Stuff I Want Right Now -- LuciaStove

Just finished Albert K. Bates' The Biochar Solution (following up the cool stuff I heard about in another post). In it he listed a few new products that use or create biochar. Some I'd heard about already. Others. . . .

This is the inventor showing off his LuciaStove, a pyrolytic stove. These stoves don't actually burn fuel in the traditional way; instead, they heat the fuel and burn the flammable gases separately, leaving the solid fuel waste behind as a chunk of nearly pure carbon.

Ah, but the beauty is in how this stove burns. The flame, curlicuing on itself like twining serpents -- I could watch that for hours. And one can burn just about whatever fuel fits through the flame. It's both a simple and subtle. And they have a barbeque version!

Yes, Elizabeth, You Did Make a Mistake

When Glenn Beck blathers, nothing should happen simply because no one in their right mind would listen to him. No problem, right?

But when NPR fails to correct Beck's lies, we are all in trouble.

Ah, but when the reporter actually denies making an error that would have put the entire story into proper perspective, showing Beck to be the liar and propagandist he is, public broadcasting is dead. It has been co-opted, probably by financial interests, to become an only slightly less shrill propaganda bullhorn.

This is making me unbelievably angry and sad. Without an informed populace, our democracy will die. Without an informing media, we can have no informed populace.

As a country, we have no future.

None.