I'm Back ...

I'm back, and hope to continue the story of my travels -- and the Bush administration descent into torture -- as soon as I get access to my photos.

In the meantime:

No room for bikes at the 'greenest convention in history'
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/view/no-room-for-bikes-at

Electric cars and the electric grid
http://fogblog.tumblr.com/post/45245886/electric-cars-and-the-electric-grid
I've heard the argument made in this commentary before -- that electric cars will not add significantly to our demand for energy because they will, for the most part, be recharged at night. But this neglects some significant problems: 1) there is no infrastructure yet for people who park their cars on city streets to plug in their vehicles at night; 2) the batteries that electric cars are expected to run on do not have charges that last long yet and are thus not considered realistic replacements for internal combustion engine vehicles; and most importantly 3) electric cars are still cars. Most of the problems of ICEs are problems of electric cars as well. Those problems include the energy involved in the manufacture of cars, habitat destruction due to the access permitted by our car-based culture, and disposal of cars and their parts.