"I Am Sarah Palin" - A Grassroots Initiative!

I have just launched a new initiative, inspired by these 2 videos:



I would like to compile a much longer video, comprised of women and men, of all races, ages, and religions. It will be uploaded to here on YouTube.

If you would like to participate, here's what you need to do:

1. Take a video of yourself, no more than 15 seconds long, with whatever background setting you feel uniquely describes YOU! It might show where you live, your children, your family, your friends, or whatever inspires you! You can say whatever you want but to be eligible for submission, it must include these words at some point: "I AM Sarah Palin".
2. Go to this website and upload your video (see directions below).
3. Once uploaded, a web link will be provided to you. Please send this link to: IAmSarahPalin@live.com
   

That's it! The link you send will enable me to download your video. Once I have a sufficient number, I will compile them into a single long video, add a great soundtrack, and upload it to here on YouTube. For now, enjoy the videos already uploaded there!

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Upload Directions:

Video files are quite large so they can't be readily sent via e-mail. As such, a slightly different process has to be used to get your video to me. Thankfully it's very simple!

Go to MediaFire.com and click on the large green button near the top of the screen:
A dialog box will appear. Click on the grey button in the middle:
You'll be prompted to select which file on your computer you want to upload. Select it and press the "Open" or "OK" button on the dialog box. This will return you back to this screen, where you just need to press the green "Start Upload" button:
The menu on the right side will change. Click on the second option, entitled "My Files (main folder) :
Your file will start uploading to the server. Just be patient and wait until it's done.
Once it's entirely uploaded then click on the "Copy Link" button:
This will store in your computer's memory the web link I need to access your uploaded file.

Go to your e-mail program and send an e-mail to IAmSarahPalin@live.com In the Subject or Body of the e-mail paste the link you copied. There are many different ways to do this, depending on your computer. On Windows machines you can press Shift+Insert simultaneously. You can also go to the top menu of your browser and choose "Edit" and then "Paste".

In your e-mail, please provide any of the following optional information that you would like displayed on top of your video segment:

• Location: City/Town -- State/Province -- Country
• Your first name
• Your age (completely optional!)

If you're having any technical problems, just send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to help you resolve them!

Hopefully more than a few videos will be submitted. Together we'll put together something really fantastic and positive!

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If you'd like to help spread the word about this grassroots campaign, then here are the links you need:

• Image
• This Posting
  

Ethanol: The Answer or an Illusion?

With the price of oil now well over $100 per barrel and expected to surpass $150 per barrel by year's end, there's a lot of talk about Ethanol, which is most often made from corn. I've heard lots of comments about it, both pro and con. Generally I've been quite skeptical of it.

In favour of Ethanol are people like Robert Zubrin, who wrote Energy Victory, as well as this compelling letter to Mark Steyn. Zubrin seems like a very bright guy so I decided to investigate what it would actually take to convert the entire United States to using Ethanol.

I found this informative article by technology writer, Andrew Kantor. Out of it I pulled these figures:

• A gallon of ethanol requires 26 pounds of corn.
• An acre of land can yield 9,400 lbs. per year.
• The U.S. would require 261 million gallons of Ethanol per day

Then I did the math:

1 sq mile / 640 acres x 1 acre / 9400 lbs x 26 lbs / gal x 261,000,000 gal / day x 365 days / year = 411,717 square miles per year [of required space to grow corn for Ethanol]

Rounding up, that's 412,000 square miles that would have to be entirely devoted to growing corn to meet America's energy needs. I immediately wondered what portion of the U.S. that would encompass. Focusing in on the central farming states, I found this table and compiled the numbers:

State	Land Area	75% of Area
	(sq. miles)	(sq. miles)
Kansas	81,815	61,361
Nebraska	76,872	57,654
Missouri	68,886	51,664
Oklahoma	68,667	51,500
Iowa	55,869	41,902
Illinois	55,584	41,688
Arkansas	52,068	39,051
Tennessee	41,217	30,913
Kentucky	39,728	29,796
Indiana	35,867	26,900
Total:	576,574	432,430

Why only 75% of each state's area, you ask? It's an arbitrary number but I thought it to be a reasonable one to account for non-farming areas, such as cities, towns, and land otherwise unavailable. In some states the non-arable land may be even less but then one has to question whether the corn growing and ethanol conversion figures quoted by Kantor are absolute maximums? Given a dedicated focus on producing ethanol, I have little doubt that together, scientists, engineers, and farmers could come up with innovative ways to produce more Ethanol with less land.

So, if all of these states were to devote themselves to becoming the New Energy Source for the United States, this is what the country would look like:


Impossible, you say? I think not. In fact, given that there's a never ending demand for mobile energy (read "oil" at this time in our history), what on earth would be wrong with entrepreneurial farmers stepping up to the plate to supply that demand?! In fact, it might be just the thing to pull Americans together to work toward a unified cause that would help them both economically and defensively.

In his article, Kantor points out the side-effects of farming in general, but I firmly believe in the ingenuity of man-kind (especially engineers!) to resolve all problems before him. Where there's a will, there's a way. In fact, I rather like the metaphor of these states, in the center of the country, acting much like the heart in a human body, pushing out the industrial blood that is necessary for the country to survive and prosper.

One thing though: All subsidies to farmers should stop asap. While it's clear that producing ethanol is more expensive than the current cost of conventional oil, as the latter keeps on creeping up in price, eventually they will be on par. A forward thinking energy plan would be something akin to John Kennedy's Man on the Moon goal of the 1960's, giving farmers and communities the help they need over the next decade to make the conversion to producing ethanol. After that they'd be on their own, as the rest of us are.

The years ahead are sure to be interesting ones, but I'm optimistic!