Daffodil Lane: February 2007 Archives

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February 28, 2007

All Together Now...Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!

CISARUA, Indonesia (AP) -- Call them the odd couples.

A pair of month-old Sumatran tiger twins have become inseparable playmates with a set of young orangutans, an unthinkable match in their natural jungle habitat in Indonesia's tropical rainforests.

The friendship between 5-month-old female baby primates Nia and Irma, and cubs Dema and Manis, has blossomed at the Taman Safari zoo where they share a room in the nursery.

After being abandoned by their mothers shortly after birth, the four play fight, nipping and teasing each other, and cuddling up for a shared nap when they are worn out.

"This is unusual and would never happen in the wild," said zoo keeper Sri Suwarni, bottle-feeding a baby chimp on Wednesday. "Like human babies, they only want to play."

The four have lived side-by-side for a month without a single act of hostility, she said.

Indonesian tigers and orangutans are both endangered species, threatened by rapidly shrinking habitats.

Conservationists estimate there are fewer than 700 Sumatran tigers still alive, while fewer than 60,000 orangutans remain in the wild. Around 90 percent of the jungle has been destroyed by illegal logging, poaching and cut-and-burn farming practices on Borneo and Sumatra islands.

The exceptional friendship will likely be short-lived, said veterinarian Retno Sudarwati, because as the animals grow up their natural survival instincts will kick in.

"When the time comes, they will have to be separated. It's sad, but we can't change their natural behavior," she said. "Tigers start eating meat when they are three months old."

How cute are they?

Found via CNN.

Posted by Dianne at 2:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

It's Called Green Power And Yes It Costs More!

You knew after his big night at the Oscars Sunday, the far right would come out in full force against former Vice President Gore. Since these single-minded sensationalists never let those pesky "facts" get in the way, Keith breaks down the utility bill.
I have no problem with "think-tanks" scrutinizing Al Gore, but (a) for The Tennessee Center for Policy Research to call itself an independent and nonpartisan organization is laughable and (b) if they want to maintain that facade, try getting the full story at least.

(Nicole: Do you suppose that they are equally up in arms by the fact that taxpayers are paying Dick Cheney's electric bill at the Vice President's mansion? You know, the one that had an $186,000 electric bill in 2001? Nah, that probably doesn't bother them in the least.)

Not much to add to that, other than there is a HUGE difference in using renewable power sources (solar, wind power, etc.) and getting your power from coal fired electricity plants. They never seem to want you to know the whole truth though. Oh and he CHOSE to use the more expensive, greener alternatives. Just so you know. They also forgot to tell you about the various green measures Mr. Gore and his family have taken in their home. Again they just aren't into giving you all the facts. Do a little research yourself that doesn't involve right wings sources and the facts and the truth are there. It doesn't take a rocket scientist.

Found via Crooks and Liars. Click on the picture above to see Mr. Olbermann tell it like it truly is.

Posted by Dianne at 8:27 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 27, 2007

Toad Hunters Offered Beer Bounty

Australians are freaking awesome! You don't see free beer bounties running around this country now do you! Of course, we don't have rampant invasive species trying to destroy the entire country either. Ours tend be localized disasters. ;) So for your beer drinkers out there here is an once in a life time opportunity to drink yourself silly. I wonder how much beer you'd have to drink to make up the cost of a flight to Australia?

If you aren't aware of the Cane Toad it's a horrible monster. It weights about 8 lbs and of course is totally poisonous. It breeds about 30,000 eggs at a time and does that twice a year. The tadpoles poison kills fish that eat them and all predators in Australia are easily killed by biting these monsters. This is another man made disaster, the Cane Toad wasn't native to Australia it was brought in from South America to deal with a pest in the sugar cane. Now it's trying to take over all of Australia.

February 26, 2007

Death Of A Snowman

He'll be back again someday! ;o)

Posted by Dianne at 6:34 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Just a cowboy at heart?

The other morning I was over at Bob Geiger's site and I saw the above picture of Obama. It takes a special kind of man to pull off wearing a cowboy hat folks. You have to have an inner strength to make it not seem like an act. It appears that Obama is one of those kind of men. So anyway, I flagged this picture for future posting because it left me with a feeling that I'd seen this kind of picture before but I just couldn't put my finger on where. Then it hit me, Cowboy Troy! You be the judge.

Now if Obama can sing country music too, well he's still not got a chance in hell to get a Republican vote, but the connection made me smile. I'd like to see a little more Cowboy Troy in my Obama, then maybe I could get inspired.

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Researchers Use Ultrasonic Processing for Fast Biodiesel Production

Researchers at Mississippi State University report that ultrasonic processing used in biodiesel production delivers a biodiesel yield in excess of 99% in five minutes or less, compared to one hour or more using conventional batch reactor systems. The work is described in the current issue of the journal Energy & Fuels.
Ultrasonication can also help to reduce the separation time from 5 to 10 hours required with conventional agitation) to less than 15 minutes, according to Hielscher, a small German company providing ultrasonic processing equipment for a variety of sonochemical applications, biodiesel production being one.

The ultrasonication also helps to decrease to amount of catalyst required by 50 to 60% due to the increased chemical activity in the presence of cavitation. Another benefit is the increase in purity of the glycerol.

This is an amazing improvement. Less time to process the fuel gives you a lot more in the way of efficiencies with dealing with the production process. As you recall, it wasn't too long ago that they are stared using ultrasonics to improve the processing of ethanol as well. That upped the production of Ethanol by 30% per bushel with the application of sound waves. This is why it's so important that we push these technologies forward. No technology we use today started out as efficient or as good as it is today. Innovation comes from trying to use something that you've never used before. Biofuels will keep getting better and better until the point that there isn't a need for America to be held hostage by greedy Republicans and the Oil companies that own them.

I Need to Wake Up

It's a great song and video that won the Oscar last night from the Oscar award winning "An Inconvient Truth".

If you haven't watched it, you need too.

February 25, 2007

The Queen

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Helen Mirren for The Queen!

And let me say Helen Mirren looks stunning tonight!

Posted by Dianne at 11:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

And The Hits Keep On Coming!

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: Melissa Ethridge, "I Need To Wake Up" from an An Inconvenient Truth!

Now if Helen Mirren gets the award for best actress (or possibly Kate Winslet if Helen doesn't get it) I can go to bed happy!

Posted by Dianne at 11:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yes!!

Best Documentary, Features: An Inconvenient Truth

Sadly Al Gore did not announce he was running for President though.

Posted by Dianne at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yeah!!

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role goes to Jennifer Hudson! Yeah!!! :o)

Posted by Dianne at 10:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Frosty Returns

Posted by Dianne at 9:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

So True!

There are only two kinds of scholars; those who love ideas and those who hate them. - Emile Chartier

Posted by Jamison at 8:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Great News!!!

As I've mentioned in the past there is only one candidate on the Republican list for President that worries me in the slightest. Well there has been some great news this week on that front. Turns out Mr. Huckabee has been involved in a scandal at the governor's mansion of Arkansas with some missing money and some deleted hard drives. I know what's you're thinking...A dishonest Republican what a big surprise there Jamison! I know it won't keep Republican from voting for him, or let's be honest, they wouldn't be able to vote for any of their guys on the ballot. That leaves the last serious threat on the Republican side to be Hagel and it appears that Republicans hate him more than they hate Democrats. Personally I can't tell the difference between Tancredo, Hunter, and Brownback. I suspect one of those three are going to win because they represent the purest embodiment of the GOP in it's current form.

February 23, 2007

Fox Attacks

It's pretty much known around the world that Fox is nothing more than the propaganda wing of the Republican party. From the local affiliates on up to the puppet master himself, Fox does nothing but support whatever talking point they get from the Republican party today.

Yet again they've been exposed as nothing more than a partisan hack machine with their fabricated reporting on one of the Democratic Presidential candidates Barak Obama. I'm not even going to to into the hundreds of times that they've just flat out lied to support the radical right wing hate ideology of the Republican party. So we all know this, so why is it important to repeat it now? Fox is slipping rapidly in popularity as the disconnect between the lies they are regularly reporting and what even brain dead conservatives can see on the streets of America gets so far apart that people just stop taking them seriously.

For reasons that baffle good sense the Nevada Democratic party has decided to turn over the first debate of Democratic candidates in their state to Fox. That's right, the claim being that it will be the first time that Fox viewers will have a chance to see an "honest" depiction of Democratic candidates. You will recall in 2004 Democratic Presidential candidates were in a debate covered by Fox, and Fox put up insulting graphics and GOP talking points as the Democrats were talking. Then they went the extra step to cut off the candidates to allow right wing pundits to attack the Democrats at any point in their speeches with the same GOP talking points.

Basically the Nevada Democrats have allowed the GOP to host the first Democratic Debate in Nevada. This verges on insanity of the highest order. Radical extremists that take Fox seriously will NEVER vote Democratic. I go back to the 2006 election quote "I wouldn't vote Democratic if Jesus Christ was running." That sums up just about every Republican watching Fox. There is no way to reach them because they've have abandoned reality folks. It's time for the Nevada Democrats to realize that decent people aren't watching Fox, only the most vile of the vile are watching. Nothing we can say or do will ever be enough for them, all they have is their hate of this country and Democrats to drive them each and every day.

Read more over at Fox Attacks, MyDD and Crooks and Liars.

Posted by Jamison at 7:45 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 22, 2007

Interesting new feature for your SUV

For me the last decade or two of automotive history have pretty much been stagnate. Truly new innovations are few and far between except under the hood of the car. Automakers feel that all they need to do is change around the cup holders on the inside and change from a cassette tape to CD player to update their interiors, but new features aren't really that impressive.

I was scrolling by this "new" European version of the Saturn VUE without even stopping to see what it had, because I knew what it had, but then I saw these three pictures of the bumper system that extended to become a bike rack. And when not in use moved back into to leave you a standard bumper. Now that's innovation! I'm not much a fan of bikes, but I see people with all sorts of crazy contraptions strapped to the back of their cars to carry the bikes. What is troublesome is when you see them carrying it around disrupting the air flow of their vehicle when they don't have any bikes on them at all.

Of course, it's not available in America yet and much like everything else cool, will likely never make it over here any time soon. Amazing that you can get cool features like, Electric only options for your hybrids, to extensible bike racks, to flex fuel motors standard from the very companies in America that say they can't do it for you. I wonder why that is? Are Europeans better customers than us?

Prolactin reverses MS damage

Well it appears that the women of the world may have within their hormones a secret weapon that not only defeats MS, but may be used to heal other kinds of spinal cord injuries as well. Multiple Sclerosis breaks down the covering over the nerve cells in the spine called myelin, which causes the cells to start to fail to do their job of transmitting electrical impulses from the brain. It was already known that oestrogen protected women from losing this myelin, but it had been observed in the human female population that when a woman with MS got pregnant that they went into remission and seemed to be better off after the pregnancy. So researchers decided to reproduce the state in mice to see if they could find the source of the protection.

Prolactin as you can probably figure out by the breakdown of the word does exactly what it says it does, it encourages lactation in females. It turns out that this hormone goes in and starts repairing myelin in the spine as well for reasons that no one is quite clear on. On one level while this is an amazing discovery, there is some concern about causing lactation in men and women to treat MS. A valid concern, but given the debilitating side effects of MS, it could definitely be something you learned to work around. Even if you only limited the treatment to women for social reasons, I think it's a small price to pay in the long run. In the end MS strikes women in larger numbers than men anyway, so a treatment focused on them would be a good choice.

They are going to do more research on the interactions of course. Interestingly they suggest that Prolactin could be dangerous if it causes inflammation. Seems to contradict this study from my point of view. If pregnant women were adversely effected by it, it would seem that they would not have shown positive results. It could be the cocktail of pregnancy hormones that mitigate the side effects or that the doses of Prolactin they have used in previous studies were in excess of what a woman's body would expect naturally. A lot of interesting questions to ask and get answered.

February 21, 2007

GA-10: Field Taking Shape for Special

With the death of Charlie Norwood (R), my parent's home district is back in play in Georgia. It appears the Sonny Perdue has done some sneaky scheduling to allow the Republicans in the Georgia legislature to get some advantage in the special election. Which is fine I guess, I've long since given up hope of Republicans doing things in a fair sort of way anywhere they are in control.

Terry Holley, who I blogged about last year is going to get back in to the race, but with his 33% performance against Norwood last year there is some question of the likely success he would have against the next Republican. Two other names are being kicked around are state Rep. Alan Powell and lawyer David Bell. I'm not on the ground, but I find it hard to believe that Alan Powell will give up a good seat for a long shot like this one. David Bell performed the best against Norwood in 1996, losing by only 4 points. One of the problems with the GA-10 is that it was redistricted in the middle of the decade by the corrupt Republicans in the legislature and the district is now a lot more Republican than it use to be, so every Democrat starts out with a distinct disadvantage by design.

It's going to be a tough fight that's for sure. I've noticed that a small Netroots has started to form in the district, so we might have a growing presence in the district that could make things a bit more interesting than even last year. A good candidate that could inspire some Netroots support, with low voter turnout among the lazy Republicans that make up the region could definitely give us a chance to move this seat blue, barring that at least it will give the GOP heartburn and make them burn a few million bucks trying to overcome their own history of incompetence.

Republicans are screwing up in space

Not a real big surprise to find out given the Republican party's propensity to screw up everything they touch. So no reason to believe after all these years that they would not be making a critical and likely lethal mistake. What's surprising is that John Glenn is saying it out loud. OK, he said it a lot nicer than I did, but it's John Glenn, he's a living legend. Basically he's realized like most of us with more than a passing knowledge of science, that the Republican plan to bleed the space program dry is destroying America's ability to compete in the space races of the future.

I know, the Republican corporate mentality can't imagine anything beyond the next quarter of stealing money for Halliburton in Iraq, but in the next few decades we need to be in space. We need to be getting better at living in space and we need to be prepare to explore space more aggressively, but the urge to take risks and explore the limits of human capacity is a polar opposite of conservative ideology. They dream the world to be static incarnation of the 1950's and if they just believe hard enough China won't be taking our place as the only global super power on the planet.

Our strength comes from space folks, we ignore it at our peril. If we sacrifice that potential to follow the whims of a madman who doesn't understand that there is going to be a future beyond the end of his term in office, we doom our nation for all of time. The next President and Congress is going to have to spend large sums of money to make up for all the horrible mistakes that have been made over the last decade with NASA. I've lectured on the need for a SSTO vehicle before, so I won't rant about that again.

Fight looms over limiting big rigs to 68mph

On surface this is not very interesting. As we all probably know there are speed governors built into semis that restricts their maximum upper speed. They don't have be turned on mind you, but the technology exists to make it possible. So now some major trucking companies are pushing for having them turned on nationwide. The safety argument is pretty easy to make on this front. F=MxA is an extremely unforgiving formula, especially when it comes to semis. When you have such large masses, the force differences between a few miles per hour difference in acceleration can be pretty deadly. Well it's likely that all altercations between you and a semi are not going to have a happy ending, let's not kid ourselves. Independent truckers says that this is an effort to sneak in larger trucks onto the American highways with the argument that if they travel slower that things will be safer. Now you've seen the larger truck configurations from other countries.

So I think we all agree that bigger trucks are probably not going to be the solution to our traffic congestion problems. So if that is the goal, I agree it should probably be stopped dead in it's tracks, but it's hard not to see the safety concerns that would be solved by limiting the upper speeds (but I have to wonder in states where the speed is greater than 68 would that really be the best choice?).

For me the real question is if we are serious about our speed limit laws (which I think we all know that we aren't), then why don't we have electronic governors on all vehicles that travel on America's highways? I mean if you believe that 55 mph is the best choice, why not tell my car to not let me go faster than that when I pull onto that section of highway. That kind of technology has existed for pretty much as long as the automobile has existed. Why restrict just trucks? Why not restrict all motor vehicles if you believe that these laws have some value in the long run?

Back to the trucks, if you have opinions on the matter, the government is listening for opinions right now. If you want to put in your two cents worth, please feel free to write before March 27 at Docket Management, Room PL-401, 400 Seventh St. S.W. Washington, D.C. 20590. Amazingly only snail mail seems to be a choice.

February 20, 2007

Australia to ban incandescent bulbs

SYDNEY, Australia - Australia will be the world's first country to ban incandescent lightbulbs in a bid to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with the government saying on Tuesday they would be phased out within three years and replaced by compact fluorescent lighting.
By 2009, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull told local radio, "you simply won't be able to buy incandescent lightbulbs, because they won't meet the energy standard."

Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Now that's what I'm talking about folks! People that are serious about saving the world take serious action to save it. CFL's provide a massive advantage to the end user. Changing nothing about a lighting fixture, you reduce energy consumption by 2/3rds. It's hard to argue with changes like that. If every American put one of these bulbs in their most used light fixture in their house, we would cut energy consumption in this country to the point that we could power another 2.5 million homes without changing anything about the way we do things. Dianne and I have started speeding up the replacement process of all the bulbs in our house. At first we were replacing bulbs as they burned out, now we are the point that we are just replacing them all no matter what. If you want to help make America a better place, you should get on replacing all the bulbs in your house. And remember that these bulbs throw off 1/4 of the heat of a regular bulb, so you can put a lot higher lumen bulb in places you used to not be able to.

Oh and you'll hear doubters screaming that LED lights are even better, so your better off waiting until they are cheap to do the replacement. That LED's use 1/5 the energy of CFL, generate no heat at all, last 10 times longer than CFL, but right now cost 20 to 40 times as much per bulb. I point you back to the 2.5 million homes with just one light bulb. LED bulbs are better, but it's sort of like waiting for the hydrogen economy to buy a fuel efficient car. There will always be something better if you wait long enough, but the question is what will it cost you in the mean time not to make the right decision. You'll need to replace the CFL's in a decade or so maybe, why not upgrade then? If you get these things in bulk, they are as light as a dollar to a dollar and a half a piece. And I'm sure if you go online you could probably even get better than that. But we can all do this now and those that can't should be given a hand to be able to afford the upgrade.

[via AMERICABlog]

Read more over at MSNBC and EnergyStar.gov.

Posted by Jamison at 3:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Busy, busy, busy

Dianne and I are extremely busy right now, so posting may get a little light. Between Graduate School for both of us, Political events for me, and our life in general we don't have much free time bouncing around for blog entries. Also the blog is having a problem that we are working on with customer support as well, that makes it even harder to post entries. So the evil Republicans haven't gotten us, we are just working on other things right now. If I see something really cool or particularly heinous I'll use one of my breaks to write something up.

Posted by Jamison at 10:15 AM | Comments (2)

February 18, 2007

I Think She Should Have Stayed In Rehab!

Moments after shaving her own head in Esther's Haircutting Studio in Tarzana, Calif., a teary Britney Spears blurted out, "'My mom is going to freak,'" according to salon owner Esther Tognozzi, who says she tried to talk the pop star out of her radical do.

Number one you're an adult...act like one!

Number two "'My mom is going to freak,'" is the understatement of the millennia!

I think perhaps she should have stayed in rehab.

Posted by Dianne at 8:51 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 16, 2007

House Passes A Non-Binding Resolution Against Bush's Escalation

17 Republicans voted in favor of the resolution disapproving of Bush's decision to send over 20,000 more US troops to Iraq. The total vote count is 246-182.

It's nice to see some Republicans came back from the dark side. Although it is non-binding it's good to see that the will of the American people is being noted none the less.

Found via AMERICAblog.

Posted by Dianne at 3:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Is She In Rehab?

Buzz around the blogoshpere is that Britney Spears has checked herself into rehab. If she has I think it's the best thing she could have done. She has gotten way out of control! She needs to get her ducks in a row so she can take care of her children.

Found via I Don't Like You That Way.

Update: 3:43 PM: Maybe not. If she's going to get clean she has to want it for herself. Other people can't force her to do it if she doesn't want to. I still think it would be the best thing she could do though.

Posted by Dianne at 3:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Now That's An Old Frog!

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- A miner in Chiapas discovered a tiny tree frog that has been preserved in amber for 25 million years, a researcher said.

If authenticated, the preserved frog would be the first of its kind found in Mexico, according to David Grimaldi, a biologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History who was not involved in the find.

The chunk of amber containing the almost 0.4-inch frog was uncovered by a miner in Mexico's southern Chiapas state in 2005 and was bought by a private collector, who lent it to scientists for study.

Only a few other preserved frogs have been found in chunks of amber -- a stone formed by ancient tree sap -- mostly in the Dominican Republic. Like those, the frog found in Chiapas appears to be of the genus Craugastor, whose descendants still inhabit the region, said biologist Gerardo Carbot of the Chiapas Natural History and Ecology Institute, who announced the discovery this week.

Carbot figures the frog lived 25 million years ago, based on the geological strata where the amber was found.

It's always interesting when they find species of any kind persevered in this manner or frozen in ice because it gives an idea of the shape and make up to the animal overall. This truly is a very interesting find. It will be exciting to see what else they find out from their research.

Found via CNN.

Posted by Dianne at 3:33 PM

Now I've Seen Everything

Chocolate covered cars? Alrighty then!

Posted by Dianne at 3:26 PM

Melissa Sums It Up Nicely

What those who believe I (or Amanda) 'caved' don't seem to understand is that from Day One, this situation just kept escalating. When Donohue went after me, I didn't quit. When Malkin went after me, I didn't quit. When the rightwing blogosphere went after me, I didn't quit. When the mainstream media went after me, I didn't quit. When someone from another Democratic campaign went after me, I didn't quit. When Bill O'Reilly went after me, I didn't quit. And after all that hadn't made me quit, the threats poured in.

Melissa sums up very nicely why she had to quit. The right wing can not, nor have they ever been able to back up their arguments with facts, so they yell, they lie and they threaten violence to get their "point" across. It speaks volumes to their characters. They are all bullies, though they try to paint themselves in a different light, but all the painting in the world can't change that fact.

Melissa did the right thing for her and for her family. There was no caving, it was simply the only way to survive and she rightly took the only path that she had to escape the insanity.

Our Icy Backyard

It kind of looks like flowing water doesnt it, but it's a solid sheet of ice!

Posted by Dianne at 12:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ice And Sun

Posted by Dianne at 10:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 15, 2007

Concerts To Help Raise Awareness Of Global Warming

Feb. 15, 2007 — Recently nominated for a Nobel Prize and waiting to walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards, former Vice President Al Gore will unveil his next big endeavor today from Los Angeles: a single-day series of concerts to put the issue of climate change before a global audience.
Modeled after 2005's Live 8 concerts highlighting African debt relief, the event is scheduled for July 7 with seven concerts on seven continents.

Gore is expected to make the announcement alongside musicians Jon Bon Jovi, Sting and Pharrell Williams.

This is a brilliant idea! Take the message far and wide. The science is there, sometimes you just have to use other avenues to get the message to people that might normally not understand. Once again Al Gore is ahead of the game.

Now sir if you'd just run for President! ;o) (The article also discusses that little tidbit.)

Found via ABCNews.com.

Posted by Dianne at 1:42 PM

Somewere O’Reilly’s Head Is Exploding

NEW YORK - Keith Olbermann will continue to be a thorn in Bill O’Reilly’s side for at least four more years.
NBC News announced Thursday it had agreed to a “second term” with the MSNBC “Countdown” host, whose contract was due to expire next month. The extension will take him into 2011.

Keith Olbermann is one of the few newsmen out there that actually reports the news. His steadfast effort to stand toe to toe with those who don't makes him one of the greatest newsmen of our time. It's a good thing that he will continue to be on the air for at least 4 more years. We need more truth telling and less right wing media spin. We need more newsmen out there like him and a lot of people could take lessons from his example!

Found via Think Progress.

Michigan State University got back to me

From my earlier Cow Power post, a watercooler conversation brought up an interesting question for the researchers about water warping the resulting boards. So I sent the researchers the question about the effects of water on the new kind of boards. Here's the response I got back.

Jamison, you asked the question about warp from water. A test was conducted in which the composite materials were dipped in water for 24 hours, frozen for 24 hours and thawed for 24 hours to measure how much water was collected. The test results indicated composite materials made with the fiber were comparable to the composite product made from wood used in the study.

So the question is answered. On the water front they still share the vulnerability of standard composite wood products, but the researcher was also nice enough to send along all the research papers and presentations links they made on the product. I've done a once over of the research and it's pretty exciting.The use of Wood Plastic Composite technology with this material is actually a perfect use that I never considered. Now we just need to get the people in Vermont to start using the Michigan research to make their Cow power more economicly viable than it already is.

Read more over at Michigan Manure Resources Network.

Posted by Jamison at 10:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Question Of The Day

Pink camouflage...Dear God why???!!??!!

Posted by Dianne at 9:29 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

February 14, 2007

We Are Spartacus!

We support Melissa! You should too!

Via driftglass.

Posted by Dianne at 6:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Over A Million BGE Customers Without Power In Maryland

There's going to be an awful lot of cold Marylanders tonight!

So far we've been very lucky. Knock on wood! The power blinked a couple of times earlier today, but we've been up and running since. BGE is going to be very busy over the next few days! Ice is a nasty foe for powerlines! Just a tip, perhaps you should bury them! ;o)

Click on the picture above to go to BGE's updated page as things change they update it there.

Posted by Dianne at 4:35 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Al Franken's In!

Check out Al's campaign website here.

Posted by Dianne at 3:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Oh Well

Melissa and Amanda have both resigned from the Edwards campaign. I had a feeling this would happen. The right wing nutters are just that...NUTS! They have no idea of decency and I think that's apparent from the threats and bile they've been throwing around toward both women.

Stay safe ladies. We here in the reality based community support you both 100%!!

Posted by Dianne at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Happy Valentine's Day...Or Not

For those of you who celebrate Valentine's Day this is for you:

For those of you who don't I made a graphic for you too:

Regardless have a wonderful Wednesday! ;o)

Posted by Dianne at 9:02 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

February 13, 2007

What's Your Peculiar Aristocratic Title?

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Duchess Dianne the Wholesome of London by the Bow
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Posted by Dianne at 2:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Take Out The "Comp" And The "Ionate" And That's Just About Right

And suddenly, it was 2000 again; Mr. Bush did not mention 9/11 or the global war on terror, Iraq or Afghanistan, Saddam or bin Laden: "Compassionate conservatism" was his legacy, he declared, and referred to the faith-based initiatives we haven't heard much about in subsequent years. "I made a name by being compassionate."

This man's arrogance never ceases to amaze me! Mr. Bush has no clue what "compassionate" even begins to mean. He's as far removed from compassion as the Earth is from Pluto. If compassion came up and slapped this man in the face he still wouldn't recognize the conept. Take out the "comp" and the "ionate" you have exactly what Bush is summed up to be in one little word. Throw in delusional, psychopathic, liar and evil and you've got him all wrapped up in a nice little package.

Found via the Huffington Post.

Posted by Dianne at 11:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 12, 2007

Cow Power and more

One of the major problems we have in this country isn't that we've lacked resources, but our problem has been for too many years we had too many. It made us lazy about looking for ways to economize what we had. One of the key ways to improve things is to look at our by-products and use them in new an interesting ways. In this case we have a story about the state of Vermont taking advantage of a waste by-product from their dairy farmers, cow manure, and developing it into a natural resource that can be used by all of us. Before you think this isn't a useful enterprise, realize that a dairy they can spend 200 dollars a year per cow on waste disposal. That's big money folks no matter how you slice it! So when you can turn that waste disposal cost into a profitable enterprise you are definitely making progress to say the least.

In Vermont they appear to be able to power their entire farm and still sell the remaining three quarters of the available electricity to power to the grid. Environmentally this is great because it cuts your release of methane, which is 20 times worse as a green house gas than Carbon dioxide. Also this process allows you to split the fertilizer portion of the manure from the sterilized plant by-product, so you have a pure fertilizer to use on your fields. The uses of the sterilized plant by-product produced some interesting side products.

If you watched the show "Dirty Jobs" this season, on January 16th, he did an episode on making pottery with the sterilized plant by-product, which is an interesting idea. The Vermont folks said they used it for bedding for the cows, which is a very practical immediate use for the material, but today I came across an extremely interesting use of the material, as a building material. I know what you're thinking, but it's sterilized so it doesn't smell, it's just like sawdust. They were experimenting at Michigan State with using it to make particle board. Now what's exciting is that the plant fibers appear to lock together better than the sawdust creating a superior strength for particle board.

So we are all winners right? Nope the schmucks over at the The Engineered Wood Association claims there will never be a market for it and it will die. We have an estimated 1 to 2 trillion tons of animal waste produced a year in the US alone. Do I need to do the math for you on how much better off we could be if we were using it in productive ways. Building materials aren't cheap folks, there could be some major money in this. This is a way we could definitely help ourselves out by taking advantage of our supplies to cut our need for non-renewable supplies.

I'm glad to see state's like Vermont stepping up to make it possible. I'd love to see a national program to help get these kinds of systems set up everywhere we could. I was asked an interesting question when I was talking about it around the water cooler: How does it react to water? Anyone who's worked with particle board knows that water is death for its effectiveness as a building material. So yes, I've harassed the poor folks at the agricultural department to see if they could find out for me. Idle chatter around the water cooler must not be ignored. ;)

Posted by Jamison at 3:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mystery Ailment Strikes Honeybees

I thought the varroa mite was bad news, but now it appears that there are worse things afoot in the bee world. Evidently bee hives have just started dying off randomly. Researchers have named it Colony Collapse Disorder, but I don't know that it's a good name for something that can only be considered some strange voodoo. It's already spread to 22 states and has about a 50% colony fatality rate. Here are the clues that researchers have to work with currently.

* Although the bodies of dead bees often are littered around a hive, sometimes carried out of the hive by worker bees, no bee remains are typically found around colonies struck by the mystery ailment. Scientists assume these bees have flown away from the hive before dying.
* From the outside, a stricken colony may appear normal, with bees leaving and entering. But when beekeepers look inside the hive box, they find few mature bees taking care of the younger, developing bees.

* Normally, a weakened bee colony would be immediately overrun by bees from other colonies or by pests going after the hive's honey. That's not the case with the stricken colonies, which might not be touched for at least two weeks, said Diana Cox-Foster, a Penn State entomology professor investigating the problem.

The first one is the most bizarre from my experiences with bees. The third one is even scarier if you think about it, because it would almost lead you to believe that there is something in the hive that is scaring off scavengers for some period of time.

This has major national security implications in case you are wondering why it's crossing my radar. Insect pollination of our food crops gives us an agricultural advantage that allows us to feed ourselves cheaply and efficiently. Reduce the number of bee hives, it decreases our ability to have record crop production. Very bad stuff for America.

Evidence Grows That White House Planned To Release Cooked Intel On

Tragically it's become readily apparent that this is the plan of the Republican party. They are going to expand the war in the middle east to include Iran so people will stop focusing on the utter failure they've been in Iraq. The latest polling of Americans tells me that I'm in the majority of Americans that believe that the GOP is so desperate to cover up their failure in Iraq that they will invade Iran within the year. Of course my military mind is baffled to explain, and Senator Webb joins me on this concern, how we hope to actually hold or control three times as much territory and twice the population, and a military that held the best the Iraqi army had at bay. But the GOP can not be dissuaded. They seem to have dreams of igniting their entire middle east against us. They've moved a third carrier group into the Gulf. Given that the Iranians are doing better work against Al Qaeda operatives than the GOP, you'd think they'd stop trying to provoke war against them. But last week we see them traipse out what can only be described in the kinds terms as circumstantial evidence to link Al Qaeda and Iran.

I have no faith left in anyone in the GOP given their behavior in Congress lately, so now everything really depends on the Democrats alone. But you never know what the treacherous DLC/New Democrat group is going to do, they love the GOP so much and the money from their corrupt campaign contributors, you never know where they will land on saving the Republic from these madmen. If you're the praying sort you probably should. It's going to get really nasty this year.

Posted by Jamison at 3:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 10, 2007

Sen. Johnson is asking for updates from his staff

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) is requesting more contact with his office and asking for updates from his staff as he continues to recover from an injury to his brain.
"Senator Johnson is actively making decisions about his healthcare and expressing his opinions about his daily activities," said a statement from Philip Marion, medical director for the Department of Rehabilitative Medicine at George Washington University Hospital.

Johnson, who suffered from a cerebral arteriovenous malformation Dec. 13 that resulted in bleeding in the brain, has been "reading the newspaper and following news," according to his office.

This is great news indeed! I can imagine he wants updates, considering how the Republican party is acting in the Senate he's probably chomping at the bit to get back in the game. It's definitely good to see him making progress. One way or another it will take a while to recover from someone drilling a hole in your head. From his progress I would expect that he would start campaigning before too long. OK, I'm rushing him I know, but we've got so much work to do to get a lot more Democrats into the Senate to break the Republican filibuster on checks on this imperial presidency that the GOP is abusing.

Zogby Poll question today.

This year Daylight Savings Time has been extended 4 weeks in an effort to encourage energy conservation. (Clocks will "spring forward" three weeks earlier and "fall back" one week later). Some are people are anxious about a Y2K-type of crisis, anticipating that planes will run late, gadgets won't synch with each other, and public services will be unexpectedly suspended among other emergencies.
When you think of this event, are you:

Excited, looking forward to more daylight and the chance to conserve energy
Anxious, preparing for Y2K-like predictions
Relaxed, I haven't thought about it
Unaffected, I live in a community that doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time
They're doing what?
Not sure

Dianne and I had a good laugh about this one. Daylight Savings time happens all the the time and the Y2K problem was a unique situation caused by people cutting corners to save space on computers back in the 60's. You don't have to be a computer programmer to notice the difference. The problem only comes about if business people are too lazy to upgrade and modernize with the times. If you want to stay up at night worrying about something, start worrying about 3:14:07 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2038. Now that could actually cause some problems. Daylight savings time, will likely just annoy you at worst. The Friday 13th Bug might take down the Internet and God knows we can't live without that. ;)

Rep. Anthony Weiner stands up for Pelosi

Personally I've found the GOP's sudden interest in protecting the nation from green house gases an interesting development. But Representative Weiner brings up an interesting point, who are they having a fight with exactly? It's pretty much everyone else (even the White House disagrees with them) in the world verses the crazies in the Republican caucus in the House. I know for the GOP the most important thing in the world is politics and keeping Congress from doing meaningful business is their only goal in life, but honestly if we have situation where the President and Vice President were incapable of protecting America (which we can debate if that's a daily occurrence or not), do you really want to cause a breakdown in the chain of command and leave America vulnerable and unable to respond in the mean time? This is the party of national security??? They are basically screaming on the House floor that they don't care if our country is unable to defend itself in a crisis. I mean honestly if the GOP is so worried about it then add a Terrapass cost requirement to the Pelosi trips. I mean go a step further and require a Terrapass for every single government trip or vehicle. If the GOP is serious about the problem let's fix it, if they are just wasting time for the sake of wasting the tax payers dollars, then like Representative Weiner says they will be the minority party for the foreseeable future, which is fine with me, Republicans have little to contribute to the national debate on any subject.

[via Crooks and Liars]

We got busy yesterday.

Our school site has been down for several days, so yesterday it came back up and we were busy catching up on school assignments and posting them. We are always slackerish on the weekend, I need to finish up a paper and then I'll try and catch up on everything I've been meaning to talk about for the last couple of days.

Posted by Jamison at 9:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 8, 2007

Some People Just Have No Soul

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man angry his toddler daughter wouldn't go to bed knocked her unconscious and left her to die outside in single-digit temperatures, police said.
The frozen body of Nyia Miangel Page, who was about to turn 2, was found Sunday at an abandoned playground about a 10-minute walk from the family's home.

Tiny footprints in the snow suggest she had gotten up and wandered around before she died, police said.

Unbelievable! I simply do not understand how someone could do something so terrible like this. There is a very special place in hell for this sort of person! Bless this poor child's heart! And the thought of her tiny little self getting up and wandering around in the snow obviously not knowing what was going on before she froze to death makes me see red! It makes me angry and it makes me want to cry! How heartbreaking! I just don't even know what else to say.

Rest in peace little Nyia.

Found via CNN News.

Posted by Dianne at 9:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Very Disappointed

I was extremely disappointed with Edwards' comments about Melissa and Amanda. Yes he didn't fire them, but it was if he was scolding three year olds instead of actually standing up the the right wing nutters. I've thought about it all afternoon, hoping that I would see some reason to his actions, but I must say I still am just simply disappointed.

I wanted a more forceful rebuttal to those who themselves truly spread hate. I wanted him to take a stand, not simply try to smooth out the waves. I wanted him to back them up and not give the right wing any credence, but sadly I think he has done just that. As I said before I'm just extremely disappointed.

You can read Edward's comments here. Melissa and Amanda both made statements as well.

I don't know where this leaves me right now in my support for Edwards. To be honest he's a bit tarnished in my eyes and sadly there isn't anyone in the current list of contenders that can step into that void.

Posted by Dianne at 9:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Fight Global Warming

Check out the Fight Global Warming page and be sure to check out their page Global Warming Myths and Facts page...It's especially enlightening!

Posted by Dianne at 7:37 PM

Another Natural Gardening Company

TreeHugger pointed out another natural gardening company today that I had not heard of before: The Natural Gardening Company. Check them out! It looks like they have some really neat stuff!

Posted by Dianne at 7:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Anna Nicole Smith Dead?

I saw a headline earlier that Anna Nicole Smith had collapsed in her hotel room. Now CNN has breaking news that she's dead! Oh my!

She was such a tragic sort of person. My heart goes out to her daughter and her family.

Posted by Dianne at 3:57 PM

Chris Bowers has spoken.

I've been spending all day working behind the scenes on this, and I will continue to do so this evening. With 100 comments in the first open thread about this subject, here is a new one.
I also wish to make something else clear. While there is no way I will support Edwards with Amanda and Melissa are fired, I will immediately become a staunch Edwards supporter if they are not fired. Consider the heinous reporting that is being done in this story, where bigot William Donahue is somehow an authority on what defines hate speech, it is clear that the Edwards campaign will take a lot of flack from outside the netroots if they do not fire Amanda and Melissa. Keeping them on would show a willingness to take risks and stand up to the media in a way that most Democrats just are not, all because the campaign will be doing so in order to defend the netroots.

If someone is willing to stand with us, that should mean something big, and should not go unrewarded.

I have to say I agree with Dianne and pretty much the rest of the Netroots on this one. This is the ultimate test for Edwards campaign, if he bows to radical extremists over this then he doesn't have what it takes to be President. I'm sure the establishment Democrats are screaming for him to throw these two great bloggers over the side of the ship so that they don't offend this group of crazies. This is their common triangulation mentality, if we are nice to the radical extremists they might vote for us. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, these people are driven by hate, fear, and greed. There is nothing the Democratic party has to offer them, I mean we got the money quote from them in the Texas elections last year "I wouldn't vote Democrat, even if Jesus Christ was running." Edwards wins a lot more points by standing up the extremists and sending a message to his base that he's not a coward that we bow to these out of touch fools anymore.

On an amusing side note, everyone seems to have forgotten Kerry was Catholic, these "anti-Catholic" bloggers campaigned for and voted for a Catholic, that's real commitment of their bigotry there. Melissa also went to Loyola University, obviously she's been avoiding Catholics for years now. The reality here this is the radical right first desperate volley in their cooridnated campaign for 2008. It's going to be a desperate spin of every word and idea into something it's not in hopes of a tricking the American people into voting for their radical buddies in the Republican party come next November. Don't fall for it people.

Read more over at MyDD and Shakespeare's Sister.

Posted by Jamison at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Daffodil Lane