TROUBL

What up world? First, thank you for your enthusiasm and sharing your knowledge with us on the site. At this time, we ask you to please stand by. Don’t worry. We’re not going anywhere. We’re just stepping back for a minute so that we can up the ante and offer much more than the opinion editorial you’ve come to know us for. This means hitting the streets, conducting interviews and doing market research. Also, we’re working to improve the look and functionality of the site. Be patient. Be ready.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the agency that controls government-owned land that isn’t a forest, has put a two-year moratorium on new solar power plants to study the impact plants have on the local environment. Note, no such moratorium is being made to study the impact of Mountain Top removal mining, a form of strip mining where the tops of mountains are blown off, and the resulting fill is simply dumped into the local rivers. More »

From a high school textbook: A rectangle is 10 cm longer than it is wide. A line segment cuts the area enclosed into two pieces, one of which is a square. The area of the rectangle is 118 more than the area of the square. What is the width of the rectangle?

Leave answers in the comment section. And no, you don’t need to show all your work!

To date, the oil barons that profit from our dependence on gas have succeeded in stifling the rise of fuel efficient vehicles. Their influence on American automakers has led to the production of fuel efficient cars so bland that only the hemp-soap-using, Birkenstock-wearing population would dare to be caught driving. And while most of us concede that environmentally friendly vehicles aren’t cool, the students at Royal College of Art have worked to debunk the myth, designing green concept cars so fresh they’d make Batman wanna plug up the BatMobile. See them here.

From the NY Times…the resistance of the civil rights generation to Obama’s candidacy signified the failure of their parents to come to terms, at the dusk of their lives, with the success of their own struggle — to embrace the idea that black politics might now be disappearing into American politics…

Does Obama’s candidacy signify the end of “black politics”? A feature in the upcoming Times magazine explores the question. Read the article (click here) and chime in.

**Pictured here: Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first black to serve in the U.S Senate.

Politics and art have a strange marriage that’s as old as government itself. Celebrating their matrimony, MoveOn.org and Obey Giant have joined forces, inviting artist to show their work during the Democratic National Convention at the Manifest Hope Gallery in Denver. Artist can submit any 2D or 3D work that captures the Hope/Change/Unity themes of the Obama campaign. Submissions will be accepted through August 18.

Click here for more info and to submit art.

When John McCain proposed lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling of the Outer Continental Shelf, 3 to 200 miles off the United States coast, President Bush jumped on the bandwagon. Bush said, “roughly the equivalent of two decades of imported oil from Saudi Arabia” are waiting for us under the currently banned areas in Alaska alone. With those, and the untapped reserves in the Gulf of Mexico, Bush and McCain hopes that America can become “energy independent.” Analysts, scientists and environmentalists have rightfully called it bullshit. More »

Your favorite rapper, Barack Obama and the media together are creating this unique subplot to the 2008 presidential election. It goes like this: Obama inspires rappers, rappers make songs in support of Obama, and the media works to derail Obama, claiming he’s connected to radicals. An example being Fox news’ Obama/Ludacris controversy. See video here…

Question: Will the rap community’s support of Obama ultimately turn middle Americans off. Chime in.

Video: Big Boi does CNN
Video: Something’s Got to Give Ft. MJB

…of a Nomad Junkie

How to Recognize a New Yorker:

• If his accent (be careful now) or demeanor are specifically “New York” and perhaps you think you may have seen this person twenty, thirty years ago in some drama or comedy set in the street – but you can’t reference the title of the film–or if the person is just a little “too” out of the ordinary, then he’s a real New Yorker. More »

Turning Jacob began as a short play composed in one act with a bunch of scenes. I thought about presenting it on stage with characters, lighting, backdrop, and everything else. But, I formed it into a short story, a long short story, with chapters. And I liked the end result. More »