Many years ago, I spent several intense, fun summers in Morocco. Besides biking through the Atlas and hanging out at various beaches, I spent weeks roaming the Médina of Fès with my Fassi friends Mammoun and Mohammed.

Samir at A View from Fès posted some great accounts – and wonderful pictures by Suzanna Clarke – about the ongoing Festival of Sacred Music in Fès. Boy – I wish I could be there! The Sufi Nights sounds amazing! Maybe next year …
photo copyright Suzanna Clarke 2006

The word of the day, on this day – 6/6/06, I guess, is hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia:

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a fear which originates in the belief that the Biblical verse, Revelation 13:18, indicates that the number 666 is linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ. Outside the Christian faith, the phobia has been further popularized as a leitmotif in various horror films.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobes avoid things related to the number 666, such as a building in which the number is prominently displayed.
Wikipedia

So if you’re freaking out over today’s date, or maybe even feel like participating in prayer marathon, this one’s for you. You may think you know the number of the beast, but we now do know the name of your illness.

PS: I guess the word for this affliction would be Hexakosioihexekontahexaphilia?!

It’s spring and the wildlife in the woods is going – uh – wild!

Chipmunks
The cats are out hunting every day. They catch frogs, lizards, shrews, and chipmunks. Yesterday I saw Deha, the Siamese, in the driveway, hovering over what I thought was fresh kill. So I went to see what she got, and found it was a juvenile chipmunk. Deha had lost interest in it, so I picked it up and carried it off into the woods, so the children would not find it. When I dropped it on some leaves in the woods, it started squirming, and I took another look, and it did not actually seem seriously injured, and probably was just pretending to be dead. When I picked it up it started to squirm vigorously in my hands. “Very clever” I thought “You play dead, and cats get bored with you.”

I put the little guy into our chipmunk habitat, where our other rescued chipmunk has been living for well over a year – pretty happily, I think. After a while the older chipmunk came over to check out the new guy, who was still pretty freaked out. Finally the little guy settled in in a hollow log and went to sleep. That’s where he/she still is. Once in a while the older one goes over there and sticks his head in the log. This morning, Laura dropped a grape on the little guy’s head. He looked up, sniffed the grape, and proceeded to chow down on that yummy “manna from above.”

When chipmunks die and go to heaven, they end up in a place where it rains grapes.

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Last night I received this email from Marc Dreyfors, who is a co-founder of Bull City Biodiesel, and who runs Carolina Biofuels and Forests of The World:

Today, a 23 year old Marine from Lousiana came by looking for B100 on his way back to Camp Lejune, NC. He had a very nice VW Jetta TDI on which he put an SVO kit. He wanted to fill up and find a way he could get more biodiesel. He was an adamant biofuels advocate, and said he had been to
Baghdad and did not want to go back. He understood the value of biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and what our fossil fuel “addiction” was doing. His buddies called him a “hippie Marine.” He, along with several other of our tank users, are military or ex-military and seem to have come
to the alt. fuel world because of their experience in service to our country.

We filled him a 50 gal. plastic barrel and four of us heaved it into the back seat of his TDI, putting it on a nice cardboard box to keep his seat clean. We gave him a $.20 per gallon break, which I hope the Coop will appreciate and stuffed him full of literature to take back to his buddies. We even included our “How to start a B100 Coop and Tank Trail Tank” from our website, carolinabiofuels.org. We hope that this may start a revolution down there. Maybe we should offer a special program for the military?

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life and asked us lots of questions about what we do and where he could go to college. We pray he doesn’t have to return to the Mideast, and that he can help get more military interested in real solutions to our geopolitical problems.

Marc

The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission last night published its final report on the events of Nov. 3, 1979 in Greensboro, NC. That day, five people were shot to death during a confrontation between a leftist, black worker’s rights demonstration and a caravan of white-supremacists. The picture the report paints is of two groups ready for a violent confrontation and a police department that was either incompetent, indifferent to the potential for violence, or possibly in cahoots with the white supremacists.

The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission was an independent, democratically selected body seeking truth and healing transformation for Greensboro, N.C., a city left divided and weakened by the events of Nov. 3, 1979. The seven commissioners were a respected group of individuals selected for their diverse perspectives, strengths and resolve to fulfill their Mandate.
Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission

So far, I have read the Summary (pdf) and found certainly truth. However, it seems that one of the most divisive questions – whether the Greensboro Police was conspiring with the white supremacists – remains without closure:

Even though no legal basis for law enforcement involvement in a conspiracy was
found in the trials, the majority of commissioners believe there was intentionality
among some in the department to fail to provide adequate information or to take
steps to adequately protect the marchers.
Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission – executive summary – p 10

The commission certainly made a big contribution for documenting the truth – reconciliation is another matter altogether. That will be up to the community of Greensboro.

A journalist at the Greensboro News-Record is writing a detailed analysis of the report on his blog.

The worldcup team from Togo won a warm-up game against a selection of German players 3:2 (2:1). The German players were selected from Bavarian amateur teams: FC Augsburg, FC Ismaning and TSV Aindling. The German coach of the Togolese team was not at the game – he was reportedly bed-ridden with the flu at the team’s quarters in Wangen.

WM-Neuling Togo hat sein erstes Testspiel in Deutschland gewonnen. Im Rahmen der Vorbereitung auf die Titelkämpfe in Deutschland (9. Juni bis 9. Juli) schlug das Team des deutschen Trainers Otto Pfister eine Bayern-Auswahl mit 3:2 (2:1).
Togo tut sich bei Testspiel-Sieg schwer, AFP, 23. Mai 2006

ALLEZ LES EPERVIERS!

The “Master Race” is at it again in Germany. The brown shirts are marching, the nazi thugs are beating up innocent people. They are not particularly popular, but they are gaining ground, and they are making headlines.

The Interior Minister Schäuble presented today the annual “State of the Constitution” report (Verfassungsschutzbericht (de)) which documents a 27 percent increase in right-wing crime and violence in Germany to a total of 15,360 incidents last year.

One big debate is about whether to declare “no-go zones” for the worldcup tourists. The government is insisting that it is safe for anyone to go anywhere in Germany. Others disagree, like the former spokesman of the former red-green (center-left) German goverment:

There are towns in [the state of] Brandenburg that I would not recommend to people with other [not white] skin colour. They might not leave alive.
Zu Gast bei Freunden? , Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 21.05.2006

This statement is supported by several recent horrific cases of racist violence:

• In April, a 37-year-old German man was the victim of a violent racist beating (en) in the city of Potsdam
• Also in April, a 39-year-old Togolese was attacked (en) in Wismar
• Last week, a 56-year-old Berlin politician was beaten (en) by racist criminals

These incidents sparked intense, and often awkward debates on the issue of racism in Germany, especially in the eastern states. The attack in Potsdam prompted Schäuble to issue a comment to the effect of “white people get beaten up, too …” which prompted quite an uproar and eventually he issued a mea culpa.

With the world cup just around the corner, this is not the kind of publicity the marketing folks are looking for. Yet, the right-wing extremists are particularly interested in using the world cup as a platform to market their brand of “German hospitality.” This puts German authorities in an awkward spot. How much freedom of speech can Germany afford to grant the “master race?” Should they forbid nationalist and white-supremacist events and pretend that all is well? Or should they allow the world to catch a glimpse of the smelly underbelly of German “Stammtisch Kultur” – sticky steins and stale world views, and all that?

Organizers say that 3000 turned out to welcome Togo’s Worldcup Team (minus Emmanuel Adebayor):

Togo’s National Team arrived in the southern town of Wangen today, where they will be based for the duration of the 2006 World Cup:

Otto Pfister, coach of the West African side, has admitted that the debutants have a tough task of putting up a credible showing at the finals.

“We’re obviously underdogs,” said Pfister after being welcomed by German organising committee officials as well as leaders from the local state government.

“But I think we can achieve a thing or two at the World Cup.

Togo’s Hawks land in Germany, BBC News, Monday, 15 May 2006

I hope the guys have a great time in Wangen. Southern Germany is nothing if not hospitable. The folks in Wangen set up a special website for their guests. What’s more – Wangen’s own Soul Band – the “Double Cooked Pork Slices” have come up with a special welcome tune for their guests from West Africa: “Miawo-ezon-Lo-o”

[UPDATE: Togolese blogger from Wangen: http://togo.wordpress.com/]

Yet another cold front moved in today, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees Fahrenheit in one hour. This cold front spawned some severe thunderstorms and at one point a 15-Minute hailstorm that almost covered the ground with chick-pea-sized hail.

I like the effect of the hail in the flashlight in the picture above.

More pictures below the fold …
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Last night, Laura and I had the privilege and pleasure to see Mamadou Diabate at the Art Center in Carrboro. He was the star performer in a benefit show that highlighted the Publik Kreativity Drama Krew, a community theater troupe from the Alexandra township in Johannesburg. The kids from Jo’burg were great – authentic, a bit unpolished and quite talented.

Mamadou was just awesome. This huge, quiet guy from Mali comes on stage and sits down on a milk crate in front of his amp, plugs in his kora (!) and proceeds to tease the most deliciously lyrical, breathtakingly acrobatic and the most joyfully soaring melodies from his ancient instrument which he made from a gourd, cow skin and strings. I think he played the entire Behmanka album plus one encore. The crowd was small, but quite enthusiastic. He’ll be back in the area for the Eno Festival and I very much look forward to seeing him there.

The Kiwis have figured out how to turn shit into money:

A New Zealand company has successfully turned sewage into modern-day gold.

Marlborough-based Aquaflow Bionomic yesterday announced it had produced its first sample of bio-diesel fuel from algae in sewage ponds.

It is believed to be the world’s first commercial production of bio-diesel from “wild” algae outside the laboratory – and the company expects to be producing at the rate of at least one million litres of the fuel each year from Blenheim by April.
NZ firm makes bio-diesel from sewage in world first by Errol Kiong, New Zealand Herald – National News 12.05.06

In the meantime the US government is flushing our money down the toilet.

Yesterday, I got a huge, 82 gallon used waterheater from a guy in Raleigh. This gray monster is going to be the cornerstone of my biodiesel homebrew operation, as I am planning to turn it into a appleseed reactor.

I also have begun filling a 250 gallon storage tank with used fryer oil. I scored that tank (two, actually) for no cost from a construction site. They had been filled with a concrete-sealing wax, and I was able to get the first one pretty clean with a pressure washer. Now I have to do the plumbing to hook it all together, so that I can pump the grease from the storage into the reactor, add the methoxide, stir, settle, pump out the glycerol, and pump the biodiesel into the wash tank.

An interesting issue is the question of where, and how, to store the Methanol. I plan to set up the Methoxide tank outside, with plumbing into the reactor in the basement. But if I buy 55 gallon drums of Methanol, where do I store them? Probably I’ll build a shed somewhere away from the house. You have to be careful with this stuff.

The nice thing about the biodiesel is the safety aspect: storing it near or in the house is no more risk than storing firewood or piles of cardboard.

The jet engine in Ron Patrick’s car puts out 1,450 horsepower.
Photo by Ron Patrick, SF Chronicle

Why would a 48-year-old engineer want to bolt a Navy surplus General Electric T58-8F jet engine into the hatchback of a New Beetle? Just because he can: “This is entertainment. It’s a toy, a toy for silly boys” he says. It’s the ultimate hot rod. And like most hot rods it’s kind-of fun and pretty pointless. Too bad. All this creative energy expended and the problem that was solved is “can I power a beetle with a jet engine?”

This spring I developed the habit of Saturday Lowes trips – mostly to see what’s on the closeout sale table (which they set up only on Saturdays). The other day I scored a nice $80 Kitchen Aid ice cream maker for only $30. Now, every weekend Laura makes a half-gallon (2 Liter) batch of ice cream. Today she made Chocolate Jasmin flavor ice cream.

WOW.

I like chocolate. A lot. I really like Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk. But the simple, sensuous elegance of jasmine and chocolate flavored ice cream blew me away. If I didn’t care whether I died an untimely death as an obese blob, that’s all I’d eat for the rest of my life. And I’d wash it down with my favorite Baker’s Burbon.

We got the recipe from one of my favorite books: The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes by Maricel Presilla. If you care at all about cocoa or chocolate – this is the definitive book on the subject. Here is the recipe from the book …

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Today many immigrants took to the streets to show flag – the American flag – and to show America that they are as American as apple pie, and that they have the right to their slice of the pie.

As I have said before, there are quite pragmatic reasons why everyone who truly cares for this country should support a full amnesty for all otherwise law-abiding, peaceful immigrants, if they have no papers. These newcomers are highly motivated to contribute to the best of their abilities to the economy. Being forced to hide, shackles their ability to be productive and represents a serious loss of entrepreneurship. Forcing immigrants underground has created a violent, antisocial dynamic along the southern border in which crime and corruption flourish. Not only is it expensive to try to arrest and deport people crossing the border ($1,700 per person (pdf)), the coyote economy along the border makes it actually easier for the real bad guys to get in, because it reduces the probability they will be caught.

Beyond increasing productivity, saving taxpayer money, and making America safer, there is also a moral value to a comprehensive amnesty for immigrants: allowing people to pursue a dream of success through work and entrepreneurship is simply the American Way. That’s what the American Dream is all about, is it not? It’s not about slamming the door behind you!? It’s about opportunities. It’s about open doors!

For me, that is what America is all about. That’s what I experienced, and that’s why I am still here – despite my frustration about what is going on in this country. The American Dream is all about taking risks to better yourself, about creating opportunities, and about the creativity to seize the opportunity. America has created this dream, has emblazoned it on its banner, hammered it into iron, chiseled it into the pedestal of Liberty and posted it to the Internet. But it has yet to fully live up to its own dream. This dream is alive, but it is not well.

IMMIGRATION AMNESTY MAKES AMERICA STRONGER because it strengthens America’s commitment to this dream it has created. If millions of law-abiding, hard-working immigrants in America are turned into criminals, the American Dream will turn yet more into a mirage. If America has the courage and wisdom to make a commitment to these people, it can prove that this country still values its heritage and its promise to the world. It can show the world that despite mistakes and defeats, despite its so-called President, America still does stand for Freedom and Prosperity and Opportunity for all.

Pretty spring day today – so we decided to head out to Little River park instead of doing chores. First Laura got to run on the trails for an hour, while I helped Jacob practice riding his “thunderbike.” I also showed Julia a safe, easy part of the bike trail she could practice on. When Laura got back, it was my turn to hit the bike trails. This was my first time riding the entire Little River bike trail and I was really surprised just how much fun this trail is. It starts out pretty easy, and you can just do the quick, easy 1-mile or 2-mile loops, which are pretty good for beginners. The back trail, or upper trail, is NOT for beginners, however. The trail has some steep bowls and a bunch of logrolls – nothing outrageous, but certainly a bit challenging and a lot of fun. It’s also a pretty ride, as you climb up this little knoll above Little River, through nice, pristine forest. It’s very quiet, and even on such a nice Sunday afternoon it was not crowded at all. (So probably I should keep it to myself and not even write about it. But if the three people who read this start going there, too … oh well :))

I have to get on that trail more often … next time I’ll take a camera and take some pictures.

For many citizens of Togo, this must be a bittersweet day. On April 27, 1960, the French administered UN Trusteeship and former French colony became an independent nation. But today also marks a year and a day since the ruling party, the RPT, declared victory in the so-called “election” of April 24, 2005. This rigged fraud of a vote handed control over the country to Faure Gnassingbé, the son of Togo’s brutal former president of 38 years, Gnassingbé Eyadema.

Amnesty International issued a statement (fr) yesterday, denouncing last year’s “election” as marred with irregularities and violence. Thirty years of a culture of total impunity for the military and the RPT regime caused the violence that left several hundred dead – mostly unarmed civilian protesters. AI deplores the fact that nothing has been done to find and prosecute those responsible for last year’s violence, despite concrete recommendations in a United Nations report from August 2005.

IRIN has a pretty good status update on Togo, and while it covers the whole mess, the violence, the thousands of refugees in neighboring countries, the distrust among the Togolese, the bleak economc outlook, the need for a reform of the military, etc … the article also points to some encouraging signs:

Togo’s original Independence Day from France – 27 April 1960 – is to be literally re-written back in to the history books. Under Gnassingbe Eyadema, Independence Day was celebrated on the 13 January, the day he seized power in a 1967 coup. Independence Day celebrations on the 27 April are due to take place Thursday for the first time in nearly three decades.

And Lome residents feel more at ease speaking their minds these days. “My colleagues and I discuss the newspaper headlines in front of the news kiosks and we are not frightened to do so,” said Leo Kpakpo, who explained that it wasn’t like that under the late Eyadema. His regime was marked by repression of the opposition, according to the media watchdog NGO Reporters Without Borders.

Now, all journalists jailed for speaking out against the government have been released, a move guardedly welcomed by Togolese Media Observers (OTM). “There is much still to be done,” warned Francis Amouzou, president of OTM. “It is important to remember that at the beginning of Faure Gnassingbe’s regime, journalists were physically assaulted and there have been no enquiries into this harassment.”

Togo: Outward Calm Belies Continuing Problems, UN Integrated Regional Information Networks, posted to allafrica.com April 26, 2006

LeTogolais celebrates this occasion with a story about one of the heroes of the struggle for Togo’s independence: Pa Augustino de Souza (fr). De Souza was born in Agbodrafo on Oct. 15, 1877 and went to school in Aneho. He later worked for the Deutsche Togo Gesellschaft, before he became an independent plantation owner. During the Independence movement, he was President of the Elder Council, next to Octaviano Olympio, Jacob Adjallé and Thimoty Agbétsiafan, and a member of the Committee for Togolese Unity. De Souza was instrumental at laying the foundation that made possible the referendum for independence of 1958 and finally Togo’s independence. Sadly, he died on April 25, 1960, just two days before Togo became independent. (info via leTogolais)

I remember quite well the days after April 26, 1986, when human error and the lack of any disaster preparedness planning led to the worst nuclear accident in the short history of this horrific technology. When reactor no. 4 of the V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station melted down 20 years ago, it released 400 times the amount of radioactivity released by the Hiroshima bombing in the form of a plume that travelled across Europe and released its “payload” in the form of radioactive fallout.

We were told that we can’t drink milk or eat eggs. We were told that we had to stay inside. For days nobody knew for sure what was going on, because the Soviets (remember them?) would not fess up to what had happened. I remember endless discussions about what was safe to eat and what was not. A huge freight train was loaded with radioactive milk powder and travelled all around Germany, but no city allowed it to stay. Eventually this train just disappeared.

Today, there are 443 nuclear power plants in operation worldwide, and 27 under construction. We live within 50 miles of one. These plants produce waste material that will be extremely toxic and radioactive for thousands of years – what a great legacy to leave to our children and future generations. Here’s our toxic, radioactive trash, kids – don’t loose it! And what guarantees do we have that there won’t be another Chernobyl? “Trust us” they say. “We’re careful,” they say. Yeah right. So far they (we) were just lucky – unlike the 336,000 people in Ukraine and Belarus who had to be re-settled after Chernobyl – and unlike the thousands who died as a direct result of the catastrophe.

Today is Africa Malaria Day and this year the focus is on the need to provide universal access to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). ACTs are the newest hope for making serious progress toward defeating the Queen of Diseases.

African children are dying of malaria at the rate of one every 30 seconds. Take a minute to try to comprehend that number – and two more die.

Malaria kills an estimated million people worldwide every year, 90 percent of them in Africa. That relentless toll saps energy, money and hope from communities all over sub-Saharan Africa. “Malaria is also a major cause of anemia in children and pregnant women, low birth weight, premature birth and infant mortality,” the Roll Back Malaria partnership says. “In endemic African countries, malaria accounts for 25–35 percent of all outpatient visits, 20–45 percent of hospital admissions and 15–35 percent of hospital deaths, imposing a great burden on already fragile health-care systems.”
New Hope for Tackling an Old Scourge on Africa Malaria Day, Tami Hultman, allAfrica.com, April 25, 2006

While I lived in Togo, I had malaria many times. I’ll never forget my first malaria attack: bundled up in a sleeping bag on the bed of a pickup truck in a 90-degree, humid rainy-season night, I was shivering uncontrollably for hours, thinking that this was it – I was just going to kick the bucket right then and there. For hours I tried to focus my mind by composing a suitable obituary in my head. By the end of my “malaria career” I had tried a wide variety of drugs to deal with it, and they either produced significant side effects or were useless. Some of the drugs produced side effects that were almost as bad as the Malaria itself (hallucinations and panic attacks, liver problems).

Artemisinin sounds like the holy grail to combat this ancient killer, and in combination with other comprehensive efforts, Malaria eradication is possible.