Romanian and Turkish scientists turn circuit boards into oil
Topic: Good News for Once
For those of us who are really, really PO'd at having to put Bedouin peasants through medical school on Mars every time we fill our gas tanks, some good, good news (maybe - I'll believe it when I see the "recycled computer gas" pump at my local convenience store):
Quoted from the Register Hardware UK Web site
http://tinyurl.com/6zyamf
"13th May 2008 19:59 GMT
Whether through a force of expanding environmental activism or just compliance with government edicts, the IT sector is in a pinch over how to safely recycle defunct computers and equipment...
(to give you some perspective on exactly how much pain in the wallet this can involve, here in Denver recycling an office computer can run you a cool $20 unless you can convince Goodwill, DAV or some other thrift store charity to pick it up. A 20" CRT monitor or an old traditional color TV will cost you about up to $40 to drop off at the Denver city dump.)
...But a team of scientists from Romania and Turkey say they've found a simple and effective method to turn printed circuit boards from discarded IT kit into material suitable as fuel or for industrial use.
The researchers note that the plastic portion of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is particularly tricky to recycle because it contains additives, heavy metals, and extremely toxic flame retardants. (You don't want too much polybrominated diphenyl ethers in your diet if you cherish your liver and brain.)
In their paper "Feedstock Recycling from the Printed Circuit Boards of Used Computers," the scientists describe using a process of heat and chemical decomposition to destroy or remove almost all of the hazardous toxic compounds. A copy of the paper can be found here. (PDF warning.)
(In other words, downloading this paper might tie your Internet connection up longer than you or the people you live with might like; it's also apt to fill up your hard drive, because PDF files are BIG - typically over a megabyte. Just giving you a heads-up.)
The process isn't exactly light reading — but when it's done, what's left of the printed circuit board is pyrolysis oil (or bio-oil), which can be refined in a similar fashion as crude petroleum for fuel or can be used by industries to make other useful chemicals.
Indeed now more than ever, is there anything adding more RAM can't do?"
Yes, there is - the process doesn't pay for itself, smart-ass.
The downside here is the same problem we have now - we give Waste Management Inc (or whoever) free labor in separating paper from cardboard from plastic from aluminum from steel cans; some places, we pay extra for the privilege; and THEY get to burn the burnables and generate power or process steam to help run their plant.
And as the community of people who are running their diesel-powered cars on other folks' rancid fryer fat are finding out, this smelly crap is now called "waste vegetable oil" and runs about a buck a gallon, IF you can find a connection.
There's already a Nigerian Email scam out there offering suck, er, recyclers every sort of used liquid carbohydrate at really good prices. All you have to do is send them lots of money in advance (plus shipping, handling and customs duties) and sit around waiting for the truck full of 55-gallon drums of flammable gunk to arrive at your house.
So I'm not holding my breath for this to come to a filling station near you or me any time soon. But word of anything that has a remote chance of spoiling any of the Middle East's whole days deserves to be shared.
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 2:20 PM MDT
Updated: Friday, 16 May 2008 4:20 PM MDT
Don Imus is BACK! (And Kinky Friedman's with him!)
Mood:
celebratory
Topic: Good News for Once
As I write this, I am watching that wacky old cowboy Don Imus on RFD-TV, Channel 231 on Dish satellite TV. It’s good to see him back on the air.
You might recall that Imus was fired with considerable fanfare and to-do from his nationally-syndicated radio show for referring to members of a collegiate women’s basketball team as “nappy ‘ho’s,” a term he might been forgiven for thinking was unexceptional for its prevalence and that of similar terms among college athletes and other people besides Don Imus. But Imus blundered into the crime of thinking that he could use words which everyone on campus uses – and thereby hung a hapless old white guy from a rhetorical noose of much ado about damn little.
Imus was a man about it, though; he apologized to the ladies concerned sincerely and profusely, to just about everyone to whom he could conceivably owe an apology and to several folks to whom he didn’t even owe an apology. And Imus still lost his job as a radio host while Howard Stern makes a wonderful living on satellite radio interviewing assorted people who you’d lock your car doors if you saw them heading toward you at a busy intersection. Stern's conversational style, if you've missed his show, resembles nothing so much as an acute episode of Tourette's Syndrome.
Mr. Imus has another radio show now, and I’m watching him produce it in his studio from the “RFD-TV” satellite TV channel (RFD-TV has carved out a warm place in my heart for their coverage of vintage railroad train lines such as the Ohio Central on their “Trains and Locomotives” show).
He also has an entertaining little teletype-like series of text news highlights running across the bottom of his show’s screen (one of his news items: “Bill and Hillary Clinton reportedly make ‘substantial’ donation to Chicago church where Jeremiah Wright was pastor. Campaign says Clintons feel sense of obligation and gratitude… ” was the least they could do.”).
You have to admire Imus’s sense of humor, even if he manages to wedge one of his size twelve cowboy boots in his mouth every now and then. I’d rather, though, listen to a fellow who comes out and says what’s on his mind without giving you a pressurized political spiel than, say, to Brian Williams or Chris Matthews.
_____
Right now, Imus has got Kinky Friedman (the state of Texas’ answer to Will Rogers) on the phone line, who has just described the relationship between Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama as “another example of black-on-black crime.”
More from Kinky Friedman… “Looking at the vote here in El Paso County, we’re isolated geographically, pretty pure politically… El Paso County is sending over 120 delegates to the Democratic national convention, and almost all of them are voting for Hillary Clinton… I think there’s just one Hispanic delegate left voting for Obama, and that’s Bill Richardson… “
I think that this is a fair assessment of the situation here in Denver – the people who actually are citizens here in the US who are of Hispanic heritage seem to be Clinton loyalists – Obama’s appeal seems restricted to the far left, the star-struck devotees of the trendy and the politically glamorous, and his fellow African-Americans. Nothing wrong about that as such – although if former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards were able to overcome the restriction against convicted felons running for the Presidency, I still wouldn’t vote for him despite the fact we’re both Cajuns. Ethnic loyalty only gets you so far, and Mr. Edwards pardoned a convicted murderer from Angola State Prison who went on to shoot a cousin and childhood friend of mine in cold blood during a robbery of a restaurant.
Friedman and Imus then rehashed the wonderful study in contrasts between the press’ treatment of Imus and Wright’s respective verbal missteps – Imus raised something like three hundred million dollars for his ranch for sick children on his radio show, no one disputes this, which is some impressive context – and it was totally disregarded by the politically-correct lynch mob of the press and the political left. Yet Barack Obama (who was in the forefront of those calling for Don Imus’ professional ruin over a single half-witted joke) demanded that Wright’s foul-mouthed, treasonous tirades be excused in the context of his supposed good works – until Wright shamelessly repeated all of his bigotry and his whack-o conspiracy theories about AIDS and crack before the NAACP and the National Press Club.
After a brief pause, Friedman sighed. “We’ve come a long, long way from Martin Luther King, haven’t we? Now we’ve come to Rev. Wright, Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson. I mean, Martin Luther King was a man of true compassion, true courage, he was a true Christian, who never would give in to hatred, and this is where we’ve gotten ourselves… that’s a long journey, and it’s twenty years of it were shared by Obama and Rev. Wright.”
______
Obama is right on one thing – perspective IS important. Context IS important.
One careless remark – what Don Imus himself agrees was a stupid, regrettable attempt at a joke, for which he has apologized time and time again - led to his losing his job after a hue and cry orchestrated by some of the biggest phonies on the planet Earth, not a few of whom work in politics, the media and political activism.
When will the Reverend Wright apologize for all of the things HE has said? When will he take back the lies he has uttered about our country? When will he back away from his racism and his outrageous comments about the United States of America, and his ridiculous charges that the government is somehow responsible for the drug trade or the spread of infectious diseases among drug users and the poor?
Will Jeremiah Wright continue to live here in the United States as a pathetic joke to everyone around him but the very worst bigots and head cases who share his delusions, or will he move to another country which he might like better? If this foul-mouthed lunatic had the slightest clue about propriety and dignity, and what it means to contribute to a free nation, he’d slink away from America in shame.
But who else would have him? Iran? Maybe Venezuela or Cuba?
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 8:24 AM MDT
More Chirac on Iran - "Teheran would be immediately razed... "
Mood:
celebratory
Topic: Good News for Once
You know, I'm beginning to like this new Chirac... you have to wonder if Nicolas Sarkozy had a little tête à tête with him between the press conference he retracted and this new one.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467864411&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullFeb. 1, 2007 10:19 | Updated Feb. 1, 2007 13:40
Chirac retracts remarks on Iran threat
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS
French President Jacques Chirac said in an interview with three
newspapers that Iran's possession of a nuclear bomb would not be "very
dangerous" and that if it used the weapon on Israel, Teheran would be
immediately "razed," according to a newspaper report.
However, Chirac - who made the comments during a Monday interview with
The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and Le Nouvel
Observateur, a weekly magazine - called reporters back the next day to
try to have his quotes retracted.
In an article posted on its Web site Wednesday night, the New York Times
said the Monday interview was tape recorded and on the record.
Chirac's initial remarks would mark a big departure from France's
official policy of deterrence and work in preventing Iran from obtaining
nuclear weapons.
"I should rather have paid attention to what I was saying and understood
that perhaps I was on the record," Chirac said in the second interview
on Tuesday, according to the New York Times.
On Monday, Chirac said of Iran and its nuclear program: "I would say
that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of having a
nuclear bomb. Having one or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well,
that's not very dangerous."
Instead, Chirac said, the danger lies in the chances of proliferation or
an arms race in the Middle East should Iran build a nuclear bomb.
Possessing the weapon would be useless for Iran - whose leader has
called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" - as using it would mean an
instant counterattack.
"Where will it drop it, this bomb? On Israel?" Chirac asked. "It would
not have gone 200 meters into the atmosphere before Teheran would be razed."
In the second interview with the same newspapers, Chirac retracted his
comment about Teheran being razed. "I retract it, of course, when I
said, 'One is going to raze Teheran,"' he said.
Chirac also said other countries would stop any bomb launched by Iran
from reaching its target.
"It is obvious that this bomb, at the moment it was launched, obviously
would be destroyed immediately," he said. "We have the means - several
countries have the means to destroy a bomb."
Regarding his comments that Israel could be a target of an Iranian
weapon and that Israel would retaliate, Chirac said: "I don't think I
spoke about Israel yesterday. Maybe I did so but I don't think so. I
have no recollection of that."
--
Better and better - we have Chirac on record now saying that Israel would have to stand in line to zap an Iranian missile before it had gotten 200 meters over ground.
Now, those who know nuclear weapons know that destroying a missile with a nuclear weapon not from one of the Big Six older nuclear powers is not as simple as all of that.
If Chirac wasn't speaking out of his, er, hat about that 200 meters figure, this means that plans are underway to do the intercept of the Iranian nuclear missile 200 meters above Iranian territory. It is highly unlikely that an Iranian nuclear device would be what is known as "one point-safe" or designed not to go off with a nuclear yield if accidentally destroyed.
The implication of Mr. Chirac's remarks, then, is that the problem of an Iranian nuclear weapons program would be a self-correcting one if Iran ever launched, because somehow (one suspects the US Airborne Laser Laboratory or similar capabilities would be involved) an Iranian missile would be destroyed with its payload 200 meters above its launch site. Given the probable state of Iranian nuclear weapons technology, this would mean a nuclear detonation would happen 200 meters above the launch site, meaning that unless the launch site was extremely hardened against nuclear blast, it would be destroyed immediately.
Now, did Mr. Chirac mean when he said that "Teheran would be immediately razed" that the launch sites are known to be fairly close to the Iranian capital, or... is there something else in the works?
It isn't pretty, but Jacques Chirac's remarks are how nuclear deterrence will be handled - nuclear nonproliferation is going to be strictly an optional thing from now on, and countries unwilling or unable to acquire their own nuclear weapons will have no other choice than to seek cover under some other nation's "nuclear umbrella" if they feel they are at risk.
We know how the Israelis have opted to handle their nuclear security issues - by being the biggest, meanest (and until now, the only) nuclear power in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, this policy has been at least partly invalidated by Iran's acquisition of the nuclear bomb; additionally, it is probable that other Islamic states, Pakistan certainly, have nuclear weapons and are one coup or assassination from their own indiscreet threats to use them on Israel.
Unfortunately, Israel has not (as far as the public knows) bought the ability to launch their missiles from outside Israel, so the minute a hostile power owns enough nuclear weapons to carpet-bomb Israel, it would be in a position to destroy the Israeli nuclear arsenal by a simple process of elimination - or more likely, touch off the Middle Eastern powder key by putting Israel in a position to either "use 'em or lose 'em" - in which case, all of Israel's enemies would logically be on the receiving end of nuclear annihilation.
We live in scary times. It's nice to know that at least one European leader has grasped the nettle and publicly discussed Iran's fate should their leader live up to his threats. It's the only way to handle the problem.
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 7:43 AM MST
SpaceShipOne Wins the X Prize!
Mood:
celebratory
Topic: Good News for Once
THEY DID IT!!!!
The private consortium SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize by launching a tourist-capable spacecraft successfully, then launching it again successfully two weeks later!
Account of the successful flight and Branson's agreement to start the first commercial spaceline hereWe science-fiction readers and writers can now pause for an official moment of smug vindication. Space tourism was made possible in a fiberglass spacecraft using laughing gas and rubber as fuel.
How cool is
that?
About 4 hours ago, the good people who make 7-Up (that's a carbonated lemon-lime flavored beverage, for those reading this who don't know) announced they are celebrating SpaceShipOne's win of the X Prize by giving away a free ticket into space to some lucky person.
Read Official Press Release by Clicking HereFans of the author Robert A. Heinlein have reason for smugness in particular, because his novel
The Man Who Sold The Moon has a space-obsessed entrepreneur making precisely the sort of marketing agreements to finance a private flight to the Moon as the Ansari X Prize people are making to further the cause of private space travel.
In fact, Heinlein mentions a brand of soda pop nearly identical to 7-Up as one of the co-sponsors of the Moon flight in his book.
We knew it all along.
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 3:18 PM MDT
