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Out of Sight, Out of Mind
This article was first published in Platform's Carbon Web newsletter, issue 9.
Is carbon capture and storage a safe climate mitigation option?
As climate change increasingly becomes a defining political theme for the 21st Century, coal, oil and gas companies have not suffered the existential crisis that might have been expected. Instead, they are betting on a technological solution to the problem, in the form of carbon capture and storage. But, ask Gabriele von Goerne and David Santillo, how safe is the technology?
To avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, which would place millions of people and the natural systems on which they depend at risk, global greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced by at least 80% by the middle of this century. This, and more, can be achieved by a combination of greater energy efficiencies, phasing out the use of coal and switching from fossil fuels to renewable energies. But this vision of the future is not one that fossil fuel companies can accept. Led by the coal industry, those companies are insisting that carbon capture and storage (CCS) can square the circle between everincreasing sales of their products and a major decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.
The stakes could not be higher. If at any point in the future the technology failed, resulting in either gradual or sudden leakage of stored carbon dioxide (CO2), the world could be faced with substantial, unexpected greenhouse gas emissions about which little or nothing could be done, as well as the potential for severe direct impacts on ecosystems in the vicinity of such leaks. Given that the storage would have to remain intact for many centuries, an extremely high level of confidence in the system's integrity would be necessary before proceeding with CCS.
Storage science shortfall
CCS technology is still very much in development. Its principle sounds simple – CO2 that would usually be emitted to the atmosphere is captured at the power plant, transported and injected into deep geological formations where, according to theory, it is stored safely for a long period of time. But in reality, the process turns out to be highly complex, not least because the scale of both sources and storage formations are so vast, and knowledge and experience so limited.
Scenarios indicate that a single 1000MW coal-fired power plant, producing 8.6 million tons of CO2 per year for 30 years, could generate an underground CO2 plume which, within a further 20-50 years, could extend over an area of between 200 and 360 km2, depending on the type and thickness of the storage formation1. Continuous injection of CO2 will also cause formation pressures to rise over large areas, not only in the plume area but well beyond.
Simulations indicate that after 30 years of injection, a pressure increase of 1 bar could extend over an area of about 2500 km2,2 which will modify the local mechanical stress field and could cause deformation of the surrounding geological formation itself. This would make it far more likely that the cap rock could be compromised, particularly where there are any existing weaknesses, such as faults or fracture zones, providing pathways for CO2, and, in the case of saline aquifers, metalladen brines to escape to the biosphere.
Cap rock integrity is therefore an essential key for storing CO2 safely in geological formations. However, largescale injection of CO2 will induce a range of strongly coupled physical and chemical processes, including multiphase fluid flow, changes in effective stress and solute transport, and even chemical reactions between fluids and minerals in the geological formation. The more impurities present in the CO2 stream, the more complex and unpredictable the system inevitably becomes.
To date, most risk assessments and models assume that only pure CO2 will be stored. In reality, this is very unlikely to be the case. Less-pure CO2 waste streams, also containing other substances like SOx, NOx, hydrogen sulphide or even mercury, are significantly cheaper to generate (albeit with the possibility of higher transport costs), requiring less technological investment and energy to separate from a flue gas, coal gasification process, etc3. This economic incentive makes it likely that some companies will choose to store mixed gases.
Keeping carbon captured
Yet these mixtures and impurities could have a major impact on storage integrity. Mineral trapping of CO2 in a storage formation is hampered by hydrogen sulphide (H2S), for example. Although it has been suggested by some that large amounts of co-injected H2S should not prove problematic, interaction with the rock formation cannot be ruled out. Moreover, if conditions in a geological formation allow sulfur to be oxidized, or if CO2 was to be costored with SO2, very different patterns of pH distribution and mineral alteration would be expected compared to those arising from CO2 injection alone. Mineral alteration can lead to significant changes in porosity, and hence permeability, which could modify the fluid flow4. SO2 is much more corrosive in the presence of water than CO2 , such that the mobilization of metals in groundwater and overlying soils or sediments may be higher, leading to a greater risk of trace metal contamination in the surrounding environment5.
Even if only pure CO2 was injected, it could still induce dissolution of minerals, especially iron-bearing oxides, that could mobilize toxic trace metals6 and ultimately create pathways through the sealing rock for CO2, displaced brines and other associated substances7. Although current geophysical techniques allow broad identification and characterisation of fractures in a rock formation, relatively fine (open or sealed) fractures may remain undetected at the time of injection, representing possible pathways for CO2 sometime in the future.
A much more obvious and, perhaps, immediate pathway for leakage are the wells themselves, whether those used for injection or others in the vicinity which have, at some point, connected with the formation. The potential for leakage of CO2 through existing and abandoned wells is particularly relevant in regions that have been intensively explored and exploited for hydrocarbon reserves, such as in the North Sea. Although well completion and abandonment practices have evolved considerably over time, even wells drilled and abandoned by today's standards are unlikely to be entirely resistant to the corrosive effects of CO2 that comes in contact with water.
In short, the risks and uncertainties surrounding CCS are significant, manifold and complex. Despite assurances from industry and government, leakage of CO2 from storage reservoirs cannot be ruled out. Although the IPCC regards the risks to be low, it is vital to remember that problems may occur long after injection has ended, well beyond the timeframes over which the efficacy and safety of CCS has so far been demonstrated. The big question decisionmakers need to ask themselves is not just whether they want to take the risk, but whether it is responsible and sustainable for them to pass the burden of a continued reliance on fossil fuels to future generations.
The choice is real – CCS is not unavoidable – if only they put their efforts and money into renewable energies and energy efficiencies, the real solutions to climate change.
Dr Gabriela von Goerne is a geologist working with the Climate & Energy Unit of Greenpeace's office in Hamburg, Germany. Dr David Santillo is a marine biologist and environmental chemist working with the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, based at the University of Exeter in the UK
1 Benson S., Hoversten M., Gasperikova E., Haines M. (2004): Monitoring protocols and life-cycle costs for geologic storage of carbon dioxide. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control technologies, Vancouver, Canada
2 Pruess K., Xu T., Apps J., Garcia J. (2003): Numerical modeling of aquifer disposal of CO2. SPE Journal, 49-60
3 Andersson K., Johnsson F., Strömberg L. (2003): An 865 Mwe lignite-fired power plant with CO2 capture – a technical feasibility study. VGB Conference "Power Plants in Competition – Technology, Operation and Environment", Cologne.
4 Xu T., Apps J., Pruess K., Yamamoto H. (2007): Numerical modeling of injection and mineral trapping of CO2 with H2S and SO2 in a sandstone formation. Chemical Geology xx (2007) xxx-xxx
5 IPCC (2005): Special report on Carbon dioxide capture and storage. p250
6 Schütt T., Wigand M., Spangenberg E. (2005): Geophysical and geochemical effects of supercritical CO2 on sandstones. In: Carbon dioxide capture for storage in deep geologic formations (Eds.: D.C.Thomas, S.M. Benson) Vol.2, Chapter 7, 767-786
7 Kharaka Y., Cole D., Hovorka S., Gunter W., Knauss K., Freifeld B. (2006): Gas-water-rock interactions in Frio Formation following CO2 injection: Implications for the storage of greenhouse gases in sedimentary basins. Geology, Vol.34, 577-580
Places: Germany


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Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008)
Written and Directed by: James Nguyen
Starring: Alan Bagh and Whitney Moore
"It's the human species that needs to quit playing cowboy with nature. We must act more like astronauts, spacemen taking care of Spaceship Earth."
With The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock did for the killer bird genre what Spielberg did for my beloved killer shark genre when he made Jaws: he effectively ruined it for everyone else by pretty much making the best one possible. The only difference is that there haven�t been nearly as many poor rip-offs in its wake; there have been a few notable (or not) efforts like the half-appropriately-titled Zombie 5: Killing Birds and even a made-for-tv sequel to Hitchcock�s film, but for the most part, film-makers have wisely avoided taking to the skies. James Nguyen cannot be counted among the wise, as he took his love for The Birds too far when he decided to unleash Birdemic upon the world. Though it�s only a couple of years old, its poor quality has already become notorious enough to have crowds flocking to it in hopes of seeing the latest cinematic train wreck wrought by the horror genre.
Rod is a hot shot software salesman whose life is taking a major upswing. The company he�s working for has been bought out, allowing him to exercise his stock options and become a millionaire. About the same time, he bumps into an old crush from his high school, Nathalie, who has become a fashion model. The two hit it off well before the unspeakable happens: killer birds inexplicably descend upon their town and randomly start blowing stuff up and killing people. The two lovebirds have to hit the road with some other survivors in the hopes of�well, I�m not sure what their hopes are. The plan just seems to include driving to nowhere in particular and shooting the birds out of the sky.
Nguyen refers to Birdemic as a �romantic thriller�; most sensible people would indeed call it �train wreck cinema." Here at OTH, we call movies in this spirit Mozzarella Madness. It doesn�t quite reach those heights (lows?) due to being quite dull for most of its running time, but it�s certainly a film that owes more to Ed Wood than it does Hitchcock. It�s a truly awful experience that deserves pretty much everything that�s been said about it, including the fact that it still only manages to be watchable if you�re disposed towards watching absolute crap. Though I believe Nguyen�s effort to be genuine, it certainly plays as a film that�s only noteworthy because it�s so bad. I�m sure it wasn�t his intention to land on the �Best Worst Movies� list, but this is destined to be the film�s fate.
It shouldn�t make its way to the very top of said list though, because, really, for about half of its running time, it�s just plain bad because nothing really happens. It�s here we see the romantic half of this �romantic thriller,� and it�s a painfully awkward one to watch. Rod and Nathalie�s courtship is marked by terrible dialogue and woeful acting. It�s not just wooden--it�s as if it was carved out of the biggest, sturdiest redwood tree in the forest. Fear not, though--when the action does ramp up, things don�t get much better, as our two heroes just aimlessly wander from place to place and meet random people (kind of like The Littlest Hobo). Among these characters are an ornithologist and a literal tree hugger, each of whom blame the killer bird plague on global warming; in fact, there�s a staunch and not at all subtle anti-global warming message that�s almost charming in its efforts to bring some kind of method to this madness.
Oh yeah, there�s also that business about the killer birds, and the attacks will indeed slay you with their ineptness. The birds themselves are brought to life with some laughable visual effects; these graphical sprites just sort of hover about and seem to only have 2 or 3 canned animations. Watching the actors shoot them out of the sky is almost akin to watching someone play Duck Hunt if it were re-imagined with late-90s, Playstation era graphics. This is indicative of the film�s shoddy production as a whole, as there are other similarly poor effects (check out the cartoonish gun sparks that ensure you that there are indeed bullets being fired from them). The editing and sound don�t fare much better, as the film is barely put together in competent fashion and the dialogue often drops in and out, depending on whether or not ADR was even applied. Let�s just say it won�t surprise you to know that Nguyen has never had any formal film-making training.
Fans of stuff like Troll 2 and Plan 9 From Outer Space will certainly welcome this with open arms, as it certainly is terrible and will be a cult classic in such circles. Severin Films, known to horror fans mostly for delivering a horde of Euro-horror the past few years, snapped up the distribution rights, presumably so everyone can easily see just how bad it is. In what has to be one of the most ironic releases of all time, they�ve even put the film out on Blu-ray; it�s a disc that�s far from reference quality (appropriate given that the film itself is far from any kind of quality). I�m sure it�s the best this film can possibly look and sound, given the 1080p transfer and DTS-MA soundtrack, but it�s kind of like trying to bleed blood from a stone. There�s no lack of special features however, as there�s deleted scenes, a �Birdemic Experience Tour� feature, an interview with Nguyen, trailers, other EPK materials, and two audio commentaries that features Nguyen, Bagh, and Moore. Severin certainly has proven that no film is beneath their high standards with this release, which recently hit store shelves and rental services. Only the most devout fans of trash will need to swoop in and grab it for their collections; for most people, the best cure for Birdemic is to just Rent it!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Noida Special Economic Zone set up in 1985 is spread on a 310-acre of land. It provides excellent infrastructure, supportive services and sector specific facilities for the thrust areas of exports like gems and jewellery and electronics/software.
NSEZ has 202 plots of varying sizes, besides 13 Standard Design Factory (SDF) Blocks accommodating 208 units including one exclusive block for trading service units. One more SDF block of 16 units to accommodate prospective entrepreneurs is under construction.
NSEZ offers access to global telecommunication network, uninterrupted power supply and efficient local transport system. A high capacity Telephone Exchange has been installed by BSNL in the Zone. Major telecom players like Bharti, Airtel, Reliance, VSNL etc. are also providing services like data communications facilities in the zone. An independent feeder line has been provided for uninterrupted power supply. Customs Wing ensures prompt and on the spot clearances of export/import consignments. Besides, in-house Post and Telegraph office, Sub-Foreign Post Office, Insurance and banking including ATM facilities, courier service facilities, industrial canteens and executive restaurant and travel/customs forwarding agencies have been provided. An extension counter of Punjab National bank to collect Central Excise and Customs duties is also operational. An Offshore Banking Unit has also been set up in the processing area to cater to the needs of the exporters. Apart from above, various facilitators like Bank, CHAs, Eateries, Communication Service Providers etc. who have been successfully catering to the needs of the NSEZ units, have been accommodated in the Facilitation Centre within the NSEZ.
Sector specific Infrastructure for software and Gems & Jewellery units has been developed. Satellite data link facility required for software exports is available. Highly trained and qualified manpower for software development is available in and around Delhi.
Two exclusive complexes have been developed for jewellery units. MMTC has a full-fledged office in NSEZ for supply of gold, which also provides packing credit facilities. Central Warehousing Corporation provides facilitation for handling and storage of jewellery cargo and services for completion of export formalities such as appraisement, processing of airway bills and transportation to the Airport. NSEZ has been declared as an Inland Container Depot (ICD) under the Customs Act, 1962 to facilitate inward/outward movement of cargo.


Driveway/walkway replacement; exposed aggregate concrete; protective coating.
Hard working crew, nicely finished work, strong warranty and explanation, and exactly on cost estimate.
Thank you for the review John, and for your business. we look forward to working with you again when it's time to do that back patio we discussed.


Philthy Rich touched down with a video for "Diamond Tester" last week, and recently issued a new single called "Death Before Dishonor" featuring Fetty Wap.
Listen below and check out Philthy's Hood Rich 4 album available on iTunes now.
The post Philthy Rich – Death Before Dishonor (Feat. Fetty Wap) appeared first on rapWAVE.


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Outline for an Autobiography
Incredible as it seems, my life is based on a true story. – Ashleigh Brilliant
Much of what's on this site is not specifically personal or autobiographical, though of course you can tell a lot about who I am and how I think by the subjects I choose, the opinions I hold, and how I express myself about them. I've been told many times that I should write a book, perhaps about living in Italy, India, or just my life in general. I don't think I'm ready to tackle my memoirs just yet – for one thing, I should probably wait until a number of my co-protagonists can no longer make objections.
But, for those who want to know all about me, or for people who are coming back into my life after years (which happens, with the vast reach of today's social media), here's an attempt to organize the truly autobiographic material on this site into chronological order. This is, of course, a work in progress.
Caveat: Memory, Truth, and the Stories of My Life
Born in New Orleans on November 28th, of Bairds, Cooks, Tiemanns, and Straughans.
The Hundred Years' War (video)
Attended my first Mardi Gras as a vampire baby with something red in my bottle.
Kennedy was shot just a few days before my first birthday.
age 2 1/21964
Moved to Beaumont, Texas, where my dad was teaching German. Got pneumonia due to chemical refinery pollution.
Moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where my dad had a year of Vietnamese language training.
My mother and I moved to Bangkok, Thailand, while my father went to Vietnam (video!) with USAID, trying to develop what everyone else was trying to blow up. The theory was that, if you could make the Vietnamese more prosperous, they wouldn't want to be communist. Dad came to Bangkok on leave every six weeks or so. I had very little understanding of what he was doing or where, except that it was dangerous and he could even be killed by the Viet Cong. I didn't know what they were, either, but some how "Cong" became conflated in my childish imagination with "Congo" (about which I also knew little), and I imagined that black men in grass skirts were going to stick my daddy with spears.
After a quickly-aborted attempt to attend a local Thai school, I went to Mrs. Stevens' School for 1st and 2nd grade.
Al & Deirdré, Bangkok
riding bareback on an elephant – a bit like sitting on a hairbrush
Dad moved to join us in Bangkok, where he continued to work for USAID. We traveled to various parts of Thailand, and were probably among the first tourists to Nepal. I did 3rd and 4th grade at the International School Bangkok.
Duchess, a Dog
These are pieces that cover wider arcs of time, such as my schooling.
Another Brick in the Wall (to 1981)
Third Culture Kids (ongoing)
Shoes (to present)
Girls Who Love Horses
Beach Memories
A Peculiar Experience of Privilege
School picture at the International School Bangkok, ~1970
My brother Ian was born.
My parents split, my mother remaining in Bangkok with my infant brother; she soon remarried. I saw her once, a year later, after that we did not meet again til I was 18.
The Boys' and Girls' Book About Divorce
Hand-Writing
My father and I went to Pittsburgh, where he started grad school. I did 5th grade and started 6th at Liberty School, then did part of a year at Shady Lane School.
To try to repair my mangled schooling, Dad got me into Ellis School, an elite private girls' school in Pittsburgh, for one year.
Family Lies
After my dad was hospitalized for something he'd picked up in Mexico the previous summer, I spent part of my 6th grade year living with my aunt Rosie and cousin Casey in Coupland, Texas. In April, my father married Nancy.
I started 7th grade at Reizenstein, a brand-new middle school.
In October we moved to Norwalk, CT where my dad took a job running a drug rehabilitation clinic for rich kids. I finished 7th grade and started 8th at West Rocks Middle School.
Secondary Sex Characteristics
We moved to Dhaka, Bangladesh, where my dad was the country head for Save the Children. The American school there only went up to 8th grade, and didn't have room for me anyway, so I did 8th grade by myself on correspondence. Both my parents were working and I had no friends of my own age; this was a horribly lonely time for me. And it was a difficult place to be growing into a woman's body.
Meeting Cat Stevens
For 9th grade, I went to Woodstock School, an international boarding school in Mussoorie, a hill station in the Indian Himalayas, and stayed there for four very happy years, with visits to my parents at Christmas and in the summer. My dad and Nancy moved twice during this period, first from Dhaka to Bangkok in 1978, oddly enough returning to live at Red Rose Court where my dad, mom and I had first lived in 1967. But my real home was, and in some sense remains, Mussoorie.
Sara & me. Yes, I was a geek even then.
That summer, we visited friends and relatives in various parts of the US on home leave. Had my first kiss from a nice Jewish boy in Pittsburgh who probably went on to become a doctor. Had my hair disastrously permed.
Fitting Bras
The Land of Illness
Pirating Music
That Vampire Thing
me with two of my tapestries, given to my parents, who knows where they ended up
I did a lot of textile arts at school: embroidery, weaving, batik, a quilt top… The photo shows me with some of my work at Dad and Nancy's place in Khon Kaen, a town in northeastern Thailand where I spent several vacations with them.
A Private Eclipse
graduation of the Woodstock School Class of 1981
I graduated from Woodstock School on June 25th, then flew to the US, where I hopped all over the country visiting friends and relatives (including my mother and brother, after a hiatus of 8 years) before beginning my freshman year at UC Santa Cruz.
Having spent many of my formative years in Asia, I tried to come "home" to America once before, when I graduated from high school in India and entered college in the US. Like many, I had felt out of place (though not unhappy) in the exotic countries I'd lived in, where I was very obviously foreign even after being there for years. I dreamed of returning to a country where I would feel wholly at ease and be accepted as a natural part of the scenery. It was a rude shock to discover that this homeland, for me and others like me, is a myth. Though I didn't realize it at the time, I was a "hidden immigrant": on the surface seemingly a local, but in reality a not-quite-native, which manifested in ways which confused and irritated the real Americans. – from Coming "Home" to America
That winter I visited Dad and Nancy in Semarang, on the eastern tip of Java. My return to Santa Cruz involved a Fabulous Flying Jeep Trick.
the CompuServe gang gathers at the Texas State capitol
One of the pitfalls of expatriate life is that, unless you've planned ahead and made arrangements, you may not have residency for college tuition purposes in any US state. My dad soon realized that he could not afford the University of California's out of state tuition, but the University of Texas was a bargain in those days even for non-Texans, and my aunt still lived in Coupland and worked in Austin. So I transferred to UT, where I eventually settled into a major in Asian Studies and languages, in part because the US government kept paying me to study Hindi. During the cutbacks of the Reagan era, these FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) scholarships were kept alive at the behest of Secretary of Defence Casper Weinberger, as a matter of national security. I suppose the hope was that some of us would go on to work in defence or intelligence.
The Making of an Online Career
Sometime around this year I began writing my still-not-completed fantasy novel.
Tag, I'm It! – Five Things Not Many People Know About Me
Wrong Number
I went to visit my dad in Jakarta, Indonesia, intending to obtain a student visa to go on to do research of some sort in India. Instead, I ended up working at the US Embassy (commercial section) in Jakarta for six months. During this period, we had death threats from the Islamic Jihad.
Changes in Latitudes
I returned to Austin in the fall and took up my schooling again.
My dad and stepmother split during a summer home leave in the US. Nancy went on to the School for International Training and eventually began working for the UNHCR in Peshawar, Pakistan. I never saw her again.
The University of Wisconsin College Year in India Program, 1985-86
In September I joined the University of Wisconsin's College Year in India program in Benares (now known as Varanasi). Traveled a fair amount in north India during this academic year.
Gender Identity Crises
The Bombing of Tripoli
I returned to the US, determined that I had enough credits to have finished my BA, and ended up living in the Washington, DC, area, in part because I had met Enrico, who was doing his PhD in mathematics at Yale: How My Italian Adventure Began.
The Bride's Bouquet
The Italian Proposal
Tanzania Surprise
Coca-Cola, and an Ostrich
I moved to New Haven, married Enrico, and our daughter Rossella was born.
The Playboy
Enrico finished his thesis and won a ricercatore position at the Politecnico di Milano, so we moved to Milan, Italy.
Rossella began full-time daycare.
That summer I took a freelance job writing software documentation for an unusual Italian high-tech startup company, Incat Systems. At the end of that project the boss, Fabrizio Caffarelli, said "I like the way you work, but don't have any more work for you at present."
How I Became an Italian Journalist
Asilo Nido & Scuola Materna (to 1994)
Working in Italy
family lunch on vacation in Roseto degli Abruzzi
Rossella age 2 or 3
Fabrizio and I wrote Publish Yourself on CD-ROM , published by Random House in early 1993.
By the time the book was finished, I was working full-time for Fabrizio, doing documentation and other technical and marketing writing. In December of that year he moved the engineering staff of Incat Systems to Silicon Valley.
Displays of Patriotism
I began traveling four times a year to Silicon Valley to work for Incat Systems, doing technical writing/documentation and online customer service. Only much later did I understand that some initial difficulties I had with American colleagues were due to me being a third-culture kid and hidden immigrant. Other difficulties were due to their suspicion that I was having an affair with the boss (I wasn't). Meanwhile, back in the Milan office: The Taming of Mr A.
Rossella began attending elementary school in Milan.
In August, Fabrizio sold Incat Systems to Adaptec, who hired me as a consultant and allowed me to work from my home in Italy – when I wasn't in their Milpitas offices.
I visited India again for the first time in ten years. This was the start of a series of annual or biannual trips, mostly to Woodstock School to see friends and do things at the school. I was a heavily involved alumna: secretary of my graduating class of '81, did the school's first website and helped train staff to use the Internet, spoke to students about careers in high tech, helped raise funds, attended and organized reunions…
on the P&O Ferry from Calais to Dover
I traveled a great deal, both alone and with the family, happily mixing work and play worldwide.
Largo al Factotum
Miniskirt Photo
Conversation on a Plane
My resumé at the time.
While still working full-time (from home when I wasn't traveling to the US four times a year), and being a wife and mother, I started an MBA with the Open University Business School.
Thanks to my Woodstock classmate Jeet, we celebrated the end of the millennium in style at Chateau de la Bourdaisiere, Montlouis sur Loire, France.
Adaptec decided they didn't want to be in the software business after all, and spun off our software group as a new company, Roxio. I persuaded my family to give me a year or two to see what I could make of my career in the Bay Area, but for the first 9 months I was there alone, working 14 hours a day, traveling back and forth to Europe every 6-8 weeks, still working on the MBA at the same time, and generally exhausting myself. At Christmas we met for a family vacation in the Caribbean.
It became apparent that the family was not going to move to California with me. I returned to Milan and, not long after, quit my job when my mother-in-law got breast cancer (which was cured by surgery and has not recurred).
At the instigation of long-time fans of my Adaptec/Roxio newsletters, I began publishing an email newsletter on my own behalf. Over time this evolved into a website, which is now in the process of becoming this blog (manually converting HTML pages to WordPress takes a long time).
I had money saved up from lucrative earnings during the dot.com boom (though I had also paid out a lot in taxes to both the US and Italian governments during this time). I spent some of my savings (and a great deal of time and energy) on my daughter's passion for horses. In September we went to England and bought Hamish.
I began writing about travel in Italy:
Volterra: An Ancient Town in Tuscany
Castelli: Traditional Ceramics from the Hills of Abruzzo
Ross and I traveled:
Coupland, Texas – At Home in the Country
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – My Favorite Obsession
For the first couple of years after quitting Roxio, I had some interesting and well-paid freelance work, thanks largely to friends and a good reputation in the industry, but this dwindled as the effects of the dot.com crash deepened. I ended up with a lot of time to spend on the nitty-gritties of website design and analytics, SEO, web advertising, and what was beginning to be called "social media," as well as the actual writing for my site and newsletter. I wasn't paid for most of this, but I learned a lot.
A Theater-Goer's Diary: Private Lives
Another Rite of Passage Completed
Enrico moved up a rung on the Italian academic ladder to become a professore associato. The Politecnico di Milano asked him to move to their branch campus in Lecco, a mid-sized town on the southeastern tip of Lake Como. This enabled us to get out of Milan, a city I was fond of but whose pollution was quite literally killing me.
Got my Italian driver's license. Barely used it.
Imaging in Italy -A Photographic Walking Tour of Rome
Had a cartoon portrait made for my (old) website
Ross broke her arm falling off her horse, Hamish, requiring surgery.
Enrico's father died.
Silver Threads Among the Gold
As my savings dwindled, we had to give away Ross' beloved Hamish.
We moved to a beautiful house high on a hillside overlooking Lake Como. In the summer, Rossella finally accompanied me to India, a trip we had both been looking forward to for a long time.
^ MBA: Collecting My Dues from the Open University
I was working for Fabrizio Caffarelli at his new startup in Milan, pouring lots of creative energy into my work in return for very little pay and a killer commute. Because the company's business was about videoconferencing and video content sharing for consumers, I wondered just how difficult it might be for ordinary mortals to share video online. In 2005, it turned out to be very difficult indeed. I joined the brand-new Yahoo videoblogging group, learned a lot, made some friends, attended the first Vloggercon in New York, and, of course, began doing my own vlogging. One theme in my career has been using new technologies to communicate (often on behalf of a company, with its customers), so video was a natural next step for me.
In Loco Parentis: Supervising School Trips in Italy
KidSpace: Public Places Where Kids Can Be Kids
Pursuing a Dream of Italy
^ I spoke at FemCamp Bologna 2007
Rossella applied to spend A School Year Abroad at Woodstock.
I began using Twitter: "just arranged travel to Colorado for next week! 2:27 PM Mar 12th 2007"
In the spring, frustration and poverty drove me (happily!) to take on contract work with Sun Microsystems. In the summer I had a lump scare and a biopsy, then had to wait a long time for results.
Rossella left for Woodstock in July, I spent six weeks in August/September in the US on Sun work. By the time I returned, I no longer had a job with TVBLOB – to my relief.
Twitter: July, August, Sept, Oct
In mid-November, after giving an early Thanksgiving dinner, I went to India to visit Ross at Woodstock (working remotely for Sun from there) until the semester ended, then we spent the Christmas holiday together in Delhi and Mumbai with classmates, and I returned to Italy for New Year's Eve.
This was my theme song that year.
In March, Sun offered me a job on condition that I move to the US. I instantly agreed, on condition that I be allowed time off to attend my daughter's graduation from Woodstock. I moved to Colorado, deciding to start at Sun's Broomfield office to give myself a quieter place to re-acclimate to life in the US.
Coming "Home" to America
After her late May graduation, Ross came to the US in July to start… the Hindi-Urdu Flagship program at the University of Texas. Yes, this was all my fault. Enrico visited us both in August, Ross and I spent Thanksgiving in St Barth's, and we both went back to Italy for Christmas.
Twitter: July, part 2, August, part 2, (hmm, missing some Twitter here), October, part 2, November part 1, part 2, December part 1, part 2
The Bi-Professional Couple: A Conundrum Close to the Bone
Ross left school and began working in January.
Twitter: January 2009, Pt 1: Italy, Ireland, UK, France
By February, I knew that I was done with Italy.
Twitter: 2009-02-08
I traveled a LOT for Sun, including, during June and July, an epic trip to Brazil, New Zealand, and Australia. Also attended a Woodstock School reunion in Tennessee.
photo by Shawn Ferry
Opotiki, New Zealand
At the end of August, after a road trip vacation together in the US, I split from Enrico.
During much of this year, starting with rumors about IBM in March, Sun Microsystems was in the throes of being acquired, as well as going through several rounds of "would have done it anyway" layoffs. This added still more turmoil and uncertainty to my life:
Part 1: Resistance is Futile: The Oracle Acquisition
Part 2: What to Expect When You're Expecting – to Be Acquired
Part 3: Fishworks and Me
Part 4: Into the Belly of the Beast
Part 5: The Last of OpenSolaris
Part 6: Diaspora (not yet written)
I spent Christmas with an old friend and her family in Arkansas, then we drove to New Orleans (my first visit there in over 30 years) for New Year's.
In January, my mother announced her intention to cut off all contact with me and my brother for 12-18 months, saying that dealing with us was "too painful". In some way that I don't even understand, I was failing to be her definition of a good daughter. She placed the blame for our estrangement on my father, whom she had divorced 35 years earlier. Which does not explain why she also can't get along with my brother – she raised him.
On February 15th I (and most other Sun employees) became an employee of Oracle Corporation.
Made a trip to India for Sun/Oracle Tech Days in late March, returned to Colorado on a Monday night, finished packing my things, and Thursday morning started driving to California. I arrived and moved into my new apartment in San Francisco on April 3rd. I'm very happy to be here.
The day before Mother's Day, I received a letter from my mother to let me know that she had legally adopted a woman a year older than myself – "your new big sister" as she put it. She left it up to me to break this news to my brother. I declined to do so, and decline all further contact with her. Unfortunately, there is no legal mechanism by which an adult can "divorce" a parent. Maybe I need to ritually burn something. Seems as if my whole family aspire to be characters in a Tennessee Williams play.
Portraits by Ross
In the summer/fall, I edited the DTrace book, while battling a severe sinus infection with heavy antibiotics, a balloon sinuplasty, and finally surgery.
On December 1st, I began a new job at Joyent, joining several illustrious Sun colleagues in a very hot area of technology. I'm the Director of Technical Education, which boils down to helping geeks share what they know – something I've already been doing for a long time, and am very happy to do more of. Stay tuned!
Too busy to blog; the best way to keep up with me is Twitter.
^ March, 2011
In August, I changed my job at Joyent to become the SmartOS Community Manager. A week later, my father died. In October I had a dream vacation in India. In November I was paid to go to New Orleans for the Hyatt hotel's re-opening, and filmed my cousin Celia talking about Katrina.
July: Spoke at FISL in Brazil on Using Video to Communicate Technology.
November: Celebrated my 50th birthday in New York and San Francisco.
Portrait at 50
Spoke at Monktoberfest on Marketing Your Tech Talent, and was an a panel on Women in Advanced Computing at USENIX LISA 13.
Was interviewed about Woodstock School on the Kamla Show.
My mother-in-law, Graziella Ballanti, died.
On my 51st birthday, flew to Australia for a month's vacation.
May: left my job at Joyent.
June: began my new job at Ericsson: The Place for Me
November: diagnosed with and began treatment for breast cancer
December-January: Australia trip
Treatment continues
One year on
Goodbye, 2015
Still recovering from cancer treatment.
Photographed and interviewed for the Techies Project (another long story of my life!).
November 9th: we were on vacation in India when we learned that Trump "won" the election. This is the face of a woman looking at the future of the entire planet, and not liking a single damned thing about it:
…went by in a blur of travel, events, and happenings, gains and losses. We all lived with terrorism. Mid-year, I quit Ericsson and began working for Amazon Web Services (as my friends at RedMonk put it, Amazon Web Services keeps hiring for experience: Deirdré Straughan). I reflected on workplace bullying. And makeup (which I can rarely wear, post-chemo).
Elfquest ended, and I thought about what its authors, Wendy and Richard Pini, have contributed to my life.
I spoke at conferences on Marketing Your Open Source Project.
I was Three Years Post Cancer.
Toxic Things I Once Believed
My Career Evolution from Tech Writer to… Many Things
2018, a Retrospective in Pictures
I started the year excited about the possibilities of my new garden, and reflected on A Lifetime of Gardening.
In April, Brendan and I got engaged and, with the help of many friends, I began planning our wedding. This included having an amazing wedding dress made. Brendan meanwhile was writing (and I was editing) BPF Performance and Tools, which finally saw print late in the year.
More posts to come about the wedding, here's the list so far:
We honeymooned briefly in Kaua'i, then in September made a trip to Lisbon, where Brendan participated in the Linux Plumbers' Conference. From there we flew to India where I was joining the board of Woodstock School. We had a bit more honeymoon after that, in Goa. It wasn't a great time of year to be there – the beaches were still clogged with monsoon debris – but we ate good food and relaxed in a beautiful hotel.
I had big plans for the garden and, as it turned out, have had a lot of time to work on it.
Mid-year I changed teams at AWS (something that Amazonians do a lot) and am now learning how to be a Product Marketing Manager, with responsibilities for a large portfolio AWS management and governance services. There's a lot to do, especially now that we are in the run-up to re:Invent (which will be held virtually this year), and I have a lot to learn. I always enjoy a new challenge.
On Having Beauty Viva la Mamma? Motherhood, Menopause & Culture Dad's Funeral My Dad's Death
This entry was posted in bio and tagged bio on May 16, 2010 by Deirdre Straughan.
← Reading Material The Problems Solaris Solves 1: Managing File Systems Effectively →
2 thoughts on "Outline for an Autobiography"
fabio December 27, 2010 at 5:44 am
Mi spiace che non vivi più in Italia …… sei stata il primo blog che ho seguito ….
Deirdre Straughan Post author December 27, 2010 at 7:36 am
Grazie – questo e' un grandissimo complimento!


Former The Walking Dead actor Scott Wilson has died, according to American TV network AMC.
In a statement, AMC said that the character he played "lived at the emotional core of the show".
Colleagues and fans paid tribute to Wilson, who starred in around 30 episodes of the The Walking Dead in seasons two, three and four.
Wilson's character was killed off in series four of the show. But less than an hour before news of his death was made public, showrunner Angela Kang announced that the character of Hershel Greene would be making a reappearance during the forthcoming season nine.
Chris Hardwick hosts an after show, Talking Dead, on AMC and paid tribute to Wilson in a public Instagram post.
Wilson, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States, got his first major acting role in the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night.
His performance in the 1974 film The Great Gatsby was also well received.
But in recent years, it was Wilson's portrayal of farm-owner Hershel Greene in The Walking Dead, complete with full grey beard and ponytail, that will be remembered.


Isaac Arthur has a very fascinating series of videos that cover different aspects of space, from travelling between planets, to understanding alien languages, to life extension. Above, a video on actually getting into space in the first place.
The first installment in a new series discussing alternative means of getting in space, from better rockets to massive structures like Space Elevators, Skyhooks, and Launch Loops.
"Almost every flight today takes longer than it did back in the 60s."
"Jupiter matters. In fact, Jupiter is the hero of this story."
"Each spaceship will cost only as much as a smartphone."


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LinkedIn with Background
How to Make a Budget
Rewards Cards 101
Understanding Interest Rates
Using a Financial Advisor
Filing a Tax Extension
Taxes by State
Solving Tax Issues
Paying Off Student Loans
Personal Loans 101
Credit Reports & Scores
Achieve Your Financial Goals in 2020
Financial Self-Care Checklist
Financial Planning Estate Planning
Estate Planning: The Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)
An ILIT can help you avoid estate taxes
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Julie Ann Garber wrote about estate planning for The Balance, and has almost 25 years of experience as a lawyer and trust officer.
Read The Balance's editorial policies
Julie Garber
Image by Kelly Miller © The Balance 2020
Many people aren't aware that for tax purposes, their estates might include the proceeds from their life insurance policies when they die. Depending on the value of the policy, this could invite an estate tax bill. But it's avoidable. It isn't an ironclad rule and there are ways around it.
One option is to form an irrevocable life insurance trust, also known as an ILIT, to take ownership of the policy.
What Is an ILIT?
An ILIT is a type of living trust that's specifically set up to own a life insurance policy. You can transfer ownership of an existing policy to the ILIT after it's been formed, or the trust can purchase the policy directly.
You can't serve as trustee of the trust, however. The trust must be irrevocable, which means that you must "fund" it, placing the policy into its ownership, and step aside. You must relinquish any right to make changes to the trust or to dissolve it.
Acting as trustee would give you something called "incidents of ownership," allowing you to retain control over the policy. But your spouse, your adult children, a friend or even a financial institution or an attorney can serve as trustee for you. You can name anyone you like when you form the trust.
What Are Incidents of Ownership?
If you owned the policy yourself and retained control of it, you could withdraw its cash value or change its beneficiaries at any point during your lifetime. This makes it your asset so the IRS and some state taxing authorities will therefore include the proceeds of the policy in your estate's value.
If the proceeds are significant enough, this could potentially make your estate vulnerable to estate taxes. This is the case if your estate is the beneficiary of the policy, but the policy would still be an asset of your estate if you own it at the time of your death even if you name your son, daughter, spouse, or someone else as the beneficiary.
The estate tax threshold is pretty high as of 2020: $11.58 million per estate. Estates must only pay taxes on their values over this amount.
If you insured your life for $5 million and your other property is worth more than $6.18 million at the time of your death, you would exceed this exemption. Your estate—and by extension, your heirs—would owe the estate tax on any value over the $11.58 million threshold.
Only very valuable estates have to worry about federal estate taxes, but some states also impose estate taxes with much lower thresholds. If your state's exemption is $1 million, the balance of your policy's death benefits plus the value of your estate could easily push it into the taxable range.
Who Are the Beneficiaries of an ILIT?
The ILIT is normally designated as the insurance policy's primary beneficiary. Death benefits are deposited into the ILIT when you die and they're held in trust for the benefit of the individuals you've named in your trust documents to receive the money.
If the proceeds are held in trust for the benefit of your spouse, she would receive regular incremental payments rather than the lump sum of proceeds. They wouldn't be taxed as part of her eventual estate as they would if the lump sum went directly to her assuming the money hadn't been depleted by the time of her own death.
Potential Complications
If you die within three years of transferring your life insurance policy to your ILIT, the IRS will still include the proceeds in your estate for estate tax purposes. You can avoid this by having the trust purchase the policy on your life, then funding the trust with sufficient money over the years to pay the premiums.
Gift taxes can also be a consideration because you're effectively giving the trust the money to pay for the policy each year, but this is avoidable, too.
Your trustee can simply send your trust's beneficiaries something called a "Crummey" letter each time you transfer money to the trust. This letter would advise them that they can ask for their share of that money within a specific period of time. As long as they have an immediate right to the money, the gift tax doesn't apply.
Of course, the amount you're giving the trust is negligible compared to the eventual proceeds of your policy, particularly if it's divided among several beneficiaries. If they take the money now, the premiums will go unpaid and the policy would lapse.
This is usually sufficient encouragement for the beneficiaries to leave the money with the trust so it can pay for the policy.
Dissolving the Trust
You normally cannot undo an irrevocable trust after you've set it up. But because ongoing premiums must be paid to keep the life insurance policy in effect, all you'd have to do to cancel the trust is stop making payments for the premiums. The trust would then become an empty vessel when the policy lapses.
Related: Best Whole Life Insurance Policies
Article Table of Contents Skip to section
Who Are the Beneficiaries?
HG.org. "How Does an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust Operate?" Accessed June 2, 2020.
Northwestern Mutual. "What Is an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust?" Accessed June 2, 2020.
Highland Capital Brokerage. "Top 5 Responsibilities of An ILIT Trustee: The Importance of Policy Reviews." Accessed June 2, 2020.
Nolo. "Transfer Your Life Insurance and Decrease Your Estate Tax." Accessed June 2, 2020.
IRS. "Estate Tax." Accessed June 2, 2020.
Tax Foundation. "Does Your State Have an Estate or Inheritance Tax?" Accessed June 2, 2020.
FindLaw. "The Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust." Accessed June 2, 2020.
Legal Information Institute. "26 U.S. Code § 2035. Adjustments for Certain Gifts Made Within 3 Years of Decedent's Death." Accessed June 2, 2020.
Public.Resource.Org. "Crummey v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue." Accessed June 2, 2020.
Legal Assistance for Military Personnel. "Issues in Drafting Wills and Trust Agreement," Pages 21-23. Accessed June 2, 2020.
Reduce Estate Taxes With an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)
Financial Consequences of Receiving a Life Insurance Inheritance
What Is an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust?
How to Protect Your Estate So It Goes to Your Family—Not to Taxes
The Benefits of Life Insurance
What Is an Irrevocable Trust?
How to Calculate the Value of Your Gross Estate
Learn About the Pros and Cons of Qualified Personal Residence Trusts
Learn How to Calculate the Value of Your Estate for Tax Purposes
Are Life Insurance Death Benefits Subject to Estate Tax?
Easy Ways to Avoid Costly Probate
Learn the Notable Differences Between a Will and a Trust
Should You Put Your IRA or 401(K) Into Your Trust?
Why You Need a Memorandum of Trust and How It Simplifies Estate Plans
Understand Your Options for Choosing Life Insurance Beneficiaries
Also From The Balance Team
The Balance: Small Business The Balance: Careers
The Balance is part of the Dotdash publishing family.


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How Caleb Hearn Found a Home in Songwriting
The 20-year-old singer from North Carolina has gained massive momentum on TikTok and has just released his new single, "Hey Brother."
Photo Courtesy of Caleb Hearn
How has the last year changed you, both as a creator and as a person?
This past year, I have grown as a musician and creator more than ever before. I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone and that has really helped to shape the person I am today.
What has been the biggest moment of your life so far?
I would say that the biggest moment in my life was definitely the day and months following the release of my song "Always Be 2.0." I have never experienced a feeling like that before. The way that people related to the song, told their own stories, and supported me was life changing.
What's one thing you hope never changes?
The one thing that I would love to remain constant, is my ability to engage with my fanbase. It is such an honor to be able to reach people all over the world that I know nothing about, but still connect with them through my music.
What does it mean to be a creator in today's world?
Today, it is by far the easiest era to become a creator. The opportunities are endless, and you can really be whoever you want to be, and be accepted.


What is a BB Cream and is it right for me?
You may have heard a lot about BB Creams for the past year or two. Lots of TV and print ads are dedicated to it and many of the major cosmetic companies are getting into the market. BB Cream, also known as Beauty Balm or Blemish Balm, is a cosmetic product that until recently has been primarily sold in East and Southeast Asia. BB Creams were created in Germany in the 1960s and became popular in South Korea and Japan in the 1980s – where smooth, natural, and porcelain-looking skin is sought after. The product is marketed as a multi-tasking cream, replacing your moisturizer, primer, foundation, and sunblock. The product can also be layered for added coverage: worn alone as a tinted moisturizer or over moisturizer and under powder as foundation. Be advised that many BB Creams have a lighter base and may not provide your desired level of coverage, depending on your skin tone and condition. There are many formulations of BB Creams targeting different populations. OILY SKIN – Consider Estee Lauder's Daywear BB Cream to temper oil and shine while moisturizing and providing anti-aging components. DRY SKIN – Try Garnier Skin Reniew Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream for a light coverage of minor imperfections with great blend into dry skin. MATURE SKIN – Stila's Stay All-Day 10-in-1 HD Beauty Balm is fantastic as an add-on to your makeup kit for a good coverage without creasing into lines. NATURAL FINISH – Too Faced Tinted Beauty Balm has a light-weight coverage that provides a subtle glow. You can use it to replace your daily makeup routine of moisturizer and foundation because the Vitamin A will help even out skin tone and reduce wrinkles over time. For a full listing, please visit Allure Magazine.
« What is a CC Cream and is it right for me?


Did you check your phone first thing in the morning? Have you ever found yourself checking funny memes sent by your friends rather than finishing that important assignment? Were you refreshing your Facebook page during the romantic dinner date last week? Then we could conclude that your smartphone is interfering in your life and you are addicted… We have listed 5 tips that might help you to beat your phone addiction.
It is very common to have your smartphone within reach during work. Only during 20% of your day you need your phone in order to perform, during the other 80% of the time it is simply distracting you. It is advisable to create no-phone time-zones during which you place your phone out of sight in order to enhance your productivity.
If checking your phone is the first thing you do after waking up, this can be considered as a serious issue. The first 30 minutes of every morning should be committed to creating a favourable start of your day. Make sure to have a separate device for your morning alarm and do not look at your smartphone for at least the first 30 minutes after waking up.
Being notified by a new like on Instagram or a new message in a group chat with your high-school friends only causes interruption from things with priority. By turning off notifications your day will be more productive. Do not forget to leave notification on for apps that are important, such as email and calendar.
Have you ever had a lunch with a friend during which she/he was constantly looking at his/her phone? Eliminate this problem and become more social with your close friends or business associates by implementing the following rule: All attendees place their phone in the centre of the table, whoever touches their phone first has to take care of the bill.
- Moment , this app shows you how many minutes per day you spend on your phone, as well as how many times you unlock the device.
- Checky, provides you with the same information as Moment, but this app is applicable for both IPhone and Android devices.


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Q: jedit system tray not displayed / jedit window does not appear I've been using jedit for a few years. I installed it (not recently) with server mode so that jedit-server starts each time my OS starts.
I'm using windows 7 and java 1.8.0_111 and I recently noticed the random lack of jedit system tray icon. By random I mean from time to time (maybe one out of ten times, no obvious periodicity), after windows starts, the system tray icon is not visible.
I usually click on the system tray icon to open a new jedit window. As the system tray icon was missing I tried to launch it manually: programs > jedit > jedit and no window was displayed.
I checked processes and found that the jvm is actually launched but no window is displayed, very odd.
Is there someone with the same issue, a fix or a workaround?
FYI, I did not change jedit or java version recently.

A: If jEdit does not come up you maybe have a stale server file in your settings directory that points to a port that some process listens on but does not respond how jEdit expects. Unfortunatley up-to-now this situation is not handled too nice by jEdit, as it can end in waiting for an answer forever. So if you find jEdit not coming up, have a look at activity.log in the settings directory to see whether some error is logged, and try deleting the server file from the settings directory after killing the jEdit process and before restarting it.

A: Actually, I found a workaround, if you start jedit manually from command line using the "noserver" option, the jedit window is displayed as expected:
C:\Program Files\jEdit>java -jar jedit.jar -noserver

It probably means there is something wrong with jedit-server start process or at least with the communication between jedit client and server. I did not found what yet, but at least it gives a workaround!

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