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Thursday, September 28

Work in progress. Perfect progressive political speech.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 28 Sep 2006 11:05 AM CDT
What do progressives need in a great ultily grade local, state, and national political speech? Well we are always working on that here in blogland, wether we know it or not.
Even our right winds fiends ...er friends, are helping the dialectic produce it.
We merely need to glean. Glean the perfect speech from the "aether". Calling on the political muse.
Jobs that last, good jobs, based on sustainable renewable energy and next generation techology like solar and wind power and electric plugin vehicles. Jobs in local economies, like farming, logging, manufacturing, recreation, real estate, construction.. that all rest on long term local economic health, instead of short term corporate destruction. Powerful interests corrupting local government and selling resources out cheap for temporay profits and temporay jobs.
An affordable health insurance safety net preventing all these catastopic bankruptcies due to uninured medical disasters, very personal family disasters. Health insurance that lasts so older workers can get jobs, companies are freezing people likely to have uninsured heatlh problems out of hiring, right into financial trouble.
Older baby boomers missing affordable health insurance are at the age where they tend to vote consistently. This issue is vital. My idea would be to lower the medicare age 2 years every year until everyone is covered. But means test medicare so those with over say 200,000 per year income do not get the benefits they don't need, they can afford their own insurance.
Now to reframe all this into bumper sticker slogans! Hehehey.
As the evil, sulfur fuming GOP political consultants say, "we have a bumpersticker, they have an essay."
Their thinks tanks, Heritage foundation, Cato Institute, American enterprise Institure make up those bumperstickers, it's up to us progressive bloggers to get our bumpers stuck.
Let's all challenge our favorite blogs to work this out, dialectically.
Thursday, September 21

Chavez "trifecta"? Duuhbya or devilya?
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 21 Sep 2006 12:44 PM CDT
As I've talked over the original duuhbya "trifecta", and his new "trifecta",
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/9/19/63034/8000/#5
may I now consider Hugo's "trifecta"?
The "sulfur fumes" reference as in he could still smell them at the UN podium after duuhbya's (devilya's) visit.
Satirizing the salem witch trial religious nut wing overtoned axis of evil pronouncements of the duuhbyaist regime.
Satirizing the chimp himself directly. (Judge not, oh yee of shrub-like faithbasedness, hehey)
And of course the oily sufurous fumes of the exxonmob/halliburton minions from hell follow this feller everywhere he goes.
It's Hugo's trifecta joke that beats anything our lame chimp in chief could do, even with decent writers.
Both of these torturing dictators run on oil of course. Who tortures and kills more people? Bush or chavez? That ought to be a topic at their separate but equal trials, that might be held were there actually justice on this planet.
Post script! Hugo controls citgo through Venezualan ownership.
What's next? China owning Walmart?
Then who will buy exxonmob? Iran? Saudi Arabia? Putin's KGB oil mob? Just bidness as usual for the texas oil boy prez.
Nero and bonnie prince duuhbya separated at birth? Hmmmm.

Electric car energy storage for the grid.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 21 Sep 2006 11:49 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/09/prius_phev_will.html#comment-22722444
It looks like the first dawning of the technology to store renewable energy from wind, water, and solar power in the batteries of electric plugin cars plugged into the power grid.
I mentioned this in another article here awhile back.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/10/1012526.html
100s of millions of electric cars plugged in while sitting still (95% of a car's life is parked) at home, at work, at school or shopping. Storing power, days worth of power to even out solar and wind power peaks and valleys.
Then one can charge the car full up in a few minutes when needed, either by programming the charger in the electric car, say for the time one leaves for work, or simply waiting 5 minutes to get it back to full charge anytime it is need for commuting.
Car owners that plugin to help the grid smooth its peaks would be rewared with lower cost killowatts for their car and home. Depending upon how many storage killowatts their car provided to the grid. all simple with computerized electronic metering and billing.
Actually this makes it worth having battery storage in one's home too. Storing power for the power company and reducing your energy costs. And it fits right in with home solar, wind, and even farm biogas fuel cell/microturbine electric power generation (75% efficiency electric power from cow poop!).
The value of your killowatt hours gleaned from your own renewable energy system can be maximized by getting payed to help the power company smooth out peak demand and renwable energy supply.
Wednesday, September 20

Divert floods into wetlands, experts (finally)agree with me?
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 20 Sep 2006 07:22 AM CDT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/science/19rive.html?incamp=article_popular
Yep, these experts must have read my blog, hehey.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/15/1032024.html
My previous recomendation on global climate disaster enhanced flooding, hydroelectric power, and restoring depleted aquifers.
Tuesday, September 19

The "toxic texan" reverses his global climate stance?
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 19 Sep 2006 11:44 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/09/bush_to_reverse.html#comment-22578138
So what? Is he going to claim no one can figure out wether or not global climate change is from natural or human sources again?
That's my guess. He needs a get out of investing real money in renewables clause for his fossil fuelish corporate banking friends.
At some point one has to realize that the "toxic texan" is the source of his very bad public image around the world, not the vast majority of humanity on planet earth that sees this administration as dangerous and the president as a puppet of corporate oil interests.
Even the most powerful leader of the most powerful nation on planet earth has to at least notice public opinion.
When even people like Powell turn on his policies, it maybe time for even the most faithbased of patriots to rethink their point of view.
I think what is happening now is that even the corporate boardroomies at exxonmob, ford, and GM are starting to get nervous about a possible invasion of Iran.
The Iraq thing is just not delivering oil. Making it a complete failure in even the board roomate's eyes. And now oil prices are falling, killing the record oil industry profits.
Will they rise after the election? OPEC is going to cut production to make it happen. Then the roomies will be happy again and let Rummy invade Iran? Maybe so.
Gasoline at 4 bucks per gallon might sweeten the invasion prospects for them. And the budget busting profits for contractors like Halliburton and other defense contractors give the roomates a place for their hedge funds to invest.
Budget busting weakens federal power and strengthens the hand of capital. That is Reagan Revolution at it's most basic.
Boost the power of corporations and erode the power of government until it becomes a mere figurehead, a rubber stamp for corporate lobbyist written laws. The 3 branches of government changing to a ceremonial role, like the British royal family did a scant century or so ago.
All power residing in corporate boardrooms. None with the representatives of we the people. That's the bottomline of invasion, occupation, and nation building of countries that are located over vast pools of oil.
Total transfer of the control of capital from government to corporations. And eventually to complete corporate governance
Friday, September 15

Google to tackle plugin vehicles!
by
amazngdrx
on Fri 15 Sep 2006 01:23 AM CDT
Thursday, September 7

Energy re-evolution roadmaps, mine and theirs.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 07 Sep 2006 05:18 PM CDT

Mass production, come on Gates get it going!
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 07 Sep 2006 10:15 AM CDT
Wednesday, September 6

Cal Cars for profit?
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 06 Sep 2006 06:38 AM CDT
Saturday, September 2

Medicine plants: the ultimate in symbiosis
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 02 Sep 2006 05:08 PM CDT
Just as certain animals; dogs, cats, cows evolved symbiotically with humans, so did certain plants.
Corn, wheat, grains, vegetables, fruit trees all suceed because they help their huiman partners suceed. Medicinal plants do too.
Most of the commercial medicines available now were discovered by biochemists exploring traditional herbal cures. Getting back to that root of healthcare, symbiosis between medicine plants and humans might just cure the problems with the rising cost of healthcare that makes it unafordable for most of the people on spaceship earth who need it.
Uninsured in the US? They have to treat you anyway. For the billions in the poorer countries it's either Doctors Without Borders or some other heroic NGO or nothing.
Going back to symbniosis with the natural world could reveal a treasure trove of medical enlightenment. Let the developed world lead the way!
Tuesday, August 29

This proves the electric car with backup generator.
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 29 Aug 2006 11:41 PM CDT
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/08/pmls_inwheel_mo.html
80 mpg with a standard internal combustion generator. And 2 hours driving on batteries before you need to use it.
With a solid oxide fuel cell of the new CeO2 variety coupled to a microturbine this car could get 400 mpg on any liquid fuel. Destruction of Earth's climate as we know it could be stopped with this technology.

Green LAgirl on "Gristmill's" fixing agriculture
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 29 Aug 2006 08:35 AM CDT
http://greenlagirl.com/2006/08/27/interesting-quote-how-to-fix-agriculture
My comments on her thread:
Well he forgot to add: Take half the money saved from eliminating corporate welfare and turn it into tax incentives for small, local, organic farming. use the other half to pay down the deficit.
Use a few percenty of the first half to fund research into robotic farming designed to make organic farming using renewable electric power more efficient than chemical, diesel fueled, labor intensive farming.
That way organic farmers with a few acres can do it themselves on their computer connected robot that fertilizes (organic), waters, weeds,plants, harvests, all the stuff you would need to break your back doing, or break someone eles back, for below minimum wage.
Why do people use herbicide? Too much time and effort it takes to do it manually. Same with fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides. Squash potato bugs manually? Yikes.
But a robot will vacuum them up and feed ‘em to your chickens, bwwaaaacckk (happy chicken music).
Now go tell some really rich garden loving people about this you LAers, maybe Laury David will fund this? You go LAgirl!
Wednesday, August 23

Feeding off the gas guzzlers, recycled energy re-evolution.
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 23 Aug 2006 09:28 AM CDT
Monday, August 21

Latest solar film tech
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 21 Aug 2006 07:59 AM CDT
Saturday, August 19

New fuel cell runs on any liquid fuel!
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 19 Aug 2006 09:37 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/08/franklin_fuels_.html
This could make a backup generator for electric cars based on fuel cell/microturbine technology a reality.
True multi-fuel capability, high efficiency, low weight, and low cost; all the qualities that are needed to replace internal combustion.
Since the new nano tech lithium ion batteries are so very expensive, only about a 50 mile range for an electric car is practical on batteries alone.
That is enough for most driving miles, but a good backup generator is needed to make electric cars able to compete in terms of utility with internal combustion. This sounds like the technology that will do it.
Coupled with a microturbine and electric drivetrain in an economy car it could give 200+ mpg on liquid fuel alone. And it would run on the cheapest liquid fuels.
And the whole design would fit into the space normally dedicated to an ICE (internal combustion engine), transmission, and related systems, at equal to or less that the ICE weight.
Wednesday, July 26

Do it yourself?
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 26 Jul 2006 10:28 AM CDT
Tuesday, July 11

A great compromise with nuclear power emerging?
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 11 Jul 2006 10:07 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/07/cryogenic_super.html#comment-19545453
Well Thomas, let them talk nukes all they want. I just don't think they're cost effective.
Remote cluster reactors are a good compromise on nukes. I think we renewable fans could use this as a negotiating point to get subsidies shifted from fossil and nuclear corporations to tax incentives for homeowners and small businesses for wind, solar, and electric plugin hybrids and pure EVs. They get a second chance, we get a fair playing field.
Put the new nuclear reactors in remote areas where contamination already exists like Yucca mountain or Hanford, the power can be moved easily compared to the waste later on. Let the industry prove itself on cost, safety, and waste.
But as far as the real winners? Well I'm glad this article brings up superconduction. Because instead of thousands of miles of superconducting cables with liquid hydrogen pipes surrounding it, smaller rings of this material with safe liquid nitrogen supercooling could store all the wind, solar, and wave power needed in a regional grid. It's like a zero loss flywheel where the electricity does the spinning.
Even the negative assessment on the capacity of wind and capacity factor leaves the government admitting solar can and must fill the gap.
I think much larger wind machines on the planes and on floating platforms offshore that double as wave power stations could power everything alone. There is no reason to insist on that though.
The better strategy is to agree and admit we only expect maybe one third of our power from large wind and wave machines. Then propose distributed power generation and storage from home sized wind and solar roof panels on every roof that is suitable to provide the next third.
And going to efficiency gains for the remaining third. Much more mass transportation, ride sharing, bike trails, and telecommuting for work. Electric cars,super insulated homes, a new generation of energy efficient appliances, geothermal/solar heat pump heating, domestic water heating, and air conditioning.
Also industrial efficiency gains. Like using wind powered heat pumps and solar for refining ethanol. Electric plugin tractors and construction equipment.
I would say the admissions in this report give us the final negotiating position we needed to prove renewables can carry the whole energy supply burden. Let them try nukes and "clean" coal. But verify cost effectiveness.
Renewables will win in a fair fight. Real capitalism minus subsidies would provide that fair market competition. Let the games begin (well they already have).
This is engineering and political strategy now. Prove the voters will get lower costs with renewables and we win in the end. Hope it is in time to head off global climate disaster.
Monday, July 3

A very interesting, unrealistic fuel farming study.
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 03 Jul 2006 10:52 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/07/re_the_false_ho.html
More happy fuel farming fanstasy.
This study assumes 10% of transportation fuel coming from biomass by 2020.
As the study proposes to supply that amount by converting more photosynthetic bio-energy to fuel that is burned, that will exacerbate climate change. All the land that can be converted to carbon sink, either through more reserve land or returning as much biomass as possible to the soil through organic farming, is needed to reverse CO 2 climate problems.
Between non-CO 2 emmitting electric renewable power used in PHEVs and EVs and liquid fuel generated with algae in solar systems, the economic and war related problems of importing oil and the even bigger problem of CO 2 climate change can be solved simultaneously.
Trying to use fuel farming to replace oil will only replace a fraction of it and actually degrade the present level of the carbon sink effect of conserrvation reserve land and sustainable farming practices that build soil organically by recyclng biomass.
The illusion that fuel farming actually can solve these problems is a dangerous one. It makes the release of methane from permafrost practically inevitable as CO 2 levels continue to rise.
That will overwhelm the climate system and cost far more than conversion to renewable electric transportation power and carbon sink sequestration with more conservation reserve land would.
Just the increasing storms and droughts alone will cost many orders of magnitude more than investment in mass production and adoption of renewable electric battery powered vehicles. In fact the economic boom from renewable energy will pay back these investments within a few years..
And how can anyone envision agricultural yields actually increasing (as this study does) with ever increasing weather volatility? The reverse is true, the water needed for even present ag production levels is rapidly being depleted as aquifers are destroyed with overuse and pollution.
It is interesting that renewable electric transportation advocates are often accused of over optimistic predictions given the very obvious unrealistic assumptions behind fuel farming
The Washinginton Post is onto the scamming. Which is understandable (though unexpected) given the huge corporate fuel farming subsidies channeled through DC lobbying corruption.
Farm and environmental votes are being bought with this greenwashing. and farmers get none of the money doled out that adds to our huge national debt (mainly held by China), it all goes to politically connected agribizz corporations like Archer Daniels Midland.
Thursday, June 29

Media, blog clash. Who is right?
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 29 Jun 2006 09:30 AM CDT
Bloggers seem to jump to conclusions.
Then other bloggers jump on their conslusions. with all kinds of criticism from scientific sources even.
For instance: when many of us said, Katrina is a result of global climate change, more extreme weather variations. More severe storms. In this case due to hihger average water temperatures, the heat engine that drives the hurricane.
That seemed plausible. We were soundly denounced by other bloggers with lots of scientific support, printed in the corporate media.
Now a year later, scientific reports are coming around to our conslusion.
I just wonder if the radical prediction that fuel farming, nuclear, and fossil power will be abandoned in favor of renewable electric powered transportation (at a relative cost of 75 cents per electric "gallon"), will have a similiar fate.
Come on Subaru, make it so. Warp 7.

Electric car battery mass production. What's the holdup?
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 29 Jun 2006 09:26 AM CDT
A discussion on "The Energy Blog" on EV battery mass production.
Monday, June 26

Subaru electric car news! Can mass production be a year away?
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 26 Jun 2006 04:13 AM CDT
Some guesses about the state of electric car progress behind the scenes at leading global automakers. Will Subaru show Honda and Toyota the way to save the planet from global climate disaster and make Detroit a ghost town?
A GM PHEV? Highly doubtful, probably more hype like flex fuel vehicles.
Meanwhile Subaru, owned by Fuji Heavy, leapfrogs GM and Toyota right to electric cars. And GM has a signifigant stake in Fuji.
Maybe Toyota is not rushing PHEVs because they have an electric car to pull out of their hat? That battery excuse from Toyota is patently lame with at least 3 different nano layer, quick charge, lithium ions at or near the manufacturing stage.
Think about it: Why produce a PHEV with thousands of moving parts and an antiquated, 14% efficient internal combustion engine, when one could produce a quick charge plugin electric car with the same performance and range.
That runs on 75 cent per gallon of gas equivalent electric power. And has only on the order of 100s of moving parts.
The profit advantage (before gas prices made a rebate eat those profits up)of trucks and SUVs for ford and GM was based upon this same principle.
Same number of parts in an SUV as in a car, but the SUV sold at a heavy premium because of the larger size. The extra steel did not add signifigantly to the manufacturing cost, so the Detroit rust belt did ok versus Toyota's economy cars.
But as gas prices rise, the same phenomenon will kill Detrot. Toyota can produce electric cars with 100s of moving parts, instead of thousands, with a corresponding drop in manufacturing costs, and consumers can save 100s of bucks per month on gas that can go towards the car payments for their new electric cars.
But now, just as Subaru poineered the all wheel drive, SUV like economy car, they are now pioneering the electric car. Honda and Toyota are following suit. Will they miss out on the electric car? Not bluudy lackly (my cockney accent, hehey).
Sunday, June 11

Another great discussion on "Grist"! The end of nuclear power in sight?.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 11 Jun 2006 02:19 AM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/6/8/165835/4175
Great discussion Karen
"...not to forget the hundreds of thousands of Americans, tens of millions of people worldwide, who die every decade directly from fossil fuel waste."
Yes fossil fuel is awful at the scale it is currently used. So is nuclear power.
The solution is blowing in the wind, the cleanest, cheapest, immediate replacement for fossil fuel and ever widening nuclear contamination.
At the Paduchah Kentucky plant that makes all the fuel for nuclear power plants, plutonium has been spreading out into the groundwater for decades. The contamination of this resource, that is vital to life itself, has spread miles already during the industry coverup.
It is flowing into the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers down through the Mississippi valley to the gulf. Have you eaten any Louisuana quisine lately? Crawfish and shrimp from that wonderful ecosystem?
What is life itself in all its wonderful variety of experience worth? Can you insure life itself for "accidents" like this plutonium contamination of a whole region?
Give it up. Go solar, go electric.
Oil, coal, nuclear fission must all become just a horrible warning from history or there will be no one to read a history book left.
The dark future of spaceship earth impelled by evil men like Lord Cheney of Halliburton. Hehey.
Dark humor? Better to laugh than cry.
Those who learn from history are doomed to watch others repeat it.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
Tuesday, June 6

Another new lithium ion battery
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 06 Jun 2006 06:50 AM CDT
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/05/23/008209.html
This one uses titanium oxide nano layer on the cathode. The stuff that makes paint white, titanium oxide. With nano-tech!
Renewable electric transportation is coming, oily dinosaur corporatitstas can't stop it. They can slow it down though, until all our money is in their pockets and we can't afford to mass produce it.

Solar flight
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 06 Jun 2006 12:23 AM CDT
http://athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=25082
Solar powered airship 12 miles high! Why? To spy.
Really big blimp. Geosynchronous.
Sunday, May 21

John Prine, status, prom night.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 21 May 2006 01:10 PM CDT
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/5/19/194157/712#1
Thanks d.
The status of becoming anti-gas-guzzler-status. Kind of dialectic!
Saw a huge, obscene stretch hummer limo out in front of a prom party at the Duluth convention center last night. Teens seeking status.
I was there for a John Prine concert. He revived his Vietnam era anti-war song.
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore © John Prine
"While digesting Reader's Digest In the back of a dirty book store, A plastic flag, with gum on the back, Fell out on the floor. Well, I picked it up and I ran outside Slapped it on my window shield, And if I could see old Betsy Ross I'd tell her how good I feel."
Chorus: "But your flag decal won't get you Into Heaven any more. They're already overcrowded From your dirty little war. Now Jesus don't like killin' No matter what the reason's for, And your flag decal won't get you Into Heaven any more."
"Well, I went to the bank this morning And the cashier he said to me, "If you join the Christmas club We'll give you ten of them flags for free." Well, I didn't mess around a bit I took him up on what he said. And I stuck them stickers all over my car And one on my wife's forehead."
Repeat Chorus:
"Well, I got my window shield so filled With flags I couldn't see. So, I ran the car upside a curb And right into a tree. By the time they got a doctor down I was already dead. And I'll never understand why the man Standing in the Pearly Gates said..."
"But your flag decal won't get you Into Heaven any more. We're already overcrowded From your dirty little war. Now Jesus don't like killin' No matter what the reason's for, And your flag decal won't get you Into Heaven any more."
Commenting before the last chorus: "I wrote this song in 1968, and put it on the mantle in 1975. I revived it by a special request from the president. He doesn't know it, but he asked for it."
He did his new anti-war song too. To thunderous roaring applause!
"Have you ever noticed, when you're feeling really good There's always a pidgeon, that'll come shit on your hood Or you're feeling your freedom, and the world's off your back Some cowboy from taxas, starts his own war in iraq"
"Some humans ain't human, some people ain't kind They lie through their teeth, with their head up their behind You open up their hearts and here's what you'll find Some humans ain't human, some people ain't kind"
http://www.lyricsdir.com/john-prine-some-humans-aint-human-lyrics.html
Wednesday, May 17

World turning anti-Bush. US caught in the crossfire?
by
amazngdrx
on Wed 17 May 2006 12:43 AM CDT
The nations that export oil that fear the Bush administration warring for oil are changing their oil transaction currency to Euros as a defensive move against the corporate servant administration.
This administration does what is good for Exxon, Halliburton, and Bechtel. But that is not what is good for this nation.
As this financial attack on the dollar, by switching to Euros for oil trading, debilitates our debt ridden economy we the people suffer.
The corporate class that this neoconservative cabal pulling the president's strings represents would rather manufacture in low wage, no regulation, no tax areas. No more feeding high wages to labor unions and bribes to environmental regulators.
America has been betrayed and hung out to dry, while corporate assets are already hedged for this Dollar to Euro shift. We the people are left with an unpayable national debt due to the weakening dollar and Bush administration runaway spending through corporate welfare like the lease giveaway to big oil and war contracts with Halliburton.
Saturday, May 13

Renewable economics. Home based solar/wind powered plugin cars.
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 13 May 2006 05:29 AM CDT
Tuesday, May 2

New electric car verifies my guesstimates! Look out infernal combustion dinosaurs!
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 02 May 2006 11:42 PM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2005/10/lithium_ion_pow.html#comment-16828283
This confirms my guess here!
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/4/13/1884417.html
I guessed 70 pounds per gallon of gas equivalent. This one is about 75. And I guessed 250 wh per kg, this battery is 225wh per kg.
The 6 to 8 hour charge time and 2004 build time frame makes me think that the nano tech batteries maybe even better, as they have the 5 minute charge to 90% they may have even higher energy density than the batteries in this project.
But the basic weight to power ratio and range design factors hold. Making the design a practical alternative to liquid fuel. That is with the quick charge A 123 or Hitachi nano-phosphate lithoium ion. Or if this battery can be charged quckly enough to compete with the convenience of liquid refueling speed like the A 123 battery can.
At 70k and 300 bucks per kwh this system is expensive, but mass production could bring that down. That means the battery is 12k alone.
But a 25k total price with a 20% profit margin might still be possible,given mass production, that's reasonable. Typically components like these batteries come down in price rapidly with mass production and continuing research, just as microchips did and now PV cells are dropping in price.
Monday, May 1

Trump and Imus on wave and wind power?
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 01 May 2006 05:44 AM CDT
Donald Trump and Imus talking about wave power and wind power?
Yep. Trump just said oil could be replaced in 10 to 15 years. No dispute from Imus or even the righties on his show?
Cheney listens to Imus everyday as do a lot of influential people. This has to chap his wrinkled ass.
Maybe Imus will adopt altrernative energy like he has adopted alternative cleaning products and vegetarianism?
Sunday, April 30

Organic farms could stop global climate disaster.
by
amazngdrx
on Sun 30 Apr 2006 10:59 AM CDT
Organic farms as good as jungle, prairie, and coral reef at storing extra CO 2? I think so.
Where to find an article on how conversion to organic agriculture would restore depleted soil to act as a carbon sink. As it did before being converted to chemical agriculture.
The key question? How much carbon is stored in healthy organic soil? Chemical ag destroyed soil must be near zero.
With the huge land area devoted to agriculture could this reverse global climate disaster all on its own?
If one thinks of photosynthesis as nature's main mechanism to restore the greenhouse gas atmospheric balance to pre-human created combustion related catastrophic change, then that huge land area as a carbon sink might just be the difference that saves us, along with renewable energy replacing fossil, chemical fuel farming, and nuclear.
Prairie soil is 58% stored carbon, according to a Canadian study http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/pub/pallande.pdf
In a natural prairie layer after layer of soil can accumulate over time. Just how much carbon can this natural soil store. Or say crop land where organic soil was fed 90% of the biomass of the crop (return the hay, manure, cornstaks, all back in.).
Could it be enough to swing the carbon balance a few percentage points, maybe make a crucial difference? We are talking only slight rises in average temperature over decades. And huge areas of the earth's surface that could store carbon. The healthy soil would also increase agricultural efficiency, decrease land area needed, and improve the quality and lower the chemical toxicity of food.
New water management policy could really help this effort. In order to restore the wetlands and aquifers that farming depends upon, a new sort of dam and levy system on river systems needs to be used.
Many areas drained for agriculture and protected by levees need to become wetlands again. With locks built into levees to let flood waters into these areas and then later let them drain back into the river. Residents can have homes built on concrete barge foundations to cope with flooding as they are doing in the Netherlands.
The wetlands restore the aquifers pumped dry and polluted by chemical agrictlture. Wind pumps can even pump the excess water up into higher and higher wetland areas to bring water to regions that now pump rivers dry, like the Colorado.
Why have flooding damage in northern Caloformia and drought in southern? This would distribute water out and increase the photosynthetic CO 2 absorption.
Natural wetlands are a huge carbon sink. Water is becoming a limiting factor in restoring global climate balance.
Thursday, April 13

Electric car battery performance, a preliminary guess.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 13 Apr 2006 03:40 PM CDT
The latest news from the DeWalt power tool nano tech lithium ion battery release is that they promise 2 to 3 times the operating time over the 18 volt model. The 18 volt model has a 2.4 amp hour battery.
So around 7 amp hours are stored in the 36 volt lithium ion battery? If so each battery holds around 250wh. Since each battery weighs 2.4 pounds, 7.5 kwh of storage, the equivalent energy to one gallon of gasoline, would weigh about 70 pounds.
It looks like the NIT/A123 lithium ion nano batteries may weigh in at around 70 pounds per gallon of gasoline energy equivalent. They are now being used in a car project by Altairno. And a similar Hitachi battery design is being used in a Subaru test vehicle.
That's 350 pounds for a 5 gallon range. Say 200 miles in an economy car? With the rest of the electric components at around 150 pounds, that is 500.
Remove the motor, transmission, and related items from an economy car. Would they weigh 500 pounds?
Pretty close. Maybe the electric version could save weight with lighter versions of easily replaced body components. Save 100 pounds that way and the electric version will weigh and perform the same. With a range of 200 miles.
Add another 70 pounds of batteries for a 240 mile range? It would depend on driving habits, extension batteries could be added for longer trips. The added weight would be well within the vehicle's cargo capacity
Saturday, April 8

Good discussion on "The Energy Blog".
by
amazngdrx
on Sat 08 Apr 2006 05:03 AM CDT
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/04/pem_fuel_cells.html#comment-15958076
Very hopeful comments Harvey. I hope that Canada and the US will build a power grid corridor for wind power from the high wind speed areas of the northern great plains to meet the power needs of both countries and abandon fossil and nuclear power.
Market forces are already impelling wind power investment to such an extent that there is a shortage of wind manufacturing capacity.
I believe there is a great future in 50 mw (equivalent kwh production to a continuously operating 50 mw source) wind machines on the plains, and 100 mw floating wave/wind platforms offshore.
These machines would be huge and harvest wind power from much greater heights where wind is steadier and has a much greater average speed (power in the wind varies with the cube of wind speed).
By locating them in deserted remote areas and offshore out of site the NIMBY problem could be solved. the scale would lower the cost of power produced to levels that would more than compernsate for more costly power transmission lines.
As far as storage to even out supply and demand the upgraded grid will even that out considerably and the storage capacity of batteries in 100s of millions of electric cars and homes will do the rest.
Also energy intensive industries like glass and metal recycling sand foundries are already being used to buffer demand/supply variables. They are operated when surplus power is available and shut down during high demand and low supply conditions.
Super conducting energy storage rings are a utility scale storage technology that deserves research and development also.
As far as tar sands, oil shale, liquid fuel from coal, agribizz biofuel, nuclear power, I think all these sources are far to garmfiul and expensive to condsider practical alternatives to pursue in the future. They ought to be abandoned as soon as possible.
We should go all renewable electric for all power needs especially trabsportation. Air travel can still be supplied with liquid fuel from the waste stream using algae-to-fuel technology. This is what the best possible outcome looks like to me.
I also have a different take on hydropower to make it more enviro friendly. Gates that ipen up beside a river then let excess water into wetlands, when the river flow is low the water from wetlands would flow the other wat, into the river.
Power would be produced by underwater wind mill type devices mounted in the gate structure,that would not harm fish or wildlife.
This would control flooding, save water in wetlands that would replenish aquifers, allow fish populations to thrive where normal dams destroy them, and still provide a lot of hydropower.
This plan would actually provide far more hydropower than is now produced because it would allow far more installations than conventional dams, that are nor being built and some actually removed because of damage to fish and aquatic ecosystems.
Imagine the Mississippi with these installations all along problem flooding areas. It would produce huge new sources of power and restore drying up and contaminated aqifers depleted by disastrous agribizz farming techniques and desert city (like Pheonix, Las Vegas, LA..)water use.
Thomas I don't think we can agree on the urgency factor involved in conversion to renewables. Have you seen the artcles on melting permafrost release of methane?
Unless more people heed this warning the political will to reform energy policy on a global emergency scale may not exist in time to save life as we know it on spaceship earth.
Thursday, March 30

The Bush Trifecta. War, recession, national emergency.
by
amazngdrx
on Thu 30 Mar 2006 04:10 AM CST
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/quotes2.html#Q121t
One example of Bush's "trifecta" joke, which he has repeated on several occasions: "The recession -- no question, I remember when I was campaigning, I said, would you ever deficit spend? And I said, yes, only if there were a time of war, or recession, or a national emergency. Never thought we'd get -- (laughter and applause.) And so we have a temporary deficit in our budget, because we are at war, we're recovering, our economy is recovering, and we've had a national emergency. Never did I dream we'd have the trifecta. (Laughter.)" (Office of the Press Secretary, 16Apr02: "President Calls on Congress to Show Fiscal Responsibility: Remarks by the President at Meeting of the Leaders of the Fiscal Responsibility Coalition, Room 450, Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, 3:15 P.M. EDT, posted at www.whitehouse.gov) Or: "I didn't think I was going to draw the trifecta. (Laughter.)" (borrowed., 29Apr02, "Remarks by the President at Heather Wilson for Congress Luncheon")
Bush played quite a joke on US all. National debt gone from 6 trillion to 9 trillion. Money borrowed from China and OPEC nations like Saudi Arabia.
Where does the money come from to buy our government bonds that finance our huge new debt?
From the oil and manufactured products that these creditor nations sell US. It's an interesting scam. Meanwhile bushco inc related companies like halliburton atain record profits by raking in maybe 5% of those trillions scammed from US all.
And then bushco crony lobbyists and politicians collect a tiny percentage of the corporate take. Quite a food chain your grandchildren's future standard of living takes. They will owe a 100 trillion if it is ever even payed.
The Bible mentions something called "jubilee", in which every 50 years all debts are forgiven. Is that what duuhbya is counting on? Hehehey.
Jubilee Bible In the Hebrew Scriptures, a year of rest to be observed by the Israelites every 50th year, during which slaves were to be set free, alienated property restored to the former owners, and the lands left untilled.
http://www.bartleby.com/61/10/J0071000.html
Instead of setting slaves free this huge debt will enslave future generations to corporations owned by the Saudi, Chinese, and other governments that Bush has borrowed these trillions from in your name.
In the US private debt does not pass through generations, but public debt does. The US one big debtors prison? Yer doin' a heckuva job bushie!!
Finally all the progress of unions for decent wages and working conditions and trust busters like Teddy Roosevelt against pludering monopoly corporate power and FDR in instituting a social security safety net overturned. The ultimate Reagan revolution victory.
Tuesday, March 28

Brilliant insight, the fractal rampage!
by
amazngdrx
on Tue 28 Mar 2006 12:53 PM CST
http://shackhappy.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/28/1846732.html?nc=1&message=
How the fractal of our times is destroying spaceship earth. On the other hand, this realization creates a countervaling fractal.
Illumination in the darkness of insanity.
"What's so funny 'bout peace,love, and understanding?" (Elvis Costello)
Monday, March 27

Melting permafrost a global climate disaster time bomb!
by
amazngdrx
on Mon 27 Mar 2006 01:45 PM CST
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0222-27.htm
Read this if you dare! As the permafrost melts amounts of methane released into the atmosphere will dwarf the already catastrophic greenhouse effect of CO 2 from human combustion sources.
This emergency is on the order of WW 2, it needs WW 2- like war production of renewable energy products.
Wind, solar, geothermal heat pump heating/cooling, and electric vehicles. Coming off assembly lines as fast as jeeps and tanks and liberty ships in WW 2.
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http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/09/google_starts_p.html#comment-22434269
Excellent! Notice they are not building one, but rather converting. A much better plan.
Will they follow this up by building a plugin electric drivetrain with a solid oxide fuel cell/microturbine backup generator. That's the real next generation design.
And then use an assembley line conversion process along with selling individual conversion kits. This is google so maybe it will happen.
Why can't anyone else beat google in terms of internet business models? Maybe they will show us why not with this effort?
I don't expect some clunky transmission connected electric motor/internal combustion mutation from them, but then they DID mention ethanol. The inefficient subsidy sucking technology that Gates fell for with his charity.