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Apparently, I'm a robot ...

Easing myself into blogging with the Personality Defect Test. Apparently I’m a Robot: 100% Rational, 42% Extroverted, 14% Brutal and 0% Arrogant. Your exact opposite is the Class Clown. Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Hand-Raiser, the Emo Kid, and the Haughty Intellectual. I hated "class clowns" at school. PZ is a "Haughty Intellectual" with scores of 100/14/0/57... we seemed to get on when we met and he is remarkably quiet in meatspace compared to his online persona. He’s an arrogant bastard though :)

The Lancet Study.

By now, many of you will have heard of the recent Lancet study which claims that over 650,000 Iraqis have died due to the actions of the Bush administration. The paper is available online as a pdf. I haven't as yet had a chance to read the paper (still grading), but will just note that even if the estimate is too high, it is probable that the official estimate is too low. For further commentary by SciBlings see: Mike Dunford, Mark Chu-Carroll [here and here], Mike the Mad Biologist, Tim Lambert, and I'm sure others.

Something else you can do this weekend

OK, so you can't make it to Convergence in Bloomington, Minnesota this weekend, because you live in some strange foreign backwater like the United Kingdom. I guess you could go to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition instead, if you live somewhere out that way. It's going on right now, 3-8 July. Oh, wait: they've got a whole suite of online science videos and interactive games? And the whole world can participate? Even if you're in Bloomington? Uh-oh, we've got bigtime competition. Maybe some homeschoolers can check in and learn cool stuff, too.

GOING NUCLEAR: Do 70% of the Public Really Support Re-Investment in Atomic Power?

In my latest Science and the Media web column at Skeptical Inquirer Online, I take a look at the current debate over re-investment in nuclear energy as a means to curb greenhouse gas emissions and shift the country towards energy independence. I show that the same frames used in the nuclear energy debate during the 1970s are still in play today. I also review poll findings that indicate public support for nuclear energy has increased since 2001. However, comparisons to independent surveys show that public support isn't nearly as strong as industry-sponsored poll trends indicate.

Partyin’

I'll be back in online action in a while, but I thought I'd just mention that we had a grand time at the anti-superstition party, and today we had an equally lovely time touring the U Penn Museum with a few of the regular commenters (I hope they'll link to some of the photos they took: Jack C was our official tour photographer, I think). Now I have to relax for a bit and enjoy a nice dinner with Tom and Margaret Downey. I'm just posting this so you'll all be jealous and wish you'd shown up, too.

More info for my developmental biology students

The syllabus for Biol 4181, Developmental Biology is now online. Start reading! It looks like I'll have you reading 50-100 pages of Wolpert and Carroll or Zimmer a week. I want you all to know this is something of a miracle—I usually finish my syllabus the night before the class starts, so I'm very proud of myself for getting it done a whole four days ahead of time. Of course, the reason it's early is that I've got a stack of extra-curricular writing that needs to be done in the next couple of days…

Sporadic Blogging

You may have noticed a lack of new posts on this blog over the last few weeks. There are a few reasons for this, most of which involve being busy doing other things. I've been working a lot of hours at a part time job that doesn't allow for much online activity. We're also getting ready to relocate (again) - this time to Pensacola, Florida. Both of those factors will pretty much be done with by the middle of June. Until then, though, I'm not going to be able to blog as much as I'd like.

When will I ever learn?

I'm in London, and I got ambushed by this guy making videos. He bought me beer, what can I say? Anyway, he said he wanted to ask me serious questions about biology, and when he got me on camera he instead asked me all this weird stuff about constellations and telescopes and has me looking like a stammering moron. He'll probably put it online soon, and then I'll be in trouble. He goes by the name Andromeda's Wake. At least it was really good beer. My humiliation and profound ignorance made public:

Caturday? Ah Yes, A Clever Pun.....

John of Stranger Fruit tagged me in this meme, how could I resist? Your Score : SurpriseAdoption Cat 20% Affectionate, 57% Excitable, 20% Hungry Calloused. Heartless. Exuberant. You carry the heavy burden of informing children that they are adopted by jumping out of their birthday cake. A difficult task, but somebody must break the news to children on their only day of happiness.To see all possible results, checka dis. Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test I tag everyone!

How to dismantle a body

Don't be too grossed out, but the University of Wisconsin Madison has put a whole series of high-quality videos of human dissection online. It's extremely cool, but not for the squeamish—there's more than just the sight of a cadaver getting hacked up, and the sound of a saw on bone or a chisel being used to peel up the cranium are, ummm, memorable. At least you're spared the odor and the textures. I'd almost forgotten how muscular gross anatomy is—it takes some heft and brute force to take apart a body. (via Mind Hacks)

Peep and the Big Wide World

A reader conspires to make me feel old—I don't have any little kids running around in my house anymore, so I've completely missed this new cartoon, Peep and the Big Wide World. It's a science program for pre-schoolers! They've got sample videos online, and a list of science-related books. It looks like they do exactly the right thing, encouraging kids to observe and experiment and most importantly, ask questions. Darn kids. Why'd they have to grow up and stop being my excuse to sit down and watch morning cartoons?

Do you think libraries and librarians are important? (#scio10)

Librarians & Scientists: YMMV ...people (and more so engineers and scientists) consult their friends first, then their files, then after trying everything else, consult the library. It's sort of the library/librarian as goalie metaphor (you know, 10 other people missed the ball so the goalie has to save it). Science Online 2010: Scientists and librarians Stephanie Willen Brown and I did our level best to bust some stereotypes and suggest some points of contact during our (lightly-attended) session. I think we did a reasonably good job of it; I only wish we could have reached more people.

Coturnix on Civility and Politeness

I don't agree that civility is action and politeness is language. Politeness is formal arbitrary cultural convention, while civility is also arbitrary cultural convention but as dictated by Westernonormative agents. Both apply to language and behavior. But whatever. This post by Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock is Bora's take on online civility as well as an excellent link farm pointing to all the other stuff out there on this topic, and this is what you should read in preparation to the civility session at Scionliten, this year's Science On Line conference.

Video of talk online...

So, I was supposed to go up to Montreal and Ottawa the past couple of days, but a series of miserable luck in terms of planes made it unworkable (it's complicated). Instead, I tried to record a presentation and get it onto the web so we could play it for them, and then take questions by skype. That also didn't work. However, we were successful in the end getting the video online. So if you're interested in what I say when I talk to the libraries, but haven't been to one of the conferences where I've spoken, take a look.

Shark Week!

What could be more exciting than Shark Week on Discovery Channel? It airs at 9pm Eastern every night this week. You can also see video clips online such as my personal favorite, the top 10 weird sharks. Be sure to check out the video clip of the frilled shark (above) which was once thought to be extinct. This Loch Ness Monster look-alike has enlarged gills that allow it to swim in the deep sea where oxygen levels are low. You can read more about the anatomy of the frilled shark here.

A poll for Minnesota Blogger of the Year?

I fear I'm about to stomp a bit hard on another poll — this one has my name on it, and is for Minnesota Blogger of the Year. This is kind of a nice friendly poll, so I feel a bit bad about demolishing it, but I have to stand on principle. Crush it, gang, crush it bad. It might be nice if you looked at the list of nominees, of course, and the fellow in the lead, Robert Erickson, was very amusing in his confrontation with teabaggers…but it's an online poll. I cannot resist. It must be pharyngulated.

John Aravosis' War Against the Poor

John Aravosis demonstrates once again why I refuse to call myself a progressive (italics mine): Seriously, any plan to bail these people out had better include a test to prove that they were hoodwinked by their mortgage broker. Otherwise, they gambled and they lost. Lots of people bought homes and did what it took to make their payments, and did make their payments, and others opted not to buy at all until the market settled down. We should not be bailing people out for being idiots, or for trying to make a fast buck, especially when it means the rest of us will now have to pay more for…

Christmas Cake Recipe

tags: Christmas Cake recipe, fruitcake, holidays I just had to share this amazing Christmas Cake recipe that I am going to try this year -- just in time to celebrate my first Christmas!  Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1 stick butter 1 cup of water 1 tsp baking  soda 1 cup of  sugar 1 tsp  salt 1 cup of  brown sugar Lemon juice 4  large eggs Nuts 2  bottles wine 2  cups of dried fruit Sample the wine to  check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine again. To be sure  it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat.  Turn on the electric mixer. Beat…

Why labeling of GMOs is actually bad for people and the environment « The Berkeley Blog

Why labeling of GMOs is actually bad for people and the environment « The Berkeley Blog.   This is a very balanced and knowledge-based post by the widely respected agricultural economist, David Zilberman. Thankfully, he brings some science to this hot topic. It is an important read for everyone in California who votes as we will soon have an initiative on GMO Labeling on our ballot.   One small point. Professor Zilberman  indicates "Now, what about emergence of resistance to GMOs? ' Actually, the resistance is to the herbicide that is sprayed on the GMO. The more people plant HT crops, the…

Tweetlinks, 10-14-09

Follow me on Twitter to get these, and more, in something closer to Real Time (all my tweets are also imported into FriendFeed where they are much more easy to search and comment on, as well as into my Facebook wall where they are seen by quite a different set of people): The Audacity of Greed: How Private Health Insurers Just Blew Their Cover by Robert Reich: "Health insurers have just made the best argument yet about why a public insurance option is necessary." RT @Caterina: Things on the internet grow fungally, not virally. The metaphor is completely wrong. Open Access 101 - new animated…

Run the Numbers on Your Ride

There's a great post at The Oil Drum by Jeff Radtke that gives people a good way of evaluating the resource uses in their cars. Now you don't actually have to do this to figure out that light cars are better than heavy ones - the results aren't that difficult. But if you think it is fun to figure out smaller distinctions, it is worth doing. This type of analysis is useful because it is easy to factor in conversion efficiencies and payload versus tare weight. Rather than use motor output power, one can use the thermal power theoretically available in the flowing fuel. EROI may be factored in…

This is not a poll

But if you want to do a little something to tweak the noses of the Religious Right, the American Patriarchy Association has called for a letter writing campaign. It seems that Hallmark Greeting Cards are peddling a line of gay-friendly cards, which irks poor little Donald Wildmon something fierce. I don't know why. Maybe it's because they're cute, stylish, and witty, but at the same time he's afraid to mail a coming-out card to his Mom? Anyway, Wildmon is asking his flock to send negative letters to Hallmark. How about taking a moment to send the very best to thank Hallmark for being non-…

Found: The Perfect House for a Bed and Breakfast (and ME, too)!

tags: birds, bed and breakfast, investment opportunity Okay, do any of you want to help make an investment with me? Would you like to buy a house that I would turn in to a bed and breakfast? It is very cheap .. er, affordable .. because of one extra feature it has .. nesting vultures on the premises. Yes, indeed, it would be a fascinating place for bird watchers and nature lovers to visit, and I would love to host them, and I would love to be a proud steward of the black and turkey vultures who nest there (I have a soft place in my heart for vultures, after having met several tame turkey…

Weekend Fun: Books and Games

Weatherwise, last weekend was thawing and misty and overcast, so I didn't feel like doing much outdoors. I finished reading Daryl Gregory's new novel (didn't do much for me) and started Douglas Adams's fifth Hitch-hiker book. When it appeared in 1992 I didn't bother with it since it seemed too much like flogging an aging franchise, but 11-y-o Junior recently asked me to buy it for him and then he recommended it. So far it seems mildly entertaining. Had friends over for games: Settlers of Catan and Qwirkle. I was lucky enough to trade my old 80s Junta game for that Settlers box last week. I…

September Pieces Of My Mind #2

The former school / functions venue in my housing area has been converted into housing for single male asylum seekers. I'm putting a note on their front door, offering to teach them some boardgames. Wonder if the weight-loss advertisers realise that the pics of amply built women they intend to frighten female customers with are actually attractive to a bunch of dudes. They're basically providing free soft porn to a market segment who will never buy their product. If I had to be a war vet, then I'd prefer to be one whose son wrote Alice in Chains's "Rooster" about him. When I was a teen in…

"The Stoning of Sally Kern"

According to the 'Christian Martyr' Wikipedia page: * Saint Stephen, Protomartyr, was stoned c. 34 AD. * James the Great (Son of Zebedee) was beheaded in 44 AD. * Philip the Apostle was crucified in 54 AD. * Matthew the Evangelist killed with a halberd in 60 AD. * James the Just, beaten to death with a club after being crucified and stoned. * Matthias was stoned and beheaded. * Saint Andrew, St. Peter's brother, was crucified. * Saint Mark the Evangelist, was dragged in the streets of Alexandria then beheaded * Saint Peter, crucified upside-down. * Apostle…

Official Portrait Blogging 2013-14

Because I know there are still a few people who come here for the cute-kid pictures, I give you the official SteelyKid portrait for the 2013-14 academic year. This is actually a photo of a photo, because that's the easiest way to convert the print they sent us to a digital format, and also because it gave me an excuse to play with GIMP a little. It's not the greatest reproduction, but it's good enough for blogging. I'm not entirely sure what's up with her hair, here. There were a few days when she went in with a braid, and this might've been one. Or she might've asked somebody to put it up…

DonorsChoose Reminder: Tuckerize Your Pets, and Program This Blog

I haven't been flogging the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge as hard this year as in past year, but I do want to post a reminder that the challenge is ongoing. If you donate, the money will go to help deserving school kids; if that's not enough, it can also earn you cool stuff like: The largest individual donor will get a signed copy of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, and the chance to have their pet appear in the sequel. Want to read about your companion animal moving at relativistic speeds? Make a big donation (current leader is just over $370), and you can get it. Too cash-strapped to buy…

How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: Obsessive Update

A couple of reviews, an offer, and a mystery regarding How to Teach Physics to Your Dog: The reviews: A review at suite101 that went up a while ago, but I somehow missed in the vanity search. It's a nice, detailed review, and if I had to pick a pull quote it would probably be: "You can be prepared for a good scientific romp throughout Orzel's How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Thinking like a dog is a big help." Scott at a physics teaching blog has a more recent review: "I often pick up books and don't bother finishing them. This book kept pulling me back to discover what oddity was next. I…

My Hugo Nomination Ballot

Cheryl Morgan has a post urging people to nominate for the Hugo Awards. While I don't place the same priority she does on the gender distribution of who gets nominated, I applaud her for doing this now, while there's a chance to influence the actual ballot, rather than waiting until April to complain about it. If you care about what science fiction and fantasy works win awards, go read what she says about it. I will also toss out another cheap way to influence the Hugo ballot and eventual winner. As a member of last year's Worldcon, I am entitled to nominate for this year's award. Here is my…

Israel-Palestine One-State Solution: Is This Clinton, Carter, Kissinger, or Obama?

I came home this evening after a grant submission and uploading a bunch of grant reviews hoping to open a bottle of Gruet Brut and write up my account of last week's Friday Fermentable Live!!! at ScienceOnline'09. While sitting down, my dear PharmGirl, MD, asked me to read this op-ed essay and scrolled it such that I could not read the author. I immediately suggested that the author was Bill Clinton or Henry Kissinger. While I was raised in an unusual form of ethnic catholicism (not Roman), I have had just as many Jewish colleagues as Muslim given where I grew up and where I have lived since…

The problem with Rick Warren

Unless you're in a coma, you've probably heard that President-Elect Obama invited megachurch pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. You've probably also heard that this decision has royally ticked off quite a few members of Obama's base. I'm not going to get into the political benefits or pitfalls of this decision. It's clear that Mr. Obama and his staff feel that the potential benefits sent by what they see as a message of inclusion outweigh the costs. That's clearly their call to make, and it would hardly be the first time that a politician has expended some…

A (Religious) Book Endorsement

Although it isn't out yet, people already seem to be pre-ordering Bobby Henderson's The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I'm one of them; heck, I already have the FSM T-shirt. I predict that Henderson's book will be a huge success, and in the process will further serve to prove a key axiom: Intelligent design may not count as science, but it's hard to think of anything more ripe for parody. Advance reviews of the book look pretty promising: "If Intelligent Design is taught in schools, equal time should be given to the FSM theory and the non-FSM theory." --Professor Douglas Shaw, Ph.D…

Shifting Seas

My local paper, The Vancouver Sun, ran a great 5-part series on the oceans this week written by Larry Pynn titled Shifting Seas. Part One gives an overview of fishing (both past and present) on the British Columbia coast. Part Two is all about the B.C. trawl fishery and their movement to buy and sell catch shares. This new approach to regulating the fishery means the little guys are gone but the fishery is supposedly better managed (given the obscene amounts of bycatch, I'm not sure it qualifies as well managed). Part 3 presents the dismal state of commercial sockeye fishing while Part 4…

Does this mean Sarah Palin is Jesus?

We've had Jesus, Mary, and a variety of others make their holy presence known on blessed pieces of toast. Now it looks as though we have a new sacred image: That's right, Sarah Palin has proven her most sacred presence by appearing on a piece of toast! What more evidence do you need that her being elected Vice President is ordained by God Himself and that God Himself will smite John McCain shortly after he takes office in order to usher in a Palin administration that will lead straight to The Rapture? And what did the owner of this most holy miracle do? He's auctioning it on E-bay, of…

"The best he could come up with"

IDolator Denyse O'Leary quotes Frank Pastore. Can you figure out who the target is, and why it wouldn't be equally applicable to the ID movement?: He wanted some of that Da Vinci Code action so badly that he jumped on a 27 year old story line .... He ignored so many early warning signs, too. When he was having trouble early on finding A, B, or even C list "scientific experts" who were willing to throw their careers away if they would only validate his silly theories - and they all continued saying no - he didn't let that slow him down one bit. He pressed on and signed the minor league guys.…

Happy New Year! Vaccines do not cause autism in 2015, either

So here it is, already a week into 2015. Truth be told, I'm still finding myself having a hard time believing that it's already 2015, but then I say that about every year in early January. Be that as it may, I've already seen one hopeful sign that it could be a decent year when it comes to science refuting claims of the antivaccine movement. In fact, there's already been a study that once again fails to find even a hint of a whiff of a whisper of evidence for a link between vaccines and autism. It comes in the form of a study from Japan published online in Vaccine on January 3 (which, oddly…

Should You Drink Raw Milk?

As I've mentioned, we raise our own dairy goats and milk them, and we drink the milk raw, or rather, unpasteurized. Since I wrote my last piece about the goats, I've had several people email me asking for advice about their dairy choices - one person living locally wanted me to sell her raw milk, two others asked if I advised people who can't get their own livestock to source and purchase raw milk. So I thought I'd write a piece about raw milk and your options. Perhaps the first thing I want to say is that I actually don't have that strong an opinion on this subject, believe it or not.…

Chiropractic will fix your junk DNA!

I'm really interested in DNA and genes and genetics, so I was of course attracted to this website that explains a lot of secret information about DNA. Did you know that all the problems in your life are caused by a misaligned DNA code? The author of this site, Tom OM, is a German chiropractor, and I guess it's a short jump from cracking spines to aligning DNA, because he promises to fix everything in your life just by activating your DNA, whatever that means. That site is just a teaser, though. You have to give them your name and email address, and then you get to read his seven part…

Four days, four dichloroacetate (DCA) newspaper articles

My blog buddy Orac at Respectful Insolence has a superb post today following up on his continuous coverage of dichloroacetate and two posts I had recently on local coverage in the Edmonton Journal of this unapproved, experimental compound. As an oncologic surgeon, he provides an authoritative rebuttal to the argument that there's no harm in buying DCA for self-medication by cancer patients whom medicine can no longer help. As hard as it may be to believe, even if you have a terminal illness with only months to live, things can get worse. One thing worse than dying of cancer is hastening your…

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Bouncing away the toxins

After last week's Your Friday Dose of Woo, which featured an amazingly extravagant bit of woo that took up 10,000 webpages of some of most densely-packed woo language that I've ever seen, I feel the need for a change of pace. It's time to simplify this week. After all, if I were to do nothing but woo on the order of sympathetic vibratory physics, the Wand of Horus, quantum homeopathy, or DNA activation every week, your brain might well fry. And, if your brain didn't fry, my brain would for subjecting myself to such material week after week. Every so often, I need just a little wafer to…

Esoteric Audio Cables

A previous post featured a short film about members of the Audiophile Club of Athens and the rather extreme sound systems their members have created. Some members spent in excess of $300,000 to build their systems. You may be wondering just what manner of gear that sort of money would buy, and would it really sound that much better than a more modest (yet still comparatively "high end") system of say, several thousand dollars. Before we go any further, let me state that in no way am I making fun of the way people spend their money. Heck, I've been known to drop some coinage on musical…

Monads and Programming Languages

One of the questions that a ton of people sent me when I said I was going to write about category theory was "Oh, good, can you please explain what the heck a *monad* is?" The short version is: a monad is a category with a functor to itself. The way that this works in a programming language is that you can view many things in programming languages in terms of monads. In particular, you can take things that involve *mutable state*, and magically hide the state. How? Well - the state (the set of bindings of variables to values) is an object in a category, State. The monad is a functor from…

Tinker and Change the World

By Larry Bock Founder and organizer, USA Science & Engineering Festival Tinkering -- that hands-on, garage-based tradition which sparked inventions ranging from the airplane and electric light bulb to the Apple computer -- is making a comeback among average Americans, promising to change our lives for the better on several fronts. Known by such monikers as DIY (Do It Yourself) and the Maker Movement, its resurrection, fueled by the current economic downturn and the falling cost of high-tech tools and materials, stands not only to boost innovation and change how science is taught in the…

FDA and EPA Clash over Mercury in Fish

The Washington Post obtained a copy of a draft report on mercury that Food and Drug Administration sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget, and reports that it contains advice that alarms scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency. At issue is advice about fish consumption for women of child-bearing age, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and young children. All of these groups can benefit from fishâs omega-3s, but the mercury that contaminates many fish can interfere with neurological development in fetuses and young children. FDA regulates mercury in commercially…

Ah, that Conyers bill again!

The Conyers bill (a.k.a. Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, HR 801), is back. Despite all the debunking it got last time around, and despite the country having more important problems to deal with right now, this regressive bill, completely unchanged word-for-word, is apparently back again. It is the attempt by TA publishers, through lies and distortions, to overturn the NIH open access policy. Here are some reactions - perhaps Rep.Conyers and colleagues should get an earful from us.... Peter Suber, in Comments on the Conyers bill provides all the useful links, plus some of the…

Secrets of the Gulf Expedition Online

Your definition of what's deep and what's not depends on your perspective. If you're an oceanographer, 200m is deep. If you're a snorkeler, 50 feet is deep. If you're a reef-building coral, 50 meters is deep. Craig and I forego our usual definition of deep (200m) this week so we can alert you to live feeds forthcoming from the Secrets of the Gulf Expedition March 3-9 with the US Navy NR1 nuclear submarine (pictured above) and Bob Ballard's Argos tow sled as they survey the Flower Garden Banks region for paleo-shorelines and deep octocoral habitats at 100m depth. Tell your classmates,…

Kevin In China, part 15 - Beijing

Kevin leaves the countryside for a little vacation in the capital. Beijing 1 August It's August, absolutely the best month to be in the sandhills - I'm quite envious of Stateside people. We arrived in Beijing around 3pm today. We had taken the hard sleeper, so there were six of us in one room. When Dr. Li and I came in May we had the soft sleeper, which slept four people to a room. This was my second time on a train and I kind of prefer them. They are very calm, relaxing, there's nothing to do but read, write, or listen to music. When we got out of the train station we hailed a cab. We had to…

The deadly deviousness of the cancer cell, or how dichloroacetate (DCA) might fail

One byproduct of blogging that I had never anticipated when I started is how it sometimes gets me interested in scientific questions that I would never have paid much attention to before or looked into other than superficially. One such scientific question is whether dichloroacetate (DCA), the small molecule that was shown to have significant anti-tumor activity against human tumor xenografts implanted in rats, media reports about which caused a blogospheric hysteria in late January representing DCA as a "cure" for cancer that "big pharma" doesn't want you to know about, mainly because it's…

So You Want to Cut Your Resource Usage?

A friend of mine, Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) once observed that cutting your energy usage should be as easy as rolling off a log - that as long as it is always easier to use more resources, and the path of least resistance heads towards taking the car or turning up the heat, we're destined to struggle. And he's right. However, in another way, he may be wrong. While I agree with him that we can do a lot of things to make energy reduction a lot easier for people (think, using one really obvious example, how many people are simply afraid to ride their bikes in traffic, and who could be…