Friday, June 12, 2009
The lighter side of C-Span...O-Span....whatever
This is very indicative of a lot of the public speeches and hearings of the U.S. Congress. Good times!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Fickle Private Property
If you or anyone you know owns property, watching this five minute video is worthwhile.
Unimaginably Fast Computers
Today, new personal computers generally process information at a speed of 2 to 3 thousand calculations per second (2GHz and 3GHz).
The good ol' boys and girls at MIT are making strides towards processing speeds of one million calculations per second (1,000 GHz or 1THz (terraherz)).
Here's an article describing the technique.
The good ol' boys and girls at MIT are making strides towards processing speeds of one million calculations per second (1,000 GHz or 1THz (terraherz)).
Here's an article describing the technique.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Can San Diego become water-independent? Jim Bell thinks so.
This OB Rag Blog article is worth a quick peek.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Hilarious Monetary update
I love the line "No reasonable person is going to suggest we stop destroying money." Hilarious stuff.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Great Crap!
This is the kind of alternative fuel article I love to see.
It's a concept and technology that more and more small farming operations are adopting. Methane from animal crap and ethanol from switch grass (as opposed to ethanol from corn) and the like are such promising resources that cannot be ignored by the US for much longer simply because of the greater and greater ease of accessibility and cost effectiveness.
The article I linked to at the start of this blog indicates an equivalent production cost per gallon of ethanol in the US between $2 and $3. For those who are not clear on the misleading nature of this statistic, check out Brazil compared to the US and note that not only is the US government subsidizing the US corn-ethanol industry but it's also imposing a pretty hefty tariff per gallon on imported ethanol.
The most common misconception in America in terms of ethanol production is that corn is where the US should maintain its focus for this type of fuel generation. Know that although the US is not an ideal place for growing sugar cane it (along with pretty much every other less-than-arid area) is capable of growing copious amounts of switch grass which, unlike corn, has %100 of the plant used in the generation of ethanol and not just the "fruit." Also, switch grass actively extracts CO2 from the air and pumps it into the soil making for more fertile soil. Corn, on the other hand, needs a lot of fertilizers to help it grow. Switch grass yield per square acre (or hectare...whatever area you measure out in your country...) are double that of corn and, again I'll say, %100 percent of the plant is used to make ethanol.
There are several videos , videos, videos, you can check out that talk about the merits of grass-based ethanol vs. corn ethanol.
It's a concept and technology that more and more small farming operations are adopting. Methane from animal crap and ethanol from switch grass (as opposed to ethanol from corn) and the like are such promising resources that cannot be ignored by the US for much longer simply because of the greater and greater ease of accessibility and cost effectiveness.
The article I linked to at the start of this blog indicates an equivalent production cost per gallon of ethanol in the US between $2 and $3. For those who are not clear on the misleading nature of this statistic, check out Brazil compared to the US and note that not only is the US government subsidizing the US corn-ethanol industry but it's also imposing a pretty hefty tariff per gallon on imported ethanol.
The most common misconception in America in terms of ethanol production is that corn is where the US should maintain its focus for this type of fuel generation. Know that although the US is not an ideal place for growing sugar cane it (along with pretty much every other less-than-arid area) is capable of growing copious amounts of switch grass which, unlike corn, has %100 of the plant used in the generation of ethanol and not just the "fruit." Also, switch grass actively extracts CO2 from the air and pumps it into the soil making for more fertile soil. Corn, on the other hand, needs a lot of fertilizers to help it grow. Switch grass yield per square acre (or hectare...whatever area you measure out in your country...) are double that of corn and, again I'll say, %100 percent of the plant is used to make ethanol.
There are several videos , videos, videos, you can check out that talk about the merits of grass-based ethanol vs. corn ethanol.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
New Technology We All Need
This is absolutely hilarious! I can't wait for the 800GB version!
This is EXACTLY what American consumers should go out and buy to stimulate the economy. ...and hilarity.
This is EXACTLY what American consumers should go out and buy to stimulate the economy. ...and hilarity.
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