The Story of Stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8
Yes, a little American centric, but good anyway! Reposting because it has come back full circle again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8
Yes, a little American centric, but good anyway! Reposting because it has come back full circle again!
A guest poster at the oil drum throws a little water over cellulosic ethanol (pouring a little water over scotch – good, over raging hype machines, even better).
What’s the moral in all of this? If corn ethanol is marginal on an energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) basis, it is very difficult to argue that biomass grown to make ethanol will be any better. To be blunt, if there are concentrated stocks of waste biomass in place, such as at lumber mills, then biomass ethanol probably makes sense. Otherwise, it appears to be more or less equivalent to corn based ethanol – in other words, a wash.
Overall, it’s a good take down. I am always leery about believing farm/agriculture promises because there’s way too much subsidy money involved for people not to have a vested interest in promoting some new plant or the other. Unfortunately, I know nothing about farming 🙁 , so I can’t judge his assumptions.
Why can’t we just agree to consume less (energy that is, not scotch)
Opus Comics, by Bloom County’s Berkeley Breathed – Salon
A little simplistic, perhaps, but plugin hybrids need to get here soon. I want my next car to be a plugin hybrid. Hell, I would even buy an ugly ass GM car if it turns out to be as good as advertised, 65 km without gas. Note also the cool solar panels and power inverter.
Can I get a compact plugin hybrid instead of this behemoth two door, or is the size due to battery storage?
Photo courtesy Corvair Owner Flickr photstream, used under a creative commons licence.
Not always a fan of Monbiot, but this OP-ED piece on the government bailout of a British bank run by a libertarian intellectual contains in it, a passage that deserves to be framed.
Wherever modern humans, living outside the narrow social mores of the clan, are allowed to pursue their genetic interests without constraint, they will hurt other people. They will grab other people’s resources, they will dump their waste in other people’s habitats, they will cheat, lie, steal and kill. And if they have power and weapons, no one will be able to stop them except those with more power and better weapons. Our genetic inheritance makes us smart enough to see that when the old society breaks down, we should appease those who are more powerful than ourselves and exploit those who are less powerful. The survival strategies that once ensured cooperation among equals now ensure subservience to those who have broken the social contract.
Now, that is a cogent argument for regulation if I ever saw one.
(Via Nanopolitan.)
The dreary Victorian winter is here. The temperature will drop a little from what it is now, but not much, rarely below zero, but we’ll see the sun every other week for a short while, maybe once a month!
Via the TNR E&E blog comes this story of capturing some of the energy wasted when a vehicle moves over bumps and potholes on the road. Indian drivers are waiting with bated breath for this prototype to become a reality! The takeaway messages are that most of the mechanical devices we use today have many points where waste energy can be captured and put to use.
A team of MIT undergraduate students has invented a shock absorber that harnesses energy from small bumps in the road, generating electricity while it smoothes the ride more effectively than conventional shocks. The students hope to initially find customers among companies that operate large fleets of heavy vehicles. They have already drawn interest from the U.S. military and several truck manufacturers.
Updates on the smoking bills I mentioned last week….
Bill Would Extinguish Indoor Smoking Statewide :: WRAL.com
Dismissing North Carolina’s heritage as a tobacco state, a House committee on Tuesday passed a far-reaching indoor smoking ban.
The Judiciary Committee passed the ban by a 9-4 vote. The measure would prohibit smoking in all indoor workplaces in North Carolina, including bars and restaurants. The rules also would apply to private clubs, except those with nonprofit or tax-exempt status.
The measure would be complaint-driven — local health departments would act on complaints from the public — and violators would first receive warnings.
“This was a significant and important event to advance the public’s health in North Carolina,” said Dr. Leah Devlin, director of the state Division of Public Health.
But critics of the legislation, House Bill 259, pointed out that it faces an uphill battle on the House and Senate floors.
“What they really want is a complete prohibition of indoor smoking in North Carolina,” said state Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake. “We all know smoking is nasty and dangerous. The question is whether, in a free society, you let people do some things that are nasty and dangerous.”
Some opponents said passing the bill could set the stage for similar bans inside personal vehicles and homes.
“You want to smoke and you own the building. Is it really that bad for the public?” asked state Rep. Ronnie Sutton, D-Robeson.
Yes Paul and Ronnie, not only did you construct a straw man, you blew smoke on it, gave it lung cancer, tortured it with cigarette butts and finally set it on fire. Sheesh, what asses.
Update
From Laura Leslie, WUNC (our local NPR affiliate) reporter who maintains a reporter’s blog at WUNC
Under the current version of the bill, which isn’t available on the web just yet, only NON-profit clubs could allow smoking – like the Elks Lodge, for example.
So for the standard nightclub or bar, smoking would be banned.
Hope it helps – and thanks very much for reading!!
Laura
So, that’s a lot of progress on the house bill, making it very close to the senate bill.