Due to time constraints and a general lack of motivation, I will no longer be updating this site with much frequency. If I find an interesting article, I'll post it, but it's too time consuming to do this daily and I have other interests and projects I am currently persuing. -Rahul

[Slate] : Daniel Gross tears a hole into BP's "Beyond Petroleum" ad campaign, and explains why it is "dishonest" and disingenuous. An excellent read.

There was a very interesting conversation with George Dyson (son of famous physicist Freeman Dyson) on NPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge last weekend. He talked about a plan from the late 1950s to propel large spacecrafts into space with the force from atomic bomb explosions (!). He claimed that the bombs would be dropped from the craft at the rate of one to four per second, but the rate was low enough that the craft wouldn't actually melt. The idea was to harness this massive amount of energy, and sent a craft far into the reaches of space. The above link goes to that specific episode's page, where you can find a link to the streaming audio version of the program.

Here's another interview with George Dyson about Project Orion.

And you can read a bit more about Project Orion here (the home page is a bit iffy-- it's a society for wannabe space colonists-- but the information seems to be reputable)

[Guardian] : Jeremy Riffkin, author of The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth, has an article in the Guardian which discusses the need for the US to start looking to the future of fuel, instead of "desparately holding on to the past."

Chrysler has some new ad campaigns about how "your car will be watching the road, even if you're not."

[CNN] : Yet another article on hydrogen fuel cell cars. Honda claims that its latest model gets 220 miles on a tank of hydrogen, vs. 90 miles on Mercedes's latest.

Reader Response

In response to this posting from 9/26/2002 :

Interestingly, Riffkin claims that several large oil companies have funneled a lot of money into alternative energy sources, including BP, whose new slogan is apparently "beyond oil."

Reader Haresh Kamath writes:

I know this ["beyond oil"] came from Mr. Rifkin and not from you, but the slogan is "Beyond Petroleum." You know, like BP?
Here's a negative view of the BP slogan and marketing approach, by the way, in an article from a couple of years ago.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7577
And here's a more positive, though cautious, view from a month or so ago.
http://www.gristmagazine.com/powers/powers082902.asp

[MSNBC] : Question : How come Amtrak-- an organization was was never intended to make a profit-- gets punished by the government, while airlines, which have only turned a $3 billion profit since 1938 (including a $5 billion taxpayer-funded subsidy) get so much respect?

[CNN : AP] : The FAA wants the airline industry to install new seats into commercial planes, at an estimated cost of $500 million. The new seats would save lives, says the organization, which wants better seat belts, better head protection, and a more sturdy attachment to the aircraft. Under the proposal, the changes would come within the next 14 years.

[CNN] : The ultimate standoff : penny-pinching passengers vs. broke airlines. Better break out that wallet if you want to get your ticket changed.

Kinda lame "are you a bad driver quiz." Sample item: Do you roll through stop signs?

Interview with an Air Head
[Salon] : Salon has a good interview with Jeremy Riffkin, author of the new book "The Hydrogen Economy," which trumpets Hydrogen as the next big energy source. Interestingly, Riffkin claims that several large oil companies have funneled a lot of money into alternative energy sources, including BP, whose new slogan is apparently "beyond oil." He also states that hydrogen cars will receive widespread availability by 2009.

Related:
[Detroit Free Press] : DTE Energy, in Michigan is trying to power one of its offices with hydrogen fuel cells.