"Mad Men" & McCain's Racism, Fresh Hope for Fresh Water, Good Biodiesel News for Ford

I'm going to talk about some frustrations in a minute but for the moment, I just want to shout, "Hurray!" Why? I'll give you a clue, and it's spelled B30.

Automotive Business Review reports that French drivers can now use B30 in a whole wide range of cars built by Peugeot-Citroen. But wait, there's more and that's where it gets exciting. You see the cars that will run on B30 are built by more than just Peugeot and Citroen, because they use motors jointly developed with Ford. In Europe (and Britain) Ford sells ... wait, let me just give you the quote from the Automotive Business Review article: "The news source noted that the 1.4, 1.6, 2.0, 2.2 and 2.7-liter HDi-series diesel engines have been jointly developed by the PSA Peugeot Citroen Group and Ford, and power the UK's best-selling cars like the Ford Focus, S-Max, Mondeo, Fiesta, the Land Rover Freelander and the Mini."

With diesel prices so sky-high in North American now, it may take a while for small diesel engine cars from Ford to catch the public imagination, but certainly the potential is there when the biodiesel becomes more widely available. If biodiesel can also meet the pressure to match declining petrodiesel, or at least if B20 and B30 become more readily available, the prospects are good for selling at least some of these models.

You may recall that I had high, if shocked, praise for the responsiveness of the Congressional Democrats in general and Majority Leader Harry Reid for introducing a bill to limit un-necessary speculation on oil and gas futures. That was a mere couple of weeks ago. This week, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress defeated the bill on the floor of the house.

One might claim that is is not always necessary to spank a misbehaving child to correct its behavior. A word of warning will suffice in most cases. That seems to have been the case with respect to runaway inflation of oil prices in recent weeks. The mere threat of pulling the rug out from under speculators took a good US$20 a barrel off the price on international markets. Not that it lasted very long. Sometimes, if the behavior persists, you have to make a "hard and fast" rule against it. In this case "hard and fast" or "fast and hard" is still my recommendation, even if it is not exactly in the form of Congessman Reid's bill.

Do you ever get so disgusted you just give up? Perhaps that´s even the cause of the phenomenon I have been observing. Perhaps it is just that too many people give up too easily. Certainly too many people give up at the very worst possible time. I'll even feel guilty about talking about this because things have been going so well for me lately.

But that doesn't prevent me from being disgusted it in any case. I only gave up temporarily (and ten years of being "shrunk" by a "shrink" allow me to forgive myself for the these temporary lapses). What, you might ask, is the source of my disgust? It is the absolute decline in the quality of television news coverage. I rely extensively on television to accurately and quickly report to me the important events of the day. Yes, I know, I could read the homepage at CNN.com but I like that synthetic, vicarious interaction with an electronic version of a live person.

My problem at the moment is that television journalism has been so corrupted by commercial influences and attempts to pander to the lowest common denominator (with the glorious few exceptions) that in most cases it is at best infotainment. And as a storyteller myself I am fond of one old journalist's maxim, " Don't spoil a good story by sticking to the facts." But I feel it is proper to hold real, modern journalists to a higher standard. " Facts" are only those items which can be independently verified. And I'd be greatly that in a recent broadcast the newscaster, and presumably is writer and producer, identified financier, Warren Buffett, as the world's wealthiest man. Now, it may well be that the "world's wealthiest man" of a couple of months ago, a communications mogul from Mexico, may have slipped from the top spot due to the recent turmoil on Wall Street and other world markets. It might even be, that this news department has rationalized to themselves that Mr. Buffett's fortunes still belongs to him, whereas Bill Gates' money has already been donated to the Gates Foundation but Mr. Buffett's money has been pledged to the same foundation even if they haven't collected on his pledge. By my calculations that still leaves Mr. Gates wealthier than Mr. Buffett.

It is not, unfortunately, only the media themselves who misrepresent their claims as facts these days. Senator Mccain, in a blatant distortion of all "facts" in the matter has been hammering away on his claim that Senator Obama, "would rather lose a war [in Iraq] to win a political campaign." Senator Obama opposed the war (and I use the term war loosely, since as I'm fond of pointing out only Congress can "declare war") before it ever began, while Senator McCain obligingly voted to authorize the President to send troops to Iraq. Our troops then, promptly, won the war. At that point they set about trying to repair some of the damage. Which at that point became a "pacification" which, without all the political correctness should more properly be called an "occupation". Since the troops' presence was not universally greeted with open arms (as Bush, Cheney and McCain and friends promised) and instead they were being fired on, those responsible continue to call this " war". You cannot win a pacification but you cannot lose one either. The whole trumped up tone is offensive. But it gets worse.

After being told that the Pentagon would consider his whole stop in Germany to be a "campaign trip" if he visited troops at the Landstuhl military hospital, Senator McCain now accuses Senator Obama of simply choosing recreation over caring about wounded troops. He has put out a campaign commercial accusing him of "going to the gym" instead, then uses footage of Senator Obama, indeed playing basketball, WITH THE TROOPS in Afghanistan, as if this "proves" his point. Facts seem to have very little to do with political campaigns these days, at least on one side of the contest.

In his campaign television spot called "The Obama Iraq Documentary:Whatever the Politics Demand," McCain accuses Obama of flip-flopping because he said (before the "surge") that adding troops WOULD NOT SOLVE THE SECTARIAN VIOLENCE, and could even make it worse [because the Iraqi's didn't all object to Saddam Hussein being deposed, but they did, nearly universally, oppose ongoing presence of foreign soldiers occupying Iraq] and after the surge Senator Obama points out [as shown in the commercial] that he had always acknowledged that additional troops could quell the violence against Americans in Iraq because our soldiers do their jobs well. And thus we arrive at the printed announcement in the commercial: "Translation: You're Never Wrong If You Pretend That You Gave The Right Answer All Along."

When practically everything John McCain ever stood for is being tossed out the window in order to appear more acceptable to the Right Wing Conservatives, the Christian Fundamentalists and gay-bashing Family Values folks of the Republican Party, I hardly think that the front lawn of his own glass house is any place to start throwing those kind of accusations.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot to mention the "Celebrity" video McCain's campaign put out. It compares Senator Obama to Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton (both of whom are more famous for their "sexploits" than their talents), which the McCain camp claims is merely an association to imply a celebrity without justification for substance. However, when you consider that both Ms. Spears and Ms. Hilton are at least as famous for their scandalous sex tapes as for any other reason, clearly this campaign spot establishes as its genre promiscuous, blond, white women. Considering Senator McCain's own age and the age demographic that favors him, it seems clearly designed to trigger the reaction in those who still harbor racial prejudice that deep seated fear instilled since childhood that black men are a danger to the chastity and sanctity of "our white women". If you did not see this aspect of the attack on Senator Obama, I congratulate you overcame or were fortunate enough not to be indoctrinated with these horrible attitudes in your youth. I have no idea what percentage of the population still holds these beliefs, but as little as a dozen years ago it was obvious in visiting Dallas and Houston that the assumption of the inferiority of the black people permeated the whole society and was intimately woven into the fabric of business and commerce. Similarly, I've no concrete evidence as to what percentage of America's black population are "sensitive" to this, but it is quite obvious to me that the percentage is large and has already been given voice by at least one or two very vocal black journalists on the MSNBC Network.

Oh, yes, and in case you haven't seen it, another "subtle" (actually subliminal, whether intended or not) pair of elements in these anti-Obama commercials also leap out, to those who watch for such things. In the "Celebrity" ad, the last image is of Senator Obama's face next to a slogan accusing him of responsibility for "more FOREIGN OIL". But the lingering image (after, I must note showing his huge popularity at the German speech before 200,000 people) is the huge word "FOREIGN" next to his face. Pretty clearly they are trying to stir up xenophobic tendencies (still pretty strong in older Americans, and not a lot less in younger Americans from conservative backgrounds from what I am seeing in schools here in Arizona). Fears of his "foreign" looks (he's not "like the other presidents on the dollar bills" as he admits himself, but neither is he "exactly" "black" looking, is he?????) Fears over his "foreign" name (not a good old American name like ... Sha'niqua, or Ra'im, or Tupac, or Jim, or Bob, or especially JimBob either, is it). The expression "dirty pool" comes to my mind but that isn't "dirty" enough to describe this kind of politics. But that's only the most recent incidence. Take a look at this frame grabbed from the "Iraq Documentary" spot in which, with letters missing, admittedly, another attempt to associate Barack Hussein Obama with ... can you guess? "al Qaeda" certainly seems to be implied if you don't spell well, or are more used to "texting" your friends than spelling carefully. Here's the image:







When practically everything John McCain ever stood for is being tossed out the window in order to appear more acceptable to the Right Wing Conservatives, the Christian Fundamentalists and gay-bashing Family Values folks of the Republican Party, I hardly think that the front lawn of his own glass house is any place to start throwing those kind of accusations.

Fareed Zakaria GPS presented some relevant insights this past week from the person of one of his guests named, Irshad Manji. Irshad is one of the most vocal members of the Muslim faith in criticizing the Islamists and fanatical fundamentalists. She is also very intelligent, the author of several books, and a university professor (visiting scholar at NYU). Ms. Manji in analyzing Senator Obama's recent trip to the Middle East and Europe, and in particular his speech in Germany, said that from her point of view it appeared that Senator Obama was capitalizing on a growing recognition around the world, and here are home too, that too many of our problems are based on the same "us" vs. "them" mentality. It has often been pointed out already in this campaign that the dividing point between Obama fans and McCain fans seems to be generational. Not a small part of that is based on the fact that the younger generation tends not to "see" race or skin color, certainly not in the way that it seemed to matter so greatly to previous generations.

Ms. Manji also brought us an insight from her personal experience. She travels frequently to Iraq and in her travels has had many conversations with Iraqis, both Sunni and Shiite. She says that these people tell her that the so-called "surge" was less important than the fact that the people themselves grew tired of the violence and so they confronted the elements of Al Qaeda in their own areas. Meanwhile Senator McCain is making thoroughly confused and conflicting statements about the importance and the starting date of the so-called, " Sunni awakening" in el Anbar province (a significant factor in the success of the " surge"), while maintaining that the injection of additional American troops was the decisive factor. Again political correctness added to a healthy dose of campaign caution seems to prevent everyone from mentioning that the Sunni tribal chieftains in el Anbar were, in effect, hired by the Americans as mercenaries for large amounts of cash to initiate their miraculous change of heart. (Money well spent, in my opinion, in comparison to the billions of US currency that went missing from pallet loads (quite literally) delivered to Baghdad by military aircraft.)

The government of the province of Alberta lives in a somewhat unreal world, not from any malice or misrepresentation, they just have more money than they know what to do with because of the oil royalties they collect. This week they announced a CDN$ 2 Billion program to encourage carbon capture and storage according to Power Engineering International's online version. The "poor" folks of Alberta are expected to have a budget surplus of CND$ 13.5 Billion this year due to the high prices on oil and gas. However they have announced plans to reduce carbon dioxide from large sources by

20 million tons by 2010, 50 million tons by 2020, and 200 million tons by 2050, which should, after allowances for growth, bring pollution levels back to 14 % below 2005 levels. Energy growth requirements quoted in an oil and gas industry television spot I heard recently expect 30% increase in demand in the next 12 years (by 2020). Therefore I would consider an overall net reduction of 14% below levels of 2005 to be a significant accomplishment if they can get it done.

So far that looks like good news to tree nurseries because I have not seen any really promising technological fixes for long term carbon sequestration. I haven't seen any details of the Alberta program yet. Perhaps it will allow for the purchase of four and carbon credits that promote the planted of jatropha curcas, though that would seem to defeat the purpose of decreasing local atmospheric pollution. The one natural and marvelously effective method of sequestering carbon for thousands of years was called 'plate tectonics' in my high school science classes. Calcified bodies of phytoplankton sink to the floor of the oceans when they die (although a great many are added to the food chain when they are eaten, as well) where they become covered with more and more bodies of calcified plankton and eventually turn into limestone under the pressure of water and thousands more years of sediments above it. At that point, assuming they are not suddenly thrust up to become mountains near the edge of some continent, these stoney little calcium carbonate skeletons eventually are "subtended", that is, they slide under some adjacent continental tectonic plate and are melted back into the swirling magma in the mantle of the earth's core from whence all igneous rocks come.

According to reporter John Cook of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer it has been another couple of bad weeks for Imperium Renewables. Although the Grays Harbor facility is still operating, corporate headquarters was hit with significant layoffs. Mr. Cooke also says in his report that a radio station in Hawaii has reported Imperium Renewables is not proceeding with construction of their Hawaiian facility but plans instead to ship biodiesel from their Seattle area plant. It saddens me that this temporary decline has hit them so hard.

I also received an announcement of the appointment of a President and CEO for a company called International Energy (based in New Jersey). I don't normally get all that excited about such press releases, but in this case, there may be something important behind this one. You see, the new President/CEO is Mr. Gregory O'Reilly, whose experience in product development in Europe lead to a couple of awards in the Netherlands, but he also worked with the University of Arizona's Environmental Research Lab. Mr. Reilly is quoted in the press release as saying, "I´m especially eager to capitalize on our unique ability to rapidly grow algae which produce the right blend of hydrocarbons, and to commercially exploit our novel OilFlow™ extraction technology – the only system of its kind which allows us to constantly re-use the same algae feedstock because oils are removed without crushing, pressing, or harming the plant biomass."

emphasis mine] The OilFlow™ extraction process was first announced last January, but frankly failed to capture my attention at that time because it was buried in discussions of several challenges facing the company including nutrient delivery systems (which they claim to have solved) and identifying suitable algae strains (which they also claim to have developed - a proprietary strain, they say). They did not make clear that their OilFlow™ process removed the oils, "without crushing, pressing or harming the plant biomass," in that January press item.

Now, this strategy seems risky to me: returning algae, stripped of oil, back to the growth environment. As the company points out, this could reduce regeneration time, but that ain't necessarily so, because even if they are not "harmed" in the sense of physical damage, the cell structures themselves may prove to show signs of stress (physical, mental and emotional, too, potentially) that slows their growth rate. Don't believe me about the "stress" experienced by plants? Well, don't take my word for it, my friend (and my wife's friend) Robin Pokorski, who is President of the Association of California Garden Clubs (as well as editor of one of the local club newsletters) has an epigrammatic saying about the results of transplanting most plants, "Sleep, creep, leap." This is a memory mnemonic to remind garden club members to be patient with transplants. Although the specific amount of time required by each plant varies, this sleep, creep, leap pattern happens over about one year for each phase. The first year after transplant you can't expect to see virtually any "growth". The second year, a little progress as it goes through it's "creep" stage, until finally in the third year, especially if you have transplanted to more favorable conditions of rich soil, good sunlight, good drainage and plenty of water, the plant (tree) will put on a spurt of growth like it suddenly remembered how large it should be after three years and makes up for lost time.

Okay, okay, I am anthropomorphizing the trees a little bit too much. Let's not have people start naming their single-celled algae and talking about cruelty to phytoplankton on their blogs, please. But the original point was that depending on exactly how the oils are removed, subsequent growth may not be at as robust a rate as for newly "born" cells from normal growth and cell division. I remain unconvinced that this is significantly better, especially when you consider that the "shells" of burst algae after oil extraction still contain substantial quantities of carbohydrates (sugars and starches) that could be fermented into alcohol to make the biodiesel process more self-sufficient in isolated locations or just to add to your gas tank if you've got a 'flex fuel' vehicle. Beyond that, the remainder of the algae after the fermenting process is roughly the equivalent of "distillers' grains", and still could be used as cattle feed. The economics of all of this do have capital cost implications, of course, but the productivity of the little single-celled plant is quite amazing.

Not so much amazing, but potentially a breakthrough is the discovery by University of Texas at Austin working with Virginia Tech of a new sulfonated copolymer desalination membrane that is not rapidly degraded by the chlorine added to seawater in the desalination process. It seems that the chlorine is not just needed as a general disinfectant but also specifically to prevent formation of a "biofilm" that affects the efficiency of the polymide membranes currently in use. Since the old type of membranes break down rapidly because of the chlorination, it has to be dechlorinated again before the desalination membrane is encountered adding both time and expense. The new formulation for the membrane could be a significant step to providing fresh water to the world at an unprecedented cheap rate.

Turning now to lighter news, let's talk about something old. This is old in several senses of that term because it is a television series from last season, and from an unlikely source, but it is also somewhat of a surprise to be a sudden hit after it has been on the air for a full season, especially because it is set in the 1950's. And I don't mean those "cute" '50's of Happy Days (not that I didn't enjoy chuckling at the Fonz and friends)(in fact I took classes at UCLA from a couple of the producers, Bob Boyett and Chris Thompson, long after the series had ended). The "Fifties" in this series is so accurately portrayed that you can hardly see the characters for the cigarette smoke. Not everyone in the 1950's smoked, but just about everyone on Madison Avenue did. Competing tobacco companies were one of the main economic engines on Madison Avenue in those days. Indeed one of the episodes centered on the crisis created by the fact that the Surgeon General had declared that cigarette companies could no longer claim "health benefits" in their advertising, and the Mad Men of Madison Avenue are initially at a loss trying to come up with an effective alternative strategy. The AMC cable movie channel produces this original series with richly dimension characters, especially well written and females (despite 1950s social expectations limiting women to mostly vapid and passive roles), and myriad plotting possibilities. The series stars Jon Hamm has Don Draper, Creative Director for the agency with a murky past; John Slattery as Roger Sterling, a partner in the Sterling Cooper Ad Agency; Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell, society scion and unscrupulously ambitious young account executive; January Jones as Betty Draper, suburban housewife and mother of two, Don's beautiful and faithful wife; Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway, the agency's sexy Office Manager; Rosemarie Dewitt as Midge Daniels, a bohemian art illustrator who is Don draper's free-spirited lover; Robert Morse (appropriately, the star of the original Broadway production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying) as wise but wacky, Senior Partner Bertram Cooper; Maggie Siff as Rachel Mencken, an agency client and owner of a Jewish department store, and another star-crossed lover of, you guessed it, Mr. Don Draper; and last, but by no means least, a favorite of ours as an alumnus of West Wing (she played the President's Daughter on that show), Elizabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, the "new girl" at the start of the series, she gets promoted to be a junior copywriter, and has a "shocking" event at the end of Season One of the show. Season TWO has already begun on AMC. Critics all over are raving, so if you get it, don't miss it (and catch up on episodes on the website if you miss one, or follow along if you don't receive the AMC channel). The whole first season was re-broadcast recently, but you can pick it up on DVD at Amazon or your local video store.

Love and warm wishes,

Stafford "Doc" Williamson

Did I ever mention that I have written a couple of books?

http://winfotech.com/books/