| and more and more... |
[Jul. 30th, 2006|04:01 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | climate adaptation, climatemodification, dinosaur fuels, evolution, extreme weather, food, greenfuture, i want one!!!, living machines, my happy place, prts | ] |
global warming is an existential threat that should affect our approach to just about every issue. To take it seriously, we would have to change the way we think about transportation, agriculture, development, water resources, natural disasters, foreign relations and more.
-in today's San Jose Mercury News "High energy prices compelling Americans to care about climate" |
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| the 200 MPG Carburetor rises again!! |
[May. 5th, 2006|05:57 am] |
documents lost for over 50 years resurface!
This is Charles Nelson Pogue. In 1930's he announced the success of his patented carburetor in Winnipeg Manitoba. This invention shook the world back then because it made it easy for any car to get 200 Miles Per Gallon! They never did get manufactured though. In fact Pogue went overnight from impoverished inventor to the manager of a successful factory making oil filters for the motor industry. Ever since, suspicion has lingered that oil companies and car manufacturers colluded to bury Pogue’s invention. But that was decades ago, and now may be about to change...
Patrick Davies, 72, a retired mechanic from St Austell, Cornwall, had owned a dusty tool box for 40 years (someone who had been in Canada gave it to him for painting a house). But only recently, he decided to clean it out. And Inside it, he found the original Pogue work! As well as drawings of the carburettor, the envelope contained two pages of plans, three test reports and six pages of notes written by Pogue. They included a report of a test that Pogue had done on his lawnmower, which showed that he had managed to make the engine run for seven days on a quart (just under a litre) of petrol. The documents also described how the machine worked by turning petrol into a vapour before it entered the cylinder chamber, reducing the amount of fuel needed for combustion. Davies is now working with UK universities to start back up where Pogue left of.... c'mon we could use a little device like this!
[incidentally if you are looking for people who have been bearing the torch for these types of innovations-- vapor in particular-- check out Vapor Systems Technology: the mother of all fuel-vapor sites] |
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| Extenginize your mind, and your sass will follow... |
[May. 4th, 2006|05:35 am] |
Novel new solution to reduce NOx from Biodiesel engines!!
Attention all DIY SVO & biodiesel peeps! ...and for that matter anyone who still uses regular diesel fuel in their diesel car (but why?):
...Sure, you like not-relying on foreign oil. And for you SVO'ers it's that mix of doing something better for the environment, and getting to drive for free. But as we all know, biodiesel still has emissions. There is some carbon monoxide, there's lots of carbon dioxide (which if you grow your hemp oil, or even rapeseed, you will be 'cycling' the carbon), and of course, it's no laughing matter that there are NOx emissions i.e. laughing gas (but in the air its damaging and another greenhouse gas). But now you don't have to!
Fullerton CA's Extengine has just released their ADECII Advanced Diesel Emission Control (they still sell the ADECI which is a little more for the self-starter) and it gets rid of your NOx emissions. It spays an ammonia mist into the exhaust before it leaves your tailpipe, and turns the Nitrous back into Nitrogen and Water Vapor (water vapor is still a greenhouse gas.. one day we'll have to cap that and sell it to the dry cleaners or something....). I like these Extengine people, not only do they have many many other great innovations, but like the company name, they all have these cool names like MaxTRAP (removes 99% of particulates from the exhaust) and many more...
[thanks to linton & Hugg] |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 29th, 2006|07:29 am] |
Straight From The Foxes Mouth
Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) babynutcase for yet one more peak oil tip. And wow. it's from Fox News (i really liked their first sloagn "we report, you decide" better than the F&B, but w/e): The Headline is "Global Oil Production May Peak Soon." Here's a tidbit:
Once we reach this tipping point, known as "Hubbert's Peak," also known as "peak oil," global oil production will begin an irreversible decline and less oil will be available with every passing year, scientists say. Energy experts no longer debate about whether Hubbert's peak will occur, but when. On this point, estimates vary wildly. Kenneth Deffeyes, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, believes it has already happened — in late 2005.
Wow. Just like with climate change; the crazies who (10 years ago) were saying we have about 20 years left are now joined in chorus by the likes of Hansen et al, all the experts, who now say that there's about 10 years left. And now with Peak oil, the crazies like Deffeyes (a student of Marrion King Hubbert), are being joined by the experts, and now people are taking it seriously. Is it human nature to ignore all the harbingers until you get smacked in the face with a brick wall? I know if I was driving a car, and the passenger tells me that there's a brick wall stopping the road in another 100 meters, I would at the very least slow down a bit to see if there is any validity. I wouldn't get Hannity & Combs to call the passenger an idiot and a tin-foil hatter. And now that it looks inevitable here comes the press to tell us a new discovery! Gee, thanks. Thanks for ignoring decades of information that didn't serve your purpose. Again like climate, what frightens me is that if they are telling is this now, then it must really be around the corner... |
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| Der Loremo Liebe Ich! |
[Apr. 24th, 2006|04:03 am] |
156 Miles Per Gallon German sportscar!
Saw a brief posting about this over on the Peak Oil Community, about this new sports car called the Loremo. Hmmmmm, it's mileage is pretty amazing. If it's a SULEV or PZEV, I'm sold. For now... |
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| who? |
[Apr. 7th, 2006|05:47 pm] |
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| My Fist Chevy commercial |
[Apr. 6th, 2006|02:32 pm] |
jam that culture!
OK well it's not the best, in fact it's kinda repetitive, but i decided to finally enter my own commercial into that Chevy Taho Donald Trump debacle of a neat idea gone wrong... So check it out, my first Chevy commercial, watch it , or better yet, make your own!
[BTW found out from my VJ Forum that this is the product of Alaska Action who are running their own campaign for culture jammers to see who can spoof Taho the best... mad props to them!] |
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| Cool Drivers |
[Feb. 24th, 2006|07:35 pm] |
Hey! Wanna stop 1,000 lbs of CO2 from getting
into the air every month? Then read on...
Clean Air Cool Planet is at it again! They've started a new campaign called coolDriver and it looks like one of those trends that will just build and build... They say it's a way to make your car "carbon neutral" (now who doesn't want that?)
How does it work? CoolDriver step #1: Sign up with CoolDriver CoolDriver step #2: drive no more than you need to, keep your tires properly inflated, and try to use efficient vehicles to get where you need to go. CoolDriver step #3: “offset” the carbon dioxide from your driving, so your driving will have a net-zero impact on global warming! So, you end up building new renewable energy sources, like new wind farms and farm-methane projects... Oh! And they send you a tub of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream as a way of saying thanks! So what are you waiting for? If you drive a car, click it out! |
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| That day is dawning, Ken |
[Feb. 24th, 2006|02:00 pm] |
Nigerian court tells Shell to pay $1.5 billion in damages
"I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is on trial here, and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learned here may prove useful to it, for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war the company has waged in the delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and all those who assist them. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected of a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, judges, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of their urine.
We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our country and jeopardized the future of our children. As we subscribe to the subnormal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, degrade our hospitals, and make ourselves the slaves of those who subscribe to higher standards, who pursue the truth, and honour justice, freedom and hard work."
-Nigeria's Poet Laureate Ken Saro-Wiwa's final statement before his execution |
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| Lee Raymond: World's most obtuse CEO |
[Feb. 24th, 2006|08:52 am] |
Everybody Hates Raymond:
I know I know I know, there is no US and there is no THEM. We're all in this together. And so i am biting my tongue, and trying really hard to not be so vehement when talking about this latest lameass attempt by Exxon to get out of jail free. See, 17 years ago (just before a few of you were even born) an Exxon supertanker, el Valdez, with an allegedly drunk captain, spilled 11,000,000 gallons of Alaskan North-Slope crude (and I mean crude) oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska.
This place:
What did it cost to clean up this mess? It's pretty hard to calculate, especially since even now the deadly effects are continuing... but estimates are in the Billions. Which is why they were fined billions ($4.5Bn). But what does the Zorrero company do? Why, they spend $3.5Bn fighting in it court for 17 years. And they're going to lose (although tbh, $4.5Bn is only like 6 weeks of profit for these pinche pendjos).
[to find out more about these, um, what Grist calls "souless fuckwits", click right here] ( ... ) |
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| the definitive ethanol study |
[Feb. 5th, 2006|07:43 am] |
It seems that the folks at UCBerkeley have decided to put their foot down when it comes to The ethanol debate. They just released the ERG Biofuel Analysis Meta-Model. So now we can even do the math ourselves! For years, ecologists and hippies have been saying that the way we're making ethanol is insane, taking pretty much one unit of gasoline energy to make anywhere from 1.1 to 1.2 units of ethanol energy. And while they may smell funny, the hippies had a good point (*although according to UCBerkeley, maybe not quite that gooda point). The study shows that many processes for making corn ethanol are not quite as wasteful as once deemed (though they still stink, pretty much. That';s a scientific term, basically they are still not that efficient).
But now there's a lot of change coming down the pipe. There's "cellulostic ethanol" made from pretty much any agricultural waste. And that gives us great yields.. and then, of course, there's Switchgrass which has even greater yields (this is in the report).
Thankfully, the report will hopefully put to rest the idea of using corn (or strawberries, eclaires, or any food) to make fuel. In terms of environmental impact corn ethanol decreases greenhouse gases only 14% when compared to gasoline, while cellulosic ethanol has a much greater reduction of 88%. Additionally they show that the net energy value (energy out-energy in) was calculated to be 4.5 MJ/liter for corn ethanol and 22.8 MJ/liter for switchgrass! So if you want to read in detail the work from the Berkeley researchers click away |
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| Arrrrrgggghhh! |
[Jan. 19th, 2006|09:04 am] |
I ought to just stop reading anything the moment i see "opinion" in the editorial sectioning of online news.... MARK STEYN, an editor for the Jerusalem Post just cut/copied/pasted some lame-ass opinion piece on the cult of global warming. (sheeesh! you'd think that a country like israel, with all of its problems, and no oil would just mind their `own business, but obviously, it's a little more than "opinion" and for some reason Mr. Steyn's bosses decided that we need more obfuscation lies and slight-of-words printed in the diarreah of anti-greenhouse mental sludge sphere.... Not to mention that this lame-o didn't even do his own research! Anyone who has had to wade through the CO2-is-good-for-you tripe, will be familiar not only with the arguments he pastes, but even the actual wording and phrases.... Oh my god, will someone please duct tape this useless pontificator? Not only does he bring up Michael Chriton's anti environmentalist's book in the first line (a sure indication where the crap will roll-- not only does he think Chriton is a purveyor of sound policies, but he actually thinks it's a good read! So no accounting for taste, the guy still has his head up his butt)
And you may think i'm being a little harsh here, so let me just pluck some adjectives from this bile-spewer's litany for y'all: "Martin Sheenesque Hollywood eco-poseur," ..."eco-tists sounded more than a little squaresvill," ..."the short-term interests of the eco-establishment count for more than the long-term health and welfare of ordinary Australians," ...."laughably fraudulent (hear that Patrick Michaels?)," ...."Yet, such is the power of the eco-lobby that this fraud became the centerpiece of UN reports on global warming.," ...."the problem for the Kyoto cultists," ...."Kyotocrats will be citing lack of climate change as evidence of climate change. They are, literally, a church, and under the Holy Book of Kyoto their bishops demand that the great industrial nations of the world tithe their incomes to them," ...."unlike the Kyotophiles, their (the Beyond Kyoto crew)strategy isn't a form of cultural self-flagellation," ..."One day, the world will marvel at the environmental hysteria at our time, and the deeply damaging corruption of science in the cause of an alarmist cult.," I normally don't hold back, but I will with what i would tell this guy to do with his plagaristic "opinion"
Instead i will offer an antidote. This Mark Steyn guy, obviously genuflected, and open for rimming any American will (or what he thinks will appease America), might do better (and for anyone looking for an actual good opinion) try reading an article actually from within the United States. I don't think you can find a more car crazy place than Petaluma California (That's where the car's first owner was, a little old lady from Petaluma). And yet, The Petaluma Argus Courier has a great article by Bruce Hagen entitled "Our choice: petrolism or patriotism". Now, maybe I have a bias, but this guy hits all the notes, with a pro-activist stance and you can really understand what he's talking about. So there Mr. Jerusalem Post Disinformation Editor, try some reality.... |
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| what do you think? |
[Jan. 14th, 2006|08:58 am] |
So, what? real? panacea? hucksters? what??
I'm going to pass this by some people I know this week and get back to ya-- I'm just wondering.. have you seen all of these gizmos that inject hydrogen (or other stuff, like platinum) into your fuel lines and increase mileage? Well I'm picking this one, GoGreen Fuels, and am going to get to the bottom of it, OK? Will have an answer for y'all by next week, January 21st. Cause I'm just too curious..... in the meantime here are their testimonials. |
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| good news! |
[Jan. 4th, 2006|11:05 am] |
Sweden to kick fossil-fuel habit by 2020
Kudos to King Carl XVI and Queen Sylvia!
[full story] |
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| corruption, the greed is good Gordon Geko for the 21st century |
[Dec. 14th, 2005|12:41 pm] |
ok, it's only a movie, but still.....
On RogerEbert.com's AnswerMan someone asked Roger if he could reprint the "corruption" speech from Syriana. And while I still have yet to see the flick, I did like the quote, and can see why people are comparing it to the Michael Douglas "greed is good" rant in the 80's film Wall Street. See for yourself:
Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Brown, thinks he's gonna run this up the flagpole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, no-name congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. (mimics prosecutor) "But, Danny, these are sovereign nations." Sovereign nations! What is a sovereign nation, but a collective of greed run by one individual? "But, Danny, they're codified by the U.N. charter!" Legitimized gangsterism on a global basis that has no more validity than an agreement between the Crips and the Bloods! (Beat) ... Corruption charges. Corruption? Corruption ain't nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption is what keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for scraps of meat out in the streets. (Beat) Corruption ... is how we win.
[syriana] |
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| ¿qué sucedió? |
[Dec. 3rd, 2005|11:09 am] |
..much ado about nothing, as Volvo does nada with great idea
So, a few years ago my partner and I were invited to a press junket in Arizona. At the world famous BiosphereII, to be exact. It was an all expenses paid trip to witness the breakthrough technology from Volvo (which as it happens, I found out later, was just being used by Volvo, and invented and owned by people I will link to before this rant is over). Now, the invention which we knew little about before leaving, was somewhat exciting, but at the time I was much more excited about getting to see the BiosphereII; the place where science proved it can't take care of itself, and where a handful of scientists spent 2 years growing food, making babies and chasing each other through underground caverns with axes (well, that last one is a half truth), I packed and hit the plane.
Little did I realize just how similar these parallel stories would become!
...And to be honest, when we got to Arizona, the technology they were showcasing was actually more exciting that finding the dirt on the "Biosphere 7," see, Volvo was releasing a car that ate smog. Yes, this car was going to take two Ozone's (O3) and make 3 Oxygens (O2) from it. Brilliant, we all said. Kudos!
( Read more... ) |
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| on the fence for this story... |
[Dec. 2nd, 2005|04:09 pm] |
The Eropean Union just released the news that they launched the Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants. A body which "will bring together energy companies, equipment suppliers, users, consumers, financial institutions, regulators, public authorities, researchers and civil society to develop common research goals, with the aim of a future where the use of power plants that emit no climate-damaging greenhouse gases.
And I am sitting on the fence about this. My initial stance was kinda skeptical and smart-ass, but I don't know....
The platform will focus on CO2 capture and underground storage. The aim is to capture carbon dioxide emissions as they are produced by power stations and then store them underground so that they can't add to the the greenhouse effect.
Mmmmm magma-soda.....
it's kinda silly. I'm all for capturing the CO2 at the source (as previously noted, algae biodiesel is way cool). Hey I'm all for scrubbing carbon out of the air the way they do it in submarines (just above ground). But why not make stuff with that carbon? Why do something that maybe after 100 years of carbonating the ground we realize has new and weirder consequences? Come on! Think silky uber-hip carbon polymer clothes! and diamonds! We can make so many diamonds that nobodies saw or drill bit will ever have to go dull... (not to mention algae for biodiesel and hydrogen
..and i know that these guys do amazing work so I was still listening... then i heard these argument from the people who actually do the sucking up of CO2, and i guess i figure well, as long as we can get them eventually to do something with that carbon.... |
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