Vehicles

Mark Goodstein, a .com venturer newly on board the X Prize Foundation of space tourism fame, talked today about planning for a new prize for manufacturers of very energy-efficient cars. The American Solar Energy Association has a new editorial on how a more modest transition to smaller cars is a necessary first step to reducing US oil demand, with a reasonable if still slightly optimistic discussion of biofuels. The last issue of Solar Today had a article on whether photovoltaic strips make sense for car roofs.

Thorns

A fine trip to Joshua Tree, emerging only slightly scraped and with a sore ankle from diving off a large boulder. Will need to find a good large-scale geologic map to sort out all the dikes. For now I've been browsing for good graphs to use in my presentation - some good ones on WikiPedia.

Pedaling

Dissertation madness - but the first draft is in! So I had time to notice Steve Lopez roping together a bevy of retired public official to advocate for a cycle-friendly LA. Yaaay!