Re: [Biofuel] ethanol method

[Ken Provost]

On Jan 25, 2006, at 11:00 AM, Blas Antonio Guanes wrote:


>  the problem is that, methanol costs 4 $ and pure ethanol
> for car costs 0.52 $, NaOH is gotten in any part.. KOH is
> sold in bags of 25  kilos for soap industry.. Here in Paragua
> it is difficult to get chemical products. for that reason I want
> know how I can make with oil, ethanol and NaOH


Have you tried dissolving NaOH in pure anhydrous ethanol? It is
difficult. If you can dissolve the required amount (perhaps by
boiling the ethanol/NaOH mixture under reflux), you could possibly
make biodiesel out of very clean dry oil. If you only use 3.5g NaOH
per liter of oil, or if your ethanol or oil contain any water, you will
probably never achieve separation of a glycerine phase. All your
ingredients go into a clear solution, and just stay that way forever.
Until glycerine separates, you don't have biodiesel.

-K

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Re: [Biofuel] water, ethanol and gasoline

[Ken Provost]

-
On Jan 25, 2006, at 9:54 AM, Mark Kennedy wrote:


>
> When 160 proof ethanol and gasoline are mixed, what happens?
> does the gasoline mix with the ethanol and the water separate out
> from the ethanol and fall to the bottom?



It's complicated. do a Google search on "ternary phase diagram
ethanol water gasoline".  With enough ethanol in the mix (>70%
by weight), any combination of gasoline and water will combine with
the ethanol into a single phase. As the ethanol drops below the 70%
level, an aqueous phase separates from the gasoline if the water
fraction exceeds a small value. The exact amount of ethanol needed
to keep a small amount of water dissolved in the gasoline depends
sensitively on the amount of water. Once phase separation occurs,
the proportion of ethanol that stays in the gasoline versus separating
out with the water depends on the amounts of the three constituents.

The phase diagram will make this clear.



-K

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Re: [Biofuel] water, ethanol and gasoline

[Derick Giorchino]

You were right in the first assumption water and alcohol mix to make a
flammable blend not as good B T U  value as gasoline but much much better
that water. Then the water/alcohol mix will blend with the gas thus
dewatering the fuel in the tank. It is possible to use isopropyl ethanol or
methanol to accomplish the same results.

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark Kennedy
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:55 AM
To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: [Biofuel] water, ethanol and gasoline

I have read much information that indicates ethanol has to be a higher proof
(180+?) if it is to be mixed with gasoline.  The reasoning given is that
gasoline does not mix with water.  I have been in the auto parts business
for years and we sell gasoline additives that claim to remove moisture from
the gasoline.  I just checked one of these additives and it has a principle
ingredient of Isopropyl Alcohol.

I always assumed that ethanol would mix with water and gasoline to form one
compound that would burn.  But, after reading some of the ethanol material,
i realize that i must be mistaken.

When 160 proof ethanol and gasoline are mixed, what happens?  does the
gasoline mix with the ethanol and the water separate out from the ethanol
and fall to the bottom?

Why would isopropyl alcohol behave differently than ethanol?

Why has our country converged on E85 as the alternative fuel of choice for
gasoline vehicles?  Is there any positive benefit from the gasoline added
the ethanol, other than denaturing it?

thanks
-Mark


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Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home generator, input appreciated

[Mark Kennedy]

Thanks, Darryl and Zeke!  Great information.

I agree, now, about the automotive batteries.  not good for long term use
but i may use a few to test things, at first.  hate to invest much money
till i see how it will work.

I AM on the grid, in a densely populated neighborhood.  (try to find a
neighborhood, in Houston, which is not...)  It's a good size home and is
larger than we really need.  we want to sell soon, so we can get a smaller,
more efficient, home.  We currently use a lot of power, in the summer.
Central air unit can run round the clock during hot months.  Not uncommon to
have mid 90 to 100+ degree temps with 100% humidity.  Sometimes when I go
out at night around midnight it is still 80 degrees out, and i start to
sweat immediately.  We also have an electric range for cooking.. which is
not good but we probably won't convert to gas before we sell.

My thoughts were to have a backup power supply (batteries) that I can charge
whenever i have fuel and then switch over to them either in an emergency or
when we don't have to run the air conditioner.  would probably do this at
night while we sleep.  at that time the only power requirements would be
minimal lighting, circulating fan/gas heater on the central air unit,
refrigerator, gas hot water heater, alarm system, etc...  Of course, when
power goes out, we will conserve and sweat like pigs.. :)

This is why I originally wanted to get the used ~45kw diesel generator.
With that baby I could just flip to switch, run the house even with air
conditioner, and save the expense of whatever time I spent off the meter.
Also, wouldn't have to wire into specific circuits, just put power to the
whole thing.  Just too far out of our budget, right now.

Another benefit of developing the backup system is that it should give the
whole family a better idea of what goes into creating the power, so we
should all become more conservative.  ie.. if i'm making bd to run a
generator/alternator then i will involve the whole family.

Another reason i want to get into bd is to determine if we want to sell our
gasoline vehicles and buy diesels?

What I really need to do, first, i guess is to start making the bd.  Then
some of my concerns will be addressed.

Another reason for my interest and involvement in all of this... and this is
the biggy... we want to get out of houston, move someplace safer, with a
cooler climate and less population.  Hopefully my experiments now will help
guide us to a wiser purchase decision, later, which will be much more
environmentally friendly and we will stop being part of the problem and
become part of the solution.

thanks, again!
-Mark


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Zeke Yewdall
> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 10:45 AM
> To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
> Subject: Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home
> generator,input appreciated
>
>
> Good info Darryl.  A few additions.
>
> >
> > There is not much gain from using 24 volts vs. 12 volts as the "native"
> > voltage.
> >
>
> Actually, almost all off grid houses use 48 volts nowadays.  Cheaper
> since equipment is usually limited by the amperage it can take, and if
> you have a 10kW inverter bank, the cable and circuit breaker sizes are
> just rediculous at 12 volts.
>
>
> > The additional weight
> > will affect the performance and fuel economy of your vehicle adversely.
> >   One possible positive is if you can place the battery weight near the
> > drive wheels of a vehicle with traction issues (e.g., pickup trucks in
> > snow/ice conditions).
>
> In the the recent solar decathlon competition, each of those houses
> used between 4,000 and 7,000 lbs of batteries in order to sustain the
> "american lifestyle".
>
> > However, using a 200 hp engine (at a guess) to drive an alternator or
> > two, likely rated at less than 1 hp each seems a less than ideal
>
> The Chevy luv uses an isuzu engine rated at 62 HP.  If running at idle
> or maybe 1,400rpm instead of 3,500rpm, it's probably about 15 or 20HP?
>  Backwoodssolar has some guidelines for how much horsepower for
> certain alternator sizes.  I think it's around 5HP for a normal 50 amp
> 12 volt alternator.
>
> > arrangement for charging batteries to run an average load (household
> > power) of 1 or 2 kilowatts (with peaks to 15-20 kilowatts possible).
> > The latter figure (peak load) will likely define how big an inverter you
> > will need, and they get pricey fast above 2 kW.
>
> Back in the early 90's a 2kW inverter was considered luxury for off
> grid houses.  Nowadays I see a 7.2kW or 8kW set of inverters most
> often.  I get by fine with 1kW.  It all depends on how used to the
> "american lifestyle" you are and what you can give up.
>
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>
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> http://jour

Re: [Biofuel] Fw: The Indigo Evolution

[Marylynn Schmidt]

There are several schools and camps in both the United States and England 
that have been set up by individuals seeking to help these children to:

..(1st) be with their own kind and come to understand that their abilities 
are not those abilities of a freak.

..(2nd) learn to control, enhance, work with, become accustom to, while 
working with other children who have the same and/or similar abilities.

To my knowledge these schools have no state and/or government connection.

James Twyman, while writing some interesting books expressing some of these 
"merging" concepts, is .. in my opinion .. an excellent source of a "general 
overall" idea of what is going on .. but not a good source if you want some 
serious ideas.

I would also suggest that the idea of the Indigo Evolution may be exactly 
that .. evolution .. and we are the ones who will be left behind.

.. just think .. in a millennium or two down the road the charts will hold 
our pictures maybe a step or two up from the hairy guy with the club.

That will only be insulting to those of us who are overly impressed with our 
own self importance.

Mary Lynn
Mary Lynn Schmidt
ONE SPIRIT ONE HEART
TTouch . Animal Behavior Modification . Behavior Problems . Ordained 
Minister .
Pet Loss Grief Counseling . Radionics . Dowsing . Nutrition . Homeopathy . 
Herbs. . Polarity . Reiki . Spiritual Travel
The Animal Connection Healing Modalities
http://members.tripod.com/~MLSchmidt/





>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Reply-To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
>To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
>Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Fw: The Indigo Evolution
>Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 20:29:56 GMT
>
>Some autistic people are brilliant in some areas and called retarded in 
>others.
>Dustin Hoffman played such a person in the movie "Rain Man," based on a
>true person.  An example is a 19 year old youth I met in an autistic 
>school.
>When they tried to get him to read first grade level words, he could barely 
>do
>it, but if he was given college level texts in physics of advanced 
>mathematics,
>he would devour them, then miss nothing in the exams they gave him
>afterwards.
>
>I was told that many autistic people who can't speak are able to 
>communicate
>with thoughts instead of words. A mother of one of the students at the 
>autistic
>school said she had tried this with some of the students and it worked
>amazingly well. They seemed thrilled to be able to move out of the 
>isolation
>they felt  when trying to communicate with people who rely only on words.
>
>Also, someone told me there is an indigo children community in Ashland,
>Oregon where people bring children to develop psychic and intellectual
>abilities. Has anyone heard of it?
>
>Marilyn
>
>Biofuel@sustainablelists.org wrote:
>On 1/23/06, Marylynn Schmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Michael
> >
> > I was lead to believe that the autism diagnosis was a mis-diagnosis and
>used
> > only because the doctors/educators did not know what to do with them.
>
>Actually my son has PDD Pervasice Development Disorder. Autism has
>come to represent a spectrum of diagnosis's. As the Disorders are
>being understood the are begining to seperate.
>
> > I was also lead to believe that these children normally do not speak 
>much
> > before 4 years of age and then they begin with full sentences.
>
>Again not all children under the autism spectrum meet this criteria.
>Some do and some do not. Then those with the delay are often unable to
>fully express concepts such as feelings.
>
>snip
>
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>
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>messages):
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>



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[Biofuel] ethanol method

[Blas Antonio Guanes]

thanks,
  but the problem is that, methanol costs 4 $ and pure ethanol 
for car costs 0.52 $, NaOH is gotten in any part.. KOH is sold in bags of 25 
kilos for soap industry.. Here in Paraguay it is difficult to get chemical 
products. for that reason I want know how I can make with oil, ethanol and 
NaOH

In the archives  I read that one can using a meth - eth cricker but 
economically it is not possible.. Is some form of making without using 
methanol?

_
Descubre la descarga digital con MSN Music. Más de un millón de canciones. 
http://music.msn.es/


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[Biofuel] water, ethanol and gasoline

[Mark Kennedy]

I have read much information that indicates ethanol has to be a higher proof
(180+?) if it is to be mixed with gasoline.  The reasoning given is that
gasoline does not mix with water.  I have been in the auto parts business
for years and we sell gasoline additives that claim to remove moisture from
the gasoline.  I just checked one of these additives and it has a principle
ingredient of Isopropyl Alcohol.

I always assumed that ethanol would mix with water and gasoline to form one
compound that would burn.  But, after reading some of the ethanol material,
i realize that i must be mistaken.

When 160 proof ethanol and gasoline are mixed, what happens?  does the
gasoline mix with the ethanol and the water separate out from the ethanol
and fall to the bottom?

Why would isopropyl alcohol behave differently than ethanol?

Why has our country converged on E85 as the alternative fuel of choice for
gasoline vehicles?  Is there any positive benefit from the gasoline added
the ethanol, other than denaturing it?

thanks
-Mark


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[Biofuel] Adventures in Composting

[robert luis rabello]

Hello everyone!

I like what my power shredder does to the organic material around my 
property, but I HATE operating the thing.  It's hard to start, bogs 
easily and burns an awful lot of fuel for such a small engine . . .

Anyway, here's the gist of my post for today.  Using the "power 
compost" method I find that I have way more compost in a relatively 
short time than I've ever had available before.  I put shredded 
material (mostly cuttings from our garden and vegetable stems that are 
tough) into the top of my plastic composter and unload material from 
the bottom.  (We also put in all of our kitchen scraps, and the waste 
from our bunny cage.)  It gets warm, compared to the atmosphere around 
it, but I think it's still too wet to really get hot.  (And once the 
weather turned cool, I stopped putting "organic compost enhancement 
liquid" on the pile.)  When I shovel compost from the bottom of the 
bin, it has a sweet, earthy smell to it and aside from the remnants of 
straw residue (which doesn't break down very well, even after it's 
gone through the shredder) the resulting compost is VERY dark in 
color.  I've been dumping the compost from the bottom of the bin into 
a larger pile that simply sits next to the composter, then when I'm 
ready to put compost on my plants, I turn the large pile over and 
remove material from the bottom that looks like dark, loamy soil.

The sweet smell intrigues me.  I wonder if perhaps we have too much 
carbohydrate in our diets . . .

My compost is NOT getting hot enough to kill seeds, though.  I've 
noticed that the occasional bean dumped into the compost will sprout. 
  One thing that astonished me today, however, is that a cantaloupe 
shell that my sweetheart threw out has virtually disintegrated after 
about two weeks in the pile!  Also, as I was removing material from 
the compost bin, I went through several shovel loads that seemed to 
contain more earthworms than organic material.  We've been steadily 
increasing the worm population around here for the last few years, but 
I don't recall EVER seeing so many worms in our compost!  (Lots of 
centipedes, too!)

Once all the rain stops, I'll do dormant spray on my trees.  I have 
two peach trees planted on the north-facing side of my property that 
started life as seedlings last summer.  They seem to be doing well, 
but they're both COVERED in green algae.  I think I'm going to have to 
move them to the western side of the house where they'll get more 
sunlight and hopefully dry out.  I really love eating fruit, but I've 
had terrible luck with fruit trees.  One day I hope to better 
understand how to grow them, and I hope my efforts won't kill off the 
ones I have!


robert luis rabello
"The Edge of Justice"
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca

Ranger Supercharger Project Page
http://www.members.shaw.ca/rabello/


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Re: [Biofuel] gearing up to produce biodiesel

[Mark Kennedy]

Wow!  Thanks, Keith.  Great information.

The design I was referring to is Dale Scroggin's design.  Thanks for jogging
my memory.  Thanks, Dale for sharing!  the name Michael must have come from
my son.  i have been working in his computer a lot, lately.

You wrote:
> Why do you want to use copper pipe? Copper reacts with vegetable oil.
Really?  did not know that.. ty.  In the pic of Dale's system, it looks like
he used copper pipe for the condenser used to recover some of the methanol.
Also, I am gathering materials to construct a still.  Want to mess around
with producing ethanol a bit, also.  Both of our vehicles are flex-fuel
vehicles, so I would love to be able to make fuel to supplement our usage.
That reminds me of another topic involving water, ethanol, and gasoline.
but will make that another topic.

thanks, Keith!
-Mark

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Keith Addison
> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 10:31 AM
> To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
> Subject: Re: [Biofuel] gearing up to produce biodiesel
>
>
> Hello Mark
>
> >My brother and I are starting to gather materials for producing
> biodiesel.
> >he just called me to tell me that he picked up an old used 30 gal water
> >heater that was just replaced in a local building.  the owner
> said it works
> >fine, he just replaced it because of it's age.  he gave it to us. :)
> >
> >Now I am on the lookout for a pump to use as a circulation pump.
>  any ideas
> >about inexpensive sources for a circulation pump?
>
> The 1" Clear Water Pump should be fine for 30 gallons, cheap and
> durable, from Harbor Freight or Northern Tools. ... "but note that
> this pump is too small for reactors processing more than 100
> litres/25 gallons per batch".
>
> >We are wanting to reproduce, as much as possible, the "out of
> the closet" BD
> >setup.  I wish I could remember who's design this is?
>
> Dale Scroggins
> http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_processor.html#touchfree
>
> >I saved the docs and
> >only name attached is Michael.  Well, Michael, I give you all
> the credit for
> >the design, and want to emulate it!
>
> I don't know about a Michael and out of the closet biodiesel processors.
>
> Have a look at Joe Street's water-heater set-up, it sounds like what
> you're after, smaller than yours but just scale it up a bit, if
> that's even necessary:
>
> http://www.nonprofitfuel.ca/Reactor.html
> Biofuel cooperative
>
> >My brother can get refrigerator compressors, from time to time, which he
> >uses as vacuum pumps.  We are watching for one, now.
> >
> >Here in Houston, TX, I have checked the local hardware sources... lowes,
> >home depot... and have only found copper pipe up to 1" in diameter.  Any
> >ideas on a source for the larger copper pipe (1 1/2" and 2") and
> fittings?
>
> Why do you want to use copper pipe? Copper reacts with vegetable oil.
>
> Best
>
> Keith
>
>
> >
> >thanks again!
> >-Mark
>
>
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Re: [Biofuel] Venezuela's Chavez hosts World Social Forum as leftist movements unite against Bush

[Michael Redler]

Absolutely!     People in the US are often described as "Teflon" when adversity slides right off of them. We need a new word for Chavez. He makes Teflon look like fly paper.     What's really amazing is that he avoids assassination, maintains a popular following, shows no hesitation or fear when confronting the US and has helped promote socialism in the rest South America to an extent never seen before. Marxist theory might actually see it's first legitimate test. His visits to Cuba (IMO) is being misunderstood by some as receiving instruction from Castro when actually, he could be assessing the possibility of a regime change that might actually extend the test to central America and the Caribbean.     Perhaps this will lead to a popular movement in countries like Haiti where the leadership will come from the working class and not a
 puppet.       Mike Kenji James Fuse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:  Chavez must be walking a tightrope, what with greedy Citgo execs,power-hungry generals and zombie CIA agents all plotting his downfall.___
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Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home generator, input appreciated

[Zeke Yewdall]

Good info Darryl.  A few additions.

>
> There is not much gain from using 24 volts vs. 12 volts as the "native"
> voltage.
>

Actually, almost all off grid houses use 48 volts nowadays.  Cheaper
since equipment is usually limited by the amperage it can take, and if
you have a 10kW inverter bank, the cable and circuit breaker sizes are
just rediculous at 12 volts.


> The additional weight
> will affect the performance and fuel economy of your vehicle adversely.
>   One possible positive is if you can place the battery weight near the
> drive wheels of a vehicle with traction issues (e.g., pickup trucks in
> snow/ice conditions).

In the the recent solar decathlon competition, each of those houses
used between 4,000 and 7,000 lbs of batteries in order to sustain the
"american lifestyle".

> However, using a 200 hp engine (at a guess) to drive an alternator or
> two, likely rated at less than 1 hp each seems a less than ideal

The Chevy luv uses an isuzu engine rated at 62 HP.  If running at idle
or maybe 1,400rpm instead of 3,500rpm, it's probably about 15 or 20HP?
 Backwoodssolar has some guidelines for how much horsepower for
certain alternator sizes.  I think it's around 5HP for a normal 50 amp
12 volt alternator.

> arrangement for charging batteries to run an average load (household
> power) of 1 or 2 kilowatts (with peaks to 15-20 kilowatts possible).
> The latter figure (peak load) will likely define how big an inverter you
> will need, and they get pricey fast above 2 kW.

Back in the early 90's a 2kW inverter was considered luxury for off
grid houses.  Nowadays I see a 7.2kW or 8kW set of inverters most
often.  I get by fine with 1kW.  It all depends on how used to the
"american lifestyle" you are and what you can give up.

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[Biofuel] Fwd: organising a farmers awareness campaign on second of february

[Keith Addison]

Can any of our Indian list members help anish charles? He's not a 
list member, so reply direct, or discuss here first if you like.

Best

Keith
 

>Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 15:55:04 + (GMT)
>From: anish charles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: organising a farmers awareness campaign on second of february
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Dear sir,
>we are ngo working in this rural remote area of central india we are 
>facing power cut for long hours due to this our crops are dying we 
>are organising a farmers awareness campaign on second of february on 
>that day more then five thousand farmers we are expecting we are 
>very much intrested to demonstrate all the aparatous run through 
>solar power if you can help us in the ,matter to demonstrate on that 
>particular day we will be very thank full to you
>yours
>charles ak
>wainganga samudayik vikas kendra
>dhapewada,post kumhari,
>balaghat,MP,India
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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Re: [Biofuel] gearing up to produce biodiesel

[Keith Addison]

Hello Mark

>My brother and I are starting to gather materials for producing biodiesel.
>he just called me to tell me that he picked up an old used 30 gal water
>heater that was just replaced in a local building.  the owner said it works
>fine, he just replaced it because of it's age.  he gave it to us. :)
>
>Now I am on the lookout for a pump to use as a circulation pump.  any ideas
>about inexpensive sources for a circulation pump?

The 1" Clear Water Pump should be fine for 30 gallons, cheap and 
durable, from Harbor Freight or Northern Tools. ... "but note that 
this pump is too small for reactors processing more than 100 
litres/25 gallons per batch".

>We are wanting to reproduce, as much as possible, the "out of the closet" BD
>setup.  I wish I could remember who's design this is?

Dale Scroggins
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_processor.html#touchfree

>I saved the docs and
>only name attached is Michael.  Well, Michael, I give you all the credit for
>the design, and want to emulate it!

I don't know about a Michael and out of the closet biodiesel processors.

Have a look at Joe Street's water-heater set-up, it sounds like what 
you're after, smaller than yours but just scale it up a bit, if 
that's even necessary:

http://www.nonprofitfuel.ca/Reactor.html
Biofuel cooperative

>My brother can get refrigerator compressors, from time to time, which he
>uses as vacuum pumps.  We are watching for one, now.
>
>Here in Houston, TX, I have checked the local hardware sources... lowes,
>home depot... and have only found copper pipe up to 1" in diameter.  Any
>ideas on a source for the larger copper pipe (1 1/2" and 2") and fittings?

Why do you want to use copper pipe? Copper reacts with vegetable oil.

Best

Keith


>
>thanks again!
>-Mark


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Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home generator, input appreciated

[Darryl McMahon]

Mark Kennedy wrote:
> Thank you all for your input.  It really has me considering possibilities.
> 
> a new line of thinking is growing in my mind :)
> 
> a few people have mentioned "batteries" as a storage facility which would
> allow a more constant provision of power without running the generator (or
> alternator) constantly.  I like this idea.
> 
> Zeke wrote:
> 
>>My personal recommendation would be to do a battery/inverter/DC charger
> 
> system, using a 10 or 20 >HP single cylinder diesel engine coupled to an
> alternator to DC charge the batteries for two or >three hours a day, then
> operating from the batteries/inverter the rest of the day.
> 
> My family is in the Auto Parts business, so I am thinking along those lines
> now. i am thinking that i can buy a diesel vehicle of some sort.  Then I
> could accumulate some automotive batteries with a plan to build a battery
> bank and use the vehicle's alternator to charge them.  I could even connect
> the batteries so that pairs are in series, add another battery in series to
> the vehicle and then upgrade to a 24v alternator.  (the starter should spin
> the engine really fast, then :))  I could add a transfer switch to my main
> power feed from the power company, at my fuse box.  Then I assume I would
> need a 24v inverter to go between my battery bank and transfer switch?

There is not much gain from using 24 volts vs. 12 volts as the "native" 
voltage.

In addition to the transfer switch, you will need an appropriate 
connector to plug the vehicle into the house.  Which type of connector 
depends on where your inverter sits.  If you are connecting on the DC 
(battery) side, an Anderson connector comes to mind (DC-rated).  If you 
are connecting on the AC side (after the inverter), there are standard 
connectors for this type of connection (e.g., Hubbell, may have the 
spelling wrong on this, but typically a twist-lock type connector).

> 
> I like this idea for a few reasons:
> 1. I can probably get a deal on automotive batteries.

Please don't use automotive batteries.  They are not designed to survive 
deep-discharge applications.  Instead, look into golf-cart batteries or 
batteries actually designed for the application, e.g. solar-power 
storage batteries (L-16 series comes to mind).  There are also 
industrial deep-cycle batteries for sweepers, fork-lifts, etc.

> 2. The vehicle can also be used as a vehicle.
> 3. The vehicle can be made to be relatively quiet.
> 4. I can load the battery bank into the vehicle to take power to my parent's
> house.  Charging them as i drive?  :)

The automotive alternator is a pretty inefficient device.  You may want 
to do more serious research on finding some truly top-end devices for 
this.  At one time Daimler trucks had a really good reputation in this 
area, but I don't know if this is true anymore.  The additional weight 
will affect the performance and fuel economy of your vehicle adversely. 
  One possible positive is if you can place the battery weight near the 
drive wheels of a vehicle with traction issues (e.g., pickup trucks in 
snow/ice conditions).

> 5. Vehicle in driveway would not draw any attention from anyone driving by.
> 6. Biodiesel can be put in vehicle's tank for storage.  Can even add an
> extra tank if desired.
> 7. Can use the vehicle to pickup used oil.
> 8. I am envisioning something old and raggedy looking, that i wouldn't trust
> to take me on a long trip but maybe with a few more smokeless hours on the
> engine?  If not, I could probably rebuild it.  I have rebuilt a few
> automotive gasoline engines in my time but never diesel.  I am watching an
> old chevy luv pickup on ebay that might do the trick.  chevy luv... lol..
> never envisioned having one of those.

I can't speak for your neighbourhood, but this vehicle would definitely 
draw attention in my driveway.  By-law enforcement here has threatened 
to tow away vehicles from my driveway that were operational, plated and 
insured, and rust-free, simply because I had not used them for several 
weeks.

> 
> There are a couple of details that I haven't worked out yet, though, and I
> could use some more input... :)
> 
> Please bear in mind that I am not an electrician, nor am I an electrical
> engineer, so please forgive my terminology.
> 
> 1. Power comes to my house as 220V, then split at the fuse box into 110V.
> (or something like that :))  Do I need a DC inverter to output 110V or 220V?
> 2. I have seen alternator's blown out when the load placed on them is too
> great.  Is this an issue in my case?  In other words if I connect the
> vehicle's alternator (battery) to a battery bank with ten batteries in it,
> will it blow out the alternator?  20 batteries?  1000 batteries?  lol...
> maybe I am getting ahead of myself.

Assuming you want a simple transfer switch arrangement, you will need a 
240-volt output inverter (aka 220).  I would recommend putting the 
inverter as close to the batteries as possible, so the cabl

Re: [Biofuel] Venezuela's Chavez hosts World Social Forum as leftist movements unite against Bush

[Kenji James Fuse]

Chavez must be walking a tightrope, what with greedy Citgo execs,
power-hungry generals and zombie CIA agents all plotting his downfall.


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[Biofuel] gearing up to produce biodiesel

[Mark Kennedy]

My brother and I are starting to gather materials for producing biodiesel.
he just called me to tell me that he picked up an old used 30 gal water
heater that was just replaced in a local building.  the owner said it works
fine, he just replaced it because of it's age.  he gave it to us. :)

Now I am on the lookout for a pump to use as a circulation pump.  any ideas
about inexpensive sources for a circulation pump?

We are wanting to reproduce, as much as possible, the "out of the closet" BD
setup.  I wish I could remember who's design this is?  I saved the docs and
only name attached is Michael.  Well, Michael, I give you all the credit for
the design, and want to emulate it!

My brother can get refrigerator compressors, from time to time, which he
uses as vacuum pumps.  We are watching for one, now.

Here in Houston, TX, I have checked the local hardware sources... lowes,
home depot... and have only found copper pipe up to 1" in diameter.  Any
ideas on a source for the larger copper pipe (1 1/2" and 2") and fittings?

thanks again!
-Mark


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[Biofuel] Cross Posted: Green Running for House in Delaware (father of beheading victim in Iraq)

[Michael Redler]

From:  Green Party-CT <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >To:  [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject:  {news} Nick Berg's father to seek U.S. House seat in Delaware (as aGreen!) please forwardDate:  Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:53:42 -0800 (PST)     Posted on Mon, Jan. 23, 2006  Nick Berg's father to seek U.S. House seat in Del.  Green Party peace candidate Michael Berg, whose son was beheaded in Iraq, will oppose seven-term Rep. Mike Castle.  By Sandy Bauers  Inquirer Staff Writer  Michael Berg, father of independent contractor Nick Berg, who was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, is turning his emotional antiwar crusade into a political battle against one of Delaware's most popular elected officials.       The retired West Chester teacher, who moved to Wilmington
 in May, is expected to become the Green Party candidate for Delaware's lone U.S. House seat when the party's coordinating council votes tonight.       "My head count says we're good to go," John Atkeison, the party's Delaware chairman, said last week.       Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Castle, a former two-term governor, has held the seat for seven   terms. He won 69 percent of the vote in 2004 and has a 70 percent approval rating, according to a Republican Party spokeswoman.       Berg, 60, last fall expressed his interest in running on a platform
 focused on his antiwar views.       The videotaped murder of Berg's 26-year-old son, who was kidnapped by Islamic insurgents, shocked an international audience. Berg blamed White House policy in Iraq and received wide media attention for his accusation that his son "died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld."       Berg turned his anguish into a plea for peace and an end to what he sees as a cycle of political retribution. His run for office, he said, is inspired by his activism.       "The biggest choice that I expect to give people is... whether they want to have war or peace," Berg said last week.       Only 621 of Delaware's 545,000 registered voters are members of the Green Party. Atkeison said Berg, however, would have strength among   voters disenchanted with the major parties.        Scott McLarty, national media coordinator for the Green Party, called the Delaware race the Greens' "flagship" campaign in 2006. The liberal grass-roots party supports the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.       Even if Berg loses, Atkeison said, the publicity from the race could have an impact.       Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, who met Berg in July, said that while a Berg victory was "a very long shot," Castle "might wind up sweating a bit."        Berg's candidacy could force debate about Iraq throughout the campaign, Solomon said.       Asked to summarize Castle's position on the war, Priscilla B. Rakestraw, national committeewoman for the Delaware GOP, said only that he had "always been supportive of the war on terror."       Rakestraw said Castle "takes   every election seriously." She said she expected most of Berg's votes to come from Democrats, however.        "All of us empathize with his grief," she said, "but he has a mighty challenge ahead of him."       The Democrats have not yet selected a candidate.       Besides name recognition - "the most of any of our candidates outside of Ralph Nader," Atkeison said - the Delaware party chairman cited Berg's "stealth charisma."       "He's an ordinary guy, a high school teacher," he said. "But when he tells the story of what he went through, he just gets you. He's very inspiring."       Berg has ties to the national and international peace movements. He has traveled and spoken in South Korea,
 France and England and has been arrested for civil disobedience several times at demonstrations.       He doubts the arrests will be an issue. "I don't think people see me as criminal," Berg said. "I think they see me as a man of principle."       So far,   the lone position on his campaign Web site is his opposition to the war.        "I was against war in 1965," Berg wrote. "I was against it in 1991. I was against it in 2003. And I have been especially against it since May 10, 2004, when I learned that my son Nick, who had been in
 Iraq to help with the reconstruction effort, had been brutally murdered. The cost of war is too high."       Last week, Berg said he would also focus on jobs, education, national health insurance, and the environment - areas he feels have suffered due to the distraction and expense of the conflict in Iraq.       Though Molly Jurusik, executive director of the Democratic Party in Delaware, said she was unaware of it, Berg said the Democrats initially had approached him.       He wasn't interested in being their candidate. "They would be saying, 'Well, you don't want to come out against the war. That would be unpopular,' "
 Berg said.       "I don't think the Democratic Party knows   how the people feel... . The Democratic Party,

Re: [Biofuel] Pakistan backs Iran pipeline despite U.S. objections

[Michael Redler]

  Is this an example of political "blowback"? Senator Kerry has been busy getting friendly with India, ready to strike a deal which would bring nuclear energy to the country with the Fissile Material Control Treaty (FMCT). I wonder what they mean by "control".     From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowback_%28intelligence%29)   "Blowback is a term used in espionage to describe the unintended
 consequences of covert operations. Because the public was unaware of the operation, the consequences transpire as a surprise, apparently random and without cause. In context, it can also mean retaliation as the result of actions undertaken by nations."     It might be in Pakistan's best interest to help India and Iran with an alternative to nuclear power and do something to improve trade of such an alternative. Hell, maybe some see nuclear energy as uh, what's the word I'm looking forDANGEROUS?!     Maybe they're not as stupid as the White house thinks they are and understands that favors from the US (and WTO) look a little like a seen from the movie The Godfather.   "Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do
 a service for me."  - Don Corleone     The headline "Pakistan backs Iran pipeline despite U.S. objections" may look confusing to someone that relies only on the mainstream media. The irony (IMO) is that "covert operations" today are often anything but covert with stories shared among the public at large (Second Superpower) via the Internet.     Is there a word in our vocabulary that describes information as secret but, readily available?          Mike  Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:  http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID =2006-01-24T213149Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-233551-1.xmlTop News | Reuters.co.inPakistan
 backs Iran pipeline despite U.S. objectionsTue Jan 24, 2006 9:43 PM ISTISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Tuesday that a plan to build a natural gas pipeline from Iran to India through its territory should go ahead as scheduled, despite strong opposition from the United States.Iran's Deputy Petroleum Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian held two days of talks on the proposed $7 billion project in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, which followed a visit to India last month.A joint statement after the talks said Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon "conveyed the firm support of the government of Pakistan to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project".The project has faced opposition from the United States, which accuses Iran of seeking nuclear arms and harbouring animosity against Israel.Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, currently on a visit to the United States, said at the
 United Nations last week that Pakistan would not rush into the pipeline deal while the U.N. has Iran's nuclear programme under scrutiny.However, Jadoon said the two sides should work in a "constructive manner" to ensure construction work begins by 2007, as agreed.Both sides agreed that officials of the two countries would hold more talks on the project in March and that ministers of Pakistan, Iran and India would meet in Tehran in April.Pakistan is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism but says the pipeline would help its economy grow faster while improving relations with India after years of brinksmanship between the nuclear-armed rivals.Pakistan is also weighing a pipeline from Qatar and one that would carry gas from the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan by way of Afghanistan.The talks between the petroleum officials of Pakistan and Iran came days after U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas
 Burns visited Pakistan and India and called them to abandon the Iranian project."If you ask me that the United States favours a deal between two of our best friends in the world, Pakistan and India, with our greatest adversary in the world, Iran, the answer is no," he told Pakistan's Geo TV in an interview aired at the weekend."We think India and Pakistan should look for alternative sources of energy and there are many ways to do that," he said.The United States and the EU want the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear programme which the West says is a smokescreen for building nuclear weapons.Iran denies the charge and says its nuclear programme aims to produce electricity.In 2005, Pakistan acknowledged that the disgraced father of its atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had supplied Iran with equipment that could be
 used for making atomic bombs.© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.___
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Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home generator, input appreciated

[Zeke Yewdall]

MarkNormally I wouldn't recommend using car batteries, because they are not deep cycle batteries, and will fail pretty quickly -- less than a year.  But if you can get them for free  I'd recommend golf cart batteries at the very least.  Stick a bunch of them in the bed of the chevy luv...
And using a diesel vehical to do it seems like a decent idea.  Quieter than a generator, and inconspicuous   :)As far as blowing the alternators, you might want to look into a field controller for the alternators.  Generally, alternators run flat out when the battery needs charging, then taper back when it's full.  This only works if you don't deep cycle the batteries though -- using something as simple as a large rheostat in series with the field of the alternator in order to allow setting its maximum current would be good.  This is done in the little engine driven units to avoid stalling the engine, but it also keep from blowing the alternator.
Inverters are almost all 110 volts here in the US.  Many are designed to use a communications cable between two of them to produce 220 volts.  You could either rewire the house for 110 volts (if you don't have any 220 volt appliances, and don't have any three wire branch circuits).  220 volt appliances probably won't run off anything except the largest inverters anyway.  Or just feed 110 volts into one leg of the circuit, and use grid power if you need something on the other leg -- say a 220 volt power tool or such.
On 1/25/06, Mark Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Thank you all for your input.  It really has me considering possibilities.a new line of thinking is growing in my mind :)a few people have mentioned "batteries" as a storage facility which would
allow a more constant provision of power without running the generator (oralternator) constantly.  I like this idea.Zeke wrote:>My personal recommendation would be to do a battery/inverter/DC charger
system, using a 10 or 20 >HP single cylinder diesel engine coupled to analternator to DC charge the batteries for two or >three hours a day, thenoperating from the batteries/inverter the rest of the day.
My family is in the Auto Parts business, so I am thinking along those linesnow. i am thinking that i can buy a diesel vehicle of some sort.  Then Icould accumulate some automotive batteries with a plan to build a battery
bank and use the vehicle's alternator to charge them.  I could even connectthe batteries so that pairs are in series, add another battery in series tothe vehicle and then upgrade to a 24v alternator.  (the starter should spin
the engine really fast, then :))  I could add a transfer switch to my mainpower feed from the power company, at my fuse box.  Then I assume I wouldneed a 24v inverter to go between my battery bank and transfer switch?
I like this idea for a few reasons:1. I can probably get a deal on automotive batteries.2. The vehicle can also be used as a vehicle.3. The vehicle can be made to be relatively quiet.4. I can load the battery bank into the vehicle to take power to my parent's
house.  Charging them as i drive?  :)5. Vehicle in driveway would not draw any attention from anyone driving by.6. Biodiesel can be put in vehicle's tank for storage.  Can even add anextra tank if desired.
7. Can use the vehicle to pickup used oil.8. I am envisioning something old and raggedy looking, that i wouldn't trustto take me on a long trip but maybe with a few more smokeless hours on theengine?  If not, I could probably rebuild it.  I have rebuilt a few
automotive gasoline engines in my time but never diesel.  I am watching anold chevy luv pickup on ebay that might do the trick.  chevy luv... lol..never envisioned having one of those.There are a couple of details that I haven't worked out yet, though, and I
could use some more input... :)Please bear in mind that I am not an electrician, nor am I an electricalengineer, so please forgive my terminology.1. Power comes to my house as 220V, then split at the fuse box into 110V.
(or something like that :))  Do I need a DC inverter to output 110V or 220V?2. I have seen alternator's blown out when the load placed on them is toogreat.  Is this an issue in my case?  In other words if I connect the
vehicle's alternator (battery) to a battery bank with ten batteries in it,will it blow out the alternator?  20 batteries?  1000 batteries?  lol...maybe I am getting ahead of myself.thanks, again, everyone for your input!
-Mark-Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED][mailto:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Zeke YewdallSent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 7:07 PMTo: Biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSubject: Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home
generator,input appreciatedYou are right David.  Induction generators are essentially the same as ACinduction motors.On 1/24/06, David Miller < [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:Paul S Cantrell wrote:> Mark,> I agree that a 50 kVA genset is overkill unless you live in a mansion,> BUT you can check with your local utility (Reliant

Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home generator, input appreciated

[Mark Kennedy]

Thank you all for your input.  It really has me considering possibilities.

a new line of thinking is growing in my mind :)

a few people have mentioned "batteries" as a storage facility which would
allow a more constant provision of power without running the generator (or
alternator) constantly.  I like this idea.

Zeke wrote:
>My personal recommendation would be to do a battery/inverter/DC charger
system, using a 10 or 20 >HP single cylinder diesel engine coupled to an
alternator to DC charge the batteries for two or >three hours a day, then
operating from the batteries/inverter the rest of the day.

My family is in the Auto Parts business, so I am thinking along those lines
now. i am thinking that i can buy a diesel vehicle of some sort.  Then I
could accumulate some automotive batteries with a plan to build a battery
bank and use the vehicle's alternator to charge them.  I could even connect
the batteries so that pairs are in series, add another battery in series to
the vehicle and then upgrade to a 24v alternator.  (the starter should spin
the engine really fast, then :))  I could add a transfer switch to my main
power feed from the power company, at my fuse box.  Then I assume I would
need a 24v inverter to go between my battery bank and transfer switch?

I like this idea for a few reasons:
1. I can probably get a deal on automotive batteries.
2. The vehicle can also be used as a vehicle.
3. The vehicle can be made to be relatively quiet.
4. I can load the battery bank into the vehicle to take power to my parent's
house.  Charging them as i drive?  :)
5. Vehicle in driveway would not draw any attention from anyone driving by.
6. Biodiesel can be put in vehicle's tank for storage.  Can even add an
extra tank if desired.
7. Can use the vehicle to pickup used oil.
8. I am envisioning something old and raggedy looking, that i wouldn't trust
to take me on a long trip but maybe with a few more smokeless hours on the
engine?  If not, I could probably rebuild it.  I have rebuilt a few
automotive gasoline engines in my time but never diesel.  I am watching an
old chevy luv pickup on ebay that might do the trick.  chevy luv... lol..
never envisioned having one of those.

There are a couple of details that I haven't worked out yet, though, and I
could use some more input... :)

Please bear in mind that I am not an electrician, nor am I an electrical
engineer, so please forgive my terminology.

1. Power comes to my house as 220V, then split at the fuse box into 110V.
(or something like that :))  Do I need a DC inverter to output 110V or 220V?
2. I have seen alternator's blown out when the load placed on them is too
great.  Is this an issue in my case?  In other words if I connect the
vehicle's alternator (battery) to a battery bank with ten batteries in it,
will it blow out the alternator?  20 batteries?  1000 batteries?  lol...
maybe I am getting ahead of myself.

thanks, again, everyone for your input!
-Mark



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Zeke Yewdall
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 7:07 PM
To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] considering a purchase of a diesel home
generator,input appreciated


You are right David.  Induction generators are essentially the same as AC
induction motors.


On 1/24/06, David Miller < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Paul S Cantrell wrote:

> Mark,
> I agree that a 50 kVA genset is overkill unless you live in a mansion,
> BUT you can check with your local utility (Reliant? or Coop?) about
> Net Metering.  Since your meter would run backward, you could 'store'
> power into the grid when you run it and pull power from the grid when
> you aren't.  Then during outages you could run it and disconnect from
> the grid, so you don't electrocute anyone!  Anyway, the trick is
> convincing them that biodiesel will qualify as 'renewable,' which will
> depend somewhat on whether your account rep is a yokel or a
> semi-educated yokel.  ;-)


Is it as simple as this?  My understanding is that you can't take your
normal genset and connect it to the grid - getting it in phase and
keeping it synced is a problem.

You CAN just use a standard AC motor and "overdrive" it - if you turn it
a little faster than its designed to run it produces electricity rather
than consumes it, and it stays sync'd because the grid is providing the
excitation.  But that leaves you with a motor to feed the grid and a
generator to power the house.

Anybody know for sure?

--- David

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Re: [Biofuel] BD ethanol method

[fox mulder]

--- Blas Antonio Guanes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> HI all:
>   I am new in making biodiesel. I have some doubts, I
> read something in 
> Journeytoforever, but I didn't understand well.. I
> want to make BD with 
> ethanol and NaOH. Everything says that it should be
> used 3,5 grams of NaOH 
> by liter of Oil.. But Ken Provost says that 7 grams
> are good..Which the 
> correct proportion is? KOH is very expensive here in
> Paraguay. I proved with 
> 3,5 4,5 and 7 grams.. None worked. I don`t know what
> I made bad.How much as 
> ethanol should use?  The ethanol is pure, here it is
> sold as fuel.
>   Could somebody send information of a sure method?
> 
>
_
> ¿Estás pensando en cambiar de coche? Todas los
> modelos de serie y extras en 
> MSN Motor. http://motor.msn.es/researchcentre/
> 
> 
> ___
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> Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
>
http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
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> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
> 
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> archives (50,000 messages):
>
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> 
> 3.5 g sodium hydroxide per litre of oil with
methanol Not ethanol

Fox






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Re: [Biofuel] Fw: The Indigo Evolution

[Joe Street]

Years ago I met a kid who could not form a sentence verbally but put
him in front of a typwriter and he composed the most beautiful poetry. 
It was hard to believe.

Joe

bob allen wrote:

  [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  
  
I was told that many autistic people who can't speak are able to communicate 
with thoughts instead of words. A mother of one of the students at the autistic 
school said she had tried this with some of the students and it worked 
amazingly well.

  
  

ok, I'll bite, how did they communicate with thoughts?  are we talking mind reading here?  esp? If 
so there is a million dollars waiting for them- they need to get in touch with James Randi, post 
haste.

http://www.randi.org/research/index.html




  They seemed thrilled to be able to move out of the isolation
  
  
they felt  when trying to communicate with people who rely only on words.

Also, someone told me there is an indigo children community in Ashland, 
Oregon where people bring children to develop psychic and intellectual 
abilities. Has anyone heard of it?

  
  
not me but I would be very curious as to what psychic abilities we are talking about here.

I googled Ashland, OR and indigo and got numerous hits about a movie, but this one is about, well 
see for yourself.

http://selectsmart.com/twyman.html

INDIGO: THE COLOR OF MONEY

...MISLEADING REPORTS OF SCIENTIFIC PROOF

Twyman reports scientific proof of several spurious claims, including that children develop ESP at 
his fairs after Brain Respiration (BR) training. BR was created by Ilchi Lee, aka Seung Heun Lee, 
founder of Dahn Centers and many other organizations. (Lee and Walsch are also affiliated). Twyman 
and Lee have reported that the University of California at Irvine, specifically the Center for Aging 
and Dementia, has researched and "confirmed" the effects of BR. However, this department at UCI 
tells me they have not conducted any studies on Lee's BR program, per se -- let alone confirmed its 
paranormal claims.

OILY-SKINNED PSYCHIC CHILDREN

At Twyman's psychic fairs for children, kids are persuaded to believe that sticking a lightweight 
spoon to their forehead is a result of psychokinetic power. The fact is that everyone can stick a 
lightweight spoon to their forehead if they first rub the spoon on their skin, especially the 
forehead and chin, coating the spoon with slightly sticky sebum.

X-RAY VISION

At Twyman's psychic children's fairs, parents paid for their kids' ESP powers to be tested (charging 
subjects is almost unheard-of in scientific research) before and after participation in Ilchi Lee's 
BR training. The children were asked to identify certain shapes, colors, or simple words while 
blindfolded. Lee shows a video at his website of blindfolded children reading books held close to 
the face. But, the blindfolds were provided and the tests conducted by the program's staff. 
Naturally, Twyman and Lee report amazing results.

Magicians and paranormal investigators have continually exposed "x-ray vision" as flimflammery, e.g. 
perhaps the blindfolded person can see through a space between the blindfold and the nose, a pinhole 
in the blindfold, cloth that appears opaque but is translucent when held close to the face, or 
verbal cues are provided by testers or shills. Sometimes it’s a matter of working with 
probabilities. For example, when asked to pick a number between one and ten, the number seven is 
picked most often





  
  
Marilyn

Biofuel@sustainablelists.org wrote:
On 1/23/06, Marylynn Schmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:



  Michael

I was lead to believe that the autism diagnosis was a mis-diagnosis and 
  

used



  only because the doctors/educators did not know what to do with them.
  


Actually my son has PDD Pervasice Development Disorder. Autism has
come to represent a spectrum of diagnosis's. As the Disorders are
being understood the are begining to seperate.




  I was also lead to believe that these children normally do not speak much
before 4 years of age and then they begin with full sentences.
  


Again not all children under the autism spectrum meet this criteria.
Some do and some do not. Then those with the delay are often unable to
fully express concepts such as feelings.

snip

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[Biofuel] BD ethanol method

[Blas Antonio Guanes]

HI all:
I am new in making biodiesel. I have some doubts, I read something in 
Journeytoforever, but I didn't understand well.. I want to make BD with 
ethanol and NaOH. Everything says that it should be used 3,5 grams of NaOH 
by liter of Oil.. But Ken Provost says that 7 grams are good..Which the 
correct proportion is? KOH is very expensive here in Paraguay. I proved with 
3,5 4,5 and 7 grams.. None worked. I don`t know what I made bad.How much as 
ethanol should use?  The ethanol is pure, here it is sold as fuel.
Could somebody send information of a sure method?

_
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[Biofuel] Pakistan backs Iran pipeline despite U.S. objections

[Keith Addison]

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID 
=2006-01-24T213149Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-233551-1.xml
Top News | Reuters.co.in
Pakistan backs Iran pipeline despite U.S. objections

Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:43 PM IST

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Tuesday that a plan to build a 
natural gas pipeline from Iran to India through its territory should 
go ahead as scheduled, despite strong opposition from the United 
States.

Iran's Deputy Petroleum Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian held 
two days of talks on the proposed $7 billion project in the Pakistani 
capital Islamabad, which followed a visit to India last month.

A joint statement after the talks said Pakistan's Petroleum Minister 
Amanullah Khan Jadoon "conveyed the firm support of the government of 
Pakistan to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project".

The project has faced opposition from the United States, which 
accuses Iran of seeking nuclear arms and harbouring animosity against 
Israel.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, currently on a visit to the 
United States, said at the United Nations last week that Pakistan 
would not rush into the pipeline deal while the U.N. has Iran's 
nuclear programme under scrutiny.

However, Jadoon said the two sides should work in a "constructive 
manner" to ensure construction work begins by 2007, as agreed.

Both sides agreed that officials of the two countries would hold more 
talks on the project in March and that ministers of Pakistan, Iran 
and India would meet in Tehran in April.

Pakistan is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism but says the 
pipeline would help its economy grow faster while improving relations 
with India after years of brinksmanship between the nuclear-armed 
rivals.

Pakistan is also weighing a pipeline from Qatar and one that would 
carry gas from the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan by way of 
Afghanistan.

The talks between the petroleum officials of Pakistan and Iran came 
days after U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns visited 
Pakistan and India and called them to abandon the Iranian project.

"If you ask me that the United States favours a deal between two of 
our best friends in the world, Pakistan and India, with our greatest 
adversary in the world, Iran, the answer is no," he told Pakistan's 
Geo TV in an interview aired at the weekend.

"We think India and Pakistan should look for alternative sources of 
energy and there are many ways to do that," he said.

The United States and the EU want the U.N.'s International Atomic 
Energy Agency to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible 
sanctions over its nuclear programme which the West says is a 
smokescreen for building nuclear weapons.

Iran denies the charge and says its nuclear programme aims to produce 
electricity.

In 2005, Pakistan acknowledged that the disgraced father of its 
atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had supplied Iran with equipment that 
could be used for making atomic bombs.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.


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[Biofuel] Solar Power Comes of Age - Solar Power for the Masses

[Keith Addison]

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability
http://www.i-sis.org.uk

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at 
http://www.i- sis.org.uk/SPFTM.php

ISIS Press Release 17/01/06

Solar Power Comes of Age - Solar Power for the Masses

Solar power is poised to enter the mainstream energy market with 
novel materials that boost energy conversion efficiency and bring 
down manufacturing costs. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

A fully referenced 
illustrated version of this article is posted on ISIS members' 
website.

Electricity from sunlight

The ability of sunlight to generate electricity was first discovered 
by French physicist Andre- Edmond Becquerel in 1839, when he observed 
that shining light on certain materials produced an electric current. 
But it took just over a hundred years to 1941 before Russell Ohl in 
the United States invented a silicon solar cell.

The silicon solar cell (Box 1) is still the predominant model in use 
today, representing some 94 percent of the global market. But even 
with energy conversion efficiencies as high as 33 percent, 
silicon-based solar cells are still too expensive for general use.

Box 1

The conventional solar cell

The conventional solar cell is made from inorganic crystalline 
semi-conducting material such as silicon, which is 'doped' (slightly 
contaminated with appropriate elements) to form a p-n junction. The p 
side of the junction contains an excess of positive charges (holes), 
the n side, an excess of negative charges (electrons). This creates 
an electric field across the junction.

When sunlight is absorbed in the bulk of the silicon, free electrons 
and holes are created, which are accelerated by the electric field to 
go to the appropriate electrodes on the top and bottom of the cell 
(see Fig. 1). On reaching the electrode, the electrons leave the 
device to drive the external electric load, returning to recombine 
with the holes at the other, counter electrode.

Figure 1. Diagram of a conventional solar cell

The conversion efficiency of the solar cell is defined as the ratio 
of the electric power provided to the external circuit to the solar 
power incident on the active area of the cell. It is typically 
measured under standard simulated conditions.

In recent years, fuelled by the growing global energy demands and to 
some extent, by the need to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate 
global warming, solar power is gaining in popularity as improvements 
in design boost energy conversion efficiency and lower manufacturing 
costs (see Box 2). There is a trade-off between the cost of 
manufacture and the efficiency, which is expressed in the unit price 
of electricity generated. The current cost of about $4/W is still 
considered too high for the market. The US Department of Energy has 
set a target to lower unit price to $0.33/W; but as the prices of oil 
and gas are both rising, solar power will begin to look much more 
competitive as research and development continue to improve on 
efficiency and cost, and especially when carbon credits from reducing 
carbon dioxide emissions are factored in.

A major advantage of solar power is that it has minimum impacts on 
the environment, which are mostly associated with the manufacturing 
processes, and do not require major changes in land use [1]. Solar 
panels can be conveniently integrated into existing building 
structures and rooftops; and large arrays can be sited in deserts.

Box 2

Global solar energy status

The world produces 4.6 x 1020 J per year [2], and the earth's surface 
average solar energy is ~ 4 x 1024 J/year [3]. Thus, even with solar 
cells at a low, 10 percent conversion efficiency, the world's energy 
needs can be satisfied with solar panels covering just over 0.1 
percent of the earth surface.

Worldwide, photovoltaic installations increased by 927MW in 2004 [4], 
up from 574MW installed during the previous year. In 1985, annual 
solar installation demand was only 21 MW. On the supply side, 742 MW 
of solar panels were produced in 2003. But current cumulative solar 
energy production accounts for less than 0.01 percent of total global 
energy demand, even though it has been growing at about 25 percent 
per year over the past 15 years.

Japan manufactured 50 percent of the world's solar cells in 2003; and 
has overtaken the US as the largest net exporter of solar cells and 
modules. Four companies account for over 50 percent of solar cell 
production: Sharp, Kyocera, BP Solar and Shell Solar. Sharp remains 
the largest company, and has shown the fastest growth over the past 
five years; Sanyo, fifth largest has shown the second highest rate of 
growth over the same period. Solar energy prices have declined on 
average 4 percent per year over the past 15 years, due to progressive 
increase in conversion efficiencies and manufacturing economies of 
scale.

But to really

[Biofuel] Partying at Davos

[Keith Addison]

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0123-24.htm
Published on Monday, January 23, 2006 by CommonDreams.org

Partying at Davos

by Jeff Faux

The world's rich and powerful are heading this week to their annual 
meeting in the plush mountain resort of Davos, Switzerland. Hosted by 
the great global corporations (Citigroup, Siemans, Microsoft, 
Nestles, etc.), some 2000 CEO's, prominent politicians, pundits and 
international bureaucrats will network over great food, fine wine, 
good skiing and cozy evenings by the fire contemplating the world's 
future.

This is not a secret cabal; journalists will issue daily reports to 
the rest of us on the wit and informal charm of our financial 
betters. Rather it is like the political convention of those who 
manage the global economy. Call it the Party of Davos.

All markets are systems of rules that determine what sort of people 
are winners and what sort are losers. Politics is largely conflict 
among the different sorts - or classes - over who gets what. In 
stable societies, a social contract provides for enough wealth to 
trickle down to keep the lower orders from rebelling. Thus, in the 
1950s, when Dwight Eisenhower's secretary of defense said that what 
was good for General Motors was good for America, most Americans - 
including the United Auto Workers - agreed. Within the boundaries of 
the US economy, capital and labor needed each other.

But as corporations went global, the mutual dependence weakened. And 
in the absence of global democracy, their owners and top managers 
seized the opportunity to set the new rules without social 
constraints. The first head of the World Trade Organization called 
these new rules a "constitution for the global economy." It's a 
constitution that protects just one world citizen - the corporate 
investor. It prohibits effective protections for the workers, 
consumers and the environment.

In America, as in most places, the party of Davos is bipartisan. It 
includes Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney, Robert Rubin and Don Rumsfeld, 
Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice. (George Bush is also a 
member, but he doesn't like to travel). John Kerry is quoted as 
having called himself a "Davos" man.

Indeed, without reference to economic class it is impossible to 
explain why Democratic elites championed NAFTA, the WTO and the other 
instruments of corporate protectionism, which traded away the 
interests of its blue-collar industrial base in favor of the GOP 
constituencies in Wall Street and red-state agri-business. Nor is it 
possible to explain why Washington is indifferent to a relentlessly 
rising trade deficit, and the resulting foreign debt that has put the 
country's future in the hands of the central bank of China, while the 
Pentagon simulates war games with China as the enemy.

The media language we use to talk to each other about globalization 
hides its class structure. The press consistently talks about 
national "interest" without defining who exactly is getting what. 
Thus, American workers are told that the "Chinese" are taking their 
jobs. But the China threat is in fact another global business 
partnership - this one between commissars who supply the cheap labor 
and the United States and other foreign capitalists who supply the 
technology and two-thirds of the capital used to finance China's 
exports. The rest of the world calls this "neo-liberalism," a term 
unknown among America's media "internationalists."

The politics of the global marketplace are a one- party system. The 
opposition to Davos is unorganized globally. What might be called the 
Party of Porto Alegre - the NGOs who meet at the same time in Brazil 
- is politically marginal. The trade union movement's effort to 
organize the workers of the world is at best at a very early stage.

Still, there may be some bad new ahead for Davos. After a quarter of 
a century, the world is beginning to resist policies that have 
shifted wealth and power away from people who work for a living to 
those who invest. Scarcely a day goes by without a major riot 
somewhere in China, Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia. In South 
America, anti-neoliberal parties have come to power in Brazil, 
Bolivia, Venezuela, and Argentina - and already have slowed down the 
effort to extend NAFTA to the rest of the hemisphere. Very close to 
home, a leftist candidate is leading in the campaign for Mexico's 
next president.

But perhaps more important, Davos' chief champion - the U.S. 
governing class - is in trouble. The opposition to the War in Iraq 
has demonstrated the limits of America's willingness to send its 
children to die in order to force the world's cultures into one vast 
shopping mall. And the looming crisis of America's foreign debt will 
cramp the ability of our elites to use the countries' economic power 
to support their global corporate backers. The erosion of the 
American social contract - already being reflected in stagnant wages, 
financial insecurity and collapsin

[Biofuel] Pesticide Tests May Use Pregnant Women, Kids

[Keith Addison]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0124-09.htm
Published on Tuesday, January 24, 2006 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Pesticide Tests May Use Pregnant Women, Kids

by Michael Doyle

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration would allow some limited 
pesticide testing on children and pregnant women under controversial 
rules set to be made final as early as this week.

After fielding about 50,000 public comments on its earlier 
human-testing proposals, the Environmental Protection Agency is 
setting out final rules that officials call tough and fair. But 
Democrats and environmentalists are raising an outcry, and courts 
could remain busy sorting it all out.

"The fact that EPA allows pesticide testing of any kind on the most 
vulnerable, including abused and neglected children, is simply 
astonishing," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., declared Monday.

The new rules would prohibit regulators from using so-called 
"intentional exposure" research that involved children or pregnant 
women.

But originally intended to subminder what regulators described as 
"narrowly defined circumstances," such research could still be used 
-- if the researcher hadn't reported the results to the EPA.

The new rules require researchers to document their compliance with 
ethical guidelines, but exempt certain overseas tests. Testing on 
adults could proceed, following review by a new Human Studies Review 
Board that could "comment on" but not stop a proposed experiment.

"EPA does not want to ignore potentially important information," the 
agency states in its final rule. "At the same time, the agency's 
conduct should encourage high ethical standards in research with 
human subjects."

Boxer and several colleagues were one step ahead of the EPA Monday, 
which hadn't yet formally released the final rules protecting human 
subjects. But a leaked draft of the new rules, spanning about 100 
pages, spells out both the new regulations and how they will be 
presented to the public.

EPA officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

"Humans process some substances differently from animals," the EPA 
notes in its final rule, scheduled for publication in the daily 
Federal Register. "Studies of this kind can provide essential support 
for safety monitoring programs. Animal data alone can sometimes 
provide an incomplete or misleading picture of a substance's safety 
or risk."

The 50,000 comments received by the EPA since last September showcase 
the level of public interest, although regulators noted that 99 
percent of the comments were part of an e-mail or organized 
letter-writing campaign.

In June, the Senate imposed a moratorium on the EPA's use of human 
pesticide testing; the House had adopted a similar moratorium. The 
moratorium is in place until the final rule takes effect, which will 
be 60 days after publication.

© 1998-2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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[Biofuel] Bolivia: Bechtel surrenders

[Keith Addison]

http://www.ww4report.com/node/1528
| World War 4 Report
Bolivia: Bechtel surrenders

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 01/24/2006 - 04:28.

Days before the historic inauguration of Evo Morales in Bolivia, the 
Andean nation scored another victory-in its struggle against Bechtel, 
the California engineering giant which had sued the impoverished 
nation before a World Bank trade court to demand compensation for a 
water-system privatization contract cancelled by a popular uprising 
in 2000. Apparently sensing the turning tide, Bechtel has withdrawn 
its suit. This Jan. 19 account from The Democracy Center in 
Cochabamba:

BECHTEL VS. BOLIVIA: THE PEOPLE WIN!

The Cochabamba water revolt - which began exactly six years ago this 
month - will end this morning when Bechtel, one of the world's most 
powerful corporations, formally abandons its legal effort to take $50 
million from the Bolivian people. Bechtel made that demand before a 
secretive trade court operated by the World Bank, the same 
institution that coerced Bolivia to privatize the water to begin 
with. Faced with protests, barrages of e-mails, visits to their 
homes, and years of damaging press, Bechtel executives finally 
decided to surrender, walking away with a token payment equal to 
thirty cents. That retreat sets a huge global precedent.

The Cochabamba Water Revolt

In January 2000 the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia woke up one morning 
to discover that their public water system had been taken over by a 
mysterious new private company, Aguas del Tunari. The World Bank had 
coerced Bolivia to privatize its water, as a condition of further 
aid. The new company, controlled by Bechtel, the California 
engineering giant, announced its arrival with a huge overnight 
increase in local water bills. Water rates leapt by an average of 
more than fifty percent, and in some cases much higher. Bechtel and 
its Spanish co-investor, Abengoa, priced water beyond what many 
families here could afford.

The people demanded that the rate hikes be permanently reversed. The 
Bolivian government refused. Then the people demanded that the 
company's contract be canceled. The government sent out police and 
soldiers to take control of the city and declared a state martial law.

In the face of beatings, of leaders being taken from their houses in 
the middle of the night, of a seventeen-year-old boy being shot and 
killed by the army - in the face of it all, the people did not back 
down. In April of 2000 Bechtel's company was forced to leave and the 
people won back control of their water.

Bechtel Fights Back

Eighteen months later Bechtel and Abengoa sought revenge, filing a 
$50 million legal action against Bolivia in the World Bank's trade 
court - the International Centre for Settlement of Investment 
Disputes (ICSID). It was a legal forum tailor-made for Bechtel. The 
people of Cochabamba would be tried in Washington, in English, and in 
a process so secret that no member of the public or press would be 
allowed to know when the tribunal met, who testified before it, or 
what they said.

Bechtel claimed it was suing for both its losses and the profits it 
wasn't allowed to make. Records would later show that Bechtel and its 
associates had spent less than $1 million in Bolivia.

The People vs. Bechtel

What Bechtel did not count on was the firestorm of public protest 
that it would face. Cochabamba water revolt leaders, The Democracy 
Center, and a host of allies all over the world launched a global 
campaign to force Bechtel to drop the case.

Thousands sent e-mails to corporate executives. Protesters in San 
Francisco blocked the entrance to Bechtel's headquarters, occupied 
its lobby, and draped a banner across its front. Dutch activists 
mounted a ladder and posted a sign renaming Bechtel's Amsterdam 
office after Victor Hugo Daza, the 17-year-old killed in Cochabamba. 
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution calling 
on Bechtel to drop its case.

More than 300 organizations from 43 countries joined in a citizens 
petition to the World Bank demanding that the case be opened to 
public scrutiny and participation. Activists in Washington DC 
protested at the home of the head of Bechtel's water company. 
Hundreds of articles and dozens of documentaries were published and 
produced worldwide, making Bechtel and its Bolivian water takeover a 
poster child of corporate greed and abuse.

Bechtel - a corporation so powerful that it won a billion-dollar, 
no-bid Bush administration contract to rebuild Iraq - found it all 
more than even it could take. Last June, Bechtel and its associates 
raised the white flag and began negotiating a deal to drop their case 
- for a token payment of two bolivianos (thirty cents). Sources close 
to the negotiations say that Bechtel's CEO, Riley Bechtel, personally 
intervened to bring the case to and end, weary of the ongoing damage 
to the corporation's reputation. Bechtel officials flew to Bolivia 
this wee

[Biofuel] Jatropha Bio-Piracy

[Keith Addison]

TITLE: "Jatropha Bio-Piracy": Appeal from Chhattisgarh Jaiv Suraksha Manch
AUTHOR: Suresh Sahu, Rupantar
PUBLICATION: Campaign appeal
DATE: 18 January 2006
URL: http://www.cgnet.in/FT/Jatropha


"JATROPHA BIO-PIRACY"
APPEAL FROM CHHATTISGARH JAIV SURAKSHA MANCH

Raipur, 18 January 2006

Chhattisgarh has again been attacked by a multinational company. You
must be remembering two years back Syngenta an Swiss MNC tried to snatch
the germplasm of twenty thousand rice varieties of Chhattisgarh. These
were the varieties collected by Dr. RH Richharia during his work at MP
Rice Research Institute. Those varieties are kept with Indira Gandhi
Agriculture University, Raipur. Luckily the information leaked out
before finalization of the deal. The people of Chhattisgarh resisted
strongly against the back door entry of the MNC and  expressed their
mandate in favor of community rights on all the bio-resources and
related knowledge of the Chhattisgarh. The university and state
government should have taken lesson, but it is evident that neither of
them took the feelings of People of Chhattisgarh seriously.

This time germplasm of 18 local varieties of Jatropha have been stolen.
These varieties are considered to have high oil content and disease and
drought resistance qualities. High quality Pendra variety has also been
stolen. (Many variants of Jatropha are wildly found in some forests of
Chhattisgarh. The variety found in Pendra area of Chhattisgarh is
considered to be of high quality.) A multinational company known as
D-one has received the germplasm and said to have cultivated it in a
farm house near Raipur taken on lease by the MNC.

One interesting thing is that in both the cases of bio-piracy (the
Syngenta and the D-One) the medium for the robbery has been IGKVV. The
IGKVV has failed to protect the bio-resources of Chhattisgarh to which
it is presumed to be custodian.

According to newspaper report (Dainik Bhaskar, 17th Jan. 06) the
university had appointed an investigation team to find out the details
of the case. The team led by Dr. ARRS Shastri found Dr. Sunil Puri of
IGKVV guilty and the university charge sheeted Dr. Puri for the same.
Meanwhile Dr.Puri has joined the same MNC establishment in Coimbatore.
Surprisingly the university administration tried its best to hide the
issue from the eyes of the public. The university's attitude was of a
criminal negligence. Such negligence to the public property by a public
sector institution is very serious.

The issue has again opened the issue of concern of the people of
Chhattigarh about the security of their bio-resources kept in the
custody of the IGKVV and other centralized structures. The university
has been hiding the information on seeds of Chhattisgarh from public in
the name of official secrecy but it is leaking the information and the
germplasm to MNCs time and again. Apart from breach of trust to the
nation this is also violation of the rights of the people of
Chhattisgarh. We fear that the greatest threat to the bio-resources of
Chhattisgarh is from the IGKVV and such other structures which have
centralized control on the bio-resources. We would like to remind the
concept of decentralized research, extension and germplasm accessions
given by Dr. RH Richharia to tackle such act of both theft and
subsequent negligence. The role of the university in stopping the
information about the farmer's seed to come in public domain has always
been under suspicion and can be easily related to such acts of
bio-piracy. The university has kept Dr.Richharia's work "Encyclopedia of
Rice" unpublished. The university is yet to answer these questions to
the public.

The negligence of the serious issues at university and State government
level can also be viewed in the matter that the report of the Bagai
Committee commissioned to investigate the Syngenta deal, has yet not
been made public after almost three years of the incidence.

We appeal all friends to protest against such criminal act and demand
for an enquiry and action against the guilty persons and the MNCs.

We demand

* Criminal case be filed against the MNC and the scientist involved.
* The Bagai committee report on Syngenta issue investigation be made public.
* Dr. Richharia's work "Encyclopedia of Rice" be published and bring the
information on bio-resources under control of the university in public
domain.

Suresh Sahu
Rupantar, Raipur (India)
Tel. +91 771 2263683 or 2424669
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




TITLE: Indian scientist denies accusation of biopiracy
AUTHOR: T. V. Padma and Mike Shanahan
PUBLICATION: SciDev.Net
DATE: 24 January 2006
URL: http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=2614


INDIAN SCIENTIST DENIES ACCUSATION OF BIOPIRACY

T. V. Padma and Mike Shanahan
24 January 2006
Source: SciDev.Net

[NEW DELHI] An 

[Biofuel] Organic Solar Power

[Keith Addison]

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/OSP.php

ISIS Press Release 18/01/06

Organic Solar Power

Solar power could become the next big thing in homes, personal 
accessories, the battlefield and other military applications

New affordable, durable and portable solar devices provide local 
energy generation for maximum efficiency and minimum greenhouse gas 
emissions. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

A fully referenced and illustrated version of this article is posted 
on ISIS members' website. Details here

New materials for harvesting light

Organic solar cells emerged in the late 1970s, based on conjugated 
polymers - polymers with alternating double and single carbon-carbon 
bonds - when it was discovered that doping these materials - slightly 
contaminating with appropriate chemical elements - increased 
conductivity several orders of magnitude [1]. Since then electronic 
conducting materials based on conjugated polymers have found many 
applications including light emission diodes (LEDs) and solar cells.

Nowadays, organic semi-conductors include not only polymers 
(molecular mass more than 10 000 atomic mass units), but also small 
molecules (molecular mass less than a few thousand units), and 
dendrimers, with molecular masses in between the polymers and small 
molecules. The distinctions between the different kinds of molecular 
semiconductors are important in determining the processes required in 
making films and devices, but the way they work is identical.

New mechanisms

Organic solar cells work differently from conventional inorganic 
semiconductor solar cells. Light absorbed by an inorganic 
semiconductor produces free charge carriers - electrons and holes - 
that are transported separately through the semiconductor material. 
In an organic solar cell, however, light absorption produces 
excitons, electron-hole pairs that are bound together and hence not 
free to move separately. To generate free charge carriers, the 
excitons must be dissociated. This can happen in the presence of high 
electric fields, at a defect site in the material, or usually, at the 
interface between two materials that have a sufficient mismatch in 
their energy levels.

Thus, an organic solar cell can be made with the following layered 
structure: positive electrode/electron donor/electron 
acceptor/negative electrode. An exciton created in either the 
electron donor or electron acceptor layer can diffuse to the 
interface between the two, leading to electron transfer from the 
donor material to the acceptor, or hole transfer from the acceptor to 
the donor. The negatively charged electron and the positively charged 
hole is then transported to the appropriate electrode.

Endless new possibilities

Organic materials are diverse and versatile, offering endless 
possibilities for improving a wide range of properties such charge 
generation, separation, molecular mass, 'wettability' (between 
organic molecules and inorganic material), bandgap (determining the 
ability to harvest light efficiently in different parts of the solar 
spectrum, especially the infrared), molecular energy levels, 
rigidity, and molecule-to-molecule interactions. Different organic 
molecules can be combined with one another, or with inorganic 
materials in many unique, favourable formulations.

One major advantage of organic solar panels is the low cost involved 
in manufacture. Organic molecules are cheap to make, they can have 
very high light absorbing capacity so that films as thin as several 
hundred nanometres would be sufficient for the purpose. Organic 
materials are compatible with plastic and other flexible substrates; 
and devices can therefore be fabricated with low-cost, high 
throughput printing techniques that consume less energy and require 
less capital investment than silicon-based devices and other 
thin-film technologies. One estimate put the reduction in cost by a 
factor of 10 or 20 [3]. Consequently, organic solar cells do not need 
to have conversion efficiencies as high as thin-film inorganic solar 
cells to become competitive in the market.

Organic materials can be printed on in any pattern or colour, and 
integrated into existing building structures, or even clothing or 
other accessories. In a couple of years, we are told, it will be 
possible to recharge one's mobile phone from one's jumper, or power 
up one's laptop by plugging into the beach tent.

Seriously these affordable new generations of solar devices will be a 
boon for the energy needs of poor countries that do not have power 
grids or other infrastructure support. Generating electricity for use 
on site also avoids the huge losses incurred in generating 
electricity in power stations and distributing through the grid, 
estimated to be as high as 69 percent [3]. This is why local 
'microgeneration' of electricity is also gaining favour in developed 
countries as a means of improving on efficiency and minimising 
greenhouse gas emissions.

Plastic solar cells

Most organic solar cells ar

[Biofuel] Replacing Poison with Poison: We Can Do Better

[Keith Addison]

Replacing Poison with Poison: We Can Do Better
Stop the Registration of Methyl Iodide!
January 24, 2006

The 1992 commitment by the world's nations to phase out methyl 
bromide under the Montreal Protocol was an historic opportunity to 
transition agricultural production to non-chemical and 
biodiversity-friendly soil and pest management. Researchers and 
farmers alike took on the task of finding ways to grow strawberries, 
tomatoes, and other crops without chemicals that endanger the earth's 
protective ozone layer. Unfortunately, the United States has been 
back-peddling on this commitment for several years, and now the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facilitating a chemical 
industry and agribusiness effort to introduce an even more severely 
toxic fumigant, methyl iodide.

Both methyl bromide and methyl iodide are fumigants, gas pesticides 
injected into soils to kill all living things before a field is 
planted. "This is an archaic, unsustainable approach," remarked 
Pesticide Action Network's Senior Scientist Dr. Susan Kegley. "We 
know so much more now about soil pests, plant pathology and plant 
breeding than when fumigants were first introduced in the 1920s. EPA 
should be helping farmers move into the future by expanding the use 
of new integrated pest management techniques, not replacing one 
deadly chemical with another." Kegley also points out that fumigation 
is an inherently risky technology that endangers farm workers, 
contaminates groundwater, and threatens schools and communities 
surrounding fumigated fields. With new techniques, however, some 
organic farms can produce even greater yields per acre than fields 
treated with fumigants.

The chemical industry is seeking to maintain a market for soil 
fumigants even as EPA is beginning to recognize the full extent of 
their toxicity, as well as the difficulty of controlling them once 
they are released. Methyl bromide is 
already subject to a global phase out under the Montreal Protocol as 
a destroyer of the earth's stratospheric ozone layer. Methyl bromide 
is also an acute respiratory poison, strongly linked with prostate 
cancer, implicated in Parkinson's Disease and other neurological 
illnesses, and responsible for many injuries and deaths. "One time I 
just couldn't stand the gas. My throat hurt, and I had to run from 
the field to get a breath of air," remembers Jorge Fernandez, a farm 
worker whose exposure to the gas resulted in chronic respiratory and 
neurological problems so severe he can no longer support his 
family--simply talking leaves him dizzy and gasping for breath.

Methyl iodide may be even more hazardous to human health than methyl 
bromide. Cancer researchers have used methyl iodide in laboratories 
to induce cancer in cells. Researchers using methyl iodide use great 
caution, transferring small quantities from sealed tubes with 
syringes under special ventilation hoods to prevent its release into 
the air. The state of California lists it as a carcinogen under 
Proposition 65.

When EPA found that methyl iodide caused thyroid tumors, however, it 
invoked a previously unheard-of cancer ranking of "Not likely to be 
carcinogenic to humans at doses that do not alter rat thyroid hormone 
homeostasis." The EPA's Cancer Assessment Review Committee used only 
a single paper to come to this conclusion--a questionable study in 
which 62-66% of the rats in both the control and the high dose group 
died during the experiment. In addition to thyroid tumors, the study 
showed large and significant changes in thyroid hormone levels, which 
are closely tied to metabolic disorders. EPA did not evaluate 
potential adverse effects that might arise from these changes. Other 
animal studies evaluated by EPA indicated that methyl iodide causes 
respiratory tract lesions, neurological problems, and miscarriages.

The State of New Jersey's Fact Sheet cautions laboratory workers 
exposed to high levels of methyl iodide that the chemical can 
irritate eyes, burn and blister the skin, and cause coughing and 
shortness of breath as well as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. High 
exposures may also cause a buildup of fluid in the lungs leading to 
death. According to the National Institutes of Health, in one case a 
chemical plant worker exposed to methyl iodide developed symptoms of 
central nervous system poisoning and died.

If methyl iodide is injected into soil as a fumigant, even tarps will 
not be able to keep it from escaping into the open air and 
endangering nearby farmworkers and communities. EPA's human health 
assessment optimistically recommends that workers handling methyl 
iodide be required to wear respirators, and that buffer zones the 
size of several football fields may be necessary to keep the 
poisonous gas from drifting into nearby communities. But on many 
farms, agricultural workers are regularly denied basic safety 
equipment, and growers have objected strenuously to buf

[Biofuel] U.S. pushes for more nuclear power

[Keith Addison]

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060115-033745-6090r
United Press International - Security & Terrorism

U.S. pushes for more nuclear power

By BRANDON THURNER
UPI Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- With energy demand spiraling and markets 
volatile, the U.S. administration and the energy industry are looking 
to nuclear power to lessen dependency on traditional fuel sources.

"I think we have a tremendous need and responsibility to provide 
nuclear power," White House Chief of Staff Andy Card said in a speech 
at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week.

Card also said that only part of the responsibility for reducing 
dependence on foreign sources of energy lay with the government.

"We also have an obligation to pay attention to the private sector," he said.

Last year's energy act provides a series of incentives and federal 
subventions for companies building nuclear power facilities in an 
effort to end what amounts to a 20-year moratorium on new plants.

Officials said the Card speech was part of drive by the 
administration to highlight the potential for nuclear power to reduce 
dependence on sources of energy -- like Middle Eastern oil -- that 
are both subject to potential supply disruption because of political 
instability, and produce greenhouse gases which may contribute to 
climate change.

"This administration has been clear on the need to expand the use of 
nuclear power," Craig Stevens, press secretary for the Department of 
Energy, told United Press International, adding that only 20 percent 
of the nation's energy supply currently comes from nuclear power.

"The need is to expand the use of nuclear energy and lessen 
dependence on fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas," Stevens 
said.

David Slump, chief marketing officer for General Electric Energy, 
believes a diverse energy supply is "very important" due to the sheer 
growth in U.S. power requirements along with the inherent volatility 
in energy markets.

"The trick is finding a way to make matters balance using coal, gas 
and nuclear" options, said Slump.

He estimated 50 percent of U.S. energy comes from coal, which is not 
subject to supply disruption, and the environmental impact of which 
can be lessened by the use of clean coal technology in the future.

Slump said that though no new nuclear facilities have been brought 
on-line in the last 20 years, the industry had added output 
equivalent to a whole new plant by "uprating," or upgrading existing 
equipment.

"Nuclear modernizations and upgrades are providing significant 
capacity increases at existing facilities," agreed John Wilson, vice 
president of group strategy at Siemens.

"Life extensions of the existing nuclear fleet, beyond their original 
lifespan are also a significant source of capacity to that balance 
portfolio," he added.

But the capacity limit for expanding output in this way may have been 
reached, according to Dr. Robert Peltier writing in the journal 
Platts Power. He says the average nuclear plant capacity factor 
reached a record high of 91 percent in 2004.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 offers several incentives to entice 
nuclear developers and operators to build new reactors. Two such 
offers include federal insurance and tax credits for generating new 
nuclear power.

According to Peltier, the act provides federal "insurance" for the 
first six new nuclear reactors on a decreasing scale. The first two 
reactors would have 100 percent coverage against delay costs of up to 
$500 million each while the last four plants would receive 50 percent 
coverage of up to $250 million each, after a 180-day "deductible."

The production tax credit for nuclear power currently stands at 1.8 
cents per kilowatt hour for the first eight years of generation, 
according to Peltier. This is in comparison to other sources of 
energy such as wind, which enjoys a 1.5 cent per kilowatt hour 
subsidy over a 10 year period. With six new reactors, officials 
estimate a total capacity of 6,000 megawatts, which would lead to a 
total annual subsidy of $750 million, according to Peltier.

On the issue of the costs of energy production, Slump told UPI that 
nuclear energy is the least expensive source of energy to produce -- 
at $1 per kilowatt hour once the plant is up and running. However, 
nuclear power is capital intensive making the sunk capital costs in 
designing and constructing new nuclear facilities much higher than 
for other energy options.

But critics of nuclear power say that those figures don't take into 
account the costs of dealing with and storing radioactive waste 
byproducts and other cost measures from generating electricity in 
this manner.

"Nuclear power is too expensive, too dangerous and generates nuclear 
waste with no good disposal options," said Anna Aurilio, legislative 
director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Aurilio argued the nuclear industry should not be getting subsidized 
with federal dollars whe

[Biofuel] No Discounted Transit for Oil

[Keith Addison]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2469/
-- In These Times
News > January 20, 2006

No Discounted Transit for Oil

By Aaron Sarver

Louisa Rodriguez wears a shirt with a picture of Venezuelan president 
Hugo Chavez.

As part of a broad PR campaign this winter, Venezuelan President Hugo 
Chavez has offered discounted home heating oil to low-income 
residents of Boston and New York. Through Citgo, a subsidiary of 
Venezuela's national oil company, a deal with three nonprofit housing 
programs in the Bronx will deliver lower costs to an estimated 8,000 
residents in 75 apartment buildings. In Boston, an agreement allows 
the nonprofit firm Citizens Energy to resell Citgo fuel, using 
proceeds to offer heating oil at a 40 percent discount to low-income 
residents. On January 13, Citizens Energy announced that it would 
also extend this discount to qualifying customers in Rhode Island.

The attention these programs have garnered has helped to counter 
naysayers like Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of 
Chavez last year, and U.S. press outlets that consistently print 
unflattering stories in which the title "dictator" often lurks very 
close to Chavez's name.

In October, Chavez offered the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) diesel 
fuel at a 40 percent discount, a savings that would amount to $15 
million. The one condition? Chavez asked that the savings be passed 
on to low-income families in the form of discounted or free transit 
cards. The CTA has declined the offer.

Journalist Jessica Pupovac broke the story for the New Standard News, 
an online news site, on December 28. In These Times recently sat down 
with Pupovac to discuss the story:

Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on with the program 
sponsored by the Venezuelan government in New York and Boston?

Last September, when Hugo Chavez was in New York for the U.N. Summit, 
he promised the people of the South Bronx that Venezuela would 
provide heating oil at discounted rates to help offset the rising 
costs of oil in the U.S. this upcoming winter. He made this promise 
in the context of realizing how much income disparity there was in 
the United States--kind of in an act of solidarity with low-income 
communities in the United States. In the Bronx, Citgo signed a deal 
with three different community organizations that work in housing 
development projects or low-income housing projects. And then in 
Boston, they signed a similar deal with Citizens Energy Corp, which 
is an organization that helps deliver heating oil to low income, 
mostly elderly residents in the Boston metropolitan area. These 
programs are currently underway; they've begun delivering the oil. In 
most cases, the oil is being delivered directly to the housing 
projects and the residents are enjoying a reduced rent during the 
winter, because they don't pay heating separately.

What has Citgo offered the Chicago Transit Authority?

Last October, Citgo offered CTA of 7.2 million gallons of diesel fuel 
at 40 percent off the current market value. The estimates were that 
this could save the CTA $15 million.

As part of the deal, Citgo requires the CTA to pass these savings on 
to Chicago's low-income residents in the form of either free or 
hugely discounted fare cards, which would help people this winter, 
especially with rising heating costs and the simultaneous increase in 
CTA fares. They made this offer in very vague terms, just to initiate 
the discussion and asked that the CTA consult with their technical 
advisers to find out exactly what the specifications of the diesel 
fuel that they require are, how Citgo could procure those, how they 
would go about delivering them, etc.

But, according to Martin Sanchez, at the consul general of Venezuela 
in Chicago, the CTA hasn't given those specs to Citgo.

The Chicago Transit Authority has turned down the offer. What is 
their reasoning?

The CTA has not officially turned down the offer to Citgo. They've 
turned down the offer in the media but they have not responded to 
Citgo or the Venezuelan embassy directly. That's why a lot of local 
politicians feel that the question is still on the table, that 
there's still some chance of convincing the CTA to take them up on 
their offer. The CTA however, is claiming that they cannot accept the 
offer because Citgo doesn't sell low-sulfur diesel fuel in the 
Midwest.

However, Citgo is saying that, no, they don't sell low-sulfur diesel 
fuel here in the Midwest because there isn't a demand for it, but 
they would be able to procure it.

What do you think is the real reason that the CTA's turned down Citgo's offer?

Well, it's hard to speculate why the CTA would decide to turn down so 
much discounted fuel when they're in the midst of a huge budget 
crisis--one that is causing them to raise fares. According to WBBM 
radio, they have a written report on their Web site dated January 5, 
that says, "[Frank] Kruesi [the CTA president] has had reservations 
abo

Re: [Biofuel] Noam Chomsky, 'The War on Terror' - full text available

[Keith Addison]

Full text below, in text instead of pdf.


>http://www.amnesty.ie/user/content/view/full/5051
>
>Annual Amnesty International Lecture: Noam Chomsky, 'The War on 
>Terror', (full text)
>
>18th January 2006
>
>Described by The New Yorker as 'one of the greatest minds of the 
>20th century', Noam Chomsky gave the 2006 Amnesty Lecture, hosted by 
>Trinity College Dublin, on January 18th. The theme of the lecture 
>was 'The War on Terror'.
>
>The full text of the lecture has now been made available.
>
>(Amnesty International has filmed the lecture and will make it 
>available in due course. An audio version will also be available on 
>the web. For further details, please refer back to this web page, 
>which will continue to be updated.)
>
>The full text of Professor Chomsky's lecture is available to 
>download in PDF format below:
>
>PDF: Noam Chomsky, 'War on Terror' (chomsky lecture 06.pdf - 156.91 kB)
>http://www.amnesty.ie/user/content/download/3898/20352/file/chomsky%2 
>0lecture%2006.pdf


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11655.htm

The re-declared War on Terror

Amnesty International Annual Lecture hosted by TCD, delivered by Noam 
Chomsky at Shelbourne Hall, the Royal Dublin Society, January 18, 
2006.

By Noam Chomsky

"Terror" is a term that rightly arouses strong emotions and deep 
concerns. The primary concern should, naturally, be to take measures 
to alleviate the threat, which has been severe in the past, and will 
be even more so in the future. To proceed in a serious way, we have 
to establish some guidelines. Here are a few simple ones:

(1) Facts matter, even if we do not like them.

(2) Elementary moral principles matter, even if they have 
consequences that we would prefer not to face.

(3) Relative clarity matters. It is pointless to seek a truly precise 
definition of "terror," or of any other concept outside of the hard 
sciences and mathematics, often even there. But we should seek enough 
clarity at least to distinguish terror from two notions that lie 
uneasily at its borders: aggression and legitimate resistance.

If we accept these guidelines, there are quite constructive ways to 
deal with the problems of terrorism, which are quite severe. It's 
commonly claimed that critics of ongoing policies do not present 
solutions. Check the record, and I think you will find that there is 
an accurate translation for that charge: "They present solutions, but 
I don't like them."

Suppose, then, that we accept these simple guidelines. Let's turn to 
the "War on Terror." Since facts matter, it matters that the War was 
not declared by George W. Bush on 9/11, but by the Reagan 
administration 20 years earlier.

They came into office declaring that their foreign policy would 
confront what the President called "the evil scourge of terrorism," a 
plague spread by "depraved opponents of civilization itself" in "a 
return to barbarism in the modern age" (Secretary of State George 
Shultz). The campaign was directed to a particularly virulent form of 
the plague: state-directed international terrorism. The main focus 
was Central America and the Middle East, but it reached to southern 
Africa and Southeast Asia and beyond.

A second fact is that the war was declared and implemented by pretty 
much the same people who are conducting the re-declared war on 
terrorism. The civilian component of the re-declared War on Terror is 
led by John Negroponte, appointed last year to supervise all 
counterterror operations. As Ambassador in Honduras, he was the 
hands-on director of the major operation of the first War on Terror, 
the contra war against Nicaragua launched mainly from US bases in 
Honduras. I'll return to some of his tasks. The military component of 
the re-declared War led by Donald Rumsfeld. During the first phase of 
the War on Terror, Rumsfeld was Reagan's special representative to 
the Middle East. There, his main task was to establish close 
relations with Saddam Hussein so that the US could provide him with 
large-scale aid, including means to develop WMD, continuing long 
after the huge atrocities against the Kurds and the end of the war 
with Iran. The official purpose, not concealed, was Washington's 
responsibility to aid American exporters and "the strikingly 
unanimous view" of Washington and its allies Britain and Saudi Arabia 
that "whatever the sins of the Iraqi leader, he offered the West and 
the region a better hope for his country's stability than did those 
who have suffered his repression" -- New York Times Middle East 
correspondent Alan Cowell, describing Washington's judgment as George 
Bush I authorized Saddam to crush the Shi'ite rebellion in 1991, 
which probably would have overthrown the tyrant.

Saddam is at last on trial for his crimes. The first trial, now 
underway, is for crimes he committed in 1982. 1982 happens to be an 
important year in US-Iraq relations. It was in 1982 that Reagan 
removed Iraq from the list of states supporting terror so that 

[Biofuel] Venezuela's Chavez hosts World Social Forum as leftist movements unite against Bush

[Keith Addison]

http://www.wkrc.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=8B70B887-BB67-48B 
8-BD00-EF3B1CF6E476
WKRC 12 Cincinnati -
Venezuela's Chavez hosts World Social Forum as leftist movements 
unite against Bush
LAST UPDATE: 1/24/2006 12:45:06 AM

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez, reveling in his role 
as leftist icon, is bringing together tens of thousands of activists 
from across the world on Tuesday to promote Latin America's 
fast-growing anti-globalization movement.

Leftist leaders are increasingly popular across Latin America, while 
Chavez's own "revolution" for the poor has become an inspiration for 
like-minded activists everywhere.

More than 60,000 had signed up for this week's World Social Forum in 
Caracas as of Monday and tens of thousands more were expected, 
organizers said. They include campaigners against U.S.-style free 
trade, environmentalists, Indian leaders and human rights activists.

About half were expected to come from outside Venezuela.

Their views span a wide spectrum, but most participants appear united 
by strong opposition to the U.S. government and the war in Iraq. The 
forum will begin with an "anti-imperialist" march Tuesday through the 
streets of Caracas, with protesters likely to aim their chants 
against President Bush.

"Venezuela has become an epicenter of change on the world level," 
Chavez said Friday, referring to the event in a speech. "That's why 
(U.S.) imperialism wants to sweep us away, of course ... because they 
say we are a bad example. But they haven't swept us away and they 
won't."

The Venezuelan leader is expected to address activists on the 
sidelines of the gathering, soaking up the spotlight as a leading 
radical voice of the Latin American left.

Chavez has repeatedly accused U.S. officials of plotting to overthrow 
his "revolutionary" government and warned that Venezuela, the world's 
fifth-largest petroleum exporter, would cut off oil shipments to the 
United States if it ever invades his country.

Chavez has used a windfall in oil profits to funnel millions of 
dollars into programs for the poor while raising Venezuela's profile 
internationally by extending preferential oil deals to countries from 
China to Argentina in an effort to line up alternative trade partners 
to the United States, the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil.

The World Social Forum was first held in Brazil in 2001 and coincides 
each year with the market-friendly World Economic Forum of political 
and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

Those at the social forum, in contrast, traditionally criticize free 
trade and denounce the evils of capitalism - stances that closely 
mirror Chavez's socialist views.

"The U.S. government, especially under the Bush administration, has 
been trying to force its own economic polices on developing 
countries, and I think all of us here agree that must stop," said 
Jeff Monahan, a 32-year-old organic farmer from Battle Creek, Mich.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of Bush-bashing when this gets under 
way," said Monahan, who arrived early and was helping put up canopies 
in a city park where thousands will camp out in tents.

Some 2,000 events - including seminars, speeches, concerts and craft 
fairs - will be held across Caracas during this week's forum.

"The world is changing, and I think leaders like Chavez can provide 
interesting examples of what can be done to ensure it changes for the 
better," said Moritz Lange, 24, who came from Bremen, Germany, to 
help to organize the forum.

Others expected to attend include Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, 
Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel and U.S. 
anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004 
and who set up a protest camp near Bush's Texas ranch last year.

It was not clear whether other leftist leaders from Latin America 
would come. Some activists said they hoped to see Presidents Evo 
Morales of Bolivia or Fidel Castro of Cuba. Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula 
da Silva initially was expected, but then said he would not come.

The recent rise of left-leaning governments in Bolivia, Argentina, 
Uruguay and Chile makes the event a timely forum to exchange ideas, 
said Miguel Tinker Salas, a Latin American studies professor at 
Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.

"It's an opportune moment, given what's happening in Latin America 
and the fact that it brings together these various political forces 
on the left," Tinker Salas said in a telephone interview.

This year's social forum is being held in three spots around the 
world, including one ending Monday in Bamako, Mali, and another two 
months from now in Karachi, Pakistan. The Venezuela forum is the main 
event and the smaller forums are meant to make it more accessible to 
people in other regions.

 

©2006 Associated Press.

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[Biofuel] When Red Goes Green

[Keith Addison]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2465/
-- In These Times
Features > January 18, 2006

When Red Goes Green

A burgeoning Chinese environmental movement tries to stem the 
devastation wrought by the country's massive economic transformation.

By Jehangir Pocha   ·   Beijing

A paramilitary policeman faces the sunrise while patrolling Tiananmen 
Square on a hazy morning in Beijing.

In November, much of China watched in horror as work crews struggled 
to contain a benzene spill that polluted the northeastern Songhua 
River and disrupted drinking water supplies to about 12 million 
people in the region for more than a week.

But even those watching the event unfold on TV from the comfort of 
their homes in Beijing weren't entirely safe from the effects of 
China's increasing environmental decay. China's capital is one of the 
most polluted in the world and lung cancer is now the number one 
cause of death here, according to China's own State Environmental 
Protection Administration (SEPA). A thick cloud of sulfur envelops 
the city most evenings and a recent picture taken from NASA's Terra 
satellite showed the entire city covered by a nearly opaque band of 
gray smog.

With more and more people suddenly finding themselves directly 
affected by endemic pollution, public awareness of and anger over 
China's deteriorating environment is growing. And so is their 
willingness to take risks and do something about it, despite the 
strictures on organized political activity in this authoritarian 
state.

"People are taking a stand," says Dai Qing, a political and 
environmental activist who was jailed during the Tiananmen Square 
massacre of 1989. Dai emerged from prison to champion opposition to 
the giant Three Gorges Dam, which she calls "the most environmentally 
and socially destructive project in the world."

In the decade since China's first environmental NGO, Friends of 
Nature, was allowed to be registered in 1994, more than 2,000 
environmental NGOs have risen all over the country, according to 
government reports. Once disparate, under-funded, untrained and badly 
equipped, many of these NGOs are now learning how to organize and 
empower themselves. Over the last two months, Dai has been running a 
communications workshop for local NGO workers from a small office 
within the bowels of a humble-looking residential neighborhood in 
Beijing.

Zheng Jun Feng, 43, a scientist with Green Remote, a local NGO that 
studies satellite imaging and remote sensing data, says he attended 
the sessions because he needs to find better ways to get around the 
controls and constraints the Chinese government places on his work.

"I want to learn how to take my thoughts and ideas to foreign 
friends," Zheng says, echoing the view of many activists here who say 
foreign money and expertise is critical for China's budding NGOs to 
grow.

A widening impact

This call is being increasingly heeded abroad. Dai says her sessions 
are being co-sponsored by Probe International, a Canadian 
environmental watchdog group, and George Soros' Open Society 
Institute. One reason international aid is flowing to China's 
environmental NGOs is that while China's booming economy is buoying 
global markets, the environmental fallout of this production is 
spreading.

"A lot of sulfur dioxide and other pollutants from China are reaching 
Japan with the western wind and even the west coast of the United 
States," says Dr. Tsutomu Toichi, managing director and chief 
executive economist of the Institute of Energy Economics in Tokyo.

Yet China, along with other developing nations such as India, is free 
of any obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to reduce 
the emission of various ozone-depleting gases. (The United States and 
Australia, who together account for about 27 percent of the world's 
greenhouse gas emissions, have also not agreed to sign the protocol.)

A concerned Japan has tried to encourage China, which emits about 25 
million tons of acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide each year, to 
install de-sulfurization units in its coal-fired power plants by 
providing it with technical know-how and more than $40 million in 
"green aid." Yet Toichi says that "most Chinese power companies 
prefer to pay the financial penalties" of not installing the 
equipment because it's cheaper to do.

Justin Fong, the founder of Moving Mountains, a San Francisco-based 
NGO helping Dai organize the training sessions, says the activists in 
his class "may seem ordinary, but they're all doing ground-breaking 
work, and taking real chances" by trying to change such mentalities.

Initially, Chinese NGOs and journalists had focused on more 
politically "acceptable" issues, such as tree planting campaigns. But 
now many are engaged in fierce battles with authorities over the 
construction of dams and other public works mega-projects, as well as 
filing lawsuits against polluting factories.

"If we don't speak up, don't take responsibility, our

[Biofuel] United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says

[Keith Addison]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0123-03.htm
Published on Monday, January 23, 2006 by the New York Times

United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says

by Felicity Barringer

WASHINGTON - A pilot nation-by-nation study of environmental 
performance shows that just six nations - led by New Zealand, 
followed by five from Northern Europe - have achieved 85 percent or 
better success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals 
ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable 
fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions.

The study, jointly produced by Yale and Columbia Universities, ranked 
the United States 28th over all, behind most of Western Europe, 
Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Chile, but ahead of Russia 
and South Korea.

The bottom half of the rankings is largely filled with the countries 
of Africa and Central and South Asia. Pakistan and India both rank 
among the 20 lowest-scoring countries, with overall success rates of 
41.1 percent and 47.7 percent, respectively.

The pilot study, called the 2006 Environmental Performance Index, has 
been reviewed by specialists both in the United States and 
internationally.

Using a new variant of the methodology the two universities have 
applied in their Environmental Sustainability Index, produced in four 
previous years, the study was intended to focus more attention on how 
various governments have played the environmental hands they have 
been dealt, said Daniel C. Esty, the director of the Yale Center for 
Environmental Law and Policy and an author of the report.

The earlier sustainability measurements "tell you something about 
long-term trajectories," Mr. Esty said. "We think this tool has a 
much greater application in the policy context."

For instance, Britain ranked 65th in last year's sustainability 
index, but 5th in the latest study, among the 133 nations measured. 
Among the reasons for the earlier low ranking, Mr. Esty said, was 
that "they cut down almost all their trees 500 years ago and before," 
something that modern British governments could not control.

The 16 indicators used in the latest study, the report says, provide 
"a powerful tool for evaluating environmental investments and 
improving policy results."

The report will be issued during the World Economic Forum, an annual 
conclave of business and political leaders which meets in Davos, 
Switzerland, this week. Mr. Esty said the report was also intended as 
a tool to help monitor progress on the environmental issues included 
among the Millennium Development goals adopted by 189 nations at the 
United Nations Millennium Summit.

"It's like holding up a mirror and having someone help you see what 
you couldn't see before," he said. But the report acknowledges 
"serious data gaps" that resulted in leaving more than 65 countries 
out of the rankings. In addition, some thorny methodological issues, 
like how to measure land degradation or loss of wetlands, have no 
widely accepted solutions, the report noted, and the authors used the 
best measures they had available.

Like the sustainability index produced last year, the pilot study 
ranks countries within their geographic peer groups, so that nations 
in arid regions or tropical ones can be measured against one another. 
So Belgium's overall ranking of 39, with a 75.9 percent score, can be 
viewed by region and by issue. Belgium ranks last, for instance, 
among European countries in protection of its water resources.

Air quality rankings tend to favor less industrialized nations like 
Uganda, Gabon, Ecuador and Sri Lanka. Among the countries of the 
Americas, the United States ranks in the bottom third on this scale.

In the Americas, the United States is at the bottom of the scale 
measuring agricultural, forest and fisheries management, in part 
because the study is weighted against countries with a high level of 
crop subsidies. The study's authors say that such subsidies "in 
agriculture, fisheries and energy sectors have been shown to have 
negative impacts on resource use and management practices."

In the area of environmental health, the study measured such factors 
as sanitation, lead exposure and indoor air pollution, a particular 
concern in the least developed countries, where indoor home fires may 
be common. In those measures, the richest countries, including the 
United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, 
Britain, Ireland and the countries of Northern and Central Europe 
score near 100 percent.

On the same scale, the poorest countries fared worst, with 32 of 37 
sub-Saharan African nations, along with Bangladesh, Haiti, Yemen, 
Tajikistan, Laos, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea, scoring at or below 
40 percent. Chad and Niger rank last in the world, with scores of 0 
percent and 1 percent, respectively.

"In the zone we capture as the field of play, they're at the very 
bottom," Mr. Esty said. "It doesn't mean that nobody there has a 
toilet

[Biofuel] Quantum Dots and Ultra-Efficient Solar Cells?

[Keith Addison]

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability
http://www.i-sis.org.uk

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at 
http://www.i- 
sis.org.uk/QDAUESC.php

Solar Power for the Masses
Organic Solar Power
Quantum Dots and Ultra-Efficient 
Solar Cells?

ISIS Press Release 19/01/06

Quantum Dots and Ultra-Efficient Solar Cells?

Exciting new possibilities in harvesting solar power over the next 
decade. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

A fully referenced version of this 
article is posted on ISIS members' website. Details here

Limit on efficiency

The efficiency of solar cells is the electrical power it puts out as 
percentage of the power in incident sunlight. One of the most 
fundamental limitations on the efficiency of a solar cell is the 
'band gap' of the semi-conducting material used in conventional solar 
cells: the energy required to boost an electron from the bound 
valence band into the mobile conduction band. When an electron is 
knocked loose from the valence band, it goes into the conduction band 
as a negative charge, leaving behind a 'hole' of positive charge. 
Both electron and hole can migrate through the semi-conducting 
material.

In a solar cell, negatively doped (n-type) material with extra 
electrons in its otherwise empty conduction band forms a junction 
with positively doped (p-type) material, with extra holes in the band 
otherwise filled with valence electrons. When a photon with energy 
matching the band gap strikes the semiconductor, it is absorbed by an 
electron, which jumps to the conduction band, leaving a hole. Both 
electron and hole migrate in the junction's electric field, but in 
opposite directions. If the solar cell is connected to an external 
circuit, an electric current is generated. If the circuit is open, 
then an electrical potential or voltage is built up across the 
electrodes.

Photons with less energy than the band gap slip right through without 
being absorbed, while photons with energy higher than the band gap 
are absorbed, but their excess energy is wasted, and dissipated as 
heat. The maximum efficiency that a solar cell made from a single 
material can theoretically achieve is about 30 percent. In practice, 
the best achievable is about 25 percent.

It is possible to improve on the efficiency by stacking materials 
with different band gaps together in multi-junction cells. Stacking 
dozens of different layers together can increase efficiency 
theoretically to greater than 70 percent. But this results in 
technical problems such as strain damages to the crystal layers. The 
most efficient multi-junction solar cell is one that has three 
layers: gallium indium phosphide/gallium arsenide/germanium 
(GaInP/GaAs/Ge) made by the National Center for Photovoltaics in the 
US, which achieved an efficiency of 34 percent in 2001 [1].

Recently, entirely new possibilities for improving the efficiency of 
photovoltaics have opened up.

Quantum dot possibilities

Quantum dots or nanoparticles are semi-conducting crystals of 
nanometre (a billionth of a metre) dimensions. They have quantum 
optical properties that are absent in the bulk material due to the 
confinement of electron-hole pairs (called excitons) on the particle, 
in a region of a few nanometres.

The first advantage of quantum dots is their tunable bandgap. It 
means that the wavelength at which they will absorb or emit radiation 
can be adjusted at will: the larger the size, the longer the 
wavelength of light absorbed and emitted [2].  The greater the 
bandgap of a solar cell semiconductor, the more energetic the photons 
absorbed, and the greater the output voltage. On the other hand, a 
lower bandgap results in the capture of more photons including those 
in the red end of the solar spectrum, resulting in a higher output of 
current but at a lower output voltage. Thus, there is an optimum 
bandgap that corresponds to the highest possible solar-electric 
energy conversion, and this can also be achieved by using a mixture 
of quantum dots of different sizes for harvesting the maximum 
proportion of the incident light.

Another advantage of quantum dots is that in contrast to traditional 
semiconductor materials that are crystalline or rigid, quantum dots 
can be molded into a variety of different form, in sheets or 
three-dimensional arrays. They can easily be combined with organic 
polymers, dyes, or made into porous films 
("Organic solar power", this 
series). In the colloidal form suspended in solution, they can be 
processed to create junctions on inexpensive substrates such as 
plastics, glass or metal sheets.

When quantum dots are formed into an ordered three-dimensional array, 
there will be strong e

[Biofuel] Thousands Throng Streets as Bolivian Leader Sheds Tears but Talks Tough at Inauguration

[Keith Addison]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0123-01.htm
Published on Monday, January 23, 2006 by the Guardian / UK

Thousands Throng Streets as Bolivian Leader Sheds Tears but Talks 
Tough at Inauguration
· President insists he will not eradicate coca trade
· Warning to US as Morales threatens to turn to China

by Jonathan Rugman and Dan Glaister

Bolivia installed its first indigenous president yesterday, Evo 
Morales, who insisted he would stick by radical drugs and energy 
policies regardless of US consternation at another South American 
country turning to the left.

New Bolivian president Evo Morales speaks to supporters at the Plaza 
de los Heroes square in La Paz. Photograph: Juan Karita/AP
In a pre-inauguration interview, Mr Morales vowed that he would not 
destroy his country's rapidly expanding coca crop, and threatened to 
turn to China as a partner if western multinationals refused to 
cooperate with his plans to nationalise vast gas reserves. "We will 
fight the drugs traffickers, but there's going to be no coca 
eradication," said Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian who easily won 
December presidential elections. "Zero coca programmes haven't solved 
the drugs problem and they've hurt Bolivia."

His accession to power was celebrated this weekend. A spiritual 
ceremony at ancient pre-Inca ruins on Saturday gave way to the 
inauguration during which Mr Morales, 46, raised his fist in a 
salute, and wept as he was presented with the yellow, red and green 
presidential sash.

He asked the audience in the Palacio Quemado, seat of the government 
in La Paz, to observe a minute's silence in honour of the fallen 
heroes of the social movements, including Che Guevara."Glory to the 
martyrs of the liberation," he declared at the end of the minute, as 
shouts of "Evo, Evo" rang around the chamber where an emerging crop 
of leftwing leaders were in attendance, led by Hugo Chávez of 
Venezuela and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Visiting dignitaries looked on, but senators from opposition parties 
mostly sat with arms folded, observing an event that they could not 
have envisaged: the inauguration of an uneducated Indian as president 
of Latin America's poorest population and its second-largest reserves 
of natural gas.

In his first speech, Mr Morales called his election "the end of the 
colonial and neo-liberal era". He promised an inclusive government, 
and called on all parties to join him in reform. "The 500 years of 
Indian resistance have not been in vain," he said. "From 500 years of 
resistance we pass to another 500 years in power."

The US state department says it is withholding judgement but at the 
Pentagon Mr Morales' ideas on tackling the cocaine trade - catching 
the traffickers but growing coca leaves all the same - have raised 
concerns. After Colombia and Peru, Bolivia is South America's third 
biggest cocaine supplier. A former coca farmer himself, Mr Morales is 
wary of alienating his rural power base. Yet unless Bolivia joins the 
war against drugs, it risks losing the US as its biggest foreign 
donor with $600m (£340m) in aid on the table. "That's America's 
problem, not my problem," an apparently unconcerned president told 
Channel 4 News. "Fighting the drugs trade is an excuse for the US to 
increase its control over Latin America."

With foreign investment dwindling in the face of Bolivia's lurch 
leftwards, Mr Morales has been under pressure from the business elite 
- many of them descendants of the colonial Spanish - to reassure 
multinationals including BP and British Gas their money is safe. 
Several firm threaten to sue Bolivia in the face of a big rise in gas 
extraction fees imposed by the last government. President Morales 
says he "guarantees investors will recoup their money and make a 
profit" but will not back down on his pledge to renationalise gas 
reserves worth a potential $250bn.

His first foreign tour steered clear of Britain and United States but 
notably took in China. "We are going to guarantee Chinese investment. 
What's better than state investment? We should have a petro-Americas, 
a partnership between state enterprise and business. Our land has 
been looted for 500 years and we are going to assert our right of 
ownership."

It is an approach that strikes a chord with the millions in Bolivia, 
where three-quarters of the 8.5-million population are Indian and 
two-thirds survive on less than $2 a day. Many see in Mr Morales a 
leader in the mould of Mr Chávez. The Bolivian president has 
signalled that the Chávez model of tapping energy wealth to fund 
public spending is one he will follow. Yet despite formidable gas 
reserves, But Bolivia's revenue does not compare with to Venezuela's 
oil wealth and the moderating influence of President da Silva of 
Brazil - a major trading partner - may instil a willingness to 
compromise.

Pragmatism was in evidence during the interview with Mr Morales. At 
one point the president tried to terminate our interview early, 
i

Re: [Biofuel] Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

[Greg and April]

Our cat's would climb in the crib and snuggle down next to the babies, and
the babies would snuggle right back.If the baby started fussing, the
cats would sit up and " wait for the wife or I to make that noisy thing
quiet again.

It got to one point that when my son was about 8-9 months, he actualy would
go to sleep faster when a cat would join him.Usually it was the big tom,
that would climb in and just start purring and my son would just be asleep
in no time.Our son is now 6 and any cat that isn't on our bed, is more
than likely on his bed, and he still goes to sleep faster with a cat with
him.


I'll say this, that big male, is friendly as all get out, and while he would
take the rough play, but, would smack any kid that would be mean.That is
one smart cat, and appears to know the difference between play ( even rough
play ) and harassment.


Greg H.


- Original Message - 
From: "Jeromie Reeves" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 10:21
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Sudden Infant Death Syndrome


> That is not entirely a "old wives tale". In 80/81 my little brother
> would have issues when our cat would
> get into his crib to try and drink his bottle. While it never killed him
> he did get upset. I can see how a
> child who is alergic, or if the cat is large, could possibly hurt a
infant.
>
> Jeromie
>
>
> Greg and April wrote:
>
> >Let's not forget of the old wives tale of cat's laying on infants,
> >smothering them.
> >
> >Greg H.
> >
> >
> >- Original Message - 
> >From: "bob allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >To: 
> >Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 20:47
> >Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>This an interesting hypothesis, but it brings to mind a question and a
> >>
> >>
> >comment
> >
> >
> >>what were infants dying of prior to the initiation of the use of flame
> >>
> >>
> >retardants?  Crib deaths are
> >
> >
> >>reported in medical literature from early in the nineteenth century, and
> >>
> >>
> >anecdotally much earlier
> >
> >
> >>still- at least this suggests multiple causes.
> >>
> >>
> >>This should be a no brainer to resolve.  Arsenic and Antimony could
easily
> >>
> >>
> >be detected in post
> >
> >
> >>mortem tissue.  It seems strange that nobody has reported any autopsy
> >>
> >>
> >data, showing elevated levels
> >
> >
> >>of the metals. For that matter has anybody done simple collection of
> >>
> >>
> >samples from the air above or
> >
> >
> >>around the mattresses and shown the presence of the toxic gases?
> >>
> >>personally, I am skeptical as usual.  show me data, not speculation, and
I
> >>
> >>
> >will be convinced- it's
> >
> >
> >>as simple as that.
> >>
> >>toodles
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >___
> >Biofuel mailing list
> >Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
> >http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
> >
> >Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
> >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
> >
> >Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000
messages):
> >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> ___
> Biofuel mailing list
> Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
> http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
>
> Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
>
> Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000
messages):
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>
>


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