Something must be terribly wrong with me. My thermostat must be out of whack; my sense of reality askew.
Like many folks this past weekend, I spent quite a lot of time out of doors, shoveling some of the foot of snow we received. I shoveled the driveway not once, not twice, but three times. I helped the boys build a snow fort. I let the dogs out numerous times. I was outside a lot, and the thing that bothers me is: It didn’t seem that cold.
Even though I was fully aware temperatures hovered between zero degrees and a down right balmy 14, I didn’t feel that cold. And that is just not right, because it was that cold.
What is wrong with me?
Has my blood ‘thickened??
Has my protective layer of flub increased?
What?
How in the heck am I ‘supposed to hate winter, cold and ice if it doesn’t feel that bad?
I guess I’m complaining because I’m not complaining enough about feeling cold.
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I attended the Oxford Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon the other week. In the basement of Kalloway’s Restaurant and Pub, the membership listened to guest speaker Bob Stempel — yes, that Bob Stempel
The Bob Stempel who chaired Generous Motors Corp. until 1992. Yep, the same Stempel who, with a team of engineers, brought the world catalytic converters. The 70-ish Stempel doesn’t just enjoy the good life on his North Oakland horse farm — nope, he’s chairman/CEO of Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), a company he’s been with for almost 10 years.
Stempel was in town to talk about the emerging hydrogen economy, about the future of converting fuel to energy. Impressive.
ECD is banking on the future, a future of less fossil fuel usage and more neato-keen alternative fuels.
What kind of cool stuff was the Stemp-meister touting . . . things like shingles for the roof of your home that also convert solar power into usable energy. He had one of these bad boys and it looked like a regular old shingle, except it has solar sensor thingy-ma-bobs. You nail ’em up to your home, and presto, life’s a little better. They actually make these things and sell ’em.
There are also roll-on, industrial-strength roofs (for flat roof-tops) with the solar gizmos, too.
He also preached the gospel of hybrid electric vehicles (with up to a 60 percent increase in fuel economy) and vehicles powered by hydrogen (which creates clean water).
In the future you could drive up to the filling station and in between the regular and diesel fuel pumps would be a hydrogen pump.
The future is exciting!
Check out ECD’s website for more on Rockin? Robert Stempel and the future: www.ovonic.com
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As Stempel, the engineer has short, short hair and nice looking attire, the following folks have lots of hair and interesting getup.
At www.improbable.com I found a new club, both men and women can join. And, as an added bonus it comes complete a with photos.
The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (a trade marked name) is exactly what it sounds like — an organization containing a bunch of scientists with lots of hair to cover their pointy heads.
I was looking at the Improbable website because it’s fun. Each year they give out IgNobel Awards to folks who do things that make people laugh and then think.
Last year, for example, Jillian Clarke, a Harvard freshman won for her research titled, ‘If you drop it should you eat it? Weigh in on the five second rule.?
The IgNobel Peace award was given to Daisuke Inoue, the Japanese guy who invented Karaoke, for inventing an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other.
Comments for the ignoble Donald P. Rush can be e-mailed to: dontrushmedon@charter.net