Man converts car to run on used oil from french fries.

Tony Giovinazzo shows off the converted engine of his biodiesel burning Golf.

copyright 1999 Mark Bellis

WATERLOO, APRIL 17, 1999 - A Waterloo man hopes that running his car on oil derived from the cannabis plant and other vegetable oil is more than a pipe dream.

"Hemp's the best vegetable oil" for running his car, says Tony Giovinazzo, self described "Environmental Mechanic" who shows off his 1986 VW Golf Diesel at hemp, alternative energy and environmental festivals around Southwest Ontario.

The Golf is powered by jugs of vegetable oil that came straight off the store shelf and sit on the floor boards on the passenger side with a siphon tube running out of them and into the fuel line. All that Giovinazzo had to do to convert was install a diverter on his fuel line that he salvaged from a used truck for $ 50 and drill some holes. The engine must be started and allowed to run down before stopping on regular diesel fuel since the vegetable oil will clog the injectors if the engine is cold.

Although retail vegetable oil is several times more expensive than diesel fuel, Giovinazzo says that if he can find oil that restaurants have used and are throwing out, he can ride for free. Some vegetable oil used commercially has dimethyl polysolaxane, an antifoaming agent used to prevent spillovers when cold wet food is added to hot oil, and Giovinazzo avoids this type of vegetable oil because some sources say it can foul the engine, but he has also heard from other sources that this is not a critical problem. He has yet to experiment with dimethyl polysolaxane added oil.

Vegetable oil can be refined into 'biodiesel' by removing the glycerides, which cause cold starting problems, from the oil, which can be done at home by adding lye and methanol to heated oil. The glycerides separate out and can be used in soap making. Giovinazzo says he has made and used 5 litres of biodiesel using a recipe he downloaded from the internet. Biodiesel is available commercially in Europe and Japan and in limited amounts in North America. In March, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy announced they had developed a more efficient method of producing a higher grade of biodiesel from vegetable oil.

Joshua and Kaia Tickell, a U.S. couple, have been touring the US in a biodiesel powered Winnebago that had its own mobile refinery for making biodiesel from used oil donated from restaurants.

Giovinazzo got the idea from an article from High Times, a magazine for those interested in recreational and commercial uses of marijuana, that was given him by Joe Stroebl, an Ontario hemp grower. Commercial growing of hemp, a term used to describe varieties cannabis too low in THC to get anyone high, was legalized in Canada last year. It is primarily being grown to produce fibre, but the seeds also produce oil.

Giovinazzo says his best mileage on the highway on canola oil is 24 km/l. He has driven about 720 km on vegetable oil and biodiesel.

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BLACK ICE DETECTOR DEVELOPED

copyright 1999, 2015 - Mark Bellis
BOSTON, FEB 1, 1999 - Two Ontario inventors have developed a device that may stop deadly skids before they start.
In 1983, high school chemistry teacher Don Giles was riding in a semi truck driven by his brother's-in-law which was carrying with 15 tons of lumber to a mill in Pennsylvania when it hit a patch of ice and began fishtailing on the curve of a mountain road. "It was only 10 or 15 seconds before he got it under control but it seemed like forever." says Giles, now retired after 32 years of teaching. Giles wrote down in his journal that day, Christmas Eve, that there had to be a way to detect black ice before a vehicle started skidding.
He started working on ideas in earnest after three of his friends all died on the same winter morning in 1994 in separate auto accidents caused by black ice. He developed an idea with a former student, David Kemp, now an electronic engineering graduate working for a software company in Simcoe. The two started improvising a device that uses infrared beams to detect black ice, oil slicks or water over 1/8 of an inch deep, which they say is the depth where a car's tires can hydroplane, sending the car into a skid. The device, called the Black Ice Sentinel, is mounted facing downwards on the chassis and shines an invisible beam onto the road, which reflects back when it strikes a smooth, shiny surface. The inventors admit it will give 'false positive' alerts when it crosses things like railway tracks, expansion joints and sometimes even white lines.
Much of the work was done in Giles' crowded workshop in back of his home, which Giles designed himself, in Boston, near Simcoe. Giles made the lenses for the detectors by melting bits of clear Lexan rods that Kemp's wife used to build wedding cakes, into a mold lined with Pam, an aerosol cooking oil substitute, and Giles made the photoresists for the electronic boards in his own darkroom. The inventors also built their own calibration system, a turntable the size of a family pizza divided into six sections, paved with different types of asphalt and cement, that can be chilled and covered in ice or water to simulate different road conditions.
Four of the prototypes are mounted on the bumper of Giles' 1990 Toyota Camry for road tests.
The inventors have it set up to light up a bright green light when the outside temperature is below zero, a yellow light when the car passes over a shiny patch at above zero temperatures and red when it passes over shiny patches below zero.
        Giles says that black ice often forms on "Nice spring and fall mornings - it's basically frozen dew." and that people go into skids before they are even aware of the road being slippery.
        He said he was driving one morning with the air temperature at 40 F when the detector light up and he slowed down, with other cars "flying by me", but says on his return journey he counted three cars that had slipped off the road due to black ice.
        Conversely, he says the device can detect when a surface is not slippery - he says he came to a hill that had been covered with frozen rain and he thought the hill would be too slippery to get up, but found that the detector wasn't going off, and that he could climb the hill easily. He said the frozen rain had formed a rough surface that his tires had no trouble gripping. "I just accelerated up the hill" he said.
        The device can detect ice through a thin layer of snow, and the sentinel began going off as soon as he left the garage on a test drive, since his driveway was so slippery under a new coat of fallen snow it was tricky to walk down.
        The inventors say getting to the prototype stage cost $ 23,000, $ 18,000 of which was spent on getting the US patent, and the Canadian patent is still pending. Kemp says doing the patent search is far easier now that recent US patents are available online.
        White Line Distributors, which supplies Truck parts, will be fitting out the test prototypes on some of its customer trucks. The inventors say they have a temporary distribution deal worked out with the company, but are still looking for distributors for the auto, bus and emergency vehicle industry. Interested parties should call 519-443-8068

 Giles demonstrates calibration system

Prototype mounted on bumper

Scotch Pines popping

I recorded this in the late 90s in the Arboretum at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada - The Scotch Pines were opening their cones in the spring sunshine around the end of March, and making a very loud popping noise that could be heard from 30 feet away. Unfortunately it's right next to an airport.

Scotch Pine popping

The Golden Buddha, Wat Traimint, Bangkok

The Golden Buddha, Wat Traimint, Bangkok, Thailand. This is said to be the largest gold statue in the world, about 3 m tall. It was covered in cement many centuries ago when Burmese invaded and the monks wanted to hide its great value - it may have been no one was left alive after the war who knew the secret, as it stayed covered in cement and it was thought to be just a solid cement statue and just sat in a small temple until 1935, when they tried to move it and some of the cement fell off, revealing the gold underneath!
Yes, that is an elephant tusk in front of it! (Maybe an African one) One would hope it died of natural causes.

Diary 1998

Before this, bikers murdered in London, went to the abode of the fled suspects, very old woman next door who had lived in house since when it was a good neighbourhood .... ancient hands pulling aside triple bolts to answer my questions... later I came back for the funeral, rows on row of screaming gleaming hogs going down main street, following hearse. Biker chicks wearing "Property of Outlaws" on backs..........
July 5, 1998 - Okay typing furiously on Internet. ICQ fun! Boy world is large.........
July 10 - Cop being sentenced for sex assaulting nine year old girl...... although he had obvious warning signs - adopted children, one of whom accused him of doing similar thing, coaching little league, none of the guys that were called as character witnesses could believe it, although they investigate sexual assaults...... all white males from police force although metro Toronto's population mostly non-white now....! Also girls from b-ball league cute blondes who didn't have a clue why he was being so nice to them while their parents were so busy......... assault victim's impact statement where she said she had nightmares, had to move bedroom, and parents had to put up fence and not have her have male teachers.....
July 12, - 18 year old died during car chase by OPP, in small town --- cops did know who was driving the unregistered vehicle....... townsfolk said it was unnecessary...... went to scene, woman in make up all ready for the TV cams - sorry none were there!
Wife of murderer-embezzler-and-possible-father-to-his-own-daughter's-kids Al Walker on Radio whining about media attention....... Although she won't admit it Star did cover the story when she was asking for media attention when her daughter went missing.
July 16 - drove to see man who had all indigenous plant nursury. First saw a fox running along the main street in Cambridge, with a squirrel in its mouth, then by a trailer park I saw a very fat man with long white hair and beard with little wire rim glasses........ and just wearing black pants and suspenders........he had pendulous tits covered in white hair......... aieeee!!!!! Now I know why Christmas is in December!
The gardener, Ken Parker, has a nursery on the Six Nation Reserve near Brantford, Sweet Grass Gardens, with all sorts of native plants trying to recreate original settings in North America.
July 18 - Went to turtle races - on way up saw turkey buzzard! On way back saw little kit, half grown fox! Next to the pond where I went one bright February morning for a 37 year old who had thrown himself in. The pond looked even gloomier now that it was shrouded in algae and the trees were in full foliage - the bench that he had left his things on before jumping in was dedicated to the memory of someone.... by the way that it was written I wonder if it was a suicide too.
July 26 - Saw my old pal Gwen Jacob, (pregnant too!) at Hillside festival..... she walked bare breasted home one July day in 1991..... touching off a major legal battle, which allowed Canadian women their long-dreamed of right to walk downtown without a shirt on. Pregnant again. By herself as far as I could see, except for her little boy......
July 28 - Bat! Flying around downtown Strathroy - two boys chasing it. Fat old man in white shirt, suspenders, white hat who is occupied in sitting in different places around town helps them to knock it down with a big candle on a stick.....
Allegedly two 14 year olds had been hung upside down as part of a joke.. hmmm.... by men in their 20s. One boy was spanked with a rope on his bare bottom then his pants were burned by a welding torch .... first police officer wanted to consider it as a frat boy joke.... owner complained and another detective charged them with sexual assault among other things.....
July 30 - Went shopping for camera with bitter, depressed 15 year old on Paxil happy pills which did nothing to abate her impressively relentless cynicism.

My late friend, Miyo Takeda. I just learned she died a month ago. I wanted to get in touch with her and looked her up. - February, 2026

Drove around, saw woman on pavement vomiting outside a bar. One of the employees came out and looked at her sadly. Miyo joked that he was the one that would have to hose down the pavement. Then went to beaches with infra-red film. Miyo counted the relatively few blacks in The Beaches district compared to the rest of Toronto - four, and there were lots of people. All in all a fun day.
July 30 - Ron Hawkins and Rusty Nails two other bands in Guelph for 3 bucks! In an old cinema that had been converted into a club, walking into it I remember the last movie I saw there in 1985, Amadeus - I remember tearing my gore-tex jacket on a seat....... before that I kissed Jill in 1981 watching the Time Bandits........... now there's a banner near it that says Lick, Shoot and Suck, I think for tequila.......
July 31 - Now having to endure the barbs of my intriguing friend from south of the Border who is reading this even as we speak -
Aug - John Southworth yelling "Shut the fuck up" to groupies, if you can call them, gossiping loudly in front of stage. They ignored him. Jaymz Bee at show. You can't go anywhere in Toronto without seeing Jaymz Bee.
Saw Ken Thompson, (not the press billionaire) who told me once he sold cheese to Ken Thompson (the press billionaire) who argued with him about the price. Ken was planning on taking off with his dog in a trailer or whatever you'd call it on the back of his truck. He was telling me he was going to do the exact same thing this time last year. Ken is still working on his degree in Psychology. He is 38. He reminds me of me.
Sept - visiting the trial of Helmut Oberlander, part of a Nazi unit that killed civilians during the war. He could be deported - one of his supporters handing out photocopies of a Sun article slugged 'Canada's Jews have declared war on the federal government.", about Jewish community demands that they prosecute war crimnals. He was saying "Hier ist was sagen die Juden, die Juden" (Here is what the Jews are saying). I have held the door for Oberlander........... reports from another man from his unit was that he was nice and helped save his life.......
Sept. 6 =`Went to visit Kase Klevering in jail today. It's the third time he's been busted on cultivation charges....90,000 dollars worth and he escaped custody twice, once in the field and once at the police station. Sad thing is he was preparing to emigrate permanently back to Holland but he went back for one more kick at the can.

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Even more now than then

So I went to Japan, Thailand and Malaysia... now must get this up to date.....


Thai Imodium Packet with stylized tap in colon October 1998 - Chicago - in the airport - first thing I think of as I step on the JAL flight is that Japan invented the Kamikaze. Two JAL staff wave goodbye to the plane as it starts down the runway. It is standard practice. Choice of inflight movie? Deep Impact, about a meteor crashing into the earth....Lots of electronic toys in Narita airport. Can drink beer anywhere, can also smoke anywhere. Goaty looking men waiting to go to Bangkok, they have bought something like dried plums and have big cups of beer. They grin amongst themselves in anticipation - they look like working class guys off for a sex holiday - at the departure gate they are running surprisingly cheerful AIDS warnings.
Get to Bangkok, walk out into black sauna, cab costs more than I'll pay again.... looking for guesthouse in Chinatown, down many alleys...mangy cats dogs, stop one fellow who gets into cab with us, carrying take home.... after I'm there for a while, I pull up beside other van full of Europeans.... we do have funny noses.....
Dumpy hotel got out of guide book....did have a lovely view from rooftop cafe.
Later in Ontario
Rainbows over Teasels, Highway 7 near Brampton, 1998

Winter 1997

Dec 2 - Woooaaahhh!!!!! Big gap here - former prime minister's wife's p.o.ed at me and have started dating nice lady who probably will read down to the end of this. Hola! :)
Dec 3 - Flamenco. Whirling dresses. Sangria.....

Portrait - Spanish flamenco dancer

By

MontrealDigital, via DeviantArt , Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0

James Brown, Lulu's, Kitchener, 14 November,1997

 Lulu's Roadhouse was a converted K-Mart in Kitchener that had a bar that ran the length of one wall, and they claimed it was the largest bar in the world. I saw James Brown with a huge band there, the Ramones and The Proclaimers (my pager went off and I went to Lulu's before it opened to use the payphones in the lobby, I heard "500 Miles" and thought it was a recording being played for the cleaning crew. Then the door rolled up and it was Craig and Charlie Reid live onstage doing a sound check for their show later that evening!! I'd seen them a few times so I just went to Toronto and dropped off film) . Brown was really disciplined and precise. Everyone was moving like clockwork.

CKCO reporter