After the deluge

Do you think excess carbon caused this?

U.S. and Brazil Seek to Promote Ethanol in West - New York Times

U.S. and Brazil Seek to Promote Ethanol in West - New York Times: "WASHINGTON, March 2 — President Bush, hoping to reduce demand for oil in the Western Hemisphere, is preparing to finish an agreement with Brazil next week to promote the production and use of ethanol throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, according to administration officials."

Sugar Companies in Dominican Republic Begin Ethanol Project | Biodiesel and Ethanol Investing

Ethanol continues to change the world' sugar industries!

Sugar Companies in Dominican Republic Begin Ethanol Project Biodiesel and Ethanol Investing: "DominicanToday.com reports that the Central Roman Corporation and the Vicini Group began a new project to develop ethanol plants using Dominican sugar cane as feedstock. Executives form the companies met with President Fernandez to talk about the new project. If approved, the project would provide the first fuel made from something other than petroleum in the Dominican Republic."

Bay Area Towns

Byron is smaller than Crockett but a great place to live.

Stuck in country time: Byron's rural roots are here to stayBy Barbara E. HernandezCONTRA COSTA TIMES
BYRON - Once a playground of Crockers, Spreckels and silent-film stars, this town of 960 people is best known as Contra Costa County's country corridor, where its rural residents reap what they sow.
"People who choose to live in Byron want a spot in their backyard. They want a horse and they don't want to have CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions)," said local historian and seventh-generation Byron resident Kathy Leighton. "They want a rural lifestyle."
With big stretches of land, farmhouses ranging from Craftsman practicality to faux-Tuscan manors and residents comfortable with the scents of wineries, livestock and earth, Byron's bucolic setting is unlike the suburban communities of Brentwood and Discovery Bay that surround it. Barbed wire and chain-link fences surround homes, holding in dogs, goats, donkeys, horses and cattle.
"It's still very much a farming community with a dairy, vineyards and corn-packing sheds," said Contra Costa Supervisor Mary Piepho, whose district includes Byron.
Byron was known mainly for its historic Byron Hot Springs, a destination resort in the early part of the 20th century. The 160-acre salt springs were developed by Lewis Ridson Mead in 1865 as a spa resort, which stayed popular until they fell out of favor around 1950.
The property is now owned by East Bay Associates, which plans to develop the 160-acre site as a spa resort with a golf course, tennis courts, stables and a winery, said historian Carol Jensen.
The first hotel, built in 1878, the same year Byron was founded, burned to the ground in 1901. The second had a similar fate in 1912. By 1914, a brick structure was built that still stands today. The resort was used as an interrogation camp during World War II and closed shortly after.
But the key to Byron is not in its past, residents said.
"I think it's a prime spot for a wonderful little future," Leighton said.
Insiders' view
Although Byron and neighbor Discovery Bay share a ZIP code and school system, the two communities have what has been called a tense relationship.
Leighton said the Discovery Bay versus Byron feud is exaggerated. "We certainly have more in common than tearing us apart," she said. "It's imperative for the communities to get along."
Most of the problem stems from growth echoes in Byron, such as increased traffic and impacts on the school system.
"There is a feeling that Discovery Bay will come into what Byron has perceived as our land," she said.
With home building halting, that threat has diminished, Leighton said.
"I think the feeling from the county is that there was some error in judgment in Antioch, Brentwood and Oakley, so they see us as the perfect opportunity to take advantage of open space," Leighton, 60, said.
Piepho, a Discovery Bay resident whose husband is director of the Discovery Bay Community Services District, said Byron is "a very small community with limited potential."
Piepho said little infrastructure in the unincorporated community caused residents to rely on wells and an antiquated wastewater treatment facility that can't allow any more hookups. It will cost $2.3 million to build a new plant, a hard pill to swallow for fewer than 1,000 residents.
Nearby Discovery Bay has a modern sewer and water system that allowed growth, but past disagreements seem to make it impossible for the neighbors to work together.
Although some development could be possible near the Byron Airport, Piepho is pessimistic about the narrow line of buildings that make up Byron's downtown changing. Growth restrictions passed by a countywide vote have limited development and the urban limit line, she said.
Byron is the end of the proposed eBART line, a 24-mile $394 million rail line that follows Highway 4, for 2010. However, because of high costs and outdated estimates, the price is likely to be more than $1.3 billion. After cutting the project into two phases with the Oakley-Byron segment second, Byron still may get a stop on the line after 2010.
Rural living
Because Byron is unincorporated, it has few services and amenities. There are no fire hydrants, so several fires have destroyed the town's oldest buildings, and the town relies on the county for all public safety.
The nearest grocery stores and big-box retailers are in Brentwood, and the town's main drag, Highway 4, can alternate from speedway to traffic jam depending on the time of the commute.
And there will be a commute for most new residents. The average commute for Byron residents is about 30 minutes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Housing stock
Housing stock is mostly older farmhouses with clapboard homes and small yards near downtown, as well as larger parcels with custom homes on the outskirts of Byron.
Richard Pontes, a real estate broker and owner of Realty World Delta Country for the past 20 years in Byron, said he makes most of his money selling homes outside town because of the low turnover.
"It's kind of a limited market," he said. "There's not a lot happening."
Pontes said that most people who come into his office are looking for an acre parcel with a house and are shocked to find the price is $650,000.
"They find out it's not cheap here anymore and it's difficult to find small parcels," he said. "There are $1.5 million homes going up on 5-acre parcels."
In a recent look at homes for sale, the least-expensive home was a 1,664-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home on 0.17 of an acre for $419,000. The highest price was $2.1 million for a 3,811-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath, three-story home on 35.54 acres.
Report card
Students in Byron attend public school in the Byron Union School District. On the Academic Performance Index Growth Report, students at Discovery Bay Elementary scored 767 and Timber Point Elementary scored 800 out of 1,000 points. Excelsior Middle School scored 739. Students attend high school at Liberty Union in Brentwood, where students scored 718.
Story Sources: Byron Union School District, state Department of Education, Realtor.com, Realty World Delta County and the U.S. Census Bureau
Barbara E. Hernandez covers real estate. Reach her at 925-952-5063 or bhernandez@cctimes.com.
HOME VALUES
1990 . . . $310,000
1995 . . . $254,000
2000 . . . $327,250
2005 . . . $610,000
2006 . . . $710,000
Source: DataQuick Information Systems, median sale price of detached, resale homes.
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Ethonol Strikes Again

Seems to me the 51 cent subsidy ought to go.

SALT LAKE CITY - From corn fields to Wall Street, enthusiasm for ethanol is at an all-time high. But not everyone is enthusiastic.
Demand for the corn-based fuel is driving up the cost of feed corn, making it more expensive to feed cows, chickens and pigs.

"It's hard to see where the future is, if corn keeps going up," said Kerby Barker, a cattle rancher in southwestern Wyoming. "Any time you jack up the price of fuel, any time you jack up the price of corn, it just drives up our bottom line."Long-term, it could drive up the cost of food, which is alarming to meat producers and food companies. Like many ranchers, Barker questions the 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit created by Congress to encourage growth of the ethanol industry.
"The feeling in our area is that all the subsidies going to support ethanol production is really hurting livestock production," Barker said. A potential split is in evidence this week during the annual meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation this week in Salt Lake City. Farm Bureau is the country's largest general-interest agriculture group. Its members still are trying to understand the consequences of the nation's rapid expansion of ethanol.

"We have a bull on the loose here, and it's going to have a lot of implications for American agriculture and our population," Keith Collins, the Agriculture Department's chief economist, told Farm Bureau members Sunday morning. Enough plants are under construction or being expanded to more than double the nation's ethanol production, from around 5 billion gallons now to 11 billion gallons, according to industry estimates. Production will probably keep expanding even if prices rise higher, Collins said. Prices have climbed above $3 a bushel, the highest level in more than a decade. Strong returns mean plants could cover costs even above $4 or $5 a bushel, depending on prices for ethanol byproducts, he said.

The ethanol boom has been good news for grain farmers and rural communities, where new plants are opening at a breakneck pace. Although big agribusiness companies such as Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc. produce the most ethanol, many new plants are farmer-owned cooperatives.
But the boom has put the squeeze on those who produce beef, chicken and pork.
High corn prices are affecting the margins for meat producers such as Smithfield Foods Inc. and Tyson Foods, which have seen earnings fall.
Eventually, sustained high corn prices will probably lead to higher grocery bills. If corn prices increase by $1 a bushel, within a couple of years, grocery shoppers should see the price of pork increase 3 percent to 3.5 percent, Collins said.
The demand for ethanol, however, doesn't mean there is less corn for people to eat -- field corn for livestock and fuel is different from sweet corn, the source of fresh corn on the cob and canned or frozen corn.
But food companies say the impact still goes beyond meat and milk. High prices prompt farmers to plant corn in place of other crops, such as wheat, driving up the price of things like wheat flour, said Cal Dooley, who heads the Food Products Association, an industry group.
"We wouldn't have a concern with this if this was strictly the result of market forces, but what is driving a lot of this use of corn for ethanol is a fairly generous subsidy for production of ethanol," Dooley said in an interview.
Not that the food companies he represents want to eliminate the subsidy, Dooley said.
Rather, there is interest in tying the subsidy to market forces, raising it when prices are low and lowering it when prices are high, he said.
The question is whether the industry has grown enough to survive without the subsidy, said Collins, the Agriculture Department economist.
There have been periods in the past year where ethanol was profitable without the subsidy, and periods when it was not, he said.
"You could argue it's still in a critical period, with a huge amount of production under construction," Collins said.
That is what the industry and its supporters believe.
Although the subsidy expires in 2010, lawmakers introduced a bill last week that would make it permanent.

Peter Discovers Fresno

Tips help county identify ferryPORT COSTA:

Sheriff's office says the vessel is the Fresno and a nearby hull what's left of the San LeandroBy

Tom LochnerCONTRA COSTA TIMES

A boat moored off the Port Costa shoreline and a hull alongside it are the ferry Fresno and what's left of the ferry San Leandro.
"We've solved the mystery," said Contra Costa County sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee, bolstered by solid information as well as hunches and educated guesses that dozens of readers, including many maritime history and ferry buffs, phoned and e-mailed to the Times throughout the day Tuesday.
The two San Francisco Bay auto ferries, launched in the 1920s, were docked at Mare Island in Vallejo for 21/2 years, said their former owner, Phil Wright of Healdsburg. The new owner, whose name Wright declined to disclose pursuant to a confidentiality agreement, had the boats towed out of Mare Island Nov. 29, ostensibly bound for Stockton.
But over the last two weeks, Port Costa and Crockett residents reported an old ferryboat moored across the strait east of Port Costa, along the waterfront of the closed Port Costa brickyard.
Two men working on the demolition of the closed brickyard told the Times on Monday they did not know when the boats arrived.
Coast Guard officials said they had received complaints from the owner of the brickyard -- TXI Pacific Custom Materials -- but could not do anything because the docking is privately owned. The Sheriff's Office investigated. TXI did not return calls Tuesday.
Michael DeOrian, a Richmond police officer, said he recognized the Fresno, which he had seen moored in Richmond some time ago, from a photo the Times ran Tuesday.
Peter Olsen of Crockett, who frequently walks along the shore, recognized the boat as one he had seen moored in the Mare Island Strait: the Fresno -- although he conceded the boat in the picture could be a sister ship, if one still existed.
"If it's not there at Mare Island, it's the same boat," Olsen said.
By and by the puzzle fell together Tuesday.
"I understand that there was some dispute that the owner had with either the tug company or a fellow doing some work," Wright said.
Lee, too, said the boats were docked at Port Costa pursuant to a dispute, which has since been resolved.
"We involved the brickyard and the owners, who said they'd move the ships at the end of the week," Lee said. "We wanted to make sure there was a peaceful outcome. It was a happy ending. It was definitely a mystery for a short period of time."
No one was cited for any violation, Lee said.
The episode of a 250-foot boat docking on the shore of a metropolitan area dotted with chemical and other industries without maritime authorities taking much notice raises interesting homeland security issues, several readers said. What if, for instance, a barge loaded with explosives were to dock unannounced near an oil refinery?
Coast Guard officials referred the question to a public affairs officer who did not return calls Tuesday. Another Coast Guard official, Petty Officer Jonathan Cilley, said he heard about the boat for the first time Tuesday morning and therefore could not comment on any specifics. But he said that typically, and certainly if there were a known homeland security issue, the Coast Guard would board a "foreign" vessel -- foreign meaning one that would not normally be expected in a given port -- to do a safety check. He did not know if the Coast Guard ever checked the Fresno.
The 256-foot-long Fresno was built in 1927 for the Southern Pacific Railroad, according to Web sources. With the construction of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges, the San Francisco Bay ferries became obsolete, and most if not all were sold to be redeployed in Washington state.
"I'm just hoping the guy restores it," Wright said. "That was kind of my dad's dream."
Wright's late father, entrepreneur Arnold Gridley, wanted to restore the two ferries and dock them in San Francisco, Wright said. "But that wasn't in the cards for us."
It would have cost $3 million or $4 million, Wright said, not to mention $6,000 a month in carrying costs during the time the boats were docked at Mare Island.
Another San Francisco Bay ferry, the Santa Rosa, is docked in San Francisco and serves as the headquarters of Hornblower Yachts, according to Web sources.
Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.

Scientific American

Read the entire article. Keith

Fact or Fiction?: Archimedes Coined the Term "Eureka!" in the Bath
The famed mathematician made many important scientific contributions. Was this exclamation really one of them?
By David Biello

Let's begin with the story: the local tyrant contracts the ancient Greek polymath Archimedes to detect fraud in the manufacture of a golden crown. Said tyrant, name of Hiero, suspects his goldsmith of leaving out some measure of gold and replacing it with silver in a wreath dedicated to the gods. Archimedes accepts the challenge and, during a subsequent trip to the public baths, realizes that the more his body sinks into the water, the more water is displaced--making the displaced water an exact measure of his volume. Because gold weighs more than silver, he reasons that a crown mixed with silver would have to be bulkier to reach the same weight as one composed only of gold; therefore it would displace more water than its pure gold counterpart. Realizing he has hit upon a solution, the young Greek math whiz leaps out of the bath and rushes home naked crying "Eureka! Eureka!" Or, translated: "I've found it! I've found it!"

A Bit of History

January 1940
Aircraft engaged in air combat games over Crockett with simulated bombing of the bridge, RR, Mare Island, etc. Also taking part in the war games were anti-aircraft guns atop Grandview Terrace manned by 114 members of Battery "C" of the 65th Coast Artillery

And So It Goes

Biofuels Discovery Promises to End Dependence on Natural Gas
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed a new, carbon-neutral way to convert vegetable-based fuels to syngas, a breakthrough that could allow producers to power hydrogen fuel cells or create a replacement for America's dwindling supplies of natural gas, all without relying on fossil fuels.
We've all had the experience of watching cooking oil smoke once a pan reaches a certain temperature—and suffered the indignity of having to scrub off the caked-on, carbonized gunk that results. A similar problem plagued researchers trying to convert biofuels: When heated, they clogged the pores of the catalyst used to transform them into syngas, which is a mixture of gases that include hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide

A Great Use of Space Technology

NASA SUPPORTS UAS FIRE MAPPING EFFORTS ON CALIFORNIA FIRE
A team led by NASA and U.S. Forest Service scientists recently collected real-time, visible and infrared data from sensors onboard a remotely piloted aircraft over the Esperanza Fire in Southern California.The Esperanza Fire, an arson-set fire that claimed the lives of five firefighters, ignited on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006. Whipped by powerful Santa Ana winds, it spread over 40,200 acres, or roughly 62 square miles, destroying 34 homes and 20 other structures.

More Global Warming?

Fisheries face collapse by 2048, study warns
Overfishing, other factors will wipe out stocks worldwide by 2048, scientists say. But there's hope.
By Marla Cone, Times Staff WriterNovember 3, 2006
All of the world's fishing stocks will collapse before midcentury, devastating food supplies, if overfishing and other human impacts continue at their current pace, according to a global study published today by scientists in five countries.Already, nearly one-third of species that are fished — including bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, Alaskan king crab, Pacific salmon and an array in California fisheries — have collapsed, and the pace is accelerating, the report says.

SUN, RAIN, VOLCANOES

This from an October 24, 1936 Hawaii newspaper.

Sugarcane is a giant grass, and "stools out" from the root as other grasses
do. In a recent fair on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, a prize was offered for the
biggest stool of cane. It was taken by the one shown on the cover of this week's
Science News Letter. This one-root jungle of thirty-foot stalks would have
yielded about 400 pounds of sugar.

Great Source of Information on C and H

What was Havermyer's interest in C and H? Spreckels interest in American Sugar Refining? The report of the 1911 Congressional Hearins is essential. It is available through Google books.

Hearings held before the Special Committee on the Investigation of the
American Sugar Refining...By United States. Congress. House. Special Committee
on Investigation of American Sugar Refining Company

Raiders Are Leading

For the first time this season the Oakland Raiders are leading at the end of the third quarter. There is still hope!

Red River Valley sugar beet harvest under way - Examiner.com

Red River Valley sugar beet harvest under way - Examiner.com

Snow and cold weather didn't help.

More News Impacting the Price of Sugar

Norwegian farmers share view of family farms, biofuel potential - Examiner.com: "MINOT, N.D. - Norway's agriculture minister says farmers in his country share the views of North Dakota farmers when it comes to the value of family farms and the potential of biofuels.


Terje Riis-Johansen brought a Norwegian delegation to the Norsk Hostfest, Minot's Scandinavian festival, this week. The group also is visiting Minnesota.
'It's necessary for Norway to move extremely, much faster in the direction of renewable energy in the next 10 to 20 years than what we have done for the last 10 to 20 years,' Riis-Johansen said."

Bay Area expenses drive up salaries

Bay Area expenses drive up salaries

This article explains some of the challeges of living in the California Bay Area.

Claus Spreckels as Publisher

Who knew??

"Whitney owned the paper until 1870, when, financially drained, he sold it to printers James Black and William Auld but remained as editor.
Ten years later, the paper was sold again and Whitney promptly quit. The new owner was the great sugar baron, Claus Spreckels, the man for whom Spreckelsville, Maui, is named. Whitney disagreed with much that Spreckels stood for and Spreckels was a Royalist."

The Honolulu Advertiser | Celebrating 150 Years

The Honolulu Advertiser Celebrating 150 Years: "Claus Spreckels
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Claus Spreckels was a German financier, San Francisco sugar refiner and late-night card player who hit the financial jackpot in Hawai'i, particularly after he became a poker-playing buddy of King Kalakaua.
Thanks to that association, Spreckels became known as 'the power behind the throne' and 'the sugar king of Hawai'i.'
Spreckels was already financially flush when he showed up in Hawai'i in 1876 at age 48 and began investing in a number of enterprises, from land deals to railroads and sugar mills.
Within two years his efforts had led to the formation of what was considered the finest plantation in the Islands, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.
By that time he had realized the corruption potential of being a poker chum of Kalakaua's. Spreckels was able to manipulate the king by playing to his vanity. He made a fortune off a coinage fiasco in which silver dollars bearing the king's image were minted in San Francisco.
Under Spreckels' influence, the king dismissed resistant cabinets. The result was that Spreckels ended up controlling tens of thousands of acres of crown land with the backing of the legislature.
Spreckels returned to California in 1886 after he and the king had a falling out. But he continued doing business in Hawai'i for more than a decade after the king's death in 1891."

Brazil boosts ethanol output as prices soar - After Oil - MSNBC.com

Brazil boosts ethanol output as prices soar - After Oil - MSNBC.com

It is sort of interesting about the effect one counry can have on the industry.