More thoughts about biofuel production:

This is probably more relevant to home-brewed ethanol production, or at least more easily accomplished in this setting, for both fuel and... entertainment purposes, but here are a few ideas I had about some of the wastes from the fermentation process. Since, unless someone is just figuring it out or they're completely barmy, this will be occurring in a dedicated building, and since the fermentation process produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide, why not duct the waste air to a rooftop garden? If there is an engineering solution, perhaps allow the fans to be powered by the heat generated by the fermentation, but if not, other non-polluting energy sources would be good. Eventually, a compost heap could be created on the roof from the waste plant matter, and any excess compost could be lowered to the ground via a chute or a simple, human-powered pulley system. And, again, since this will be a fairly warm building, the composting process will take less time than it might otherwise in certain climates. I'm just thinking of ways to minimize the ecological impact of ethanol production, and perhaps, to find a way to make a single organic farm into a concept that could eventually be used to send people to colonize the stars... Yes, I have heard of the Biosphere, but they clearly fucked up, and part of that may be that they tried to be too cute about it. Perhaps if they had asked farmers as well as scientists, or perhaps if they had made proper use of their scientists, it may not have been such a spectacular failure.

Some questions about biofuels:

I've been reading up on this subject for quite a while now, and my favorite site is Journey to Forever. Frankly, if there's a better website out there on this topic, I haven't seen it. However, I do have some lingering questions, and if anyone who visits this blog regularly knows anyone with the answers, I'd be interested to find out. The questions are as follows: To create ethanol from any raw feedstock (cane sorghum, sugar beets, etc.), how many units of water are required to produce a unit of ethanol? After distillation, can that water be reclaimed and used for other purposes (drinking, etc.)? How many BTU's per unit of ethanol are required for the fermentation process? Are there non-petrochemical denaturants or stabilizers for ethanol? Would a mild gelling agent reduce vapor loss of ethanol, and would this cause more problems for an internal combustion engine? Is there an environmentally-friendly bactericide to prevent losses of stored biodiesel? Finally, which engines can run on butanol, which can be made with both cellulose and starch/sugars? I'm strongly in favor of biofuels, and I can envision the day when the United States becomes a net exporter of fuel and energy, much like the Middle East is today, only with much better human rights. I just don't know all the answers.

It's a good thing I'm not the President.

When I first heard about the British hostages taken by Iran, I wondered if, in this day and age, if terrorism could, in fact, be considered tantamount to a weapon of mass destruction. If so, the taking of hostages would certainly qualify. Since the use of weapons of mass destruction invite responses in kind, the next question would be how exactly to respond. Were I the President, I would at least be sorely tempted to name off Tehran, Mashhad, or Qom in negotiations, and ask their leadership which of those cities they'd like to lose for the next 10,000 years. Nevertheless, I hope calmer heads will prevail and that Iran's leadership will finally display some of the sanity that's been almost completely absent from their government since 1979.

Faulty logic in opposition to the Iraq War:

There are plenty of valid and good reasons why the Iraq War is such a bloody nightmare, and there are at least as many reasons for us to get the hell out of there. However, one reason that I see cropping up repeatedly among the left is that the money could be better used to afford universal health care. I'm sorry, but for one, the mathematics don't work. Since estimates of the annual cost varies, I'll go with a number I've seen used on Snave's Blog, $125 billion per annum. The 2004 budget for the Veterans Administration, which, to be fair, includes services in addition to the better-known health benefits, was $60 billion, yet deplorable conditions were found at the outpatient center even at the flagship Walter Reed Medical Center, and this is far from uncommon. Multiply that by the population of the United States, and you come up with a number far greater than $125 billion. Also, if the government was willing to allow that kind of neglect dating at least as far as the previous administration for those who have sacrificed the most for this country and their widows and orphans, what makes anyone think they'd do any better for the average citizen? For an answer to that question, I think we only need to look to our neighbors to the north. Socialized medicine, as good as it sounds on paper, invariably turns into a nightmare whose expense easily dwarfs that of the Iraq War. As a result, I will never support this type of program.

So, assume the Iraq War ends today, and the government now has an additional $125 billion to spend. What should be done with the money? I can think of a few ideas. The first priority should be to put that money towards the national debt, and to find ways to greatly streamline the federal government so that money can also make this nation solvent once more. This will benefit both us and the generations to come.

However, if you don't want to do that, there's another favorite of mine: research into alternative fuels and trebling fuel economy. I even have a preferred method for that. NASA has been using the same space shuttle design for 30 years or thereabouts, and they haven't come up with a workable replacement. At this point, NASA has become so mired in red tape that even minor changes to their technology require a tremendous investment in time and money. As a result, I think the government is clearly not the answer, or at least not the answer directly, to this question. Instead, I cite the Ansari X Prize as a shining example of competition spurring rapid advances in technology. State a goal, put out a fat reward for whomever achieves it first, and let the chips fall where they may. If it's big enough, it will even generate its own press. To that end, the people behind the Ansari X Prize are now in the process of drafting rules for an Automotive X Prize, with the most recent draft having been released on April 2, 2007. Actually, I prefer the X Prizes because they are privately funded, but if they want, they should follow as closely as possible the example of the Ansari family. Just a thought...

My VisualDNA:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Leaves a bit out, but more right than not.

Your Brain is Yellow

Of all the brain types, yours is the most intellectual. You crave mental stimulation, and your thoughts tend to very complex. Your thoughts tend to be innovative and cutting edge, though many people don't understand them. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about science, architecture, and communication.

What Color Is Your Brain?

I don't own this video or any other vid on this blog.

That said, this is one that touched my heart in particular. Enjoy.

Reflections of a new ABMer (Anyone/thing But Microsoft):

Okay, so I'm not strictly "new" to the ABM (Anyone But Microsoft) crowd, but I am new to the growing Linux crowd. Even before I made the switch to Linux, I was switching to non-Microsoft and largely platform-independent formats and programs. For example, there's still stuff in Firefox that you can't do in Internet Explorer 7, and OpenOffice is a complete, fully functional office suite that's available for the best price of them all, and I've been using that for months now.

Anyway, I've been reflecting on the new and idiotic change to the new start and stop times for Daylight Savings Time. I'm an opponent to DST in principle, but I find this particular change to be one of the more mundanely moronic things done by the current administration. The sun will rise when it rises, and it will set when it sets, and the Earth, Sun, and tilt of the Earth's axis will not consult a clock to determine how many hours of daylight there will be in a given day at a given latitude. That said, I've been engaging in a bit of schadenfreude looking at these Micro$ucks Windoze users who are starting to freak out over the new daylight savings time. I currently use Ubuntu "Edgy Eft", and you know what it took for me to verify that the fix was already in place? One line of code copied and pasted off of the Ubuntu forums, and I knew I was good to go. Then, a few days later via Update Manager, I got a software update that took next to zero time to download (not more than 300-400 kB, but I can't remember exactly what), and the rest of it was fixed in far less time than it took me to write this post. I've read that unsupported versions of Microsoft (I'm not sure when that cutoff point is, but I think it's either Win95 or earlier) will have to shell out $4000 for the official patch for their crapware, and they'll have to go through all sorts of hoops for something I did in a minute or two for free. Perhaps I'm wrong for this, but I find this enormously funny. I curse Micro$ucks, and I pity those who currently are suffering through the WGA fuckup with XP and Windoze Visduh. Think Windows Vista looks all nice and shiny? Take a look at the Beryl project for Linux. That desktop environment does far more with far less hardware overhead than Visduh can even think of doing. Some prefer GNOME, others KDE, others still Beryl, Fluxbox, or Xfce, and I'm sure I'm leaving out a few. I relish the choice, and the knowledge that my computer would still behave in a stable fashion even if I were to work on it for a solid week without any rest, without having to worry about whether or not Visduh would accuse me of being a pirate simply because I added memory to my computer, and with older hardware still being able to run like something made more recently than 1992. Go Micro$oft go... straight into oblivion. I won't miss you when you're gone.

Linux fans, Mac users, other *nixers, unite.

I know that there's long been a big feud between Linux users and Mac users, or to be more accurate, other *nix users and Mac users, but this is sheer dumbassery. When will both communities wake up and realize that the enemy is not each other? When will both communities realize that the enemy lies in Redmond, WA, and goes by the name of Microsoft? It is Microsoft that has repeatedly abused their customers, violated IP laws, violated antimonopoly statutes, and produced defective products. Can both communities realize that they agree on this most fundamental topic, and instead focus our efforts towards improving our OS's and our other hardware, and either creating ports or analogues that can both read and record to Windoze proprietary formats? Can both communities agree that greater word-of-mouth and other forms of advertising should be done? Can both communities (okay, this means you, Mac users) agree that we need greater penetration in the enterprise market? What people use at work can greatly influence what they buy to use at home. Oh, and Mac users, can we both agree that we need to have OS's that can run on any hardware? Apple's step towards Intel chipsets was good, but they need to do more if we want to provide balance to Windows. Just my thoughts on the subject...

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

I'm sure all who read my blog are aware of my stance on the Duke Lacrosse case. However, if you're not, my opinion is that Durham D.A. Mike Nifong trumped up charges, without evidence and in a highly prejudicial manner, against three men who have now been proven innocent. Furthermore, he has refused to drop the charges. If he and other prosecutors are willing to do this to rich people to get elected, what can they be expected to do to those who cannot properly defend themselves? In light of this, I am posting two videos from YouTube. Please watch and... enjoy? The second one is my favorite.