Daffodil Lane: April 2007 Archives

« March 2007 | Main | May 2007 »

April 28, 2007

It's Amazing

I've been extremely busy the last week or so with school and work, so I've been behind on my Jon Stewart Daily Show episodes. Today while Alexis was napping I decided to watch a week and half worth of shows one right after the other. I'm baffled yet again that in pretending to be a reporter Jon Stewart regularly is a better reporter than the best the corporate media has to offer. Tragically the fourth estate has so abandoned its most basic responsibilities to be the caretakers of the people that we'd be better off having 50 Jon Stewarts working the news than nearly the entire MSM corps we have now. The vast majority of reporters literally have nothing of value to offer the American people. I've put Jon Stewart's interview with McCain below the fold if you're interested in seeing. Note how he starts out with the veiled threat about putting an IED under his desk. That's probably how wingnuts talk to reporters to keep them in line. You'll note that Jon is unimpressed with the threat.

Posted by Jamison at 5:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 27, 2007

Happy Arbor Day!

Today is Arbor Day! Get out and plant a tree!

Read more about Arbor Day and its history and significance here and here.

Happy Arbor Day everyone!

Posted by Dianne at 1:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Debate Thoughts

I TiVo'ed the debate so I could watch it when I got in. My gut reaction is that there were no winners on this one. Hillary did good, so she met expectations. Obama stumbled and fumbled around, also meeting expectations. Edwards flinched a little, but delivered a good performance. Richardson seemed seriously out of his element for some reason. If you've seen him in the past you would have been disappointed with his performance, but it was only slightly worse than Obama's. Biden and Dodd, well you can tell that they've been doing this for a long while, but they didn't really raise the bar. The only two that you were left with the idea that they had no place on the stage, let alone in the White House, was Kucinich and Gravel. Personally they had more of the hysterical disconnection from reality that's become the hallmark of Republican candidates and not Democratic ones.

Of course for the radical right the polling that Obama won the debate is gospel. It's not overly useful to know that the guy with the most support is in the lead debate polling in South Carolina. Obama didn't pull a W and do so badly that people decided to stop supporting him, but I could have told you that. It simply is not overly useful information, much like most Republican polling.

The interesting thing is who were the losers of the debate. Gravel, Clinton and Kucinich all three pulled double digit negatives from the South Carolina crowds. Interesting the person that the least number of people thought lost the debate was John Edwards. I can't shake the feeling that 9 months from now when it actually becomes time to vote that this race is going to come down to being a fight between Richardson and Edwards over substance, because Hillary and Obama are going to destroy each other in the campaign for style.

I'm sure the blogosphere will be filled with analysis today on it that will be much more in depth than my own.

Thought For The Day

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
- Albert Einstein

Posted by Dianne at 9:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 24, 2007

Cell Phone Buzz is Media Overhype

The Colony Collapse Disorder issue surrounding billions of bee deaths in the U.S. and around the world has reached epic proportions in the blogosphere. The most recent element of the unfolding drama has centred around a 'report' from Germany on the effects of cell phones on bee navigation.
I included this aspect in our recent Colony Collapse Disorder - a Moment for Reflection story, a post that has attracted a significant amount of attention. Given that the majority of blog readers also happen to be cell phone owners, people have tended to focus on this issue above all the other possibilities mentioned. Thus, a simple and inconclusive story from a few researchers in Germany has circumnavigated the globe in a blog-feeding frenzy that has blown the issue out of proportion compared to the more likely culprits: the lack of biological diversity inherent in modern human-managed environments, pesticide usage, and pollen and horizontal gene transfer from genetically modified crops.

The researchers themselves have been battling phone calls trying to put their study into context ever since the UK's Independent newspaper ran the story a few weeks ago

Muhahaha! Once again, my science brain defeats media hype! You will recall last week that I expressed a serious doubt about the notion that cell phones could be the cause of the CCD problem. This week the academics that did the original study jump in to say it was taken completely out of context. Critical thinking my friends is so important these days of instantaneous communications. Unfortunately it's become a lost art form in this country. Which given the Republican "reforms" to our education system shouldn't surprise anyone.

GM discontinues the parallel hybrid Silverado and Sierra trucks

A few years back General Motors silently introduced the PHT versions of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. The parallel hybrid trucks (PHT) had GM's first cut at a mild hybrid system. Unfortunately, they never provided much fuel economy benefit only giving about 2mpg more than a standard truck. Like the system used on the Saturn Vue and Aura, it can't move the vehicle on battery power alone.
The roughly 3,000 examples that were sold mostly went to fleet users such as contractors. The biggest draw of the motor/generator was actually the ability to use the system as a 2400W generator at any time. The trucks each had four 120V AC outlets which were handy for plugging in tools and other equipment. The electricity could be generated while the trucks were left idling, which obviously wouldn't seem to provide much environmental benefit unless compared to carrying around an extra generator which would likely be a lot noisier and dirtier than the truck engine.

Thank goodness it's gone!! Anytime a right winger wanted to talk about hybrids this was the go to hybrid of choice for them to complain about. The never ending snark was starting to get annoying. This was a crappy American mild hybrid, it's no comparison to a Prius or even a Honda Civic. It was merely a regular car with a built in generator and nothing else, stop pretending it was a significant contribution to the hybrid model. I'm glad to see organizations like Hybrid Watch not even listing these, as what can only be described as extremely mild hybrids, as hybrids at all. It's just an attempt by short sighted American producers to try to give themselves the air of technological innovation that they long since abandoned fifty years ago, all while trying to undermine real companies to help save America from the impending Oil Crisis. Ford is the only American automaker that even tried to build a Hybrid and they ended up just buying the first generation hybrid technology from Toyota so they could actually get it to work.

Toyota Quarterly Global Sales Surpass GM

You can file this one under things that make me smile folks. Now I don't know if GM will up production to try and pass Toyota before the year is out to hold onto the title, but a new age is approaching in the automotive industry and anything else for that matter. I can not say enough good things about Kaizen and the Toyota Production System to be honest. The amazing simplicity of the philosophy and the system are staggering. In Toyota's world the lowliest grunt can stop an entire production line if they find a problem. Their workers are encouraged to think outside the box and redesign the processes they know best at any time. Anything to make things better and the employees are a valuable part of the process.

Toyota owners came to America and saw the Big 3 in their hey day and were unimpressed. They set about to make something better and oh my did they ever! Toyota is now a leading innovator in automotive technology, always thinking ahead, always making measured steps toward the needs of the customer in the future. The hybrid is prefect example, Toyota sees it as an intermediate step on the way toward a fuel cell powered car. They just need to improve the electric motors and battery technologies along the way, while they work on the fuel cells technology. Everything is planned and choreographed like a Samurai practicing with a sword.

Of course we Americans tend to be the impatient types, being such a young and ambiguous sort of nation. For example most people don't realize that in Japan automakers sell hybrids in every class of vehicle they sell in the US, but only in Japan. They don't offer them here, because for the most part Americans haven't shown much interest in the technology until recently and they've been building the infrastructure to actually support wider and wider demand for their products. Right now the USC Hybrid Center is trying to push the Toyota Estima Hybrid onto the market in America (Here's the sign up if you're interested). I've talked about the Toyota Estima Hybrid before. You'll notice that they are using the new mileage numbers from the EPA instead of the old numbers that they were talking about in the original article. Oh how times have changed!

Some times I worry there isn't method to the movements of Toyota, but time again their genius has amazed and surprised me. I'm going to have faith in them that they are on the right path. More than I can say for the Big 3.

[via The Bonddad Blog]

Read more over at Yahoo Business and AutoblogGreen.

Posted by Jamison at 3:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I stand corrected!

A few years ago I took a serious look at the Social Security problem during the Republicans last grand stand to destroy it. I did the math and amputating the arm to get a splinter out of the finger just didn't make sense to me. I know crazy using that math thing, I should just have faith in the radical right to do it for me. Well two years have past and we get the report from the Social Security Administration saying:

Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years in various ways, including an immediate increase of 16 percent in payroll tax revenues or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two.

Atrios is nice enough to do the hard math for me.

Roughly, this would require increasing both the employee and employer share of the tax from 6.2% to 7.05%.

Which means my calculations for needing a 3.0% increase to cover the short fall was a bit aggressive. In my defense I was using Republican numbers to do the calculations with so it's likely they were falsified. So we can fix everything with a .85% increase. For some perspective for the average person making minimum wage of $5.15 that would represent a nickel more an hour paid to receive full benefits promised by the social security program. It will be six cents an hour when the minimum wage goes up to $7.25, which seems like a good time to include the bump up, when you're already giving everyone a raise at the same time. Just a suggestion. Actually the more important idea is to raise the limits on income covered by Social Security payments. It's really a regressive tax on the poor right now and that's just not right. The wealthy need to start paying their fair share of the burden to improve everyone's quality of life.

So ask yourself, do you really want to throw granny out in the street for a nickel?

Posted by Jamison at 6:28 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 22, 2007

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day!

Do your part today (and every day for that matter) to go green!

Change a lightbulb! (Go to your local Home Depot store today and get a free CFL bulb!)

Get rid of junk mail and save some trees! New York City plans to plant a million new trees by 2017!

Attend an Earth Day sermon!

Whatever you do, make a difference, not just today but everyday! Be kind to Mother Earth!

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Posted by Dianne at 10:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 19, 2007

Pop-Up Hotdog Cooker

Operating much like a pop-up toaster, this unique kitchen appliance lets you easily prepare two hot dogs (complete with toasted buns) in minutes. To use, simply drop two wieners in the center basket and the buns in the two toasting baskets on either side. Its 660-watt electronic heating coil has four controllable heat settings so that you can cook the wieners and toast both buns to your taste preference. Crumb basket removes for cleaning. Plugs into household outlet. 8-1/2" H x 10-1/2" W x 5-1/4" D.

Dianne was watching the Food Network today and there was an advertisement for a show called "Gotta Get It" and this wild device was on the screen. I'm not sure how it works, but it struck me as something that there needed to be commentary on. What do you think folks? Have you been thinking I'd like a toaster to make my hot dogs? And who toasts their hot dog buns?

Posted by Jamison at 4:29 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Duck to run against Bartlett again

The first step in the Democratic Party’s efforts to win Western Maryland’s 6th Congressional District after 15 years of Republican leadership is finding a viable candidate.
Andrew Duck of Brunswick, who lost to U.S. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R) in November, announced Monday that he will run again in next year’s election.

Duck’s announcement comes just days before the Western Maryland Democratic Summit, designed to strategize on ways to build the party in the 6th District, and win in 2008.

I think Duck will face a definite bigger challenge this time around. Looking at voter turnout in the MD-06 for the last 8 election cycles there are definitely Republican surges every Presidential election cycle that helps Bartlett get reelected, but Bartlett will be 82 by the next election cycle and one has to wonder how many more of these fights does he have left in him? This is also his first time in office where the House was not controlled by tyrannical Republican leadership and the feeling is that he might decide that he's had enough of the minority status and retire. Not to mention that the one area where he doesn't rubberstamp the radical Republican agenda is on the environment and we know how they work...You are either all in on their radical agenda or you're out. Gilchrest has a similar problem in the MD-01 and the Republicans hate him for standing for something other than their radical agenda, so both are relegated to being trivialized because of their political party. I think both will face major challenges from the extremists in their own party this election cycle, Gilchrest for his Iraq time line votes and Bartlett for his comments like "It's possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot." The radical extremists in the Republican party find such principled stands to be offensive and then of course there is the Republican in the MD-03, but we've already got plans to handle that problem since he's a Lieberman style DINO. So let's see what do we have now? Andrew Duck for the MD-06 (maybe the greens could set this one out and help out since there is no chance a Republican would support anything you believe in), Donna Edwards in the MD-03 and now we just need someone serious in the MD-01 to have the trifecta.

Hate Group Coming to Disrupt VA Tech Funerals

The families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre may not be able to grieve in peace at the funerals of those they lost. An anti-gay religious group known for protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq is planning on appearing at services for those killed on Monday as well.
The Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), which is not affiliated with any national Baptist organization, announced plans to protest at victims’ funerals only hours after 32 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. They also may protest at other events on the Virginia Tech campus.

The organization, founded and led by Fred Phelps, believes the United States has condemned itself to destruction by accepting homosexuality and other “sins of the flesh.” Phelps’ daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the Virginia Tech teachers and students who died on Monday brought their fate upon themselves by not being true Christians.

“The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants,” Phelps-Roper said. “You don’t need to look any further for evidence those people are in hell.”

These people are among the most vile and disgusting people on the planet. It's likely since the rise of the Patriot Guard Riders that they've suffered slim pickings to capitalize on the deaths of the innocent to push their radical agenda. The Patriot Guard Riders have extended their offer of protection to the ROTC students, but they feel their mandate doesn't cover all students that died in the tragedy. Given that they have to protect large number of soldier's funerals as well, you can see how their resources could be stretched thin.

[via Raising Kaine]

Virginia Tech Tragedy: The Lives Lost

People magazine has done a pretty extensive photo collection of the victims. It's a heart breaking journey, but it gives you a grasp of the damage that was done.

April 18, 2007

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

April 16, 2007, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Virginia Tech community and the world beyond.
To remember and honor the victims of those tragic events, the university has established the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to aid in the healing process and generate financial support.

The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:

* Grief counseling
* Memorials
* Communication expenses
* Comfort expenses
* Incidental needs

In the wake of this tragedy, we are confident that Hokie Spirit will only grow stronger and more resilient. We thank you for your continued support.

If you want to contribute click here and to find out more go here.

Posted by Dianne at 5:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Study: Ethanol May Cause More Smog, Deaths

WASHINGTON (AP) - Switching from gasoline to ethanol touted as a green alternative at the pump may create dirtier air, causing slightly more smog-related deaths, a new study says.
Nearly 200 more people would die yearly from respiratory problems if all vehicles in the United States ran on a mostly ethanol fuel blend by 2020, the research concludes. Of course, the study author acknowledges that such a quick and monumental shift to plant-based fuels is next to impossible.

Each year, about 4,700 people, according to the study's author, die from respiratory problems from ozone, the unseen component of smog along with small particles. Ethanol would raise ozone levels, particularly in certain regions of the country, including the Northeast and Los Angeles.

"It's not green in terms of air pollution," said study author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University civil and environmental engineering professor. "If you want to use ethanol, fine, but don't do it based on health grounds. It's no better than gasoline, apparently slightly worse."

One of our regular readers decided to poke me with this little gem. Of course my first reaction was to scream "We must abandon Ethanol, let's shovel more money into foreign oil providers to hold us hostage", but then good sense overtook me and I started to think. I took a couple of minutes and read over the entire study, which yielded a whole bunch of reasons to question the author's conclusions, but on the surface it makes perfect sense. Ethanol is an oxygenating additive to our fuel now, so since Ozone is made out of Oxygen, it would follow that it would create more of it in the combustion process, but a few things jump out at me immediately in his study.

First the vehicle test beds used in the study were all American except for a single Mercedes-Benz C which one could hardly classify as a "regular" foreign car model. Foreign car companies represent a lot more than 1/8 of the cars on the road, so saying Americans make crappy cars isn't exactly news, but to really know you'd have to see what the numbers were for the Japanese automakers cars with E85 (which I don't think any currently sell an American version of their E85 vehicles). The Japanese represent about 45% of the California car market and about 35% of the overall car market nationwide and yet not a single one of their models are represented in the study.

Secondly it appears that he assumes no rise in fuel economy of the cars on the road in 2020, which I don't think is a safe bet really and there is no acknowledgment of the effects of hybrids on the calculations. One would have to assume that hybrids would also be converted to run on E85 and that they will continue to rise in percentage of car sales going forward for at least the Japanese automakers. That improvement in fuel economy would mean less E85 being burned and less Ozone released and I'm not even going to go into the rise of PHEV's either.

Thirdly the entire compression ratio discussion I had last weekend on the blog. These are all cars in the study that are made to run on gasoline, so there is a lot of incomplete combustion going on when they are running E85. The logical answer will be to move to E100 with higher compression ratios, E85 is just the upper limit that can be supported by a motor built for running regular gasoline. He may be absolutely right that E85 would be a bad choice. Also the creation of VCR (variable compression ratio) engines like the one at SAE last week would likely change the formulas for the output of waste products.

The reality is that if we were trying to introduce gasoline to the world right now there is no way we could convince the public to do it because it's poisonous and dangerous. Everything that we have to replace it with will be slightly better on both fronts. There are always things to worry about with new technologies, but we've got to start making forward progress because we know the path we are on now leads to our doom. I think we can take a look at these numbers after we get some realistic ones and decide if we need to improve the catalytic converters or CAFE standards to off set the side effects of the move to Ethanol.

April 17, 2007

It's hard to change gears

I've been going through my day in zombie mode. I didn't sleep well last night. It will probably take a couple of days for the horror of yesterday's events to settle out. I'm not in the mood for politics right now and everything else seems trivial and unimportant in comparison. I guess I should announce that it's tax day, it's time to pay your due to Uncle Sam. So don't forget that, but other than that, I hope today finds you happy and healthy. Keep the faith kids.

Posted by Jamison at 4:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 16, 2007

John Edwards Statement

"We are simply heartbroken by the deaths and injuries suffered at Virginia Tech. We know what an unspeakable, life-changing moment this is for these families and how, in this moment, it is hard to feel anything but overwhelming grief, much less the love and support around you. But the love and support is there. We pray that these families, these students, and the entire Virginia Tech community know that they are being embraced by a nation. There is a Methodist hymn that gave us solace in such a moment as this, and we repeat its final verse here, in hopes it will help these families, as it helped us:
'In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.'

Our dearest wish is that this day could start again, with the promise of these young people alive. Knowing that cannot be, our prayer is for God's grace and whatever measure of peace can be reached on this terrible day."

Very well said Mr. Edwards.

Via CNN.

Posted by Dianne at 5:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Possibly 30

BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, in a classroom across campus Monday, killing at least 30 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, government officials told The Associated Press. The gunman was killed, bringing the death toll to 31.

Dear God! This is simply heart breaking! Keep the families, the students, the faculty, the campus itself in your thoughts and prayers. As this unfolds it just gets uglier and uglier and I can't even begin to imagine how the pieces will be picked up and put back together. They will need as much love and support as possible.

Found via Yahoo! News.

Posted by Dianne at 2:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

At least 20 dead in campus shootings

CNN) -- The Virginia Tech police chief said at least 20 people were killed in twin shootings on the Blacksburg campus Monday morning.
"Some victims were shot in a classroom," Chief Wendell Flinchum said, adding that the gunman was dead.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university President Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The attacks mark the worst school shooting incident since 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

A hospital spokeswoman told The Associated Press that 17 Virginia Tech students were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries.

Sharon Honaker at the Carilion New River Valley Medical Center told CNN that four patients had been transported there, one in critical condition.

One person was killed and others were wounded at multiple locations inside a dormitory about 7:15 a.m., Flinchum said. Two hours later, another shooting at Norris Hall, the engineering science and mechanics building, resulted in multiple casualties, the university reported.

The first reported shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory that houses 895 students. The dormitory, one of the largest residence halls on the 2,600-acre campus, is located near the drill field and stadium.

Amie Steele, editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, said one of her reporters at the dormitory reported "mass chaos."

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost family and loved ones.

Found via CNN.

Posted by Dianne at 1:04 PM

Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.
They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees'
navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

It's an interesting theory, but it doesn't hold up to the common sense test. One has to believe that bee keepers that transport their bees across the country would have been early adopters of cell phone technology, meaning that the bees would have been exposed the cell signals for years in advance without showing any of the symptoms listed. So why is it just now is it having an effect? Bees have very short lifespans so it's not like they could build up a problem like a human. Now if you told me that there was a new standard that started to be implemented last year in cell towers all across the country and that it worked on a previously untapped frequency, then I'd be on board with this theory.

The other problem with this is that it's happening in bee hives that don't move across the countryside. And more importantly why don't the scavenger animals enter the hive after it's been abandoned? Are they being effected as well? Seems like a massive chain depending on a lot of things to happen in just the right order. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when did GSM start being supported in the United States? I mean I could buy that argument, that the cell towers are slowly being upgraded to support the new standard and it's now reached a critical mass to start causing problems in the countryside, because who would notice it in a city? There aren't that many bee hives. So I think we need to keep looking for a theory that works to explain every aspect of the problem. The Einstein quote is terrifyingly true, so we need to start working faster to find the problem.

April 14, 2007

Ethanol and Compression ratios

If you listen to members of the radical right in this country, Ethanol is the greatest scam ever conceived of by ecologists. I often find this line of reasoning weaker than their standard mindless drivel. Their arguments are based on data from the late 70's to come to the conclusion that there are more BTU's going into the production of corn than we are getting out in BTU's of Ethanol. Once again it's what happens when you put your ideology before your science, you go off making erroneous statements like that one. The reality is that there is an issue that should be looked at which is the fact that per gallon we are packing a third less BTU's into Ethanol. So we'd have to make a third more fuel available to make Ethanol a replacement for gasoline, which could pose a challenge, but just because it represents a challenge doesn't mean it's time to pack up and bury our heads in the sands like our radical right wing friends would have us to believe.

This is where the topic of compression ratios comes up. Here's the text book sort of Compression ration definition.

It is the ratio between the volume of the combustion chamber, when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke, and the volume when the piston is at the top of its stroke.

In a gasoline engine the compression ratio has to be around 10 to 1. Any higher than that and the fuel being sprayed into the combustion chamber starts to explode prematurely and causes a knocking sound to start. Which brings us back to Ethanol...The optimal compression ratio for it is at 15 to 1, hence the problem. We are running Ethanol in a motor optimized for gasoline leading to unoptimized Ethanol energy output. In engines designed to run for Ethanol, the higher octane of Ethanol offsets the lower amount of BTU's and you end up with the same fuel economy per gallon. Plus all the advantages of the much greater environmental and energy returns from Ethanol, unfortunately an engine optimized to run on Ethanol, no longer will run on regular gasoline properly.

Now there are experiments running that will allow the creation of dynamic compression ratios for motors allowing them to switch to optimize whatever kind of fuel ratios that they have to deal with, so when you were running with Ethanol you get maximum performance or if you are running with gasoline it runs at a lower compression ratio to give it maximum performance. These kinds of motors are also referred to as VCR (variable compression ratio) engines. There is also a movement to use the high vaporization energy level of Ethanol to act as a coolant for regular gasoline engines to allow them to function at higher compression ratios during high performance maneuvers, which is interesting I guess, but I'm not sure why you just don't go all Ethanol in the first place. I'm thinking that's likely built on the assumption of a scarcity of Ethanol, which is only a current situation and not a longer term prospect.

Ultimately corn based Ethanol is merely a stepping stone on the way towards a cellulose Ethanol fuel system. People have been raising concerns about the fact that we just can't grow enough corn to supply our fuel, which is a true statement, but remember the same facilities that can make corn based Ethanol can make cellulose based Ethanol as well. What we are doing right now is building the infrastructure of Ethanol for ourselves. We are changing the American mindset and the easiest thing to do right now is to use corn until we perfect the cellulose technologies that will replace it in likely a few short years.

The problem is that we can't keep waiting for the change to happen. We've got to start taking the leap and quick. America is in the mess that we are in now, because we've been tricked by big oil and the automakers that fuel cells are going to be just around the corner for 30 years, so nothing at all should change. The short answer is that time is up and it's time for action instead of excuses. We can combine Ethanol and plug-in hybrid technologies together, and provide America with energy independence in next decade before we even will see the first affordable fuel cell car on the market and even better Ethanol is a great source of hydrogen so we can just covert it on board to run the fuel cells anyway. So the future is here now, it's time to act, it's time for both sides of the ecological debate to stop whining about the solution and start helping us build the fuel economy of the future.

Posted by Jamison at 9:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CFL's and mercury

One area of concern for some environmentalists has been the amount of mercury in CFL's. If one of the light bulbs is improperly disposed of by a consumer we run the risk of putting a heavy metal like mercury into the environment. Today I was reading over the subject in one of Dianne's environmental magazines called Mother Earth News.

Most experts say not to worry about the health effects of exposure to the mercury in a compact fluorescent, even if the bulb breaks. As a frame of reference, one CFL contains 4 milligrams of mercury, just a fraction of the 500 milligrams found in old mercury thermometers, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In fact, using compact fluorescents actually reduces mercury pollution, because the main source of mercury pollution is coal-burning power plants — the most common source of electricity in the United States. According to the EPA, the power used during the life of an incandescent bulb breaks down to about 10 milligrams of mercury pollution, compared to only 2.4 milligrams to operate a CFL for the same length of time.

“Consumers should know that the mercury in CFLs is not going to be detrimental to them in their home,” Reed says. “But it’s important to responsibly dispose of them, as you would any product that contains mercury — batteries, old thermometers and thermostats.”

So the good news is that you're still better off on the mercury front if you use CFL's than if you don't. I know what you're thinking that one of the largest sources of mercury containments in our environment, (roughly 41% or so), comes from coal fired power plants that also represent more than half of the power in this country. Also the current administration is trying desperately to increase those contributions to the environment, so you have to take into account that unless some serious regulations are enacted this number could grow massively over the next couple of years.

Now the adverse effects of mercury are pretty well known at this point, the NRDC has a decent article on the subject.

Once in the human body, mercury acts as a neurotoxin, interfering with the brain and nervous system.
Exposure to mercury can be particularly hazardous for pregnant women and small children. During the first several years of life, a child's brain is still developing and rapidly absorbing nutrients. Prenatal and infant mercury exposure can cause mental retardation, cerebral palsy, deafness and blindness. Even in low doses, mercury may affect a child's development, delaying walking and talking, shortening attention span and causing learning disabilities.

In adults, mercury poisoning can adversely affect fertility and blood pressure regulation and can cause memory loss, tremors, vision loss and numbness of the fingers and toes. A growing body of evidence suggests that exposure to mercury may also lead to heart disease.

Pretty scary stuff when you think of how much of it is being pumped into our atmosphere without concern or reservation by the power industry. So the key here is to make sure that you deal with the CFL's in the proper way. NEMA gives some instructions on how to clean up a broken CFL to make sure you don't contaminate your home. The NEMA folks also have a breakdown of mercury amounts in the average home. The reality being that an old style thermometer has 122 times the amount of mercury in them and how many people have dropped those on the floors in their homes without thinking about it. We had even more than that in our old thermostat that we replaced with the electronic one in our house according to the NEMA. Everyone recommends that you check out Earth911.org to find out the recycling programs in your area.

So what's the summation on this one. Get your light bulbs switched over now, because it's good for the country and good for your bottom line.

Read more over at 18seconds.org and Reduce your carbon.

Posted by Jamison at 5:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This is so wrong!

Hello Buddy, I hope my email meets you well. My name is sgt James Clayton jr. I am in the Engineering military unit here in Baghdad in Iraq, with Esophageal cancer which has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few weeks/month to live, according to medical experts. My late 2 collegues who died last week in a bomb blast and I found a huge sum of $25 Million USD (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm) that we have sucessfully moved out of the country to spain via a diplomatic courier service. I am contacting you because i want you to help with claiming of this merchandise and help me distribute them to charity organizations and homeless people. I feel distributing the funds would be a way to appease the LORD and also want God to be merciful to me and my late friends and also accept our souls ,because we have killed so many in the war, but we where only serving our country. I have decided to give this sum 0f $25 Million USD to charity organizations, as I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth. I will want you to help me collect this consignment and dispatched it to charity organizations like i have said earlier.I have set aside 30% for you and your time. The most important thing is that can I TRUST you Once the funds get to you?, and also would you distribute the rest 50% to charity organizations?. Your own part of this deal is to contact the DIPLOMATIC COURIER SERVICE on how the consignment can be released and sent down to your home addresse and also find a safe place where the funds can be kept. If you are interested I will furnish you with more details. But the whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile at all times because if the authoritizes are aware of this funds,it would be seized and used for purchasing ammunations and irrelevant accessories,whereby we have so many sick,homeless kids dying with hunger.. I am awaiting your urgent response on my private email,
sgtjamesclayton@hotmail.com,

IN GOD WE TRUST!!!!

Regards.

SGT .JAMES CLAYTON

This is the first time I've noticed this variant of the Advance fee fraud. This one is more insidious because it attempts to draw upon America's patriotism to trick them. I went ahead and reported it to the FTC and the Treasury Department. This kind of stuff makes me sick, it's hard to believe that Americans fall for this over and over again. You can't get something for nothing, the world just doesn't work that way.

Sorry everyone

I've been extremely busy. Unfortunately between school, work and politics, oh yeah and family I've been running around in circles. It's the end of the fourth quarter at work, so it's the season of reorganization and new initiatives for the new year. For school we had an extra class thrown in to teach me how to write and research. Yes the irony is not lost on me. It's mind numbingly boring and massive amounts of busy work, plus my regular classes which are coming to a close require me to write up larger and larger papers. Politics is all about the Jefferson Jackson dinner. And then I have to find some quality time with the family. Eating and sleeping also has to fit somewhere in all that as well. I've got a window right now to blog, so I'm going to see how many things I can get through before Dianne wakes up and we have to start working on the list of things to do today.

Posted by Jamison at 8:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 13, 2007

Time is running out to get your tickets

If you are interested in attending let me know and I'll get you some tickets. Time is running out to get your tickets, so you need to act quickly.

Posted by Jamison at 9:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2007

Charlotte's Web

Alexis loves this new version. If you can watch Charlotte's Web and not at least tear up when Charlotte and Wilbur say goodbye as Charlotte is dying then I'm convinced you must be without a heart! ;o) If you haven't seen it yet, check it out...It's adorable!

Posted by Dianne at 4:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 10, 2007

Mad TV - $40 a day Rachael Ray

Now that's funny! ;o)

Posted by Dianne at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 9, 2007

The Daily Compost

I just discovered that My Organic Market has a blog entitled The Daily Compost. Add it to your RSS readers now! ;o)

Posted by Dianne at 2:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 8, 2007

Amazon's Unbox??

I sat down at Dianne's computer yesterday for some reason that I can not recall and she had Trent's Pink is the New Blog up on the screen. I forget what gossip was on the screen, but there was an Amazon advertisement about renting movies for the TiVo. Now one thing I'm always interested in is new ways to utilize my TiVo. I guess I should have started with the TiVo version of the Unbox icon.

Now I'm excited to finally have a feature that I've thought I should have had from the start, but I wanted it to be from NetFlix and not from Amazon. In fact it's been two years since they said they were about to release the NetFlix download option. If TiVo had to pick a partner Amazon is definitely the better choice, because of pure financial power and given that they are trapped between a rock and hard place, it's really the only way to save their business.

I guess I should have started with an overview of the service. Basically you have two choices, you can rent a movie for 2 to 3 bucks and download it to your TiVo or your computer to watch with their proprietary viewing software. You have 30 days to watch the movie or 24 hours after you start watching the movie before it is deleted or you can choose to delete it yourself. The other option is to buy a movie and download it to your TiVo or your computer. The good thing about this choice is that Amazon keeps up with the fact that you own it so you can delete it whenever you need the space and download it to watch again whenever you have the urge. The bad part about this option is that they charge you about 15 dollars a movie. Given that they have very little of the overhead of a DVD you purchase at the store, it's hard to imagine paying this much for a movie, but I guess if you never had to worry about the DVD again and it guaranteed that you would have the HD version later on without any additional cost, I could see it, but there is no indication that is what you're getting for that extravagant price. It also has a feature where you go onto Amazon's website, do a one click purchase which will send it automatically either to your computer or your TiVo, even if that's not the computer you're on, which I don't know how that would work for your computer, but I can already do that with shows scheduled remotely to my TiVo.

So now as you've probably already figured out I'm divided on the service. The video rental fees are way too high for my taste. I'm used to getting two or three times as many movies for the price they want to charge me. Secondly the restrictions on the amount of time you can keep a movie are way too draconian. Alexis sometimes watches a rented kids movie several times before we send it back. So needless to say I'm completely unimpressed with their offering on the rental side. In fact I think they need to take that aspect back to the drawing board. If you are a Blockbuster customer unaware of the Internet, well let's be honest, you probably wouldn't use this service, but if for some reason you were slightly web savvy you would already be a better plan and a three dollar rental fee with so many restrictions would look like the joke that it is.

On the movie purchasing front the price is just too high, but I can see more of the merits of the system there. There are several movies that we've had to rebuy because Alexis tends to be rough on them if by chance she gets a hold of them, so the merits of actually having a virtual copy that I can download is extremely appealing. The problem I have to worry about is the bandwidth required. We all know the listed speeds of Internet connectivity are not real world values...They are dream values for a network that lives in a single room. In the real world those numbers are never even approximated by a computer network. So that doubles all the download times listed and then we don't know how popular this service will be in the future, so there might be server side restrictions that slow you down even more. They also mentioned in the FAQ that you can't start watching a show downloaded to the TiVo until it's completely downloaded, which is not my experience with TiVo, but assuming that's true it would be an extremely long wait for say a Blue's Clues episode for an unhappy child. Currently it takes 2 minutes for every 1 minute of a programs listed length to transfer a show with my current network. So a two hour movie would take four hours to transfer on my internal network. Of course my TiVo's are all using class B WiFi because the class G WiFi was not yet supported when I bought the boxes. Now they will sell me the WiFi-G for my TiVo and if I were to try this service I would almost think I would need it.

So where does that leave me? Well Amazon is offering $15 dollar gift certificate for people that sign up their TiVo (class 2 or 3, this is all restricted to them and no DirectTV either) before April 30th. I may give it a try, just to see how long the download times are for comparison purposes. Anyone out in world given this a try yet?

Read more over at Amazon Unbox FAQ's, Amazon Unbox on TiVo and TiVo Product Overview.

Posted by Jamison at 4:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Futurama Farming in New York

The pictured above is a design by Gordon Graff. This wasn't the building pictured in the Treehugger article, but I found it a lot more interesting because of the scale.

OK, here's the basics for the topic...By 2050 some 80% of the worlds population will be living in cities. Given the growth of urban sprawl, probably not such an overly wild estimation. The worlds available farmland is already being stretched to fill all the needs we have and the transportation of our food over long distances will be making the costs too high to bear. So the solution becomes to build vertical farms in the cities to feed the masses. One of these buildings would allegedly be able to feed 35,000 locals while only taking up 3.3 acres of land in an city. What is wild is that you'd think the power and water requirements for something like this would sink the idea before it got out of the gate, but it turns out that cities solve the water problems themselves, because it turns out that the sewage treatment plants are dumping millions of gallons of treated gray water in to the rivers that could be used by these vertical farms to grow plants. The nutrients in that water while deadly in our rivers and streams due to nutrients in the water that are ever so yummy to the plants, but pollutants in the water system. So you end up cleaning up your rivers and growing the food you need locally at the same time.

The power generation aspect was the next concern for me. Even with a building this large, there isn't a way to get enough sunlight that you'd need for every plant on every floor given the area that you are covering, which means it would require artificial lighting to supplement. They attack that problem in two major ways. First skyscrapers have the advantage of getting access to different wind speeds at higher altitudes than your regular windmill would be able to reach. The second is actually an area that keeps coming up again and again in the solutions to our nation's energy problems, it's the use of bio-methane to generate electricity. The leftover plant materials are sent to a methane digester to be processed into bio-methane, which is then used to generate electricity. On the surface it doesn't seem like it would mean very much, but all the nutrients that are being turned into a plant with a fruit that we eat, the rest of the plant is usually just thrown away because composting is often not utilized. By using a methane digester we get a portion of that energy back to supplement the power used to generate it. Since the nutrients were essentially free to grow the plants in and some portion of their growth is coming from free solar and wind power, we end up with more energy out than what we had to artificially put in, which means that not only can these facilities provide food, but also power to the masses.

Also the inclusion of Tilapia and Chickens in these faculties help round out the diets of the city dwellers. Given the complexity of a system like this you can see why these kinds of structures haven't been built yet. There is nothing here we can't do, there is no technical barrier to making it work, it's just on a scale that we don't have the ability to comprehend as of yet. Throw in some geothermal temperature control and I think they could start this project tomorrow.

Ironically I guess, by the time that people realize that they would need this, it would be impossible to build them. The calculation of how many a place like New York City would need is 180 of these buildings to feed its population. It would be nice if they could just build one of them to work out all the kinks in the system first, and the boys from NASA could spend a little time working with them for their deep space travel projects. Actually some of the plants they are talking about growing come straight out of NASA Moon and Mars base plans.

It's definitely a project worth the effort just to see if it can be done. 23 million a year doesn't seem like much profit for a building in New York, but in a few years of climate instability they might actually pay for themselves in keeping New Yorkers alive during the hard times.

Posted by Jamison at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Happy Easter!

Posted by Dianne at 8:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 7, 2007

Baghdad in the Midwest cornfields

What an outing to a market in Indiana would look like if a congressman's observations were correct.
By John Kenney, JOHN KENNEY is a writer in Brooklyn, N.Y.
April 7, 2007

MY WIFE came into the living room wearing a Kevlar vest, helmet and night-vision goggles.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Have you completely forgotten, silly head? We're going to the market."

I placed my hand at my head. I'd been so caught up in stitching a minor wound I'd received earlier in the day after going to an outdoor fruit stand that I had completely forgotten.

I have to say I had to laugh for a while after reading this one. Sometimes people's ideology gets a head of their ability to grasp reality. That is what has happened to a lot of the Republicans visiting Iraq. They are so desperate to prop up the Bush regime that they will tell any lie, no matter how big and easily disprovable to support what we all know to be false, but this is the world that the GOP imagines America to be. I know I went shopping in Indiana myself on occasion, I think a cashier may have miscounted some of my change once, then again that may have been Kentucky, but in my entire life I can't remember having to deal with snipers, bombings, or anything else that is a part of the daily lives of Iraqis right now. You'd have to be a cold, ruthless, calculating individual to even dare to make the comparison and yet every GOP'er seems determined to trivialize the Iraqis suffering because of their colossal incompetence. It's utterly disgraceful.

Finish reading the story at LA Times.

Posted by Jamison at 10:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 6, 2007

Edwards Not Participating In Fox/CBC Debate

"We just called the CBC to let them know that we're looking forward to their January debate with CNN but we're not going to participate in the proposed debate with Fox. The CBC champions critical issues that matter enormously to the future of our country, and we look forward to discussing them throughout this campaign and at their debate in January. But we believe there's just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending they're objective. If there was any uncertainty as to Fox's objectivity, it was put to rest when they attacked Democratic candidates, Democratic constituency groups, and the Nevada Democratic party when their last proposed debate was cancelled for lack of support."

Once again Americans, and more specifically Democrats, are left to wonder if Hillary and Obama are going to do the right thing and join Edwards in making a principled stand against the right wing propaganda outlet that is Fox News. Given Hillary's close personal relationship with Murdock, and Obama's unwillingness to take a stand on anything, I have a feeling it will be a long wait. I guess they'll have to depend on Dean to bail them out on this. Also being a natural leader, unlike the DLC sellouts, he stated that there will be no Democratic Debates sanctioned by the DNC that will appear on the Faux News. I think it's time to use one of Al Gore's favorite quotes.

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences." - Winston Churchill

Hillary and Obama should take note of the lessons taught to the GOP last election cycle. In the end money doesn't win elections and rabid followers don't win elections. Elections are won by the people who stand up and offer a vision of the future that the American people want to be given. Democrats can't take half-measures, they have to be leaders. If the American people wanted fools and cowards they'd just elect more Republicans. Dean gets it. Edwards gets it. The question becomes how long will it take for the rest of the party to catch on and catch up? How patient will the Democratic party be with people that claim the represent us that don't get where we are as a people right now?

Read more over at Daily Kos, MyDD, TPM Cafe, America Blog and Politico.

Posted by Jamison at 9:41 PM

April 5, 2007

A sucky fortune today

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

And by sucky, I mean annoyingly accurate and contrary to my current view of the world. Unfortunately those blessed with the latter (brains) often lack the former (patience). And I happen to be one of those people. Some days the universe just wants to poke you in the eye for fun.

Posted by Jamison at 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mary Chapin Carpenter's New Album

The album is awesome! Particularly check out "On With The Song" (and note that if you're a right winger you won't like it, but what else is new?), though the whole thing is worth a listen! Thanks to Jamison for leading me to the album!

Posted by Dianne at 3:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Vanity Fair's 2nd Annual Green Edition

Supposedly on newstands now, though Jamison looked and can't find it yet:

Click on the picture above to find out more!

Posted by Dianne at 1:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Reason I HATE Spring!

I'm not a big fan of spring. I know, I know, you would think with all the planning and planting in the garden (which I DO love) that Spring would be my favorite season, but it is decidedly not. My favorite seasons in order of adoration are Winter, Fall, Spring and then Summer. I like the cold weather. It's easy to add layers if you're cold, if you're hot you just suffer, because really society isn't going to let you run around sans clothing! In my eyes the only redeeming thing about Summer is that you can walk out in the back yard and get fresh veggies out of the garden. That's a good thing at least.

Anyway I digress, back to why I hate spring. My problem with spring is this...One day it's 80 degrees and the next it's SNOWING! As I type this it's snowing outside my window. Monday was shorts weather and now you need a parka! Annoying to say the least! It's not supposed to stick or anything, but it's really weird to look out and see blooming things and snow flying around. We may get some snow on Friday night/Saturday as well.

So to Spring I say either stay or go! This yo-you back and forth is annoying!

Posted by Dianne at 9:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 4, 2007

Blast From The Past

The other day when Alexis and I went to Michael's I saw pot holder looms and decided to get a couple and teach Alexis how to make one. She's not ready yet it turns out, but that's ok. I made a couple and what a blast from the past!

Posted by Dianne at 8:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Orchid Shoot

One of my orchids has finally decided to do something orchidy (yeah, I just made that word up! ;o)) and put on a flower shoot! I can't remember what color this bloom is, but we'll find out in a month or so!

Posted by Dianne at 8:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

As Usual, Wingers Blame the Victim

Once again, it's me and Ralph Peters on the same wavelength, deploring the cowardice of the British sailors and marines kidnapped by Iran. When it happened, I said I hoped the ones who'd shamed their country would be court-martialed on return to Blighty, and given dishonorable discharges after a couple years breaking rocks in the Outer Hebrides (which, believe me—I've been there—have a LOT of rocks). Now, I confess, I wouldn't shed a tear if some worse fate befell them.

People ask me from time to time why I have such disdain for the radical right and it's comments like this one that really sum up the Republican mindset for me. Personally it never crossed my mind to blame the victim, but I'm not a Republican so I usually don't think that way, but time again, no matter the disaster or event, the radical right jumps in to blame the victim. Has the statement "There but for the grace of God go I" ever registered with these people? If your fellow human being is in need of a helping hand, if you can you extend it, the hows and whys of their situation aren't really supposed to be your concern. I know the crazy concept of human decency is never going to catch on within the radical right, but I do have hope that America will remember that we use to be a land of decent people who worked together to help ourselves and the rest of the world to be a better place. The Republicans may have forgotten about that, but the rest of us want to get back to that way of living.

Pelosi diplomacy?

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Wednesday freed the 15 detained British sailors and marines in what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an Easter gift to the British people. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he bore "no ill will" toward the Iranian people.
Iranian state television said the 14 men and one woman, who were seized while on patrol in the northern Persian gulf on March 23, would leave Iran on Thursday. An Iranian official in London said they would be handed over to British diplomats in Tehran.

The people making this happen behind the scenes were the Syrians. Guess who is defying the Bush Administration and visiting the Syrians? Nancy Pelosi. Hmmmm...I wonder if the two things are related to one another? Couldn't be, because all the radical right's saber rattling has been so effective....I'm sure it's worked once somewhere right? Sure makes you wonder if while the Republicans are trying to cause global conflicts for their corporate puppet masters if America might not be better off with some real leadership? And maybe respecting other people's culture instead of attacking it, might just yield positive results from time to time? One just has to wonder.

Read more over at Think Progress, Sky News and The Huffington Post.

Posted by Jamison at 1:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

GA-10: Dems Rally Around Marlow

I hadn't checked up on this race lately because of all the other things going on in the world. As most of you know the GA-10 is where I have family, so it's of particular interest to me. I was hoping that the Democrats would find a great candidate for the area given the utter lack of representation my family gets now, due to the utter rubber stamp nature of the Republicans in Georgia and North Georgia Republicans are particularly vile in their radical extremism.

That being said Marlow is way too conservative for my tastes, but hey that's why I don't live in Georgia anymore. The race has gone completely crazy, six Republicans, six Democrats, and one Libertarian already in, while more are on the way. What I found really interesting given that kind of environment was the support this first time candidate like Marlow has gotten from the Democratic establishment.

Marlow obtained the backing of 13 Democratic county chairmen at a meeting held March 31 in the 10th District city of Clarksville, according to Marlow spokesman Emil Runge.
Although this is the candidate's first foray into politics, his name is not unknown in local Democratic circles. His father, Buddy Marlow, served as mayor of Lincolnton. The campaign staff Marlow has assembled, including Jeff DiSantis, former executive director of the state Democratic Party, and Runge, former state Democratic Party communications director, likely will bolster his rookie political effort.

That's pretty impressive to say the least. I guess they've sort of gotten tired to losing, which is a good sign. You can't start winning until you realize that what you've been doing isn't working.

Anyway, it should be interesting. The wait of course is because the Republicans are trying to maintain control of their radical agenda in Atlanta and they can't afford to lose the extremists from the GA-10 area in the state government that want to take their extremism to Washington. So they are stalling the election to finish the state legislative session so that way when they are forced to resign their state posts to run for a federal one their agenda isn't lost. It's a tangled web in Georgia politics on the best days.

Marlow is an ex-tech guy, which moves him up massively on my scale. I was disappointed that his website didn't use ActBlue for fund raising. That tells me that he's got the knowledge of the technology, but not the politics of the technology yet, which can be remedied pretty easily I think. Other than a great website, which is what I've come to expect from NGP, I hate the fact that they leave the site to process your information and that they don't use secured links when collecting campaign information. It makes me nervous, but I could write a book on the things about the NGP system that bother me. They help Democrats set up quick websites, so I'll forgive them for most of their transgressions. Obama and Hillary use them, but I can't help but wonder if there isn't a better way. (I've thought of one, as you've already guessed.)

I checked out ActBlue's site and they don't have the special election set up for some reason, so I poked them on that subject because in a few months the Netroots are going to get interested in this race and we need our tools working.

Posted by Jamison at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) |