Hendobear18’s Blog

With the advent of summer, I wake up every morning to peek out my window to decide what to do that day based in whether the sun is shining or not. If its nice out, I’ll go to the beach, bike-ride, swim in a pool, run outside, play soccer/beach volleyball, or do anything in my power to make sure that the indoors is unnecessary. If GOD FORBID it is cloudy, then my entire plans change.

The sun’s presence is made known now (summer) more than the rest of the year, not only by its more frequent appearance in our sky and the warmth that we are lucky enough to receive in the northern hemisphere, but also through sunburns, and tanning-salon closures that provide other telltale signs that the natural source of light is ready to be worshipped more than any other point in the year. Coincidentally, I have a tattoo of the word “Sunshine”, mainly because that was a nickname I had growing up. But when a friend asked me the other day why I had it, I started uncontrollably ranting about the power of the sun–I’m not even sure why, but maybe it was because of this pent-up energy I have had on reserve about how important a resource and power the sun is in our lives.

Eatin' it up

If you think about it, our earth system is ultimately controlled by the sun. In a brief synopsis of my late-night rant to my drunken friend (who just was looking for a simple explanation of my tattoo), I started going into something like this;

I learned in my climate class this past semester that before anthropogenic contribution to the increase in greenhouse gas concentration in our atmosphere over the past century or so, the temperature was a FORCING for greenhouse gases (which means that temperatures would increase first before greenhouse did). How did temperature randomly change? Well, these crazy inter-planetary gravitational forces called “Milankovic Cycles” would sporadically change over LONG periods of time; whether it be the eccentricity of our planets orbit, the tilt of our earth’s rotation axis or the relative orientation axis of our spin (precession and obliquity band) would change the amount of insolation (incoming sunlight) that our earth would receive in a given period of time.

Nice unibrow you got there, Milutin!

Heres the Wikipedia if you want more specifics

Basically, before humans were around, the earth’s entire climate and surface composition (which inevitably changes with climate) was dictated by how much sun we receive. Going back even farther, the emergence of multi-cellular organisms can be attributed to sunlight. Sun is the essential component for processes like photosynthesis, the hydrological cycle, wind patterns, fossil fuels, and so many other essential parts of our planet. What would we be without it?

So although I might be jumping the gun here, I’m starting to believe that the Sun is somewhat like a God in the natural sense–it creates, it destroys (its powerful UV rays, if not shielded by our Ozone layer, are deadly), and I know I can say that it makes me happy and gives me hope. Hell, why would they give students school breaks during their respective summers!? They need to relish in the wonder that should be our most prized gift as a planet and species–el sol.

 $50 mil to go Organic; I’ve gotta admit, I’ve got a couple of questions, and am a little skeptical.

Don’t get me wrong, organic agricultural practices produce way healthier, cleaner, natural food and have a lesser impact on degrading the farmland. But I’ve always believed that the local food movement was way more sustainable–it reduces the carbon footprint of farming by eliminating any globally shipped products, it supports local jobs, and is USUALLY natural and organic, because since the local farms are usually pretty small, what’s the need for fertilizers and synthetics for higher yields? PLUS, many of the local farms use organic practices, such as no-till, pesticide free pest control, and ‘natural nutrient management’, yet cannot afford this official USDA organic logo. If you think about it, only larger, more corporate farms have been able to afford purchasing this logo, and are shipping the products globally, which dramatically increases the carbon footprint.

Imagine; Obama in overalls...the 'White House farm'

Is there any way that the government can fund the expansion of local farmers’ organic, natural practices under-the-radar of officially USDA certified organic label? HERE COMES THE PROBLEM; How large can local go without becoming a corporate giant who finds it more profitable to ship products abroad? Will our future look like a sprinkle-sundae of millions of local farms providing for their area? Would that really be sustainable to devote such extensive amounts of land just so that it can be ‘local’? 

If only we knew!

A new solar thermal power plant that will be the world’s largest to date is scheduled to be built in the 4th quarter of 2010 in the Mohave Desert, an area of the American Southwest that receives one of the highest concentrations insolation in all of the U.S. 

Daily Average Insolation of the U.S.

Much criticism regarding harnessing solar energy for electricity has to do with the high up-front costs of photovoltaic cells and the implementation of these solar cells on roofs of houses or buildings. But this solar thermal ‘farm’, which has the potential to provide 9000 Megawatts (that’s right, Mega = 10^6) of energy that can be distributed not only to Arizona, but Nevada, Colorado, and California, is constituted of mainly mirrors reflecting the sun’s light onto a central ‘tower’. In this case, the tower will have ’synthetic oil’ pumped through and heated to approx. 800 degrees, where on its way out it will go into a boiler and make steam to drive a single steam turbine. There is no cost of the photovoltaics (which have been estimated to go for 21.6 cents per kWh, whereas coal/other nonrenewables are going for as low as .04 cents per kWh), and there is potential to harness enough energy for a large portion of the American southwest.

SO although at this point photovoltaics have seemed to be the cutting edge of solar technology, do we have to make way for these Solar  Thermal plants, that can generate large amounts of energy at a central distributing locations, that could cost less overall without the need for individual building installations? Not only that, but the ‘green jobs’ coming from this Mohave Desert project alone is 1000+, and we all know that with the current state of the economy, any room for new jobs is vital. 

I think we just has to see what happens with this ‘world’s largest’ first before we go jumping to any conclusions, but in my opinion, it looks pretty promising! 

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Hey, it’s still 1:45 AM ish, and I’ve had a lot of pent-up frustration against Keeping Up with the Kardashians, or however you spell it. The last time I saw it on TV, it was the episode about the less famous, ’sexy sister Khloe, overcoming her ‘body problems’ by posing naked for PETA for their “I’d Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur” Campaign…

Could you believe it? PETA wants press so badly they contact one of the most superficial families in Hollywood to get on their reality TV SHOW!

If I were PETA, I would be ashamed, and that is saying a lot about how I feel about this stupid show, considering how much I hate PETA. Do they really need the superficial sister of a B-list, even MORE superficial celebrity to pose naked for their cause? She probably owns fur! If i wasn’t still a blogging noob and could make a poll, I’m sure anyone who could read this would know that the Kardashian family probably has enough fur in their closets to provide warmth to an entire community of Inuits for the Antarctic winter. ‘I’d Rather Lose a Vital Limb than Be a PETA Member’ Campaign is starting here.

But back to the point; every Kardashian on this show talks about how they ‘don’t care about the press’ that they get and that they ‘just want to be themselves,’ yet they still book a TV series on E! (Hmm, haven’t seen this before? *cough NewlyWeds cough*) to document them sitting around in a family room or high-end boutique bitching about what flavor yogurt to buy or what color they want their next Balenciaga tote-bag in. I can handle a lot of trash television, even America’s Next Top Model, but this Kardashian show is ridiculous. At this very moment, the girls and mom are sitting in the family room yelling at the younger son for getting a tattoo and calling him ’stupid’ for getting a tattoo–Kim just made a brilliant observation; “Rob probably got a tattoo of our Dad because he’s yearning for him in his life, he misses him.” I’d keep the philoso-phizing to yourself, Kim.  

TV off, re-watching all the seasons of Lost because I can’t stand that I cannot see Season Six until 2010 in.

So I guess this is my first ‘post’, yet I’ve already posted a blog entry about biking for electricity!

It’s 1:30 AM and I was watching yet another Billy Maze infomercial for “Mighty Mend-it” at my home in Michigan, and I thought to myself, hey, there are a lot better things I could be doing with my life than listening to this guy bark at me about a product that probably doesn’t even work very well. 

First off, just don’t buy Mighty Mend-it, or ShamWow. Secondly, Hello!