Santa Monica Farmers' Market

Actually, there are several Farmers' Markets in Santa Monica. This is one we can walk to from my mom's place.

These prickly pears were growing on the wall of a house we
passed on the way to the market.

We went to the Saturday Market at Virginia Avenue
park at Cloverfield and Pico.

I bought half a dozen vegie-jalapeno tamales. Mmmmmm.

The juice was soooo good.

You can double click on the picture to see all the details. For all the environmental consciousness, there were sure a lot of big cars in the parking lot and I don't recall seeing a bike rack. But I'm sure I just needed to look harder. (I know Ropi what you're thinking - more on where the garbage goes.)

Yes, they're potatoes.

This is the underside of the orchid flower, but this 'mask' caught my eye.

Walking home with our bounty.

As you may have guessed, we got my mom's internet working again. J and M, the wifi info is under the router.

Brian the WLA Bike Guy

When we walked home from the Farmers' Market Saturday morning, we passed this garage with bikes. Brian, it turns out, is an out of work carpenter who told us that he's always worked on bikes. With the economy so bad, he's now getting old bikes, fixing them up and selling them. Since we'd been thinking about getting some bikes to use while in LA, we looked around.
Here's his office. He checks various sources for bikes and then gets them back into shape. J rode her 'new' bike home. He was still working on the one I chose.








I told Brian I had a blog and got his ok to post this. This is one veteran's way of eating during a recession. And it's a great service for people looking for a reasonably priced bike AND it's great for recycling. (Pun intended.)

Snow Leopard Black Screen Disease Cure (Maybe)

So far it's looking good. My computer is hooked up with the adapter cord and I don't touch the keyboard for five minutes and the screen doesn't go black. If you can't wait to find out what it is you can skip down to the solution at the bottom.

In hindsight it's 'obvious' but as previous posts show, I've been in contact with an Apple Help expert for over two weeks, we've tried all sorts of things, and nothing solved the problem, including a new power cord.

But two hours with an Apple Genius (I think using that word as a job title tends to diminish the word itself) named Hannah, and it appears we solved the problem. That two hours doesn't count the hour it took for them to see me when, for some reason, my appointment was lost. Fortunately, David who made my appointment yesterday was there and confirmed I had a 6pm appointment. David's sitting in the blue t-shirt on the left.





There was one more clue that emerged tonight. Up til now I haven't actually timed how long it took for the screen to go black. I knew it was around five minutes. But since we kept doing things and then turning off the computer and then waiting to see if it went black again, I was timing it over and over and it was always exactly five minutes after I stopped touching the keyboard.



They finally connected me with Hannah who tried a few things. One thing she did to see if it was my hard drive or something in the software I had on my hard drive, was load Snow Leopard from a separate hard drive onto my computer to see whether it would still shut down. At this point I don't remember what happened. I think it still shut down, but I'm not certain.

She set up a test identity to see if we logged on as another user. It didn't have the problem as the other user.

Then she checked for applications that loaded when I - as the user - turned on my computer. She took them out of the startup. That didn't fix it.

She did some other stuff with other things plugged into the computer.

I wondered why it was always five minutes. And she said, "hmmmm, what is set to happen in five minutes?" She checked my screen saver. That was set for five minutes and when she tried to change it the round rainbow came on and the screen locked.

THE SOLUTION

I had as my screensaver a slide show set up in an older iPhoto, maybe iPhoto 06 or 08. It was set to start in five minutes after I didn't touch the keyboard. She took one of the generic Apple screensavers and set it up instead. After five minutes instead of going black, it went to the screensaver and I could still use the computer.

Why Snow Leopard can't handle this old iPhoto slide show screensaver I don't know nor does Hannah. But once we turned it off and put on another screensaver, it stopped going to black.

But why only when the power adapter cord was on? We went into the sleep preferences. I had changed to sleep preference for the power adapter to an hour after it came back from the MacHaus and they'd both been reset for one minute. (I'm not exactly sure what I did at this time, but I know at some point I put it at an hour hoping that would stop it, but it didn't.) At that time we thought it was related to going to sleep. I didn't want it to go to sleep for longer so it wouldn't shut down. But I hadn't changed it for battery so it still went to sleep in one minute. So it would go to sleep before the screensaver was set to go on (which was five minutes.)

As I say, in hindsight the answer was 'obvious.'

This doesn't guarantee that the rest of you getting here searching "Snow Leopard Black Screen" or "Snow Leopard Blank Screen" (between 10 and 20 people a day) have exactly the same problem. Something in Snow Leopard is getting screwed up - on my computer - with something on the old iPhoto slideshow I was using as a screen saver. So if you have an old iPhoto slideshow for a screensaver, I'd change that first thing. If you don't have an old slide show as a screensaver, is there some possibility it is related to an old slide show or just even to an old photo shop picture coming up?

So far I've tested this about three times and it's worked fine. It never worked fine before this. One good part of this for others with the problem is that the software that is messing it up for me is an Apple product - iPhoto. So it is Apple's responsibility to figure out why this is happening and fix it. Not some other company's responsibility.

Good luck. And if this turns out to be your problem too, leave a comment.

The Rogue Wave on Alaska Fishery Woes

I'm more and more impressed with the quality and variety of Alaska bloggers. The Rogue Wave, which has great waterscapes in its header, has a primer on Alaska Fisheries. Get it all at The Rogue Wave. It begins like this.

Catch Shares:
Look Back at Wake Before Plowing Ahead

Catch Share Programs in Alaska

American Fisheries Act

Most Americans are unaware that the biggest fishery on earth, Alaska pollock, is entirely privately owned. It is split between onshore (mostly Japanese owned) and offshore (mostly Norwegian owned) sectors. Japanese owners of onshore facilities petitioned Senator Ted Stevens to assign them the majority of the Total Allowable Catch on the argument it would save American jobs (Although the onshore workforce was, and continues to be, 90% foreign nationals). Offshore interests came to the table and Senator Stevens and his staff acted as facilitators in a negotiation to split the resource between on- and offshore sectors. Senator Stevens was well respected and considered an authority on fish issues. He was able to work around the public process in framing AFA to a large degree, due to a perceived need to save American jobs. [The rest here.]

Ongoing Mac Problems

[Update Oct. 3 - see this later post for what the Snow Leopard problem was for me. Doesn't mean it will work for you, but it seems to have solved my problem.]

My relationship with Stephen at the Apple Help Desk is growing much closer. It's all due to installing Snow Leopard. I have his direct line and his email. My black screen continues to show up. When it was at the MacHaus, they never saw the problem and their hardware diagnostic was negative. After a day at home, it came back.

So, what could it be? I've been trying to isolate factors.
1. It happened after I installed Snow Leopard. It seemed to go fine after Stephen walked me through resetting the parameter ram and the SMC.
2. But after I added Rosetta (I'd left it off when I installed Snow Leopard) it started again.
There's one other factor that I'm pretty sure of:
3. It only seems to go black when I'm plugged into my Mac adapter. I don't think it has gone black when I've worked on battery only. And at the MacHaus, they didn't have my adapter and they never had the problem.
4. It doesn't happen while I'm working on the computer, it happens when I stop for a while - go to get a phone call or do some other errand away from the computer. A few minutes away is enough.

It went black a couple of times yesterday and after I rebooted twice, I decided to leave the cord unplugged except when I needed to recharge the battery, but if I was going to get up I unplugged the cord. Stephen had me reset the SMC and parallel ram again yesterday afternoon, but it went black again. I left a message. (He's in Dallas and it was after he left work.) But I didn't plug it in again and it was good overnight and today. When Stephen called today about 1pm, we reloaded Snow Leopard, but he had me plug into another outlet to see if the outlet was a problem. I went to pick up J and when I got back it was finished installing, and the screen was black and unresponsive.

So I'm battery again now and we'll see. He said if it went down again, he'd send a new power adapter.

Meanwhile I did find out my friend does NOT have lung cancer. Now, that is very good news. And J's back. Also good news.

Making salads for Rosh Hashona dinner with friends.

Black Screen Back so Back to MacHaus

The evil black screen came back last night after almost two days with no problem. As long as I don't leave my computer for more than a couple of minutes, I have no problem, but then it goes black and I have to reboot. Stephen at Apple thinks it might be a hardware malfunction and since it's still under warranty I can take it in to MacHaus and have them do a diagnostic. I did learn that the first call to Apple got me to the first level people and the second call on the same case number got me to a higher level expert who gave me a direct number back to him.

I hope this doesn't take long. Computer stores don't give loaner computers like some car places do when the car's being repaired. Besides, my computer is much more personalized than my car ever was. While I can blog from my wife's computer, all my stuff is on this one. But I do have everything backed up on the external hard drive.

Guests to Airport and Checking Out Consumer World

I took our guests to drop off their rental car. Since they wanted to go to McCarthy in Wrangle-St. Elias National Park, they had to get a local company that allowed driving on the McCarthy road. The look of the place was a refreshing change from the standard airport car rental clones. Even on a rainy morning it was bright and cheery.




Coming back from the airport we often pass this giant furniture store that popped up on this corner a few years ago, but we've never gone in.

Still a little embarrassed by the saggy hide-a-bed couch our guests slept on, I decided to just see what Bailey's has to offer. I haven't looked at furniture in Anchorage for many years. I just remember it being expensive and with a limited selection. I didn't get far on this early Saturday visit before Pam asked if I needed any help, coffee, soft drink, etc. I said I was just looking and she left me alone. Later, I did catch Pam and her trainee, DeLynn 'lying down on the job.'







I wandered into what I thought was a small section. Hah! The Home Theater section is bigger than most Anchorage furniture stores. There I ran into Pam and DeLynn again. It looked like I had to retrace my steps and they came along. It was very low key, I think it was clear I wasn't going to buy anything, but they did want to show me around and make sure I saw the waterfall.







Above the waterfall to the second floor is a large rock wall with various birds and other animals. I'm not much of a big time consumer and this is not the kind of place I spend much time, but since I prod others to go places they haven't gone before, I think I have to take my own advice, so there I was.

Most of the furniture is just not my taste, but I thought the prices were reasonable by Anchorage standards, though I can't judge the quality well. And, if nothing else, on a cold wintry day, this store might be a good place to go walking. You can go up and down the stairs and there's lots of room, plus they give you free coffee.

Somehow I feel compelled to say this is not a paid store ad, it's not even an ad. It's just part of Anchorage and so is fair game for this blog. And Pam and DeLynn were delightful hosts.

Do they have to be good reviews?

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Should I even look? OK, after I wrote that I went and looked. Here's the part that makes me a poor choice. Aside from the fact that I have no idea what a reasonable asking price is.

"You'll receive MUCH MORE Paid Reviews Offers if you choose YES." Of course, because there are a lot of people who don't want readers to know that they are being hustled by the blogger. Well, I promise that won't happen here.

Epiphanous panoply of flavor in liquid-jewel form. Salesfolk Walking The Extra Mile

I got an email the other day that was a step above the normal spam emails. This one had some originality and a touch of honesty that was . . . can't quite find the word. I'll let you judge for yourself. I thought about posting it with a comment on how he was selling his product. But came to my senses.

But then someone gave us some coffee that was also a remarkable example of the creative (in this case I'm not saying creative is a good thing) marketing. I'm still thinking about both. So I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

First the email pitch:

This e-mail is from salve at xxxxx@gmail.com about a cool website they've found. You can see it at www.xxxxxxx.com. This is the message salve sent. Hi Friend, My name is salve, and I'm an IN YOUR FACE MONEY-LOVIN' LUNATIC. You wanna get rich buddy? Listen up ... Good guys finish last. Dead last. Nobody gets rich being nice. You got that? This is a KILL OR BE KILLED world. Got morals? Join a friggin church. I'm happy on the road to hell if I got a backpack full o' cash! I'm about to show you the dirtiest and deadliest ways to make HUGE MONEY online in no time at all, even if you know jack sh!t about computers. Look, this stuff ain't ethical .. it's definitely not nice ... and some of it is just barely legal. But it works. It works fast. And it makes mad money. Who cares about anything else! You're gonna make HUGE MONEY even if you're a complete newbie to selling online. Whether you're an advanced marketer or your kid just showed you how to fire up a computer last week, absolutely anyone can get filthy rich following my STEP-BY-STEP instructions. That's right .. I'm going to hold your hand like a baby learning to walk and show you STEP-BY-STEP how to put these money-making ideas into practice. So how much money am I talking about? I will personally strip naked and EAT MY SHOE and put the video on youtube if you make less than $2900 your first week. I'm dead serious!! Get started IMMEDIATELY before these techniques get spread all over the internet and lose their power! Time really is short on this one! Click here for more info: http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Regards, salve

I like a guy who uses punctuation marks to hide profanity. And then goes on to sell you something unethical and barely legal. Like wearing a suit and tie and speaking polite while he fleeces you. In this down economy I'm sure he has plenty of takers. I didn't even want to try going to the site and didn't want to promote a scheme where I'm sure the only one who might come out ahead is Salve himself. But check youtube for "eat shoe naked."


The Coffee - Someone had a good time here. I guess I'm thinking about the folks who fork over good money for this. A positive spin is that they are rewarding people for going beyond the everyday hype.






OK, this has to be a spoof on snooty wine and coffee connoisseurs. Doesn't it?



Notice that I have ignored the potential Google hit benefits of actually writing the name of the coffee in this post, though as I write this I realize it's on one of the photos.

Name the 8th Continent in the World

[Update Feb 17, 2017: A flurry of hits to this post today alerted me to the announcement of a new continent called Zealandia that was announced by scientists.  From India.com:

". . . if the reports are to be believed, scientists have discovered a new, eighth continent on earth and they are calling it Zealandia. Located to the east of Australia, a team of 11 geologists found 5 million square kilometre land mass which includes part of New Zealand and New Caledonia. At 4.9 million square kilometres, Zealandia is touted to be Earth’s smallest continent with Asia as the largest continent." 

There's also, apparently, a video game app called Eighth Continent.]

An editorial in the NY Times tells us:

Until recently, the earth had seven continents. To that number, humans have added an eighth — an amorphous, floating mass of waste plastic trapped in a gyre of currents in the north Pacific, between Hawaii and Japan. Researchers have estimated that this garbage patch may contain as much as 100 million tons of plastic debris and is perhaps twice the size of Texas, if not larger.

[Map from Mindfully.org via Buffalo Readings]

Well, first try to name the other seven continents (five are on the map if you need help.) Go ahead, write them down. 30 seconds should suffice. This seems pretty basic, but I suspect not everyone can do this. (Well, maybe What Do I Know? readers can :) ) When I double checked at Wikipedia, one had been rechristened since I looked last, but we'll count the old name if that's what you had.

Then, come up with a name for this new continent that the editorial says is

• trapping as many as a million seabirds every year
• trapping some 100,000 marine mammals
• breaking down faster than expected and apparently releasing contaminants, including potentially harmful styrene compounds not normally found in nature.

The trash island isn't a new story, it's the breaking down of the chemicals that brought it up again.

[Trash picture from Cheney's blog at thelaughingplanet. I'm not sure this is really the island.]

Think about this picture every time you're about to buy something packaged in plastic or even made of plastic. Do you need to buy it? If you must and have no non-plastic option, let the store manager and the manufacturer know you'd like an alternative.

Wild Alaska salmon anyone? This is all happening in the north Pacific. But there's enough for the rest of the world too, so don't worry. Bring on Pebble and we can have even more unique flavors in our fish.

So, what should this new continent be called? According to Buffalo Readings, it already had various names two years ago such as:

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• North Pacific Gyre
• Eastern Garbage Patch
• Pacific Trash Vortex

But none of these seem to have the gravitas needed for a continent.

Record your nomination here so you can document that you thought of it first.

Preparing for Summer Visitors

When I had sabbatical in 2003-2004 we rented our house and made one downstairs room into a storage room for a lot of our stuff. It never completely reverted back into a real room and it was still a storage room when we had house sitters while we were in Thailand earlier this year.



But the son of a good friend and colleague from Beijing will be visiting us for a month beginning Wednesday. Thursday both our daughter and son will arrive, one for two weeks and one for the weekend. We have some birthdays on Friday. And a week later my college roommate and his wife will stop by for two days before they cruise back home. All good fun. So the long slow rehabilitation of that downstairs room has been speeded up.



At this point, I could just put all the miscellaneous stuff into boxes and sort them out later, but we've been postponing the inevitable too long. My mother's garage is a model of what I don't want to do. So I've been going through stuff that's accumulated and putting things where they belong, in the trash, or in a donate box.

Eventually I want to clear the room out completely and make it into more usable space, but for now it will hold a mattress on the floor for the weekend. And maybe while the kids are here, they will find some things that they are now ready to take, trash, or give away.

Dog Cabins For Sale

Passed this place on my run yesterday.
(for those of you outside of Anchorage, add area code 907.)

Headed to SF to Visit J1 - Alaska Airline Pricing Joke

Sorry, this screen shot looks so bad. You can double click it to see it clearly.



OK, so I made a last minute reservation. $656 one way to San Francisco. Steep. I check how much it would be in mileage.

12,500 miles. And $2.50 security fee. OK, that's fine. I book it. But look in the red circle. Alaska is kind enough to show me some alternative pay options.

• $656 cash.
  
• If I want to use cash AND mileage I can go with:
  $527 plus 7,500 miles or
  $398 plus 15,000 miles

Why would they offer me that last choice if I'm already getting the ticket for
$2.50 and 12,500 miles? I wonder if anyone ever takes that choice.

Alaskan Made Dehydrated Beer?

[UPDATE:  September 9, 2013:   I'm fixing the old link on the image which doesn't work any more.  Here's an August 14, 2013 post on their site:

CARBONATOR
Availible now. Visit our online store to order yours today! You can also find a store near you through our store locator page.
SODA
Being sold now through our online store. You can also find a store near you through our store locator page.
BEER
We finally have our labeling approval from the Feds!  Packaging has been ordered, and beer is under production. Boo Ya! Check us out on Facebook to get a sneak peak of what the packets will look like."

Here's where the original post began a few years ago:]

At the Alaska Apple User Group meeting tonight at Loussac, there was a presentation by a website designer. Amongst the sites he's designed is one called Pat's Backcountry Beer.Click on the screenshot to go to the website.

I'm not sure it's exactly dehydrated.

Unlike other concentrate processes, we do not just make the beer and then "remove" the water afterwards (which is extremely energy inefficient). Instead, our process (patent pending) allows us to start with almost no water, and carefully control the environment of the fermentation. The result... concentrated beer with all the same great taste you're used to in a premium micro brew. All you do is add water, carbonate

And they haven't quite worked everything out:

We are in the late stages of perfecting our first (of many) commercial production beer concentrate recipes. We are refining it to our (patent pending) brewing technology, for maximum concentration, and maximum delicious goodness. This one is going to blow you away! Others have cautioned us to start with a beer of neutral ground character, but in the spirit of the Alaskan frontier and backcountry adventurer... we're coming out big and bold with this monster. We're sure you'll love it so much that we're guessing a few of you will be setting your tents up in the backyard just to make an excuse to indulge!

04.11.09

Wow! We knew there would be interest in a beer for the backcountry, but the enthusiastic response to our vision has overwhelmed us. Spring has sprung, but, unfortunately, we are not yet ready to outfit your outdoor adventures with Pat's Backcountry Beer. We are aggressively moving our business forward, and our goal remains to get Pat's into your hands as soon as possible. We've recently upgraded our equipment, and we continue to move forward through the elaborate licensing and permitting process. Thank you for your interest and patience.

Pat

Has no one ever dehydrated beer before? Will it really be someone from Talkeetna who makes this work first? I started googling. There does seem to be an interest in something like this. Here are a few references to dehydrated beer I found.

Troop 655 claims a dehydrated non-alcoholic drink for camping:

Subject: At last! Dehydrated beer
Taken verbatim from today's San Jose Mercury-News: CONSUMER CORNER

Packaged Beer Lightens The Load PRODUCT: South Hills dehydrated beer.

DESCRIPTION: A beer-flavored, non-alcoholic, carbonated, dry beverage made with maltodextrine, natural and artificial beer and malt flavors, dried beer, and corn syrup solids. It's packaged in5-ounce (150g) packet that must be mixed with 8 fluid ounces (250ml) of cold water for drinking.

PRO: It has a refreshing taste, though a bit sweet, and is best when mixed with extremely cold water. Its taste is remarkably similar to beers produced by micro-breweries. It's a quick source of liquid carbohydrates, and it's easy and light to pack and mix.

CON: The instructions say to wait for the head to subside after mixing, but that takes better than 5 minutes... In very cold water the mix clumps up unless you add water slowly and stir constantly.

COMMENTS: Although it doesn't compare to a fine lager, it suffices quite nicely when your taste buds crave a cold one in the backcountry and you don't fancy carrying a six-pack. The manufacturer mentions one can add clear grain alcohol or vodka to achieve an alcoholic beer.

SUGGESTED RETAIL: $5.95 for 6 packets.

The World Intellectual Property Organization lists a description of a method for dehydrating alcoholic beverages. Here's the summary section.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a novel method for producing a dry reconstitutable alcoholic beverage wherein the alcoholic beverage is separated into a volatile fraction (the alcohol and other volatiles) and a non-volatile (water-soluble) fraction; the volatile fraction is reacted with a

hydrolyzed starch compound, such as a maltodextrin of specific molecular weight, to yield a volatile powder, and the non-volatile fraction is dried to yield a dry water-soluble powder. The dry powders can be pressed into tablets and/or packaged separately or in combination for later reconstitution.

The alcoholic beverage is reconstituted by mixing the volatile powder and the water-soluble powder with water and carbonating. The reconstituted beverage can be carbonated by addition of CO2 and water, by addition of soda water at about 0° to 15°C or by addition of citric acid, Na2Cθ3 and water. The final concentration of alcohol, the taste, and the extent of carbonation can be varied as desired by varying the relative ratio of volatile to non¬ volatile powders, the type and quantity of hydrolyzed starch compound and the method of carbonation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Any type of alcoholic beverage, or alcohol, may be dehydrated and reconstituted according to the present invention. Specific examples of alcoholic beverages are beer, wine, wine beverages and spirits. Ethanol can also be dehydrated according to the present process for use in a variety of applications. In one embodiment of the present process, drying and reconstituting beer, the beer is first degassed at room temperature to remove the carbon dioxide contained in the beverage. The product obtained from fermentation prior to carbonation may also be used directly. [Link here for the complete information]


Students at Purdue University have come up with freeze-dried beer spice.

May 20, 2002

Note to journalists: A publication-quality photograph of the students with the freeze-dried beer is available at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/okos.beer.jpeg. Michelle Kelly and Luke Meyers graduated May 11 and are available via e-mail only.

PURDUE STUDENTS BREW UP IDEA FOR FREEZE-DRIED BEER SPICE

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ‹ For those who can't get enough of the flavor of beer, two Purdue University students have just the thing: beer spice.

The non-alcoholic, freeze-dried beer isn't intended to make instant beer as simply as instant tea, but rather as an ingredient in foods.

"It could be used for dips, sauces, in breads or batters, or sprinkled on popcorn or potato chips," says co-developer Michelle Kelly.

Kelly, of Westerfield, Ohio, and Luke Meyers, of Fort Wayne, Ind., both 2002 spring graduates, developed the product as their senior research project for the class Agricultural and Biological Engineering 556: "Food Plant Design and Economics."

The course is taught by Martin Okos, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, who says the class is meant to be the capstone experience for students in the food process engineering program.

"The senior project gives the students a chance to bring together all of the things they've learned in their classes here," Okos says. "I tell the students to act as if I were their manager and I asked them to come up with a new product. Then they take it all the way from the concept to actually developing the final product and the process to manufacture it."

Freeze-dried beer has been developed before for non-commercial uses, but this is thought to be the first freeze-dried beer developed as a spice. [link for the rest of the letter.]

Someone has bought the domain name dehydrated beer, though it doesn't look too serious. Maybe they hope someone else is and will want the domain name.

Welcome to DehydratedBeer.com - - The future home of Dehydrated Beer

(Dehydrated Beer is "master crafted" using only genuine dehydrated water)

Backpacking Light has a story about a dehydrated alcoholic drink:

dehydrated beer... almost on 06/06/2007 07:52:36 MDT Print View

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors.

The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gram packets that cost €1-1.5 ($1.35-$2).

Top it up with water and you have a bubbly, lime-colored and -flavored drink with just 3 percent alcohol content.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/06/powdered.booze.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest (I couldn't get the link to work)

efestivals seems to have a spoof on the idea:

Hi people,
We think we have perfected a way to dehydrate beer. We have pills that are equivalent to 4 cans of mediocre strength beer. If people are interested in this product please let us know. It would remove the chore of carrying a case of weighty cans into a festival site. Also ecologically sound as there is no waste produced, cans, bottles etc... All that is required is 1 litre of water to rehydrate the tablet in the stomach. The product is being marketed under the brand name " Larrup". Please let us know what you think.
Peace ... Mongabus

Let's see if Pat can pull this off.

Business of Clean Energy in Alaska Conference 2

1:30-3:00pm
Industry Perspectives: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Capital Investments
A look at the capital market for the EE/RE sectors. panel will include industry and investment experts. Panelists will discuss how policy incentives impact their business decisions.

• Moderator: Justin Klure Pacific Energy Ventures

• 
  Ed Feo Partner, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, LLP, Los Angeles CA
• Alan Kirn Director-Renewable Energy Solutions, Johnson Controls, Inc, St. Louis MO
• Dorthe Nielsen Manager of Government Relations, Vestas-American Wind Technology, Inc, Portland OR

Dorthe is reading her company's commercial. Very disappointing after two info rich presentation. But she will have succeeded in making people aware of wind company Vestas.

But my impression from the earlier panel was reinforced by the first two speakers. The first, an attorney, talked about the radically changing financial market and incentives that support energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and cleaning the environment. The model, according to his talk, is definitely changing toward green, in fact has changed.

The second speaker, from Johnson controls, also emphasizes how fast things have changed in just the last year. "I've never seen as much change as in the last year." He went on to talk about things like how decision making on projects used to be 90% based on economics, and now often more than 50% of the decision making criteria relate to social and environmental impacts.



Alan Kirn had this slide showing Alaska to be the be the highest energy using state per capita in the US. But a questioner at the end pointed out that the oil production on the North Slope had a lot to do with that level of consumption yet that oil isn't for Alaska's consumption, but everyone else's. He also said that our high carbon production was associated with all the cargo jets that merely stop here to supply others in the world.

It would be interesting to separate that out and to see how much Alaskans consume in a more appropriate comparison to other states.

[Click on pictures to enlarge.]

And Kirn also offered this slide suggesting ways Alaska could improve its record.

If it wasn't clear before, it is now, that our Governor is so lacking in understanding of these issues. I don't know where she is today (for all I know she opened the meeting when I wasn't here). But it's a shame she hasn't been here listening.