Blatant Reality

Algenol will begin commercial scale production of algae based ethanol from blue green algae in 2009. The are claiming that their production methods will be carbon neutral and cost competitive with other alternative fuels.
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For more on this, click here

Do I really need to say more?

Seems like Obama doesn’t want to take a position on the bombing of an al Qaeda agent in Syria. Going off his previous statements of supporting taking out targets in Pakistan, it should seem like he would support this recent action. Of course, with a week before the election, we aren’t going to see him take a potentially controversial stand.
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The Weekly Standard has more on this here.

South Carolina’s General Assembly is having an emergency session to dea with the budget shortfall. The cuts have been proposed in House Bill 5300 and as of right now, there are 11 amendments that have been proposed. These amendments will be debated today which means that it could be a long.
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On an interesting note, 7 of those amendments have been proposed by James Smith.
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UPDATE
Amendment #4 proposes that Suth Carolina only spend based on the previous year’s collection. The House voted 59-49 to table the amendment to later debate.
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UPDATE 2
Amendment #8 proposes that South Carolina affix a stamp to cigarettes that help to track the collections of cigarette taxes (doesn’t raise the tax). The House voted 68-39 to table the amendment.
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UPDATE 3
Amendment #9 proposes the identical cigarette tax increase that was passed by the House and Senate but vetoed by the Gov. Sanford this past spring. This tax increase will supposedly cover roughly 1/3 of the budget shortfall. Voice vote tabled the amendment.
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UPDATE 4
Amendment #10 proposes that if state agencies have to lay off employees, the state has to re-employ these members if the economy rebounds. Amendment was tabled because there is a law like this already on the books.
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UPDATE 5
Amendment #11 proposes that the nonprofit Protection and Advocacy for the Handicapped, which got a 100% funding cut, get roughly a 14% cut instead which leaves roughly $249,000 for funding. The House voted 66-50 to table the amendment.
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UPDATE 6
Amendment #13 proposes that the cuts for the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities be lowered to 3.6% since these schools receive no local funding. House voted to table the amendment 80-31.
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UPDATE 7
Amendment #17 proposes to transfer $1,000,000 to the Department of Health and Environmental Control for HIV Prevention from the Department of Health and Human Services. Voice vote tabled the amendment.
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UPDATE 8
I’m heading to class for a bit but I should be back up there a little later to give more coverage.
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UPDATE 9
Well it seems that the House passed the Budget Cut Bill overwhelmingly with only one amendment addressing some number errors.

Bjorn Lomborg, known as a skeptical environmentalist, wrote an article today that appeared in The Australian basically ripping the alarmist’s scare tactics to shreds. Here are some of the highlights:

- This decade has seen a temperature decrease of .01 to .1 degrees Celsius per year.
- The heat content of the world’s oceans have been dropping contrary to what is expected in a ‘warming world.’
- Antarctica is doing better than expected in a ‘warming world.’
- Sea levels have actually gone down in the past couple of years.

Other than those highlights, Lomborg goes after the alarmists for doing what they do best: making things seem so much worse than they actually are. All I got to say is keep up the good work Lomborg. Maybe one day you will actually find that the warming we are experiencing is completely natural (or at the very least mostly caused by natural phenomenon).
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Read Lomborg’s whole article here

A days ago, I conducted an interview with South Carolina State Representative Nathan Ballentine about the current finantial situation. Now the situation has obviously gotten worse from Wednesday but this interview still has some good information so check it out.
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Click here for the interview

The Atlanta firm Green Bios Technologies has recieved a liscense to produce an algae bioreactor developed by Ohio University.
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This bioreactor is the creation of renowned engineer David Bayless and the company plans to develop this for uses ranging from biofuel to pharmaceuticals.
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While this bioreactor has the signiture of others currently being used, there are some propriety apsects of it that make it different from anything else offered on the market.
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Click here for more on this

Algae biofuel producer PetroSun has teamed up with Shanghai Jun Ya Yan Technology to build a commercial scale algae farm in China. Profits will be split evenly between the two parties.
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Click for more on this story

So my computer decided to randomly uninstall my built in wireless adapter hardware so I don’t have internet capabilities at the moment. All I can say is thank goodness for cellphones with internet browsers.

Virginia just opened its first experimental algae farm yesterday with the hopes of discovering how to create a commercially viable algae-to-fuel process. Like I keep saying folks, be sure to pay attention to this because things are advancing rapidly.
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Click here for more on this story