What I've been waiting for... the Bloom Box

From Walter Jon Williams' Blog:

The Bloom Box is an in-house power generator. If I read the article right, it uses fuel and oxygen to cerate emission-less power. I've been waiting for something like this since my father (who worked at a power utility) told me what a fuel cell was, some thirty years ago.

He also said (my father is very smart) was that "utilities are interested in more than just electrical power." And from watching PG&E's antics for close to a decade, he wasn't wrong. So keep an eye on the Bloom Box. This will be a massive decentralizing influence if it works half as well as advertised.

Although it's touted as an emission-less energy source, it's not a fuel-less energy source. We won't be able to replace the amount of petrolium fuel America consumes with biofuel. There simply isn't enough arible land. But I would like to see the efficiency numbers; how many coal-burning power plants will we be able to take off-line if these suckers work?

And how soon before they're small enough to stick in a car?

Beautiful and snowy at my parents' place for Thanksgiving, and yes, this is the view from their living room. The turkey was delicious, the stuffing bad for me, the candied yams so full of butter and sherry that I forgot they were originally tubers.

Of course, Thanksgiving now involves other traditions. This year, my brother and I helped take the lawnmower attachment off his sit-down lawnmower and put on the snowthrower. I'm slightly less handy than a one-armed man without thumbs, but I helped around the periphery.

We had good, traditional Thanksgiving. Much food, enjoyable conversation, and time with beloved family. It strikes me as so very strange that we have the quintessential Thanksgiving: New England, and family that can get together without screaming, sulking, of sniping. For this, and for the reasons behind it, I am extremely thankful.

If you'd like a window into my family's thanksgiving, my brother took many pictures, and posted them to his flickr site.

A Little Family Humor for You

There are people who say that New Englanders are a dour lot, but that's simply because outsiders don't understand "our" sense of humor. For example, my mother told me today what I'm supposed to put on my pie. Some people put a little blob of dough that looks like an apple or a blueberry, or whatever. Not my family.

If you have just made an apple pie, you put a big "T" on it, for "'Tis apple. If it's not, you mark it with a big "T". For "Tain't.

And so the long New England nights just fly.