Alcoholic Cars 2.0

The other day this story was reported on the BBC about how scientists may have found a way of storing hydrogen for use as a fuel in vehicles through extracting it from Methanol. This hydrogen would then be used to create an charge for an electric vehicle. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21618350

Sounds great right?

Well, surely not. The idea of fueling vehicles on alcohol has been about since Henry Ford, so it certainly is not a new idea. What the new idea with this story is is that they are using a flammable liquid to power an electric car. I think you can see where I'm going with this...

Petroleum is around 95 Octane, methanol is around the 115 mark. Hydrogen fuel celled cars on the other hand will have also have to had encorporated complicated computers and the complete redesigning of the infrastructure we have come accustomed to in the modern world. 

Now, I'm going to go out on a whim here and say that its probably much more cost effective and easier for the world to sell conventional combustion engines which can run on methanol and kits to convert ordinary petrol vehicles into being able to use it too. There would be very little modifications needed, if any if someone could invent a good enough additive to put in with methanol to stop it corroding seals and aluminium parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8flqK4pRKU0

Methanol has been used to fuel racing cars for years already afterall...

And it can be made from rotting organic matter. I have no objections against using all that unused food that ends up in landfill, (and the by-product of the food we do eat) to make fuel to power our cars. Fuck, anything to bring down the cost of motoring has to be a bonus.

Global Warming Made The Dinosaurs!

This is an old story from way back in 2010 but I found the link through a new story on the BBC news site.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8580444.stm

In this article scientists reported that there may be a link between apparent sudden global temperature rises caused by volcanic activity and the dinosaurs rise to become the most successful group of land animals the Earth has ever seen. Apparently this was caused by 'global warming', which killed off the large primitive reptiles which dominated before hand allowing the dinosaurs a window of opportunity.

So the BBC, usually the flag carrier of state propaganda posts information which flies in the face of global warming fears. Surely if cosmological or geological influences can adjust temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the age of the dinosaurs, it can still happen today? Right?

Temperature variations happen, continue to happen, and until this planet is either vaporized or turned into a ball of ice and thrown off into outer-space, will always happen.

There is this strange idea that has somehow got into the minds of everyone in society, including scientists on the payroll of Government agencies, that the planet must stay the same. Historical evidence flies in the face of such ridiculous assertions.

Look back at periods of British weather. The Neolithic period was warm and wet, one of the main reasons that farming techniques were able to be brought into Northern Europe.
Then there was the 'Warm Medieval Period'. This period was warm enough in England to grow vineyards for the Roman occupation. In fact it was this warm period which enabled large viking settlements on Greenland and the finding of Vinland (or Canada as we now call it) by so called uncivilized Danish brutes. Of course this doesn't mean that the weather stayed nice enough for them to stay there.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/11/101123-native-american-indian-vikings-iceland-genetic-dna-science-europe/

http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/

Vikings travelled to America and Greenland in Longboats.

Ironically today we have the worlds media doing the rounds about 'extreme cold weather fronts' whatever that means. Of course the idea is to try and trick those of us with short memories into believing we are all going to die relatively soon of some kind of climatic disaster. In some roundabout way, 'climate change' can either be attributed to any kind of weather, be it hot or cold. This latest cold snap in the UK however is nothing compared to the arctic winter felt almost two hundred years ago in 1814 when the Thames froze over and there were entire carnivals pretty much held on the ice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Thames_frost_fairs


Of course there may be a negative side to all this. I mean, if global warming really did create dinosaurs (like global warming to reptiles is like that radioactive spider to Peter Parker) we could theoretically be creating Godzilla right now.