Get Your Learn On, Part Deux:

One persistent myth about biomass is that it takes more energy to produce fuels from biomass than the fuels themselves contain. In other words, that it is a net energy loser. In fact, current ethanol production uses corn, one of the most energy-intensive crops, and then uses just the kernels from the corn plant, and not even the entire kernel. Even so, this process yields 50 percent more energy than it takes to make the ethanol, so it is a net gainer.

Nonetheless, we could do much better. By making ethanol from energy crops, we could obtain between four and five times the energy that we put in, and by making electricity we could get perhaps 10 times or more. In the future, to make a truly sustainable biomass energy system, we would have to replace fossil fuels with biomass or other renewable fuels to plant and harvest the crops.

Another important consideration with biomass energy systems is that biomass contains less energy per pound than fossil fuels. This means that raw biomass typically can't be cost-effectively shipped more than about 50 miles before it is converted into fuel or energy. It also means that biomass energy systems are likely to be smaller than their fossil fuel counterparts, because it is hard to gather and process more than this quantity of fuel in one place. This has the advantage that local, rural communities -- and perhaps even individual farms -- will be able to design energy systems that are self-sufficient, sustainable, and perfectly adapted to their own needs.

I dunno about those ethanol numbers. One thing a lot of people forget to calculate is that we use petroleum products when making fertilizers. That's right: we treat our sewage and cesspool our animal waste so that it can re-enter the water supply, and we pump dead organic matter out of the ground in the middle east to make stuff to spread on our crops so they'll grow better.

Yeah, that's fucking market efficiency for ya.

Sunday wasted away on work and dithering. The newly painted room carries and aura of accomplishment though. Also on the upside: I informed the Belle de Park Slope that I would probably be spending some/all of the summer months in the State of Jefferson. Unsurprisingly, she was unsurprised. Tough girl. Like that.

The spring has arrived, and it seems that the wheels are in motion again.

Apropos the post below about the (in)ability of debate to do anything to alter our nation's course towards or away from war with Iran, I'm still going to post about it. If you want some good background, listen to this bit from Sy Hersh on Fresh Air. Chock full of facts.

Out here on the internets, some think it's hip to compare the president of Iran to Hitler. The impetus is that a few neo-nazis in Germany are rallying in support of Iran, but really I think it is about ginning up support for a war. I think that's stupid.

Granted, it's not quite as moronic as comparing Howard Dean to Der Feurer, which happened last December after he put forward the view (now conventional wisdom) that we can no longer "win" in Iraq. No, it's smarter than that. Unfortunately, it is also more dangerous.

Let's nip this shit in the bud. Let's keep it real. What real fucking significance is there to a few asshole skinheads in Germany doing their usual crap? Zero. That doesn't make invoking WWII and the Holocaust apt, it makes it crass.

Wot-wot? Goodmin's Law, sucka. We gots to stop the hating.

Given the total worldwide costs and consequences of an aggressive attack on Iran -- which would be massive, just think about it -- the idea seems like a loosing proposition even through the most steely realpolitik, especially considering that there is not even any immediacy to the threat.

There are plenty of players who have skin in the game. Perhaps when we have a head of state capable of, you know, conducting diplomacy, progress might be made. There's still plenty of time.

Do people really think that Iran would give up it's existence in order to nuke Israel? Ahmadinejad may be many things, but he's not crazy. He's not even Kim-Jong-cooky. He's a populist head of state who's well connected and has no desire to kill himself or cause his nation and people to be annihilated.

But suppose diplomacy really is useless. If nothing changes, in 5 to 10 years, Iran may have a nuclear weapon, which they'd be pretty unlikely to use offensively. The far more likely logic for acquiring nuclear arms for these smaller nations is deterrence against conventional attack from a superior external force.

Let's not feed that paranoia any more, eh?

It's apparently full-on spring here in New York. That's fun.

That's a sure sign of California, and a testiment to my granola roots that I don't mind soya in the java. It's just different is all.

Windows support on the new Mac hardware is official, which is fucking sweet.

Mr. Filloy is doing well. We've got some plans to gin up controversy around his graduation speech. Rumor is it may spark some protests from "The Hastings Eagles." Stay tuned for details.

AOL IM has apparently ground to a halt, which has disasterous consequences for my (and everyone else's) business life. Interesting.

I think about it all the time -- 24/7... twentyfour-seven -- oh yeah. One more plug for the Kleptones. It's good stuff.

There are so many things to be excited about here... Look out baby, 'cause here I come.

Dude, the Others as holdovers from some wierdo freakout hippie ("the Dharma initiative?") psychological experiment? It's one of the better possibilities in terms of plot explanations...

Flying to Cali tomorrow, a week in SF and then a weekend in Weshaven. Looking forward to a change of scenery.

It's hard, sometimes. Communication is difficult, and people really do see the world pretty differently, even when they're allies. Trying to get anything going on is really an effort, but stuff's starting to happen.

People have to just get over their fear a little more, and things might start to get really good.

The site snafu from last week means I haven't been getting email sent to outlandishjosh for the past 5 days. So I'll be picking up about 300 emails now. Sorry if I missed anything.