Zark's

Hold the Bacon on that Burger

I have to confess - I really like bacon.  Perhaps not with ice cream, but I do like it as a topping on many foods.  I am dismayed by some recent news - Big fry up could cause cancer.  According to data from the World Cancer Research Fund, eating 150 grams of processed meat a day (such as bacon or sausage) increases the risk of cancer by 2/3.  Wikipedia tells us that 1 slice of bacon is 29 grams uncooked, and 8 grams cooked, with a whopping 43 calories.

We'll stick with our fry-ups tells that in the U.K., news about bacon is being scorned because of the love of the traditional English breakfast.  A professor at Nottingham University pointed out that the traditional breakfast is less than 50 grams of processed meat, so the 150 grams stated in the study, is well, a little piggy. 

However, from the leading edge of civilization - Los Angeles, we find the government is cracking down on bacon.  Street Food in Peril: LA Cracking Down on Bacon Hot Dogs tells that the LA health department has determined that bacon cannot be properly cooked on the street.  Hence, they are shutting down street stands selling the street favorite - hot dogs wrapped in bacon.  That just sounds dangerous, doesn't it?

Australia Struggles with Seawater Incursion and Acidification

Push to buy water to save the lakes tells that Australia is struggling to keep fresh water rivers and lakes and viable.  The Murray-Darling Basin occupies almost 410,000 square miles and is drained primarily by the Murray River and the Darling River.  Geographically it is the lower tip of the Australian continent.  It is important because 40% of Australia's food supply comes from this region.

Because of the continuing drought, the Murray-Darling river basin is experiencing acid sulphate soil poisoning.  As explained in Murray River 'cancer' creeps northward, these toxic soils are produced when river and lake beds are exposed to air as a result of receding waterlines.  At Bottle Bend, NSW, pH levels as low as car batteries have been measured.

The Australian government is attempting to determine the best solution for some of the lower lakes.  The very best solution would be to purchase temporary water rights from farmers and industrial concerns to 'surge' the lakes.  The other two alternatives are to let the lakes undergo soil poisoning or introduce seawater.  The government recognizes that if the drought continues, it will be unable to save all of the basin.

How Serious is CO2?

Many are confused about CO2 and ozone.  Do we have a CO2 hole now as well?  CO2 is the byproduct of energy production, whether biological or industrial.  Whether it is burning paper with a match, or a turbo-charged BMW internal combustion engine, oxidation  of carbon with oxygen produces CO2 and energy.  We know it more commonly as fire.

Climate code red - the case for emergency action tells that as recently as two years ago, sea ice was considered safe until 2030.  Now it might only be three to five years.  Scientists are concerned that such an event might be nonlinear, and afterwards global temperatures will rise much more rapidly than in the past.  Today's CO2 levels are 38% higher than 50 years ago.  (That seems pretty significant.)

The authors of Climate Code Red argue that our climate too close to the tipping point to even consider coal as a fuel.  Their conclusion is that anything greater than a 2 degree temperature rise invites cataclysmic consequences. 

Global oxygen level falling, warn scientists tells that 10,000 years ago, the earth had twice the forest coverage.  A more troubling statistic is that oxygen-producing phytoplankton concentrations in the Pacific are down 30% from the 1980s.  The prehistoric earth had 35% oxygen levels in contrast to 21% today.  Some cities are challenged with 15% oxygen levels.  

Spirit and Opportunity are Engineering Marvels

The Martian rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are amazing feats of engineering.  Spirit landed on Mars on 4 January, 2004, with Opportunity landing three weeks later.  It becomes more amazing when you consider that they were launched on June 10 and July 7, 2003.  NASA's summary on the robots reminds us that they landed using the innovative airbags and the original goal was to travel only 0.75 miles. 

Yes, the two little bots are showing signs of aging.  Spirit has one wheel that it is inoperative.  Opportunity has a balky robot arm.  Recall that Mars has a nearest distance of 35 million miles, with a farthest distance of 250 million miles.  It takes 2 hours to 14 hours for radio signals to reach Mars from the JPL controllers. 

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Climbing Out of Crater explains that one of the robots is climbing from the Crater Victoria that it has been exploring for the past year.  It spent a year before that, just exploring the rim of the crater.  Spirit has been battling the Martian winter and has been parked in a safe haven.  This winter vacation spot has a 25 degree incline pointing the solar panels for maximum exposure to the sun.  It will resume exploration in a few months and journey to a location where there has been evidence of hot water.

The Martian mission with robots is not as splashy as manned missions, but the entire NASA team has long outperformed expectations - the original mission length was 90 days.  The reliability and performance of these two robots is simply outstanding!

An Internet Digg

The social networking site Digg is an interesting way to find different stories and content from around the world.  Basically members post content and if it receives enough diggs, then it is promoted to the front page.  Critics say that the promotion of stories to the front page can be accomplished by friends and communities who will support a story (that could have a commercial thread) without even reviewing the content.

Can Yahoo fix the buzz problem explores a new service from Yahoo.  Yahoo! Buzz is more like the electoral system.  Instead of visitors completely determining what is the top-rated content, Yahoo's news editors also have an overriding vote.  The concept is that it will prevent small groups of people from manipulating the elevation of content to the front page.

Yahoo!Buzz goes public to compete Digg explains that users can now submit any content, in contrast to the previous 500 sites that had been pre-approved by Yahoo's editors.  The idea is that this now allows Yahoo!Buzz to compete more directly with Digg.

I don't know, guys.  Every time I visit one of the sites, I am somewhat reminded of supermarket tabloids with the top-rated content.   I think I will stick to my own web searches with Google, Hakia, and Powerset.

What is the Future of Ethanol?

India to delay October's ethanol mandate tells that the Indian government is going to delay the legal mandate for 10% ethanol blend from molasses until it can determine the cost benefit.  Molasses has increased in price between 40% to 50% in the past year.  Similar to the United States, India imports 77% of its petroleum, so it is critical to the nation to develop an alternative to petroleum.

Ethanol takes it on the ear explains that the city government of Collingwood, Ontario, is suing to shut down an ethanol plant because of the smell.  Currently all gasoline in Ontario must be a 5% blend, with a bump to 10% planned for 2010.  That plan, however is under reconsideration.

Corn ethanol faces an uncertain future tells that E85 ethanol fuel cannot compete against conventional unleaded gasoline without government support.  This past year 1/4 of the U.S. corn crop was used for ethanol production.  (No wonder it has such support in the corn belt.)  With the planned government incentives, 1/3 of the U.S. corn crop could be used for ethanol next year. 

Wikipedia quotes a study by National Geographic that says 1.0 units of fossil energy is required to produce 1.3 units of ethanol energy.  This poor energy payoff and the impact upon food prices (what else would you expect when 1/4 of the corn crop is diverted to ethanol) suggests the federal mandate for ethanol needs to be re-examined. 

How Will Medical Tourism Affect U.S. Healthcare?

Pharmaceutical companies have long defended the price differentials between the United States and Canada.  For some drugs, the difference is astonishing.  Little wonder then, that medical and dental procedures would be substantially cheaper in other countries.  As an example, the Global Med Network compares a $30,000 U.S. dental procedure to $7,000 in India.  A hip replacement is $130,000 in the U.S., but $7,500 in India.

Health tourism ... India's new mantra tells that this year India will have about 100,000 medical tourists, but by 2012, will multiply over six times.  At that time healthcare will represent 8% of India's GDP.

As Gobalisation and health care tells, there is some irony in medical tourism.  Hospitals and doctors have been outsourcing accounting, transcription, and even x-ray analysis for years.  Medical bills burden 72 million working-age adults in U.S. informs us that health-care costs rise at twice the rate of inflation and wage increases.  Why?   Perhaps part of the answer is System on life support - 32 percent of patients shoulder the burden of health care costs.  The article explains that hospitals cannot ethically turn away uninsured patients.  So guess who eventually pays those costs?

This is not the only reason for spiraling U.S. health care costs.  While manufacturing and retail have been exposed to direct competition, the U.S. health care industry has been more or less sheltered.  That is not to say they are completely at fault for the astronomical cost of a typical doctor's visit.  Government, insurance, and legal issues contribute substantially.  Those costs should be reduced because they are not benefiting the health care consumer.  Congress are you listening?

India's Nuclear Power Woes

Nuclear power in India tells that India has 17 nuclear-powered electrical generation plants with an aggregate capacity of 4.12 MW.  Six more plants are under construction.  For comparison, the United States has 104 plants online with a total capacity of 97.4 MW.  India is experiencing yet another global resource shortage - uranium as described in Uranium mining vital for country's power needs. 

India's power plants are only operating at 50% capacity because of a shortage of uranium.  Uranium on the spot market closed at $65 a pound on Friday.  Processing increases the cost by almost a factor of 10 before it can be placed inside a nuclear reactor as fuel - see The Economics of Nuclear Power.  That pound of uranium inside a nuclear reactor will produce as much heat as 10 to 16 pounds of petroleum, according to the DOE's thermal conversions.  This is why the 'deep burn' reactors are key to the nuclear renaissance.  We need better efficiency.  It also explains why we have such a large nuclear waste problem.

India's problem though, is that they are rapidly mining out their uranium reserves.  Hence, their interest in three new mines in Jharkhand, Andrha Pradesh, and Karnataka.  Fortunately for India (and the world) these new mining sites are deep within Indian territory and not along any of its 9400 miles of border.  India has a goal of 20 MW of nuclear power by 2020. 

Do you see a major uranium shortage coming?

Wood-Fired Electrical Generation Plants

I promise I'm not making this up - wood-fired electrical generation plants.  Wood-burning plants gain power tells that a different breed of electrical power plants are being planned in the northeast.  Wood is not considered a fossil fuel, so it qualifies for government incentives.  The logic here is that since wood naturally decomposes and produces CO2 in the process, it is an even trade to burn wood for electrical production.  With that logic, we should cut down the rain forests before they can produce another ounce of CO2.  Note to Brazil (who seems to be inclined that way) - I did not mean that!

This logic is not just confined to the northeast.  Georgia Power seeks approval for coal plant conversion to biomass explains that Plant Mitchell desires a conversion from coal to biomass.  Georgia Power's press release explains that the plant would produce 96 MW of electricity, enough to power 60,000 homes.  The press release also mentions the all-important renewable energy credits.  Do your remember Sarah Jessica Parker's  witch character in Hocus Pocus?  When she ran around chanting, "Amok, amok, amok!" 

I grew up in a small mid-western town with charcoal kilns where they basically burn wood (called carbonizing) to produce the charcoal briquettes that barbecue purists prefer.  You can detect the wood smoke from miles away.  As a runner, there is nothing worse than inhaling wood smoke during a run - I cannot believe this is a healthy idea. 

The DOE's website tells that wood produces 195 pounds of CO2 and anthracite produces 227 pounds of CO2 for a million BTU of heat energy.  So burning wood is a little better than burning coal.  We can anticipate the ethanol argument - we are consuming a renewable resource.  The entire argument sounds like low-nicotine cigarette commercials.

Why this Cold War Would be Different

Many international observers are puzzled about Russia's response in Georgia.  Last week Russia issued a challenge to the United States - choose either us or Georgia.  The question was rightly rebuffed, but it was harbinger of the petroleum blackmail that Vladimir Putin intends to exploit in the post peak-oil world.  Previously they turned off the pipelines to the Ukraine, and have apparently alarmed French President Nicolas Zarkozy.  Rightly so, because 80% of Europe's gas is controlled by Russia.  The U.S. is not directly susceptible to such manipulation, because only 3.4% of last month's oil imports came from Russia.  We are susceptible to a trick Putin has learned from Iran's Ahmadinejad - by saying something contentious he can increase the price of oil by $20 a barrel. 

Probably the second card in Putin's deck is to pry the allies away from the U.S. through petroleum blackmail.  Japan imports less than 1% of its petroleum from Russia, but imports almost 20% of its needs from Iran.  Who has been aligning with Russia?  Iran of course, that would love to purchase nuclear technology from Russia. 

Recall also that the United States is shelving its manned space flight for 5 years with the retirement of the space shuttle.  That leaves Russia and China as the world space powers.  

What is the third card in Russia's deck?  In the last cold war, Russia did not have a full deck.  It could not feed its population.  Things have changed.