energy efficiency" rather than "energy conservation".

Takeaway quote:

Just by "consolidating and accelerating" existing trends toward greater efficiency - at an estimated cost of $180 billion over a decade - the US could eliminate oil imports by 2040, according to an RMI [Rocky Mountain Institute] report released Monday

Source:CS Monitor

This article comes on the heels of a link seen on BoingBoing for a self-published free e-book called Saving Energy Without Derision by Dr. Allan P. Zelicoff. The link is completely boinged and has been all week but Google has an
HTML cache currently and you can find the file savingenergy.pdf on gnutella and bittorrent.

Who are Sportsmen to vote for?

In an article for High Country News Tom Reed has written a nice piece titled "Hunting: It's Not About the Gun"

This article basically asks the questioin of how can hunting enthusiast still support Bush even though the adminstration's policies are taking away hunting opportunities on public land?

As an outdoorsman living in the West, it's hard for me to ignore the damage that has been done to our wildlife heritage in the last four years. Places where I used to hunt pronghorn and sage grouse on the Upper Green River outside Pinedale, Wyo., are now oil and gas fields.

A ranch where I once killed a dandy mule deer buck in Wyoming's Powder River Basin was roaded and tapped for coalbed methane two years ago. It will not recover in my lifetime.

This article reinforces my belief that you cannot be a single issue or single party voter. Even though the NRA tries to scare Republicans into not voting for Democrats and the NOW wants warns people of the dangers of a Republican in office, like in most other things you must take a systems approach.

For this election that means if you are an outdoor enthusiast do you vote for the candidate who is an avid duck hunter and a member of a party that at least professes to care about the environment or do you vote for the candidate and administration who's energy policy means drilling for more of it (and the 200+ days of supply that will bring) and writes orders to the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to not enforce the filling of wetlands in the Great Lakes and elsewhere?

Since hunting rights and the health of the Great Lakes are important to me I will vote for Senator Kerry. While Senator Kerry may vote one way on an issue and then many months or years later vote another way; at least he does not flat-out lie and call it the truth. The election should be about the long-term policies, never about the Party.

Then there are the hunters who realize that it's about the hunt, never about the tool. They have walked the land and have mourned for the places they used to stalk mule deer or antelope. They read the papers and know that George W. Bush has taken away protections on 20 million acres of wetlands, given back 3 million and called this a net gain. They know that our president has signed away water rights on Blue Ribbon trout streams and that his administration is trying to open roadless areas -- regions crucial to wildlife -- to development.

Angler Access Guide

The above link is for a Lake Michigan shoreline fishing guide provided by the Great Lakes Fishery Trust.

The entire guide is available as a PDF.

Patent pending: Wyoming residents join ranks of inventors

The Billings Gazette carried an AP article about all the interesting things Wyoming natives have invented, including the Pinedale inventor of the suturing staple used in surgery. However, a search of the Wyoming Inventor's Database doesn't show anyone from Pinedale who has invented suturing staples. But as expected you find people from Pinedale have invented things like a kinfe and a fishing lure. And the not expected, such as the Internet Wide Distributed Data Control System.

Furthermore, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site shows that since 1976 no one from Wyoming has patented anything with the words suture and staple in the abstract.

Wyoming Game and Fish approve wildlife, oil/gas strategy

Takeaway quote:

Wyoming Game and Fish Department directors want to achieve a no-net loss of wildlife habitat in the oil and gas fields around Pinedale.

Source: Casper Star Tribune

George Lucas talks about changes in the original Trilogy

When you want to know what Nerds think about Star Wars you look on Slashdot.

Most stories get 200+ comments. This George Lucas interview at Yahoo got over 700. There are some very funny reactions.

In response to an answer in the interview where Lucas says It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. One slashdotter wrote in response:

So basically what he says is, he got lucky with Star Wars. Because what he wanted to make was garbage. Look at the prequels - he had much more control over these, and comparatively they sucked. They are tripe on their own, without using the original three as a crutch.

So the movies that people loved, and built his "empire" (so to speak) were not his true vision. We have seen his vision, and it isn't that great. So I think it is time to stop giving Lucas any credit for the first three movies. He doesn't want it, and he apparently doesn't deserve it. Actually, the more control he had, the worse the movies got. It was kind of obvious to me that he had more control with ROTJ, because of the Ewoks and some of the direction the story took. I am almost looking forward to EPIII - not to see it, but just to see how bad it is.

And another posted the following as Lucas to his fans:

"'F' you all, I never wanted to make star wars in the first place. The special additions [sic] are as close as I can now get to what I realy wanted. I wont release the originals because the millions of fans that want to buy them wouldn't (or so the force tells me). Just buy my crap and shut the hell up.'"

A site where Big Ideas can be presented

The site is called Change This and here is what the creators say about it:

That's our goal at ChangeThis. To respect your intelligence. To make it easy to spread ideas that respect individuals and their communities. To respect the ability everyone has to make a difference.

Idealism is fine, but it won't buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks (neither will $2, it seems). What we're going for here is a practical, fast and free way to spread the very best ideas to people who can actually do something with them.

Business, health, politics... if it spreads, if it's respectful, we're for it.

There's always too much interesting stuff to read and never enough time...

Golden Gate vs. Mighty Mac

From The Soo Evening News

Gas wells and oil rigs are changing the landscape of the mountain west

Seen at the Christian Science Monitor

The takeaway quote:

"Drilling for gas is already on the upswing in the region. Five Rocky Mountain states saw drilling activity in August rise to their highest levels in a decade. Wyoming had 84 rigs operating versus an annual average of 38 over the past decade - 121 percent higher. For Utah, the 22 rigs operating are 76 percent higher than the average over a decade. For New Mexico, it's 30 percent; Montana, 166 percent; and Colorado, 171 percent.

Yet the energy produced from public lands is minuscule. Interior Department records show that only enough oil was produced between 1989 and 2003 to supply the nation for 53 days and enough natural gas for 221 days at current rates of consumption..."

Source: On the range, gas trumps wildlife

Sexual Harassment Panda

Wavs and MP3s from the Sexual Harassment Panda South Park

The following are posts I had put up on tblog.com. I started using this blog hosting site not realizing 'The Seiche'was still active on blogger.com. Blogger is superior in every way.

Michigan WiFi

[Found at ResearchBuzz]

The State of Michigan, in partnership with SBC, is making available WiFi Hotspots at Rest Areas and State Parks. Sounds great but I'm not too excited, it isn't free unless you only want to browse michigan.gov.

A Proposed hypothesis to explain the anemic job growth

[Seen at Slate.com]

Did the 2003 Tax Cuts reduce employment?

The gist of it is the current administration predicted that "...the number of payroll jobs would rise by at least 300,000 each month in this election year."

But Barry Ritholtz hypothesizes that companies are spending money buying things to take advantage of the accelerated depreciation schedule which expires January 1, 2005. This new depreciation schedule lets a company write off 50% and is part of the same tax cut package that gave us that $300-600 taxable tax-advance from the U.S. Treasury. And by spending money on new property companies are putting off new hires.

Sounds plausible. If true then there'll be an uptick in new hires during the first quarter of 2005.

Chocolate Egg Cream

[I first heard about Chocolate Egg Cream while watching an episode of The West Wing] Here's what appears to be the most authentic Brooklyn-style recipe and directions for Chocolate Egg Cream boyee.

Milk + Seltzer + Chocolate Syrup

Double Grain Pancakes

From AllRecipes.com

recipe for Double Grain Pancakes:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 1/3 cups dry milk powder
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 4 eggs, lightly beaten
* 3 cups water
* 1/4 cup butter, melted
* 3 tablespoons vinegar

I'll try it without the white sugar and use honey instead, but the vinegar aspect is promising.

the best All Purpose Vehicle?

I'd really like someone to manufacture an AWD station wagon with a diesel or diesel-hybrid engine. In Europe you can buy an AWD Volvo V50 with a diesel engine or VW Passat wagon with a V6 TDI and 4MOTION. The U.S. versions of the TDI Passat and Jetta are not recommended for towing and only come in fwd. In fact, if you want a diesel the best way to go may be to convert your vehicle to diesel via an expensive engine swap. The you can get your own "BIODIESEL No War Required" bumper sticker.

Until Subaru builds a go-anywhere bio-diesel friendly Outback with room for four adults and two large dogs the mini-van remains the best choice for a multi-purpose vehicle. If you need to do any serious offroading get a mountain bike, motorcycle, a horse, or hike it. Those-in-the-know know that real offroading involves roads and trails that are too narrow for a large Hummer-like SUV. Plus there is always the active vs passive safety thing...

Anyway, the minivan options are Honda and Toyota and from what I've read each one is superb. The new Odyssey is now just as good if not better than the Sienna. It comes down to what you want - the Sienna has AWD available; the Odyssey can shut off cylinders when not needed in the high end models for better fuel efficiency.

CNN/Money review of the 2005 Odyssey
Honda Odyssey review at USAToday
2004 Sienna review at Canadian Driver

Conservatioin Easement on Drummond Island

From the Soo Evening News

"DRUMMOND ISLAND -- With the signing of the first of two conservation easements on a portion of privately owned James Island, Nature Conservancy officials struck on a way to preserve undeveloped land while it remains in private hands."

"...small island off the mouth of the Potagannissing River..."

"...The Nature Conservancy's stewardship over the unique 1,185-acre Maxton Plains formation on Drummond Island was reportedly the clincher leading the Bardsleys to an arrangement with the conservancy. Called an "alvar grassland" the rocky Maxton Plains formation was called "one of the rarest habitats in the world" by the Nature Conservancy."

If you have land that you like to put under easement for more information contact The Nature Conservancy or the Little Traverse Conservancy in Petoskey.

God Bless Daimler-Chrysler

Jeep Liberty Diesels will come factory equipped with a tank of biodiesel

[Seen on autoblog]

Picture from Atlas' Photo Shoot

For Christmas the family had a portrait made. Atlas is such a
beautiful puppy he got his own photo shoot.

This is also a test E-mail to blog post from the free, and so far
amazing, site flickr.com

Bush Now Backs Budget Powers in New Spy Post

Just like President Bush said the war on terror could not be won but the next day it could.

Or how initially the Bush Administration didn't want a September 11th Commission but then it did.

Yet somehow Kerry is made out to be the flip-flopper. What is it that the marketing people say? - repeat something seven times and people will believe it?

Like the parody put together by the Daily Show demonstrates, for President Bush, words speak more powerfully than actions