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Sunday, December 06, 2009

WHAT UNDER THE SUN IS “CLIMATEGATE”? UPDATED, UPDATED AGAIN!

I’ve posted several times about Global Warming (click on Environment in the list to the left), and will do so again. But a major development occurred a couple of weeks ago, and the major news outlets in the United States are not doing a very good job of informing the public about it (surprise, suprise!)

Some background: I have long been a skeptic of Al Gore’s campaign to scare us into doing economically damaging things in order to avoid the CLIMATE CATASTROPHE that he INSISTS IS IMMINENT.
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Part of my skepticism is that the actual source of heat for our earth, the sun, is pretty much being ignored….while great emphasis is placed on a minor fraction of the gases known to be trapping heat, a service that is preventing us from turning into a giant ice-ball. And that fraction is carbon dioxide, a gas essential to plant growth, that just happens(?) to be produced by automobiles, power plants, and other things that Al has been preaching against for decades. The fact that Mr. Gore is getting immensely wealthy off his campaign doesn’t increase my tendency to trust him.

HERE IS THE BEST SUMMARY currently available of what has happened, and what it may mean. Just to whet your appetite, I’ll give you some samples:

...And now the climate campaign is having its Emperor’s New Clothes moment.

In mid-November a large cache of emails and technical documents from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Britain were made available on a number of Internet file-servers for download by the public—either the work of a hacker or a leak from a whistleblower on the inside. The emails—more than 1,000 of them—reveal a small cabal of scientists who, in the words of MIT’s Michael Schrage, engaged in “malice, mischief and Machiavellian maneuverings.” In an ironic twist, one of the frequent correspondents in this long e‑trail (University of Arizona scientist Jonathan Overpeck) warned several of his colleagues in September, “Please write all emails as though they will be made public.” Small wonder why. It’s being called Climategate, but more than one wit is calling them “the CRUtape Letters.”

Posted by Earl on 12/06 at 02:22 AM
Science • Environment • News • Politics • International • Comments •

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

PORTABLE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS…..?

Is that a dream…..or a nightmare?

I’m thinking the former…...

The Hyperion Power Generation uranium hydride reactor will weigh fifteen to 20 tons…designed to fit on the back of a flatbed truck because most of our customers are not going to have rail….It will generate 27-30 Megawatts of electrical power from 70 MW of thermal power….Here is a comparison to help put the system’s potential into perspective. A single truck can deliver the HPM heat source to a site. The device is supposed to be able to produce 70 MW of thermal energy for 5 years. That means that the truck will be delivering about 10.5 trillion BTU’s to the site. Natural gas costs about $7 per million BTU which would would cost $73 million….about 3 times as much as the announced selling price for an HPM…(but), it would be better to compare the HPM to diesel fuel, which currently costs about 2 times as much per unit of useful heat as natural gas and still requires some form of delivery for remote locations. In some places, fuel transportation costs are two or three times as much as the cost of the fuel from the central supply points.

Wouldn’t THIS be incredible? READ THE WHOLE THING

Posted by Earl on 10/08 at 06:09 PM
Science • News • Politics • Economics • Comments •

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

READY FOR YOUR APPENDECTOMY?

Well…...open wide and say “Ahhhhhh”!

You think I’m kidding? I’m not—if you still have your appendix, someday they may take it out THROUGH YOUR MOUTH!!

Read on…....

Posted by Earl on 05/14 at 08:59 PM
Science • Health • News • Comments •

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

TROUT HAVE BEEN MOVED ALL OVER THE U.S., AND AROUND THE WORLD

Along the East Coast, the Brook Trout populations have been devastated by Brown Trout imported from Europe.

On the other hand, in the Western U.S., it’s the native Cutthroat Trout that have suffered because Eastern Brook Trout were transplanted into THEIR streams and rivers.

Anglers and other conservation-minded people are restoring, and even rediscovering, native trout species all over the place—you can READ ALL ABOUT IT in the August, 2007 issue of Smithsonian.

Posted by Earl on 08/14 at 10:18 AM
Science • Environment • News • Miscellany • Food • Sports • Comments •

Friday, June 22, 2007

THINKING ABOUT SAVING SOME MONEY ON A SHINY NEW CAR IMPORTED FROM CHINA?

THINK AGAIN

You have a much better chance of surviving in a HYUNDAI, a company with a big emphasis on safety.

Posted by Earl on 06/22 at 02:45 PM
Science • News • Comments •

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW WHAT “STEGOSAURUS” IS…...?

Of course you do…..and if not:

There’s exciting news on the Stegosaurus front!

Posted by Earl on 02/06 at 05:44 PM
Science • News • Comments •

Sunday, February 04, 2007

IT’S A VERY SAD DAY FOR ANYONE WHO LOVES BIRDS…...

The whooping crane has been endangered for as long as I can remember…..the population was about 15-20 birds in 1941, migrating between Canada and South Texas, where the CURRENT FLOCK NUMBERS OVER 200. As conservation efforts began to work, and the number of cranes grew, it was decided to start a second flock in another part of the bird’s historic range - this one moving between Florida in the winter and their breeding grounds in Wisconsin in the summer.

Posted by Earl on 02/04 at 10:18 AM
Science • News • Comments •

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