Wind generated hydrogen

Robb Mandelbaum¹s AFTER OIL is the best I have seen on the worst government consumption jobs program ever. It consumes soil, aquifers, fossil feedstock and fuels, producing a motor fuel that is not carbon free and when all input is considered costs more in energy than you get out when the ethanol is burned, Robb mentions all of this including work to get alcohol from cellulosic materials. For comparison he should have mentioned the real motor fuel source for AFTER OIL.

The US uses 160 billion gallons of motor fuels annually. The AFTER OIL fuel supply must deliver this amount with a completion time of less than 10 years. There isn¹t enough arable land in the US to do this from all crops, ever. 500 gallons of ethanol comes from corn per acre per year if the crop is perfect meaning fertilized, weed free, bug free and irrigated. If you put one 5-megawatt wind turbine on that acre you get 493,000 gallons per year of gasoline equivalent in hydrogen from the electricity generated if it is used to electrolyze water. The electrolyzer is placed where the fuel demand is and the turbine product goes there at the speed of light in wires. This alternative fuel and its production system is carbon free and without subsidies fuel at the pump will cost about $2.50. The $5 million turbine and electrolyzer will earn about $247,000 in gross profit per year.

Wind generated hydrogen can meet the 160 billion gallons of motor fuel required per year in the US. There are over 2 million square miles of windy region in the US. Every thing that runs on fossil fuels will run on hydrogen fuel with minor modification. Implementation of this wind-hydrogen alternate fuels system is a real jobs program that is not dead end. John Baird 480 314 2256 10177 E Floriade Dr Scottsdale AZ 85260

may bfast club at the cabooses

boy what a great day at the wingate's cabooses!!!!!!! steve, tracy, susie, annie, tom

Charlie Houston honored at CU Med school (Bill Moyers NOW)

my brother Ed Whitney was blessed to attend a special tribute to Charlie Houston..... NOW's Bill Moyers did a wonderful piece on Charlie on his Dec. 10, 2005 program, hope you can find it in an archive!!!!!! Daddy (Roger Whitney, MD... his webpage is http://members.aol.com/Annieokl/daddy.index.html ) was climbing and Doctor buddies with Charlie; when they lived in Aspen Colo. we would visit frequently and enjoy the skiing, and in summer the glorious hiking, esp. Maroon Bells.... where daddy taught us to skip rocks!!!!! Dee Molenaar, one of the attendees and friend, did a gorgeous watercolor of Maroon Bells which hangs in my home today........... here is ed's accounting of the day, and a few photos at the end............. This little symposium was mainly a big tribute to Charlie Houston, with a mix of doctors and climbers and people who were both. Charlie was the first person to publish a description of high altitude pulmonary edema in English, and is the major world pioneer in high altitude medicine. The medical school is endowing a Charlie Houston chair in the school of medicine (about a $2 million proposition) and a high altitude research laboratory. He is nearly completely blind now, but when I said "Roger Whitney" he brightened up and gave me a hug and could remember routes Dad had climbed with Bradley Gilman. I could remember their big dog named Mouse, which was great fun since he said that the name came from his paws being enor-mouse. Dee Molenaar was there too, and he remembered how Dad was invited to K2 in 1938 but broke his leg skiing and couldn't go. And of course Charlie and Dee and Bob Craig all remembered Mom and Betsy Coales. The editor of the Journal of the AMA was there, who had known Charlie for many decades, and one of the doctors who was involved in the eradication of smallpox was there, and they all paid tribute to the effect of Charlie on their lives. Congressman Mark Udall was there from Boulder (he knew Charlie from an Everest expedition long ago). Seeing people who could remember Dad was especially great. Bob Craig looked at me with a glint of recognition and said he could see Dad in me. That sure touched my heart! Lots of people were there crowding around but I did get a chance to visit just a bit. Bob Bates, who was also on K2, was there. I don't think we ever met him. But his wife remembered Dad. Most of the meeting was people remembering how Charlie had inspired them and taught them and made a difference in their lives. The medical school gave him an honorary degree. Bob Moyers was unable to attend but sent a message (he had been involved in getting the honorary degree to Charlie). So here are some pictures. lovexoxoxoxoxo

Frannie's Photos

Frances (frannie) the Tortoise... lost then found!!!

Thursday, May 4, 2006

African Tortoise Goes AWOL

By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
A psychic is on the case. A searcher has used an infrared camera. A reward has been offered.
But Frannie, unfortunately, may be the perfect escapee.
The 3-foot-long African spur-thigh tortoise doesn't need water and her thick shell blends in perfectly with the rugged terrain of the San Marcos area.
She scaled the stone wall of her landscaped bungalow south of Santa Fe on April 27.
She is the housemate of Alexis Higginbotham and Archie Tew, who have offered a reward in a newspaper ad that features Frannie's photo.
"My husband, Archie, had just enlarged her outdoor area two weeks ago," says sculptor Higginbotham. "We checked on her Thursday afternoon and, apparently, she had shinnied up over the wall and took off."
If you're thinking, "Well, how far could she have gotten?" the answer doesn't bode well. Frannie comes from Sudan, where these tortoises have a territory with a radius of about a mile, and they like to travel.
But really, how fast? "Like a slow human walk," says Higginbotham, who took Frannie in six years ago when her original owner moved to the East Coast.
The couple's property borders several thousand acres of Bureau of Land Management and state land, so Higginbotham says there's no telling where Frannie could have gotten to.
And with the friskiness of her 12 years— tortoises like her can live to 100— Frannie could have been eager for new horizons. Higginbotham admits that the extra yardage of the new outdoor enclosure with its 3-foot-high wall might have given Frannie a taste of freedom and a longing for new vistas.
Her escape has brought in an outpouring of help from the San Marcos area and from complete strangers. "I got a call yesterday from a woman with an infrared camera," says Higginbotham. But the camera, which would sense the tortoise's heat from its shell, didn't find Frannie.
"We had an animal psychic, too," says Higginbotham. "She said that Frannie's around here and that she can see the house."
The couple's home was designed with a special indoor wing for Frannie. It's about 4 feet high and has special lighting and radiant floor heating covered with dirt. Frannie can't be in the cold— Sudan's temperatures can reach 120 degrees.
Frannie comes when she's called. "It might take 15 times as long as our dogs, but she does," says Higginbotham. "She does a funny three-point turn."
Higginbotham wants to think that Frannie is close to the couple's home, but they consider her a special-needs tortoise because she's not in her native environment.
"It should be banned, to sell African turtles in this country," she said. "I think her owner bought her in California."
And her diet is a problem too. "She eats special food that looks sort of like weird multicolored children's cereal, which is rich in calcium," says Higginbotham, "and I give her leafy green vegetables."
The experts are bleak about Frannie's chances. Dave Belcher, curator of reptiles at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, says, "Long term, it has no chance of survival in New Mexico. It does not live in a place that has winter, and winters will certainly be the end of it."
New Mexico's Department of Game and Fish spokesman Martin Frentzel was even more bleak about the short-term risk. "I can't think of anything good happening," says Frentzel. "Even domestic dogs running in packs or coyotes would be its biggest threat. Canines will chew the shells off a turtle. Hopefully I'm wrong."
Higginbotham maintains her optimism. Volunteers have been searching on horseback and foot for the past week.
"That shell is thick," she says. "Much more so than a regular turtle. It's like armor."
Anyone with information about Frannie or wishing to join in the search can call Alexis Higginbotham at 473-1572.
******************************
Thursday, May 4, 2006

Have You Seen This Tortoise?

By Polly Summar
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE— A psychic is on the case. A searcher has used an infrared camera. A reward has been offered.
But Frannie, unfortunately, may be the perfect escapee.
Frannie, Come Home!

Courtesy of Alexis Higginbotham
"There's a soul in there," says Alexis Higginbotham of her escaped pet Frannie. "I've never had a tortoise before, but she has a very distinct personality."


The 3-foot-long African spur-thigh tortoise doesn't need water and her thick shell blends in perfectly with the rugged terrain of the San Marcos area.
She scaled the stone wall of her landscaped bungalow south of Santa Fe on April 27.
She is the housemate of Alexis Higginbotham and Archie Tew, who have offered a reward in a newspaper ad that features Frannie's photo.
"My husband, Archie, had just enlarged her outdoor area two weeks ago," says sculptor Higginbotham. "We checked on her Thursday afternoon and, apparently, she had shinnied up over the wall and took off."
If you're thinking, "Well, how far could she have gotten?" the answer doesn't bode well. Frannie comes from Sudan, where these tortoises have a territory with a radius of about a mile, and they like to travel.
But really, how fast? "Like a slow human walk," says Higginbotham, who took Frannie in six years ago when her original owner moved to the East Coast.
The couple's property borders several thousand acres of Bureau of Land Management and state land, so Higginbotham says there's no telling where Frannie could have gotten to.
And with the friskiness of her 12 years— tortoises like her can live to 100— Frannie could have been eager for new horizons. Higginbotham admits that the extra yardage of the new outdoor enclosure with its 3-foot-high wall might have given Frannie a taste of freedom and a longing for new vistas.
Her escape has brought in an outpouring of help from the San Marcos area and from complete strangers. "I got a call yesterday from a woman with an infrared camera," says Higginbotham. But the camera, which would sense the tortoise's heat from its shell, didn't find Frannie.
"We had an animal psychic, too," says Higginbotham. "She said that Frannie's around here and that she can see the house."
The couple's home was designed with a special indoor wing for Frannie. It's about 4 feet high and has special lighting and radiant floor heating covered with dirt. Frannie can't be in the cold— Sudan's temperatures can reach 120 degrees.
Frannie comes when she's called. "It might take 15 times as long as our dogs, but she does," says Higginbotham. "She does a funny three-point turn."
Higginbotham wants to think that Frannie is close to the couple's home, but they consider her a special-needs tortoise because she's not in her native environment.
And her diet is a problem too. "She eats special food that looks sort of like weird multicolored children's cereal, which is rich in calcium," says Higginbotham, "and I give her leafy green vegetables."
The experts are bleak about Frannie's chances. Dave Belcher, curator of reptiles at the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, says, "Long term, it has no chance of survival in New Mexico. It does not live in a place that has winter, and winters will certainly be the end of it."
New Mexico's Department of Game and Fish spokesman Martin Frentzel was even more bleak about the short-term risk. "I can't think of anything good happening," says Frentzel. "Even domestic dogs running in packs or coyotes would be its biggest threat. Canines will chew the shells off a turtle. Hopefully I'm wrong."
Higginbotham maintains her optimism. Volunteers have been searching on horseback and foot for the past week.
"That shell is thick," she says. "Much more so than a regular turtle. It's like armor."
Anyone with information about Frannie or wishing to join in the search can call Alexis Higginbotham at 473-1572.

*********************************************
Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Rescuers Return Lost Tortoise to Owners

By Polly Summar
Journal Staff Writer
The psychic, apparently, was right: Frannie was near home.
Frannie, a 2-foot-wide by 3-foot-long African spur-thigh tortoise, escaped over her stone wall enclosure south of Santa Fe 12 days ago.
But now Frannie has been rescued.
"I'm stunned," said Alexis Higginbotham, her owner, who picked up Frannie in Madrid at 4 p.m. Monday.
A crowd of supporters had gathered in the yard of a house on Main Street to cheer the reunion.
"She was found a mile and a half away up in the hills," said Higginbotham, who lives with husband Archie Tew in the San Marcos area near La Cienega. The couple's land borders several thousand acres of Bureau of Land Management and state land.
One searcher used an infrared camera to try to find the Sudanese tortoise. An animal psychic had assured the couple that Frannie remained nearby and could see the Higginbotham-Tew house.
"It was just one of those fluky things," says Higginbotham. "A guy was walking in the hills near Mount Chalchihuitl, a sacred site ... she was burrowed in, back end in, into a side of the hill, with her head hanging out, and he hauled her all the way down the mountain."
Not an easy feat, since Frannie's shape makes her 80-pound physique a little unwieldy to carry.
"She's alive and very well," Higginbotham said.
Frannie's escape and the ensuing search was a "profound" experience, she said.
"People were so kind. We had strangers out here looking up and down, hours on end, it made me feel good about people again."
After the Journal's story about the tortoise escape appeared Thursday, both the newspaper and Higginbotham received sightings of Sudanese turtles in places ranging from the bosque in Bernalillo to a parking lot near Tramway and Interstate 25 in Albuquerque.
But now Frannie is home. She crawled into her custom bungalow with radiant floor heat, turning down offers of food, and collapsed in fatigue.
One of the searchers has ordered a special round disc with an antenna that can be glued to Frannie's shell. If she should escape again, an infrared camera could track her down.
*******************************************************************


Tuesday, May 9, 2006

Tortoise Found, Returned To Owners

By Polly Summar
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE— The psychic, apparently, was right: Frannie was near home.
Frannie, a 2-foot-wide by 3-foot-long African spur-thigh tortoise, escaped over her stone wall enclosure south of Santa Fe 12 days ago.
Frannie Found

Courtesy of Alexis Higginbotham
"There's a soul in there," says Alexis Higginbotham of her escaped, but now found, pet Frannie. "I've never had a tortoise before, but she has a very distinct personality."
But now Frannie has been rescued.
"I'm stunned," said Alexis Higginbotham, her owner, who picked up Frannie in Madrid at 4 p.m. Monday.
A crowd of supporters had gathered in the yard of a house on Main Street to cheer the reunion.
"She was found a mile and a half away up in the hills," said Higginbotham, who lives with her husband, Archie Tew, in the San Marcos area near La Cienega.
One searcher used an infrared camera to try to find the Sudanese tortoise. An animal psychic had assured the couple that Frannie remained nearby and could see the Higginbotham-Tew house.
"It was just one of those fluky things," says Higginbotham. "A guy was walking in the hills near Mount Chalchihuitl, a sacred site ... she was burrowed in, back end in, into a side of the hill, with her head hanging out, and he hauled her all the way down the mountain."
*********************************************
4/29/2006
Dear Helge and Gull,
Could you please ask the woman you know who got the word out about your neighbors lost horse, that our beloved tortoise Frances escaped on the afternoon of April 27th ?

She is about 2 feet wide by 3 feet long, weighs about 70 or 80 pounds and her carapace (shell) is medium brown with darker brown markings.

She escaped from the Silver Hills area but can travel great distances, so that's why I wanted to get the word out because she could end up just about anywhere.

She usually burrows and hides under trees at night, then comes out to bask in the mornings when the sun warms up. During the heat of day she hides again, probably under trees.

She never drinks water, getting it only from the food she eats. When she's desperate I'm sure she'll eat anything that's out there.

The point is that even if she's not found in the first few weeks, I would really appreciate it if people would keep an eternal eye out for her. Although she can survive very well out there during the summer, since she is an African Spur-thigh tortoise from the Sudan, she will freeze to death when the winter comes because she does not hibernate. We could not bear to think of that happening to her.

Even though she isn't cuddly like a dog or cat, she has a distinctive personality, comes when we call her, and even knocks on the door to let herself in. We have had her for 6 years and love her as much as any of our other animals.

Please see if that friend of yours could put the word out for our dear Frannie.

Thanks so much.

Alexis and Archie

************************
5/4/2006
Dear Annie,

Thanks so much for asking, but no, our reptilian gal pal has not yet been found.

We are so worried about her but we have been inundated with such a positive outpouring of support from our San Marcos community as well as from people from all over the city of Santa Fe who are "willing" her to be found, sending their prayers and good wishes or actually coming out to help look for her for hours on end. There was a cover story on Frannie in the Journal North today and KOB TV 4 is doing a spot on her tonight. For some reason her story has touched a lot of people.

We're so grateful for all the support we've been given from friends and total strangers. Maybe times aren't so awful after all if people can step outside themselves and reach out this way.

kind regards,
Alexis Higginbotham

P.S. Please don't stop looking or passing the word around. It could take a while to get her back, but I got a little teeny tiny feeling that we may actually find her, which is unusual for me who tends to assume the worst.
*****************************
5/8/2006
Dear Everyone,

Thank you all so much for being so helpful and supportive when our reptilian gal pal Francis flew the coop. And to those of you who took the time to search for her, we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. You friends and strangers who took valuable time out of your busy lives to come help us look for our scaly miscreant - we can never tell you enough how much we appreciate you.

It is amazing that she turned up in the absolute middle of nowhere and I am too stunned to even explain it clearly. She was actually about a mile and a half to two miles away from our house on Mt. Chachuitil. A guy hiking in the Cerrillos Hills, a very skinny fellow who weighs probably less than Frannie I'm sure, found her burrowed in the side of the mountain and hauled her sorry self all the way back to his car and to his home in Madrid.

We received the phone call but didn't believe it could possibly be her. When we got there we ran out of the car and up to where the guy had contained her, but I had to wait until she turned around so I could see her beautiful face because that's how I would recognize our girl, not by her carapace. And it was her and I squealed and she came over to me and then I cried, and then Archie cried, and the guy couldn't believe any two people could love a tortoise so damn much.

Thank you all, and would you please pass the word around? There are so many of you who helped or offered up such kind words of support but I don't know everyone's email addresses. I want everyone to know what a positive and life-affirming experience it was to be reminded how decent and open-hearted Americans can be when they hear about someone in need. We needed you and you stepped up.

much love,
Alexis

Sitka Web Cam

tired of WINDY HOT DRY??????? visit the Sitka Alaska webcam...... most days it's wet and wonderful, you can just feel that cool moist air on your face!!!!

http://www.sitka.net/cam2frame.shtml

Tom lived and worked there for several years, and, for several months in 2000, i was blessed to be able to live and work there too!!!! tom was Chief Engineer of Sitka Sound Seafoods, and i was the Girl Friday........ boy did i have fun, doing all sorts of terrific and interesting jobs!!!!!

back to hot dry cerrillos....... DUST OR RUST, which will it be?????

Wedding Day, Whinny at Ghost Ranch, annie at 5

photos of our wedding day, & our horses

my darling husband, Tom Fulker..... my dad was his dad's doctor before either was married, so we go back a very long way....... even tho it took 55 years to marry!!!!!!!

Whinny, BlueHill, Ghost Ranch; Same Braids years later.......

riding up Blue Hill at Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM on Wintersett, my purebred arabian gelding (son of Gdansk).