born live love die

The availability of fuel has been the telling mark of man’s existence.  In our time, most fuel has a petroleum source.  At Princeton and other universities, researchers are working to better understand jet fuel.

While current guidelines specify some overall properties of jet fuels, they do not spell out the actual chemical composition. Depending on the source and processing method, jet fuel typically consists of hundreds to thousands of molecular structures that behave in a variety of ways.

The models developed by the team will represent and characterize the behavior of this broad range of jet fuel species using only a few types of molecular structures as surrogates for the larger whole. Dryer previously developed similar “surrogate fuel” models to represent gasoline, which are now being used for engine design by the automotive industry.

This un-knowledge of what we are working with has been the hallmark of the Industrial Age.  We discover something that has a property, then sell the hell out of that property, not knowing what we are actually selling.  JP4 is sort of like kerosene, which came on the scene in the form of ‘coal oil’.  It was ignored until we killed off so many sperm whales that sperm whale oil became too expensive.  Kerosene was available and became the standard lamp oil and begat the Standard Oil Company.

There is more in the press release on Princeton’s web site about ‘green’ fuels for jets.  Check it out.

I went to a script reading a week ago in Seattle. Brian MacDonald was the runner up in a Washington script competition. I like Brian. He’s a pretty smart guy. One of the major features of the script was reincarnation. I sat through the reading thinking about the use of reincarnation as a dramatic tool.

The Q & A session was me and a crowd of people who all seemed to believe in reincarnation. All I could think of was ‘woo’. Not film woo, or John Woo, but James Randi woo. For a skeptic like me, it was like being in an audience of people who think that animation is real.  For them, there really is a Bugs Bunny.
Woo is all around us. There are people who believe in things that are not real because it makes the world easier to take. A good friend, John Haylock, once told me that the first priest happened when a man was pointing his finger at a tree when lightning struck it. He then pointed his finger at people and said “I’ll do the same thing to you unless you give me food, money and virgins.” Religion is the cross product of narrative and trying to explain things that are beyond human explanation.

While I am a skeptic, things do happen that are not probable. On December 23, 1986, I drove from San Jose down to Edwards Air Force base to watch the landing of the Rutan Voyager. This plane had flown around the world without refueling. As I walked across from my truck to the landing site, one of thousands who had trekked to the desert to see the landing, I noticed a woman walking with her son. I had never seen this woman before. But I asked her if she was the sister of Gail Hicks.  I don’t know why I would think that she was the sister of a woman I knew slightly. She certainly didn’t look like Gail Hicks.  But she was Gail’s sister. Gail Hicks was in a progamming class I took at De Anza College. I never socialized with her, but used to see her at De Anza. She was a musician and taught piano in addition to programming computers. We would exchange pleasantries, but that was the limit of our interaction. How did I know that this other woman was her sister? I don’t know. But I had a feeling that was overwhelming. I can’t explain this. It is irrational. There is no explanation for it.
But then there is woo that reeks of desperation. John Hagee is a preacher from Texas. He is a businessman first, and his business is religion. When I watch him on television, I am reminded of the characters drawn by Don Martin in Mad magazine. All he has to say is “Dawk” and the picture would be complete.

John Hagee was on the Glenn Beck show (Glenn Beck may not look the part of a Don Martin character, but he has the ‘Dawk’ part down pat) and this exchange took place:

BECK: Let me ask you one of the most — you were on, I don`t know, four or five days ago on the show for a quick segment, and you had mentioned that America`s not in the Bible in the End Days.

HAGEE: Yes.

BECK: It doesn`t play a significant role. E-mail went crazy on this. Why is America not in the Bible? Then it can`t be the End Times. How could we possibly not play a role in the End Days?

HAGEE: America`s not in the Bible, because of these things. One, we are a brand new country. When the Bible was written, God knew that we would be and only refers to us as the young lions of Sheba and Dedan. Now, we came out of England. England has the symbol of the lion. We also — we came from England. So, therefore, we, by stretch, could say that`s referring to us.

Does America have a prominent place in prophecy? Absolutely not. Why? Does that mean that we have a Democratic administration and that there`s a war in the Middle East? Listen. There`s a war in the Middle East, and they say, “We`re not going back for any reason.”

There are crazy people in America. Hagee and Beck are among their number. What the hell does that last exchange mean? I don’t know. Earlier in the segment, a clip of Hagee saying this was played:

HAGEE: Ladies and gentlemen, the radical Islamic army is not coming to America. It`s here. With Iran`s nuclear power and Russia`s support of Iran, Iran intends to attack Israel and America.

The radical Islamic army is here? They must be like that ninja army that I’ve seen in the movies, hiding in plain site.

Hagee is an evangelist. In that capacity, he tries to scare the hell out of people. Literally. Repent, or you are going to hell. Okay, maybe trying to scare people out of hell. But he has turned it into a business. He makes over a million dollars a year as the head of John Hagee ministries. His appearance on Beck’s show was just a branding exercise. He isn’t trying to scare people out of hell anymore, he is trying to scare people into church so he can get 10% of their earnings. It’s like God has an literary agent. Does God take a meeting with these guys? Does God have a branding strategy? “My Catholic brand isn’t doing so well these days, we had a problem in the sales department with little boys, but my crazy Protestant brand is doing okay.”

I’m not a Christian these days, but the thought of having to spend life in hell with John Hagee is almost enough to make me repent.

This story about ethylene glycol poisoning sent me to the wiki.

Australian doctors said they plugged a poisoned Italian tourist into a vodka drip after running out of the medicinal alcohol they would normally have used to save his life.

The 24-year-old Italian, who was not further identified, was diagnosed as having ingested a large quantity of ethylene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze that can cause renal failure.

Renal failure is tough. How dangerous is it? From the wikipedia:

Ethylene glycol poisoning is a medical emergency and in all cases a poison control center should be contacted or medical attention should be sought. It is highly toxic with an estimated LD₁₀₀ in humans of approximately 1.4 ml/kg. However, as little as 30 milliliters (2 tablespoons) can be lethal to adults.

For a 220 lb man like me, that is around 100 kg mass, around 140 ml.

Treatment?

Initial treatment consists of stabilizing the patient and gastric decontamination. As ethylene glycol is rapidly absorbed, gastric decontamination needs to be performed soon after ingestion to be of benefit. Gastric lavage or nasogastric aspiration of gastric contents are the most common methods employed in ethylene glycol poisoning. Ipecac-induced vomiting or activated charcoal (charcoal does not adsorb glycols) are not recommended. ^[3]

The antidotes for ethylene glycol poisoning are ethanol or fomepizole; antidotal treatment forms the mainstay of management following ingestion. Ethanol (usually given IV as a 5 or 10% solution in 5% dextrose and water, but, also sometimes given in the form of a strong spirit such as whisky, vodka or gin) acts by competing with ethylene glycol for the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase thus limiting the formation of toxic metabolites. Fomepizole acts by inhibiting alcohol dehydrogenase, thus blocking the formation of the toxic metabolites.^[6]

In addition to antidotes, hemodialysis can also be used to enhance the removal of unmetabolized ethylene glycol, as well as its metabolites from the body. Hemodialysis also has the added benefit of correcting other metabolic derangements or supporting deteriorating kidney function caused by ethylene glycol ingestion. Often both antidotal treatment and hemodialysis are used together in the treatment of poisoning.

So the hospital ran out of medicinal alcohol and switched to vodka. I’ve done the same thing myself.

How much vodka? That was the startling thing.

“The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit,” he said. “The hospital’s administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka.”

Three drinks an hour? For three days? Holy crap!

That is one hungover Italian.

Alive, but really, really, really hungover.

The motley crew in the White House is incompetent beyond measure.  But what motivates them to flaunt their incompetence?  We get it.  You people are a bunch of mouth-breathers.  You don’t need to do any more to convince us.  We recognize your magnificent incompetence.  Stop already.

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company’s Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group’s communications network.

Please don’t impress us anymore.

In Iran, they are worried about a prison population that is at 225 people per 100,000 in population.

“In Iran, there are 225 prisoners in jail per 100,000 people, which unfortunately is a high number compared to the world’s average rate at 144 prisoners per 100,000 people,” Yasaghi said.

In the U.S., there are 7 million in the penal system in some way or form, including around 2.2 million people incarcerated.  With a population of 300,000,000, that puts the U. S. at around 733 per 100,000.  We should find some pride in yet another area where we lead Iran.  Wankers.

Blessed indeed.

Brother Dobson is threatening to fork a third political party to represent the political party he leads.

On Thursday’s Op/Ed page of The New York Times Dr. James Dobson relayed the minutes of a meeting of “pro-Family leaders” that took place in Salt Lake City the previous Saturday. Those assembled, according to Dobson, unanimously agreed that “if neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate.”

Maybe then the Republican Party can go back to being the party of sober, responsible leaders who, on their best days, rightly assume the ‘party of Lincoln’ mantle.  I would welcome that for two reasons.  One, Democrats will need a counter balance to their traditional rights-pledged positions.  Two, churches would go back to treating the things that lie beyond this mortal plane, and leave politics to the politicians.
The (ir)religious right was the brain child of a bunch of narcissistic religious men who had run up against the limits of what one could do in a church.  They wanted to extend their influence beyond the pulpit.

But I think that Brother Dobson is just teasing us.  His best days when he could call the White House at any time and get Bush or his brain to take his call.  He wants those days again.

If JMan were here, I would get him to say “Well, duh.” to me a few times just so I could hear the dripping incredulity that an eight year old can bring to those two words.  I would do it so I could have some sound effects to go with this story.

In Duluth, MN, a trial is underway, Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas.   This is the first lawsuit brought by the RIAA alleging damages for file sharing music to actually go to trial.  The head of Sony litigation loosed the information that they have lost money on the suits.  The suits are brought by the recording industry against individuals.  The recording industry threatens a lawsuit and the individual often coughs up the dough, usually in the $3000 to $4000 range.  Most of the operation works through a phone bank, with thuggish callers trying to scare the be-jesus out of individuals.  It has more in common with a shakedown operation than it does a legitimate business.  Defense attorney David Toder was cross examining Sony head of litigation, Jennifer Pariser.

Toder then raised the question of the RIAA targeting the wrong people in its lawsuits. “How many dead people have you sued?” he asked, a question that was blocked after Gabriel objected. Toder then took a different tack, asking Pariser if she recognized the names of Gertrude Walton, Sarah Ward, Cindy Chan, and Paul Wilke—all innocent victims of the RIAA’s driftnet tactics.

The next line of questioning was how many suits the RIAA has filed so far. Pariser estimated the number at a “few thousand.” “More like 20,000,” suggested Toder. “That’s probably an overstatement,” Pariser replied. She then made perhaps the most startling comment of the day. Saying that the record labels have spent “millions” on the lawsuits, she then said that “we’ve lost money on this program.”

Your operation is losing money and you are alienating customers with it, and you wonder why record sales are off?

Well, duh.

For all of his appearance as a wizened financial monk, Alan Greenspan was not as capable as he appeared to be. Prof. Brad De Long offers a mild review of the new Greenspan book, and is probably correct in labeling it as ghostwritten.

THE release of Alan Greenspan’s ghostwritten memoirs, The Age of Turbulence, has elicited charges that he was not such a great central banker after all.

The indictment contains four counts: that he wrongly cheered the growth of nonstandard adjustable-rate mortgages, which fueled the housing bubble; that he wrongly endorsed Bush’s tax cuts; that he should have reined in the stock market bubble of the 1990s; and that he should have done the same with the real estate bubble of the 2000s.

De Long goes on to separate them into felonies and misdemeanors.

Greenspan also pleads guilty to misunderstanding the character of the Bush administration. He thought that his old reality-based friends from the Ford administration were back in power. He thought that he — and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill — could win the quiet “inside game” for sensible policy without resorting to an “outside game” that would make his reappointment in 2004 unlikely. He was wrong.

But how serious are these policy-political crimes to which Greenspan now pleads guilty? In my view, they are misdemeanours. Against them you have to set what former treasury secretary Larry Summers calls Greenspan’s “golden glove” performance at avoiding and minimising recessions during his years at the Fed.

The “felonies” of which Greenspan stands accused are the other two charges. Here, Greenspan holds his ground, and pleads not guilty.

I’m not an economist, and I don’t play one on a college campus, but I think there is a body, the American economy, so there had better be some damn felony convictions for economic homicide. The national debt has doubled in just eight years, thanks in part to Greenspan’s policies and his unwillingness to speak the clear truth about the Bush Administration. By the time Bush leaves office, the largest sink of government revenue will be the service of debt, much of it to foreign banks holding US Treasury notes.

De Long wraps up with:

All in all, Greenspan served the US and the world well through his stewardship of monetary policy, especially by what he did not do: trying to stop stock and housing speculation by halting the economy in its tracks.

What the hell are you talking about, Professor? That is equivalent to lauding a politician for not trying to solve an unemployment problem by killing the unemployed. Greenspan was yet another Republican hack who liked the perks of his job and was unwilling to risk them to tell the truth.

(My apologies to T. Monk, whose music makes each day brighter.)