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	<title>ideas</title>
	<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas</link>
	<description>in progress</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:21:31 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<item>
		<title>Organic (but not green)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
A relatively simple analysis that shows how damaging it could be to run all of our cars, etc. on switchgrass.  Apparently, some inorganic technologies, such as solar cells, have the potential to be more green than grass.
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		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=96</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Take pictures from space for $150</title>
		<description><![CDATA[with a cell phone and a weather balloon.  Find out how to do it here.

]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=86</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Lucy Nordstrom 1921&#8211;2009</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Grandma Lucy was one of the kindest, most loving people I have ever known. Everything that she did was with thoughtfulness and considerateness, always putting others ahead of herself.  She showed everyone kindness. Even the teller at the post office was moved at hearing of her passing.
I remember as a kid staying over at her [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=57</link>
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		<title>Absurdist character development in Atlas Shrugged</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently churned through the novel Atlas Shrugged.  In this novel, Ayn Rand presents her philosophy of Objectivism.  I like philosophy.  I like novels.  I even like philosophical novels, so I thought that Atlas Shrugged might be the perfect book for me.  After reading the novel, I planned to write about Objectivism. The thing is, I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=14</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Playing with Linux</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In the last few months, I&#8217;ve been playing with Linux.  It&#8217;s fun to see a different way of doing an operating system.  It&#8217;s surprising to see what can be accomplished through an open source project.
Linux is slicker than I expected.  I thought it would be difficult to use.  Instead, Linux feels like it is well [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=12</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Endless forms most beautiful</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently completed Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.  I expected the book to be theoretical, but Darwin packed the book full with careful observations about the physical world.  I found Darwin&#8217;s arguments striking because he is cautious in his claims.  Where others would rush ahead shouting, &#8220;see, I told you so,&#8221; Darwin amasses excessive [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=8</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Computer intelligence surpassing humans in 30 years?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The IEEE Spectrum magazine has an entire issue devoted to evaluating the likelihood of a technological singularity within the next 30 years.
First, what is the technological singularity?  Some people, such as Ray Kurzweil and Verner Vinge project that technology will advance to a point where computers will surpass human intelligence.  This will create [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=6</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Elegant design from the evil empire</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
I&#8217;ve been interested in ebooks for a while and am convinced that eventually they will become common.  People will get used to reading books on portable devices with screens that look better and cost less than the screens we have today.  I don&#8217;t think that paper books will go away but ebooks will [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=5</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Nuns are good for the environment</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Nuns don&#8217;t consume many resources. They vow poverty and don&#8217;t buy needless things. They&#8217;re mostly vegetarian. That&#8217;s a lot easier on the environment than the resources required to produce livestock. They vow chastity, which helps keep the population explosion under control. They don&#8217;t travel much. They have a small ecological footprint.

(image source)
Except for candles. They [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://karlnordstrom.ca/ideas/?p=4</link>
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