just me » cool http://www.benchoff.com/blog an overachiever's mind in an underachiever's body Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:17:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Interesting analysis of the Iranian election http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2009/06/25/interesting-analysis-of-the-iranian-election/ http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2009/06/25/interesting-analysis-of-the-iranian-election/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:37:04 +0000 mike http://www.benchoff.com/blog/?p=141 Here’s the original Washington Post article: The Devil Is in the Digits

And here’s a good, if terse, synopsis of the article from Cognitive Daily: Nice analysis of why the Iranian election is probably fraudulent

]]> http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2009/06/25/interesting-analysis-of-the-iranian-election/feed/ 3 More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2009/04/27/more-atheists-shout-it-from-the-rooftops/ http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2009/04/27/more-atheists-shout-it-from-the-rooftops/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:16:28 +0000 mike http://www.benchoff.com/blog/?p=133 As Bob Dylan so famously sang, These Times They Are a-Changin’…

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops

]]> http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2009/04/27/more-atheists-shout-it-from-the-rooftops/feed/ 1 World’s first solar-hydrogen home http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/21/worlds-first-solar-hydrogen-home/ http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/21/worlds-first-solar-hydrogen-home/#comments Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:49:51 +0000 mike http://www.benchoff.com/blog/?p=18

If one guy can do this in his spare time (and $500,000) then why can’t big corporations and/or the government do something half as useful? Democrats tell us the the government can solve all of our problems, while Republicans claim that it’s big corporations and the free market that will come to our rescue. Personally, I think both camps are full of shit. I prefer to believe in people.

Read more about Mike and his home at Scientific American.

]]> http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/21/worlds-first-solar-hydrogen-home/feed/ 0 Nano Vent Skin http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/20/nano-vent-skin/ http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/20/nano-vent-skin/#comments Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:46:43 +0000 mike http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/20/nano-vent-skin/ This is such a freaking cool idea. Sure, it’s a concept and is largely untested, but it combines brilliant architecture and design with sound science. If I had gobs of money I would throw millions at Mexican-born designer Agustin Otegui and get this on the market. We’re dependent on fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine at the moment, but we won’t always be. Nature is constantly evolving and improving, and so should humanity.

From CNN…

The Nano Vent Skin forms an organic skin around a building providing its energy needs.Organic by Design
As a product designer, Agustin Otegui’s has to “think big” about the objects he creates. From novel portable chairs made out of shovels to chrome radiators that look like modern works of art, he recasts the mundane in a modernist and functional new light.
The Nano Vent Skin forms an organic skin around a building providing its energy needs.

Yet when he got thinking about how he could help with solutions to mitigate climate change he started thinking small. Very small, in fact.

His futuristic concept is called the Nano Vent-Skin (NVS) and the design — to wrap buildings in an organic lattice skin made up of micro wind turbines — is radical… read the rest of the article…

His blog & his portfolio site

]]> http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/06/20/nano-vent-skin/feed/ 0 King of California http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/05/29/king-of-california/ http://www.benchoff.com/blog/2008/05/29/king-of-california/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 16:38:46 +0000 mike http://www.benchoff.com/blog/?p=5 My wife and I took a chance the other night and rented a movie that we had never heard of before — “King of California.” It stars Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood and was released in 2007. Both my wife and I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up, and I highly suggest that you rent it from somewhere and watch it very soon. If you’re a Netflix junky, you can find it here.

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