I was never a big Peanuts ( the comic strip, not the legume, those I love) fan growing up, but as I perusing Digg this afternoon I spotted the headline Charlie Brown Goes Anime and decided to check it out. There are a bunch illustrations of the various Peanuts characters done in the Anime style. If you are into that go check it out by clicking on the image.

Another peculiar story that popped up on Digg was about yet another politician who is desperately in need of a laryngectomy.  State Sen. Phil Berger of North Carolina is proposing that movie scripts should be approved by the government before filming can start on movies in the state.  This guy seems to be typical of bible belt Republicans who don’t believe in the Bill of Rights.  I think it’s time to start telling these fools “If you don’t like it here, why don’t you move to another country! Like Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.”

I finally managed to successfully combine a old Palm III sync cable with a USB cable, which in partnership with some open source software tools allows me to use a CVS camcorder repeatedly. CVS Drugs (and some other drug stores) sell a video camera made by a company called Pure Digital for $29. The camera records to internal memory and has a capacity of 20 minutes. When you buy one, the connector is covered with a sticker and the battery compartment is locked. Normally, after you record to the camera, you take it back to the store, pay them another $13, and they will put the video on a dvd for you. They then keep the camera, put a new sticker over the connector, and sometimes fresh batteries, repack it and sell it to someone else. Once you have a cable made, you just peel off the sticker, plug it in to your computer, and download the videos. The camera uses AA batteries and has pretty decent video quality.

I love the island of Kauai, Jules and I got married there and it’s an amazing place. Going scuba diving or snorkeling and encountering green sea turtles is always a treat. These big lumbering creatures that struggle on land, just glide majestically through the water. I stumbled across a cool little video, of some turtles that someone shot off Kauai.

The White House announced earlier this week that they were going to end the warrantless wire-tapping program that they’ve had going for the last several years. Since the 1970s there has been a special court, that they could go to get warrants in secret to do surveillance. Bush, Cheney and Gonzales decided that they didn’t even need to do this much. So why should we believe that even now that they have said they will stop, that they actually will? Unless congress keeps up the pressure and actually goes after these criminals, I would say it’s a safe bet that they’ll just do whatever they feel like. Bush already said as much with regard to the war, so we can’t let up.

If you’ve been trying to access the site in last day and a half you’ve been out of luck. Shortly after I put the last post and the poll on the Volt, my hosting provider started having DNS issues that made all my sites and mailboxes inaccessible. Hopefully it will stay up now, but I’m going to start looking for a new host. Any recommendations?

I’ve put a new poll in the right sidebar about the Chevy Volt. I’ve written a lot about the Volt recently which if you haven’t checked out AutoBlogGreen is an electric car with an on-board gasoline powered battery charger. The articles on ABG have generated a lot of comments, and I’m curious about how much people might be willing to pay for such a car. Such a car has the potential to dramatically reduce fuel use and carbon emissions. None of the EVs built up until now have appealed to me personally, but this is definitely one that I’d buy.

I haven’t posted much here lately because I’ve been pretty busy writing over on AutoBlogGreen and now also AutoBlog. Last week I covered the Detroit Auto Show and we got some unbelievable traffic. There were seven of us writing up all the stories from all over the show, and posting hundreds of photos. It was interesting getting such a close up look at how car makers deal with the media. GM really took a shine to the blogosphere this year, even inviting about twenty bloggers from various web sites to attend the show on their dime. They did encourage everyone to provide full disclosure that GM was paying for the trips, and given that most wouldn’t have the financial resources to cover something like this on their own, I can see why they would accept the offer. Fortunately, WeblogsInc (parent company of AutoBlog and ABG) covers our expenses and we have a policy of not accepting any paid junkets.

All in all the money and time that GM spent on bloggers this year was peanuts compared to what they and all the other companies spent on their displays in Cobo Hall, their hospitality areas and the parties they held all over town. There were over 6600 registered media at the show and all were welcome at the Firehouse after the show hours. The Firehouse is a bar across the street from Cobo, where for several years Chrysler has been hosting a party for media with free food and drinks served up by the likes of Dieter Zetsche and Emmitt Smith.

I got to meet and talk to a lot of interesting people and it was clear that in spite of all the problems of the domestic auto industry, there is still a hell of a lot of talent and enthusiasm, especially at GM. I’ve never been know as a fan of GM, but they really seem to be on the upswing right now. The production cars they unveiled here, the Chevy Malibu and Cadillac CTS are truly impressive, and the Volt concept is something truly special. When this car goes into production, it will be hugely important.

Ford showed some interesting cars but they don’t seem to be committed to actually building them. They still seem to be kind overwhelmed by the financial problems they’re having. Hopefully within the next few months Alan Mullaly will give the company some real direction and put the emphasis on creating great products. Chrysler, has some interesting stuff technically, but they seem to have lost their way lately with their styling. I think that next year will actually have some more interesting introductions from Chrysler.

Overall, it was a really good time and I’m glad I had the chance to do it. I did a lot of writing and photography and I have great hope for the future. From an environmental standpoint, there are some great developments coming. If you’re interested in reading more of the stuff I wrote at the show, just click on the AutoBlogGreen link on the sidebar.

I wrote a series of stories that went live today on the new GM electric car, the Chevy Volt and it actually made it to the front page of Digg this morning. Go check out the articles here, here and here and their’s more coming later today. Don’t forget to hit the Digg this button on the story. This is a very cool car and a great example of what’s coming to the road in the next few years.

Our friend Stacey has a new blog of her own now, over on MySpace. She has a wonderful letter today to Ypsi School superintendent James Hawkins on the “Braves” issue. As a native American, Stacey provides a wonderfully detailed, heartfelt and articulate statement on what the name means to her and other native Americans. Everyone, no matter what majority group they may nominally belong to, is also probably also a member of a minority group in some aspect of their life or will be at some point. As such, we must remember, that especially in a democracy, the majority must also remain cognizant of the feelings and rights of minorities. As a society it is our responsibility to do what is best for both the few and the many.