Home › Blog › Page 194

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

There are no laws of science that you can’t convert moonlight into electrical energy, though there is a set of laws (called physics) that will render this incredibly unproductive.  The moon produces a very small amount of power per square meter, around 0.0034 watts.  This is approximately 300,00 times less than sunlight, which can reach 1,000 watts per square meter.

I think the average 10-year-old child, and probably 99% of high school students understand this intuitively.  If I were interviewing a young person and trying to coax them along, I might proceed as follows:

Craig: When you go the the beach, what do you rub on your exposed skin?

Kid: Sun screen.

Craig: Why?

Kid: Otherwise you’ll get a sunburn.

Craig: Right. Do you know why?

Kid: The sun’s energy somehow “cooks” our skin.

Craig: Exactly.  Now, what about the moon?  If you were playing on the beach at night, would you be worried about getting a “moonburn?”

Kid: I don’t think so.

Craig: Why not?

Kid: The moon is just a piece of rock that reflects a tiny bit of the sun’s light.

Craig:  That’s great!  You can think!  Be grateful.  Many Americans have lost their ability to use their minds.  You haven’t.  That’s terrific.

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Obviously, this is largely a function of where you live.  But here’s a factor to consider: Many people charge their EV with the solar PV arrays on their rooves, and thus all their fuel is free.

I have a friend who has not put a molecule of gas in his car, or a single electron from the grid, in over 20 years of driving.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s impossible to answer that question with any real accuracy, because the president keeps surprising us with his creativity.

Could anyone have predicted a “brain drain” out of our top universities, where our brightest young folks are getting welcomed by our fiercest competitor?

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

“We didn’t think they’d come for the people who help us milk cows.”

Why not?  Inflicting pain is what these people do.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Some commentary of the photo here:

Reader #1: More blatant Suppression from the Project 2025 regime. I wonder how many lives could have been saved with this food?  This is pure Evil. Speak up. Raise your voice. Scream loudly! 

Reader #2: So sad. I can’t even express how evil this is.
Reader #1: Its completely unnecessary, it’s cruel, it’s heartless. Faux news (Fox News) would never report this, or if they did, sugarcoat it with all the “great” and “wonderful” things he is doing. That’s the alternate reality. Only the very gullible would gloss (over) this travesty, this abomination of God, this pitchfork Evil.
Cutting to the chase, if at this point you think this administration is formed around anything other than evil, I really don’t know what to tell you.
Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

At left is a good topic for a lively discussion.  Two comments:

1) One presumes we’re talking about Americans here, even though our population is about 4% of the Earth’s total.  At this point in the U.S. decline into some form of oligarchy, the rest of the world has little to lose if Trump ultimately succeeds in turning the United States into something like Russia: a couple hundred million people, living in a country with a handful of billionaires, most of the rest of whom are unhealthy, ignorant, poor, and hopeless.

2) Climate change, by contrast, doesn’t go out of its way to target Americans.  Like the dominion of Trump, however, it does inflict its pain disproportionately on the poor.  Rich people in each of the 200+ sovereign countries on the planet will continue to experience minimal harm due to the effects of global warming.  As bad as things are likely to get on this planet for the many, there will always be good things available to those who can afford them: Ivy League educations, fancy cars, fabulous real estate in what remains of the world’s habitable regions, the planet’s most attractive sex partners, and fine steak dinners.

Tagged with: , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I understand that there are people who think that apostrophes are used to form plurals, but the creator of the sign here takes the assault one step further.

Are toilets for customers only, or are the toilets out of order?

Choose one.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I hate to say something so callous, but maybe when you choose to send your kid to school in a state that ranks 49th out of 50, you deserve exactly what you get.

Yes, public high school students in Oklahoma are learning that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by the Democrats who orchestrated widespread voter fraud, a notion that was rejected by all 60+ courts that reviewed the evidence.

Personally, I find this abhorrent, which is why I would just as soon throw my kids into a lion’s cage than subject them to this garbage.

I feel the same way about teaching creationism as astrophysics and biology, and all the other ultra-right-wing assaults on science and truth more generally.

But that’s just me.

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

From a reader:

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has sent a letter to Harvard informing them that their ability to enroll foreign students at their University has been revoked.   (She wrote) “This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.

It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.

Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.

They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law.

Well, shouldn’t all Americans feel safer knowing that the Trump administration inflicts punishment on any institution that defies its authority?  Don’t we need this country to be more cowed and ignorant?

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

As asserted at left, there are people who know Norway as the country where “the sun never sets.”  And that is true of the northern part of the country in mid-summer.

However, most people with elementary school educations understand that all regions of the world at extreme latitudes are just as dark in their winters as they are sun-lit in their summers.

I recently met a guy from northern Norway, who lives 300 miles above the arctic circle who mentioned that he has 67 days of complete darkness in winter, which as anyone with any sense would grant, is disconcerting.

But how much worse is it than his neighbors’ mowing their lawns at 2:30 AM in the summer?

 

 

Tagged with: