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.

Tree House Hotel

Just read an article on Yahoo about a tree house that is covered with mirrors.  They actually are building six of them.  And they look pretty cool.

They are being advertised as eco-friendly so if you are heading to Sweden and are not afraid of heights you migh consider giving them a try.

Happy 4th of July

Looks like a wonderful day to spend outside in nature. 

Have a great day!

Nukes to save the planet

I recently read an interesting [well I think so anyway] article on the Discovery website.  The author [a Mr. Ian O'neill] gives a bit of information about using nukes to save the world from an extinction event.  What extinction event?  Well a roaming "kill all life on Earth" asteroid of course.  I've placed an ad for one of my favorite asteroid doomsday books in this post just in case someone is inspired to give it a read.

Mr. O'neill's article is interesting and a little bit funny.  So enjoy, if you like that kind of thing.

Signing up for Sponzai

Sponzai is a website that matches blogs with sponsored guest posts. So I can earn a little extra cash with this blog to offset some of my online ventures.  So far I've earned $1.00 with a sponsored guest post on another one of my blogs.

Part of the signup process with Sponzai requires me to write a post that contains a random sentence.

Here is the random sentence:

Should the ruler thirst around the humane refund?

Oil spill in the Gulf: day 10

What is the deal with BP not being able to cap the spill. We are hearing a bunch of different estimates about how much oil is being released in the Gulf of Mexico.

Volcano pictures

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/scitech/2010/03/21/volcano-erupts-iceland/?slide=1

Volcano video

So cold

This winter has been sooooooo cold. So some people are saying we are entering a mini ice age. There is some data to support this theory. But given the recent brouhaha about some scientists exchanging email where they write of using a statistical “trick” in a chart illustrating a recent sharp warming trend it is hard to know what is really going on.

So what are we suppose to believe? Global warming or mini ice age?

Something strange

I attempted to view this blog last night but the browser just sat there and didn't pull up this web site. Strange I thought but I was a little busy so I went on to other business.

This morning I tried again and still no luck. Well the browser did show the blog for a quick 5 seconds before advancing somewhere else. Weird. So I thought maybe it is a problem with the template. I had been using a template that I had found many months ago. It had been working fine up until yesterday [at least that is when I noticed it]. So I pick a template from Blogger's limited selection. And it appears to be working fine now.

So I think I'll stick with this template for a little while.

Micro Wind Power delay

I've been spending to much time at the beach. And not enough time working on the Micro Wind Power project. I think I will put together a comphensive parts list so I can gather the pieces together.

It will also allow me to figure out a cost for the project.

Micro wind power part 2

I forgot to give the website where I found the instructions for the ribbon wind power generator. Well here it is...

Instructables

I has a variety of projects...so if you are up to a challenge give it a try.

Micro wind power

I found a web site that gives instructions on how to make a wind ribbon to generate power. Albeit on a very small scale. I'm going to take these instructions on as a DIY project. As I work on it I'll provide updates and pictures of the project.

The purpose of this project is to test the results and maybe make some improvements along the way.

Speaking of Tornadoes

The last two posts were videos of tornadoes which is kinda ironic since I just heard that my buddy the Michigan Beach Bum had three tornadoes touchdown within a 40 mile radius of his house in the last couple of days. As far as I know no one was injured by these storms, which is good news.

There has been a bunch of powerful storms hitting various parts of the country over the last several days so be careful out there.