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From the NY Times:

American and Southwest are washing a handful of jet engines each night, a process that used to happen only during thorough maintenance overhauls. Southwest figures it has already saved $1.6 million in fuel costs since April by reducing the drag caused by dirt and debris.

The efforts of the airline industry to increase fuel efficiency are laudable, though it’s a pity they weren’t more efficient to start with. But what works to reduce energy overhead for the airline industry may not work for another industry in crisis because of spiraling fuel costs; the trucking industry.

What does work for both industries is traveling slower. Slower travel takes longer, but can drastically increase mileage and decrease the costs far beyond what the slower transport adds to the bottom line. I drove from Virginia to Florida on Sunday, covering 800 miles. Nearly every one of the trucks - and there were fewer trucks on the highway than I have ever seen - was driving at or below the speed limit.

So what’s the next step for trucks looking for better mileage? I predict aerodynamic exoskeletons. Or that the shipping industry will start focusing on rail again, where the energy efficiency is substantially higher that by truck.

Action Figure slow motion video from Stig Nordas on Vimeo.

From the New York Times:

Addressing a conference of 6,000 Methodist youths in North Carolina last year, Bishop Thomas Bickerton held up his own $10 and told the crowd: “This represents your lunch today at McDonald’s or your pizza tonight from Domino’s. Or you could save a human life.”

The lights were so bright that he could see only what was happening at his feet. “They just showered the stage with $10 bills,” Bishop Bickerton said. “In 30 seconds, we had $16,000. I’m just lucky they didn’t throw coins.”

Part of what has helped the campaign catch on is its sheer simplicity and affordability — $10 buys one net to save a child. Nothing But Nets, the best-known campaign, has raised $20 million from 70,000 individuals, most of it in donations averaging $60.

Malaria infects half a billion people annually, killing millions. There is no vaccine, and once someone contracts the disease, they carry it for life. Malaria cripples developing economies and taxes on health care infrastructure chiefly in areas already overburdened by the AIDS epidemic.

One of the most effective preventative steps anyone can take is to stop Malaria at it’s source - mosquitos - by using a mosquito net. You can send a net to Africa for just a few dollars, possibly save a life and even potentially help a developing nation steady it’s footing, to boot.

From David Brooks at NY Times:

My first thought on the running mate question is that to balance his ticket, Barack Obama should pick a really old white general. Therefore, he should pick Dwight Eisenhower. John McCain, on the other hand, needs to pick someone younger than himself. Therefore, he also should pick Dwight Eisenhower.

Photo courtesy Smothers52 at Flickr.

It’s hard to show music. There have been good attempts (thank you Information Society!), but there’s no one-to-one correlary between different senses, so most tries end up wanting.

Mario Basanov and Vidis video for I’ll be gone works because it leans so heavily on our pre-existing associations for visualizing rhythmic events. Would this help a deaf person ’see’ the song? Probably not. But for the hearing crowd, this video’s sonic visualization adds a rich additional dimension of surround sound - go watch the song and see for yourself.

Courtesy fabulously 40:

From Talking Points Memo:

We seem to have arrived at an equitable compromise: Sen. Clinton is staying in the nomination race while Sen. Obama drops out to move on to the general.

America is growing weary of the media coverage for a primary already mathematically concluded.

From Cobra Commander’s Twitter:

I just “borrowed” Destro’s Despoiler for the afternoon. 10:05 AM May 12, 2008 from web

Paid Firefly $4000 to cut the brake lines in Mindbender’s Volvo. Who’s laughing now, Mustache Mary? 01:38 PM May 07, 2008 from web

Impossible to strategize world domination with those incessantly annoying twins riding fourwheelers in the halls. Throneroom needs a door. 02:12 PM May 06, 2008 from web

Related: This film will be terrible.

The Chilean volcano Chaitén erupted and Terra Networks Chile S.A. captured a stunning series of photos.

In many ways watching music is more riveting than just listening, but all for all the strengths of the Internet music TV has not been one of them. Perhaps it’s a question of scope—there are so many music niches, and a more limited supply of videos that providing quality visual music with specific appeal could be too steep a task. While recently Pitchfork has thrown their hat into the ring, with the competent Pitchfork TV, Tim Bormans’ mashup of last.fm and youtube is far more compelling. A steady mix of live shows and videos of music based on actual listening habits makes for an addictive video stream.Borman’s idea works because he intelligently merges the best of two disparate systems together. Last.fm has a better idea of music preference because it’s based on actual listening habits. Youtube has a breadth of video selection unparalled, which can be a good thing when well applied. Youtube’s weak on it’s on for video hopping, because it may assume that because I enjoy Rocket from the Crypt I’ll also like footage of Rocket Man by Elton John. It doesn’t know me well enough, and last.fm just doesn’t have videos. But together they appear nearly unstoppable.Here’s what I saw tonight:

• Refused live song with surprising good audio
• Homemade Postal Service music video, which was a little creepy but very well edited
• Ben Folds Five covering “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head’ live with Burt Bacharach (!?) conducting a small orchestra
• The Shins video for ‘Australia’ which I didn’t know existed
• The Mars Volta’s Askepios video, which I was unaware of and think is one of the weirdest videos I’ve seen in a very long time
• The Cake, which apparently was confused for Cake. Let me assure you the two bands have nothing in common, but The Cake was probably hot stuff in 1967.
• The Faint, audio-only track played over a bizarre smily face static image
• Flogging Molly official video, for a song I didn’t know had a video
• A weird Tooth and Nail backstage commentary on an unnamed band I’ve never heard of—skipped!
• A previously unreleased Flaming Lips song paired with a different Flaming Lips video
• The Beach Boys’ video for Good Vibrations which must be one of the best songs ever written
• Mates of States’ new (strange) video featuring lots of people wearing animal masks

Overall I heard a series of songs I really liked, The Cake excepted.While this is an amazing way to watch music, it’s not perfect. The full screen interface is solid, but in a smaller window the page layout is distracting.But for half an hour I was engaged and and treated to a series of videos I really liked and would never have thought to look for on my own.