Dakota Today

**Some links..Non-profit Journalism and some references combined

As newspapers decline in readers and they also reduce funding for independent news gathering and something like that also hits the electronic media because it is cheaper to put on a gasbag talking head, some groups are financing non-profit news gathering...at least that is what I heard tonight on PBS News Hour.  A couple links from that program below:

Pro Publica--Journalism in the Public Interest

Center for Public Integrity-- Investigative Journalism In the Public Interest/

Pulitzer Center-- Crisis Information

Those could keep a person busy for more than a few hours and should germinate an idea or two. If you are scratching for information, you might (according to CPU Magazine) find the link below useful.
 Ref Desk ..Fact checker for the Internet

**Stay tuned even if you are turning pages in a new pixel way--- Doug Wiken

**Drilling us for oil..commentary by D. Newquist

David Newquist at Northern Valley Beacon Blog reminds us of one of the ideological myths that are like fungus on the brains of SD conservative Republicans and which too often block serious consideration of needed government action or especially needed government action to control huge corporations.

Among the silliest things the regressives believe is that big government is bad but big corporations are good--as if corporate bureacracies are virtuous but government bureacracies are inherently evil. Regressives long for the repressions and inequities of the Dark Ages, and huge corporate bureacraces are as close as they can come to the lavish and oppressive monarchies of the time. So, they revere and cherish huge, global corporations. To them, Enron, Worldcom and the merry band in the mortgage business were just exercising the royal prerogative to be stupid, venal, and dishonest. It all has to do with the worship of power, no matter how it is exercised.

David Newquist at Northern Valley Beacon "Drilling for Columbine"

Take a look at the rest of Newquist's post at his blog and get an insight into part of the problem in getting new ideas considered seriously in South Dakota.

 

**Stay tuned even if you are trying to determine the frequency asked of "Kenneth" by listening for it in the buzzing of mosquitoes**** Doug Wiken

**Get the "Methanol Economy" to Sen. Obama Please

Obama and country need to do more talking about the "Methanol Economy" idea. A google search for "methanol economy" will turn up links for the book by Dr. George Olah and commentary on his idea. Methanol unlike Hydrogen is a good "portable" fuel. Hydrogen might work for huge stationary engines however. Below is a link which appears to have a good general and balanced perspective on this.

Chemical and Engineering News on the "Methanol Economy"                          

Wind energy is not a stable source of energy, but if combined with hydrogen and methanol production it can be transformed into a stable uniform level of power which even with energy losses would make for better or more usable energy.

High efficiency wind generators alone would be wonderful if the wind blew all day all night every day at the same speed. It doesn't, so conversion to stable, portable  fuel is required for stable energy production without consumption of fossil fuels..

If you have Obama connections, try to see if this kind of information can be fed into their system if it makes sense to you too.  We don't need another term of Bush petroleum wars via a McCain administration, but Obama needs to get serious on something like a moon project for a better and ecologically benign fuel or energy system.   Methanol may be a way to do it.  It is a way which deserves serious consideration and possibly serious funding.

**Stay tuned even if you are currently working on converting mosquito wing buzzing into energy-- Doug Wiken