Re: [biofuels-biz] We Had a Democracy Once, But You Crushed It
Thanks Keith, Lest We Forget . . . Michael Allen Thailand On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 22:52:51 +0900, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We've talked about the CIA coup against Mossadegh in Iran here several times, and drawn much the same conclusions. I'm glad it's getting a bit more attention now, very timely. Here's the NYT review of Stephen Kinzer's new book, All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/10/books/review/10BASS.html 'All the Shah's Men': Regime Change, Circa 1953 Keith http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2003/000158.html We Had a Democracy Once, But You Crushed It By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Fri, 08 Aug 2003 In yesterday's Washington Post, Condoleeza Rice, the President's National Security Advisor, writes the following: Our task is to work with those in the Middle East who seek progress toward greater democracy, tolerance, prosperity and freedom. As President Bush said in February, 'The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life.' Now, if we only had a nickel for every time Bush, or Rice, or Colin Powell, or Paul Wolfowitz or Dick Cheney or Richard Perle or Donald Rumsfeld talked about bringing democracy to the Middle East. Talk, talk, talk. Here's something you can bet on: Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz will not hold a press conference this month to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-led coup of the democratically elected leader of Iran -- Mohammed Mossadegh. Rice and Powell won't hold a press conference to celebrate Operation Ajax, the CIA plot that overthrew the Mossadegh. That was 50 years ago this month, in August 1953. That's when Mossadegh was fed up with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company -- now BP -- pumping Iran's oil and shipping the profits back home to the United Kingdom. And Mossadegh said -- hey, this is our oil, I think we'll keep it. And Winston Churchill said -- no you won't. Mossadegh nationalized the company -- the way the British were nationalizing their own vital industries at the time. But what's good for the UK ain't good for Iran. If you fly out of Dulles Airport in Virginia, ever wonder what the word Dulles means? It stands for the Dulles family -- Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, the CIA director, Allen Dulles. They were responsible for the overthrow of the democratically elected leader of Iran. As was President Theodore Roosevelt's grandson, Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA agent who traveled to Iran to pull off the coup. Now why should we be concerned about a coup that happened so far away almost 50 years ago this month? New York Times reporter Stephen Kinzer puts it this way: It is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York. Kinzer has written a remarkable new book, All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (Wiley, 2003). In it, he documents step by step, how Roosevelt, the Dulles boys and Norman Schwarzkopf Sr., among a host of others, took down a democratically elected regime in Iran. They had freedom of the press. We shut it down. They had democracy. And we crushed it. Mossadegh was the beacon of hope for the Middle East. If democracy were allowed to take hold in Iran, it probably would have spread throughout the Middle East. We asked Kinzer: what does the overthrow of Mossadegh say about the United States respect for democracy abroad? Imagine today what it must sound like to Iranians to hear American leaders tell them -- 'We want you to have a democracy in Iran, we disapprove of your present government, we wish to help you bring democracy to your country.' Naturally, they roll their eyes and say -- We had a democracy once, but you crushed it,' he said. This shows how differently other people perceive us from the way we perceive ourselves. We think of ourselves as paladins of democracy. But actually, in Iran, we destroyed the last democratic regime the country ever had and set them on a road to what has been half a century of dictatorship. After ousting Mossadegh, the United States put in place a brutal Shah who destroyed dissent and tortured the dissenters. And the Shah begat the Islamic revolution. During that Islamic revolution in 1979, Iranians held up Mossadegh's picture, telling the world: we want a democratic regime that resists foreign influence and respects the will of the Iranian people as expressed through democratic institutions. They were never able to achieve that. And this has led many Iranians to react very poignantly to my book, Kaizer told us. One woman sent me an e-mail that
Re: [biofuels-biz] reducing ffa's
Dear Colton (and indirectly Girl Mark), I think pH meters are very stable and reliable instruments these days. But you have to rememebr that they measure the hydrogen ion concentration in a solvent that allows ionisation such as water. (Indeed, the pH scale is devised so that pH 7 is as neutral as water is supposed to be). Methyl ester and vegetable oils are not such solvents. If you put the electrodes of a pH meter into oil or an oil/water mix, the lack of an ionisable solvent between them causes the apparent pH value to wander all over the place. You can even damage some pH meters. I think that is also part of the answer for Girl Mark too: You can soon test what Todd is saying by dropping some sodium hydroxide pellets or flakes into some vegetable oil. You will see that it slowly reacts with the glycerides to give sodium soaps which encase the pellets. This would make ppoor hand-soap because the unreacted pellets would be quite dangerous. But add some water and a little heat and the reaction is much faster and more complete. The sodium salt of the fatty acid so formed can be skimmed off or separated out with a strong brine solution (including calcium chloride solutions just like emulsion breaking mentioned elsewhere). It may then be washed with fresh brine at this time to remove unreacted sodium hudroxide. The pH of the soap made in this way is usually then lowered by adding resin (wood resins such as pine and kauri have been used for yonks) and buffered by adding something like borax (sodium tetraborate) or a phosphate (which also counters scum-formation in calcium-containing hard waters). The soap is then left to harden (aging) so that water evaporates and any sodium hydroxide (lye) left gets a chance to react with carbon dioxide in the air to make the less skin-aggressive sodium carbonate. (This is basically how laundry soaps and soap powders were once made -- and still are in some sustainable-technology countries). Some of these crude soaps are then re- milled, heated with colouring, perfumes, resin, buffers, glycerol etc. to make toilet soaps. (Incidentally, I think there are many more good recipes on the net for soap-making than there are for ester-making. Here are just three of the thousands presented by google: http://candleandsoap.about.com/mbody.htm, http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html, http://members.aol.com/oelaineo/soapmaking.html) I'm sure you can see the similarities of this saponification reaction to the transesterification reaction. And you can also see how the presence of water can quickly turn one into the other! But to return to Colton's enquiry: For the reasons given in the first paragraph, we measure the pH of the wash-water in contact with the methyl ester. Of course it takes some time for the two phases to come to equilibrium depending on how much mixing is going on, surface area exposed etc. Strictly speaking, we are not trying to make the oil pH neutral by washing so much as trying to remove sodium soaps and methoxide. If these remain in the ester, they could be deposited in the engine and may cause damage. (Whether such damage is more dangerous to a diesel engine that a long drive down a spume-covered coast road I cannot say . but it's an interesting thought!) Hope this is some help Michael Allen Thailand On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 03:01:07 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We are using a pH meter ( visual) methods during our titration to determine the ffa%. It is very frustrating since the pH meter readings are very inconsistant. Our current ffa% is 1.6% and we are trying to reduce it to .5% by acidification. Any comments on methods for determing the ffa%? Thanks Colton How were you able to know that your ffa's increase? If you are just using a pH meter, it is but natural that the pH will fall since you are using a strong acid H2SO4. If you are titrating with NaOH, H2SO4 will eat up a considerable amount of lye. Christopher =-Original Message- =From: Orion Polinsky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] =Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 8:53 AM =To: biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com =Subject: [biofuels-biz] reducing ffa's = = =hi all, = =I am trying to convert my free fatty acids to =esters by acidification using methanol and =H2SO4. Unfortunately, each time I try it, my =ffa level increases. =Is there anyone out there with a good =acidification recipe? =thanks, =Orion = = =summa scientia nihil scire =Help the planet each day! It's free and easy: =http://www.Care2.com/dailyaction/ = = = =Biofuels at Journey to Forever =http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html =Biofuel at WebConX =http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm =List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: =http://archive.nnytech.net/ =To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: =[EMAIL PROTECTED] = = = =Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ =
Re: [biofuels-biz] reducing ffa's
Hi Michael et al Im wondering if anyone has looked at calcium oxide as a reactant/catalysis. CaO is very hydroscopic and should(?) suck up all the H2O and ffas. Im thinking about this in order to use hydrated rice straw derived ethanol directly from fermentation rather than going through laborious distillation and drying procedures. CaO is used in cement and available at low cost (mountains of limestone and five cement factories in West Java). Can make concrete things as well as biodiesel and glycerol. Probably a crazy of the top of my head idea and just wondering if anyone has tried it. Ken PS The p function is defined as log (base 10) of the thing being measured. This must be a dimensionless quantity. The concentration of water is defined as one. [H2O] = 1. The [] mean concentration. [H+][OH-]/[H2O] = 10 to the minus 14. I.e. [H+][OH-](dimensionless quantities) = 10 to the -14 and p(H+) + p(OH-) = 14. Agreeing with Michael, p(H+) in something other than water has a different meaning(?) and the rate of dissociation will be different than in water. --- Michael Allen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Colton (and indirectly Girl Mark), I think pH meters are very stable and reliable instruments these days. But you have to rememebr that they measure the hydrogen ion concentration in a solvent that allows ionisation such as water. (Indeed, the pH scale is devised so that pH 7 is as neutral as water is supposed to be). Methyl ester and vegetable oils are not such solvents. If you put the electrodes of a pH meter into oil or an oil/water mix, the lack of an ionisable solvent between them causes the apparent pH value to wander all over the place. You can even damage some pH meters. I think that is also part of the answer for Girl Mark too: You can soon test what Todd is saying by dropping some sodium hydroxide pellets or flakes into some vegetable oil. You will see that it slowly reacts with the glycerides to give sodium soaps which encase the pellets. This would make ppoor hand-soap because the unreacted pellets would be quite dangerous. But add some water and a little heat and the reaction is much faster and more complete. The sodium salt of the fatty acid so formed can be skimmed off or separated out with a strong brine solution (including calcium chloride solutions just like emulsion breaking mentioned elsewhere). It may then be washed with fresh brine at this time to remove unreacted sodium hudroxide. The pH of the soap made in this way is usually then lowered by adding resin (wood resins such as pine and kauri have been used for yonks) and buffered by adding something like borax (sodium tetraborate) or a phosphate (which also counters scum-formation in calcium-containing hard waters). The soap is then left to harden (aging) so that water evaporates and any sodium hydroxide (lye) left gets a chance to react with carbon dioxide in the air to make the less skin-aggressive sodium carbonate. (This is basically how laundry soaps and soap powders were once made -- and still are in some sustainable-technology countries). Some of these crude soaps are then re- milled, heated with colouring, perfumes, resin, buffers, glycerol etc. to make toilet soaps. (Incidentally, I think there are many more good recipes on the net for soap-making than there are for ester-making. Here are just three of the thousands presented by google: http://candleandsoap.about.com/mbody.htm, http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html, http://members.aol.com/oelaineo/soapmaking.html) I'm sure you can see the similarities of this saponification reaction to the transesterification reaction. And you can also see how the presence of water can quickly turn one into the other! But to return to Colton's enquiry: For the reasons given in the first paragraph, we measure the pH of the wash-water in contact with the methyl ester. Of course it takes some time for the two phases to come to equilibrium depending on how much mixing is going on, surface area exposed etc. Strictly speaking, we are not trying to make the oil pH neutral by washing so much as trying to remove sodium soaps and methoxide. If these remain in the ester, they could be deposited in the engine and may cause damage. (Whether such damage is more dangerous to a diesel engine that a long drive down a spume-covered coast road I cannot say . but it's an interesting thought!) Hope this is some help Michael Allen Thailand On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 03:01:07 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We are using a pH meter ( visual) methods during our titration to determine the ffa%. It is very frustrating since the pH meter readings are very inconsistant. Our current ffa% is 1.6% and we are trying to reduce it to .5% by acidification. Any comments on methods for determing the ffa%? Thanks Colton How were you able to know
[biofuels-biz] biodiesel production
Hello biofuels-biz group, I am interested in making biodiesel. I want to visit a home maker and observe how she or he is doing it. So anyone in Europe who will let me see his or her production unit ? Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/9bTolB/TM -~- Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuels-biz] Consumer Revolution
A year or so back a different survey found that an impressive percentage of US consumers would pay more for energy-efficient low-emissions cars (though what they got was more SUVs and a heavy shove to make them easier to buy than anything else). The quite common idea (here too) that most people just don't care about anything other than their own selfish and short-sighted concerns just isn't true - a rather large number do care, and are prepared to do something about it, and this despite a massive and constant barrage of soporific pap from a kept media and a kept everything else too, plus hundreds of billions in corporate advertising and PR budgets, all designed (well-designed) to keep them obediently asleep. See for instance: War On Truth - The Secret Battle for the American Mind, An Interview with John Stauber, Published in The Sun, March 1999 http://www.mediaisland.org/thewarontruth.html These growth figures below are very persuasive. Keith Good News: Consumer Revolution A late July New York Times article says that concerned consumers are now supporting a specialized $230 billion/year market in the US. This includes 68 million Americans (growing by 30% per year) who regularly buy products based on environmental and social ethics. The market includes everything from energy-efficient appliances and solar panels to organic food to Yoga tapes to ecotourism. A survey found that 90% of these consumers say they are willing to pay more for products from companies that share their values of long-term sustainability for society and the environment. http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/cultural_creatives.cfm America's 50 Million Cultural Creatives Impact the Marketplace July 20, 2003 They Care About the World (and They Shop, Too) By AMY CORTESE The New York Times THERE'S a name floating around for consumers who worry about the environment, want products to be produced in a sustainable way and spend money to advance what they see as their personal development and potential. It's Lohas, which may sound like a disease but is an acronym for lifestyles of health and sustainability. The name was coined a few years ago by marketers trying to define what they regarded as a growing opportunity for products and services that appeal to a certain type of consumer. It may be the biggest market you have never heard of, encompassing things like organic foods, energy-efficient appliances and solar panels as well as alternative medicine, yoga tapes and eco-tourism. Taken together, they accounted for a $230 billion market in 2000, according to Natural Business Communications, a company in Broomfield, Colo., that publishes The Lohas Journal and is credited with introducing the term. The company, which will release an updated estimate later this year, figures that the total market has grown by double-digit percentages annually. In its second annual study of the Lohas market, conducted earlier this year, the Natural Marketing Institute, a research and consulting firm in Harleysville, Pa., estimated that 68 million Americans, about a third of the adult population, qualified as Lohas consumers, the kind of people who take environmental and social issues into account when they make purchases. That was up from 30 percent a year earlier. Ninety percent of the Lohas consumers said they preferred to make purchases from companies that shared their values, and many said they were willing to pay a premium for products and services they considered sustainable, which means that they are made in a way that minimizes harm to the environment and society. Consumers are spending more in categories like organic foods and alternative medicine. But even some sympathetic observers are skeptical about attempts to define such a sprawling market. I've been listening to this conversation for 15 years, said Joel Makower, founder of GreenBiz.com, which tracks business and environmental issues. We're still waiting for this great wave of purchasing changes around values and desires to make the world a better place, Mr. Makower said. The only thing that's changed is now we have an acronym. There is, in fact, a yawning gap between what consumers say in surveys about what they will buy and the actual sales data. For example, in a Natural Marketing Institute study, 40 percent of the Americans surveyed said they had bought organic food and beverages, but only 2 percent of the $600 billion in food and beverage sales in the United States comes from organic products. Steven W. French, a managing partner at the institute, attributes the gaps to the fact that while consumers base some purchasing decisions on values, factors like convenience and price also matter. Education and availability are issues, too. For instance, renewable power may not be available from a local utility, and even if it is, consumers may not be aware of it. Still, there is no doubt that some Lohas segments are
Re: [biofuels-biz] biodiesel production
where r u? - Original Message - From: gulseren pekin [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 3:04 PM Subject: [biofuels-biz] biodiesel production Hello biofuels-biz group, I am interested in making biodiesel. I want to visit a home maker and observe how she or he is doing it. So anyone in Europe who will let me see his or her production unit ? Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Low on Ink? Get 80% off inkjet cartridges Free Shipping at 77Colors.com. We have your brand: HP, Epson, Lexmark, Canon, Compaq and more! http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5981 http://us.click.yahoo.com/DmnqpB/IyhGAA/ySSFAA/9bTolB/TM -~- Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuels-biz] Brine wash to dry WVO?
I think this is done on a commercial scale to decrease FFA's crude VO. Anyone have some insite into that? James Slayden On Fri, 8 Aug 2003, Keith Addison wrote: Sounds like an interesting idea, anybody tried it, or heard of it being done? Tim wrote to me direct, he's not a list member, though I suggested he join, so you might cc any responses to him. Best Keith From: Tim Desson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: biodiesel Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 08:07:43 + Dear Keith, just been reading about the fantastic biodiesel stuff on the web! I'm going to give the foolproof process a go (when my broken collar bone mends!) I was wondering if a brine wash has been tried to dry the WVO before transesterification (I'm a research chemist, and this is often done on wet solutions of organic solvents to dry them, the water in the fat gets salted out ) I look forward to hearing from you Tim Desson Wokingham, UK Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT click here Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/9bTolB/TM -~- Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [biofuel] Fwd: Fw: Al Gore's MoveOn Speech and Other Great News
Speaking of LBJ, Nam, complicity and duplicity -- http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=complicity http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=duplicity Published on Thursday, June 26, 2003 by TomPaine.com The Specter Of Vietnam by Howard Zinn http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0626-03.htm The war in Iraq is different in so many ways from the war waged by the United States in Vietnam that we wonder why, like the telltale heart beating behind the murderer's wall in Edgar Allan Poe's story, the drumbeat of Vietnam can still be heard. The Vietnam war lasted eight years, the Iraq war three weeks. In Vietnam there were 58,000 U.S. combat casualties, in Iraq a few hundred. Our enemy in Vietnam was a popular national figure -- Ho Chin Minh. Our enemy in Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was hated by most of his people. One war was fought in jungles and mountains with a largely draftee army, the other in a sandy desert with volunteer soldiers. The United States was defeated in Vietnam. It was victorious in Iraq. The elder President Bush in 1991, after the first war against Iraq, announced proudly: The specter of Vietnam has been buried forever in the desert sands of the Arabian peninsula. But is the Vietnam syndrome really gone from the national consciousness? Is there not a fundamental similarity -- that in both instances we see the most powerful country in the world sending its armies, ships and planes halfway around the world to invade and bomb a small country for reasons which become harder and harder to justify? The justifications were created, in both situations, by lying to the American public. Congress gave Lyndon Johnson the power to make war in Vietnam after his administration announced that U.S. ships, on routine patrol had been attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Every element of this claim was later shown to be false. Similarly, the reason initially given for going to war in Iraq -- that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, turns out to be a fabrication. None have been found, either by a small army of U.N. inspectors, or a large American army searching the entire country. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer had told the nation: We know for a fact that there are weapons there. Astonishingly, after the war Bush said on Polish TV, We've found the weapons of mass destruction. The documents Bush cited in his State of the Union address to prove that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction turned out to be forged. The so-called drones of death turned out to be model airplanes. What Colin Powell called decontamination trucks were found to be fire trucks. What U.S. leaders called mobile germ labs were found by an official British inspection team to be used for inflating artillery balloons. Furthermore, the Bush administration deceived the American public into believing, as a majority still do, that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terrorists who planned the attack on 9/11. Not an iota of evidence has been produced to support that. Both a Communist Vietnam and an Iraq ruled by Saddam Hussein were presented as imminent threats to American national security. There was no solid basis for this fear in either case; indeed Iraq was a country devastated by two wars and 10 years of sanctions, but the claim was useful for an administration bringing its people into a deadly war. What was not talked about publicly at the time of the Vietnam War was something said secretly in intra-governmental memoranda -- that the interest of the United States in Southeast Asia was not the establishment of democracy, but the protection of access to the oil, tin and rubber of that region. In the Iraqi case, the obvious crucial role of oil in U.S. policy has been whisked out of sight, lest it reveal less than noble motives in the drive to war. In the Vietnam case, the truth gradually came through to the American public, and the government was forced to bring the war to a halt. Today, the question remains whether the American people will at some point see behind the deceptions, and join in a great citizens movement to stop what seems to be a relentless drive to war and empire, at the expense of human rights here and abroad. On the answer to this question hangs the future of the nation. Howard Zinn is an historian and author of 'A People's History of the United States'. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
Re: [biofuel] Lawn mower on ethanol ?
Thanks a lot Keith. Met vriendelijke groeten, Pieter Koole Netherlands. - Original Message - From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 5:42 AM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Lawn mower on ethanol ? Hello Pieter Hello friends, Some time ago, I read an (older) article about making ethanol out of sawdust and newspapers. I think this article was written about ten years ago. Does anyone know where I can find information about producing ethanol out of cellulose material ( like newspapers and sawdust ) ? Fuel From Sawdust -- by Mike Brown (from Acres, USA, 19 June 1983): Conversion of cellulose, such as sawdust, cornstalks, newspaper and other substances, to alcohol -- a fairly uncomplicated and straightforward process. http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_sawdust.html See also other ethanol resources in the Biofuels Library: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html Biofuels Library - Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html Ethanol http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol_link.html Ethanol resources on the Web Forums General information Small-scale ethanol Ethanol from cellulose Ethanol biodiesel Hooch Ethanol and your car How-to books Would ethanol work in a two - stroke engine as well ? Of course - gasoline works in both 2- and 4-strokes, why not ethanol? There are user reports in the archives: Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Would it mix properly with the lubrication oil ? What about polution when I use ethanol in stead of gasoline ? I think you should find all the infoyou need at the links above. Best wishes Keith Addison Met vriendelijke groeten, Pieter Koole Netherlands. - Original Message - From: Terry Wilhelm [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 11:25 PM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Lawn mower on ethanol ? It doesnt need to be that pure. Also, its more fun to make your own alcohol then to buy it. Chicago Medi-Transit [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does also apply for scooters that have 2 stroke engines? Another question is can Everclear (Liquor), which is pure grain alcohol 200 proof, be used as fuel? JG --- Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hello friends, My lawn mower goes on petrol. Can I just put methanol or ethanol in the tank, or do I have to modify the engine ? How ? The ethanol I have is 99% pure. The methanol I have is 95% pure. Met vriendelijke groeten, Pieter Koole Netherlands. Hello Pieter Is it 2-stroke or 4-stroke? Anyway, both ethanol and methanol are quite corrosive, especially methanol - you should be okay with ethanol. You only need such pure ethanol if you're going to mix it with gasoline (or make ethyl esters!). If you're using it neat, 160-proof and up will be fine (80%). If it's a two-stroke, try using biodiesel with the ethanol instead of 2-stroke oil, we've had good reports. Either way you'll have to enlarge the main jet. How To Adapt Your Automobile Engine For Ethyl Alcohol Use -- Mother Earth Alcohol Fuel Manual. Biofuels Library: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me2.html The Manual for the Home and Farm Production of Alcohol Fuel Chapter 3 UTILIZATION OF ALCOHOL FUELS Biofuels Library: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_manual/manual3.html How To Modify Your Car To Run On Alcohol Fuel: Guidelines for converting gasoline engines (With Specific Instructions for Air-Cooled Volkswagens) by Roger Lippman, April 1982 -- Five-chapter online book: http://terrasol.home.igc.org/alky/alky.htm Sorry that this is all second-hand information - we'll be producing ethanol here quite soon and using it in two-stroke engines, but haven't quite got that far yet. regards Keith Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send
[biofuel] Electricity theft
I know what I am asking ain't right or safe, but I am desperate and the Electrical company is about to cut my supply because they didn't take enough per week out of my bank account to cover the 2monthly bill. As I never read the letter they sent me, and I can't pay the bill for a few days '5'. They are cutting my supply, NO if's buts and please!. What I want to know is : After the lines attach to the house and go inside the wall, when I look inside the house. I can see the double wires running down to the meter box.(As I don't have a ceiling ). Can I just get a 4 socket extension(With safety switch) , put it into a blank 3 pin socket. Run one wire from the socket to the house earth, then run 2 wires from the socket to the exposed 2 feed wires to the meter box, (I was thinking off spearing them, safely off course.) I just want to run my fridge, jug, 1 light, and maybe the computer, for a few days, till I can pay the bill and get the power put back on. Please don't judge me over this, I am desperate! , as I have a wife and 8yr old boy, need electricity, and just can't find the money for a few days. I'm so desperate I've even tried to sell my still :( , and my 4WD. Answers direct to me if you like !, PLEASE I Know enough not to kill myself. : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Low on Ink? Get 80% off inkjet cartridges Free Shipping at 77Colors.com. We have your brand: HP, Epson, Lexmark, Canon, Compaq and more! http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5981 http://us.click.yahoo.com/DmnqpB/IyhGAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] Fwd: Re: reducing ffa's
Fwd from Biofuels-biz. To: biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com From: Michael Allen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:19:24 +0700 Subject: Re: [biofuels-biz] reducing ffa's Dear Colton (and indirectly Girl Mark), I think pH meters are very stable and reliable instruments these days. But you have to rememebr that they measure the hydrogen ion concentration in a solvent that allows ionisation such as water. (Indeed, the pH scale is devised so that pH 7 is as neutral as water is supposed to be). Methyl ester and vegetable oils are not such solvents. If you put the electrodes of a pH meter into oil or an oil/water mix, the lack of an ionisable solvent between them causes the apparent pH value to wander all over the place. You can even damage some pH meters. I think that is also part of the answer for Girl Mark too: You can soon test what Todd is saying by dropping some sodium hydroxide pellets or flakes into some vegetable oil. You will see that it slowly reacts with the glycerides to give sodium soaps which encase the pellets. This would make ppoor hand-soap because the unreacted pellets would be quite dangerous. But add some water and a little heat and the reaction is much faster and more complete. The sodium salt of the fatty acid so formed can be skimmed off or separated out with a strong brine solution (including calcium chloride solutions just like emulsion breaking mentioned elsewhere). It may then be washed with fresh brine at this time to remove unreacted sodium hudroxide. The pH of the soap made in this way is usually then lowered by adding resin (wood resins such as pine and kauri have been used for yonks) and buffered by adding something like borax (sodium tetraborate) or a phosphate (which also counters scum-formation in calcium-containing hard waters). The soap is then left to harden (aging) so that water evaporates and any sodium hydroxide (lye) left gets a chance to react with carbon dioxide in the air to make the less skin-aggressive sodium carbonate. (This is basically how laundry soaps and soap powders were once made -- and still are in some sustainable-technology countries). Some of these crude soaps are then re- milled, heated with colouring, perfumes, resin, buffers, glycerol etc. to make toilet soaps. (Incidentally, I think there are many more good recipes on the net for soap-making than there are for ester-making. Here are just three of the thousands presented by google: http://candleandsoap.about.com/mbody.htm, http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html, http://members.aol.com/oelaineo/soapmaking.html) I'm sure you can see the similarities of this saponification reaction to the transesterification reaction. And you can also see how the presence of water can quickly turn one into the other! But to return to Colton's enquiry: For the reasons given in the first paragraph, we measure the pH of the wash-water in contact with the methyl ester. Of course it takes some time for the two phases to come to equilibrium depending on how much mixing is going on, surface area exposed etc. Strictly speaking, we are not trying to make the oil pH neutral by washing so much as trying to remove sodium soaps and methoxide. If these remain in the ester, they could be deposited in the engine and may cause damage. (Whether such damage is more dangerous to a diesel engine that a long drive down a spume-covered coast road I cannot say . but it's an interesting thought!) Hope this is some help Michael Allen Thailand On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 03:01:07 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We are using a pH meter ( visual) methods during our titration to determine the ffa%. It is very frustrating since the pH meter readings are very inconsistant. Our current ffa% is 1.6% and we are trying to reduce it to .5% by acidification. Any comments on methods for determing the ffa%? Thanks Colton How were you able to know that your ffa's increase? If you are just using a pH meter, it is but natural that the pH will fall since you are using a strong acid H2SO4. If you are titrating with NaOH, H2SO4 will eat up a considerable amount of lye. Christopher =-Original Message- =From: Orion Polinsky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] =Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 8:53 AM =To: biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com =Subject: [biofuels-biz] reducing ffa's = = =hi all, = =I am trying to convert my free fatty acids to =esters by acidification using methanol and =H2SO4. Unfortunately, each time I try it, my =ffa level increases. =Is there anyone out there with a good =acidification recipe? =thanks, =Orion Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM
Re: [biofuel] Electricity theft
I would not do it. If they discover it and it is a good chance, they will disconnect you. You have to pay a new connection fee (very expensive) and they could even report you to the police. It is not worth the risk. If it is so bad, you would probably get an extension, if you ask, or help from social security. Hakan At 06:29 PM 8/11/2003 +1000, you wrote: I know what I am asking ain't right or safe, but I am desperate and the Electrical company is about to cut my supply because they didn't take enough per week out of my bank account to cover the 2monthly bill. As I never read the letter they sent me, and I can't pay the bill for a few days '5'. They are cutting my supply, NO if's buts and please!. What I want to know is : After the lines attach to the house and go inside the wall, when I look inside the house. I can see the double wires running down to the meter box.(As I don't have a ceiling ). Can I just get a 4 socket extension(With safety switch) , put it into a blank 3 pin socket. Run one wire from the socket to the house earth, then run 2 wires from the socket to the exposed 2 feed wires to the meter box, (I was thinking off spearing them, safely off course.) I just want to run my fridge, jug, 1 light, and maybe the computer, for a few days, till I can pay the bill and get the power put back on. Please don't judge me over this, I am desperate! , as I have a wife and 8yr old boy, need electricity, and just can't find the money for a few days. I'm so desperate I've even tried to sell my still :( , and my 4WD. Answers direct to me if you like !, PLEASE I Know enough not to kill myself. : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
RE: [biofuel] Electricity theft
By the e-mail address you live in Australia. It is difficult to give advice how to handle the situation with the Electricity Company as long as I do not know usual culture in your country. But it surely would be no problem up her. People are people and no one wants to harm anyone and play the devil starting to punish people. Not even the police want that. So if I got into that situation I would call one of the people in charge ant tell them about the situation and tell them that I am very sorry and ask if I could do anything to avoid (several) thousand dollars of food being destroyed making the economical situation even worse. I would try different ways of pleading and if nothing works I would probably be very angry confronting the Director privately asking him why he wants to have me as his enemy. Finally I would go maniac cutting his private power away maybe. Or maybe not.. but I certainly would get drunk for a evening. Anything the electricity dies inside your house could be undone. Just remember how everything is. You could watch them doing it too. Don't get too curious:) But such theft is jail up here... Avoid it if possible. The only thing that would make me do that was health treats freezing kids... and similar. But first of all try this. Go to a dealer of portable generator units say that you want to hire a unit and pay very well for it. Deposit the 4WD and tell them that you will write an agreement that transfers the car to them if you do not manage to pay the rent as promised. Deposit the car at their property as long as you own them money. They will accept because they are helping someone and on the same time are doing good business (the rent) and could be looking at some really good business (the 4WD) if you can not pay. It is a winner either way for them. And it is a solution for you. And then Spend the evenings with your family with barbeque and candlelight's that whole stupid situation could come out to be positive. Buy a card deck or do something else together with your son other than watch TV :)) Good Luck. Johs. -Original Message- From: Shane Kirkman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 11. august 2003 10:30 To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Subject: [biofuel] Electricity theft I know what I am asking ain't right or safe, but I am desperate and the Electrical company is about to cut my supply because they didn't take enough per week out of my bank account to cover the 2monthly bill. As I never read the letter they sent me, and I can't pay the bill for a few days '5'. They are cutting my supply, NO if's buts and please!. What I want to know is : After the lines attach to the house and go inside the wall, when I look inside the house. I can see the double wires running down to the meter box.(As I don't have a ceiling ). Can I just get a 4 socket extension(With safety switch) , put it into a blank 3 pin socket. Run one wire from the socket to the house earth, then run 2 wires from the socket to the exposed 2 feed wires to the meter box, (I was thinking off spearing them, safely off course.) I just want to run my fridge, jug, 1 light, and maybe the computer, for a few days, till I can pay the bill and get the power put back on. Please don't judge me over this, I am desperate! , as I have a wife and 8yr old boy, need electricity, and just can't find the money for a few days. I'm so desperate I've even tried to sell my still :( , and my 4WD. Answers direct to me if you like !, PLEASE I Know enough not to kill myself. : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Low on Ink? Get 80% off inkjet cartridges Free Shipping at 77Colors.com. We have your brand: HP, Epson, Lexmark, Canon, Compaq and more! http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5981 http://us.click.yahoo.com/DmnqpB/IyhGAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] Consumer Revolution
A year or so back a different survey found that an impressive percentage of US consumers would pay more for energy-efficient low-emissions cars (though what they got was more SUVs and a heavy shove to make them easier to buy than anything else). The quite common idea (here too) that most people just don't care about anything other than their own selfish and short-sighted concerns just isn't true - a rather large number do care, and are prepared to do something about it, and this despite a massive and constant barrage of soporific pap from a kept media and a kept everything else too, plus hundreds of billions in corporate advertising and PR budgets, all designed (well-designed) to keep them obediently asleep. See for instance: War On Truth - The Secret Battle for the American Mind, An Interview with John Stauber, Published in The Sun, March 1999 http://www.mediaisland.org/thewarontruth.html These growth figures below are very persuasive. Keith Good News: Consumer Revolution A late July New York Times article says that concerned consumers are now supporting a specialized $230 billion/year market in the US. This includes 68 million Americans (growing by 30% per year) who regularly buy products based on environmental and social ethics. The market includes everything from energy-efficient appliances and solar panels to organic food to Yoga tapes to ecotourism. A survey found that 90% of these consumers say they are willing to pay more for products from companies that share their values of long-term sustainability for society and the environment. http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/cultural_creatives.cfm America's 50 Million Cultural Creatives Impact the Marketplace July 20, 2003 They Care About the World (and They Shop, Too) By AMY CORTESE The New York Times THERE'S a name floating around for consumers who worry about the environment, want products to be produced in a sustainable way and spend money to advance what they see as their personal development and potential. It's Lohas, which may sound like a disease but is an acronym for lifestyles of health and sustainability. The name was coined a few years ago by marketers trying to define what they regarded as a growing opportunity for products and services that appeal to a certain type of consumer. It may be the biggest market you have never heard of, encompassing things like organic foods, energy-efficient appliances and solar panels as well as alternative medicine, yoga tapes and eco-tourism. Taken together, they accounted for a $230 billion market in 2000, according to Natural Business Communications, a company in Broomfield, Colo., that publishes The Lohas Journal and is credited with introducing the term. The company, which will release an updated estimate later this year, figures that the total market has grown by double-digit percentages annually. In its second annual study of the Lohas market, conducted earlier this year, the Natural Marketing Institute, a research and consulting firm in Harleysville, Pa., estimated that 68 million Americans, about a third of the adult population, qualified as Lohas consumers, the kind of people who take environmental and social issues into account when they make purchases. That was up from 30 percent a year earlier. Ninety percent of the Lohas consumers said they preferred to make purchases from companies that shared their values, and many said they were willing to pay a premium for products and services they considered sustainable, which means that they are made in a way that minimizes harm to the environment and society. Consumers are spending more in categories like organic foods and alternative medicine. But even some sympathetic observers are skeptical about attempts to define such a sprawling market. I've been listening to this conversation for 15 years, said Joel Makower, founder of GreenBiz.com, which tracks business and environmental issues. We're still waiting for this great wave of purchasing changes around values and desires to make the world a better place, Mr. Makower said. The only thing that's changed is now we have an acronym. There is, in fact, a yawning gap between what consumers say in surveys about what they will buy and the actual sales data. For example, in a Natural Marketing Institute study, 40 percent of the Americans surveyed said they had bought organic food and beverages, but only 2 percent of the $600 billion in food and beverage sales in the United States comes from organic products. Steven W. French, a managing partner at the institute, attributes the gaps to the fact that while consumers base some purchasing decisions on values, factors like convenience and price also matter. Education and availability are issues, too. For instance, renewable power may not be available from a local utility, and even if it is, consumers may not be aware of it. Still, there is no doubt that some Lohas segments are
Re: [biofuel] Fwd: Re: reducing ffa's
the reaction between FFA and methanol is an equlibrium when catalysed by an acid FFA + methanol == Me ester + water so the reaction is driven to the right by an excess of methanol (the reaction you want) but is driven to the left by an excess of water, so my guess is that you need to get rid of water in your oil to make the FFA go to Me ester, and more methanol will help push the reaction the way you want. cheers, Tim From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Subject: [biofuel] Fwd: Re: reducing ffa's Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 19:50:13 +0900 Fwd from Biofuels-biz. To: biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com From: Michael Allen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:19:24 +0700 Subject: Re: [biofuels-biz] reducing ffa's Dear Colton (and indirectly Girl Mark), I think pH meters are very stable and reliable instruments these days. But you have to rememebr that they measure the hydrogen ion concentration in a solvent that allows ionisation such as water. (Indeed, the pH scale is devised so that pH 7 is as neutral as water is supposed to be). Methyl ester and vegetable oils are not such solvents. If you put the electrodes of a pH meter into oil or an oil/water mix, the lack of an ionisable solvent between them causes the apparent pH value to wander all over the place. You can even damage some pH meters. I think that is also part of the answer for Girl Mark too: You can soon test what Todd is saying by dropping some sodium hydroxide pellets or flakes into some vegetable oil. You will see that it slowly reacts with the glycerides to give sodium soaps which encase the pellets. This would make ppoor hand-soap because the unreacted pellets would be quite dangerous. But add some water and a little heat and the reaction is much faster and more complete. The sodium salt of the fatty acid so formed can be skimmed off or separated out with a strong brine solution (including calcium chloride solutions just like emulsion breaking mentioned elsewhere). It may then be washed with fresh brine at this time to remove unreacted sodium hudroxide. The pH of the soap made in this way is usually then lowered by adding resin (wood resins such as pine and kauri have been used for yonks) and buffered by adding something like borax (sodium tetraborate) or a phosphate (which also counters scum-formation in calcium-containing hard waters). The soap is then left to harden (aging) so that water evaporates and any sodium hydroxide (lye) left gets a chance to react with carbon dioxide in the air to make the less skin-aggressive sodium carbonate. (This is basically how laundry soaps and soap powders were once made -- and still are in some sustainable-technology countries). Some of these crude soaps are then re- milled, heated with colouring, perfumes, resin, buffers, glycerol etc. to make toilet soaps. (Incidentally, I think there are many more good recipes on the net for soap-making than there are for ester-making. Here are just three of the thousands presented by google: http://candleandsoap.about.com/mbody.htm, http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html, http://members.aol.com/oelaineo/soapmaking.html) I'm sure you can see the similarities of this saponification reaction to the transesterification reaction. And you can also see how the presence of water can quickly turn one into the other! But to return to Colton's enquiry: For the reasons given in the first paragraph, we measure the pH of the wash-water in contact with the methyl ester. Of course it takes some time for the two phases to come to equilibrium depending on how much mixing is going on, surface area exposed etc. Strictly speaking, we are not trying to make the oil pH neutral by washing so much as trying to remove sodium soaps and methoxide. If these remain in the ester, they could be deposited in the engine and may cause damage. (Whether such damage is more dangerous to a diesel engine that a long drive down a spume-covered coast road I cannot say . but it's an interesting thought!) Hope this is some help Michael Allen Thailand On Thu, 07 Aug 2003 03:01:07 +, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We are using a pH meter ( visual) methods during our titration to determine the ffa%. It is very frustrating since the pH meter readings are very inconsistant. Our current ffa% is 1.6% and we are trying to reduce it to .5% by acidification. Any comments on methods for determing the ffa%? Thanks Colton How were you able to know that your ffa's increase? If you are just using a pH meter, it is but natural that the pH will fall since you are using a strong acid H2SO4. If you are titrating with NaOH, H2SO4 will eat up a considerable amount of lye. Christopher =-Original Message- =From: Orion Polinsky [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] =Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 8:53 AM
Re: [biofuel] Fwd: Fw: Al Gore's MoveOn Speech and Other Great News
Gore's full speech http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16567 Setting It Right By Al Gore, MoveOn.org August 7, 2003 In this speech, former Vice President Al Gore addresses MoveOn.org at New York University August 7, 2003. Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank you for your investment of time and energy in gathering here today. I would especially like to thank Moveon.org for sponsoring this event, and the NYU College Democrats for co-sponsoring the speech and for hosting us. Some of you may remember that my last formal public address on these topics was delivered in San Francisco, a little less than a year ago, when I argued that the President's case for urgent, unilateral, pre-emptive war in Iraq was less than convincing and needed to be challenged more effectively by the Congress. In light of developments since then, you might assume that my purpose today is to revisit the manner in which we were led into war. To some extent, that will be the case - but only as part of a larger theme that I feel should now be explored on an urgent basis. The direction in which our nation is being led is deeply troubling to me - not only in Iraq but also here at home on economic policy, social policy and environmental policy. Millions of Americans now share a feeling that something pretty basic has gone wrong in our country and that some important American values are being placed at risk. And they want to set it right. The way we went to war in Iraq illustrates this larger problem. Normally, we Americans lay the facts on the table, talk through the choices before us and make a decision. But that didn't really happen with this war - not the way it should have. And as a result, too many of our soldiers are paying the highest price, for the strategic miscalculations, serious misjudgments, and historic mistakes that have put them and our nation in harm's way. I'm convinced that one of the reasons that we didn't have a better public debate before the Iraq War started is because so many of the impressions that the majority of the country had back then turn out to have been completely wrong. Leaving aside for the moment the question of how these false impressions got into the public's mind, it might be healthy to take a hard look at the ones we now know were wrong and clear the air so that we can better see exactly where we are now and what changes might need to be made. In any case, what we now know to have been false impressions include the following: 1. Saddam Hussein was partly responsible for the attack against us on September 11th, 2001, so a good way to respond to that attack would be to invade his country and forcibly remove him from power. 2. Saddam was working closely with Osama Bin Laden and was actively supporting members of the Al Qaeda terrorist group, giving them weapons and money and bases and training, so launching a war against Iraq would be a good way to stop Al Qaeda from attacking us again. 3. Saddam was about to give the terrorists poison gas and deadly germs that he had made into weapons which they could use to kill millions of Americans. Therefore common sense alone dictated that we should send our military into Iraq in order to protect our loved ones and ourselves against a grave threat. 4. Saddam was on the verge of building nuclear bombs and giving them to the terrorists. And since the only thing preventing Saddam from acquiring a nuclear arsenal was access to enriched uranium, once our spies found out that he had bought the enrichment technology he needed and was actively trying to buy uranium from Africa, we had very little time left. Therefore it seemed imperative during last Fall's election campaign to set aside less urgent issues like the economy and instead focus on the congressional resolution approving war against Iraq. 5. Our GI's would be welcomed with open arms by cheering Iraqis who would help them quickly establish public safety, free markets and Representative Democracy, so there wouldn't be that much risk that US soldiers would get bogged down in a guerrilla war. 6. Even though the rest of the world was mostly opposed to the war, they would quickly fall in line after we won and then contribute lots of money and soldiers to help out, so there wouldn't be that much risk that US taxpayers would get stuck with a huge bill. Now, of course, everybody knows that every single one of these impressions was just dead wrong. For example, according to the just-released Congressional investigation, Saddam had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks of Sept. 11. Therefore, whatever other goals it served - and it did serve some other goals - the decision to invade Iraq made no sense as a way of exacting revenge for 9/11. To the contrary, the US pulled significant intelligence resources out of Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to get ready for the rushed invasion of Iraq and that disrupted
Re: [biofuel] Fwd: Fw: Al Gore's MoveOn Speech and Other Great News
http://www.tompaine.com/blog.cfm?startRow=1#blog8555 Goring Gore link What's this editorial from The Washington Post that slams Al Gore all about? It's more than just a critique of the speech Gore delivered last week in New York for Moveon.org activists. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39381-2003Aug9.html http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16567 Citing a 1998 statement from the then-VP calling Saddam Hussein an evil despot, the writers criticize Gore because he challenges the lies Bush Co. offered as rationale for going to war. It's off the wall. Alternatve ways to contain Saddam existed, and at least one of them -- the inspections -- apparently worked. The Post goes on to attack Gore's assertion that the Patriot Act is an invasion of our privacy, by pointing out that 98 senators voted for it. Then they slam his statement that the Administration's agenda serves only powerful and wealthy groups. If Gore's views on these issues cannot yet be called conventional wisdom, they are held by a great many intelligent people. We're not Al Gore fans, but as Eric Alterman likes to opine, What Liberal Media? http://www.whatliberalmedia.com August 11, 2003 See also: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15187 What Liberal Media? By Eric Alterman, The Nation February 14, 2003 http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7355 Which Side Of The Media Is Inclusive? Conservative Media Don't Want To Hear From The 'Other Guy' (Excerpt from What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman (Basic Books, 2003)) http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15217 Media Mythbusters By Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange.com February 20, 2003 Gore's full speech http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16567 Setting It Right By Al Gore, MoveOn.org August 7, 2003 snip Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuel] A $7 Billion Gift to Big Oil
http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6pid=867 The Daily Outrage by Matt Bivens A $7 Billion Gift to Big Oil 08/01/2003 If the Republicans were to ever call on Congress to pass a bill to saw off Tom Daschle's left arm above the elbow, Daschle would be the first to agree, earnest and parrot-like, that America desperately needed such a bill. He'd just object to, you know, some of the provisions. What we really need, he'd say -- while his colleagues nodded in thoughtful agreement -- is a Democratic Saw Off Tom Daschle's Arm Act. Then the horse-trading would begin, and soon the Senator from South Dakota would proudly announce bipartisan approval of a compromise bill to saw off his arm above the wrist -- a bill that would also leave Daschle a secret decoder ring to wear on his other, unsevered hand -- and he would declare it a great day for Democrats, and Americans, a day to praise this institution of Congress really, which is filled with wonderful people on both sides of the aisle who are just getting the job done day in and day out doing the peoples' business. Meanwhile the Republicans, frankly amused, would be telling everyone who'd listen how they were still coming for the whole arm. Daschle had given them a Senate bill, they had their own House bill, and now the leaders of each house of Congress -- who are, you may have noticed, Republicans these days -- could hammer out a final compromise. And when Republicans compromise with Republicans, the compromise, surprise, tends to be Republican. Which isn't very nice or very honest -- it was in fact the hijacking of conference committees by cheating Republican radicals that inspired Jim Jeffords to quit the party in 2001 http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/01.02B.JJ.High.Way.htm -- but hey, bipartisanship equals date rape, and it's time the Dems wised up. http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6pid=699 For most of the Bush presidency, the Republicans have been trying to gift-wrap their tribute to the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries into one fat package -- a so-called Energy Bill -- mainly because they knew that, standing alone, the items in the Enron-written Dick Cheney agenda would never pass. http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1517 After all, who wants to publicly defend just up and giving away $20 billion (billion!) to the cash-rich oil, coal and nuclear industries? How many Senators would really be willing to publicly defend the launch of a Soviet-style government project to build six new nuclear power plants? http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0603/13nuke.html But mix it all into one Energy Bill salad, and then add a little green window-dressing -- a modest boost for the booming wind-power industry, http://www.awea.org/news/news030801nrps.html more use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline -- and suddenly, completely indefensible policies don't need to be defended. You can claim to be for the bill because it includes language to make America use more solar power by 2020. Such an Energy Bill died in the last Congress, but just barely: Daschle and the Dems, who then controlled the Senate, signed off on an odious version of the bill. But the House Republicans produced an even worse version -- and the House-Senate (Republican-Democratic) conference committee couldn't settle on a compromise. This time around, Republicans control both houses. The Dems, though weaker, also seemed wiser, and they used the strength they had. Until Thursday, when Daschle and the Dems suddenly volunteered the thought that last year's bill was better than this year's, so why not return to it? The Republicans quickly agreed, and the old bill was dusted off and passed in a snap. It gives $7 billion to the oil companies for no good reason, http://uspirg.org/uspirgnewsroom.asp?id2=10472id3=USPIRGnewsroom; lifts a ban on separating plutonium out of nuclear waste, http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?id=209 does nothing to improve vehicle fuel economy, weakens a host of environmental laws and consumer protections, and more. http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?id=209 And this is victory, apparently because $7 billion is half what the Republicans want to give Big Oil, there's no drilling of the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, and the bill loses the Soviet Five-Year Plan to build nuclear reactors. http://www.foe.org/camps/leg/current/enbill.html Never in our dreams did we imagine that we could pass a Democratic bill in a Republican Congress, Daschle said afterwards. The Associated Press said he gushed with optimism. It also noted Daschle concedes, This only gets us to the [House-Senate] conference. After that it's wide open. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0803/01energy.html Gee, you think that was the secret to why you got to pass a Democratic bill in a Republican Congress? Because the Republicans fully intend to rewrite the bill once you're out of the way? This is a
[biofuel] They don't know...
...Let me tell you a quick story about my father. His call to the freedom bird came while he was still out in the field. He arrived at Dulles Airport to meet my mother still dressed in his bush greens, still wearing the moustache, with the mud of Vietnam still under his fingernails and stuck inside the waffle of his boot sole... http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8588 We Stand Our Ground William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times best-selling author of two books, War On Iraq (Context Books) and The Greatest Sedition is Silence (Pluto Press). The following comments were delivered August 10, 2003, as the keynote address at the Veterans for Peace National Convention in San Francisco. I must begin by saying that standing here before you is, simply, one of the greatest honors of my life. I have never served in the armed forces in any capacity. My father, however, did. He volunteered for service in Vietnam in 1969. The changes that war wrought upon him have affected, for both good and ill, every single day of my life. Vietnam did not only affect the generation that served there. It affected the children of those who served there, and the families of those who served there. That war is an American heirloom, great and terrible simultaneously, handed down from father to son and from mother to daughter, from father to daughter and from mother to son. The lessons learned there speak to us today, almost 30 years hence. Let me tell you a quick story about my father. His call to the freedom bird came while he was still out in the field. He arrived at Dulles Airport to meet my mother still dressed in his bush greens, still wearing the moustache, with the mud of Vietnam still under his fingernails and stuck inside the waffle of his boot sole. A few days earlier, he had come across a beautiful old French rifle. It was given to him by a Vietnamese friend, a former teacher with three children who had been conscripted permanently into the military. My father managed to bring this rifle home with him, and sent it on the flight in the baggage hold along with his duffel. My father and my mother stood waiting at the baggage claim for his things to come down. The people there -- and this was 1970, remember -- backed away from him as if he was radioactive. They knew where he had just come from. If the greens were not a giveaway, the standard issue muddy tan he and all the vets wore upon return from Vietnam was. When the rifle came down the belt, not in a package or a box, just laying there in all its reality, the crowd was appalled and horrified. My mother and father looked at each other and wondered what these people were thinking. What did they think was happening over there? What did they think it is that soldiers do? Did they even begin to understand this war, and what it meant, what it was doing to American soldiers, to the Vietnamese soldiers like my father's friend, and to the civilians caught in the crossfire? The looks on those people's faces there said enough. The answer was no. They didn't know, and apparently didn't want to know. Now, 33 years later, we are back in that same place again, fighting a war few understand that is affecting soldiers and civilians in ways only those soldiers and civilians can truly know. Ignorance, it seems, is also an American heirloom to be passed down again and again and again. Many of you know, far better than I do, what my father felt that day in Dulles. That is why I am honored to speak to you tonight. If the American people fully knew what this war in Iraq was really about, if they fully knew what it means today to be a soldier in that part of the world, they would tear the White House apart brick by brick. If the people had but a taste of the horror and the lies, they would repudiate this administration and all it stands for. They don't know, because they have been fed a glutton's diet of misinformation and fraud. Changing that is why we are here. The first of August saw a very interesting article published in The Washington Post. The title was, U.S. Shifts Rhetoric On its Goals in Iraq. The story quotes an unnamed administration source -- I will bet you all the money in my wallet that this source was a man named Richard Perle -- who outlined the newest reasons for our war over there. That goal is to see the spread of our values, said this aide, and to understand that our values and our security are inextricably linked. Our values. That's an interesting concept coming from a member of this administration. We make much of the greatness and high moral standing of the United States of America, and there is much to be proud of. The advertising, however, has lately failed completely to match up with the product. Is it part of our value system to remain on a permanent war footing since World War II, shunting money desperately needed for human services and education into a military machine whose very size and expense demands the fighting of wars to justify its
[biofuel] Re: [biofuels-biz] Brine wash to dry WVO?
I think this is done on a commercial scale to decrease FFA's crude VO. Anyone have some insite into that? James Slayden On Fri, 8 Aug 2003, Keith Addison wrote: Sounds like an interesting idea, anybody tried it, or heard of it being done? Tim wrote to me direct, he's not a list member, though I suggested he join, so you might cc any responses to him. Best Keith From: Tim Desson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: biodiesel Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 08:07:43 + Dear Keith, just been reading about the fantastic biodiesel stuff on the web! I'm going to give the foolproof process a go (when my broken collar bone mends!) I was wondering if a brine wash has been tried to dry the WVO before transesterification (I'm a research chemist, and this is often done on wet solutions of organic solvents to dry them, the water in the fat gets salted out ) I look forward to hearing from you Tim Desson Wokingham, UK Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT click here Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor -~-- Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM -~- Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
