The Monsters Came to Poydras Street: Super Bowl Blackout Failure or Future?

In "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," a 1960 Twilight Zone episode starring Claude Akin and Jack Weston, the residents of a typical suburban neighborhood lose their cool after a power failure is linked to a science fiction story about aliens posing as humans prior to a full-scale invasion.

United Planets Cruiser C-57D or Superdome?

The residents of the neighborhood are shown all chummy and cooperative and, well, neighborly, until something in the sky causes the lights to go out. Cars won't start and even the portable radios are silent. 

Someone first blames it on a meteor, but then one young boy offers an alternative suggestion. He recalls a science fiction story about a family of aliens sent to infiltrate a neighborhood much like theirs to prepare the way for a take over. The family looks just like a "typical human family: father, mother, and two kids," says the boy. 

Suspicion rules and paranoia escalates as neighbor turns on neighbor. A witch hunt ensues as first one and then another is accused of being the alien and on very little evidence. 

Someone gets killed, there's a riot, and mass hysteria breaks out. (I won't tell you how it ends; you should watch it on Netflix.) Suffice it to say, Maple Street is never the same.

Watching the episode last night, I couldn't help drawing parallels with the blackout during Sunday night's Super Bowl. 

The initially confused and perplexed faces of the players as they looked up to the ceiling of the Superdome in New Orleans as the lights started to go out giving way to anger expressed by the coaches as officials tried to explain the situation. 

Superdome or Alien Space Ship?

And then the blame game as Entergy tried to excuse itself, Peabody pinned it on reduced coal use, and stadium officials couldn't really shed any light on the situation.

I wondered what might happen if these types of events become a regular thing -- or when big weather events like Superstorm Sandy increasingly wreak havoc on our communities? 

How fragile are the bonds in neighborhoods in 2012 compared to 1960? (Admittedly, they were still in the midst of the Cold War and the McCarthy "red scare," but how will our modern, disconnected communities fare in the face of such crises?) 

As our electricity grid gets increasingly fragile and we grow more dependent upon our electronic devices, will we be able to keep our cool unlike the residents of Maple Street? 

Unless we make the necessary investments in our energy infrastructure to ensure that these types of events don't occur, we risk finding out the answer to that question. And we may not like the answer.

Robert Frost, Electric Cars, and Poetry

Poet Robert Frost died 50 years ago today, and Poets & Writers magazine offered the challenge of writing a poem using Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" as a model.

Robert Frost

Frost was born in 1874, some time after Robert Anderson (a suspected relation to this author) invented a crude electric carriage in Scotland, and some 39 years after Thomas Davenport of Brandon, Vermont, built his own small-scale electric car. Davenport also invented the first American-built DC electric motor.

Robert Anderson's Electric Carriage, circa 1832

Perhaps because I was working on some electric vehicle materials in my day-job today, I couldn't resist penning this over lunch, with apologies to the poet:

"Stopping by the Roadside on a Snowing Evening"

Whose car this is I think I know;

No keys I need to make it go.

You may not hear me driving by

'Cause electric cars are soft as snow.

My finger on the button here

Will make the engine start and gear

And waken not the woods and lake

--the quietest engine of the year.

I give the foot-pedal a tiny tap

And feel the seat belt on my lap.

The only other sound's the hush

Of lofty wind and goosewing flap.

The road is lively, quick, and steep.

But I have batteries to keep,

And miles to drive before I sleep,

And miles to drive before I sleep.

##

Davenport's Electric Car, 1835

How the Internet Gave Me a Voice: Skepticism and Poetry

Craig Newmark via Paper Camera

Today is Internet Freedom Day and Craig Newmark asks "How does the Internet give you a voice?"

When Craig asks something, I feel compelled to respond. Not because he is the founder of Craigslist or because he posts some awesome photos of birds or because Leonard Cohen is his Rabbi.

Rather, it's because he is a champion of causes like veteran's issues and Internet Freedom. (Well, maybe his bird photos do have a special appeal.)

The Internet gave me a voice --actually two voices. One for my skepticism and another for my poetry.

First, the poetry. It was the late 1990s when I first realized the power of the Internet to give voice to my poetry or, more to the point, gave me an audience.

My poems had recently won the Nebraska Review Award and Aldrich Emerging Poets Award, but you couldn't find the winning poems anywhere. The Nebraska Review had to scrap the initial printing of the issue with my winning poems because of a printing error.

Then I got an email from an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts college in Cupertino, California. She had found some of my poetry on the Internet and wanted to write about my work for her assignment. (You can read her essay here: Essay on the Poetry of Scott Edward Anderson)

A total stranger all the way across country found my writing on the Internet.

And now, all these years later, many more have read my work through online magazines and journals and my poetry blog: Seapoetry

More readers have read my poetry than ever could read it in the Nebraska Review or almost any other print publication.

And since 2004 this blog, The Green Skeptic, provided a platform to question the assumptions we make about how we conserve the earth's resources and invest in green technology.

The Internet is many things. At its best, it is a community of voices where there was formerly silence.

Like any community, to paraphrase Parker Palmer, it is where the some of the writers you least want to read do their blogging. But the community of the Internet is richer for the diversity of its voices.

Visit Craig's call to action here: Craig Connects

How does the Internet give you a voice?

Mosaic Shows Crowdfunding Cleantech May Get Its Time in the Sun

"The road is paved with ideas -- good, bad, and disastrous," I wrote in a blog post about how I nearly started The Disaster Channel, a 24-hour cable network devoted entirely to disasters and their impacts.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Timing is worth a lot more.

When I set out to develop my green energy web marketplace, variously called "Seat 28B" and "VerdeInvesting," among other names, it was the fall of 2008. 

That's right the fall of 2008. Should be a capital letter on that Fall, maybe even all caps, FALL of 2008.

What seemed like a great idea that summer -- actually, it was an evolving idea that I and my friend Lucinda had as far back as 2006, only then it was for conservation projects -- turned into a really good idea whose time had most decidedly not come by that Fall.

The collapse of the financial markets and downwardly spiraling oil prices conspired to make timing for that idea um, to say the least, problematic. 

Add to that mix the SEC challenges raised early on by the venerable Steve Goodman at Morgan Lewis, and we had a kind of perfect storm against our retail alternative energy investing business. 

As I've said before, we were too small to fail, hadn't taken anyone's money and hadn't hired anyone, so it was fairly easy to downshift and turn it into a consulting practice. 

I still believe the idea of a web marketplace for cleantech is a good one. And this week proved it, as Mosaic, which I've written about here back when they were SolarMosaic, fully funded four projects in its first day of activity.

Mosaic connects ordinary investors to high quality solar projects. Their mission is "to open up clean energy investing and fundamentally change the way energy is financed."

The economy is still bad and some seasoned investors are starting to move away from cleantech. So what's different and why is Mosaic working?

The JOBS Act. 

In 2012, President Obama signed into law the JOBS Act, which stands for Jumpstart Our Business Startups, effectively making it easier for public solicitation by private companies raising money.

The SEC still has to file some rules on the matter, which it didn't do within the 270 days they were given to do so by Congress. Mosaic does not have an official approval from the SEC, but worked with state officials to open their platform to residents of California and New York.

Mosaic had a private launch in early 2011. Since that time it has raised $1.1 million from 400 or so investors and funded 11 projects. This week, they raised $300,000 in 24 hours to fund 4 projects. 

Crowdfunding for cleantech may yet get its time in the sun.

Upcoming Event: Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology: Investment Opportunity, Not Science Fiction

Breakthroughs in advance materials are happening every day. 

Whether it’s catalysts and solvents improving energy generation and storage or membranes for better water filtration and air purification; from materials that foster greater energy efficiency to nanomaterials for use in the latest clean technologies, advanced materials provide solutions to make products more efficient, less expensive, safer, and even longer lasting.

Join us for an informative and lively dialogue with industry experts, entrepreneurs and investors on the current state and future potential of this emerging growth sector.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013
11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Morgan Lewis
1701 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology: Investment Opportunity, Not Science Fiction

Featuring:
David Paratore, President and CEO, NanoSteel
Tucker Twitmyer, Managing Director, EnerTech Capital
Joseph King, Managing Director, DuPont Ventures
Michael A. DeSimone, President & CEO, DeSimone Group Investments

Moderated by:
Scott Edward Anderson, Global Marketing Director for Cleantech, Ernst & Young, and CAMA co-founder

For more information, contact Jennifer Cohen.

Register for this event

Sponsored by:

An Email from Santa Claus to Climate Skeptics: An Annual Green Skeptic Tradition

A few Christmases ago, I published this email from Santa, which arrived on the night before the night before Christmas. Readers had so much fun with it, it's become an annual tradition. Enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Scott, aka The Green Skeptic

_______________________

TO: Global Warming Skeptics

FROM: Santa Claus

DATE: A few nights before Xmas

SUBJECT: My Christmas List

_________________________

This is Santa, writing from the North Pole. Soon I'll be gathering all the toys for all the good little girls and boys and packing them in my sleigh to begin our journey, our night of nights.

The reindeer, however, are starting to complain about hoof-rot. Apparently, they've been standing around in too much slush. This has put me in a decidedly prickly mood this Christmas.

You know me; I'm not a single-issue guy. I believe that as long as you are good, and I mean good for goodness' sake, you deserve some slack on the other stuff. I'm an equal opportunity distributor. I know whether you've been bad or good or just plain evil. You also know I'm not one to discriminate against one group of people or another, believers or non-believers.

But this year is different. This year, I'm making a few changes to my list. I'm checking it twice and have decided that the naughty include any one of you out there who do not believe in global warming. All you climate change skeptics out there, you are on the naughty list this year.

Oh, you know who you are. And I've got one special gift for you: Nothing but COAL. You like the stuff so much -- and it's such a big part of what's leading to climate change -- you might as well have bags and bags of it and nothing more.

Make no mistake. Global warming is happening. You don't have to show me any scientific reports, although some nifty ones have shown up in my email box lately, sent to me from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

No, you don't have to convince me; I'm a believer. All I have to do is look out my window to my back yard, what's left of it! It's a soupy mess out there.

We usually have a good bit of ice up here at the North Pole -- and early. That's important, too; you see, every year the elves and I construct a temporary workshop up here where we make the toys and assemble the other goodies. The earlier the ice, the sooner we get started.

Although I have figured out a way to deliver the entire shipment of gifts on my list in one night, I still haven't perfected the manufacturing process. I can't speed it up. (Some of that I blame on the unions.)  We need all the ice we can get up here for there is no solid ground.

But this year, the ice cover was the lowest it's been in almost 30 years. And at least one of those science groups studying this stuff tells me that, according to their models, by 2040, we'll have mostly open water up here. (They sent me this short animation clip, which sends chills up my spine: Arctic Ice Melt.)

Mrs. Claus has even started looking for Houseboats on Craig's List!

So, dear boys and girls, you better not pout or cry or whine or deny climate change any longer. And I'm telling you why: because climate change is coming to town. Time's a wasting. We need to do something about this now, before it's too late. Or before I have to move all of my operations to the South Pole!

Here's wishing a carbon-neutral Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

S. Claus, North Pole

Related articles

• The war on Santa Claus (and Superman) (climateprogress.org)
• "Wikileaks releases alleged US Candid Assessment of Santa Claus, North Pole" and related posts (lifeafterjerusalem.blogspot.com)
• Santa Claus: All children will be rated by flying robots (guardian.co.uk)
• Texts, Web really do allow Santa to be everywhere (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Air Van Moving Company Confirms its Ties to the North Pole this Holiday Season (prweb.com)
• 9 Books About The 'Real' Santa Claus And The History of Christmas (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
• 10 YouTube Videos That Prove That Santa Exists (socialtimes.com)