Business Idea
How about this as a business idea:
A gym where all the machines contain some sort of dynamo device that turn all of the energy expended on to them into stored electricity that the gym can store and use to power and light the building. As an extra incentive to users, each watt of electricity generated could be given a montary value that can contribute to paying the users memebership for the gym -- the more you excercise the less fess you pay in a month because you end up earning more for the gym in terms of generated electricity.
Hmmm...just need a building...some machines...some way of storing electricity ...and a huge cash input. Any VCs out there fancy giving this a shot?
Christopher Hitchens is right...
...for once. I don't often agree with Hitchens but here gets it right on the money in this latest article for Vanity Fair.
It isn’t possible to quantify the extent to which society and culture are indebted to Bohemia. In every age in every successful country, it has been important that at least a small part of the cityscape is not dominated by bankers, developers, chain stores, generic restaurants, and railway terminals. This little quarter should instead be the preserve of—in no special order—insomniacs and restaurants and bars that never close; bibliophiles and the little stores and stalls that cater to them; alcoholics and addicts and deviants and the proprietors who understand them; aspirant painters and musicians and the modest studios that can accommodate them; ladies of easy virtue and the men who require them; misfits and poets from foreign shores and exiles from remote and cruel dictatorships. Though it should be no disadvantage to be young in such a quartier, the atmosphere should not by any means discourage the veteran. It was Jean-Paul Sartre who to his last days lent the patina to the Saint-Germain district of Paris, just as it is Lawrence Ferlinghetti, last of the Beats, who by continuing to operate his City Lights bookstore in San Francisco’s North Beach still gives continuity with the past.
Hi IQ = Low Faith
An interesting article in the Torygraph today about a study done into the correspondance between IQ and levels of faith:
http://tinyurl.com/5n5rea
Lots of umbridge being taken by obviously intelligent commentators who must have some sort of belief. The main opposition seems to be that you cannot prove a causal link between something that is scientifically measurable like IQ and something that is vague like Faith. For me this is a no brainer. The study, to get significant results needs only measure two dimension: IQ; and, the answer to the question "Do you believe in a God?". Plot the results on a graph. A little simplistic really but no less valid.
Film of the Summer - Gonzo
Looks like this will be the film of the summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxJtzzOx534
Appropriately released on July 4th.
Are you a genius?
Then send you ideas into the BBC so Dave Gorman can profit from them:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/genius/
