Energy Citizens Rally Or Protest Was Not Just Surreal It Was Sad

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I got into the rally because Roy Wehrle got stopped by Security. The lengths that they went to keep out “undesirables” was pretty amazing. Will Reynolds, of the Sierra Club went in and gave some materials to their Press Table. He was then barred from reentry by 2 Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputies for distributing political literature. Apparently after that anyone seen talking to Will was a thoroughly dangerous man like in Alice’s Restaurant. When I went in the ballroom they pounced on mild mannered Economics professor Roy and turned him away.

Remember this is the compelling protest designed to defeat Cap and Trade WHICH is the INDUSTRIES proposal NOT the Environmentalists. I like a huge Carbon Tax myself. Most European countries pay 6 $$$ per gallon for their gasoline…and that tax money is invested directly into renewables and infrastructure. Why not do something like that in the US? This is what the “protest” looked like:

Photos by Wes King

This is what they stand for:

http://energycitizens.org/about/

About Energy Citizens

Energy Citizens is a nationwide alliance of organizations and individuals formed to bring together people across America to remind Congress that energy is the backbone of our nation’s economy and our way of life.

Energy Citizens are voicing their concerns about the impact climate legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would have on American jobs, families and businesses. The alliance is urging the Senate to get it right and make sure that climate, energy and tax legislation would not take money out of Americans’ pocketbooks and cost millions of jobs.

See personal stories from people across the country, or take a look at the list of participating organizations that have joined Energy Citizens in support of American jobs and affordable energy

This is who paid for it:

http://www.redcounty.com/illinois-business-groups-schedule-anti-cap-and-trade-rally-sept-1st

Illinois Business Groups Schedule Anti-Cap and Trade Rally, Sept. 1st

By Warner Todd Huston | 08/31/09 | 07:41 PM EDT

A group called Energy Citizens made up of 23 Illinois business associations have scheduled a September 1st rally in order to protest the seriously damaging policies of the Cap and Trade bill. The rally will be held near the State Capitol in Springfield.

The event will start a noon and will be held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, 3000 Dirksen Parkway, Springfield, Illinois.

A notice was posted at the Illinois Farm Bureau website.

A lunch will follow the roughly 45-minute event, one of 22 rallies nationwide sponsored by the group Energy Citizens to oppose House-approved legislation. IFB members are encouraged to attend, and may contact their county Farm Bureau for additional details.

The Illinois members of Energy Citizens includes the Southwestern Illinois Employers Association and Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative, the Illinois Association of Convenience Stores, Associated Builder and Contractors of Illinois (ABC), Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association, Grain & Feed Association of Illinois, Growmark, Home Builders Association of Illinois, Illinois Association of Aggregate Producers, Illinois Coal Associations, Illinois Energy Forum, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois manufacturers Association, Illinois Petroleum Council, Illinois Pork Producers, Illinois Retail Merchants Association, Illinois Trucking Association, MidAmerica Energy, Mid-West Truckers Association, Illinois Oil & Gas Association, National Federation of Independent Business, Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative and the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association.

The saddest part was they used local “personality” Bob Murray as the MC. I hate to pick on anyone but there is a reason that Bob moved from TV to Radio and there are no pictures available of him below the waist…I mean he is huge. When I walked in he looked pretty normal but when I got off to the side I was stunned. Then he made a joke about it. “I am so big”, he said, “When I asked my mom when I was born she said July 4rth….July 5th and July 6th”

http://www.spoke.com/info/pF0Rf1m/BobMurray

I just wanted to cry. They were giving away bright yellow Tshirts that read, “I will pass on $4 gas”. I wish now I would have grabbed one. There was even a sign that read, “RVer’s Against Waxman-Markey” and another sign that read, “Crap and Trade”. As I walked out Murray said, “The great thing about this country is that you can hold a meeting like this and then there is no one waiting for you in the parking lot to shoot your ass”. He then turned and launched into the Pledge of Allegiance.

WHAT a parking lot it was too. As I walked back to my car, past the hundreds of Lincoln Town cars, giant SUVs and the huge Chevys I noticed that they had filled up half of the parking lot with displays. There was a huge 16 head combine that had a Rural America Needs Affordable Energy banner slung across it. A huge semi trailer display for Illinois Crude Oil and Natural Gas. To add insult to injury the last display I walked by was 2 bucket trucks with their buckets up holding a banner that said Stop Cap and Trade. The trucks were owned by the Rural Electric Convenience Coop in Auburn that just put up a 1.2 million $$$ wind turbine.

It may take me years to get the images out of my head…..yuck

Oh and thanks to the college students who drove all the way from Chicago when we were thinking about disrupting this madness.

Energy Citizens Protest Rally In Springfield Was The Most Surreal Event I Have Ever Attended

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I could add sick, disgusting, phony and funny to that list but why bother? I can show you how it was by example. But on the 150 aniversery of the first oil well..it is just plain sad. Oil guys used to be such roughnecks now they are kinda wussy.

The 2 most surreal events I had ever been to before was an Alice Cooper concert in 1969 and the Opening of Ticket Sales at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the English Opera Peter Grimes in Los Angeles in 1984. I know Alice doesn’t need any explanation (it does really), but the opening of ticket sales for an obscure opera?

But first a picture:

(thanks for the pictures Wes King)

It is in a BALLROOM. I have never been to a protest in one of the ritzyest ballrooms within a 100 miles of Springfield. This is the most senior citizens I have seen at a protest not sponsored by the AARP ever. There is no ethnic diversity in the room. I have been to plenty of protests, some where there were simultaneous counter protests and I have never seen this Caucasion of an audience since my last KKK rally. It is probably tough to see but the 2 black skinned men in the room are a waitstaff member at the bottom of the picture and way off in the distance there is a black camera man for the only news organization I saw that day, Channel 20 TV. Considering the cost of this rally that in itself was bizarre. But back to Alice Cooper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA-sjSkRM4M&feature=channel

This Alice Cooper concert was when I was 14, and it was my first rock concert ever. It was in Peoria in a place since torn down called the Cow Palace. Which it literally was. A barn like structure with a dirt floor where they sold cows (and other live stock). It was my 3rd acid trip…my first in public and I was with my fiance’ Denise and some other San Jose (Illinois) crazies. All the lights were on so it was real bright, and all of the sudden the Wedding March starts playing, these flowers POP up on the stage and simultaneously a man in a tux (stage left), a women in a wedding dress (stage right) and a minister (center stage) all walk to the center of the stage. The audience was stunned. The minister performs the wedding complete with “is there anyone here who may object to this union”? Stunned silence. Towards the end of the ceremony Alice Cooper and his band in their full make up started peering through the flowers. At the “kiss the bride” part the room goes to BLACK, the stage lights come on low and giant trash cans come hurtling over the flowers, followed by Alice and the band…In that 2 second period my life changed for ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUFO_04J1r4

My second most surreal moment could take some set up but I will try to make it as quick as possible. But first another picture of the event:

I mean really do these people look angry? Do they look passionate about preventing “cap and trade” in the area of carbon production because it has already worked for sulfur? NO these people look like people at the Republican Convention in Minnesota last year.

Anyway in 1984 I lived in Las Vegas with a woman who celebrated her 30 birthday. I had patiently gone to the Lyric Opera in Chicago for 2 seasons with her. Then I said enough! I am not going to another Opera unless it is in English and I was off the hook for a couple of years. BUT someone (probably her sister) told her that Peter Grimes was playing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA. Yes the same place where the Academy Awards are occasionally given out. So we got a room in a South Central L.A., yes the place that burned down in the riots which was surreal enough as it was. We went for a driving tour of the LA area (Hollywood, Venice Beach, Malibu) and then we had Oriental Food downtown someplace. The next day we had to go pick up our tickets at the Pavilion. Yes I know that seems quaint now but you had to physically pick up your tickets. While we were waiting in this 500 person line we were subjected to a surprise Japanese Performance Art piece.

http://www.musiccenter.org/

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/japan/pro-performing_arts.htm

http://outwestarts.blogspot.com/2008/03/attend-tale-of-peter-grimes.html

Nobody was looking up so I have no idea how it started, but suddenly you hear a huge horn sound…like a foghorn or something real deep and loud. I looked up and there on top of the Pavilion (4 stories maybe) was a long robed Japanese figure in an elongated paper masked, flanked on each side by 2 naked guys in diapers. He blew on this big horn again. It was about 8 ft. long and rested on the ground like an Alp Horn:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070905040636AAXDrTt

Then these 4 nearly naked Japanese guys rappelled down the front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Australian style to some really weird Japanese music played through the Pavilion’s very small very tinny outdoor speakers:

swatman6.tripod.com/srt1.html

This rapel took forever. When they landed in front of us they did some short welcoming ritual (I am guessing). The guy on the roof blew the horn again. These naked guys jumped up and down once, turned and ran to the entrance way. They threw open the doors and ran inside the building and the guy on the roof was gone. People were so stunned nobody actually went through the door. Then people started clapping and several brave soldiers advanced into the que.

So there you have it. What I witnessed at the Energy Citizens protest rally yesterday was somewhere between an Alice Cooper Concert and a Japanese Performance Art piece on my surreal scale. WHOA

He Was Shootin At Some Food And Up Came Some Bubbling Crude

Posted on September 1, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkOGM6gHvao

Oil that is, Texas Gold….Hmmm maybe like population bustin, human cancer makin, pollutin the atmosphere…dead plants and animals from the past black gunk.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/after-150-years-whither-oil/

2009-08-27 T00:52:03-04:00″ Updated: 12:52 am

After 150 Years, Whither Oil?

By Jad Mouawad

Drake Well

The Associated Press A replica of the well and tower stand over the site in Titusville, Pa., where Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well in 1859.

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the first oil well drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania by “Colonel” Edwin Drake. The commodity would prove essential to the development of modern societies, enabling communications, travel and trade on a global scale.

But its central role is now facing unprecedented challenges.

Governments are concerned about the need for energy security and reliable supplies. The threat of climate change requires shifting away from fossil fuels that currently dominate the world’s energy mix. And fears of “peak oil” — the notion that half the world’s reserves have been pumped and that global production is now on a slow path of decline — have gained followers as prices have soared.

How much longer will the “Oil Age” last?

In our own opinion page on Monday, Michael Lynch, an oil consultant, suggested that the notion of peak oil amounted to uninformed fear-mongering, and that it ignored the realities of the modern oil industry. The bottom line, Mr. Lynch argued, is that the world is not about to run out of oil and that new exploration and drilling technologies continue to expand the pool of global reserves

http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=20230

Insights: Energy and Environment

150 Years of Commercial Petroleum

One hundred and fifty years since the discovery of oil at Titusville, Pennsylvania, it is time to reflect on what are the next steps towards energy independence.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

by Gal Luft

One hundred and fifty years ago, give or take a few days, in the sleepy lumber town of Titusville, Pa., “Colonel” Edwin Drake was persistently hammering a pipe into the ground in search of a replacement for depleting whale oil as a fuel for lamps. At a depth of 69 feet below ground he finally struck oil, and the world changed forever. Over a century and a half his 25 barrels per day well would give rise to a global industry of 85 million barrels per day, making oil the world’s most strategic commodity, one that supplies 40 percent of the world’s energy.

Just like in Drake’s own life — he died two decades later penniless — oil has been both a curse and a blessing for humanity. It has been a driver of seminal events and a backdrop behind great powers’ foreign policy. During World War I, “the Allies had floated to victory upon a wave of oil,” as the British statesman Lord Curzon noted. The post-war contention between Turkey and Britain in the early 1920s over Iraq’s oil-rich Mosul, Imperial Japan’s expansionist policy of the 1930s that led to a four-year war in the Pacific, Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Russia, America’s repeated military interventions in the Middle East and the “New Great Game” currently taking place in Central Asia have all been tied to oil dependence.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203706604574370511700484236.html

Why Oil Still Has a Future

By DANIEL YERGIN

( :} This is an excerpt from a much longer piece…the first paragraph was …titusville blah blah)

Why this debate about the single most important source of energy—and a very convenient one—that provides 40% of the world’s total energy? There are the traditional concerns—energy security, diversification, political risk, and the potential for conflict among nations over resources. The huge shifts in global income flows raise anxieties about the possible impact on the global balance of power. Some worry that physical supply will run out, although examination of the world’s resource base—including a new analysis of over 800 oil fields—shows ample physical resources below ground. The politics above ground is a separate question.

But two new factors are now fueling the debate. One is the way in which oil has taken on a second identity. It is no longer only a physical commodity. It has also become a financial asset, along with stocks, bonds, currencies and the rest of the world’s financial portfolio. The resulting price volatility—from less than $40 in 2004, to as high as $147.27 in July 2008, back down to $32.40 in December 2008, and now back over $70—has enormous consequences, and not only at the gas station and in terms of public anger. It makes it much more difficult to plan future energy investments, whether in oil and gas or in renewable and alternative fuels. And it can have enormous economic impact; Detroit was sent reeling by what happened at the gas pump in 2007 and 2008 even before the credit crisis. Such volatility can fuel future recessions and inflation

Do Not Mess With Powerlines – I have not done enough about safety

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I do not care whether it is gasoline, oil, coal, natural gas, or electricity. Power can be dangerous and our motto is it’s Jam Band Friday ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIY45rqzmNQ ).

NO – Safety First!

www.plu.edu/~safety/safety-training/home.html

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq2vl99iIEc&feature=related )

There is a show that is put on at the Illinois State Fair by the folks at Safe Electricity Org

http://www.safeelectricity.org/

It amazes me after living in 2 hurrican prone areas…Tampa and New Orleans… that anyone would mess around with downed powerlines or purposely come int0 contact with high power electrical equipment. But they do every year.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab6lr2b66Ig )

live.psu.edu/album/1170

Do not drive over, touch or otherwise disturb downed powerline. They will fry your limbs off your body.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1IyJOc-l4s )

Shawn Miller lost an arm when he touched a downed line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q-mLyqXndA

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuwxZSIS__4 )
Shawn’s case was a lack of education and thoughtlessness. Some people do it on purpose.

http://205.243.100.155/frames/longarc.htm

long spark!

The cylindrical object on the left houses a multi-million volt (MV) high voltage impulse generator (called a Marx Generator) at the Siberian Power Research Institute (SIBNIIE) high voltage testing facility in Novosibirsk, Siberia. The rate of rise of the voltage pulse from the Marx Generator was adjusted to maximize the “efficiency” of long spark propagation. Although first reports of huge 100+ meter sparks were initially met with skepticism by scientists and high voltage engineers, a number of power engineers and scientists have subsequently witnessed similar events at this facility. Sometimes these errant bolts hit the top of street lamps in the adjacent parking lot! At this facility, sparks up to 200 meters long have been created using a (comparatively low) potential of 5.2 MV. In order to gain a feel for scale in the above photo, the cylindrical building is 28 meters (~92 feet) high, and it houses a 28-stage Marx generator that’s capable of generating positive or negative output pulses of up to 7 million volts.

In late 2005, a member of the Tesla Coil Mailing List (Dmitry, a Tesla Coiling enthusiast who lives near the facility) was able to schedule a visit with members of their staff. Dmitry subsequently shared details about this facility in a series of email messages to the other members on the list, and the excellent pictures he took can be seen on our mirror of Terry Fritz’s old Hot-Streamer web site. :}

They are insane.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xXIeD8HGoU )

Yahoo Attacks The Illinois State Fair – Well not really but my Yahoo account was attacked

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

The reason this Post is so late in the day is because I opened my web browser today and it showed that I had 35 messages waiting for me. Someone had unleashed a worm on my address book and it was busy sending all my friends spam. Some of it dangerous spam. I was mortified. I spent over 2 hours checking to make sure it was originating on my computer. People sent some of it back to me so I could see what the heck was spewing out of my account. Then in consultation with my computer expert Afredo I determined that just changing my email password could halt the attack…So I did and it ended. I had to blow off lunch with David Lasley, Dave Fuchs and the Sangamon County Democrats just to get to here…Damnit.

There were some things that I saw at the Illinois State Fair that I did not really care for. One of those things was the prominence of Biofuel in both of Governor Pat Quinn’s tents. We all know that biofuel, especially ones made from foods, distract people from getting rid of the internal combustion engine. It also drives up food prices so this:

and this:

were NOT appreciated.

Though the latest craze in biofuels is watermellons that are farm waste:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/26/watermelon-fuel.html

Watermelon Juice: The New Fuel?

Michael Reilly, Discovery News

Fill ‘er Up | Discovery News Video

Aug. 26, 2009 — A staple of backyard barbecues and summer time snacks, watermelon is also a promising new source of renewable energy.

According to a new study, leftover watermelons from farms’ harvests could be converted into up to 9.4 million liters (2.5 million gallons) of clean, renewable ethanol fuel every year destined for your car, truck, or airplane’s gas tank.

Agriculturally, watermelon is a peculiar fruit — each year farmers across the country leave between 20 and 40 percent of their crop to rot on the ground. These are the ugly ducklings of the lot; though perfectly fine on the inside, the misshapen or blemished melons simply won’t sell at the grocery store.

“If a crow lands on a melon, takes two pecks at the rind, and then flies away, it’s no good,” Wayne Fish of the United States Department of Agriculture in Lane, Oklahoma said. “I had farmers telling me, ‘I’m leaving one-fifth of my melons on the land. Is there anything I can do with them?'”

Across the United States, he estimated that 360,000 tons of watermelons spoil in fields every year.

Some local growers wondered whether the waste melons could be turned into ethanol, the clean-burning fuel derived from plant sugars. In a series of new experiments published yesterday in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels, Fish and a team of researchers showed that they can.

What’s more, watermelon juice may turn out to be the perfect way to optimize industrial-scale production of ethanol from corn, molasses and sugar cane.

Then there was this. What the hell. This causes Earth Quakes in Texas yet it makes it to the State Fair?

Fracking is Coming to Decatur. People better get ready for it:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526233,00.html

Drilling Eyed as Possible Culprit Behind Texas Earthquakes

Sunday, June 14, 2009

CLEBURNE, Texas — The earth moved here on June 2. It was the first recorded earthquake in this Texas town’s 140-year history — but not the last.

There have been four small earthquakes since, none with a magnitude greater than 2.8. The most recent ones came Tuesday night, just as the City Council was meeting in an emergency session to discuss what to do about the ground moving.

The council’s solution was to hire a geology consultant to try to answer the question on everyone’s mind: Is natural gas drilling — which began in earnest here in 2001 and has brought great prosperity to Cleburne and other towns across North Texas — causing the quakes?

“I think John Q. Public thinks there is a correlation with drilling,” Mayor Ted Reynolds said. “We haven’t had a quake in recorded history, and all the sudden you drill and there are earthquakes.”

At issue is a drilling practice called “fracking,” in which water is injected into the ground at high pressure to fracture the layers of shale and release natural gas trapped in the rock.

There is no consensus among scientists about whether the practice is contributing to the quakes. But such seismic activity was once rare in Texas and seems to be increasing lately, lending support to the theory that drilling is having a destabilizing effect.

On May 16, three small quakes shook Bedford, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. Two small earthquakes hit nearby Grand Prairie and Irving on Oct. 31, and again on Nov. 1.

The Big State Agencies Love The Illinois State Fair As Much As I Do

Posted on August 26, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

*+ On a personal note..CES is a nonprofit organization and when you click on our google ads you make a donation to us. The more you click the more we get. Thanks for being so nice+*

Illinois State Fair

They show up with a vengeance. In all fairness (HAHA) I think some of them are mandated to show up. Again I was disappointed that I did not make it to the Illinois Building for Seniors day because IDENR puts on a great energy conservation display. I also did not make it to the Conservation area so I can not run a picture of the Oil Well like I do each year, nor did I get a chance to buy a TShirt from DENR if their stand was open this year. That said…The Governor had 2 tents and they covered the gambit:

http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/index

First there was the U of I’s Sustainable Technology Center. They claim to have served Illinois since 1985. I got my doubts about that but….

at:

www.istc.illinois.edu

Then there was the

Illinois Community College Sustainability Network:

http://ilccsn.ectolearning.com/ecto2/partners/ilccsn/htmsite/pages/home.shtml

established in 2007 to take advantage of the Stimulus Package of 2009…

Eguimqunon was there too:

Sorry I meant Emiquon..I never can say that name..

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/illinois/preserves/art1112.html

Plus the GREEN House:

MEET THE GREENS: Now almost all these exhibits were for kids:

Then again aren’t we all KIDS at Heart?

http://www.meetthegreens.org/

Did I mention the Butter Cow:

Or the Mehan’s 75 years at the Fair?

I know I did..

Energy and the Illinois State Fair – Dancing inbetween the rain drops

Posted on August 25, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

Cathy

and I went to the Illinois State Fair

To see the Butter Cow.

This year’s fair was really weird weather wise. It rained when Cathy and I normally go on Monday and Tuesday – Senior’s Day and Agriculture Day respectively. So by the time we made it on Friday most everything was gone. Embarrassingly we did not make it to Conservation World where all the cool kids and our friends hang out. We did make it to the Expo Building where home efficiency seemed to be the order of the day:

We met this nice man from Energy Doctor. A business that offers to tighten your envelop and use other measures as a package to reduce your energy consumption. They started in Iowa but have 5 offices now. Please visit them at:

http://www.energydoctorinc.com/index.html

Then we saw the purdy little girl at the Anderson Windows booth:

http://www.andersenwindows.com/

And we saw the people from Peoria Siding:

http://www.peoriasiding.com/pages/siding.php

And the Four Seasons solar space:

http://www.fourseasons.com/?source=gaw09cxbrS13&kw=4+seasons&KW_ID=P161761933&creative=2879208154&type=search&keyword=4%20seasons&adid=2879208154&placement=&gclid=CMWmhMOxv5wCFQ7xDAodjGQnnw

OH I mean this Four Seasons:

http://www.fourseasonssunrooms.com/

Having exhausted ourselves we went across the street to Mehan’s food stand and got a corn dog and a lemon shake up. They are celebrating 75 years at the Illinois State Fair…Congratulations

The Russian Dam Explosion – What is it about the Russians and the Power Business

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I had intended to write about the Illinois State Fair today which is always a hoot. But this happened while I was on vacation and I just have to say something. Are the Russians stupid or criminal? I can’t make up my mind. First there was the greatest nuclear accident to date at Chernobyl which has its own Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

But now they give us the worst dam accident in modern times. Understand I am not talking about burst dams here. In the power business their are things that are dangerous like badly constructed coal fired plants and coal mines, then there are things that are considered safe like Hydro power. So the Russkies took a perfectly safe industry and killed (what?) 50 to 80 people off at one time. Was this a dam operated by by by Homer Simpson or something.

http://www.topix.com/world/2009/08/10-die-dozens-missing-in-russian-dam-explosion

Monday Aug 17

10 die, dozens missing in Russian dam explosion

An accident during repair work at Russia’s largest hydroelectric plant on Monday killed at least 10 workers, while as many as 65 others were missing after an engine room was suddenly flooded, officials said.

But then they can’t even get the number of dead right.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8207816.stm

Death toll rises in Russian dam explosion

Russian officials now say up to 76 people are feared to have died in the explosion at the country’s biggest hydro-electric power station on Monday.

64 people are still missing after the blast destroyed the power station’s main turbine hall.

The owners of the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant in Siberia say it is unlikely any survivors will be found.

Neil Bowdler reports.

What the hell man?

Diabetes Caused By Fish – This so outrageous for 2 reasons

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

I never post on the weekends. 5 days a week is about all I can handle but this is so freaking out there that I just had to put it up. This fact is mostly an insult to the world at large because of DDT’s continued destruction 50 years after its ban. I mean what else is out there and how will it kill us? But the other part is the response to the fact that toxins in fish can cause diabetes is that “health” officials are telling us that fish are good for us, and the seeming indifference to what should be major emotional outbursts. They are “cutting back on their consumption”. Not trying to find the people responsible and kill them. How civilized.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-fish-diabetes-bdaug23,0,7994362.story

Toxins in Lake Michigan fish linked to diabetes

By Vanessa McMains Tribune reporter

August 23, 2009

This is a fish tale in which smaller is better than bigger, especially if the catch is to be eaten in any quantity.

That’s because a new study of Great Lakes boat captains over 15 years found a correlation between the chemical DDE and diabetes. Those who ate more fish had more DDE in their blood and were more likely to develop diabetes, according to results published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives in July.

DDE is produced in the bodies of small bottom-feeding fish from ingesting the prevalent pesticide DDT. The chemical transfers to bigger fish when they eat smaller fish and then accumulates in the fat and liver of people who eat lots of what they catch.

“Sports fishermen are at the top of the food chain,” said Bruce Fowler, assistant director of science at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funded the study, along with the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Charter boat captains tend to catch and eat more fish than the average recreational fisherman. But the captains care about their health, said Henry Anderson of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, who managed the study.

“Many saw that their levels were high from the study and they cut back on their intake of fish,” he said.

Exactly how DDE may lead to diabetes is unknown. Another pesticide, Agent Orange, can cause diabetes, but it’s believed to do so in a different way than DDE, said Mary Turyk, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lead author of the study

Lighting Things On Fire Fascinates Humans – Burning things is stupid

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Doug Nicodemus

(it’s jam band friday and i saw eva hunter last night so – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i8vaWoIVN4 – )

Everyone who is human has started a fire. It is primal, but now it is deadly. The “off gases” of combustion are changing the planet Earth’s composition to the point that much of the animal world will not be able to live in it.

http://redyak.com/video/BurningThings/BurningThings.htm

(speaking of hot – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOx6QGJaNFA&feature=related -)

While we are hooked on burning things the rest of the world moves on:

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2248232/china-poised-seize-clean-tech

China poised to seize clean tech crown

Report from The Climate Group argues China is set to dominate the global market for low-carbon technologies

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 21 Aug 2009

China’s position as one of the world’s pre-eminent clean tech hubs was underlined yesterday, with the release of a major new report from The Climate Group arguing that the country has already secured a lead over many of its global rivals in the race to develop and implement low-carbon technologies.

The report, which updates a similar study from last year, concluded that despite the onset of the global recession, Chinese clean tech firms are continuing to record impressive growth, aided in no small part by the government’s decision to focus much of its $585bn (£354bn) stimulus package on low-carbon projects.

The study found that while the Chinese government is resisting international calls to set carbon emission targets, it is delivering good progress against domestic targets to improve energy efficiency, having cut the energy intensity of the economy 60 per cent since 1980.

(did i mention seriously talented – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6PJUoNp0tY&feature=related -)

Yet still we must send smoke into the very air we breath and without which we can not survive.

http://www.dgate.org/~brg/death/index2.html

We like to burn things!

So one fine Saturday, recently, (to be exact it was the third of February, 1996), we were kinda bored, and we were messing around with some hard drives, trying to get them to work. One of ’em was completely dead — no spin-up, no blinking light, no nothing. The computer said it was a Micropolis but couldn’t tell us more than that. So we figured, the thing’s toast, right? And we figured, we’re on the third floor, right? Cool. Open da window. (Remember, it was -6 degrees F out that night!) ;-> Well, enough of my ranting, why dontcha look at the pictures! (If you are using a text-only browser, you might as well quit now. We took 87 pictures for this thing, and they *ARE* the good part, OK???)

(did I say beautiful – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ7KDVtxcXA&feature=related -)

We throw so much up in the air, SOX, NOX, Natural gases like methane, butane, and propane, and dangerous particulates like mercury. Yet everyone wants to worry about carbon. I guess that is as good a place as any to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita

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CO₂ emission per capita per year per country

This article relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources. (September 2008)

This is a list of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1990 through 2006. All data were calculated by the US Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), mostly based on data collected from country agencies by the United Nations Statistics Division.

Countries are ranked by their metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2006.

(great band too – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBnfxOovUVA&feature=related )
They even have a FaceBook page dedicated to it. You too can make your own Flamethrower!