Channel 19
16 OVERDRIVE APRIL 2009 , 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406, or e-mail tdills@rrpub.com. Channel 19 Todd Dills SEND US STUFF Cowpower instead of horsepower Is that manure I smell or is your DPF on the fritz? At the Feb-ruary World Agricultural Expo in Tulare, Calif., reps of Lind-say, Calif.-based Hilarides Dairy announced the company is converting cow manure to fuel for generators and you guessed it big trucks. Rob Hilarides, a fourth-generation dairy farmer and the firm's owner, earned a $600,000 grant from the California Air Resources Board's Alternative Fuel Incentive Program for two heavy-duty diesel trucks that run entirely on biomethane. In a story on Hilarides, Allen Dusalt of Sustainable Conservation summed up the energy potential of manure with this nugget (and no, he wasn't talk-ing about the proliferation of CARB diesel regs): In Cali-fornia the manure is plentiful. Side-view writing Vanessa Leigh Hoffman began her new book, Rear View Mir-ror (available via Amazon.com or vlhoffman.com), in the cab of her fiance Joe Cicciaro's 1988 Peterbilt. In the book, the main character learns he has a wealthy twin and is used by the Irish Mafia to get at said twin's cash. On runs to Texas with tomatoes originating near Cicciaro's and Hoffman's home in St. Pete Beach, Fla., Hoffman found fodder for her books. Meeting people at fuel islands, truck stops and at loading docks gave me inspiration for several characters, she says. So next time you're bargaining with a lumper and he offers you a deal you can't refuse, watch out. Kurt Joy, a New Zealand postgradu-ate student in Antarctic geology, took this pic while studying glaciers on the frozen continent. Pee bottles in Ant-arctica are a way of life in the field, Joy says. All urine is collected and shipped back for treatment. Everyone uses them, male or female, and it's quite an art to their use within a sleep-ing bag! By comparison, he suggests, truck sleepers are quite roomy. New vistas, old practices FROM THE CHANNEL 19 BLOG: Truck stop tiger still caged Since we reported on the battle over the truck stop tiger named Tony in Febru-ary, the Tiger Truck Stop in Gross Tete, La., has at least temporarily won its battle to keep Tony on the premises. Iberville Parish councilmem-bers voted 11-1, FoxNews.com reported, to allow truck stop owner Michael Sandlin to qualify for a permit from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that will enable him to legally keep the 550-pound tiger that he has raised since it was a cub at his truck stop for good. You read it first in Channel 19 Tough eco-nomic times often lead to a spike in crime, said Comedy Central's Col-bert Report host Stephen Colbert, leading a satirical February spot about 19-year trucker Dan Linscomb, whose story we wrote about in January. Linscomb was arrested after being charged for a second meal when he allowed a companion to have a few bites of his food from the buffet at an Atlanta truck stop. For the video (posted Feb. 27), and your daily dose of trucking oddi-ties, humor and coverage in the media, visit: nel19.blogspot.com.