Lolly Get your Adverbs Here!


Ah, mis-spent youth in front of the television on a Saturday morning. I think I learned more from these videos than from school sometimes… It’s amazing these things are here and they bring up all sorts of good memories for me. I lament that as I watch children’s programming with my daughter that the “spirit” of Schoolhouse Rock seems to be absent. I’m wondering what she might look back on with fondness. Incidentally, she seems to love these clips. If you liked Lolly, chances are you loved Conjunction Junction. The other videos I could find are posted after the jump.

Interplanet Janet


Three is a Magic Number


Verb!


Conjunction Junction


Interjection!


I’m just a Bill


Rufus Xavier Sasparilla

Fireworks


Elbow Room


Mother Necessity


No Kings


Zero, My Hero


The Preamble


The Shot Heard ‘Round the World

This month marks the 30th birthday of the US Department of Energy. Formed in the aftermath of the 1970’s energy crisis, the Department was created to catalyze the transformation of the US from a net-oil importer and net-pollution exporter into a nation with a secure energy supply and sustainable environmental footprint while keeping the economy humming along and keeping energy prices stable for consumers. The 2007 version of the Department’s mission is:

1. Energy Security
2. Nuclear Security
3. Scientific Discovery and Research
4. Environmental Responsibility
5. Management Excellence

While it’s clear there have been many accomplishments that the DoE can claim, relative to their mission, these are the results of the 30 year history:

1. Energy Security – 1977, 77% of our electricty generated from fossil fuels and 46.5% of oil imported. 2007, 70% of our electricity generated from fossil fuels and 65.9% of oil imported.
2. Nuclear Security – 1977, The US, USSR, UK, France, and China were nuclear powers. In 2007, India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea, and perhaps Iran have entered the fraternity. Security has proven lax at national labratories and military bases. Nuclear electric power production has increased from 9% in 1977 to nearly 21% in 2007. Nuclear waste management issues are still unresolved and the problem continues to grow. There have been no nuclear attacks.
3. Scientific Discovery and Research – Many interesting discoveries have been made; but the percentage of fossil fuel electricity generation, the nuclear waste issues, and oil import growth indicate that the breakthroughs are not making it to commercial application at a fast enough rate to make a difference.
4. Environmental Responsibility – Renewable electrcity production has decreased in share from 14.3% in 1977 to 9% in 2007. CO² levels have grown from ~335 parts per million in 1977 to >380 ppm at present.
5. Management Excellence – Though it’s not quite clear what this means, the budget of the DoE was $6.3B in 1977 and has grown to $23.5B in 2007. The cumulative spend on the DoE from 1977 to present is estimated to be in excess of $350B.

Many dedicated and talented people work for the DoE, we’ve met them in our travels. However, we have to question the overall direction of the agency and its resources since the mission has not been accomplished. Compared with the levels 30 years ago, the US is more dependent than ever on foreign oil to sustain the demand for transportation fuel, the electricity industry produces a smaller percentage of renewable power, the level of greenhouse gases has increased nearly 10%, and nuclear weapons technology and capability have proliferated. However, the DoE’s budget has increased 4-fold over that same time horizon.

It’s time to closely examine our national priorities and align resources in a whole-hearted manner to achieve the necessary impacts. It’s one thing to have a mission posted on a web site, it’s another to allocate resources toward that mission and measure progress each day, week, month, and year toward achieving those goals.

It’s Wednesday which means it must be time for a game preview. This weekend the mighty Buckeyes battle the Kent State University Golden Flashes at Ohio Stadium. In this season of upsets, anything is possible, but I don’t see this game being competitive (sorry Flashes…) Vegas has the line set with a 30 point spread (although we saw a 40 point dog win on the road last week) I’m going to say, the Bucks win 34-3. This is a short preview, for longer, more detailed info, visit Bucknuts. We’ll check back in to see how wrong this prediction was post-game on Saturday.

After much thought and careful consideration, I’ve decided to leave the ranks of atheism and become a Pastafarian. The only other idea that received serious consideration was Sun worship, as outlined by George Carlin.

Why change from atheism? It really comes down to a philosophical choice to be “for” something rather than to attempt to prove a negative to a mass of people brainwashed from birth to believe in myths. Since the world seems to be driven by myth, the Pastafarian myth set is the funniest, most appealing, self-deprecating, and least harmful set I could find to adopt. And after close examination, I can say this myth set is as plausible as any other, so why not?

If you find current religious myth sets and/or atheism don’t quite work for you, come on over to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and give it look.

There’s nothing I can say – they’ve said it all themselves.