What are you compensating for?

Just came across this and had to share:

Ask someone who drives an unnecessarily large vehicle for their needs (pickup truck, SUV), and at least half the time that person will say the US government should raise CAFE standards. I think the explanation given above is accurate; I refer to it as the “no unilateral disarmament” mind set. People don’t want to buy a big vehicle, just one that’s bigger than average.

This tendency is a sad commentary on just how susceptible people are to advertising and infantile tendencies. I know a lot of men think small cars, like my Scion xA, are “chick cars”. That’s why I’ve been tempted more than once to tweak those people by putting a bumper sticker on it that says, “I drive this because I’m compensating. What are you compensating for?”

from: "The Psychology of Energy" at http://www.grinzo.com/energy/?p=244

Oh, oh, oh... I was going to stop there. But I can't resist sharing this little bit of brilliance with you, from an article about carbon capture on Green Car Congress (http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/university-of-n.html#more) :

Another option would be to use modest amounts of (PV-generated) electricity to grow giant artificial limestone islands on the open ocean, with embedded bouyancy elements and engines to move them about.

This would sequester CO2 already dissolved in the oceans, reducing outgassing due to rising ocean temperatures. This in turn would at least reduce the rate at which atmospheric CO2 concentrations are rising. The islands would pay for themselves as fish nurseries, vacation spots or permanent habitable landmass. You could also grow algae on their surface / inside an artificial limestone perimeter and produce biofuel from that.

I was recently thinking that I'd like to have my own ocean island... move there, take a few friends, create our own nation... that kind of thing. And it seems technically feasible. It's the underlying idea: humans have now conquered all land everywhere, so it's time to start making the ocean surface permanently habitable? Guess that shouldn't surprise me too much since we're already doing that with the "City at Sea": http://www.freedomship.com/