Biodiesel Energy Penalty, Obama+Gates+Cops=Stupidity, IceAge, Taxing Home Biodiesel, Dead Tree Lit.

Newspaper publishers are in trouble, and believe it or not, that is a good thing!

Forest Fairies and Publishing Pixies

Let's not start off on the wrong foot. I did not say that I want newspaper publishers to be in trouble, and I am fairly certain that in most cases I don't want them to fail either. There has been no shortage of newspapers that have ceased to publish in the last few years, but that is one of the reasons occasional economic downturns are a good thing in the long run. Like an exceptionally hard winter being a factor in the natural selection process, thinning the population of deer which results, rather quickly, in a thinning of the population of wolves who prey on them, so economic hard times see the demise of some of the less swift and nimble in the business world. In the case of newspapers closing down their printing operations that is a healthy thing for the planet by reducing demand for paper, which means fewer softwood trees need to be cut, and we can maintain a slightly higher percentage of our forests.

What this decline in newspaper publishing seems to be pointing toward is a revolution in the way we get news. I know that at my house we stopped subscribing to the local newspaper over 12 years ago. It was partly because at that time there was no newspaper recycling available in our town, but partly just that we barely ever read more than a page of two of the content anyway. You don't need some "official" conversion rate table to know that a stack of a whole year of newspapers is going to be as tall as a pretty mature tree. Times one per household is a lot of wood. Newspapers are going to have to learn new "tricks" to put information, good solid, reliable information in front of us each day, and they are going to have to do it via electronic means, and still manage to make a profit. It is not that difficult. Google makes a lot of money without filtering out the reliable information from the unreliable ranting and propaganda and just plain drivel. But imagine for a few minutes how popular a web portal could be if you could clearly see the reliable source tree of information. CNN has established this kind of reputation, and is already one of the most visited places on the internet. Certainly it is considered among the most reliable sources of news information anywhere. (You may recall that US forces were getting the most reliable and immediate information from Baghdad during the Iraq war by listening to CNN's reporters, better, they said than all their spotter planes, satellites or any other means.)

Newspapers need to learn to do that too. It is, I think, important because traditions of excellence in journalism will die if left to the "info-tainment" divisions of major television networks, unless newspaper publishers learn to survive in this new electronic publishing environment.

Wasting Money AND Trees

I had the great good fortune that as a young man, while still a student, I came in contact with a number of really remarkable people. Several of them became nationally known figures in their fields, a few are even internationally renowned. My best friend from high school actually "invented" the whole genre of publishing known as "print-on-demand" that has given rise to the explosion of self-published authors. Bruce T. Batchelor us one of the smartest people I know, and he has seen an alarming trend in the book publishing business (not just the self-publishing area) that he thinks needs to be remedied. It was one of those, "it seemed like a good idea at the time," things that came about largely as a "stimulus" plan to boost publishers out of the 1930's era economic depression, it was essentially what turned bookstores into "concession resellers" ever since. Allow me to let Bruce tell you himself in the video below:







Some quotes are too good to pass up.

Bill Maher, host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, had a column in the Huffington Post website on Friday. His general point was that in days gone by, there were institutions in America that existed strictly for the public good. Bill's example, probably taken from his own history somewhere, was that if, in those days, a kid broke an ankle his parents took him to the local Catholic hospital, where a nurse stuck a thermometer in his mouth, a doctor slapped some plaster on to form a cast, the family paid about $1.50 and they went home, WITH the thermometer. Now hospitals are megabucks profit machines, over 600 of which, Bill says, are owned by the top three hospital operating companies, one of which, HCA, was founded by the family of Senator Bill Frist (R, Tenn.). He, Bill says, " perfectly represents the Republican attitude toward health care: it's not a right, it's a racket."

But a little closer to home, Mr. Maher himself being a television host, he noted that along with all the tributes to the fine quality of news brought to us by Walter Cronkite, that those bemoaning his passing also bemoaned the passing of that kind of news coverage quality. In this case the proverbial 900 pound gorilla in the room was the one sitting in the networks' headquarters who decided that because higher news ratings brought more revenue that they "should" be profit oriented. In Cronkite's heyday they were "loss leaders" to draw you to a particular network or station to see that lineup of programming (usually at least "mentioned" with promos during or after the news broadcast). "In Uncle Walter's time, the news division was a loss leader. Making money was the job of The Beverly Hillbillies. And now that we have reporters moving to Alaska to hang out with the Palin family, the news is The Beverly Hillbillies."

We Need a Little Less and A Few Fewer

Regular readers (if there are any) of my column know that I am a big fan of President Obama, (and I wish that the people in the news media would stop calling him, "Mister Obama", I don't remember a single instance of a national network news anchor person calling President Reagan, "Mr. Reagan", do you?) Okay, returning from that side trip into, "maybe black Presidents don't get as much respect as white Presidents," perhaps? I don't believe he makes a lot of mistakes. Frankly he did make a very public mistake on the issue of speaking out about the arrest of his friend, Professor Louis Gates, of Harvard University. Now whether he "should" or "should not" have backed down on his description of the actions of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police actually putting Professor Gates under arrest as acting "stupidly" is a level of complexity I don't want to address at this time (and so I probably never will). Still, the whole incidence is a clear indicator that we need a lot less testosterone on our streets and in our society in general. Being a professor at Harvard is no small accomplishment, but I have a nephew who taught at Harvard and I know that he doesn't have the kind of inflated opinion of his own importance in the world that Professor Gates apparently does. This, supposedly, "prominent" scholar was unknown to me at the time of his arrest. He certainly not as well known as Cornel West, or Maurice Rabb (1932-2005), or Neil deGrasse Tyson, all names with which I was familiar, at least passingly. Both he and the policeman felt they were not receiving the respectful treatment they felt was due them, and as testosterone levels rose, the one person with the responsibility to behave in a manner that promoted peace (the "peace officer" aka "policeman") escalated rather than deflated, and turned a battle of egos into an arrest.

As it happens, one of Bill Maher's guest on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher this week read the actual statute which Gates was charged with violating, and it specified that "disturbing the peace" was specifically designated as acts which took place, "in public", not in a person's home, even if the door was open. But, as has generally been agreed so far, both parties were less than cordial. Professor Gates reactions however seems to have been accredited to the fairly typical fear that has been a burden of African-Americans for many generations, that they were always (and must be) afraid that they would be treated unjustly by law enforcement. Since we have now learned that the officer in question had been hand-picked to teach other officers lessons on racial sensitivity, one almost has to believe that Professor Gates fear and (over-) reactions were unjustified. Apparently Professor Gates has not learned a lesson that President Obama seems to have mastered, whether or not he is aware of it.

What does the President know that the Professor does not? The President knows that if you expect to be treated in a certain way it is more likely that you will be treated that way than if you expect some other kind of reaction. If you base your interactions on resentment of past offense committed against you, or worse yet, committed historically in the past against a group to which you may be considered or consider yourself a member, chances are VERY good that your own attitude will be something you cannot completely conceal. Consciously or unconsciously, your voice, your body language and your whole demeanour will convey your attitude to those around you. It might be posturing in front of your peers while attending a high school football game, or at a board meeting where you are resentful of being passed over being promoted from VP to Executive Vice President where you are trying NOT to show it, but those around you will be able to "read" your attitude.

The election of President Obama has a clear message that fewer people see a racial divide in the country, especially fewer white people. Remember that "blacks" are a minority segment of US population so that even if a significant proportion of that group still sees the world through a filter of "race relations" and the perspective of a long history of injustice, they, as a group, are becoming a lesser factor in the lives of African-Americans in general. My Auntie Nancy used to say that, "Nobody looks more attractive when they dress with a chip on their shoulder." I am pleased to see that there are fewer and fewer of them, but we NEED a few fewer still. We need more people who don't ask if someone is "black enough", and a lot more people who are colorblind when it comes to either "race" or skin.

Widows and Orphans Funding

I don't know the marital status of Judith Lewis, but I know that the Volkswagen she is driving recently became an orphan. That is to say that her favorite source for biodiesel fuel suddenly stopped selling it. Ms. Lewis reports via the LA Times website that Conserv Fuel in West Los Angeles has emptied its tanks of the pure stuff and her car is going thirsty since the Water Resources Control Board of California started enforcing their ruling that biodiesel cannot be stored underground until adequate testing has been performed to reassure them that it is "safe" to do so. I had reported on this previously [May 11, 2009], but I don't remember seeing the comparison that Ms. Lewis used which is that biodiesel is less toxic than maple syrup, it breaks down faster than sugar. It was only 2 years ago that then Senator Obama stood on the property of Conserv Fuel, praising them as a pioneer in the alternative energy efforts.

Fortunately, the Water Resources Control Board, in its infinite wisdom, has left an intentional loophole which allows up to 20% blends of biodiesel to be stored underground and sold in this way, according to Ms. Lewis. I am sorry to have to inform Ms. Lewis that she will have to "make do" with the 20% variety until and unless some local fuel vendor makes the extraordinary effort to install above ground storage. Testing is expected to take about 3 years. And I would also suggest that Ms. Lewis enthusiastically support the richest blend she can find as much as she can if she wants a purer form of biodiesel to return. The actual biodegradability of biodiesel costs an energy content penalty against other formulations that more exactly mimic petroleum based diesel, so if she wants to get back to 100% biodegradable biodiesel, she needs to support the manufacturers of the blendstock that produce the B20 or B10 or B5 or whatever is allow as best she can right now. Otherwise it could disappear altogether in favor of other types that have biomass sources, but not the environmentally friendly biodegradable characteristics of biodiesel.

There Oughta Be a Law

I'm not so libertarian at heart that I always think that the fewer laws we have the better off we'll be. Sometimes we really do need another law, or at least an addition to the IRS code. [Yipes, I never thought I'd say that about the tax code, which is already more convoluted than the Mississippi River.] But in this case, fairness would be served, and the alternative fuel industry given a small nod of approval if small producers of biofuels were given an exemption from filling out the multi-page forms and paying taxes as a fuel producer. I think that point would be in accord with Michael Dappert's article on the subject. Michael, who is also a provider of wireless internet services to small towns in West Central Illinois, was advocating more decentralized energy production by, well, everyone, when he also noted that: "Interestingly enough, a man in Central Illinois was fined by the Department of Revenue for producing biodiesel. They said he had not paid fuel taxes on his production. Now they want him to fill out a monthly multipage form just like a major refinery." Isn't that exactly what we don't need? A mountain of paperwork, and then the effrontery of being taxed to produce your own fuel when the rest of the country is spending taxpayers´ money at a tremendous rate to try to get independent of foreign producers and to break the addiction to petroleum based fuels?

Sometimes, there really ought to be a law that makes sense.

Savoy London, Tops in Class

The Savoy Hotel in London (England) has long been a standard of luxury and benchmark of a true first class hotel. Not only has that not changed now that it is part of the Fairmont chain of hotels that stretch from there to the Canadian Rocky Mountains and the Arizona Desert, but 22 of the chain's hotels have partnered with local firms to recycle kitchen grease into biodiesel fuel. It is not a monumental amount, but from a symbolic value it serves to remind those who don't suffer much from the down sides of economic cycles that even the best of us needs to care for the rest of us when it comes to climate change and energy independence. The Scottsdale Fairmont reportedly recycled about 1900 gallons last year (2008) which is not a huge contribution to the national effort to switch toward more environmentally friendly fuels, but for instance the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel works with local students to produce biodiesel that runs equipment for the local golf course. Debra Patterson, a spokesperson for the London Savoy, currently closed and undergoing a major renovation, hopes to be the, "most environmentally responsible hotel in London." Not only kitchen grease but organic wastes are being sent to a "biomass-to-energy" firm where Patterson hopes they will produce enough energy to be the equivalent to that used by 10% of guest rooms at the hotel.

Of course, the Fairmont chain hopes to benefit from the greening of its corporate image. Passengers in the shuttle buses at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise are shown a DVD about the grease recycling and other green efforts around the hotel. World Wildlife Fund has also accepted Fairmont into its "Climate Savers" program for their relatively comprehensive program of energy conservation, waste recycling, water conservation and community outreach. For more information you might want to see Fairmont's own version of their story at WWW.FAIRMONT.COM/ENVIRONMENT/.

Rearranging History - Just for Fun

In the midst of all this talk about global warming it is almost refreshing to be able to talk about an Ice Age, though in this case it is a movie called Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs the third animated Ice Age movie. Nay, more than refreshing, it was a barrel of laughs, and I am talking about a whole barrel of monkeys´ worth of laughs here. Now, mind you, these days I am also nearly laughing my head off at the trailer for G-Force the major box office hit of this weekend, but our old friends from the prior 2 films don't disappoint, and at least one new character is an instant charmer, too.

This story involves maternity on the part of several characters Ellie is pregnant, Manny is nervous (which is a whole lot of nervous since these parents are wooly mammoths), Sid, the green giant sloth is eager to become a parent too, so adopts (steals) some eggs that turn out to be dinosaur eggs. Even though Manny points out, early in the movie, that dinosaurs are extinct, they nevertheless have some fairly exciting and amusing adventures trying to retrieve their friend and "herd" member when the Mamma T-Rex carries Sid and her three babies (who call Sid "mamma") to an undiscovered underground world filled with dinosaurs and other strange creatures. Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, and Dennis Leary demonstrate the same eloquent comic timing of the prior two pictures in the series, while the new-coming charmer is an Australian accented weasel (with a Captain Ahab type obsession with capturing/defeating the largest dinosaur in the jungle, "Rudy") [Yeah, I know, "Rudy" isn't exactly a terrifying name, which is what Ray Romano's character pointed out, with a line that went approximately, "Gee, I'm glad he hasn't got one of those really scary names, like 'Sheldon'!"] The new character is named, "Buck, short for Buckminster". He carries a dinosaur-tooth knife, and behaves rather like one of the lunatic grunts from either McHale's Navy, or Sergeant Bilko who has promoted himself to commando leader. Voiced by Simon Pegg he is a scene stealer, or would be if the rest of the cast wasn't so well portrayed by the returning stars.

Happy thought time

To be honest I don't know if anyone has ever provided real world proof that "green roof" benefits actually help much with reducing all of the heat island effect when a city's downtown area is stuffed with high-rise office and apartment complexes, or even when compared to the overall area of rooftops, streets, parking lots and sidewalks that rooftop gardens are really significant to managing rain water runoff. Granted the intensity of light (and heat) imparted by the slanted rays of morning and early evening sun are less intense than those of the noon hour when they shine most directly on the roof, but even then some of the sides of most buildings are receiving incoming contributions that contribute to the thermal loading. On the other hand, in most cases a few tons of dirt and plants on the roof is not much more than the snow-load of a fairly heavy snow day, so most rooves are not in any great danger of collapsing.

One place where we know snow loadings of the roof are already being calculated into buildings is in Canada, so I am proud to say that the city of Toronto to get an ordinance passed requiring rooftop greening, and they did. Now there is lots of whining and moaning among developers, who are raising small bands of roving, disgruntled tenants who may not wish to pay for operating and maintenance costs. However, the deed is done. New buildings MUST have at least 20% and possibly up to 60% of roof area planted as roof garden of some sort if the total floor area you build is more than 20,000 sq. ft.

Now some Americans are pointing Northward to this example of ecological responsibility by a municipal government and hoping to shame local governments into following suit.

Love and warm wishes,

Sincerely,

Stafford "Doc" Williamson

President

http://daochienergy.com