After a 5 week hiatus, carpenter becomes med student

Cool site:

http://www.lovely.clara.net/homepg.html

Crop circles....

iBook

Let me just say that I'm a fan of the iBook. I recently got my 12" iBook G4 and I can say I'm delighted. I lok forward to delving even further into its workings. If anyone has suggestions for beginners, and wanna-be hacks like me, please do leave a post.

HOME HYDRO POWER

I know someone who has a sizeable river in his backyard...

Electric rates from the utility that supplies his house at over 10 cents/kWh, and the average household uses 700 Kwh/month, which comes to $120/month when you add in all their standard charges. You'd think that my math is messed up, right? 700 times $.10 is $70, right? Well, read the fine print. They say you're paying $.10/kWh but it's actually much closer to $.17.

Here's a cool blurb about the Kennedy Creek System:
These systems are not new comers to the neighborhood; the
have been in operation for an average of 7.6 years. The
systems produce from 2.3 to 52 kilowatt-hours of elect
power daily. Average power production is 22 kWh daily at a
average installed cost of $4,369. If all the hydroelectric power
produced by all five Kennedy Creek systems is totaled since
they were installed, then they have produced over 30
megawatt-hours of power. And if all the costs involved for
five systems are totaled, then the total cost for all five
systems is $21,845. This amounts to an average of 7¢ per
kilowatt-hour. And that's cheaper than the local utility. On
system, Gene Strouss's, makes power for 3¢ a kilowatt-hour,
less than half what's charged by the local utility.

Homepower Magazine has tons of info about how to build a mini hydroelectric power plant in your backyard. For many people it's the only (most economical) choice. An article titled "Micro Hydro Power in the Nineties" plainly states that a micro hydro setup has a lifespan of decades, reliably produces utility-grade electric service (with some to spare) and costs $.03-.25/kWh. So, if you can keep the costs below $.17/kWh, you'll make money...and that's just this year. Next year prices will rise and the return on your investment will accelerate.

More Links:


MicroHydroPower.Net
Otherpower.com
HOMER -- a program to calculate all there is with micro power -- free
Energy Alternatives -- wealth of information



How to calculate how much power you can get:

The basic equation: kW = (( H * Q ) / 660 ) * 0.82 * 0.746 * (turbine / wheel eff.)

You will need to factor in the efficiency of the turbine or wheel that you are using to get a more realistic figure of your net potential.

kW == Kilowatts

H == Net Head in feet

Q == Quantity in Cubic Feet per Minute

660 == Constant

0.82 == Generator Efficiency

0.746 == Conversion from Brake horsepower to Kilowatts

** The article above had a simpler equation : H (feet) *Q (US Gals/min) /10 = OUTPUT (Watts)

Spice it Up!

Spices are what set Indians aside from Americans, in the way they contract less cancer. This article states that two thirds of cancers are diet-related. Spice it up!

p.s.: Try this one on cancer...from the same blog

God why am I here and what am I supposed to do?

White holes...um...are the opposite of black holes, right?

So, last night I had a great conversation with someone (a quite fabulous someone)...about all kinds of...things...
and
the other side of black holes.

Did you know there's another side to the black hole?
It's called a white hole.
Duh!



Check it!
http://www.matter-antimatter.com/white_hole.htm
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html
http://critical-path.itgo.com/Image4.gif

Marshall McLuhan -- Modern genius

My sister Mere reminded me of a favorite thinker of mine: Marshall McLuhan

He wrote, among others: "The Meduim is the Massage" , which is a fav. of mine. It's a collage of thoughts, ideas, and interesting pictures. Good stuff. I suggest you check it out. It's enlightening. Also covered in wikipedia.

CAPTION FOR THE IMAGE NUMBERED "2":
he past went that-a-way.When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.
We march backwards into the future. Suburbia lives imaginatively in Bonanza-land.


CAPTION FOR THE IMAGE NUMBERED "1" :Art is anything you can get away with.
''The biggest and best woman in the world,'' an 82-foot-long, 20foot-high sculpture. You can walk around in her.
Niki de Saint Phalle, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Great McLuhan Quotes:

The story of modern America begins With the discovery of the white man by
The Indians.
Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public
incredulity.
Whereas convictions depend on speed-ups, justice requires delay.
The nature of people demands that most of them be engaged in the most
frivolous possible activities—like making money.
With telephone and TV it is not so much the message as the sender that is
“sent.”
Money is the poor man’s credit card.
We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into
the future.
Spaceship earth is still operated by railway conductors, just as NASA is managed by men with Newtonian goals.
Invention is the mother of necessities.
You mean my whole fallacy’s wrong?
Mud sometimes gives the illusion of depth.
The car has become the carapace, the protective and aggressive shell, of urban and suburban man.
Why is it so easy to acquire the solutions of past problems and so difficult to solve current ones?
The trouble with a cheap, specialized education is that you never stop paying for it.
People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.
The road is our major architectural form.
Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade.
Today the business of business is becoming the constant invention of new business.
The price of eternal vigilance is indifference.

More Irises from Island Neck Rd., Craddonckville, VA, July 05

Flowers stll rock

Flowers rock