General

Helping Katrina victims

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My community is collecting items such as clothing, blankets & pillows, radios, flashlights, canned goods, diapers, children’s toys & books, etc. to send to hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. In addition, people can offer help to new orleans residents on this page. Of course there’s always Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. If you’re a DreamHost customer, their monthly charity is the Red Cross and they will match all contributions.

Schweitzer's plan for US energy independence

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Via Daily Kos (original link):

Montana’s governor wants to solve America’s rising energy costs using a technology discovered in Germany 80 years ago that converts coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.

The Fischer-Tropsch technology, discovered by German researchers in 1923 and later used by the Nazis to convert coal into wartime fuels, was not economical as long as oil cost less than $30 a barrel.

But with U.S. crude oil now hitting more than double that price, Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s plan is getting more attention across the country and some analysts are taking him very seriously.

Montana is “sitting on more energy than they have in the Middle East,” Schweitzer told Reuters in an interview this week.

“I am leading this country in this desire and demand to convert coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. We can do it in Montana for $1 per gallon,” he said.

“We can do it cheaper than importing oil from the sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks that we’re bringing it from right now.”

The governor estimated the cost of producing a barrel of oil through the Fischer-Tropsch method at $32, and said that with its 120 billion tons of coal — a little less than a third of the U.S total — Montana could supply the entire United States with its aviation, gas and diesel fuel for 40 years without creating environmental damage.

An entry level Fischer-Tropsch plant producing 22,000 barrels a day would cost about $1.5 billion, he said.

The fuel that comes out of the Fischer-Tropsch method (also used by South Africa during their embargo years) burns cleaner than current fuels, stripping out sulfur, arsenic, and other nasty byproducts. And if Montana alone can deliver 40 years worth of the nation’s energy needs, imagine how much more we’d have when you throw Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio, and West Virginia coal into the mix. More than enough fuel to get us inexpensively into the hydrogen economy.

The geopolitical ramifications are also huge — no need for wars in the Middle East or saber-rattling in Venezuela. The impetus for foolish wars would wane. And cheaper gas (I don’t buy $1/gallon, but even twice that would be a boon) would provide huge benefits to the economy.

Not a modest vision for a small state governor.

Compare to Republican governors getting indicted and convicted and investigated all around the country.

So does laptop LoJack work?

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According to a very nice item at Engadget it does:

We wrote before on Absolute Software’s CompuTrace
LoJack system for laptops, but Forbes decided to put it to the test (well kind of). They gave it a thorough going over, and while we’re not sure we’d want to “sit back and wait for [the laptop] to be stolen,â€? apparently as soon as your swiped lappie does get on the internet, Absolute will track down the perps (assuming the first thing the bandits do isn’t wipe or replace your drive if your machine doesn’t have an embedded LoJack recovery chip). Apparently a large chop-shop crime ring in Texas was even recently busted when someone brought back a LoJack equipped laptop, and the machine was even returned.

We won't hear about this in the mainstream media

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Via Global Voices Online:

Mauritanian blogger Rauf writes about the apparent coup that has taken place in Mauritania. Here’s a rough, machine-assisted translation of what’s been posted to his blog:

Shootings with heavy weapon were heard Wednesday morning in Nouakchott after the presidential guard had taken the control of several strategic points of the Mauritanian capital, where a military coup d’etat has occurred in the absence of the Head of the State, Maaouyia Ould Taya.

As of 5H00 local (and GMT), soldiers of the presidential guard took the control of the buildings of the staff, the radio and national television and blocked access to the presidency and the ministries, according to this source.

According to observers, they also positioned vehicles equipped with heavy weapons and anti-aircraft batteries at several strategic points of the capital.
Five shootings of heavy machines resounded with 10h15 close to the center of Nouakchott, whose streets were emptied gradually, of the population.

In the capital, the administrative buildings were deserted and activity was weak at the end of the morning, with only some pedestrians and vehicles in the streets.

This is why I read Global Voices Online. It’s the best place to find local stories from around the world blogged by people actually experiencing it.

Airport

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I’m now at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport waiting for my flight to Detroit for ADHOC. There’s a free public wireless network and I’m getting a very strong signal. It’s also extremely fast. I hope our network at ADHOC will be as good – we’ve had connectivity problems there the last few years.

I just looked at iTunes and I see three people here are sharing their tunes.

What's wrong with this picture?

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Via Boing Boing: Good stuff from Daily Koz.

Regarding Grokster:

“We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties,” Justice Souter wrote.

Regarding guns:

Senate Republicans on Tuesday moved the National Rifle Association’s top priority ahead of a $491 billion defense bill, setting up a vote on legislation to shield firearms manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits over gun crimes.

“The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

[Senator Larry] Craig said such lawsuits are “predatory and aimed at bankrupting the firearms industry,” unfairly blaming dealers and manufacturers for the crimes of gun users.