Monday, February 25, 2008

The Mayans had it right.


FYI; the picture above is of the Mayan 'Pyramid of the Sun' in Teotihuacán, Mexico.


I usually reserve this blog space for the occasional disjointed, negative, and over-the-top rant about a loosely sports-related topic/event. However, it is slow in the non-racing (if anyone wants to talk about racing, let me know....please?) sportsworld at the moment, and I, like so many of you, are waiting for Diesel to actually post on the whole Kelvin Sampson situation before I issue any tepid response.


So, in the mean time, I'm going to cross y'all up and posit a quick bit of adulation for everyone's best friend: technology.


Technology is cool. Particularly of the solar/electric and electro/(mechanical/chemical) varieties.


To wit: Our great state of Arizona is about to become the home of the largest solar power plant on this entire rock. How fucking totally awesome is that? I've known about this technology for a while, but never dreamed that it would come to our backward backwater burgh. Janet Napolitano [insert dyke joke here] made a quip about this being a harbinger for Arizona to become the "Persian Gulf of solar energy". I audibly cheered when I heard this, which would mark the first time that I have ever observed a Napolitano sound/video blurb without thinking about her resemblance to Janet Reno. That speechwriter deserves a raise.


I realize that everyone is not going to be as gung-ho as I about this issue, which is part of the reason why I'm posting about it on an argument blog. But, honestly, invest in solar technology, people. Seriously. I'm seeing my financial advisor about it tomorrow (really!). This is sooooo good on so many levels that I could blather about it all day, but I'll just leave it alone at the risk of rambling.


In other news, I read about another interesting piece from the 'it will never be feasible/commercially available in our lifetimes' file. This car (or, more accurately, a variant thereof) may very well be the future of road-based transportation. Again, this is a car and a technology that I and just about everyone else in the world have known about for a long, long, time. What makes these guys special is that they actually plan to produce the coddamned thing en-masse and make it widely available/affordable. For the moment, they only have a niche-roadster, but the company is already in the process of expanding into to the low-end luxury market. This is how trends begin; small, seemingly insignificant advances in, say, battery technology lead venture capitalists into starting such a car company. As the big three enter the fray, advancements in every conceivable area will be stressed/marketed as a way of building a better mouse trap, so to speak.


Next thing you know, we'll all be plugging our cars in to the outlets in our garage. The power, of course, being courtesy of our friendly, neighborhood uncontained fusion core. [I'm referring, of course, to the sun, as I think that a contained fusion core, a.k.a nuclear fusion-driven power facility, will not happen in our lifetime. I really hope that I am wrong on that one, but the smart money is on the 'no' vote for any type of next-gen nuclear power in this country.]


May Ahau-Kin sustain us.


P.S. - I know that the Mayans were preceded by the Egyptians in the whole sun-worship thing, but the Maya are just about the coolest non-white ancient culture ever. Fuck the Aztecs, man, the Mayans did it first, and with more class. Anyone who doesn't give the Maya their proper dap is either retarded, gay or a Seahawks fan (Kidding!).

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Nice post! If this solar shit goes down, I'm moving back to Arizona, stat.