Here are some more pictures from our weekend at the beach January 14/15! Sunday morning was gloriously warm and sunny; in the afternoon clouds rolled in, which made the light for our trip to Cape Lookout quite interesting. Read the rest of this entry »
Today, on the way home from work, the Jetta passed its 65,000 miles marker (and the airbag light came on). That means, it’s been running on mostly biodiesel for over 27,000 miles. :) Yippee!!
No -this is not Southern Florida or South Africa – this is Atlantic Beach, NC in January! Looking at the weather report for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, our friend Susan decided to head out to her beach house for the weekend. When she asked if we wanted to come along … well, we had to carefully consider our plans for the weekend … for 2 seconds.
We drove out to Atlantic Beach on Saturday evening after Laura got off work. Sunday morning was great – it was sunny and warm (mid-70s F. /low 20s C), the kids were playing in the surf (!) and Dolphins were cruising up and down the beach (LOTS of dolphins). The water was freaking cold – 55F/12C – but the kids did not care! I did – I tried it and it was freezing!! I wanted to see if I could get close to one of those dolphins … duh! I spent about 5 Minutes in the water and Laura says I was purple when I came out.
In the afternoon, we took a boat (see right) to the Cape Lookout lighthouse and went for a walk along the beach. It was gorgeous – a gentle breeze was blowing in from the ocean and there were hardly any people around. But lots of Dolphins were hunting right off the beach. Once in a while they’d get a baitball going and the water would start boiling, and the pelicans would start dive-bombing, while the dolphins were feeding on the fish.
On the way back, the skipper picked up a family on Shackleford Banks, where they had been hanging out with the wild mustangs there. Sometime in the spring we should go there camping over night. That would be a great adventure and it’d be so cool to watch the mustangs.
Today, we hung out in the morning, and cleaned the house. Then we went to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium (free admission today!). We spent a couple of hours looking at the “fishies,” petted the horseshoe crabs, and gawked at the sharks in the big tank. Around 3 PM we headed back home. What a great weekend!
In December, right before Christmas, I went to Sam’s Quick Mart in Durham to pick up some of my favorite beers for the holidays. I came across the Olde School Barleywine from Dogfish Head in Vermont. I have had some barleywine from other breweries in the past, and did not get too excited about what I tried.
On Christmas Day, we had some friends and family over, and Laura cooked this wonderful goose, which was accompanied by a very hearty, yummy Zinfandel. after the meal, I opened a bottle of the Olde School, but then it was also time for desert. So I ended up with a glass of barleywine and a slice of peppermint pie (Julia’s request for desert). I was quite amazed that the Olde School barleywine and the peppermint pie actually went together just fine.
The Olde School is one hell of a beer! It’s more like a nice, old port, and it demands attention. At 15 percent Alc. Vol., this is not a beer you chug from the bottle at a party. Pour it into a tulip glass, (I had it in a red wine glass) and let it warm a bit. It quite sweet, but it has a lot more character than any barleywine I have had. It’s intense, but the alcohol is not overpowering. Clearly, this is not everyone’s thing, but I think this makes a fine desert drink.
Prost!
For all you non-parents: Elmo is a red Sesame-Street “monster” that talks about himself in the third person. Toys based on this character have been extremely successful over the last 10 years. In 1996, a Wal-Mart clerk “suffered a pulled hamstring, injuries to his back, jaw and knee, a broken rib and a concussion” after he was trampled by 300 crazed shoppers because he held one of the remaining Elmo toys in the store (Wikipedia).
I remember hearing about Elmo Extreme last fall on the NPR news-quiz show “Wait-Wait, Don’t Tell Me” when the guy behind Elmo, the master puppeteer Kevin Clash plays their game called, “Shut up! Shut up! I’m going to cut your mike!” about Bill O’Reilly. Kevin is really funny, so I thought the brief reference to the Elmo Extreme was just a joke. (A bit of a sick joke, actually.)
Not so. Last fall the toy manufacturer Mattel came out with the 10th-anniversary edition of the best-selling and much loathed “tickle-me-Elmo” – the Elmo TMX (see this video on YouTube). In the cherished Elmo tradition, this toy seems rather annoying, but I also know that these robotic toys often inspire hackers, and I can’t wait to see what the geeks are going to do with Elmo when they figure out how to hack him (Elmo probably run a Linux flavor). Yeah, like the geeks who hacked “Big Mouth Billy Bass” and tried to turn the singing fish into a video-conference device.
In the meantime, we’ll have to contend with the less creative, but quite effective Elmo Extreme on Fire (video). The images of the little red monster doing its giggle routine, while burning to a crisp, is oddly disturbing and cathartic at the same time. Enjoy, I guess …
The Dakar Rally has always fascinated me, even though, over the years, I became increasingly aware of its questionable ethics regarding the communities it touches, and the waste of resources on a vain, more-or-less useless sporting event. Motorsports are basically pretty stupid, but still, I cannot totally escape the fascination of a race across the Sahara.
I wish they’d work more to produce support for the communities they cross, and I wish they’d use renewable fuels, like biodiesel or ethanol. Still, of all motorsports, this is the one I find pretty interesting. Formula One is a huge circus of primadonnas in big cars, and NASCAR should be called NASnore. I mean, how long can one watch cars making left turns?
After crossing the Sahara many years ago in shitty, banged-up Peugeots, I always dreamed of going back there with decent equipment, four-wheel drive trucks, and a decent camera, to really enjoy this amazing, tough place. At the time, we were so focused on just making it, that we wasted very little thought on how awesome a place the Sahara is.
So, once again, the Dakar is under way, and the first stages in Portugal apparently were dominated by the Portugese. It appears that the Volkwagen team is doing well (places 1-4 in the first stage). The trucks look cool, OMG. Anyway, I hope that there are no major accidents, and that they don’t run over too many chickens in the villages in Africa.
Last year had a couple of surprises for us, although most of these have yet to be completely realized: we found a new house, but we have yet to move there; we began planning our trip to Togo (and Ghana) for the upcoming July; and the Democrats won back the U.S. Congress.
One of the biggest changes in our lives in 2006 was Agbessi’s move to Durham. He stayed with us during the summer and then moved to an apartment in Durham. It’s great to have him here; he is like a family member to us. Hopefully we’ll all be able to travel back to our village in Togo together this summer. It’ll be really cool to show up back in Yikpa, the village where Laura and I met 15 years ago, with our children AND with one of the Yikpato from America!
In July 2007, Laura will lead a group of customers an volunteers from her Fair Trade store in Durham on a tour of Ghana, visiting some of the artisans and coops that offer their wares at One World Market. We are planning to leave a week earlier and visit our village in Togo first. This is a big deal to us – taking our children back to the village where we met. And if Agbessi can come with us that’ll e even cooler because he knows our life in the U.S. and his presence will strengthen the bond between our families even more.
In August, Laura found a little house for us, a bit closer to Durham, and a very pretty 2-acre property. We signed a contract but the inspection turned up some serious structural problems. The seller agreed to have the problems fixed. Now, three months later, the contractors have left, and a water test turned up problems with the well that supplies the house with water. Currently we’re in the process of determining what needs to be done to treat the water. Probably a filter and a UV light will be alright. It’s really too bad that this is such an obstacle course. Yet, we have looked around, and we have not found another house for sale that would change our mind.
For Laura’s store, 2006 was a great year. They sold over $430,000 in Fair Trade merchandise, which supports communities all over the world. About a quarter of that was sold between Thanksgiving and X-mas! During most of the year, selling $1000 worth in merchandise is a good day’s work at the store. During the peak of the Christmas shopping frenzy, the mostly volunteer-staffed store was selling at a rate of about $1000 an hour! And as they don’t have much storage space, they were almost continuously unpacking merchandise and stocking the sales floor. And Laura was continuously ordering more stuff. Still, when I saw the store last week, I was amazed to see how depleted it looked! But they set new sales records for the store, both for holiday sales, and for the entire year. Congratulations!
The biggest change for Jacob and Julia last year, I think, was discovering the Horse Ranch where they spend a couple of hours every day after school. While Julia got really serious about learning how to ride – and to ride well – Jacob seems to mostly enjoy playing with his buddies around the Ranch. Julia has won several shows at the Ranch, and she can canter a horse across 3-foot (one-meter-high) obstacles! Jacob has learned how to ride a horse, too, but he is still a bit young for the more advanced stuff.
On my end, my job at Duke changed quite a bit. In addition to all the network stuff and computer security business, I also got to re-design an office suite at Brightleaf Square. I moved my office and the server room, and my co-worker’s office into a new, self-contained office suite. The latter, we just completed in December. So, we’ll see how that shakes out …
A nice perk of my job was being able to sneak out and watch football games last summer, during the Worldcup. As I work with several “dang for’ners” from football nations (England, Germany, Turkey, Togo, Haiti) we had a pretty good contingent over at Satisfaction for some of the games. And the folks at Satisfaction even opened the bar early (at 9:00 AM) several times so we could catch some of the early games (like the Togo games).
The Worldcup was great fun: from the ecstasy of Germany’s win over Argentina to the agony of Togo’s first Worldcup appearance. We saw some wonderful football, especially in the first round, even though real upsets were rare and in the end the Worldcup was dominated by “millionaire football” and somewhat tainted by some really questionable officiating, most painfully noticeable in the Ghana-Brazil game and Australia’s 95th-Minute loss to Italy. And then, of course, there was this unfortunate incident during the very unfortunate Worldcup final.
In the fall of 2006, I started another chapter in my biofuels quest: I completed my biodiesel reactor and began producing biodiesel in the basement. I collect the used fryer oil from several restaurants around Brightleaf Square and process the vegetable oil at home into fuel for my 2002 Jetta TDI. Although this is quite a bit of work, it is very satisfying to reduce my reliance on fossil fuels, produce much less harmful exhaust and safe some money doing it. And it is also a fun, relaxing hobby. As I am typing this, my 200-liter “New Year’s batch” is sitting in the washtank downstairs.
Finally, politics. I mean, I am pretty excited about the fact that the Republican’s lost the congress to the Democrats. Almost more importantly, though, are the implications of this loss to the power of the so-called neocons in the Republican party. Right now, it looks like that in 2008, the “New American Century” will come to an end. Finally. I just really hope that the Democrats manage to re-assert congressional oversight and reintroduce accountability into this corrupt, incompetent administration. And get the US troops out of Iraq ASAP!
I’d say 2006 was pretty good to us. We don’t take this for granted, as we see around us people who had a difficult time, and we certainly are quite aware of all the pain and suffering in the world. Yet, we also see all the hope and generosity around us and we try to contribute to the positive things that go on around us. I am painfully aware of the many serious problems and challenges ahead of us and future generations. But I also see all the energy and hope and strength growing in our children, I can’t help but feel optimistic about the future.
So, thanks to you all for your interest in my blog. I hope 2007 brings you good news and exciting things to do. Feel free to comment and share with us what is going on with you.
Cheers, and a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy 2007!
Jürgen
Yesterday’s execution of Saddam Hussein by hanging brings to a violent end a violent life, and raises many more questions than it answers. What impact will the execution have on the civil war in Iraq andthe suffering of the Iraqis? Why execute him on one of Islam’s most sacred holidays, Eid ul-Adha? Some argue that it is fitting, as he was responsible for many, many deaths of innocent Muslims. Yet, is this not a holiday that celebrates peace, family and forgiveness?
The biggest question Saddam’s demise raises is whether Justice was served. Human Rights Watch has a long track record of criticizing Saddam’s brutal regime, and they also strongly condemn the conduct of the trial and the execution:
Human Rights Watch has for more than 15 years documented the human rights crimes committed by Hussein’s former government, and has campaigned to bring the perpetrators to justice. These crimes include the killing of more than 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in Northern Iraq as part of the 1998 Anfal campaign.
“Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can’t justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment,†said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program.
The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Saddam Hussein and two others to death in November for the killing of 148 men and boys from the town of Dujail in 1982. The tribunal’s statute prohibits, contrary to international law, the possibility of commuting a death sentence. It also requires that the execution take place within 30 days of the final appeal.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances. Increasingly, governments are abolishing the death penalty in domestic law.
“The test of a government’s commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders,†said Dicker. “History will judge these actions harshly.â€
Human Rights Watch Press Release, December 30, 2006
The United States and its Iraqi helpers had a chance to demonstrate to the world a “new, improved Iraq” that respects justice and human rights. Not surprisingly that was not accomplished, and the hanging of Saddam now serves as a showcase of what is wrong with the “new” Iraq, and serves as a new focus for the Iraqi resistance. They will proclaim Saddam Hussein a martyr and that will likely lead to more bloodshed in this brutal civil war. That is very tragic.
Personally, if Saddam’s death were to stop the killing of innocent people in Iraq, I would have very little trouble with it. But it’s more likely to escalate the bloodshed precisely because of the terrible way in which the trial was conducted and the way his execution was rushed.
Frohe Weihnachten and happy Winter Solstice. This is is the best part about Christmas: it’s the afternoon of December 24 and the stores close. Finally! The insanity of the annual shopping season is over. There is one good step toward peace on earth: the malls and shopping centers close for a day-and-a-half.
In a good part of the Northern Hemisphere it’s Winter, the “dark and cold season” so naturally for ages people had the desire to gather around a fire, a stove, a … TV, and turn on some extra lights to expel the dreariness of Winter. The Christian holiday is the most prominent one of these winter festivals, but not the only one.
In our time, there are many layers of meaning and symbolism attached to Christmas, from its pre-Christian roots (Yule, Saturnalia) to the contemporary preoccupation with worshiping the gods of consumerism. The significance to Christians of celebrating the birth of the Messiah on December 25 is also not un-controversial.
Personally, I could not care less about any of this. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I stay away from and major shopping establishments. We get a tree from a local non-profit and decorate it with decorations that are either home made or fair trade. And one string of lights. We get some presents for the kids and Laura cooks a feast. Then, on Christmas, we celebrate our family. this year we also have some friends and family over.
Happy Global Orgasm for Peace Day! What a wacky idea …
The Global Orgasm for Peace certainly has the same winking cleverness, but it also invites us to consider the power of collective thought. Does what we think really effect anything?
The project’s Web site points to the work of another group, the Global Consciousness Project, which is trying to answer that question. Directed by Dr. Roger Nelson, the GCP is a volunteer group of researchers from various disciplines, whose goal is to find out whether collective thought can be measured and scientifically validated.
Happy Hannukkah!
Frohes Lichterfest!
Get your dreidels out and fry some latkes: Today at sundown Jews began to celebrate the eight days of Hannukkah.
The holiday was called Hanukkah meaning “dedication” because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration under Antiochus IV. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days – which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.”
(Wikipedia, 12/15/06)
Tom Philpott (Grist) questions entomologist and biofuels skeptic extraordinaire David Pimentel (Cornell) about why crop-based energy won’t work. Interesting interview, but Pimentel does need to get out a bit more. And I wish Philpott had been a bit more probing on some of Pimentel’s assertions – like this one:
Pimentel: Conserve! One word. And no one talks about it, including the environmentalists.
Is he just yanking our chains??!! No one else talks about conservation?? He’s joking, right?
This is an interesting exchange:
Philpott: So if we converted 100 percent of a year’s worth of solar energy stored in plant matter to fuel, we’d only supply half of our current energy consumption. What’s that telling us?
Pimentel: It’s telling us we’re using too goddamn much fossil energy! And another thing it tells us is that you’re not going to be self-sufficient, or even produce half of our energy from biomass in the U.S., if we want to eat.
Yeah – thanks, Dr. P – I realize now you do need a PH.D. to figure out we’re using too much fossil fuel!
Interestingly however, Pimentel is very pro-organic:
“Pimentel: I don’t want to say that organic can supply all the food in the world, but it can be much more sustainable than conventional ag and just as productive.”
Biofuels Are an Environmental Dead End, Alternet, By Tom Philpott, Grist Magazine. Posted December 13, 2006.
What annoys me about Pimentel, is his focus on the problems. He finds that the numbers don’t seem to work, so he discounts a solution. He seems to be in favor of solar energy, which is great, but solar won’t help us run the trucks and trains that carry us and our good across the country. That does not mean we should ignore solar energy. It just means we need different solutions for different applications. But Pimentel acts as if alternative fuels advocates suggest that the entire energy input of the US should be covered by soy or corn.
Solving the sustainable-energy puzzle will require many different pieces, and solar, biofuels and conservation are some of the big pieces. Pointing out the lousy energy balances in ethanol is not particularly helpful. How about helping solve the problem? How about putting that Cornell-educated mind to work and help figure out how to make fuels that grow back in a more efficient way?
CSU announced a partnership with Solix Biofuels to get serious about commercializing technology that can produce huge amounts of very oily types of algae for biofuels production. “Algae are the fastest growing organisms on the planet, and can produce 100 times more oil per acre than conventional soil-tilled crops that are now being grown for biofuel use,” said Solix founder Jim Sears. I would love to see some real numbers as to how much energy input 50 Gallons of algae oil require. My guess is that it should be much lower than soy or canola. Biofuels from micro-organisms like algae has great potential for being a huge piece in the sustainable-energy puzzle.
The high density of the production allows for great capacity, and their production does not compete with human food production. Algae are also much less likely to provide incentive for the destruction of wildlife habitat, like palm oil. Yet, it’s not easy to grow the organisms:
“It’s very difficult to grow algae,†said Cary Bullock, CEO of Greenfuel Technologies, a startup developing a technology to turn smokestack emissions into ethanol and biodiesel (…).
Mr. Bullock described the process: First, you need a distributed light source to get light past the top layer of algae and deeper into the ponds. One you solve that problem, you discover that the algae runs out of food. To increase the food supply, you have to make significant changes to the nursery system. And once you’ve done that, you have to manage heat.
“Two of those problems would be difficult, but all four together are quite a problem,†he said, adding that Greenfuel expects to solve the problems with solutions it’s developing.
Biofuels Smackdown: Algae vs. Soybeans, Red Herring, December 7, 2006
The Red Herring title frames the issue a bit stupidly as a competition, but the story actually gives a pretty good overview of algae in the biofuels-feedstock discussion. From a technical standpoint, the feedstock question is evolutionary, not competitive. Over time, we will need to come up with more efficient feedstock. But of course this is also a highly political discussion – just ask the ASA.
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 drained it and used the Wash Pro to add fresh was water. Then I hooked up the wash tank to the pump and recirculated the wash water spraying it on the biodiesel. The pump is pretty strong and after about 15 Minutes all the water was totally blended with the biodiesel. There was no separation at all. I let it settle for an hour and did it again. After the second go-around the water was completely white with soap! That is totally amazing. This little bit of stainless steel is going to make a big difference in the quality of my fuel – at least as far as the soap is concerned.
Just how bad the effects of the soap actually are is not totally clear to me. Daniel Sheedy of Environment Australia, argues it’s no big deal at all (see section 6.16). I don’t think it can be good for the performance of the fuel.
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 gallons of biodiesel and another 15-or-so gallons of water, when I noticed that the damn tank was leaking all over the floor. Quickly I rigged up the pump, hooked it up to the tank and began pumping everything into the other tank. But the pump whipped the soapy water into an emulsion and could not move it! So I had to empty the contents into buckets and dump he buckets into the other tank! UGH!
When I fixed the leak today, I tightened the PVC adapter too much and broke it. I saw I still had a black iron 2” nipple, so I used that. Turns out that the iron nipple with the PVC ball valve works much better than the all-PVC business (right tank). It’s much sturdier.
(two more pics below the fold)
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 else fails, good, old sneakernet is never down! Now there is also DieselNET. On DieselNET, data take the bus – no not the SCSI bus! The BUS, as in public transportation! No joke! In this implementation of a packet-switched network protocol, the data are ferried across town by hitching a ride on the buses of the Amherst PVTA transportation system.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst Diverse Outdoor Mobile Environment (DOME) Project is researching technology for disruption tolerant networking (DTN) systems (via NetworkWorld).
DieselNet currently consists of 40 buses each with a Diesel Brick, which is based on a HaCom Open Brick computer (P6-compatible 577Mhz CPU, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, Linux OS). The brick is connected to three radios: an 802.11b Access Point (AP) to provide DHCP access to passengers and passersby, a second USB-based 802.11b interface that constantly scans the surrounding area for DHCP offers and other buses, and a longer-range MaxStream XTend 900MHz radio to connect to our throwboxes. Additionally, a GPS device records times and locations. Our custom software allows us to push out application updates, take mobility, AP-to-bus connectivity, and bus-to-bus throughput traces.
UMass Amherst – DOME website, Nov. 23, 2006
The idea here is to create systems that can route messages without knowing exactly where the message is going, because most nodes are only up for limited amounts of time (an average of 20 percent on DieselNET). So when two nodes are in range, they query each other for the other nodes they are likely to encounter along the route, and they pass messages along based on that information.
Why bother? Well, for one, DARPA has money for this kind of research. And I am sure the military has all kinds of ideas for implementations. Imagine a couple of dozen/hundred/thousand nodes (people who carry a wireless computer or robot/rover devices). If these nodes were moving about in more or less predictable ways, and not scattered too widely, a DTN could relay messages within that group within seconds from one end to another and failures of individual nodes have very little impact on the system as a whole. You can see, perhaps, why the military might be interested in this idea. But I think there might be also very useful civilian uses, like in disaster recovery, exploration of extreme environments (space, under water) and maybe in regular communications.
BTW: if these folks have their way, DieselNET should really be BiodieselNET!
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 good year for Germany: the Worlcup was a huge success and is thought to have produced quite an economic boost; unemployment is down and the federal government is less in the red than last year. The country was riding a wave of patriotic bliss this summer, during and after the Worldcup. But Ms. Merkel has been unable to harness any of these good news and her approval ratings are not particularly good.
The main issue that drags them down is the inability of Merkel and her “grand coalition” of Germany’s two major parties to pull off a meaningful reform of the countries vast network of entitlement programs. And Germany has problems with a growing tide of hate, racism and antisemitism – especially in the east.
Internationally, Germany has to figure out if it wants to be a “major player” and commit troops to more dangerous assignments in “nationbuilding” efforts, like in southern Afghanistan and “peacekeping” missions like in Lebanon. If so, there has to be a clear commitment to such missions, AND there has to be political leadership that creates the environment that properly supports such missions. Otherwise the military will be stuck in impossible missions without a clear mandate. Merkel’s administration has shown little leadership in this issue.
Leadership. A vision for the country. That’s what is needed. Schröder is a flamboyant, somewhat charismatic leader. Merkel is none of that. But neither has shown a clear vision for Germany. Schröder was just worried about his career. And Merkel? what makes her tick? I think that Gemany needs some reforms and a real vision for a truly unified country. Germany does not need to be a “global player” – the country needs to get its house in order. Is Merkel the leader to bring Germany on track for unity, prosperity and social justice? So far I don’t see that.
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 the batch going – my first 50-gallon (200 liter) batch of biodiesel. When I add the 40 liters/10 gallons of methoxide the reactor is just about full to capacity. The batch is settling now, and this afternoon I’ll pump it out and start washing it.
Last weekend I drained the last 25 gallons of oil from my outside storage tank and I was surprised about how wet this stuff was. That would explain whey the last batch was so soapy. So this time I used only oil that I had stored inside in buckets and I decided to go through the trouble of drying the oil. Now I’ll just have to figure out what to do with the wet oil. Probably I’ll heat it and try to dry it. That’s not great for the energy balance for the fuel, but I’d hate to waste the oil.
Yesterday I also built another wash tank for the biodiesel. I built a sturdy 2-foot-high platform from some 2x4s and some plywood. Then I took a 55-gallon plastic drum, cut out the bottom and set it on the platform upside down with a drain valve at the bottom, made from PVC pipe. Now I should be able to process the entire 50-gallons of biodiesel when the batch is ready to be washed. The previous batch was a 40-gallon batch, and I had to process the biodiesel in two parts, 20 gallons at a time. That was pretty tedious, especially since the batch was so soapy. This batch should be a big improvement.
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 Lichte neuer Erfahrungen zu neuen Haltungen und Positionen kommen, dann ist man ein Renegat. Im allerbesten Sinne! Denn das war immer so in der Menschheit! Der berühmteste Renegat heißt Martin Luther, der schlägt den Papst auf den Kopf, nicht mit einem Knüppel, sondern mit Gottes Wort, mit einer Bibel. Und mein Vater Dagobert Biermann, Werftarbeiter in Hamburg, wäre von seinen Genossen totgeschlagen worden, wenn die Nazis ihn nicht ins Gefängnis gerettet hätten. Weil er nämlich in den wütenden Auseinandersetzungen von 1932/33, also vor Hitlers Machantritt, ein so genannter Abweichler war. Nicht weil er mit Trotzki sympathisierte, sondern er hatte die blödsinnige, falsche Idee, die Kommunisten müssten zusammen mit den Sozialdemokraten gegen die Nazis kämpfen. Und deswegen wurde er geächtet, als Renegat. Sie sehen, ich bin der Sohn meines Vaters.
SPIEGEL ONLINE – 10. November 2006
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 shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death while others were forced to watch. More than 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and taken to concentration camps; primarily Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.” (Wikipedia)
Today, however, there is a reason to celebrate: today the new Ohel Jakob Synagogue was opened (de) in downtown Munich. The complex includes a museum, a community center and a school, and it is the largest new synagogue in Europe since WWII.
The Jews are back in town – that’s awesome! Judaism is finally an “official” religion in Germany with the same legal status as the Catholic and Lutheran Churches.
Germany is home to the third largest number of Jews and the fastest growing Jewish population in Europe. There are currently more than 105,000 members of the Jewish community living in Germany – although this estimate does not include the many Jews not affiliated with the country’s main Jewish organization, the Central Council of Jews.
Germany.info, Nov. 9, 2006
Still, it is not all sunshine and brotherly love in Germany. The Neonazis are on the offensive and racist and antisemitic aggression are not infrequent. In October, players from the Jewish football (soccer) club TuS Makkabi Berlin(de) walked out of a game against VSG Altglienicke because spectators hurled antisemitic insults at the players.
Recently, the University of Leipzig published a study(de) where 1 in 4 Germans expressed the desire for a single party and a strong leader to run the country. It comes as no surprise to me that they also found pervasive nationalist, racist and antisemitic attitudes across all social strata. Forty percent of respondents found Germany to be “überfremdet” – overrun by foreigners!
This fear of foreigners, xenophobia, is a fear that lives in all of us. It is a fear borne out of weakness and lack of self esteem. And it is a sentiment rooted in helplessness and a way to attempt to assert control over one’s life. This fear, and the pain and violence it can produce is not a uniquely German problem. But Germany has a special responsibility to face that fear and deal with it because of the incredible pain and destruction the Nazis wrought across Europe and the World, and in particular because of the incredible pain and destruction inflicted upon the people of Jewish faith and tradition. This is not guilt. I feel no guilt. I do feel responsibility and a strong desire to reconcile and make peace and make friends.
The only way to overcome this fear is to learn and make friends. We need Jews in Germany to help defeat this fear by showing flag and sharing their culture with everyone. Jewish culture was once the beating heart of Germany. Things will probably never be the same, but I know that Jewish culture will once again be part of, and enrich, Germany.
Shalom!
