Scattelogical ramblings and desultory humor - Almost May

Just after the second WW. Our culture began to shift from an agrarian economy to manufacturing, now no one knows where milk comes from and cows are in museums lol
I also seems there isn't anything made in this country and many manuf, plants that havn't gone overseas are owned by foreiners........

A freiend lives in Utah and the Lazyboy Chairs is shutting down and moving to Mexico. My friend is livid as its 600 jobs went POOF.

Are we the only country in the world that grows corn? I was watching a news show and it said the prices of food rising is because of global warming and ethanol. All because of corn. It said that the US is just starting to feel the pain in food costs and is not going to get better. Does another country grow corn other then the US?

Tip toeing here.............

Other people grow corn but they don't try to turn it into ethanol.

The governor of Alabama has proposed to build a N-S running highway to open up West Alabama for development. Of course there will be no gasoline to run traffic on the new roads. But a significant portion of the landscape will be turned into concrete. And the character of west Alabama's little towns will be destroyed forever.

I suggested to another Alabamian in the rose forum that we should find out if a gasoline substitute can be made from spent rose petals. That way the rose growers will be kings instead of the petroleum cartels. And, everyone will be encouraged to grow as many roses as possible.

There is finally real hope for a plug-in electric car in the next few years. Doubly nice for me with my solar panels. What all these 'experts' don't seem to realize or care about is that you cannot grow something for fuel on a large scale without a) finding 'new' land to do it or, b) affecting food production as farmers rush to grow the 'energy' plant. Seems obvious to me. There has been much talk about the wonders of ethanol from cellulose - switch grass, primarily. Well Brazil is doing that in a big way and bragging about energy independence. Well guess where they are coming up with the land to grow it - by clearing more rain forests! So typical - 'solve' one problem, create many more.

I can't even start on the subjest.
What ever happened to all the young people in the 70's that started Earth Day.? Where is the passion for the mass movement towards cleaner environment?
There are too few of us.
Big Glutt business wins again.
Time for the revolution to revive itself.

Big business is an easy scapegoat. The reality is the American people are to blame. They loved the gas guzzlers. They hated the cf light bulbs. They did not want to be bothered with recycling. Plastic and glass only really start6ed disappearing from the landfills when deposits were put in effect. People in the burbs drive to get their mail at the end of the driveway. Coming from the city, the car-centric mentality makes me crazy.

I am acquainted with a sculptor woodworker who taught (sp) classes at The School for American Craftsmen,(there are hundreds schooled in his method and choice of materials) who built huge comissions out of Purple Heart ,Zebra Wood and Pahduke(sp)to name a few, harvested in southamerica.
When corprate offices have to have $250,000. desks and wall paneling its time to rearrange priorities.
Wonder how many of those CEO's were head of Green Companies.
The waste of these interiors when the tenyear office remodel comes around ,just makes my blood boil.

land. we have it here in Alabama. thousands of acres of prime farm land whose owners are being paid not to farm it. the governor is proposing a new highway to "develop" it.
we also have oil.
all the oil you want in the Gulf of Mexico.

the oil companies are ready to go. several years ago I edited reports of the underwater surveys of buried cultural resources in the Gulf. a cultural clearance would be necesssary before the area could be put into oil production. the sunken old Spanish vessels are all documented and probably salvaged by now. Nothing is stopping the production of local oil

except . . ..

This message was edited May 11, 2008 9:05 AM

No argument there whatsoever. But businesses will do whatever it takes to make money. So if people are not buying their product, like they are not buying the behemoth vehicles now, they are forced to change.

DON'T SAY THE NAME.
It's a holy day.
We are enjoying our Sunday AM coffee.

Very true as well, Gloria.

whether people buy a product is a result of marketing. they have to be convinced that they need it - whether they do or not.

That's certainly not what is in play now. They are not buying Hummers because of the gas price - period.

It looks like everything is coming to a screeching halt because gas is being controlled and the prices are escalating without limit. Shipping costs are sky high. Diesel prices for truckers are even higher than regular gas.

What's the solution Victor?

Wish I knew! I think we should drill our own oil. Technology has made it so much safer. Lower the speed limit - can't believe virtually no one has called for this. We did it in the 70's. And build more refineries - none in over 30 years! Put more incentives for electric cars. All these will help, but not right away.

But I do believe oil prices cannot stay this high - especially if our economy remains soft. And they will fall very fast when they start. Speculators have contributed to the high price. They will dump oil quickly. The weak dollar has as well and if our economy weakens more, so will the rest of the world. This will force those countries to lower their interest rates and the dollar will rise.

Of course, trouble in certain regions of the world can drive it right back up. Way up.

I also think there should be more incentives for businesses to have people tele-commute, carpool and have four day work weeks.

It is disappointing that warfare still seems to be the solution over diplomatic negotiation.

electric cars: plug it in! plug it in! maybe they could add an air purifier to that!

Goodby commuters. Hello businesses in the burbs

I worked for the Alabama Historical Commission for 20 years. The last four years was an on-line job.

How many people don't work on a computer these days? Many can work at home - at least a day or two a week.

i should have said, it was an on-line job at home.

Sorry to go off subject here but just got off the phone w/ cousin in Maine who is loosing tree peony's to winter rodent activity.
While we were talking she remembered a solution they used for a Witchazel tree.
make a collar of carpenters wire 6 inches larger than diameter if trunk, filled it w/ crushed stone.She says it worked.

ge1836: there is no such thing as "off the subject" in this thread. Thanks for the information. I wish I could grow tree peonies here.

But, they are indigenous to Siberia which is nothing like Alabama. Probably the most beautiful flower in the history of the world.

We have the Gratwick tree peony nursery in this area.
I had no idea you could spend hundreds for one.

I thought there were plans to use the corn cob & husk vs the corn? That way it wouldn't add to deforesting or affect food prices. But we need to innovate. I think relying on the off-shore oil or Alaskan oil is unrealistic. It would not help as much as people think it would. Clean coal, if possible, has more potential. But I think it's time to begin to move off of non-renewables.

I think big corn crops are largely a US thing. Wheat or rice for most of the world. Maybe we should make high fructose corn syrup illegal. That would cut the competition for corn & our improve our health at the same time.

good idea Dave : but that would affect ICE CREAM now wouldn't it?lol

Ice Cream!
No, I think regular sugar tastes better and is bad enough for you.

I can't think of anything that is made with regular sugar.
Corn syrup, dextrose(fruit sugars) and other words ending in ose are all bad.
The diabetic knows lol
Maybe they are keeping regular sugar for Starbucks.

high fructose corn syrup and transfats level out the population even better than war and it targets the entire population not just the young men.

That is an anthropological observation.

We certainly can't rely on our sources of oil for the long-term, and should not. But there is a LOT of oil within out territory, including one found just in the last month - under Montana and neighboring states. Just announcing that we might start domestic drilling would drop the price of oil. Renewable sources are great, but they need to be truly renewable, not adversely affect other things and will not meet our needs for a long time, if ever. Too many people have an either / or approach. Improve efficiency, increase funding for electric cars, solar (the only truly reliable renewable) and other renewable sources, increase clean coal technology and drill our own oil. For electricity, more nuclear power as a transition to whatever is the next step - fusion or who knows.

What about public transportation?

In the old days you could catch a train if you wanted to go out west.

No problem unless there was a train robbery.

Now everyone who would have been on the train to the same destination is driving their own gas guzzle-ing vehicle.

Even if there was a move to corn husks (and I don't believe it has nearly the push that cellulotic ethanol does), it would still increase food prices. Farmers who normally grow other food switch to plant X if they think it's going to be in demand as an energy source. And ethanol is not cheap, nor good for most engines. Consumer Reports did a study on it over a year ago. It decreased efficiency and adversely affected the engines.

I think the amish have it right.... we should all be driving horse and buggies

I vote for making biodiesel out of algae. It is being done down under (I forget if it is Australia or New Zeland) and in California. Cornell has been working on it for years. They designed a "scrubber" for power plants that cleans the exhaust and uses the CO2 to feed the algae. The algae scrubber is less expensive to install and does a better job than the current mechanical ones and the bonus is you harvest a % of the algae every day to process the oil and make biodiesel. No crop land needed - no trucking crops to a production facility. I'm sure there is money in it - but not for agri-business and algae doesn't have lobbists.

Sounds good but can it really be done on a large scale? They can come to my pond...

It costs almost as much, if not more, though, to produce some of these alternative fuels. In some cases, it takes more energy to produce energy. Vicious!

I've enjoyed these energy discussions!

I've enjoyed them too!

I believe we, as a species, as a society needs to mature more before we will see better conservation, healthier bodies, conscientious energy use... etc.

Wish I could harness my six year-old's energy.

Those new curly light bulbs. Arghhh - your not supposed to throw them in the trash as they contain mercury.