Euro Freeze, Global Weirding?

Meteorologists say the cold weather is caused by a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, which means that cold Arctic air is flowing into southern latitudes that are normally much warmer.

This is the explanation for the recent European freezing weather and snow as mentioned in CNN. Sounds awfully like what scientists said would happen through global warming, or as Thomas Friedman called it, global weirding. Freaky. This is record-breaking weather over there, and hopefully is not a harbinger of things to come.

One man's garbage is another man's biogas

Awesome article in the New York times regarding how Kristianstad, Sweden has converted their biowaste into biofuel - heating most of the city and providing biogas to all government-operated vehicles. This has pretty much cut out all needs for municipal and utility petroleum-based fuels.

The city of Kristianstad (which was apparently nearly bankrupted during the oil shocks of the 1970s from fuel costs) pay half for energy than they would if they relied on oil, easily get rid of biowaste from their agricultural sector that would have to be disposed of anyways and could intoxicate the water supply if not properly taken care of, employ tons of people, and have as a byproduct, produced technology and expertise within their citizens that could be exported probably for loads of cash.

So, so, fricking smart. Why can't we do this?

The Joy of Cooking

I like cooking, in theory.... I like to think that I do cook, but since I graduated college, I barely have. First it was the crazy travelling job, where all my food would go bad in the fridge because I was out all week... Then back at the parents house where my mom took care of food duties, and then the intense MBA life style where we were fed at school most nights and barely had time to sleep, much less do anything on the skillet.

I've been slowly easing back in now that school is done, and I'm starting to get the hang of my new job, but haven't really done anything more than pasta, chicken on the Foreman Grill, or broiled steaks.... Until today when I got an invite to a cooking club night - the theme was Asian.

So, I tried to see what would be be in my skill range, and found a good recipe for Korean Beef Bulgogi. It was surprisingly easy to make, and I let it marinate for twice as long as was in the recipe, and voila, deliciousness. I found a Youtube video on how to cook good Asian style white rice, and by the end of the night, there was about a morsel of the bulgogi left. Actually, all of the food was really, really good (lot of talented people in the cooking club), but importantly, I really enjoyed the focus and the project-oriented nature of getting something done. I may have to make this a Sunday tradition. Unfortunately, my iPhone couldn't capture the truly succulent nature of the dish.

New Armin van Buuren CD - 1st Track I've heard is awesome

I've been way too busy to check this out, but man, this song is great! Will need to cave out some time for a listen.

The Arcade Fire are so good

I went to see the Arcade Fire last night after several years of trying to see them but tickets being completely sold out. They were amazing. So musically on top of things, and at the same time, just going crazy on stage. I was disappointed that the crazy guy and the red-haired guy didn't start head-butting each other with motorcycle helmets on this time, but even still, what a great concert. One of the biggest venues in Boston was completely sold out, and a lot of people left the seats to the sidelines to dance. Here's a vid of the encore below, not mine, but this guy had better seats:

So, who wants to drill more?

Seriously, how can anyone still want to keep on with off-shore drilling. The US Gulf wetlands are facing the prospect of being irreparably damaged for a generation, if not more. The machinery to get the oil out is ridiculously complicated and difficult to install.... It's a wonder that disasters like BP's haven't occurred more often, or been equally catastrophic.

An oil rig, the helicopters to service it, and the ships to drill and transport petroleum to the coast all together cost 100's of millions of dollars - and that's just the initial fixed cost to get the thing up... Never mind the net present value of wages, maintenance, and operational costs for the lifetime of the investment... If just a fraction of that were deferred, to say, a venture fund that focused on clean energy start-ups, we might even find a couple of real solutions. Hopefully Better Place and the Nissan Leaf will catch on in a big way, soon.

What kind of politician brings eggs and smoke bombs to Parliament?

Fist fights break out in Ukraine between lawmakers: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/27/ukraine.punchup/index.html?hpt=C2