12 Indian Days Of Christmas

As it is that time of year again ...

New Version Of Star Trek Trailer (With Leonard Nimoy)

Sarah Palin Interview With Turkeys Being Slaughtered In Background

Some people just don't pay alot of attention I guess ...

Star Trek Trailer - Clean Transfer

Star Trek Trailer - Bootleg

Here's a smuggled copy of the Star Trek trailer playing with the Bond flick ...

Yes, I'm thinking that "re-imagined" label is beginning to apply ...

President-Elect Barack Obama - November 4, 2008 - Chicago, Illinois

Ayn Rand on Faith vs. Reason

The Spanish subtitles are a bit distracting, but an interesting clip ...

"Pegasus" - Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 2

And this one I still think is the best original piece from the series so far ...

"Colonial Anthem" - Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 2

I swear to you I tear up every time I hear this ...

"... because I don't wear a uniform ... most of us don't ... most of us never will ..."

"Surfin' Bird" - The Trashmen - 1963

Someone just HAD to upload this, didn't they???

A Mother's Promise: The Biography of Barack Obama

There are pics of Barack's parents in this video I have never seen before ...

Jack Cafferty: "If Sarah Palin Being A Heartbeat From The Oval Office Doesn't Scare You, It Should."

T-Mobile G1 (Google Android) Demonstrated

Now here's a nice demo of the upcoming T-Mobile G1, which runs the Google Android mobile OS.

Looks like they are making a NICE stab at mixing the Blackberry and iPhone qualities - a touch screen interface where you can do many of the things you can do with a iPhone, BUT it also has a full slide-out keyboard.

The phone is expected out October 22.

Yes, I will be at SOME T-Mobile retail location shortly after that to torture the thing and see if I can get some sort of substantive answer to the question when T-Mobile will be rolling out their 3G network to the Cincinnati area.

Radio Announcer Keeps Talking Through Studio Fire

Yes ... I think I've seen it all now ...

CBS News On The Fannie / Freddie Takeover

World War III Conspiracy Video

Actually my favorite Conspiracy Nut friend ought to enjoy this one ... :)

Carl Sagan On - Making Organic Chemistry Interesting

It had been a while since I had watched this clip.

It really does have some similarities to the Paul Johnson "Ethanol" Video.

Now, it's not obvious on YouTube, but I remember from having watched this on video - the Sagan clip was shot on video. It's not well known outside of the media "biz", but parts of Cosmos were shot on video and parts on film. Of course now that we have such stuff as the new Battlestar Galactica that is shot on video but computer processed to look like film, I wonder what Cosmos would have looked like had it been made in the early 21st century.

Of course the first thing that struck me is that there is a VERY long cut right after Sagan goes into the studio, but he keeps it interesting.

Oh, and that brings up the first point - STUDIO ...

Of course the Sagan piece, in turn, in somewhat reminiscent of the works of Julius Sumner Miller - but what Sagan adds is a little trick called a "hair light" that keeps things looking a little more "professional". A hair light is a 2X overexposed light from the back that tends to make a bright line at the edge of a person's hair and separates them from the background. Considering Sagan went for the "eerie" black background, that hairlight is CRITICAL.

And shooting such scenes in a studio or at least indoors is generally good advise - that way you don't have issues with turning blue on partly cloudy days.

Of course what this video really may have to lend to the Paul Johnson video is detail and plot.

Sagan takes all these things meant to represent the atoms and small molecules that make up a human body - charcoal for the carbon in our DNA, liquid nitrogen for the nitrogen in our proteins, chalk for the calcium in our bones, rusty nails for the iron in our blood, 100 pounds of tap water, and some trace elements, and mixes it all together and makes a mess - particularly with the liquid nitrogen bubbling.

What Paul Johnson needs to do for version 2 of this video is see if he can really literally get down in the dirt.

He may, in fact, need to enlist the help of PBS types - possibly even David Brancaccio himself.

There's two ways to do this video as I see it.

The one would be starting with some unsuspecting E85 pump somewhere in the Northern Kentucky / Southwest Ohio / Southeast Indiana area, wait for the tanker to come by and then follow the tanker back to where it picks up the E85, and then, of course, follow the ethanol components back to their origin.

The other way would be to start from a corn field and work your way forward.

Either way you'll discover, whether a gallon of E85 truly costs $7, $10, or $20/gallon, the whole thing is a tremendous deception because in addition to the gasoline that you need to run the machines to even make the ground useful for growing corn and then transporting to the refining facilities, you have this issue of the STAGGERING amount of natural gas that goes into the fertilizers that make modern farming possible.

Yes, although Paul Johnson's numbers may not be exactly right, on the topic of ethanol as automotive fuel, we been had, we been took, we been hoodwinked - led astray, run amok - BAMBOOZLED ...

Paul Johnson's "Ethanol & the Energy Freedom Revolution" Video

Here it is at last, ladies and gents ...

Now, for some reason I can't quite figure out at the moment, this video is putting me in mind of the segment from Carl Sagan's Cosmos when Sagan was demonstrating the elements and simple compounds that make up the human body.

This is Paul Johnson - I've been trying to figure out a good short description of him - sort of like Denmark Vesey calls himself the Blackest man in America - I'm tempted to say Paul Johnson is the Americanest man on the planet, but I'm sure that would get a fight started.

Onto this specific video.

Now, despite the fact that I disagree with Paul Johnson quite a bit of the time, I'd have to say he's probably on the right track with this one.

I'm not sure if his numbers are exactly right, but I'd have to say I'm pretty sure of the fact that it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than you'd ever get out of it.

In Paul Johson's video, however, he demonstrates how you've got an energy, and therefore fiscal negative on EVERY gallon of ethanol produced.

He starts out with a gallon of E85 - the 85% ethanol blend that can be used in certain newer "flex fuel" vehicles - selling for $4.00/gallon at the time this video was produced.

To make that gallon of E85, you need 1/3 bushel of corn worth $2.50 + 1.12 gallon of gasoline to refine it worth $5.50 + $2.50 for labor and overhead = $10.00/gallon. Paul Johnson says the $6.00 difference comes from Uncle Sam picking your pocket every 15th of April.

Like I said - I don't know if his dollar figures are exactly correct, but, having done the experiment myself when I was in a special physics program for gifted high school students at Xavier, at this latitude the solar flux is only 700 watts/square meter and that's on a completely clear day in full blazing sunlight.

I don't think there's any way on God's green Earth that CORN is a terribly efficient solar energy converter. I've been told that in Brazil, where the solar flux is closer to 1000 watts/square meter, that sugar cane does a much better job, but I'm having difficulty believing that too.

Paul Johnson goes on to say that we ought to have "energy rallies".

Uh huh.

I sent a letter to Senator Sherrod Brown asking what steps he could take to begin work on a Constitutional amendment so that CHILD RAPISTS could be EXECUTED and this is the utterly lackluster reply I got:



No wonder people have given up trying to influence their legislators. If this is all the reaction you can get about CHILD RAPISTS, I'm betting you couldn't get a PULSE about ethanol.

Now - back to Paul Johnson's video ...

Well, in my first post about Paul Johnson I was saying I couldn't tell from his 55KRC radio spots if he was trying to sell insurance or trying to be elected to office - now I'm starting to wonder if he's really trying to be a history professor. Although, I think he's on the right track showing some of the things the Revolutionary War patriots fought with. If I ever do get my documentation together to join the Sons of the American Revolution I may have to borrow some of Paul Johnson's farm implements.

However - note to Paul Johnson's production crew - pick a white balance and stick with it, people! The shifts from blood red to pale blue ...

[[Light bulb]]

Is Paul Johnson starting to turn into the Hulk???

Also (don't you love all this free production advise - I have a degree in this stuff you know :) ) - get a 2nd camera, people - they're cheap now.

I know the syncing is going to be a little rough, but it SHOULD be possible even with MovieMaker. Some of the jump cuts in this thing are JARRING.

Don't get me wrong - you're on the right track - in some ways it looks better than some of the early stuff I produced for Public Access, but I only had TWO VHS MACHINES and a PRIMITIVE edit controller to work with, y'all. You have COMPUTERS.

But, all in all, a good first effort ... I'll have to set up an RSS feed on the YouTube ID "pauljohnsoninsurance" to watch for more of these ...

Related:
MillionEnergyUserMarch - by Personal Injury Attorney Eric Deters

Explanation Of The Fabricated Barack Obama Birth Certificate

This is a really great YouTube video explaining exactly why the Kos/Smears JPEG of the "Obama Birth Certification" is likely an absolute fabrication.

Uncle Jay Explains - This Week's Word: "Plummet"