We uploaded some videos of the Wally and Cleo to Laura’s YouTube channel. I shot this one on Dec. 26 after the snowstorm. Cleo was very excited about the snow. This might be the first time she experienced a real snowfall because she lived at the coast for most of her life.

Wir haben ein paar Videos unserer Pferde bei Laura’s YouTube Seite eingestellt. Diese Video habe ich am 26. Dezember gefilmt nachdem es die ganze  Nacht geschneit hatte. Cleo war ganz aus dem Haeuschen wegen dem Schnee. Wahrscheinlich hatte sie noch nie so viel Schnee gesehen, da sie den Grossteil ihres Lebens bisher and der Kueste verbracht hat.

Boy – what a surprise that year had in store for us! Perhaps the greatest change in lifestyle for Laura an me since we had children … and a much bigger surprise than the children! Of course I am talking about our horses, Waldo and Cleo.

While building our horsefarm and figuring out the ins and outs of horse-ownership was our big adventure this year, Laura and I were also pretty busy with work, and the kids were busy with school. Laura’s store had a good year and has weathered the economic troubles of the last three years quite well. I think that One World Market‘s  success shows the success of weaving a business into the social fabric of a community, and integrating social justice and community building into the business model. And of course her store’s success is also a direct result of her’s and April’s hard work keeping the customers happy.

My work is going well, too. I expanded my team and we’re getting ready to launch a new, thoroughly overhauled version of one of our lab’s key research tools.  The biggest excitement this year was probably when one of the labs we support moved out and another researcher and his team moved into the vacated space. My little side-business of licensing truck crash videos is also still doing fine. This fall I did 2 licenses with production companies for Japanese television shows. And I am still brewing fuel for my cars (and the truck, of course, which also runs on biodiesel), even though it is getting increasingly difficult to get enough oil. Still, I just started drying batch no.  60, so that brings me to a total of about 3,000 gallons, or 12,000 liters of fuel I made from used fryer oil.

Jacob is doing well in school – he is now in 5th grade and the last year in elementary school and the last year at the charter school where he has been since 3rd grade. He has made some good friends and he also likes his teacher a lot. In the fall he took a break from karate, but in December he started going to classes again. I hope that in January we can start working on our next belt levels. For his birthday, he got a kajak, which he mostly paddles around our pond. But we did take it out on the Eno a couple times as well.

Julia is still a straight-A student at school and has a tremendous work ethic. She is also getting really good at her viola play, thanks to her tenacity and our friend Barbara’s patient and skillful teaching. For Julia, the big event of the year, of course, was getting her horse. She and Cleo hit it off right away, and while we all bonded with Cleo, she is definitely Julia’s horse. And since so many of Julia’s friends are also horse-crazy girls, owning a horse has also been a tremendous opportunity for her socially.

To us, our horsefarm project was remarkable in many ways. For Laura, it was a lifelong dream to own a horse. Now we own two and they live right in our back yard. Backyard farms like ours are not uncommon around here, but still – most horse-owners board their horses. That’s a perfectly good approach, although it can be difficult to find a good place for your horse. And keeping the horses at your own place has some real advantages, as you interact with the animals every day and so you bond with them more. Most evenings we spend at least some time out there with them.

Setting up our horse habitat was also the biggest DIY project either of us had ever undertaken. Heck – it’s so big, you can see it from space! It was fun and exciting and Laura and I had very few disagreements throughout. We divided up the jobs and even managed to get the kids to help. Just the timing was a bit of a problem … if you plan to build a pasture fence, really try to do it in the spring or in the fall, when the weather is less hot. Doing this over the summer was how it worked out, but tamping fence posts in 100-Deg-F heat is not recommended. So what happened? How did we end up on a horse farm, after moving from the country to a subdivision 3  1/2 years ago?

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Today I started drying biodiesel batch no. 60 – which means I have produced 3,000 Gallons (12,000 liters) of the “good juice” since November 2006. Praise the Lard!

Collecting oil in Durham has become increasingly difficult. The competition is fierce and the restaurants are not as busy as they used to be and therefore they are not producing as much fryer oil as they used to. In addition, I now also have to feed a very thirsty 7.3-liter Powerstroke. But in the end that just means we have to get more creative and we can be less picky when it comes to the quality of the oil.

Today I went to the Durham Police Department to file an identity theft report because someone took out a payday loan using my name. When you research ID theft, most advice emphasizes the importance of filing a  police report. However, the officer I spoke with said he cannot do a report because the crime did not take place in Durham. He said to call the police department where the crime was committed. Problem is, the crime was committed on the Internet, on the loan company’s website. But anyway, so I called the police department of the town in California where the address was that was given for the loan. Of course the address was bogus and that police department would not file a report either because I could not really prove that the crime was committed there, either. Great! Now what?

So I did a bit more research about this, and found a website that recommended contacting the State Attorney General’s office. So I called the NC DOJ and ended up speaking  with their consumer protection guy. He said that such payday loans are actually illegal in North Carolina and the collection agency knows (or should know) that they cannot collect for such loans in this state. He said that the entire thing smells of a scam. He recommended I file a complaint with his office against the collection agency and that he then would be able to contact them and tell them to stop bugging me. I did that righ taway and I hope that that will be the end of it.

I was really impressed by how competent and helpful the consumer protection folks at the NC DOJ are. Isn’t it great when government works!? I am pretty hopeful that these guys can get that collection agency off my back.

Yesterday I got a call from a collection agency attempting to collect a loan a payday lending company had given to someone using my name.  A while ago I had received a letter from them to that same effect, but none of it made any sense, and so I filed it in the “whatever” bin. I get so many letters that say “important – open immediately” and “official business” and so on that turn out to be just dumb scams that I often don’t even bother opening them. This one looked just specific enough that I was not sure, though. So the lady from the collection agency called and explained the matter to me. Now I had read and heard many an account of coersive and even abusive tactics used by these people, so I was very apprehensive. But she was nice and after some Q&A I was able to establish that there was no way that I actually took out this loan.

So I called the payday loan company and after a few phone calls, we established that someone in California took out the loan over the Internet using my name and SSN and a different address. I have never been to California and so I could not have taken out the loan. In fact, that company would not even lend me any money because I am not a California resident. So this is clearly case of identity theft, albeit causing more of a nuisance (to me) than any real damage. Considering how easy it is nowadays to get valid Social Security Number and name, it’s a bit surprising how easy this company makes it to get a loan on their website! And clearly they do not verify the information carefully.

Well, tomorrow I’ll be visiting the Police Department to file an ID Theft report and then I’ll fax that to the loan company and to the collection agency, and that should be the end of that. This does make wonder though, what if it was not so easy to prove that I did not in fact take out that loan?

This morning we woke up to 3 inches of snow, after a fairly warm Christmas eve. The snow is wet and sticky. Wally and Cleo kept their faces mostly in their favorite hayroll. But in the morning, for a while Cleo was prancing around, bucking and rearing and shaking her head at the snow.

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Once again, the longest night of the year is upon us. On Dec 21, daylight lasted only 9 hours 42 Minutes here in NC, 8 hours 22 Min in Freiburg, Germany, 4 hours 7 Min in Reykjavik, Iceland.

In the old days, when people did not really understand how our solar system works, they worried about the sun and performed ancient rituals to make sure that the sun was strong enough to re-emerge from the darkness and start warming them again once spring came. For many people in the North this was also the beginning of the months of starvation, and they filled their bellies one more time on fresh meat and the wine, beer and mead of the fall before the fight for survival during the deep Winter months.

Today, we have other worries. For many of us, starvation is less of a worry than weight control. We do know that the sun will be back because we know how the Earth rotates around our star, but many other things are not so clear and reliable. So this holiday season let’s celebrate the things we can rely upon – the sun, the moon, our planet, our community, our family.

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An hour ago, at 3 AM Eastern, I rolled out of bed to check out the lunar eclipse. The moon was almost completely in the shadow of the earth. Only a sliver on the right side was still brighter than the rest of the moon. I bundled up and went outside and took a good look at it. The cold Winter air was crisp, the sky was clear  and the moon was bathed in an eerie dark orange color. Coyotes were howling in the distance.

I noticed that someone had left the door to the hay shed open and the horses had pulled out a bale of hay and were eating it. I put the bale back and gave them a couple of flakes (they have an entire roll of hay in the pasture).

Then I went back to the house and got Laura and the kids out of bed to check the cool astronomical event. But when they finally were all bundled up and ready to go out there was nothing to see! In the 15 Minutes it had taken them to wake up and get ready clouds had rolled in. How disappointing! So they went back to bed and I stayed up for a while to see if there is any chance of a break in the clouds – but no. I’m going to bed now, too.

Starting on March 1, 2011, the German military will “suspend” the general draft that has been in effect since 1957. After that date, only volunteers will be drafted into German military service – which essentially transforms the German military into a volunteer army.

This morning Der Spiegel reported that the general draft is only suspended and not completely abolished so that it can be re-instated easily in case of a military conflict. The Federal agency that oversees the conscientious objectors – or Zivis – will be transformed into a national service agency – a sort-of domestic PeaceCorps – that will offer 35,000 men and women every year the opportunity to serve the country in civilian jobs at  non-profits and charitable organizations.

Personally, I am sad to see the draft “suspended” – I would have liked to see it transformed into a draft for a general “national service corps” where the military is one of many options for young Germans to apply their talents to serve the greater good. The two years I worked for the German Red Cross as a conscientious objector were a pretty important time for me and had a lot to do with choices I made later on.

Transforming the German military into an all-volunteer force probably makes sense from an efficiency and efficacy perspective. A smaller, professional force will be better equipped to deal with modern military assignments. But this might also weaken the military’s connection with the general population and its democratic foundation. Yet, of course, a general draft is such a Cold-War relic. I just wish someone had had the wisdom to turn the draft into a proper, progressive tool, not just get rid of it – or suspend it … how half-assed is that!?. But that’s certainly asking too much from the current, half-assed gang of comedians in Berlin.

Tonight, inspired by a recent post on BoingBoing, we braved the chilly 27F/-3C night and I handed the kids my trusty old binoculars and told them to take a look at Jupiter. As cold as it was, the sky was really clear and visibility was great. None of us had trouble spotting the four biggest  moons of the planet – which were the first objects in space observed to orbit an object other than the sun or the earth.

For the kids especially, it was an amazing experience to take a closer look at this bright spot in the night sky and to realize it’s Jupiter, and to be able to see Jupiter’s moons  just like that, with a pair of binoculars.

OUR moon also is amazing to watch – it is in its third quarter right now, and on a crisp, clear night you can see the texture of the surface and the curvature of the sphere. At the day/night border you can see the craters and mountains very clearly. It feels like you could reach and touch it. Very cool.

Not sure this is going to help resolve the crisis in Côte D’Ivoire:

The UN Security Council has issued a statement saying that Ivory Coast opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara won the disputed presidential election.

The statement came after three days of debate at the UN, in which Russia expressed concern that the UN was exceeding its mandate. (BBC, 12/9/10)

Gbago and his supporters have spent years attacking Ouattara and his supporters as being beholden to foreign interests. So all the international support for Ouattara might just play right into these fears and deepen the resistance of the South against a power transition.

It is curious, though, how eagerly the International Community does support Ouattara. In my experience, the ECOWAS, AU, EU, UN, etc … tend to either stay out of domestic power struggles or carefully support the status quo over change. Most of the time, they really don’t have a mandate to get involved anyway. Apparently the UN argues it does have a mandate in Côte D’Ivoire based on the peace treaty after the 2002 civil war. I suspect that Ouattara, a former Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, has a strong international network, which makes him attractive to these international organizations.

However, I wonder if it is in the best interest of the people of Côte D’Ivoire for the UN to take sides. If this strategy causes Gbago to dig in his heels even more, it will deepen the distrust and cause more suffering to the ordinary people.

As of last weekend, Côte D’Ivoire has two competing presidents: incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo, and is challenger Alassane Ouattara, whom the international community considers the winner of the run-off election. The electoral commission, controlled by Ouattara’s party RDR, certified the result of the Nov. 28 runoff and declared Ouattara the winner with 54 percent of the votes. The Ivoirian Constitutional Court, however, is controlled by Gbago’s party FPI and it refused to certify the result. So Gbago was declared the winner by his supporters and sworn in – the same day Ouattara was sworn in at an Abidjan hotel guarded by UN troops.

On the surface the situation looks simple – the ruling party is clinging to power, supported by the army. But it’s not that simple. Yes – Gbago and his party are clinging to power and it does look like they lost a reasonably fair election. But this is so much more complicated than a mere political power struggle because of the ethnic dimension. Simply put, the country is divided North vs. South and Gbago is supported by the South – dominated by Kwa and Krou – and Ouattara is supported by the North – home of the Gour and Mandé people. Currently the North is controlled by the rebel “New Forces” who support Ouattara and the South by the regular military, which supports the Gbago and the Status Quo.

That’s not all. Apparently there has been a long-running dispute regarding Ouattara’s eligibility to run for office at all.

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Today, we had our first snow this winter. The weather report called for some flurries tonight, but instead we had about a 1/2 inch of snow this afternoon.  I went out around 5:00 to see if I could get to the grocery store, but even Guess Rd. was totally covered, and so I turned around. No need to risk anything for some goceries … going back up the hill it got a bit interesting with the Mercedes, as the wheels started slipping and spinning. Made it OK, but I almost had to walk home.

Funny – 10 days ago it was 77 Deg. F (25 C)  – I did not see this coming … Wally and Cleo are pretty well unfazed by the snow. They had their heads buried in the hay bale all day. Now that the apples are gone, the hay is dwindling rapidly, again.

FIFA just announced some interesting choices for the Worldcup hosts for 2018 and 2022 … Russia will host the 2018 Worldcup …  considering the  safety discussion around the Worldcup in South Africa, the safety discussion should be really interesting regarding the country with the worst hooligans and worst xenophobia problems in Europe.  And Quatar? Yeah – that’s a lovely place in the summer. No crime problems here. Too f@(%!’n hot for crime, there. And good luck with those air conditioned stadiums … Well, I hope it works out OK. Congratulations to Russia and Quatar!

The internet has done it again. It has spawned yet another amusing way to waste huge amounts of perfectly good time: product reviews of some of the more absurd items on Amazon.com. Tuscan Whole Milk for $99??!! And … more than 1200 reviews for this product!! Or a $6,000-speaker cable … or a jar of uranium ore … a JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank maybe? Only $19,999.95 … Or maybe just  a delicious, “fresh whole rabbit” or a Male Testicular Exam Model Anatomy … or maybe, just maybe you always wanted a yodeling pickle??

As odd as some of these products may be, the reviews are truly absurd – and funny.

… I noticed to my surprise when I hooked them into my Mole-Richardson 4-Phase Warp-Drive power amp (hand built by a guy in india called Gandhi) The “gain” knob directly modified the temperature of the sun, which was very impressive. … ($6,000 speaker cable)

I ordered one of these Fresh “Whole” Rabbits, but when it arrived its head, fur and insides were missing. Not exactly whole, I’d say! Maybe it was just damaged during shipping, but I won’t be buying another one. (Fresh “Whole” Rabbit)

I purchased this product 4.47 Billion Years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty. (Uranium Ore)

There is the occasional adult humor, especially with some items

Finally, a rubber scrotum that I can use for exam training purposes. My room mate was going “nuts” (pardon the pun) because I kept trying to use his. I wish he wasn’t such a light sleeper. Oh well. (Male Testicular Exam Model Anatomy)

On my beach walks, I’ve found that the pickle can be carried around by conveniently tucking it down into the front of my Speedo. I’ve met tons of nice ladies on the beach since scoring the pickle. (Yodeling Pickle)

Some of the “product reviews” or not just funny or odd, but fairly elaborate video musical productions, like this one for the mystical Three Wolf Moon t-shirt (incl. a warning not to spill Tuscan Whole Milk on the shirt). Yet others are skillfully crafted pieces of literary art  … could this be the birth of a new literary form? The  Amazon review short story?

We live underground. We speak with our hands. We wear the earplugs all our lives.

PLEASE! You must listen! We cannot maintain the link for long… I will type as fast as I can.

DO NOT USE THE CABLES!

We were fools, fools to develop such a thing! Sound was never meant to be this clear, this pure, this… accurate. For a few short days, we marveled. Then the… whispers… began.
(read the rest)

And some are just epic … like this one for the Tuscan Whole Milk:

Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts ‘N Honey,
With my Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz., I swore
As I went on with my lapping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at the icebox door.
‘Bad condensor, that,’ I muttered, ‘vibrating the icebox door –
Only this, and nothing more.’

more below the fold …

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Last Thursday was Thanksgiving (yes – some people who read this might not know that. I responded to an email from a guy in England on Thanksgiving … he was wondering why no one in the office picked up the phone or answered emails.) We usually take off Wednesday and – of course – Thursday is a holiday. Laura’s sister visited and Laura cooked a wonderful brined Turkey. After the feast we sat around a campfire and had some fine Cognac, while the horses sniffled our heads and munched on their Orchard grass.

On Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) in the afternoon, we had some friends over and we tapped a keg of Foothills Sexual Chocolate Stout. Dan and I had acquired that keg last February when the 2010 edition of that beer was released. I made a fire next to the pond and we baked potatoes and made s’mores and … drank a bunch of positively fantastic beer. As the evening wore on, some of us got on the zipline and zipped across the pond on it, while others paddled around on the pond in the kajak – all in the dark – just with flashlights.And yes – we ended up having to fish some people out of the pond. Read the rest of this entry »

Polystyrene, better known by its trade name Styrofoam, is a huge environmental burden to our planet.  This petroleum-based plastic is found everywhere, from disposable coffee cups to packaging to insulation. Styrofoam cannot be recycled  and it takes a thousand years to decompose. Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups each year and many, many products are packaged in Styrofoam. And when you break it, the damn stuff clings to everything!

So I was exited to find out that a biodegradable, non-toxic replacement material is on the horizon – made from milk and clay.

Scientist led by engineering professor David Schiraldi strengthened a cow milk protein, casein, with clay and glyceraldehyde (a triose monosaccharide).  They chose casein, already popular for use in adhesives, because it is water soluble.  Alone, casein is not ideal for packaging, but mixing it with the other two ingredients and freeze drying that mixture creates an aerogel, which is then baked in an oven to create a substance comparable to traditional Styrofoam.  Milk Styrofoam is sturdy, lightweight, and largely biodegradable.  The material is not yet mainstream as researchers are still working out practical and technological kinks. (InventorSpot)

If you have read my posts over the summer, you’ll know that we pretty much spent our summer vacation building a 1200 foot (400 M) pasture fence. Well, Google Earth noticed too, and took some great pictures of our work – from space!

Google hat vor Kurzem die Satelitenphotos von unserer Gegend erneuert und mir ist aufgefallen dass man unseren Weidezaun sehr gut sehen kann, da die Erde um die Pfostenlöcher noch nicht mit Grass bewachsen sind. Man kann auch meinen Pickup unter dem Baum an der Nordseite des Zaunes sehen. Das gab mir die Idee nach Satellitenbildern von anderen Projekten zu suchen.

Looking at the highest-resolution version of the picture, I can see the truck parked under the trees at the northern fence line. It looks like the gates and the fence are done, but you can still see the tire tracks of the truck, so we were probably still working on either finishing the fence or on building the shed. When we moved the horses in, I did not leave the truck in the pasture any more, and the grass had grown so much that I doubt the tracks would have still been visible. So that photo must have been taken in early to mid-July.

This got me thinking of other projects I was involved in that are visible on these satellite photos.

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Sunday afternoon we went Trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with some friends and with Waldo and Cleo.The horses behaved themselves as much as can be expected. The cars and dogs did not bother them much, but Cleo did not like the stop signs. After 1 1/2 hours it started getting dark and and they had had enough, so we  took them back home and headed out to Halloweeno …

It’s fall and the snakes are on the move. A while ago, Laura and I saw a (we think) Northern Watersnake by the pond and recently, I had to kill a big Copperhead near the horses shelter (and hay storage). A few days ago, I caught a juvenile Ratsnake inside the hay storage, and today Jacob spotted another one in the pasture and Laura caught it. Here are the pictures of the ratsnakes:

Ratsnake no. 1

Ratsnake no.2

These are all quite common snakes in the N.C. Piedmont, so It’s no surprise to see them. Still, they are fascinating and very beautiful creatures. And the little ratsnake is probably going to school for show-and-tell before we set him free again …