Dead Cat Fuel

The oddest news I’ve seen for a while:

Dr Christian Koch, 55, from Kleinhartmannsdorf, said his method uses old tyres, weeds and animal cadavers. They are heated up to 300 Celsius to filter out hydrocarbon which is then turned into diesel by a catalytic converter. He said the resulting “high quality bio-diesel” costs just 15 pence per litre.

CNN gets this point into the story:

Koch said around 20 dead cats added into the mix could help produce enough fuel to fill up a 50-liter (11 gallon) tank.

Scientists! So clever. Have some to tea. It’s almost a perpetual motion machine given enough road kill.

What A Great Decade

Terrorism, war, natural disasters, iPods: is this going to go down as the biggest loser of a decade of all time or what? Apparently Mother Nature is working on a real doozie to cap it off:

A silent tectonic event, so powerful it has shifted southern Vancouver Island out to sea, but so subtle nobody has felt a thing, is slowly unfolding on the West Coast. Scientists who are tracking the event with sensitive seismographs and earth orbiting satellites warn it could be a trigger for a massive earthquake — some time, maybe soon. But they are quick to add that the imperceptible tremors emanating from deep beneath the surface are sending signals scientists are not yet able to comprehend fully and “the Big One” might yet be 200 years off.

Hoo ray.

Update: Goodie…and what exactly were they doing so far?

Spyware Charges

Sometimes the new e-world has to face facts like it lives within existing society and existing law:

The creator of software designed to surreptitiously observe individuals’ online activities has been indicted for allegedly violating U.S. federal computer privacy laws, local and federal authorities said Friday. If convicted, Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara could face a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison and fines of up to $8.75 million. His current whereabouts are unknown. Four individuals who purchased the Loverspy software to illegally spy on others were also indicted.

I am surprised by the 175 years. I was thinking 185 would be more appropriate.