Family meetings

Every Sunday morning, we have a family meeting. It's a tradition that my wife started a couple of months ago and so far it's been a big success. I'd certainly advocate the tradition for any family - whether they have kids or not. The meetings are a built-in time to check in, connect as a family, and discuss pertinent ideas or issues. For our meetings, the stated purposes are:

• To give compliments
• To help each other
• To solve problems
• To plan family activities

The kids (particularly JD) really seem excited and empowered by the meetings. Some of the topics JD has asked to discuss are how we can show people we love them, what we can do if someone is not being nice, and how we can keep loving each other even if we have an argument. For each topic, we brainstormed a set of possible solutions and then posted a sign on the door. For example, on April 22, we came up with this set of suggestions if someone isn't being nice:

• Move away, run away, or leave
• Tell the person how it makes you feel
• Tell the person it's not ok to not be nice
• Make an angry face
• Use words. Ask the person if something is wrong, why they're not being nice, and how you can help them feel better.
• Don't have to be not nice back.

Regarding how we can keep loving each other even if we have an argument, here's the list we came up with on May 13:

• Be nice
• Say "sorry"
• Play a game
• Say "I love you"
• Give a kiss
• Be good
• Give a hug
• Be nice and love
• Read a book
• Share a toy

Prior to having kids (and especially after JD and AJ were born), my wife and I had family meetings of our own where we could discuss how things were going for each other and how we could support each other better. We still try to have those "adult-only meetings" once a week - usually while taking a walk - and it makes a big difference in our marriage.

Post frequency

For awhile now, I've felt like I've been neglecting my blog - or at least not tackling the same depth of issues I did in the past. The graph to the right proves out that my post frequency is way down from where it was when I first started this blog. Many of the original posts were focused on religion, spirituality, and balance since those were the issues I was struggling with the most. I wouldn't say that I have them totally figured out but I feel I'm in a much better place than when I first started the blog. So, if post frequency is a reflection of level of struggle, I suppose it's not entirely a bad thing that my post frequency is down. That being said, the more practical reason that I'm not posting as much that is work is very busy and it's hard to squeeze in other forms of self-reflection like this (which isn't a good thing). One of these days I'll get back to the harder issues. For now, I'll do my best to post when I can.

The Marshmallow Test

In one of the venture blogs I read, there was an interesting post that referenced the "marshmallow test". Specifically, there was a test done back in the early 1960s by Walter Mischel with 400 four-year olds at Stanford University.

Children were put in a room by themselves with a two-way mirror and filmed. On the table in the room was a marshmallow. The researcher then told each child that, “I’ve got to leave for about 10 minutes. You can eat this marshmallow now if you want. Or if you wait till I get back, you can have two marshmallows when I get back.” Some of the kids were pretty determined to wait; one child actual licked the table all round the marshmallow but avoided the marshmallow itself. Some could wait a few minutes only. Others gobbled it down immediately. The researchers continued to track these children throughout their school careers and into early adult life.

The results were dramatic. Those who had deferred eating the marshmallow for 15-20 minutes in order to get the bigger prize just a few minutes later were more socially competent, personally effective, self-assertive and better able to cope with the frustrations of life. They were less likely to go to pieces, freeze, regress under stress or become rattled and disorganized when pressured. They embraced challenges, and pursued them instead of giving up even in the face of difficulties; they were more self-reliant and confident, trustworthy and dependable; they took initiative and plunged into projects. This group even scored on average 210 points higher on their SAT.

I doubt the marshmallow test was ever administered to me when I was four years old but I suspect I would have been one of the kids that would have waited it out and gotten two marshmallows at the end. Sometimes I worry I'm a little too focused on delayed rewards, that I'm always investing for the future (for monetarily and career-wise) rather than enjoyed the present. But I suppose that's just how I'm wired.

I'm kind of tempted to administer the marshmallow test on my kids. I'm pretty sure JD would wait (even a year ago when he was four). I'm less sure about AJ but he's only three right now so it's a little hard to judge. That being said, he does pretty well with delayed rewards (e.g., if you do X now, you'll get Y tonight) so he'd probably be in the same camp as JD.

First day of kindergarten

Today was JD's first day of kindergarten. It seemed to go well. The program is dual immersion English-Spanish and 90% of the instruction in kindergarten is in Spanish (but becomes 50/50 by fifth grade). So I think JD was a little mentally exhausted by the end of the day (with all the Spanish being thrown at him) but that was part of the point of putting him in this program. He probably wouldn't be challenged by a regular kindergarten program given where he is right now with reading, math, and verbal communication.

Anyway, I took the day off so I could take JD to school in the morning and pick him up at lunchtime. Given work, I don't know how often I'll be able to do that for him so I figured this was a good day to make it happen. Who knows if it made any difference to JD (he just ran right into class and started exploring the classroom; no clinging or hesitation) but it was a symbolic gesture on my part. It was my way of saying to him that he's important to me and that I want to support him - even if I can't be there all the time.

As luck would have it (or perhaps everything happens for a reason), one of the energy blogs I follow had a personal post today. In it, the blogger (who has a full-time job and family) was discussing the fact that his blog is taking up too much of his time and putting a strain on his family. This excerpt resonated with me:

This past week, my 11-year-old son watched a movie that he really liked. I told him, "Yeah, I have been meaning to watch that with you." He then looked at me, and asked "But why didn't you?"

I know I'm making choices in my life that prevent me from doing every little thing with my kids (or my wife). But I certainly don't want to get to one of these gut-wrenching moments when it becomes perfectly clear your priorities have been in the wrong place for a long while. Hopefully this forum of people can keep me honest in that regard and I can do enough stuff along the way to be an integral part of my kids' lives while also accomplishing something meaningful in other parts of my life (particularly my marriage and career).

Done having kids

People sometimes ask me whether we're planning to have any more kids. My immediate answer is "we're done". Most people are actually quite surprised (and amused) by how immediate the response is. But I'm quite content with the two boys I have and really don't want to go through the baby phase again. I was thinking about this today since we were over at my sister-in-law's house and I was hanging out with her new baby. Her son is totally mellow, quite cute, and loves to a warm body to cuddle up to. But, when I was holding him, I definitely wasn't thinking "wouldn't it be nice to have another kid". Instead, I was thinking about how great it is that my boys are growing up and getting increasingly independent.

From what I understand, a number of dads start to really get into their kids when they hit four years old or so. At that point, you can do more interactive stuff and communicate a lot better. So I suppose my situation isn't much different. Regardless, if my parents want any more grandkids, they'll need to depend on my brother because we're done. =)

The Pragmatic Path to Agnosticism

A friend of mine has a great thread going over on his blog (Running Naked) that explores his path from Catholicism to Aethism to Agnosticism. So far, he's published 4 of the 5 essays: Get Thee Behind Me Jesus!, The Shiny Ball of Atheism, Survival of the Holiest, and The Fundamentalist Atheist. So far, I've really enjoyed the series (along with all his other posts) and look forward to the final installment. If you have some time, I'd highly recommend reading this series.

Amendment (8/22/07): Here is a link to the final installment in this series.

Bit Literacy

A friend of a friend wrote a great book called Bit Literacy. I've previously written about a tool called Gootodo (see post). This book takes things a step further and outlines all the skills and strategies one needs to be successful in this digital, information-intensive age. The book's a quick read so I'd highly recommend it. In my case, I found the first part of the book (about email purges and getting to-do's organized) most useful. The rest of the book was all stuff I already know and do. Then again, my life is more bit-intensive than most.

After reading the book, I emptied my personal inbox. Still working on doing the same thing with my work email. I've also been using Gootodo again although I still sometimes supplement with paper. The real trick with all of this isn't knowing the strategies but being consistent in their application. I probably do better with this stuff than most but it's still a struggle. If others read the book, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on all this.

Temptation

My brother-in-law sent me a quote the other day from C.S. Lewis: "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is...We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it." I've certainly found this to be true - whether it be with eating, work, or other things. I don't do particularly well in the moment. It's too easy to rationalize the transgression, especially if it seems fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. I've found my best strategy to be avoidance (prevent facing the temptation to begin with). This quote is interesting to me, though, since I know people for whom temptation doesn't appear to be an issue. But I guess you just never know other people's struggles behind the scenes (and they likely don't know mine).

Weight Watchers

Now that I hit my weight loss goal, I was trying to decide what I should do for maintenance. I think the most important thing is better integrating exercise and better eating habits into my lifestyle. That's the only way this stuff is going to stick. I was trying to think of ways to do that and be accountable. I thought about developing a points system based on eating and exercise. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I decided to sign up for Weight Watchers Online. The first three months is $65 and I was able to finance the expense through a generous birthday gift from my wife's parents (thanks!). So we'll see how that goes. If nothing else, it's forcing me to log everything I eat and be conscious of my food choices. Hopefully I'll also be able to get a better handle on portion sizes and a more intuitive sense of the relative point values of different foods. So far I've only done this for two days. The web interface is pretty slick and makes things relatively painless - although there are some weird things (bugs?) in the site I haven't figured out yet.

The other thing I'm still getting my head around is what a good target weight should be (good target = healthy and achievable over the long-term). 190-195 pounds actually seems pretty good to me. But the system suggested setting a target of 143 pounds - 50+ pounds less than I am right now! I think this was based on BMI but that's totally crazy. When I stepped on the scale this morning, I was 193.4 pounds and 22.4% body fat - 43.3 pounds of fat and 150.1 pounds. So I currently have more muscle than Weight Watchers is telling me I should weigh total. Something doesn't fit here. Even if I got down to 8% body fat and maintained my muscle mass (which would be very challenging), I'd still weigh 163.2 pounds. Anyway, I entered 185 pounds into the system as my "goal weight" but I personally think 190-195 pounds makes more sense (even though it technically means I'm still "fat").

Lemonade stand

JD decided a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to do a lemonade stand and yesterday was the big day. It's great to see him take iniative to do things like this. He was very excited to make the lemonade and cookies and even found the recipe for the oatmeal raisin cookies himself in a book he got at the library. He also painted signs for us to hang up in our neighborhood to attract customers.

After 90 minutes, JD, AJ, and one of JD's friends from church had sold out and made $8 in revenue. Each cup of lemonade was a quarter. Same price for the cookies. So they sold 32 items in all - and ate/drank some themselves. Each kid got to put $2.70 in their piggy bank (we kicked in an additional dime to make the revenue split totally even). Being a MBA, I had actually proposed that my wife and I take 50% off the top to cover raw material and marketing costs but she thought it was ok for all the money to go to the kids. She's such a softie. =)

Made it, just barely

Six months ago, I set a target of getting to 195 pounds (or less) by my 33rd birthday (see prior post). To make things more interesting, I also put $1,000 at risk. With one day to spare, I achieved my goal. In the last 3 months, I've gone from 208 pounds to 194.8 pounds.

About a year and a half ago, my wife decided that she was going to lose 19 pounds and go from 139 pounds to 120 pounds. This morning, she achieved her goal as well.

I have to admit that it's satisfying to have met my goal. But I don't really like how I got here. Even after missing my last goal and setting up this self-bet, I didn't take it seriously for the first three months. Then I got motivated and pulled out the stops in the last three months and just barely made my target. It's the moral equivalent of cramming for an exam the night before and then getting an A. It's satisfying but it's not the work ethic that I want to teach my kids. I much more of a believer in "slow and steady wins the race" and not cutting things so close. At some point, these other tactics are going to catch up with you and not going to produce the results you want long-term.

That's why I'm so much more proud of my wife achieving her goal. She's been at this every day for the last 18 months. She injured her knee at one point and she battled through it. We decided to discontinue our membership at the YMCA so she did her workouts at home - early in the morning before the kids got up. The last 5 pounds were just as challenging as the first 14 but she didn't give up. She just stuck to it and made it happen. That's the example that I want my kids to follow, not mine. I couldn't be more proud of my wife's accomplishment.

As an aside, even though I won my self-bet, I just made a $20 donation to Heifer.org to buy a flock of geese for a family in need somewhere in the world.

PS - If folks have ideas for maintenance goals, please let me know. Thanks.

What’s Your Story?

A friend of mine in NYC just started writing a blog. The whole thing is very well done and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in personal growth. He had one post today that really touched me. It's about a funeral he just attended and the woman who had passed away. As part of discussing that event, he mentioned the following:

Earlier in the day I had reconnected with an old friend. He told me a story of how he had recently met a fascinating woman in Africa in her late 70’s, and during their conversations he had asked her if she had any advice for him in life, anything she could tell him about what life meant. She raised herself up on her tip toes, stabbed her finger into his chest plate and, knowing she had his attention, said “when you’re about to die, someone will ask you the question, ‘what’s your story?’ And your answer… your answer had better be good!”

Here's a version of my story from last March (see prior post).

Can't be right all the time

My dad sent this to me awhile ago and I really enjoyed it. So I'm posting it to my blog so others can enjoy it as well.

GREAT PREDICTIONS BY WISE MINDS.....!

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee DeForest,"Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television.

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." -- Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." -- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923.

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers ." -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." -- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

"But what is it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates,1981

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us," --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody inparticular?" -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible," -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper," -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make," -- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible," --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this," -- Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy," -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value," -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre, France.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented,"-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required." -- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University.

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."-- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872 .

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon," -- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

And last but not least...
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.

So much for the "Wise Minds"......

Tenth wedding anniversary

This weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary itself isn't for another two weeks but my parents are in town and agreed to take the kids for 48 hours so we could get away and celebrate (THANKS!). We certainly took full advantage of the opportunity and piled a lot of different activities into two days. On Saturday, we checked in at the Clift Hotel and did some shopping before dinner at Asia de Cuba. Then we headed next door for Jersey Boys at the Curran Theatre. The show was awesome and I definitely recommend it to anyone in the Bay Area or NYC.

On Sunday morning, we worked out at the hotel fitness center, got some breakfast, and did a little more shopping. Then we headed over to Mill Valley (north of the Golden Gate Bridge). Had a nice lunch and did a little shopping before having a massage for two at the Tea Garden Springs. It was the Heaven's Door room and you get a jacuzzi for two for 30 minutes before having side-by-side one-hour massages. Then it was off to the Mountain Home Inn - a quaint inn near Muir Woods. That night, we had a quiet dinner at the inn and setup a fire in our fireplace. We also attempted to watch a movie on my laptop (no TVs) but fell asleep in the middle.

The following morning, my wife used the jacuzzi in our room for a bit and then we had a nice breakfast. Then we did a 3.5 mile hike (roundtrip) from the inn to the East Peak of Mount Tamalpais. The view from the top is supposed to be the best in the Bay Area. We could see around for at least a 50 mile radius - including San Francisco, East Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. Definitely recommend it - even if you drive directly to the top. Afterwards, we did a hike from the inn through Muir Woods (roughly another 4 miles roundtrip). So we certainly got a lot of exercise yesterday morning but we also had lots of time to talk. It also reminded us of a lot of the walks we did during our honeymoon through Acadia National Park during our honeymoon.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect anniversary celebration. Thanks again to my parents for making it possible! And thanks to my wife for ten awesome years of marriage - with many more to come.

Did you know? Part 5.

A friend of mine asked me this question: "“how many days of US energy consumption could we replace if we liposuctioned all body-fat over 10% for men and 18% from women in the US?" I'm sure you've all been asking yourself the same question so here's my attempt at an answer. This article says that “By 2002, average weight for men was almost 191 pounds; for women, average weight was 163 pounds”. And this page says that “The average adult body fat is closer to 15%-18% for men and 22%-25% for women”. So let’s assume 16.5% for men and 23.5% for women. That would mean the average man is 31.5 pounds of fat and 159.5 pounds of muscle; 38.3 pounds of fat and 124.7 pounds of muscle for women. So, if men got down to 10% body fat, they’d keep their 159.5 pounds of muscle but only have 17.7 pounds of fat (a reduction of 13.8 pounds of fat). For women, to get to 18% body fat, they’d keep their 124.7 pounds of muscle and have only 27.4 pounds of fat (a 10.9 pound reduction). According to Wikipedia, there are 105.74 million adult men and 112.81 million adult women in the US. So, if each one of those men had 13.8 pounds of fat liposuctioned out and each woman had 10.9 pounds removed, that would be a total of 2,688.84 million pounds of liposuction fat. Per the numbers in my earlier post, the density of liposuction fat is 7.66 pounds per gallon. So 2,688.84 pounds of fat would be 351.02 million gallons. One gallon of fat yields 0.867 gallons of biodiesel. So 351.02 million gallons of fat would become 304.22 million gallons of biodiesel. Biodiesel has about 10% less energy content than regular diesel so 304.22 million gallons of biodiesel would offset the use of 273.8 million gallons of diesel. And, according to EIA, the US uses 64 billion gallons of diesel per year. So 273.8 million gallons would be 0.428% of that or about 1.56 days or about 37.5 hours. Now, note that diesel usage accounts for only 20.4% of overall petroleum usage in the US. And petroleum only accounts for 39.8% of overall energy consumption in the US (source). So, the real answer to your this question is 0.127 days or about 3 hours. Not much of a renewable energy source. The more interesting question from my perspective is "if people in the US consumed less food such that they were at their ideal weight and body fat percentage, how much energy would be saved in terms of farming, packaging, transportation, preparation, etc and how much biofuel could be generated from the equivalent amount of farm land without triggering all these food vs fuel debates?" Don't have time to try to figure that one out but perhaps someone else can take up the challenge. =)

A stairway to heaven?

A friend of mine sent me this article from the Economist. It's about a scientist at UCLA who has an idea about how to transport large amounts of CO2 out of the atmosphere into outer space. Hopefully he'll submit the idea to the Virgin Earth Challenge and win the $25 million to do this for real (assuming the science is actually sound). Regardless, reading stuff like this does give me hope that we'll find solutions for global warming if we have enough really smart people work on the problem.

You there?

A friend of mine sent me an email yesterday afternoon saying "Are you around? You’ve been quiet and I wanted to see how you were doing?" I appreciate the interest and concern. I've been meaning to post more but just can't seem to find the time. Recently, I've been spending a lot of time trying to work out and lose weight. I need to lose another 2 pounds or so in the next two weeks or I'll need to donate $1,000 to Heifer.org (see prior post). My target weight is 195 pounds and, as of Saturday morning, I was around 197 pounds. We're also way ahead of schedule at work science-wise so things are heating up for me on the business side. More soon...

Did you know? Part 4.

In this mini-series of fun facts, we’ve looked at the fuel efficiencies of chickens, liposuction fat, and coffee beans. But what about cow farts and cow manure? I’m sure that topic’s been on everyone’s mind so let me address it. As everyone may or may not know, cows produce a lot of methane gas and many believe they’re a major contributor to global warming (especially since methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide). In fact, cow flatulence produces about 90 kilograms of methane per cow per year (source). Methane has an energy density of about 52.75 MJ per kg (source) so that’s 4,748 MJ of methane per cow per year or 13 MJ of methane per cow per day. One way to convert methane into diesel fuel is a process called Gas-to-Liquid (GTL). That process requires 10.5 GJ of natural gas (mostly methane) to produce 42 gallons (1 barrel) of fuel (source) – so 250 MJ of natural gas for 1 gallon of diesel. If a cow produces 13 MJ of methane per day and 250 MJ are required for 1 gallon of diesel, you can get 0.052 gallons of diesel per cow per day. Assuming a diesel engine has a fuel efficiency of 30 miles per gallon, you’d be able to drive 1.56 miles per day of cow farts. Stats on bovine flatulence frequency are hard to come by but this source would indicate that cows pass gas every 40-90 seconds. Assuming they do that 24 hours a day (btw, humans fart in their sleep so let’s assume cows do too), that would be about 1,329 farts/belches per day so you can drive only 0.0012 miles per cow fart. [As an aside, while the typical person farts about 14 times a day (source), human farts are much lower in methane content and therefore not nearly as useful for producing diesel fuel via GTL]

At this point, you’re probably asking yourself one of two questions: (a) “what about the methane in cow manure?” or (b) “why am I still reading this crap?” (no pun intended). I’ll assume you’re asking yourself the former question and do my best to answer. This press release says that a herd of 150,000 cattle generate a total 2,500 tons of manure a day. One (short ton) is 907.18474 kilograms so 2,500 tons would be 2,267,962 kilograms of manure for the entire herd – or 15.12 kilograms of manure per cow per day. From this page, we find out that cow dung gas is 55-65% methane. The source doesn’t specify but I’ll assume this is by weight and that all the dung can be converted to cow dung gas. So 15.12 kilograms of manure per cow per day would be about 9.1 kilograms of methane per cow per day. Following the same math as above, that would translate into 1.91 gallons of diesel per cow per day. At 30 miles per gallon, that’s a whopping 57.42 miles per day of cow manure. According to this site, cows poop 11 to 12 times each day. So we can get a very respectable 4.8 miles per cow dump.

With that, I think it’s likely time for a new hobby since I’ve probably taken this one as far as I can. =)

Did you know? Part 3.

I’m sure this post will provoke a couple of “don’t you have better things to do with your time” but, hey, we all need our hobbies and mine appears to be random biodiesel calculations at the moment. =) New fun fact regarding the fuel efficiency of coffee.

There was an announcement last week about a researcher in Brazil working on turning low quality coffee beans into biodiesel. In the press release, it says that “every 100 kilograms of coffee will produce roughly 9 kilograms of oil” and “a liter of biodiesel requires about 15% of a liter of ethanol”. So, what does that mean in terms of fuel efficiency of coffee bean biodiesel? Well, if you consult the always-handy Biodiesel Handbook and the always-handy Google, you find that the fatty acid profiles of coffee bean oil and cottonseed oil are pretty similar (source for coffee bean oil). Using Google again, we find that the density of cottonseed oil is 0.92 g/cm3 or 0.92 g/ml (source). So coffee bean oil has a density of about 7.67 lbs/gallon or 3.49 kg/gal. If 100 kilograms of coffee yields 9 kilograms of oil, that means 100 kilograms of coffee yields 2.58 gallons of coffee oil. And, if ethanol is 15% of the biodiesel by volume, you end up with 3.03 gallons of biodiesel from 100 kilograms of coffee. Now, from before, we know an average diesel engine gets about 30 miles to the gallon but biodiesel has about 10% worse fuel efficiency. So, 3.03 gallons of biodiesel takes you 81.9 miles (3.03 x 27). So, 100 kilograms of coffee gets you 81.9 miles and a diesel engine has a fuel efficiency of 0.82 miles per kilogram of coffee beans or 0.37 miles per pound of coffee beans (about 8x less than liposuction fat).

Now, if we take this one step further, 1 pound of coffee beans yields 10.8 pots of brewed coffee (source). So, another way to think about this is that a diesel engine has a fuel efficiency of 0.034 miles per pot of coffee.

Enjoy … and feel free to make fun of my hobby. =)

Praying in Color

It's been awhile since I've read something good on ExploreFaith.org. But this article caught my attention. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the page:

How do you pray when words become barriers rather than possibilities? When thinking in sentences is too linear to express a rainbow of emotions.

The rest of the article was a bit of a disappointment but I suppose they didn't want to give up too much of the real meat since they want you to buy the book. Regardless, the doodling concept is an interesting one. It's also a good reminder that there are a lot of ways to commune with God beyond formal prayers.