Suing To Keep Polluting

Here's an interesting article from Friday's L.A. Times.
Corporate America at its best.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-emissions-waiver11-2009sep11,0,1938672.story

Sell the Streets

An essay from the Library of Economics and Liberty on privatization of roads:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2009/Powellstreets.html#

More Evidence of Climate Change Hype

From the Gralien Report:


http://gralienreport.com/conspiracies/hot-or-cold-solar-silence-co2-emisions-and-climate-change/#more-352

Global Warming or Government Bunk?

I have long held that all the paranoia surrounding "global warming" was merely a government ploy to hyper-increase its stranglehold over humanity, and this latest article from Britain's Telegraph does nothing to dissuade me from that contention.

In short, drive your SUV all you want -- maybe even stop by McD's and get a couple of burgers made from methane-producing cows. Relax and decompress, for chrissakes. This "global warming" stuff is all a bunch of political boooollsheet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5804831/Climate-change-The-sun-and-the-oceans-do-not-lie.html

48 Seconds to Taser

An article from an issue of Car and Driver magazine published last year about use of tasers during routine traffic stops. I don't know about you, but I think cops are way out of control in their use of these allegedly "non-lethal" weapons (to date, almost 500 people have died from them). How did the police manage to get along all those years before tasers were invented, huh?

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/c_d_staff/patrick_bedard/tase_early_tase_often_column

Handy biodiesel ammo

I'm feeling a little better since reading the handy fact-sheet that the folks at the National Biodiesel Board have just put out, debunking the various distorted information that has been circulating about biodiesel recently. I still think we need to drive our cars less, no matter what fuels them, and I still realize that we can't possibly produce enough domestic biodiesel to replace our current petroleum use. And the NBB fact-sheet sidesteps the fact that mono-cropping of any crop, soy or otherwise, tends to be hugely problematic from an environmental and social standpoint. Still, it's not all bad. There's no perfect single solution, but I'm comfortable promoting biodiesel as one small part of a general move in a more positive direction!

GM Summer in Vermont

Today's edition of the Rutland Herald includes a great photo of a mint 1967 Chevy Camaro convertible on the front page, with a caption that in part, reads like this:

"While General Motors is spending the summer in bankruptcy, and shedding brands like Pontiac, Hummer, and Saab, we wanted to take a look at what Detroit steel has meant and what it still means to Vermonters, and we want to hear from you. We're starting a photo gallery of GM products we spot on the street -- new or old, mint or mildewed -- and encourage you to post your photos and comments about your memories of GM there as well."

The web address is : www.rutlandherald.com/gmcars

Note: While this project is cool, I don't hold the same opinion of the Rutland Herald in general, which if you're interested, you'll see here:

http://www.strike-the-root.com/91/knight/knight2.html

Bibliography and eval's

I'm working on the bibliographic entry and seminar eval's today, but I'm only able to get online sporadically, so will post them as soon as I'm able. Thanks for your patience...

Cars that fly--Farms that depend on oil

I Love this picture. How cool would it be to fly above the traffic. Imagine flying through New York, New York. Flying through Time Square, dodging the sky scrapers.An even better Idea would be land on top of the sky scrapers. I hope in my life time, I will see a sky car that can actually function. I have watched many shows on the science channel about future cars. It gets me giddy on the inside. They say our cars in the future will be our most powerful computer that we will own. Imagine getting into your car and it knows your daily schedule better than yourself. Surfing the internet while your car navigates you to your destination. The future car will also heal it's self like human skin. A scratch on your nice paint job? No problem, The outer layer of your car would be life like in the fact that it can repair it's self like a scrape on your own skin.
The article about the world running out of food, makes you think.Our agriculture is incredibly dependent on petroleum. The farm equipment that works the fields need fuel. The trucks that transport our food to the grocery stores. We as a society are in the hands of the oil companies. I love my bike, but I love my car even more....... All I want is a world that is better to my children than it has been to me, and children that take care of Mother Earth better than I have in my life time. It all starts with education!!!!!!!!

Groovy Battery Car

I enjoyed the readings this time because they were a lot of them but on different subjects. It was nice to skip around and hear about other issues. I highly enjoyed the first one that went through the decades of different attempts of alternate energy. My favorite was the 1960's Taylor-Dunn, Trident powered by battery electric. I thought that one was just adorable. I also really like scooters so the land glider fuel cell was pretty nice too. I thought that if they had pursued more of these alternate ways of power from the start they could have overcome and succeeded past the obstacle that had stopped further interest. So I didn't completely agree with the last paragraph on the lack of technology. 

When I first read this article their was a youtube video on the side that featured two different powered cars. One was electric, I think, and one was solar powered. I really liked the solar power one. I forget what the names of the cars were. Then I went make to the page to check some things before I posted about it, the video was gone. I hope somebody else watched it. It was really cool and I wanted to talk about and didn't think it would have been gone. Oops, oh well. I hope somebody remembers the name. Maybe I'll hunt for it on youtube tonight before class tomorrow. 

My First Car?

Since I have never owned a car before, I have always been on the look out for a potential first car. Many of my friends got cars or where given one of their parents at age 16 or even before sometimes. For me it just never happened. I thought about it and fell seriously in love once with this khaki colored 89 jeep, but it just never worked out. I guess we just had different priorities and we ended up going in different directions. I spent my money and went to Ireland, he stayed home, parked on the side of the road with a FOR SALE sign pasted to his windshield. When I got home he was still there and I'd occasionally take a "short cut" and glance at his beautiful tan body, but my bank account was empty and that was the end of that. From then on my search never went farther then a look in the auto part of the classifieds. 

Though, lately, my "need" for my own set of wheel has become strong, and it helps that I have some extra money laying around. I have been looking and talking around about used cars. I really want to commit but am so terrified of being tied down from then on. Insurance, maintenance, inspection, registration all those things make me run for the door. On the other side it would give me more flexibility with jobs and in turn maybe making more money. It's just a back a forth see-saw in my mind. 

I've been looking on craigs list searching for something under 1,000, either a volvo or subaru. Here's the link for one I am interested in http://nh.craigslist.org/cto/1172722011.html I would have to take some experience people with me, probably my dad, to see if it's the real deal. I e-mailed the guy and he said he'd sell it for 800, which is in my budget. I don't know I'll have to wait and see, most likely I just flake out like usual. Once again, I think I have some serious commitment issues. Every since my first love my urges have never been the same.

P.S. isn't the volvo pretty cute 

Fuel or Food

I found the article, “Food or Fuel” to be the most interesting and informative of this month’s readings. I had always been under the assumption that using corn etc…, for fuel, had a negative impact on food supplies. Little did I know! I’m a bit relieved to know that by “going green”, we aren’t starving millions of people throughout the world.
What is alarming is the amount of food that we waste and/or use to feed livestock, when there are so many people in desperate need of these crops to simply live.

“For every one ton of US corn exported in 1996 to one of the 25 countries with the world’s most serious malnutrition problems…260 tons were exported to a wealthy Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development country”, and “More US corn goes to make alcoholic beverages in the US than is exported to feed the hungry in the world’s 25 most undernourished countries combined.”

O.k., so our driving habits and our fuel consumption don’t really hurt the world’s food supply, but maybe our drinking habits do. Maybe I’m being a bit too cynical, but I highly doubt that it would make much difference to us if we were starving people, as long as we were able to drive our vehicles in the manner we’ve become accustomed to, which is with little thought to the impact we’re having on the world around us.

I realize that our focus here is the impact of our use of the automobile and the resources needed to do so, but this article has made me re-think the way we take the availability of food for granted, while many others go without.
I recently read where one acre of land can produce 20,000 pounds of potatoes or 165 pounds of beef.
http://www.crescentlife.com/dietnutrition/food_realities.htm

I won’t pretend that I’m a vegetarian; I enjoy my steaks and fried chicken as much as the next guy, but it seems to me that we, as a society, should begin taking a more serious look at our eating habits, and not spend our time looking for an excuse to justify our unwillingness to invest in alternative fuel sources.
Sorry if I got a little off the track…

Expression of...something!

If you get a moment, here's an art/car project that makes a very interesting companion piece to our painting experiment and also to the Pilobolus "Powered by You" Ford ad that we looked at in our last meeting. This is BMW's latest entry in the art car sweepstakes, a project called Expression of Joy where the car becomes the paintbrush. BMW has associated itself with hip artists for a long time - this image is of the sculptor Alexander Calder and his design on a BMW race car in 1975. If only Bianca's renters had known about this...

Armed with love

After our last seminar I was pretty pumped. I thought my car looked sweet and was excited about driving it around. I only really thought about the impact of my stencil decisions enough to register that promoting hand guns to my at-risk youth client population was going to be a problem. No sooner had I left campus did I notice the questioning stares. I stopped at Agway to pick up chicken feed on my way home and I was accosted by a middle aged man in the parking lot.
"What the hell is that all about?" he asked.
Oh shit! Was I supposed to have had a purpose in my art project? Honestly, I had only really thought about the aesthetic value and whether or not the damned stuff would actually come off. After reassuring him that I was not in fact in a gang he finally seemed to back off. Only after however he had regaled me with tales about his own gang days in the seventies in "the village" where he had been "armed with love" (gag me with a spoon!!!!)
Anyway, that sealed the deal, not wanting even one more interaction remotely like that I was determined to get home, ignore the weird looks and wash my car. I made it home and crashed out on my bed exhausted. About twenty minutes later I could hear Ana one of our renters walking by the house talking to her boyfriend.
"What is this about?" she said. "It looks kinda cool but what is she trying to say?"
"I cannot believe she would do something like this to her car, what if she wants to sell it?"
Mind you this is someone I consider to be like family, who knows me really well. At this point I am not sure whether to go outside and yell at her for thinking I would permanently paint my car or reassure her that in fact I was not trying to say anything!I ended up doing nothing except crawling under the covers.
I washed the car the next day before work, but since I was in a rush I only had time to take off the worst offenders; the guns. After that people still seemed to constantly harass me but at least I did not meet with the same sense of indignation and confusion. I can honestly say that I will never paint my car again and I will also never underestimate the power of communicating one's identity through vehicle ownership.

The first automobile?

In reading about "alternative" cars, I got curious about what the first automobile actually was, and when it was built. While there are various candidates, it seems as though this steam-powered monster, built by Nicolas Cugnot in France in 1769, is one of the main contenders. It's in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

Fire Poker

They were far to the rear of the field, away from the paved parking area where darkness would give them privacy, though it was a slow night anyway. Everyone had already seen Saturday Night Fever last summer. They didn't even have a speaker hanging in the back-seat window, with a fat black Bakelite knob to adjust the volume. Those all marched in neat parking-meter rows closer to the screen where the spaces marked off by faded white lines weren't even half full. They had the radio on real low instead. He reshuffled the deck of Aviators expertly and dealt them each another hand. She dragged on the roach, eyeing him with coy knowledge. The night was humid, but he was sweating a little too much just the same. He set the rest of the deck down, and picked up his cards.

"Ahhh, I'll take three," he said, now pleasantly stoned. He discarded, and selected three fresh cards from the pile.

"Shhhit," she said, blowing out smoke and smirking, once she looked at her own five cards. "I'll take four."

He shook his head, grinning. "You'll take three. None of this four card crap."

She again eyed him vicariously, lips pursed, discarded three, and took three more. She flicked the roach out the window.

"Call it," he said.

With some reluctance: "King high."

He whistled low, smiling, shaking his head with eager pride. "Pair of fives. I win again." His grin blossomed, cutting the half-dark. On the big screen, John Travolta and his buddies were silently crashing a car through the front windows of a discotheque. On the radio, Todd Rundgren was singing "Hello, It's Me." But these things seemed faraway, unimportant.

"What's it gonna be now? Hmmm?" he asked, and leaned against the door on his side of the backseat. He still had everything on except his tee-shirt, and he hadn't minded losing that. It was too damned hot. She was down to only undergarments.

She didn't reply: Just reached back, unhooked her bra, and dropped it to the floormat. Her sizeable breasts, now loosed, shook lusciously with the motion. His grin widened.

"One more hand," he said, and scooped up the pile of cards with alacrity.

"What if I don't wanna play anymore?" she asked, smiling smugly.

"My dear, we are gonna play the blues," he remarked, and started to reshuffle.

He dealt them another hand, and noticed that the radio had gone staticky all of a sudden. He considered reaching over the front seat and replacing it with Led Zep on the eight-track, then dismissed the idea. It was just too hot. And soon, things would get hotter still. The anticipation was maddening; butterflies at the base of his skull.

"Ho!" he said, obviously pleased. "One for me." He discarded, and selected another. He glanced up at her in pure mischief.

Her eyes gleamed sensuously in the shadows. "Two." She tossed two away on the seat, and took new ones.

"Well?" he asked.

"You call," she said, mildly defiant.

He looked at her a moment longer, then layed down his hand. "Three jacks." With some amusement, he noted the one on top was the Jack of Hearts.

She sighed. "Pair of queens." She layed them down slow. One of them was the Queen of Spades.

"Endgame," he said with a victorious smile. "Okay. You, or me?"

Eyeing him with both amusement and annoyance, she hooked her thumbs under her waistband, and slid the panties off with a whisper.

At this, he leaned across without the slightest hesitation and French kissed her, long and full. She unzipped his jeans, and he pulled her towards him. She was now flat on her back along the seat, and deliciously buck naked. He clamped his hand on one beautifully smooth cream-colored thigh, and caressed it with something like greed. Presently, he came full-erect.

"Now," she whispered, and with a thrust, he was inside her warmth. The air seemed to burn in his lungs. He worked in a steadily increasing rhythm.

The radio volume jumped. Pure static now. And something just beneath he couldn't quite make out. It didn't matter. He continued to plunder her. But it was hot, God, it was so damned hot. Sweat rolled off him like rain.

He was just feeling himself gather in climax when she sat up abruptly, throwing him back against the seat, straddling him, her working him now, and the action had caused his groin a bolt of intense pain.

"Damned," he breathed, now feeling lightheaded. Dizzy, even.

"Yes," she agreed, and tossed her long raven hair. A flapping sound behind her, and batwings spanned the inside of the car; a horrifying surreal silhouette in the dim light from the movie screen. Her pupils had vanished, he saw to his mute terror, and her retinas had now gone a deep burgundy. The color of coagulated blood. She grinned, revealing rows of fangs thick as marlin spikes. He heard the radio very clear now, and it was the sound of untold numbers of people, throngs of them, screaming, and screaming, and screaming forever. Maybe beyond the end of forever.

He was sweating like a man with malaria, oiled with it, shivering in throes of heat exhaustion. His mouth was dry as dust. "My God," he managed in a whisper. "Wh-...what are you?"

Its voice came in a hiss, like a snake which has learned to mimic human speech. "Eternity," it said.

He cried out, hysterical, pleading, feeling the first playful licks of flame, but the world too soon became an inescapable inferno.

Thinking 1970s, Living in a New Century

I suppose some of the predominant and recurring memories I've had during this seminar are of my old 1975 Dodge Dart Swinger. Though by today's standards it would be considered a fishing trawler, in '75 it was actually an economy car. My great aunt in New Hampshire bought it brand new, and I remember her driving me around in it as a kid. Years later, when she was too old to drive, I bought it for $300 and fixed it up. I drove it as my exclusive vehicle for the next eight years. It had the infamous Dodge "slant-6" engine; one of the best and most reliable commercially produced American motors of all time. I'll never forget that car. It ran smooth and quiet, like a Singer sewing machine. It averaged a respectable 20 miles to the gallon. It rarely broke down, and when it did, it was easy to fix. I loved driving it. The big wide black vinyl bench seats were like sitting on your living room couch. I loved the smooth slide of the automatic column shifter when you put it into gear, the punch forward when you stepped on the gas, the incomparable way the steering wheel spun with well-oiled ease as only 1970s power steering systems seemed able to provide. I loved cruising around in it at night, with the high-low beam switch sticking out of the left-side floorboard. The dashlights glowed a nostalgic yellow-green, and if you fiddled with the solid-state AM radio dial, you could tune that little orange vertical bar in to obscure oldies stations as nearby as Newburyport, Mass. or Boston -- or as far away as New York City or Prince Edward Island, Canada. At night, the airwaves light up, as any HAM radio operator will tell you, and there were times the songs coming out of that green-glowing radio shone like the bright, crisp stars overhead while I blasted down back roads in the wee hours.

This is part of why, perhaps, I found this last set of readings and Web browsings so thought-provoking. My '75 Dart wasn't your stereotypical seventies gas-guzzling battleship -- after all, it was of the first generation of cars to be equipped with a catalytic converter, and was only a six cylinder in a time when eight was more or less the industry standard. I will always long for and lust after "classic" cars. I vow to own one again someday -- yes, with all the 1970s disregard for air pollution, energy conservation, and highway safety "grandfathered" right in there -- but at the same time we're in a new century with a vast array of new, and in some cases not so new but improved, technologies. We would be sadly remiss not to utilize them. A pair of British scientists just created a new carbon-based battery that recharges itself using oxygen. They hope to have it on the market within five years. This is just one example. We should all be looking at alternatives and advances in science, up to and including even the speculative, such as the theories of Nikola Tesla and "free energy."

I'm especially intrigued by "tribrids" and also compressed air cars -- these seem to be the most promising at the moment. Some of the past experiments, such as the 1957 Studebaker-Packard Astral, remind me of the old sixties TV show, Land of the Giants. Energy conservation and environmental protection are serious topics, I realize, but these past experiments are nothing if not sheer fun.

I do not share the apocalyptic view expressed by U-Winnipeg that the human race stands on the precipice of self-immolation due to lack of sustainable energy. For one, the entire "fossil" fuel theory has its serious detractors, and the idea of abiotic oil is becoming more vand more plausible. As well, the Food or Fuel? page does an outstanding job of debunking a common unfounded fear surrounding the production of alternative biofuels. What surprises me is the author(s) make no mention of the fact that there are numerous forms of vegetation, not used for human consumption, from which ethanol can be gleaned. That all said, there was one quote in particular that is almost spot-on in my view:

"People starve because they're victims of an inequitable economic system, not because they're victims of scarcity and overpopulation."

I say "almost," because although the statement on its face can be true, we need to define just which economic systems constitute "inequity." Judging by what follows on the webpage, it seems that capitalism and wealth accumulation are under fire. Were communism, socialism, and fascism positioned so, I would raise no argument. Such systems do induce poverty and starvation. To make the statement whole, I would substitute "political" for "economic." That's infinitely more accurate.

The articles on bicycles all made me think of Cuba shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Castro traded boatloads of sugar to China in exchange for boatloads of bikes as at the time, Cuba had no hard capital to pay for petroleum fuel. Even the Cuban army paraded on holidays riding bicycles for a couple of years until Fidel was forced to introduce some minimal free-market reforms to prevent Cuba's economy from complete dissolution and widespread utter famine. More evidence of the ill effects Marxism imposes on those people imprisoned by it.
However, these Ciclovias are not bad ideas in and of themselves -- I would just naturally be very leery about allowing them to become government-sponsored or managed events which seems to be the direction things are headed in. Very bad idea, that.

I would say the same of the Motor Cities National Heritage Areas (a National Park Service power grab -- though at least shortly one may carry firearms on NPS land, subject only to state laws, thanks in no small part to the fine freedom-loving folks at Gun Owners of America who fought for eight years to accomplish this. American automotive heritage is fine. I just don't need or want a government "preserving" or "commemorating" it for me.

Another government endeavor that at least looks interesting, however, is the Sharon Visitors Center. Indeed, what an odd combination -- ecological consciousness coupled with a memorial to the Vietnam Conflict. In fact, I find the layout of the rest area at Sharon so intriguing, that I think it may find its way into some of my fiction at no distant day. And in real life, it's a must visit for later this summer.

Speaking of fiction, I hope by tomorrow to post a piece of short fiction I wrote while thinking about all of this. Some of you have actually requested another tale from me. I don't want to give it away, of course, but all the action takes place in a car, and I may include it in a short story collection (which will only come out after my next two or three projects are finished, so please don't poise yourself to buy it just yet) tentatively titled, Alex R. Knight III's Spooky Seventies. At any rate, it's called "Fire Poker," and is not for the easily offended...nor for the squeamish. When I post it, it will be without further adieu. Forewarned is forearmed, and now, hopefully, you're both.

Vehicular Trauma

These past few weeks have resulted in some serious transportation issues! Patrick(my boyfriend)recently purchased a Subaru WRX at the same timethat he got his license back (it had been suspended.)He has been working towards this goal for a while and was so excited to make the purchase. The evening before he got his license back his ridiculously nice ($1200)mountain bike was stolen from his work place. Interesting???? Life is so strange. Things only got worse when the day after getting his license and only the second day he was able to drive the new love of his life it broke down on his way home from Burlington in Montpelier! Unfortunately, his baby needs a new transmission and what the hey, they(the mechanics) feel they mine as well throw in a clutch while they are in there. As we purchased this 8500 dollar piece of junk from a private person and don't have any legal recourse we don't seem to have much choice in the matter. To further complicate my already ridiculous life the bicycle showed back up on Saturday. Wait it gets better... the person who "purchased" the bicycle from the alleged thief had a bill of sale and wanted to recoup his forty dollar investment. My triumphant boyfriend came home so relieved to just have the Trek back, he didn't understand my amazement at having to pay to get it. He was further disappointed when I explained that he had been duped; the Bill of Sale was fake, the "buyer" actually the thief and the framed signature on the false document one of my clients. Needless to say it has been a long week and I am altogether sick of all things with wheels. Oh I forgot to mention that when the bike was stolen from Pat's work it was thrown into the back of one of the farm pick-ups which was also heisted: Grand Theft Auto plus larceny for the bike. What a day....

What setting does this work in?

Recently, I spent several days on a work retreat with my department at a beautiful spa in central Vermont. This was the first time I found myself cracking open the New York Times with no motive other then leisurely reading. I chanced upon an interesting piece which reported on a community in Germany where cars are actually outlawed! Well, that is not exactly true, you can purchase parking spaces for them in garages on the outskirts of town for 40,000 dollars a piece. As you can imagine there are very few car owners. The town is completely motored by bicycle power. I am attaching the link so that you can see for yourself. As I think about the romantic ideals that go along with this movement I am day dreamy and curious, but fairly pessimistic. How could this work? Everyone in the community must either be able able to do everything locally, be independently wealthy or retired? How are large objects moved, and how are emergencies dealt with? I am completely intrigued and would love to visit a place like this. Check it out: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=germany%20car%20free%20community&st=cse

Some car (and post-car) futures

I've been slow getting the readings for our final seminar meeting together - thanks for your patience!

I'd like you to do a little web reading about some of the potential directions that cars and culture are headed in, so have a look at the sites linked below. As always, post at least a quick response here in the blog to any one of them.

As we head into the final couple of weeks of the seminar (and how the heck did that happen?), I'd also like you to do a bit more car journaling to reflect on where your thinking about cars and culture is now, how that's changed since the start of the semester (if it has), and what kinds of changes (if any) you can envision making in your own relationship to cars, or changes that you can imagine initiating or supporting in your community. What would you change, if you could? What makes individual and collective change easy, hard, or possible at all? (In our final meeting, we'll go back to some of the "culture concept" stuff that we looked at in the beginning of the seminar to help us think about why cultures change or resist change.) Jeff, our blogger-in-waiting, has already reflected on a lot of this in his most recent post, and others may want to post their journal thoughts here as well, or you could just bring them to our meeting.

READINGS FOR MAY 31

A couple of sites on "cars of the future" (including some from the past):
* the Petersen Automotive Museum's "Alternative Power" exhibit
* reviews of some prototype "future cars" - click on the various types (compressed air, hybrids, etc.) to get a sense of what's out there

A couple of pieces dealing with peak oil and what that might mean for automobility and other aspects of how we live (both of which trace some of the connections between food production and energy use):
* a blog entry from the University of Winnipeg on "The Hungry City"
* a useful page on the "food vs. fuel" debate arising around increasing use of biofuels

Three short pieces on bicycle culture, from the folks at Carbusters magazine:
* a bike-centric editorial predicting the coming end of car culture
* a piece on Ciclovia, a kind of bicycle-centered festival beginning to catch on in some U.S. cities
* and a story about how Ferrara, Italy, set about turning itself into the "City of Bicycles"

And finally, two ways of thinking about cars, culture, and heritage:
* the site of the Motor Cities National Heritage Area (There's no need to read the whole site. Just look around to acquaint yourself with what this project is and what it's trying to do - and think about what it might mean to be memorializing automotive history in a time and place where the car industry is still struggling to survive.)
* a piece from my "History on Wheels" blog about the Sharon Welcome Center on Interstate 89 in Vermont - a "green" site with some intriguing undertones

See you in a couple of weeks!

Path to Freedom

Today was the final for this seminar. My wife Amber and I purchased a 2005 Toyota RAV today. We went to Bellow Falls where Durand Toyota Ford is located. We drove the Toyota Matrix, Toyota RAV, these cars new cost from $18,000 to $24,000. Looking at these prices made me cringe. We want to pay cash and that just seemed out of reach. I noticed the Toyota Yaris, which looked sharp, was in our price range. Toyota has taken the Scion (which is the car we looked at during our seminar and Alex was waiting to see the entire clown posse crawl out of it) and have increased the price. The Yaris is now Toyota's inexpensive compact car. We could have walked out of there with a brand new Yaris for around $13,000. My wife dislikes small cars after being a guinea pig test subject with our Scion, but the price and reliability seemed practical. Of course the size seems a little cramped, but I have grown accustom to the cramped crowded feeling with a family of five and a dog in my Scion. Part of our deal was, Amber was the one picking out the car. Amber was set on the 2009 RAV, but the price was too high for us with out having payments, not that we would qualify anyway, but that is another subject all in its own. Maybe we should have a credit seminar next semester. Lucky for us there was a 2005 RAV with only 23000 miles. The car lived its life in Florida, so the under body is practically brand new. Out the door with tax and license was $15,000. The car/truck looks great and is in excellent condition. The last four years, Amber and I have been a family with a single car. These last four years have been the first time Amber and I have shared a car in our 11 year relationship. It definitely has been difficult, but yet at the same time it has developed a stronger bond between the two of us. I thought this day was a lot farther off in the future, but it has arrived and I feel the same as I did when I only had one car. The car doesn’t make the person, but it does make life easier. I use to look at cars as a status symbol; I now see cars as tools that help us live our lives in a more productive way. The RAV reminds me of our old Toyota Sequoia, a mini version with out the bells and whistles.
I couldn't wait and had to put some kayak racks on it and two new kayaks. My summer is off to a good start. I also caught my first Rainbow Trout this morning. I have caught Brook Trout and Lake Trout, but until today I was Rainbow less. I hope you all are doing well. My paint came off with out any damage; it was interesting listening to people asking me why I picked a heart and a gun. I still can't answer the question, because I don't know why I picked those stencils. I think it was because I see conflicting interest in both of those symbols.
At the beginning of this seminar I didn’t think this was going to be a subject that was going to interest me. I have always liked cars, but never to a motor head state of mind. This seminar has brought a new meaning to the word “CAR”. I feel that the automobile has been one of America’s major commodities that have shaped our landscape and our economy. Where would we be with out the automobile? Imagine if the car was not invented. What would be our mode of transportation? I’m not talking horses and buggies, I thinking along the lines of hover crafts and personal aircraft. I personally don’t think we can even think of a present day society with out the car being involved. I have enjoyed this seminar, and even more, the people in the class room. I like how Cathy set our Blog up and made our experience paperless. My favorite reading for this class was from McCarthy.

P.S. Even with a new car and two new kayaks, Amber and I still bicker over our daily decisions. It’s good to be human……………………….

The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions: Voluntaryism and the Roads

Courtesy of my good friend Carl Watner in South Carolina, publisher since 1982 of the quarterly, The Voluntaryist, and of I Must Speak Out: The Best of the Voluntaryist, 1982-1999 (Fox & Wilkes, 1999), I came across this excellent essay from Issue 92 of June, 1998:

http://www.voluntaryist.com/backissues/092.pdf

It thoroughly trashes one of the most diamond-hard myths of our time -- to wit, that government is ultimately useful for precisely anything at all. It does so by exposing and debunking what most people would otherwise regard as one of the most basic and fundamental functions of government: Construction and maintenance of roads. This essay proves that the State fails miserably at even this, while at the same time financing waste and needless projects via taxation, i.e., violent theft at the barrel of a gun. Actually, the whole issue focuses on all things automotive from a Voluntaryist perspective. The ultimate moral is that free markets work well, socialism not at all, and that GOVERNMENTS MUST GO, PERIOD. Enjoy the rewiring of your brain structure... :-)

Cash for Clunkers

I came across this article this morning and thought everyone might find it interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/05/08/08greenwire-clunkers-deal-for-autos-stirs-questions-about-12208.html

Sunday's painting spree

Some of the photos from our group car-painting session on Sunday are in a Picasa album that you can view here. That was a lot of fun! And I think it fixed whatever was ailing Gretta. Both the lock/alarm system and the battery seem to be working fine now. Sometimes you just need to go out and mess around with paints and brushes, I guess.

Almost Insanity

John Irving's short story Almost in Iowa was, of course, incredible. He utilizes an anthropomorphic view of the automobile to make a critical statement about the often paradoxical manner in which we tend to treat these objects, these essential elements of our lives. In many ways we are entrances with their power, both as commodity items and as a force powerful enough to transform our relation to the world.
Irving speaks with immense respect to his car. He is concerned, compassionate and wary of saying too much (p 84). He cares for the car as if it were a living beast while simultaneously treating places as if they were mere figments of imagination or concepts better to be left undisturbed. “Vermont” seems to hold a nearly mystical place in his mind, while they slunk by Toledo “like an unmentionable anticlimax,” (p 84).
I found this particularly fascinating in two ways. First, I admire anyone who challenges the anthropocentric paradigm, because it is so easy to blindly except that this is the nature of reality. It sure seems as though we are endowed with superior cognitive capacities and therefore a more accurate and complete concept of the world, but we can't know this. And it's fun to challenge this paradigm from time to time.
Secondly, I found Irving's writing was able to capture the feeling of being on the road. When one drives for that long, one's mind (and subsequently the paradigm it holds) is inevitably befuddled. One may grow to see the car, their only companion, as the most relevant thing in the world. Also, after an extensive period of sleepless, solitary driving one may come to see the car as an actual being, while the world outside grows increasingly foreign. For Irving, the world outside becomes increasingly suspect as he wonders what those fourteen exits posing as Sandusky could possibly be. “God, what was Sandusky? (p 84). Good question.

Driving With No Destination

John Irving’s “Almost in Iowa” was my favorite of the readings by far.
The story seems oddly familiar, as though I’ve either read it before or seen a similar storyline in a movie (or something). Though the driver in the story is going over the edge, I’ve certainly had more than my share of animated discussions with my vehicles over the years.
Just this past week, when my faithful truck punched me in the wallet for the sum of $702 for brake repairs I most definitely did some talking to the old girl. We’re alright now, but our relationship has had a few rough moments this week.
In all seriousness, my brake dilemma got me thinking about how unique our relationships with our vehicles are. Yes, an unexpected expense the size of $700 is not easy to accept, but there was no question in my mind that I would pay for the repair. What choice did I have? If another household appliance was costing the same amount for repairs, maintenance, and to simply run, I would undoubtedly be looking for an alternative. With our vehicles, it’s just a fact of life.

I can relate to the driver in Irving’s piece. There have been a few times in my life where I have jumped in my vehicle and driven, with no real destination in mind. I just needed to get distance (miles) between myself whatever was troubling me. On one especially stressful occasion, when I needed to escape most, my truck at the time completely broke down. I actually asked a friend if I could borrow his car. He never asked me where I was going, and I appreciated that. The truth was, I had no idea where I was going. I was just going. Of course, I wasn’t really getting away from my problems, but the privacy and feeling of safety my car provided me was perfect for the situation. I don’t think I’ve ever had running conversations with any of my cars/trucks, but I’ve most certainly appreciated their companionship and the feeling of safety they have provided me.

I wish he had kept on going!

Almost In Iowa, by John Irving was a disturbing portrayal of a man who has reached his breaking point. As always, Irving's prose are beautiful and gripping almost too much so as I really felt the genuine mental illness abound in this story. It seemed close to home and made me wonder if perhaps Irving was writing from experience. Reading this short story now is timely both because of the class we are taking but also because in Maida's advisee group she assigned the classic short story The Yellow Wall Paper. In both stories the reader is exposed to the inner thoughts of the story teller. in both stories they each end up being mentally ill at the point of break down. While some might argue that this man simply loved and respected his car in the way that Cathy loves Greta I was completely creeped out by his wing nut behavior! Talk about Douglas in Falling Down, I was worried he was going to go postal...In response to Sarah's blog I thought that the police report was his own imagining and paranoia about his wife and what she was up to. Regardless, Irving is an amazing writer and as always manages to create a character with enough clarity to send chills down my spine!

California Giant Redwoods

SHRINE Drive-Thru Tree
I found this this picture that my son Dylan took of me, my wife and my other two children, driving through a giant Sequoia in my Toyota Sequoia. This tree is 275 feet tall. A circumference of 64 feet and an amazing 3000 years old. That is me sticking my head out. I had to fold my mirrors in to get it through. A Toyota Sequoia is a Large SUV that fits eight people. I did have to unhitch my travel trailer. I thought I was going to get stuck when I started driving into the tree. This tree is located in Myers Flat, California. Yes, this is a living tree.

Book and Art

My favorite read this time was definitely John Irving Almost in Iowa. I the drivers loved his relationship with his volvo. He is so charismatic with his car through out the whole journey. It not even the drivers how wants to go make home but because of the cars condition they do. He sacrifices his trip for his volvo. I started to get a little confuse at the end when the police report was told. I didn’t get it if they had gotten in a crash or what. I mean it seemed like they did in the report and then they called the wife, which it seemed like she had an affair, and the other man picked up. Then it cut back to the driver and his story and I wasn’t sure what had happened. Other wise I really liked the chapter and am intrigued in this guys writing. He’s a good author.
On another note I found this amazing artist that made me think about our weekend goal to paint on peoples cars. His name is Scott Wade and his does stunning art on the back of people car out of dirt, clay and dust. It’s called Dirty Car Art. The pictures are so realistic and amusing. Most of the ones I’ve looked at have been on the back windshield of cars. The shading he does is very good but it comes right off because it is just dirt. Here’s the link.http://www.dirtycarart.com/

Car Talk

May 2009 Popular Science Magazine is about future travel. Mostly about planes, trains, and spaceships, but there is a small article titled, “CAR TALK"(p28). It discusses how cars would be able to talk to each other. It is high-tech WI-FI chip designed by an Australian company Cohda Wireless. The chip would enable the cars to relay their speed and location to cars with in 500 feet. Onboard computers would analyze the data and alert the driver if a car is running a red light and diverting collisions. The cars radio units would record the road conditions and if the traffic is backed up. I will bring in the magazine on Sunday for any one who might be interested in reading the article.

Meet Hubert

Since there was a request last time for me to post a picture of my husband's Landrover, here it is. This is Hubert, who is mostly a 1967 'Rover. He was assembled from pieces about six years ago when my husband decided he wanted a diesel Landrover and couldn't find an affordable one to hand. He's sprung like a buckboard, runs on diesel, biodiesel, or vegetable oil, and exerts some kind of powerful and (to me) mysterious fascination on a surprising number of guys of all ages. Yesterday a toddler walked by our house with his mother and never took his eyes off Hubert the whole time, to the point that he was looking 180 degrees over his shoulder from hundreds of yards away after passing by. Jeff, maybe you can enlighten me about why this is??

Seminar reminder

Now that we're close enough to have an idea what the weather is likely to do on Sunday, I just wanted to post a quick message (which I'll also send via email) about our seminar meeting on Sunday. The forecast looks promising, so we should be able to follow through on our plan of doing some painting on various vehicles (mine, any of yours that you feel comfortable decorating, and any from volunteers in the overall group). I'll bring poster paints, brushes, and some extra file folders and X-acto knives for making stencils. You'll bring pre-cut stencils of your own designs if you've had a chance to think about those. I'll make an announcement at the all-group meeting on Saturday morning that we're inviting people to choose a stencil design or allow us to paint them a "temporary car tattoo." And we'll go from there!

Remember to post something in response to one of the readings - ideally, before Saturday so that we all have a chance to read it before we meet. Thank you to those who have posted already. There's lots to do and talk about for Sunday - I'm really looking forward to it!

Marx's Repudiation of Economic Evolution? A Fool's Revolution.

It is first off only fair to point out that Karl Marx was the eloquent wordman; Friedrich Engels and Adam Weishaupt were the true progenitors of most everything we today refer to as "Marxist" or "Marxian." Nevertheless, Karl did ascribe to such doctrines -- and even added a few flairs of his own. So for purposes of expedience, "Marxist" is not entirely inaccurate.

"Commodity Fetishism" is a predictably vulgar, even sleazy manner in which to deride free market forces by invoking deviant sexual imagery. Marx goes to great pains to convince the reader that any value a product might be perceived of possessing, beyond strict utilitarianism ("social value"), is a product of fantasy, or even dementia. He seems typically incapable of accepting the notion that a product's market value is determined by numerous potential factors based upon individual need, aesthetic perception, psychology, etc. Marx is far more attracted to the chicken-before-the-egg contention that the product of the group collective, wrought solely on the basis of raw survival, as in a primitive hunter-gatherer society, remains somehow superior both morally and intellectually to any evolution towards production on the basis of individual talents and abilities. A man is to have no exclusive ideations towards producing particular goods or services since this does not guarantee that the collective will find them useful. And since this is the case, any divergence invariably results in the good or service in question being afforded a distorted value that reflects the desires and guesswork only of the individuals involved, and not the societal whole. Thus, such market values are predicated entirely on fripperies and fantasmagorias, rather than sound "practical" considerations wherein the usefulness of such goods and services can be empirically and materially proven.

One need only look to Cuba or North Korea to see where such thinking has lead, and continues to lead. Indeed, even less egalitarian examples, such as Sweden or New Zealand -- two of the first nation-states to accept socialism -- have been forced in recent years to introduce major economic and political reforms to prevent their respective economies from suffering utter collapse. The truth is one that governments everywhere are ultra-reticent to admit: Laissez-Faire works, and works exceptionally well. Collectivism shortly dies a brutal death, and can only survive as long as it does in an absence of political freedom. Socialism and communism thrive on tyranny. Markets prosper because of individualism and liberty.

That here at the historical vantage point which 2009 affords there could still be ardent adherents to the failed, destitute theories and contemplations of Karl Marx is a wonder that knows no bounds. When will human beings learn -- if ever -- to stop burning their hands on the hot stovetop; to stop repeating the same tragic failures of the past that only yield the same substandard results? One deprogramming remedy I can offer is here: http://www.tolfa.us

Are We Traveling, Or Running?

You can run your whole life and never get anywhere. Our driver in Almost In Iowa, found out the hard way, when karma caught up with him Joliet, Illinois. Waking to the reality of vandalism, to his 69 Volvo, opened his eyes to what he was really running from. Running from our problems, can sometimes bring negativity into our lives, but traveling with an unknown destination can bring clarity. Sometimes we need to break the mundane cycle of life. We need to explore our minds and wake the power that we forget we possess. We should not let our struggles in our daily lives distract us from the Love that we embrace deep in our hearts. Exploring the world in which we live in, is the best way to discover who you are, and to affirm your beliefs. Every day is a gift, that is why it is called the “present”. So when the next time life wants to bring you down, look deep in your soul, discover the fire that burns deep behind your eyes, and follow your bliss.

Pothole poetry

I'm planning to read this poem in my Tufts class this evening (we've been talking about urban nature and transportation) and thought I'd post it here as well. It's certainly seasonal, as well as topical!

Potholes
Linda Hogan

The streets we live by fall away.
Even the asphalt is tired
of this going and coming to work,
the chatter in cars,
and passengers crying on bad days.

Trucks with frail drivers
carry dangerous loads. Have care,
these holes are not just holes
but a million years of history
opening up, all our beautiful failures
and gains. The earth is breathing
through the streets.

Rain falls.
The lamps of earth switch on.
The potholes are full
of light and stars, the moon's many faces.

Mice drink there in the streets.
The skunks of night drift by.
They swallow the moon.
When morning comes,
workers pass this way again,
cars with lovely merchandise. Drivers,
take care, a hundred suns look out of earth
beneath circling tires.

Addictive Consumption

The Making of Modern Consumption could also be titled The Making of Modern Addictive Consumption. Back in the sixteenth century people mainly bought items that would benefit their families, times have changed. Today people buy everything and anything. It doesn’t matter if it’s for the family or just a personal gratification, it gets purchased even if it means going in debt. What McCracken says about he eighteenth century,” Goods have suddenly become tokens in the status game and they were being consumed with alacrity.” is still true today, people buy certain cars, clothing, jewelry as status even if it means financial ruin. There is an over abundance of consumption, maybe we owe this to Elizabeth I, or to the modern shopping mall. Either way, our society is so out of control with consumption that our planet is being treated like a GIANT cesspool. Material objects have a shelf life, and when their time is up, we usually send them to the landfill. It has become an epidemic; the credit companies are fueling this uncontrollable consumer consumption by giving credit to unqualified individuals and not educating the public about consumer credit. It is evident by the economy that the majority of the population is in debt because of the "hedonistic consumer". Our consumption in this society is so bad, we even named it to reflect a disease, shopaholic. Living in Wilmington, Vermont has subdued my shopping addictions. The closest mall is well over an hour away. Living in a rural area has also helped me realize the importance of a no consuming attitude towards unnecessary material items that are not essential. In California people are going bankrupt and losing their houses left and right. I would have been right along with them if I stayed out there. Shopping malls and boutiques are the scenery of southern California. It is as if there is nothing else to do but shop. Every where you look, there is a marketing tool which is so clever and thought out, that it sucks the money out of your pocket like water through a hose. People may laugh at what I’m saying, but it is an extremely easy trend to get caught in. Society has the responsibility to live within its financial means and stay away from over spending, a practice that the United States government is not representing. When will the day come when we will look past the material exterior, and look into the warm loving soul that we all have deep inside?
The twenty-first century looks to be a time of correcting. In the past market prices were subject to barter, but present day is reverting back to the past. A price tag in a boutique use to be at face value, but as we feel the pain of this recession, price tags are becoming negotiable. Figuring ways to reduce our waste and carbon foot prints will be in the hands of the consumer. The consumer has the power to control the consumption of the modern age. Working together we will be able to instill this knowledge on our children, forming a more environmental consciousness. Hopefully we can teach our children the lessons we have learned from our mistakes,or maybe we are all in denial, and think our environmental waste problems, will magically disappear.

Readings for our May 3 meeting

Hi all - Great to see you this weekend. I'm really enjoying these discussions!

In addition to the two readings in Google Docs that I emailed you about (by Grant McCracken and John Irving), here are two online readings for our next meeting:

Karl Marx on commodity fetishism

John Urry on "Automobility, Car Culture, and Weightless Travel"

The Urry piece ranges all over the place and is a bit theoretically dense in places - you may want to read it in chunks, instead of all at once!

Take the Highway to the End of the Night

Hi Folks:

Good to see everyone today. I just came across this very short YouTube video in which a Jada Toys version of Jim Morrison's 1967 Shelby GT 500 is shown (damn, I want one of those!), as well as the real deal. Morrison used to call his Shelby "Blue Lady." Of course, she was victim to numerous incidents of excessive speed, crashes, impounds, etc., during the Lizard King's reign in L.A. But that was rock stardom in the '60s (at least, for Jim). Anyhow, enjoy...and keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85GGW6LJW5Q

Oh, yeah: For any of you who are curious as to the source of inspiration for the Doors' "End of the Night," it came from the excellent novel by Louis Ferdinand Celine, Journey to the End of Night. Not a bad book for a totally unapologetic French Nazi who willingly collaborated with the Germans during the occupation, and refused to recant even years after the war. The specifics of such a stance set aside, I think Jim appreciated that kind of stubborn defiance.

Homogenization and Cultural Disintegration

The most profound thing I found in all of our readings for this residency was Jackle's assessment of the automobile as a manifestation of the prevailing American mindset. In the course of my independent study this semester, I have been grappling with what these underpinnings might be but could not come up with an appropriate way to make such gross generalizations. Conveniently (for me) Jackel and others have long been contemplating these larger cultural trends, as well as their manifestations and implications for the future. The automobile exemplifies the lifestyle long glorified by the American dream. Conversely, the auto also epitomizes the great cultural disintegration and homogenization that has swept our country since its invention. It has, quite literally, been the single largest vehicle of change in modern society, driving further inequality, division and segregation within our society. Ironically, many of those values that it supposedly reinforces have been undermined by its pervasive presence in our society today.
The underlying reasons for our intense love of the auto, as given by Jackle, are: "...individual fulfillment through freedom of mobility, the love of newness coupled with a naive belief in change as progress, the embracing of privatism fueled by competitive rather than communal impulses, the pursuit of the utilitarian that embodies profound disrespect for the environment, and the belief in equality whereby a tyranny of the majority often rules." Several of these values have clearly been reinforced by the automobile. However, other components have been undermined by the very invention through which they were rendered accessible to Americans as a whole.
The auto has certainly given us greater freedom of mobility, accelerated change, and increasing privatization of resources. It is also the ultimate manifestation of our "pursuit of the utilitarian that embodies profound disrespect for the environment." These facts are indisputable.
However, I do not fully agree with Jackle in that the other values previously mentioned have not been reinforced but undermined by the proliferation of the automobile. For instance, the American love of the new has been dulled by the homogenization of our culture. We now look to "new" products or novel electronic stimulation or numb ourselves with substances to rescue us from the mundane life and landscape we have created. "So pervasive has strip development become that a sort of sameness, born of roadside clutter, has emerged across the nation. As the suburbs are characterized for their homogeneity, so the roadside also suffers blandness." Clearly, the automobile has allowed for massive social, political, and cultural change in America and around the world. This new culture is built on rapid change, competition and freedom of mobility. The dramatic alteration of our lifestyles have left our culture brimming with apathy, loneliness and a surging desire for material gains.

no butterflies in this cocoon!

I can see that several of us were most moved by this article. Lupton's piece was especially intriguing to me due to the Australian perspective. There are so few cultures in the world that resemble the American one as closely and so reading about a phenomena we as Americans share with Australians from the perspective of an Australian provided an interesting anthropological view. I had never considered cars as an extension of myself before either. Being a student of animal husbandry in a different life, I am often reminded of the sentiments of one particular professor who was constantly reminding us as students not to anthropomorphize animals. She felt strongly that animals do not experience emotions the way that humans do. This has been a struggle for me over the years and to date I am still not sure I believe it. I could not help thinking about this reference while reading "cocoons". As she points out the constant anthropomorphizing of cars through advertising, media and pop culture. I wonder if people feel about their cars the way that I feel about animals? Something about that feels so creepy. At the same time it helps me have some perspective about the ways that our culture acts out so fiercely around car culture, car care, car protectiveness and car sensitivity. While reading this I remembered how Cathy taught us to read the auto finder as though we were visiting Earth for the first time. If I were to examine the concept of road rage in the same way I would assume our society was vicious and delusional with a lack of boundaries and moral obligation.

Safety, revenue, or control? You decide...

Here's a Wall Street Journal piece about traffic cameras, which are proliferating (along with other visual surveillance technology) in the U.S. and elsewhere. (And here's the You Tube video of the rogue Santa Clauses covering up the traffic cameras in Tempe, Arizona!)

Exploring America with the Automobile

Of our three readings, James Peacock's The Anthropological Lens, was my least favorite but most informative. I enjoyed reading John Jakle's article on how the American landscape was reshaped by and for cars. I have traveled the United States many times from coast to coast, and until taking this class, I never actually thought about the relationship we have with our cars, or how the automobile and the highways have developed each other. While out in public, it seems everything has been built around the automobile. Even our houses have a place for our car, a garage. Our National Parks are built to invite the automobile and its’ passenger to explore. Yellowstone has roads leading you to Old Faithful Geyser. Mount Rushmore has parking at the base of the faces. Glacier National Park has roads taking you to the middle of nowhere. Some wild animal parks have roads instead of walkways, driving through the habitats of dangerous animals. In Northern California we drove our Toyota sequoia through a sequoia. Many of our state parks and national parks are designed for our cars. If they didn’t design these attractions so that our cars could enter and explore, they wouldn’t attract as many people as they do. Imagine if you had to hike into Yellowstone National Park, I doubt that they would get the two million visitors that visit the park every year.
Interstate highways, which are like arteries, keep the flow of automobiles and trucks constantly moving across the nation. The arteries feed the veins, which in this case, would be highways and streets. These highways and streets are what keep our country alive and vibrant. Take away our interstates highways and streets, and you have a crippled nation. Our interstate highways and freeways have also hurt many towns. The traffic that had to travel through small towns gave way to the interstates, restaurants and stores lost the tourism that kept a lot of these small towns alive. The interstate and highways became so important that if a house or private land was preventing a highway pass, the Department of Transportation evicted people from their land and houses. I’ve seen a lot of the effects of interstates. On one of my trips, I tried to stay off the interstate as much as possible. The interstates have McDonald, Burger king, Wal-Mart, and miles of strip malls. The back roads have culture, originality. Sights are different on back roads, not a cookie cutter look. I don’t have to explain that to you all. We live in an area that is back roads.
When we go some where it is usually by car. Even if we are taking the train or plane, we take a taxi or a friend drives us to the airport or train station. The automobile is second nature. If a person doesn’t have a car, they are asking for a ride. Our society economically is even formed around the car. I think the car in the future will know more about us than we will. Receptors in our brain communicating with our car about the events and travels that need to be fulfilled everyday. Who knows? Maybe someday we will be altered to fit our car. From stop signs to underground parking garages, our everyday lives are about the car.

Invading A Guy's Cocoon

I also could relate to the Deborah Lupton article, Monsters in Metal Cocoons: “Road Rage” and Metal Bodies. Like Sarah, I’ve been directly involved with a few incidences of road rage. Fortunately, I’ve never been the catalyst in any of them, though I must admit that I have fantasized about doing great bodily harm to certain individuals that have honked their horn at me, cut me off, or any number of other road infractions, big or small.
A couple of years ago, I had finished my shopping and was in my truck getting ready to head back home. I watched as a man and his teenage daughter got into their Saab. The man backed out of his parking space and hit the car that was parked behind him. I was surprised when the guy quickly drove away. Without much thought, I honked my horn and motioned for him to stop. He circled around the parking lot and came back to where I was parked. He then jumped out of his car, screamed something at his daughter, and came toward me. I asked him why he hadn’t stopped and checked to see if the car he had struck was damaged. He responded that I was being “irrational” and that I was “coming at him in a threatening manner using profanity and frightening his daughter.” I had not used any profanity; in fact, I hadn’t even raised my voice at this point. He told me that he wasn’t going to stand there and be threatened and that he was going to phone the police because I was harassing him. He walked back toward his car and started to get in. I leaned into my truck, grabbed a pen and proceeded to write down his license plate number. When he realized what I was doing, he flipped completely out! He ran back at me screaming “Now I see how things are done here in Vermont!” (He was from New York). He was so angry he was spitting. I’m about 6’3” and he was at least a foot shorter than me. He then told me that if I was going to take down his number, he was going to take my down, too. He also said that he was going to have me arrested for assault! Keep in mind that I had only asked him why he hadn’t stopped to see if the car he hit was damaged. When I repeated the question, he said that he didn’t have to check the other car because his bumper was rated for a 30 mph impact. I pointed out to him that the car he hit wasn’t rated for a 30 mph impact. He again said that he was going to call the police. At this time an elderly man and woman walked up and said that they had seen the whole incident and supported me completely. This psychopath must have realized that he was outnumbered, so he got into his car and drove to the other side of the parking lot. I went over to the car he struck and examined it to see if there was any damage. I couldn’t see any, but I left the guy’s plate number and then waited until the guy drove off. The elderly couple said that they were going to alert the mall’s security service as to what happened and that was the end of it.
I’m reasonably sure that this man doesn’t act this way normally. He was obviously in a hurry and, in his own mind, thought that he had done nothing wrong. I invaded his cocoon by honking my horn and he couldn’t deal with it. I think it was yet another example of road rage.

This was a very interesting article and I especially liked how Lupton describes the “interior of the car as consonant with that of the human uterus…” (60). I like to think of the interior of my truck as an extension of my home. I have my CD player, my coffee, and the temperature is always perfect. As I wrote, I’m not above loudly voicing my displeasure at my fellow drivers if I feel that they are impeding my progress. I agree with Deborah Lupton when she says, “When the cause of our need to slow down or stop is another person…he or she becomes the target of our frustration and anger” (63). This was an eye-opening article that has made me re-think the way I react to certain situations while driving.

Another new link - The Oil Drum

I just found this good site with many discussions about our petroleum-dependent economy and what we can/should/might do about it:

The Oil Drum

GM-Segway PUMA

Hello again. My wife set my dvr and recorded a news clip about GM and Segway. They were in New York showing off their new PUMA project.

GM has only 52 more days left to get a plan together for CEO Obama. Is this a desperate ploy so the White House and the public will think GM has reinvented their cars and their company? I don't know what to think. On one hand I'm glad they are trying, and on the other hand, it looks like something a bunch people in a garage developed, not one of America's biggest companies. Pretty sad to think that this is what the American people get for all the billions GM wants to take.
Follow the link to see the future or the future GM sees.
Make sure you watch the video at the bottom of the article.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/gmsegway-puma-part-2-live-demo-photos?partner=rss

Honku-Its a money thing

Million, billion, trillion
how much more can they ask for
quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion

"The Zen Antidote to Road Rage"

If you haven't heard about Honku, it's worth checking out. A nice companion piece to Deborah Lupton's road rage article.

An Excellent Article: Government Motors

I just came across this write-up on the recent government bailouts of auto manufacturers by the Foundation for Economic Education:

http://fee.org/articles/government-motors/

Of course, we all know that it's because "capitalism" and "free markets" don't work, right...?

Nice mustache there, Karl. Not.

Car and Driver Radio

Either Jeff has read my mind or vice-versa, but I'd just like to post some info I just received about a cool program I think I mentioned at our first meeting.

Car and Driver Radio (affiliated, of course, with the periodical magazine) can be heard by livestream audio on Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (EST), and on Sundays from 6:00 to 7:00 AM (EST) at www.radioamerica.org If you're in broadcast range, you can also listen during those same time slots on WTSJ 1320 AM in Randolph Center, VT. There are likely other affiliate stations in New England; just check out the Radio America website. I believe you can also listen by satellite, if you have one of the older transponders (not XM).

This is really a great and entertaining program, and I used to listen when 93.7 FM in Springfield, VT. was part of this network. Now, it's a country and western station. Shucks.

April Fool's Day

If any of you were on the Yahoo site around 10pm on April 1st you probably read the same article that I did. The Yahoo Buzz Log printed a story about Car and Diver Magazine Causing a big stir in the NASCAR world. Car and Driver magazine ran a publication stating that Obama would not give Chevrolet or Dodge any stimulus money unless they dropped out of NASCAR. According to the yahoo Buzz the NASCAR fans didn't find humor in the fact that they would be stuck watching foreign cars racing around America's racetracks. The Internet buzz was so bad that Car and Driver pulled the article. I just thought it was funny and since we are learning about cars I thought this would be a perfect.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92422

Silly Road Rage

I have just finished the three essay readings, ending with Deborah Lupton. I also found this the most intriguing to write about. I have been doing a lot of driving in the last week and have experienced these road rage problems firsthand. I have not been directly behind the wheel but am an eye witness in the front passengers seat. My boyfriend, Andrew, had been the designated driver in our road trips this past week.
The first was a trip down to Portsmouth, N.H. We were driving on the highway and like many other highways there was an entrance ramp where cars were entering the route. On this particular entrance ramp there was a women driving a large SUV with Massachusetts license plate. She was driving along side us but wasn’t showing any signs of speeding up to go ahead to slowing down to fall behind. There were cars to the left of us so Andrew could not move over for her oversized vehicle to join us on the road. We started to run out of space as the transition lane gradually disappeared. It didn’t seem like the women was going to make any effort to prevent an awkward car jam, so Andrew speed up in front of her. I turn back and see her making a pissed of gesture and mouthing the unoriginal word a**hole. The first thing that goes through my mind is the same letters only with an M in front of it. At the nest toll both the same lady goes through a different gate and then speeds passed us still looking very angry.
A couple days after that drive we headed into the heart of bad Mass drivers, Boston. It seems like everybody driving in Boston is irritated, angry and in a hurry. They beep every second something is not going exactly their way. I could feel the tension all around me. I didn’t experience any major road rage there just a lot of beeping while cars would get really close to intimidate you to push through the red light or run through the pedestrians.
I defiantly agree with Lupton that people’s road rage is a big problem. This essay also made me think of Julia’s car goal for this break. To try to treat and see drivers as people and not just another car. I know I can sometime be rude to other drivers too but I an not rude to the people that walk beside me or face to face. I think everybody could try to work on that concept and that would really help with the silly road rage.

Gazing Through the Anthropological Lens: Holistic Views

Of all the assigned readings in this segment, this first chapter in James Peacock's book was the one that held my interest most. I suppose, overall, that it opened my eyes to what anthropology truly is: A multidisciplinary means of studying a culture or cultures. It awoke me to the fact that I had unwittingly engaged in an anthropological study of my own in 1990, during which year I lived and worked with a Cuban family in Puerto Rico.



There is much here of significance to absorb and expound upon; more than time or space will permit. I'll attempt to address what I found to be the key highlights.



I was pleasantly surprised to find that Peacock's experience as an anthropologist has led him to place no small measure of gravity on Alfred North Whitehead's concept of "the fallacy of misplaced concreteness" -- or put otherwise, personification of abstract concepts. The last writer I've come across to have addressed this crucial concept was David Bergland in Libertarianism in One Lesson. One of the greatest problems, and most significant tragedies, in nearly all societies is to imbue fictitious concepts with the color of substance. We must pass this law for "the greater good" or to "protect the public." Yet both the "greater good" and the "public" don't exist. They are phantoms. What is real are individuals who may be thought of as collectively comprising the vessels that such cogitations propose. However, when these abstractions are deferred to in preference to the inviolable liberty of an actual physical individual, they cease to remain seated in reality. They cease at once to be of any use.

In this vein, I'd like to add my name to the long and distinguished line of libertarians who have taken it upon themselves to debunk Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan. Hobbes' ultimate conclusion, of course, is that ultimately men must give up their freedom to someone in order to be "protected" from everyone. What Hobbes so naively failed to address is whom, then, is going to "protect" such an individual from that very someone. Further, contrary to Hobbes' view, there is no "social contract." It's a myth and a flat-out lie. Government "laws" are mere opinions backed up by a lot of guns. Few, if any of us, actually consent to them. They are one-sided contracts -- in other words, non-contracts -- made up by the political class, and as such have no legitimate bearing on anyone. Anthropology, while of necessity a field of study that must take any number of factors into consideration, and so must too often adjudge matters from a collectivist perspective, would nonetheless do well to admit of the logic Hobbes failed to attain.

As for Emile Durkheim, in large part, I carry here no brief for his generally astute observations. I would only take exception to his insistence upon placing the collective first in summarizing the capabilities and measure of a given society. This is rather like placing the chicken before the egg. For example, while it may be perfectly true that the evolution of a language is dependent upon contributions and participation among many in order for it to grow and possess meaning (after all, what form of communication possesses any meaning without many to communicate amongst one another?), nevertheless it required one individual to innovate the concept. The fact that almost no person, regardless of the endeavor, accomplishes anything entire by themselves is missing the point. The nascent idea, the focus and foundation, must always come from one individual.

At any event, it would seem that anthropological holistics must deal with the often irrational ideosyncrasies of cultures not nearly as egalitarian, and thus, must encompass such views with nuetrality. Science must often be more dispassionate than philosophy (though philosophy does well to emulate science in this regard). Anthropology would seem to be a science that demands such temperance in all of its various modalities, often even to reach a purely subjective truth. That said, through the voice of James Peacock, it is made to be fascinating.

Neil Young Weighs in On the Auto Industry

If you pick up the latest issue of Rolling Stone, the editors have run a big feature piece titled "The Top 100 People Who Are Changing America." Number 78 is rocker Neil Young (who is actually from Canada, but 5 million North Koreans, I'm given to understand, don't give a shit), who recently made his 1959 Lincoln Continental environmentally friendly. Young was quoted as saying,"With all the money the government has given the auto industry to promote energy efficiency and pollution research, it just doesn't add up."

My apologies, Neil, but yes it does: Government + corporate kickbacks to politicians = CORRUPTION. Time to put down your guitar and go back to math class...

Happy birthday, Rudolph Diesel!

Yes, it's Rudy's birthday - a special day for those of us who drive diesels because we like to be able to use vegetable-oil-based fuels. Rudolph Diesel experimented with powering his engines with peanut oil (and I even kind of understand why this works - ask me if you'd like to know!). In honor of this special day, my diesel Jetta actually passed her inspection - yay! I had a little talk with the gremlin that I suspected was living somewhere in the exhaust/turbo system, and explained to it that if the car wouldn't pass inspection because the darned "Check Engine" light wouldn't go out, then the gremlin would have nowhere to live and we would all be pissed off. I think it must have listened to me and gone to find another host vehicle, because after years of trying to figure out what the problem is, it finally got solved today and we now have a new inspection sticker. (It could also be that our mechanic friend Darryl is a genius, which certainly doesn't hurt.) So Gretta is legal for at least another year, and I can calm down from my state of chronic rage about the state inspection system refusing to issue stickers while the "Check Engine" light is on!

I Think I'm In Love

Hello car friends!(The first I have ever had.) Since we last met I have been unable to stop thinking about my own foot print on this planet. This topic (Cars and Culture) has raised so many other thoughts about my tread in general, maybe that is part of the point, part of the process. I should be honest and admit that I was actually extremely disappointed when I got this seminar because I had been so excited about the art and home class. Now I can honestly say that I am humbled and grateful that the process has led me to my current intro- as well as extro-spection (is that even a word? Hopefully you know what I mean.)
Anyway, as I was explaining, I have been thinking a lot about my personal commitment to keeping my car clean which so far has been easy. I even named it, I thought maybe it would help and it has. I chose Lulu, but that was a reference from advisee group which only Sarah will understand. I have also been working on another secret commitment I was too embarrassed to share at the last weekend. I have not spoken on my cell while driving, well almost haven't... and
I had also been seriously contemplating how to reduce my car use in general and then it happened. I got a postcard in the mail advertising the Nissan Cube. Five days after my initial frenzy and obsession I can say that perhaps this is not what I am going to do right away but I am definately continuing to give it serious consideration. I also think if you all haven't seen it yet, you should check it out. It seems to good to be true, maybe it is; 40 miles per gallon starting at $13,900. Keene's dealership is getting five in May, I look forward to checking them out. I can only hope that you are not all obsessing as much as I am about your daily habits, routine and life. Can't wait for our next weekend. See you soon, hope all is well, Bianca

Interesting Opinion Piece from David Byrne

The following journal entry is from David Byrne's (singer/songwriter/artist/former Talking Head) website. I know everyone has enough to read already, but this is short and Byrne makes a great point. Here it is......

03.07.09: Good Investments and Bad Investments
An accounting firm that’s been analyzing GM says that even with the $30 billion bailout they’ve requested, GM won’t stay afloat. Pragmatically, it would be sheer lunacy to throw $30 billion at GM executives — who still ride around in their town cars and fly on company jets — only to see them allocate it for their own golden parachutes before their company, and the cities of Detroit, Flint and a few others, become giant ghost towns. I have a feeling there will be a knock-on effect, and other ghost towns will arise in the wake of those Rust Belt towns’ demises.
GM’s management has made few comments re: altering their course; there has been little mention of producing green cars, or building public transportation systems or infrastructure. They talk mostly about closing plants, cutting divisions and firing workers — but not about rethinking what they make, or their role in the world. It seems they basically want to stay the course — but in a smaller boat. The passengers who can’t fit get thrown overboard. The boat is headed for Niagara Falls, so as far as I can see, it doesn’t really matter what size it is.
There are options. Workers could take over the factories and start producing stuff that suits the world as it really is. Or the factories could be nationalized, and the government could force the factory infrastructure and manpower to begin making stuff that benefits the population. Assembly lines would have to be altered, refitted and modified — but it’s either that, or sell the machines as scrap steel. Or the companies could make changes voluntarily — re-jigger themselves to build trolley cars, high-speed rail systems, and hybrids. Some of these, being public works, would probably receive a large amount of government financing — funding for work, NOT a bailout.

To clarify: Readings for April

You'll need to do four readings for our April seminar meeting:

(1) Chapter 1 ("Substance") from James Peacock's The Anthropological Lens, available as an e-book from Gary Library.

(2) Deborah Lupton's article "Monsters in Metal Cocoons", available from Gary Library's online collection of scholarly journals.

(3) John Jakle's article on how the American landscape was reshaped by and for cars, available in Google Docs

(4) Whichever of the following three articles (also available in Google Docs) you chose at our March meeting:

O'Dell, "Raggare and the Panic of Mobility" (on Sweden)
Stotz, "The Colonizing Vehicle" (Australia)
Verrips and Meyer, "Kwaku's Car" (Ghana)

Sometime before the next weekend meeting, post a written response to at least one of the first three readings. Save your thoughts on the Sweden/Australia/Ghana reading for our meeting, where we'll get into these in more depth.

And don't forget to do at least a little more journaling in your "auto-biography," to reflect on how (or if!) your planned changes in your automotive behavior are going!

James Peacock - from "The Anthropological Lens"

This is an e-book, accessible through Gary Library.  If you haven't used Union's e-brary before, you may need to add a bit of software and perhaps a username and password (I think we're all up to our eyebrows in usernames and passwords by now!).  But there's starting to be some very good stuff available through this portal, and it's certainly a quick and cheap way to get books, plus it offers some interesting possibilities for note-taking, since you can highlight stuff electronically and save quotes to a digital file if you want to.

So.  Here's how you get to "The Anthropological Lens:  Harsh Light, Soft Focus" through the e-brary.

Go to the Gary Library homepage.

Search in the "Find Books" area at the top of that page - eg. for "anthropological lens"

When the title comes up, click on the web address (the URL) that's with it.

This should get you to the book itself. You only need to read the first chapter of this, called "Substance."

If you want to use any of the fancier tools (eg. to print, highlight, take electronic notes, save the book to your personal bookshelf, etc.), you'll need to download the "ebrary Reader" software and get a username and password so that you can use it. Let me know if you have questions about that, or contact Susan Whitehead at the library (susan.whitehead@myunion.edu). She's terrific at walking people through this stuff!

Remember, it's only Chapter 1 that you need to read for our April seminar meeting.

"Monsters in Metal Cocoons" - Deborah Lupton

There are various routes you might take to access this article. Here is one:

Go to the Gary Library homepage.

Scroll down to where it says "Find journals by title" and then choose "Search Journals A-Z directory."

Find the journal "Body and Society" (either by putting it in as a search term or searching alphabetically). Follow the link to the journal (from SAGE Sociology). Put in your Union ID# and password to get to the journal itself (logging in sometimes takes a little while).

Once you get to the actual journal, you can scroll down to the search box at the bottom of the page and put in a search term that will find you the article (eg. "metal cocoons") or you can go to the "Advanced Search" tab and put in more specific info about the article:

"Monsters in Metal Cocoons: 'Road Rage' and Cyborg Bodies"
Deborah Lupton
Volume 5, No. 1 (1999), pp. 57-72

When  you find it (you may need to scroll through a list of possibilities, depending on what you searched for), choose "Full-text PDF."  There should be some way to save the file if you want to (sometimes by right-clicking on it).  Or you can just download it and either read it on the screen or print it out.

Let me know if you encounter any obstacles...

For future searching on other topics, you might want to explore some of the databases of articles and experiment with plugging in specific search topics, to get a sense of what's out there.  It's a brave new digital world for scholarly journals these days!