Tropical Storm Zeta has Formed!!

Tropical storm Zeta formed overnight.  What's the record for the latest forming tropical storm?

 

Hurricane Center Discussion #1

 

Technorati Tags : Atlantic, tropical+storm, zeta

>JjV<

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Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

Real-time US Air Flight Activity

 

Check out the current activity and animated versions of this image.  Cool stuff!!

 

Found via Fark

 

Technorati Tags : flight+tracker, airline, real-time

>JjV<

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The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants. - Bertran Barere

You Know You're From Louisville When...

• Your "International" airport has only one passenger flight that actually leaves the 48 contiguous U.S. states
• The in-state sports rivalry is paid more attention to than the national championship.
• You live in an area that occasionally gets considerable snowfalls, floods, and tornadoes... but has no capacity to deal with any of the above.
• You pronounce the name of your city different than anyone else you've heard.
• You think the rest of the people in Kentucky sound like hicks.
• When you think "Kentucky" you don't automatically think horse racing or fried chicken.
• You ask your doctor for an allergy cure and he tells you to "move."
• You've shovelled 10+ inches of snow and worn shorts in the same week.
• When people ask what school you went to, they don't mean Vanderbilt, Yale, or Harvard; they mean Ballard, Male, Manual, Trinity or St. X.
• You know what the Bambi Walk is.
• Your last ten vacations were in Panama City or Destin.
• You make an emergency run to Kroger for bread and milk at the first sighting of a snowflake.
• You've lived here for years, yet somehow you get hopelessly lost each time you attempt a shortcut through Cherokee Park.
• You're convinced turn signals are useless options on a vehicle.
• You hold up traffic to let a motorist you don't know into your lane.
• You give directions based on landmarks that no longer exist or street names that have changed, but your directions never confuse any of the other Louisvillians
• You have never been to the Derby, but wouldn't miss the Oaks.
• You call in sick to attend the Oaks and spot your boss - who also called in sick - at the next betting window.
• You think all the REAL hicks live in New Albany.
• You think the only thing Southern Indiana is good for is buying pumpkins.
• When introduced to another life-long Louisvillian, you spend the first part of the conversation finding out how you are connected. It's never as many as six degrees of separation - usually three will do it.
• You think a pervert is someone who would rather have sex than watch basketball.
• You've built a shrine to Rick Pitino in your basement.
• You can read about Rick Pitino in at least three different sections of your newspaper.
• You think the rest of the world knows what Benedictine spread is.
• You think the rest of the world knows what a Hot Brown is.
• You have never eaten fish that wasn't fried.
• You think the whole world puts spaghetti in chili.
• You want another bridge built over the Ohio River, just so long as it doesn't cut through YOUR neighborhood.
• You've experienced a "salt storm" after a two-inch snowfall.
• You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Louisville.
  

Found here

Technorati Tags : Louisville, Humor

>JjV<

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When your only tool is a hammer, you tend to treat everything you find like a nail.

Another Day, Another Blog Editor

Here's a test post using Qumana blog editor.  Pretty sane interface and configuration.  Guess We'll see if this graphic makes it into the post.

 

>JjV<

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Ninety-nine percent of the people in this world are fools. The rest of us are in danger of contagion. -Thorton Wilder

 

Technorati Tags : Qumana, blog+editor

johniacsDesktop

johniacsDesktop,
originally uploaded by johniac.

Took a snapshot of my desktop to enter the LifeHacker desktop contest. I have 9 url's from weather.com embedded in my active desktop along with 4 Yahoo widgets, Weatherpulse local conditions applet and NASA's Space Station locator url.

w00t!!

>JjV<
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I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding. - Ben Johnson

The American Taliban II

Proponents of Evolution and/or Intelligent Design have hacked the web site of Scott Seigler hosting his new novel/Podiobook Ancestor. I found out about this through the Dragonpage weblog.

I continue to be amazed at the length, breadth and depth of extreme tactics these individuals will go to in their attemps to shove their religious memes down the throats of the rest of us.

BTW: I listened to Scott’s first book, Earthcore and it was excellent. I recommend both Earthcore and Ancestor to any scifi/horror genre fan.

PS Evo and Michael: Please feed the loons who attacked Scott’s site to the Dragon.

>JjV<

---------------------------------------------------

I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him. - Theresa of Avila

Season's Greetings

Thanks Tom

The American Taliban

Jeez.... How is it that a tiny minority gets so much press? Leave the girls alone!!

Dolls Draw Conservatives' Ire

CHICAGO, Dec. 21, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(CBS) With $379 million in sales last year, the American Girl dolls are just like the girls who adore them — wholesome and sweet and rooted in American history.

They were a huge hit in the Wiesner household.

Claire Wiesner says, "They are so much fun to play with and they seem so real." Her sister Elena adds, "And they're really pretty."

Renee Wiesner, Claire's mom tells CBS News correspondent Mika Brzezinski, "Everything that they sold to us seemed very consistent with our values."

That was until the Wiesners found out that the American Girl company donates money to an organization called Girls Incorporated, which offers support to underprivileged girls. Girls Inc. also endorses Roe v. Wade — the right to abortion and it promotes acceptance of homosexuality. It's an association that families like the Wiesners are protesting with their wallets.

"This year, we're not going to buy any of the products for Christmas," Wiesner says bluntly.

And some are taking it a step further. The Pro-Life Action League is calling for a boycott of the dolls. Some Catholic schools have cancelled American Girl events.

"They take a position that I am 100 percent against which would be in telling girls abortion is a solution for them," Wiesner says.

American Girl, which just launched its first ever major ad campaign in its 20-year history, released a statement saying it is "profoundly disappointed that certain groups have chosen to misconstrue American Girl's purely altruistic efforts."

Also Mattel, the maker of the doll has decided it will not renew its partnership with Girls Inc. which runs out this year.

And next year we'll find out if that's enough to bring back the American Girl's conservative consumer base.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Clarification: American Girl responded after viewing the CBS report, saying while they considered the report fair and balanced they wanted to point out the "I Can" program and Girls Inc. partnership was always planned as a 2005 initiative and the end date of Dec 26, 2005, was mutually agreed upon by both parties.

© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

People fleeing pricey coastal states for South, West

Just as well since the next few years will see multiple hurricanes reducing southeastern seacoast property to junk-yard status!

People fleeing pricey coastal states for South, West

By Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY

The quest for affordable housing and jobs is driving Americans from expensive coastal states to more moderately priced parts of the country, according to an analysis of Census population estimates out Thursday.

Halfway through the decade, people continue to leave states such as New York and California and spill into parts of the Southwest, Southeast and Rocky Mountains. (Related: State population estimates)

In the 12 months ending July 1, Florida gained more people (404,434) than any other state for the first time in at least 15 years. Despite four hurricanes that hit the state last year, Florida added an average 1,100 people a day, bringing its population to almost 18 million. If that pace continues, Florida will overtake New York as the third-most-populous state by 2010.

Other highlights in the data:

�New York lost people for the first time since 1980. "New York state's losses were masked in the boom of New York City and its suburbs in the '90s," says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. "Once they slow down, even slightly, the decline Upstate becomes very apparent."

�California was not the top gainer for the first time since 1995. Most of the state's net gain of 290,109 came from births. The data show that 239,417 more people left California for other parts of the USA than moved in.

"It's a symptom of the new divide in housing costs between the expensive, congested, urbanized states such as California and New York and newly sprawling suburban states on both coasts," says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "This whole half of the decade, housing has been an issue. ... The question is: Will it continue?"

�Largely because of strong job growth, Virginia gained more people (86,133) than the nine Northeastern states combined (59,880).

Population shifts ultimately have political consequences because seats in the House of Representatives are reallocated after the full Census every 10 years. Based on the latest estimates, five states would lose a seat, according to Kim Brace, president of Election Data Services, a Washington consulting company.

Texas and four other states would gain a seat. Texas could gain a second seat because Louisiana is likely to lose one once hundreds of thousands of residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina are reflected in Census counts, Brace says. Many evacuees moved to Texas.

The U.S. population's growth rate has slowed slightly since record growth in the 1990s. As of July 1, the population was at 296.4 million, but it may hit 300 million in 2007.

"The decade began with the economy off track, but the population boom kept rolling along and is on track to nearly match the record 1990s," Lang says. "The country found places to keep booming, shying away from the high-cost coasts and seeking the South and the mountain West."

Another test w Ecto

Trying a new version of ecto....

>JjV< http://johniac.blogspot.com
---------------------------------------------------
...I'd even be willing to entertain the notion of a black hole passing over the area or some cosmic anomaly but it's not really black hole season either...Fox Mulder

Strain of bird flu resistant to Tamiflu kills two patients

From the Uh Oh department....

Strain of bird flu resistant to Tamiflu kills two patients
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Two Vietnamese patients have died after developing strains of bird flu that were resistant to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that nations around the world are stockpiling in the hope of saving lives if a global pandemic occurs.
Their deaths, which took place in January, were reported Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. A third patient, a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl whose case was reported in Nature in October, also developed resistance but survived.
Health officials had predicted that the bird flu virus, H5N1, would evolve into resistant forms, which happens often with virus-fighting medications. But experts also say the deaths are a warning that countries are not yet prepared to deal with a pandemic.
Experts are unsure whether a flu pandemic is imminent, but they fear that the H5N1 virus could trigger one if it becomes highly contagious.
Fifty countries are stockpiling Tamiflu, which can be used to treat and prevent infections. Tamiflu's maker, Roche, announced Wednesday that U.S. regulators would allow it to market the drug to prevent flu in children ages 1 through 12, Reuters reported.
Roche can now produce enough of the drug to treat 65 million people but will make enough for 300 million patients by the end of 2006, says David Reddy, leader of Roche's influenza pandemic task force.
It still makes sense for countries to stockpile the drug because most patients respond to Tamiflu, says Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The New England Journal article said four of eight Vietnamese patients treated with Tamiflu survived.
But the study suggests doctors might need to use higher doses to prevent resistance, Reddy says. Roche plans to work with the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health on a trial that would give patients twice the standard dose of Tamiflu.
If that dose proves effective, nations might need to double their planned stockpiles, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. For now, he says, doctors just don't know the ideal dose.
Doctors might need to find other ways to treat bird flu should there be a pandemic. The same genetic changes that make the virus more contagious also could make it less deadly, Reddy adds.
Beyond Tamiflu, the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends stockpiling another antiviral, Relenza, says Andrew Pavia, a member of the group's task force on pandemic flu. Unlike Tamiflu, which is in pill form, Relenza is given through an inhaler and is harder to administer, especially to patients who are unconscious. Researchers are testing an injectable form.
People who misuse Tamiflu or stockpile it themselves could waste the drug or harm themselves by developing resistance, say doctors Allan Brett and Abigail Zuger in an editorial accompanying the New England Journal article.
Original article
>JjV<
---------------------------------------------------
Always remember... You are unique, just like everyone else.

Strain of bird flu resistant to Tamiflu kills two patients

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Two Vietnamese patients have died after developing strains of bird flu that were resistant to Tamiflu, the antiviral drug that nations around the world are stockpiling in the hope of saving lives if a global pandemic occurs.
Their deaths, which took place in January, were reported Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. A third patient, a 14-year-old Vietnamese girl whose case was reported in Nature in October, also developed resistance but survived.
Health officials had predicted that the bird flu virus, H5N1, would evolve into resistant forms, which happens often with virus-fighting medications. But experts also say the deaths are a warning that countries are not yet prepared to deal with a pandemic.
Experts are unsure whether a flu pandemic is imminent, but they fear that the H5N1 virus could trigger one if it becomes highly contagious.
Fifty countries are stockpiling Tamiflu, which can be used to treat and prevent infections. Tamiflu's maker, Roche, announced Wednesday that U.S. regulators would allow it to market the drug to prevent flu in children ages 1 through 12, Reuters reported.
Roche can now produce enough of the drug to treat 65 million people but will make enough for 300 million patients by the end of 2006, says David Reddy, leader of Roche's influenza pandemic task force.
It still makes sense for countries to stockpile the drug because most patients respond to Tamiflu, says Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. The New England Journal article said four of eight Vietnamese patients treated with Tamiflu survived.
But the study suggests doctors might need to use higher doses to prevent resistance, Reddy says. Roche plans to work with the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health on a trial that would give patients twice the standard dose of Tamiflu.
If that dose proves effective, nations might need to double their planned stockpiles, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. For now, he says, doctors just don't know the ideal dose.
Doctors might need to find other ways to treat bird flu should there be a pandemic. The same genetic changes that make the virus more contagious also could make it less deadly, Reddy adds.
Beyond Tamiflu, the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends stockpiling another antiviral, Relenza, says Andrew Pavia, a member of the group's task force on pandemic flu. Unlike Tamiflu, which is in pill form, Relenza is given through an inhaler and is harder to administer, especially to patients who are unconscious. Researchers are testing an injectable form.
People who misuse Tamiflu or stockpile it themselves could waste the drug or harm themselves by developing resistance, say doctors Allan Brett and Abigail Zuger in an editorial accompanying the New England Journal article.
Read the original.....
(Uh Oh.....)

>JjV< http://johniac.blogspot.com
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There is a difference between celibate and simply not getting any. It's like the difference between fast and starve.

The top 20 "geek novels"

From Jack Schofield

What are the top 20 "geek novels"?

Bold them, if you've read them......

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell

3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick

5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson

6. Dune -- Frank Herbert

7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov

8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov

9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett

10. Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland

11. Snow Crash-- Neal Stephenson

12. Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson

14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks

15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein

16. The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick

17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman

18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson

19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson

20. Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham

Thanks Morgan

>JjV<

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That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists
trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder. - Calvin

Holiday Greetings

Scott sums up my feeling about all this talk about politically correct holiday greetings!!

Comic for 16 Dec 2005


PvP Store PvP Community


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Only those who attempt the absurd achieve the impossible.

ID May Be Coming to KY

Rumblings in the capital of our fair state to teach Intelligent Design (ID) in science class on the same footing as Evolution.

Intelligent Design is NOT at the same level of scientific theory that Evolution is. Teach ID in any religious or humanities class if you like, but do not teach it in science class which gives it the same implicit theoretical standing as Evolution.

Pete at BlueGrassRoots concurs.

>JjV< --------------------------------------------------- We don't know who discovered water, but we are certain it wasn't a fish. - John Culkin

The Band My Morning Jacket Offers Its Own Recall

Rolling Stone via EFF DeepLinks is reporting that My Morning Jacket is replacing copy-protected versions of their latest album Z with non-copy protected versions so fans can get the music onto their MP3 players.

Mike Martinovich, manager for My Morning Jacket, says that even before the revelation of MediaMax's security problems, his company had been mailing burned, unprotected copies of MMJ's new album Z to fans who complained that MediaMax prevented them from transferring songs to their iPods. "It should have been enough that fans are annoyed," he says. "But this should be the final reason."

God Bless Them Every One......

>JjV<

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Always remember... You are unique, just like everyone else.

My Morning Jacket: Live at the Palace

The up and coming group My Morning Jacket (aka MMJ) closed out their fall tour with their annual performance in their hometown of Louisville, Kentucky on this past Thanksgiving eve. This year’s sold-out concert was held at the magnificent Louisville Palace on November 23rd 2005. The Palace is a renovated theatre from the late 1920’s with lots of ornate decorations in the Spanish Baroque motif and excellent acoustics.

MMJ consists of singer-guitarist and songwriter Jim James, bassist Two-Tone Tommy, drummer Patrick Hallahan, keyboardist Bo Koster, and guitarist Carl Broemel. Koster and Broemel are recent additions to MMJ replacing founding members Johnny Quaid and Danny Cash.

The band opened the two hour, 20 song set with three back-to-back songs from their newest album Z: Wordless, It Beats, and Gideon. The band’s sound was tight and focused from the get go as they tore into One Big from 2003’s It Still Moves. Based on the large amount of sing-along voices coming from the crowd this was one of MMJ fan’s favorites. The guitar breaks featured Carl and Jim performing dueling leads with excellent backing from the rest of the band.

Wonderful, from Z was next followed by Lowdown and I Will Sing from At Dawn and It Still Moves respectively. I Will Sing featured more of Jim James’s excellent electric guitar work. It seemed like each time he picked up his Flying V guitar the band’s sound would just explode and rock really hard. The acoustic number Golden followed with its haunting steel guitar riffing expertly layered under Jim’s vocals. The quirky Sooner from the Darla Records compilation CD.

The last track from 1999’s Tennessee Fire, I Think I'm Going To Hell came next. More haunting guitars with Jims’s lonesome voice providing the perfect counter-point to the weeping guitar track. Three more tracks from Z followed: Lay Low, Off the Record and Dondante. Lay Low’s pulsing drum beat and soaring guitar contrasted with the previous track and brought the audience back to life. The up-tempo mood continued with the growling intro to Off the Record and more blazing solos courtesy of Jim and his Flying V. Dondante brought the temp back down showcasing Jim’s fantastic vocals backed by a simple drum-bass guitar skeleton. The song built into a frenetic crescendo with the MMJ trademark dueling lead guitars again making an appearance.

Dancefloor from It Still Moves returned to the bouncy, danceable beat that is the hallmark of MMJ’s more accessible tunes. Dancefloor was followed by bone fide hit Anytime from Z which closed the band’s official set list.

The encore opened up with a pair of acoustic numbers with Jim on stage by himself. I Will be There from Tennessee Fire and Bermuda from At Dawn.

The rest of the band joined Jim onstage for At Dawn from the album of the same name. A pair of tunes from It Still Moves, Run Thru and Magheeta closed out the set ending the concert on a straight-on rock note.

All of MMJ’s hometown fans got a early Christmas present this year with an excellent concert from an very talented band.

You can access a recording of the concert from the Archive.org web site. You can either download the individual songs in various digital formats or listen to the entire show as an Internet Radio Stream.

Johniac
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Modesty in delivering our opinions leaves us the liberty of changing them without humiliation.

Orcas most polluted Arctic mammal

Orcas most polluted Arctic mammal from PhysOrg.com

Orcas, or killer whales, reportedly have passed the polar bear to become the most contaminated mammal in the Arctic.

[...]

What a Network Neutrality Rule Wants

From David S. Isenberg's musings about loci of intelligence and stupidity, isen.blog.  Good Stuff!!!

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What a Network Neutrality Rule Wants

Network Neutrality, that is, a network that just delivers the packets, stupid, with no cognizance of what app, device, or end-user generated them, is an public good that gives rise to much innovation, value creation and economic growth at the application layer. It is the single greatest factor in the success of the current Internet.

But a Network Neutrality rule, even a strong one, can fail. Here's my thinking:

1. The carriers have huge incentives to discriminate, as a ground-breaking paper, entitled Towards an Economic Framework for Network Neutrality Regulation, by Barbara van Schewick clearly shows. One major finding is that a carrier does not need to be a monopoly to reap clear benefits from discrimination; carriers can benefit from discriminating even in a competitive market.

2. Anybody who says that there's no need for Network Neutrality because the carriers have no intention to discriminate is ignoring the carriers' huge incentives to discriminate. Please, Mr. Fox, guard my hen house; I know your intentions are pure. [Link]

3. No mealy-mouthed language. Any Network Neutrality rule must be iron-clad, with no possibility of misinterpretation. Because carriers will try to misinterpret it. Because they will have economic incentives to do so.

4. The punishment must fit the crime. Network Neutrality rules are not in the carriers' best interests. They put carriers in a self-competitive situation, that is, in a situation where following the rule is not in their self-interest. Therefore, if carriers stand to make billions by violating Network Neutrality, then the punishment must be in the tens of billions.

5. Physical network development is still a problem. Under Network Neutrality and competition, unless we find a way around the Paradox of the Best Network, carriers do lose incentive to build according to the latest technology. We need to solve this problem by confronting it squarely, by dis-entangling the network development issue from the network neutrality issue.

Network Neutrality is a clear case of public good versus private benefit. That's what regulation is for. In this case, competition will not replace regulation. We don't need any old Network Neutrality rule. We need a network neutrality rule that is (a) clear, (b) strongly enforceable, and (c) incents physical network development. Anything less is bound to fail.

Technorati Tags: Berkman, Competition, Content-Conduit, Deregulation, F2C, Internet, NetworkNeutrality, OpenAccess, ParadoxoftheBestNetwork, Politics, Regulatorium, Telco, Telepocalypse

---

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Brought to you by Attensa for Outlook (download it here)

Introduction to Climate Prediction

Jamais Cascio of World Changing points to a flash-based tutorial on the Basics of Climate Predictions from Oxford University’s Begbroke Science Park in collaboration with climateprediction.net the world’s largest climate prediction experiment.. If you are interested in learning how scientists make predictions about our future climate then this tutorial is for you. This would also make an excellent teaching tool. Teachers should refer to the schools section on the climateprediction.net website for related teaching resources.

The tutorial covers a definition of climate, things that effect climate, why climate prediction is complicated, what we can predict about climate change, and what the current predictions are.

Using a dice analogy, the tutorial differentiates between climate and weather. It links concepts of weather conditions with numerical values and then uses a dice-rolling paradigm to illustrate that climate is weather conditions over a long period of time.

Solar energy falling on the earth is used as an example of things that affect climate. The long-term increase in average temperatures is explained by illustrating how a larger portion of the Earth’s daily accumulation of solar energy is being retained instead of being radiated into space.
The complications of climate prediction are tied to chaos theory. Using population modeling of a rabbit community the different predictions using stable and chaotic models are illustrated.

A bell-shaped curve is used to illustrate what sort of predictions we can make about climate. The viewer is introduced to the likelihood based on where the values lie on a bell curve.

A world map allows the viewer to select a continent and see what sort of temperature changes will happen in two different scenarios, each with results being shown for fifty and one hundred years out. The scenarios used are for a fossil fuel-oriented future with high-levels of greenhouse gases and a sustainable future with reduced levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

Overall this tutorial has just the right amount of complexity to solidly address the temperature changes linked to global climate change. It helps to deflate some of the more outrageous claims, but still manages to convey the sense that changes are coming and what the likely dimensions of those changes will be.

A CD-ROM version is also available. Contact enquiries@begbroke.ox.ac.uk .


>JjV<
---------------------------------------------------
That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists
trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder. - Calvin

Genetically Modified Peas Cause Allergic Response

For the first time scientists have detected an immune response to proteins coming from a plant genetically modified to be pest resistant.

For almost a decade scientists at Australia’s national research organisation, CSIRO, have been developing a genetically modified version of the Field Pea (Pisum sativum) that is resistant to the pea weevil Bruchus pisorum, which lays its eggs on the pea pods causing significant crop damage in developing countries. They inserted a gene from the common bean which produces a protein capable of killing pea weevil pests.

However, when the scientists at CSIRO tested the modified Field Pea by feeding it to laboratory mice they found the mice developed antibodies specific to the protein built by the newly inserted gene. When the mice where later exposed to the purified protein through injection or inhalation via a "multiple immune challenge" procedure designed to determine if the immune system is tolerant to a protein they showed a hypersensitive skin response, while the airway-exposed mice developed airway inflammation and mild lung damage. The damage was significant and surprising enough that the entire decade-long project Field Pea project was cancelled.

Paul Foster of the Australian National University in Canberra, who led the "multiple immune challenge" work points out that this result shows the need for improvements in screening requirements for genetically engineered plants, to ensure comprehensive tests are carried out.

For more details see the original article from NewScientist.

>JjV<
---------------------------------------------------
Only presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we."

RocketPost-powered

I'm trying out RocketPost blog software. It's pretty cool...

Scientists as Citizens

Scientists as Citizens
Quantum Nescimus
(What a Lot We Don’t Know)

As I watch the on-going debate between rational and religious believers I am struck by the incompatibility of both positions. We seem to have reduced the two positions to their extremes. Perhaps in an effort to simplify the choice between the two as if they are mutually exclusive.

While listening to show #48 of G’Day World from ThePodcastNetwork I was introduced to John Cornforth by way of Sir Harry Kroto’s talk about science to group middle-school students. Sir Harry is one third of the team that shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1966 for the discovery of Bucky Balls and the family of similar structures.

Sir Harry’s talk gave high praise to John Cornforth for the essay/speech Cornforth delivered to the Royal Australian Chemical Institute on the occasion of its 75th anniversary in September 1992. The speech was entitled Scientists as Citizens and much of what Cornforth had to say is still very relevant as we are still debating the place of Science in Society.

Cornforth points out that Science is the art of the probable with probable used in the old sense of testable, not our current definition: likely. He illuminates the duality that scientists operate under: scientific research pursues goals not always perceived as of immediate public benefit, yet when scientific discoveries are put into general use by society; it is the scientists who are blamed when unintended consequences of their work appear in society.

Scientists operate with three dilemmas dogging them: Secrecy, History, and Truth. Secrecy stems from competitive and security pressures that seek to prevent the collaborative nature of research from asserting itself. Science works best when information flows freely among scientists regardless of nationality or business affiliation. But, competitive pressure and national security concerns often interfere with this information Science works best when information flows freely among scientists regardless of nationality or business affiliation. But, competitive pressure and national security concerns often interfere with this information flow.

The History dilemma stems from scientists’ unique historical perspective. They understand the historical significance of facts in the face of the pressures for short term gains, profits or progress. For example historically scientists know that when a species is presented with an abundance of a resource, the resource is exploited to exhaustion followed by the species dying off. Scientists are too much the minority to convince society at large of the problem this portends for the future of the human species.

Cornforth distinguishes between Public truth and Private truth. Public truth is that which is accurately recorded without fabrication or distortion regardless of the conclusions such truths bring. In contrast, private truth is influenced by emotions. The euphoria of a new discovery observation must co-exist with the cold examination of the public truth.

Science and Scientists don’t escape unscathed from Cornforth’s discerning pen. He points out that the simplification required to measure results from discrete experiments often miss the complex interactions present in natural systems science is trying to quantify and explain. Not accounting for these interactions can lead to unexpected results when the results of scientific experiments are practiced outside the scientist’s laboratory.

He also cites the exponential growth of disciplines within science as the cause of the narrowing of domain knowledge among scientists. As more and more scientists specialize, it becomes harder for ideas to cross-fertilize one another across disciplines.

Finally, Cornforth concludes that scientists must put their case before a court where there is no judge, no jury and no rules of law and where regard for the truth is often a hindrance. He wants science education to include lessons in critical thinking. Students should be trained to ask the “Who says so? How do you know? What’s missing?” questions. Cornforth believes that students trained to be skeptical will make better members of society.

I recommend that everyone read Cornforth’s speech via the link below. His words have helped me begin to reconcile the conflict Science and the Society in which it is embedded.

References:
John Cornforth’s Speech to the Royal Australian Chemical Institute

John Cornforth’s Autobiography page from the Nobel Prize web site

Background information on John Cornforth via Google
Sir Harold Kroto’s Autobiography from the Nobel Prize web site


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"Criminal Lawyer" is a redundancy.

Live Music to the Space Station

On Sunday November 13th, Paul McCartney will provide live wakeup music to the two astronauts abort the International Space Station. Wakeup music is a NASA tradition where on-orbit crews are woken up with various pieces of music to start their workday. Previously, One of McCartney’s songs, Good Day Sunshine was played as wakeup music for shuttle Discovery’s STS-114 on the August 9th morning of their landing. "Since people were first awakened on the moon by mission control, wakeup songs have been a space tradition to brighten the crew's day and get them off to a great start," said astronaut Eileen Collins, who commanded Discovery.

"I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for the crew of Discovery this summer," McCartney said. "In our concert we hope to repay the favor." McCartney is nearing the end of his 11-week "US" tour.

Original News Release


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There is a difference between celibate and simply not getting any.
It's like the difference between fast and starve.

Ubiquitous City

After reading the piece in Daily Wireless (based on NY Times article) about all the cities/developments around the world where computing and sensing infrastructure is built into a new city I have to ask: Where is the American version? Are we so privacy paranoid and luddite that no one thinks this sort of development is what the future will look like? And as ususal America is soundly ignoring the trend.

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Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off of your goal - Vince Lombardi

Free to be Me, Too!

You are a Social Liberal (71% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (20% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Who Am I?

Saw this post on Wil Wheaton's blog and had to try the quiz on TK421's blog for myself. Kinda surprised at the results.

>JjV<

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Reality is for people who can't handle drugs.

What is Podcasting

There is a lot of buzz circulating these days about podcasting. I have yet to see a decent definition and description of podcasting that correctly describes podcasting in its entirety. So in this article I will lay out what podcasting is and how it works

The term podcasting refers to audio files produced for distribution and to a method of delivering audio files, typically in MP3 format to the MP3 player of your choice. When podcasts are mentioned in the popular press they usually referenced as the content you receive not the method by which you receive them.

The podcasting mechanism was devised to enable delivery of audio files to your MP3 player with out a significant effort on you part, in effect simulating a broadcast to MP3 players, hence the “casting” part of podcasting. The podcast files are listed in a special file called a podcast feed. The feed file is updated every time a new podcast file is made available for download. To receive these specialized broadcasts, you typically run a specialized piece of software on your computer. The software is variously known as a podcasting client or a podcatcher. For the podcatcher to receive files you have to tell the podcatcher the address of the podcast feed. These addresses are usually found on the web site associated with the podcast you are interested in.

Once you have given your podcatcher the feed address, the podcatcher will download the feed and look for all the podcast files listed in it. It will present you with a list of files and generally download only the newest podcast file in the feed. The podcatcher will remember that is has downloaded this particular podcast file and not download it again. The podcatcher will regularly download the feed file and check it to see if any new podcast files have been added. When if finds new ones, it downloads those and adds them to the list of podcasts already downloaded so they won’t be downloaded again.

The podcatcher downloads the podcast MP3 files to a directory structure starting with the directory you told the podcatcher to receive downloads to. This is typically done when you install the podcatcher software. Below the podcast receive directory the podcatcher will create a new directory named according to the name of the podcast you are receiving. Into the directory with the podcast’s name will go all the MP3 files that are downloaded by the podcatcher.

Where do you find podcast feeds. Take a look at your podcatching software. Many have directories of podcasts built in to help you find podcasts on topics of interest to you. You can also do an Internet search for Podcast Directories to find sites that list podcast feeds.

Now that you have these MP3 files on your computer you can listen to them on the computer or copy them to your portable MP3 player to listen to away from the computer. The process of transferring files to your music player varies based on what MP3 player you have. With some players the process is tied into the synchronization of files between your MP3 player software running on your computer and the MP3 player, itself. In other cases it is a manual process where you start your MP3 player software on your computer and then manually transfer the files from your computer to the MP3 player.

If this article has been helpful or you would like to see subsequent articles with more details and resources, leave me a comment or drop an email to johniac52+pod at gmail.com.


I don't need anyone to drive me crazy... I'm already within walking distance.

Endeavour Returning to Shuttle Fleet

The space shuttle Endeavour is returning to active duty status joining the other orbiters Discovery and Atlantis. After putting 900,000 man-hours to refurbish and update her systems, technicians turned on the electrical power to Endeavour for the first time today.

NASA regularly schedules individual shuttles for major modification periods. A major modification period is a two year long upgrade program in which a given shuttle has its major systems upgraded and new technologies incorporated. Endeavour’s planned major modification period began in late 2003. To date, eighty-five of the planned 124 modifications have been completed. The modifications included return-to-flight mandated changes, inspection of 150 miles of wiring, and bonding more than 1,000 thermal protection system tiles.

The cockpit now sports an advanced digital display system that replaces the myriad of screens, gauges and dials that used to make up the cockpit environment. A Global Positioning System (GPS) system to improve the shuttle's landing capability was also installed. It will allow Endeavour to make a landing at any runway long enough to handle the shuttle. The previous system only allowed for landings at military bases.

Endeavour's previous modification was completed in March 1997. Endeavour is beginning 10-12 months of launch processing and power-up testing for a future flight, possibly late next year.

Visit NASA's Space Shuttle Program on the Web For the latest information on the Space Shuttle.
Source: NASA Press Release

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That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of
empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder. - Calvin

Gulf Coast Rebuild

The horrendous destruction wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita has generated a huge amount of debris along the Gulf Coast and some miles inland. Disposal of all this wreckage and debris is going to a monumental task.

I have uncovered a couple of technologies that might be used to convert the debris into feedstocks and building materials to aid in reconstruction, or at least turn the debris into useful materials or energy sources.

A company called Prime Environmental International (PEI) has the technology to process hurricane debris and output six different building components. The web site http://www.recyclinghomes.com/ lists the products created as :

• Product 1- Replaces OSB sheathing with four (4) non-wood sheet products sizes: 7/16"x 4'x 8' - 7116"x 8'x 24' - 1/2"x 4'x 8' - 1/2"x 8'x 24'; (all standard thicknesses will also be available in 4'x 8' sheets)
• Product 2- Replaces door frames, doors, window frames, and windows with a PEI engineered (preformed) molded non-wood product;
• Product 3- Replaces interior and exterior walls with a high-density product;
• Product 4- Replaces structural framing with a solid interlocking structure;
• Product 5- Replaces roofing with a fire retardant insulated roofing panel ;
• Product 6- Replaces foundation walls with a high density waterproof material
  

Assuming all these products are environmentally acceptable, this would ease the burden on virgin resources considerably. Additionally, it wopuld provide employment for a large number of people in the affected areas. The web link above has the details on the processing and materials requirements.

For other waste and debris not suitable for the PEI process I would point you to the company Changing World Technologies (CWT). They have a thermal conversion process (TCP) that parallels the natural process that produce oil, but at a greatly accelerated rate. For and overview of TCP and CWT in the scheme of things read this article from Discover magazine here or here.

CWT has a nice graphic showing how the process works.

The Wikipedia TCP entry also has a chart showing what the TCP process can produce based on the waste type input.

The oil and gas could be further refined to produce adhesives, binders, asphalt shingles and other building chemicals needed to compliment the building materials produced by PEI.

CWT’s web site lists the general categories of materials that can be produced from a waste stream using TCP.

So we have an opportunity to rebuild the Gulf Coast and its environs while minimizing the impact on our existing resource base. We save energy costs associated with shipping debris out of the region and shipping new building materials into the region.

Even if this plan never materializes for the Gulf Coast, we should be pursuing these technologies and maturing them to the point where they can be rapidly deployed into any disaster area to speed rebuilding and recovery efforts.

Shiny

Saw Serenity last night with #1 daughter and some of her friends. The theater was packed, but no one in costume, , although it was an early-ish show. The movie itself was really good, the effects were well done and the story line had some really cool twists to it. It was great to seeing the characters again.

No spoilers to see here... Move along

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The most merciful thing in the world ... is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. - H. P. Lovecraft

New Crackberry

As a firmly addicted Blackberry user, I was excited to hear from Engadget/Pinstack about the Blackberry 8700 pictured at left.

Quick Stats:
Quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Speaker Phone
- Bluetooth
- Memory: 16MB RAM / 64MB Flash
- Polyphonic Ringtones
- Support MP3 ringtones
- Updated Form Factor
- Full QWERTY keypad
- Dedicated Send & End Keys
- Mute Key
- On/Off Key
- 2 User-Definable Keys
This blackberry should come with a 320x240 VGA Colour LCD and should feature a 312Mhz processor, It should be annouced to markets sometime the end of this month, available to carriers maybe arround the end of the year or early next year....

Gimme one NOW!!!
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The American public knows what it wants,and deserves to get it good and hard. - H.L.Menkin

weblog comments

Here's a link to Lifehacker's list of Comment dos and don'ts...
Hint... Hint....

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2.998e10 cm/sec; It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

weblog comments

Here's a link to Lifehacker's list of Comment dos and don'ts...
Hint... Hint....

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2.998e10 cm/sec; It's not just a good idea, it's the law.

gSpot?

So Google has announced their WiFi beta service.

Are the going to call their WiFi hot spots gSpots?

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Time is an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space.

ectoPlasm

Here's my first post using the ecto blogging tool.

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A guy will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.

Three Strikes

Three pieces of pretty bad environmental news this week:

Hurricanes Amped up by Warmer Oceans
A news release from the Georgia Institute of technology and NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) warns that Global Warming is boosting hurricane intensity. The Science Daily web site summarized the article this way: The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes worldwide has nearly doubled over the past 35 years, even though the total number of hurricanes has dropped since the 1990s, according to a study by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The shift occurred as global sea surface temperatures have increased over the same period.
You can find the article from Science Daily here and the original work from NCAR here and the original paper from Peter Webster of Georgia Tech in PDF format here.
So as the oceans warm up the hurricanes that form over them will be stronger, because the oceans will have more heat in them.

Methane
Methane is a serious greenhouse gas and can also react with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide. SpaceRef.com points to research done by Dave Kemp and supervisors Drs. Angela Coe and Anthony Cohen, of Open University along with Dr. Lorenz Schwark of the University of Cologne indicates at least three massive burps of methane gas in the geologic past have triggered extinction events by raising the earth’s temperature by 10°C. The report goes on: The methane came from gas hydrate, a frozen mixture of water and methane found in huge quantities on the seabed. This hydrate suddenly melted, allowing the methane to escape.
So here’s another potential upheaval from Ocean Warming: There are still significant quantities methane hydrate on the ocean floor off the coast of the Carolinas. The U.S. Geological Survey describes these deposits as A pair of relatively small areas, each about the size of the State of Rhode Island, shows intense concentrations of gas hydrates. USGS scientists estimate that these areas contain more than 1,300 trillion cubic feet of methane gas, an amount representing more than 70 times the 1989 gas consumption of the United States.

Methane Hydrate (or Methane Clathrate) is stable at a variety of pressures and temperatures with the release volume accelerating abruptly past 3°C.

So is there a scenario where ocean warming caused by global warming brings the deep ocean temperatures around the Clathrate deposits to a point where massive amounts of methane get released into our atmosphere? I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound too implausible to me. I would be pleased to hear counter arguments. For an interesting description of what a massive methane release could do read Bruce Sterling’s classic 1995 novel Heavy Weather.

How Long Can You Tread Water…..
An article on Physorg.com cites a study by Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at Colorado University that indicates that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming that will further accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice creating a rise in ocean levels.

So we now have the rate of sea level rising rising as more and more earth is stripped of its ice covering. My guess is that all of the estimates about how long this defrosting process will take are woeful underestimates due to these unforeseen acceleration mechanisms.

Collaborative Katrina Timeline

Wanna know how we created the clusterf*ck known as Hurricane Katrina Relief?  Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall is hosting a collaborative effort to build a timeline.

Read it and weep, or better still DO SOMETHING……….

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Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few engage in it. -Henry Ford
     

Hey DHS…

How come we never implemented the National Tech Corps?  Its part of the federal Homeland Security Act, you never implemented.

If the National Tech Corps were a reality, then the communications and computing infrastructure of New Orleans would come back to life much quicker.  Who knows…  Maybe even lives would have been saved.

Here’s the link from Doc Searl’s weblog that triggered this rant.

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There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over. - Murphy's Law
     

Global Warming

The best layman’s summary of what global warming is causing.  Thanks to Bruce Sterling’s Viridian Note 00451 for the pointer.

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Things are more like they are now than they ever were before. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
     

Patriot Education

After finding Bob Cesca's quote on the level of understanding of the Patriot Act by the American Public:
"What's infuriating about this Patriot Act poll is that only 42 percent of Americans know what the hell the law actually says. And only 23 percent of those polled support the part of the Act which says the government can enter your home any time it wants without telling you."

I though I would provide a pointer to the Electronic Privacy Information Center's summary of the provisions of the Patriot Act.

Read and act on this information, as if your life and privacy depend on it, because they DO!

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Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. -- Unknown

Katrina, Irony and Oil

Great post by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over at The Huffington Post about Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's role in squelching the United States' ratification of the Kyoto Accord on CO2 emissions.

Just thought I would point out the irony of having your state slammed by a hurricane whose power has been amplified by the CO2-warmed Gulf of Mexico. CO2, whose levels might be reduced by our participation in CO2 reductions mandated by Kyoto.

Anyone else believe that the entire arc of coastline from the southern tip of Texas to the southern tip of Florida is going to become fodder for a ongoing procession of Katrina-class storms over the next five decades or so?

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If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments. - Earl Wilson

Haloscan

Added Haloscan's free track back service to this sight. Now if someone would just link to me....

Sigh....

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If at first you don't succeed, quit; don't be a nut about success.

RIAA Radar

If you want to avoid putting anymore monies into the hands of the RIAA-affiliated labels, use the RIAA Radar site to verify that the artist/lablel/album is not affiliated with the RIAA.

There's also a mobile version to let you verify individual albums by UPC code over the web from your cell phone.

Take that!!


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Samson had the right idea about advertising. He took two columns and brought down the house.

Fiona Apple's Album to be Released

I see from an Epic Records press release that Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine album will finally be released October 4th, 2005. 'Bout time. Although with the large number of leaked copies out there, I hope sales aren't impacted. In fact I hope the sales go through the roof.

For those unaware of the back story, the Extraordinary Machine album was actually completed in early 2003,but was deemed to have insufficiently commercial potential to be released, by her label Epic Records. In March of this year the entire album found its way onto the Internet; available for free. fionapple.org reported in June that she is re-recording the album with a new producer.

For more details check these links.

Another win for the Market!!

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Si Non Oscillas Noli Tintinnare (If you don't swing, don't ring.) - Sign at the Playboy Mansion

Comments Engage!

After some gentle prodding with a clue bat from my #1 daughter last night, I checked the comment settings for this blog only to find the default still in place. I have changed the setting to anonymous so anyone should be able to leave comments. I'll leave it this way until I get tired of dealing with abuse and spam, although at this point at least there would be comments :-)


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Beware of a tall dark man with a spoon up his nose.

I SO wish I had said this.....

Excellent column from our favorite IT curmudgeon, John Dvorak. He takes government, telco and cable officials to task for the abysmal state of broadband connectivity in this country.

The man-in-the-street needs to realize that fast, cheap broadband in everyone's home is the new intercontinental rail system. Pervasive, neutral broadband will spur innovation and stimulate the economy. But do we get this, Noooo!! We get all the dinosaur incumbent carriers buying legislation to protect their obsolete business models. Business models, I might add built on government granted monopolies. Sound familiar?

Where are we going to find elected officials who will do the right thing: pushing back on the incumbents, telling them to fix their business models and compete rather than buying the legislation needed to preserver their current model?

When will Joe and Jane Sixpack wake up and realize that the telecommunications special interest groups are selling out the economic future of this country in exchange for a few more years of telecom/cable profits?

So when gasoline is $5.00 a gallon and you do not have enough bandwidth to telecommuting to you job, who you gonna call?


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Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles. - Frank Lloyd Wright

Science Fiction via the Creative Commons

I am an avid reader of the science fiction genre. Back in 2003 I discovered Cory Doctrow’s work via his postings on the Boing Boing collaborative weblog. Cory released his first work, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom under a Creative Commons license allowing folks to freely download, read and redistribute the intact work as long as attribution is given to Cory and no money is made off the redistribution. The technical term is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is an excellent read and I have eagerly been following/downloading Cory’s additional works as he releases them.
So from Cory we now have:
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Download)
A Place So Foreign and Eight More (Short Story Collection, Download)
Eastern Standard Tribe (Download)
Someone Comes to Town; Someone Leaves town (Download) This novel has additional terms to its Creative Commons license, See the download page for more details.

I have read Cory's first three novels and am currently reading Someone....

Here are some additional authors who have released some of their works under the CC-license:

Charles Stross has released his latest novel, Accelerando! (Download)
I've read Accelerando! and throughly enjoyed it. It starts out like Eastern Standard Tribe then takes a left turn into hyperspace ;-)

Mike Brotherton has released Star Dragon (Downloads on right side of page)

Peter Watts has released the first two books of his Rifters series: Starfish (PDF Download) and Maelstrom (PDF Download).

You can already find alternative formats for Starfish and Maelstrom at mobileread.com.


Sorry for the dense linkyness, but I wanted you guys to have access to all the information I dug up.


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First things first, but not necessarily in that order. - The Doctor

Pod Public Service

After listening to the Kentucky Focus podcast, it occurs to me that the Podcasting community could make a pretty big impact, if every podcast carried at least one public service announcement (PSA). A little bit of Googling turned up freely downloadable PSAs for

• Breast Cancer
• Bicycle Safety
• National Park Conservation
• Tolerance

And many more... Most are available in .mp3 format so intergrating them into a show would be no more difficult than adding music.

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Your mother knows how to push your buttons because she installed them all.

Settling Down

We've mostly recovered from the big hardware failure that took our production database down. The new external array even seems to be a little faster than the old Symmterix box.

Striving for more regular posts.....


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We don't know who discovered water, but we are certain it wasn't a fish. - John Culkin

I'm Still Here....

Been a long while since I've posted. An equipment failure at work has kept me busy for the last two weeks as we scramble to put a temporary then a repaired permanent database server back up.

Some meaty posts over the holiday weekend I hope!


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What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expect generally happens. - Benjamin Disraeli

Grokster Decision Soon

CNet is reporting that the Supreme Court may rule on the Grokster P2P case as soon as Monday.

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What you see is rarely what you get.

Toyota to buy GM

More goodness from Tom Friedman of the NYT: (Quoted here in its entireity in case the paywall curtain of the nYT closes in) Here's the link to the printer-friendly version.
June 17, 2005
As Toyota Goes ...
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
So I have a question: If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person?
It is not that I want any autoworker to lose his or her job, but I certainly would not put on a black tie if the entire management team at G.M. got sacked and was replaced by executives from Toyota. Indeed, I think the only hope for G.M.'s autoworkers, and maybe even our country, is with Toyota. Because let's face it, as Toyota goes, so goes America.
Having Toyota take over General Motors - which based its business strategy on building gas-guzzling cars, including the idiot Hummer, scoffing at hybrid technology and fighting Congressional efforts to impose higher mileage standards on U.S. automakers - would not only be in America's economic interest, it would also be in America's geopolitical interest.
Because Toyota has pioneered the very hybrid engine technology that can help rescue not only our economy from its oil addiction (how about 500 miles per gallon of gasoline?), but also our foreign policy from dependence on Middle Eastern oil autocrats.
Diffusing Toyota's hybrid technology is one of the keys to what I call "geo-green." Geo-greens seek to combine into a single political movement environmentalists who want to reduce fossil fuels that cause climate change, evangelicals who want to protect God's green earth and all his creations, and geo-strategists who want to reduce our dependence on crude oil because it fuels some of the worst regimes in the world.
The Bush team has been M.I.A. on energy since 9/11. Indeed, the utter indifference of the Bush team to developing a geo-green strategy - which would also strengthen the dollar, reduce our trade deficit, make America the world leader in combating climate change and stimulate U.S. companies to take the lead in producing the green technologies that the world will desperately need as China and India industrialize - is so irresponsible that it takes your breath away. This is especially true when you realize that the solutions to our problems are already here.
As Gal Luft, co-chairman of the Set America Free coalition, a bipartisan alliance of national security, labor, environmental and religious groups that believe reducing oil consumption is a national priority, points out: the majority of U.S. oil imports go to fueling the transport sector - primarily cars and trucks. Therefore, the key to reducing our dependence on foreign oil is powering our cars and trucks with less petroleum.
There are two ways we can do that. One is electricity. We don't import electricity. We generate all of our needs with coal, hydropower, nuclear power and natural gas. Toyota's hybrid cars, like the Prius, run on both gasoline and electricity that is generated by braking and then stored in a small battery. But, says Luft, if you had a hybrid that you could plug in at night, the battery could store up 20 miles of driving per day. So your first 20 miles would be covered by the battery. The gasoline would only kick in after that. Since 50 percent of Americans do not drive more than 20 miles a day, the battery power would cover all their driving. Even if they drove more than that, combining the battery power and the gasoline could give them 100 miles per gallon of gasoline used, Luft notes.
Right now Toyota does not sell plug-in hybrids. Some enthusiasts, though, are using kits to convert their hybrids to plug-ins, but that adds several thousand dollars - and you lose your Toyota warranty. Imagine, though, if the government encouraged, through tax policy and other incentives, every automaker to offer plug-in hybrids? We would quickly move down the innovation curve and end up with better and cheaper plug-ins for all.
Then add to that flexible-fuel cars, which have a special chip and fuel line that enable them to burn alcohol (ethanol or methanol), gasoline or any mixture of the two. Some four million U.S. cars already come equipped this way, including from G.M. It costs only about $100 a car to make it flex-fuel ready. Brazil hopes to have all its new cars flex-fuel ready by 2008. As Luft notes, if you combined a plug-in hybrid system with a flex-fuel system that burns 80 percent alcohol and 20 percent gasoline, you could end up stretching each gallon of gasoline up to 500 miles.
In short, we don't need to reinvent the wheel or wait for sci-fi hydrogen fuel cells. The technologies we need for a stronger, more energy independent America are already here. The only thing we have a shortage of now are leaders with the imagination and will to move the country onto a geo-green path.


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That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of
empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder. - Calvin

World of Ends

One of Doc Searls' posts today reminded of the World of Ends document that tells what the Internet Is and Is Not. Required reading for anyone doing business on or attempting to regulate the Internet. Here's the nutshell sniped from the World of Ends site:
1. The Internet isn't complicated
2. The Internet isn't a thing. It's an agreement.
3. The Internet is stupid.
4. Adding value to the Internet lowers its value.
5. All the Internet's value grows on its edges.
6. Money moves to the suburbs.
7. The end of the world? Nah, the world of ends.
8. The Internet’s three virtues:
a. No one owns it
b. Everyone can use it
c. Anyone can improve it
9. If the Internet is so simple, why have so many been so boneheaded about it?
10. Some mistakes we can stop making already