Science blog

In March 2005, the University of Minnesota-Morris became the first public American university to install a large-scale wind turbine to help meet the school's electrical needs. Since it was installed, the generator has supplied some 60 percent of the university's power. The rest of the school's power needs are purchased from Otter Tail Power Company's Tailwinds Program. Those figures mean that whether the electricity is generated on site or purchased off the grid, 100 percent of UMM's electrical power needs are supplied by wind power, but the school's commitment to energy independence doesn't stop there. The university's students have helped the school reach toward its energy goals by reducing electricity, water, and waste needs. The faculty has also gotten into the spirit, as well, placing considerable emphasis on green power and conservation in their classrooms. The UMM 1.65 megawatt Vestas generator is an impressive sight, with 135-foot blades and a 230-foot tower, making the massive machine stand some 365 feet tall, but its impact on the community and the state of Minnesota goes far greater than that. The generator has become a major tourist and field trip destination in central Minnesota, and has helped raise the awareness of thousands of people, especially school children, since its construction in 2005. The generator is a model of efficiency, and only takes a breeze of 7-9 mph to begin generating electricity. It takes a 26 mph wind to generate the unit's full 1.65 megawatts. There’s a dedicated power line to the UMM campus, and if the University needs more power, the local utility lines provide it automatically, so no one on campus knows if the power is coming from the generator or the grid at any given time. On the other side of the coin, whenever UMM’s power needs are less than what the generator is producing, the excess electric energy is directed back into the local utility grid. All this is impressive, but the university has even more extensive plans for increasing its energy independence. There are plans for the construction of a biomass gasification plant at UMM in 2006, which will be capable of meeting 80 percent of the campus' heating and cooling needs. The plant will use stover (stalk residue) from cornfields in the area, as well as waste wood, other crop residues and various organic stocks as its fuel base. The United States as a whole is second only to Germany in total production of wind-generated electricity, with California, Texas, and Minnesota leading the way. Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher. Publish with live links only.

It was on July 20, 1969 that "Eagle", the lunar module landed on the moon and American Astronaut Neil Armstrong took "that one small step" paving way for "a giant leap for mankind" . In 2007-08, India will launch Chandrayan I, which will be closely followed by China's CHANGE-I. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is spear-heading all the activities in the field. Chandrayan I, India's first unmanned mission to moon was announced on August 15, 2003. The Chandrayan I mission envisages placing a 525 kg satellite in a polar orbit 100 km above the moon and it will be launched using a modified version of India's indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The main objectives of the Chandrayan include obtaining imagery of the moon's surface using a high resolution remote sensing instruments in the visible, near infrared, low and high energy X-ray region. Considering the interest shown by the international scientific community, a provision has also been made to accommodate instruments from other countries, on Chandrayan-1. ISRO signed an agreement with ESA for including European instruments on board Chandrayan-1. The European Instruments are to complement the main India experiments. The US is also considering placing up two instruments on Chandrayan-1. Whether India should embark on a manned mission or not is a subject of national debate since sending a man to the moon is a very costly affair. A manned mission would take seven to ten years to accomplish and would cost at least$2.2 billion.

In my prior posting, entitled "Ancient Astronauts and Contemporary Skepticism," I challenged the skeptics (assuming they do not want to acknowledge that the Nazca Lines were made to be viewed by an ancient astronaut) to provide a credible explanation of those geoglyphs. I argued that the people of Nazca cannot be considered unique in human history and that the skeptics need to find parallels elsewhere. However, I imagine that, instead of trying to produce a mundane explanation of the Nazca Lines, the skeptics could simply argue that I have not proven the contrary case. The basic facts of the Nazca desert are easy to comprehend. Those large geoglyphs cannot be grasped by humans from the ground; in most cases, the hills or mountains are too distant for anyone to even notice that they are there. The figures on the ground can only be recognized from the air. Since humans were unable to fly until relatively recent times, it is logical to consider extraterrestrials as a potential explanation. I have seen skeptics, in desperation, argue that the people of Nazca, in the sixth century, knew how to make air balloons, but I do not believe it for one second. For whom or for what did the people of Nazca make those ground drawings? Surely, they made those geoglyphs to be viewed by someone or something. That is unquestionable; it is not rational to believe that mass insanity could last the more than one hundred years it took to complete the project. If they made the geoglyphs to be viewed by an ancient astronaut, then where are their drawings of the ancient astronaut? Such drawings do exist. I provide one of them on my website, in a footnote to Gersiane De Brito's "Tiwanaku Alien and Evolution" article. That picture is not a geoglyph, however; it comes from Nazca pottery, but the timing coincides. This makes sense. They likely thought it might be offensive to the alien to draw a picture of the alien on the ground so they only put it on the pottery, where the alien could not see it. Beyond any doubt, the ancient astronaut depicted on the Nazca pottery is the same ancient astronaut depicted in the Tiwanaku engravings. In the Tiwanaku versions, the aquatic, alien nature of the creature is easier to spot. Also in Tiwanaku, with all that bird symbolism, it is apparent that this ancient astronaut could fly, freestyle, up and through the air. Thus, the Nazca Lines have a viable explanation: the geoglyphs were made to be seen by an ancient astronaut that could fly like a bird with the aid of anti-gravity hand-held propulsion devices, without the use of aircraft or spacecraft of any kind. The people of Nazca drew diverse animal figures on the ground to attract the alien's attention and to entertain it, and they drew lines and directional arrows on the ground to lead the alien back to the people of Nazca. I think it time for the world's scientists, archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists, etcetera, to come to their senses and try to evaluate, objectively, the thinking behind the Nazca geoglyphs. The potential for uncovering an instance of genuine alien contact makes it a worthwhile endeavor.

7:47 PM 4/24/2006 Author: Lucien Beauley Lighting Facts...I Wanna Know ! Each one of us, at one time or another has either driven or been a passenger in an automobile and experienced our traffic control lighting system. Originally unique, but now part of a global system. Situated at every fully functional traffic light intersection is at least one "Red" light which is timed to turn on and off regularly to "Stop" traffic. It employs a 100 Watt(varies between 90 and 120 Watts)incandescent light bulb. Several years ago, these light bulbs began being replaced with the latest LED(Light Emitting Diode) cluster assemblies, as were the other lamps at the same intersection. The newer Led lamps consumed only 10 Watts to accomplish the same light output(mostly greater). The clincher ! The original incandescent bulb only radiates approximately 10 % of the power consumed in visible light. The other 90 % is radiated as "heat". And with the red filter used on the original assembly to only let through the RED color needed for the "stop" function, another 30 % of the original visible portion of the light is lost, so that only about 7 % of the 100 Watts of power consumed to light the lamp is visible(to the human eye). The real clincher is that our local taxes to pay the utilities have been calculated for the 100 Watt consumption for each bulb( when it is turned on ) and only getting 7 % of the light. We town citizens and tax payers have been paying for the 93 % wasted as invisible heat for several decades. Leds, on the other hand, are a different breed of lighting technology and do not radiate light in the form of heat( unless designed specifically for that purpose ) and the Red Led assembly cluster which replaces the original traffic light bulb needs no red filter because it radiates a "pure" Red light. Granted, the initial cost for this lamp cluster assembly is still higher, but when we consider the LED lamp "life" estimated to be 100,000 hours and therefore lower replacement along with labor cost, the pay-back is quick and fairly permanent. These benefits are not even considering the ongoing 90 % energy cost savings. ======================================================================================== Some Quick Mind Twisters(Awaikeners) =================================== To shatter an LED lamp would require more than 1,000 G's of impact force ! To shatter an incandescent lamp would only require less than 10 G's =================================== The time it takes for an incandescent light to turn on(to its maximum brightness)is about 1/10 of a second. It takes much less than 1/1,000,000 of a second for the LED to accomplish the same thing and a generally accepted Led spec.. One might say , "who cares" ? Well, when Led lighting is used for an automobile brakelight, 1/10 of a second greater reaction time can mean the difference between stopping in time, or a collision, with possible severe injury to some, or all of the occupants. ===================================