The Dude and The Gray Lady

The Dude moves up in the world! (but is this a positive development?): a mention in the New York Times, with a focus on the Caucasian.

A Tale of Two Weekends

First, the Bad: Taking 3.5-to-4 hours to drive the 90 miles from Baltimore to Hershey, PA for the Police show. Jenny having to go into the office both Saturday and Sunday. The HP critical BIOS update that killed the motherboard (I'm finished with buying computers, I'll just build my own from now on unless it's a laptop; fewer headaches, believe it or not). Me wasting time on a beautiful day on Saturday on the fool's errand of trying to recover the BIOS.

Ah, but there was Good: The Police, LIVE! - review forthcoming. Cal's whiskey-tasting event, which was much fun. The weather, which didn't suck, for once.

New Auto Technology, Russian Spirits

This neat article from Wired summarizes a few of the latest future-car concepts and engine/drivetrain technology, but to me it really drives home one of the biggest casualties of the Global Warming / Peak Oil / Energy Dependence crises - it's killing the flying car. We were supposed to have flying cars by now. Actually, I think we were supposed to get them sometime back in the 80's. But it didn't happen then, and now it's even less likely. The first few flying car prototypes are bound to be quite fossil-fuel-hungry, so how are they supposed to get off the ground by using fuel cells and electric motors? At this rate, no flying cars in my lifetime. But maybe personal hovercraft are the wave of the future, what with all the melting and expected sea level rise.

Don't worry though, all is right with the world - Russians will still drink just about anything.

UPDATE: Strange, I mention personal hovercraft in the initial entry, and look what I find a few hours later!