Kai › Comments

"I can't believe this isn't bigger news, but I guess the collapse of the American economy is partially to blame..." - Kai

"Prions are the weirdest damn things in the universe... they aren't alive and they aren't like a virus, but they'll take over your brain and make you go crazy. Serve me up another hamburger." - Kai

"Would you stop posting this goddamn shit on every post on digg that mentions climate change?! Noone cares!" - Kai

"Hard to say what the intent was from the story. All it says is "charges stemming from what the activists said was an attempt to shut down a coal-fired power plant." Maybe they got caught before they could do more than just paint "Gordon"? "Greenpeace has been variously criticized for being too radical (or alarmist), too mainstream (or not alarmist enough), for allegedly using methods bordering on eco-terrorism..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... In any case, I think the real story is the precedent this could set for other similar actions." - Kai

"Can you imagine driving for a year in that thing?" - Kai

"No doubt, but I still kicked his ass!" - Kai

"I wonder if they're going to wait for Volt hype to die down and then market this as the next wave of plug-in - those with a much larger driving range..." - Kai

"The future: Solar cells in your pizza, biofuels in your beer glass." - Kai

"Great book about this area: The Snow Leopard. Great stuff.." - Kai

"I don't think there are as many fat asses in India driving SUVS, which is where the biodiesel from this crop will be used." - Kai

"That's not true SteelChicken. Cars in the US won't start on 100% ethanol without a spare tank that starts it on gasoline. I think it's more of a "15% gasoline helps with starts in any weather that doesn't approximate Brazil's climate."" - Kai

"http://gas2.org/2008... ..." - Kai

"Man I'd love to have an electric car. Someday... sigh..." - Kai

"What I don't get is that if GM makes such a big deal out of this kind of technology, how could it be as easy as a $500 diy kit? In the video it takes the guy 5 minutes to install the new fuel injection setup, but that doesn't really address the fuel line issues." - Kai

"Nope, sorry guys. If you read the whole article it emphasizes cellulosic sources of ethanol, which have no direct link to food prices. Growing switchgrass in the US also doesn't impact the rainforest, and it returns at least 5 times the energy put into it. Please read the whole article" - Kai

"Yeah, I’m not sure I buy this study. I guess I’m biased living in San Francisco, which is like a giant wind tunnel. Just like any piece of renewable tech, it’s going to work really well some places and not in others." - Kai

"The interesting part about these investments is that it seems like posturing for the future, but not something that makes a difference right now. Apparently, Iogen still has to raise capital financing for their first cellulosic ethanol facility, even after Shell invested heavily in them. It would take about 5 minutes worth of Shell's profits to get the project under way... but nothing so far..." - Kai

"no, switchgrass returns more energy than you put into it. the USDA's 3 year study found in returned 540% more, to be exact: http://gas2.org/2008... ..." - Kai

"This is solar. See below." - Kai

"Ok, so this is what one of the former managers at NREL told me, a guy who worked in alternative energy for 30+ years: Back at the beginning of his career he was asked to find a technology to store solar energy coming from solar panels. After working on the project for some time, he came to the conclusion that plants may be the best option. They do a great job of photon capture, and they do energy storage too. It's just another option for storing solar power, and I think we're going to need every option we've got. Make sure you read the article before making assumptions based on what's written here..." - Kai

"Cellulosic ethanol in no way requires destruction of our forests, and the last USDA 3-year study on switchgrass found that it offered a GHG decrease of 94% when compared to gasoline (linked in the post). Additionally, switchgrass requires really low inputs because it's adapted to grow here already (it's a native grass, unlike corn). Conservation and efficiency are important, but so are replacements. There's no way conservation and efficiency alone are going to make up the 142 billion gallons of gasoline that are used in the US every year (but we might get 1/3 from each). If you're going to make the "market" argument, shouldn't you extend it? Even if farmers were to start planting switchgrass instead of food (which is unlikely because they can be grown on different parts of the land), wouldn't that eventually cause food price increases which would make farmers want to grow more food again? It sure won't have anything like the impact corn ethanol has had." - Kai

"Btw, this article is about Switchgrass and other non-food sources of cellulosic ethanol that can be grown on land not used for crop production. We're not talking about corn here..." - Kai

"CabanaBoy: if you read the story, it's about non-food crops that don't require agricultural cropland and wouldn't compete with food. The 30% number could come from a fraction of available land not in use for food production." - Kai

"Welcome to the future: living in an oil constrained world." - Kai

"I hate internet censorship. Like brainnaovate said, this isn't the government's job." - Kai

"I always thought it was a size compensation issue. There's nothing unmanly about electric cars. Check this one out: http://gas2.org/2008... ..." - Kai

"This isn't really that surprising. The Department of Defense and various military branches (esp. the Navy) were some of the first to adopt alternative energy programs such as using biodiesel in military vehicles. But they'd use synfuel made from coal in a hot second if it was cheaper. So I guess you have to conflate green with the bottom line..." - Kai

"Yeah but increases in mpg mean way more in total gas savings on big tanks than on already fuel efficient cars. It seems a little counter intuitive, but it's true. One of the biggest and longest standing uses for hybrid technology is in double-length transit buses. This is just one part of the solution..." - Kai

"I'm pretty sure that the idea of human-caused climate change isn't that new, but I didn't know it was being actively presented in 1958!" - Kai

"Oh yeah, don't forget alcohol. You can find this multi-use tool almost anywhere..." - Kai