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Sunday, November 12, 2006
THE BUTANOL ALTERNATIVE
There's been tremendous discussion (and hype) regarding ethanol as a motor fuel. Significant amounts of this fuel are being produced, and significant government subsidies are in place to encourage such production.
Some experts have argued that butanol, another form of alcohol, would be a better biofuel. DuPont and BP evidently think this argument has merit: they have in place a joint venture for biofuels, and have announced that it will begin butanol production, on a limited scale, in 2007. Advantages of butanol over ethanol include:
(1) Higher energy density, so that a vehicle can go more miles on a single tank of fuel
(2) Unlike ethanol, butanol can be transported by pipeline. (Because of its affinity for water, of which small amounts can get into pipelines, ethanol needs to go by barge, rail, or truck.)
3) Butanol improves blend flexibility--it can be mixed with gasoline in higher proportions without requiring major engine modifications
DuPont and BP aren't the only butanol players; here's a another company which is focused on butanol fuels and has a patented production process.
It's not totally clear how the energy balance of butanol compares with that of ethanol--here's an Iowa State professor who thinks it will be even worse than ethanol. On this other hand, this guy has spent 6 years working on butanol production processes, and he thinks the butanol production should require significantly less energy than does ethanol. I'm thinking that DuPont/BP would be unlikely to be pursuing this particular fuel unless that they were convinced that the energy balance could be made at least as favorable as ethanol.
One negative of butanol is that its octane number is lower than that of ethanol.
More information:
The Energy Blog
Green Car Congress
DuPont/BP biobutanol site
Disclosure: I'm a DuPont shareholder.
6:37 AM
Saturday, November 11, 2006
VETERANS DAY
If you haven't already contributed to Project Valour-IT, this would be a good time to consider doing so. It's a project to provide voice-activated laptops for soldiers who, due to hand injuries or other reasons, are unable to use standard keyboards. Information at the above link; you can contribute here.
7:35 AM
VETERANS DAY
If you haven't already contributed to Project Valour-IT, this would be a good time to consider doing so. It's a project to provide voice-activated laptops for soldiers who, due to hand injuries or other reasons, are unable to use standard keyboards. Information at the above link; you can contribute here.
7:35 AM
Thursday, November 09, 2006
POST-ELECTION THOUGHTS
It will probably be a few days before I get my thoughts together for a substantial post. But for now: what scares me most about the Democratic victory is that the leadership of this party does not seem to understand that the threats we face are existential in nature--that devastating harm to this country, and to civilization itself, are well within the realm of possibility--and still less does the Democratic leadership understand the nature of those who oppose us.
Ralph Peters: One of the most consistently disheartening experiences an adult can have today is to listen to the endless attempts by our intellectuals and intelligence professionals to explain religious terrorism in clinical terms, assigning rational motives to men who have moved irrevocably beyond reason. We suffer under layers of intellectual asymmetries that hinder us from an intuititive recognition of our enemies.
I doubt if anyone has ever called Nancy Pelosi an intellectual, but there is no doubt that she and other Democratic leaders are strongly influenced by the attitudes that Peters describes.
There are, of course, many precedents for failure to comprehend the nature of the enemy. Here's one that I think is relevant:
Paul Reynaud--who became Prime Minister of France just two months before the German invasion of 1940--incisively explained what was at stake at that point in time, and why it was so much greater than what had been at stake in 1914:
People think Hitler is like Kaiser Wilhelm. The old gentleman only wanted to take Alsace-Lorraine from us. But Hitler is Genghis Khan. (approximate quote)
If more Frenchmen (and other Europeans, and Americans) had seen what Reynaud saw--and seen it early enough--the odds of avoiding the full horrors of WWII and of the Holocaust would have been greatly improved. Too many people preferred to believe that the man couldn't be as crazy and evil as he sounded.
The enemies we face are Genghis Khan. Believe it.
Extended excerpt from the Ralph Peters article here.
See also my post When National Leaders Are Madmen.
9:03 PM
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
IMPORTANT READING
See my post at ChicagoBoyz.
9:40 AM
Monday, November 06, 2006
IF YOU LIKE YOUR LOCAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE
...then bear this in mind: Even if your local candidate is a moderate and a good guy, a vote for a Democrat still means putting people like Pelosi, Hastings, and Kucinich in positions of power.
Nancy Pelosi: Could become Speaker of the House. Pelosi has opposed ballistic missile defense, a position that isn't very intelligent in the light of the happenings in Iran and North Korea. And she has indicated that she will not name Jane Harmon, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, as its Chairman...which means the position would likely go to the next Democrat in line...
Alcee Hastins: In 1989, after being acquitted in a criminal trial, Hastings was stripped of his position as a federal judge -- impeached by the House in which he now serves, and convicted by the Senate -- for conspiring to extort a $150,000 bribe in a case before him, repeatedly lying about it under oath and manufacturing evidence at his trial. Is it even sane to contemplate someone like this chairing an intelligence committee during time of danger?
Demmis Kucinich: Potentially Chairman of the Subcommittee on national security. Kucinich refused to condemn Hezbollah terrorists, calling instead for us to have a "recognition that connects us to a common humanity and from that draw a flicker of hope to enkindle the warm glow of peace." Right.
There are also plenty of Democrats with dangerous views who, although not slated for Congressional office, would undoubtedly gain in influence given a Democrat-controlled Congress. Formed Democratic Presidential candidate Wesley Clark, for example, called U.S. support for Israel in the recent air campaign against Hezbollah a serious mistake. And Jimmy Carter is coming out with a new book, titled Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, which accuses Israel of conducting an apartheid policy and moreover says that "Because of powerful political, economic, and religious forces in the United States, Israeli government decisions are rarely questioned or condemned."
Dangerous times call for adult leadership. Pelosi, Hastings, Kucinich, Clark, and Carter aren't it. Whatever you may like about your local Democratic candidate, ask yourself if his good points are really worth the risk to our civilization that would flow from giving vastly increased power to such people.
11:33 AM
Sunday, November 05, 2006
IMPORTANT READING
Orson Scott Card, a Democrat, is going to be voting for Republican candidates on Tuesday.
To all intents and purposes, when the Democratic Party jettisoned Joseph Lieberman over the issue of his support of this war, they kicked me out as well.
A thoughtful and fairly long piece, which definitely deserves to be read.
8:39 AM
Saturday, November 04, 2006
BIGOTRY TRIUMPHANT
About 6 months ago, I wrote about the situation at Gallaudet University,
nation's preeminent college for deaf and hearing-disabled students--many students and faculty members were opposing the selection of Jane Fernandes as President, one of the main reasons being the allegation that she was "not deaf enough." (Although she was born severely hearing-impaired, she is able to speak and didn't learn American Sign Language until she was 23. She also has a husband and children who have no hearing problems.) Things got nasty enough for the chairwoman of the board of trustees to resign, citing "aggressive threats" against her.
The governing board has now removed Fernandes from her job.
Dr Martin Luther King wanted people to be judged by "the content of their characters." It sounds to me like the dominant forces at Gallaudet were less interested in the content of of Fernandes's character than in the mechanics of her auditory facilities.
For decades now, "progressives" have focused on defining people primarily as members of groups, rather than as individuals, and on creating and deepening fault lines across groups. In the way Dr Fernandes was treated, we see the end result of this process.
If you like this kind of thing, be sure and vote for Democratic candidates--that will help ensure lots more of the same.
7:25 PM
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
HILLARY CLINTON SAYS
...that the U.S. should adapt a more "internationalist" foreign policy. (link)
I guess she wants us to pay more attention to the opinions of people like Javier Solana.
6:01 PM
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