Contests

The other day I was thinking about a solar project and ended up at the Instructables website.  While clicking through a bunch of projects I noticed that they had several contests running.  So I decided to enter a couple of them.  I think that I have a pretty good chance of winning one of them.

If I do win I would win a Teton Sports Scout Frame Backpack, Leatherman Juice XE6, 100ft of Paracord, and a SAS Survival Handbook along with an Instructables Prize Pack. If you have an account with Instructables please vote for my entry.  Just click this link.

Heat wave

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I just heard the radio Deejay say that the heat wave is going to stretch from Miami to Alpena.  For reference Alpena is on the northern coast of the lower peninsula of Michigan.  On another radio station one said that we are going to experience the longest heat wave since the 1990s.

I think I will be spending a lot of time submerged.

Springfield, Mass tornado

Tornado on the river

Deserts in the ocean

I recently read an article talking about how ocean deserts are growing.  The first thing to learn is: what is an ocean desert.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of an ocean becomes a desert when it becomes barren of surface sea life.

In 2008, NOAA announced that "Between 1998 and 2007, these expanses of saltwater with low surface plant life in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans grew by 15 percent or 6.6 million square kilometers."

The saltiness of an area of an ocean has an impact on sea life.  And the intensity of the water cycle [the cycle by which seawater evaporates, rains down, and then evaporates again] affects the salinity of the ocean.  As atmospheric temperatures rise the intensity of the water cycle increases, making areas of the ocean more salty. 

So if global warming is correct, larger and larger areas of the Earth's oceans will become deserts.

Germany decides to drop nuclear energy production

Reports out of Berlin indicate that the Germans are transition away from nuclear energy quicker than the 25 year plan that they had previously adopted.  In light of the current nuclear disaster in Japan, Germany's energy policy has shifted.  In fact, seven of the seventeen reactors in Germany will be taken offline for safety checks.

Germany's nuclear power plants produce about 25 percent of their energy.  That energy production will need to be generated from another source.  I would hope that all of it will come from green technologies but I suspect in the short term that the majority of it will come from coal.

German renewable energy [as of 2009] was from the following sources [with percentage of renewable]:
Wind [40%]
Hydro [20%]
Biomass [20%]
Biogas [12%]
Solar [7%]
Other [1%]

Based on these statistics I see the greatest potential growth in solar.

The danger of nuclear energy

As the disaster in Japan shows us, nuclear energy has the potential to create havoc.  As the workers struggle to avert catastrophe it makes us question the decision to use nuclear power plants to produce electricity. 

As we know, in the future energy demands will only increase.  So the question is how to feed the energy using beasts in our lives.  To me the obvious answer is renewable energy sources like solar or wind.  Why tempt fate by building more nuclear power stations?

Solar flares to reach Earth today or tomorrow

Coronal mass ejections from the sun are expected to reach our tiny blue-green planet either today or tomorrow.  While these flares could disrupt electronics and electrical infrastructure they are not expected to have any impact on our civilization.

According to Alan Thomson, head of geomagnetism at the British Geological Survey (BGS), "There's a feeling that it's not as intense as we first thought it might be. But it's possible still that it could be a large enough event for us to see the northern lights in the UK."

A set of more intense ejections could have huge impact on our modern world.  It is possible that electronics world wide could be "fried."  Imagine a world without electricity or any type of electronics.  IMHO, scary.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that three coronal mass ejections were the result of solar flares on February 13th, 14th and 15th.

Extreme weather - Global Warming?

Down under in Australia they have been dealing with massive flooding. 

The southern US has snowstorms. 

Europe almost closed down by winter weather.

Some scientists insist that extreme cold and snowstorms are indicative of global warming.  I guess I will set aside my dream of owning an island because soon most islands will be under water.  I'll bet those people in Dubai regret spending all that money on building islands.