Sep 30 2007
Posted by CyberCelt under Personal, Strange
Happy Birthday to Me!
I leave you with a LOL Cat picture . . .
Today is my birthday. I will be doing absolutely nothing or everything, whatever I want to do.
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Archive for September, 2007
Sep 28 2007
Posted by CyberCelt under Alternative Energy
Anyone Looking for Biodiesel?
We are now the proud owners of a black, 1994 Chevy 2500 Diesel 4×4 truck. We have named the truck, Beast 2, because we will be using it to tow Beauty, our travel trailer. The truck gets about 18 miles to the gallon, which is 10 miles to the gallon more than the original Beast, a 1987 Ford Club Van XL.
Click here to find biodiesel in the Austin area.
So now we have our dream vehicle, one that can run on biodiesel. Now, there is something new to think about, biodiesel mixtures. B20 is a mixture of 20% biofuel to 80% diesel fuel. This runs in your diesel truck with no problem. However, you also may find B99, almost pure biodiesel, for sale. There is nothing wrong with this fuel. You should download the following document and read it before using any mixture higher that B20.
Right click here and “save as” to download Use of Biodiesel Blends above 20% Biodiesel from the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), a national trade association representing the US biodiesel.
If you do not want to read it, here is Eileen’s summary . . .
There are biodiesel blends, like B99,which is almost pure biodiesel. These blends may cause some performance problems in colder areas. It is always good to measure the cold flow properties of a biodiesel blend to insure it will perform adequately for climate and altitude in which it will be used. With fuel mixtures above B20, cold flow properties can start to gel around 32 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Care must be taken to be sure the blend will not gel and clog the fuel filter.
Petrodiesel leaves a deposit in the bottom of fuel lines, tanks and delivery systems over time. Biodiesel acts as a cleaning agent and dissolves these sediments. This can result in the fuel
filter becoming clogged and the need to change filters more frequently until the sediment is cleaned out. The cleaning action of pure or “neat” biodiesel may cause fuel filters to clog more often.
B100 will soften and degrade certain types of elastomers and rubber compounds over time, like natural or butyl rubbers. Blends of B20 or lower have not exhibited problematic elastomer degradation.
Industry experts recommend that biodiesel be used within six months of manufacture to ensure that the quality of the fuel is maintained.
Diesel engines convert the energy in biodiesel into work with same efficiency as petrodiesel, so fuel economy, peak horsepower and peak torque are directly related to the energy content of biodiesel. On average, B20 will have 1-2% less BTUs compared to petrodiesel, and B100 eill have 7-9% less BTUs per gallon than petrodiesel.
Due to the slightly higher viscosity and density of biodiesel, blends higher than B20 may cause more unburned fuel to pass the piston rings into the oil pan. Engine oil change intervals need to be shortened if using high blends of biodiesel. The viscosity and density of B20 and lower blends are very similar to that of the pure petrodiesel, so no changes in engine oil intervals are needed with B20 or lower.
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Sep 27 2007
Posted by CyberCelt under Other Countries, Reviews
Do Not Drink the Water in the USA
I had a friend who was training to be a doctor in Mexico City. He would come home every Thanksgiving or Christmas to visit his family in Houston. Every Thanksgiving or Christmas he would get sick as a dog. His poor mother would always lament about how her cooking had never made anyone sick before.
My nephew lives in Taiwan, where he teaches English as a second language, and travels quite a bit. When he visited Houston the last time, he had a sore on his leg he had received whitewater rafting. My sister-in-law, his mom, and my sister, his aunt–both nurses–worked on him the entire visit. They had him on antibiotics and were debriding the wound and slapping salves on it. He emailed me when he got back to Taiwan and said his wound was fine, but he was nursing a case of diarrhea from eating and drinking in the USA.
Our bodies are resistant to the bacteria and bugs in our part of the world. For this, and many other reasons, extreme care should be taken when traveling in a foreign country. If you are going on an extended (over a week) trip, I would suggest that you purchase travel insurance.
CoverMyTravels.co.uk has all types of travel insurance, including travel insurance over 65 years of age. It takes just a moment to get a quote online or you may call them.
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Sep 27 2007
Posted by CyberCelt under Causes
Genocide in Darfur Continues Today!
The Future Looks Grim for Young Mother and Child in Darfur
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have responded to the suffering in Darfur by standing up and demanding that their governments take action to end the crisis. However, many individuals still have not heard about the genocide in Darfur.
What Can You Do?
* C L I C K *
Click here to Learn More about the GenocideClick here to Visit the Darfur page on the Website of the United States Holocaust Museum
Click here to Listen to Voices on Genocide Prevention (Podcasts)
Three years of fighting in Darfur have destroyed hundreds of villages, displaced 2.2 million and led to more than 400,000 deaths. President Bush has accused the government of Sudan of genocide, but the U.S. has taken few concrete actions to stop the fighting.
View Video Above to See What We Have Allowed to Happen Since the President and Congress Declared Actions in Darfur as Genocide What Can You Do?
* C L I C K *Click here to Send Message to President Bush
and UN Secretary-General Ki-Moon Ban
Click to Find Local Save Darfur Group
Click to Donate to the Save Darfur Coalition
Click to purchase Darfur Ribbon, Banner, Wristband or T-shirt from the Save Darfur Store
400,000 DEAD
2.5 Million DISPLACED
10,000 to 15,000 DYING EACH MONTH
DEAD, DYING, DISPLACED: children, women,
men, elders, families, complete villages . . .
Darfur is the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape and mass slaughter. The ongoing devastation has killed an estimated 400,000 and displaced over 2.5 million Sudanese since February 2003.
Reach Out to the People of Darfur
Contributions to the Save Darfur Coalition, a tax-exempt organization under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, are deductible.
Please Help Darfur
In Darfur, hundreds of people a day are raped, starved and murdered by the Sudanese armed forces and a Sudanese government-backed militia known as the Janjaweed.
The United Nations Security Council authorized that peacekeepers be deployed to Darfur, but the Sudanese government has not yet allowed them entry.
Meanwhile, the calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter continues . . . until we do something!
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has joined with Google in an unprecedented online mapping initiative. Crisis in Darfur enables more than 200 million Google Earth users worldwide to visualize and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur.
Click here to download Crisis in Darfur Layer for Google Earth
Contributions to the Save Darfur Coalition, a tax-exempt organization under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, are deductible.
This post is made in support of
BloggersUnite : Blogging for Hope
9/27/2007
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Sep 26 2007
Posted by CyberCelt under Blog Events, Causes
Blog for Hope Tomorrow
Join the largest group of bloggers to ever blog about important causes of abuse. On September 27th, 2007, blog about some sort of abuse that you would like to see ended, forever.
- Spread the word among all the bloggers you know.
- Direct them to the community challenge on BlogCatalog blog.
- There are badges that you may post on your blogs on this thread.
- Let other members know of organizations that are involved in putting an end to abuse.
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