Today I got my Wash Pro Stainless Steel Washer & Dryer from Utah Biodiesel Supply and I installed it on one of my wash tanks, where I had been bubble washing my latest batch for about a week. The washwater was still a bit soapy, but it looked like it was pretty well done. I [...]

My latest batch of biodiesel is looking pretty good. I washed it all week. I even built another washtank (left). Maybe tomorrow I’ll start drying part of the batch. There is no hurry – I still have about 30 gallons in stock. Yesterday, after I built the new washtank, I filled it up with 25 [...]

How many types of computer networks do you know? There is the most common TCP/IP networking, across copper, fiber or wireless (very likely that is what you are using to read this page). IPv6 is the new kid on the block, and some may remember the old stuff, like Tokenring and IPX, and when all [...]

A year ago today Angela Merkel succeeded Gerhard Schröder and became the first female chancellor and the first chancellor from the former East Germany. I was not thrilled. She is a political protegé of Helmut Kohl, aka Birne, the corrupt, corporatist pigdog chancellor from hell of the 80s. Yet, 2006 so far was a pretty [...]

Last week I spent two evenings getting 200 liters of veggie ready for processing. After I filtered the oil, I pumped it into the waterheater and heated it to 120 Deg. F. Then I pumped the warm oil into an empty tank to evaporate the water and to dry the oil. Yesterday, I finally got [...]

Wolf Biermann’s interview mit dem Spiegel Online ist fasziniered. Der Barde spricht von Zufall und Notwendigkeit, von Kulturschock, Kommunismus und Käsetorte. Jede Veränderung, die man wagt, hoffentlich zum Guten, zum Besseren, wird von manchen Leuten mit dem Vorwurf des Verrats quittiert. Wenn man zu den Menschen gehört, die immer wieder über alles neu nachdenken, im [...]

November 9 has been a fateful day in German history. The März revolution was started, the emperor was dethroned and the Berlin Wall fell on that day. During the night of that fateful day in 1938 German Nazis damaged or destroyed “1574 synagogues (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish [...]

The Democrats are celebrating a pretty significant victory. Personally I like the sound of Republican heads popping whenever someone says “House Speaker Pelosi” … try it: House Speaker Pelosi … pop pop pop House Speaker Pelosi … pop pop pop House Speaker Pelosi … pop pop pop House Speaker Pelosi … pop pop pop House [...]

… is tyranny. I pay taxes and I pay attention to politics, but I cannot legally vote in the US. I know, I am a lousy excuse for a patriot, but I do care about this country (my adopted one, the USofA). No, I don’t fly the American flag on our porch. I do not [...]

Piedmont Biofuels in Moncure, North Carolina, has openings for interns next year (see flyer). If I were 20, I’d jump on this one myself! This is a great opportunity for a “total immersion” experience in the biofuels-powered, sustainability-focused lifestyle on a small biodiesel refinery/produce farm in rural North Carolina. Contact Matt if you’re interested (see [...]

The Senegalese department of Agriculture last week announced a collaboration with Brazil and India to begin producing biofuels in Senegal. As part of the program “retour vers l’agriculture” the government aims to replace Senegal’s oil imports with homegrown fuel. A pilot project calls for 4000 hectares of jatropha for vegetable oil to produce 10 percent [...]