Seems like all the news sources are talking about a world-wide food shortage. Part of the problem is some food markets are still hampered by really bad distribution that results in food rotting. In places like Japan which has little land to start with, many of their farmers are retiring and not being replaced. Already Japan imports 1/3 of their food. The other problem is that many farmers are now growing crops to be used to produce fuel. But when you look at the amount of stored energy in oil compared to what is required to replace that with biofuels, it is likely that biofuels will only be a tiny part of the overall alternative energy solution in the future. Since this information has been available for 5 years, it does make you wonder why the current push for biofuels is considered a good idea.

Don’t get me wrong. Alternative energy sources need to be found and even subsidized if necessary during their early and expensive research periods. But we need to realize that such work is not being done in a vacuum. Food may be readily abundant in the US, but it is not in other areas for a variety of reasons.

Let’s hope that we figure that out before anyone starves to death.

Technorati tags: biofuel, energy, oil

I was scanning through the general posts on Twitter when I saw a message that struck me as strange. Essentially it said

I have not had time to Twitter, but I am sorry to hear about your grandmother’s death.

I realize that the world is moving faster and faster. Today you can hear people say “I did not have time to email…” and ”I did not have time to call…”. But when did things get so fast that you didn’t have time to Twitter?

I don’t want this to sound like a Twitter commercial, but c’mon. A Twitter message is just 140 characters and you can do it from any web-based computer or from your mobile phone. It can’t be that you are having trouble condensing your thoughts. Twitter is ultra dense. You only have space for one or two thoughts at max. It is really not a medium for Shakespeare. Although it would really rock with iambic pentameter.

Technorati tags: Twitter, bizarre excuses, Shakespeare

I have heard of the saying “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.”, but I would never have believed this if I had not seen it myself. A person in Oregon is making and selling moss rings that you can wear. I guess that it is more environmentally friendly than the traditional metal jewelry. And it can also filter CO2 from the air. But I usually make a point of keeping the moss, mold and mildew down around my place.

Technorati tags: moss ring, organic, environmentally friendly

The SF Bay Area is a great place to start a tech company. There is literally no other place on earth that combines the people with the technology knowledge and “far-out” ideas with the more practical people like the hands-on managers, lawyers, accountants, and other support people. Throw in a tremendous amount of money people who are willing to take risks for a high return on their investment, and you get the “Greatest Tech Show on Earth” called Silicon Valley.

This concentration of brain power (or maybe a combo of brain power with a dash of nonreality) may explain the latest fixation by Silicon Valley residents. Costco, a large chain of warehouse stores, is reporting a run on rice and flour in the SF Bay Area. For those of you who have been busy watching the price of gasoline rise, you missed that the cost of rice has doubled in the last few months. There have even been riots overseas such as those in Haiti as the cost of food climbs beyond what the normal person can afford.

Costco has stated that there is no reason to worry about running out of rice; they have plenty. Someone needs to explain to the geniuses hoarding rice that the US is the world’s 4th largest exporter of rice. California is one of the biggest producers of rice in the US.

But maybe these people are simply timing the rice market. Maybe they believe that a big hurricane will hit Louisiana, another large producer of rice, and send the price soaring. Then they will break out their stored Costco rice and sell it on eBay. They could make a killing.

As rice becomes more rare than Internet startups with good business plans, we may be reduced from eating sushi to only being able to afford sashimi. Oh the horror!

Technorati tags: Costco, rice, food riots, Silicon Valley