Adam Weber, photo from http://eetd.lbl.gov/people/adam-weber
Hydrogen fuel cells power city buses all over Oakland, CA, surrounding the Chabot Space and Science Center and transporting visitors around town. Guest speaker Adam Weber, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s fuel cell program manager, spoke at Chabot on future prospects of this technology during February’s enrichment lecture.
According to Weber, hydrogen fuel as a workable, commercial scale technology in the U.S. is at least 10-20 years in the future, as a minimum. However, he supports continued research and development into the area as the technology represents the promise of a 45 percent reduction in our country’s carbon emissions by 2050.
Hydrogen differs from other fuels as it cannot be mined or harvested directly, but must be produced on a large scale, usually by splitting water molecules through electrolysis. The energy to power the electrolysis can come from natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, or, as he hopes, ultimately from renewable sources.
MEN AND WOMEN—there’s a difference. At least that’s what Shields’ mom formerly decreed. It’s history. It’s science. It’s nature. It’s everything to do with equality and ONLY ONE HAPPINESS. And along with the laws of only one happiness, Shields also knew, by heart, all the other rules in Mom’s house. That’s why he waited a year after his 13th birthday to ask her about the man he’d met the previous Christmas, in his Grandma’s cellar. This was a terrible mistake. When Shields simply asked if the man she called “husband” loved him, his Ma threw a fit! The word LOVE was strictly verboten in or out of their home.
For it was his Mom’s belief that love, as a word, was worthless. “Gens de peu (the meaner class of people),” she’d crow with characteristic fervor. “Love everything from inanimate objects to gods, celebrities, and prime-time TV.” She’d quiz Shields: “And how can love describe the affections of men and women when we incessantly jabber, ‘I LOVE THE FLAG! I LOVE COKE! I LOVE NEW YORK! I LOVE JESUS! Have you ever seen a bumper sticker that says: I LOVE HUMAN BEINGS?'”
When Shields admitted to never seeing such a bumper sticker, or knowing what it actually meant to love, mom told him a story about a long forgotten, magical time when men and women were equally capable of love, because they both possessed The Lobe. God’s Lobe. The Lobe almighty.
The Seagulls
Their wings spread above the ocean.
Their voices echo off the water,
Their white bodies full the morning sky,
I remember my mother when I see them,
For she was always gentle with me;
I was her only son.
She did not cry when I told her I was leaving for the war.
She simply said “come back to me.”
Sleep II
I cannot sleep in the wee hours of the morning when the muses come,
I cannot sleep when the dream is of colors —
When the moon is bright and the stars float above the water,
It is not easy to forget the goddess of poetry.
But I cannot rest in the wee hours of the morning when I hear the birds sing.
Another Day of Life
When the words appear on the screen,
Nothing else matters to me.
Hearing your voice,
Having you smile and that laugh of yours.
I’m happy when I look out at the mountains,
When the peacocks’ feathers bloom,
And the seagulls fly over the ocean,
I’m happy when the muses call on me to write.
A poem they understand,
That there’s more to life than death.
Wanted You More is a wonderful book about how the lives of people intertwine. It is about friends, lovers, caring, compassion and heartbreak. It is a wonderful story of how when two people break up they can still be loving and caring friends. This book reminds us of how love and compassion really can conquer many things that life can throw our way.
Enough To Keep You is a very good book following the relationships of several women. It explores the highs, lows, happiness and heartbreak of each one. It is about how good friends stick by each other and care for each other through happy times and most of all when one is hurting. It is a very deep and meaningful novel. I loved this one as much as I loved the sequel, Wanted you More. This is a must have for your home library. Don’t forget to get the second one along with this one.
Welcome to February, the month of Valentine cards and pink candy hearts and Cupids for some, and dark humor and hopefully self-love for others. Hopefully, this month will also herald warmer weather for those Northern areas besotted with blizzard snowfall.
Our issue this month focuses on innocence and maturity, with some submissions reflecting straightforward childlike enthusiasm and others presenting more complex, self-conscious thoughts.
Tony Glamortramp offers up poetry and a short story, both of which convey the thrill and joy of snow days, not for children, but for bohemian queer artistic types who have the day off from school and work to feast on poetry, art, drink and music. These pieces, somewhat reminiscent of Puccini’s La Boheme, express the treasure of eclectic community and show through nostalgia the value of a city’s remaining hospitable to these sorts of people.
Dramatic suspense can be a way we can face anxiety in small doses and vicariously, perhaps as a way to accustom ourselves to fear from a distance so that we might become stronger when confronting actual threats to our existence. Elizabeth Hughes, in her monthly Book Periscope column, reviews Joe Klingler’s film noir-esque thriller mystery Missing Mona, describing the tale of a detective’s quest for a missing hitchhiker.
Other writers this month describe the process of men’s coming of age, with all the angst inherent in that physical and psychological journey. Michael Robinson reviews Christopher Bernard’s Dangerous Stories for Boys, a collection reflecting what Bernard considers the ‘dangerous’ and volatile years of burgeoning adult masculinity, beginning at about age ten. Ryan Hodge, in his monthly column Play/Write, analyzes video games’ portrayal of male characters as they develop throughout game play, arguing that they earn worth and value in the eyes of others through service and sacrifice, but face the dilemma of finding a balance where they can assert individuality and not merely exist for the sake of others. Hodge argues for a complex, nuanced view of manhood on the screen, just as he did for femininity and female characters in his last column.
I hope that this issue inspires both childlike joy and wonder and thoughtful consideration of deeper concerns. Thank you for sharing the experience and growing alongside our contributors.
Public domain image from George Hodan, available here: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=20273&picture=silhouette
For someone who enjoys a great story, is there anything better than a narrative that engages you from the very start? Imagine a world so rich you can almost smell the scents in the air, a delivery so clever it forces you to think in a way you never thought you would. I’m Ryan J. Hodge, author, and I’d like to talk to you about…Video Games.
Yes, Video Games. Those series of ‘bloops’ and blinking lights that –at least a while ago- society had seemed to convince itself had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. In this article series, I’m going to discuss how Donkey Kong, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and even Candy Crush can change the way we tell stories forever.
What Videogames Teach Us About Writing Male Characters
When we think of great literary heroes –let alone heroes in video games- a plethora of male examples often spring to mind. From Hercules to Sonic; James Bond to the Master Chief; indeed it can be argued that if there’s one thing that contemporary narrative has a mastery of; it’s writing for male characters. However, there’s may be more to boys than what meets the eye, and videogames may indeed help us illuminate the way.
