Zombie Power!

While zombies that are merely infected humans can be considered science fiction (if rather far-fetched), the undead variety are pure fantasy. In order to function without air, water, or food for an indefinite period, they would have to be converting their own mass directly into energy. What's more, such a process would have to operate at an extremely high efficiency or else they'd generate massive quantities of waste heat. This is completely ridiculous, but offers the amusing prospect of harnessing the zombies for power generation. Obviously the best mechanism would be to reproduce the biology involved at the cellular level, but a much more direct approach using zombies to push a rotor attached to a generator could be employed. Their aggression, tirelessness, and low intelligence can be exploited by using a moving speaker to constantly lead them, much like the proverbial horse attracted by the carrot on a stick. As a security measure they could be sealed in as they require neither air nor light. You know your science fiction is terrible when it leads to perpetual motion machines.

Cap & Trade is Not a New Tax.

I am getting pretty tired of seeing the assertion that a cap and trade scheme for regulating carbon dioxide emissions is somehow an unreasonable extra cost. Yes, it will lead to higher energy prices, but that is due to the fact that costs will begin to more accurately reflect the true nature of the hidden effects involved. This means that energy has been artificially priced too low, and that cap and trade wouldn't be the addition of a new cost, but rather the end of a subsidy. The distinction is an important one as it acknowledges that we have been working with an unrealistic model.

One Possible Use for Decommissioned Nukes

Oil shale requires large amounts of heat to convert it to a useful form. A small thermonuclear warhead detonated in an oil shale deposit could provide this energy and the refining process would separate the volatile fuel components from the heavier radioactive elements which could then be disposed of properly. Assuming underground contamination issues could be satisfactorily controlled (a huge assumption, I realize) this could in theory be the first practical use of fusion for energy production. Of course it would still be totally impossible politically, which is why this idea is on my public blog. It also is unclear if the heat would be dispersed in a useful manner, but computer simulation could answer this question.