Hydrogen Powered Cars: The Solution to our Problems.....

I was looking for some history on gas prices, to see where we've gone in the last several years. I came across this site, zfacts.com, which put some things into a very interesting perspective for me.

I have for along thought that America's dependency on foreign oil is quite ridiculous. I think that commercial, international trade between countries is good, and that exchange, for economic purposes is a good thing. It helps create efficiencies. My only issue, however, is that I'm not sure that all the money we pay goes to all the right places. So, Hydrogen has long appealed to me as the answer to our oil woes. It's non-polluting! This is the most important part about using hydrogen fuel in cars. Well, there is a huge caveat to using hydrogen power for automobiles. Most people don't realize that it actually takes fossil fuels (petroleum) to create hydrogen power.

According to the same site, http://zfacts.com/p/35.html, it actually takes '1.15 units of fossil energy energy to create just one unit of hydrogen energy.' This is so profounding! So what good then, is making Hydrogen fuels? Well, I suppose just that they don't pollute.

Here is my thinking... even though the above ratio seems inefficient, maybe a car can go further on 1 unit of Hydrogen energy than 1.15 units of fossil fuel. Also, I imagine that as time progresses this ratio will improve as research widens and as Hydrogen producing methods become more efficient.

For a more in depth article about the site I mentioned above, check out http://zfacts.com/p/285.html.

China's Moderation of Online Content

I am reminded of George Orwell's 1984 as I read this article. With the government moderating everything, it's tough to say what you want, or even view what you want. I am indifferent in how I feel about this, however. I can see both the negatives and the positives of implementing a measure such as this. It is what it is, I suppose.

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-11/ff_chinafirewall

DC Road Rage

There is a really awesome, relatively new, blog that I started a while back. You can find it here or by navigating to http://dcroadrage.blogspot.com.

What I do is chronicle many of the random things that I see up in the District of Columbia. A lot happens that I see whilst walking. Check it out!!!

Speedtest.net

This is an amazing website! Finally a way to find out for sure what kind of bandwidth you're really paying for.

http://speedtest.net/

This website allows you to test your own upload and download bandwidth/ping speeds for a number of servers across the country! I would think that this would help online gamers a lot because you can find where you get the best ping/latency from servers, and as a result, connect only to servers that are based in those regions. This leads to a much better game experience, in most cases.

Definitely check it out.

Microblogging

So I have been wondering about microblogging. I have heard the term a few times, but never really understood what it is all about.

I suppose the Wikipedia page definition is best, which basically says that microblogging is the act of writing down a small news snippet and publishing it either for public or private view.

This is something that baffles me! In my mind, it would seem as though this system would be a great way to learn a lot of things in very little time. However, citizen journalism doesn't always contain useful, or accurate, information. As such, I don't think that I'd find such a service anything other than time consuming, and, while it would be thought-provoking, it most likely wouldn't be as educational as I'd like it to be.

Google just bought Jaiku, which is a rival of Twitter. I think this site covers the story well: http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9793722-7.html.

I supposed there is entertainment value included in a site like Jaiku or Twitter, however I don't believe I receive as much social utility from it as others do.

The First Post

The purpose of this blog is to catalog all of the things that I find myself wondering. Most of what I will include is just things that I find myself scowering the globe for answers for. I will include what I am thinking, and also the result (i.e. me finding the answer to my question). For example, I have always wondered why the sky is blue. I know the reason now, but if I didn't, I would like up to someplace that I was able to find the answer. If you would like to reproduce anything in this or any of my other blogs, in part or in whole, then you must obtain my express, written permission. E-mail me at jw6537a@american.edu if you have any questions, concerns, comments, or otherwise. Reproduction of part(s) of this blog, in part or in whole, constitutes a breech of copywright law, where applicable. Feel free to tag, digg, link, etc. I hope you enjoy what I've written.