Cyclox. A cleaner diesel fuel using papermill waste
Posted By RichC on April 25, 2010
An article in AutoblogGreen highlighted some positive research on developing a greener diesel fuel.or really an additive that improves petroleum diesel fuel. According to the article, Michael Boot, a doctoral student and researcher from Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) in the Netherlands, calls this new fuel Cyclox. It’s actually a blend of petroleum diesel and 10% cyclohexanone (CH2)5CO which reduces soot emissions by 50 percent. If fuel to air mixtures are adjusted to a 50/50 air to fuel ratio, Boot is able to achieve zero soot .
The additive being used isn’t all that exotic either; it can be made from lignin which is part of the cell walls from plants and trees. The blog post points to all the wasted ‘lignin’ produced during paper manufacturing as a readily available source of waste material that can be utilized to produce the additive. Along with improvements in the fuel, Michael Boot has also developed a with a new kind of diesel injector nozzle called PFAMEN (Porous Fuel Air Mixing Enhancing Nozzle). The nozzle has a filter on the tip with tiny holes which injects the fuel more efficiently and effectively. His claim is that this will promote better combustion and lowers injection pressure required to atomizes the fuel and in turn reduces fuel consumption. (Technische Universiteit Endhoven link)Mural art taken to the extreme by artist John Pugh
Posted By RichC on April 25, 2010
A friend forwarded me an email from an airbrush artist who paints murals on the walls of buildings. I’ve seen a few beautiful photos painted on walls before, but John Pugh’s mastery of creating depth and confusing the mind is impressive. Below are a few examples from the email.
John Pugh’s – Personal Artist Statement
I am a trompe l’oeil artist focusing primarily on mural painting. I have found that the "language" of life-size illusions allow me to communicate with a very large audience. It seems almost universal that people take delight in being visually tricked. Once captivated by the illusion, the viewer is lured to cross an artistic threshold and thus seduced into exploring the concept of the piece. I have also found that by creating architectural illusion that integrates with the existing environment both optically and aesthetically, the art transcends the "separateness" that public art sometimes produces.
It is important for me, as an artist, to interact with the community, formulating concepts based upon a multitude of viewpoints. Artists must be continually aware that their work can serve as a bridge between diverse cultural backgrounds. Public art is of great interest to me; providing me with a sense of purpose as it is a very powerful form of communication. It can link people together, stimulate a sense of pride within the community, and introduce the viewer to new ideas and perspectives.
When developing a mural, I also respond to aspects of the location such as its architectural style or the natural surroundings. Often, I like to play with the art’s context by contrasting these environments with another place and/or time. This paradox or juxtaposition of environments transports the viewer on a journey from local reality into a new space. During this "voyage", the viewer may experience sequential discoveries as my compositions are designed to unfold in narrative layers.
While most of the time I respond to existing architectural settings, I have also had the opportunity to take part in the development of the architecture itself; modifying the design of the structure to marry the painting to the site. This bridge between art and the architectural can effectively erase the transition point between reality and illusion. The art thus becomes integrated into the real world of architecture and lends credibility to the illusion of the painting. Together the sum is greater than its parts.
Four foot-three inches is one big bunny
Posted By RichC on April 24, 2010
If I saw this rodent hopping in our backyard, I’m sure I would smack myself to be sure I wasn’t dreaming. Since my daughter has a pet rabbit, Pumpy Umpy, a friend of my wife shared a photo of a giant rabbit called Darius … he’s one big bunny!
Humor: “Bring a chicken to the doctor” – funny campaign ad
Posted By RichC on April 24, 2010
This campaign ad is juvenile even for a Harry Reid, but it’ had me laughing pretty hard. Sorry Sue Lowden, even though I’d comfortably vote for your over your opponent Senator Harry Reid (if I lived in Nevada), it’s just too funny not to share.
Hmm, I wonder if my daughter will be able to pay her “now federally administered” medical school loans back with chickens?
🙂
On a more positive note that favors Sue Lowden, the polls show her with a solid lead over long time incumbent Senator Harry Reid – IMHO … he needs to go.
Police questioning people they suspect of being in the country illegally
Posted By RichC on April 23, 2010
An ongoing poll at the WSJ had some surprising early results in regard to illegal immigration, at least to me. I expected more concern for privacy and profiling, yet most respondents are more concerned over illegals crossing our southern border with costs taxpayers higher social service taxes and bringing associated drug crime. (testing posting an external poll below)
Should police be required to question people they suspect of being in the country illegally about their immigration status?
President Barack Obama harshly criticized a proposed law in Arizona to crack down on illegal immigration and said his administration would examine the measure to see if it is consistent with federal law. It was the first time the president addressed the controversial bill that would make it a crime under state law to be in the country illegally. The bill would also require police to question people they suspect to be in the U.S. illegally about their immigration status.
via online.wsj.com
Earth Day irony for 40th anniversary celebration
Posted By RichC on April 23, 2010
Few of us remembering the first Earth Day back in 1970 will argue that mankind was not damaging the environment or that seeking to pollute less wasn’t worthwhile goal. Now looking back 40 years, we can’t deny the significant improvements in both personal and industrial practices — at least in the United States. Still, there continues to be a debate as to just how much is too much (both ways) and how damaging we are to the ecosystem. The question of how do we regulate society when in comes to using resources and impacting the environment continues. There is little disagreement when it comes to obvious blunders and purposeful abuse, but there is also a healthy dose of skepticism toward those building a bureaucracy around debated global warming theories and CO2 contributed by humans. (button photo credit to friend Clyde Witt who writes the blog My Witt’s End.)
For this year’s April 22nd’s 40th anniversary, I found it ironic that an offshore oil rig would be burning, leaking crude oil and sinking into the Gulf of Mexico.
Who isn’t bothered by an obvious environmental disaster like this … with an immediate human toll as well: 11 missing workers. It’s not an accurate comparison to Cleveland Ohio’s Cuyahoga River burning in the late 1960’s, but seeing the image above and remembering that a “river caught fire” was the wake up call to many Americans that something needed to be done. For me hearing about oil spilling and watching the black smoke billow is a sickening reminder to me that careful stewardship of the planet is something in our best interest.
The good news was that we have made strides to address our abuse in the 20th century and in the case of this weeks “oil drilling platform” … the oil spill may not be as bad as feared.
The Deepwater Horizon had burned violently for nearly two days until it sank Thursday morning. The fire’s out, and officials had initially feared as much as 336,000 gallons of crude oil a day could be rising from the sea floor 5,000 feet below.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said Friday morning that no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water’s surface. However, Landry said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill out.
Bookmarking & collaborating on web research with iCyte.com
Posted By RichC on April 23, 2010
At some point in collecting and bookmarking websites for research and the organizational complexity that comes with doing it can be daunting. My XMarks synced bookmarks have become so unwieldy that I don’t even use them anymore – same for those I’ve archived with Delicious.com. I’ve turned to use an Instapaper’s “ReadLater” bookmarklet, a PDFit add-on for Firefox which captures pages to a PDF file … or a Pagenest offline browser archived version of a website. Still it isn’t easy and oftentimes just searching for the site I’ve ‘marked’ is so difficult that it is easier to search all over again. So when I read Katherine Boehret WSJ article this week I decided to give the iCyte.com bookmarking and page saving option a try.
iCyte is a way to collect a copy of a page for later reading or research and also offers an easy way to share or collaborate information on particular subjects with other. 
It offers a bit more since there are options such as including tags, notes, comments and even highlighting. The highlighting feature works well with the two currently supported browsers, Firefox and Internet Explorer, and helps when trying to assemble the bits and pieces one might want in developing a paper, articles or project. The management features of iCyte.com have made it easy to search the 
many sites being marked all of which is currently free.
Another helpful option is developing an RSS feed for a project. Since I run a sidebar RSS reader (Sage Firefox add-on), it is handy to keep a feed running for a project where all sites being archived are easy to access … of course iCyte also has a built in button for the browser that pulls up their own sidebar too. (tested the embed feature above in this blog)
Perhaps one of the best reasons to capture a page is for those that eventually disappear from the parent site or get relinked differently in a site update or rebuild. When reviewing a marked page you’ll have the option of viewing the captured ‘cyte’ or clicking a ‘liveview’ that links to the origination page (helpful if there is updated information, comments or attached media … I was unable to capture video)
The the WSJ article reviews a few more of the details if you are interested in reading further before signing up for a free account.
Think twice before you Facebook “Like”something on the web
Posted By RichC on April 22, 2010
What are you doing when you click the Facebook “Like” button?
You might want to think twice before you divulge your taste to companies who might be interested in marketing to you … especially if you prefer your privacy.
The social networking giant Facebook has a potential goldmine of user information that can be marketed to those with an interest and the dollars … and that information is on the grow. After a rollout of the new “Like” button, which is placed on other websites that drives traffic back to Facebook, the click generates a user’s interest in the content which in turn “could” be used to market right back at them. Though … according to a WSJ article, “Facebook said it isn’t currently launching any new ad-targeting products in conjunction with the service.” But call me a skeptic when I hear that Facebook is just mapping out “connections between people and their interests, gathering more explicit information about users’ favorites in order to deliver them a 
more personalized experience on Facebook and on other sites.”
For now, share your information and Facebook “Likes” with care as the profile they are developing is not unlike retail shopping cards … and could be marketed to companies interested in selling something to you based on your clicks.
Taxpayer funded government granted “rights”
Posted By RichC on April 21, 2010
From the “you must be kidding” files:
There are time when we think we’ve heard it all when it comes to how big the ‘nanny state’ can grow and oversee our lives. Take Europe for example, Americans have a love-hate relationship with our cousins across the pond. Thankfully most of us still prefer the politics of individual liberty and freedom from and overly oppressive government … but as “social justice” is bantered around by Liberal Democrats and Progressives I’m not sure how long before the U.S. resembles the EU?
As if the 4 day work weeks, 5 week “holidays” and painfully high taxes weren’t enough to cripple productivity and ambition, how about paying for someone else’s travel or vacation … it’s being proposed … I kid you not.
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.