Former President of the Soviet Union, Mikail Gorbachev said in a recent statement,
"The world food crisis seems to have caught political leaders and even specialists in the field off guard. First caned [sic] a "silent tsunami," it is no longer silent. Many countries, including some that are critically important for regional and global stability, have already seen unrest and even food riots."
"Several causes of the crisis stand out: growing food consumption in rapidly developing China and India; increased demand for biofuels like ethanol, mostly made of grain; and changes in weather conditions caused by global warming and water shortages."
Now, we (that is, my company, DaoChi Energy of Arizona) has just recently begun to talk to Global Green USA which is an affiliate to former President Gorbachev's Green Cross International, so I really don't want President Gorbachev to perceive this as me sticking my tongue out at him, and taunting him rudely, but there IS NO WORLDWIDE FOOD SHORTAGE. "Shortages" are mostly local and the unrest and "food riots" to which President Gorbachev is referring are localized incidents (AFAIK) so while there may be many local and regional FOOD CRISES, it is not due to any global shortage.
The food versus fuel debate focusing on biofuels is a public relations nightmare but it is just that, mostly just a scary imaginary problem. I don't know whose interest is served by perpetuating this myth, although it is a factor worth considering as we plan for the future.
THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF FOOD.** Less than 1/6 of the US corn crop went to ethanol in 2007 and even that also provides significant nutritional supplements to livestock diets after the distillers are finished with it in the form of what is called "dried distiller grains" (also known as DDG). Food prices have risen due largely to (1) systemic growth in food demand, especially previously non-industrialized countries improving economic situation which leads to more demand for better food, including imported exotic [foreign, to them] foods like wheat flour and corn sweetener. Add to this (2) the weak US dollar and (3) the huge price spike in oil (it now costs almost US$10 per US gallon of gasoline in Germany, Netherlands, and Britain). Some speculators are also driving up select prices as well. As are and some panic buyers who absolutely "have to have" supplies. In the US, Oriental restaurants have been hoarding rice against any possible shortage -- Americans would stop eating at their establishments if rice was suddenly no longer on the menu, and they would be out of business.
President Gorbachev says, later in the same article, "
"Our planet is quite capable of feeding them: experts estimate that with existing agricultural technologies, global production should be enough for 8 billion people.
The main reasons for the sudden crisis are man-made, resulting from action or inaction by politicians."
Corn is a poor choice for biofuels if it is just ethanol you are looking to obtain from the common starches and sugars, however, cellulosic ethanol from corn would be a huge improvement, and cellulosic ethanol in general uses the "whole" plant. So as long as you are leaving enough in the field/ground to grow subsequent crops it is far more efficient.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agrees with me. President Lula blames general global inflation, market distorting subsidies in certain nations (especially the ethanol subsidies in the USA, of course) as well as dramatic rises in oil prices causing production costs to increase (everywhere). Brazil has become nearly energy independent by making massive amounts of ethanol from sugar cane, and mandating that cars sold in Brazil must be capable of burning blended alcohol and gasoline (heavy on the ethanol, or pure ethanol) or biodiesel. Brazil actually has an excess of sugar and prices for it are depressed as a result.
Petrobas, the national oil company of Brazil is in discussions with companies in France and Spain about developing biofuel plants in those countries. Petrobras international biofuels business manager Fernando Cunha told Agencia Estado that you need to form a partnerships or else you have to buy a whole vast network of retail gas stations, "to be a big player in the biofuels market." Petrobras says the discussions with European companies are in their infancy.
But ultimately none of this comes close matching the marvelous breakthrough of being able to grow algae, which grows at rates that are so astoundingly high they sound like fantasies when you actually quote them. We are just not used to a crop "maturing" in one day, and certainly not doubling in mass in a matter of hours. Algae also grow in salt water (some species). They are the green slimy stuff that clings to rocks that you see as the tide goes out on almost every rocky shore in the world. Not all of them are "oily" but all of them have lots of lipids, even if only in their cell membranes, it is still a fairly good portion of their cellular mass, but some have 30 - 40%, possibly even 50% or more in lipid forms, and some even secrete oily substances that clump them together with their neighbors in addition to what is contained within the cells themselves.
When you can take 5,000, 10,000, possibly even 50,000 gallons of oil from an acre (almost double that per hectare of course) it doesn't take a lot of land to achieve "energy independence" from fossil carbon sources, and since a great many algae species grow in salt water, you can even move a good deal of it off the land and into the ocean if you happen to be a tiny island nation. (I didn't say that any of this is "cheap", but again, with thousands of gallons per year per acre, the returns can justify the expense.)
Petrobras are also in discussions at the "infancy" stage with a Canadian company developing fuel from algae technologies.
Now, none of this is to deny that solar, wind, tidal, hydro, and other sources can and will be important, but let's not let this MYTH of food vs. fuel already creating shortages dampen our enthusiasm for biofuels.
Did I mention how Canada, Britain, Australia and the USA governments ALL have farm subsidy programs to pay farmers NOT TO GROW certain crops in order to maintain artificially high prices on those crops so that these countries don't become "farmless" and therefore dependent on foreign sources of essential foods? And then there are the trade barriers on importation of certain foods (e.g. try importing beef into Japan. It can be done, but the red tape, delays, and conditions make it NEAR to impossible.) If we have this kind of economic foresight with respect to food crops, it was a gross oversight to allow this to happen with energy resources.
We need to get out of the deep dependence on any single energy type. That means we also need to be careful about becoming TOO dependent on electric energy, since all or at least almost all of solar, wind, tidal, geothermal sources get turned into electric energy to make it "portable" so that we can transmit it to the places where power is needed (or can be stored until it is needed, as in electric car batteries).
Oddly enough, nuclear energy also gets converted into electrical energy. At present the only form of "nuclear" energy we have is a fission process, in which large radioactive atoms give off unstable particles that split other heavy atoms, releasing still more particles and producing thermal energy. That is, by creating cascading self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions within contained spaces, we are able to heat fluids (quite usually just water) to create steam that in very conventional ways we put through turbines to generate electricity. Fusion energy, energy released by fusing small atom nuclei into larger, heavier atomic nuclei remains an elusive dream. I am convinced that scientists pursuing this goal of clean non-polluting nuclear fusion are "looking in the wrong direction", but I can't envision exactly how to explain that to them (even if they would listen). Nuclear fission energy (generating electricity) is NOT "green energy", it is THE MOST POLLUTING form of ELECTICAL GENERATION that we have. The pollution it creates, radioactive waste, remains toxic for tens of thousands of years.
The reason I mention this is that there are people who are starting to say, "Let's give up on this biofuel idea and just 'go with' electrical solutions." Biofuels are just methods of storing energy chemically. ALL of our energy comes from the sun. (especially if you are willing to view the sun's gravity as part of the reason for the molten earth's core that provides geothermal energy).
Imperium Renewables Inc. has received special status that lasts until 2013 (possibly renewable thereafter). What special status? The ruling reads in part:
"WHEREAS, the Port of Grays Harbor, grantee of FTZ 173, has requested manufacturing authority on behalf of Imperium Renewables, Inc. (IRI), within FTZ 173 in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, Washington (FTZ Docket 13-2007, filed 4/4/2007);"
and goes on to detail the APPROVAL of manufacturing status for Imperium Renewables under the Free Trade Zone act of 1934. It is not a cure for all their problems, but it just may help.
Clearly Imperium´s news is better news than what plagues many planned but not yet operational biodiesel manufacturing facilities. According to this blogger, a Knoxville, Tennessee, company has canceled plans to build 7 biodiesel plants, a British biodiesel company has filed for bankruptcy protection, and for that matter ethanol producers are not fairing much better, VeraSun and Pacific Ethanol have canceled nearly 270 million gallons in proposed capacity construction.
I want to take a quick side trip to political observations for a moment, before I share a "biofuels chuckle" with you.
I almost left out political discussions this week because very nearly nothing of importance happened on the US political landscape. Both sides seemed more interested in manufacturing trumped up "issues" than anything of substance, although I did hear one of the broadcast pundits remark that if Senator Hillary Clinton had been as genuine, warm and exuberant as she was in last Friday´s show of symbolic solidarity with Senator Obama, in symbolically chosen "Unity, New Hampshire, she might have become the presumptive nominee that she wanted to be by now. No, the political news that one can hardly ignore, though I am afraid that in the United States it gets far too little attention just because it is "foreign" news, international news, and more particularly considered African news, is the situation in Rhodesia. Don´t recognize that name? Then you are probably under 40 years of age, because President Robert Mugabe has ruled that country almost since it gained independence from Great Britain, almost 40 years ago. Mugabe´s reputation as a corrupt dictator, despite being "elected" (at least originally) has not even been in the news for most of the last decade, though the situation in that country had been deteriorating for some considerable time. When he was interviewed as to why he withdrew his candidacy from Monday´s elections, opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who by this time was hiding in a foreign embassy to escape Mugabe´s official and unofficial roving thugs, said he simply could not stand any longer because so many people were being killed for supporting him. He could no longer bear to feel responsible for allowing more deaths in support of his cause. Admittedly loud official condemnations were issued with all diplomatic haste to rebuke Mugabe for such tactics, along with calls to postpone the election date, but the election was held on Monday as scheduled, and the "sham," as American government officials called it, proceeded to the foregone outcome as expected. A National Public Radio report from June 24th quoted British journalist Peta Thornycroft of London's Daily Telegraph as saying that, "[President Robert Mugabe] and his generals, they don't care what the world says. ... They really are beyond normal restraint." Much of Africa cheered as Mugabe and his supporters drove the white colonialists out of the country, and in so doing destroyed the country´s economy, and most of its hope for ever maturing beyond yet another modern nation that is really just a collection of tribal loyalties whose "civilized" traditions for the last thousand years was to kill their neighbors for no better reason than not being of the same tribe. "Nations" do not have a "right" to be free and independent just because they manage to expel their colonial mentors by force of arms. All that accomplishes as we have seen nearly countless times all over the world is that they become "captives" of every petty dictator who can manage to seize power for a few years, followed by the next dictator who can raise enough rebels (aka "freedom fighters") to depose the current despot.
I might be presumptuous to think that I could devise a better system of transitioning from "conquered nation" to independent state, but I am afraid that even if I had a very good and thoroughly thought out plan, the merchants of weapons and the exploiters of corruption would never allow it to happen. Nearly lawless territories are ripe for the picking by those with no more scruples than the tyrants who rule them. That doesn´t mean I think we should give up on trying to help in these situations, but I fear that we do so at our own peril, as much if not more so than maintaining a safe and uninvolved distance from them.
Okay, that was a heavy subject, now for a chuckle. Certainly I found it amusing. Longtime readers may recall that I mentioned many months back about a New Zealand company that was pleased as punch to announce that they had harvested random wild species of algae from the open sewage ponds of their local wastewater processing facility, and had made a sample batch of biodiesel from it. I contacted the company, where company director Vicki Buck was polite but very tight-lipped about what they were up to there. Well, today another story about the company surfaced that makes them sound like a "black ops" division of the CIA. (Just to be clear, as far as I know, they have no connection to the CIA or any other clandestine service of the American government.) A web site called "Next Energy News" paints a vivid tale. Their headline reads, "Boeing's Secret Plan to use Algae as BioFuel for Jets", and just in case you "missed" the point of the headline, the opening paragraph emphasizes the conspiratorial nature of the situation thusly, "Air New Zealand and airliner manufacturer Boeing are secretly working with Blenheim-based biofuel developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation to create the world's first environmentally friendly aviation fuel, made of wild algae." They then pack in as much name dropping as any tabloid story could, Richard Branson and Virgin Airlines are invoked, and involved by having spoken to New Zealand Environment Minister David Parker, who once drove a Land Rover around the parking lot (okay, they said "forecourt", but I didn´t want to confuse the English euphemistically challenged) of New Zealand´s parliament buildings while the vehicle was being powered by B5 from algae derived biodiesel. Well congratulations Vicki on the NZ$5 million in initial fund raising, and good luck.
A not so amusing statement in the report was one which we might take heart from, Dave Barrett of Boeing estimated that, "algae ponds totalling 34,000 square kilometres could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero."
I am not sure that the city of Qingdao, People´s Republic ofChina would approve, but if they could forego holding the Olympic boating events in their harbor, I am pretty sure we could dispense with about 1000 acres of my Barrett´s estimates based on the natural occurance of algae there. News this week showed skip loaders filling dump trucks to haul away unbelievably huge quantities of algae that have been clogging the waters and beaches around Qingdao. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) noted that more than 100,000 tonnes of algae had been removed by over 1000 boats that were involved in the operation according to the Xinhau news agency. It may be bad news for Olympic boaters, but seeing those quantities of algae gathered that quickly and in one place gives me a big broad smile!
I am not a believer that movies cause violence in children, so if you are one of those who harbor such sentiments, skip this review, because Wanted starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy is the kind of action film you just can´t quite describe, but as the man says about "art", "I know it when I see it." And I have seen it. Director Timur Bekmambetov was not well known in American theaters before this rather major debut. His "mini biography" as the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) says he was a Russian born (though the place is now part of what is known as Kazakhstan) mostly known for his vampire films. Prior films that had English releases were (although released under numerous other titles as well) known as Nightwatch and Nightwatch 2. Whether the credit is well deserved or not (in this cases it appears well deserved) the director usually gets credit or blame. In this instance, Timur can expect his work to be compared to the great action film director Ang Lee. Music by Danny Elfman is strongly supportive, and the combination of this fine director with cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, and editors, David Brenner and Dallas Puett they have done exceptional work on the action sequences that is usually something that causes me to cringe. (Don´t panic guys if you are reading this, this is praise in your case.) They have somehow managed to convey incredible swirling, high speed motion of camera, actors, cars, sets and movements using close-ups in a way that normally makes my head spin and just fails to convey the action line of the scene. NOT IN THIS CASE. The action, the progression of the action and of the story is never lost despite the very close camera work. Images streak across the screen at just barely below a pure blur, and yet the director keeps us informed by the shots and their sequencing exactly what is happening all the time. I am glad someone in Hollywood still likes vampire films enough to have uncovered this huge talent. Expect to see more from him. Twilight Watch is still "in production" but this third in his vampire trilogy of films is being filmed IN ENGLISH (unlike the two previous which were dubbed to English), because 20th Century Fox is one of the financing partners.
Love and warm wishes,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://waterislife.psyrk.us/
"The world food crisis seems to have caught political leaders and even specialists in the field off guard. First caned [sic] a "silent tsunami," it is no longer silent. Many countries, including some that are critically important for regional and global stability, have already seen unrest and even food riots."
"Several causes of the crisis stand out: growing food consumption in rapidly developing China and India; increased demand for biofuels like ethanol, mostly made of grain; and changes in weather conditions caused by global warming and water shortages."
Now, we (that is, my company, DaoChi Energy of Arizona) has just recently begun to talk to Global Green USA which is an affiliate to former President Gorbachev's Green Cross International, so I really don't want President Gorbachev to perceive this as me sticking my tongue out at him, and taunting him rudely, but there IS NO WORLDWIDE FOOD SHORTAGE. "Shortages" are mostly local and the unrest and "food riots" to which President Gorbachev is referring are localized incidents (AFAIK) so while there may be many local and regional FOOD CRISES, it is not due to any global shortage.
The food versus fuel debate focusing on biofuels is a public relations nightmare but it is just that, mostly just a scary imaginary problem. I don't know whose interest is served by perpetuating this myth, although it is a factor worth considering as we plan for the future.
THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF FOOD.** Less than 1/6 of the US corn crop went to ethanol in 2007 and even that also provides significant nutritional supplements to livestock diets after the distillers are finished with it in the form of what is called "dried distiller grains" (also known as DDG). Food prices have risen due largely to (1) systemic growth in food demand, especially previously non-industrialized countries improving economic situation which leads to more demand for better food, including imported exotic [foreign, to them] foods like wheat flour and corn sweetener. Add to this (2) the weak US dollar and (3) the huge price spike in oil (it now costs almost US$10 per US gallon of gasoline in Germany, Netherlands, and Britain). Some speculators are also driving up select prices as well. As are and some panic buyers who absolutely "have to have" supplies. In the US, Oriental restaurants have been hoarding rice against any possible shortage -- Americans would stop eating at their establishments if rice was suddenly no longer on the menu, and they would be out of business.
President Gorbachev says, later in the same article, "
"Our planet is quite capable of feeding them: experts estimate that with existing agricultural technologies, global production should be enough for 8 billion people.
The main reasons for the sudden crisis are man-made, resulting from action or inaction by politicians."
Corn is a poor choice for biofuels if it is just ethanol you are looking to obtain from the common starches and sugars, however, cellulosic ethanol from corn would be a huge improvement, and cellulosic ethanol in general uses the "whole" plant. So as long as you are leaving enough in the field/ground to grow subsequent crops it is far more efficient.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agrees with me. President Lula blames general global inflation, market distorting subsidies in certain nations (especially the ethanol subsidies in the USA, of course) as well as dramatic rises in oil prices causing production costs to increase (everywhere). Brazil has become nearly energy independent by making massive amounts of ethanol from sugar cane, and mandating that cars sold in Brazil must be capable of burning blended alcohol and gasoline (heavy on the ethanol, or pure ethanol) or biodiesel. Brazil actually has an excess of sugar and prices for it are depressed as a result.
Petrobas, the national oil company of Brazil is in discussions with companies in France and Spain about developing biofuel plants in those countries. Petrobras international biofuels business manager Fernando Cunha told Agencia Estado that you need to form a partnerships or else you have to buy a whole vast network of retail gas stations, "to be a big player in the biofuels market." Petrobras says the discussions with European companies are in their infancy.
But ultimately none of this comes close matching the marvelous breakthrough of being able to grow algae, which grows at rates that are so astoundingly high they sound like fantasies when you actually quote them. We are just not used to a crop "maturing" in one day, and certainly not doubling in mass in a matter of hours. Algae also grow in salt water (some species). They are the green slimy stuff that clings to rocks that you see as the tide goes out on almost every rocky shore in the world. Not all of them are "oily" but all of them have lots of lipids, even if only in their cell membranes, it is still a fairly good portion of their cellular mass, but some have 30 - 40%, possibly even 50% or more in lipid forms, and some even secrete oily substances that clump them together with their neighbors in addition to what is contained within the cells themselves.
When you can take 5,000, 10,000, possibly even 50,000 gallons of oil from an acre (almost double that per hectare of course) it doesn't take a lot of land to achieve "energy independence" from fossil carbon sources, and since a great many algae species grow in salt water, you can even move a good deal of it off the land and into the ocean if you happen to be a tiny island nation. (I didn't say that any of this is "cheap", but again, with thousands of gallons per year per acre, the returns can justify the expense.)
Petrobras are also in discussions at the "infancy" stage with a Canadian company developing fuel from algae technologies.
Now, none of this is to deny that solar, wind, tidal, hydro, and other sources can and will be important, but let's not let this MYTH of food vs. fuel already creating shortages dampen our enthusiasm for biofuels.
Did I mention how Canada, Britain, Australia and the USA governments ALL have farm subsidy programs to pay farmers NOT TO GROW certain crops in order to maintain artificially high prices on those crops so that these countries don't become "farmless" and therefore dependent on foreign sources of essential foods? And then there are the trade barriers on importation of certain foods (e.g. try importing beef into Japan. It can be done, but the red tape, delays, and conditions make it NEAR to impossible.) If we have this kind of economic foresight with respect to food crops, it was a gross oversight to allow this to happen with energy resources.
We need to get out of the deep dependence on any single energy type. That means we also need to be careful about becoming TOO dependent on electric energy, since all or at least almost all of solar, wind, tidal, geothermal sources get turned into electric energy to make it "portable" so that we can transmit it to the places where power is needed (or can be stored until it is needed, as in electric car batteries).
Oddly enough, nuclear energy also gets converted into electrical energy. At present the only form of "nuclear" energy we have is a fission process, in which large radioactive atoms give off unstable particles that split other heavy atoms, releasing still more particles and producing thermal energy. That is, by creating cascading self-sustaining nuclear fission reactions within contained spaces, we are able to heat fluids (quite usually just water) to create steam that in very conventional ways we put through turbines to generate electricity. Fusion energy, energy released by fusing small atom nuclei into larger, heavier atomic nuclei remains an elusive dream. I am convinced that scientists pursuing this goal of clean non-polluting nuclear fusion are "looking in the wrong direction", but I can't envision exactly how to explain that to them (even if they would listen). Nuclear fission energy (generating electricity) is NOT "green energy", it is THE MOST POLLUTING form of ELECTICAL GENERATION that we have. The pollution it creates, radioactive waste, remains toxic for tens of thousands of years.
The reason I mention this is that there are people who are starting to say, "Let's give up on this biofuel idea and just 'go with' electrical solutions." Biofuels are just methods of storing energy chemically. ALL of our energy comes from the sun. (especially if you are willing to view the sun's gravity as part of the reason for the molten earth's core that provides geothermal energy).
Imperium Renewables Inc. has received special status that lasts until 2013 (possibly renewable thereafter). What special status? The ruling reads in part:
"WHEREAS, the Port of Grays Harbor, grantee of FTZ 173, has requested manufacturing authority on behalf of Imperium Renewables, Inc. (IRI), within FTZ 173 in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, Washington (FTZ Docket 13-2007, filed 4/4/2007);"
and goes on to detail the APPROVAL of manufacturing status for Imperium Renewables under the Free Trade Zone act of 1934. It is not a cure for all their problems, but it just may help.
Clearly Imperium´s news is better news than what plagues many planned but not yet operational biodiesel manufacturing facilities. According to this blogger, a Knoxville, Tennessee, company has canceled plans to build 7 biodiesel plants, a British biodiesel company has filed for bankruptcy protection, and for that matter ethanol producers are not fairing much better, VeraSun and Pacific Ethanol have canceled nearly 270 million gallons in proposed capacity construction.
I want to take a quick side trip to political observations for a moment, before I share a "biofuels chuckle" with you.
I almost left out political discussions this week because very nearly nothing of importance happened on the US political landscape. Both sides seemed more interested in manufacturing trumped up "issues" than anything of substance, although I did hear one of the broadcast pundits remark that if Senator Hillary Clinton had been as genuine, warm and exuberant as she was in last Friday´s show of symbolic solidarity with Senator Obama, in symbolically chosen "Unity, New Hampshire, she might have become the presumptive nominee that she wanted to be by now. No, the political news that one can hardly ignore, though I am afraid that in the United States it gets far too little attention just because it is "foreign" news, international news, and more particularly considered African news, is the situation in Rhodesia. Don´t recognize that name? Then you are probably under 40 years of age, because President Robert Mugabe has ruled that country almost since it gained independence from Great Britain, almost 40 years ago. Mugabe´s reputation as a corrupt dictator, despite being "elected" (at least originally) has not even been in the news for most of the last decade, though the situation in that country had been deteriorating for some considerable time. When he was interviewed as to why he withdrew his candidacy from Monday´s elections, opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who by this time was hiding in a foreign embassy to escape Mugabe´s official and unofficial roving thugs, said he simply could not stand any longer because so many people were being killed for supporting him. He could no longer bear to feel responsible for allowing more deaths in support of his cause. Admittedly loud official condemnations were issued with all diplomatic haste to rebuke Mugabe for such tactics, along with calls to postpone the election date, but the election was held on Monday as scheduled, and the "sham," as American government officials called it, proceeded to the foregone outcome as expected. A National Public Radio report from June 24th quoted British journalist Peta Thornycroft of London's Daily Telegraph as saying that, "[President Robert Mugabe] and his generals, they don't care what the world says. ... They really are beyond normal restraint." Much of Africa cheered as Mugabe and his supporters drove the white colonialists out of the country, and in so doing destroyed the country´s economy, and most of its hope for ever maturing beyond yet another modern nation that is really just a collection of tribal loyalties whose "civilized" traditions for the last thousand years was to kill their neighbors for no better reason than not being of the same tribe. "Nations" do not have a "right" to be free and independent just because they manage to expel their colonial mentors by force of arms. All that accomplishes as we have seen nearly countless times all over the world is that they become "captives" of every petty dictator who can manage to seize power for a few years, followed by the next dictator who can raise enough rebels (aka "freedom fighters") to depose the current despot.
I might be presumptuous to think that I could devise a better system of transitioning from "conquered nation" to independent state, but I am afraid that even if I had a very good and thoroughly thought out plan, the merchants of weapons and the exploiters of corruption would never allow it to happen. Nearly lawless territories are ripe for the picking by those with no more scruples than the tyrants who rule them. That doesn´t mean I think we should give up on trying to help in these situations, but I fear that we do so at our own peril, as much if not more so than maintaining a safe and uninvolved distance from them.
Okay, that was a heavy subject, now for a chuckle. Certainly I found it amusing. Longtime readers may recall that I mentioned many months back about a New Zealand company that was pleased as punch to announce that they had harvested random wild species of algae from the open sewage ponds of their local wastewater processing facility, and had made a sample batch of biodiesel from it. I contacted the company, where company director Vicki Buck was polite but very tight-lipped about what they were up to there. Well, today another story about the company surfaced that makes them sound like a "black ops" division of the CIA. (Just to be clear, as far as I know, they have no connection to the CIA or any other clandestine service of the American government.) A web site called "Next Energy News" paints a vivid tale. Their headline reads, "Boeing's Secret Plan to use Algae as BioFuel for Jets", and just in case you "missed" the point of the headline, the opening paragraph emphasizes the conspiratorial nature of the situation thusly, "Air New Zealand and airliner manufacturer Boeing are secretly working with Blenheim-based biofuel developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation to create the world's first environmentally friendly aviation fuel, made of wild algae." They then pack in as much name dropping as any tabloid story could, Richard Branson and Virgin Airlines are invoked, and involved by having spoken to New Zealand Environment Minister David Parker, who once drove a Land Rover around the parking lot (okay, they said "forecourt", but I didn´t want to confuse the English euphemistically challenged) of New Zealand´s parliament buildings while the vehicle was being powered by B5 from algae derived biodiesel. Well congratulations Vicki on the NZ$5 million in initial fund raising, and good luck.
A not so amusing statement in the report was one which we might take heart from, Dave Barrett of Boeing estimated that, "algae ponds totalling 34,000 square kilometres could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero."
I am not sure that the city of Qingdao, People´s Republic ofChina would approve, but if they could forego holding the Olympic boating events in their harbor, I am pretty sure we could dispense with about 1000 acres of my Barrett´s estimates based on the natural occurance of algae there. News this week showed skip loaders filling dump trucks to haul away unbelievably huge quantities of algae that have been clogging the waters and beaches around Qingdao. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) noted that more than 100,000 tonnes of algae had been removed by over 1000 boats that were involved in the operation according to the Xinhau news agency. It may be bad news for Olympic boaters, but seeing those quantities of algae gathered that quickly and in one place gives me a big broad smile!
I am not a believer that movies cause violence in children, so if you are one of those who harbor such sentiments, skip this review, because Wanted starring Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy is the kind of action film you just can´t quite describe, but as the man says about "art", "I know it when I see it." And I have seen it. Director Timur Bekmambetov was not well known in American theaters before this rather major debut. His "mini biography" as the Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com) says he was a Russian born (though the place is now part of what is known as Kazakhstan) mostly known for his vampire films. Prior films that had English releases were (although released under numerous other titles as well) known as Nightwatch and Nightwatch 2. Whether the credit is well deserved or not (in this cases it appears well deserved) the director usually gets credit or blame. In this instance, Timur can expect his work to be compared to the great action film director Ang Lee. Music by Danny Elfman is strongly supportive, and the combination of this fine director with cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, and editors, David Brenner and Dallas Puett they have done exceptional work on the action sequences that is usually something that causes me to cringe. (Don´t panic guys if you are reading this, this is praise in your case.) They have somehow managed to convey incredible swirling, high speed motion of camera, actors, cars, sets and movements using close-ups in a way that normally makes my head spin and just fails to convey the action line of the scene. NOT IN THIS CASE. The action, the progression of the action and of the story is never lost despite the very close camera work. Images streak across the screen at just barely below a pure blur, and yet the director keeps us informed by the shots and their sequencing exactly what is happening all the time. I am glad someone in Hollywood still likes vampire films enough to have uncovered this huge talent. Expect to see more from him. Twilight Watch is still "in production" but this third in his vampire trilogy of films is being filmed IN ENGLISH (unlike the two previous which were dubbed to English), because 20th Century Fox is one of the financing partners.
Love and warm wishes,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://waterislife.psyrk.us/
