Hi, my name is David and I live in Austin, TX. I'm a graduate student at UT studying advanced biofuels and public policy. I enjoy jogging, eating, and the internet. These are my musings on energy, life, and things I enjoy on the internet. I'm also here: email, follow, flickr, or on this thing.
Check out my Op/Ed in this week’s Baines Report! The piece is a trumped up version of a blog post I wrote last year after I returned home from Brazil. Even though I wrote most of my conclusions last summer, a lot of them are still true and will be important for future policy-making (I think).
The Baines Report is the online policy journal for the L.B.J. School here at UT.
I’m glad Apple is cleaning up the App Store. It feels a little like Wal-Mart when it should be a lot like Nordstrom’s.
high-res photoI’m convinced that there is a secret pact between all restaurants to make their websites as difficult to use as possible. I don’t know if it’s akin to the alliance between Sauron and Saruman, but some of these restaurant websites might as well have been designed by Orcs.
Normally you only have to make it through the gauntlet of Flash content to reach the pdf menu, but Roaring Fork likes to keep things interesting by adding in the requirement that I use Adobe Reader.
I just wanted to know what to order for my Mom’s birthday dinner!! So I did what one would do fifteen years ago and waited until I reached the restaurant to read the menu. If you’re wondering, I had the swordfish, which was delicious (and terrible for the ocean).
Check out this astute Op/Ed by Melissa in this week’s Baines Report about the need for improved communication between scientists and policy-makers. This article is a must-read for anyone involved in the technical or policy worlds, which means a lot of us.
FYI, the Baines Report is the L.B.J. School’s online policy journal. Melissa and I are both editors for the online journal and will be having contributions from our peers in our research group. Occasionally, I’ll be writing on topics of communication, science education, and energy policy. Stay tuned!
Keeping with the Texas Independence Day (2 March) theme, here’s a great song by George Strait titled “Texas”. If anyone can write a song about loving Texas, George Strait can. We are a very proud people and have a rich history that involves the earliest settlers in America, the Spanish, French, and Native Americans. We’d like you to know that.
Unfortunately, a lot of people think Texans are crazy. You can’t really blame them for having misconceptions about Texas and its people with Governor Perry running around railing against Washington D.C. and calling for secession. Trust me, we’re trying to replace him, but the election is still eight months off.
Regardless of our cooky politics and crumbling education system, Texas is my home and I love it.
- John Steinbeck
I didn’t get around to writing anything for Texas Independence Day yesterday, so I’ll make up for it with a few posts this week. What better way to start celebrate Texas Independence Day than with this famous quote by author John Steinbeck.
The Macalope weighs in on Flash.
If you don’t follow the tech and internet news regularly, you’re probably wondering why people are talking about Flash. The background story is that new web standards are being developed that allow your web browser to do all sorts of neat things like play video, do animations, and more. So instead of needing Flash installed to watch video or visit a website, you’ll only need a browser.
While there are serious usability issues with Flash, the heart of the issue lies with open standards. The web is a free flowing exchange of information and ideas. Open standards allow these exchanges to happen without being under the lock and key of a few special parties. Flash isn’t open.
Flash has done a lot for the web, but the web we have today isn’t the web of ten years ago. People are sharing information and browsing the web from their iPhones. It’s time to move forward.
Big congrats to the Sniper Twins for their awesome rap and video “Chocolate Shoppe”! Dax and Barry are two of the most creative people I know and were a blast back in Ms. Burdett’s Broadcast Journalism class in high school. I’m so stoked to see them making it happen. I remember going to Dax’s birthday party in second grade - now I’m watching him on Youtube. Congrats!
While there are many great things about being back in school, like cheap tickets to UT football games and the student discounts of my undergrad days, there is a catch. Before UT will give me my diploma, I have to do a thesis. Think back to the longest paper you had to write in undergrad and then add like 100 pages.
So while I will have to do a long written report, I am also going to try to have a little fun. For my research I’ll be examining natural gas as a transportation fuel, and in May 2010 I will take a road trip in a natural gas vehicle (NGV) with one of my best friends. We will document the trip and our adventures here, at “The Green American Road Trip.”
high-res photoI just gave a departmental seminar over my research. It went pretty well, if you’re asking. A lot better than the run through last night at least. My seminar wasn’t quite like this comic, but I’ve been in a few just like this. I think a lot of folks showed up for cookies and coffee. They left with some knowledge about algal biofuels - ha!
My idea is that even if you don’t think human activity is contributing to climate change (an increasingly, and amazingly, political question), you can still support No Regrets, and the worst-case scenario is that we’ll all save ourselves some money.
Here’s another way to think about it: Even if you think you have to prove your partisan political bona fides by being against emissions reductions as a general rule, why wouldn’t you reduce emissions if you can save dough?
I mean, surely people don’t favor emitting greenhouse gases and pollution just because they really like emissions or something. It’s pretty extreme to think that being in favor of emissions is cool. Emissions aren’t really something in need of protection.
So let’s save some money.
