April 23: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Luke 1:1-56, to Theophilus. The birth of John the Baptist was foretold to Zacharias by an Angel, then the angel Gabriel made an announcement to Mary. Mary met Elizabeth, Zacharias’ wife, and stayed with her. In this chapter is Mary’s song; called the Magnificat.

1 Samuel 15 is the chapter where Saul is rejected by God as King.

1 Samuel 16. Samuel anointed David as King after rejecting all of David’s older brothers and David entered into Saul’s service while Saul was still the titular King. Whenever Saul’s spirit troubled him David played for him and that soothed Saul.

Earth day 2022. It’s all about water in the thirsty American Southwest.

It’s time for the annual earth day

to celebrate Lenin’s old birthday.

Let us plant some more trees

bring the water, yes please.

A Trans-Rocky-Mountain waterway.

The American Southwest is beginning to become desertified. More water is used up than falls in the Colorado River. All water and more is spoken for. The Gila River used to provide about 1.3 Million acre-feet yearly to Arizona. It is now all used up, and the aquifers are being depleted. Since 40 million people are dependent on the Colorado River and the Gila river and the population is rapidly growing the only real solution is to bring in more water to the American South-west. It will be expensive and require a lot of power, but the alternative is a depopulation of the American South-west. Something like it did already happen when the rivers Amu Darya and Sur Darya became used for irrigation and the Aral Lake dried up, the rains ended and the land east of the lake became more or less a desert.

Here are two proposals to save the American Southwest, Lake Mead, Lake Powell Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, West Texas, Mexico, South California, Nevada and help Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas with their water shortage and pumped water storage.

The Trans-Rocky-Mountain Aqueduct will save Lake Powell and Lake Mead, and rejuvenate the American South-west.

The TransContinental Aqueduct. A realistic way to save Lake Mead and reverse the desertification of the American SouthWest.

Together they will double the amount of water provided to the American Southwest and more than triple the amount of pumped storage capacity for the whole nation. When we shift from gas and diesel to electric vehicles the pumped storage capacity must be increased, or the extra electricity must still be provided by fossil fuels. Solar and wind power requires pumped storage to reduce the strain on the electric grid, when the cars need to be re-charged at lunch and dinner time.

April 22: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 16. On the first day of the week Jesus did rise from the dead and Mary Magdalene saw the Risen Lord. The oldest manuscripts end there. The majority script completes the Gospel with Jesus proclaiming the Great Commission, was taken up to heaven and is now sitting down at the Right Hand of God.

In 1 Samuel 11 King Saul rescued Jabesh Gilead. Then the people reaffirmed Saul as King.

1 Samuel 12 contains Samuel’s speech at Saul’s coronation.

In 1 Samuel 13 the real trouble began, Saul offered an unlawful sacrifice, so God would no longer fight for them, Saul’s kingship would be taken away and God would choose a king after his own heart. The weapons for the army were taken away from the Israelites and the Philistines took control of the iron trade.

1 Samuel 14. Jonathan Defeated the Philistines. King Saul made an oath that no one was allowed to eat until nightfall. Jonathan didn’t know that, so he ate, and Saul wanted to put Jonathan to death, but his men refused the King’s order, and thus Jonathan’s life was spared.

April 21: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 15:21-47. The Crucifixion of Jesus the King took place. Read it carefully. Jesus Died, spiked on the cross, and at the same time the Temple veil was rent in two, from top to bottom, opening up for us full access to God himself. Jesus died, and Joseph of Arimathea asked for his body and buried him in a tomb cut out in a rock.

1 Samuel 9. Saul was a tall and handsome man, his father had lost some donkeys, so he sent Saul and his servant to look for them. Not finding them for three days they went to the prophet Samuel, God told Samuel to meet them, and so they met up, and thus Saul was chosen to be King.

In 1 Samuel 10. Saul was Anointed King and proclaimed King over all Israel.

April 20: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 15:1-20, Early in the morning Jesus was brought before Pilate since only the Romans could execute capital punishment. Pilate, trying to get out of the situation offered to release Barabbas, a known murderer and insurrectionist, or Jesus, and the crowd chose Barabbas. Pilate gave in to the crowd, the Soldiers mocked Jesus, and the verdict was that Jesus the King was to be Crucified.

1 Samuel 5. The Ark of the LORD brought nothing but trouble to the Philistines.

So in 1 Samuel 6  the Ark was returned to Israel together with a guilt offering of five gold tumors and five golden rats.The Ark was brought back as far as to Kiriath Jearim.

1 Samuel 7. Samuel grew up and became Judge over Israel. He subdued the Philistines at Mizpah, and there he raised his Ebenezer (stone of help). He judged Israel all the remaining days of his life.

1 Samuel 8. Samuel’s sons were not following the Lord, so Israel demanded a King. Samuel complained to the LORD, but He answered : “Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king.”

April 19: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 14:32-72. After Judas Iscariot left the eleven remaining disciples, they and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives where there is a garden called Gethsemane. While they were there Jesus Prayed intensely. Judas Iscariot reappeared and betrayed Jesus with a kiss. The accompanying soldiers arrested Jesus, and he was brought before the Sanhedrin. Peter was waiting outside and denied Jesus three times, after which the cock crowed twice.

1 Samuel 3 tells of Samuel’s first prophecy, a prophesy against Eli and his sons, because Eli failed to restrain them.

1 Samuel 4. The Philistines captured the Ark of God. Soon after that Eli died, and Phineas died and his wife gave birth to Ichabod, which means “No Glory”, for the glory had departed from Israel.  

Psalm 39, of David. At the later part of his life David wrote this Psalm to give words of wisdom, knowing the end for him was near. It is sometimes quoted in part during funerals to give comfort when words are hard to find.

April 18: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 14:1-31 starts out in Bethany, where Jesus was anointed. The next day Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and predicted Peter’s denial.

1 Samuel 1 begins with telling of the birth of Samuel. Elkanah had two wives, one was fruitful and the other, Hannah, was barren. As always with polygamy there is strife, but Hannah prayed and gave her vow that if she conceived a son she would give him to the LORD. Her wish came to pass and so Samuel was born and dedicated to the LORD.

1 Samuel 2 starts out with Hanna’s Prayer, a beautiful piece of poetry. Then is recorded the story of the wicked sons of Eli, how they took and ate the fat that was supposed to be burned! It tells of Samuel’s childhood ministry and finally a man of God gave a prophecy against Eli’s household; both his wicked sons would die on the same day.

April 17: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 13, Jesus told his disciples of the Signs of the End of the Age, the Great Tribulation, the Coming of the Son of Man, the lesson of the Fig Tree and the Day and Hour of his return, which shall remain unknown until it happens.

Proverbs 2 is, telling of the moral benefits of wisdom.

Psalm 37, of David. With two lines dedicated to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, this psalm is one of the longer acrostics in the book of Psalms. David wrote it late in life (“ I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.“) It is full of promises and praise and was intended for memorization.

Psalm 38, of David, a Petition. This is a Psalm of deep despair and remorse. David acknowledged his sin and cried out to God. Yet, in failing health and abandoned by friends and family, his hope in God remained steadfast.

April 16: Reading the Holy Bible in a year.

Mark 12:28-44. Jesus answered the question: “What is the Greatest Commandment,” by changing the question into a the riddle “whose son is the Christ?” Finally, looking at temple offerings Jesus noticed the widow that gave her all, two mites.

Ruth 3. Ruth’s Redemption was assured.

Ruth 4. Boaz redeemed Ruth, and that’s how Ruth came to be in the genealogy of David and Jesus.

Psalm 36, of David, the Servant of the LORD. This Psalm also tells of wicked people, but then shows the mercies of God and ends up with David recognizing that without God’s protection he too is vulnerable, as are we all.

Just what we need to combat food and fuel inflation. Make more ethanol and make more CO2!

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sanctions and boycotts that followed launched retail gasoline prices to record highs, a vulnerability for Biden’s fellow Democrats in November’s congressional elections. Ukraine has been called the breadbasket of Europe since before WWI, and this war will greatly reduce the worldwide corn supply by 15%, Wheat supply by 8%. and the sanctions on Russia will reduce the supply of fertilizer by 12%. The world was already in a precarious food situation, and this may result in hunger worldwide will increase sharply.

Faced with this looming catastrophe in the November elections the Biden administration decided to act decisively to improve its chances in November, so on Tuesday Biden went to Iowa and promised to remove the prohibition to use the ethanol blend E15 even in the summer. The summertime ban on E15 was imposed over concerns it contributes to smog in hot weather, though research has shown that the 15% blend may not increase smog much more than the almost mandatory 10% blends sold year-round.

Is blending ethanol in the gasoline a good idea in the first place? It might be if the price of corn is low relative to gasoline. On April 14, 2022 the wholesale contract price of corn is $ 7.84 a bushel. A year ago, the price was below five dollars per bushel.
One bushel of corn makes 2.8 gallon of ethanol in the most efficient stills.
That makes the feed-stock price to produce ethanol $2.80 a gallon. Add to that 50 cents to make the stuff and distribute it and the price per gallon is $ 3.30
Since the heat content of ethanol is 67% of regular gasoline (no ethanol), the gasoline equivalent price of ethanol is $ 4.93 per gallon.
Nearly five bucks a gallon for ethanol! And that is before profit, blending, selling and taxes!
That’s the good news.
For the people that are worried about CO2 the bad news is:
To make corn you have to use 150 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre. It takes the equivalent of 0.15 gallons of gasoline to produce one pound of nitrogen fertilizer. That comes to the equivalent of 22.5 gallons of gasoline to fertilize one acre. One acre of corn yields about 150 bushels of corn.
The fuel spent to produce one bushel of corn is therefore more than 0.15 gallons of gasoline. Since it also involves sowing, preparing the soil, cultivating, pesticides, phosphate fertilizer and harvesting it takes 0.25 gallons of fuel to produce one bushel of corn.
Here comes the kicker: When you ferment sugar into alcohol half the weight disappears as CO2! Let us examine the formula: C6H12O6 + Zymase → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2
The molecule weight of C2H5OH is 46 and the molecule weight of CO2 is 44.
Well almost half anyway.
Let us assume you have a car that gets 25 miles to the gallon and you drive 100 mile on pure gasoline. You have used 4 gallons of gasoline.
Now take the same car and drive 100 miles with a 10% ethanol mix, mandated by the EPA. Remember, they are concerned about CO2.
The ethanol has only 67% of the heat content of gasoline so the gas mileage will be lower. It will be consuming 0.04 x 0.9 +0.1 x 1.5 x 0.04 = 0.042 gallons per mile, 5% more or a total of 4.2 gallons for the 100 mile trip. With E15 it will be 4.3 gallons per trip.
So you consumed 3.78 gallons of gasoline and 0.42 gallons of ethanol, for a total of 4.2 gallons. We have all experienced this increase in gas consumption. And this is best case. With E15 you will consume 3.67 gallons of gasoline and 0.63 gallons of ethanol.
What about CO2 up in the air? In the pure gasoline case we produced 4 gallons worth of CO2.
In the ethanol mix case we produced 4.2 gallons worth of CO2.
Add to that another .4 gallons equivalence of CO2 from the fermentation, and another .04 gallons worth of CO2 to produce the corn in the first place.
The sum total is 4.64 gallons worth of CO2, or about 16% more than in the gasoline only case for the 10% mix. With E15 you produced 4.96 gallons worth of CO2.
But corn does absorb CO2 when it grows! Doesn’t that count?
Corn is one of the worst crops for soil erosion and uses up other nourishment that will not be used if you make ethanol from it. Granted the cattle are happy for the cakes that are left when the sugar and oil is removed.
In this age of looming food shortages nearly any other use of available tillable soil is to be preferred over ethanol production.
Oh, and one more thing. Assume that pure gasoline is 4 dollars a gallon at the pump, which includes 50 cents in taxes.
Unsubsidized ethanol should be $4.93 a gallon, before taxes
But we subsidize the ethanol production so the price of E15 is $3.90 a gallon at the pump.
If we used pure gasoline the hundred mile trip would cost sixteen dollars.
If we paid full price for the 10% ethanol blend we would pay $ 17.19 for the trip and produce 16% more CO2. And in the case of E15 we would pay $17.78 for the trip and produce 24% more CO2
We are really paying $ 16.59 for the trip, produce 16% more CO2 and leave a bill of $ 0.60 for our grandchildren to pay, the subsidy of 0.42 gallons of ethanol. In the case of E15 we would pay $16.77 for the trip, produce 24% more CO2 and leave a bill of $1.01 for our grandchildren.
This is EPA legislation at work, trying to combat the coming “climate catastrophe.”

There is a better way. Remove ethanol subsidy guarantees and let the corn be used to produce more chicken and pork, and use some of the acreage to produce grain for a hungry world. This will help to reduce food prices inflation.