Good News/Bad News

WattsUp found:

“All schools in the Bloomington School District (Minnesota) will be closed today after state-required biodiesel fuel clogged in school buses Thursday morning and left dozens of students stranded in frigid weather, the district said late Thursday.

Rick Kaufman, the district’s spokesman, said elements in the biodiesel fuel that turn into a gel-like substance at temperatures below 10 degrees clogged about a dozen district buses Thursday morning. Some buses weren’t able to operate at all and others experienced problems while picking up students, he said.

Bad news: your kids are stranded in the cold.
Good news: if they can get a straw into the fuel tank, they should be able to survive by drinking used french-fry oil.

This is a little talked about problem with biodiesel. It's what makes those green-drive-across-America documentaries so fun to watch. Even greenheads don't watch them because if they did, they'd notice that they all have some variation of: "Well, it's Day 3 and we're calling repair shops in this town, trying to find someone willing to work on our innovative system..." Course, they always find a guy willing to rebuild the injector pump and replace the filters, and he always expresses an interest in biodiesel. Well sure, $2600 repair jobs are always interesting. "Real innovative system you got here kids, by the way, did I give you my card?"

Speaking of cold
My kid is marching for life today, as she has in years past. Don't expect to see a lot about it on the news. Coverage has always been poor and the media watchword(s) seem to be: "Yes We Can, ignore you again this year!" If there are any news crews out, they'll be scanning the fringes of the crowd looking for the lone, wild eyed, raver, with the sign that warns against Harlots! Coveters! and those who would put government mind-control chips in your butt. Meanwhile thousands will be braving the burr cold, using free speech, dissenting patriotically -- though patriotic dissent seems to have lost its newsworthiness in this era of "I don't want my daughters punished with a baby."

Ah well. All you can do is what you can do. The kids are doing their part. My kid will be in the group of 80, all wearing red scarves that the girls cut in the living room last night. The scarves to show that they're all together, just in case some cameraman goes Colonel Kurtz and films the demonstration against the wishes of the leg tinglers back in the studio.