Thanks 4

Giant Roses

Meditation fountain behind City Hall. 11/24/09

It was a beautiful morning last Tuesday.
A great time for pictures.

Biofuels' Hidden Downside
Biofuels typically burn cleaner than fossil fuels and therefore emit less carbon dioxide into the air. But plant-power sucks up ridiculously large quantities of water compared with oil and natural gas production. A study (pdf) presented at an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference in 2007 offers some alarming estimates: Producing a gallon (3.79 liters) of corn ethanol, for example, consumes 170 gallons (644 liters) of water in total, from irrigation to final processing. Soybean biodiesel manufacture needs some 900 gallons of water (3,400 liters) per gallon of fuel. On the other hand, the water requirement to make a gallon of regular gasoline is just five gallons (19 liters).

Scientific American article, HERE.

McIntosh MXA60 Stereo

A bookshelf sound system I would listen to.
Santa could put this in my stocking for a mere $7,500.

Smokers inhaling live bacteria

"We thought it was a crazy idea to look at commercially available cigarettes to understand bacterial diversity," said Amy Sapkota, an epidemiologist at the University of Maryland, who led the research. "We were surprised to find that within a broad array of bacterial species that we found human pathogens were present as well."

Researchers are grappling with the public health implications of the findings.

Smoking cigarettes harms almost every organ system in the human body. The chemicals and heavy metals found in cigarettes--there are nearly 3,000 of them—and the particulates get most of the blame for the harmful effects of cigarettes, such as lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, emerging research points to smoking as a risk factor for respiratory illnesses such as the common cold, influenza, asthma, bacterial pneumonia and interstitial lung disease.

I am so glad I quit last Thanksgiving,
(Cold turkey).

Mono Rocks

The best way to hear the magic that was the Beatles. The 10 original mono mixed albums. $299.

I have heard what the new modern stereo re-mastered songs sound like, and they don't have the sound that made the Beatles great. This collection claims to have maintained the power of the George Martin mixes.

Santa, I can think of other things to spend 300 clams on, but I bet these would sound awesome on the McIntosh MXA60 Stereo.

Watch The Shuttle
Thanksgiving Evening

ISS-Atlantis

Look NNW at 5:08 PM it will transit for about 2 1/2 minutes at a maximum elevation of 51°.

On the 27th it will be near the same spot at 5:31:02 pm.

You can go HERE to find out what is flying by, and when.

Problemo Peppers?

I got these shrimp stuffed peppers at Trader Joe's.

I nuked them as directed. They were delicious until....

...I saw writing on the corn.

I wasn't wearing my glasses, and it looked like letters and numbers on the corn. I took a picture and blew it up. Not writing. I still didn't eat those kernels.

Only one thing left to do...

Dessert

Cherry ice cream, triple berry muffin, and whipped cream.

Today's Relatively Appropriate Song;
Thanksgiving - Stop Motion Video

Happy Thanksgiving