|  |  |  | | | | | eKos | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  The Daily Bucket is a place to catch your casual observations of the natural world and turn them into a valuable resource. Whether it's the first flowers of spring or that odd bug in your basement, don't be afraid to toss your thoughts into the bucket. Check here for a more complete description. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | You and I own some oil. It's in the ground in Texas and Louisiana. Much has been made of the recent decision to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Some are for it, others are against it. But there's something missing in this discussion - something that affects our economy, the future of alternative energy, and the autonomy of local regions. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | NOTE: I've been scarce on writing diaries, I know. It's weird how I've been feeling about politics since Rep. Weiner essentially lied to us about those pictures, and then was forced to resign while Sen. Vitter is sitting "pretty" (sic) in his Louisiana seat despite having done patently illegal acts. It's depressing ... both sides of it. Both the lying when he knew it would really hurt him, and the "bad guys" getting away with it. I disappeared altogether for a few days after all that. But I digress.
The latest annual climate summary (for 2010) is out from NOAA (I see now it was put in yesterday's midday open thread as well.). A 13-slide PDF brieifing can be found here, while the full report can be found here. Summary and full report documents can be found at the latter. For those of you who are members of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the full report will appear in the June 2011 Bulletin of the AMS (BAMS). A couple of highlights from the report appear below the cute little squiggle. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 
"A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change." Yeah, I know - I am not beach babe in florida... Today, you are stuck with soothsayer99 in Icepick, Minnesota. But is still Monday.....And we are still going Meatless. And if beach babe were here - as I hope she is next week -- she'd say this : I was inspired to create this series by former Beatle and vegetarian advocate Paul McCartney(Macca) who partnered with the Meatless Monday campaign to promote less consumption of meat. We not only discuss the advantages of a less meat diet we also do some cooking, share recipes and listen to great Beatle/McCartney music! In this weekly series we have been discussing the benefits of a vegetarian diet including: better health, animal rights, food safety, public health, frugal living, global food crisis and the immense contribution of meat/livestock production to climate change/resource depletion. Macca's Meatless Monday/Meatless Advocates is a solution oriented activist group, with solutions for some of the most pressing issues of our time including: climate change, global food/water insecurity and public health. Here we don't just talk about the severity of the crisis. Armed with knowledge about how our actions can contribute we become part of the solution. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Come one, come all. Science talk is here. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are selections from the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include new normal temperatures for the U.S. as climate change continues, domed dinosaur king of the head-butt, plastic in 'garbage patch' fishes, growing plants on oil contaminated land, new insights into human evolution, and the physics of Tibetan singing bowls. Gather yourselves around. Pull up that comfy chair and bask in the sunshine. There is plenty of room for everyone. Get ready for one more session of Dr. Possum's science education and entertainment. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Design Flaw Fueled Nuclear Disaster
by Norihiko Shirouzu and Chester Dawson, Wall Street Journal -- July 1, 2011
TOKYO -- Some senior engineers at Tokyo Electric Power Co. knew for years that five of its nuclear reactors in Fukushima prefecture had a potentially dangerous design flaw, but the company didn't fully upgrade them, dooming them to failure when the earthquake hit, a Wall Street Journal examination of the disaster shows.
[...]
Lesson One: Some Nuclear Plants have "dangerous design flaws" -- despite what we always been told to the contrary.
[ ... "flaws" ... yeah right, that's a good word for it.]
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The future of green energy production in California is happening RIGHT NOW, and this is what it looks like: 
That's a thermal tower, one of three being built by BrightSource Energy in California's Mojave Desert – thermal towers which will be surrounded by 347,000 heliostat mirrors capable of producing 392 megawatts of power. I'll say that again: 392 megawatts of power, enough power to provide energy for 140,000 homes. And that's just the beginning, as California moves to create solar power plants capable of producing the energy of two nuclear reactors by 2016! You've got to see this: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
The Cost of Fukushima
docsgreen.blogspot.com -- 31 March 2011
How much will the Fukushima nuclear power disaster cost the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the Japanese economy, and the Japanese taxpayer? A rough estimate based on current conditions is something around $50 billion. TEPCO's salable assets are only worth about half of that.
$50B in economic damages and the company is worth half that --
Tokyo, you have a problem!
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