And in the running it's algae in the lead with corn trailing far behind

My latest favorite publication is a magazine called Good [www.good.is] I was introduced to it by my dad over the holiday and I have nothing but, er, good things to say about it. It's not preachy, it's not self-indulgent, and it's not boring- unlike Adbusters, which is good, but a little self-righteous at times and often suffers from a coherent theme other than the fact that apparently Americans and capitalism suck. Good's format, however, is well-thought out and the articles enticing. Highly recommended.

While reading through Good's 14th issue (January/February 2009) I came across an interesting article by a Mr. Bryan Walsh entitled, "2009 List: Cleaning House," which noted as #7-

"End of Ethanol
Corn ethanol always had more to do with politics than the environment, and the sudden crash in corn prices and bad press for biofuels could finally wipe out ethanol. Thankfully, another fuel is ready to take its place: algae. The upshot? It doesn't compete with food for fuel, and can be raised just about anywhere." (Walsh, 59)

-including the pool I swam in as a child with my best friend as we were adamant to go swimming. And a few weird green floaty fuzzy things in her pool were not going to deter us. And yes, it probably was as gross as it sounds. Ah the folly of youth!

So hurray new advances on the energy frontier! It's sorry to see corn go, but you win some, you lose some.

Also, algae as an energy form may sound familiar to my loyal readers, or at least those with photographic memories. Remember my blog about algae? If so, don't feel bad. I had to search my own blog to find the posting in which I had originally mentioned it. For the inquisitive it was on November 8th, 2008 "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here"-

For more information on algae as a potential energy source and as cooking oil see Scientific American Earth 3.0's article, "Dark Horse: Oil from Algae" by David Biello http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=biofuel-of-the-future

I am also a proud subscriber of Scientific American, but I have yet to receive my first issue. Oh well, still waiting on GQ too. . .