City hopes to shuttle people in futuristic 'podcars'

From the article:

ITHACA, New York (AP) -- The thought of a driverless, computer-guided car transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic notion to some.

To Jacob Roberts, podcars -- or PRTs, for personal rapid transit -- represent an important component in the here-and-now of transportation.

"It's time we design cities for the human, not for the automobile," said Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a group of planning and building professionals, activists and students committed to making this upstate New York college town the first podcar community in the United States.

Originally published at jaredaxelrod.com. You can comment here or there.

Mine was pretty awesome.

photo by Jason Adams

More pictures here.

Stupid Columbus day. Now I won't get netflix till THURSDAY. What am I going to doooooo?

It was at an Italian restaurant that I loaned a friend money for his legal fees as he was going though a messy divorce years ago. The place had checkerboard tablecloths, and the bambino running the cash register had about half his fingers. I wrote him a check and felt like Don Corleone making an offer that he couldn't refuse.

This time, I got together with an old coworker, who I'll refer to as CS. He had written a novel and asked me to take a look at it and make suggestions. I read it during work, when I had to listen to audio tracks all week for QA. I put my comments in the PDF he sent me, then sent it back.

Last night CS treated me to dinner at an Italian place. No checkered tablecloths this time, and our waitress had all her fingers. He brought along the entire printout of his book and my comments, and asked me for further in-depth analysis. It was a great amount of fun. I always enjoy reading stuff my friends write. In addition to seeing how much of their own personalities they project of themselves in their stories, they also amaze me with writing talents I never realized they had. CS was no exception. His story was pretty much a vanity piece, but he also parodied himself enough to keep it real. He also put in enough swerves and foreshadowing to break down typical writing clichés and take the reader by surprise.

NaNoWriMo is coming up next month. Last time I tried that, I got up to 7000 words, caught the flu, and never got back to it. I figured it was gone forever since I had several hard drives die since then. Recently, a spambot replied to the LJ account I totally forgot I set up for that story, and I got the email notice. It still exists online. It's a sign!

What the world looks like right now, including the shadow from the sun, streetlights, and cloud cover. Fascinating.

Granny-safe
Dial-up friendly-ish

Want to block a noisy environment or hide dead silence, which is almost as stressful? Want to help your baby get to sleep? Simply Noise is a browser-based, adjustable white noise machine that sends out a beam of pure, neutral, relaxing static-zen.

Granny-safe, because her ears are ringin'!
Dial-up friendly? I dunno.

Order Xmas presents cheap here.

Disaster after disaster.I am a walking disaster. I'm clumsy, easily distracted and foolish.

( Do you know what I did? )

Sept 30
Adam 12 S. 2
Banacek Complete
BL Stryker

Oct 7
Three Stooges Vol. 4
Alice Faye Vol. 2
Munsters Complete
Beverly Hillbillies S. 2

Oct. 14
Partridge Family S. 3


Oct. 28
Little Rascals

How did this man even get to the point of being in the running for president? If McCain/Palin win, I swear, I'm kidnapping my daughters from the states.

Hate women much, you slimy bastard? You call your wife a cunt in public, you respond to any female who dares to question you like this, and you make rape jokes? No wonder you picked a Pentecostal Assembly of God redneck female for a running mate. A woman who can't comprehend that the very feminism she rages against is the very thing that got her where she is this very moment! Pitbull in lipstick, my ass. Any woman who would associate with a man like this for ANY reason has some serious pyshcological problems.

Political discussions MAKE ME CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heading to Houston tomorrow for a work trade show. Anybody out there?

THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER is coming to TCM on October 24th!

so i got a job that i had lower my standards for. meaning i had to take a drug test, take my piercings out and go by my legal name. i'm not happy about this but it's the only full time job that has be offered to me since i became unemployed back in May and in the craptastic job market i have no choice. it's just sad that with the job market the way it is that employers can now be more selective about who they hire.

The Triangle's longest running monthly Goth/Industrial Night



Dracula's Daughter: Goth/Industrial Night is an event held on the third Saturday of every month with DJs - Mephi, Mouse, Poe and Vitae, as well as, guest DJs and occasional live acts. They spin an eclectic mix of goth, industrial, ebm, synthpop, new wave, dark wave, ethereal, punk, psychobilly, 80's and other related musical genres.

Join us for our GUILTY PLEASURES on SATURDAY October 18th, 2008 with DJs - Mephi, Mouse, Poe and Vitae. Feel free to request songs that are your guilty pleasure.
Come and check out HELL! To get in the bar, just look for the sign at the back of the building, and head down the stairs.

Music starts at 10pm.
Admission: 18+, 21+ to Drink; $5 for guests, FREE for members.
Appropriate Dress Encouraged | In Doubt? Wear Black
Please, No Glowsticks!

HELL
157 East Rosemary Street
Chapel Hill, NC
http://www.chapelhell.com

And, if you live in the Charlotte, NC area, I highly recommend Return of the Bats. It's on the 3rd Saturdays of every month, as well.

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Ok, in my boredom this morning, I started randomly going through wiki pages.  Somehow, I ended up on the page for the movie Gladiator.  Clicking a few of the links, I came to find that several of the characters are indeed based on historical figures.  After Marcus Aurelius, I hadn't realized that the son and daughter in the film were real.  And, specifically, his son Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix.   Now, going through Commodus' wiki page, I found this little nugget:

"Dio Cassius, a first-hand witness who had no reason to defend Commodus, describes him as "not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guiltless as any man that ever lived. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature."^[5] His recorded actions do tend to show a rejection of his father’s policies, his father’s advisers, and especially his father’s austere lifestyle, and an alienation from the surviving members of his family. Whether this was a wholesale psychological rejection of his father is not something that can be assessed at this distance in time. It seems likely, however, that he was brought up in an atmosphere of Stoic asceticism, which he rejected entirely upon his accession to sole rule."

Anyone else see a few paralells with W?  The president, not the movie, that is.  Let's take a closer look, shall we?  To begin, I don't think anyone actually believe that George W. Bush is truly evil.  He's always seemed like that Uncle everyone has.  You know, not really all that bright, but you just gotta like the guy, you know?  Between that and his seemingly unshakeable faith, he doesn't strike me as harboring guilt about his time in office.  Furthermore, he has shown himself to be a very simple kind of man, and at moments even to be a coward.  (Anyone disputing that last nugget need only watch the footage of W after he was told of the 9/11 attacks.)
These qualities, in my opinion, end up making him a "slave" to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, etc.  And can anyone argue that waging an unneeded war isn't a lustful and cruel habit?  That last part might be a bit of a stretch if your on the more conservative end of the political spectrum.  W was a student at both Phillips-Andover and Yale University, and while neither place would be considered ascetic in a Stoic sense, they are both strongholds of conservatism.  And, especially nowadays with the banking crisis and bailout, Bush is moving away from traditionally conservative ideals. 

There is no ulterior point here, just the observation that history has a funny way of repeating.  And, I am no expert on anything I have just written above.  I merely posess decent research skills, and enough imagination to see a few paralells. 

Hello my LJ friends :-D Hello you people far and wide in distant corners of the world and those closer to home.

I need a favour.

Please can you send to me a copy of your local newspaper. It doesn't matter if it is not in English. I would really like a copy of your local newspaper. Moreover, if you happen to live OUTSIDE of the UK and you have a newspaper that covers the state or country that you live in then please, I would like a copy.

You can find my address here should you need it. If you cannot afford the postage, let me know and I'll paypal it to you (up to a value of £5).

Indeed, if you are travelling abroad soon to a different country, please can you send me a copy of the local paper too? I'd be very grateful.

Thankyou muchly.

Hi there!

James Randi might be a name familiar to some of you. A magician by profession, James Randi devoted his life to exposing frauds, charlatans, and scam artists who attempt to deceive the credulous public with claims of the supernatural, be they religious, paranormal, or pseudo-scientific in nature. He's been a great inspiration to magicians Penn & Teller, and is the reason that shows such as Bullshit! and Mythbusters exist.

Some of you probably can't stand the guy, since he also has no patience for religion, new age phenomena, and/or homeopathy. But I think he's a pretty impressive guy. James Randi offers a $1 Million Prize to anyone who can prove, under scientific conditions, that any paranormal claim is genuine and can be reproduced. (If you win, please share the love with a homey, ok?)

I mention him here, for no other reason than the fact that I met the man in person last night, at a speaking engaagement in NYC.



( One more pic under cut )

Despite being just over eighty, he was as sharp and spry as ever. He showed a few interesting videos of some famous debunkings of his, and demonstrated the limitations of human observation. (plus a few nifty magic tricks that he pulled off effortlessly) He has a very dry wit and an amazing stage presence.

I'm glad that I got to see him in person while he's still alive. Now I just have to go practice all of these magic tricks that I've bought and never performed. ;)