energy
esiegel | March 6, 2008The cosmic microwave background is the radiation left over from the big bang. It's very uniform, 2.725 Kelvin everywhere. We're moving with respect to it, so there's a doppler shift, and we see that as a dipole moment in the Temperature. When we subtract that out, we see variations on the order of 30 microKelvins! WMAP is a satellite (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) that measured these anisotropies, and they just released its year 5 data. First off, with the uniform and dipole parts subtracted out, and with the foreground from the galaxy also taken out, here's the map of the microwave…
esiegel | March 4, 2008I love The Straight Dope. For 35 years, people have written in and asked some of the most difficult-to-answer questions on any topic you can think of; the staffers, writing under the pseudonym Cecil Adams, do their best to get to the bottom of their questions. Well, they also have a message board, and I saw one of the most difficult questions I've ever seen there:
Where does all the matter in the universe come from?
I'm no[t an] astrophysicist but I understand a little about the Big Bang Theory and also that there's lots of stuff we don't know or probably ever will know about it.
But the…
ksharpe | February 27, 2008As Christian Reinboth reports on ScienceBlogs.de, at his energy blog Frischer Wind ("Brisk Wind"), unusually high winds in Denmark on Monday tore the rotor from a turbine on a wind-power farm in Hornslet. The turbine failed spectacularly, exploding mid-spin and scattering parts across the landscape below.
Click the image below to view two short videos of the disintegrating turbine at Reinboth's blog:
The Danish government and the turbine's manufacturer have each launched investigations seeking to clarify the cause of the accident.
esiegel | February 25, 2008Let me set the scene for you: I'm fresh off my Ph.D., teaching introductory physics at the University of Wisconsin. I'm trying to demonstrate how to turn potential energy into kinetic energy, and so I ask this simple question:
What is Energy?
And I get a stunned silence back from the room. One of those silences where 25 faces look back at you with eyes that say, "no, you're the one teaching us; you need to answer that one!"
And I confess, this is one of those questions that's looks like the easiest thing in the world, and yet there's no good answer for it. Put simply, energy is possibly…
revere | January 22, 2008Recently we posted on the EPA highly unusual (as in unprecedented) decision to reject Californian's new greenhouse gas regulations. Why did they do it? Good question and one the California Congressional delegation wanted an answer to. To whom did EPA talk about the regulations? Who advised them to reject it? Sorry. Mum's the word. Actually its words. Executive privilege:
Invoking executive privilege, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday refused to provide lawmakers with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.
The EPA informed Sen. Barbara Boxer…
revere | November 28, 2007China's insatiable energy needs have made headlines. One of its worst consequences is an increase in the burning of dirty coal. (This is not to imply there is clean coal; there isn't. Clean coal is just a coal industry marketing term.). Coal is said to supply 70% of China's energy needs compared to 25% in the US. So if the Chinese don't choke themselves to death first, they may help drown the rest of us by their contribution to global CO2.
But China is also doing something the US isn't: putting substantial money into the search for and development of clean energy:
China is leaving the US in…
j7uy5 | November 23, 2007Apparently, it is not only possible to run a household with
a battery,
but to run 25,000 with a battery: a battery that uses uranium hydride.
The device is being developed from technology fromLos Alamos National
Laboratory, by a
company called
rel="tag">Hyperion Power Generation. In
an article in the
href="http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-112107-nuke-to-the-future.php">Santa
Fe Reporter, it is explained:
cellspacing="8" width="200">
height="3" width="1">Invented
by scientist
Otis Peterson, Hyperion’s patent for a hydride reactor is
still pending.
The…
revere | November 19, 2007Air pollution exists in two physical forms: as a gas (molecules) and as particles (usually heterogeneous agglomerations of huge numbers of molecules stuck together). Particles in the air are also called aerosols. Depending upon their size (really their aerodynamic behavior), their abundance and their composition, they can affect our lungs, vegetation or visibility. They can come from anywhere. Sometimes they are formed "in place" by secondary chemical reactions of precursor pollutants. Photochemical oxidant pollution ("smog") is of this type. Sometimes it is of natural origin and can be…
j7uy5 | November 18, 2007Sun Microsystems
is
href="http://www.techworld.com/green-it/news/index.cfm?newsID=10667">planning
to put a data center in an old coal mine. The idea is to save
on energy costs. In fact, they expect nine million dollars
per year on electricity. This is because much of the
electrical operating cost is for cooling.
This leads me to think we should do the same thing for the White House.
As an added benefit, we might see some long-overdue
href="http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2007/08/14/history-of-rockbursts-at-crandall-canyon/">improvements
in mine safety.
HT:
href="http://it.…
j7uy5 | November 10, 2007People who advocate alternative energy (i.e. not oil or
natural gas)
often fail to appreciate the true cost of developing the necessary
technology. Courtesy of
href="http://cryptogon.com/?p=1597">Cryptogon, I
now present a chart that
illustrates these true costs, in proper perspective.
As you can see, development of alternative fuels costs
almost nothing, compared to fighting a war against even a third-rate
opponent.
Imagine what a real war would cost.
And you want to vote for a pro-war candidate? Please explain.
j7uy5 | October 31, 2007This is a
href="http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20070404PD212.html">pico-projector
from Texas Instruments. The idea is to have a device that can
project an image onto a screen, using a very small device such as a
PDA. Right now the usable image size is about 15 to 20
inches. They hope to scale it up to 40 inches.
I suspect that they envision this as a solution for small sales
presentations and the like. Personally, I'd like to see it
investigated for use in mainstream computing. Imagine the
typical usage of an office computer: word processing, email, maybe a
small spreadsheet. …
j7uy5 | October 16, 2007Traditionally, the oil industry has tried to paint a rosy
picture when it comes to Peak Oil. That is changing,
according to industry insiders:
href="http://www.oilonline.com/news/headlines/internet/20071016.New_find.24707.asp">New
findings on peak oil timing and impacts to be presented at Houston
Conference
by: OilOnline
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
SPO-USA World Oil Conference, Oct. 17-20, in Houston, Texas.
HOUSTON, TX
The Conference will present new research and findings that indicate
Peak Oil impacts may hit sooner and harder than previously predicted,
according to Steve Andrews and…
j7uy5 | October 2, 2007We all had some laughs when the two-bladed razor was
improved with the
addition of a third blade. Late-night comedians joked about
razors coming with four or even five blades.
Then, we all had a few more chuckles when the four-bladed Schick
Quattro actually made it to market, soon followed by the five-bladed
Gillette Fusion. This led to speculation about the natural
end-point:
href="http://agrumer.livejournal.com/414194.html">
class="inset" alt=""
src="http://www.grumer.org/lj_images/razors.gif" border="0"
height="256" width="264">
The same thing is happening inside our…
j7uy5 | September 26, 2007The government, finally getting wise,
has installed
href="http://www.plenglish.com/Article.asp?ID=%7BA602DDD6-4C6E-413C-8299-F951DBA7CC0C%7D&language=EN">100
stations to measure wind velocity in 32 areas. The
idea tis to get a map of available resources for the generation of wind
power, specifically with the intention of reducing dependence on
foreign
oil.
There is already a demonstration project with 1.67MW wind generators.
This
particular demonstration project is expected to supply about
10WM by the middle of next year.
It is located east of Havana.
j7uy5 | September 4, 2007IBM is launching
href="http://linuxgazette.net/142/lg_bytes.html">Project
Big Green. Part of the initiative is to consolidate
operations in the world's largest data centers. They will
replace nearly 4,000 servers with 30 refrigerator-sized
System
Z mainframes, running Linux, using virtualization technology.
This will reduce energy usage by about 80%, saving about $250
million per year.
What's more, the consolidation will leave plenty of room for
future expansion.
face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Tesla Roadster
The University of New Hampshire is going to
href="http://…
revere | July 27, 2007One of the gross abuses that triggered the Reformation was the corrupt practice of Catholic priests of selling "indulgences," get-out-of-jail free cards for your sins in this world. Since the Bush administration is always willing to learn from history where corruption is the prize, they have come up with a new idea to sell climate change indulgences to a public increasingly worried about how today's sins will punish their grandchildren. This latest Bush administration proposal for offsetting the build-up of greenhouse gases characteristically (for them) doesn't operate on the source side --…
j7uy5 | July 21, 2007Someone
(Jim) at
rel="tag">Motley
Fool linked to the last LED lighting post.
Apparently he tracks the Cree Inc. stock. Anyway,
he linked to a site that has more information on the
href="http://www.lumecon.com/imsa_led_street_lighting_article.html">Ann
Arbor LED
street light project.
Part
of their interview with one of Ann Arbor's asistant managers, Mike
Bergren:
Q.:
The test site has been up for awhile. What are the results of this
experiment?
A.:
Let's talk about the cobra head first. We are getting excellent reports
that we don't have any light trespass. LED lighting is very…
j7uy5 | July 19, 2007It is
not taking off very quickly, but it could have a big impact.
rel="tag"
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh%2C_North_Carolina">Raleigh,
NC agreed to the "
href="http://www.raleigh-nc.org/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_276_208_0_43/http%3B/pt03/dig_web_content/news/public/News-PubAff-Raleigh_And_Cree_Team_Up-20070214-090845.html">LED
City" initiative, joining with a company located nearby,
href="http://www.cree.com/">Cree Inc.
The initiative is to replace all civic lighting with
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode"
rel="tag">light-…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2007
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">We are most
accustomed to seeing power generation windmills on dry land, here in
the USA. In Europe, some are on land and some are offshore.
They generally are considered eyesores. Myself, I
think they are beautiful. I love to see them up on a ridge,
turning away, churning out megawatts for our energy-hungry populace.
Would I want one in my back yard? Sure. In fact,
there is a fair probability that I will put one there, if it won't
alienate my neighbors too much.
But there's the rub. Despite the fact that I think they are
aesthetically pleasing…
revere | July 5, 2007I'd rather have a governor that said the right things about the environment, even if he acted to undercut his self-proclaimed goals, than one who said the most reactionary, retrograde and ignorant things. But why should I have to choose? Take Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California who has gotten brownie points for bucking the Bush administration on global warming even though he is a Republican. Maybe it says something about the rock bottom expectations we have about anything a Republican says on the environment that some progressives have praised him. But he still acts like a typical…