Creating Renewable Energy from Living Organisms

by Stephen Lacey, Staff Writer

New Hampshire, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]

The death and fossilization of plants and animals gave us the dirty energy we rely on today; but it's living organisms that will give us the clean energy of the future.

In recent years, researchers have more aggressively explored how plants, animals, fungi and bacteria can help us develop next-generation fuels and electricity. Nature, it seems, has much to teach about the efficiency of energy conversion and consumption.

Take photosynthesis, for example. When a plant’s pigment molecules absorb photons, they enter an excited state that is moved to the “reaction center,” a chlorophyll molecule called the protein complex. The reaction center is where the plant first generates chemical energy. This energy transfer is instantaneous and happens with almost 100 percent efficiency. Now researchers are trying to figure out how to design photovoltaic cells that mimic this virtually flawless process.

Greg Engel, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago, is a researcher looking at this first stage of photosynthesis on the quantum level. He and other researchers have found that the energy transfer is actually a wave-like process, which allows the excitation to “feel” it’s way to the reaction center and sample many different pathways at once. That, says Engel, is why the process is so efficient.

“We need to start tweaking the system and understand how delicate a balance this is so that we can begin to get a feel for how we may build a similar system ourselves,” says Engel.

In a plant, the pigment molecules and the reaction center make up an antenna complex, which harvests the sunlight. One way to recreate the energy transfer is to build a large “living antenna” around a photovoltaic (PV) cell, says Engel. Because the average monocrystalline PV cell is around 11-15 percent efficient, modules must be bigger to collect more photons. However, with an antenna that collects more of the photons available, future modules wouldn’t have to be as big.

“Understanding how to do this with synthetic biology is still yet unclear,” says Engel. “This is probably a technology that is still decades away, but it stands to revolutionize the efficiency of solar collection.”

While the solar industry may be far away from mimicking photosynthesis, some bioenergy companies are mastering the process to grow algae specifically for fuels. These prolific plant-like organisms have the potential to produce massive amounts of oil that can be converted into ethanol and biodiesel. In fact, 40-50 percent of the body weight of certain algal strains can be oil. And if grown in the proper conditions, algal colonies can double in volume overnight. These factors explain why there are now over 30 companies around the world harvesting algae for fuel.

Sure, algae seem to be everywhere — in the neighborhood pond, lake or swimming pool. But it takes a very methodical, scientific approach to growing the right kind of algae that carry high amounts of oil.

“Everyone thinks, how tough can it be to grow algae? But in fact, in order to get high enough productivity, we really have to do some tricks to get the algae to grow at a fast enough rate to be commercially viable,” says Brian Willson, chief technology officer at Colorado-based Solix Biofuels.

Willson oversees the progress of Solix’s “biophotoreactor,” a closed-production system (as opposed to an open pond) made up of long plastic ribbons filled with algal colonies. Light is spread throughout the reactor at mid to low intensity levels, allowing for higher photosynthetic efficiencies. Then carbon dioxide is pumped in, giving the algae more “food” for growth. Once harvested, the algal oil can be converted into biodiesel and the carbohydrates can be made into ethanol.

According to Willson, Solix may be able to produce 7-8,000 gallons of oil per acre within the next 4 to 5 years. By comparison, palm only produces around 650 gallons of oil per acre. However, creating the optimal conditions to grow that much algae is still an issue. The company is currently experimenting with sunlight levels, salinity, water temperature, and nutrient levels, trying to get the process perfect in order to achieve high yields, says Willson.

“All the companies out there are still figuring these [growing conditions] out. I think you’re going to see more production this year, but it’s going to be a couple of years before you see significant quantities. It’s my view that it’s probably going to be 2012, 2013 before this becomes a contributor in terms of anything close to interesting levels of production,” says Willson.

In the meantime, the cellulosic ethanol industry is trying to get to meaningful levels of production too. One of the big issues facing producers is how to get the best mix of enzymes to cost-effectively break down cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin from biomass into sugars for fermentation. Again, researchers in this sector are turning to various organisms for the answers.

One of the biggest enzyme producers, San Diego-based Verenium Corporation, is looking at extracting enzymes from the stomachs of termites. The enzymes inside a termite’s digestive system help it break down 95 percent of the biomass material it consumes within a 24-hour period. That fact, says Bill Baum, general manager of Verenium’s Specialty Enzymes Business Unit, led the company to explore what could be done to turn these pests into heroes.

“These guys are just like little biorefineries…so we wanted to go in and identify a lot of these enzymes that are doing this. So we extracted the DNA and we were able to identify hundreds of new cellulase enzymes that we’d never seen before,” says Baum.

The result has been a “cocktail” of enzymes that are able to efficiently break down a variety of biomass feedstocks. However, the product is still much more expensive than Verenium’s other enzymes mixes, says Baum. It may be a few years before termite guts start eating away the market share of traditional sources of fuel.

Steve Hutcheson, CEO and President of the start-up company Zymetis, says that his company is developing a mix of enzymes that will significantly lower the cost of breaking down cellulosic material. Zymetis is working with a bacterium found on marsh grasses in the Chesapeake Bay that produces the most diverse culture of cellulose-eating enzymes known. In addition, says Hutcheson, the bacterium can be coaxed into making more enzymes that are better suited for cellulosic ethanol production.

“Having the diversity of enzymes and the ease of being able to extract enzymes from the culture makes it very inexpensive to produce,” says Hutcheson. “We think this is a big step for the industry.”

Zymetis says that the growth and preparation of the enzymes will cost ethanol producers around 30 cents per gallon of fuel. The average cost today is around 35-50 cents per gallon. Hutcheson says that the Zymetis process could lower to around 15 cents per gallon over the next couple of years.

“Wait a few years” seems to be the common theme as companies try to develop these new forms of energy. It could be decades before PV cells mimic photosynthesis; it could be five years before we start growing meaningful amounts of algae for fuel; and it may be a few years before cellulosic ethanol makes its way onto the market. But compared with the tens of millions of years it took to make the dirty fossil energies we use today, waiting a few years for clean, renewable energy doesn’t seem that long to these companies.

“It’s not about if we can commercialize these technologies, but when,” says Verenium’s Bill Baum. “It won’t be overnight, but I’m hopeful that the next-generation of energies from these organisms is upon us.”

US water pipelines are breaking

Billions for wars without end .....but no money for fixing the infrastructure.
Please remember: these billions for wars without end are your tax dollars falling into an abyss.

Two hours north of New York City, a mile-long stream and a marsh the size of a football field have mysteriously formed along a country road. They are such a marvel that people come from miles around to drink the crystal-clear water, believing it is bubbling up from a hidden natural spring.

The truth is far less romantic: The water is coming from a cracked 70-year-old tunnel hundreds of feet below ground, scientists say.

The tunnel is leaking up to 36 million gallons a day as it carries drinking water from a reservoir to the big city. It is a powerful warning sign of a larger problem around the country: The infrastructure that delivers water to the nation's cities is badly aging and in need of repairs.

The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest more than $277 billion over the next two decades on repairs and improvements to drinking water systems. Water industry engineers put the figure drastically higher, at about $480 billion.

Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced improvements of this magnitude before. And customers will have to bear the majority of the cost through rate increases, according to the American Water Works Association, an industry group.

Engineers say this is a crucial era for the nation's water systems, especially in older cities like New York, where some pipes and tunnels were built in the 1800s and are now nearing the end of their life expectancies.

"Our generation hasn't experienced anything like this. We weren't around when the infrastructure was being built," said Greg Kail, spokesman for the water industry group. "We didn't pay for the pipes to be put in the ground, but we sure benefited from the improvements to public health that came from it."

He said the situation has not reached crisis stage, but without a serious investment, "it can become a crisis. Each year the problem is put on the back burner, the price tag is going to go up."

Catastrophic problems can arise when infrastructure fails. An 84-year-old steam pipe erupted beneath a New York street last year, creating a mammoth geyser that rained mud and debris down on the city.

In Chicago, an 80-year-old cast-iron water main broke earlier this year, spilling thousands of gallons and opening up a 25-foot hole in the street.

In Denver, up to 4 million gallons of water gushed from a ruptured 30-year-old pipeline in February, gouging a sinkhole across three lanes of Interstate 25. The lanes were shut down for nearly two weeks.

Cleveland has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure in the past 20 years but still must repair daily breaks. Last month, a break in a 2 1/2-foot-diameter water main turned a downtown square into a watery crater and knocked out other utilities.

The amount of wasted water from these breaches is staggering.

The 36 million gallons a day that leak from the 85-mile Delaware Aqueduct in New York state amounts to more than 1 billion gallons a month. That may be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of billions of water consumed in New York City every year, but the daily leak in the tunnel would meet the daily demands of drought-ravaged Raleigh, N.C.

Residents in Wawarsing, about 100 miles from New York City, blame tunnel leaks for the constant flooding in their yards and basements. Department of Environmental Protection engineers are trying to determine whether the aqueduct is really responsible for the soggy mess along Route 209 that has gotten considerably worse over the last 10 years.

David Sickles said the water just bubbles up from the cracks in the concrete in his basement — even when it doesn't rain.

"It's like there is too much water in the ground already," Sickles said, showing off the water line on the concrete wall of his basement. "There's no place for this to go."

Nearly every house has a black discharge hose running from the basement through the yard, gushing water into already-soggy patches of grass.

The land around Laura Smith's house turns into a lake when the snow melts, and her driveway is so muddy your feet sink when you walk to her front door.

Utilites currently spend about $10.4 billion annually on large-scale repairs and improvements on drinking water infrastructure, a figure that has been relatively flat during the past two decades, the EPA said.

Cities have a hard time convincing residents that they should spend money on something they never see, buried hundreds of feet underground. And often, public officials pawn the responsibility off on the next person elected, Kail said.

Repairs tend to be long and costly, especially since many systems were built nearly a century ago, deep underground, where buildings and major roads now stand.

Even monitoring pipes for vulnerabilities can be expensive and tricky, since it's not possible to shut down a city's water supply to test for leaks. If New York were to do that to the Delaware Aqueduct, for example, the 13 1/2-foot-diameter tunnel might crumble under the crushing weight of the land without the water to support the duct.

The Department of Environmental Protection monitors leaks by sending water through the tunnel and measuring how much comes out at the end. The department also sends robots that swim through the tunnels and collect data on their condition.

The amount of water being lost is inconsequential, given that reservoirs are so full, said Environmental Commissioner Emily Lloyd. But she said it is important to fix the leaks now because there is no way to tell how the system might deteriorate in the next 30 years.

New York has spent decades digging a new $6 billion tunnel that will create an alternative source of water delivery and allow for easier inspection and repair of the other tunnels. It is expected to be completed by 2020.

Around the country, water rates are going up to help pay for the repairs, estimated at anywhere between $550 and $7,000 per household during the next three decades.

Augusta, Ga., raised rates 11 percent from 2001 through 2007 for a $300 million program to improve the deteriorating water system. Cleveland gradually increased rates by about 6 percent for more than 15 years to fund a $750 million project to address aging and inefficient pipes. Springfield, Mass., doubled rates for its 250,000 customers. Philadelphia, Kenosha, Wis., Portsmouth, Va., and other cities have followed suit.

Many engineers and water utilities say water bills around the country are too low. In New York City, where a studio apartment can rent for more than $3,000 a month, the cost of water and sewage is about $60 for an entire single-family home.

"We are the only utility where the raw material is free, but the infrastructure is the most expensive," said Nick DeBenedictis, chief executive of Aqua America, a water company that serves 3 million people in 13 states. "We have to dig up streets in order to do it, but once we make investments it's good for years."

Neocons, the Bible, False Flags and Martial Law

Thursday, August 16, 2007

By now, you have probably heard that the government has been training ministers to convince their congregations to submit to government authority in the event of a martial law crackdown, based upon Romans 13 (see also this).

Fundamentalist Christians argue that Romans 13 states that Christians must submit to government authority, since the government is divinely empowered and sustained. This is actually the argument which Adolph Hitler used in order to convince the German churches to follow him and his policies.

However, Romans 13 does not teach subservience. Rather, as explained by a Baptist minister, Romans 13 actually says something very different:
"Paul … said, ‘Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.’ Meaning, our obedience to civil authority is more than just ‘because they said so.’ It is also a matter of conscience. This means we must think and reason for ourselves regarding the justness and rightness of our government's laws. Obedience is not automatic or robotic. It is a result of both rational deliberation and moral approbation.

Therefore, there are times when civil authority may need to be resisted. Either governmental abuse of power or the violation of conscience (or both) could precipitate civil disobedience."
The Bible therefore requires that Christians resist imposition of martial law based upon false pretenses or upon an abuse of power.

Similarly, Romans 13 teaches that any government that is a "terror to good works" is acting beyond its authority and must be resisted.

Therefore, Romans 13 compels us to resist and remove from power elements of the U.S. government which participated in the 9/11 attacks or are planning to carry out further false flag attacks.

And remember that neoconservatives use religion to manipulate people, even though they themselves are usually not religious. So the government hacks pushing Romans 13 as an excuse for fascism and government-sponsored terror likely do not themselves even believe in the Bible. More

This is not meant as an attempt to convert non-Christians to Christianity. 85% of the American population identifies itself as Christian, and millions more identify themselves as Jewish. Therefore, it is aimed at the vast majority of Americans who already believe in the Bible, or those who wish to reach them. If you are an atheist, mocking Christians will not help to persuade them of your view - it will just make them defensive. But educating them about what their own faith really teaches might help to persuade them.

Oh Keynesian, Where Art Thou?

Oh Keynesian, Where Art Thou? click here

The Age of Autism: 'A pretty big secret'

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor
CHICAGO, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- It's a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill.

But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don't have autism.

"We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines," said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated.

The few autistic children Homefirst sees were vaccinated before their families became patients, Eisenstein said. "I can think of two or three autistic children who we've delivered their mother's next baby, and we aren't really totally taking care of that child -- they have special care needs. But they bring the younger children to us. I don't have a single case that I can think of that wasn't vaccinated."

The autism rate in Illinois public schools is 38 per 10,000, according to state Education Department data; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the national rate of autism spectrum disorders at 1 in 166 -- 60 per 10,000.

"We do have enough of a sample," Eisenstein said. "The numbers are too large to not see it. We would absolutely know. We're all family doctors. If I have a child with autism come in, there's no communication. It's frightening. You can't touch them. It's not something that anyone would miss."

No one knows what causes autism, but federal health authorities say it isn't childhood immunizations. Some parents and a small minority of doctors and scientists, however, assert vaccines are responsible.

This column has been looking for autism in never-vaccinated U.S. children in an effort to shed light on the issue. We went to Chicago to meet with Eisenstein at the suggestion of a reader, and we also visited Homefirst's office in northwest suburban Rolling Meadows. Homefirst has four other offices in the Chicago area and a total of six doctors.

Eisenstein stresses his observations are not scientific. "The trouble is this is just anecdotal in a sense, because what if every autistic child goes somewhere else and (their family) never calls us or they moved out of state?"

In practice, that's unlikely to account for the pronounced absence of autism, says Eisenstein, who also has a bachelor's degree in statistics, a master's degree in public health and a law degree.

Homefirst follows state immunization mandates, but Illinois allows religious exemptions if parents object based either on tenets of their faith or specific personal religious views. Homefirst does not exclude or discourage such families. Eisenstein, in fact, is author of the book "Don't Vaccinate Before You Educate!" and is critical of the CDC's vaccination policy in the 1990s, when several new immunizations were added to the schedule, including Hepatitis B as early as the day of birth. Several of the vaccines -- HepB included -- contained a mercury-based preservative that has since been phased out of most childhood vaccines in the United States.

Medical practices with Homefirst's approach to immunizations are rare. "Because of that, we tend to attract families that have questions about that issue," said Dr. Paul Schattauer, who has been with Homefirst for 20 years and treats "at least" 100 children a week.

Schattauer seconded Eisenstein's observations. "All I know is in my practice I don't see autism. There is no striking 1-in-166," he said.

Earlier this year we reported the same phenomenon in the mostly unvaccinated Amish. CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told us the Amish "have genetic connectivity that would make them different from populations that are in other sectors of the United States." Gerberding said, however, studies "could and should be done" in more representative unvaccinated groups -- if they could be found and their autism rate documented.

Chicago is America's prototypical "City of Big Shoulders," to quote Carl Sandburg, and Homefirst's mostly middle-class families seem fairly representative. A substantial number are conservative Christians who home-school their children. They are mostly white, but the Homefirst practice also includes black and Hispanic families and non-home-schooling Jews, Catholics and Muslims.

They tend to be better educated, follow healthier diets and breast-feed their children much longer than the norm -- half of Homefirst's mothers are still breast-feeding at two years. Also, because Homefirst relies less on prescription drugs including antibiotics as a first line of treatment, these children have less exposure to other medicines, not just vaccines.

Schattauer, interviewed at the Rolling Meadows office, said his caseload is too limited to draw conclusions about a possible link between vaccines and autism. "With these numbers you'd have a hard time proving or disproving anything," he said. "You can only get a feeling about it.

"In no way would I be an advocate to stand up and say we need to look at vaccines, because I don't have the science to say that," Schattauer said. "But I don't think the science is there to say that it's not."

Schattauer said Homefirst's patients also have significantly less childhood asthma and juvenile diabetes compared to national rates. An office manager who has been with Homefirst for 17 years said she is aware of only one case of severe asthma in an unvaccinated child.

"Sometimes you feel frustrated because you feel like you've got a pretty big secret," Schattauer said. He argues for more research on all those disorders, independent of political or business pressures.

The asthma rate among Homefirst patients is so low it was noticed by the Blue Cross group with which Homefirst is affiliated, according to Eisenstein.

"In the alternative-medicine network which Homefirst is part of, there are virtually no cases of childhood asthma, in contrast to the overall Blue Cross rate of childhood asthma which is approximately 10 percent," he said. "At first I thought it was because they (Homefirst's children) were breast-fed, but even among the breast-fed we've had asthma. We have virtually no asthma if you're breast-fed and not vaccinated."

Because the diagnosis of asthma is based on emergency-room visits and hospital admissions, Eisenstein said, Homefirst's low rate is hard to dispute. "It's quantifiable -- the definition is not reliant on the doctor's perception of asthma."

Several studies have found a risk of asthma from vaccination; others have not. Studies that include never-vaccinated children generally find little or no asthma in that group.

Earlier this year Florida pediatrician Dr. Jeff Bradstreet said there is virtually no autism in home-schooling families who decline to vaccinate for religious reasons -- lending credence to Eisenstein's observations.

"It's largely non-existent," said Bradstreet, who treats children with autism from around the country. "It's an extremely rare event."

Bradstreet has a son whose autism he attributes to a vaccine reaction at 15 months. His daughter has been home-schooled, he describes himself as a "Christian family physician," and he knows many of the leaders in the home-school movement.

"There was this whole subculture of folks who went into home-schooling so they would never have to vaccinate their kids," he said. "There's this whole cadre who were never vaccinated for religious reasons."

In that subset, he said, "unless they were massively exposed to mercury through lots of amalgams (mercury dental fillings in the mother) and/or big-time fish eating, I've not had a single case."

Federal health authorities and mainstream medical groups emphatically dismiss any link between autism and vaccines, including the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. Last year a panel of the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies, said there is no evidence of such a link, and funding should henceforth go to "promising" research.

Thimerosal, which is 49.6 percent ethyl mercury by weight, was phased out of most U.S. childhood immunizations beginning in 1999, but the CDC recommends flu shots for pregnant women and last year began recommending them for children 6 to 23 months old. Most of those shots contain thimerosal.

Thimerosal-preserved vaccines are currently being injected into millions of children in developing countries around the world. "My mandate ... is to make sure at the end of the day that 100,000,000 are immunized ... this year, next year and for many years to come ... and that will have to be with thimerosal-containing vaccines," said John Clements of the World Health Organization at a June 2000 meeting called by the CDC.

That meeting was held to review data that thimerosal might be linked with autism and other neurological problems. But in 2004 the Institute of Medicine panel said evidence against a link is so strong that health authorities, "whether in the United States or other countries, should not include autism as a potential risk" when formulating immunization policies.

But where is the simple, straightforward study of autism in never-vaccinated U.S. children? Based on our admittedly anecdotal and limited reporting among the Amish, the home-schooled and now Chicago's Homefirst, that may prove to be a significant omission.

--

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes comment. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

1 in every 350 Americans is considered a possible “terrorist

This really makes you ask, am I one of them? Of course not… right? Do not be so sure… The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act redefines what a terrorist is. The Act’s definition of a terrorist is so broad that an protester, for just about anything, could be labeled a terrorist. Also do not fly in and out of the country more than a few times… they may suspect you.

Almost 1 million people will be put on the “watch list” by years end. This is incredible and utterly insane. How can the government expect us as citizens to believe that 1 in every 350 people need to be watched. When I heard this news all I could think was that 1984 is already here. I am afraid just by writing this and posting it online I will be added to the list.

People amaze me how they can still say “Patriot Act” is for our protection. Watching 1 million people is not for our protection! How big must the government be to be able to watch this many people! I already knew I couldn’t enter the city with out being caught on camera 1,000 times but this is incredible. Spying on 1 million people makes the government the biggest terrorist of them all…If your not doing anything wrong why does it matter? That is by far the worst argument I have ever heard!

I would rather vote for a democrat that taxed me more and controls my health care plan than a candidate who supports this. Of course Ron Paul is the greatest proponent of civil liberties alive today. If Ron Paul doesn’t win I will be starting a petition among republicans not to vote for the nominee unless they promise to actively pursue repealing this thing.

Going fishing? Pack your passport

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

Rick Ungar's charter fishing service promises a great time on Lake Erie. But there's a catch — and it's not freshwater fish. It's the Homeland Security Department's new anti-terrorism rules.
When the 2008 charter season begins next month, U.S. citizens paying to fish on Lake Erie will have to bring either a passport or two other IDs if they plan to cross the northern border's invisible watery line.

When they get back to shore in the USA, they'll have to drive to a local government reporting station and pose for pictures. They won't be posing with their fish, but for Customs officers via a videophone connection.

That's because half of Lake Erie — as it happens, the half with the deeper and cooler waters that often spawn the best fishing — is in Canada. The Homeland Security Department intends to enforce new border security rules — largely focused on those coming into the country by land and air — on fishermen re-entering the country.

Ungar and many of his fellow charter boat captains — Lake Erie alone has 600-plus — are incensed.

They say the rules are difficult to follow, will dramatically cut down on tourism and won't protect against terrorism.

"How does this secure our country?" asks Ungar, a retired Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio, police chief. "I'm not insensitive to law enforcement issues, but these are fishermen, for God's sake."

The rules apply to all the Great Lakes, but opposition is most potent on Erie because the geography of the lake means the best fish are often over the international line.

Some operators haven't decided whether they'll continue fishing in Canadian waters. If they do, the operators will be required to:

•Fax in passengers' personal information — name, date of birth and government ID number — to the local Customs and Border Protection office an hour before they leave shore. The names will be run against terrorist watch lists.

•Make sure passengers carry either a passport or a government ID and a proof-of-citizenship document.

•Send the passengers to a local border protection reporting station after landing, so they can call in on a videophone.

Officers will be watching and doing spot checks on patrol boats and government aircraft. "Our concerns are anything from terrorists and terrorist weapons to drugs and undocumented aliens," says Brett Sturgeon, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.

Jim Bonner, whose Sunshine Charters business has been taking tourists fishing on Lake Erie for 25 years, calls the rules "a waste of taxpayers' money."

"It's a shame" he says. "It's just wide-open water."