chuck kottke

Kind of a Bohemian thing, I think??:rolleyes:

Blue, but I actually like the look of brown eyes! & Green's nice too..:)

Philadelphia Freedom, Shine the Light for the whole world to see!!:sunny::sunny::sunny:!! Glad you had a good time, Galaga:)

Put the Horse before the Cart I'm beginning to think there's more of a common-sense crisis, than an energy crisis. If the US vehicle fleet gets an average of 20 miles per gallon of gasoline (or 7.3 Kilometers per Liter of gasoline), we have some serious issues with missing the mountain while seeing the pebbles. My (now ancient) 1984 Cavalier gets 36 miles per gallon on the highway. Since engines are very inefficient (25-30% max. efficiency), start there. Exhaust components, valves, manifolds, etc. get very hot because the engine is very wasteful. Just by allowing for the full expansion of the hot combustion gases, we could easily double engine efficiency. That would make my old beater jump to 72 mpg. Now, the next step is aerodynamics. The big part of the equation is a cubic function relating to vehicle speed through air. As one speeds up, based on the drag of the body, the energy required to "push through the air" goes up to the power of 3. This is, by far, the biggest energy drain a vehicle has. Now, we could all go slower.:laugh3: Ya, right, you say!:P LOL, I know! (slower does help a lot, but most drivers prefer to go fast, and the highways require a certain amount of movement to prevent traffic jams, and so perhaps 5mph slower is about all most drivers would be willing to slow down). So, it's perfectly reasonable to assume we can improve body and undercarriage shape to double the efficiency here as well. 72 mpg then jumps to 144 mpg! Drive a little slower, and this again could be 160mpg or greater! (~60 Km/L for those of you in the metric-wise world;)). Now, future autos may not be running on gasoline or diesel, but the concept is all the same. Design right, and no matter what you choose, the energy requirements will be a quarter or a fifth of what they currently are. And with no loss of services! This makes solar practical, biodiesel acceptable with much less cropland dedicated to fuel, and newer battery designs both affordable, and offers expanded mileage before recharges. All it takes is some common sense, and the newer technologies become a natural fit.:chef:

Hmm.. Well, I like the idea of solar panels spaced over the roadways, suspended on metal webs that arch over, with plenty of light still getting through (who wants the sun blaring down on them anyways?). Placing the cells in the pavement -embedded? - they're just not quite that durable, although they could be embedded inside clear glass paving blocks, with roughened upper surfaces for traction. It's an idea alright! And it would negate the need for some steel or aluminum web above to suspend the cells. But the downsides might be maintenance related to road wear, weather, replacement intervals, lower efficiency, etc. Still, it's worth considering.;) Jay, you're right! Highways are incredibly expensive, and as energy prices rise, they will become even more so (in part because of the energy put into the surfacing materials, and economic costs that increase with fuel as well..) If enough solar were incorporated over highways, parking lots, etc. the volume of production would drastically reduce manufacturing costs, and newer methods are in the works for clean, green ways to make the cells. And the refueling stations offering a solar-electric recharge would be the most efficient use of the electric - right off the main line!

Yes, Global Warming is real; it's still debatable as to how significant the human impact is, but there is no doubt we have an impact! The glaciers keep melting away - just ask anyone in the Himalayas, or downstream in the rest of India if they are concerned or not. Perhaps it's just me, but it's the carbon balance that has been changed - taking a tremendous amount of locked carbon out of it's storage in the crust, and converting that to CO2 in short order has got to have an effect - and it's quite measurable, as the level of CO2 increases in correlation to our consumption of fossil fuels. Solutions are very attainable, with no loss of quality of life - it's just a matter of implementation. Vehicles are one significant, highly visible aspect, but consider the energy draw of the average home or business building. There are significant; nay, tremendous gains to be had just by improving the building envelopes, and the results are better for everyone. Start with the low-hanging fruit, and take it from there!

Aha! It's an excellent idea then - nominate Jay, because he doesn't want the job!! That's it - honest people always run the other way... And besides, did you know that if you invested like a Senator, you would do better than any Wall-street broker out there?!:laugh3: It's true!! So, as Senator Saffire, you could craft legislation to insure maximum return on investment, with low brokerage fees! As for the choice to pay for services, and use only services they pay for.. Hmm - I hardly ever need to invade a neighboring country, so can I skip my fee on that one??:laugh3:

Greetings to Hungary! Do you play popcorn bass, or regular? :cool:

Greetings coldplaypassion! Glad you could join in the madness, and enjoy the camaraderie!!:sunny::dance::jester:

Greetings to you, Eddie! Glad you could join us!:)

Welcome to the Forum as well!! I haven't a clue, but perhaps a bell to offer..

Didn't they put out the Arcade Fire?:laugh3: I think he secretly admitted to liking Limp Bizkit, whom I know nothing about - maybe just a rumor..

Jenjie - Some odd 615,000 Pounds, which converts to something like 1.4 Million Dollars US, for a place on the street?!:o OOH, for that price, we could all buy tickets to go see them for the next 42,000 years!:laugh3: Is the neighborhood safe??:P

Lesotho

Well, when you put it that way, I suppose I am ambidextrous! I can write with both hands, but Left preferred. But everything else I do either way.

Finishing up the tail end of the Nature series Jungle. Amazing the similarities even with temperate forests and wetlands - it's quite similar, but different animals filling the various niches. Birds, deer, and rodents moving fruit and seeds here vs. elephants and monkeys. Thin soil that relies on mycorrhizal mats of fungi to provide the roots a boost with nutrients and water; nutrient recycling, and openings in the canopy that allow in light for regrowth and the various niches that get filled in sequence, in finality with mahogany trees; here it would be either white pine, maple, or beech. Quite surprising in it's scope of connections between things.. worth the while to watch! But it does make the point of the necessity to leave plenty of dead fallen trees for fertilizer in the forest (there more so than here) - so leached of nutrients, their soils need to be replenished from the decomposing trunks and leaves... Hence, sustainable forestry practices need to account for nutrient & biomass replacement, to keep the balance. Plus they wove the Verves' Bitter Sweet Symphony into the soundtrack.

:)Glad to hear that it's better!! Hmm.. Well, allergies are sneaky - you might not realize (as I hadn't realized) that you're allergic to something, and that's where the migraine is coming from.. Or, I suppose, too much time awake, too much stress does it too. Sleep well Tonight!:sleeping::sleeping::wink2:

OK, let's just say you could channel your thoughts into some coherent pattern that could be set to music... Here's an opportunity to affect outcomes on a global scale! Come on, give it a try!:rolleyes:

^^ Allergies? Do you have cats? Mold from damp summer weather? Pollen? .. could be bad indoor air too. You might want to try breathing micron-filtered air - if your sinuses are acting up.. Hmm.. what I was thinking.. Why do they deny benefits to someone who clearly is disabled, and deserves and needs them? This relates to Social Security Disability, which when someone pays into, they're allowed to be part of the risk pool. Anyhow, it's disheartening to see someone who clearly needs and deserves help get denied benefits.

If you could, hypothetically speaking, "pull the levers of power", which ones would you pull, and why? Let's say you could do this through music as a medium, what would you try to convey, how, and why?:)

:rolleyes::laugh3: Yes, I remember that - and it was the first alias day I stumbled upon, and I was thinking..."what the hell is going on here?!" I was temporarily stunned and awed by the bizarre spectacle of it all.. Anyhow, yes, the "DON'T MESS WITH COMPTON" + Pictures of Cruisers on Hollywood Boulevard?? Your's was quite humorous!:lol: Oh, ideas.. umm.. How About posting a warning in everyone's private messages (or whatever they're being called today..) so the participants can prepare, the timid can seek shelter, and the rest have a chance to decide what odd ducks they will become.

Wow, and here I haven't shaved for months!:biker: (Except for trimming...) But when you shave your arm hair, does it grow back and get all bristly?

Yes, given the temperatures, I think it's quite normal to want to run around naked out of doors! But those damn photosnappers - they aught to get a good dose of their own medicine once, and feel how it feels having their family put into a similar situations. Funny how they never consider consideration for others...:thinking:

Funny!:laugh3: The Crusades...whatever they are!

Hooray!! 5000 is all the way across the ocean!!:)