Friday

Oh no, oh my. A long flame letter from Laura about how cruel & insensitive I was.
I prolly deserved a lot of it, but I may respond a bit in kind. There.

Wednesday

Another winner, Andy; though Kagan was a BIG winner.
I'll look this guy up.
Maybe you can check out Orson Scott Card's (author Ender's Game;
Mormon hawk; fantastic writer) website, including other essays.
This one on peace, where in Arabic peace means "submission",
is really good, but OSC on civilization, for instance, is also
good. (OSC also notes that the best pro-Palestinian arguments are often made by Jewish Israel-supporters who want Israel to improve.)
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2002-07-29-1.html

Remember Gary Hart? My idea is that the US should set, as its
contribution to the Kyoto Protocol, a federal tax revenue target
from gas taxes of 5%, and increase it every year. This should
be coupled with a tax refund, per taxpayer, of the same amount.
(The idea is to be revenue neutral), so the income tax goes down
while the gas tax goes up.

I read that Biodiesel, at current subsidized levels, can be sold
for about $1.35 /gal. Do you know about this? Or what the gas
price is, last year I thought it was around $1.30.
(pause while I look in google:)
Here's a note http://www.rendermagazine.com/August2001/TechTopics.html

Though pricing has a multitude of influencers such as volume, geographic distribution, delivery costs, Environmental Policy Act credits, and blend level, biodiesel has ranged in the $1.50 to $3.00 per gallon. Currently (June 2001) neat biodiesel (B100) costs are between $1.25 and $2.25 per gallon. This compares to a current price for No. 2 diesel at approximately $1.55 including state and federal taxes. Biodiesel is taxed as a diesel fuel (unlike ethanol), so taxes are added to the purchase price. Specific blends of biodiesel are commonly distributed products. B20 is a 20 percent biodiesel blended with 80 percent diesel and thus at current prices costs 13 to 20 cents more per gallon than diesel. The use of B20 has been shown to acquire a substantial reduction in the unfavorable emissions associated with petroleum-based diesel. Premium diesels that contain from two to five percent blend of biodiesel for specific properties such as lubricity generally command a premium price. Research has shown that the inclusion of two percent biodiesel into any conventional fuel is sufficient to address the lubricity concerns for low sulfur fuels. There are Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations that are mandating a significant reduction in sulfur content from a current 500 parts per million (ppm) to a 15 ppm level by 2007. As sulfur levels are lowered, the lubricity properties of petroleum diesel become a concern for optimum engine operation and maintenance. This feature and market positioning are significant opportunities for biodiesel usage now and in the future.

---

Well, the point is to reduce taxes on renewables, and increase them
(even MORE, but like 1 penny/month increase) on oil products. And we (the world) need US defense to be strong. That's what government's for -- the "night watchman" minarchy I favor. And this early 5% could easily go up to 50% -- I think if people saw how expensive gov't was every time they pumped gas, they'd be more in favor of cutting it back.

But I guess I always try to reduce two problems (or more?) with one new action. The focus on oil, and hypocrisy of US calls for "democracy", can not make the US look good. Whether the US is a very good policeman or not is a further talk!

What do you think?

Tom


> From: Andy McClymont [mailto:amcclymont@mindspring.com]
> Tom, Do you ever read Tom Friedman of the New York Times? I
> find him to be
> one of the few reasonable U.S. media people on the Middle East. His
> viewpoint is unashamedly pro-Israel, but he is no zealot. Here are two
> recent columns of his that really ring true I think. (You can
> read him on
> http://www.nytimes.com/).
>
> Andy

Tuesday

Thomas Covenant and Alvin Maker comments:
DiffidentVoice had a nice summary of Thomas, although there was no mention that there is not one, thick, dense, and extremely intense trilogy.
But two -- six thick books.
Comparable to Lord of the Rings in scope & high fantasy, but more depressing along the lines of the Gormenghast trio.
The Mordant's Need duo is maybe his best; the Gap 5 (slim "Rest of the Story" 4 thick ones) is kind of fun, but he's a heavy writer.

I've only read Thomas I twice, and Thomas II once -- too many sad things happen. But what do expect when the hero is a leper? I think Donaldson is a fine writer at creating an imaginative world -- one *I* prolly wouldn't think of. (or you?).

Alvin is more fun, happier, and more re-readable. I quite like (II) Red Prophet. It's gonna be tough for OSC to continue/ finish it, though, I'm afraid; waiting and hoping.

DARN it, I hit "Posts" and erased everything.
Orson Scott Card did a fine job on civilization:
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2002-07-29-1.html

He's a hawk with excellent reasons to justify his morality. I like his idea that
GW Bush should ask Congress for a declaration of war.

Andy sent me a fantastic paradigm adjusting article on Weakness and Power
by Robert Kagan. http://www.policyreview.org/JUN02/kagan.html

Monday

I'm sure they meant "goggles", like optical glasses, rather than "googles", like the search engine. Spell checks don't catch these (but spell checks still needed).

Baileys Irish Cream goggles are better gifts for women!

Moveable Type has a really interesting printable manual. I LIKE this.

Friday

movabletype.org
Tips from Moveable Type on making your blog better

Beer googles. It's the truth.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/796225.asp?0dm=N17KT&cp1=1

Thursday

From the Economist magazine, scientists have created a new base pair, S-Y, to combine with A-T and G-C. This new codon can result in entirely new proteins not found in nature -- and new forms of life. DNA gets an ugrade?
From the article:
"But if the new S-Y pair turns out to work as well as the two existing ones, the capacity of the genetic code would more than triple. The new bases mean that there would be 216 possible codons-in other words, 152 entirely new codons up for grabs. Each of these could be linked to a new, unnatural amino acid, which could then be slipped into living cells and incorporated into never-before-seen proteins."

from http://futurescan.blogspot.com/

Well, I don't much feel like typing,
AGAIN, stuff from this week.
Internet access hell at CA IB in Bratislava.
Plus a ton of time playing with Groove--which I like.
Will try to check out the other groove Blogs, too.

How about that Paul Krugman saying the Bush admin isn't telling the truth about a financing crunch coming (true), but also not telling the same truth about the current system???

Friday

Romeo must die -- or else blog? Well, Romeo wins. Fine fighting!
Also downloaded the 27 meg (70 minutes or so) Groove.
Twice. That was very annonying.
Can do more of this at work...

Thursday

Test again (3) to see if internet works

Wednesday

Here is a link to a first generation Cuban American's Blog, on seeing "Vampiros en la Habana".
Good Blog.

Escribitionist

Escribitionist

"Days Like Today" -- escribitionist; 3 quotes:
I'm sorry
I love you.
Fuck you, I win.

Then I'm thinking, nobody wins (we all die); winning is living the good life.
I'm happily married. I win!

Tuesday

panel.htm

The help for groove. I'm up to my eyeballs in docs to read!

Monday

Why?

Well, I was in the CR over the Weekend, and had to do a #2 in McDonalds.
Undid my fanny pack, left it on the wall ... even thinking the wall is better than the door!
When finally done, worried about Misko outside, I opened the door, he was RIGHT there!
Surprised us both! 15 minutes later, I realized I left the fanny pack, with my documents,
and my company telephone, and my minolta camera ... in the toilet. Was gone when I
ran back ... After the Czech cops came, and a VERY nice Mikky D manager had been very
helpful, THEY found the bag (under the toilet -- I missed it there! panic city).
Minus phone & camera BUT with all documents.
Sigh. Only money gone...

.foXinternet - a bunch of stuff by tucola

This is part of the code for comments. Need to add something for here -- but this link just goes to his page. hmm, not quite what i need, yet.

Thursday

I am, even now, defragmenting my hard disk.
Using Diskkeeper; which seems better than the OO suite.
I'm also trying out Opera, instead of IE, but it doesn't work with blogger here. Guess I have to go back to IE... :(

Tuesday

Well, here's a note on WAIS -- the very fine moderated email list by Ronald Hilton, of Stanford. An old guy who is a real expert on all Latin America, and especially on the pre-WWII Spanish Civil War (Franco) -- where he lived and studied just before its outbreak.
http://wais.stanford.edu -- World Association of International Studies. In my mind, I think of it as:
Was Is. I like it. Maybe Ron will someday change to a weblog.

Copied this:
-So Sad To See-
Have you ever seen anything as sad
As a grave with no name and no flowers
As a cross by the side of the road
Where somebody died
But you'll never know who
And all around you
Nameless faces with nameless emotions
And families lost in the flow of time...
What about the children who cry
Or have to die
When someone smiles
But it's really a lie
And don't you know
How it hurts to be lonely?
Have you ever seen anything as sad
As someone with a useless life and broken heart
As someone who has lost their soul
And doesn't know where to find it
What of those whose loved ones died
But they alone are left alive
Or people forced to watch another's pain
Who cannot end a cruel game
Tears for many, tears for few
Always my tears will be for you

Mmm... wrote this Saturday, coming back from Auburn... cheerful little thing. -_-


-- posted by Kefanii http://kefanii.greyapril.com/blog/
Unexpected. Nice. That's the idea.

I'm afraid this cool sounding defragger, allowing me options (like background stealth, or faster space; or full resorting of files by name, by ??, or by date last accessed*), it's too slow. After 6 hours of analyze and defrag; then try to defrag again (I think this should be fast), it seems to take forever analyzing, again.
Next I'll try Diskeeper.

Hi Charlie, Welcome!
Now? Um, I dunno -- isn't it automatically totally cool?
Have you read other folks' blogs? I have, a bit -- most are kinda
first person public diary.
Which this might become, but my hope is to make it more an
async chat room, with mostly nice folks occassionally noting
things in their lives.
Also, I need to learn how to add stuff like links, etc.
Other little jobs I'm working on include optimizing software, like system mechanic--but I didn't
pay for the full version, so I'm not really satisfied with it.
I do NOT have Norton; prolly should get a copy from VIE work.
So now off to work.

Monday

Already Monday afternoon. Thought I might do something over the weekend, but nahhh.
I DID play a bit of Titan with Misko, but he beat me.
It's all going more slowly than I hoped.

Friday

Too much work, already late.

Thursday

Things I want, think I might want; as they come to me.
Pictures of my family. Links to pictures of others.
Links to econ articles; "was-is"; games; do-gooders.
Testing capabilities: uploading files, etc.
On my web site, linked here, my own developing philosophy.

Is there some evidence that would make me change my mind?

OK, it looks like I'm about to start my bleedin' bloggin' carreer.
This will be the place for my personal/public rants.
Maybe some of my friends will join in, not sure yet.
Not sure about my website -- when, if different, how, etc.
We'll see how this plays out, for now.

TG