Mike Winters' excellent interview regarding his latest illustrated work.

GUYS! Guess what! Perry Bible Fellowship has some new comics up!!!


I am unreasonably excited about this.

Austra- painful like

And Jesse, I agree with you: friends make a world of difference to your life. I'm grateful Ed and Mary are here in Calgary, too. This city would be a lot more lonely without them.

I hope you and Merin meet some great friends in T-dot, that the city starts to feel like a home to you both, and that your adventures go smoothly, whether it's internet contracts, or job searching, or the (rumoured to be dubious) joys of cycling in the city.

Par, I'm biting on that "cheaper than aluminum" link. I think it's a load of hooey. Or, well, maybe only half a load... but still, there's some pretty serious hooey involved. The article quotes the researchers/industrialists as saying:
"It is the natural, renewable version of a carbon nanotube at a fraction of the price,"

But by the time they're done all the chemical processing, there's nothing left to be actually called "natural". I mean, what else does this tell us besides 'we're grinding wood up, and putting it through a series of highly toxic chemical baths."? And then, a fraction of the price? really? ... Something is subsidizing this process. Maybe something else gets produced (cellulosic ethanol maybe??) that turns a profit, but nanotubes alone are not going to be cheap just because they come from wood.

Mind you, I am cynical, and perhaps I've misinterpreted this:
"Production of NCC starts with "purified" wood, which has had compounds such as lignin and hemicellulose removed. It is then milled into a pulp and hydrolysed in acid to remove impurities before being separated and concentrated as crystals into a thick paste that can be applied to surfaces as a laminate or processed into strands, forming nanofibrils. These are hard, dense and tough, and can be forced into different shapes and sizes. When freeze-dried, the material is lightweight, absorbent and good at insulating."
All of that speaks of lots of chemicals and energy, and money.

When all is said and done, how much non-renewable stuff has gone into one tree (and what percentage of that tree comes out as usable??) just to get the desired end product? I'm definitely not sold. There's a reason this isn't being produced at a commercial scale, and it's got a lot to do with the capital costs of production like all the chemicals used to create the nanofibrils.

However, it is fascinating, all the same.

This reminds me of Andy's basement:

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Hear hear, Jsese! There are too few relentlessly positive and enthusiastic people in the world like you. Hope Toronto treats you well. I expect we'll hear from you here on this page in the future.

You're welcome Jsese! It was an honour and a privilege to have known you. I'll try to make it out to toronto one of these days.

Thanks Matt. Went with a faster plan. Cable 18mb/s download and 512kb/s upload. In Toronto we seem to have many indipendant companies reselling bell and togers' services. And somehow doing it for a better price.we will be piggybacking of of rogers via a company called teksavvy. I'll be happy when i can stop using my phone for all of the houshold internet.

Toronto is a cool place, but I miss my friends. I know Iwasn'taround that much lately, but i feel my life is richer for having known you. I just wanted to say thanks as it's not something we do very often these days. Thanks

Remember this from Star Trek: Whales?

Not quite aluminum, but how's this grab you? Why wood pulp is world's new wonder material:

Well, not only is [nanocrystalline cellulose] transparent but it is made from a tightly packed array of needle-like crystals which have a strength-to-weight ratio that is eight times better than stainless steel. Even better, it's incredibly cheap.