Sojourners and the United Nations are the latest in a series of bad press for biodiesel (or "agrofuels" in general) which is not completely undeserved and not completely new to me. I'm more interested in biodiesel than ethanol (at least corn based ethanol) and I'd heard of the countries, like Malaysia, which burned forests to grow palm oil for biodiesel. I'd heard of the Nitrous Oxide issue (biodiesel produces a higher level than regular diesel, although much lower on a variety of other greenhouse gases). I knew that biodiesel wasn't a silver bullet to solve all our problems -- that even at maximum production it would only satisfy a fraction of our current demand. But I'm interested in the little niche markets that can be tapped for fuel, like animal fats and waste vegetable oil (WVO), which can be converted into biodiesel. (I have toyed with the idea of converting our car to run on straight vegetable oil and making a symbiotic relationship with a nearby take-out Chinese food restaurant, where I'd collect their waste oil and filter it for fuel use, but I'm not convinced it's without risk to the engine). The biodiesel we get from our co-op is from local soybeans, so we are probably contributing to an increase in the cost of tofu, but I still think it's a step better than conventional diesel or gasoline. Hopefully the fact that the demand is here can focus attention and research dollars on renewable
alternatives to petroleum. Despite the ominous tone to the Sojourners article, I think I mostly agree with it -- especially the last part: the best solution to the issue is to use less fuel of any variety. Click below for short clips and links to the full articles.
Quote: King symbolizes the triumph of love over hatred, of nonviolence over violence, and of community values over money values.
No American is more qualified than King to replace Andrew Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill. Jackson's presidential legacy is marked by the
barbaric Indian Removal Act which evicted at least 47,000 Creek,
Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokee and Seminole Indians from their homes so
their land could be turned into cotton-growing slave plantations. The
Indian Removal Act led directly to the infamous Trail of Tears, where
four thousand Cherokee men, women and children died in a forced march
west.
Our strategy is to gather names to pressure President Bush and Congress to put King on the 20. Together we can make this happen!
I'm a big fan of non-profit design. I've been daydreaming since my
college days about one permutation or another of my plan to start a
non-profit design firm or focus a freelance career around non-profits.
I continue to work on this idea, and I think it's still a real option
for the future (after Janel is done with her dissertation, assuming we
have to move somewhere when she gets a job offer). And, of course, the
diversity of non-profits and projects is my favorite part of working
where I currently work.
So I was pleased to stumble on a design blog that focuses on exactly the kind of design that interests me most. Osocio "...is dedicated to
social advertising and non-profit campaigns...the place where marketing
and activism collide." Here's a few environmental
campaigns that caught my eye.
When we were at Janel's parent's house over Christmas, we played a game called "Would you rather...?" which gives you two scenarios and has you choose which would be preferable. One of the questions that generated some discussion was whether you'd rather have an undeserved bad reputation, or have skeletons in your closet that no one knew about. I thought of that the other day when I got my copy of Heart magazine, which contained an article that referenced our dumpster diving, but I asked the question in reverse: would I rather have an undeserved good reputation or have to tell people that I'm really not all that saintly?
We are back from our long roadtrip, and Alleia did very well. She loves the car, generally -- especially when we're moving, but we think the gentle rumble of the diesel engine may help even when we're at a stop light. This is the second long road trip we've done, and we've been quite pleased with the car's performance. This trip we were getting upwards of 50mpg on the highway, so we drove over 600 miles on one tank with a little breathing room to spare (I know it's a bad thing to run a diesel engine out of fuel). One thing we've found helpful, since we purchased the car to run on biodiesel and since we won't be able to fill up at our biodiesel co-op while we're out of town, is a website that allows you to map out your journey and locate nearby biodiesel stations along the way. Nearbio.com hosts an application called the "Biofuels Route Wizard " that lets you trace your approximate path on a map and gives back a list of stations that have at least a blend of biodiesel (or ethanol if you swing that way) which are near to your route.
A collection of our writings.
Sojourners and the United Nations are the latest in a series of bad press for biodiesel (or "agrofuels" in general) which is not completely undeserved and not completely new to me. I'm more interested in biodiesel than ethanol (at least corn based ethanol) and I'd heard of the countries, like Malaysia, which 
With the political firestorm surrounding 
I'm a big fan of non-profit design. I've been daydreaming since my
college days about one permutation or another of my plan to start a
non-profit design firm or focus a freelance career around non-profits.
I continue to work on this idea, and I think it's still a real option
for the future (after Janel is done with her dissertation, assuming we
have to move somewhere when she gets a job offer). And, of course, the
diversity of non-profits and projects is my favorite part of working
where I 
When we were at Janel's parent's house over Christmas, we played a game called "Would you rather...?" which gives you two scenarios and has you choose which would be preferable. One of the questions that generated some discussion was whether you'd rather have an undeserved bad reputation, or have skeletons in your closet that no one knew about. I thought of that the other day when I got my copy of Heart magazine, which contained an article that referenced our dumpster diving, but I asked the question in reverse: would I rather have an undeserved good reputation or have to tell people that I'm really not all that saintly?
We are back from our long roadtrip, and Alleia did very well. She loves the car, generally -- especially when we're moving, but we think the gentle rumble of the diesel engine may help even when we're at a stop light. This is the second long road trip we've done, and we've been quite pleased with the car's performance. This trip we were getting upwards of 50mpg on the highway, so we drove over 600 miles on one tank with a little breathing room to spare (I know it's a bad thing to run a diesel engine out of fuel). One thing we've found helpful, since we