Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Strawberry City

Bike Miles today: 0

Felt quite tired after yesterday so I took the day off. I needed to drive to work anyway so it's all good. This stupid bug just won't go away. It's 7 central now and I feel like I could close my eyes and fall asleep instantly.

One of the grocery stores here in town is having a big grand opening sale for it's new store in town. The store is so new they haven't even listed it on their webpage. Anyway, they had a 4 lb box of strawberries on sale for $4.88. For this time of year that is a crazy good price on strawberries. $1/lb during peak time is a normal price, just in case you didn't know that.

Since we first found out about this sale on Sat morning we have eaten 12 lbs of strawberries.

We like strawberries.

FGLB

Monday, February 27, 2006

Back in the saddle

Bike Miles Today: 9

I got back on the bike today for the commute. It's nice to be back on the bike. I'm still not feeling very energetic, but it's a start.

I don't have anything else to write about today. Sorry.

FGLB

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Nice Sunny Saturday


Bike Miles today: 0

It's a great day for a bike ride but it's not in the cards today. I'm watching the kids and by the time my wife gets home from work it will be dark and cold again. Thought about taking them with me, but I think at 30 degrees it's too cold for 2 little boys. She starts a new job in a few weeks so no more weekends at work, and I'll be able to be selfish and get some rides in again.

Make sure to check out Bicycles and Icicles today. Nice story about an autistic boy in NY.

Thought I would share this picture with everyone. It's one of those things that gets passed around at work, but I saved this one.

FGLB

Friday, February 24, 2006

The plague rises again

Bike Miles today: 0

I've been feeling bad again the last few days and I went back to the Dr yesterday afternoon. She said my stuff was coming back. She gave me some horse pills to take 4 times a day. They're so big I can barely swallow them. She said if I'm not better in a month they'll take me out back and put me down.

I think she was kidding.

The worse thing? The song on the radio while I was driving to my appointment was "Don't fear the reaper."

FGLB

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Raging with envy

Bike Miles today: 0

Weather has been pretty nice but for some reason I can't get motivated to get on the bike. I've had a major case of the blahs all week. I did play basketball today and since the old guy wasn't there I did pretty good. I'm not feeling the blahs as much so maybe I just needed to get out and move around.

A buddy of mine got a new Cannondale R500. I swear I'm not jealous. Really, I'm not. Actually if I was going to get a bike I'm not sure what I would get. While I would love to get a Surly those have to be built up from the frame which takes more money than I could really justify. (I'm not handy enough to do the build up myself. Or smart enough really) I prefer the more laid back geometry of a touring bike (not to mention the reliability) so choosing a super light road bike with the super narrow tires isn't my kind of thing. I'm too heavy for a bike like that anyway. I don't think the tires would hold up with me aboard. I've thought about going single speed but I need some bailout gears. I can do the majority of my riding in one gear, but what happens when I'm out somewhere that I'm not familiar with and I don't have the legs to make it up the hill? I guess I would walk? That doesn't sound fun. And I would prefer a steel frame to aluminum. Just because I would, OK? So what to get someday? (if ever) I don't know. I've heard good things about this Jamis bike. Maybe I should go with a long haul trucker and build it up cheaply and upgrade over time? It's tough to know what to do. I could go with a Specialized Sequoia. It is supposed to have a more upright riding style. But it's aluminum.

My current bike is a mountain bike that I've got some road tires on. Maybe I'll just throw the knobbies back on and ride that on some trails this summer. I haven't really ever ridden it off road. It's kind of strange to say that, but I haven't. I've come across some trails here in town so perhaps I'll start riding those. The problem with that is then I have to commute to work on knobbie tires. That isn't much fun.

Spring is around the corner, I think. Just thinking about that is getting rid of my blahs.

FGLB

Monday, February 20, 2006

Fat Guy Movie Reviews

Bike Miles today: 0

You need to check out Up in Alaska today to read up on Jill's adventure race over the weekend.

I decided to do a movie review today as I watched a few movies this weekend.

Just Like Heaven--This is a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo. Definitely a "chick flick" but I enjoyed it. My wife did too. Having Napoleon Dynamite in the movie definately gave it some pop. He does not suck. It was definitely funny and not too mushy although the ending was mostly transparent. But it was still enjoyable. I would recommend renting it sometime, but not unless you will be watching it with a girl.

Waiting--Ryan Reynolds leads the cast on this mostly crappy movie. I expected it to be funny in a Van Wilder/Harold and Kumar mold, but it wasn't. There are some definite funny parts, but the movie mostly drags. It's kind of like a Mallrats/Clerks wannabe on the whole 'I'm trying to analyze my life and what the hell am I going to do with it' idea, and trying to be a gross out comedy too. Doesn't really make sense or flow together very well. The cast is pretty decent but some of the stuff they try to make funny really isn't. There are some small hidden things that you really have to pay attention to see, and they are quite funny. Frankly, when you're watching a comedy it should be funny the first time and if you watch it again you should pick up the little things that are funny. The sports guy from Anchorman is in this and basically plays the same character. The DVD extras sucked too. Worse then the movie. For a comedy the extras were just horrible. No funny outtakes. I actually quit the extras because they sucked so much. That never happens for me.

Elizabethtown--Orlando Bloom and Kirstin Dunst lead this cast. It is a surprisingly strong cast, in appearance. I didn't really have a lot of hope for this movie from the beginning. And I wasn't let down. It was an OK flick but certainly didn't set any kind of great standard for movies. Mostly about a son dealing with his dad's death and dealing with extended family he hardly knows around the funeral. This kind of mirrored my life as I've dealt with this twice this year for family deaths (not my dad), so I had some personal connection with the movie on that level, but it seemed to drag on. The last 45 minutes are really when the movie picked up steam and got strong. (Mostly because I've always wanted to do a cross country road trip which he embarks on going home from the funeral) I still can't figure out if I think Bloom and Dunst were the right pair or not. Ruffalo and Witherspoon above were very believable in their roles, but for some reason I didn't get the same feeling with this group. Even a surprise appearance by Jessica Biel couldn't save this one.

Sin City--Are you ready for this? Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen, Benecio Del Toro, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Elijah Woods and tons of others. Super strong cast. Tons of testosterone. This was the movie of the weekend. Mostly because I like this kind of movie. Dark, objectionable, violent, twists and turns, bad people as the movie hero. Wow. Great. This movie is based on some graphic comic books by Frank Miller. The movie reads like three comic books but they all fall together and interact with each other. Tarantino was involved so it was similar to Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill but yet more dark and imposing. Great filming in mostly black and white. You have to watch this movie. But only if you don't mind some serious violence. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. And I'm actually wishing I had seen this on the big screen. Two thumbs up.

According to IMDB a Sin City 2 and Sin City 3 are in the works. Oh boy.

Heard about this website so I thought I would share it with you all.

FGLB

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

Bike Miles Today: 0

But in my defense we did have a bit of a snow and ice storm today. And I'm still getting over this cold thing. And I don't have a trainer so I can't ride inside. But I am starting to feel human again which is good.

Since I have to come up with things to post and I haven't been riding my bike I thought I would post some fun stuff for you, rather than post a bunch of political rants like I normally do. I'm sure you'll appreciate it.

My brother sent this list of oddities/questions to me. I thought I would share:
How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
How is it that we put a man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings, and then put money in binoculars to look at things on ground?
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns toast to a horrible crisp, that no decent human being would ever eat?
If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?
If the professor can make a radio out of a coconut, why can't he fix a hole in a boat?
If Wyle E Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME stuff, why didn't he just buy dinner?
Why do the Alphabet Song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dogs face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

You can also check out some of these interesting sites.
http://chucknorrisfacts.com/
http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/
http://www.stupidvideos.com/

For my money, the funniest commercials on TV today are the CareerBuilder ads with the monkeys. Not only are they filled with monkeys, but the monkeys are wearing suits (monkey suits!!). They also portray Corporate Life in a very off beat funny way that is sadly, quite accurate. Not to mention, they threw in some jackasses. To quote my friend "Monkey's are comedy gold." Sweet!

See the ads here.

Check out this link to send someone a monk-e-mail.

I read this joke today from Steve Martin on The Huffington Post about Cheney:
"Vice President Dick Cheney, while hunting wild geese in the Rose Garden, accidentally shot President Bush twice, once in the heart and once in the head. 'I didn't really shoot the President twice,' said Cheney. 'The second time I shot him, I was president.' "

FGLB

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Whip it, whip it good.

Bike Miles Today: Don't even ask

My closest friend disclosed to me today that he watches the Bachelor. I'm not sure where to go with this information. If he had told me he had just noticed that he had grown a third leg I don't think I could be more shocked. That show is so trashy (although filled with nice eye candy) I can't even believe it is still on TV.

I'm willing to be a little nice about this because he was only watching the show because his live in girlfriend wanted to watch the show. (Sure) But I'm not sure I can still excuse it. I know he has high speed internet. He could be doing that. Or he could leave the house. Or read a magazine. (books are out of the question for him) Or take a nap. I think we've finally reached the point in our relationship that I can call him whipped. And it feels ggggoooooodddddd. Ever since I've known him I've been the whipped one in the relationship. I've been involved with my lovely wife since before he and I started running around so I've always been the butt of the whipped jokes. It feels nice to be on level playing field finally.

Not that there is anything wrong with being whipped. If you're a guy and you're in a relationship you're whipped. There is no way around it. If you say you aren't whipped you are lying. All guys are whipped. It's a fact of life. But, if you didn't allow yourself to be whipped you would be the creepy 50 year old guy at the bar ooggling the girls who are in their 20s. I don't know about you, but even if I have to give up some of my freedom, I wouldn't want to be that guy. Ugg. The picture scares me even.

That is what relationships are all about. Giving of yourself to others. Opening yourself to another person. What people typically call "whipped" is really just giving of yourself in a relationship and compromising. Besides, if you do (or ever do) have kids the whipped you feel with a spouse is nothing compared to what you'll feel when that happens.

Happy Valentine's Day.
FGLB

Monday, February 13, 2006

Made in China

Bike Miles today: 0

Still cold today. Tomorrow it is supposed to warm up, but then go back down to lows in the low single digits. You tough people in Alaska can keep riding, but not me. Since I haven't been riding my bike lately I have to develop new topics to interest my wide swatch of readership (I appreciate both of you reading this) so I'm going to talk about the US trade deficit.

It was recently announced that the US trade deficit ballooned to over $725BILLION last year. Wow, that's a big number. You've probably seen the news stories about how shocking this is to people and how horrible these other countries are for not buying more of our goods back. Is it really that bad?

While I'm not a huge fan of outsourcing and globalization, it is our fault as consumers that it has happened in the first place. It's simple really. Business is trying to maximize profits. That's what a business does (if in a non-regulated industry without a meddling government) So, they outsource to other countries to lower their costs, and thus can lower their sales price and perhaps make more sales. In turn, retailers sell more cheaply to consumers who are crazy happy that their hair dryer is now $8 instead of $12. Even though people are "outraged" about outsourcing and such you don't see them stopping their shopping at the local MegaMart. And they don't stop demanding cheap goods. The same person who lost their job at a Levi's plant when it moved out of America is down at the Gap buying clothes made in Sri Lanka. If they were so concerned about American jobs wouldn't they be shopping somewhere that emphasizes that it saves American jobs? No, because they need to buy the cool clothes from the hot retailer.

Frankly, the most important thing to people in America when they shop is price. They would rather buy a $10 widget that lasts for a year than to spend $15 for something that will last 2 years. As prices go up for an item then we are more likely to pay for quality (notice the huge sales gains by Toyota and Honda for cars) but we don't care on the cheaper items. And the cheaper items are where things are being outsourced. Look at the things around you. All of your electronics are foreign. So are your clothes. Shoes, what about all the knick knack crap that you buy at the MegaMart? It's all from somewhere else. But a lot of the cars we buy are made in America, even if the nameplate isn't GM or Ford (and they make a lot of their cars in Mexico and Canada which are still foreign you know). Our current access to cheap oil helps fuel this outsourcing orgy, and when our oil is depleted we won't be able to ship things from across the world these jobs will come back. But unfortunately the skill sets to do a lot of these jobs won't be here. That is concerning to me.

My point is, as upset as we all might be (or not be) about outsourcing; we as consumers have forced it upon ourselves. Big business is simply doing what they are required to do by shareholders, which is provide the lowest cost product to their customer that they can, while maximizing their profits. It hasn't helped at all that we have allowed big box retailers to destroy our cities and towns and thus we have all been forced to shop at a smaller group of retail outlets that source their products based strictly on cost. This is one instance where the consumer hasn't been right.

FGLB

Friday, February 10, 2006

Sometimes the intenet sucks

Bike Miles today: 0

I still feel like crap. Still sick. I'm hoping that I'll get out tomorrow morning for a ride. Pending that it doesn't snow.

Know why the internet sucks? And more specifically e-mail. I haven't checked my nice fancy Yahoo account for 2 days. I received 1224 spam e-mails in that time period.

I've had this e-mail account for less than a month.

Email rules.

FGLB

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Top 10 reasons that Sheryl and Lance broke up

10. He wasn't strong enough to be her man. (If you don't know, this is a song of hers)
9. Ever since he retired Lance has been sitting on the coach watching Dr. Phil and eating Cheetos. Not very inspiring.
8. Lance mentioned to her that he likes Ullrich's new haircut.
7. When Lance retired Trek quit giving her free cycling equipment.
6. She was tired of driving around in a Subaru station wagon with a bike rack on top.
5. Sheryl outlawed watching the Discovery channel at her house. Ever.
4. Lance decided he was more of a mountain man and went looking for a women with bigger mountains.
3. Sheryl came home from the bike shop one day on a Surly. (steel is real!!)
2. Sheryl was tired of getting smoked on bike rides and wanted to ride with someone new.
1. She was tired of wearing yellow.

Bike Miles today: 0

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

MMM...MMM...Good

Bike Miles Today: 0

Didn't go anywhere today. I stayed home with a sick family. Everyone is sick. The least sick person in our house today was probably the dog, followed by our 1.5 year old. Neither of which can really take care of anything so we were struggling through. Not to mention, any of you who have had small children know that when they are sick you as a parent get no sleep at night. It's draining. I'm pretty lucky that when I sleep I don't hear anything so I can sleep most of the night uninterrupted, unless I get a sharp poke in the ribs and get "motivated" to get out of bed and do something.

Enough depressing talk. Let's talk about food.

I made some homemade chicken noodle soup today (doesn't chicken noodle soup always make you feel better??). As usual, it was delicious. Can anyone explain why chicken noodle soup is so good? I can't figure it out. And it is super easy to make too. I don't know why I ever use to buy the canned stuff.

Really, one of my favorite foods in the world is soup. You can make it with just about anything. It's a great way to clean out the fridge when you have a ton of leftovers in there. (Actually I keep a bag in the freezer to add leftovers too and then when it is full make a big batch of leftover soup) When I do make some up I make a huge batch and then keep reheating it all week and eating it with my meals. And somehow it gets better every single day. If I ever open up a restaurant I think it would feature mostly soups. I could be the Iowa version of the soup nazi. For some reason my kids aren't into soups that much yet. I hope that changes sometime soon.

The weather hasn't been as cold as the weather guy said it would be so I might be able to get in some biking time in the next few days. We'll see. I'm already excited for winter to almost be over. Probably by the end of the month the weather will consistently be warm enough for me to ride about whenever I feel like it.

FGLB

Monday, February 06, 2006

Old man winter wins today

Bike Miles today: 0

It was just too cold today, for me anyway. Weather hack said it was -1 this morning so I got straight off the coach and into the shower. Took the bus to work. Had to run to the bank at lunch so I didn't even get in a workout at all.

I guess I was wrong about my Seahawks prediction. They really crapped the game away. They were helped by some onerous calls but they still couldn't get it done. Really, when you look at the box score Seattle looks like the team that would have won, but they let Pittsburgh have two big plays that killed them

I got a stir fry pan this weekend so the last few days I've been stir frying anything not attached to the walls. I'm really enjoying it. I'm surprised how much fun it is. Even the prep is fun. Probably because I'm learning so much about it right now and it isn't all the same old same old. It's great to mix together all the different spices and see how things turn out. As far as I can tell, if you want to make a pretty good stir fry you just put some soy sauce in the pan with some lemon juice. And you can do other things from there. You can hit it with some ginger, or lemon peel, or maybe a little heat and some pepper flakes. It's great. I have to keep things under control because I have two little boys that are hit or miss on things, but I'm introducing them to new things, that is for sure. I recommend getting a stir fry pan.

If you have a chance check out Bicycles and Icicles today. He's been riding in a little race called the Frigid Bits and now (as if riding your bike in Alaska in the winter wasn't exciting enough) they are going to do it at night. Crazy! I would be interested in doing a nighttime ride, but in the summer. Then some tough hombres up there.

FGLB

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Super Sunday

Bike Miles today: 0

I haven't ridden the bike for three days now so I'm definitely slacking. I did hit the gym last night for an hour to shoot some hoops and ride the elliptical machine. So I'm not a total slacker.

I thought I would post a few links to other oil depletion/life after oil websites if you are interested in reading about it.
Life after oil
Museletter
What to do when it hits the fan.

Today is Super Sunday. Who's going to win? Does anyone care? I'm going to pick the seesaw. I think they have been disrespected all season and I think they are much better than they are given credit for. Not to mention that their O-line is incredible and I think that really means a lot when you have to play big games. I think the Steelers are good too, but I don't quite think their running game is a good as Seattle's.

Most importantly, what is everyone eating? Here we decided not to have a party. It will just be the kids and us. We are doing it low key with some buffalo chicken strips/potato strips/pizza rolls and chex mix along with a few other things. We have a tradition here where occasionally we will have a "movie" night with the boys and we eat junk food and watch a movie together while we eat our junk food. The movie is usually Bob and Builder or Thomas, but it's still fun. The junk food is usually not completely junk food either, but it gives us a chance to eat a few things we shouldn't once in a while. That's what tonight is. Except I preempted the movie selection tonight for the football game. (Yes, I do have that much power around here)

Go Hawks!
FGLB

Friday, February 03, 2006

Messenger Bag review

Bike Miles today: 0

I was too sore and tired today to pedal to work. Basketball really did me in yesterday. Other than my knee that keeps locking up and popping, stiff ankles, sore feet and calf, quad and shoulder muscle aches I'm feeling pretty good though.

Messenger Bag review
Pros
The bag is great. So great that I can hardly imagine how I did the commute before. And it is huge. Yesterday when I was coming home I had my work slacks, shirt, two pairs of underwear and socks, basketball shorts and shirt and a fleece stuffed in it. Not to mention my lunch pail (an insulated cooler thing) and my toiletry bag. Before this bag when I used my panniers I could never fit all this stuff in one of them. I always had to bring two of them. And even then it wouldn't all fit.

The bag is really easy to fill up with things, and once it is on you hardly notice it. Occasionally I will have something in the bag that pokes my back, but this is mostly because of how I filled it not how the bag was built.

I was initially concerned that the zippers might not holdup to constant use, but they seem to be extremely well attached and constructed. Also, there are more pockets and holders than I can ever imagine using. (Extra storage is always good) The clips that hold the top flap closed are also really strong and sturdy. They are so sturdy that they are a little difficult to get unclipped when I'm trying to open the bag. But I think it's better to clip too hard in that spot than to not clip hard enough.

Cons
The bag has absolutely no reflective material on it at all. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. I find this reprehensible when you consider it's primary use. The bag was specifically designed for people to carry things while using a bike. I don't even know how something like that gets past the quality assurance or marketing people. I'll bet it went something like this:

Smart person/bag designer/biker: "We need to put some reflective material on the front to aid in people seeing the biker from behind."
Bean counter: "If we do that if will add $1 to the cost of the bag and lower our profit by 2.3789%.
Project Manager (not a biker): "We'll move forward without reflective material then."

I can make fun of bean counters because I am one. But I'm not stupid enough to do something like that. This con is a big deal but something that is easy to fix. I attached a stick-on red reflector to the side that traffic sees (otherwise known as the front) and I think that will help. Of course I have lights on my bike too but you can never have too many lights and reflectors for half asleep drivers. I also have some additional blinky lights that I might attach with some Velcro strips, but I'm trying to avoid spending half my paychecks on batteries.

The bag also gaps on the edges when it is extremely full. There is no stuff sack on the inside that you can close to further protect the contents from the elements. I think when I actually have the bag on my back the gapping on the ends goes away, but I can't tell since it's behind me. But this could be a place for water to enter and concerns me. I like how the Banjo Bros messenger bag have a stuff sack type interior that closes off to prevent water infiltration.

The bag lacks a strap that goes under your armpit to help stabilize the bag. This hasn't been a problem so far as the bag doesn't move around much at all. But it would be nice to have this extra stabilizer and it would also help pull the bag tighter to my body when I'm riding.

Overall, even with all the cons listed here, they don't outweigh how nice the bag is and how comfortable it makes my commute. Factor in the $50 price tag and it receives an FGLB 4.0 star rating. (It's a 5 star scale)

FGLB

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Another day in paradise

Bike Miles today: 9

Another windy day in Iowa. Man, it has been windy. I hear winds approaching 30 MPH tomorrow, and the temperature is coming back down. The ride was about normal today. It was nice and warm for the ride home so that was enjoyable. My legs are hurting so much from the hard riding the past few days, and basketball today. I think I need a rest day, which usually is what my weekends are in the winter.

I played basketball over lunch today and man that works you a lot differently than biking. Really, it's kind of a stretch for me to say I played. It's more like I lumbered up and down the court huffing and puffing and occasionally pulling a good play out of my ass. My specialty when I play basketball is banging under the boards for rebounds and easy shots. Today I was forced to play a guy who is approaching 60, and he was schooling me. He prefers to play away from the basket and run a lot. This isn't something that particularly care for. The running part I mean. Not to mention that for a little guy he wasn't afraid to bang around for a rebound. Gotta respect that.

I've been working on my baby hook lately (I dusted that thing off from my childhood) so I think I'll pull that out soon. That shot is unstoppable if you can get in position for it. (It would help if I wasn't so busy sucking air and could actually play) Right now I mostly do fadeaway jumpers (I don't have a lot of ups) and quick shots off screens. I'm an excellent passer though so no one can say I hog the ball. As Bill Walton would say "He has Inccccrrrreedddiiibbblllleee court vision" I actually prefer to let someone else take the shot than for me to take it. But that's more because when I'm more than a foot away from the basket the odds are not good that the ball will go in.

I've been promising a messenger bag review and I promise that it's coming soon. Perhaps tomorrow.

FGLB

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Now puppet boy, we dance!

Bike Miles today: 12

Nothing really exciting to talk about on the ride today. I went to the drug store this morning to get a Rx so that is where the extra miles came from. After my epic lunch time ride yesterday my legs were dead today so it was a struggle to get to work and back, not to mention the ever present winds. But enough about that, let's talk about puppet boy.

After the speech last night I thought I would add some opinion and explanation to a few of his points.

First 25 minutes of boring talk about the war, terrorism, etc:
I don't have any thing to add. I think this is the same speech we've been hearing since 9/11. I did like the Staff Sgt story and how puppet boy (I will now shorten this to PB) winked to the guy's family and looked like he was almost crying. That was cool. I do certainly respect everything that the military does for our country, the people who do it and their dedication to their task. I don't respect the ways that our "leaders" use the military and how that impacts the world. I have had plenty of family members in Iraq and I know first hand that the stories we hear from the news don't match the stories from the government and none match what the people who were there actually tell me.

I was most excited that PB would talk about "America's addiction to oil." This is ground breaking in the fact that a high ranking government official would finally acknowledged our problem. Not to mention all the people that "work" with him and their oil ties. Unfortunately, it was not to be. He didn't really explain what he meant by addicted to oil and PB did not mention anything about conservation or higher mileage standards for cars, the two things that would have the largest impact on our oil use. He did mention Ethanol and zero emission coal plants.

First we will address Ethanol. Ethanol is a great potential product. Research is underway to produce Ethanol from waste agricultural products like corn stalks, straw, switch grass, wood chips, etc and some viable business groups are working on this. (Most notably the Royal Dutch/Shell company) I don't see this as a bad thing because most of these waste products are burned in the fields today. So why not burn them or synthesize them to make energy? Sounds good to me. Ethanol is produced now using corn, and unfortunately it has to be heavily subsidized, both in the production of the corn and the production of the Ethanol. Hopefully this will change over time. The main problem I see with Ethanol is that it is a net energy loss. If you take into account all the energy required to make the Ethanol it actually takes more energy to make the Ethanol than it produces. No one ever takes this factor into account when they talk about using Ethanol. But it is important. Eventually when we start running out of oil (projected to happen in 2030-2050) will our electricity be as cheap as it is now? No. So why would we expect that the cost of the energy input into something wouldn't matter? Perhaps if the big oil companies get behind PB's ethanol initiative (and they most certainly will because I'm sure there will be some $ from Uncle Sam in there somewhere) they can bring the cost to produce Ethanol down, and if this is a viable long term energy solution, I think the producers will take it upon themselves to produce their own energy to use in the production of Ethanol rather than relying on the national grid. How they make this energy I don't know. Perhaps they set up their own power plants, or set up renewable energy programs at the plant locations. I'm not really sure. Otherwise, I don't see how it can be produced and profited from, barring massive subsidies from Uncle Sam. By the way, hydrogen has these exact same problems so moving to a hydrogen society doesn't fix our problems. For more info on Ethanol from a recent story see this story in Fortune here.

The other thing I wanted to discuss was zero emission coal. This is another potential gold mine (but it's fool's gold) as America has coal reserves estimated to last about another 250 years. The problem once again is how do you mine coal in a world with reduced oil? The cost of oil will be so high that it is prohibitive to run large machinery to mine the coal. Which you have to have because we have already used all the coal that is easily accessible. Not to mention the electricity problem again to run the conveyer belts and such. And the environmental impact from mining for more coal is staggering. We are already destroying our world to obtain the coal we currently use, what happens when demand doubles? How huge will the environmental disasters be? And what about our air? I know the coal should be zero emission, and hypothetically there are ways to achieve this, but they are costly and not proven yet. PB's nuclear ambitions are also fraught with some of these same challenges.

What should PB have done? I'm glad you asked.
1.) Focus on conservation. They should put resources behind this effort first and foremost. Conserving has the most direct and quickest impact to our oil usage. Funds should be made available to reward consumers who choose to purchase energy efficient appliances, furnaces, A/Cs, and for people to massively insulate their houses. For a small investment of funds to help subsidize these measures you can have a huge impact on the usage patterns of our country. Higher fuel mileage standards fall into this arena too. Cars can easily get double the mileage they get now if we force car makers to develop the technologies and move away from SUVs. Continued sprawling of our cities should not be encouraged. This promotes useless commuting and wastes tremendous amounts of energy in traffic and driving all the ridiculous places we go. Make the cities more compact and more people could walk or bike. This would help with the obesity problems too.
2.) Encourage energy production at location of consumption. Generating energy in a central location and transporting it over wires is extremely inefficient. It is estimated that no better than half the energy generated at the power plant makes it down the power lines to the houses. We should encourage wind turbines and solar panel arrays for houses and localize energy production. This would mean you would only need half the "power plant" to support the same usage because you are removing the waste factors. These renewable energy sources are coming down in price, and as production is ramped up the prices will fall further. Japan just announced subsidies for solar panels. Why not us?
3.) Stop hiding the problem and start having frank discussions about oil depletion and it's impacts. We are running out of oil. We need to address and develop a solution. Our entire world from farming, shipping, transportation, retailing and manufacturing are built on the idea that there is an unlimited amount of oil and it will be cheap forever. This is not the case. How will our country look if there is no oil to ship products from overseas here for us to buy? What will we buy? We have outsourced everything to other countries and now we aren't able to produce anything locally. What if it is too expensive to ship things from California to Iowa? Would we be able to cope? And vice versa. Or what about places like Las Vegas or Hawaii that are dependent on low oil prices for people to fly there and be tourists? And even worse, places like Phoenix where there is a metro area of 3M but no way they could grow enough food to feed them all locally. What if oil is too costly to use to ship food in from all over the country? What do you do then? All these things need to be planned for and thought of but they aren't.

So, in short (although I think that is too late) while it is nice to have a high level acknowledgement of the problems surrounding oil depletion PB didn't really suggest any solutions that are really that feasible. At least in my opinion. I will now descend from my soapbox.

FGLB