Cleantech.com has an article on Masdar's aim to get into the biofuel for air transport market using saliconia - Masdar and Boeing’s Qatari catch-up.

Not to be upstaged by a similar announcement last week, a Masdar-led consortium today reiterated its own jet fuel from saltwater plant project, with an airline partner.

Masdar, Boeing and Honeywell’s UOP today announced details of a jet fuel from saltwater plant research project first acknowledged four months ago.

And included today was a new partner: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. ...

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology is to lead the project, aimed at assessing the technical, commercial and environmental viability of producing large scale jet fuel and co-products from the saltwater herb salicornia.

Others are investigating salicornia for biofuel use, given the plant’s tolerance for seawater, including experimental fields in Ras al-Zawr in Saudi Arabia, Eritrea in Northeast Africa, and Sonora in Northwest Mexico aimed at the production of biodiesel.

Cleantech.com also has a set of pictures of the (slowly) emerging Masdar city - Pictures from a walking tour of Masdar City.

Der Spiegel has an interview with Boeing's "chief environmental strategist", Billy Glover, on prospects for biofuel use in air transport (he's very optimistic, but short on detail) - Algae Could 'Supply Entire World with Aviation Fuel'.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Glover, given the current low price of oil, why would airlines still even be interested in biofuels?

Glover: Indeed, the oil price has changed rapidly. But it has done that many times before and it will continue to do so. Even today, the highest operating expense for an airline is fuel. It remains a priority to find a way to mitigate that situation. That is why Boeing is trying to open up this avenue of alternative fuel. It can help that situation while having a better environmental performance at the same time.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: It seems that, after a few test flights last year, not much has happened.

Glover: Oh no, we are moving forward very rapidly! The first test flight was in February 2008. But more recently, in December 2008 and in January 2009, there were three test flights in quick succession with a higher blend of biofuel and better performance. We have already achieved quite a bit in terms of technical understanding and technical qualification.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Still, these test flights seemed first and foremost to be PR stunts aimed at burnishing the airline industry's green credentials.

Glover: We have worked hard and collected quite a bit of technical data. The industry is currently preparing a technical report that is coming out in the next couple of months. That will then go into the fuel specification approval process.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How high do oil prices have to be before biofuels become economically sensible?

Glover: Affordability is always critical -- and we are not where we need to be yet. But we are at the beginning of a learning curve. The price is expected to come down in fairly short order. That is not going to be an issue in the longterm.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Where are we now and where do we need to go in terms of production price?

Glover: It depends very much on the types of plants used as well as the methods for processing and delivering that into finished fuel. I do not think there is a simple way to explain a particular price and a particular time. It is all situational.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you plan to ensure that the crops needed for biofuel production do not endanger food production or contribute to deforestation?

Glover: We cannot have commercialization of biofuels unless we make sure that it is done in a sustainable fashion. We aim to firmly establish a user group of top airlines from around the world that will lay out sustainability criteria and initiate aviation-specific discussions and research. We expect that to result in a code of practice to make clear what is acceptable and what is not.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: One of the major points of concern is land use. Take, for example, jatropha, one possible source of biofuels. How many square kilometres of that plant would actually be necessary to fuel a flight over the Atlantic Ocean?

Glover: Good question, I never figured it out that way. We really do not expect that all of the world's flights will be fuelled by jatropha plants exclusively.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Than let us talk about algae. How big do these cultures need to be?

Glover: The optimists say, to supply the entire world with aviation fuel, you would perhaps need an area of the size of Belgium. We still need quite a bit of research and development work to really determine whether that is possible. So far, we are very pleasantly surprised by the innovation and the progress.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The biofuels will be blended with traditional kerosene-based jet fuel. What ratio is being planned?

Glover: The fuel specification that is being considered would allow up to a 50 percent mix. Whether one would actually be able to achieve this number with an initial commercial offering will depend very much on supply availability. But over time we actually expect it to increase to even beyond 50 percent.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How do you plan to make sure the different types of fuel are mixed properly and do not clog the plane's fuel lines?

Glover: The mix is done outside the plane before the fuel has entered into the fuel distribution system. At that point the blend is indistinguishable in performance characteristics from traditional jet fuel. No changes are required to the airplanes; no additional infrastructure is needed at the airports.

The Australian reports that Air New Zealand will soon trial a fuel mix using 50% biofuel from jatropha plants - Oil from wasteland tree to power Air NZ jet.

A BIOFUEL due to be used in a world-first Air New Zealand flight test next month may give aircraft an energy boost and reduce their environmental footprint.

Tests by engine-maker Rolls Royce show the 50/50 blend of Jet A1 and fuel converted from jatropha plant oil met or exceeded all critical criteria, including a freeze point of -47C and flash point of 38C. But it also has a higher energy content and lower specific gravity than the Jet A1 fuel available in most countries and the Jet A fuel airlines buy in the US.

Rolls-Royce, which tested the fuel at facilities in Britain, said the blend met or exceeded technical requirements for civil and military aircraft as well as the requirements of a "drop-in" fuel whose properties were virtually indistinguishable from conventional fuel. This means it can be put straight into today's jet engines without the need to make expensive modifications.

Air NZ chief pilot David Morgan said the ability to mix the biofuel with normal fuel was important because airlines may not be able to get the new type in all ports. He expected airlines to be able to use anything from 100 per cent biofuel to various levels of blends.

He also expected to see a reduced fuel burn per nautical mile because of the higher energy content in the new is fuel. He noted that Qantas and Air NZ flights buying the less energy-rich Jet A in the US loaded a 0.2 to 0.3 of a per cent extra because it had less calorific value. This meant, all things being equal, that airlines used more fuel coming out of the US than in travelling there. "So the high calorific value and low specific gravity is a win-win," he said.

Mr Morgan said the aviation industry consortium involved in the test had opted for a blend was because of the biofuel's lower specific gravity. "For the purpose of the test we need to bring it close to normal jet fuel specific gravity because one of the purposes of this test is to prove the efficacy and viability of biofuel in the normal system," he said.

Air NZ will test the blend in various operating conditions in one of the four RB211 on the 747 during a two-hour flight on December 3 and Mr Morgan doe not anticipate any surprises.

While the airlines are taking the brunt of high oil prices, Airbus hasn't been immune to the malaise either, with the market apparently valuing the plane business at zero. From Bloomberg:

Airbus SAS, the world's largest commercial aircraft maker, is valued at ``less than zero'' after this year's 32 percent drop in the shares of parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., according to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. analyst Joe Campbell. ``The market is viewing Airbus as a liability, rather than an asset,'' said Campbell, 62, who is based in New York and has ranked among the top five aerospace analysts for six consecutive years in an Institutional Investor magazine poll.

EADS, based in Paris and Munich, on May 13 reported an additional three-month delay in deliveries of the A380 superjumbo jetliner, which was already two years behind schedule. Before the latest setback, the company had cut its profit forecast by $6 billion through 2010. ...

EADS's non-Airbus assets, including helicopters, satellites, rockets, fighters and defense electronics, are worth 15 or 16 euros a share, or about where the stock is trading, estimates Campbell. Non-Airbus businesses contribute a third of the company's sales, which totaled 39.1 billion euros in 2007.

Scott Babka and Rupinder Vig at Morgan Stanley in London say EADS without Airbus is worth 13.5 euros a share. Getting an aircraft maker for free might provide a floor for the stock, according to Vig.

In a related story, a Seattle area paper called "The Loon" is speculating Boeing's Dreamliner is a hoax. The market doesn't seem to agree with this story however...

Cleantech.com is reporting that Virgin plans a test flight of a Boeing Dreamliner next month using some mysterious biofuel that they have developed - no further details available, other than it "doesn't compete with food and fresh water resources", which is encouraging. I'd be guessing its algae based as a first choice, or some sort of biotech based cellulosic ethanol like fuel - either way they'd be way out ahead of the rest of the market if they get this to work.

A Boeing 747 is to fly without passengers between London and Amsterdam. Crawley, England-based Virgin Atlantic said today that it would fly the world's first commercial jet powered by biofuel next month. Ten months ahead of schedule, the test flight will use a Boeing 747 without passengers to fly from London to Amsterdam.

"The demonstration flight next month will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint," said Richard Branson, president of Virgin Atlantic, part of the Virgin Group. "Virgin Group pledged to invest all its profits from its transportation companies towards developing clean energy and with this breakthrough we are well down the path to achieving our goals."

The company didn't say what kind of biofuel would be used, only that it doesn't compete with food and fresh water resources. Virgin said the test flight is being run in conjunction with Boeing and GE Aviation.

Last year, the airline ordered 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which it said are up to 60 percent quieter and use nearly 30 percent less fuel than the Airbus A340-300s they'll replace in Virgin Atlantic's fleet. The company has options and purchase rights on another 28 Dreamliners.

Links:

* The Economist - Sugar in the tank
* Scientific American - Virgin biofuelled flight: T-minus one month and counting...

The Dominion Post has an article looking at New Zealand's efforts to exploit various niches related to air transport - in particular their ongoing experiments with creating biofuels for commercial airliners, with algae and jatropha being the focus - "Mega-rich join queue for Air NZ's skills".

Air New Zealand's has ambitious plans to earn big money from niches like cabin design, pilot training and biofuel. ... Air New Zealand has joined with plane-maker Boeing and engine-maker Rolls-Royce in the race to find a viable biofuel to power aircraft and reduce the dependence on oil, which some tip will rise to a crippling US$150 a barrel.

An Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 will make a test flight early next year with one of its four engines powered by a biofuel mixed with standard jet fuel. No passengers will be carried on the flight. Mr Fyfe says he is confident that Air New Zealand will be using a blended biofuel on commercial flights within his tenure as chief executive.

Research into biofuel is moving into the second generation of development of more efficient fuels. One of the most promising is the oil-rich seed of the jatropha tree that grows in warm and moist climates and has an energy density and characteristics close to those of petroleum. India's commercial crop of jatropha seeds is already big enough to power Air New Zealand's domestic fleet, Mr Fyfe says.

Algae-based fuel, like that being pursued by Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation in Blenheim, also shows promise, but more work needs to be done to make it economic. No one company in New Zealand has the resources to take on all the research and development for a new biofuel, Mr Fyfe says.

The Hindu has more background on Aquaflow Bionomics - " Oil from algae a solution?

As biofuel production using corn and sugar is criticised for putting food stocks at risk, could oil from algae solve the energy crisis?

Has a sewage farm just outside the New Zealand city of Blenheim provided a solution to the world’s energy shortages? Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation, a local start-up, has patented a process to extract biofuel from sewage, and last year Minister for Energy David Parker road-tested a car run on the oil of microscopic algae.

“Wild algae is one of the ubiquitous units of nature,” says Nick Gerritsen, a partner in the firm. “If you leave a bucket of water outside, the water will turn green as it is settled by wild algae. We realised very early that we needed to create a model that took advantage of wild algae feedstocks.”

The challenge was to catch what he calls “the little blighters”, the algae that contain oils or lipids, in the work’s outflow pipe, a cleansing process known as bio-remediation. In May 2006, the company produced what it claimed was “the first biodiesel crude from wild algae”. The process is secret, though oil was extracted from algae that had been separated from water, which Aquaflow wants to leave clean enough to drink.

Aquaflow first had to pass the energy balance test, creating a fuel that produced at least as much energy as went into creating it. The company went from pond scum to biodiesel in just over a year and says its fuel is suitable for domestic use and transport. Furthermore, it claims its technology fits “on the back of a truck,” and is cheap enough to be adopted anywhere. “Our aim is to enable communities to use their wild algae feedstock and become as self-sufficient as they can,” says Mr. Gerritsen.

Faith in algae to provide energy has spread. Last month, Shell announced it had formed a joint venture with HR Biopetroleum that will construct a demonstration plant to harvest algae they claim can double their mass several times a day, providing 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rape.

“Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels, with a very small C02 footprint,” says Graeme Sweeney, Shell’s executive vice-president of future fuels and carbon, but admits the commercial potential of the scheme is yet to be proved.

Meanwhile, the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, an alliance of aircraft manufacturers, industry organisations and entrepreneurs, is seeking a biojet fuel that could come from algae.

Last month (DEC), a San Francisco “algae summit” drew more than 300 delegates. One participant was Kelly Ogilvie, co-founder of Seattle firm Blue Marble Energy, which plans to harvest wild algae from sewage farms, lakes and rivers, mining ponds and algae blooms caused by pollution. It says its method is “low cost” and “low tech.” Unlike corn, soya beans, rapeseed and sugar cane — unsustainable monocultures that threaten food production already jeopardised by climate change — algae thrive in shallow, brackish water. Like all plants, they convert sunlight into energy and voraciously consume CO2.

Algae also emit CO2, but this can be offset by injecting nutrient rich CO2 emissions into algae-rich water. No one knows how much CO2 could be absorbed but Mr. Gerritsen believes it could be “quite significant.” Best of all, he says, algae can double their mass in hours.

And they need less space than other biofuels. While corn produces 60 or so gallons of ethanol an acre annually, algae can provide up to 10,000 gallons of biofuel, says Dave Daggett, research chief at Boeing.

However, getting there is a challenge. “There are hurdles throughout the process stream,” says Eric Jarvis, a senior scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The U.S. company, funded by energy company Chevron, has resumed work on identifying strains of algae likely to produce abundant lipid oils.

The Guardian has a look at Shell's venture into algae based biofuel - "Shell plans to take on greener tinge by growing algae".

Shell is going to grow marine algae to convert into biofuel, the oil company announced yesterday.

The decision to build an experimental plant came as another clean-fuel pioneer, D1 Oils, called on environmentalists to end their "generic" condemnation of biofuels and support those pursuing sustainable products not in competition with food.

Shell has formed a joint venture company with HR Biopetroleum under which they will construct a demonstration facility on the Kona coast of Hawaii Island to harvest algae, which grows very rapidly and, they claim, can provide 15 times more oil a hectare than alternatives such as rape.

"Algae have great potential as a sustainable feedstock for production of diesel-type fuels with a very small C02 footprint," said Graeme Sweeney, Shell's executive vice-president of future fuels and carbon, who admitted the commercial potential of the scheme still had to be proved.

Greenpeace described the move as "potentially interesting" but said it did not make up for the kind of carbon-intensive operations Shell is pursuing in Canadian tar sands.

A number of trials with algae undertaken by other organisations have ended in failure, but Sweeney said the political and commercial environment was changing as governments introduced tougher curbs on C02. He denied the scheme was designed to take public attention away from other carbon-heavy schemes such as the Canadian tar sands that have enraged green groups, saying growing global demand for energy meant all types of fuels would be needed in future.

The Australian has a report about an Air NZ jumbo on a biofuel test flight.

AIR New Zealand will start ground-breaking aircraft testing of biofuels as early as next year and believes the technology could become commercially viable for airlines sooner than expected. The airline is partnering with aircraft manufacturer Boeing and engine-maker Rolls-Royce to test a biofuel blend on one of its Boeing 747s. It will be the first real-world test of biofuels for the Rolls-Boeing combination.

The test will be aimed at determining the commercial viability of blends and how they affect existing jet engines. It will also help validate on a real engine predictions emerging from laboratories. The Kiwi flag-carrier said yesterday the Boeing 747 test flight would originate in Auckland but not carry passengers. Only one of the plane's four engines would run on a biofuel-kerosene mix. Tests before the flight at the end of next year or early in 2009 would determine what sort of biofuel would be used and the level of the blend.

Air NZ chief executive officer Rob Fyfe said the test marked a significant step in Air NZ's plans to lead the global aviation industry in developing the most environmentally responsible airline practices possible. "Simply, we are taking the first step on what promises to be a defining and inspiring journey," he said. "It's hard to believe that as little as a year ago, biofuel seemed like pie in the sky and was being written off by many commentators in terms of aviation application. "But it is now becoming a genuine possibility and the technology is moving so fast that it may become commercially viable in a much shorter time frame than we previously thought."

The problem with early biofuels was that they did not contain the same ratio of energy to mass as jet fuel. But advances in technology have produced renewable fuels that have closed the gap.

Rolls-Royce senior vice-president airlines Jim Sheard said the Air NZ flight test would form an important part of Rolls-Royce's program to assess the environmental benefits and viability of renewable fuels. "The work surrounding the flight test will move the science of renewable fuels forward by a significant degree," Mr Sheard said. "Prior to the flight we'll evaluate the fuel to ensure its suitability as a long-term alternative. We will understand its behaviour in a modern gas turbine engine and, crucially, its emissions."

Mr Sheard said aviation industry requirements for fuel remained stringent and said testing was necessary to see whether biofuels met those specifications. He said a crucial point was that there be no change to engine performance or operability as a result of using the fuels. "Some biofuels may not meet that specification; others will," he said. "And I think at this stage of the journey we're just trying to understand which of the fuels are going to produce that required specification."

Airlines around the world are facing increased pressure from environmentalists about the level of aircraft emissions and are feeling the pain of rising oil prices.

This may be using algae derived biodiesel from Aquaflow Bionomic - take note those of you who think air transport will be unviable post peak - as per this news item from earlier in the year.

Air New Zealand and Boeing are secretly working to create the world's first green aviation fuel, made of wild algae. The fuel is essentially derived from bacterial pond scum created through the photosynthesis of sunlight and carbon dioxide on nutrient-rich water sources such as sewage ponds.The company providing the biofuel is Aquaflow Bionomic Corporation. If the project pans out the small and relatively new New Zealand company could lead the world in environmentally sustainable aviation fuel.

Air New Zealand would most likely test the fuel on one engine while normal aviation fuel would drive the other engine. Fuel is held in cells on the aircraft that can be directed to a specific engine.

None of the parties involved will talk about the joint venture development because of confidentiality agreements but whispers about the project were circulating at the roll-out of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Seattle in the US last week. Local Marlborough media reported a visit by Boeing to Aquaflow earlier this year and Boeing has stated publicly since then that it believes algae is the airline fuel of the future.

Virgin Fuels announced in April it was working with Boeing to demonstrate biofuel in a 747-400. The focus is on testing algae-derived jet fuel, especially its freezing point.

Boeing's Dave Daggett was reported this year as saying algae ponds totalling 34,000 square kilometres could produce enough fuel to reduce the net CO2 footprint for all of aviation to zero. Until now the relatively new Blenheim company's focus has been on biodiesel for cars, trucks, buses and boats.

English Environment Minister David Parker drew public attention to the company in December when he test drove a Land Rover around that was powered by Aquaflow's blend of algae biofuel and diesel (5% algae fuel and 95% conventional fuel) just a year after it was developed.

Andrew Leonard at Salon has a look at The Seven Commandments of Mexican ethanol. A set of rules that only the extremely virtuous will be able to satisfy I suspect (as far as ethanol goes anyway).

What is the perfect biofuel solution? Or is the very concept hopelessly utopian? Globalization and the Environment highlights an exploration of how one might go about constructing a sustainable ethanol economy that simultaneously serves the interests of social justice, the environment, and renewable energy, in the context of Mexico.

The overriding goal of author Ricardo Cantú in his delightfully titled "Ethanolomics: The Think-About's of the Mexican Ethanol Project" is to devise a strategy for improving the living standards of the rural poor in Mexico via an invigoration of the agricultural economy, without committing the major sin of inducing price hikes in food staples that will hurt the urban poor.

Achieving the desired balance will not be easy. As ground rules, Cantu provides a set of guidelines:

They are:

* 1. Over the whole chain, the use of biomass should produce fewer emissions of greenhouse gases net than on average with fossil fuel.
* 2. Production of biomass for energy must not endanger the food supply and other local applications (such as for medicines or building materials).
* 3. Biomass production must not affect protected or vulnerable biodiversity and will, where possible, have to strengthen biodiversity.
* 4. In the production and processing of biomass, the quality of soil, surface and ground water and air must be retained or even increased.
* 5. The production of biomass must contribute towards local prosperity.
* 6. The production of biomass must contribute towards the social well being of the employees and the local population.
* 7. The overall ethanol production costs should be cheaper and more accessible than that of the fossil fuels, or at least the same level, excluding all the subsidies or tax benefits to the producers or distributors.

That's quite a checklist. Let's pick one absolutely not at random: The production of biomass must contribute towards local prosperity.

Cantú stresses that a key requirement of a biofuel economy in Mexico is that the farmers capture the rewards of their production. In other words, one wants to avoid a situation in which farmers sell their sugar cane or maize or sorghum at rock-bottom prices to middlemen who then grab all the upstream profits. Cantú envisions farmer cooperatives setting up their own ethanol mills, and dealing directly with distributors. ...

Paul Cleary (author of "Shakedown - Australia's Grab for Timor Oil") has a look at East Timor in the SMH, noting the country is All the weaker, thanks to our greedy grab for oil.

For a country controlling a maritime region of 15 million square kilometres - more than twice the size of its landmass - Australia has limited powers to stop unlawful exploitation of creatures such as endangered whales and fish, and the resources found underneath the seabed.

This is one of the legacies of the tactics used by the Howard Government in its dealings with the poorest country in our region - East Timor - in the dispute over the Timor Sea's oil and gas.

In March 2002, two months before East Timor became independent, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, with the attorney-general, Daryl Williams, announced "changes to the terms upon which Australia accepts international dispute resolution mechanisms" for maritime disputes, including boundaries. What seemed a dull statement had profound implications for Australia's conduct in the disputed Timor Sea and elsewhere.

The Government knew East Timor had a strong claim over petroleum resources worth at least $120 billion on the northern side of the median line between the two countries.

At the time of this announcement the Howard Government had agreed to an interim treaty giving East Timor a 40 per cent share. It knew East Timor was entitled to a lot more when it became a new nation, hence the announcement two months before independence designed to deny the new country legal recourse.

The "declaration" signed by Downer withdrew Australia's acceptance of the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice for maritime disputes, and of the dispute settlement procedures under the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. This included matters "relating to the exploitation of any disputed area of or adjacent to any such maritime zone pending its delimitation".

In his press statement, Downer claimed the change was made as a result of maritime boundary claims by New Zealand, Norway and France. But the target was East Timor, which was not mentioned in the release. The minutes of a meeting of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and United Nations officials in late 2000 reveal how the Government's withdrawal was aimed at East Timor and was described by a senior foreign affairs official, Michael Potts, as a "get-out-of-jail card".

At the time of the announcement Australia was pocketing about $1 million a day in tax revenue from the Woodside-operated Laminaria-Corallina oilfields, which sit twice as close to East Timor as Australia. The withdrawal meant Australia denied revenue to the new country that could have been used to generate jobs and prevent the formation of today's rock-throwing gangs.

WorldChanging's Jon Lebkowsky has an interview with Douglas Rushkoff about the "Technologies of Persuasion".

Jon: Tell us about Maybe Logic Academy and the "Technologies of Persuasion" course you're going to teach there. Persuade us!

Doug: ... What I will tell you is that Robert Anton Wilson's online school, Maybe Logic Academy, asked me three or four years ago to do a course for them, and I kept delaying because I just haven't had time. But then when RAW went and died, I figured a few of us really had to step up and take the torch – provoke inquiry, lead discussions, help people see the underlying assumptions shaping our reality. And these Maybe Logic folks are good people, with real integrity, who care about the kinds of issues that Bob cared about.

And so I put together a course loosely based on a NYU course I did a year ago that proved unexpectedly successful. It's called "Technologies of Persuasion," and it will give us an opportunity to explore the relationship of media, technology, and human agency. Did the inventions of text, the printing press, the television, or the Internet improve our access to the laws and values by which we live? Who gains more power when a new medium surfaces – the audience or the advertisers? Why do we seem never to be able to capitalize on renaissance?

They asked me to assign at least one of my own books, which I did, but I've also got some great readings in there by everyone from Adorno to Genesis P- Orridge. So I think we'll have a good time. And I'm really looking to be swayed, myself. I haven't been too hopeful lately about the potential of new media to liberate us from the darker effects of corporate capitalism. Maybe some enlightened souls will show up and make me a bit more optimistic again.

Jon: I figured you would be teaching critical thinking about media. I think that's easier to do now than before the Internet appeared, because that 'net-driven explosion in the number and diversity of microchannels for communication, stewing in an environment for many media, has been a sort of Krell mind amplification for the masses, where we could suddenly, readily see the men behind the curtain. Now we have guys like the Eisenbergs (in "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing") saying that traditional marketing is dysfunctional, and coming up with a "persuasion architecture" to define and address various personae.

Do you get consulting gigs with a lot of post-broadcast questions? "How can we make them buy our widget when adverts mean nothing to them?" (And when the widget market is generally Open Source!)

Doug: Well, I don't do any consulting. Never really have, except to Dell back when. My "gigs" as such are always just talks. Sometimes they'll ask me to come back and ask me questions, but nine times out of ten those are VPs looking for a more rewarding career path, and using me as more of a spiritual counselor or shrink. So I give them permission to quit.

Don't hire me as a consultant unless you're truly ready to leave your job.

My whole pitch on marketing and communications is for companies to stop creating mythologies and persuasion campaigns around the products that they're disconnected with, and to start getting involved in some aspect of the thing they're selling.

The easiest tactic is to become involved in at least one area of the design or manufacturing of the product you're selling. So, if you're making shoes, you should have someone on the staff who is connected not only with the shoe industry, but with the particular shoes you're selling. Ideally, your company actually designs and makes the shoes. This way, instead of creating a marketing myth (our shoes are made by elves who live in a hollow tree) you can actually develop a culture around the shoe itself. The employees and customers end up becoming part of the same culture of shoe design, manufacture, and appreciation.

So I go and talk at lots of companies, and try to help them figure out whether there's anyone on their staff who is connected to the industry that the company is a part of. And then, to look at how to make that person or persons more central to what the company says about itself.

All the rest of it – this Blink/LizardBrain/CultureOfPropaganda nonsense is just a way for sold-out intellectuals to sell books to cynical marketers. It's all based on the faulty observation that human beings make all of their choices in the same reptilian fashion. Just because a person's brain may light up in certain way when the see a blue Pepsi can doesn't mean that they'll make important life choices that way – or even trivial choices at the grocery store.

The kind of marketing you're talking about is an effort to fill in where advertising has failed. And while it doesn't really work to sell particular products, it does have a major and deleterious effect on our society. The underlying communication still gets through. And that communication is: you are not worthy, you are in need, you need to buy something to fill that hole in your soul. Mommy doesn't love you, but the corporation does.

I've been reading a little RAW lately and that last snippet is just part of how he viewed the media - the advertising component also appeals to readers because of the positive and uplifting image it has in contrast to most of the content it is delivered with, which is usually heavily infested with fnords. I have noticed there are some web sites out there which dispense with both advertising and non-alarming content and deal almost exclusively in fnords. This probably isn't a good thing, for all concerned.

Links:

* The Australian - Clean energy targets lift wind farms
* Green Car Congress - New Tidal Power Unit Due for River Testing in 2008
* Renewable Energy Access - Vertigro Algae Research and Development Center Begins Operation
* Colorado Springs Gazette - Former CIA Chief looks to future
* Mail and Guardian - Jatropha: fuel for thought?
* Israel 21C - Riding an Israeli electric car to peace
* New York Times - Ethanol’s Boom Stalling as Glut Depresses Price. Thus far corn growers and ethanol producers are running faster than ethanol consumers.
* Business Week - Big Oil's Big Stall On Ethanol. Dumb and dumber.
* The Guardian - Brazil's biofuel blues
* PhysOrg - Biofuels could increase global warming with laughing gas, says Nobel prize-winning chemist Crutzen
* Salon - Our rosy future, according to Freeman Dyson. Probably the only global warming skeptic I am willing to listen to any more.
* Asia Times - A massive wrench thrown in Putin's works. Watching the great gas pipeline game in central Asia.
* National Post - 'All bets are off' in Alberta. The locals want a bit more of the tar sands action - maybe greed will be good for the environment if it puts off some development...
* Reuters - Little-known Indian tribe spotted in Peru's Amazon. I don't think these guys have any hope of getting any oil revenue or delaying any projects - more likely they simply won't survive.
* The Australian - Reserve boost gives Ranger uranium mine four more years
* The Australian - Brisbane businesses to feel water pinch
* The Oil Drum - A Note From our Milkman
* The Oil Drum - Analysis of the Hon. John Dingell's carbon-tax proposal
* New York Times - Two Different Accounts of Deadly Airstrike in Baghdad
* SMH - 'US plan to bomb Iran'
* Glenn Greenwald - The U.S. military's role in preventing the bombing of Iran. "I don't share this view that All Is Lost, but it is increasingly difficult every day to find within the mainstream politcial establishment and the Democratic Party even small amounts of meaningful resistance to the most radical and war-seeking elements in the Bush administration." The Democratic jellyfish is looking more lifeless than ever.
* Billmon - I told you so. The great man lives !
* Cryptogon - Congressman: State Department Official Threatened Investigators