Musings and Diatribes

Did BP fail to account for overpressured sand?

blowout preventers that failed in the BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster might have been insufficiently robust for an unexpected overpressured sand horizon

Continue Reading Add comment May 23rd, 2010

Iceland and greenhouse gasses

The recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland have pointed up just how critical getting a handle on greenhouse emissions is. Typically volcanos inject large amounts of CO2 and other gasses into the atmosphere during eruptions, sometimes dwarfing the rather puny efforts made thus far to reduce the man-made contribution. The really scary part is the large positve feedback potential from methane released from thawing permfrost and decomposing methane hydrates in the ocean bottoms as the climate continues to warm.

Add comment April 16th, 2010

Green Primrose Paths

Now that green is “in” and everyone wants to do it and be a part of the revolution, the hucksters are out in force blasting us with information that can best be described as “the good, the bad and the ugly.” The good thing about the internet is that it provides us with access to a lot of good information and good ideas, but at the same time ovewhelms us with ideas that are in some cases just bad ideas, and in other cases just plan ugly ideas designed to fleece the unwary.

As a case in point, I recently ran across a press release from a “green energy” company touting a scheme to recover energy from the warm air exhaust streams from air conditioning systems. This is a scheme akin to perpetual motion in that work has to be done by the AC system to produce the cooling at the condenser and the flow of air carries away the waste heat. Capping that air stream to run turbin would create a back pressure that would cause the AC system to do more work for the same amount of cooling and the energy gained at the turbin would always be less than the extra energy to power the AC system.

A bad idea, but plastered all over the internet. The press release repeated over and over on site after site without any critical review. This company as far as I can tell (they’re not big on details) consists of the CEO, a patent attorney and a very good huckster.

Add comment September 29th, 2009

Roaming Robots

I just completed a story on Examiner.com about a project to produce (under government sponsership) an autonomously ranging robot with sponsorship of the U. S. military, which refuels itself by foraging for suitable burnable materials. My take was that the proposed application is some sort of a mobile recon platform that doesn’t require the presense of a human operator…the original drones were just for recon and now they are weapons…I wonder how long before these things are armed?

I had a vision of herds of these things roaming through grasslands taking the grass for fuel sort of like a herd of bison. Just a dream?

Add comment July 10th, 2009

Magnatude Nine-plus Earthquakes

I hear a lot, off and on, about the expected magnitude nine-plus earthquake that is likely to happen sometime in the geological near future of the coast of Oregon. Such a quake and the resulting tsunami has all the makings of a disaster movie or book, and I’m now in the process of doingsome preliminary research. I’ll need engineering, architectural, seismic and geological info–sol it’s off to the races

Add comment June 1st, 2009

Writing for Examiner.com

I’ve now been writing for Examiner.com for about a month and am just now feeling like Im beginning to get a handle on time management. There is the necessity to do research finding stories and checking them out as well as the actual writing. Then there is the marketing piece, i.e. getting the word out to a plethora of book marking sites, social networking sites etc. And, of course, finding available pictures to enhance the story. Until recently this has left little time to spend on the novel or on short stories. I think I’ve turned the corner on the time thing this week. Good way to approach the weekend.

1 comment May 29th, 2009

Happy Birthday Oregon

Today my family and I, and dozens of others converged on Champoeg State Park to celebrate Oregon’s 150th year of statehood. All the visitors shared in a cake made specially for this comemoration and which was shaped like the state of Oregon, with topographic features rendered in icing. I also learned that the initial event that severed the dependance of the settled population on the Hudson Bay Company(British) was a vote to establish a provisional govenment. This proposition carried by only two votes, but set the stage for eventual statehood.

Point taken! Every vote counts.

Add comment February 15th, 2009

Too Much Inspiration

I recently wrote a story for a contest and was limited to 4500 words, but in the writing, became overly inspired and wound up with a work of about 16000 words instead. Now I’m debating whether to push it as a novella or novelette or try to expand it to a full length novel? Cutting it proved impossible without changing the full impact of the story.

Add comment February 4th, 2009