Garbunzl.com » In The News

The Kid Comes Home!!

garbunzl — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:56:48 +0000

…that’s what the Times said this morning in big, bold letters. I have to admit I was elated to hear the news. While the M’s have had many great players leave over the years, when Griffey left it felt like he took a piece of me with him. Ever since, it’s been quite a roller-coaster of emotions with the repeated rumors and speculation of his return always resulting in disappointment. Griffey has always been a player that I had a lot of respect for and is really the reason I was so interested in baseball and baseball card collecting as a kid. He has always kept things very simple, play hard and have fun. The skill he has been blessed with combined with his undeniable love for the game has always made him my favorite player to watch. I am thrilled at the opportunity to watch him as a Mariner one more time.

Cool technology

garbunzl — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:24:23 +0000

I read this article a couple weeks back on a new display that Sony has created. Apparently they showed a video of a 2.5 inch screen that is only 1/100th of an inch thick. It’s made out of some “organic electroluminescent” stuff and due to being extremely thin, it’s bendable. The article goes on to say that Sony doesn’t have any specific uses planned for this paper-thin display yet but their spokesman said some possible uses could be on apparel or applied to walls like wallpaper.

Who know perhaps one day I’ll have a tablet PC made ou of the stuff and I ‘ll be posting to this blog with a pencil and a peice of electronic paper!! Funny how in our advancements sometimes we end up coming full circle. At any rate, I think it’s some fascinating technology. You can read the entire article and see a picture here.

$30 Million View

garbunzl — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:12:50 +0000

A new tourist attraction along the Grand Canyon is set to open to the public a week from today and promises breathtaking views and perhaps a bit of vertigo. Another modern marvel, the Skywalk, is a horseshoe-shaped deck with a glass floor and walls that hangs some 70 feet beyond the canyon’s edge. To avoid the need for unsightly cables or supports above or below the deck, the builders employed a cantilevered beam system.

The Grand Canyon is already at the top of my list for “must sees” in the U.S. and now more so than ever. I’m fascinated with this concept of a “see-through” observation deck 4,000 feet above the canyon floor. Convincing Jenn to come out onto it with me might be a challenge though.

You can read the entire MSNBC article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17707007/?GT1=9145

Also, I found an interesting video about the making of the Skywalk. The audio is not the best but you can view it here:

http://www.destinationgrandcanyon.com/VIDEO/Skywalk.wmv

Update: The official site is now online. There are some pretty cool images of the construction here:http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com

Also, here’s an excerpt from the site as to the strength of the platform.

Acting Locally and Electrically

garbunzl — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 22:42:56 +0000

At the recommendation of my dad, I finally saw the highly rated documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. The movie’s premise is that GM was manufacturing and had sold somewhere around 1000 fully electric cars (called the EV1) back in the late 90s. This was due to a Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) mandate placed on auto makers for cars sold in the State of California. It’s alleged that due to pressue by auto makers California rescinded this policy and all of these electric cars, by GM as well as other makers, all but disappeared.

There’s a lot of suspicion, as to GM’s motives with the way it gathered up and and destroyed all of these perfectly functional EV1s. Though many owners pleaded with GM to allow them to buy the cars outright, GM did not allow it. It was a very informative movie and I highly recommend that everyone see it. I remember reading articles in car magazines about electric car technology back in high school (around 1993-1994) and due to the current battery technology, batteries were too massive and heavy for electric cars to be feasable at the time. I seem to remember reading that the required technology was still a decade or more off and certainly had no idea that people were driving fully eletric cars just a few years later.

Anyway, the movie started me thinking about what my home state of Washington is doing to reduce or eliminate vehicle emissions. Apparently California has a new ZEV regulation that will require auto makers to sell a percentage of zero emissions vehicles, starting in 2009. Washington is one of ten states that have adopted this policy. Click here to read to the specifics.

Along the same lines, I also found an article about the state’s largest utility, Puget Sound Energy, and it’s recent initiatives for renewable energy. Apparently it just opened it’s second and largest wind-power facility, named “Wild Horse”. Combined with another, “Hopkins Ridge”, facility, enough power is generated for 125,000 households. The article goes on to say that PSE has plans to build a solar energy facility on the same Wild Horse site. If the project stays on schedule it should be producing electricity late this year and will nearly double Washington’s total solar-power generation. To read the full text of this article click here. I think wind and solar power generation are great technologies and I’m glad to see my state is begining to rely on them extensively.

Philanthropy In Fashion?

garbunzl — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:33:21 +0000

Seems like I’ve been hearing more in the news about the world’s wealthy offering a monetary hand to the needy. So much so that it appears to be, for lack of a better description, “in style”. Perhaps the most noteable recent event is that of Bill Gates stepping down from Microsoft to take a “hands on” role in doling out money through his charitable Gates Foundation. Maybe nothing has changed except that those that are becoming involved are more visible on the public radar. Not to discount long-time philanthropists like Warren Buffett or Rockefeller but it seems there has been an upsurge in recent years in philanthropy, especially in the tech industry. Besides Gates, some of the top givers are Gordon Moore (Intel co-founder), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Pierre Omidyar (eBay founder).

You can see an entire list of last years top 50 givers here: http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2005/0548_philsco.pdf

In a related topic, one of my favorite people (musically and humanitarian-wise), Bono, is involved in a new project that just rolled out called Project (Red). He has worked tirelessy and been a long time advocate for various causes and relief efforts in Africa. This latest one aims at paying for needed Aids medications by consumer spending. Partners include The Gap, Motorola and Apple. So now giving can truly be a stylish effort! Anyway, I applaud the effort of these and other people who don’t just sit on their piles of money (and time) and are giving when its needed…right now.