The buzzword these days is energy. Especially gasoline costs. While President Bush rightly calls for responsible drilling of oil in the coastal waters and to explore oil shale development as well as opening up the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge, the Democrats, as usual, are rounding up the wagons and screaming environmentalism at the top of their pitiful, soiled lungs.

Since I live in California, home of the radical Environmentalists who have run this state unchecked for eons, I decided I had a shot at convincing Hollywood star and the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger  himself to at least consider the idea.

So I wrote a letter and got the following response. I'll print the entire exchange including my reply for those who care to read it. The arrogance of the staff that wrote this letter is beyond words. I wrote a letter supporting oil drilling on the governor's web site and his response was as follows:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me about offshore oil drilling.  I always value hearing the thoughts of my fellow Californians.

California's coastline is an international treasure, and since taking office, my commitment to its preservation has been unwavering.  I do not support lifting the moratorium on new oil drilling off our coast, but I do welcome discussion about how to lower the cost of gasoline.

Soaring prices are taking a toll on not only California families, but all American families.   However, we are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil.

The direction our nation needs to go - and where California is already headed - is toward greater innovation in new technologies and new fuel choices for consumers.  That is how we will ultimately reduce fuel costs and also protect our environment.

Again, thank you for writing and adding your voice to this important issue.

Sincerely,

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Notice the larger sentence. Essentially, his administration blames the consumer for this mess. Nowhere was there any specifics about unified and a strategic energy policy. The facts speak for themselves with this letter. Neither California or the Federal government have an energy management policy. What they are doing is pointing the economy straight into the ground and hoping for the best. Gambling with the fifth largest economy in the world is a ballsy move, but I'm glad it is him and the Democratic-controlled  California legislature that will suffer the slings and arrows in the coming months as the rage of the consumer builds up.

Talk about arrogance. Blaming we consumers for the state and federal government's own mis-managed policies and failures to explore our huge oil reserves, endless over-regulation of specialized formulations of gasoline to satisfy legalists and environuts and then to block construction of new refineries at every turn to really turn the heat up.

Does one remember the Enron scandal? This smacks of the same sort of double-handed planning and leaves the consumer as the last person standing in a rigged game of musical chairs.

And the real kick of it is that his administration is saying that the oil is in short-supply and thus shows that there is a need to offset imports. His own letter admits as much but puts the ball square on the back of the taxpayer and consumer.

Face it folks... The ostrich has it's head in the sand while the axe finds itself getting set to fall on we the people. The same behavior showed itself before 9/11 and the lack of concern by the Clinton administration left the U.S. dangerously weak and ill-prepared for even a small attack.

Now they want to convince you it is *your* fault for the bad old energy problem. Know that the ones promoting the "green" movement are the same ones who ballyhoo the Sun-Death global warming fondue of fear and who also have big dollars invested in companies to sell you expensive alternative energy systems... You do realize it is *always* about the mighty dollar... right?

Too bad it's probably going to result in a depression. The evil "Inflation" word causes the politicians to shrink in horror, but the fact is that it is here and it is gaining speed. Layoffs are rampant and the coming meltdown of the travel industry is sending shock waves through this economy because of the lunacy of the Democrats who may rightly point out that we need to transition to a new energy infrastructure, but who have no sensible means or policies by which to do it.

Couple this with their fascination at removing free speech with the fairness doctrine (I'm sure they'll be silencing blogs as well as news outlets) and you and I may one day find ourselves living in a pretty close copy of Russia or China.

So... back to the Terminator who will do nothing and who speaks platitudes...

My letter read as follows:

Dear Governor,

I appreciate the gentle letdown that California won't be drilling, but
when our economy implodes because of the clash of environmental
interests over that of the economy, then some form of middle ground
must be reached.

I do find it interesting that the U.S. supply of oil shale and
off-shore resources is being ignored  and ruled out because of the
courts and a few special interests whose selfish motives outweigh the
needs of the many.

If the goal is to get off oil, then you certainly would agree that a
plan would make more sense then what is currently occurring.

It would make more sense to build bridges to transition to a new
energy culture rather than to dump the U.S. economy into ruin for lack
of a plan. I do think a bipartisan solution can be found, but the time
to begin forming a new and sensible energy policy is now.

As it stands now, this economy is heading for ruin. And it will be
because of environmentalists whose power has run unchecked for
decades.

If, as you say, new technologies are the answer, then these obviously
have been developed and have been implemented as the new
infrastructure to replace gasoline. I need to know where to buy my new
vehicle and where to get the new fuels to power it. Of course I am
being somewhat facetious, but the truth is that this illustrates the
problem. The government has no energy plan.

I appreciate your note, but what I got out of this form letter is that
we citizens are on our own to figure this out. Lucky for me that I'm a
scientist who is turning my attention towards this... I feel bad for
the people who have not developed expertise in these areas, since it
would appear that their appeals for a government initiative will be a
long wait indeed.

Folks - We are are on our own. These guys are feeling the heat and are hiding behind clever platitudes and double-speak. Perhaps they won't like it when we vote all of them out of office, be it Republican or Democrat. I'm a life-long Republican, but I don't trust a corrupt two-party system that is full of no-action personalities who speak well but can't deliver action.

I've taken action. For the last year, I've been building up a solar capability to cut energy costs for my small farm. And I've mapped out plans to buy a commuter vehicle in 2009 that will get 100mpg and bring back my mobility and freedom that these blasted Democrats and their ilk are determined to remove from us.

Rather than sit around moping, the thing to do it to act. Act in spite of the elitists and socialists who are out to convince you that you need them to decide what to do for you. Grow your own food and get off poisoned food supplies that use pesticides made in this country, which are then shipped to Mexico and Peru and then the poisoned crops are sent back here for you and I to eat.

Shop the outside rows of stores for the produce that *is* locally grown and get away from canned and prepared foods. Shop the local farmer's markets and put the money back in *your* pocket.

Use solar *everything*. I just installed six more solar lights, two of which are ultra high intensity LED lights for my porch which save a huge amount of energy. Why pay the electric company for outside lighting when you can get it for free?

I decided to experiment with solar water heating and take my evening showers with a neat little camp shower that now hangs in my regular shower and doesn't take one bit of fossil fuel. Works beautifully.

I'm building up to a permanent heater to run three seasons out of four and to potentially go all year if I can work out the right solution.

I have solar lighting running right now with a sixty watt panel and just ordered three more 120-watt panels for my starter solution. In about a year, I'll double the wattage to 800 watts of collecting power and then will up it to 1600 watts over the course of a five year plan. By the time I am done, I'll be free of PG&E and the energy monopoly for electric power.

The government *could* help with tax rebates and bold ideas. Instead, it is letters like these weak-kneed examples of how not to lead that leave my blood boiling. I wrote scathing rebukes to the two California senators too and gave them both a piece of my mind for their inaction. I have yet to hear back from them and probably won't hear a thing. They are too busy scheming with Hillary Clinton to create the perfect worker's paradise... Oh well. Guys like me will just work around them - LOL!

It used to be that government worked for the people. No more. These folks work for themselves. The only folks I have real respect for are the maverick politicians who call it like they see it and the military, who are realists and see things as they are. Trust that you are being fed a line by the liberal press and seek news sources and factual research when it comes to energy and crucial decisions about defense and foreign policy. Know that the weakling Democrats will fail you at every turn and cast a firm eye on the Republicans who have gotten away from their values and are currently not much better than the Democrats.

Enough carping. I'm putting in my solar pond for the rest of the week - It'll grow fish that I can eat and save on protein costs. Like I said before - Keep the faith... in yourself and certainly not in self-serving institutions whose only real motivations are to control you and take your money and choices away from you.

LOL - Until next time my friends!

No matter how well-meaning, politicians frequently fail to understand all the consequences of their laws. Real world costs, the costs and benefits faced by those who will actually have to live with the regulations, often elude those who pass these rules. Yet, even by those depressing standards, problems with the mandated that people will soon be forced to use stand out.

The advantages of compact fluorescent light bulbs are obvious. While the fluorescent bulbs can cost 10 times more than incandescent ones, fluorescent bulbs use 75 percent less electricity and last up to 10 times longer.

But longer life and energy savings come with a caveat — the fluorescent bulbs must be used for at least 15 minutes once they are turned on and ideally for at least several hours at a time. Turning them off quickly after you have turned them on dramatically reduces their life expectancy. Not being able to use light bulbs simply when it is convenient is a cost the consumers will bear even if politicians didn’t factor it into their estimates of savings.

But those are just a tiny fraction of the other real world costs. As many now know, the compact fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury. The hazards are not trivial. One study found that “immediately after the bulb was broken - and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted - levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by as much as 100 times.”

The EPA has come up with detailed advice on how to deal with how to put bulbs into sockets, cleanup spills, dispose of bulbs, and even safely transport them. For example, drop cloths should be placed on the floor under sockets in case bulbs are dropped, to cushion the fall. But if that fails, the cleanup process becomes incredibly involved.

First, the EPA warns to immediately evacuate the room of all people and pets, and to ensure that no one walks through the breakage area on their way out of the room. Windows must be opened and no one may re-enter the room for at least 15 minutes. Any central heating or air conditioning system should be shut down.

Take the relatively simple cleanup instructions for hard surfaces. Quoting from the EPA warning:

• Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.

• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.

• Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.

• Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

More rules apply the next several times one cleans the area. Each time one vacuums the area again: open the windows and shut off any central heating or air conditioning system. The windows should also remain open for at least 15 minutes after the vacuuming is completed.

It is not just customers who face risks. Undoubtedly many people will simply dispose of used compact fluorescent light bulbs in the trash. As John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North American, the group representing those who handle the trash, warned:

"The problem with the bulbs is that they'll break before they get to the landfill. They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens.”

Even transporting your new unbroken light bulbs creates all sorts of problems. Warnings state that the bulbs be put in containers with tight fitting lids and further suggesting the containers be filled with kitty litter around the bulbs to protect them from breaking due to sudden shocks. There is even the helpful suggestion that the container be labelled “Mercury — DO NOT OPEN.” Of course, you should transport these packages in a car trunk, but if you must keep them in the passenger compartment, make sure that it is well ventilated.

These are just some of the hassles to this latest “do good” regulation. Politicians place a premium on saving energy to the exclusion of saving people’s time, or, in this case, even their health.

When one looks at the problems with these bulbs, it becomes very understandable why people aren’t rushing to own them. Possibly people are a little smarter than the Democrat controlled congress that passed these rules.

John Lott is the author of Freedomnomics and a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland

Tomcat Notes: One wonders if Democrats actually *reason* out the long-term effects of their feel-good policies before creating even bigger problems than existed before. The newer LED bulbs don't pollute, save even more energy than florescent and will continue to get better and brighter over time. Perhaps if they had sponsored research first? Nope... somebody owned stock in florescent bulb companies and probably made a killing on this bill. Leave it to my home state of California to come up with this sort of ill-thought out disaster.

My trusty VMWare server gave up the ghost when I upgraded Ubuntu to Hardy Heron. After reviewing a number of recipes that all were missing pieces of the real process, I took my own stab at documenting what worked for me after about an hour of beating the walls of Google for the best solutions. Here is my attempt at helping you to get VMWare running on your system once you begin your attempt to fix the problem.

Don't panic if you have an established VMWare server that got killed in the process of your Ubuntu upgrade. Things can be fixed easily to have your server running in no time. Remember, the Ubuntu community is vast and all-knowing. Help can be had at many quarters and if one recipe doesn't work, then keep looking for more articles and writeups. You will find the solution by being diligent and patient.

On to the fix!

• First, try downloading the latest VMWare server from VMWare's site and see if they have fixed this yet. If your install blows up, then the next steps need to be taken:
  • cd to lib/modules/source under the vmware-server-distrib where you extracted the original vmware source code.
  • tar -xvf vmmon.tar (This will create the vmmon-only directory).
  • cd vmmon-only/include.
  • Edit the vcpuset.h file in this directory, you need to change line 74 from # asm/bitops.h” to “# linux/bitops.h. (Yes - keep the "#" character just "as-is". Just change the "asm" to "linux" and all will be well.
    
  • cd ../..
  • remove the old vmmon.tar or rename it if you want to keep it.
  • tar -cvf vmmon.tar vmmon-only (This creates the replacement tar image with the file you just updated).
  • Re-compile the modules by re-running the standard "sudo vmware-install.pl"
  • Know that this probably will fail, but we are going through the needed steps to get through the entire process. This is how things work on a starship ;>). No worries. There is more to the process. If yours does work at this point, then more power to you, else... read on!
    

If you see errors on compile:

• Download the "any any" patch from http://vmkernelnewbies.googlegroups.com/web/vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
• gzip -d vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
• tar -xvf vmware-any-any-update-116.tar
• cd vmware-any-any-update-116
  • sudo ./runme.pl (This will run the rest of the install - no worries as to the fact you are in the any-any directory and outside of the former install directory. If you have followed the process in my recipe, then this should all be A-ok. Know that you will need your serial number handy to re-enter to get the system running.
• Before going further, copy the following libraries as follows:
  • sudo cp /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
  • sudo cp /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.
    • The reason we did this is so that vmware can find these libraries... Otherwise, things just seem to go badly for vmware to run...

Now fire up the server:

• vmware &
• If you see errors complaining as follows:
  • Unable to alloc client: Cannot open file "/home/your-username/.vmware/preferences": Permission denied.
  • Change the preferences owner from root to your local username (you'll need sudo and a chown command to do this).
  • Fire up vmware again once this is done - it should work.

You should see the GUI pop up and run through your normal process. In my case, my existing guest OS systems were all there and ran as before. If you have troubles, then follow the errors and keep at it. Review your steps in the recipe I've given. In most cases, I'd bet you'll have no issues and things will work. Enjoy and do provide comments if you have successes or failures - this is the way the community learns!

By Jim Sanders / Sacramento Bee

Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, May 18, 2008

Steers like a car, tilts like a motorcycle – and gets 100 miles per gallon of gas.

California lawmakers are wrestling with whether to allow into carpool lanes a high speed, fully enclosed, three-wheel hybrid that is under development in Los Angeles.

The legislation is pushed by the hybrid's creator, Venture Vehicles, which acknowledges that sidestepping bumper-to-bumper commutes could make it easier to obtain financing and to sell the vehicle.

VentureOne, patterned after a model sold in Europe, the Carver, is designed to feature a tiny body, a $25,000 price and many of the safety and comfort features of a car.

"I've ridden one of them," said Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, who drove the European Carver on a test track. "They're very nifty. You can't drive them without smiling."

"It's a different sensation," said Fuentes, D-Sylmar. "When you turn, it leans, no matter what you do. It feels like a very narrow car, but you feel very safe."

Like a motorcycle, the VentureOne is meant to seat only one person in front and one in back. But like a car, it promises a steering wheel, automatic transmission and air conditioning.

The three-wheeler is expected to hit speeds of more than 100 mph, tilt up to 45 degrees, and come equipped with an airbag, rear bumper and side impact beams.

"It's got all the creature comforts that one would expect in a car, except the passenger seat isn't there," said Howard Levine, president of Venture Vehicles, which plans to unveil a prototype in July and begin sales in California in 2010.

Industry analysts question whether drivers will flock to a 4-foot-wide hybrid with little trunk space, limited seating and a price tag higher than many larger cars.

"It's a little sporty, it's fuel-efficient, it's fun, so there's clearly a market for it – the question is how large," said Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis.

Legislators are debating how to classify the VentureOne on freeways.

State law allows motorcycles, electric vehicles, some clean-fuel vehicles and 85,000 hybrids into carpool lanes, but not yet a blended technology such as VentureOne, whose drivers will need neither helmets nor motorcycle licenses.

Fuentes' Assembly Bill 2272 would make an exception for fully enclosed, three-wheel vehicles, allowing them to use HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes and motorcycle parking.

"If you're going back and forth to work, with a briefcase, this is an excellent choice," Fuentes said of the hybrid.

The California Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles have taken no position on AB 2272, which passed the Assembly unanimously last month and awaits action in the Senate.

Venture Vehicles is not a major political donor but has hired a lobbyist to push Fuentes' bill, records show.

More than a decade ago, backers of a proposed three-wheeler, the Corbin Sparrow, persuaded legislators to exempt such models from motorcycle helmet laws.

The Corbin Sparrow, an egg-shaped electric vehicle, began production in 1999 but did not gain widespread popularity in an era when gasoline cost far less than $4 per gallon.

Sperling, of UC Davis, said he is not familiar with the VentureOne but that three-wheelers can be designed to be very stable.

"Stability is not an issue, but being small is an issue," he said. "The law of physics does hold, and a vehicle like that is just more vulnerable to being crushed – but, of course, it's less vulnerable than a motorcycle."

Venture Vehicles is building the 12-foot-long VentureOne in partnership with Carver Engineering, which helped develop the European Carver.

The three-wheeler will be launched as a hybrid, propelled by gas and plug-in batteries. A future model is expected to be all-electric, Levine said.

Dave Modisette, director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition, a utility-backed business association, said many consumers have balked at paying more for electric cars – powered by expensive batteries – even though they would save money in long-term operating costs.

"What people are predicting is that the price of batteries will come down to a level where prices can be competitive, particularly with high gas prices," Modisette said.

Sacramento pedestrians had mixed views of VentureOne in random interviews Friday.

Maria Stanford, a 46-year-old Colorado resident, said the $25,000 price would not scare her but the thought of an accident would.

"I absolutely would not buy it, it's too small," Stanford said. "But I'm sure young people would probably love it."

Yvette Propps, 43, of Sacramento also turned thumbs down.

"Economically, it's not a good deal if you have a family, because how are you going to get everybody in the car?" she said.

Mike O'Mally, 48, was intrigued by owning a car-like motorcycle, or vice versa.

"I guess I'd be interested," he said. " I'd look into it, at least.

With less than a week remaining until the start of the STS-124 launch countdown, space shuttle Discovery is in place at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A. Final preparations are on schedule for liftoff May 31 at 5:02 p.m. EDT. The countdown begins May 28 at 3 p.m., counting from the T-43 hour mark.

"Preparations are going really well," Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said at a May 19 news conference. He pointed out that Discovery's remarkably smooth processing flow will allow shuttle work crews to take off the Memorial Day holiday. "Right now we're in great shape, and we really expect to have a good three or four days off this weekend and come back and launch." Discovery's 14-day flight will carry the largest payload so far to the station and includes three spacewalks. It is the second of three missions that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The crew will install Kibo's large Japanese Pressurized Module and Kibo's robotic arm system. Discovery also will deliver new station crew member Greg Chamitoff and bring back Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will end a three-month stay aboard the outpost.

A shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is now set for Oct. 8, giving NASA one final chance to fix the 18-year-old telescope before it is retired.

The space shuttle Atlantis and its crew were supposed to fly to Hubble on Aug. 28, but that mission was delayed because extra time was needed to build extra shuttle fuel tanks in case another shuttle needed to be launched as part of a rescue mission.

The Atlantis crew will repair and upgrade the 18-year-old Hubble telescope to keep it operational until 2013, when NASA hopes Hubble's successor, the James Webb telescope, will be sent into orbit.

Under the Hubble mission plan, NASA needs a second shuttle waiting to launch at Kennedy Space Center in case of an emergency. It's a situation unique to the Hubble mission, as the shuttle and telescope will be too far from the International Space Station for it to provide shelter if the shuttle was damaged.

Hubble, which was launched in 1990, orbits the Earth at an altitude of 569 kilometres, much higher than the space station, which travels around the Earth at an altitude of about 350 km.

NASA on Thursday also pushed back space shuttle Endeavour's supply mission to the space station from Oct. 16 to Nov. 10.

The next shuttle mission will be the launch of Discovery on Saturday, May 31. It will deliver and install the main component of Japan's massive lab, Kibo, to the space station.

Soil and ice

The vast layers of ice underlying the Vastitas Borealis were discovered in 2002, when the Mars Odyssey orbiter detected the signature of water below the top few inches of ruddy dust that coats the planet. Phoenix will provide the first direct look at this frozen subsurface layer from its landing site at 68 degrees north latitude and 233 degrees east longitude.

"What Phoenix is trying to do is follow the water and validate what we think we discovered from orbit," said Phoenix landing site working group chairman Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.

Phoenix's 7.7-foot (2.3-meter) robotic arm will dig down through the soil to the ice layer below, which is expected to be at about -136 degrees Fahrenheit (-93 degrees Celsius). At that temperature "the bonds [in the water] are so strong [that the ice is] as strong as a concrete sidewalk," Arvidson said.

At the end of the robotic arm is a rasp, about the size of your pinky finger, that will rotate down into the ice and kick up tiny pieces into the scoop for analysis by instruments aboard the lander.

One of the key measurements Phoenix is designed to make is the abundance of the different isotopes (which are versions of the same element with different atomic weights) of hydrogen and oxygen in the water ice. The most common form of hydrogen has no neutrons, but one of its isotopes, deuterium, has one neutron. Oxygen commonly has eight neutrons (this is called oxygen-16), but one of its stable isotopes has 10 (called oxygen-18). Phoenix's mass spectrometer will measure the ratios of the isotopes of these two elements, "and that should be a signature of the processes involved in making that ice," Arvidson said.

Here is what those details could reveal about ice on Mars: One theory is that the ice is in equilibrium with the scant amount of water vapor in Mars' atmosphere and froze out of the air and into the pore spaces between the soil grains. Because Mars' gravity is weaker than Earth's, it can only hold on to heavier elements in its atmosphere, so it has a higher ratio of deuterium and oxygen-18 to their lighter isotopes. If the mass spec examines the isotopic ratios of the water and the air "and if they're identical, it means that the water in the atmosphere is in contact, in equilibrium with the ice," Arvidson explained.

"But suppose it's a different isotopic composition — it means that ice was inplaced in some other time, when water in the atmosphere had a different isotopic composition," Arvidson told SPACE.com. "So we're trying to get at the past history and the role of water at the high latitudes."

Signs of life

The lander also is set to scoop up samples of soil near the ice layer to look for signs of potential habitability. Because the ice has been so cold for so long, "it's been in a deep-freeze, and if there are any organics, they should be very well preserved," just as food can be preserved in your freezer, Arvidson said.

The frozen ground on Mars today probably isn't too hospitable a place for life, so mission scientists aren't expecting to get to the pole and find "little green men," or even "little green microbes" — instead the lander will look for conditions that could support them.

Specifically, the instruments on Phoenix will analyze the soil to see if the water ice layer was once ever a liquid water layer.

"Liquid water changes soil, ice doesn't do much of anything," Smith explained. "Ice is like another form of rock. Nothing happens because ice is nearby — it has to melt."

So if the lander's instruments find evidence of clays, salts or carbonates — all of which are transformed by water — in the soil, that would mean that "the soil was wet with liquid water" or was blown in from somewhere else on the planet that once had liquid water, Smith explained.

In the search for signs of life on Mars, "there's not a magical formula that we're looking for," Arvidson said, but there are a few key conditions that would increase the likelihood that Mars at least at some point harbored life.

The first is the ice itself, "because water and habitability kind of go together," Arvidson said. Phoenix will also dissolve soil samples in four teacup-sized beakers that have electrodes to measure the soil's pH (level of acidity) and oxidation potential, which can affect an organism's ability to carry out certain key biochemical reactions. It will also look for certain elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur) that go hand-in-hand with life, on Earth at least.

Gases given off when soil samples are heated in tiny ovens aboard the spacecraft will show whether any organic compounds, which could be traces of past life, are present in the soil. But scientists have to make certain that any detected organics didn't just make the trip with the lander from Earth.

"If we get a hit like that, we are going to be totally, totally, like, probably for two or three days, making sure we haven't goofed in some way," Arvidson said.

"In fact, it's really tough. If we measure organics, the first thing we think is, 'It's terrestrial; we brought it with us.' The second thing is that it's from the asteroids and comets," Smith agreed. "It would take a considerable amount of evidence before we could talk about biology."

Martian weather

When Phoenix's three-month primary mission is completed (likely in September) at the end of the northern hemisphere summer on Mars, the lander will switch modes to become a weather station.

The weather instrumentation aboard the lander, provided by the Canadian Space Agency, includes a 4-foot (1.2-meter) mast with sensors at three heights that can monitor temperature. A wind telltale at the top of the mast shows the wind direction and speed.

A probe that can measure the moisture level of soil also is designed to measure the relative humidity of the Martian air. Such measurements characterizing the atmosphere at high latitudes have never been made before, Arvidson said.

Phoenix is also equipped with a lidar (for "light detection and ranging") tool that can measure dust and ice particles in the atmosphere. The tool sends powerful laser pulses vertically into the air, which then scatter off the particles, some returning to the instrument. This information will help scientists track changes in particle abundance and learn how clouds and dust plumes move and form in the Martian atmosphere.

Mission scientists are also hoping that as summer ends and the polar ice cap expands, Phoenix will be able to watch the process. "That would be totally cool," Arvidson says, since the ice cap formation has never been observed from the surface. Scientists don't even know if the white coating observed from satellites is frost, snow or slabs of ice.

"If we're lucky, what we'll see is the accumulation of ice, water ice, and dust, and maybe even CO2 [carbon dioxide] ice," Arvidson said.

Eventually, as the sun sets (though it rises and descends in the sky each "sol," or Martian day, the sun remains about the horizon throughout the northern hemisphere summer above the arctic circle, just as it does on Earth) and the craft is encased in this advancing ice, it will end its mission for good.

Because no craft has ever ventured this far north on Mars (the closest was Viking 2's landing at 48 degrees latitude), scientists have little idea what to expect from any of the analyses Phoenix will perform. Whether they'll find signs of a muddy Martian past or organics is anybody's guess.

"I can't tell you what we're going to find, because this is really exploration and discovery," Arvidson said.

• Video: The Nail-Biting Landing of Phoenix on Mars
• Video: Looking for Life in All the Right Places
• The Top 10 Martian Landings of All Time

Getting the Linux version of Flash Player to work with Hardy Heron (and presumably other Debian versions?) has been something of a chore for me. I was perplexed as to why I could not seem to get the installation procedure that the good folks at Adobe had created to run with my various flash videos and finally figured out a fix. As always, my goal is to share such fixes with the wider audience and I hope my recipe finds use in your installation!

The Recipe

1. Download the player from Adobe.
2. Close your Firefox browsers - all of them running. Nary a one operating.
3. Unpack in your /home/*your username here* directory.
4. cd into the install_flash_player_9_linux directory.
5. Install w/o sudo or use sudo as preferred. See the nice blog at benjaminlim.net on the various ways to do this depending on your choice of sudo or not. In my case, I ran without the sudo and things went just fine. If you do the sudo install, note the you'll need to select the install directory as being /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b5. For whatever reason, the installer dislikes /usr/lib/firefox as the install pathname.
   
6. Now for the secret sauce. My particular install had gnash installed. As such, no matter how I tried to convince Firefox to use Adobe Flash, Gnash was played irregardless of my choices. So, use the package manager to remove gnash. You can always install it again later if you feel the need, but it may defeat your use of Adobe Flash player. Note: gnash is truly a horrid player. It just does not run correctly with many Flash applets - Just my opinion.
   
7. Start Firefox.
8. Edit Preferences.
9. Choose the Applications tab at the top of the Preferences window.
10. In "Search", type "swf".
11. The content type "SWF file" should display - click the "Action" dropdown and select "Use Shockwave Flash".
12. Close the Preferences window.
13. Restart Firefox.
14. Hit a site with flash running on it and then right-click inside the running applet to see that you are running the Adobe player.
15. Enjoy!

There may be other ways to do this and I'm sure I'll hear from other folks who have other ways to do this, but for my case with the new Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 5 browser, this worked for me.

I really never did like Gnash and wonder why it is so hard for Ubuntu to just not include Adobe Flash player as standard equipment like one sees in other operating systems. Perhaps it is a legal matter. Still, it would be lovely to see Adobe produce a Debian package installer and convince Ubuntu to place it in the standard package libraries for we regular folks to download and use.

Feel free to drop comments and suggestions/improvements!

In light of recent events in the world, I've been slowly assembling the beginnings of a revolution at my household. A house as dedicated to solar energy as possible, and on a shoestring. As a Republican, I get strange looks when I talk about going green and even more so when I speak of frugality and re-using with conservation in mind.

Of course, the strange looks I get are even funnier to watch when I explain how many $$$ I'll save doing things this way. People pay attention when they see a way to escape with dollars in pocket while keeping warm or cool as the need changes.

Being single, the expenses of investing in these technologies is a reality. As such, my plan to go solar has evolved into the following broad initiative:

• Solar Electricity to take on bulk of home power.
• Solar Water heating to take on bulk of the water heating for 3 of 4 seasons.
• Solar outdoor lighting to remove costs of lighting paths (and perhaps holiday decorations?).
  
• Solar Home Heating using ground exchange loops.
• Solar Cooling using ground exchange loops.
• Solar Cooking using reflected heat cookers.

By attacking the most egregious items first, namely the heating and cooling of the home, one can reduce energy costs many fold with relatively little outlay. The worst expenses are investing in the digging equipment to dig the trench to form the basis of a ground loop exchange setup and the corresponding investment in piping and components to bring the system to working order. Some call this "Geothermal Exchange" and it is a means of either bring cool air in that has been cooled from having blown through underground pipes or to bring earth warmed air in during the winter when the outside temperature is often ten to twenty degrees cooler. Either way, such technological capabilities are not beyond the average home handyman. Heating water via the sun is equally easy. Materials to take advantage of sunshine that is plentiful here in our state of California are readily available and inexpensive. Using the sun to heat water with a recirculating pump and solar panel to power the pump is an ideal solution.

I have acquired a number of the components required to attack many of the items in the first list and intend to document my progress as I go. Perhaps my real-world experience will inspire others who wish to aim for energy independence.

I have already managed to install a 65 watt solar panel and charging system that lights my home at night and runs a fan. This simple setup will save over 72,000 watts of power in a year with an average 30 day month and 4 hours use in an evening. If a person can, using common sense, build one of these systems, then it is feasible to expect that similar technologies of heating and cooling the home at a much reduced cost are feasible for the masses.

I am going to create a special feature section on the site where my blogs on Republican Energy Independence are discussed. I am tempted to create a new domain to point to the site and route people to it and may do so!

In the meantime, watch for more articles on energy independence and ways to reduce the cost of living in these difficult times! I've created a new domain called "frugalconservative.com to talk about the ways conservatives can save $$$ in these difficult times!

• http://www.frugalconservative.com

I finally took the plunge and installed Hardy Heron on my Ubuntu system. Having waited the couple of weeks for any critical patches to appear, my read was that Hardy was indeed a stable release and I went for it.

A number of packages vanished in the process, including my prized xmms, so do be ready with a list of packages to install if you find them missing. I'm not quite sure where to grab a list of the installed packages, but it should be easy enough to find for future reference.

The upgrade for Hardy could not have been smoother. Ubuntu, as usual, did the quality job they always do and the process was rife only with a few surprises, easily fixed. For the perfectionists who choose to complain, you really have nothing to b****h about, but that is personality which often does not mirror reality.

For the xmms fix, visit Sartek's blog with a very nice instruction set that does the job beautifully. I was back with xmms in 5 minutes after a quick compile and install. Seamless, quick and well written. Hats off to Sartek! XMMS is a nice player that doesn't deserve to be kicked out in the cold just yet!

My Gateway laptop has always been a bit crusty when it comes to wireless support for the built in broadcom wireless card and this upgrade was no different from the rest. So, I connected up to my trusty ethernet port and searched Google for a solution. Up came the Penkin wordpress article with great information on how to easily update your broadcom driver, since the download version from the official sources does not seem to work for beans on my setup.

However, on following the instructions, things didn't quite work until I ran a few changes to the script... Read on for the fix I used. Instructions (from the Penkin article with my added notes):

1. First off you need to ensure that you have the build essentials package installed so that you can build the b43-fwcutter. (Tomcat notes: Yep - worked like a charm - I already had the latest version).

  sudo apt-get install build-essential

2. Once that is installed you can download and build b43-fwcutter. (Tomcat notes: Yes - runs fine.)

  wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
tar xjf b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
cd b43-fwcutter-011
make
cd ..

3. Now we need to download the Broadcom firmware and install it. Note that the “FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR” must point to the directory where your firmware directory is. The one I have used below is what it is in Ubuntu. (Tomcat notes - Here is where we ran into trouble Houston... Ignore the export instruction. Instead, remember the /lib/firmware path - you will use a "sudo" command in front of the last instruction and replace the quotes and $FIRMWARE parameter with the /lib/firmware pathname - that is it for the changes needed!).

  export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR=”/lib/firmware”
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod
../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w “$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR” wl_apsta.o

4. Now simply reboot the laptop and presto… the little wireless light should be blue.

For my Gateway MX6424, this worked like a champ! If you have comments or wish to add experiences, feel free! My thanks go to the Penkin site for giving out what has been the most pain free wireless fixes for Ubuntu yet seen by this intrepid Ubuntu fan ;>)

References:

• http://penkin.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/ubuntu-804-broadcom-wireless
• http://blog.sartek.net/2008/04/install-xmms-on-ubuntu-804-hardy-heron.html
• http://www.ubuntu.com