New Energy

Yesterday I went to Columbia University to hear a talk put on by their Earth Institute. The Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, was the speaker. His topic of discussion was the future of energy in America.

As you know, the President mentioned our nation's energy crisis in his state of the union address last month. Our nation's foreign policy today is directly determined by our demand for oil. We are giving billions of dollars to dictators across the globe to feed our energy addiction. Dirty regimes in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran have us pinned by their ability to supply us with oil.
Much has been talked about new fuel alternatives to gasoline since the soccer mom's are sucking it all up in their SUV's. Gov. Schweitzer went into detail about these fuel options. A good point he made is that there is no single solution to the problem. There need to be several other energy alternatives. Montana gets 10% of its electricity from wind. Another popular idea for car fuel is ethanol. This is certainly a potential source, but is not the perfect solution to our problem. Schweitzer's favorite prospective fuel source involves converting coal to a liquid fuel. Montana sits on 30% of our nation's coal and by converting it to liquid fuel, could provide enough energy for our country to survive for 40 years. The process is economically friendly and cost efficient. Montana is currently negotiating to build multiple facilities to peform this conversion within the next four years.

The Governor is spending the rest of his week visiting with banks and energy companies about coal liquefaction. He will be featured on 60 minutes Sunday night and then will meet with President Bush to discuss the national energy crisis and their ideas for a solution.

Around the World

I've decided recently that my life is not complete until I circumnavigate the globe. In fact, if I am still working at this job next Christmas, I'm going to quit and take the next 5-8 months to travel around the world.

I found a very cool travel site yesterday called Traveler's Point. It has a very cool feature that allows you to plan your trip and it calculates the airfare for you. Then you can send the plan to a travel counselor and they will book the trip for you. I believe the tickets are open-ended so you can leave pretty much whenever you want.

I've tried a few different trips. Mine range from $5,000-$7,500 which I find reasonable for some weird reason. Here is what I came up with today.

New York - Reykjavik - Amsterdam - Saint Petersburg - Prague - Rome - Cairo - Dar Es Salaam - Johannesburg - Bombay / Mumbai - Varanasi - Bangkok - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Beijing - New York

I'm leaving out 3 continents mind you and most of Europe goes undisturbed. Whenever I go on this trip, a believe me I will, I think I will do a lot of traveling on land between cities instead of flying to each one as the itinerary describes. I also imagine I will have to take this trip solo since few of my friends have the money/desire to do this and we would probably differ on many destinations of choice.

So you can officially count global navigation as a life goal of mine and I plan to do it sooner than later given my nomadic direction in this current lifestyle. Come with?

Daily Reads

If we spend any time together, you know how much free time I have at work. I spend a few hours a day just reading up on current events and the like. I created a new blog today, in my spare time, that has links to some of my favorite links of the day. This way we will have similar stoies to discuss over our choice beverage.

If we don't spend time together, just read the articles.

Daily Reads

Tour de Texas

So, the guys and I headed down to the motherland over the weekend. Collin had never been to Texas so we booked our flights, called in sick and booked it to Austin. The entire weekend was filled with tons of food, driving around, listening to some blues and some Texas beers.

We spent two days in Austin where we hung out with Jonathan. We did some geocaching and hung out down town. On Saturday afternoon we drove to College Station. Andrew and I gave a frisbee led tour of the campus and then we went to Zapatos where our buddy Blake was playing some music. Good times ensued.

Instead of getting up super early to drive back to Austin to catch our flight, we drove straight through the night and got to the airport at 5am. The 7am flight got us to Houston, but a nor'easter canceled all flights to the northeast. Luckily, my parents live only minutes from the airport so we took a cab home and slept all day long. At about 9pm we decided to grab something to eat and go home. Instead, we gorged ourselves at Pei Wei (mmmm) and then went downtown so Collin could check off another Texas city. We called Moe who dropped what he was doing, got out of bed.....and met us for a beer. After that we made the obligatory stop at the House of Guys for some late night pie and coffee. By that time, 2am, we needed to get ready for our next flight. So, we took a one hour nap at home and then went back to the airport where a plane took us home to the city. We arrived 24 hours later than expected and I got to call in sick another day.

The snowstorm brought a record 27 inches of snow to New York. Out of the plane's window you could only see brown trees surrounded by the white blanket. Julie took some pictures of our street. The cars were completely buried by the snow. I wish I could have been there for the storm but the five-day Texas journey was a blast.

Collin did a much better job explaining the trip on his blog.

Its a Cartoon

Over the past week, the Western world has been watching in bewilderment as Muslims react in protest to offensive political cartoons, which depict Mohammed as a terrorist. The cartoons were printed in Denmark last September, but only now are drawing a reaction. Scandinavian embassies have been burned to the ground in Beirut, people have been shot and killed in Indonesia, and overnight a mob tried to attack a U.S. base in Afghanistan leading to the death of over twenty Afghans by local police. Pakistanis are flooding the streets chanting, "Hang the man who insulted the prophet." Iran is boycotting all Danish imports, which is almost an understandable reaction. The violence; however, is causing non-Muslims to shake their heads in confusion.

My first question is, why now? If the cartoons were printed months ago, what is causing the uprising now? From what I’ve read, most don’t believe there is "a direct linkage" between the publication of the cartoons in September and the eruption of protests this month. "Only after a group of radical Danish imams traveled to the Middle East in December and January, deliberately lying about the situation ... trying to ignite public opinion against Denmark, did all these tragic events start to unfold." These imams must have been the sparks to set the blaze, but I wonder what their motivation would be to do this against Denmark and the other nations in the west.

And then there is the obligatory uninformed comment from a political/religious leader. "On Tuesday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the West's publication of the cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas' win in the Palestinian elections, AP reported." I don’t understand how the supreme leader can declare this if he knew the cartoons were published months before the elections.

Most of the debate seems to be over the issue of free speech. The Western world enjoys this luxury of democracy and has experienced it in both negative and positive ways for hundreds of years. We also have the freedom of religion and try to keep it separate from government. In contrast, Muslims live in countries with unstable governments that declare themselves nations under Islam. Their press is monitored and not even an image of a religious figure can be posted in public in fear of idolatry. I don’t believe the issue is a difference in religions, but rather a difference in cultures and their way of obtaining information and reacting in protest. They have never had the freedom of press that we have and are just now becoming aware of the power of this freedom. We spend our days reading newspapers and scouring the net for news. At night we watch T.V. and get the day’s summary of events. In the middle east, not every house has internet access or even a T.V. Your opinions are likely formed by family members or in a café with friends. When someone sets off a disturbance like these protests, you are likely to join without fully understanding the circumstance.

While watching these protests and reading about the absurdness of the reaction, I have begun to consider my own protection of my Christian beliefs. Over the years, Christianity has evolved with society while Islam is in many ways exactly the same as when it began 1400 years ago. I believe that Christians have been desensitized to blasphemy and now accept it in some ways. Meanwhile, Muslims are experiencing outside mocking of their religion for the first time and are displaying their passion for their beliefs and are up in arms about the disgrace that is being made of Mohammed. Should Christians be envious of the Muslim faith and passionate devotion to their leader, instead of pacifying the situation and letting the world make a mockery of their religion?

I certainly disagree with the method of protest being displayed by Muslims all around the world. Violence and killing is certainly not condoned. I am certain that if the same mockery of Jesus were made, Christians would protest too, but in peaceful ways such as boycotts, lawsuits and sour letters to the editor. But, do we lack a zeal for our God that these people have? Are we lukewarm when it comes to defending our faith?

The Economist has some good coverage on the situation and I’ve also been reading Anderson Cooper’s blog who by-the-way blogs during commercial breaks on his show. I blog at work too Anderson!

Bono at Prayer Breakfast

"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation."
-Nelson Mandela, 2005

This is not a U2 blog and I'm not a card carrying member of the Bono fan club, but I am writing about him again because I think he is a very important icon in the world right now. He was recently the guest speaker at the annual prayer breakfast in the White House. He really used the opportunity to take a stand and shared his heart with many leaders of our country. I'm really beginning to share similar passions and I hope that I can in some way become involved in this fight against poverty, disease and everything else wrong in the world.

I watched a movie last night called 'The Girl in the Cafe.' It was recommended on a website and I just expected a decent story. Instead, the film carried the same message I have been reading and feeling over and over throughout the past few weeks. I won't ruin the story, but it discusses the same topics Bono advocates and I definitely recommend you see the film.

After the film, I did some research and found some organizations on the net that are really working for the cause against poverty, hunger, AIDS and for free trade etc. Check them out if you have a chance and try to get involved. Be sure to take the time and read Bono's speech too.

ONE
Bread for the World
CARE
Make Poverty History

Sandwich Rampage

I just read this story about a bike messenger who got pissed when a guy threw a sandwich out of his car in Toronto (filthy). The girl picked the food up, opened the guys door and threw it back inside (stupid). The guy goes ballistic and starts raging on her and the bike (asshole). A few people stepped in to break up the fight, but one photographer stood there and documented the entire fight (brilliant). To him we are greatful.

Mahwah

Collin, Jay and I spent a couple hours on Saturday at Ringwood Manor State Park, outside of Mahwah, NJ. It was a short 30 minute drive out there. Bill the dog came with and sat in the back seat. Amazingly, more hair was found on the dashboard and our jackets than where he was sitting. Jay brought his dog Lucy. (pics)

All five of us speed-hiked up the mountain since the sun was already going down. We stopped at a small lake and watched the dogs play around on a big rock. The lake was partially frozen over and we spent a good amount of time trying to throw rocks and break the ice. Bill conquered his fear of water and became a member of the Eskimo Swim Club. The sun was almost gone so we started back down the mountain where the dogs and Collin made a new friend. I tried to make friends with the dog's mommy, but she was a little too hippie for me.

We got back to the car and it was dark. Bill panted for a few minutes until he couldn't see through the fog he created on the window. Then, he laid down on the seats, exhausted. Collin and I took him home and had a good chat with Collin's mom. On the way out, I tripped going down the stairs outside but made and incredible leap down to the grass to save face, literally.

Call Me Manny

Although its January, that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about baseball. Afterall, pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in a few short weeks.

Since last July, Sox fans have been tossing the hot phrase 'Manny being Manny'. Manny Ramierez is one of the most unique and irregular personalities in baseball and maybe all of sports today. Each year he asks to be traded to a different city. This year he complained that he never received any privacy outside of his apartment. His consistency is...there is none on the field. Some days he's hot, then he goes cold for a week. He doesn't run becuase he doesn't feel like it, but then he'll make an incredible catch and make you wonder whose wearing the Manny suit in left field. In the dugout, he's dynamic and funny but on the diamond he's slow, fat and doesn't look like he's happy.

My point is, 'Manny being Manny' means that the guy has a different personality and is now excused by all Sox fans. He is free to surprise us in any way and it will be forgiven with this phrase. Its a get out of jail free card, with unlimited punches.

I am in some ways similar to Manny. People often think I'm feeling one way when I'm actually the opposite. Sometimes I can change my emotions in an instant. Several times a week I will feel no desire to be around anyone or have a conversation, but then other times I dominate the social scene just like Manny in the dugout.

Therefore, I am introducing you to my get out of jail phrase, you guessed it, 'Alex being Alex'.

Bono the Red

Okay, after my Beware of Bono article a couple weeks ago, which was totally negated with a little more research, its time to give the rocker some credit for his fight on poverty and AIDS. Today, the world icon is annoucing a new product line called Red.

The brand will include products from companies such as GAP, American Express, Armani and Converse. Procedes from the sales will be directed toward the Global Fund which helps fight poverty and disease in Africa.

I think this is ingenius and impressive. Celebrities are usually all talk and I was even getting a little weary of Bono in his leather jacket and purple shades marching around the dark continent. Now, he has put his ideas and passions to practice and I beleive this will truly make a difference.

Go buy some Red stuff!