Out of Afghanistan Soon/Almost, B2orNOTB5 for NDP, Patent Early-Patent Often
Letīs start off with the top dog:
Dr. Stephen Chu, US Secretary of Energy speaks on progress with biofuels development. From miscanthus vs. corn, to GMO's developed in "just 6 months", significant progress is being made as great speed.
Locking the Barn Doors
Now, there is also some more good news, and I donīt want anyone who may be thinking of innovative ways to provide renewable energy, or improve on methods to harvest it to get into the situation of "locking the barn doors after the horses are gone", which is to say, APPLY FOR A PATENT at the earliest possible stage. Get some good advice on how a patent is supposed to be written, research the "prior art" as the United States Patent and Trademark Office refers to "known" concepts, designs and processes, but at least file for a "provisional patent" as soon as you are reasonably sure that you are at a discovery point in your explorations.
It has often been said, especially recently, that the Peopleīs Republic of China ignores international intellectual property laws and claims. That has been true in many thousands of instances, but their greater participation in the full World Trade Organizationīs interactions with other nations has brought a renewed show of attempts to comply with those statutes. One "counter strategy" is to arrange to make an alliance with a Chinese company with powerful and prominent Chinese persons as the owners. Once they have a vested interest in keeping the intellectual property protected, it is likely that enforcement in China will be quite strict.
Hereīs a promotional paper by some intellectual property law specialists from a Washington DC firm, STERNE, KESSLER, GOLDSTEIN & FOX P.L.L.C., that specializes in "green" intellectual property which you may find helpful.
The Zzzzt and the Pendulum
This is an innovative wind power design that most engineers would probably have rejected as impractical. I admit the concept is at least somewhat "counter-intuitive", but I can see how it could be very valuable, especially in low wind velocity areas or periods of time. The Aplicaciones de Energías Sustitutivas S.L design has a single blade, a power train generator, and a self-steering nacelle. And just to be clear, a "single blade" is not one pair of blades, but just a single airfoil on one side of the hub and a much smaller counterbalancing stub opposite. (See photo at the top of this column assuming I remember to put it in). Now, I mentioned "valuable in low wind", which is a surmise on my part, because the company claims that it has inertial damping effects that smooth out the difference between gusts of wind and the calm between them so that gusty conditions donīt produce poor power quality. That may mean that their threshold is higher than I expect, but in any event I applaud the innovation in design. I might even want to give some serious thought to whether I can improve on its efficiency. It is certainly an attractive and intriguing concept.
Okay, maybe I just like "quirky" stuff more than most people but a "one-armed windmill" just tickles my imagination in a way that gives me great pleasure because it is outside of conventional wisdom and common expectations.
Wimpy Winnipeg
In the Canadian province of Manitoba, the New Democratic Party (not in any way affiliated with the Democratic Party of the USA), promised during election campaigns back around 2007 that they were going to implement an B5 (5% biodiesel blend) policy for the whole province by 2010. Well, they apparently have "wimped out", as politicians who actually have good ideas are inclined to do too often. Science, Technology, Energy and Mines Minister Jim Rondeau said Wednesday that starting November 1, (2009, admittedly) fuel companies will be required to sell 2% biodiesel blend, as a means to make a "smooth transition". That may be a good thing, or it may not. It remains to be seen if they will eventually decide that 2% was "good enough" or if they really go on to the 5% level next year sometime.
The government may not have actually "capped the market" as to a maximum "required" demand for biodiesel, but it has put in a lower floor than was expected, which could be harmful to investors who were ramping up for an earlier high water mark.
Viva Mexico, Viva Colombia
As part of a cooperation agreement signed last March between the governments of Colombia and Mexico, construction will begin this week on a biodiesel plant in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The plant is being financed by the Colombian government and is expected to cost close to US$2,000,000 to complete. Plans are to have the facility operational by March of next year, but construction is expected to be finished sometime in December. The State of Chiapas has set aside 10,000 hectares of land on which to grow jatropha to supply the plant. Earlier reports from 2008 and January of 2009 recorded the "facts" differently, varying from 49,000 acres of jatropha plus another 1,500 of castor-oil plants for a plant to produce 940,000 gallons of fuel, to more modest estimate of US$1.1 million for a plant to produce just over 1 million gallons of biodiesel per year, although at that time the reports was that they had only secured cultivation of 5,000 acres.
There is certainly no lack of local enthusiasm, though. The 2007 story reported that when they called for suppliers to the plant jatropha, no less than 500,000 applications were received from local growers. Indeed if they got 10,000 hectares planted the biodiesel facility should be well supplied. Good news, too, is the fact that it takes at least 2 man-years of labor each year to tend 1 hectare of jatropha. That suggests that the plant will be supporting 20,000 agricultural workers besides its own technicians and managers.
The current report has the output at approximately 20,000 liters per day, which amounts to about 1.8 million US gallons a year, although that report suggest it will use jatropha and palm oil as feedstock, with no mention of castor beans. Started on December 13, 2007, the Institute of Biofuels and Alternative Energy (IBEA) was instrumental in bringing all of this about including sales agreements with Spain and cooperative collaboration and export agreements with Vietnam. At least one source reports that all of this is just a tip of the iceberg in a much larger and far reaching middle-American agreement among Mexico, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
Happy Thoughts
I have great respect, as do a great many people, for columnist George Will who appears almost every week on the This Week with George Stephanopolous show on ABC television. I see much of the logic in what he says, though more often than not I disagree with his conclusions. A little more than a week ago, George Will wrote a controversial column in which he said that it was time for the US to get their troops out of Afghanistan. As usually we donīt exactly see eye-to-eye on the details but in this case, I have to agree with his conclusions. I hope that the fact that I agree doesnīt cause him to reconsider his position.
On the other hand, Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN is strongly in favor of keeping and even escalating troop strength in Afghanistan. Fareed, as usual, posed his "question of the week" which was seeking those who had thoughts on both sides of the case. I would like to share with you the brief email I sent to him today (Sunday).
"To: GPS at cnn.com
Subj.: Afghanistan War or Withdrawal?
Dear Mr. Zakaria,
Bear with me a moment while I lay out a background story that will help illuminate my position on NATO and US involvement in Afghanistan.
Some 25 years ago, approximately, I had occasion to be called upon to provide a luxury amenity to a hotel which had a Saudi prince as a guest. The young prince wanted a computer system to play his favorite game, and because the computer system needed was so new, it was not available anywhere as a rental unit. When it came time to pay the bill it came to light that the princeīs affairs, at least during this trip to Los Angeles, were being handled by an active duty colonel of the British Army.
Also as background I would point out that a recent broadcast (sorry, I do not remember the exact source, though probably MSNBC) noted that at the time we mark as the "fall" of the Taliban government in Kabul, the US had 2500 troops (that we acknowledged) in Afghanistan.
I therefore propose that the ideal situation would be for NATO and America to withdraw to the kind of "civil advisor" role that the British took on in many of their former colonial territories, and that of nations whose social structure had not developed to even a 19th century level of sophistication. That is to say that Westerners can and should carry on "nation building" but not as a replacement to local police, but rather as mentors to their civil institutions. We would do well to adapt to some of those social institutions, so that rather than attempting to impose a whole elaborate bureaucracy of provincial and federal governments after Western models, we may need to organize inter-tribal councils to take advantage of the existing cultural social infrastructures, but also provide some logistical support and training to local law enforcement, even to the extent of deploying special duty special forces teams to suppress extremes of violent actions. Add to that mix a healthy peppering of private sector economic advisors in their industry and commerce, and the prolonged process of nation building (not benign neglect) will be a manageable task that involves a lot fewer dead bodies on all sides.
"Inshalla," as Michael Ware said. And "shalom" too.
Sincerely,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
That is my story, and I am sticking to it until I get a better one.
Love and warm wishes,
Sincerely,
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://daochienergy.com
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