Individual and Community

Scientist Discovers Fungus That Could Fuel A Car

by Alex Chadwick
A researcher at Montana State University has found a micro-organism in a plant in South America that could fuel vehicles one day. The unusual fungus contains the essence of diesel, which one could use to run a bus, for example, without processing it at all.

Professor Gary Strobel discusses his findings on “myco-diesel,” which are being published Wednesday in The Journal of Microbiology in London.

Dr. Strobel made the discovery by chance, while collecting fungus from the stem of a tree in an old forest in southern Chile. When he finally got around to sending it off for sophisticated analysis — years later — he discovered that this version of Gliocladium wasn’t like others he’d encountered before.

“I’ve scoured the earth for not only organisms like Gliocladium, but many other endophytes [a plant that lives in the tissue of another plant]. I’ve been to almost every rainforest on the planet,” he tells Alex Chadwick. But, “in over 50 years, I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Why would a fungus create diesel? Essentially to protect from plant invaders, he says.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96574076
Audio also available at that link.

stolen from http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com who stole it from THe CHicago Times or some such …

Hollywood is often described as a dream factory, but really it’s just as often a salvage yard. Anxious studio executives would rather bet their $100m budgets on nostalgia instead of new ideas, which is why, against all odds, Sid and Marty Krofft are back in business.

The Krofft brothers, both now in their 70s, have a showbiz story that dates to the final days of vaudeville. But for children of the Nixon years, their name is the brand behind some of the strangest TV programming of the era, shows such as H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Land of the Lost and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

Those low-budget shows had actors in rubber costumes, fluorescent puppets and psychedelic sets that were hopelessly dated by the 1980s, and, by the end of that decade, the same could be said of the Kroffts. Today, though, thanks to the Hollywood appetite for all things kitschy and high-concept, the Kroffts are poised for the biggest payday of their career — unless, of course, they strangle each other first. “Things did get lean, but we never gave up,” said Sid, 78, the smiling, soft-spoken dreamer of the two.

His brother, sitting next to him at their Los Angeles office, rolled his eyes. “We? I wouldn’t let you give up,” snapped Marty, still the dealmaker at 71. “I wouldn’t let us sell the rights to our old shows. That is why we are where we are today.”
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Watch it, buy it:
http://despair.com/more.html

The Academy-Award nominated animated short-film tells the story of a lonely inventor, whose colorless existence is brightened only by dreams of the carefree bliss of his youth.

By day, he is trapped in a dehumanizing job in a joyless world. But by night, he tinkers away on a visionary invention, desperate to translate his inspiration into something meaningful.

When his invention is complete, it will change the way people see the world. But he will find that success comes at a high price, as it changes himself, as well.

Pictures from More

Producer’s Home Page

McCain Sept 20, 2008

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/mccain-approves-open/669582/

Palin and Hillary Clinton

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

As they are saying… here is the real ‘inconvenient truth’….

Nov 2006:
Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns

29 November 2006 – Cattle-rearing generates more global warming greenhouse gases, as measured in CO2 equivalent, than transportation, and smarter production methods, including improved animal diets to reduce enteric fermentation and consequent methane emissions, are urgently needed, according to a new United Nations report released today.

“Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems,” senior UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official Henning Steinfeld said. “Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

Cattle-rearing is also a major source of land and water degradation, according to the FAO report, Livestock’s Long Shadow–Environmental Issues and Options, of which Mr. Steinfeld is the senior author.

“The environmental costs per unit of livestock production must be cut by one half, just to avoid the level of damage worsening beyond its present level,” it warns.

When emissions from land use and land use change are included, the livestock sector accounts for 9 per cent of CO2 deriving from human-related activities, but produces a much larger share of even more harmful greenhouse gases. It generates 65 per cent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure.

source: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment

United Nations: Eat Less Meat
Monday September 8, 2008

To combat global warming, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, advises, “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.” Pachauri is a vegetarian himself, and points out that greenhouse gas emissions and habitat destruction are associated with animal agriculture. To most animal advocates, this is old news. Even to the United Nations, this is old news.

source: http://animalrights.about.com/b/2008/09/08/united-nations-eat-less-meat.htm

Some links for reasons people are vegetarian

49 REASONS WHY I AM A VEGETARIAN
http://www.britishmeat.com/49.htm

Another:
http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/pveg1.htm

Graphic, pointed video, features some slaughterhouse footage:
http://www.goveg.com/feat/chewonthis/

Now the average consumer can participate in the renewable energy revolution. You can power your home with wind energy, biomass, and other renewable energy sources. All without installing any new equipment.

Alliant Energy’s Second Nature Program allows you to buy renewable energy for your home.

When your family participates in Second Nature, you’re helping us buy earth-friendly wind power and bioenergy.

Through Alliant Energy’s innovative Second Nature™ program, your family can support renewable energy equal to 25 percent, 50 percent or even 100 percent of your household electric usage each month.

This additional renewable energy comes from new Second Nature resources, above and beyond Alliant Energy’s standard sources.

As electricity from renewable sources comes into the energy pool, it displaces electricity that would otherwise come from fossil fuel sources like coal and natural gas.

Caveat: You must live in Iowa, Wisconsin, or Minnesota.

Your small monthly contribution covers the added expense of harvesting the wind power and biomass energy used in the program:

* Your electric meter measures the kilowatt-hours you use each month. We use your Second Nature participation level (25%, 50% or 100%) to figure how much green energy you require.
* Next, we combine your requirement with other Second Nature customers to get the month’s total green requirement.
* Then, we bring enough new green power into our energy pool to meet the total green requirement.

Learn more and sign up here. You can even sign up online.

Robert Muraine’s Official Web Site

Massive ice shelf collapsing off Antarctica
March 26, 2008 7:04 AM PDT

Scientists are citing “rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica” as the cause of an initial collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The damage got started at the end of February when an iceberg dropped off and triggered the “runaway disintegration” of a 160-square-mile portion of the 5,282-square-mile shelf.

The ice shelf, which scientists speculate has floated in the Antarctic region for hundreds of years, is succumbing to recent rises in temperature in the area–an average of 0.9 degree Fahrenheit every 10 years for the last 50 years.

This series of pictures that show the beginning of the breakup were taken by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer sensor, which flies on its Earth Observing System Aqua and Terra satellites.

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center/NASA

source: http://www.news.com/2300-11395_3-6235636-1.html?tag=nefd.also

“knee jerk conservative”

Since google has not indexed this phrase, I would like to go on record to say that Rush Limbaugh is a knee jerk conservative of the most wondrous sort. Blasphemous to the extreme, libelous to the edge, lying to the end, he is the most wondrous of human beings in this regard…

I, as many people have, have held off of ripping on Rush Limbaugh for the sole reason that to acknowledge his sorry excuse for existence is to help publicize him which is of course all that he wants ; in this regard , others have done much better than I … it is better to ignore such ignorance than it is to recognize and treat as if it held some relevance in contemporary life. Unfortunately, such hatred does have relevance in many ‘ditto-head’ Americans’ lives… who unfortunately, have the right to vote in this country .. so this blog entry is dedicated to all of Rush’s ignorant comments that he has made for the sake of ratings …
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http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/

These are strange times indeed. While they continue to command so much attention in the mainstream media, the ‘battles’ between old and new modes of distribution, between the pirate and the institution of copyright, seem to many of us already lost and won. We know who the victors are. Why then say any more?

Learn the basics about intellectual property & what is really going on ..

Download the torrent: Steal This Film II