Zack Mahdavi's Blog

Done with the NHB (Neuroscience and Human Behavior) midterm. My brain doubled in size during the two weeks spent studying. Actual CT above.

Today, Al Gore testified to the house regarding changes needed to turn around our growing environmental issues. The following points are a brief summary of what Gore said; The Huffington Post has a point by point summary of Gore’s speech.

1. An immediate “carbon freeze” that would cap U.S. CO2 emissions at current levels, followed by a program to generate 90% reductions by 2050.
2. Start a long-term tax shift to reduce payroll taxes and increase taxes on CO2 emissions.
3. Put aside a portion of carbon tax revenues to help low-income people make the transition.
4. Create a strong international treaty by working toward “de facto compliance with Kyoto” and moving up the start date for Kyoto’s successor from 2012 to 2010.
5. Implement a moratorium on construction of new coal-fired power plants that are not compatible with carbon capture and sequestration.
6. Create an “ELECTRANET” — a smart electricity grid that allows individuals and businesses to feed power back in at prevailing market rates.
7. Raise CAFE standards.
8. Set a date for a ban on incandescent light bulbs.
9. Create “Connie Mae,” a carbon-neutral mortgage association, to help defray the upfront costs of energy-efficient building.
10. Have the SEC require disclosure of carbon emissions in corporate reporting, as a relevant “material risk.”

The suggestions are pretty radical, but I believe that at this point, radical changes are needed if we ever want to take control. Even if just a handful of Gore’s suggestions are implemented, we could see some serious energy savings. Our Houston oil companies won’t like that though.

So I guess Gore won’t be running again for president.

The above YouTube video is Gore’s opening words.

A group of Obama supporters and created this ad: it’s the infamous 1984 Mac Super Bowl commercial (named one of the best commercials of all time) modified to fit their campaign.

Regardless of who you support, this is quite a creative effort.

Airbus today completed its inaugural flight of the A380 to the United States! 550 people were on board, as the plane proceeded to fly from Frankfort to New York.

I’m getting more and more excited about this double-decker plane. It will revolutionize international travel, lowering international airfare and hopefully offering more destinations for travel. First deliveries of the A380 will be in October when Airbus delivers the first batch to Singapore Airlines.

More info about the inaugural trip.

Theresa was one of the few who saw the Airbus land first hand in New York.

Airbus, good luck with your new venture!

This quote is taken out of my medical school neuroscience textbook by John Nolte:

At the present time the nature of the little person within the CNS (central nervous system) who pulls the strings when we decide to move is not entirely clear.

I never realized that modern science was on a scavenger hunt to find little people in our brains! This is a big realization… now it all makes sense to me! It’s just like “Where’s Waldo?“! We’re looking for the tiny, little red guy in the crowd!

*end sarcasm*

That’s right… Snow Patrol! Jabbar, Ashley, Prardhana, and I went to see this Scottish band at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston. Man, what an experience. Great band, great music, and a small, nice theater! Seriously, the theater reminded me of the small theaters in Austin. In fact, the whole experience made me think that I was back in Austin.

Opening bands were OK Go (eh..) and Silversun Pickups (excellent!).

It’s time for me to let go and say goodbye to Legolas, my trusty Apple 12″ Powerbook G4. It was a great, small, light laptop that I loved and adored. Unfortunately, Apple discontinued it when they upgraded to Intel processors, and they never introduced a similar form factor. Sad.

I put the laptop up on eBay in case anyone is interested.