January 2008

So did you guess the secret to the video clip that I posted earlier? Well here it is: the snowboarder is none other than my boss. That’s right, I work for that guy carving up the powder!

He is energetic and brilliant in his field of herbal medicine, well respected by his colleagues and something of a legend among his peers in the natural products industry. Success is frequently reserved for the bold, and Dr. Leung is one of the boldest people I know.

If you’d like to see more of why I get inspired by Dr. Leung, here’s a second YouTube video, this time of him discussing his life (warning: this one’s a little longer!).
Please accept my apologies. The clip of Dr. Leung visiting about his history has been taken down for further editing. When it reappears, I will again link to it here.

Linked here (from Digg) is an interesting article from the Economist which, of course, is critical of using corn as a feedstock for ethanol. It is even more critical of ongoing U.S. subsidies of ever-larger farming operations which are focused on row crops (mainly corn/beans) and livestock production. These are discussed as barriers to the economic advancement of poorer farmers around the world. The article examines increases in food cost both as a threat to poorer consumers and as an opportunity to wean U.S. farmers from this paternalistic subsidy system.

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Where do you get inspiration from? For me, seeing someone succeed against the odds always seems to stir me to do more. My creative juices flow faster, my adrenaline pumps a little harder, when I watch someone succeed despite everything and everyone saying that they shouldn’t.

With that in mind, take a look at the video below. By the way, stay tuned because I’ll tell you some little known facts about this in part two. Many of you already know my “little secret”, and even if you don’t it might seem obvious if you’ve been following along, so just play along and don’t spoil the surprise for others!

The alert among us know that this is the second song lyric I’ve used as a post title. This time I have no thought-provoking questions or reports on how I spent my time off over Christmas.

No, this time I just want to plug a long-time favorite band of mine, a group I grew up listening to. In the late 1970s I was about four feet tall and singing along with my cousin Tim a.k.a. Levi, on songs like “Clementine”, “The Old Double Diamond”, and “Buckskin Lady”. He performed with the cowboy group The Starlite Ramblers. The recordings were on 33 rpm records (I’m going to confuse the youngsters with this reference).

In the ’70s, Tim was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Thirty years later, he’s all of that still, and you can now get all the original music in digital versions, as well as some more up-to-date tunes as well.

At that time, they were providing the antidote to disco music. If you have an extra twelve bucks, and you’d like to hear legitimate western music, I cannot say it loudly enough – go to their web site, buy a CD and give it a listen. By the way, you can try before you buy – they have mp3 samples of most songs.

Our previous post dealt with an assertion from a radio program on money management that our food cost is increasing due to the increase in cost of corn, largely a result of increased demand for use in production of fuel ethanol. My response was that I think that this statement is only partly accurate. I would assert that a number of factors are at work here. One thing I have found out for sure is that there is no shortage of stated opinions here. Understanding the whole issue requires that you sort out who is saying what, and figure out where the motive lies for the statement.

I worked for a while in the research center of a large agricultural genetics company where we used to estimate that 80% of corn seed is grown for inclusion into livestock rations. Considering this, can we assume that the price increase in the broad category of food is completely due to increases in just this one input, largely used for meat production? I don’t think so. I think a main contributing factor is the cost of fuel, both as a cost of transport and as other additional costs in food production and delivery.

Enter the renewable fuels industry, tasked with creating an American-style innovative revolution both here and around the world in how we turn raw materials into usable energy. Think about this and what that statement really means: we want to totally change the model for energy production. Why?

Currently our energy production is almost wholly unsustainable. We import a finite natural resource, crude oil from a politically unstable part of the world at a fairly high transportation cost and a potentially catastrophic political cost. Crude oil usually requires much processing in large refineries located mainly around the gulf of Mexico. This creates byproducts that are useful, as well as several byproducts which are poisonous, and of course the main product which then must be transported via pipeline, rail car, and truck to various points throughout the country. We extract coal from deposits deep within the earth leaving unsightly and poisonous landscapes in our wake. Coal is similarly destructive in its production and use.

We are moving towards using a diverse set of renewable resources, some based on biological inputs, some based on geophysical inputs. Frequently these can be turned into fuel more efficiently with much less processing, can be produced locally with much less pollution than oil import/refining, frequently producing companion industries based on other useful co-products, and can be made again and again while leaving the sources intact.

So what’s the catch? In the case of corn, critics point out that it is an inefficient substrate for alcohol production. Depending on whose scientist you talk to, you can find people who say that you only get 1.1x efficiency (it takes 1 unit to produce 1.1 units) up to 1.3x efficiency. When we think about building plants to make fuel at a 10% to 30% advantage, it almost seems pointless doesn’t it?

The typical ethanol plant currently consists of three main parts: a milling operation to separate the starchy part of the corn kernel from the germ, a mashing and fermentation operation to convert the starch first to sugars then turn this into an alcohol / water mixture known as “liquor”, and a distillation and purification operation to separate the bulk alcohol from the liquor, with purification to remove the last bit of water from the alcohol.

As Jeff Bruck, an associate in the ethanol industry, points out in his comment on Part 1 of 2: Squanto Would Be Proud (LINK),
“Biofuels use corn and other grains which right now are logistically and economically the best source. This won’t always be true. Cellulostic technology is improving every day and will someday be the standard.” Bruck also made good points about the need for greater support of flex fuel technology (both cars and distribution points).

The good news is that there is a much larger advantage in cellulosic ethanol production (utilizing fibrous plant biomass as a carbohydrate source). However, this leads to another criticism (LINK) of biofuels, which is that we are essentially mining the nutrients out of our land by growing intensive monoculture to support an almost endless appetite for more corn. Although somewhat dated, Bloomberg News published a piece that examined many of these issues in more detail.

I don’t argue with the idea that we are diminishing our soil tilth, but I do think that corn for ethanol is a strictly “now” situation. Today we use corn as a feedstock because of its abundance and the easy conversion of the energy portion of the grain. We have perfected the milling and mashing process already, so this involves little to no learning curve, allowing us to instead focus our innovation on the remainder of the energy conversion and fuel delivery process.

Is this the end of the story? No, certainly not if you compare an ethanol plant to an oil refinery. Unlike oil refineries, which are concentrated around importation points (especially the Gulf Coast area), we are building these modern and technologically superior plants in this country at a rapid pace, among geographically diverse locations. This is creating a source of economic diversification for thousands of small communities. This diversification will hopefully outlast the ethanol boom. They are far too numerous and geographically separated to become easy infrastructure targets for terrorists. They can be considered a local source of energy, requiring fewer transportation miles for either the feedstocks or the finished product.

Additionally, today’s ethanol plants are potentially useful beyond just fuel production, so that when and if we find the “next big thing”and move away from ethanol, there will be entrepreneurs lined up to occupy and use these very functional facilities. Combining fermentation, distillation and purification under one roof presents numerous value added manufacturing opportunities, both within and beyond the agricultural realm. No white elephants here. Possibilities exist from food and beverage production to pharmaceutical preparative processes, low tech to high tech, these facilities will serve well and should be easily expandable to accommodate a wide variety of uses and any needed growth.

Compare these features to those of an oil refinery, often old and decrepit and rarely found far from the Gulf of Mexico, offering very little alternate use and situated in a concentrated area of production, which concentrates the ill effects.

Finally, are we demanding too much of a single source of alternative fuel? We want diverse choices for our energy, so let’s use a diverse array of fuel sources. Why try to get it all in ethanol? People want ethanol to be a green fuel, a renewable fuel, a domestic fuel, a cheap fuel, a fuel whose manufacture doesn’t affect market prices for any of the inputs, and the list of wants goes on. No energy source can do all of this, no energy source is the be-all, end-all. But we’ve treated Middle Eastern Oil as the one source for all these years, basing whole industries, even entire economies, on its use.

Creating diverse and reliable energy sources should be our priority. This is like product development on a world scale. To change our entire model of energy production, we will have to progress through several stages. On that path, we may need to accept ethanol production from corn as one stage due to the rapid availability of corn, our mastery of its production, and its status as the current “low hanging fruit”. It is almost certain, though, that development of the next stage will be quicker than the corn ethanol stage. Additionally, we need to consider corn ethanol only one part of a large set of energy production tools to free us from dependence on one or two main energy sources (currently oil and coal). We need to look to the future and say “What next?”. I’d suggest continuing with ethanol and biodiesel, and beyond that, pursuing solar energy, nuclear power, cellulose based fuels, waste derived fuels, wind generated electricity, biomass replacement for coal, and hydroelectric generation just to start.

Thanks to the many people who have patiently given me input for this post, I appreciate and respect each of you, and I owe you all a favor. It is a big topic, so there may be more…

If you remember your American History from high school or even a little bit of your basic primary school history, you will remember that Squanto was the Indian who helped the pilgrims. One of the things he helped with was teaching them how to grow food, not the least of which was corn. Look into the future almost four centuries and we have nearly perfected the growing of corn, in most any agronomic situation, from short dry years to long cool years and every juxtaposition.

This leads us into the topic of our post, corn for ethanol. In a politically charged year, and in a state where this subject is also politically charged, I put myself into the path of the train by saying anything at all about the subject. But I can’t resist.

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The U.S. government ruled on Tuesday that food from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe as other food, opening the door to bringing meat and milk from clone offspring into the food supply.

One justification for this approval was that there appears to be no danger posed by food from cloned livestock. This is reckless approach to a complex issue, if you ask me. It is a little like saying that although an army tank might be dangerous if it is armed, you can drive one around town if you just leave the shells at home, because at that point it poses no apparent danger.

While I consider myself fairly progressive with regard to scientific innovation, I also consider myself a thoughtful food consumer. Having grown up in an agricultural area, and having family ties to the grocery business, and with a professional interest in food production, I have had lots of time and opportunity to think about what I eat.

One thought that I have is that some things work better in “low gear” and some should be pushed a little in order to get certain tasks done in a timely manner.

If you are planning to plant corn after the fourth of July parade, then you can bet you won’t face much success. Planting is something that happens in the spring, on a schedule. When it is time to go, you go. Feeding livestock is another task that must be done on time. Late just won’t cut it.

Planting your crops on time, however, doesn’t mean planting your field with the tractor in road gear. Likewise, farmers don’t expect the plants to grow at a quicker pace than nature will allow.

Genetic mutation is, I think, something that should happen at a slow and natural pace in the great outdoors, not rushed by nerdy guys in white coats at the lab bench (it is OK for me to stereotype them, because I am them).

A safety net that all of the species on earth enjoy is that of genetic diversity, or in other words, a broad pool of genes to select from as the generations proceed. Genetic diversity demands a slow and natural mutation process, not instantaneous, “on-demand” mutations initiated by man.

It is the wild types and “waste animals” that become the vehicles for genes which, while perhaps not studied by well-funded scientists, are likely the best insurance policies against creating a dominant class of animal that eventually becomes devoid of desirable traits like disease resistance, longevity, weather hardiness, and reproductive vigor. The truth is that we don’t know how our experimentation will affect generations of animals into the future, because we’ve not had the required time to observe these effects yet.

I don’t think that our genetic basis for life is anything less than miraculous and I don’t think that it is nearly so easy to understand as we sometimes like to assume. Relationships aren’t always only the ones we can observe, some causes have multiple and unknown effects. Clearly a newspaper article doesn’t qualify you to make these decisions, but I wonder how many of the bureaucrats at the FDA have studied this issue beyond the white papers provided by the lobbying groups for either side of the argument. While the food itself may be safe for human consumption, and I would still emphasize the word “may”, I find it difficult to believe that humans can exert proper control over something as complex as genetic cloning, especially in light of all the other things we have already gotten so wrong.

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You really need to click throught to the article and read it! You almost get the idea that this could read “Only in Poland”.

A POLISH schoolboy who turned a city’s tram network into a giant toy by maneuvering rolling stock using a TV-style remote control has been arrested after he caused chaos on the public transport system. It is probably good to arrest the kid and give him an appropriate punishment, but once that is finally done, it might not be a bad idea to figure out a better way to remote control the trains. If any schmuck with a TV remote can go derail the trams, do you really think this will be the last time?

I am always on the look-out for train related news and I also have a little blog about my developing model layout at http://bvcentral.blogspot.com. Check it out and let me know what you think!

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For a long time, my daily lunch ritual was to take my sack lunch to my car and listen to the farm broadcast on our “boomer” station, WHO-AM.  I don’t really know how I got started on this, but it became a habit that I just really liked.

I’m not a farmer, and I don’t own land or livestock, so I don’t really have any skin in the game, so to speak.  I do have fond memories of my grandfather’s farm, and I did spend a good portion of my early professional life with a large agricultural concern doing research on Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t claim to comprehend all of the issues around the Hollywood writers’ strike, but I do understand that it revolves around the writers wanting greater compensation based on an increase in the number of channels that their work is now appearing in, while the producers wish to retain the extra income from these alternate channels.

I have mixed feelings about the strike itself, but little sympathy for either side, since I perceive mostly greed on both sides of the question.

If I may digress for a moment, as a comparison, I’m a research technician and in that role I perform various different laboratory tasks.  My products, if you will, are the results of my experiments.  I don’t demand greater pay if my work gets recognized by more people, I just thank the person or people responsible for increasing my exposure. Most likely either my boss or my company are the responsible parties, and yes, they sometimes can realize an increased profit by sharing these results with a greater number of people, but it isn’t actually easy to do this type of promotion so kudos to them!

Back to the writers, I understand that the writers’ products are unique, but can’t you say that about most jobs?  Could the writers, for instance, sell advertising to clients or do other types of promotion? Could they negotiate placement of DVDs into major retail chains at specified price points?  Could they put together a multi-part marketing push involving merchandising of toys, fast food co-branding, product placement media buys, et cetera?  Could they manage the payroll for all of these operations?  Does the creative role trump all others?

What about all the support staff? I’m sure that if they left work for a month or two, much production would grind to a stop.  Instead, many of these people are now facing the prospect of layoffs.  Why must these people be pawns in such a chess game of greed, with their livelihood hinging on whether or not an overstuffed union or a bunch of overstuffed shirts win a staring contest?  What all of these self-important people decide to do can mean the difference between employment and unemployment for some innocent bystanders.  What if you had to wonder whether you are going to have insurance or have none tomorrow, pay the bills or wonder how to pay them?

Lest you think I’m giving the producers/owners a free pass, please be assured, I’m not.  There are several questions that need to be addressed.  First, is there a logical method for allocating the income from alternate channels?  If so, what is it? If there is extra income and there is a real reason for withholding it from some of the people who helped create the “content”, then the studios should be explaining that reason to their stakeholders.

Finally, I want to propose something very radical: Life’s given us lemons, so let’s make lemonade.  Forget the writers.  Forget about them altogether.  What is the worst that could happen if we don’t get the writers back?  Will we only have one CSI program instead of half a dozen?  How will we cope?  Will there be less sitcom silliness?  Oh, no, not that.

Will this be the end of our world?  Is this a crisis?  No it is not, and I assert that there is much good writing available for consumption without taking it through the filter of television and movies.  Places to look include the newspaper, the good old-fashioned book, and even the blogosphere.  I’m guessing that many, probably most, and maybe even all bloggers would be absolutely delighted to know that their material is being consumed by a growing audience (you won’t see me picketing any time soon!).

If you can’t find any quality writing, why not start a blog of your own and produce some quality writing yourself? Who knows, maybe the studio will call up and you can be a SCAB!

What do you think?

The $200 million dollar project is designed to be a functional and profitable working farm growing enough food to feed 72,000 people for a year and provide another tourist attraction to the city.

Being an “aggie” by training, I find this fascinating. Replicate this in downtown, urban renewal areas, and the possibilities are quite intriguing. The logical way to grow is usually up, so it just might work.

Concerns I’d have from an operations standpoint would be the costs in addition to the initial cost (annual purchases of inputs, annual maintenance cost, unexpected repair cost, etc.) and the widely varying market prices of farm produce. But I’m assuming they’ve spoken with an engineer and an accountant already.

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First, a question then an explanation.

The question: How long has it been since you listened to a favorite album, CD, or cassette from beginning to end, without stopping? I’m wondering if our rushing, ever more “productive” tendencies are taking the good out of our life.

The explanation: I got the idea to use a song lyric as the title of this post after I thought for a while about my recent (and very unusual) twelve day stint away from work. I had taken a few days off during the holidays, resulting in almost two weeks of vacation. After the first day off, I began to forget about scheduled duties and my concept of time and itineraries soon slipped away. I even stepped outside my house without wearing my watch a couple of times – the equivalent of being stark naked for me at any other time.

So, what did I do with this newly liberated time? Many things, but one of the long lost joys that I revisited was listening to music. Not just throwing a CD in while I’m exercising, or taking the mp3 player with me as I run out the door, but really listening, and sitting down. Relaxing and trying to figure out what an artist had in mind with a particular song. In the case of a concept album, what did s/he intend to convey with the whole work?

To say that my musical taste is varied would be accurate, but I listened to a relatively narrow range of music between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Frank Sinatra’s Las Vegas box set was high on the list, while a Dropkick Murphys CD also made the cut. Shannon Brown is a country favorite (she also has a very nice name) from here in Iowa, and her last album was produced by John Rich of Big and Rich fame.

Eventually the whole experience took me back to a time, around ten years ago, when I sat with a friend of mine who also has a fairly eclectic taste in music. That night, we discussed the merits of Texas Swing as a style of American Folk Music and whether or not Bob Wills was and is the King of Swing. I’m not sure which was more valuable to me, the relaxation of the present time or the memory of the past. I’m glad I got to enjoy both.

I just dropped by to announce a new online location for some of my hobby related content:  http://bvcentral.blogspot.com  which is a quick little blog for my HO scale model railroad, the Boyer Valley Central.

Although currently mostly in the armchair mode, I do have some benchwork installed, some basic track laid out (not fastened), and a crude operating scheme in mind.

Find more at the train site, http://bvcentral.blogspot.com

Happy New Year to all.  I have enjoyed getting to know many new people this past year and I’ve really enjoyed finding my little place in the “blogosphere”.  Now there is a word I never learned to spell when I went to school!

I’m still finding my voice, as they say.  So far I’m quite pleased with the preliminary responses to my homespun blogging effort.  I’ll be much more familiar with the mechanics by this time next year and I hope to be updating the navigation features very soon.

Thanks to all who have supported me with encouraging words or good advice – it’s much appreciated.  Hope your 2008 is all that you hope for plus a few pleasant surprises.

I found this over on Digg. It finally happened. I had predicted $100 barrels by the end of 2007 during January of 2007. Looks like I missed it by a couple of days. I am driving a flex fuel Taurus, and at my little home town gas station, E85 (85% ethanol fuel) is currently $2.35 per gallon, while regular and super (10% Ethanol) are around $3+. I am guessing that this will drive the per gallon price of gas toward $4, with peak demand pushing it past later this spring/summer, while E85 will (hopefully) stay under $3.

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Scientists may have found a way to simulate the laws of the universe in a test tube to evaluate string theory, M theory, and others.

I didn’t get my comments inserted when I first blogged this from Digg.  My observation was, and is, that this little universe was “created by physicists”.  Notable that it was created.

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