No word can speak better than a popular song.
Una mattina mi son svegliato,
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
Una mattina mi son svegliato e ho trovato l'invasor.
O partigiano portami via,
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
O partigiano portami via che mi sento di morir.
E so io muoio da partigiano,
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
E so io muoio da partigiano tu mi devi seppellir.
E seppellire lassù in montagna
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
E seppellire lassù in montagna sotto l'ombra di un bel fior.
Tutte le genti che passeranno
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
Tutte le genti che passeranno mi diranno "che bel fior!".
E questo è il fiore del partigiano
O bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
E questo è il fiore del partigiano morto per la Libertà.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Alternatives
Rocco's twin brother
James had been substituted by Rocco, a muscular Hyundai Tucson. Metallized gray.
Now, the opposers of the SUV's will get pissed with me, but in the place i live, a 4 wheels drive is practically a necessity.
At first i wanted a gasoline version with LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) plant, but for a number of stupid reasons at the end i bought a 2 liters gasoline and i had it transformed in bi-fuel only in february. Which was a bother, but allowed me to check the exact fuel consumption in order to make a comparison between LPG and gasoline
During gasoline feeding Rocco drinks about 10 liters per 100 km (or 10 km per liter) [4.25 gallons per 100 miles (or 23.5 miles per gallon)], in a mixed type of path including several hairpin bends (from the work place to home there are 10 of them in about 10 km [6.2 miles] with a difference of altitude of about 400 meters [1312 feet]). LPG is a little less efficient, from a consumption point of view, and when Rocco uses this kind of fuel the consumption raise to about 12 liters per 100km (or 8.3 km per liter) [5.1 gallons per 100 miles (or 19.6 miles per gallon)].
Now, in this one should better evaluate the honesty of the LPG station people, because it is kind of difficult to evaluate exactly the amount of LPG effectively given by the pump. LPG, infact, at normal atmosphere pressure and environment temperature is gassiform, and so, by definition, it cannot be measured in liters [gallons] (volume): a gas can infact be compressed, andso the same amount of gas can take up a different volume depending on the compression factor. But a gas, at a certain amount of pressure, mutates in liquid (hence the L of the acronym), and so, by definition, becomes uncompressable, or, in other words, a certain amount of LPG takes up always (about) the same space till when it is in a liquid status. I have the suspicion that some LPG stations i have visited are sly and use minor compression factors and at the end give LPG in a gassified status, giving so a minor amount than the paid much. Anyway i am not complaining here about this: i wanted only to clarify that maybe this problem could make my measurements a little wrong.
cost in euros to drive a distance of 100 miles
with diesel (tested on James),
gasoline and GPL (tasted on Rocco)
But there is some save also with respect of the much i would have spent with the Focus in diesel fuel. With James infact i used about 7 liters per 100km (or 14.3 km per liter) [2.98 gallons per 100 miles (or 33.56 miles per gallon)], and with the actual price of diesel (1.37 euros per liter [5.18 euros per gallon] 100 km would cost 9.60 euros [100 miles would cost 15.45 euros]
Anyway there are also other reasons to prefer the LPG powered instead the traditional gasoline. It is an ecological choice. LPG produces much less pollution than gasoline or diesel. Also about this point of view one should distinguish the type of pollution. With LPG there is a total elimination of micro-powders, that are the one that make our towns unbreathable, and there is also a good decrease of the other polluting substances that are bad for health. It is actually for this reason that bi-fuel cars are allowed to drive in the days of pollution-lock traffic. Then there is the greenhouse effect, widely worse, but that has a much minor direct impact on the air that we breathe. LPG produce much less of this pollution, even if in a less evident way.
There are other types of alternative fuel, that offer some advantages and disadvantages with respect to LPG. I will try to describe them.
Methane
It gives immediate advantages for the wallet, because, even if it consumes a little more, it costs much less (if, distance being equal, LPG costs a little more than the half of the gasoline, methane costs a little more than a third). Moreover it pollutes even less under all the points of view. But it gives some problems. The distribution in Italy and in the rest of Europe of methan stations is really insufficient, and one risks to have to procede for long distances with gasoline before he finds the way to make fuel. The fuel tank for the methan is also very big and heavy, and that has the consequence to loose space in the trunk (while LPG tank can be put in the spare tire space, and one must find an alternative place to put the tire, or buy the repair sprays - but... do they work?!?) and an inconvenient distribution of the weights in the vehicle.| Gasoline | LPG | Methane | |
| CO2 | 100 | 90 | 75 |
| Benzene | 100 | 7 | 0 |
| HC | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| NOx | 100 | 47 | 42 |
| CO | 100 | 93 | 60 |
| PM10 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
and methane,
made 100 the much produced by gasoline,
testing the same distance.
source Quattroruote magazine
Bio-fuels
It is possible to produce bio-ethanol or bio-diesel with vegetable cultivation. Even if I cannot provide exact datas now, it looks that they pollute somehow less than traditional gasoline or diesel. Moreover their availability does not depend on the presence of bio-fossil deposits, and it wouldn't be bad to give a big beat to the Lords of the Wars. But, the problem is that that production needs huge extensions of land to cultivate the vegetables for the transformation. So much that this type of production would compete with the cultivations for food, whici is obviously not a good thing.Hybrid power
Already some models are circulating with this type of power. For example Toyota Prius. It is all about an interaction between two engines: one is electric and the other pushed by gasoline power. The electric uses a battery that is recharged thanks to the motion of the gasoline one. The advantage of this mechanism is that, for the power, it is used the gasoline engine only when the requested power and speed make it convenient, while in the other cases, when the gasoline engine performance wouldn't be good, the electric engine would assume control. Moreover there are some tricks to increase the efficiency (to tell the truth i ask myself why they are not adopted on traditional engines). For example, instead of wasting the kinetic energy, the breaking system of the Prius uses it to contribute in the battery recharging. Toyota declares that a Prius can make in this way 28 km with one liter of gasoline [65.84 miles with one gallon], which is atleast 2.5 times more efficient than any other car of the same category. But technology looks like is still very expensive, for now. There is only one model of SUV 4 wheels drive i know, by Lexus, pushed by hybrid power, but its cost is for me unreachable: 60 thousands euros.Electric power
The problem of those cars is the range and the time for battery recharging. One car that every 100 to 200 km [62 to 124 miles] must be laying for several hours in order to recharge its battery would be in my case totally useless. Moreover, if the environmental direct impact is null (it doesn't produce any pollution), from the ecological point of view they would be convenient only if the energy sources used to the recharging would be the clean ones.Hydrogen
It looks like the technology is ready now. There are several ways to use hydrogen for car power. The most promising one look like the "Fuel-Cell", which is actually a battery very similar to the electric one, that produces electricity, but it uses hydrogen to the recharge cycle. One problem looks like the storage of big amount of hydrogen in the tank of the car. Hydrogen is unstable and it risks to explode, and moreover, in order to provide a good range, one need huge tanks. But i read some place that there is the way to store hydrogen in the ethanol, and resolve it in the moment it is going to be used. The refueling should then be the substitution of ethanol (already used, to be "recharged") with hydrogenate ethanol (that can be used).... i am not confident with chemistry, but if i well understood it is something like that. The advantages of ethanol as a vector is that in this way hydrogen would use much less space and wouldn't be unstable anymore. The problem is to start the chemical process to separate hydrogen from ethanol when it needs.Another problem is that hydrogen cannot be found in ntaure but it must be produced breaking the water moleculas. And to do this it needs huge amount of energy. Fortunately it looks that the solar energy can be efficiently used for this task, and it looks that of thist type of energy we will have plenty for some other million years.
The wonderful advantage of hydrogen is that the "waste" is only pure water, which is not polluting.
Anyway nowadays there is no commercial model of car available, not to mention the unexistent network of distribution of this gas.
Concluding
Not being able to avoid the use of a car, the choice that i considered more convenient, both from the economical point of view and from the ethical one, has been LPG. Unfortunately i am not a scientist and i couldn't say if the sources that i quoted (and the ones that i silently read) are or not reliable. I found on the net also some documents that speak ill of any alternative source of energy for car power, but i have the suspicion that these articles had been directly dictated by the oil lobbies. Anyway i decided to trust who says that LPG is not the ultimate solution, but atleast it is a step towards a world a little cleaner... ehm... a little less dirty.The plant on Rocco is by BRC. It is a toroidal tank, fixed on the spare tire space. Its capacity is 61 liters [16.12 gallons], but the current European laws for security allow to fill it only till 80%, which means a little less of 57 liters [15 gallons] (so, with a range of about 470 km [292 miles]). Driving, i cannot feel any decrease of power by the engine. With the mandatory type system it is possible to run through the tunnels, put the car on the ferryboats, park in any parking till the first level underground. The plant costed 2000 euros minus 350 euros as a state contribution for ecology.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The sponge
Walter Veltroni, leader of PD
Veltroni. Veltroni lost, miserabily lost, giving that now, with the electoral logics (that he wanted) one only vote less means being in minority. And he obtained (i could say stole) ten percent less of the forecasted votes.
And this, in my opinion, if he wants to be honest, has to respond at first to his electors. He has to respond if his media machine was not good enough to beat the psycho-dwarf and his camerades, and it is really incredible, given that also the loyal electors of the Right were beginning to say that they don't like Berlusconi! "Yeah, right", one could return, "Berluscoin controls a good half of the Italian media, i could believe that he won the media game!". Sure one should also investigate on the absurd reasons for which who owns half of the Italian media is allowed to run for elections... but this is all another subject.
Not only. Veltroni should answer, in my opinion, above all, to who followed the philosophy of "the useful vote". Which is who, among the electors of the Left, decided to plug his nose (and also his ears and any other orifice) and vote for PD which, frankly with the Left has really nothing to share, to vote for the Padroni, just after having finished to march against them. Those people, in order to fight against Fascism didn't give their lives, as our ancestor did, but their conscience. They betrayed their values to fight Il Merda ("The Shit"). They gave a part of thirselves, and Veltroni was able to defend not even them.
Veltroni failed, and how one could expect in a modern and civil Country, in a logic towards which Veltroni tended during the electoral campaign, should resign. I believe he should do it, publicly admitting his own defeat, as a sign of excuse to who, with his/her heart, or plugging his/her orifices, voted for him.
Veltroni failed.
But in one thing he perfectly succeeded. In passing the sponge.
Now Italian Parliament must do without the Left, magically disappeared in the hat of the illusionist, by hand of Veltroni.
Sixty years of tradition. Sixty yeard of defence of the weakest. Sixty years of rights for who built with his sweat, with the blood of the worker deaths.
Very good, Mr. Veltroni, now we can say that the Country obtained that democracy and governability that really we were missing.
Friday, April 11, 2008
A guest on the terrace
salamander
This is one of the positive sides of living in half mountain, right next to the stream, happy when it's raining... one can see animals that cannot be seen in the town. Too bad that i had to move the salamander and put it safe from the fangs of our doggie Maddie: i didn't want it ending up like the lizards which Maddie happens to be wanting to play with.
Other regular guests are Freddy and Freeda, the finches, that have the habitude to challange the quadruped to eat the grains of cereals we put on the terrace for them.
Far from the houses instead one can find hedgehogs and squirrels, with often end up to be squashed under the cars.
I am still waiting, this year, the bees to come to pollinate the peaches, the cherry and the plum trees.... it's still too cold for them, i guess.
Wow... a nice bucolic digression, heartening in this tense electoral period.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Trains
High speed train
I was amazed to find the perfect timing of the train, probably because on sundays there is not a big mess and it is easier to schedule.
The booking office was closed, because it was sunday. The automatic ticket machine was broken. That's not a news, i noticed this situation since years, the few times that i have to catch the train. Ticket office closed and ticket machine broken. I go to the bar of the station and they tell me that the ticket has to be bought on the train. I knew that, but every now and then they change those rules, so i wanted to make sure. So, i had to walk all along the train to find the conductor to buy the ticket. Okay...
The really disgusting thing was the condition of the train itself. Dirty, filthy and stinky.
To me it was not that big drama because i catch the train seldom and i can bear it. But i can imagine those people that everyday catch that train in order to go to work, surely very busy and late. I remember when i was a commuter too, on a different line. Those were the conditions. Late and dirty trains.
I think that it is a matter of respect for the workers. Those ones that make the Italian economy, moving like animals in cattle-wagons twice a day, once to go and once to come back. Well, those people deserve a better respect.
But not. They develop the big projects. Wonderful trains, very fast, on brand new railways, to transport those characters in jacket and tie that enjoy that economy produced by the workers on the cattle-wagons.
Let's give all the comforts, to those tied-ones, air conditioning, hostesses with tiny mini-skirts. High-speed-train? Wouldn't be better to spend those money in improving the bad service for the workers, instead?
And you all, what kind of relationship do you have with trains?
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