I don’t know how possible such undertaking would be, and I’m certainly not the man to see it through to fruition, but I thought that I’d offer the idea up, just in case someone out there had the knowledge, interest and network to pull it off.

I should conclude by saying that this, obviously, was just said in jest. I would never suggest that anyone damage private property, even if the future of the entire planet were at stake… I must say, though, that I really like the idea of thousands of people collaborating to ensure that the CEOs of the world’s largest corporations can never get cool, wherever they might go. I know it would be a massive undertaking, but it’s a beautiful idea, isn’t it?

There’s a new shift in the politics of food, not quite a movement yet, more of an eco-culinary frisson. But it may have staying power; the signs and portents are there. Vegans, freegans, locavores — meet the invasivores.

Some divers in the Florida Keys recently held a lionfish derby, the idea being to kill and eat lionfish, an invasive species. Local chefs cooperated by promoting the lionfish as a tasty entree. The idea drew editorial support from Andrew Revkin in a post on The Times’s Dot Earth blog in which he also mentioned an attempt by some fisheries biologists to rename the invading Asian carp “Kentucky tuna” to make it more appealing to diners. And the Utne Reader recently ran an article about Chicago chefs turning their attention to the same invasive fish.

The rumblings go further back, of course, as rumblings always do. The idea of eating kudzu and the recipes for it have been around for decades. More recently, at the beginning of 2009, a San Francisco blogger on matters ecological, animal and political, Rachel Kesel, posted a nicely turned argument for the “invasive species diet”…

Well, it got me thinking about how we should probably all try to incorporate a few more invasive species into our diets. And, with that in mind, I spent a great deal of today foraging along the banks of the Huron River. Sadly, the pickings were rather slim. While I was able to collect a few hand-fulls of garlic mustard, I wasn’t able to find even a single zebra mussel. And, while I was able to spot what I think was a non-migratory Canada goose, the rock that I hurled at it fell pitifully short. So, as I sit here eating raw garlic mustard leaves tonight, my mind is racing, thinking of ways to increase my daily allotment of invasivore protein, in the interest of protecting Michigan’s delicate ecosystem. And, I think I’ve got a solution. I’ve contacted a friend in Louisiana and arranged to have three mating pair of nutria – or mouse-beaver – sent to Michigan. If all goes well, I’ll have the six of them in my possession by this weekend. And, God willing, we’ll have a thriving colony on the banks of the Huron come summer… Happy hunting!

I hear they taste like White Castles.

Right now, it’s mostly money that’s holding us back. So far, we’ve taken in $193.10 (and one weird Canadian coin) in donations. We have, however, spent quite a bit more than that, having bought motors, generators, DC-AC converters and the like. At the moment, we’re probably about $500 in the hole, but we don’t intend to stop. We’re committed to find a way to make this work.

The next step is to have a real test of the concept, with a few bikes. We could either do this indoors, at the Brewery, or outside, behind the new VG Kids world headquarters, on the banks of the Huron River. The idea would be to have two bikes, equipped with generators, feeding into a deep-cycle marine battery. People, under this scenario, would begin peddling several hours prior to the movie(s) being shown, in order to store up the power necessary to project the film. In order to pull this off, in addition to what we already have, we would need the following:

One more bike stand and generator, at a cost of $399.

A 25 amp fuse and holder, at a cost of about $5.

A Blocking Rectifier Diode, at a cost of $49.

A 12 vdc Regulator/Converter, at a cost of $235.

Another DC to AC Inverter, at a cost of $100.39.

TOTAL: $788.39

We would need five more generators to pull off a big show, where people are peddling to power a film in real-time, but this would take care of most of the infrastructure that we’d need.

[These numbers are based on a few assumptions: 1) that we can find at least two bikes, 2) that we can borrow a digital projector, 3) that we can borrow deep-cycle marine battery.]

We recently submitted a grant proposal to the Ann Arbor Arts Alliance. If it comes though, this beta test could take place as early as April. If not, though, we’re going to have to initiate fundraising activities. It’s something that we can discuss at the meeting, but I’m thinking that we could ask local businesses to contribute $150 or $200 a piece toward the project, which we’re convinced would, when up and running, draw several hundred people downtown (which would be good for their businesses). There are also plans afoot to add a “donate” button to our Cycle Powered Cinema website, so that individuals can contribute online, but it’s probably still a few weeks away.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Donald Harrison and the folks at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, who have been incredibly supportive of this project to the point of allowing us to present the idea at next week’s festival, where our friend Michael Flynn, a professional builder of science museum exhibits, will be debuting his own bike-powered projector under the Cycle Powered Cinema banner… If you’re in Ann Arbor next week, be sure to check it out.

For those of you not familiar with the Cycle Powered Cinema initiative, you can find background information here and video of our first test run here.

[note: That's an image of Michael's Ann Arbor Film Festival exhibit accompanying this post.]

First, my friend Erica is organizing a global warming vigil here in Ypsi tomorrow (Saturday) evening. It’s scheduled to take place at 6:30 PM, on the section of Michigan Avenue that runs over the Huron River (just down from Haab’s and Materials Unlimited). The vigil is one of thousands that will be taking place around the world tomorrow, as a part of a campaign coordinated by a group called 350. (Those of you not in Ypsi can find a vigil in your area by clicking here.) Photos from all the events around the world, of people holding lit candles “in solidarity with the citizens of the nations whose very survival is threatened by the climate crisis,” will be uploaded to the internet and brought to the attention of those attending the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

Here’s the explanation of the vigil in Erica’s words… “It is a demonstration to bring climate change awareness and to send a message to world leaders that the solutions to climate change must be grounded in science, they must meet the scale of the crisis, they must be socially equitable, and they must be now.”

Oh, and the name 350 in this instance, if you’re wondering, has to do with the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that we need to strive for. “350 parts-per-million is the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide that scientists have agreed is sustainable and healthy for global ecology. Above this level raises the temperature of the Earth and promotes catastrophic climate change. We are at 387ppm. If we act now, we can fix this problem. Climate change is socially tragic and ecologically bleak. Citizens of the world need to know and to demand that we face this as a world now. In particular, the citizens of the USA need to make our voices heard by our politicians. We are currently responsible for 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide pollution. It is important that we participate.” [I'm not sure if this quote is from Erica, or 350, but I wanted to use it.]

Second, if living on the Earth isn’t your thing, there’s another cool 350 project that you might be interested in. If you want to be correct about it, there’s actually a slash in the name. The initiave is called the 3/50 Project, and it, like the other 350 project, seeks to influence behavior, in hopes of creating positive change. In this instance, however, it’s not about global warming, but saving our local businesses. The premise is pretty simple. They’re asking that you pick three locally owned businesses to support, and spend $50 at each of them. Here’s something for the site:

What three independently owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared? Stop in. Say hello. Pick up something that brings a smile. Your purchases are what keeps those businesses around.

If half the employed population spent $50 each month in locally owned independent businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. Imagine the positive impact if 3/4 the employed population did that.

For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.

For more information on work being done locally in this area, see Think Local First. [This is probably a good place to mention that I feel totally lame for not working with Linette to produce a Shop Ypsi for the Holidays print piece this year, like we have in year's past. We just didn't have the energy to do it a 4th year in a row. Sorry.]

So, whatever you’re doing this weekend, think 350… And, if you’ve got it in you, try to do both and join the 700 Club.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Michigan will apply for $830 million in federal grants to create a high-speed rail system from Pontiac to Chicago.

Granholm, speaking at the Amtrak station in Dearborn, said the system would allow train speeds of 110 m.p.h. and a travel time from Detroit to Chicago of 4 hours instead of 6 hours. Nine such trips would be planned each day.

Among the improvements would be moving the Dearborn Amtrak passenger station to a new station at Greenfield Village.

Other existing passenger stations would be upgraded, and the rail improved so passenger trains would no longer be delayed by freight train traffic…

There wasn’t a lot of detail given that we didn’t already know from SEMCOG’s Carmine Palumbo, but it’s good to finally know the exact dollar amount that we’re going for. And, I don’t believe that I’d heard anyone to date make the claim that the trip between Detroit and Chicago would only take four hours, which, if true, would be great… Now that I think about it, I also don’t remember hearing previously that the Dearborn station was “moving” to Greenfield Village. I thought that there would be stops at both.

Of course, several other regions are vying for these same funds, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. As Obama has said on previous occasions that the Chicago rail corridor was particularly close to his heart, though, I’m encouraged that something will come of it. And then there’s the fact that the Detroit-Chicago route is the second most popular midwestern Amtrak line after Chicago-Milwaukee, which should also help.

But, there’s apparently a complication. According to the Governor, it might not sit well with the feds that, as we’re requesting these funds to further build-out our rail infrastructure, we’re also cutting back on our contributions to Amtrak… The following comes from the Chicago Tribune:

…The pursuit of the federal dollars means Granholm likely will have to abandon her plans to trim 22 percent of the $7.3 million from state Amtrak subsidies for lines originating in Port Huron and Grand Rapids. Funding would drop by half — to about $3.7 million — starting in October under a budget passed by Senate Republicans.

If she cuts Amtrak funds, it’s less likely the state will persuade the federal government to give Michigan high-speed rail grants.

Granholm said she must “make the case” to restore the cuts, which were protested last week in East Lansing by a group called Save Our Trains Michigan, and show federal transportation officials the state is committed to high-speed rail.

“We’re going to push (for) the full amount into the budget,” she told The Associated Press on the train. “We’ve got to restore those cuts. … If it leverages $833 million, I think it’s worth the investment.”

Preserving the funding won’t be easy. Granholm and legislators are trying to close a $2.8 billion shortfall in the budget year that starts Oct. 1. Much of the hole can be filled with federal recovery money, but state officials still face a sizable gap between revenue and spending.

Many groups oppose high-speed rail investments by the government and Amtrak subsidies.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland-based free-market think tank, has encouraged the cuts. It argues that passenger rail subsidies aren’t among the state’s constitutional responsibilities…

My hope is that the feds, in all of their wisdom, wouldn’t hold it against us, when making this decision, that we’ve got the most depressed economy in the country (and therefore might not be able to contribute as much as we’d like to Amtrak). But maybe they would. Who knows? Maybe the federal government has already written-off the imploding city of Detroit as a lost cause. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see… Or, perhaps we could be proactive about it, and push our state Senators to reinstate the full Amtrak subsidy, as a sign of our dedication to rail. Of course, I have no idea where the money would come from to do so. Furthermore, I don’t know that $830 million would even come close to covering the real costs of high-speed rail between Detroit and Chicago.

Oh, it should also be noted that Governor Granholm indicated that a second rail-centric federal funding request would be submitted in October. Those funds, if granted, would be used to jump-start the business of high-speed rail car and engine manufacturing in the state. (Something that we should have been pushing aggressively since the day after 9/11.)

Two Michigan firms are working to launch a new wind-turbine component manufacturing venture that is a high priority for the state and could advance the industry’s technology.

The venture, spearheaded by Sterling Heights-based MAG Industrial Automation Systems L.L.C. and Dowding Machining Inc. from Eaton Rapids, would have two main functions: design and manufacture state-of-the-art machine tools to make massive wind-turbine components with reduced time and cost, and build a new generation of wind turbine blades out of carbon fiber.

“The strategic goal is to drive the cost of wind energy down to the same level as carbon (based fuel),” said Roger Cope, president of MAG’s strategic business development group and one of the venture’s principals. “And right now, they’re very far apart.”

The endgame? To be the first to apply advanced, automotive-style manufacturing processes and advanced materials to wind-turbine components manufacturing…

One would think that GE would already have made a great deal of headway toward making the manufacturing process more efficient and incorporating new materials, but, generally speaking, I like the idea of using our skilled workers to address the underserved wind market… Anyway, I think it would be worthwhile to make a call, and offer them a deal here in Ypsi, if they’re able to come up with the funding to launch the new initiative. Here, on that subject, is a clip from today’s American Machinist:

As Michigan has begun the process of reemphasizing its manufacturing base with a focus beyond the automotive sector, two local companies are in the process of launching a wind-turbine component manufacturing venture that could advance the industry’s technology…

One of the chief challenges is to secure financing, which is highly problematic in this economy. Cope says about $135 million is needed to fund a plant that is equipped with specially designed machine tooling…

One wonders if, by placing the plant in a struggling community like Ypsilanti, there might be federal stimulus dollars, tax credits, etc available. It certainly couldn’t hurt to have someone in our Congressman’s office, or at Ann Arbor SPARK, call Roger Cope and initiate a conversation on what our community has to offer.

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.

As I sit here in GM’s birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented “planned obsolescence” — the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one — has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh — and that wouldn’t start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the “inferior” Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to “improve” the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits, it moved countless jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, thus destroying the lives of tens of thousands of hard-working Americans. The glaring stupidity of this policy was that, when they eliminated the income of so many middle class families, who did they think was going to be able to afford to buy their cars? History will record this blunder in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.

So here we are at the deathbed of General Motors. The company’s body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with — dare I say it — joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with. Nor do I, obviously, claim any joy in knowing that 21,000 more GM workers will be told that they, too, are without a job.

But you and I and the rest of America now own a car company! I know, I know — who on earth wants to run a car company? Who among us wants $50 billion of our tax dollars thrown down the rat hole of still trying to save GM? Let’s be clear about this: The only way to save GM is to kill GM. Saving our precious industrial infrastructure, though, is another matter and must be a top priority. If we allow the shutting down and tearing down of our auto plants, we will sorely wish we still had them when we realize that those factories could have built the alternative energy systems we now desperately need. And when we realize that the best way to transport ourselves is on light rail and bullet trains and cleaner buses, how will we do this if we’ve allowed our industrial capacity and its skilled workforce to disappear?

Thus, as GM is “reorganized” by the federal government and the bankruptcy court, here is the plan I am asking President Obama to implement for the good of the workers, the GM communities, and the nation as a whole. Twenty years ago when I made “Roger & Me,” I tried to warn people about what was ahead for General Motors. Had the power structure and the punditocracy listened, maybe much of this could have been avoided. Based on my track record, I request an honest and sincere consideration of the following suggestions:

1. Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices. Within months in Flint in 1942, GM halted all car production and immediately used the assembly lines to build planes, tanks and machine guns. The conversion took no time at all. Everyone pitched in. The fascists were defeated.

We are now in a different kind of war — a war that we have conducted against the ecosystem and has been conducted by our very own corporate leaders. This current war has two fronts. One is headquartered in Detroit. The products built in the factories of GM, Ford and Chrysler are some of the greatest weapons of mass destruction responsible for global warming and the melting of our polar icecaps. The things we call “cars” may have been fun to drive, but they are like a million daggers into the heart of Mother Nature. To continue to build them would only lead to the ruin of our species and much of the planet.

The other front in this war is being waged by the oil companies against you and me. They are committed to fleecing us whenever they can, and they have been reckless stewards of the finite amount of oil that is located under the surface of the earth. They know they are sucking it bone dry. And like the lumber tycoons of the early 20th century who didn’t give a damn about future generations as they tore down every forest they could get their hands on, these oil barons are not telling the public what they know to be true — that there are only a few more decades of useable oil on this planet. And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline..

President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.

2. Don’t put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce — and most of those who have been laid off — employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3. Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years. Japan is celebrating the 45th anniversary of its first bullet train this year. Now they have dozens of them. Average speed: 165 mph. Average time a train is late: under 30 seconds. They have had these high speed trains for nearly five decades — and we don’t even have one! The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven’t used it, is criminal. Let’s hire the unemployed to build the new high speed lines all over the country. Chicago to Detroit in less than two hours. Miami to DC in under 7 hours. Denver to Dallas in five and a half. This can be done and done now.

4. Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5. For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6. For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries). It will take a few years for people to get used to the new ways to transport ourselves, so if we’re going to have automobiles, let’s have kinder, gentler ones. We can be building these next month (do not believe anyone who tells you it will take years to retool the factories — that simply isn’t true).

7. Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8. Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9. To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline. This will get people to switch to more energy saving cars or to use the new rail lines and rail cars the former autoworkers have built for them.

Well, that’s a start. Please, please, please don’t save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution. Don’t throw bad money into a company whose tailpipe is malfunctioning, causing a strange odor to fill the car.

100 years ago this year, the founders of General Motors convinced the world to give up their horses and saddles and buggy whips to try a new form of transportation. Now it is time for us to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine. It seemed to serve us well for so long. We enjoyed the car hops at the A&W. We made out in the front — and the back — seat. We watched movies on large outdoor screens, went to the races at NASCAR tracks across the country, and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time through the window down Hwy. 1. And now it’s over. It’s a new day and a new century. The President — and the UAW — must seize this moment and create a big batch of lemonade from this very sour and sad lemon.

Yesterday, the last surviving person from the Titanic disaster passed away. She escaped certain death that night and went on to live another 97 years.

So can we survive our own Titanic in all the Flint Michigans of this country. 60% of GM is ours. I think we can do a better job.

Yours,
Michael Moore

While I feel for the GM employees who will lose their jobs in the restructuring, I can’t help but think that the company, to a very large degree, deserves what’s happening. GM made its job fighting against environmental standards and convincing people that they needed Hummers when they knew damned well that such a course, while profitable, wasn’t sustainable. And, now, like John Dingell before them, they’re being forced to accept the consequences of their actions… Again, I feel for the men and women who will suffer as a result of these recent developments, but, like Moore, I believe that, in the end, all of this could be good thing. The credit collapse that led to the implosion of Big Three could very well, when all is said and done, be seen as the stroke of good luck that we needed in order to avoid catastrophe.

Bill Nye “The Science Guy” was booed in Waco, Texas for suggesting the Moon did not generate its own light, but reflected light from the sun.

Trouble started when the children’s entertainer brought up Genesis 1:16, which reads: “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars,” and pointed out that the lesser light was actually a reflector.

At this point, several people in the audience stormed out, including woman with three small children who shouted, “We believe in God!” and left…

Again, I realize that some percentage of the people in the state are sane, but I think, if in the interest of moving forward as a nation we have to sacrifice some territory, it should be Texas. Let the global warming deniers and the believers in the glowing moon have the whole damned, dried-out thing. And give everyone else in the country who wants to go there a one-way ticket. It’s not a pleasant thing, but sometimes you have to hack off a diseased limb in order to survive.

I know, having read the blogging guidelines, I don’t owe you an explanation for my uncharacteristic bluntness and negativity, but I’m out on my own tonight, drinking beer at the Brewery.

And for some reason, I’m not sure why, I think that it’s appropriate here to link to photos taken in 1970′s Iran, before the Islamic Revolution.

What’s my point?

My point is that our whole world teeters on the edge of fundamentalist religious rule, and what seems normal to us today could be gone tomorrow if we allow it to happen. And it starts with insane fuckers like this, yelling down scientists who dare to say that the moon reflects light, and politicians threatening secession.

Let Texas Go.

In order to solve the climate crisis, we can’t just change light bulbs — we need to change laws.

We’re closer today than ever before. Right now, Congress is debating clean energy legislation that will jumpstart our economy and help solve the climate crisis.

On this Earth Day, can I depend on you to support this crucial legislation?

“Yes. I’ll add my voice and get 10 people to sign the petition in support:”

This is the historic comprehensive energy legislation that we’ve been waiting for. It will create millions of jobs and help solve the climate crisis by closing the carbon pollution loophole.

After so many years of inaction and obstruction, it’s incredible that we have finally reached this point. But the legislative process is never easy. With powerful forces fighting hard to maintain the status quo, it will take all of us working together to seize this moment.

Today, you are one of more than two million Repower America members, and tens of millions of Americans, who want to take positive action for our planet. This is it — a chance to demonstrate nationwide support for clean energy to our leaders in Congress, and help to bring about a new economic era based on clean energy.

So please, talk to your friends. Talk to your parents or grandparents. Start a conversation with a co-worker. And ask them to join with you and the millions of other Americans who want Congress to support clean energy jobs by closing the carbon pollution loophole.

–“Yes. I’ll get 10 people to support this historic clean energy legislation in Congress:”

–“Sorry, I support clean energy but I’d like to help in other ways:”

Your efforts have brought us this far. I hope you take this opportunity to make this a historic Earth Day.

Thank you,
Al Gore

And, if you want to go a step further, call Congress and let them know how you feel. Believe it or not, it really does make a difference.

Is this really the best the Republicans can do? Do they really not have a single constructive idea to contribute? It’s pathetic.