Bet On The Bug Shit

What, no S&H Green Stamps with it?

No set of steak knives?

Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain put on his Dr. Emmett Brown lab coat yesterday and firmly aligned his possible presidency with Monty Hall, and "Let's Make A Deal", offering a $300-million prize for someone to develop a battery for electric and/or hybrid cars.

Man, you knew that McCain has always been low rent, but a carny?

Is he planning on replacing the Rose Garden with a Midway?

VP Choice? ... No problem, it's gotta be the Bearded Lady!

More on McCain's $300M battery prize

In a speech today at Fresno State University in California, the Republican presidential candidate outlined his proposal for a $300 million prize for new technology that would be 30% cheaper than current batteries and have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars." He did not offer any technical specifics.

McCain called the taxpayer-funded prize — $1 for every man, woman and child — "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency."

"Step right up here ... Only one-dollar ... One, American greenback ... Step right up here ... You sir, you look like you could develop a battery ... Only one-dollar ... One-dollar gets you $300-Million ... I like those chances! ... Step right up here ... Build a battery and win a prize ... Step right up here ..."

I don't know about you, but I'm bettin' on the Bug Shit ...


Bonus Riffs

Matthew Yglesias: Prize Patrol

SF Chronicle: McCain keeps driving the energy issue

Wonkette: WALNUTS! To Give You $300 Million For Inventing Some Fancy Thing!

Matthew Yglesias: Prize Patrol

You're Kidding ... Bug Shit!

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!".

And, as a former filling station attendant, by the name of Gomer Pyle, may exclaim - "Shazam!"

In a way, it almost sounds like something Gomer might have come up with.

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol; Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'

Inside LS9’s cluttered laboratory – funded by $20 million of start-up capital from investors including Vinod Khosla, the Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Micro-systems – Mr Pal explains that LS9’s bugs are single-cell organisms, each a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-de-signing their DNA. “Five to seven years ago, that process would have taken months and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he says. “Now it can take weeks and cost maybe $20,000.”

Because crude oil (which can be refined into other products, such as petroleum or jet fuel) is only a few molecular stages removed from the fatty acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, it does not take much fiddling to get the desired result.

Fill It Up With High Test ... And Check The Bugs!

If this thing pans out, you can expect a stampede to eBay, with people looking for those old, Gilbert Chemestry sets.

You can trade in the greasy overalls, for a starched-white lab coat.

Out goes the family room, or that finished basement, as the masses, to compliment the solar panels and rainwater buckets, begin farming their own LS9 bugs.

In fact, it could make gas stations obsolete, or, at minimum, they convert over to becoming "bug stations".

I just hope this isn't a hoax ...

It looks mighty interesting ...


Bonus Links

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Exxon Will Celebrate Largest Annual Profit Ever For A U.S. Company

White House Besieged With Would-Be Energy Inventors As Bush Backtracks From Pledge; All Looking To Cash In On President's New Energy Initiative - If Only President Meant It

Top Ten Cloves: Things About The Rocket Scientists' Party, Yuri Night