In case you haven’t noticed, the weather has turned. Fall is here! And right now, at least in Knoxville, the temperature couldn’t be more perfect. Several days ago I turned off our air conditioner and opened the windows. Not only am I enjoying the outdoor sounds, such as rain and birds, I can expect a lower electrical bill. Imagine if an entire city turned off their air conditioners and opened the windows!
Category: Environment
Saving the Earth one naked person at a time
or maybe a little over 600 people. Shrunken penises, hard nipples, and frigid women! And one severely painted man(nsfw) who I do not think could possibly hold another tattoo. Oh, Greenpeace! And the famous Spencer Tunick of course! (and as if you really had to ask, no! That link is not safe for work…)
This moment brought to us by BoingBoing from LaughingSquid.
Update: there appears to be at least one family of confused cave people(nsfw) from global warming’s progress on the glaciers.
Oh! That acid rain…
Wow! The things that we miss. I just learned that Pennsylvania has had an underground fire burning for 45 years and that it is likely to burn for another 245 years!
An exposed vein of coal ignited in 1962 due to the standard policy of burning the garbage on a weekly basis in the borough landfill, located in an abandoned mine pit in the southeast portion of Centralia. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, and it continued to burn throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
…
There are no current plans to extinguish the fire, which is consuming an eight-mile seam containing enough coal to fuel it for 250 years.
[Source]
Apparently, at $42 million, it is cheaper to move a town than extinguish the fire.
The federal and state governments gave up trying to extinguish the fire in the 1980s. “Pennsylvania didn’t have enough money in the bank to do the job,†says Steve Jones, a geologist with the state’s Office of Surface Mining.
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Across the globe, thousands of coal fires are burning. Nearly impossible to reach and extinguish once they get started, the underground blazes threaten towns and roads, poison the air and soil and, some say, worsen global warming. … The United States, with the world’s largest coal reserves, harbors hundreds of blazes from Alaska to Alabama. Pennsylvania, the worst-afflicted state, has at least 38—an insignificant number compared with China and India, where poverty, old unregulated mining practices and runaway development have created waves of Centralias.
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Scientists estimate that Australia’s BurningMountain, the oldest known coal fire, has burned for 6,000 years.
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…in the United States; near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, for example, an old coal mine has burned for the past 100 years.
[Source]
So, why are we still using coal?
Foreigners To Invade Tennessee
They will take your land. They will take your money. And you will pay them to do it!
Land taken with E.D. by the state and potentially fully built by the state with your tax dollars. [Source]
See also.
Update: I’m not sure I understand this statement: "They cause more accidents, more delays, more gas and more road rage." I have used toll roads as a passenger or driver most of my life and they have always seemed fine by me. Matter of fact, they are always in better repair than other roads. The only trouble I have ever seen is in approaching an unmanned toll and not having any change.
Climbing Mount Everest is so yesterday
In four months you can drive Mount Everest.
Knoxville’s 7.7 mag earthquake hit today! Did you feel it?
Seriously, we had an earthquake (drill) today. See also and details of the drill.
Reminder, 7.7 earth quake to hit Knoxville this month!
On June 19, Knoxville will be hit with a 34 second earth quake registering 7.7 magnitude on the Richter scale. How do I know?
Btw, that first link has juicy information including a map of recent earthquake activity and a link to previous references regarding the New Madrid.
Coal State Representative Wants to Outlaw Wind Turbines
West Virginia Rep Nick Rahall wants to outlaw future construction of wind turbines for generating clean electricity and phase out existing turbines in the name of saving birds and bats.
We are certain that the fact that West Virginia is a major coal producing state has nothing to do with this, wind turbines would be effective clean producers of power even on West Virginia’s mountaintops, if there were any left. ::Yahoo [Source]
Watch THOMAS at the Library of Congress to see if this tries to become a bill. Remember, it is easy to contact your representative!
I-3 is about Oak Ridge!
From the minute I learned about the proposed Interstate 3, I said, "read between the lines, and this road is about moving depleted uranium to port." Obviously this is evident to other was well. See the Stop I-3 Coalition letter of January 12, 2007.
Our interest in nuclear matters stems from the fact that the proposed highway would connect the Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge with the Savannah River Site in the Augusta area and the Port of Savannah. We have noted with concern that the I-3 proposal coincides with a considerable effort on the part of the government and a number of utility companies to increase nuclear weapons programs and nuclear power activities, including waste reprocessing, and the concentration of these activities in the Southeast. We are convinced that should I-3 ever be built it would become a convenient route for the traffic in radioactive materials which would arise from Complex 2030 and the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, as well as expected routing of nuclear wastes and plutonium through the area. [Source]
Snow and Ice Coming!
The wife implied that if we get snowed in we might get to do something adult! I dust off the supplies to find we have two winter coats. Woot! We are prepared to be snowed in for weeks!
So I thought I would peruse the Intertubes and brush up on my etiquette. Hmm. Apparently I’m not doing so well missing 3 out of 4 of The Big Don’ts for iced in and trying to stay warm exercises. Let’s examine.
Number One Don’t
Jump immediately up and run to the bathroom
Has someone been spying on us?
Number Two Don’t
Turn to one side of the bed and immediately sleep
That directly conflicts with The Man Manual!
Number Three Don’t
Make any sarcastic or joking remarks about the previous moments
Not fair! Natural noises, cramps, children’s footsteps on the stairs, curious pets, and light sleeping babies can turn what should be a feature length drama/action adventure with great special effects into a high speed, 3 minute YouTube comedy. How could one not joke?
Number Four Don’t
Check your mobile phone for messages or missed calls
Not a problem there. We just take the calls and keep going! Let your imagination wander next time we talk…
The Ice Cometh Sunday
You know…when you come down to it, doesn’t matter how well you know how to drive in the snow and ice. What matters is how well the other drivers know how to drive in the snow and ice. I present Portland Pinball:
And a well edited video (good music choice):
Think Globally
Our world is shrinking. Companies send IT jobs abroad but the tech industry also imports. I work with several companies abroad or in other states. I work with almost no local companies. I have to admit that it is a cool feeling to quote projects in foreign currencies. I only hope the US dollar doesn’t change too much between the beginning and end of the project!
Working remotely with so many different people has really shown me that there is a future in getting people away from corporate offices. I think in the next 10-15 years we will see a great trend in encouraging people to create home offices and work from their houses (at least part of the week). Customer service personnel, financial people, IT people, programmers and many other types of jobs could be done with short centralize meetings or even via video conferencing and desktop sharing. Office costs in furniture, heating/cooling, electricity, leasing and other infrastructure costs could be severely reduced. Transportation costs could be greatly reduced. Imagine if 50% of the work force suddenly quit driving 30-40 minutes each direction to work! I see it! I can imagine government tax cuts to encourage such a future!
We ain’t completely cityfied yet
On the drive home from getting Tommy from his visit with the grandparents, I spied 3 American Black Vultures feasting on a road kill (see last paragraph). I tried to photograph them with my cellphone but fumbled when the car behind me got irritated and started tooting its horn. I do love seeing interesting wildlife.
These are very large birds of prey at 65cm length and with a 1.5m wingspan. Their plumage is mainly glossy black; they have broad wings with white tips, a short tail and a featherless greyish head. In comparison with the Turkey Vulture, the Black Vulture flaps its wings more frequently during flight. … Though not having any natural predators, they have become scarce in some areas due to lack of suitable nesting habitat. [Source]
7.7 Earthquake to hit Knoxville on June 19, 2007
Welcome new readers! Please consider adding the Reality Me feed to your favorite news reader. You can follow me on Twitter @djuggler. I also highly recommend reading Domestic Psychology.
Mark your calendars! The New Madrid fault line will slip! "Southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee would be among the hardest hit areas." The last time the New Madrid (1812) slipped the Mississippi River flowed backwards (see map showing waterfalls) creating Reelfoot Lake (Eagle Cam and history and info) and rung church bells in Richmond, Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts.
The probability of magnitude 6.0 or greater in the near future is considered significant; a 90% chance of such an earthquake by the year 2040 has been given. [Source]
Memphis could very well be the next Katrina! So, how do I know that a 7.7 will hit on June 19, 2007?
A mock earthquake – drill – June 19, 2007 will register a magnitude of 7.7 and last 34 seconds, encompassing the entire New Madrid area. Southern Illinois, southeast Missouri, western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee would be among the hardest hit areas. [Source]
The Associated Press released these details of the drill on August 18, 2006.
Kevin Turner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah (images) and the Honeywell International Plant in Metropolis, Ill., (links) which produces uranium hexaflouride, are both near the fault line.
Each could produce devastating fallout in a major earthquake… [Source]
Check out all the recent activity in East TN! A previous blog entry regarding New Madrid.
A recycled continent
Bob Grimac, Al Gore, and Ed Begley Jr should get excited over a floating mass of garbage almost twice as large as Texas! We could move hordes of environmental nuts to their very own recycled continent in international waters away from the non-environmental nuts in the White House.
I still like Al Gore; Bob Grimac is one of the nicest people you will ever meet (and the only Rocky Hill teacher to get a standing ovation during parent orientation); and I think of Ed Begley’s house with every home renovation I make asking myself, "Can I do this more environmentally sound?" Let’s keep these guys and move the White House people to the floating mass of garbage.
The largest dump in the world isn’t outside New York or London or Shanghai but in a desolate stretch of the Pacific Ocean nearly a thousand miles from the nearest island. Held together by a slowly rotating system of currents northeast of Hawaii, the Eastern Garbage Patch is more than just a few floating plastic bottles washed out to sea; the Patch is a giant mass of trash-laden water nearly double the size of Texas. [Source]
