[Biofuel] Biotechnology: Still Fueling Controversy
George Monbiot Worse Than Fossil Fuel etc: http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossil-fuel/ http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/35243/ Biotechnology: Still Fueling Controversy By Charles Shaw, AlterNet. Posted April 21, 2006. As America responds to its oil addiction, the biotech industry is once again promising to save the world. And this time, they just might mean it. It should have been one of the more earth-shattering admissions of the last hundred years when George W. Bush -- the former Texas oilman who steadfastly denies that oil ever played a part in our decision to invade Iraq -- announced that America was in fact addicted to oil. Instead, America's response was more akin to hearing one's 55-year-old effeminate bachelor uncle come out of the closet to the family at a holiday dinner: Everyone knew it already, but no one ever expected him to say it. However, the evidence is indeed staggering. The United States of America uses more than a quarter of the world's annual oil production; the current administration is comprised of oil executives; our foreign policy apparatus consists of a reckless form of petro-diplomacy that requires us to prop up brutal regimes or overthrow unfriendly governments. The situation has made our economic well-being so dependent on oil that even the slightest interruption to the oil supply has far-reaching ramifications, as we saw first with the removal of Iraqi oil from the world market, and then the refinery catastrophe in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And it seems to be getting worse. Oil refineries are producing at full capacity, supply has either peaked or is rapidly approaching the peak, even as demand is projected to grow 50 percent by 2025, spurred by the massive economic growth of China, India and Brazil. As a result of all these factors, oil prices have increased more than 500 percent from the 1998 price of $13 a barrel. And when we consider the very real possibility of another mega-hurricane season, or a terrorist attack on the Saudi refining operation, even an oil-addicted president realizes that we need to make serious changes -- and fast -- or else we may not be around to pick up the pieces. Enter BIO 2006, the annual convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, held last week in Chicago. Nearly 20,000 attendees converged on the city to hawk new technologies, hook up with investment opportunities, or pitch their city or state as the perfect destination for the burgeoning biotech and life-science sector, which, according to the Department of Commerce, will comprise 18 percent of the U.S. GDP by 2020, or nearly 3 trillion dollars. And this year, biofuels -- renewable fuels made from plant materials -- were the center of attention, with biodiesel and ethanol as the industry's two leading hopes for spurring renewed interest and investment. On the heels of Bush's addicted to oil speech, heading into the convention, BIO released a letter to Congress on March 13 requesting full funding for programs that would support research and development into ethanol production. This would all be made possible through the introduction of the newest scintillating field of biotechnology, known as White industrial biotechnology. EuropaBio, the European equivalent of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is advancing the cause of White Biotechnology with claims that it will reduce pollution and waste through using renewable organic resources and recycling waste for more efficient energy supplies. In the March 13 release, BIO CEO Jim Greenwood said industrial biotech is a force that can end our national addiction to oil. We need to rapidly move forward commercializing these technologies for cellulosic ethanol production, which will strengthen our energy and national security. The timing of it all couldn't have been better, especially for an industry that has been reeling in a steady stream of bad PR in recent years. There have been serious problems with the introduction of the first two fields of biotech, green bio-agriculture -- genetically modified crops -- and red biomedical technology like stem-cell science. Green biotech especially has resulted in a series of black eyes for the industry. News out of India last year showed that since 1997 some 25,000 farmers have committed suicide after going bankrupt when Monsanto's pesticide resistant cotton didn't work as promised. And on March 17 of this year, Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who spent four years engaged in a court battle with Monsanto, joined with European NGOs to file suit against Monsanto and the agricultural biotech industry at the UN High Commission for Human Rights, alleging that the industry has destroyed farmers' lives and livelihoods around the world. With the advent of white biotechnology, the industry is once again offering a one-size-fits-all solution to our ills. Naturally, skeptics and
[Biofuel] Fwd: GE Canola and Corn and the Energy Crisis
Fwd from Thomas Wittman's GMO news list. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 11:24:00 EDT Subject: GE Canola and Corn and the Energy Crisis Dear Readers, Along with the potential contamination of pharm crops, crops that have been genetically engineered to contain medicines are this new series of ideas of enhancing crops to provide alternative fuels. Though I find this an intriguing idea, I can't help but think of the potential for contamination with the scale this kind of planting would require. In fact I can see this as a further reason that dangerous technologies such as the so called terminator plants will be pursued once more. Peace, Thomas 'Energy crop' research reaps financing Friday, April 21, 2006 By John Cook Can bigger canola seeds help solve the world's energy crisis? Thomas Todaro believes they can. And the 37-year-old chief operating officer at Seattle- based Targeted Growth Inc. just pulled in $10 million in venture capital financing to help make the idea a reality. The 7-year-old Seattle bioagricultural company plans to use some of the money to continue field tests on a gene enhancement technology -- licensed from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center -- that increases the yields of canola, sugar cane and other energy crops by more than 20 percent, Todaro said. Boosting the amount of oil produced by each plant could have wide-ranging implications for the rapidly expanding biofuel industry, potentially allowing farmers to more economically grow crops on fallow or underutilized land. Eventually, that could lead to lower prices at the pump for biodiesel and ethanol -- derived from corn, sugar cane and other crops. We think we can literally improve alternative energy supplies within five years, boasted Todaro, a former general manager at Canadian dairy Alamar Farms and former senior vice president at PayPal. If that occurs, Todaro believes, Targeted Growth could be a very big player in alternative fuels. Whoever controls the best plant, controls the kingdom, he said. Building a better ethanol-producing factory is not as defensible as having a crop that can produce the highest yield. It is the equivalent of having the land underneath where the petroleum sits. That claim won over plenty of fans in the most recent funding round, with Targeted Growth turning away potential investors and capping the amount at $10 million. Total financing is at more than $15 million, with Canadian venture capital firms Investment Saskatchewan and GrowthWorks taking stakes. Initially, Targeted Growth was formed to create better crop yields for the food supply. Some of the science originated from cancer researchers at the Hutch, who were trying to figure out ways to diminish the division of cancer cells. Todaro and his scientists flipped the idea on its head for crops, trying to get the cells to divide more. It was honestly that simple, Todaro said, adding that it took about four years to prove the theory. Genetically modified crops for the dinner table still account for about half of Targeted Growth's research efforts, with the company testing the technology on various crops in Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and other locations. Last summer, that portion of the business got a huge boost when agricultural products giant Monsanto Co. signed a licensing deal for one of Targeted Growth's genes. Specific terms were not disclosed, and Todaro declined to say in what crops the gene is being applied. While producing bigger and more robust plants for the food supply represents a huge potential market, Todaro said the alternative-energy sector is the faster growing part of the business. That technology also remains solely in the hands of Targeted Growth, Todaro said. We are aggressively working on pretty substantial increases in energy crops, he said. Seattle Biofuels Chief Executive Martin Tobias, whose company is one of the largest biodiesel refiners in the Pacific Northwest, said that increasing crop yields would be beneficial to the industry. If a farmer can grow a crop that makes more oil -- whether it has been genetically modified or it is a new crop -- I don't really care. I just want plentiful, inexpensive oil, Tobias said. But he is skeptical that farmers will actually grow crops in which genes have been altered. The problem is not whether you can genetically modify plants, the problem is can you plant it, he said. That is where I have found most of these genetic modification of crops to run awry. After all, Tobias said the soybean or canola farmer still needs a market for the meal of the crop -- typically used for livestock feed. Will the farmers accept it, how does it work in the ecosystem, does it pass on to other plants? Tobias asked. Just look at the uproar on genetically modified food in the food chain. Type Frankenfood into any Internet search engine to get an idea
Re: [Biofuel] I always new they were worthless
Hi Keith, I believe that the lady with the hot coffee injury had her settlement shrunk down. She never tried to get millions from McDonald's, that was pure media hype. I think she settled for a lot less, but no one knows for sure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_coffee_case The Orion, Illinois incident is a case where emotions can get heated quickly. Since the establishment is using immunity as their defense, it sure does make them look guilty to me. Yeah, this could be a case where someone in the chain of communication dropped the ball, it probably is. But not fessing up to it and claiming immunity from prosecution leaves a lot of people worried and upset. Somehow it adds more uncertainty and distrust to their lives. WRT all lawsuits, there is a movement here to put caps on the amount of all cases where the establishment is shown to be at fault. And in some cases where the accused is the police or government, there is a cap of zero dollars, thanks to the immunity clause. So, people see this and are not happy. The establishment blames the high number of frivolous lawsuits where people try to claim injuries from those with deep pockets, by implying that all lawsuits are intiated by people trying to rip off big companies. I believe this has been shown to be false but the idea is out there, and sounds reasonable. But like the infamous death tax where ordinary folks voted to have it abolished and then find later that the tax was only applied to those estates with assets of more than 3,000,000 dollars, people are easily led to voting for legislation that hurts them and benefits the establishment. So, ideas that sound reasonable are not always so and can later bite you on the bum. It is all in how you package your desired outcome. Make it look as good as possible. Politicians and lawyers are using PR ideas more and more, to our detriment. The plain and simple truth is so old-fashioned. Not many people want to be blinded by the light anymore. They'd rather wear their blinders. Big Biz is loathe to pay out in lawsuits and have teams of lawyers who will use every trick in the book to avoid paying even one cent. They will drag out cases for years and years hoping that the plaintiff either gives up due to lack of funds or patience, or dies. My mom was a plaintiff in a car accident case that dragged on for years. She eventually started losing her health and just gave up. Peace, D. Mindock - Original Message - From: Michael Gian [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 10:53 PM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] I always new they were worthless D,. Sorry for the top-post, but I am not sure how to interleave this effectively. About six hours before your post Keith also responded: Do you think people just aren't seeing it straight, that it's the same kind of problem as the famous hot coffee case that cost McDonald's millions? Best Keith I have spent a full day's amount of time considering and reconsidering my reaction to this occurrence. I do not see it as a McSue at all. It is not frivolous. The situation, without first-hand knowledge, boils down to two reasonable scenarios: 1. The passerby saw the car in the ditch, did not consider that it was a recent accident, did not get out and investigate on foot, but reported what was seen at a distance to the local authorities. 2. The passerby knew that there was an injured person in the wreck, called it in accurately, and left. Number 2 requires both the passerby and the authorities to be selfishly callous. I, personally, do not believe that everyday people in this chain have this in their hearts. Number 1 fits the story and its conclusion. The passerby did not communicate any urgency to the authorities, just that there was a car in the ditch. I was mainly upset that folks can assume that their personal responsibilities can be transferred to a third party. More so upset that if the third party does not meet their expectations that the liability falls there, not with the originator. I truly believe that nobody involved in leaving Doris Hayes's body in the ditch for three days did so with complete knowledge of the circumstances. If they had known they would have acted more reasonably. All of our government employees are just the same people as we all are. They have no agenda to be willfully incompetent for the sole purpose of oppressing us. Us is them, too. Michael -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of D. Mindock Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 4:03 PM To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: Re: [Biofuel] I always new they were worthless Michael, What if the person making the call was an elderly, frail person who faints at the sight of blood? Maybe the caller was on an emergency trip and had no time to stop. I think you're a bit too quick to defend the
Re: [Biofuel] distilling fuel/reactant ethanol
Hello Jason and Kate, the reason for this is simple. The castor oil (unlike most other vegetable oils) is ethanol soluble. This means that most other oils will not do the trick. With best regards Jan Warnqvist AGERATEC AB [EMAIL PROTECTED] + 46 554 201 89 +46 70 499 38 45 - Original Message - From: Jason Katie [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 6:31 AM Subject: [Biofuel] distilling fuel/reactant ethanol i pulled a paper from the library describing separating ethanol from water using castor oil. can this be done using any kind of oil, or are their certain characteristics of the oil not described in the paper? http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/eth_separate.html ___ 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): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Ethanol without distillation
I also pulled paper from internet using googleArticle Ethanol production by extractive fermentation M. Minier, G. Goma *Départment de Génie Biochimique et Alimentaire, ERA-CNRS No. 879. INSA, Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse Cédex, France *Correspondence to G. Goma, Départment de Génie Biochimique et Alimentaire, ERA-CNRS No. 879. INSA, Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse Cédex, France setDOI("ADOI=10.1002/bit.260240710")Abstract
The ideal method to produce a terminal metabolite inhibitor of cell growth and production is to remove and recover it from the fermenting broth as it formed. Extractive fermentation is achieved in the case of ethanol production by coupling both fermentation and liquid-liquid extraction, The solvent of extraction is 1-dodecanol (or a mixture 1-dedecanol, 1-tetradecanol); study of the inhibitory effect of primary aliphatic alcohols of different chain lengths shows that no growth is observed in the presence of alcohols which have between 2 and 12 carbons. This effect is suppressed when the carbon number is 12 or higher. A new reactor has been used-1 pulsed packed column. Pulsation is performed pneumatically. Porous material used as a package adsorbs the cells. The fermentation broth is pulsed in order to (1) increase the interfacial area between the aqueous phase and the dodecanol, (2) decrease gas holdup. Alcoholic fermentation, performed at 35°C on
glucose syrup, permits the total utilization of glucose solution of 409 g/L with a yeast which cannot-in classical process- completely use solutions with 200 g/L of glucose. The feasibility of a new method of fermentation coupling both liquid-liquid extraction and fermentation is demonstrated. Extension of this method is possible to any microbial production inhibited by its metabolite excretion. The octanol from castor can be better one than Castor oil. Pure Castor oil canbe good one. The pulsing fase seperation can help the seperation very fast. In Canada the extractive fermentation has been shown to be very sucessful.For small scale we need still simplify this process.This very usful information published in JTF can end the distillation process and hence the need for Bioler and its high pressure pump. yet
more information is needed, as this process can give pure ethanol, almost all the information is kept as industrial top secret or sold .Jason go ahead practical experiments and I am sure you are in right direction and we , small research group from Brazil wish this process a big sucess .If any one from the list has used this process .Let us know sd PannirselvamJason Katie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i pulled a paper from the library describing separating ethanol from water using castor oil. can this be done using any kind of oil, or are their certain characteristics of the oil not described in the paper?http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/eth_separate.html
___Biofuel mailing listBiofuel@sustainablelists.orghttp://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.orgBiofuel at Journey to Forever:http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.htmlSearch the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
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Re: [Biofuel] Ethanol without distillation
I also pulled paper from internet using googleArticle Ethanol production by extractive fermentation M. Minier, G. Goma *Départment de Génie Biochimique et Alimentaire, ERA-CNRS No. 879. INSA, Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse Cédex, France *Correspondence to G. Goma, Départment de Génie Biochimique et Alimentaire, ERA-CNRS No. 879. INSA, Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse Cédex, France setDOI("ADOI=10.1002/bit.260240710")Abstract
The ideal method to produce a terminal metabolite inhibitor of cell growth and production is to remove and recover it from the fermenting broth as it formed. Extractive fermentation is achieved in the case of ethanol production by coupling both fermentation and liquid-liquid extraction, The solvent of extraction is 1-dodecanol (or a mixture 1-dedecanol, 1-tetradecanol); study of the inhibitory effect of primary aliphatic alcohols of different chain lengths shows that no growth is observed in the presence of alcohols which have between 2 and 12 carbons. This effect is suppressed when the carbon number is 12 or higher. A new reactor has been used-1 pulsed packed column. Pulsation is performed pneumatically. Porous material used as a package adsorbs the cells. The fermentation broth is pulsed in order to (1) increase the interfacial area between the aqueous phase and the dodecanol, (2) decrease gas holdup. Alcoholic fermentation, performed at 35°C on
glucose syrup, permits the total utilization of glucose solution of 409 g/L with a yeast which cannot-in classical process- completely use solutions with 200 g/L of glucose. The feasibility of a new method of fermentation coupling both liquid-liquid extraction and fermentation is demonstrated. Extension of this method is possible to any microbial production inhibited by its metabolite excretion. The octanol from castor can be better one than Castor oil. Pure Castor oil canbe good one. The pulsing fase seperation can help the seperation very fast. In Canada the extractive fermentation has been shown to be very sucessful.For small scale we need still simplify this process.This very usful information published in JTF can end the distillation process and hence the need for Bioler and its high pressure pump. yet
more information is needed, as this process can give pure ethanol, almost all the information is kept as industrial top secret or sold .Jason go ahead practical experiments and I am sure you are in right direction and we , small research group from Brazil wish this process a big sucess .If any one from the list has used this process .Let us know sd PannirselvamJason Katie [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: i pulled a paper from the library describing separating ethanol from water using castor oil. can this be done using any kind of oil, or are their certain characteristics of the oil not described in the paper?http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/eth_separate.html
___Biofuel mailing listBiofuel@sustainablelists.orghttp://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.orgBiofuel at Journey to Forever:http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.htmlSearch the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
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[Biofuel] Overthrow
There are those who argue that the United States has invaded numerous countries without requiring instigation by Israel. This is of course true, it's what the empire does for a living. -- William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report, April 22, 2006 http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer32.htm http://members.aol.com/essays6/othrow.htm Overthrowing other people's governments: The Master List - http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2006/000237.html From: robert weissman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [corp-focus] Overthrow List-Subscribe: http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/corp-focus, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] OVERTHROW By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Hawaii Cuba Philippines Puerto Rico Nicaragua Honduras Iran Guatemala South Vietnam Chile Grenada Panama Afghanistan Iraq What do these 14 governments have in common? You got it. The United States overthrew them. And in almost in every case, the overthrow can be traced to corporate interests. In Hawaii, the sugar companies didn't want to pay export duties -- so they overthrew the queen of Hawaii and made it part of the United States. In Guatemala, United Fruit wanted Arbenz out. Out he went. In Chile, Allende offended the copper interests. Allende -- dead. In Iran, Mossadegh offended major oil interests. Mossadegh out. In Nicaragua, Jose Santos Zelaya was bothering American lumber and mining companies. Zelaya -- out. In Honduras, an American banana magnate organized the coup of the Honduran government. And on down the list. Democratic Party critics charge that the Bush administration is ripping the United States from a long history of diplomacy by violently overthrowing governments. Not true, says former New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer. Kinzer says that in fact the opposite is true. Actually, the United States has been overthrowing governments for more than a century, Kinzer said in an interview. He documents this in a new book: Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (Times Books, 2006). Overthrow is the third in a series of regime change books by Kinzer. His previous two: All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (2003), and Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (1982). Together, they would make a remarkable regime change boxed set for the holidays. Kinzer left the Times last year. He says that the parting was perfectly amicable -- although he doesn't sound convincing when he says this. What is clear is that Kinzer is not comfortable with establishment rationales for the American imperial project. This became clear during an interview Kinzer gave on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross earlier this month. Gross tried to get Kinzer to concede that if we hadn't overthrown these governments, the Soviets would have taken over, or today, radical Islam will take over. Kinzer didn't give an inch. For example, Gross said that had we not overthrown these 14 governments, the Soviets might have won the Cold War. I don't think that's true at all, Kinzer responded. In the first place, the countries whose governments we overthrew, all countries that we claimed were pawns of the Kremlin, actually were nothing of the sort. We now know, for example, that the Kremlin had not the slightest interest in Guatemala at all in the early 1950s. They didn't even know Guatemala existed. They didn't even have diplomatic or economic relations. The leader of Iran who we overthrew was fiercely anti-communist. He came from an aristocratic family. He despised Marxist ideology. In Chile, we always portrayed President Allende as a cat's paw of the Kremlin. We now know from documents that have come out that the Soviets and the Chinese were constantly fighting with him and urging him to calm down and not be so provocative towards the Americans. So, in the first place, the Soviets were not behind those regimes. We completely overestimated the influence of the Soviet Union on those regimes. When Gross asked Kinzer what he thought of the spread of radical Islam, Kinzer didn't hesitate. We sometimes like to think that our interventions in these countries don't have effects, but when we break down the doors of foreign countries and impose our own leaders, as we did in Iran and as we've recently done in Iraq, we outrage a lot of people, Kinzer said. We like to think that everybody will soon calmly come to realize that by rational standards, this was a good thing to do. But that doesn't happen. We are not able to change cultures as easily as we are able to change regimes. The United States had a hand in many other overthrows, but Kinzer limited his cases to those where the United States was the primary mover and shaker. So, for example, while the United States played a role in the overthrow of Lumumba in the Congo, Kinzer says that it was primarily an operation by Belgium on behalf of large Belgian mining interests.
Re: [Biofuel] I always new they were worthless
Hi D. Thanks for the ref. I know. I saw it coming. You missed my reply. http://snipurl.com/pkm6 [Biofuel] I always new they were worthless The missing bit is how much McDonald's saves by serving coffee that keeps burning people. It'll be there somewhere - at the time McDonald's made $1.35 million in coffee sales daily, which makes any aspect of unit costs non-trivial. During trial, McDonald's admitted that it had known about the risk of serious burns from its coffee for more than 10 years. From 1982 to 1992, McDonald's received at least 700 reports of burns from scalding coffee; some of the injured were children and infants. Many customers received severe burns to the genital area, perineum, inner thighs and buttocks. In addition, many of these claims were settled for up to $500,000. Witnesses for McDonald's testified that consumers were not aware of the extent of danger from coffee spills served at the company's required temperature. McDonald's admitted it did not warn customers and could offer no explanation as to why it did not. -- Public Citizen Testimony by witnesses for revealed that McDonald's did not intend to reduce the heat of its coffee. - Wikipedia Let's put it another way: Documents obtained by Mother Jones revealed that Ford executives knew very well they could save the lives of the 28 people who ultimately burned to death in Ford Pintos-if they just spent about $10 per vehicle to protect the poorly designed fuel tank, so vulnerable that it was easily punctured in rear-end collisions of just 30 miles per hour. The most shocking evidence was a Ford internal document with a cost/benefit analysis in which the company weighed the cost of a human life (appraised at a tidy $200,000) against the cost of repairing the Pinto fuel tanks-and concluded that the cheaper option was to let Ford customers die. http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1977/09/dowie.html Pinto Madness $10. That was in 1977. It goes on: In June of 1980, Ford again came under fire from Mother Jones in an article detailing a transmission defect which caused idling Ford vehicles suddenly to slip from park into reverse. Ford had known about the defect for at least 10 years, had lost numerous injury lawsuits where juries found the transmission defective, and had even estimated it would cost just three cents per car to fix-yet the company never bothered to make the fix, for fear that acknowledging the flaw would invite more lawsuits. According to NHTSA's own investigation, at the time of the article the defect had caused some 3,700 accidents, injuring 1,100 people and killing 70-more than twice the number killed by fire in the Pinto. Three cents. For what sum did Carbide find it worth risking the life of a whole Indian city? Union Carbide stored liquid MIC in Bhopal in huge tanks, far in excess of what ever would have been permitted in the US. MIC is a dangerously volatile chemical and these tanks were supposed to be kept cooled to 0 deg C. It is known that for some months prior to the huge and fatal gas leak of December 1984, the refrigeration system had been switched off to save the cost of freon gas. For the last 18 years, survivors have wondered just how much the company must have been saving, to make it worth risking the lives of an entire Indian city. Now we know. The figure was $37.68 per day. http://snipurl.com/oxks [Biofuel] More about Bhopal $37.68 per day. Let's have a closer look - what's the difference between Bhopal, India, and West Virginia, USA? The senior officials of the corporation [Union Carbide], privy to a business confidential safety audit in May 1982, were well aware of 61 hazards, 30 of them major and 11 in the dangerous phosgene/MIC units. Remedial measures were then taken at Union Carbide's identical MIC plant in West Virginia but not in Bhopal. In Bhopal, prior to the disaster, environmental safety concerns by private citizens were responded to by legal threats from the company and repressive managerial measures were employed against workers who raised occupational health concerns. Or this: American child brain-damaged by Dow-Carbide pesticide (Dursban): $10,000,000 Indian child brain-damaged by Dow-Carbide pesticide: $500 Compensation for Bhopal victims: 7c a day. These cases are not exceptions, they're symptomatic, that's what corporations do if you let them, and there's abundant evidence for it. Close your eyes and chuck a dart: A study produced for [Philip Morris] by Arthur D. Little, one of the foremost management consulting firms, found the early deaths of smokers have positive effects for society that more than counteract the medical costs of treating smoking induced cancer, etc... It found that in 1999, despite health care costs for dying smokers, the [Czech] government still had a net gain of $147.1 million from smoking. From these figures, the American Legacy Foundation calculated the Czech government saved $1,227 per dead smoker.
Re: [Biofuel] Chemical Grades
Chris, Impurities can interfere with the reaction. The interference can be positive or negative. You asked about impurities in lab grade chemicals versus Reagent or ACS grade. Here in the USA we consider Reagent and ACS grade to be lab grade. We call the next lower grade commercial and / or industrial grade. Just pointing this out for clarification. A question you should ask yourself first is do you want test results using high purity reagents or do you want real world home made batch test results using the industrial / commercial purities that are readily available at a much lower cost and therefore are more likely to be used by many of us in this group, in your experiments. This is an issue / question I have had to deal with in my own R D lab as I usually want my data to translate into results that I can use in the field. It is possible that some impurities might help rather than hurt the yield and purity of the final product(s). One problem with using lower purity reagents is the difficulty of getting reproducible results. If you use the lower purity reagents you might consider also running multiple tests with several different commercial grade sources and determining the variance +/- in product yield. If you want to focus on comparing the relative completeness of the reaction of several recipes by measuring total glycerol ONLY and you want to eliminate other extraneous variables, then ACS Reagent grade chemicals would be the best choice. For instance if you get a batch to batch variation of 20% due to impurities and the true variation between recipes is only 15%, your data, the data you want, will be some what hidden within the 20% variations. Best, Mike McGinness Chris Tan wrote: To Prof. Bob Allen, I plan to compare the relative completeness of the reaction of several recipes by measuring total glycerol. Is it okay to use laboratory grade chemicals for the analysis instead of reagent or ACS grade? Will the impurities in lab grade chemicals significantly interfere with the results? Reagent and ACS grade chemicals cost so much. Thanks, Chris ___ 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): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Granny peace brigade
Hi all, This made my day. I found it during my morning trawl around the world's newspapers. Enjoy. Bob. April 21, 2006 New York Times What Did You Do in the War, Grandma? by Clyde Haberman No ageism is intended, but we're willing to lay heavy odds that it has been a long while since the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, found someone older than he is to take to court. Attorney Norman Segal (L) and Court Officer Sgt. Peter Dolan (R), assist Betty Brassell (C) into the state court building in New York April 20, 2006 to face charges of protesting the war in Iraq. Brassell is one of 18 grandmothers charged for blocking access to the U.S. military recruiting station in Times Square during a recent protest. REUTERS/Chip East Bear in mind that Mr. Morgenthau is 86. He has held his job for so long that it sometimes feels as if he began before they invented Ovaltine. How many 90-year-old drug dealers or mob hit men cross his path? Yesterday, things changed. The district attorney's office pursued a criminal case against a band of women, some of them old enough to call Mr. Morgenthau sonny. Not that Marie Runyon, 91, is what you'd call a hardened criminal. Nor is Molly Klopot, 87, nor Lillian Rydell, 86. Nor, for that matter, are any of 15 other women - a few of them practically kids, no older than 61 or 62 - who went on trial yesterday in Manhattan Criminal Court, charged with disorderly conduct. The Granny Peace Brigade, they call themselves. Last October, they descended on the armed forces recruiting station in Times Square. They wanted to enlist, they said. They've been around. Send them to Iraq, they demanded, instead of some 20-year-old who has barely tasted life. When the military, shockingly, showed no interest in signing them up, this Walker and Cane Brigade held a sit-in. The police ordered them to leave. They refused. So officers young enough to be their great-grandchildren handcuffed them gently and put them under arrest. Obviously, theirs was an exercise in street theater, intended to draw cameras and scribblers to record their opposition to the war in Iraq. The tactic worked. Grandmothers being hauled away in a police wagon is what we in the news business call a story. While the style was somewhat whimsical, the grannies' message could not have been more serious. A similar mixture of soberness and good cheer was evident yesterday at a pretrial pep rally outside the Criminal Court building on Centre Street. Sure, there were denunciations of the war. But there were also photos of grandchildren and great-grandchildren hanging around the women's necks. The mood was a contrast to much of the political dialogue these days - simultaneous monologues, really, often about as witty as a Pat Robertson fatwa. The grannies are positive, upbeat, respectful, loving America, said their lawyer, Norman Siegel, who added, But they also recognize that we have some fundamental problems that need to be overcome. The nonjury trial that got under way yesterday, before Judge Neil E. Ross, did not have to be. Mr. Morgenthau's office proposed a plea deal that would have allowed the dismissal of the charges in six months provided the grannies, forgive us, kept their noses clean. But the women insisted on their day in court, hoping for a chance to speak against the war from the witness stand. We are at a very important point in the history of our country, Ms. Klopot said. It is our responsibility as patriots not to be silent. Whether Judge Ross will give her a courtroom soapbox remains to be seen. As far as the prosecution is concerned, Iraq is a nonstarter. It's not about the war, Amy Miller, an assistant district attorney, told the judge. It's about disorderly conduct. That's not how Mr. Siegel saw it. The purpose of the protest was to alert an apathetic public, he said to Judge Ross. He also argued that the grannies did not entirely block access to the recruiting center, a point conceded by police officers who testified. And so, Mr. Siegel contended, the order for the women to clear out was not lawful. They had acted on principle, he said, in a great American tradition of peaceful, nonviolent protest. Then again, a guiding principle of nonviolent protest is that one must be prepared to suffer the consequences. Age should not matter. If convicted, each of the women could be fined $250 and sent to jail for 15 days. Are they prepared to do the time? Absolutely, said one of the younger defendants, Jenny Heinz, 61. A number of us have made a decision that we will not accept fines or community service. Of course, a guilty verdict would have to come first. Then Judge Ross, 46, would have to decide if sending some women nearly twice his age to the slammer is really how he wants to be remembered. - ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
[Biofuel] Teeny reactor pumps out Biodiesel
Wired News: Teeny Reactor Pumps Out Biodiesel http://wired.com/news/wireservice/1,70702-0.html 1 of 2 4/20/2006 8:00 AM Teeny Reactor Pumps Out Biodiesel Associated Press 16:57 PM Apr, 19, 2006 PORTLAND, Oregon -- A tiny chemical reactor that can convert vegetable oil directly into biodiesel could help farmers turn some of their crops into homegrown fuel to operate agricultural equipment instead of relying on costly imported oil. "This is all about producing energy in such a way that it liberates people," said Goran Jovanovic, a chemical engineering professor at Oregon State University who developed the microreactor. The device -- about the size of a credit card -- pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly. By comparison, it takes more than a day to produce biodiesel with current technology. Conventional production involves dissolving a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide, in alcohol, then stirring it into vegetable oil in large vats for about two hours. The mixture then has to sit for 12 to 24 hours while a slow chemical reaction forms biodiesel along with glycerin, a byproduct. The glycerin is separated and can be used to make other products, such as soaps, but it still contains the chemical catalyst, which must be neutralized and removed using hydrochloric acid, a long and costly process. The microreactor under development by the university and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute eliminates the mixing, the standing time and maybe even the need for a catalyst. "If we're successful with this, nobody will ever make biodiesel any other way," Jovanovic said. The device is small, but it can be stacked in banks to increase production levels to the volume required for commercial use, he said. Wired News: Teeny Reactor Pumps Out Biodiesel http://wired.com/news/wireservice/1,70702-0.html 2 of 2 4/20/2006 8:00 AM Biodiesel production on the farm also could reduce distribution costs by eliminating the need for tanker truck fuel delivery, part of the growing effort to meet fuel demand locally -- instead of relying on distant refineries and tanker transport. "Distributed energy production means you can use local resources -- farmers can produce all the energy they need from what they grow on their own farms," Jovanovic said. Blab-away for as little as 1¢/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.___ 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/
Re: [Biofuel] Overthrow
Kieth Good choice of reference to the role of the US and other countries in overthrowing governments of the world. I have to agree with those observers of the general economics, that the major economic powers allow the powers behind the thrones of commerce, those of the leading companies, corporations and investors in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and transportation, drive world economics. We give them titles as Advisors, and they run the World (using variables of emerging countries, revolutions, reorganizations, religious uprisings, land reform, economic revolutions and more) to maximize their earnings, power and control with the average people as their unknowing armies of change. Well done. Irv Levnson. -Original Message- From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Apr 23, 2006 12:58 PM To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Subject: [Biofuel] Overthrow There are those who argue that the United States has invaded numerous countries without requiring instigation by Israel. This is of course true, it's what the empire does for a living. -- William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report, April 22, 2006 http://members.aol.com/bblum6/aer32.htm http://members.aol.com/essays6/othrow.htm Overthrowing other people's governments: The Master List - http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2006/000237.html From: robert weissman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [corp-focus] Overthrow List-Subscribe: http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/corp-focus, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] OVERTHROW By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman Hawaii Cuba Philippines Puerto Rico Nicaragua Honduras Iran Guatemala South Vietnam Chile Grenada Panama Afghanistan Iraq What do these 14 governments have in common? You got it. The United States overthrew them. And in almost in every case, the overthrow can be traced to corporate interests. In Hawaii, the sugar companies didn't want to pay export duties -- so they overthrew the queen of Hawaii and made it part of the United States. In Guatemala, United Fruit wanted Arbenz out. Out he went. In Chile, Allende offended the copper interests. Allende -- dead. In Iran, Mossadegh offended major oil interests. Mossadegh out. In Nicaragua, Jose Santos Zelaya was bothering American lumber and mining companies. Zelaya -- out. In Honduras, an American banana magnate organized the coup of the Honduran government. And on down the list. Democratic Party critics charge that the Bush administration is ripping the United States from a long history of diplomacy by violently overthrowing governments. Not true, says former New York Times foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer. Kinzer says that in fact the opposite is true. Actually, the United States has been overthrowing governments for more than a century, Kinzer said in an interview. He documents this in a new book: Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (Times Books, 2006). Overthrow is the third in a series of regime change books by Kinzer. His previous two: All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror (2003), and Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala (1982). Together, they would make a remarkable regime change boxed set for the holidays. Kinzer left the Times last year. He says that the parting was perfectly amicable -- although he doesn't sound convincing when he says this. What is clear is that Kinzer is not comfortable with establishment rationales for the American imperial project. This became clear during an interview Kinzer gave on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross earlier this month. Gross tried to get Kinzer to concede that if we hadn't overthrown these governments, the Soviets would have taken over, or today, radical Islam will take over. Kinzer didn't give an inch. For example, Gross said that had we not overthrown these 14 governments, the Soviets might have won the Cold War. I don't think that's true at all, Kinzer responded. In the first place, the countries whose governments we overthrew, all countries that we claimed were pawns of the Kremlin, actually were nothing of the sort. We now know, for example, that the Kremlin had not the slightest interest in Guatemala at all in the early 1950s. They didn't even know Guatemala existed. They didn't even have diplomatic or economic relations. The leader of Iran who we overthrew was fiercely anti-communist. He came from an aristocratic family. He despised Marxist ideology. In Chile, we always portrayed President Allende as a cat's paw of the Kremlin. We now know from documents that have come out that the Soviets and the Chinese were constantly fighting with him and urging him to calm down and not be so provocative towards the Americans. So, in the first place, the Soviets were not behind those regimes. We completely overestimated the influence of the Soviet Union on those regimes. When Gross asked Kinzer what he thought of the spread
Re: [Biofuel] clarifying
Hi All, Well after letting my latest 30L batch sit for 4days after washing it still was cloudy so I put it back in the processor and reheated it and then filtered it.Still cloudy. So I washed it again and it has now been sitting for 4 more days and still is cloudy. Any advice? Andrew Leven ___ 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/
Re: [Biofuel] clarifying
On Apr 23, 2006, at 6:26 PM, Andrew Leven wrote:after letting my latest 30L batch sit for 4days after washing it stillwas cloudy so I put it back in the processor and reheated it andthen filtered it. Still cloudy. So I washed it again and it has nowbeen sitting for 4 more days and still is cloudy. Any advice?I'm assuming when you say "still cloudy" after heating, you meanwhen it cools down again. This is important -- does the biodieselget clear when warm? If so, it may be either water or waxy esterssuspended in the biodiesel. Try heating a small amount in a micro-wave QUITE hot (say 160F in an open saucer for ten minutes withgentle stirring) to drive off any suspended water. Let cool -- still cloudy?-K___ 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/
Re: [Biofuel] FWD: Nazis coming to Danbury [was] BYU professor's group...
Mike Weaver wrote: There is an old old ranch house in the extended family with a Swastika on one of the walls - it way predates Hitler and I was told it came from a Native American artist. The light posts in my home town are adorned in swastikas to this day. I had to take a photo in order to prove it, because people up here thought it wasn't true! 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/ ___ 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/
