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January 27, 2006
The movie I have been waiting months for
Finally got to see it last night. Underworld Evolution delivers as a sequel. You have to like the genre which I do. Kate is amazing. The fight scenes are amazing. There is something oddly appealing about a woman in all black leather with a gun and vampire teeth. No big moralistic tale or deeper meanings (that I bothered to pay attention to), just rocking good versus evil entertainment. Well done.
Posted by Martin at 7:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 26, 2006
Read the Fortune Ethanol article early
This will hit the news stands next week. Lots about Ethanol and the unlikely cooalition around promoting this home grown fuel which is already at some scale. There are mentions of Biodiesel as well. My feeling is that all this attention to Ethanol is GREAT for Biodiesel which will grow faster behind the path blazed by Ethanol. And by the way you don't need a new vehicle to run 100% biodiesel. You do to run 85% ethanol.
Posted by Martin at 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 24, 2006
more mementum in Olympia for Biofuels
komo news | All Biodiesel, All The Time: Lawmakers Consider Alternative Fuels
Posted by Martin at 9:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 23, 2006
New Web site for Energy Independence for Washington!
Check out this new site. It is part of Climate Solution's efforts to get a Renewable Fuel Standard passed in Washington.
Posted by Martin at 1:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2006
The Soy Genome to be decoded
This is very cool, Environment News Service ENS Latest Environmental Information Education Current Issues RSS is reporting on a joint DOE and USDA effort to decode the Soy bean genome. The second largest crop in America at $17B and 75 million acres, soy is also the prime feedstock for biodiesel today. This basic genome research could lead to new variants of soy optimized for oil production. They need to do something because soy is a fairly ineffecient crop at producing oil today.
Posted by Martin at 10:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 16, 2006
Seattle area biodiesel workshops
Local guru, BioLyle has some workshops coming up for those interested in home-brewing...
The Magic of Biodiesel UW Experimental College Class: #W203.
NOTE: This workshop is almost full as of 1/11/06
Sunday January 29, 2006 from 10 am 3 pm
Want to drive or heat your home petroleum-free? Sort out fact from fiction in this class, which will cover what biodiesel is (and is not), qualities of the fuel, compatibility issues, chemistry, history of the movement and how the fuel can be made by anyone using simple and available chemicals. Students will experience making small batches of biodiesel from a variety of sources. Simple biodiesel reactor designs will be presented and discussed. After the class, students will be invited to visit a small-scale biodiesel processor near campus.Location:UW Campus.Max Enrollment: 25 General Public: $44 ; UW Students: $29. Register online at: http://exco.org or by phone at: 206-685-3276. Easiest way to get to reg. page is to Google: "experimental college biodiesel"Exp.Coll info: http://exco.org or 206-543-4375
Biodiesel Homebrew Workshop.
Saturday February 4, 2006 from 10 AM - 3:30 PM
Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle 98103
This class will be serve as both an introduction to biodiesel and a hands-on experience for those interested in learning how to make biodiesel from used restaurant oil. You will learn the chemistry and tricks of making quality biodiesel by making small batches and experimenting with different veg oils, catalysts, and pH indicators. We will also cover washing, quality control, sources of supplies and equipment, and reactor design, with an emphasis on the "Appleseed" reactor made from an electric water heater. Other topics to be covered will include: myths and facts about biodiesel, cold weather issues, local availabilitiy, and what's going on locally and nationally with the movement. Whether you just want to learn more so you can decide whether or not to use biodiesel, or you want to make your own brew, this class will help you get underway. After the class, students will be invited to visit a small-scale home biodiesel processor. Max Enrollment: 30. Fee: $50 or if financial need, $30-$50 sliding scale. 10% of proceeds will be donated to NW Biodiesel Network.Register by sending $15 by PayPal to: lylecroc@yahoo.com or, if no PayPal, send check to: BioLyle's Biodiesel Workshop, PO Box 18924, Seattle 98118. Questions? email: biolyle@gmail.com
Posted by Martin at 10:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Seattle BioFuels receives Series A financing
Seattle Biodiesel set to expand
Posted by Martin at 9:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 15, 2006
The Matador won't kill you and you may have fun
Still waiting for Underworld: Evolution which comes out next weekend, left the very slim pickings for a movie this weekend. But Fandango pointed me to this new one from Pierce and it looked interesting. A middle aged contract killer who looses his grove. Entertaining and very funny. I rate 3 of 5 stars. Worth seeing in theatres.
Posted by Martin at 8:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A story about "Mozilla Firefox"
firefox rules! The only sites I can’t view with it correctly are the Microsoft ones that require IE tie-in or extra security. When will Microsoft figure out it can’t rule the world through tie-ins?
Posted by Martin at 8:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 14, 2006
News from the auto show: Diesel beats Hybrid
I have been saying for some time that clean diesels burning biodiesel are better than hybirds. Now the auto execs are saying the same thing at the show last week: Turning up the heat on hybrid cars | CNET News.com
Posted by Martin at 8:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 13, 2006
On the TV again
tonight at 8:00 seattle time, the TV show Serious Money will feature me talking about Seattle Biodiesel. Just finished taping it. Trying to explain how Washington State can be energy independent in 15 minutes is a hard job. I can't wait to see how I did.
Posted by Martin at 1:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2006
Removing software
Windows was complaining this morning about not enough space for it's swap drive, so it is time for a little new years cleaning. Removed all the following software:
- PC Doctor for Windows
- Thunderbird (using Outlook)
- Quicktime (part of iTunes and if I ever need it will download it)
- iTunes (horrible program, i use WinAmp)
- PC Help
- Google toolbar for IE (I use FireFox)
- System Migration Assistant 5.0 (wish I had seen that when I bought the computer)
There were three or four others that I removed but forgot to write down. I probably also need to make the C drive partition larger. In three months I will be back at it again after downloading a bunch more stuff.
Posted by Martin at 9:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 9, 2006
KUOW program The Conversation addresses Biodiesel
Today KUOW program The Conversation had a bunch of guests talking about Biodiesel. The program featured a policy analyst from Climate Solutions, Dr. Dan, the local biodiesel retailer, Dr. Pimentel the appologist for Exxon and Martin Tobias, the CEO of Seattle Biodiesel as well as listener calls. Ross the host does a generally good job covering the issue, but unfortunately lobs only softballs at Pimentel.
Posted by Martin at 5:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 8, 2006
Audio of Robert Hirsch Peak Oil report
here: Hirsch.20051117.mp3 is a link to Hirsch talking about his report. Again the focus of the report is on how to mitigate the affects of peak oil. The problem is really one of risk management. America has been terrible at taking action before the crisis hits. Hirsch tries to pose the problem, simplify it and analyze the impact. One key conclusion, we CANNOT conserve our way out of this.
Posted by Martin at 10:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Robert Hirsch on Peak Oil
The Hirsch Report was published last year which is probably the most comprehensive summary of the issue I have seen. All major analysts opinions are summarized. A truly shocking chart shows that we reached peak oil (that is oil extraction stopped growing and started declining) in the lower 48 states around 1972. This is not fiction. Every oil producing region reaches it at some point or another. Here is another tidbit: It will take 15 years given normal replacement cycles to replace half the cars on the US roads. So changing the automobile fleet (hybrids) is a VERY long process that won't have any noticable year to year impact and is NOT the way to respond to any kind of crisis. But changing your FUEL in those vehicles is. I love biodiesel.
Posted by Martin at 9:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Swedish try to take the lead in BioFuels
When the Prime Minister says he wants his contry to be fossil fuel independent by 2020, that is a big deal: Swedish government embraces peak oil and looks towards biofuels | EnergyBulletin.net | Peak Oil News Clearinghouse. I have been saying for some time that our leader should do the same. Unfortunately the US is going to let the Swedes lead on this one? Ouch. Come on America.
Posted by Martin at 9:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lingo shoots and misses
So about five months ago I bought a dLink router with Lingo VoIP Phone Service. Over the weekend I tried to install it. After five hours. YES FIVE HOURS on the phone with the ever so helpful Lingo technical support in Toronto I still couldn't get the Lingo network to recognize my MAC address router. The guy suggested he send me to "level two" but they are only open certain hours etc.... No go. I am not going to implement something that hard. I also noticed at Fry's that they don't carry Lingo anymore. Maybe that is telling.
Posted by Martin at 8:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A review of "Munich"
- The kidnap and death of Isralei’s by Palestinians during the Munich Olympics.
- The targeted killing of Palestinians by Israel
- The existence of secret assination squads on both sides
- The complicancy (and outright protection) of the Soviet Union AND CIA in certain Palestinian organizers.
- Information brokers did and do sell the whereabouts of people who don’t want to be found.
To make history interesting you need to dramaticize it and put a story around it. The personal story of the head of the secred Isralei hit squad is what makes this story so compelling. The fiction parts are the dialogue, the exact way the hits were carried out, the French family that sold information, and a couple other dramatic parts.
What the drama does is make you care about the people and issues before you on the screen in a way most documentaries don’t. That is why everyone must see this movie. Get a dose of history along with a dose of thought. It gives some interesting perspective to today’s middle east conflicts.
I rate this a 5 of 5.
Posted by Martin at 12:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A story about "BloodRayne"
So my brother wanted to go see a movie Saturday night. Two guys wanting to see a guy movie. What could be more of a guy movie than female vampires in skimpy leather outfits with lots of sword play? BloodRayne also had actors that I had actually heard of like Michelle Rodriguez (Fast and Furious, Girl Fight, Swat), Michael Madsen (Resivoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction), Ben Kingsley (you know) with a special appearance by Meat Loaf (Rocky Horror Picture Show). I didn’t remember Kristanna Loken from Terminator 3, and unfortunately she didn’t help her rep much in this film. But I am getting ahead of myself.
So a couple of guys want to see a guy movie right after the holidays when all the “family” pics are out and the pickings are slim. So BloodRayne it is. Fandango said “Playing Everywhere” but only three theatres in the Puget Sound were playing it and none in downtown seattle. That was clue #1. It was only playing in Bellevue, Renton and Lynnwood, all suburbia, home of the 18-26 year old male target audience. So I spend one of my handfull of hall passes to slep all the way across the lake to Bellevue and endure the humiliation that is Bellevue Square Mall. While walking to the restraunt to meet my brother I ran into a friend of mine with his wife and child looking for a dinner place. He was so surprised to see me on the East side of the lake that his first words were “Hey Martin, are you lost?”. Yes sir I was.
After watching the football game half an hour waiting for someone to take our order in the bar at P.F. Changs, my brother and I bail to the Tap Room where a Spaten hits the bar almost before my butt hits the barstool. Ah, Americana. After a quick beer and a salad we head up to the theatre. There are five people in the ticket booth behind bullet proof glass and only one selling tickets. Clue #2. Inside there are four more clustered around what should be the ticket taking place all talking and laughing and totally ignoring people standing balancing soda’s and popcorn trying to give their tickets. The gauntlet of ignorance doesn’t get any better as we enter the theatre. At the 7:15 show on Saturday night of opening weekend there are only a handfull of seats taken.
My brother and I sit through another gauntlet of horror film and video game adaptation trailers each worse that the last. Clue #3, bad previews of movies you don’t want to see is a bad sign for the movie you are about to see. Let me cut to the chase. BloodRayne is a horrible bad movie. Not even worth renting. You can see the pain on the actors faces as they deliver the worst written dialogue I have ever seen in a movie. So on the nose it is painful. The action scenes don’t make up for it either because they are clumsy in organization and shooting. The swords used are embarassingly fake. Even the casual watcher can see they have rounded edges and are chipped all over and are aluminum or plastic. There is no tension, no character development, no character arch, nothing to get you to give a crap about anybody on the screen. Add to that way too much “Lord of the Rings” medeivel symphony music as horsemen ride in the mountains and it is just unbearable.
On the way out my brother and I are appologizing to each other for the movie and for not walking out. I run into another guy I know who was in the movie and am totally embarassed to be caught there, but so is he, so it is not so painful. I predict this one is out of the theatres almost as fast as Gigli or Swept Away.
I rate this one as a Zero out of 5 stars. I can only hoe that Underworld: Evolution will save the genre.
Posted by Martin at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 5, 2006
Deconstructing a biodiesel paranoid
While it may seem like everyone on the plant supports renewable fuels, I have always contended that we are not really into the fight yet. So far the industry is so small that BIG OIL is not paying much attention to it. But now that there is a national RFS, Minnesota has implemented one and many other states including Washington are considering implementing an RFS and significantly increasing the use of renewable fuels, the nay-sayers are starting to get some attention. While most of the "news" outlets that publish the negative reports will say they are just trying to be "fair and balanced", in this case they are mainly passing along flimsy science, baseless accusations, knee jerk emotional reactions, and skin deep analysis. At best the media outlets are guilty of shoddy journalism, at worst they are stoogesof BIG OIL. Make no mistake, the harm done to this nation by our addiction to petroleum is worse than tobacco and the conspiracy to cover the harms with phony science and emotional appeals is just a great if not worse. By simply reprinting opinions or press releases without independent research or verification, media outlets can give tacit approval and are just as guilty in this conspiracy as the manufacturer's of the lies in the first place. In the category of the media distributing outright lies, the Pimentel study is faulty, non-peer reviewed corporate funded "science" that is just plain wrong.
In the less obvious, but none the less damaging category of well intentioned "opinions" that are simply ill-informed, we get a guest editorial in the Seattle Times today by Bob Benze up in Silverdale, Wa. There has been allotof press lately about political support for a Washington state RFS and Mr. Benze is none too happy about it. With politicians from both sides lining up in favor of the RFS, Mr. Benze, a man with political aspirations himself (thwarted), is speaking up. He has spoken up before as a self described "environmental engineer" on Hood Canal issues and taken some heat for his opinions. While I applaud his pluck and sympathize with a Republican in a Democratic state, I have to take issue with some of the conclusions and assertions he makes in his article. Let me note a few:
- Mr. Benze makes unsupported allegations about Biodieselproducing more NOX. With a little more looking one finds that while some studies that seem to point to negative NOX results, more recent studies show Biodiesel equal or slightly better than diesel. A deeper analysis of the NOX issue reveals that the science is inconclusive at this time.
- Any potential negative NOX impact is not weighed against the other Carbon Dioxide, particulate, renewable, national security and other benefits. You must to a total life cycle analysis to get the NET benefit of this new fuel. A comprehensive 300-page study of the energy and environmental impacts of biodiesel made from soybeans was conducted jointly by the U.S. Department of Energy and the USDA, and published in 1998 (Sheehan, Camobreceo et al. 1998) . That report finds biodiesel offers dramatic savings using 70% less fossil energy than its petroleum counterpart. Small scale WVO operations report an even higher, 7.8:1 positive energy balance.
- Mr. Benze also mis-characterizes the findings of Huber and Mills, most recently summarized in their book The Bottomless Well. While petroleum accounts for a smaller percentage of our overall energy use the reason is because electric powered devices have multiplied an order of magnitudefaster than petroleum hogging devices. In absolute numbers (barrels per year), America's petroleum consumption increases every year. The real problem though, as Mills and Huber point out on page 11, figure 1.6 of their book is that transportation fuels are 100% petroleum with NO OPTIONS. The problem IS petroleum and our lack of options for it in transportation, not use of it for electricitygeneration (for which there are many options). When there are no options and few suppliers, you are at the mercy of the monopolist producers.
- Biodiesel costs more than diesel. Duh? That is because it is a tiny industry today competing against the most profitable industry in the world thatfully paid for their R&D and infrastructure 50 years ago. Remember when "recycled" products were way more expensive in the stores? That was because industry hadn't yet reached economies of scale. Early customers demanding the products and many purchasers mandating them provided the basis for the industry to reach scale and today you have priceparity in many recycled products vs the virgin. Same thing is happening with Biodiesel. We use 1 Billion gallons of diesel in this state. TheRFS at 2% for diesel would create a 20 million gallon market for biodiesel. Not enough to change the price of diesel (only a 2% blend) but enough for the industry to get a foothold to grow on its own to compete. Due in large part to RFS style programs, today in Brazil you can run your car on ethanol for half the price of petroleum gas. Washington state drivers deserve the same options.
- Not enough land to produce biodiesel. Mr. Benze makes another unsupported contention that there is only enough land to replace 10% of our diesel with biodiesel. His conclusion is that therefore we shouldn't even try. Wow this guy must be a blast a parties. First the premise that you shouldn't even try is silly. Second, the "federal estimate" he (does not) refer to is based on 100% soy bean oil. Soy as an oilseed crop is one of the most inefficient in terms of gallons of oil per acre. Canola is about double Soy (wow up to 20% that easy) and other crops are much higher. You can make biodiesel out of any kind of oil or fat. No-one has bothered to do the R&D on anything but soy because the market is small today. But with an RFS and a guaranteedmarket, the R&D dollars will flow and we will find enough sources of oil to make the US (at least diesel) petroleum independent. Michael Briggs at UNH estimates that it would take only 15,000 square miles (9.5 million acres - less than 1% of our farm/grazing land) we could produce 140 billion gallons of biodiesel, enough to replace ALL our current petroleum consumption nationwide (if all vehicles were diesel). Renewable energy independence is possible. We just have to want it bad enough.
- Mr. Benze contends that diesel engine technology is solving all the problems so we don't need biodiesel. While many environmental objectives can be achievedthrough engine redesign, I have yet to see a car pump and refine it's own crude oil into fuel. Diesel consumption in this country is growing at 3-4% per year. Today 100% of that is dead dinosaurs that will eventually run out, cause us to fight wars on foreign soil, cause others to hate us, and pollutethe environment. Is Mr. Benze advocating sticking his head in the sand? If you had to choice of petroleum versus a renewable fuel at the same price, what would you choose?
I know what Mr. Benze is against and understand how he has gotten mis-guided. Change can be scary. With our addiction to petroleum though,no-change is simply not an option. The Dinosaurs WILL run out. The easy oil has been found. The technology to become independent of the Mid East oil princes resides right here in the state of Washington. Why wouldn't we want to give it a little boost? While change may be scary, for me, no change is even scarier.
Posted by Martin at 9:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack