My new ride – a black 1991 Mercedes Benz 300D. She’s at 244,000 miles, and going strong. Well, right now she’s actually short a turbo, but that’ll get fixed next week. Even without the turbo she’s a mighty nice ride, especially now that she’s no longer on that stinky diesel, and running on homemade juice.
The Moon from inside the eye of Hurricane Felix, shot by Randy Bynon during a hurricane hunter mission. Amazing photo – click on the thumbnail to see the large version on the Wunderground site.
We brought this plumeria back from Hawai’i in 2004 and planted the stem in a pot. For a while nothing happened. Then it started growing leaves. This spring Laura transferred the plant to a larger pot and it started growing more leaves. When we moved, we gave the plumeria a nice, sunny spot on the […]
Today, Governor Mike Easley signed bill S1272 into law. That bill exempts homebrew biodiesel from the NC road tax. The 30-cents-a-gallon cost reduction is certainly welcome. But, as Lyle recently commented, the bigger picture is really huge, because it allows the homebrewers and SVO-ers to get out of the “closet” as the State DOR does […]
YES!
On Aug. 26 last year, the LRA and the Ugandan government signed a truce, putting an end to 20 years of war and brutality in Northern Uganda. A friend of mine just returned from Gulu recently and he told me last week about how much that town has changed. Four new Hotels are under construction, […]
Rassismus in Deutschland? Das gibt’s doch gar nich … Wir wissen um die Vorfälle in Mügeln augenblicklich noch zu wenig, um solche weitreichenden Schlussfolgerungen zu ziehen. Das war die Reaktion Sachsen’s Ministerpräsident Georg Milbradt auf die Frage ob er einen “ausländerfeindlichen oder gar rechtsradikalen Hintergrund” sehe wenn ein Mob von 50 Bleichgesichtern 8 Inder verprügelt […]
Forty six years ago today, the East German Stalinist regime began fortifying the border across Germany. They built one of the most infamous borders ever: the Berlin Wall. During the 28 years that followed, an estimated 260 people were killed in attempts to cross into West Germany. The Stalinists always denied that the regime gave […]
On this day in 1893 Rudolf Diesel’s engine ran for the first time, and it ran on peanut oil. So today we celebrate “Internationals Biodiesel Day” and raise our glasses to the genius of using fuel that grows back! Praise the Lard!
In the summer, I like to collect the fryer oil in the morning, especially on a day with more triple-digits in the forecast. So I did my round this morning and “liberated” about 50 gallons – 20 from Alivia’s, 20 from Piazza Italia and 10 from El Rodeo. My new system at Piazza Italia works […]
Ugh – I’m melting! North Carolina in August is certainly supposed to be hot, but tripple-digit temperatures are still unusual. Yesterday we hit a new heat record for the day and came within one degree of the all-time highest temperature ever recorded at RDU airport. It was 104 Fahrenheit – 40 Deg. Celsius – and […]
The BIG list was abuzz today with interpretations of the new biodiesel tax situation in North Carolina. There were some questions about how these recent changes, like how the tax exemption for homebrew biodiesel will be applied to SVO use. Matt Rudolph, the ED of Piedmont Biofuels explained that under NC law, veggie oil as […]
The North Carolina General Assembly has adjourned for this session, and last Thursday the legislators passed S1272: Motor Fuels Tax Exemption for Biodiesel, which removes the requirement to pay road tax on homebrew biodiesel. That’s awesome – a great incentive for homebrewers. Also, legislators changed the tax law to remove the $2000 bond for fuel […]
If this story about these three guys from Wales is true, and their “greenbox” is real, and if it works … then it might well be the holy grail in the struggle to prevent a climate catastrophe. They claim that their invention can capture emissions from IC engines and store it. The waste from the […]
In late June, an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 variety of the avian (bird) flu was reported in Southern Togo, near the border to Benin: Togo’s Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Minister, Yves Madow Nagou, confirmed here late Friday, the outbreak of bird flu in a poultry farm at Sigbehoue, south-east of the country. “Preliminary findings […]
FOR SALE: SECLUDED COUNTRY HOME WITH BIKETRAIL Two-bedroom secluded brick ranch with biketrail/walking path and large basement in Bahama (20 minutes North of Duke Campus). The single-track trail is a .33 mile figure eight on the 2.5 acres wooded lot. The trail runs through the forest, crosses the creek and climbs a nice hill. The […]
We did it! Two weeks ago we closed on our new house, moved our stuff to the new house and then spent about a week cleaning and fixing up our old place to get it ready to sell it. Today we fiished up, and our agent will list it tomorrow. The new place is just […]
There is so much interesting and important stuff going on: A new film documents the ongoing genocide perpetrated on the Acholi people in Uganda (HT to Vicky), perpetuated by, among other things, US military aid (war-on-terror-dollars) The US Congress is debating about subsidies for a road fuel that releases twice as much pollution as gasoline: […]
Togo is mourning the death of 21 supporters of the national football team, including Togolese Sports Minister Richard Attipoe, in a helicopter crash in Sierra Leone on Monday: At least 21 people, most of them Togolese, were killed when the Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter operated by Paramount Airlines exploded and crashed late on Sunday at Lungi […]
We had a rather dry spring, and so only last weekend we finally found an opportunity to engage in our annual post-solstice ritual of burning our yuletide tree. After getting two inches (52mm) of rain on Saturday last weekend, Sunday evening was calm and cool and it was pretty safe to torch the bone-dry Frasier […]
