Slashdot

cybermage writes "An inventor by the name of Frank Pringle has invented a machine that uses microwaves to extract oil from recycled waste. If this sounds like fantasy, think again. He's moved past development and into to production for commercial orders. The machine produces nearly 18 times the energy it requires to run."

The NY Times (reg. req.) has a story about UPS using software to dramatically reduce the number of left turns their drivers take. With a fleet of vehicles their size, the time and money saved by pre-planning routes that try to eliminate left turns means big savings.
http://www.apathy.net/

JaJ_D writes "According to Paul Kidby's website, Terry Pratchet has been diagonsed with early onset Alzheimer's.

From the site:

would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's, which lay behind this year's phantom "stroke".

Jaj"

As part of a signature drive by Republicans seeking to fund cancer research, they are also collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to alter California's electoral votes in their favor. People are being asked to sign a petition for cancer research and are being handed the petition for the electoral scheme. See the video

In much of the western U.S., water demand vastly outstrips supply. Some municipalities are moving toward a greater use of recycled waste water as a means to stretch supply. It sounds good in theory, but how far should it go?

I'm prompted to consider the issue by a story reported in The Record, a paper in California's San Jaquin valley.

The Environmental Protection Agency has some guidelines on the use of recycled water -- much of which is geared toward non-potable uses (e.g., irrigation).

Something I find disturbing about the whole discussion is just what is left behind in the treatment process. Check out Wikipedia for a primer on water treatment if you are unfamiliar with the process. The EPA mandates that most municipalities treat their water through the "Secondary Treatment" stage. Water treated to the Secondary level is by no means drinkable. The EPA recommends it only be used for things with limited human exposure such as irrigation of non-food crops.

The issues with reuse of treated waste water are two fold:

If we raise the standards for the quality of reused water so that it can be used in more ways, some municipalities will release more waste water into rivers and streams instead of going to the expense of complying with the new standards.

If we allow more reuse at current standards, we risk greater exposure to the "metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals" that Secondary treatment leaves behind.

I believe more has to be done to achieve greater reuse of waste water. I also believe that big government cannot simply raise the standards and mandate greater reuse without passing out some money to make it happen.

Many people complain about the constant rise in their property taxes. Many of those same people cheer when the Federal and/or State government pass laws that require county and local governments to do more.

I, for one, cannot believe we tolerate water treated to only the secondary level being released into the environment at all. Especially when the technology exists to take it a step further. There is an opportunity here for true leadership at the federal level to fund a massive works bill to raise water standards AND put people to work improving the treatment plans and distribution systems.

Imagine the water conservation that could be achieved with more advanced treatment. We could run secondary water mains that people could use to water their lawns, flush their toilets, and irrigate their crops. The technology exists, the need is clear and present, but municipalities cannot just have new standards mandated to them.

Unless you live under a rock, you already know that the Writers Guild of America is on strike -- a move aimed at crippling the Motion Picture and Television industries. Since many major news outlets are controlled by the same organizations the writers are striking against, it is not surprising that people are not hearing the pittance for which the writers are asking. What follows is a selection of videos to explain the issue.

First, a simple explanation of the issues:

YouTube Link

Now, some humor from the writers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to drive the point home:

The Daily Show Writers:

YouTube Link

The Colbert Report Writers:

YouTube Link

To summarize, here are the issues discussed in the videos:

Back when home video was just starting out, the WGA agreed to a 4 cent (not percent) royalty per VHS tape of a movie or TV show. That same 4 cents has been applied to the now booming DVD market. Home video is anything but fledgling at this point. The writers would like the 4 cents bumped to an astounding 8 cents.

On Internet downloads, like those through iTunes and Amazon Unboxed, the writers receive no royalties at all. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. With the real prospect coming of many people watching TV exclusively on the Internet, the writers want to be cut in for their fair share. The studios assert that there's no money to be made from the Internet, but as The Daily Show's writers point out. Viacom is suing Google for $1 Billion for copyright infringement via YouTube. Viacom also claims that their online content, like TheDailyShow.com will generate $500 Million in revenue this year.

Want to do something to support the writers? Visit http://www.fans4writers.com/.

As the U.S. remains distracted by the conflict it started in Iraq, the mission in Afghanistan gets further and further away from being "accomplished".

The Guardian has the story on the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan, which no have a presence in 54% of the country with unchallenged control of several districts.

Worse yet, they seem to be winning the war for the hearts and minds of Afghans. The failure of NATO to finish the job has led to constant conflict with Taliban and al Qaeda forces. Many Afghans would rather have peace under Taliban rule than chaos that democracy (if you can call it that) has brought to their country.

Will America's next president do anything to finish the war in Afghanistan? Will it be too late by then?

cybermage writes "Back in 2003, an al Qaeda suspect in FBI custody discussed just such a plot. Some of the fires are suspected to be arson. Is there any link to the fires set around Syndey, Australia, a few years ago, which were also believed to be set by arsonists?"

More than 2,000 members of the interagency wildland firefighting community mobilized through the National Interagency Coordination Center are engaged in a wide range of wildfire response efforts to several fires in Southern California.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071024094644.htm

U.S. needs to keep fire tanker funding
Oakland Tribune, Nov 27, 2005

WHILE trying to slash billions of dollars from the federal budget to help cover the costs of the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration wants to cut funding, a move that would ground much of the federal fire-fighting tanker fleet.

This would be a bad idea.

While western states have managed to get through the last two years without a major flare-up of wildfires, wet winters and long, hot summers mean that the inevitable has only been delayed.

If major fires break out next year, we could find ourselves with a 50 to 75 percent reduction in our aerial fire fighting capability.

The administration wants to cut a $500 million reserve fund that's tapped to battle blazes across California and the West during heavy fire years. The $700 million annual fire-fighting budget is often exceeded, with costs rising to more than $1 billion.

"This fund -- developed on a bipartisan basis -- ensured that fire-fighting costs could be met," said California's Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. And environmentalists also have joined to oppose the proposal, which requires congressional approval.

Any year when the fire season worsens, the U.S. Forest Service would have to cancel other efforts, such as removing dead and dying trees, that are needed for fire control.

Coupled with a proposed spending limit of $100 million next year on federal aerial fire fighting, it would severely cripple the tanker fleet.

If they have an answering machine instead of voicemail, some evacuees from the raging Southern California fires are phoning home to see if the machine picks up -- if it does, they know the power is on and the house is still standing.

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/topheadlines/~3/173976189/index.html

http://www.thisismereporting.com/view_video.php?viewkey=997cdb4692d34de8633c&page=1&viewtype=&category=mr

miaobaby writes "Smoke from several large wildfires which flared across Southern California on October 21, 2007 is shown in this image taken at 14.50 PDT (21.50 GMT) taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, and released by NASA October 22, show several active fires (outlined in red) northwest of Los Angeles."
http://miaobaby.com/offbeat-news/wildfires-sweep-southern-california/

babooo404 writes "With all of the fires in California today, how are the social services such as Digg, Flickr, YouTube, etc. covering the crisis? Flickr and Wikipedia appear to have the best coverage overall and several local TV stations are using Twitter to get the news out."

Think Telco execs don't think they did anything wrong complying with the government's warrantless wiretap requests, well take a look at to whom they're donating their money.

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virignia) has found himself on the receiving end of 10s of thousands in donations from telephone company executives this year. A level of donation that is is stark contrast to an previous year.

We all know what the telco exec's are hoping to get in return: Immunity from prosecution. So far, it seems likely that that is exactly what Rockefeller will deliver.

I realize this is all business as usual, but in this day and age of instant news and blogosphere firestorms, isn't there something we can do about such blatant corruption?