Blasting off to a Biofueled New Year (Lunar)

Chinese Lunar New Years
Wahoo!!!! Its the year of the RAT!!!!!!! Anyways, thought I would pass along a wish of happy New Years to all of you that celebrated:-) The Around the World For Free man Alex Boylan was in Vietnam and partied hard and I wish I could have joined him. Alex will be making his way back to the United States this coming week, so if you know anyone on the west coast that would like to help him out check out the site! (http://www.atwff.com/)

Shuttle Launch
The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off today for the International Space Station with a 2 billion dollar science lab. Atlantis has been delayed for 2 months due to some faulty fuel gauges. Does anybody know if they ever got that annoying "Check Engine" light to go off?

I watched it live today and even though it does not get much press unless something is wrong, it was still amazing to watch. When they start dropping the fuel right before ignition and then it lights....truely awesome! I hope everything goes well and that shiny new space station lab works like a charm!

BioFuel Bummer
Some disappointing, but not really surprising, news coming out of the biofuel world today. It appears that when the "costs" of creating biofuel are taking into consideration, biofuels actually create more greenhouse gas than conventional fuels. Why does this happen? When you take in the effects of land use change into account the carbon output increases dramatically.

In many tropical nations rainforests are being harvested to either 1.) grow biofuels (palm oil) or 2.) grow grains that have been phased out in other parts of the world (soybeans in Brazil). The whole biofuel initiative is still missing the boat. We cannot assume that biofuels will be able to replace all current traditional fuels to maintain our current transportation/consumption habits AND lower our greenhouse gas emissions. Hopefully we will learn (including myself) to curb our driving habits and use our own means of transportation (i.e. our feet) more and at the same time trim our belt lines. I think I need to run, I mean drive, to go get me some ice cream...cheers! :-)

Biofueled Blackberrys

Today was a busy day in the office so not a lot of interesting reading occurred. First though I have something that I really need to get out. Why of all places do guys (not sure about the ladies) feel that it is OK to conduct business and personal calls while on the toilet? It is at least a weekly occurrence when I will walk into the men's room and either 1.) hear the tapping of someone typing on their blackberry, or 2.) someone conducting a business call from their stall. I guess in today's business driven society that even going to the bathroom is time wasted when you could be working.

So with that off my chest I turn to the billionaire mogul Richard Branson and his attempts at helping to reduce global warming. In February, Virgin Atlantic will run tests flights on one of its jumbo jets using a blend of 20% bio-fuel and %80 standard aviation fuel to fly from London to Amsterdam. It is an interesting concept, as many have said that finding a suitable and sustainable alternative fuel source for aviation was one of the greatest hurdles in the energy equation. Branson, who has all the money anyone would need and then some, has been accused of being hypocritical because his business help to contribute to global warming. Virgin (in my opinion) is one of the leading companies in actually attempting to try and use new technology to offset their footprint. So to me, Branson is getting his house in order and if you have the means, and your house is in order (unlike Gore, who runs a huge electric bill),then more power to you. Either way it will be interesting to see where the bio-fuel is composed of and if/when they will up the percentage of bio-fuel-to-conventional fuel mixture. Its a start and a I feel a push in the right direction. Interesting point to note (this is at the end of the last link), if Branson is correct in his assumption of the profits he will make in the next 10 years ($3 Billion US) then he will committed more money on an annual basis to renewable and alternative energy sources than the United States government! The $150 million (US) pledged by President Bush to research alternative energy sources is purely laughable.