How to Do an Energy Policy

Just finished reading a column by Thomas Friedman on his visit to Copenhagen. Seems the Danes took the 1977 oil embargo to heart and raised energy taxes to encourage development of energy efficient technologies.

Result: Denmark is completely independent of OPEC oil imports.

Read the whole Friedman piece: Op-Ed Columnist - Flush With Energy - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Spotted on EcoWorldly

First Served

We are seeing lots of articles about Ethanol and Bio-diesel as sources of competition for oil-based products. We are all lusting for the day when we can but sub $3 E85 into our cars and trucks and thumb our noses at the "other" fuel. It occurs to me that the bio-fuels industry would be best served if it "ate its own dog food." I don't want to see ethanol or bio-diesel delivered in trucks powered by petroleum products. I want the bio-fuels industry to run as much of their infrastructure on bio-fuels as possible.

Same goes for farmers. Every farmer in America should have easy access to as much bio-diesel and ethanol fuels as they can use to run their day-to-day operations. Every farm town in America should have its own bio-diesel plant to keep the local farmers supplied. If there's enough demand put an ethanol plant there, too. Give the folks that produce the feedstocks for food, feed and fuel access to low cost fuels and we all win.

The bio-fuels industry will be seen as a more serious competitor to oil-based fuels when a significant portion of their production and delivery is "bio-powered."

Cloud Computing... Is Here

If you don't think Cloud Computing is here watch this and then read this and this.

Wild West Weather

Here's a weather alert from the Reno, NV's National Weather Service Office:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE SIERRA PASSES. ATTEMPTING TO TRAVEL IN THE SIERRA WILL PUT YOUR LIFE AT RISK! VERY HIGH SNOWFALL RATES WILL MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ROAD CREWS AND EMERGENCY PERSONNEL TO KEEP ROADS PASSABLE AND TO ASSIST STRANDED VEHICLES. IF YOU DO ATTEMPT TRAVEL IN THE SIERRA YOUR CHANCES OF BEING STRANDED FOR MORE THAN A FEW HOURS IS VERY HIGH. REMAIN INDOORS DURING THIS BLIZZARD...EVEN A SHORT WALK OUTDOORS COULD BE DEADLY AS YOU WILL BECOME DISORIENTED IN THE WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. EXTREMELY HEAVY SNOW WILL OCCUR THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING WITH SNOWFALL RATES OF UP TO 6 INCHES PER HOUR. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING WILL BE 3 TO 5 FEET ABOVE 7000 FEET WITH HIGHER AMOUNTS ALONG THE SIERRA CREST...AND 1 TO 3 FEET BELOW 7000 FEET...INCLUDING THE LAKE TAHOE BASIN. STRONG WINDS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT...WITH THE MOST DANGEROUS WINDS FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING. WIND GUSTS UP TO 70 MPH WILL BE COMMON WITH GUSTS NEAR 145 MPH OVER THE SIERRA RIDGES.

Via Belski's Blog

Keith Olbermann Buries Rudy Giuliani With Truth

Keith Olbermann is the new Edward R. Murrow.

Madison on War

Of all the enemies to the public liberty war is, perhaps, the most me be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debt, and taxes are known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
~ James Madison 1795-04-20

Democracy....

... is the best revenge - Benazir Bhutto

For the Space Geek

NASA's Planet Quest web site has a Widget for your Yahoo Widget desktop to keep count to the extrasolar planet discoveries.

Its on my desktop. Is it on yours?

Creationist Periodic Table of the Elements

Project Steve

(Project Steve): "Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to "intelligent design," to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation's public schools."

How Many of Me

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 87 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Crush

Heard on Adam Curry's Daily Source Code... Kinda reminds me of Captain Beyond.

Old Media Company Steps Up

News.com is reporting that Sony BMG is asking muscicans to blog about their demos rather than sending in hard copy. Sounds like the fore shocks of a media company trying to re-invent itself.

Hope it works out for them. Might be a way to avoid extinction.... Nah... Not Sony.

Technorati Tags: Sony BMG, blogs, demos, extinction

XML and Twitter and Weather, Oh My!

So with the advent of Twitter-mania I've been playing with it. However Twitter has become a victim of its own success, with the site being slow at the best of times and unresponsive at worst. So I've found a couple of alternatives to using the Twitter web site to post my status/thoughts. Since I'm a Widget fan I've discovered the Twidget which allows you to post text to Twitter with just a couple of clicks.

I wanted to post my local weather conditions to Twitter just to see if I could get a Linux command line poster working. Turns out you can! Although I first looked at the Twitter API it needed/used some stuff I'm not familiar with. So I asked the great and all-knowing Google and found a post over at Tech@Sakana which gives a script-based solution to push text onto your Twitter page using cURL.

The command line built using cURL looks like this:
curl --basic --user username:password --data status="Having fun with cURL" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Not to bad. Works great even when the twitter site is unresponsive.

Now for the Weather. Turns out that the National Weather Service (NWS) offers an XML-formatted file of the current weather conditions updated hourly. But... Having tried to use the native Linux tools to extract data from XML files I know how kludgy or even impossible it can be. I once again petitioned Google and found Xmlstarlet. Xmlstarlet is a command line utility from Sourceforge that can read and write XML files. In my case, I can use Xmlstarlet to extract the weather conditions I want from the XML file I download from the NWS.

Now I could build a script that collects the current observation file from the NWS, parses out the weather conditions I want to report. Builds a string of those conditions and sends them off to Twitter. Here's what it looks like:
#!/bin/bash

cd ~/weather

mv -f KLOU.xml KLOU.XML

wget -q http://www.weather.gov/data/current_obs/KLOU.xml

# At $now it is $temperature in $location with winds $wind

#Now
now=`xml select -T -t -v //observation_time KLOU.xml|cut -d" " -f6-8;echo ""`
#location
location=`xml select -T -t -v //location KLOU.xml|cut -d" " -f1,5;echo ""`
#Temperature
temperature=`xml select -T -t -v //temperature_string KLOU.xml;echo ""`
# Winds
## wind=`xml select -T -t -v //wind_string KLOU.xml|cut -d" " -f2-10;echo ""`
wind=`xml select -T -t -v //wind_string KLOU.xml;echo ""`

conditions=`echo At $now it is $temperature in $location. Winds: $wind.`

echo $conditions

curl --connect-timeout 5 --user johniac:******* --data status="$conditions" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

If I'm going stick this into cron and have it run regularly, I need to add some locking code so that it won't run over the top of itself if Twitter or the NWS starts hanging connections. And of course that leads to the obligatory SMS messaging if a second instance trys to run. Maybe in version 2 ;-)


Technorati Tags: twitter, curl, xmlstarlet, nws, api

In Memoriam: Gerald R. Ford

By the President of the United States of America a Proclamation

Richard Nixon became the thirty-seventh President of the United States on January 20, 1969 and was reelected in 1972 for a second term by the electors of forty-nine of the fifty states. His term in office continued until his resignation on August 9, 1974.

Pursuant to resolutions of the House of Representatives, its Committee on the Judiciary conducted an inquiry and investigation on the impeachment of the President extending over more than eight months. The hearings of the Committee and its deliberations, which received wide national publicity over television, radio, and in printed media, resulted in votes adverse to Richard Nixon on recommended Articles of Impeachment.

As a result of certain acts or omissions occurring before his resignation from the Office of President, Richard Nixon has become liable to possible indictment and trial for offenses against the United States. Whether or not he shall be so prosecuted depends on findings of the appropriate grand jury and on the discretion of the authorized prosecutor. Should an indictment ensue, the accused shall then be entitled to a fair trial by an impartial jury, as guaranteed to every individual by the Constitution.

It is believed that a trial of Richard Nixon, if it became necessary, could not fairly begin until a year or more has elapsed. In the meantime, the tranquility to which this nation has been restored by the events of recent weeks could be irreparably lost by the prospects of bringing to trial a former President of the United States. The prospects of such trial will cause prolonged and divisive debate over the propriety of exposing to further punishment and degradation a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of relinquishing the highest elective office of the United States.

Now, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,1974.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-ninth.

GERALD R. FORD

And Now This Message

I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail,
not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.
—Baruch Spinoza

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Support the Skeptics Society’s donation drive
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Of course, we maintained our usual activities of sponsoring a dozen monthly science lectures at Caltech, hosting our annual conference at Caltech (on The Environmental Wars), publishing Skeptic magazine, eSkeptic newsletter, and Junior Skeptic magazine, maintaining our website, and fulfilling tens of thousands of orders through our catalogue of science- and skepticism-related books and DVDs. We are able to do this, and much more, thanks to your support. And so, on behalf of the Skeptics Society, our staff, volunteers, and members, we thank you for your support in our 2007 donation drive.

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Technorati Tags: Skeptics Society, Michael Shermer, skepticism

RIP: Dot n Dash

The last of my original pair of ratties, Dash was put to sleep this morning around 9am.  She had developed three tumors, wheezing when she breathed and was loosing weight fast.

Dash's sister, Dot died in September.  She developed two tumors and even though I knew what needed to be done I let nature take its course and she died

Right after Dot passed, I noticed that Dash was showing signs of tumors in front of her left hind leg and behind her left front leg.  I promised myself I would not repeat what happened to Dash.  Last weekend my son found Dash had a third tumor growing on the side of her head I realized that it was time to let Dash go.  On Monday I called the vet and made an appointment for 9am Saturday.  The work week helped to keep the event in the back of my mind as the days went by.  So a little before 9am today, I took a small box down to the cage where Dash and Stella live and opened the cage door.  I put a little of the used bedding in the box to reduce the strangeness.  Dash came out of her den to see what was up and I put her in the box.

About half way to the vet the realization of what was happening hit me like a ton of bricks.  I kept it together until Doctor Sam came in to explain how the procedure would work: Dash would be put into a deep sleep using an anesthetic.  Once her pain response was gone, he injected her which killer her instantly.  He was really understanding and kind to this blubbering 50-year old man in front with him.

I was there with Doctor Sam and Dash for the whole procedure.  It went just as he had described and now Dash is at peace.

I managed to get home with only a couple of sobs, but when I got home and sat on the bed telling my wife how it went, I could finally release all the emotion.

I was really surprised at the depth of the emotion this triggered.  This was what was best for Dash, but the wrenching sadness was still very intense for a short time.

Had errands to run this afternoon and a nap this afternoon helped as well.

So now its Stella in the big cage all by herself, but not for long.  Six month old sisters, Phoebe, Piper and Paige have come into our lives.  They are getting acclimated to our house in the small cage right next to Stella's cage.  We'll have meet and greets this week and there will soon be four ratties in Dash's house.

>JjV<
---------------------------------------------
When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I've never tried before.
Mae West

Recipe: Corn Pudding

Here's the Corn Pudding recipe I've used twice already this holiday season. Its really more of a spoon bread, and not a souffle.

Works for me....

Corn Pudding

1. 2 Eggs, Beaten
   
2. Can of Cream Corn (14.75 oz)
3. Can of Whole Kernel Corn (15.25 oz)
4. Jiffy Mix Corn Muffin Mix (8.5 oz box)
5. 1 Cup Mayonnaise
6. 1 Cup Sour Cream
7. 1 Cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
8. 1 Stick Salted Butter, Melted and cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 350'F. Mix first six items together until uniform. Add shredded cheddar in three increments while mixing gently. Add melted butter and mix until uniform. Bake in either a 3qt Casserole or 9x11 pan. Grease pan with baking spray and add batter. Bake at 350'F for about 50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Variations:
Served warm topped with Maple syrup or Honey
Served with Chipolte Seasoning
Add a can of chopped chilies to the batter before baking.

More variations can be found in this write up at the Augusta Chronicle newspaper website.

Technorati Tags: Corn Pudding, Recipe

Recipe: Green Bean Casserole

We finally had the requisite Green Bean casserole for dinner this past weekend.  I thought I would blog the official French's French Fried Onion recipe here for posterity.

Green Bean Casserole
Prep time: 5min  Cook Time: 35min

• 3/4 Cup of Milk
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  
• 10 3/4oz Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
• 2 - 15oz cans of French Cut Green Beans, Drained
• 1 1/3 Cups of French's French Fried Onions

Preheat Oven to 350ºF

1. In a 1½qt casserole dish mix all ingredients except 2/3s of a cup of the Fried Onions
2. Bake for 30 minutes at 350º.
3. Sitr; Top with remaining Fried Onions
4. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until onions are golden brown.

Variations:
Change the soup to Golden Mushroom or Cream of Celery,
Add diced Portabello Mushrooms.
Replace pepper with Cajun, Chipolte or other spice blend.


>JjV<
---------------------------------------------
The superior man is distressed by the limitation of his ability;
he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability he has.
Confucius


Technorati Tags: Green Bean Casserole, Fried Onions, Recipe

Science Editor

I have agreed to be the Science editor for Blogcritics SciTech section. While I've written for BC in the past as an author, the whole editor thing has been an interesting shift in perspective.

Now I've got to find some science writers to help me fill out this section. Anyone interested in doing some pro bono science writing should email me for more information.

>JjV<
---------------------------------------------
If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not understand, things are as they are.
Gensha, Zen Master

Technorati Tags: Blogcritics Magazine, Science writing