[Terrapreta] expensive gear (and Mars villegiature)

[francoise precy]

Hi Bakary, pleased to hear from you!

“KISS KISS”: depends whom, Bakary, depends whom... “Trying to piece things together and clear up my understanding” to keep up with Sean et al :-), Kurt gives me two links about gasification: 
http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo where “you'll find a number of interesting lists. You can access their archives without subscribing to the actual lists.”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WoodGas/ a yahoo list.
Don't know as yet if they practice kiss-ing, but I know the stoves list associated with this one here's got some nice technology from amazingly simple stuff. 

“a drum equals a bag of rice in cost here. That's a big investment when many earn less than that per month.” That's been in my mind ever since we talked last year. The 3-drum system: just after my post I picked  up a 70l metal bin in a skip next street, just fits in width, make-do-with-what's-there system. Since we last talked I've kept looking for how to build something suitable in clay. Most tell me it needs refractory material. But there's a guy about who cooks his pottery in badgers' holes and such places (potters... ^OO^  some don't take their trade half-seriously :-)), it's a lot hotter than for charcoal. Also there's this 'ceramic houses' by Nader Khalili, who got his idea observing that the old large kilns in Iran, made of raw clay, had been cooked to brick-state (and incidentally were just about the only structures remaining standing from that period in an earthquake-prone area). He's repeatedly tried it, it works. NASA's been working with him for years to use the process on the moon (may be more expensive in oxygen than in fuel up there...). Something's got to be possible wth clay re. materials for a charcoal retort kiln. Still looking for / learning about it, haven't renounced. Maybe not quite the right place here to discuss this (sorry, Kurt et al., trying to condense things), but it's good to get reminders. Besides Sean also reminds us of cooked clay albeit directly in the TP context; that's been well on my mind too since I found that stash of broken crookery. 
Fisher-Tropsch: pfffuuuiiii... Sean and Kevin are right here, it looks way too complicated :-(

Hi, Max,
“Any chance we can get the funding to send these dickwits to Mars? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/29/greentech.geoengineering”: 
For all we know they may just come from there (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90KSE100&show_article=1&catnum=2). Better send them where the moon don't shine. 
On second thoughts even there they'll likely feel just as much at home. 
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http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/msnnkmgl0010000007ukm/direct/01/