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Is gasification a viable component of a sustainable future? Can a tractor mounted gasifier be used to supplement other forms of energy generation as it does its traditional tractor chores? Should the engine be diesel or gasoline? What kind of modifications are required? Can such an effort help us to keep on keepin’ on even when there are disruptions in the petroleum supply? As we continue our conversation with Dr. Richard Bates, we will discuss these issues and more.

Just prior to the publication of this briefing, a big ol’ container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal. For the better part of a week, it blocked the long supply line for a wide variety of goods including petroleum products. There are preppers among us that want the option of running completely off grid because of such eventualities. In this interview segment, Dr. Bates had suggested that old diesel engines could be dual fueled, using diesel for ignition and start-up and then switching to the gasification process for keeping it running. I wrote to Rick about the use of home-brewed bio-diesel within the dual fuel scenario. 

In his response he was careful to refer to the products of gasification as “producer gas” because people in alternative energy circles generally define biogas as it relates to methane mixtures that naturally emanate from biomass, typically manure. He also said it would be wise to caution potential users of biodiesel that some diesel engines, especially modern diesel engines, may have issues with do-it-yourself biodiesel. He suggested that, until the user knows just how their engine will react, to err on the side of caution and just run straight petroleum diesel while experimenting with a weak blend of biodiesel and petroleum diesel.

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As his executioners were nailing his hands to the crossbeam, Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

For those with questions about forgiveness and mercy in the absence of repentance, the big answers are, of course, found in prayer. And yet part of the answer is to be found in the definition and nurture components of mercy, for it is more than the forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one’s sphere of influence. It goes beyond the discretionary power of a civil magistrate to pardon someone or to mitigate punishment. Mercy can also be a simple act of compassion, or something that gives evidence of divine favor; merited or unmerited. It is truly a blessing and entirely consistent with Our Lord’s Gospel of loving-kindness.

As Jesus demonstrated on the cross, there is a higher quality of righteousness than justice. Jesus told us to minister to the sick, the fainthearted, and those bound by fear. As we share the Gospel, we help free those enslaved by evil. And we can do all of this unencumbered by any analysis paralysis or concern over judgment for excessive kindness because of the grace factor. Grace is, by definition, unmerited favor. Consider the words of Jesus: “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

Consider also, the example Jesus gave about the man who steals your coat. By the Master’s admonition, in our time we would likely give the thief a set of matching gloves and perhaps even a scarf for a dash of color. Now would we do this simply to keep from getting shot or is there a larger principle involved? I believe our act of kindness in the face of such evil is the Peacemaker’s equivalent of shock and awe. It would serve to challenge the righteousness of the self-centered thief. And even though it may not spur in him an instant conversion to altruistic hero, it also won’t support his notion that everyone’s in it for themselves. He has, at least, one unsettling example of a fellow human being acting unselfishly. Until he grows to understand your motivation, the unusual experience will be hard to reconcile in his mind.

Jesus said: “Freely you have received, freely give.” There appears to be no record of any requirement that we play Mother May I to go about doing good. And yet we have all seen the cartoon of a boy scout trying to help an elderly woman across the street only to have her beat him with her umbrella. We’ve experienced disappointment in situations where our charitable acts have failed to produce lasting improvement in the lives of those we’ve sought to help. But we are not called to micromanage the attitudes or the lives of others, for we know that a world without the possibility of unwise judgment would be a world without free intelligence.

If someone we are trying to help seems impelled, by the accumulation of emotional conflicts, to seek relief in unhealthy forms of self-expression; or if they persist in the unwise pursuit of destructive pleasures, it would be inconsistent with our loving service mandate to be a pit-stop along such a suicidal course. We are not required to cater to every indulgence or to support professional alms takers. When Jesus told us to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves, He was teaching us the value of discretion in the context of patience, tolerance, and forgiveness.

While we are not called to sit in judgment on the heart and soul of others, we can certainly respond to their outward expression. Jesus said: “By their fruits you shall know them.” The Gospel is about the value we each add to the living, growing family within the Kingdom of Heaven.

The ministry of mercy is, in essence, the choreography of the Spirit. Jesus described the role of the Spirit as one of helper, leader and comforter. Implicit to the Spirit’s ability to lead us into all truth are the powers of discernment and discretion required by anyone actively engaged in mercy ministry. When God calls us to a ministry, He makes provision which means He insures that we are appropriately equipped.

Jesus said: “This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you.” His is a wise parental love. And He demonstrates, even today, that the key to such wisdom is prayerful submission to the Father’s will. Through prayer we enjoy a clarification of viewpoint, an enrichment of thought, a technique for the adjustment of difficulties, and the opportunity to express our gratitude. When prayer moves us beyond a recital of personal concerns to become a declaration of faith and a sincere expression of spiritual attitude; when it transcends the petitioner’s repetitions and embarks on the discovery of higher inclinations, it transforms the soul for a mighty mobilization.

Our part in mercy ministry is to go where great things are waiting to be done; to set the stage for healing, to bring about opportunities for salvation. We are as notes in merciful chords of divine compassion. We know that God will not suffer a single person who calls on His name in true faith, and with a pure heart, to fail. And our merciful ministrations help to reveal the Father’s heart of love and compassion. The spirit techniques of mercy ministry may well be beyond our comprehension, but we can understand, even today, that mercy is essential to growth.

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As federal, state, and local governments take a new look at what companies should have access to public easements and utility rights of way, they really should consider all the angles. Especially since common carrier, public utility, or natural monopoly status may actually be in flux. One factor to consider might be the array of cases where a part of our essential communications infrastructure, specifically Internet Service Providers (ISPs), have sued municipalities that wanted to deliver their own Internet services. Two of the biggest ISPs, the ones that orchestrated an attack on net-neutrality, and thereby the First Amendment, should re-commit to serving the public interest as common carriers.

They should obtain this re-classification in an above board manner. Not by means of the usual political sophistries, that only serve to make our “elected representatives” even less representative. In the meantime, they should not enjoy a presumption of unfettered access to public utility easements or rights of way without the common carrier classification.

American enterprises have historically benefitted from the commons. And those private enterprises, enjoying superior access rights to spaces secured through eminent domain, have obligations to insure they are serving the public interest. The bad actors among them would convert and monopolize the commons, intentionally ignoring the ways their gamesmanship works to the detriment of everyone else.

It may be through taking the concept of “natural monopoly” to illogical extremes. It may be through fouling the air and the water, offloading the cost of any real consequences to future generations. Or, it may be through the privatization of things originally built by the taxpayers or through their forbearance. The one thing that certain malign actors, within business, have in common is the extent to which they privatize gains while socializing expenses and losses. Consider these examples:

• The taxpayer invests tremendous amounts of money to insure vital research is conducted in the public interest. Then we watch helplessly as essential medicines, that have been in the public domain for decades, are deliberately made scarce so that certain manufacturers are unjustly enriched by gouging people who are in desperate need.

• The taxpayer funded the development of software that would allow them to file their taxes directly with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Then, companies that reverse engineer the software and want to be paid for providing those same services, covertly bribe politicians to prevent the funding public from using the web interface they already bought.

• The taxpayer funded the systems used by the National Weather Service (NWS) to develop forecasts and convey that information to the public. Then, companies that effectively duplicate the service work to prevent the NWS from disclosing it directly to the public. Consider how you might be affected if the one minute advanced tornado warning is free while the five minute one is only available to paying customers.

• A city makes a wide range of special accommodations available, including favorable tax treatment, so that a baseball franchise can build a stadium. Then, when the players go on strike, the same city is denied any role in the negotiations even though the value of their investment is diminished and the city is impacted financially by the work stoppage.

• A charitable hospital system is built, over the course of a century, while avoiding taxes on the income, the supplies, the land, and for use of the locality’s infrastructure. Then, when the institution is privatized, just how does the taxpayer get compensated for their forbearance, for the extra taxes we all paid because the hospital was built-out without paying any?

Of particular interest in the Net-Neutrality context is the extent to which municipalities make public utility easements available to Internet Service Providers. The Internet was created and funded to serve the public interest. First for defense, then for research, and eventually opening it up for commerce along with personal use. Now, as the individual ISPs become increasingly self-serving, they sue these same municipalities for any attempt to provide their Internet services directly to the public.

There is, at the time of this briefing, a legislative initiative that on its face proposes, and I quote: “to improve public access to Wi- Fi.” This is misleading, for the actual bill contains the following phrasing:“to prohibit a state or a political subdivision thereof from providing or offering for sale to the public retail or wholesale broadband Internet access service.”

While at least one major ISP has deliberately slowed the deployment of fiber infrastructure, the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee installed a fiber optic network in 2010. It is now celebrated as one of the best Wi-Fi services in the entire United States. UniNetworks.org lists 63 cities, across the country, with similar publicly owned fiber networks. Those cities have, at their disposal, a wide variety of options in the legal toolkit to defend their publicly owned network from the ravages of unbridled privatization. The principles clearly articulated, as the Internet was first created and funded by taxpayers, remain relevant today.

One would think those who feel they’ve been “taxed enough already,” would want a decent return on the taxpayer funded investments they already made.

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As we continue our discussion on gasification, we will now explore how it can help in leveraging the waste stream and insights gained by Dr. Bates from work with a municipality in an effort to avoid excessive disposal costs while generating some electricity. Can these lessons be applied to similar problems on a home scale? Can gasification play a role in both waste management and its elimination on the homestead?

We will discuss how gasification can help us to, not only reduce waste but top off our batteries while producing a useful byproduct called biochar. Here again is Dr. Richard Bates.

Once again, our conversation has returned to engine questions and specifically the problems associated with converting various engine types to make use of these different kinds of biomass. We will continue that discussion in Part 4.

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While attention to detail is a good thing, every nurseryman will tell you, rot is often the result of over-feeding or over-watering. Now it may be useful to dwell on this particular axiom for a moment because it lends itself well to the case for and against micro-managing. At the risk of pursuing analogies that break down or the folly of subjecting parables to allegorical interpretation; I would point out that Jesus demonstrated a particular fondness for growth parables.

In the modern day nursery, young plants are routinely fed, watered on a precise schedule, and even enjoy supplemental lighting on cloudy days. The nursery temperature is carefully monitored and adjusted. Predatory insects are kept away. If the plant is mainly ornamental and destined for the indoors, it may live out its entire life without serious challenges to its own splendiferous array and luxurious growth. It is, in effect, bred to expect just the right amount of light, food, water and heat at precisely the right time.

If, on the other hand, the seedling is being raised for field service, for erosion control, reforestation or holding fast against the winds, it must successfully transition from the nursery to, what is in essence, boot camp in the form of a cold frame. Here the new recruit will itself have to dig in for nourishment, to establish and maintain its stance while reaching high for the nourishing rays of the sun. It must do all of this while subjected to randomized cycles of hot and cold plus less predictable lighting. It must elbow its way to the canopy top and overcome increasingly crowded conditions.

Now if we truly care about our charges, how can we consign them to such brutal conditions? If we are raising a family of hothouse orchids or other fragile flowers to occupy a fine tuned environment, little correction is ever warranted. We may run for the watering can at the first sign of a wilted leaf or panic at the first sign of an aphid attack. We may indulge the impulse to intervene at the first hint of adversity. But generally things will run smoothly and we can take great pride in our floral displays.

If however, we are raising our young charges to make their mark in the outside world well then, a hardening off must ensue. The nurturing infrastructure necessarily becomes increasingly competitive. As with the wheat and the tares, seedlings may be permitted to grow together so that the more desirable plants can develop superior disease resistance and the quality of endurance. As our fledglings become less perishable we worry less about how they will stand up against the onslaughts of time.

Likewise God is raising ruggedized human beings for service in the mission field, an arena of competing ideas. He has given us the chance to experience the thrill of victory in the face of temptations to default. And yet, this does not lessen our responsibility for exercising special care and attention during a child’s tender years. We must, of course, guard against any narcissistic tendencies and encourage the ascent of true character.

No courage is required of those immature souls that have aligned themselves with the popular, the rich, and the powerful. In contrast, mature adults can reasonably be expected to stand steadfast against the lure of superficiality, the ravages of licentious authorities and seduction by discredited principalities. It takes great amounts of moral fiber to avoid the pitfalls and speak truth to power. But we are seemingly submersed in a counter-culture that is designed to break down and digest that fiber. The decomposition enzymes in this case are the incessant yearnings of a glandular elite that wields great influence and offers very little in the way of common sense.

When such a culture becomes an indispensable part of a child’s nurturing environment, we have introduced a pathogenic predator into the nursery. Whether by the adolescent mentality of those indiscriminately parading, and thus cheapening, their libido; or by the purposeful designs of those who would undermine all that is true, beautiful and good; parents have a unique obligation to safeguard their children against all such corruptive influences.

Sowing seeds of self denial for some undisclosed but higher reality is the mark of maturity. Personal discipline is a key component to any reality based success. And it is the undying hope of all true parents that their children shall enjoy such a success. Good and bad habits take hold during the formative stages of growth. And no child should be burdened with having to overcome bad habits that were ingrained as part of a failed parenting strategy.

In the story of Job we encountered the unwise counsel of a self-indulgent Elihu who said: “I will speak, that I may be refreshed.” While free speech is a fundamental right, it can also be an unwise form of self-gratification. Fully engaged parents recognize the difference. Aloofness does not. Parental guidance informs a child’s values. Laxness does not. The practice of self mastery is a mark of superior parenting. Unbridled pleasure seeking is most certainly not. And, by their fruits you shall know them.

The first railroad chartered in the United States was the Baltimore and Ohio. Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, turned the first spadeful of earth on July 4, 1828. On May 10, 1869, the last golden spike was driven into the newly completed transcontinental railroad built by the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific.

During this period, on May 24, 1844, Alfred Vail was stationed at the Mount Clare railroad depot in Baltimore, Maryland. He decoded the famous telegraph message “What hath God Wrought?” It was sent by Samuel Morse from the Supreme Court chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

During the Civil War, telegraphy played a strategic role giving Commanders the ability to communicate with their troops almost instantly. After the war, telegraph wires were strung across our vast continent along the same lines used by the railroads. When congress declared railroad companies to be common carriers in the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, telegraph lines were an integral part of railroad operations. As other telecommunications services evolved, their infrastructure was effectively grandfathered into the rights of way used by the railroads.

A common carrier had been previously defined as any business entity whose main commercial activity is transporting things on behalf of people. For example one requirement has been that common carriers, in the shipping industry, would charge the same price to transport one pound of gold, one pound of fertilizer, or one pound of printed material. Moving different products that weighed the same, and packaged in the same size container, would cost the same amount of money to ship.

In accordance with the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875, the federal government granted railroad companies rights of way across the United States. By connecting the coasts over thousands of miles, rights of way served to promote the country’s economic development and westward expansion. A right of way is a type of easement granted or reserved over the land for transportation purposes, such as a highway, public footpath, rail transport, canal, oil and gas pipelines, electrical transmission lines, and message communications lines.

Rights-of-Way, commonly referred to as ROWs, are granted to serve the public good and the overall competitiveness of our country’s enterprises. In the case of the ROWs granted to the railroads, when the line is further developed or abandoned, two questions that loom large involve ancillary uses of any Right-of-Way held by the railroads.

The railroads, as common carriers, have routinely sold access to their ROWs and retained those proceeds rather than pass them to either the land owner or to the public treasury. This gives rise to certain controversies the courts must resolve, especially in light of the fact that a select few Internet Services Providers (ISPs) have fought long and hard to the effect that they are no longer classified as common carriers.

On March 10, 2014, the Supreme Court, in Marvin M. Brandt Revocable Trust et al. v. United States, held in an 8-1 decision that the right of way for an abandoned rail line goes to the party that owns the land underneath. This decision, concerning just one type of change in circumstances, may have applications or implications with respect to others, such as when a Right-of-Way user is no longer classified as a common carrier. Here are two possibilities:

• First, a conversion whereby the railroad sells access to the ROW, without compensation to the land owner, may expose the railroad or the government to a takings claim under the Fifth Amendment. This would be more likely in the case of non-common carriers due to their implicitly diminished public benefit value. Should this thinking prove meritorious, any use of the ROW, not specifically related to the control of the railroad itself, should inure to the benefit of the original property owner or, in the alternative, the public treasury.

• Second, when the communications companies are no longer common carriers, they no longer merit special access to any of the ROWs and easements that are set aside for a public benefit. Placing this question before federal, state, and local governments could and should expose the ISPs to an endless array of challenges to both their natural monopoly and their public utility status. If they are not common carriers, how does this affect their eligibility for pole attachments or other access to utility Rights of Way. And, with so many ISPs in competition for that business, why should a few large incumbents enjoy superior rights over those of any startup.

In the second example, the ISPs would undoubtably argue that the public does receive a benefit from their commercial operations. Any competent advocate for the public might stipulate there is a public benefit now ancillary to the ISPs newly defined commercial operations. To be sure, there is a public benefit for most commercial operations, such as when the pocket-picking organ grinder’s monkey brings a smile to the faces of children.

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Continuing our discussion of gasification, we will touch upon moving vehicle engines as well as stationary engines like generators. We will further explore some of the factors to be considered in the conversion of petrol to wood gas with additional emphasis on the combustion energy produced and efficiencies in particular. We will discuss wood stoves and how those functions differ from the requirements of internal combustion engines and we will consider some of the environmental factors as they relate to gasification. Here again is Dr. Richard Bates.

At this point the conversation turned to how gasification can help in leveraging the waste stream and, in particular, how it can play a role in both waste management and its elimination. We will cover that in part 3 and, along with avoiding disposal costs, we will discuss generating electricity, and a useful byproduct called biochar. In part 4 we will turn our attention once again to the engine questions and specifically the problems associated with converting various engine types to make use of these different kinds of biomass.

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One of the things those called to ministry do is an exercise called The River of Life. In it we are asked: “If you were able to compare your life with a river, what would the river look like?” The exploration became even more meaningful to me, and intensely personal, as the following four additional questions were presented.

• When and where are the smooth, flowing waters – those times when events and relationships seem generally positive or there is a sense of ease about life? 

• When does the river take a sudden turn (and what caused the turn), or change from smooth waters to rough, tumbling rapids, or to an excited rush of water?

• Are there rocks or boulders falling into your river – unexpectedly landing there, changing its direction forever?

• Are there points at which it flows powerfully and purposefully or seems to slow to a trickle?

At one retreat we were asked to present drawings of our rivers. I was surprised as the youngest among us held up sketches that seemed very short whereas mine had two pages of tributaries. Then again, I’m sure our angels were amused by the fact that, on the scale of Eternity, I somehow thought my life was long.

The tributaries for my river featured the occasional puddle that I associated with being house broken. There were also refreshing springs that I remember as sweet tasting. But, by far, the thing I remember most is people, from all walks of life, talking to me. These were the babbling brooks. And I wasn’t listening. Well, every once in awhile a message might seep in.

I distinctly remember the phrase “You’re not listening!” as spoken by my parents, my teachers, and many others in authority over me. As I reflect upon these earliest impressions, I realize I wasn’t really goal oriented but, in light of how God has ordered my steps, I’m hesitant to characterize my life as one of aimless wandering.

When I decided I really wanted something, I was willing to work hard to get it. When I found a radio station that I really liked, I developed the strategy, mapped the tactics, and secured the licensing necessary to have them give me a job. In between high school and my all too brief college career, I literally rocked around the clock with afternoon shows. an all night show and another one on Saturday mornings. I was high on sleep deprivation and little white pills. Then it all came crashing down as my high school sweetheart dumped me. My immediate response was to go into the station’s record library and pull every love song I had ever heard. Friends and other listeners described the six-hour show as a rock opera. For me, one song in particular stood out. It was by Simon and Garfunkel and included the chorus “I’ve just been fakin’ it, not really makin’ it.” I was finally listening.

What ensued was a two year program of soil conditioning wherein God prepared my heart for the seed that would finally take hold in 1972. The surreal would soon give way to an enthusiastic embrace of total reality. God used it in my life, and I can clearly see just how the river of that young life took a sudden turn. One night, as the Who song Baba O’Riley was playing and the chorus “teenage wasteland” was ringing in my ears. I thought “how fitting” as the music stopped abruptly and the singer screamed “They’re all wasted!”

I remember thinking; “I don’t wanna be wasted.” This was the actual tipping point or, as I often think of it, my Deuteronomy moment wherein God said: “I set before you life and death, therefore choose life.” There was another song. It was not a chart topper, but even so, it would often seem to be playing in the places I would frequent. The chorus of this particular Moody Blues composition included the line: “When all the stars are falling down, into the sea and on the ground, and angry voices carry on the wind; a beam of light will fill your head, and you’ll remember what’s been said, by all the good men this world’s ever known.” 

Somehow, whenever I heard “the good men,” I would think of Jesus. I didn’t know anything about Him and I developed an insatiable appetite for reading about Him, listening to songs about Him, and having Him orchestrate my thoughts. My re-birth in 1972 was brought about through a long labor. I knew from the get-go that my life would forever be about sharing the Gospel of Jesus! I was grateful for my lowly origin as well as my capacity for experience. I became a counselor, of sorts, to those who were struggling with the modern pleasure mania. I shared my experience, describing how Jesus encouraged me to make healthier substitutions. Instead of reaching for a cigarette, I reached for the guitar. I gravitated towards music that was meaningful to those, “with ears to hear,” including the new me.

I traded a life with no discernible goal orientation to one with a career that was informed, and inspired by, the concept of service throughout Eternity. I envisioned a career that is lived under the continuing influence of the same person that rescued me from the depths of despair. Under the direct tutelage of the Spirit of Truth, we will each learn to master the essentials of the eternal career. For there is no higher reality than that which is lived in the presence of God.

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From an early age we were taught that one of the unique values for our country is “Freedom of the Press.” Of course, from the time of this country’s inception, until very recently, freedom of the press was only available for the privileged few that own a press. The traditional understanding of what constitutes “editorializing” was, in ages past, based upon what appeared on the opinion page.

Today we understand that every decision by a publisher is an editorial decision.. Whether a story runs above the fold, at the beginning of a newscast, or if it runs at all is based upon the opinion of someone. To those of us who thrive within a world of competing ideas, this is entirely ok as we can always engage in channel surfing.

In contrast, those intellectually dishonest folks, the ones that only want to hear opinions aligning with their own, have become a problem within the context of our participatory democracy. The “Consent of the Governed” as advanced through the Declaration of Independence, presupposes an informed consent. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights put forth by the United Nations in Article 21 states that “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government”.

The December 2019 survey by Netcraft revealed there are about 1.3 billion active websites across over 243 million unique Internet Domain names. The number of WordPress installations on web servers is estimated, by several survey organizations, to be around 455 million. This clearly dwarfs the number of printing presses manufactured over the entire span of human history.

The advent of the Internet gave us tremendous hope for finally making freedom of the press truly real. Those hopes were dashed recently, by very real enemies of First Amendment integrity, in part, through their coordinated attacks on net-neutrality. Our nation has, as a result, reverted to a condition of severe vulnerability. Now, certain news can be advanced or retarded, at will, by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operating primarily as common carriers, traditional conduits in the telecommunications space.

On October 1, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled the FCC had authority to reclassify internet service providers as “information services” under Title I of the Telecommunications Act, rather than as “common carriers” that can be more heavily regulated.

The hop-skippety-jump logic used by the Court to differentiate, between “information services” and “common carriers,” attempted to contrast the two categories by citing the function of Domain Name Services (DNS) as somehow unique to the information services. One would have to wonder if the judges ever dialed 411 or even used a phone book. While DNS may sound like mystic art to someone other than a technology worker, it is simply a list that correlates names with numerical addresses. Just how this is different, from the directory that shows your name along side your phone number, was apparently too technical a consideration for certain highly disciplined jurists sitting as a court of appeals.

Special interest groups also bring a dollar skew, into the nominations, confirmations and accommodations for judges as well as the public discourse. Issues affecting everyone are often crowded out or eclipsed as legislators are enabled and financially bolstered by overpaid, underwhelming CEOs. This occurs even as they characterize themselves as constitutional conservatives.

They masquerade as originalists and textualists as they disregard the declaration of intent, the mission statement, the value proposition, the cardinal precepts, and the constitutional imperatives as they were so carefully delineated in the Preamble to the United States Constitution. The Framers of our constitutionally grounded democratic republic did not intend for unrepresentative elected officials to treat the United States Constitution as little more than a buffet from which they can pick and choose.

Professional journalists and politicians have also facilitated the development of polarized news sources. They have, at times, belittled the contributions of individual bloggers that, while they may lack a certain journalistic discipline, bring much greater diversity to the public discourse. So-called advocacy journalism has also entered the fray. It is, of course, not true journalism any more than agenda science is true science.

To address the problems associated with a misinformed citizenry, unable to exercise “informed consent” as they consult suspect historical accounts, concerned historians are now working to leverage the consensus and immutability features of blockchain, the same technology undergirding crypto-currencies. In this way they hope to protect future generations from revisionist history.

While egomaniacal leaders actively engage in squelching diversity of opinion, we should closely examine the actual business practices of those tele-communications companies that were once, but are no longer classified as common carriers. While the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the attempted murder of Alexi Navalny are high profile cases in point, there are also sinister forces at work within the United States, to thwart the collective will of We the People.

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This conversation with Dr. Richard Bates describes the process of gasification. His doctoral thesis was brought to my attention awhile back. Rather than me doing some injustice trying to summarize it, the good doctor has consented to break it down for us.

At this juncture the conversation turned to specific engines and applications and we’ll begin to explore that in Part 2.