My United flight from BHM to Chicago was delayed an hour due to bad weather conditions in Chi-town. Fortunately, my flight from Chicago to MSP was also delayed an hour so it worked out in the end.
It might get down below freezing this weekend. Maybe even some snow! It’s supposed to be a soggy 38 tomorrow afternoon (Fri).
Thanks to the Daily Dixie for informing us of this proposed measure to reduce the maximum speed limit in Alabama from 70 to 65.
I wonder if the police will enforce the 65 mph limit with the tenacity that the 50 mph speed limit is enforced in downtown Birmingham? Traffic regularly moves at over 70 mph through the 50 mph speed limit zone; not that I’m complaining about the lack of enforcement. But setting arbitrary, unenforced speed limits that no one follows anyway just isn’t good policy.
This IEEE Spectrum article investigates a plentiful, up-and-coming biodiesel source – algae. Using algae to produce biofuels instead of crops will help eliminate the competition between food and fuel. Also, rising food prices are breaking many people’s resistance to genetically engineered crops.
Algae – easy to grow and an efficient producer of biodiesel.
21 April 2008—Food riots erupting around the world have been partly blamed on the growing use of food products to produce fuels like biodiesel and corn ethanol. But biofuels need not come from food crops. According to some researchers, the best source of biofuel may be algae, best known as pesky green pond scum.
As anyone who has had to clean a swimming pool or fish tank knows, algae grow quickly. All they need is light, carbon dioxide, and a little water to grow like, well, weeds. It turns out that algae produce oil that can be processed to make biodiesel. In some species, this oil represents more than half of the plantlike organism’s mass. Researchers are also trying to genetically alter algae to make them give off copious amounts of hydrogen to meet the needs of future fuel-cell-powered cars.
Algae’s biodiesel capacity compares well with today’s sources, says Glen Kertz, president and CEO at Valcent Products, a Vancouver, B.C., start-up that aims to become a leading algae oil supplier. A single hectare planted with corn will yield about 40 liters of oil per year; a hectare planted with oil palm would yield 1000 L. But according to Kertz, an algae bioreactor occupying the same space could yield more than 48 000 L. “And we think we can do far better than that,” says Kertz. “In a few years, when we come to understand more about this crop we’re growing, we could see bioreactors producing more than [150 000 L per hectare per year].”
In addition to biofuel, algae can also produce hydrogen, which can then power fuel cells, another clean source of electricity.
Meanwhile, other researchers are trying to ratchet up algae’s natural production of hydrogen to make pond scum bioreactors a fuel source for fuel cells. David Tiede, a senior scientist at Argonne, says he and his colleagues are looking to manipulate an enzyme called hydrogenase, which generates small amounts of hydrogen gas during a process that is concurrent with photosynthesis. Tiede hopes to take the part of the hydrogenase enzyme that produces hydrogen and insert it into a protein integral to photosynthesis. Doing so, he says, could yield amounts of hydrogen equivalent to as much as 10 percent of the algae’s mass, or roughly the same as the amount of oxygen they create.
Algae’s fecundity is so great that researchers at the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory say that algae bioreactors covering less than 40 000 square kilometers—roughly one-tenth of the sun-baked state of New Mexico—could churn out enough biodiesel, bioethanol, and molecular hydrogen to completely replace petroleum as transportation fuel in the United States, the world’s largest automotive market. That’s a lot of pond scum, considering that in 2006, U.S drivers burned through more than 800 billion L of fuel, according to the Energy Information Administration, which is part of the DOE.
Algae awareness! Algae is the Earth’s primary oxygen source.
But biofuel experts foresee a day when algae bioreactors like Valcent’s will be set up not only in places like New Mexico’s deserts but also in urban areas, atop the smokestacks of industrial plants or coal-burning electric generation plants, and in rural areas where the algae would act as remediators, using human or animal waste streams as a food source. “The reality is that from an ecological standpoint, algae already play a huge role because they’re the primary oxygen source for the planet,” says Kertz. “Most people don’t know that. But I think it’s time for some algae awareness.”
Also from IEEE, researchers are trying to use termites to produce ethanol.
Here are a few pictures from the Honda Superbike Classic this past weekend in Leeds, AL. See the sideshow below or higher resolution pictures here.
Minn. House urges Congress to normalize relations with Cuba (AP)
MN House members have approved a resolution urging Congress to normalize relations with Cuba. The debate featured pictures and recollections of Cuban trade missions and a greeting from former Minnesota Twins star Tony Oliva, who is from the Caribbean island.
Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, says the lifting of trade and travel restrictions could bring Cuban pineapples and coconuts to Minnesota and open a new market for soybeans, corn and even Spam. Cuba has been under a U.S. embargo since the 1960s.
Starting in 2009, the federal government will require all states to have a ‘REAL ID’ card. The REAL ID would form a standardized identification card for all 50 states, in an effort to protect against terrorism and fraud.
But Minnesota can choose not to accept the program. However, if the state doesn’t implement the REAL ID program, Minnesotans would not be able to use a state drivers license to board a commercial airliner.
“REAL ID is real in the sense that it’s happening — it’s required by federal law,” explained Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
One of the main problems that the Governor and the legislature are grappling with is the expense of the REAL ID program. It could cost Minnesota $11 billion over five years and U.S. Congress has only approved $40 million to help states pay for it. “We don’t need the federal government telling us that we need to put in place a card that meets their requirements at our people’s expenses,” said state Sen. Mee Moua.
Moua supports a U.S. Senate bill that states Minnesota would refuse to take part unless the federal government pays 95 percent of the cost. The state has until 2009 to decide whether to implement REAL ID.
They promise no airport jobs losses and that new, bigger Delta will live up to state commitmentsSteenland, the Northwest chief, said there would be “zero job loss” for Northwest at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a result of the deal. And for the handful of Delta flights at the Twin Cities airport, the ramp work already is outsourced, said Delta’s Anderson.
Northwest now employs about 11,500 in Minnesota, down more than 8,000 from 2000.
The Delta-Northwest merger still has many obstacles ahead, including an antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice, congressional hearings and integration of its pilots unions’ seniority lists.
The biggest issue facing the merging companies? Which brand of soft-drinks to serve – Northwest serves Pepsi, Delta serves Coke. My guess: there’s no way Delta will serve anything but Coke.
Stories via MPR’s Polinaut blog’s Daily Digest.
Related news: Wired has the scoop on Delta’s new passenger flight safety video and its starlet “Deltalina.”
Plus, Wired comments on a ridiculous, terrible, new, anti-hijacking product: electronic passenger bracelet that will allow the crew to zap would-be hijackers.
The annual Honda Superbike Classic is this weekend, April 18-20, at the beautiful Barbers Motorsports Park in Birmingham (Leeds). The forecast is for great weather too, highs in the 70s and no rain.
A few pictures from previous years:
I wonder how many unsuspecting passengers have clicked on the prominent arrow to continue through the check-in process not realizing that it’s really an “Accept offer” button to upgrade to seats with a little extra leg room for $14? There is a much less prominent “Decline offer and continue” link in the lower left, which is probably not where most people look for the continue button/link.
Pretty clever marketing scheme United.
Click to see the full screenshot.
Northwest Airlines has operated continuously under one name longer than any other U.S. Airline.
Nearly 60 years ago, Northwest pioneered the “Great Circle Route” across the Pacific Ocean to Asia when other airlines said it couldn’t be done.
In addition to operating one of the largest domestic route networks in the U.S., Northwest carries more passengers across the Pacific Ocean (5.1 million in 2004) than any other U.S. carrier, and carries more domestic air cargo than any other American passenger airline.
Beginnings
Northwest Airlines was founded in 1 September 1926 by Col. Lewis Brittin, under the name Northwest Airways. Like other early airlines, Northwest’s focus was not in hauling passengers, but in flying mail for the U.S. Post Office Department. The fledgling airline established a mail route between Minneapolis and Chicago, using open cockpit biplanes such as the Curtiss Oriole.
Northwest began flying passengers in 1927. In 1928, the airline started its first international route with service to Winnipeg, Canada. The airline’s operations were expanded to smaller cities in the region by the end of the decade. In 1931 Northwest sponsored Charles and Anne Lindbergh on a pioneering flight to Japan, scouting what would become known as the Northwest Airlines Great Circle route, and proving that flying through Alaska could save as much as 2,000 miles (3,000 km) on a New York-Tokyo route. In 1933, Northwest was designated to fly the Northern Transcontinental Route from New York City to Seattle, Washington; it adopted the name Northwest Airlines the following year as a result of the Air Mail Scandal. Northwest stock began to be publicly traded in 1941.
Learn more about the history of the Minneapolis based airline:
this will result in the largest blog in the world
No word on whether Hitchcock is going to rename his movie.
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