Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 149
March 26, 2009
The Rasputin of Madagascar
The story out of Madagascar continues to both stymie and amaze: A 34-year-old DJ-turned-mayor suddenly becomes president of a nation of 20 million, in one of the murkiest fashions possible. Microkhan has previously guessed that a shady Korean land deal played a role in bringing Rajoelina to power—along with the ongoing mismanagement of the deposed Marc Ravalomanana, who apparently did little to lift Madagascar out of poverty.
But a friend of Microkhan with Madagascar connections has offered a dif
The Bulldog and the Birthmark
My recent movie diet has mostly consisted of classy fare—I doubt Bridge on the River Kwai played many double bills with the likes of Switchblade Sisters. But Microkhan is by no means a film snob, and likes the occasional semi-brainless action flick as much as the next pint-sized Mongolian monarch. Case in point: Ernest R. Dickerson’s criminally underrated Surviving the Game.
The movie is a spin on The Most Dangerous Game, with a heavily dreaded Ice-T playing a bum who’s conned into becoming huma
Subways and the Smart Grid
As promised yesterday, Microkhan’s gonna continue with its week-long series of “extras” taken from the cutting-room floor of my Wired smart-grid essay. Today’s treat? How subways can become part of distributed-generation networks, along with rooftop solar panels and backyard wind turbines.
Beginning in the early 1970s, the Metropolitan Transit Authority began experimenting with flywheels that can capture the energy produced by subway braking. (About 60 percent of the heat in the subway tunnels st
March 25, 2009
The Greening of Shipbreaking?
A surprise court decision in Bangladesh may shutter the nation’s vast shipbreaking industry, at least temporarily. The judges were swayed by arguments made by the Bandladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, who have long contended that the industry is among the planet’s dirtiest. Indeed, you probably don’t want to know what happens to the guts of a chemical tanker after a couple decades on the high seas.
But is there a greener way of scrapping ships? The British are trying to give it a go in Li
Rubbed the Right Way
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but it took a tip from a Zurich-based pal to get me into The Rub’s History of Hip-Hop series. I mean, these Rub folks live less than an hour away from my Atlah headquarters. They should be part of the cultural air I breathe. But, oh no, it took a denizen of north-central Switzerland to pass the word. So things go in the Age of The Tubes, I reckon.
In any event, glad young Mr. Kennedy offered the lead, because the series is great—nearly two dozen mixtapes, orga
The Sludgy Pleasures of Zu
The Nagas of the India-Burma border region are especially dear to my heart, seeing as how they play a pivotal role in Now the Hell Will Start. They were always gracious during my travels through the Patkai Mountains, despite facing myriad problems of their own (beginning with a tenuous security situation). And a big part of their hospitality includes the doling out of zutho, or zu, a cloudy rice beer that is the Bud of the Indo-Burmese jungle.
Zu gained much renown among British explorers, who co
March 24, 2009
“Sleek Greyhound of the Seas”
Over the weekend, the fam and I paid a visit to the Museum of the City of New York, primarily to check out the exhibit on our fair city’s stab at going green. But the exhibit that really drew me in was “Trade”, an overview of New York’s heyday as a bustling port. As noted yesterday, Microkhan has enjoyed a lifelong fascination with polyglot commercial centers—or, as the Obi-Wan might put it, “hives of scum and villainy.”
Among the gems at “Trade” was a mock-up of Norman Bel Geddes’s proposed lux
Dinosauring the Sandbag
The humble sandbag remains mankind’s main line of defense against floods. Take the current situation in Fargo, N.D., where upwards of 10,000 Good Samaritans are furiously filling bags in order to combat the rising Red River. Working around the clock, the volunteers have so far managed to deploy about 70 percent of the requisite sandbags—seemingly good news, save for the fact that Mother Nature will not be repelled by anything less than 100 percent coverage. She’s crafty like that.
But North Dakot
The Smart Grid (Hopefully) Cometh
After a wait that seemed ever-so-slightly like forever, Wired’s cover package on smartening up the electric grid is finally here. I wrote the lead essay, which is mostly a primer on how the grid got so FUBAR in the first place. The bite-size answer? Myopia, botched deregulation, and political bickering.
It was difficult to even address the tip of the smart-grid iceberg in 2,000 words, so a heckuva lot ended up on the cutting-room floor. For the remainder of the week, I’ll be offering exclusive sm
March 23, 2009
Chewbacca Looks Reluctant
After playing Captain Bringdown with all the suicide talk, I thought I owed it to y’all to post something a bit more lighthearted. I’m in the midst of doing some groundwork for my next book, which deals a lot with global trade during the waning days of the British Empire. This research has led me to give a lot of thought to the original Star Wars, particularly the Mos Eisley scenes. I trace my lifelong love affair with knowledge to that polyglot cantina. There was just something about the inters
