BMN Crude Awakening, Media & projects, register outfitnm.com

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter - Est. 1999

February 4th 2008

Good morning

Around here this weekend, things were a little different.  Although Saturday neither of us changed out of our pajamas which is par for the course. Adam, Austin and I electronically pooled our energies to work on http://outfitnm.com. Using Group Chat in Google we were able to modify pages according to group consensus. I created a new section on the site called Media & Projects and Austin uploaded a couple of new Adobe Flash movies. It looks like with the improvements Adam added to the site we can now easily add http://youtube.com style movies to any page. Now that I think about it, I have no idea how to create a youtube movie with Adobe Flash. Well perhaps Adam will give us a tutorial. Or, maybe I'll break down and look it up for myself. This is exactly what I did to get the first Adobe Flash animation on the site. Once you get the hang of how to search for what you want to know, the Internet does have the answers.

So the site is coming along. I hope you continue to visit and post messages on the forums. I tried to create categories you will find inspiring to post under. The user base has leveled off at 58 users. This is pretty good considering there are 125 addresses on my mailing list. So if you are reading this newsletter and you haven't registered at http://outfitnm.com please do so.

Nell and I went to a Super Bowl party yesterday; kind of an office party since most of the people work with Nell at the doctors office. The party was on the golf course at Penderais Village, and I mean the house is right in the middle of the golf course. That was pretty cool, but the game was completely boring, at least for me. I've never cared for sports, and professional football is on the top of my list of things to miss. Nell at least likes to watch the commercials. I hope she got something out of it, I didn't. It is widely known that commercial time costs millions of dollars for a half of a minute. My argument is the commercial ought to be valued somewhere near the cost to air it. We have a saying here at Las Tusas Ranch, "Dig a $20 hole for a $20 tree." Nevertheless we saw Dodge allegedly swing a pickup truck from a centrifuge. Even after every other advertising company already proved that you can't believe what you see on TV, i.e. dancing lizards and a dog training a Clydesdale. Now we should take their animation of a spinning truck as proof that a strong bumper is more important than fuel efficiency? Alrighty then. Well I think it was the same company that later ran a flashy spot about a tonka toy looking SUV hybrid that now gets 50% better fuel mileage. They still can't say it, can they? 50% Better Than What? 8 miles to the gallon!!! When are these people going to wake up?

That of course is a rhetorical question. We all know when they will wake up. We'll have to pry the SUV car keys from their cold dead hands. We watched a documentary called, "A Crude Awakening" this weekend. We saw much of the same stuff I have been saying for three years. Nice though, to hear some validation. In the movie the consensus is Peak oil has already happened, period. Demand for oil is increasing while supply has peaked. What do you think is going to happen? When do you think it'll happen? Are you prepared? Are your family members prepared? Do you have any idea how much of our lives are dependent on fossil fuel?

China and India as well as many of the people of this planet want what America and Europe have had for decades: A happy motoring society. They gave some numbers, which I can't recall, but the numbers concerned China and India. When these two countries populations are counted, very predictable results occur. Let's say we as god fearing Americans prodded by insane commercials like we saw on the Super Bowl went out today and bought the biggest and baddest SUV credit will buy, we couldn't hold a candle to what China can do if they continue to buy cars like the current trends show. Hell no. We are about to be outdone people, and by a bunch of neo-capitalist - retro-commies. As I have said before China is situated geographically in a better position than we are to control the remaining oil. Oh sure, we keep hearing how President Bush and his oil companies are ready to quench our collective thirst for oil by drilling in Alaska. Don't believe it people. America's thirst for oil is far to great to be quenched by decimating the entire pristine wilderness of Alaska. Don't take my word for it look at the numbers yourself. Oh you want me to look it up for you? Forget it. This is what I am talking about. Most American's will not spend five minutes to look at any numbers which might remove a piece of their American dream. Most of us don't have anything else to make us feel free. Take away our mobility too?

Don't blame me, I'm only the messenger.

I reduced my need to drive, and I make a large portion of the fuel we need. What are you willing to do for your family?

Which brings me to my final topic this morning. I mentioned that I plan to build a workshop here. This is in the planning stages. I will begin building this Summer. My new shop will be for building wind turbines and working on diesel and WVO vehicles. I hope to use sustainable energy sources for power. I'm looking for support for renewable energy research and development. I hope to locate startup money in the form of grants, from both the government and private sector. If you would like to support this project or know of a foundation or group that might see my projects in line with theirs, please let me know. I can use all the financial support I can get. It will no doubt take more money to get started building than I can grasp, although this hasn't but slowed me in the past.

Anyway, I'd appreciate it very much if there is any advice or direction you can share.

Sincerely,

 Brian Rodgers

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter

February 5th 2008

Good morning

I had a interesting day yesterday. The sky god has been giving us snow on and off for the last couple of days. Now there is a couple of inches on the ground. We're still without water, so there is only so much housework I can do. We've been doing laundry at my parent's. Yesterday I set out at 11:00AM to spend time with Kevin at the Luna College Renewable Energy building. I stopped by his home first and picked up the rest of the wind turbine we built in Colorado during our December workshop. Louie Plagge dropped off a stand for the assembled wind turbine and I wanted to show him the wooden props before delivering them to Luna. Unfortunately  we missed each other. Kevin and I did some assembly, but somehow I missed the bag of hardware, at his house. Instead we worked a 3D modeling program called Solidworks. Very cool stuff. We used the specifications in the axial flux workshop manual to build a three dimensional model of a wind turbine prop. Being the old school representative I measured the physical prop and checked it against the 3D model. Exactly the same. Awesome, you know me, I can't keep even the littlest project under wraps. So last night I scanned the Internet for a Linux package which will display the modeled drawing. I did find a few such as LX_Viewer, but I couldn't figure out how to install it on my computer. This, in my opinion is the bane of Linux operating systems. Each variation of Linux OS uses a different method to install packages and I haven't used this process in months and quite frankly I've forgotten how to do it. So, I went to the living room PC and installed Solidworks viewer which like most Windows programs is a mindless process but immediately you are assaulted with demands for money. Ya can't win. The bottom line is Kevin built a beautiful model of the wooden wind turbine prop, but you can't see it until I locate and install software which reads DXF (3D drawing file.)

This morning I am doing things a little different. Yesterday I crashed Open Office by, I guess asking too much of it while composing the BMN. I added one too many dynamic images and whammo! You may have noticed the lack of continuity yesterday. I did have a half way decent conclusion working for the newsletter, but I failed to save before I started adding extra content. I lost the last paragraphs, and hastily retyped what I could remember in Mozilla Thunderbird email client. This morning Nell asked me to help her print something on the laser printer. That didn't work out and she got mad at me for losing my patience, but in the process of opening MS Word documents in Open Office I noticed that I could create a new HTML document. Maybe this is why I have been pushing my luck with Open Office. This morning I'm composing in HTML . Well Not really HTML, I mean there are no codes that I can see. My hope is that Open Office will cope with the HTML content I copy and paste into the lower regions of this newsletter. We'll see I'm sure. <note> No better, I really freaked it out this time.

It is still snowing and I need to be prepared to be outside in this weather as today I have two WiFi installations to do. Brrr. My fingers are going to be numb by tonight. Tomorrow this time I'll be hurting. Best get to it, before I think about it too much.

[scorman]

Brian,

I am using Solidworks for my tower design and turbine rotor assembly.

There is a "freebie" imbedded utility that allows you to send readable images from Solidworks to other puters that don't have it installed.  You don't need a DXF reader.

I used it by copying my drawings and the utility onto a USB thumb drive and carrying it to other laptops. Was able to email as well.

For posting here, you could simply generate a few jpgs of diff views and upload them.

I am curious if/how you generated the airfoil profile on to the 3d image?

I imported a DXF image of a NACA4415, but couldn't do anything with it once it got there.

If you are making the images "public", I'd like to see an emailed copy of what you have created.

My addy should be at the top.

thx,

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

[Stonebrain]

" I can use all the financial support I can get."

Who can't?

cheers,

stonebrain

[Boss]

Absolutely I intend to publish the DXF file. I'll get it out tomorrow

"I am curious if/how you generated the airfoil profile on to the 3d image?"

Now I mostly watched, but Kevin used a bevel tool to make the edges once we had the proper plane selected. Same was true for the fact that the blade isn't the same thickness from one end to the other. The trick was to get the blade edge to follow the  proper plane as well. This was my first use of Solidworks so I may have missed some of the details. It is my intention to continue working with the program. I'll keep you posted.

Is the freebie embedded utility part of Solidworks? If so this is what I used to view  some other FXF files. Unfortunately, I did not remember to copy the DXF file of the props from the school's computer. This is what I need to do tomorrow.

   

[scorman]

Brian,

"Is the freebie embedded utility part of Solidworks? "

In my program lisitings I found "SolidWorks 2007 Viewer", so I found a link to it:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/SolidWorks-Viewer.shtml

"SolidWorks Viewer is a freeware plugin designed to be used for viewing SolidWorks assemblies, drawings and parts.

You can share designs easily over the Internet using the free SolidWorks Viewer, available for Windows. "

I checked it out again, and it displays full 360 degree viewing in read only mode, but does not enable movement with the assembly ie where one part moves relative to others in the same view.

BTW ..it uses your standard SW saved files, not DXF

your comment:

"Kevin used a bevel tool to make the edges once we had the proper plane selected. Same was true for the fact that the blade isn't the same thickness from one end to the other."

I cannot find any "bevel" tool in help directory??

would like to be able to taper and twist

Stew

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter

February 6th 2008

Good Morning.

Sure enough, it was cold working outside yesterday. The difficulty is managing the fine wires with numb fingers. Luckily, for the first job, the weather cleared a little and I managed to finish in good time. On the second job, it began to snow heavily during first part while I was on a ladder installing the Ethernet cable end. I had it done and started to remove my glasses when I noticed a wire was out of order. Dang, I cut the end off and started over. Now the cold was beginning to affect my ability to do a proper job. The cable got stiffer between the first cut and the second and my scissors barely sliced the cable. Somehow I made it through, and my fingers don't feel too bad this morning. At the final WiFi installation of the day, I installed one of the new MIMO (multiple in multiple out) routers. These routers extend the range of the client's wireless network. Even though Americans can't take full advantage of the bandwidth offered, the signal goes further and the ability of MIMO to extend the range is a nice feature. I went shopping on the Internet last night to see how much a new MIMO WiFi router was going to set me back. I'll post the http://pricewatch.com listing below.

Today I don't really have a plan. I'd like to work more with the 3D modeling software, SolidWorks. I mainly watched Kevin work with it last time. I downloaded the viewer for the Windows PC, but I forgot to copy the file we made at Luna CC onto my flash stick. I'll Google Chat with Kevin in a while and get the file. I got a response at http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/2/4/17444/00602 about 3D modeling and viewing of the resultant files. I thought there was going to be an interest in this over at the OtherPower forum. Excellent. I enjoyed making the model, though it may have been because Kevin did the work. Usually, letting someone else work while I watch annoys me more than taking the wheel, so who knows what this means? I feel like I should pursue this new technology. After all, the only thing I could offer was to grab some graph paper, ruler and a pencil and do design work the way I was taught in college. Some things though are worth moving beyond. I will always have old school drafting to remind me of the basics, but this software is too cool for school. No. Wait. It is in school.

So yeah, I don't know what today will bring, and I am grateful that my new quasi-sustainable lifestyle attained by driving less and making my own fuel offers me more time to wing it and take her slow. As long as I can find a way to support a few projects, I do believe this way of life will work out for the best. I may call on you all to come out and spend a long weekend this Spring for an Amish style building workshop. I will start with what we do best, forestry. We will begin to locate the timber for the post and beam construction. We'll either make cants (square logs) with Jackson's Alaska chainsaw mill, or load the timbers up and have Slim cut them for us at his sawmill. Either way, I think we can get a good start on the new shop this Summer.

Contents

   1.

      Letters

         1.

            A glock under the dash! It looks like Tough Guy has a missile launcher camouflaged as part of the air cleaner under the hood.

         2.

            Re: Dozers and diesels

   2.

      Your Quotes of the Day for 6 February 2008

   3.

      Astronomy Picture of the Day

   4.

      A weekly newsletter from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)

         1.

            Global Wind Energy Capacity Increases 27% in 2007

         2.

            Clean Energy Investment Exceeds $117 Billion in 2007

   5.

      mimo router

Read the rest of the BMN at my site

http://outfitnm.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=117

[scorman]

Brian,

looks like I am answering myself here:

Just found out that I don't have the means to export a jpeg output from SW, so I dug around and found that a work around is to "save as" an eDrawing ...SO, SW has a free viewer that does it all:

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/edrawings/viewer.html

"View, print, and review all types of eDrawings files, SolidWorks and AutoCAD Files (DWG and DXF)"

that is better than previous link I gave you,

Stew

[Boss]

I posted more info about the 3D model here

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/2/6/213927/4097

[Boss]

Brian's Morning Newsletter

February 7th 2008

Good Morning

Where to begin? It's late, I should already have this ready to go out the door, but I don't. We had a pleasant day here yesterday. Nell took a sick day, although see wasn't in terrible shape, so this was a nice change for us. We fiddled around the house watching movies and rearranging furniture. Nothing we did was huge, but we needed a change. Our one-room lifestyle needs all the help it can get. Hey it's just a house, right? I have been in a lot of homes doing my wireless Internet and some are really neat with all their nooks and crannies which I envy, but what are we going to do about it? Nothing this year.

Brian's going to work on a new shop first.

This makes sense to me. I don't know whether it makes sense to others, but I suspect most of you work for someone else for a living. If I am going to earn and move ahead with the proposed sustainable living lifestyle here at the ranch I need a place to work. Plus, we have the timber and plenty of collective building experience. In the eight years I have been writing this newsletter I always steered clear of asking for financial support. No one ever really questioned this tactic although we can assume it was a relief to not have another person with their hand out.

In what I believe was a offhanded way,  I asked for support to help build the

Tusas Sustainable Energy Research Workshop. Of course no one jumped in and said, "Good plan here is $100 go buy some concrete. "Why would someone throw their hard earned money at someone else?

Brian doesn't even have a business plan.

No I don't have a business plan.  I may need to build my new workshop a little at a time so I do not ever need a business plan. Besides my newsletter is better than a business plan. You've seen what I am capable of over a period of eight years.

I am trying to give you a chance to help me help you.

I know most of you are in denial about the fossil fuel era being over. But there is a strong possibility that cheap fuel for driving will run out before you have finished making the payments on your car. The easy-to-get crude oil has been got, people.

Wouldn't you like to hedge you bet for the future?

I give you no guarantees, I might die tomorrow. More likely, from what I have read, our economy will collapse when China and India start using more oil than America. You must consider the populations of these countries. When 10% more Chinese people apply for drivers licenses this year than last, we are talking about millions of new drivers on the road next year.  Currently the United States is funding the invasion of Iraq with debt based money. What happens, when no more oil is available to fuel our easy motoring society? I hope you aren't holding out for a miracle, because all the scientists are in agreement, "No known form of energy can replace fossil fuel in quantity, BTUs or price."  That era is over.

Forget about someone inventing a fuel to pour in the gas tank of your V8 SUV.

It ain't going to happen. Gasoline powered vehicle obsolescence is inevitable as is oil depletion, the only question is when? One year? Five years?

I made a link to the CIA's statistics page for China:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html

Basically it says last year China produced 3.7 million barrels per day and consumed 7 million barrels per day. This is still small compared to the info from the same CIA site USA oil consumption of 20.8 million barrels per day while production is currently 8.3 million barrels per day. Of course these numbers are skewed for political reasons (it is the CIA data.)

The bottom line:

Peak Oil is being pushed forward by the population explosion.

Five years ago, Peak Oil was 15 years distant. Today research shows it is happening now all over the world. The Earth has been surveyed for oil with the greatest technology your fuel dollar can buy.

The consensus is in: No new oil fields of any significance have been discovered in ten years!

Where does this leave us? I say, "You have an edge."

My research and work into renewable energies and sustainable lifestyles, may give us a glimpse at a future not dictated by fossil fuels.

I can and have done this work by myself for many years, I am giving you the opportunity to help make my dream of helping others find a better future.

The ranch is in a living trust. Buildings erected here stay here. This new workshop will be for the future.

You won't get a pin or a star nor a certificate as part owner of anything, hopefully what we do together will be enough to make us feel better about the future.

Please let us know if you can see your way clear to contribute to the new Las Tusas Renewable Energy Workshop. Time, effort, and money are all encouraged.

---------------------

P.S. Sorry to this group, if I sound like I'm the only one doing anything, I know it ain't true, but to my small group I feel the need to goad them into action.

Please read the rest of the newsletter at my site http://outfitnm.com

Sincerely,

[joestue]

"The consensus is in: No new oil fields of any significance have been discovered in ten years"

Absolutely FALSE.

back in 2004 we found more oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The discovery was made in the Walker Ridge area of the Gulf of Mexico, about 435 kilometres southwest of New Orleans and 280 kilometers off the Texas coast."

the findings increased the known reserves of world oil by approximately 30-40%.

Also, did you know that between the U.S. and Canada we have at least 2 trillion barrels of oil contained in tar and oil permeated sand? ..Wikipedia numbers..

U.S. EPA/DOE? numbers but that figure at 6 trillion back in 2006, i can't find the webpage right offhand.

It costs about $30 to extract one barrel of oil from approximately one ton of sand.

That number includes infrastructure costs for a reasonable payback time, the actual value is something like $6-9/ton.

The oil is there, peak oil is artificially caused by the government, and shares many reasons with the fact that we haven't built a refinery in the past 31 years. (or new roads, for that matter).

My grandfather was an offshore driller for 25 years, and Never found a dry spot, as long as you were 5 miles offshore, and drilled down below 5000 feet.

About %40 of the drilling was off the coast of Cali, but the rest was off the coast of Alaska, south America, Europe, and Washington state.

none of the oil fields mapped at the time (1960's-1980's) are in current use.

The State of Washington permanently denied drilling attempts for oil fields within their legal reach.

When "they" say the CO2 in the atmosphere was at one time 20 to 80%, where do you think all that went?  Ca(CO3)?

How much CaO2 or CaOH do you think the earth could really handle before it is so caustic that life could not exist prior to the CO2 leaving the atmosphere?

[Boss]

Sorry it took so long to respond.

Strange how there seems to be such a wide gulf between the thinking on the quantity of oil reserves. I base my idea of a world wide shortage on people such as Matthew Simmons

He has made numerous speeches and written papers and books claiming precisely what I said, no new oil fields of any significance

Also I have a friend who works for a oil exploration company. They like many other oil companies they are divesting in oil and retooling for RE resources, including methane from dumps and a really neat part of this is these people are looking at buying a nearby property to create a sustainable farm community.

It would seem these oil people don't share your optimism.

 

[joestue]

Concern for future shortage keeps the price up

I'm partly playing the Devil's advocate here, although I do believe that supply and demand with a world wide monopoly has much to do with today's energy crunch. If the price of oil hits $400 a barrel, politicians will open up the oil fields that are closed due to "environmental regs"  

Personally I really don't care and don't see a problem with the world running out of oil. Energy price increases will just dictate the use of a more expensive fuel, like solar thermal, wind, geothermal, etc.

Certainly some temporary issues will cause global and local panic, like how to run an economy off electricity...

Maybe we would see a 10 fold increase in rail transportation, currently the cheapest form available.

[MattM]

The only way for the U.S. to dominate the world trade is to dominate oil usage.  If $400 a barrel means that the U.S. takes 50% of the world supply then you know its not a bad thing.  Problem is that the $100/barrel today is worth the same as $50/barrel oil from 2004, our dollar has dropped in value that much.  Otherwise oil in real terms is trading at pretty stable price levels.  Dollar fluctuations in relative worth are just killing any economic momentum in the U.S. right now and everyone is feeling it.  Bush Jr. has the same problem as his father in that they both ignore the voices from joe public; "It's the economy, stupid."  And this will cost the Republicans the vote in November.