Potential breakthrough in creation of renewable oil receiving too little attention?

WorldNetDaily has published a story about a new process that, if it's economically viable, would use bacteria to break down organic matter like grass clippings and wood chips and convert it into cheap hydrocarbons: the basis of gasoline and diesel fuel. Which would mean a renewable supply of oil for the first time in human history. The guy who came up with the process has calculated that from 2 billion tons of biomass, 5 billion barrels of oil could be made each year.

Based on what I've read about it, it makes plenty of sense. Consider that this organic material received its energy from the Sun to begin with. Why just let it rot and waste when it could be recycled... and without any deleterious impact on the environment that comes from drilling, as alleged by some. Ecologically and economically, it's a bank shot if it works.

But the proponents of the plan are now claiming that there is a veritable conspiracy at work to prevent news of their discovery from getting out. The national "mainstream" news media is refusing to touch the story... which in the minds of too many Americans means that the story isn't happening at all, even if it were to wind up being amazingly true.

So we might have a way to produce our own oil, and kiss OPEC goodbye... but there may be some who don't want word of this to get out? Not even to the people who may soon be paying $4 a gallon for gas by the end of summer?

Here's that link again. Feel free to read it and judge for yourself.

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DOCTOR WHO meets THE DUKES OF HAZZARD

With the new season of Doctor Who now airing on the BBC (and very soon here in America on the Sci-Fi Channel, thanks for the tip Geoff!) a lot of fans are celebrating the return of the Doctor. Here's what one clever chap did: mashing up footage of both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant as the Doctor from the revived series, with Waylon Jennings' classic theme song from The Dukes of Hazzard...

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WARNING: This post about the government contains the mother of all swear words... and it's about time

The federal government will soon be taking DNA samples from EVERYONE that it arrests.

It took almost five years, but the dam has finally burst on this blog.

If you have any small children reading this blog, now would be a good time to escort them away from the monitor. Because I'm about to use a word that until now, I've never, ever used of my own volition here. Why am I going to do this? Because I know of no other way to express the anger that I'm feeling right now at how out of control this government has become, and I really don't give a damn any more about "polite society". If I use this word, God won't hold it against me. But He might have something to say if I stand before Him someday, unable to tell Him that I did whatever I could in the time that was given me.

So here it goes...

Lisa and I have been watching HBO's John Adams miniseries. We watched the episode where the Founders negotiated and signed the Declaration of Independence. Afterward I went back and read the Declaration, as I have many times before, and not for the first time found myself wondering: "Why don't people ever think and speak this way anymore?"

I've hoped and prayed, for a long time, that this country might return to the vision of the Founding Fathers. But I don't see it happening. Instead I see a government that is so wildly removed from anything the Founders intended, seizing more power unto itself and running roughshod over the people it's supposed to be serving. Is supposed to be an extension of, even. But it's not. This is now government for sake of government, and I know of nothing else throughout history that has had more potential for great evil.

And now this government has brazenly declared that it will violate our privacy to the utmost, by seizing without due process not only our rights but the tangible material endowed to us by our Creator.

Not surprisingly, the Bush Administration and the Department of Homeland Security are eager to do this.

Perhaps less surprisingly, there are too few good men and women left who seem able to stand and resist.

So let me be succinct: America, is fucked.

This is no longer the country that John Adams, George Washington and too many other good people fought and sacrificed for and even died for.

The idea of that America, warts and all, I'm still going to be loyal to until the day I leave this world. But I will not be loyal to this current government, which is founded in no virtue apart from its willingness to bear might against its own people.

In a sane world, any agent of the federal government that tries to swab the mouth of a citizen under such frivolous circumstances would be shot dead before they can reach for the Q-tip.

You want to know what I really think about what this country is turning into, and about damned too many of the politicians that are destroying her?

Here's what I think:

God bless the Constitution of the United States of America and the people for whom it was intended to serve, and GOD DAMN the enemies of the Constitution either foreign or DOMESTIC!

And anyone who believes this government is right to violate those principles, can kiss my ass and go to Hell.

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This is NOT Scarlett!

Somebody doing marketing/promotional work for the upcoming G.I. Joe movie has screwed-up bigtime. Because this cannot possibly be what Scarlett is going to look like...

That's so much black Spandex, how can there be any left over to use on the Baroness? She's got the cute ponytail and crossbow (which are iconic to the character) but this outfit is all wrong. I was really looking forward to the original, classic Scarlett getup: the tan and gray one, which would have been a great contrast to Snake-Eyes... which if you know anything about those two characters would have been very fitting.

I just don't like it. But I'll be willing to overlook this, if the designs for Destro and Zartan end up looking sweet.

Oh yeah, and Scarlett needs to speak with a Georgia accent in the movie.

Credit goes to JoBlo.com for the otherwise great find :-)

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Just beat Gears of War

And in case anyone's wondering, it was in Casual mode. I might try Hardcore next. And since I never got far in Doom on Nightmare mode, I doubt I'll ever survive Insane on this game :-P

I've had Gears of War for the Xbox 360 since late January, and had to re-start several times because stuff kept coming up and with a video game narrative like Gears of War, I like to play it through with a sense of uninterrupted story.

This was one of the best video games I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Gears of War, along with Halo and BioShock (which I've also been playing and will review shortly) represents an exciting future for storytelling: a deep, immersive plot that pulls the player in and makes him or her honestly believe that this is a living, breathing world they are interacting with.

Anyhoo, I had some time this afternoon in-between projects, and decided to have another go at taking out General RAAM: something that's eluded me for two days now. The strategy that finally worked for me against that black-clad freak: use the barricade for cover, stay in the light so that the Kryll won't bother you (I also had to duck when they approached 'cuz otherwise they chew me to shreds) and hit RAAM with the Torque Bow to dissipate the cloud of Kryll that surrounds him. Then quickly switch to the Lancer, aim for RAAM's head and do well-timed Active Reloads whenever possible. With that strategy I was finally able to kill RAAM in about a minute, without taking serious injury or having Dominic hurt too much either. Ironically it was a hit from the Torque Bow - which I was only using to shoo the Kryll away - that delivered the coup de grâce to RAAM.

Now it's just a wait 'til November, when Gears of War 2 comes out and continues the story of Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta Squad in their fight against the Locust. One thing this saga needs that I would have appreciated: some more back-story. Especially for the planet Sera. My theory is that this was a bare-bones colony from Earth that was dropped onto the surface, and in this fictional universe starship travel is a hard premium. So there's not much contact with other human worlds and those on Sera have to fend for themselves, but they've also been able to reach a level of culture and technology on their own that approximates that of 21st Century Earth. And the Locust Horde? Right now I'm thinking those are humans that got exiled early on in Sera's colonization, that "went native" and hooked up with the local wildlife and now years later are back for revenge. Maybe we'll find out more in the sequel.

Worth noting that Gears of War is pretty much a product of the Tarheel State, having been made by Epic Games out of Cary, North Carolina.

Very, very cool game. And a beautiful thing to behold on a 42-inch LCD high-definition screen at maximum resolution :-)

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The Knight Shift officially endorses Eric H. Smith for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction

Longtime readers know already that I'm very hesitant to hand out endorsements of candidates. Someone running for office has to sincerely persuade me that he or she is the right man for the job.

In this case, that wasn't a hard thing at all...

As of today, I'm announcing that The Knight Shift blog is officially endorsing Eric H. Smith in the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state of North Carolina.

Smith is running as a Republican candidate in the North Carolina primary on May 6.

For disclosure's sake, I am compelled to notify my readers that in addition to my support of Eric in this way, I am also the treasurer of the Smith For NC Kids campaign committee. That's already been public record ever since Eric filed the paperwork to run. Eric offered me the position when he first considered "throwing his hat into the ring", and I accepted. Not just because I'm honored to have him as a friend but also because I earnestly agree with his philosophy regarding education.

In short: Eric believes that parents - and not bureaucrats - are the ones who most fully understand the best interests of their own children. And he believes that parents not only have the right to determine where their children go to school at in public education systems, but they also fully have the right to not participate in public education at all. In that regard, he is perhaps the most outspoken advocate for the rights of home schoolers that I have ever seen run for office at this level.

Eric believes in rooting out the corruption that we've seen in Raleigh and ending the wasteful spending at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Eric has also been a very vocal critic of No Child Left Behind and the failed ABC Accountability System.

And though it doesn't seem to be an "education" issue per se, Eric is strongly against illegal immigration. To the point that he does not believe that our tax money should be funding the education of illegal aliens. Free public education is part of the "honey pot" that is luring so many to enter this country illegally. If states begin denying publicly-funded education to those who are not eligible for it to begin with, it will be that much more incentive denied to those looking for a reason to come across our border illegally.

By the way, in addition to being treasurer of his committee, Eric has also asked if I will produce the television commercials for his campaign. So I'll be doing that for him, too. Remember those commercials we did when we ran for Rockingham County Board of Education that wound up mentioned by The New York Times and a lot of other media outlets? There's more stuff like that coming soon, and this time they'll be broadcast from Manteo to Murphy! They will be serious ads, and will explore these and other themes of Eric's educational beliefs... but I can also guarantee that they will be a bit entertaining, hopefully memorable. Maybe even downright controversial (hey, I'm the guy who blew up a schoolhouse to run for school board, remember?).

This is something I wanted to do a few weeks back, then decided I'd just wait 'til we were closer to the May primary and also "work in" the announcement into the new blog design that I'm now finding time to work on. I am proud to be able to say that I am giving Eric my complete support in his run, and I've no doubt that he will be a very strong and proactive superintendent for North Carolina's school system.

There is already a website for Eric H. Smith's campaign, but it is currently being redesigned (again for disclosure's sake, that is something that I am not working on and it's been contracted to another firm). There is more coming to is very soon but in the meantime you can discover more about Eric's thoughts on education. If you are a believer in smaller government, I believe there is much you will find about Eric that will have a lot of appeal for you.

If you would like to make a contribution to Eric's campaign, please follow the directions listed here on Eric's campaign website. Because of recent changes to campaign laws, the Superintendent of Public Instruction position is one of two that can not accept online contributions. All donations must be in the form of a hard-copy check.

From this point on I'll be posting regular reports about Eric's campaign, and will strive to keep everyone posted as to what's going on.

And I gotta admit: being treasurer of a state-wide political campaign, and getting to make TV commercials for it, is a pretty cool thing to feel good about :-)

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German schoolboy corrects NASA's math on killer asteroid odds

A 13-year old schoolboy named Nico Marquardt has found errors in NASA's calculations about the Apophis asteroid. And NASA has conceded that the lad from Berlin, Germany is correct. Marquardt found that that Earth now stands a much higher chance of getting hit by Apophis than originally determined by NASA. How much was the multi-billion dollar space agency off by? It said that the odds of a collision with Apophis were 1 in 45,000. After Marquardt's "peer review", it now turns out that the odds are 1 in 450.

I have to tip my hat to Marquardt. Math was never my big thing, and I tried to calculate the physics of astronomical objects during a class at Elon and didn't do too well either. He's probably got a bright future ahead of him... provided that we don't get hit by any big space rocks anytime soon :-)

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High school students to get $100 for every AP exam passed

Students at Wilby High School in Waterbury, Connecticut have a chance to clean up: for each Advanced Placement exam that they pass, the school will pay them $100. It's part of a plan to increase participation in the school's AP programs.

For what it's worth: I've never liked "incentive programs" like this. For years school administrators across the country have been attempting to "bribe" students to study harder and make better grades: offering them money, high-tech toys and even cars in return. But there's never been any evidence that stunts like this actually work to increase scholarship in the long run. And it smacks too much of slapping the proverbial Band-Aid on the festering wound that is so much of what's wrong with modern public education without addressing the real problems.

But mostly, I guess it bothers me that education for its own sake is something that is no longer treasured in this country, so schools have to "seduce with candy" in order to get students motivated to learn. As if the whole point of having an education is to have an asset toward more material gain. Whatever happened to thinking and understanding of things, solely for the joy of such thought and understanding?

Still though, if I was a student at this high school, how could I complain? Passing a few AP tests would let me buy a bunch of good loot. Or maybe gas for my car for a few days...

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Is it a police state NOW?

How in the world does a sheriff's department in a mostly-rural west Texas county justify having in its possession an armored personnel carrier?

This was a picture taken during the raid a few weeks ago on the property of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I know there have been some serious allegations regarding this religious group. And hopefully this will be looked into with all proper due process. But think about it: all of this happened because of one anonymous phone call. That was enough to send more military-grade hardware descending on the place than is usually seen escorting Vice President Cheney on an excursion through the green zone.

It just lends itself toward making you wonder: how long has the Midland County Sheriff's Department staff had such equipment, and why did they believe they needed it to begin with?

And how many other law enforcement agencies throughout America are lusting after such toys, if they don't have them already?

I'm starting to believe that nobody should be allowed to enter into a career as a peace officer (that's what I'm calling them) until they're at least 30 years old. That's long enough to experience the world as it really is, to get knocked around some and be humbled by it. And then, go into this as a career in public service, having resolved to be someone who rises above the way the world expects to work.

'Cuz otherwise, there are too many guys out there who've been given too much power and not nearly enough discipline to know not only how to use it, but how not to use it, too. Pictures like this one are a tangible reminder of that.

And God help us if enough of these people ever get too carried away with the firepower they've been given.

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New DOCTOR WHO season burns bright with "The Fires of Pompeii"

"Me no speak Celtic."

"We're in Pompeii... and it's Volcano Day!"

"I am... Spartacus."

"You fought her off, with a water pistol! I bloody love you!"

"Because that's how I see the universe. Every waking second I can see what is, what was, what could be, what must not. It's the burden of the Time Lord, Donna. And I'm the only one left."

"We'd better hurry. Rocky IV's right behind us."

"I can never go back. I can't! I just can't!"

Season 4 (or is it 30?) of Doctor Who had the premiere of it second episode on the BBC this past weekend. So like usual I nabbed a high-quality bootleg off the 'net. 'Cuz I'm a big enough Doctor Who fan to not want to wait for when Sci-Fi Channel begins running it later this summer.

I raved last week about the season opener "Partners in Crime". This past weekend's "The Fires of Pompeii" is not only just as strong, it is surprisingly better. Indeed, "The Fires of Pompeii" boasts one of the strongest stories of the show's revived run, as well as some of the best computer-rendered effects we've seen to date. That the episode was also filmed on sets left over from HBO's epic series Rome certainly doesn't hurt things, either...

As "The Fires of Pompeii" begins, The Doctor wants to show Donna the city of Rome at the height of its imperial splendor. Die-hard Doctor Who geeks will no doubt enjoy the humor that comes from the Doctor explaining the translation circuit of the TARDIS (which is why Donna is reading and hearing Latin but is interpreting it as English). But not long after arriving they discover something very amiss: namely, that instead of seven hills "Rome" has only one. And it's smoking. The ground shakes. And the Doctor realizes: they have landed in Pompeii instead, on the 23rd of August in 79 A.D., the day before Vesuvius erupts and buries the city in ash and lava.

Of course, this being an episode of Doctor Who, there are more sinister forces at work in the doomed town that the Doctor finds himself having to counter.

Some of the acting (especially from the Roman characters) in this episode is way too hammy, even for Doctor Who. But other than that, "The Fires of Pompeii" is a solid entry in the mythology. I've always thought that the best Doctor Who episodes are the ones that find the Doctor's alien nature conflicting with his own conscience, and that of his human companions. So it is with "The Fires of Pompeii": Donna wants the Doctor to do something, anything, to save these people. And the Doctor argues with her that it's not only something he can't help, it's something he shouldn't help. And later on in the episode we get a much fuller sense of the burden that comes with being the Doctor, as he weighs saving twenty thousand lives against saving millions still to come.

David Tennant delights again as the Doctor in this episode, and Catherine Tate as Donna continues to impress. I'll give "The Fires of Pompeii" 4 Sonic Screwdrivers out of 5.

Next week: the Ood - those tentacle-faced guys from the acclaimed two-part story in Season 2 - return.

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It's 5:18 p.m. EST on April 15th ...

Have you finished your annual tribute to the Almighty Government yet, fellow serf?

The income tax is at once the most evil and the most accepted form of slavery of modern times. Has anyone ever stopped to think about how much free time that the federal government demands of us, that could otherwise be used productively, as we the people see fit?

Instead we try to earn more to get things that we don't really need, and to pay more and more taxes to a government that can't cut its own wasteful spending.

Why the Hell should my money go to subsidize an illegal alien's welfare, or that of some unwed kid who gets pregnant multiple times without bothering to find a job to support them on her own? I'm trying to make my own destiny, dammit... and not I or anyone else can be free to do that with these damned leeches sucking off the sweat of our own labor.

America will not be a prosperous country again until we have eliminated the income tax, utterly destroyed the Internal Revenue Service, and reign-in our wasteful expenditures. That, and finally free individuals to live the lives they want to live, without expecting that they somehow "owe" this government for the right to pursue their own happiness.

That's partly why I'm not voting for any of the "front runners" for President. Because none of them possess the wisdom to understand any of this.

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Ollie Johnston, last of Disney's Nine Old Men, has passed away

This is the second post in a row that I've had to make about the death of someone. I hope this won't be a trend :-(

Now word is coming out that Ollie Johnston, legendary animator and the last surviving member of the Nine Old Men - Walt Disney's stable of talent that created most of the company's best-known films and made Disney an enduring entertainment powerhouse - has passed away at 96.

Remember Thumper in Bambi going on about eating his vegetables? That was Ollie Johnston. Remember Baloo dancing with Mowgli in The Jungle Book? That was Ollie Johnston, too.

And Lady and Tramp eating spaghetti? Yup, Ollie Johnston's handiwork. The guy knew how to make pencil-drawn characters connect with each other. It's one of the things that makes a Disney movie, a Disney movie. And Johnston along with the rest of the Nine Old Men (who weren't old at all, they were in their thirties and forties but Walt Disney thought of them as his own private Supreme Court at the time) found how to make it work.

He worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Cinderella, and many more. His last animated work was for The Rescuers and he did a bit for The Fox and the Hound, too.

And I'm really sad today, because we've already had John A. Wheeler leave us, and now Ollie Johnston. Two great men of their time, who in their own way each made contributions for all time, to all the generations that will follow.

There is immortality, my friends.

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John A. Wheeler has passed away

John Archibald Wheeler, one of the pioneers of nuclear fission and quantum mechanics - and also the man who came up with the terms "black hole" and "wormhole" - has passed away at 96.

Wheeler received early fame when he assisted Albert Einstein and Neils Bohr with the process of splitting uranium atoms to create controlled fission. After World War II he devoted much of his time toward the study of Einsteinian gravity, and helped to popularize the theory of general relativity. And it was while pondering some of the apparently self-violating principles of relativity that Wheeler was the first to come up with not only a possible solution, but one of the most mind-blowing concepts of the Twentieth Century: the black hole.

Later on Wheeler became just as famous for his work on quantum physics, and his theories eventually led to the "many worlds" hypothesis and quantum foam, often called "Wheeler foam".

He was the last of the first generation of modern physicists. And a man well worthy of honor and remembrance here.

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J.K. Rowling testifies in court against Harry Potter Lexicon webmaster

I've been so busy with other things, I didn't catch at all that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is suing the webmaster of a popular website based on her books. For the past several years Steven Vander Ark has run The Harry Potter Lexicon, an "online encyclopedia" of sorts devoted to the Harry Potter novels. Which otherwise wouldn't be a problem: for fans to pay homage to such an acclaimed property is something the Internet has long been used to.

Except that Vander Ark has been set to publish - as in "printed volumes" - his website as a hard-copy edition to sell for personal profit.

Big no-no there, Steve. And you and your publishing company should have known better.

So now Rowling is suing Vander Ark and RDR Books for copyright infringement. I don't blame her. Vader Ark's website is a nice, succinct resource for Harry Potter facts. But it's almost entirely stuff that's lifted verbatim from Rowling's books, without further elaboration or speculation. And Rowling has already planned to write her own definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia: one that will further "flesh out" the Harry Potter saga and the sales of which Rowling has stated will be donated to charity.

Here's the link to the story again. Worth checking out if you're a Potter fan and want to chuckle at some of the courtroom wit inspired by the books.

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"Not On The Test": Music video attacks No Child Left Behind

To all the deluded saps still out there (including this guy) who somehow seriously believe that No Child Left Behind helps education, you'd better pay attention to this one. Tom Chapin brilliantly illustrates what's wrong with George W. Bush's education mandate with his song "Not On The Test". Here's the video...

And here's the official website for "Not On The Test", where you can watch the video, and if you like you can download both an MP3 of the song and the video in Quicktime format.

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Lizard Man Attacks Bishopville!

Doesn't this title sound soooo much like that of a Troma film?

Almost exactly 20 years since his last appearance, the Lizard Man (which may or may not resemble Stretch Monster, seen on the left) has been spotted again near Bishopville, South Carolina.

Beginning in the summer of 1988, there came a flurry of reports from the Scape Ore Swamp area near Bishopville in Lee County of a mystery monster. It was said to be humanoid, standing upright, with scaly green skin and red eyes. The Lee County Sheriff's Department wound up going out into the swamp and came back with plaster casts of tracks made by a three-toed creature that according to the South Carolina Marine Resources Department, did not match those of any known species of animal.

Needless to say, the Lizard Man story became a media sensation that brought television news crews and newspaper reporters from around the world descending on Bishopville. One of its local radio stations offered a $1 million reward for anyone who could capture the creature alive. There was even a song that came out about the Lizard Man.

And then it pulled a Keyser Soze and "like that, he's gone." After only a month of reputable Lizard Man sightings, the thing disappeared. There was one account of it being spotted soon afterward, but that later turned out to have been a hoax.

But now in 2008, Lizard Man has returned, acording to MyrtleBeachOnline.com. It's destroyed part of a couple's van, and this time it's left more tracks and blood. A California-based Bigfoot hunter is saying there's no question in his mind: Lizard Man is back!

As always, this blog will be on the lookout for further developments in this... matter, and relay them to you.

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"Shocking" Ledger scene to remain in THE DARK KNIGHT

Before I go into the main topic of this post, I've just got to say that this...

...even without knowing any of the context, is already the most disturbing image I've ever seen connected to a comic book movie.

The word came out last week that The Dark Knight, the follow-up to 2005's hit Batman Begins, has started screening to test audiences. And there's one scene in there that's extremely upsetting in the wake of the death of Heath Ledger, who plays Batman's nemesis the Joker in the film. Apparently the scene involves (SPOILER: highlight with mouse to read) the Joker "playing dead" and laying in a body bag (END SPOILER). The scene in question is reportedly so disturbing to watch, that Warner execs had seriously been considering having it cut from the final movie entirely. It's now being reported by Moviehole.net that Ledger's scene will be kept intact. And I'm hearing from a few other places that Christopher Nolan has "every intention" of not removing anything planned for what sadly became Ledger's final finished film.

If this does wind up bothering some people, I can only say: folks, it's just a character in a movie. That's all. And no doubt that Ledger went in and gave it all the effort that this role demands, to the utmost of his professional ability. But when that scene happens, remember: it's the Joker. That's going to be no more Heath Ledger himself in that scene than it was George Burns in Oh, God! instead of the Almighty.

Let's just watch The Dark Knight and remember the fine actor he already was, and be in awe at the dedication he poured into this performance.

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