Just an update: we're on the thirtieth round of unanswered email to
Myspace support; I still can't log in. I did manage to get into the
Threadgill's page, finally (http://www.myspace.com/threadgillsaustin),
and I'll be updating the calendar post haste. You can use it as my
calendar for all practical purposes; I'm the Threadgill's production
guy, and will be at all of the TWHQ shows.
So anyway, that's that. I'll keep plugging at Rupert's fine, fine
customer support apparatus, but now you know where to see some good
music... and me...
I try to devote some of my time each week to theology; I find it to
be a wonderful way to study the human race, and it often gives me
insights into our nature that help me to understand our strange little
species. It also serves to scratch the itch that those of my clan
instilled in me regarding taking some time each week to devote to
meditating upon larger issues of faith.
Wow. It's a long read, and it is remarkable in some of its
arguments. I mean that sincerely. It's enlightening on a variety of
levels, and I was impressed to see the level of respect it afforded
the subject, considering that protestantism has been the single most
obvious causative engine for the decline of the Catholic Church. The
expected "protestants don't go to heaven" never appeared, much to its
credit. It even goes so far as to state that any Christianity is
better than none. I think that this fact is remarkable.
But it also has its spew-coffee-on-the-monitor moments. I especially
enjoyed section "X. Protestantism and Progress." It is very
interesting how advances in science are portrayed, considering that
the Catholic Church has historically fought every foundational
scientific advance. I like the whole "they don't burn witches anymore"
ideation. Um, define "they", howzaboutit?
Finally, the "Conclusion" was exceedingly amusing to me. After an
impressive display of cogent (albeit partisan) historical analysis and
respectful theological hair splitting, the conclusion to the article
basically states "We're bigger and we have a single organizational
authority. Neener, neener."
Yes, indeedy. Studying theology certainly does tell us much about
ourselves.
Oh, why not... let's start the week with a bit of growling. Hear ye,
all of you "Web 2.0" developer types: snap.com is cool and all, but
it's irritating as all hell to have windows pop up when I accidentally
mouse over a link. Begone with it!
I'm going to do the season at Threadgill's again this
year... probably every year, until I am a deaf and toothless old
depends-wearing Janitor/Engineer, but certainly this year. Early
returns indicate that it will be an extraordinary year of music. We
have the perfect confluence of good management, booking expertise and,
well, an old soundguy who has made most of the bonehead errors and is
liked by the musicians. It's going to be unique and wonderful, and you
should keep it on your radar for the duration. I believe that it will
consistently be the best of the best available music in town through
Thanksgiving. We ramp up in early March.
On another note, I haven't been able to log in to MySpace for
almost two weeks, either my account or the Threadgill's one. I am in
the double digits of emails to their support group, and all I get back
from them is a boilerplate for drooling monkeys explaining how to log
in. I have faith, though; sysadmins know how to get past the
gatekeepers.
(They've screwed up some javascript code, referencing a bunch of
undeclared variables. It's easy to fix, but I can't make contact with
a human. A cursory google search verifies that several million people
have exactly the same issue. It's insane.)
So, anyway, if you're currently pining for an answer to your
MySpace mail to me, I am afraid that I'm at the mercy of a very poorly
run support/QA organization at this point. I hope to be back on
by... June or something at this point. If you're over there and you
have lots of friends in common with me, send a bulletin about my
little tragedy, aye?
[ Dons tinfoil hat ]
It probably has something to do with Rupert Murdoch...
The total amount of geothermal energy available in the USA to a depth
of 10 km (about 6 miles) is stunningly large - more than 130,000 times
the total energy use in the USA in 2005 (that is not a typo). Not all
of this is economically extractable. However, a large amount of it is
so extractable, and more will become so as technology develops. (The
report gives a wide range of estimates, from 2% to 40%).
Geothermal energy from EGS represents a large, indigenous resource
that can provide base-load electric power and heat at a level that can
have a major impact on the United States, while incurring minimal
environmental impacts. With a reasonable investment in R & D, EGS could
provide 100 GWe or more of cost-competitive generating capacity in the
next 50 years. Further, EGS provides a secure source of power for the
long term that would help protect America against economic
instabilities resulting from fuel price fluctuations or supply
disruptions. Most of the key technical requirements to make EGS work
economically over a wide area of the country are in effect, with
remaining goals easily within reach. This achievement could provide
performance verification at a commercial scale within a 10- to 15-year
period nationwide.
If we can spend 2
trillion dollars on a dim cocksure fratboy's fantasy of manhood in
the Middle East, surely we can find a billion to jumpstart
implementation of something that can completely eliminate the need for
fossil fuels within our children's lifetime.
Can you imagine the improvement to the quality of life in this
world if we weren't pumping billions of dollars a day into the hands
of barbaric medieval religious fanatics?
