Most Americans are compassionate people and want to do the right thing. We see immigrates as hardworking, family oriented and necessary to fill many unskilled jobs in America … just as they have in past generations. Unfortunately few of us have the insight or background to fully understand what our current immigration policies are doing to our country and how effectively they help population growth world wide. Hint — our current relaxed policies do little for either … in fact they may make the situation worse in just a generation or two.
Even if you are not politically savvy, do yourself a favor and watch the 13+ minute clip below before solidifying your position on United States Immigration policies. Roy Beck illustrates the problem with clarity and stresses the importance in dealing with it ‘now’ rather than when it become unmanageable. Hopefully after watching the google video clip, a few more Americans will encourage congress to put the issue on the front burner. (a petition available at NumbersUSA.org)
I stopped at unmanned Fuel Depot’s biodiesel (B20) pump today in Delaware, Ohio (central Ohio north of Columbus) … and noted that prices are few cents higher than the more convenient Sunoco’s B20 pump. Price at the pump was $2.68/gallon to the $2.63 in Mt. Gilead. (exit 151 off I-71) Even though I’m considered frugal (I drive a VW TDI!), I’m still fond of the independently own (Earl and Keith McWherter) “Fuel Depot” since they were advocates for biodiesel and put it in a public pump before it was publicized. If you’re anywhere near Delaware, Ohio be sure to fill up your diesel vehicle.
According to the online magazine Winding Road, BMW shared what it is planning to export to the US in 2008 — diesel related — and they will publish it in next months issue. According to Matt Davis from Winding Road, “we’ve just driven the 335d Touring – a thoroughly hot wagon with a bi-turbo version of the BMW 3.0-liter diesel engine first seen in the 535d last year.” He points out that BMW fully intends to talk about their diesel strategy (as well as the Hydrogen 7 mention in a previous post) at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month. Davis indicates that BMW intends to have their “latest and greatest diesel ideas” ready for delivery by December of 2008.” (Groan … 2 years does seem like a long wait) 🙁
The BMW strategy at this point includes bringing over all six-cylinder diesels first in the 5-series and faces the stiff emission challenges posed by the states which it sell the most cars. According to Winding Road, “BMW North America currently sells 85 percent of its cars in … California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut. By 2009 the California 30-percent reduction laws go into effect in these very states as well and so BMW has a mess of work on its hands.” They also are facing the already promising Mercedes BlueTec diesel which claims to already have a 50 state legal diesel ready; they plan on making this announcement at the Detroit auto show in January and could be delivering them by March of 2007.
VW and Audi have their work ahead of them and are making their switch from Pumpe-Duse technology to the common rail diesels; the next diesel models should be available in North America by the 2008 model year (see comment and comment with photo). One piece of the puzzle missing for them is that a 50 state ready diesel has yet to be seen, although I suspect that at this point it is a necessity? Like Mercedes, the BMW’s diesel platform relies on active urea injection and the latest diesel particulate filters to bring down the diesel emissions. I personally think the most promising diesels could come from Japan — Honda diesels which are building their clean diesel around a difference technology.
Walmart is encouraging associates to share an actual “Merry Christmas” greeting … a reversal of last years policy. Their change is being followed by most major retail stores including Sears, Macy’s, Target and Kohls. One notable exception at this time is Best Buy, who according spokeswoman Dawn Bryant indicates they will continue with “Happy Holidays.” She says, “We are going to continue to use the term holiday because there are several holidays throughout that time period, and we certainly need to be respectful of all of them.” Unlike the majority of retailers mentioned above, Best Buy’s company wide advertising will also omit any reference to Christmas. It will be interesting to if their against the trend ‘politically correct’ position pays off?
Interestingly, the reversal is based on what Walmart refers to as customer response to eliminating “Christmas” from the holiday season, and suspect that more than one voice expressed discontent over trying to be political correct? An ongoing ‘localized’ poll seems to be pretty supportive of this years policies, I suspect it is reflective of most people in the country.
One of the loudest notables chastising retailers for dropping the word ‘Christmas’ last year was that of Bill O’Reilly. In print, on the radio and on his top rated cable news show “The O’Reilly Factor”, he stirred up “the folks.” Yesterday he had a 5 minute segment with a Walmart spokeswomen regarding their 180 degree policy change. All in all, traditionalist and conservative Christians may have lost ground politically in November (not that the GOP controlled legislature was reflective of their views), but at least they have not lost Christmas to the secular progressive movement. By the way, Bill O’Reilly’s current bestseller, “Culture Warrior,” would make and excellent gift — It’s very thought provoking even if you dislike the author. (buy it from here, and a copy gets sent to the troops through Operation Shoebox!)
On October 21st, thirty three BlueTec Diesel Mercedes Benz cars began a 28 day drive from Paris to Beijing; they are calling it “The E-Class Experience.” The rally will consist of 5 legs and many drivers from different walks of life. The route will navigate a trip similar to a transcontinental drive from 1907 and conclude in Beijing, China 6500 miles later on November 17th. (a few days from this posting)
The event does a pretty good job of demonstrating the quality of the Mercedes Benz E320 midsized clean diesel. Follow along as the ‘experience’ concludes, or check out one of the ‘YouTubers’ known as the E320Guy as he updates the trip by video clip. I’ll include his first one below and a link to his updates.
Its nice to see the next generation of our nations’ students focused on science and research … and this looks to be the case for two high school students, Holly Jacobson and Tessa Churchill, from Cumberland, Maine. According to an article in the Portland Press Herald, the 17 and 18 year seniors have been invited to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to explain their science project. The two girls ‘may’ have found an efficient way to product biodiesel from fast-growing algae. Although many projects are underway, algae biofuel is still in its infancy, but hold promise as a way to help solve a feedstock issue associated with most of the agricultural based renewable options.
According to the article, the girls are heading to “MIT to present their findings to a panel of university judges, who will weigh their project against those of three other teams in the regional finals of the sixth annual Siemens Math, Science & Technology competition. The event is sponsored each year by The College Board and is funded by the Siemens Foundation as a way to give students a chance to achieve national recognition for science research projects.”
According to Ms. Churchill the project started as a way to learn about scientific research. She states that “It definitely had to do with the oil crisis and everybody talking about finding some other substitute for fossil fuels, so we started researching algae. It grows very rapidly, and it grows in environments that won’t support other food stocks so space wouldn’t be taken up that could be used for growing food.” Ms Jacobson continued, “We started generally looking into biodiesel, but it wasn’t until last year that we started identifying the specific lipids.”
Jim Whaley, president of the Siemens Foundation, who sponsors the competitions praised all the entries and commented that “A lot of these kids are doing work at a Ph.D level.” Each entry will have 20 minutes to make their cases and have an opportunity to meet with some of the best professors in their field. For those of us involved in promoting biodiesel, we’ve been hoping for continued interest and research using algae. Hopefully these two promising students will consider furthering their education at the University of New Hampshire where a friend (Michael Briggs) is involved algae biodiesel. As the slogan goes … “You go girls.”
For an addition good read on algae based biodiesel, consider downloading and reading this PDF presentation.
Thanks you Veterans for all you have done … and continue to do to protect the United States of America and preserve our freedom. A single day of recognition hardly seems appropriate. By the way … thanks Dad(s). (B-26 Air Force WWII and US Army Korea)
Most likely remembered by locals as Rookwood Pottery, the restaurant Porkopolis continues a 120 year history of enjoyable atmosphere just east of downtown Cincinnati. The heavily ‘pork’ based menu offers good food at a fair price … and our service from Brian our waiter was excellent. (for out of towners Mt. Adams is about 5 minutes from downtown Cincinnati – see below) We accidentally dined there last night, Saturday, for the first time but because nightlife was too busy in Newport, Kentucky opted for something in a quieter area … Mt. Adams.
The masculine brick kiln and associated fixtures created an interesting environment to dine and surprisingly even at 8:00PM our wait was only 5 minutes for a party of six. Service was prompt yet still offered us plenty of time for conversation prior to looking over the menu. Speaking of menu, the pork heavily listings appealed to most of us, as the slabs and half-slabs of ribs caught our eye; a quick glance at the next table left little question as to what I was going to order. Our waiter mention a ‘two-fer combination’ of “a specialty pork chop (about 10 ways) and ribs” I didn’t look any further. (although they did have a scrod dish and several steaks that looked appealing too) The barbecue sauce on the ribs was on the sweet side while the blackened pork chop was just about perfect. With the meat, a variety of sides were offered including the tasty mashed potatoes and salad that I had. Prices for most pork meals including a full slab of baby back ribs was under $20 while steak were in the mid $20s. If you get the chance to visit Mt. Adams or want to try a new restaurant … Porkopolis is worth a stop … we’ll eat there again. (thanks Gary for suggesting it … sometimes winging it can be well worth the risk)
I picked up a home improvement tip from “This Old House” that might come in handy for those needing to get a wire into a room without damaging plaster or wallboard — using “Bad Larry” as Alan the electrician and Host Kevin O’Connor call it. “Bad Larry” is a flexible drill bit, a screw tipped auger bit to be precise, and it is able to slip into an uninsulated wall cavity to bore through bracing, headers (depending on size), floors and ceilings. Obviously one point of caution is be to know what is in that wall cavity … and above or below depending on the direction you are drilling. The last thing you want to have happen when running a new cable TV outlet is to start an electrical fire! Nevertheless, a couple sources for special wiring tools and bits not found at the average hardware store would be MyToolStore Ideal Screw Point Flexible Bits and HomeTech’s General Wiring Tools section. Feel free to comment if you have other specialty tool sources … especially if both the price and quality is good!
Contrary to a 2002 EPA study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory published a new study showing that vehicles using B20 fuel —a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel— do not produce an increased level of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in all engines. The previous study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated that although biodiesel (the B20 blend) showed significant reduction in most pollutants, the increase in NOx was 2% over petroleum diesel.
According to NREL’s Robert McCormick, this new “study shows that the NOx impact of B20 varies with engine design, such that some engines show a small increase while others show a small decrease. The EPA’s 2002 review was based on a data set made up primarily of data from one engine model that produces a small NOx increase. EPA uses these data to draw a general conclusion for on-highway engines that B20 causes a 2% increase in NOx. The chassis dynamometer testing along with careful review of previously published data suggest that their conclusion is not correct, and that on average B20 has no effect on NOx.”
For renewable fuel advocates, this study is promising since biodiesel is being added to more and more of the nation’s diesel fuel. Production of biodiesel is up a huge 3 fold over 2005 numbers and additional processing facilities are coming online in 2007. Also biodiesel make an excellent lubricity additive to Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel which has been introduced nationwide. This reminds me, a regular reader pointed out that owners of pre-2007 diesel should consider a lubricity additive of some kind, although a couple distributors claim their ULSD fuel is treated with additive packages for cetane boost, winter gelling and lubricity.
I stopped at unmanned Fuel Depot’s biodiesel (B20) pump today in Delaware, Ohio (central Ohio north of Columbus) … and noted that prices are few cents higher than the more convenient Sunoco’s B20 pump. Price at the pump was $2.68/gallon to the $2.63 in Mt. Gilead. (exit 151 off I-71) Even though I’m considered frugal (I drive a VW TDI!), I’m still fond of the independently own (Earl and Keith McWherter) “Fuel Depot” since they were advocates for biodiesel and put it in a public pump before it was publicized. If you’re anywhere near Delaware, Ohio be sure to fill up your diesel vehicle.
The BMW strategy at this point includes bringing over all six-cylinder diesels first in the 5-series and faces the stiff emission challenges posed by the states which it sell the most cars. According to Winding Road, “BMW North America currently sells 85 percent of its cars in … California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut. By 2009 the California 30-percent reduction laws go into effect in these very states as well and so BMW has a mess of work on its hands.” They also are facing the already promising Mercedes BlueTec diesel which claims to already have a 50 state legal diesel ready; they plan on making this announcement at the Detroit auto show in January and could be delivering them by March of 2007.
season, and suspect that more than one voice expressed discontent over trying to be political correct? An ongoing ‘localized’ poll seems to be pretty supportive of this years policies, I suspect it is reflective of most people in the country. 
Its nice to see the next generation of our nations’ students focused on science and research … and this looks to be the case for two high school students, Holly Jacobson and Tessa Churchill, from Cumberland, Maine. According to an 
Most likely remembered by locals as Rookwood Pottery, the restaurant 
The masculine brick kiln and associated fixtures created an interesting environment to dine and surprisingly even at 8:00PM our wait was only 5 minutes for a party of six. Service was prompt yet still offered us plenty of time for conversation prior to looking over the menu. Speaking of menu, the pork heavily listings appealed to most of us, as the slabs and half-slabs of ribs caught our eye; a quick glance at the next table left little question as to what I was going to order. Our waiter mention a ‘two-fer combination’ of “a specialty pork chop (about 10 ways) and ribs” I didn’t look any further. (although they did have a scrod dish and several steaks that looked appealing too) The barbecue sauce on the ribs was on the sweet side while the blackened pork chop was just about perfect. With the meat, a variety of sides were offered including the tasty mashed potatoes and salad that I had. Prices for most pork meals including a full slab of baby back ribs was under $20 while steak were in the mid $20s. If you get the chance to visit Mt. Adams or want to try a new restaurant … Porkopolis is worth a stop … we’ll eat there again. (thanks Gary for suggesting it … sometimes winging it can be well worth the risk)
I picked up a home improvement tip from 
