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Features:

From the Editor
by Douglas Smith
* pdf *

The Race for New Biofuels
by Frances H. Arnold
* pdf *

Solar Fuels I: Rods and Stones
by Douglas L. Smith
* pdf *

Solar Fuels II: The Quest for the Catalyst
by Harry B. Gray
* pdf *

From Solar Fuel Back to Electricty
by Marcus Woo
* pdf *

Now for some pain.  The aftermath of returning to riding and other exercise after a long break gets worse as you get older.

They posted a link to a site run by economics wonks, The Automatic Earth, who used to post on The OilDrum. And they are pretty apocalyptic in their assessment of what is happening, particularly within the UK economy.

I would not at all be surprised if by Christmas Britain will be declared an economic disaster area, and emergency legislation be adopted.

All the major British banks are trying to raise capital through rights issues, and all seem to fail miserably, indicating that confidence in the power of the economy to rebound is fast approaching zero. Kelvin, that is.

Without constant capital infusion, even prosperous growth economies are certain to collapse; those already in distress fall that much faster.

The British government faces new mayhem on a daily basis, and there's no stopping it anymore, since it comes from all directions at once. It will therefore have to be absorbed. And that will mean a return to mass unemployment and subsequent new found poverty.

I'm unable to comment on the likelihood of their scenarios, so is there anyone there who can tell me if I should withdraw all my money and hide under the bed

keep to the Fen Causeway

The negatives for the original two chapters of The Godfather suffered serious damage, right from the start, as no one reckoned that so many prints would have to be made, due to the films' success.  If most of you have seen the films in past two decades from older VHS or previous DVD versions, what you saw was taken from the poor copies remaining.  Coppola has now produced new versions of the films, which include a complete digital renovation of the original negative, heretofore hardly possible.

I won't go into the details of the technical process, partly because there are those here who understand the process better than i.  I can say that the result is dramatic... superlative... a revelation.

I had actually never seen the films on original release, as far as i can remember.  Because of their iconic nature, i did see video versions.  The storytelling stood out, but the films did not.

I've now been through all three on the Coppola Restoration versions, as well as two DVD's or accompanying material.  This package is a revelation, in that the restoration of the original film artist's vision, i.e., Gordon Willis' camera work, can now be seen in context to the great storytelling.

Perhaps of interest to ET'ers, Coppola originally said the films were actually a metaphor of capitalism.  Certainly he summed that up in Part III with its portrayal of a corrupt catholic church all the way up to the pabst blue ribbon, as Michael strove to bring the family into legitimacy.  The metaphor came to the surface in Part II, when Michael says we're just doing what government and business does, to which Kay responds, "That's naive Michael, presidents and senators don't kill people."  "Now who's being naive," Michael responds very quietly.

I was stunned to see the restoration, and recommend it for all film fans.  This ranks with the best films of all time, in storytelling, in filmmaking technique, in detail, in most of the acting, and certainly in using all of the above to make a telling point, at a critical juncture in our history, which a few decades later only increases in power.

And the Restoration package is about as good a value as any, since for 40 Euros you get maybe 10 hours of world class filmmaking, plus several hours of accompanying documentary, some of which is brilliant.  You have never seen a DVD which capture so much filmic information, and it is breathtaking.

Full Disclaimer:  Francis didn't ask me to post this.  I haven't seen him since i went to the script reading for Bram Stoker's Dracula, where Francis had eight actors on stage reading the then current version of the script, first time he could watch audience reaction.  Actually, i think it was just so HE could hear it out loud with actor's voices.  Afterwards, he told me there was only one bottle of his wine left, but it had sat by a compressor and was now too warm.  I told him, "We'll drink it red and warm, in honor of Dracula's blood lust."  He poured it right away, laughing as we toasted.

Skennah Kowa

Mars Orbiter Finds Evidence For Ancient Rivers, Lakes Posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 19, @10:16AM
from the shouldn't-the-red-sea-be-on-the-red-planet dept. Cowards Anonymous points out news that studies based on data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found that vast regions of Mars contained rivers and lakes when the planet was young. The studies also suggest that the water existed for quite some time, often in standing pools, which are conducive to the formation of basic organic matter. NASA provides a color-enhanced photo of a delta within a crater href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/jezero-20080716.html">. Quoting: "The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to what is called the Noachian period of Mars' history, approximately 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. This period corresponds to the earliest years of the solar system, when Earth, the moon and Mars sustained a cosmic bombardment by comets and asteroids. Rocks of this age have largely been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the moon, but were never exposed to liquid water. The phyllosilicate-containing rocks on Mars preserve a unique record of liquid water environments possibly suitable for life in the early solar system."

was mars green once?

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

In short, Darwin did more in one lifetime than most of us could hope to accomplish in two. But his giantism has had an odd and problematic consequence. It's a tendency for everyone to refer back to him. "Why Darwin was wrong about X"; "Was Darwin wrong about Y?"; "What Darwin didn't know about Z" -- these are common headlines in newspapers and magazines, in both the biological and the general literature. Then there are the words: Darwinism (sometimes used with the prefix "neo"), Darwinist (ditto), Darwinian.

Why is this a problem? Because it's all grossly misleading. It suggests that Darwin was the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, of evolutionary biology, and that the subject hasn't changed much in the 149 years since the publication of the "Origin."

He wasn't, and it has. Although several of his ideas -- natural and sexual selection among them -- remain cornerstones of modern evolutionary biology, the field as a whole has been transformed. If we were to go back in a time machine and fetch him to the present day, he'd find much of evolutionary biology unintelligible -- at least until he'd had time to study genetics, statistics and computer science.

Oh, there would be so much to tell him! A full list would take me weeks to write out. But the obvious place to begin would be the discoveries of genetics, especially DNA. We'd have to explain that cells in each organism contain a code describing how to build that organism, written in chemical form -- DNA -- that evolutionary forces are constantly rewriting. Indeed, the study of DNA allows us to see the action of natural selection on a molecule-by-molecule basis. We can see the genes where natural selection acts to prevent evolutionary change, those where it drives change and those where it has no effect at all.

Then there's the fusion of genetics with natural selection, which has enormously expanded our understanding of how natural selection can work. For example, it has led to the discovery that natural selection does not just shape individuals -- the length of a beak, the color of a fin. It can also act on family groups, and thus drive the evolution of cooperation and other altruistic behaviors.

anyone see her tv series?

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

Instead, since Anya's deep in study for next week's three-day test, i'm going to slip in a film disc i suppose i should see again.  i hated it the first time, as i thought it was a disservice to my perverted view of "spiritual LSD."

Even after a coupla occasions of drinking into the wee hours with Hunter Thompson, and though i loved the time with him, i hated the film.  i respected his writing, and his dissection of amurka, but i hated the film.

So i will now watch it again, to see if i'm crazier than his film version was.  (He was the most intelligent drunk i ever drank with, but he never had a clue as to the potential of spiritual awakening.)  We'll see if Messers Depp and Del Toro can actually recapture those days.)

There's bugs all over me!

Skennah Kowa

Here are some amalgamated polls from Pollster.com

Ohio -- a state McCain has to win:

Florida -- a state McCain has to win:

Viginia -- a state McCain has to win:

New Mexico -- a state McCain needs to win:

North Carolina:

Texas -- if McCain loses this state he's hosed:

wheeeeeeeeeee!

OK, how about

Arizona? --

Ah, yes.  h'rumph

Now their latest National Poll:

Looking at this it is easy to see Obama hasn't won, yet, but the McCain campaign is edging into some deep trouble.  If McCain doesn't do something pretty damn soon he's going to be too far behind in states he absolutely has to win  ... to win.  Obama is opening GOTV offices like flowers after a rain, training field and precinct workers, working the streets, getting a solid ProAm campaign organization in place.  The O-Man is going to be one tough cookie to beat.  He's getting his team into the field.  McCain's campaign is still choosing, and losing, players.  

There's no question McCain can still push through.  There's also no question that window is closing.  

CAVEAT:  I wrote McCain off last fall.  I thought the guy had blown his chances to get the nomination.  It's still puzzling to me HOW he got the GOP nomination but I suspect it was due to (1) 'He's not the other guy' and (2) being the heir apparent in a Top/Down organization.  

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!