“There is really no need going around starting wars over oil. We have it here at home. We have the necessary product, the farmers can grow it,” said Nelson, who organized Farm Aid two decades ago to draw attention to the plight of American agriculture.
Nelson told The Associated Press in an interview last week that he began learning about the product a few years ago after his wife purchased a biodiesel-burning car in Hawaii, where the star has a home.
“I got on the computer and punched in biodiesel and found out this could be the future,” said Nelson, who now uses the fuel for his cars and tour buses.
Peter Bell, a Texas biodiesel supplier, struck up a friendship with Nelson after filling up one of the tour buses, and the business partnership came together just before Christmas.
Madison Winter Farmer’s Market
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The Dane County Winter Farmer’s Market is well underway Saturday Mornings at the Madison Senior Center. Map Some of my favorites are there, including Ela Orchard, Fountain Prairie Farms and Bleu Mont Dairy.
Moscow Subway Panoramic Scenes
Gorgeous Moscow Metro VR Scenes.
Our Tax Dollars at Work: FBI’s $170M failed Computer System
The development is a major setback for the F.B.I. in a decade-long struggle to escape a paper-driven culture and replace antiquated computer systems that have hobbled counterterrorism and criminal investigations. Robert S. Mueller III, the bureau’s director, along with members of the Sept. 11 commission and other national security experts, have said the success of that effort is critical to domestic security.
“It’s immensely disappointing to learn of this type of failure,” Lee H. Hamilton, the vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, said in an interview. “The F.B.I. cannot share information and manage their cases effectively without a top-flight computer system, and we on the commission got assurances again and again from the F.B.I. that they were getting on top of this problem. It’s very, very disappointing to see that they’re not.”
Investors supporting spyware
Ben Edelman’s page is a great example of the internet’s enormous “power to the people” potential. Edelman lists the firms producing spyware along with their investors. Check it out. Wikipedia:
Strictly defined, spyware consists of computer software that gathers and reports information about a computer user without the user’s knowledge or consent. More broadly, the term spyware can refer to a wide range of related malware products which fall outside the strict definition of spyware. These products perform many different functions, including the delivery of unrequested advertising (pop-up ads in particular), harvesting private information, re-routing page requests to illegally claim commercial site referral fees, and installing stealth phone dialers.
Clusty fat link: spyware.
NPR’s All Songs Considered 2005 Preview
Interesting and eclectic music. I like Pat Metheny’s new cd.
Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For Rankings
Governor Jim Doyle’s State of the State Speech Links
Google News and Clusty links to commentary on Doyle’s speech last night. 67MB Video Clip
Madison WiFi: Indiana Squelches Muni Wireless
The Masculine Aspects of Tire Chains (or not)
Living in San Francisco years ago, I remember the hassles of California’s chain laws (State law requires that all vehicles carry chains during the winter, and that a three-tier level of chain use be followed, depending on the amount of snow). Charlie LeDuff talks to a few “chain monkeys” – people licensed by Caltrans to install chains on Sierra Nevada roads ($30/car).
He said there were philosophical points to his second career. “Women love you, they just love you,” he said. “You’re like their hero, and that gives you a good feeling.”
He finds modern men, on the other hand, a disappointing lot. They have become so sedate, so inept and removed from the ability to fend for themselves, Mr. Miesel said, that they must pay another man to put chains on their tires.