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We’re on day two of November, and despite daylight savings time, you may already be behind. That is, if you’re a writer. November is chock full of writing-themed challenges, most of which involve writing at breakneck speeds.

You may already be familiar with National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to the writing community to write 50,000 words by the close of the month. It’s “thirty days and nights of literary abandon!” and Twitter is already alight with tweets from novelists cranking away.

In response to NaNoWriMo, a group has declared November to be National Blog Posting Month as well. The challenge here? Post one time daily for the entire month of November. According to Twitter, the challenge is being met.

So, whether you’re interested in writing a novel or just getting your blog back in shape, you’ve got options. But, you better get cracking, the month is already 2 days old. So, here are some ideas to help get the creative juices flowing:

Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds

“Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world,” Forgas wrote.

You could go so many directions with this. First, it’s an interesting story to dissect based on the headline. The actual study offered some interesting details on the benefits of both positive and negative thinking, but then again, “Balancing positive and negative thinking boosts memory and creativity equally, study finds” is not a very compelling headline.

World’s largest cruise ship squeezes under Danish bridge

The 20 story tall ship, The Oasis of the Seas narrowly cleared the Great Belt Fixed Link while departing on it’s maiden voyage. This is really good news, and passengers should revel in this for a while. After all, the cruise is headed to Florida, which means it’s all downhill from here.

Honor Sandwich day — Vote for the Greatest Sandwich in America

Go meta! Use November’s tribute to writing to pay tribute to another November dedication — sandwiches! November 3rd is the home of the oft-overlooked Sandwich Day. The good folks over at lemondrop have compiled a list of 16 sandwiches for their readers to vote on. A friend of mine has a published poem titled, “Ode to the Sandwich” which you can find in his book, The Date Fruit Elegies. Paying tribute to the art of food while making social commentary is possible, people!

Surprise! Cost cutting boosts Ford’s profits to almost $1bn in 2nd quarter

In a total shocker, Ford has announced nearly $1 billion in profit during the 2nd quarter. The company is crediting cost cutting, but did cash for clunkers play a part?

Obama warns more job losses coming

On a sour note, President Obama has warned of more job losses looming in the future. I’m not sure about you, but now might be a good time to take advantage of November’s writing-centric themes. Just think, this could lead to selling your novel, or open the door to the next breakthrough blog that takes the Internet by storm.

We’re taking the challenge, and I’m going to get things rolling on my own personal blog as well. We’ll see how that goes.

So, what are you waiting for? Start writing! And be sure to share your work in the Creative Writing group on Current.com.

During my commute yesterday I happened to catch Adam Hochberg’s report, ‘Rethinking Flight Safety With Air Bags In Planes‘ on NPR’s Morning Edition. I considered posting about it yesterday, but decided not to. It’s not that the report wasn’t interesting — it definitely stuck with me I was just having trouble figuring out an angle to approach it with that made sense.

Hochberg spoke with AmSafe, the predominate manufacturer of seat belts used in planes, and they are reporting an increase in sales of their air bag filled belts — that’s right, air bags IN seat belts. The company produces these belts for airlines seeking to meet the updated US crash standard taking full effect this week. These updated standards require passenger protection from crashes 16 times the force of gravity, similar to that of a head-on collision in a car.

AmSafe’s research director, Tom Barth described the air bag seat belts to NPR:

“The air bag seat belt looks pretty much like a standard seat belt. People don’t really notice that it’s there.”

Listening to the report on the radio, this sparked questions of technological fantasy, “How do they fit an air bag into a seat belt undetected?”

Um, yeah Tom. Looks pretty standard to me.

Gizmodo’s John Herrman hilariously illustrates the answer:

“No need to deny the lumpiness, Tom—I think people will forgive a little bulk if it means they won’t splatter their brains all over that darling floral bulkhead carpet next time a landing doesn’t go quite as planned.”

Ok, so the innovation is not as fantastically covert as the radio broadcast led me to believe. Herrman still makes a valid point, if safety is the key people will excuse the bulkiness. I mean, if it’s a question of life or death, fashion pretty much takes a back seat, right?

Which leads me to my angle — why post about this a day after the fact? Well, something stuck with me after listening to Hochberg’s initial report. These belts are intended to save lives, and anytime something like this comes along, one would think it would be prioritized up on the list of things to do, right?

Over the last decade we’ve seen airlines optimize the flight experience for passengers in several ways. JetBlue made a stir by offering satellite television available. Virgin allows their customers a very different experience altogether — comfortable seating, a variety of food and drink, WIFI, and a certain cable channel that may be near and dear to some of you [ed. note -- enough with the coyness, Current TV content is available on Virgin flights].

The most frightening aspect of this story is that the previous school of thought in regards to airline safety was as follows: In severe crashes, no one will be walking away anyway. So why bother?

Here’s more from Hochberg:

“There was a time — maybe 25 years ago — when the idea of putting air bags in planes would have been seen as pointless. For decades, aviation safety focused mainly on avoiding accidents on the theory that if a crash occurred, nobody could survive anyway.

But more recently, safety experts have discovered that even in major mishaps — like planes running off runways or landing on the Hudson River — passengers can walk away unharmed if they’re properly protected. And that’s where air bags can help.”

And here’s the trick, the updated standards impacting the adoption of these air bag seat belts is not new, they are merely going into full effect this week. In fact, these standards have been in place for the past 21 years, but have been slow to roll out over this period of time.

To be fair, it’s obvious that the cost of these upgrades and the impact of several events (9/11 and our present recession) on airline travel have to factor in here. These belts cost in the upwards of $1200 compared to the $35 price point of standard safety belts. In a belt-tightening economy, you have to expect slow adoption. But what about the remaining difference? I’m sure there had to be a travel surge where profits were booming somewhere in the time between 1984-2009.

Yet still, the thought of 21 years worth of plane crashes that, while still disastrous, could have still yielded survivors is pretty bone-chilling. What do you think?

Monday is here, and while I typically bemoan the end of a weekend, this particular Monday arrives bearing gifts in the form of Current praise from none other than Lo-fi legend Lou Barlow.

Lou is the guest editor for Magnet Magazine this week, and to kick things off they sat down for a Q&A with Barlow. On Sunday they posted a snippet from said Q&A titled, “Lou Barlow’s Good Things: Current T.V.”

Gasp!

This is Lou Barlow, one of the founding members of Dinosaur Jr., we’re talking about here. He’s responsible for Sebadoh, and The Folk Implosion! Amazing. In the post, Lou shares his experience discovering Current along with some very insightful feedback on our programming — ranging from infoMania, Vanguard, and SuperNews! Getting into Current wasn’t exactly a cakewalk for Lou, and I think his recount of the journey to eventually place us on his list of good things is a telling document.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

So, now I’m hooked. I don’t mind the time bar, and the music content is way indie: Animal Collective during the hourly what’s-hot-on-the-web stats, a best-of Take-Away Show (the French web series that captures all our favorite precocious indie stars emoting in public places), a Death Cab For Cutie documentary, etc.

Based on Lou’s interest in our music programming, I wonder if he’s had a chance to check out some of the sneak peeks of Embedded — our six part music special premiering Wednesday October 14th 11/10c. The show covers a wide range of artists, including Mos Def, Silversun Pickups, Ben Harper, Common, Thievery Corporation, and The Decemberists to name a few. To name a few more, you’ll also catch glimpses of K’Naan, Arcade Fire, Lykke Li, Bloc Party, Amanda Palmer, Delta Spirit, Passion Pit, and Bon Iver to boot.

Current Music Presents: Embedded — premiering October 14 11/10c on Current TV

This is just a taste, so please take the time to read his full write-up over on Magnet. If you’re so inclined, do yourself a favor an check out the re-united (and touring) original members of Dinosaur Jr. If you happen to catch them on tour, say hello to Lou for us and deliver this message on our behalf:

Lou, Current is honored to be listed as one of “Lou Barlow’s Good Things.” Thanks for the awesome feedback.

Do you have a “How I discovered Current?” story to share? Post us a comment on this post, over here, or just submit a story to Current (Requires login via Current or Facebook Connect) and tag it “How I Discovered Current.”

There’s a lot going on out there in the world of Current.com, so let’s take a quick look at some of the recent blog posts from our online producer team:

Current Movies

Over on the Current Movies blog, John Lichman offers up news that Nic Cage has decided to bow out of Green Hornet, and takes a look at the new teaser trailer from Up in the Air. Here’s a snippet:

• Nicholas Cage leaves The Green Hornet because clearly he’s a serious actor. And his soul is still dancing. [Heat Vision]
• The teaser for Up in the Air is perfectly fine and the best thing you’ll watch today. So, there. [/film]

Check out the full post and watch the Up in the Air trailer over on the current_movies blog.

Current Music

Have you ever wanted to make a music video? Who knows, you could be the next David Fincher, or Spike Jonze, right? Well, here’s your chance. Current Music has teamed up with Common, and he’s basically letting the Current.com community make the video for his song, “Make my day.”

So, you wanna make a music video? Head over to the current_music blog, Shana has all of the details.

Current Green

Leah Lamb offered up a guest blog post from our Sustainable Agriculture group leader, JanForGore. She gives us the details on Biopiracy in the age of climate change and food shortages. Here’s a snip:

Biopiracy is the patenting of indigenous bio-diversity related knowledge. For purposes of this writing, the patenting of natural traits found in plants, which is now described as epidemic. While the rewarding of patents should be based on inventiveness and original creativity, it has become a license for corporations to steal such indigenous traits endemic to nature already naturally cultivated by indigenous farmers for centuries. This is done to make fast cash and to take advantage of the climate crisis and food shortages which ironically are also exacerbated through monoculture industrial methods of what I like to call ‘strip farming.’ Such methods have stripped soil nutrients and carbon essential for sustainability of the land and our climate balance.

Check out the full post on the current_green blog.

Current Comedy

Last but not least, current_comedy blog maestro, Josh Heller, went to Burning Man last week and it changed his life (as anyone reading his pseudo-tweets from Black Rock City could tell). The playa spoke, and Josh listened. Now he returns to us a new man, with a new avatar. Take a look.

Whoa! I just noticed that the Official Star Wars Blog ran a piece the other day on our animated cartoon series, SuperNews! sweet!!

Current TV’s web series SuperNews takes a funny look at trendy topics and news items, and then animates them into hilarious Web cartoons. Since Star Wars is ever-present in pop culture it makes sense that some characters show up in a few episodes.

One of the cameos they reference is Boba Fett’s appearance in “Rambo vs. Terror Part 1.” If you haven’t seen it, take a look:

More recently, Rush Limbaugh was featured as everyone’s favorite Tattoine gangster in “Jabba the Rush.” Here’s what the Star Wars Blog had to say:

Conservatives kneel before the almighty Rush Limbaugh (as Jabba the Hutt) to beg forgiveness. Add bonus — Ann Coulter as Salacious Crumb!

Looks like they enjoyed Super_Josh’s take on Ann. What do you think?

Seeing SuperNews! featured on the Official Star Wars Blog has inspired me to dust off my lightsaber and play Jedi for an hour or so re-watch the original trilogy. perhaps this weekend.

If you haven’t checked out their blog yet, you really should. It’s chock full of Star Wars references that surface across the interwebs and in other forms of media. The write-up of last week’s episode of LOST, titled “Some Like it Hoth,” in which Hurley tries to re-write The Empire Strikes Back was a personal fave. Check out their post, titled “The Empire Strikes LOST.” Great stuff.

Here’s another recent favorite, a mash-up called Star Wars as MacGyver:

From the same fan who brought us Star Wars as Dallas comes another excellent TV intro mashup. This time it’s Macgyver! Will Luke blow up the Death Star using chewing gum and a drinking straw? We may never know.

Did that spark an idea for another ’80s TV show + Star Wars mash-up? Too late, the same fan just released a Star Wars as Airwolf clip. Best dig out some old footage from The A-Team.

To the folks over at The Official Star Wars Blog, thanks again! You make our geek hearts jump for joy.

– Mario