09:46 – Kit inventory is getting uncomfortably low, with only 15 chemistry kits and seven biology kits in stock. As of now, we’re shipping around 12 to 15 kits a week, which is a good rate for early August. That rate is ramping up, and will probably be double or triple the current rate late in August and into September. As of now, we have 30 more biology kits that need only final assembly, and 60 chemistry kits that aren’t far behind. The next batch will be 30 forensic science kits, followed by another 60 biology kits and then another 60 chemistry kits. Earlier this year, I thought I’d be pleased if we sold 60 total kits in August. It looks like that won’t be a problem.
Barbara just emailed me with very sad news. Randi Weiss, one of the attorneys at Barbara’s firm, died suddenly yesterday of cancer. Barbara’s email summed up in two sentences how everyone felt about Randi: “She was brilliant and kind. It is really a blow to the Firm.”
Randi’s doctorate was in molecular biology. I’d exchanged several emails with her and spoken with her on the phone a couple of times. I told Randi that at some point I intended to do a lab manual and kit that focused on molecular biology, and she had kindly agreed to be my tech reviewer for that project. Although I never met her face to face, I’ll miss her.
11:58 – It seems that Spain is in even worse debt trouble than anyone thought. A Polish legislator has pointed out that Spain borrowed about $60 million worth of gold from Poland about 400 years ago. At current gold prices, and assuming that Spain pays 400 years’ worth of compound interest at the natural 3% annual rate, that means Spain owes Poland just over $8 trillion. Some might argue that a debt 400 years old is impossible to collect, especially since neither Spain nor Poland is the nation it was 400 years ago. But in my opinion, debts, most especially including sovereign debts, must be paid. Of course, in effect this means that Germany now owes Poland $8 trillion, beyond whatever Germany still owes Poland for what it did to Poland in WWII. I suspect that Poland would be willing to settle for $8 trillion even.
Price of gasoline just shot up to $3.96 in Tiny Town. Last time it was close to $4, was when the wholesale price of Brent crude was $125. Current price is under $110. As time glides on, it achieves $4 at the pump with less and less of a rise in wholesale crude.
Actually, that highlights what I’ve thought all along about the “debt crisis”. Nations don’t ever pay their debts. They’re far worse than the average joe.
Just leave the debt where it is, let it grow. Make the minimum payment. At some point we’ll have a civil war/revolution/invasion/epidemic/etc. and we can just wave it off.
No, I’m not really serious. It isn’t as if I want Poland or Spain’s history over the past 400 years. But these debts don’t ever seem to go down.
Check the price of ethanol which has doubled? tripled? in the last month due to corn skyrocketing in price. Gasoline must be 10% ethanol by law in most states.
Ol’ Fred the gator is back and terrorizing the north pond:
http://www.facebook.com/WinSimInc
Is there any point in putting ethanol in petrol? I’ve heard it’s counterproductive from a miles per gallon point of view, and may damage the engine if it’s not designed for that.
Putting ethanol in gasoline is a disaster IMHO. They add the ethanol to the gasoline at the last minute at the jobbers right before the tank truck takes the gasoline to the station. If the gasoline separates in the station tanks, you might get some gasoline with very little ethanol or a LOT of ethanol. The same happens in your vehicles tank but since the gasoline is continuously pumped through the system, the vehicle tank stays well mixed. Unless you have not driven your vehicle in a month or two. Driving your vehicle once a week ??? should keep the tank mixed.
If you have any water in your tank, the ethanol will absorb it since it has almost infinite capacity for water. In small quantities, that is OK but in large quantities, bad, bad, bad.
The only good side for ethanol is that it has an octane of 100 which enhances combustion.
Octane isn’t the only good thing about ethanol. It’s a good lubricant. That is, when it comes to Iowa corn farmers, it keeps their palms greased. And the Iowa corn farmers are extremely important because of the Iowa Presidential caucuses, which have an accuracy rate of … slightly under 50% in predicting who will go to the general election.
Adding corn to fuel MUST be an Australian idea! It’s the sort of solution that an isolated civilization would come up with, if they didn’t have access to a proper fuel. Which begs the question, when are we going to see a Lanolin based fuel from the Antipodes?
Ethanol lowers engine performance, lowers fuel efficiency and adds pork to every CorngressCritter who represents the Corn Belt. Oh, and it raised food prices. E85 gasoline produces twice the amount of Formaldehyde of regular gasoline. Ethanol also is highly miscible and can’t be shipped via pipelines over long distances, and is linked to engine damage because of the water retention of Ethanol.
It is my understanding that Octane is pretty much a useless measurement of fuel performance. Octane allows more compression during the combustion cycle, which means high-performance engines need it, but only to prevent detonation.
Meanwhile the North American continent is sitting on billions of tons of Natural Gas, which is sold all over the world as a fuel alternative, that has fewer issues than Ethanol. Maybe we’re saving it for the future generations? Doesn’t seem like our generation’s typical behavior, though!
Oh? I thought our generation’s behavior was to move abroad every useful job our parents’ and grandparents’ generation created for us, and to use everybody else’s resources before we even touch our own. And that requires a military that costs us more than the next 17 countries combined spend on offense—er, defense. Oh, and also to adopt a course that makes us more energy DEpendent on imports, rather than come up with a plan that would make us more energy INdependent. This IS the American Way that Superman fought so hard to preserve.
Speaking of military, I heard an interview with a China expert, who maintained that China will never invade any other country, as such a thing is not in their cultural make-up. They will try and reclaim anything they historically possessed as their own, but will eschew expansion because of some in-born ethic that is the same as the oriental super-embarrassment gene that makes them commit suicide, rather than suffer humiliation.
Octane is a measurement of a fuel’s ability to resist pre-ignition. BTW, pipeline quality natural gas (95% methane, <1% CO2 and nitrogen), has an octane of around 130. And the gallop equivalent of natural gas has about 70% of the energy of gasoline (2/3 of diesel).
Since natural gas has such a high octane, that means that you can safely increase the compression ratio of the engine to 14 or so. That increases the efficiency over today engines which are usually running 10 to 11 compression ratio.
As I mentioned before, the problem with natural gas is the storage problem. We now have carbon fiber tank that can take up to 7,500 psia of pressure but who wants that in their cars ? In a wreck if the tank get damaged then it becomes a serious problem. They are starting to move the heavy trucks to natural gas in my area, like garbage and delivery trucks. Some of them are going to LNG which you can store on the truck for a week before it vaporizes and must be used or vented. Since LNG has a expansion of 3600 to 1 for volume, you must do something as LNG tanks cannot hold much pressure.