40 years

In the beginning...

Heliccopter Rescue in MD

Here's some video footage from MD of a helicopter rescue of people from cars stranded in a water main break. I believe the story accompanying said the water main in question was a 60" main. Just goes to show the being prepared for emergencies goes beyond the typical natural disaster version.

The melting point of aluminum is...

1220 degrees F.

From Reuters, through Yahoo. Picture from the wild fires in California

China is eating our lunch again

Thanks to the foot dragging and unwillingness of the U.S. to change (both the administration...think big oil...and the people), China will be beating us to the punch in producing renewable energy (see this BBC report).

So, we're basically 12 years away from China owning all our debt and their economy being free of oil shocks. Anybody know where I can take classes in Mandarin?

Regular folks doing regular things, sort of

In an AP report on Yahoo! we learn of some ND farmers hitting it rich on oil royalties on their properties. My favorite line from the story "We can afford new stuff, but we like our old stuff."

A picture is worth a thousand words

CO2 Concentrations in the U.S.

Here's an interesting image from the Vulcan Project of CO2 concetrations in the U.S. Visit the site and watch the video. Good stuff.

Earthquake in Nevada

As reported on CNN.com a 6.0 earthquake rattled Nevada on Thursday near the town of Wells.


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The story is mostly unremarkable except for this statement near the end.

"It's Mother Nature," said Mitch Smith, owner of the Wells Auto and Hardware store, who was cleaning up spilled paint and other debris. "What good would it do to be upset? We've already decided to have a half-off sale on dented cans of paint."

I know I took ranchers to task in my previous post but you do have to love this kind of spirit in people.

Kill all the wolves

No literally, that's what is about to happen. The U.S. Government is lifting protection from Gray Wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho accoring to this report in the NYT.

Now, I know ranchers and farmers in those states don't like wolves because they do hunt their live stock. Life as a rancher in that part of the country is tough and can be unforgiving. But, killing off a spiecies so we can subdue the land is wrong. There are precious few wild places left in this country. I sympathize with the ranchers but putting an open season on wolves is not the answer.

A Walk in the Park

Took an hour today for a walk in the park to clear my head. A little snowy and icy but generally a beautiful late winter day.