A Whisky for the Road?

This blind Bambi is all for renewable energy sources and reducing our dependence upon petroleum, so when I saw a short piece in the 27 August 2010 edition of "Science" magazine about turning the byproducts of Scotch whiskey production into butanol to fuel cars, it caught my eye. Now Scotch whiskey is apparently Scotland's biggest industry. A Scotch single-malt whiskey is distilled ethanol produced by using yeast to break down the glucose in barley. When the process is complete, what's left over is a residue known as "draff" and Scotland's hundreds of distilleries produce about 187 million kilograms of it each year. Now, Martin Tangney, an industrial microbiologist at Edinburgh Napier University, has discovered and patented a process to turn the sugars remaining in the leftover draff into a fuel that can be used in vehicles. In my simple mind, the beauty of this solution is that, although an area like Scotland cannot grow sugar cane, like Brazil, to produce ethanol, they have found a similar process to simply convert a "waste product" which is plentiful in their region to potentially achieve a similar, and almost more elegant, result. I raise a toast to the Scots and wish them the best of luck with ingenuity like this.

Is Your Ride a Ticket Magnet?

In a recent study for the insurance industry, various vehicle makes and models were studied and the propensity of each to be ticketed by law enforcement was quantified. The following results are specified in terms of moving violations per 100,000 miles driven, expressed as percentage of average:

Most Violations ("Spirited Vehicles")	Least Violations ("Cautious Vehicles")
Mercedes-Benz SL-Class Convertable (404%)	Buick Ranier SUV (23%)
Toyota Camry-Solara Coupe (349%)	Mazda Tribute SUV (26%)
Scion TC Coupe (343%)	Chevrolet C/K- 3500/2500 Pickup (26%)
Hummer H2/H3 SUV (292%)	Kia Spectra Sedan (27%)
Scion XB Hatchback (270%)	Buick Lacrosse SUV (32%)
Mercedes-Benz CLS-63 AMG Sedan (264%)	Saturn Aura Hybrid Sedan (37%)
Acura Integra Coupe (185%)	Oldsmobile Silhouette Minivan (37%)
Pontiac Grand Prix Sedan (182%)	Chevrolet Uplander Minivan (38%)
Mercedes-Benz CLK 63 AMG Sedan (179%)	Hyundai Tucson SUV (38%)
Volkswagen GTI Hatchback (178%)	Pontiac Vibe SUV (39%)

So, there are no surprises that sportier and more exotic models such as the Mercedes sedans and coupes are indeed more likely to get you ticketed. While it may be arguable whether this is because they tempt you to drive them more aggressively or whether they simply stand out from the other traffic, my guess is that in most cases, the first problem is the more likely culprit. In my opinion, though, the presence of two Scion models on this list lends credence to the "stand-out" theory. Likewise, I expect that most of the models on the "cautious vehicle" list could not be found on many dream car lists. It struck me that a large number from the "less likely to be ticketed" list are no longer made. As a sobering note of the current economic climate, though, even the list of "cool" cars includes models from car brands no longer with us (i.e., Hummer and Pontiac).

NFL Team Popularity Contest

In an online survey of 2,620 adult sports fans in the U.S., conducted Sept. 14-20 by Harris Interactive, the Dallas Cowboys were again "America's Team" finishing first in popularity for the fourth straight year. The full rankings are:

1. Dallas Cowboys	12. San Francisco 49ers	23. Carolina Panthers
2. Indianapolis Colts	13. Philadelphia Eagles	24. St. Louis Rams
3. Green Bay Packers	14. Denver Broncos	25. Kansas City Chiefs
4. Pittsburgh Steelers	15. Washington Redskins	26. Cleveland Browns
5. New Orleans Saints	16. New York Jets	27. Cincinnati Bengals
6. New England Patriots	17. Houston Texans	28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
7. New York Giants	18. Oakland Raiders	29. Buffalo Bills
8. Minnesota Vikings	19. Baltimore Ravens	30. Detroit Lions
9. Chicago Bears	20. San Diego Chargers	31. Seattle Seahawks
10. Atlanta Falcons	21. Miami Dolphins	32. Jacksonville Jaguars
11. Arizona Cardinals	22. Tennessee Titans

Now I'm just a blind Bambi, but this list validates my expectations that teams in more populous regions and/or teams which have had recent success are, in general, the more "popular" teams nationwide.  If you surveyed fan groups, however, I would certainly expect that according to each, their team and its fans are unquestionably the "best."  The fact that even teams which perennially struggle have fans that take pride in their team and are relentlessly optimistic about future victories, though, is an important element of the game.

Michigan Couple Pulls Off A Triple Triple

Chad and Barbara Soper, of Rockford, Michigan, shouldn't have any difficulty remembering their childrens' birthdays.  Oldest daughter, Chloe Corrin, was born August 8, 2008.  Son, Cameron Dane, was delivered on September 9, 2009.  Now, just a few days ago, youngest daughter, Cearra Nicole, arrived on October 10th.  That's three children with birthdays of 08/08/08, 09/09/09, and 10/10/10 respectively.  Now a blind Bambi like myself might think that this is a pretty unlikely feat.  It turns out, however, that thousands of women in the United States had kids in each of the three consecutive years:  2008, 2009 and 2010.  Having three children separated by two spans of 13 months is also probably not incredibly rare.  Somehow, though, lining these events up early in the century, where patterns such as this are possible, is pretty cool.  If I were them, I might try buying a few lottery tickets to see if similar numeric trends work out for them there.  In case you're wondering about whether they might extend the streak with a child on 11/11/11, they apparently don't currently have any more planned.

Wasted Food Equals Wasted Energy

My mother always taught me to be a member of the "clean your plate" club.  Most diet and nutrition experts, however, often encourage us not to feel obliged to eat everything put in front of us at the table.  Throwing away food may trigger our guilt about wasting something others in this world may not have enough of.  In truth, however, the health issues caused by our overeating probably result in even higher costs to our society.  Researchers at the University of Texas, though, are now telling us that American food waste represents the energy equivalent of 350 million barrels of oil.  That's enough to power the U.S. for a week.  In my simple mind, this complicates the dilemma even further.  Now I have to balance three categories of guilt (wasting nutritional resources, over-eating, and wasting energy).  In the bigger picture, however, this result indicates to me that, although Americans highly value convenience, even slightly more careful and better planned food shopping by consumers and small efficiency increases in our food production and supply chain could have a significant impact on our energy consumption.

Mandates for Many Miles Per Gallon

Another new proposed auto fuel mileage rule is expected from the Obama administration this week, listing an overall auto-industry standard that could be set as high as 60 mpg by 2025. Back in April, a rule forcing automakers to meet a required 35.5 miles per gallon standard in 2016 was announced. Although this would impose an estimated $52 billion burden on them, manufacturers welcomed this standard, as it will avoid a much more costly patchwork of state and federal regulation. I wonder if the talk of such a drastic increase only nine additional years further out now has them worried, though. I'm just a Blind Bambi, but I would want to wait a little longer to see the impact of the earlier attempt at such standards upon both the U.S. auto industry and their consumers before trying to come up with a fuel consumption target for 15 years out.

Road Test Playlist

On USA Today's website, I ran across an article which included a playlist for for testing car audio quality. The expert selecting the songs was General Motors audio engineer Matt Kirsch. GM also posted the tracks as a mix at the iTunes store ($12 to buy it). His list includes 1) "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones (you should listen for Norah's voice to sound natural, and centered in front of you), 2) "Diamonds and Rust" by Joan Baez (you should listen for strong vocals, and for the instruments to be set across a wide sound stage), 3) "No One" by Alicia Keys (you should listen for clarity in Alicia's vocals and spacious background sound), 4) "Hotel California" by the Eagles (you should isten for the clarity and dynamic range during the opening guitar solo, and of course the powerful drum beat), 5) "Boom Boom Pow"by the Black Eyed Peas (you should listen for powerful, accurate bass beats, even at full volume), 6) "Rock that Body" by the Black Eyed Peas (you should listen clear, intelligible lyrics over the powerful, persistent bass beat), 7) "Hide and Seek"by Imogen Heap (you should listen for the enveloping ambience of the song, building on the openness and dynamic vocals), 8) "He Mele No Lilo" by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu from Lilo and Stitch (you should listen for the ambience and staging as the children's chorus is offset by powerful bass), 9) "Bird on a Wire" by Johnny Cash (you should listen for the clarity in Johnny's distinctive voice, and his guitar to sound natural and free of any coloration), and 10) "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" by Radiohead (you should listen for the punch from the percussive bass, and the ring of the steel drums).

Now I'm just a hillbilly and certainly not a sophisticated audiophile. In considering the range and types of musical sound covered by this list, however, even I can appreciate how these songs could be useful in comparing audio systems.