An informative look at fuel comparisons

taken from tree-hugger who got it from the NY Times.

America to the World: Drop Dead, We Have Coal.

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05.29.07

BUSINESS & POLITICS (news)

What is going on in America? We have a worldwide CO2 global warming crisis and American politicians are running around trying to throw money at coal-to-liquid production that as the graph shows, does nothing to reduce carbon emissions IF they can figure out how to sequester the CO2 and over DOUBLES if there is no sequestration. It is sacrificing the climate for, as Jim Kunstler says, the "happy motoring culture": Let the rest of the world drown, we will slice off every mountaintop and dig every hole to keep doing things the way we do now.

But GE's lump of coal with legs can only dance so fast- nobody has done carbon sequestration on a massive scale, and even if it works it is like methadone for heroin, substituting one addiction for another.

From the Times:

"This is the snake oil of energy alternatives," said Peter Altman, a policy analyst at the National Environmental Trust, an environmental advocacy group. "The promises are just as lofty and the substance is just as absent as the first snake oil salesmen who plied their trade in the 1800s."

Coal executives contend that the technology for converting coal to "ultraclean" diesel fuel for use in cars and trucks has been around for decades. Known as the Fischer-Tropsch process, the technology dates to the 1920s. It was used by Germany during World War II and by South Africa during the apartheid era, in both cases because the countries were blocked by international embargoes from buying oil.

SASOL, a South African chemical conglomerate, is the world's largest producer of coal-based liquids and operates a plant that produces 150,000 barrels a day.

"Greener and cleaner — we can do it, and we will do it," said John Baardson, president of Baard Energy, a firm in Vancouver, Wash., that is trying to build a $4 billion coal-to-liquid plant in Ohio.

But no company has built a commercial-scale plant that also captures carbon, and experts caution that many obstacles lie ahead.

"At best, you're going to tread water on the carbon issue, and you're probably going to do worse," said Howard Herzog, a principal research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-author of "The Future of Coal," a voluminous study published in March by M.I.T. "It goes against the whole grain of reducing carbon." ::New York Times

http://tinyurl.com/2het9r

kind of important, worth noting

Digital Fears Emerge After Data Siege in Estonia

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

TALLINN, Estonia, May 24 - When Estonian authorities began removing a
bronze statue of a World War II-era Soviet soldier from a park in this
bustling Baltic seaport last month, they expected violent street
protests
by Estonians of Russian descent.

They also knew from experience that "if there are fights on the street,
there are going to be fights on the Internet," said Hillar Aarelaid, the
director of Estonia's Computer Emergency Response Team. After all, for
people here the Internet is almost as vital as running water; it is used
routinely to vote, file their taxes, and, with their cellphones, to
shop or
pay for parking.

What followed was what some here describe as the first war in
cyberspace, a
monthlong campaign that has forced Estonian authorities to defend their
pint-size Baltic nation from a data flood that they say was set off by
orders from Russia or ethnic Russian sources in retaliation for the
removal
of the statue... "This may well turn out to be a watershed in terms of
widespread awareness of the vulnerability of modern society," said
Linton
Wells II, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for
networks
and information integration at the Pentagon.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/technology/

29estonia.html

Or:

http://tinyurl.com/ypn4lo

Re: Exersize equipment I don't need

Oops, meant to include:

Pedal Exerciser Upper or Lower Body Pedal Exerciser Portable Pedal Exerciser - Exercise Therapy For Lower or Upper Body Free Quick Shipping Enjoy bicycle type exercise from your chair with the Pedal Exerciser or place the Pedal Exerciser on a table to exercise upper body. Stimulates circulation, range-of-motion, muscle strength and coordination.

Made of heavy duty steel with large knob to adjust for variable resistance. Includes comfortable pedal straps (not adjustable). Requires simple assembly. Disassembles for easy storage and travel. Pedal Exerciser measures approx. 20" x 15 3/4" x 9" -- Light Weight. approx 6 lbs. Pedal Exerciser User Weight Limit: 250 lbs One year manufacturer warranty. Also take a look at the heavier duty InStride® Cycle XL Pedal Exerciser and the Deluxe Easy Cycle Pedal Exerciser with smooth action 5 lb flywheel, Multi function LCD display readout and more features

On May 25, 2007, at 1:52 PM, Joshua Bierman wrote:

yet oddly want:

http://www.sitincomfort.com/pedlaexerciser.html

Exersize equipment I don't need

yet oddly want:
http://www.sitincomfort.com/pedlaexerciser.html

Live CD distro list

very useful
http://www.livecdlist.com/

Power Supplies

for when i build that gaming rig:

« Wal-Mart To Sell Low-End Dell Desktops | Main | Why Do British Trashcans Have CPUs? »

450W Power Supply Roundup Boring, Useful

By Rob Beschizza May 24, 2007 | 9:18:55 AMCategories: Peripherals  

You'd think that little in life could be so extravagantly tedious as a 17-page roundup of ATX power supplies. HardOCP's unnervingly precise overview goes as far as to target models within a 50W range, bringing the piece close to being like a nerdy story from The Onion. But cards in the 450-500W band are the men of the moment when it comes to PC gaming, thanks to the ever-hungrier demands of the latest video cards.

Specifically, we're talking about console-spanking DirectX10 models which cost more than an XBox 360 and eat power like Tesla coils. At the meatier end of NVidia's 8800 series, for instance, cards require two hookups to the power supply and use, all by themsleves, about 180W. With the rest of the system needing a similar amount of juice, 450W is the recommended minimum, meaning that a look over the available models is timely and handy.

The short form is that HardOCP recommends the $87 FSP BlueStormII 500w. Avoid the Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL and the cheap allure of PowerTek's 500w, which is "the worst $20 investment a user could ever make."

450w-500w PSU Battle Royal [HardOCP]

another computer I would buy

if i had the extra cash:

ZonBox To Come Standalone Too

By Rob Beschizza May 25, 2007 | 8:31:45 AMCategories: PCs  

Zonbu, the $100 Linux-based PC you can get if you sign up for a two-year online storage plan, isn't just a silent, low-power secondary home PC: this thing has hack potential up the wazoo.

While the Zon's a capable machine by itself, the $100 deal is designed for easy consumer operation by people who already have a main PC, and it isn't customizable as a result: you can't install your own software on it or do much of anything else to bugger it up. For $250, however, you can get the box without any restrictions, but lacking the storage service: a great deal for those looking for a small form-factor box to tinker around with.

Based on a custom motherboard, the ZonBox has a VIA C7 CPU clocked at 1.2GHz, 512MB of RAM and a 4GB CF card for storage (700MB for their featuresome Linux build, 384MB for the swap file and the rest to synchronize with the online storage, which comes from Amazon's S3 service.) No hard drive, of course — this was designed to hook into massive wads of online storage — but you can always plug in a USB one or get yer screwdriver out.

Product Page [Zonbu]

http://tinyurl.com/2qusqz

http://tinyurl.com/2w7v2o

http://tinyurl.com/2jdsaq

My Weather fetish

I WANT ONE, i have no use for it really, but I want it.

Big Ben LED Atomic Clock Weather Station

Posted by Tiago as General, Home Entertainment

• Atomic & Projection Clock
• Atomic Projection and Exact Set Clocks at starting at $19.95
• www.AmbientWeather.com
• Atomic Clocks Online
• Self-setting clocks are here. Always accurate to the second.
• www.atomicclocksonline.com

• 
  

Besides the Color Weather Forecaster that is able to display images according to the time, there are other good alternatives on the market and one of them is the G-Force TL-349 Big Ben LED Atomic Clock Weather Station - a big name for such a small product, I know…

Anyway, the special weather station displays all the information with kinky red LED lights which is the detail I like the most, it really gives another feeling to the device. The second good detail is the wireless outdoor transmitter that gathers the temperature on the outdoors, obviously there is also an indoor temperature meter.

Other cool features:

• Atomic clock
• Atomic calendar
• Temperature indoor and outdoor
• Min/Max humidity indoor and outdoor
• Displays moon phases and tides
• Time zone selected
• Sunrise and sunset displays

Priced at $55.

For Jack - finding cracks in things and building planes

This is stuff that my friend jack would find interesting:

MIT's handheld FAR-NDT device sees cracks in structures

Posted May 22nd 2007 9:26AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation

We've already seen radars come in handy when dodging impending attacks and avoiding accidents, but researchers at MIT are utilizing the technology to make sure our roadways and structures aren't pushed beyond their limits. A newfangled handheld device uses FAR-NDT (far-field airborne radar nondestructive testing) in order to "see through the fiberglass-polymer wrapping often used to strengthen aging concrete columns to detect damage behind the wrapping not visible to the naked eye." Furthermore, the technique can be executed from about 30 feet away and "requires no dismantling or obstruction of the infrastructure" in order to provide instant feedback. Unsurprisingly, creators are suggesting that it will be best used on bridges and piers which are typically difficult to carefully inspect, and while there's no word on when this stuff will hit DOT offices nationwide, current prototypes are panning out quite well.

[Via Physorg]

http://tinyurl.com/3cpc4a

Boeing 787 LEGO-like Building Begins, Kicks Airbus Nuts 3,110 Views

Boeing has started building their new flagship: the 787 Dreamliner. The cool thing about the 787 is that it only requires them to put together six big composite parts to build the final airframe and operators don't have to use huge tools and overhead cranes: all the parts can be slid along on the construction floor and put together like giant LEGO pieces. Check the gallery for pictures of the delivery and assembly of the sections and hit the jump for more details.

dreamliner

The six huge finished parts, the forward, center and aft fuselage sections, the wings, the horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin, are going to be carried in their huge Dreamlifter from factories in Japan, Italy, South Carolina and Kansas. The Boeing Dreamlifter, as you can see in the gallery, is one of the largest cargo planes in the world.

According to Boeing, they will complete their first 787 in July 8, 2007 while everyone at Airbus are still scratching their heads wondering what the heck happened with their ill-fated and permanently delayed world's largets flying gadget. The 787 is the "fastest-selling airplane in aviation history," and even while I'm european, I'm happy to see it rolling out the factory for two reasons: one, because I like great airplanes and two, because those eurocrats at Airbus needed a kick up the butt. – JESUS DIAZ

http://tinyurl.com/32asov

more and more 'coding for the masses'

But no matter how easy you make it look, coding requires forethought, planning and a willingness to sit and do.

Free tool offers 'easy' coding

By Jonathan Fildes  Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A free programming tool that allows anyone to create their own animated stories, video games and interactive artworks has been developed.

Primarily aimed at children, Scratch does not require prior knowledge of complex computer languages.

Instead, it uses a simple graphical interface that allows programs to be assembled like building blocks.

The digital toolkit, developed in the US at MIT's Media Lab, allows people to blend images, sound and video.

"Computer programming has been traditionally seen as something that is beyond most people - it's only for a special group with technical expertise and experience," said Professor Mitchel Resnick, one of the researchers at the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT.

"We have developed Scratch as a new type of programming language, which is much more accessible."

Child's play

The explosion in broadband connectivity has fuelled the growth of websites that offer rich media experiences, including video and animations.

"These days, kids interact with all kinds of dynamic things on screen but it is usually a one-way street - they are usually interacting with things that other people have created," said Professor Resnick, who also invented Lego Mindstorms, a robotics toolkit often used in teaching.

With Scratch, our goal is to allow people to mix together all kinds of media... in creative ways  Mitchel Resnick

"With Scratch we want to let kids to be the creators. We want them to create interesting dynamic things on the computer."

The program works by making the act of creating a computer program more like building with Lego bricks.

"Kids make programs by snapping blocks together," said Professor Resnick, whose position is in part supported by the toy company.

Objects and characters, chosen from a menu and created in a paint editor or simply cut and pasted off the web, are animated by snapping together different "action" blocks into stacks.

"They don't have to worry about the obscure punctuation and syntax common in most programming languages," he said.

Each block contains a separate command, such as "move" or "play drum" and each action can be modified from a drop-down menu. Blocks can only be stacked if they fit together.

So, for example, if someone wanted to animate a cat walking across the screen they could modify the move block to tell the cat to walk forward 10 steps.

If they then wanted the cat to bang a drum as it walked, they could stack the play-drum block underneath, choosing a sound for the instrument and how long each beat should last.

Other actions, such as speaking, changing colour or triggering music, can then be added to complete the animation.

Mix and match

Scratch is inspired by the method hip hop DJs use to mix and scratch records to create new sounds.

"With Scratch, our goal is to allow people to mix together all kinds of media, not just sounds, in creative ways," said Professor Resnick.

"We want people to start from existing materials - grabbing an image, grabbing some sound, maybe even bits of someone else's program and then extending them and mixing them to make them their own."

Digital creations can then be shared on a site where users can watch other creations and even borrow elements from other Scratch projects to act as raw materials for their own.

"Kids like to share stuff on the web and I think that is a very strong element of Scratch," said Professor Nigel Shadbolt, of the University of Southampton and President of the British Computer Society (BCS).

He believes that it will be a useful tool for teaching children about computational thinking and enthusing "the next generation" of IT professionals.

"The thing that's very difficult for children encountering programming for the first time is that it is very unforgiving," said Professor Shadbolt.

"A program doesn't congratulate you for the 90% that you got right. It fails for the 10% you got wrong. So an environment where you are essentially assembling components that can only be configured in set ways takes some of that hardship away."

And for those that want to get stuck into something that looks more like traditional code there are sites like HacketyHack.

The site teaches children to code in a language called Ruby. There are seven free lessons, including one that allows them to develop a blog with just six lines of code.

"All of these environments are about getting kids to approach the world in a systematic and a structured way," said Professor Shadbolt.

Scratch is now available to download for free and works with both Apple Macs and Windows PCs.

A version of the tool is also currently being developed for the XO laptop, designed by the One Laptop Per Child Project.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6647011.stm

Published: 2007/05/14 23:51:10 GMT

© BBC MMVII

useless but cool

Personally is your bookends require attention, your doing something wrong.

Glass fishbowl bookends

Here we have an accident waiting to happen.

Now I don't know about you, but I've had bookends that have been rather unsuccessful in performing their one and only duty on a shelf. Forgive my overgeneralization here, but I'm quite certain that when bookends fail, they really fail. Because not only are they flipped on their sides by the cumulative weight of books that topple like dominoes when forced to stand upright on their own (lazy!), but they also usually shove all the adjacent knick-knacks on display off of the shelf and onto the floor.

This is already a sad sight to come home to when those cheap metal bookends are involved, so can you imagine the horror if these Glass FishBowl Bookends were thrown into the mix? The sewer system would be clogged with goldfish.

Available now in small (6.25") and large (9") sizes for $29 and $39, respectively.

Via Nerd Approved.

http://tinyurl.com/2utspa

On the subject of mouse replacement

this would not fix my issues, handwriting is even harder for me .... but...... I still want one:

Wacom rolls out "Bamboo" tablet

Wacom has busted out a new tablet for those not quite ready to drop $3,000 on a Cinteq (or $200 building their own), with its new "Bamboo" tablet device covering all the basics for a reasonable price. Of course, you won't get a built-in LCD, and it's not wireless, but you will at least be able to take advantage of Vista's various pen-based capabilities (it'll work just fine with a Mac as well). The device itself also won't take up too much room on your desk space, measuring about 7.8 x 7.3 inches although, as far as we can tell, it's not actually made of bamboo. If that's not too much of a deal-breaker, you'll be able to pick up one of these this month in Japan for ¥8,980, or about $75.

http://tinyurl.com/2qp38s

Wacom Bamboo Tablet To Make Mincemeat of Mice?

Wacom's "Bamboo" graphics tablet bridges the hinterland between their budget models and the expensive, high-end Intuos, and takes advantage of the integrated pen features, like handwriting recognition, that were incorporated into Windows Vista and Office 2007. Its 500 levels of sensitivity suggest a repurposing of the Wacom Graphire, but with a sleeker design and the addition of a "touch ring" to help manipulate one's computer dekstop.

At A6 size, it's probably too small for artists to get much out of, and it isn't wireless either, but it's aimed at folks looking for a more natural way to deal with desktop work anyway. Given how absolutely useless graphics tablets are, traditionally, as a general alternative to mousing, it'll be quite an achievement if this succeeds.

It'll be offered from May 18, and works just as well on Mac OS X 10.3 and up.

Product Page [WACOM]

Wacom out to plant Bamboo on consumers' desktops [Reg]

http://tinyurl.com/3e36gz

Music writing for children

Nice idea, just don't go pushing your kids:

Child prodigies are rare in any artistic pursuit, but new music composition software is making it easier for parents and teachers to raise a little Beethoven.

Sibelius, a well-known maker of software that's used by musicians as well as composers on Hollywood films like Casino Royale, last week released the latest in a line of music software designed for children ages five to 11. With a game-like design and graphics, the software teaches children the basics of instruments, music theory, notation and composition, and then lets them create their own songs by dragging and dropping musically infused shapes, instruments, characters or animations.

It's so easy that a kindergartner can compose a song, say educators, and that's something they believe will go far to make music aficionados of kids. That shift could have ripple effects on an already transformed music industry thanks to the digital age. Instead of downloading pirated music, more kids may begin to create their own sounds, educators say.

http://tinyurl.com/2cpjcm