A.Word.A.Day –diurnation

Ξ February 6th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://wordsmith.org/words/diurnation.html






diurnation (dy-uhr-NAY-shuhn) noun

The habit of sleeping or being dormant during the day.

[From Latin diurnus (daily), from dies (day).]

 

Snowdrop – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ξ January 27th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdrop

    To me, the first fragile snowdrops are the real new year, not some arbitrary date in the middle of Winter, mechanically dividing days like digits. It's gradual, sneaks up unnoticed; one day you go out, all unsuspecting, and it's there! Waiting for you: fresh, new, among the mulch of last Autumn's colours.





[ An hour ago, in my garden ]


    So thus, I guess (I guess - I guess), another year slides seamlessly into the half-light of what's past. To be half-remembered, half-forgotten and half-confused with all those others that also have so easily been lost.

 

Chapter I: Introduction

Ξ January 12th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Future_Imperfect.html

A few years ago I attended an event where the guest speaker was a cabinet member. In conversation afterwards, the subject of long term petroleum supplies came up. He warned that at some point, perhaps a century or so in the future, someone would put his key in his car's ignition, turn it, and nothing would happen - because there would be no more gasoline.

What shocked me was not his ignorance of the economics of depletable resources--if we ever run out of gasoline it will be a long slow process of steadily rising prices, not a sudden surprise--but the astonishing conservatism of his view of the future. It was as if a similar official, a hundred years earlier, had warned that by sometime around the year 2000 the streets would be so clogged with horse manure as to have become impassible. I do not know what the world will be like a century hence. But it is not likely to be a place where the process of getting from here to there begins by putting a key in an ignition, turning it, and starting an internal combustion engine burning gasoline.

This book is about technological change, its consequences and how to deal with them. This chapter briefly surveys the technologies. The next discusses how to adjust our lives and institutions to their consequences.

I am not a prophet; any one of the technologies I discuss may turn out to be a wet firecracker. It only takes one that does not to remake the world. Looking at some candidates will make us a little better prepared if one of those revolutions happens. Perhaps more important, after we have thought about how to adapt to any of ten possible revolutions, we will at least have a head start when the eleventh drops on us out of the blue.

 

AccuWeather.com: Global Warming News, Science, Myths, Articles

Ξ January 7th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2008/01/sunspot_signals_new_solar_cycl_1.html




Solar Cycle 24 begins, with the first auroras already being reported on spaceweather.com; although the maximum won't be till 2011 or so. The early start (predictions suggested it would be in March + or - 6 months) means it could be a powerful one.


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Peak Oil and Climate Change Q & A | Inspiring Green Leadership

Ξ December 29th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://www.inspiringgreenleadership.com/blog/aangel/peak-oil-and-climate-change-q






Richard Heinberg captures it perfectly when he says: "Climate change makes getting off of oil necessary and peak oil makes it inevitable." In other words, peak oil a very good reason to create alternative, renewable energy sources right now.


the forecast in the streets...

 

The Oil Drum: Europe | Concentrating Solar Power

Ξ November 30th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2583




150 MW of parabolic trough CSP plant at Kramer Junction, California.




The statistics are quite startling. Every year, each square kilometre of hot desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts worldwide, this is several hundred times the entire current energy consumption of the world. It has been calculated that, if it was covered with CSP plants, an area of hot desert of about 254 km x 254 km--less than 1% of the total area of such deserts - would produce as much electricity as is currently consumed by the whole world.

The cost of collecting solar thermal energy equivalent to one barrel of oil is about US$50 right now (already less than the current world price of oil) and is likely to come down to around US$20 in the future. The MED-CSP report, published in 2005, suggests that CSP will need public support for a time (like other renewable forms of energy) but that, with economies of scale and refinements in the technology, the cost of CSP electricity is then likely to tumble relative to more traditional sources of electricity. The TRANS-CSP report calculates that CSP is likely to become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe, including the cost of transmission.

A report in Business Week (2006-02-14) quotes the CEO of Solel as saying "Our [CSP] technology is already competitive with electricity produced at natural-gas power plants in California". Similar claims are being made by others in the industry. Speaking about CSP at the Solar Power 2006 conference in California, the US venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said "...we are poised for breakaway growth - for explosive growth - not because we are cleaner [than coal-fired electricity] but because we are cheaper. We happen to be cleaner incidentally."

 

Wildfire – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ξ November 30th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire


 

The Intersection: Cyclone Sidr: Category 5

Ξ November 15th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/11/cyclone_sidr_category_5.php





The Joint Typhoon Warning Center finally gave in and rated the storm at 135 knots--or 155 mile per hour winds. This is the cutoff for Category 5. There may be some weakening by landfall, but what we're expecting is a borderline Cat 4/Cat 5 striking along the path shown above. You've gotta figure the storm surge is going to be more than 20 feet.

 

The Intersection: Time To Panic Over Cyclone Sidr

Ξ November 15th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Regional, Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/11/time_to_panic_over_cyclone_sid.php







Okay, it is time to get alarmist here. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center just released its latest forecast, and this storm still hasn't weakened as has been so endlessly predicted. Instead, it is still a strong Category 4--130 knot winds, or almost 150 miles per hour--according to JTWC. And frankly, the automated Advanced Dvorak Technique says the storm is a Category 5 and still intensifying.

This is a nightmare unfolding. The official landfall prediction from JTWC--like we trust them--is 115 knots, or weak Category 4. This is a storm that needs to be evacuated from, but I have no idea whether that is taking place on the ground. And as for weakening--yeah, that may well happen before landfall, but we're talking about a landfall 24 hours from now. And this storm is whipping up waves of 40 feet or more right now.

This looks bad. Really bad."

More from Reuters

 

bnarchives.yorku.ca/1/02/040813BN_Dominant_Capital_&_the_New_Wars_(1PageVie…

Ξ November 12th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Science |

Stumbleupon Review of : http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/1/02/040813BN_Dominant_Capital_&_the_New_Wars_(1PageView).pdf



In our view, the alternative is to think not of accumulation and power, but of accumulation as power. The Marxist belief, according to which surplus value is first `produced' by industrial capitalists and then `redistributed' through intra-class power struggle among the different fractions of the capitalist class, is a grand myth which has run its course. Instead, we argue that all capitalized earnings, regardless of their `source,' are reflections/expressions of power--the power of capitalists to shape and transform the course of society to their own ends. What is being `capitalized,' always, is not abstract labour, but power itself.

And since power, by its very nature, is differential, so is accumulation. This is the crux of the matter.

 

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