Where is Don Quixote When you need him?

Is it time to debunk the myths of renewable energy? 

UK Says No to Windpower

Hurricane Sandy

Because I live in Florida, I understand how a hurricane can affect you. I wish all those in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states the best during the next couple of days. Many of you will experience power outages, have trees fall on your houses, and some will lose life and property. Ihope you have a speedy recovery.

Here' a link to weather.com for those who would like an update on the storm.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/sandy-top-five-20121028 

Fall Springs in South Florida

Fall Springs in South Florida

The past two days reminded me of falling leaves and how comfortable it feels in the fall when you live up north. At least it felt that way early in the morning before the sun made it too hot because the temperature rises to the low eighties by noontime at the latest.

People form the North tends to miss the change of seasons. Some even move back because they miss the seasonal variety, but I can’t say that it bothers me that much. The last time I flew north in December, 19 inches of snow and a six-degree temperature numbed my body and soul and prompted me to never leave Sunny South Florida after November 15^th again.

Most people that live in Florida weren’t born here, and that will change as the next generation comes to the area and the population continues to expand. The pristine beauty that was Florida decades ago no longer exists. Industry replaced tourism as the permanent population grew.   

According to the Census Bureau, Florida’s population nears 20 million, as it grows at a rapid pace, as indicated in the graph:

The only issue to ponder is how long can this continue.

Internet Question

If I didn't go on  the Internet for a day, did that day really happen?

Entrepreneurial Strategic Planning

Something I never thought would present a problem: picking a title for my strategic planning book. It has proven a challenge. You would think this would amount to an easy task. However, trying to find the absolutely perfect title keeps me awake at night

Titles that caught my attention:

Entrepreneurial Strategic Planning

Entrepreneurs' Strategy Guide

Small Business Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning for Your Small Business

Small Business Strategy

All of the above would have the sub-title: Get Ready, Get Set, Go.

I imagine a survey would do the trick.

Killing in Aurora Colorado

James Holmes was charged with 24 counts of murder today. Rightfully so! The only issue to ponder is whether or not he's insane. Even if he proves to be detached form the reality of his actions, does it mean he deserves no punishment?

It's time such as this that make people think about the ramifications of the death penalty. Many in jail were convicted of crimes they didn't commit; the evidence was debatable and the prosecution was more persuasive that the defense. For those who were executed, I feel sorry.

This case seems indisputable from my vantage point. Nevertheless, I  wonder how a sane individual could commit such a heinous crime. In addition, I wonder how things would have ended if all the theater-goers had 9mm Glocks concealed on their persons.
Sad, sad, day.

Tropical Storm Debbie

Debbie didn't do Dallas, yesterday, nevertheless, it dumped tons of needed rain on South Florida. This is the most rain we experienced in some time, several weeks or more. Here's hoping that the lake will now be up to near normal water level. Hopefully, the water restrictions will be lifted.

For the South Florida Summer

Walt Disney's View

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

Walt Disney

Phew! U.S. regains #1 supercomputer spot in Top500.

There's relief at hand for nationalistic HPC-watchers. The latest Top500 list shows the U.S. back at #1, after trailing various Asian supercomputers. IBM's (NYSE:IBM) latest installation for the mushroom-cloud-computing folks at Lawrence Livermore is to blame, but Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) vows to catch up soon. 

Here's a link to the complete story.

Another youtube Video with Amazing Magic Tricks

Great Card Trick in Times Square New York

This is an incredible manipulation of reality by any stretch of the imagination. Makes you wonder how he performs this slight-of-hand.

If anyone can figure this one out, let me know.

Vacation at Lake New Saturn

NASA Confirms Liquid Lake On Saturn Moon

 

 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lakes observed on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have positively identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface.

Scientists made the discovery using data from an instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft. The instrument identified chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared light. Before Cassini, scientists thought Titan would have global oceans of methane, ethane and other light hydrocarbons. More than 40 close flybys of Titan by Cassini show no such global oceans exist, but hundreds of dark lake-like features are present. Until now, it was not known whether these features were liquid or simply dark, solid material.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," said Bob Brown of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Brown is the team leader of Cassini's visual and mapping instrument. The results will be published in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Ethane and several other simple hydrocarbons have been identified in Titan's atmosphere, which consists of 95 percent nitrogen, with methane making up the other 5 percent. Ethane and other hydrocarbons are products from atmospheric chemistry caused by the breakdown of methane by sunlight.

Some of the hydrocarbons react further and form fine aerosol particles. All of these things in Titan's atmosphere make detecting and identifying materials on the surface difficult, because these particles form a ubiquitous hydrocarbon haze that hinders the view. Liquid ethane was identified using a technique that removed the interference from the atmospheric hydrocarbons.

The visual and mapping instrument observed a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan's south polar region during a close Cassini flyby in December 2007. The lake is roughly 7,800 square miles in area, slightly larger than North America's Lake
 Ontario.

For more information, visit NASA:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/jul/HQ_08_193_Titan_lake.html

Suitable for Life on Mars

CU-Boulder-led team finds microbes in extreme environment on South American volcanoes.

A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder looking for organisms that eke out a living in some of the most inhospitable soils on Earth has found a hardy few.
A new DNA analysis of rocky soils in the Martian-like landscape on some volcanoes in South America has revealed a handful of bacteria, fungi and other rudimentary organisms called archaea, which seem to have a different way of converting energy than their cousins elsewhere in the world.
“We haven’t formally identified or characterized the species,” said Ryan Lynch, a CU-Boulder doctoral student involved in the study.  “But these are very different than anything else that has been cultured. Genetically, they’re at least 5 percent different than anything else in the DNA database of 2.5 million sequences.”

Read the complete story here:

http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/06/08/cu-boulder-led-team-finds-microbes-extreme-environment-south-american

Anglers' extraordinary find is no sea monster, but a giant squid

 

Science Fiction to Science Fact

Not too long ago, Hollywood made films depicting sea monsters, aka, giant squid. Now, we know they exist.

Anglers' extraordinary find is no sea monster, but a giant squid

Clumsy Day at Starbucks

No joke, at least five people dropped or spilled their drinks.—everything from a chocolate latte (or something like that) to steaming hot coffee at the condiment bar. I don’t believe that I’ve seen so much spillage at Starbucks before this day.

It makes you wonder if there’s something in the atmosphere that can make a large sample of people all spill or drop drinks—within an hour of time. Could this be some type of record. Is Howard Schulz having a contest?