Wind power

Yesterday was a big day for our area. The United States' first offshore wind farm was approved by the US Department of the Interior.

For almost ten years, plans have been in the process of being drawn up to put 130 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The location of the wind farm would be in between the Cape and the Islands in Nantucket Sound in an area known as Horseshoe Shoals. The water there is approximately 8 to 55 feet deep. Due to a large number of environmental, water traffic and air traffic studies, as well as many lawsuits brought against it, the project seems like it will never end. Yesterday's decision does not allow construction yet but it does clear a lot of hurdles.

I'm personally excited about the possibility of the wind farm. I like the idea of clean energy. I don't think the turbines themselves are ugly (the picture here is of a wind turbine used to power our town waste water facility and is, obviously, not in the water). But, the turbines will be so far off-shore that you won't see much of them anyway. But the thing that excites me the most is actually the opposite of one of the arguments used by opponents of the project: They argue that the turbines will ruin fishing in that area. In reality, the existence of the turbines will enhance fishing by creating mini-reefs that will create breeding grounds for fish. The turbines themselves will be one-third to one-half a mile apart so they won't keep people out (although only shallow draft vessels could ever get in there anyway). For more and better arguments of this type, see this article.

To be fair, I'm putting links to the organization promoting this project, Cape Wind, and the major group opposing it, The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. We'll see how things go. Perhaps in a few years, I'll be writing this on a computer running on electricity generated by the wind.

The day I almost met Steve Jobs

I was just reminded of this story when one of the engineers in our company announced he was leaving to go to California to work for Apple Computer. Steve Jobs is, as you may know, the chief executive officer of Apple. He was one of the founders of Apple but left the company in 1985. He started a new company called NeXT Computer (yes, spelled with three capital letters) that had a lot of advanced hardware and software features that were appealing to the guys who ran our company and they decided that, besides being developers for Apple Macintosh computers and computers that run Microsoft operating systems, we would become NeXT developers, too. To get the special deals available to NeXT Developers, we would have to send someone to a week of intensive classes to learn how development was done on this innovative platform. I was picked to go. I was very happy to go because of all the new things I would be learning.

One of the first official things I did when I got there was to go to dinner with some of the other developers and the NeXT staff that would be teaching us. Also, I was surprised to find out, Steve Jobs himself would be there. He was going to give a talk after we ate and before the formal introductory lesson was given and our course materials were handed out. We were just finishing our meal and Steve walked in. He started walking around and greeting the NeXT people and introducing himself to the developers. He seemed happy to meet each of the developers and was asking what they planned to do with their NeXT machines. As he worked his way around the tables, I rehearsed what I'd say to him and what I'd ask him. I didn't want to gush and make a fool of myself but I wanted him to know what an honor it was to meet him. I also wanted to let him know what we'd be doing with his machines. From what I could tell from hearing what the other developers were saying, we would have a unique application for the NeXT computer.

Finally, he got to our table (why did I always have to sit in the back?). He seemed genuinely interested in everyone he talked with. I made sure to finish my meal early enough to ensure I was not chewing when he came to talk with me. Then he got to the guy next to me and they started talking. Steve had spent no more than two or three minutes talking with the other developers and I prepared to talk with him soon. But the guy next to me was one of these blowhards who seem to think they have all the best ideas in the world and whatever they are working on is the most amazing stuff anyone has ever done. Steve was very polite and attentive. He answered all the guy's questions. Meanwhile I'm thinking, "OK, enough. Let the poor guy go. I only want a minute." On and on the guy went. I'm sweating with the strain of holding myself back from shouting at the loud-mouth. Finally, the guy stops talking and Steve heads around to me. I'm just putting out my hand to shake the hand of Steve Jobs and one of his staff comes up and says, "It's time for your talk, Steve." I could have cried. I toyed with the idea of jumping out of me seat and hip checking the loud-mouthed guy next to me as I ran to introduce myself to Steve but it all happened too fast.

Steve Jobs gave an interesting and enthusiastic talk. I had mild hopes that he would continue meeting us after his talk but he had to go right after the talk. That was it. I almost met one of the most famous technical entrepreneurs in the world. But I didn't. But I will tell you - I never sit in the back of the room anymore.

Venus and Mercury - 12 days ago

I wanted to write about this back on April 10 or 11 but I didn't get a good picture of it so I didn't think it was worthwhile posting about it. But today, a friend pointed out a series of pictures taken by a much better photographer that shows the event beautifully. I don't want to show the picture here because it is copyrighted and is shown on another site by permission. I will post a link to it so you can see it in all its glory.

On April 7, the morning TV news weather forecaster mentioned that Venus and Mercury were going to be visible just after sunset that evening and they were going to appear close in the sky. My son Evan loves the stars and planets so we decided to try to see them. We first tried to see them that evening but clouds on the horizon obscured them. Then it rained or was overcast until April 10. That night, the conditions were perfect. We went to a west-facing beach so nothing would be in our way. In was cool and a strong wind was blowing in from the water. Also, it was high tide so there wasn't much beach to stand on. But we were patient. Finally, stars and planets began to appear. We saw Venus first. Then we saw Sirius, Rigel and Mars. It got darker and chillier as the wind picked up. Then we could make out Saturn and Betelgeuse (it hasn't gone supernova yet).We were so intent on looking up that we didn't notice the waves coming in and we got wet a few times. But it didn't matter. The wonder of looking for a planet we'd never seen before was more important.

Finally, we saw Mercury, too. I have looked for Mercury for as long as I can remember but this was the first time I'd seen it. You can barely see Mercury in these pictures. You'll easily see Venus in the top picture. Look in the lower right of Venus and you'll see Mercury. You can click on the picture to see it a bit better but, as I said, my pictures are pretty bad.

The second picture, shows the still-glowing horizon along with Venus and Mercury. You'll see some lights along the horizon. Those are from the towns across the bay from the beach. You'll never see Mercury without clicking on this picture and even then it is faint. If you click on the picture here to expand it and look to the lower right of Venus, you'll see a little red circle. No, Mercury doesn't have rings like Saturn (and Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune) - that's a circle I drew on the picture to show where Mercury is. I love my camera (a Lumix (Panasonic) DMC-FZ7) but it doesn't do very well in low-light situations. I even used a tripod and let the camera extend the length the shutter was open to gather more light but it was just too dark and the image is grainy. Plus, the strong wind was moving the tripod!

Now for the picture that got me to make this post. It is on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website at NASA. The particular picture related to this post is here. It is a composite of eight pictures taken from April 4 through April 15 with the crescent Moon making an appearance on the last day. The clouds and horizon must be from just one of the days or the clouds would not be as distinct as they are. Isn't it amazing? You can almost see the orbit of Mercury. It's much further from the Sun than I imagined. God has made a fascinating, wonderful place for us to live to see things like this. Praise the Lord!

It happened again

I just had a great idea for a post and was going to start writing it. I was just going to start the post. This would remind me of the idea so I could finish it later. I went to get to the New Post page and...I forgot what the idea was.

I should have talked to myself so I would have remembered it as I said here

Update on a previous post

About two years ago, on May 5, 2008, I wrote a post about the town of Greensburg, Kansas, and how inspiring it was to hear the townsfolk talk about rebuilding after devastating tornadoes ripped the town apart. Today, I saw a report on the CNN website about how the town rebuilding efforts are progressing. The report is titled "Tornado-hit town forges green comeback" and the video report can be found here. Here's the introduction in text:

"What if a city could rebuild itself completely from scratch starting from square one using all available modern technology and knowledge?

You might get Greensburg, Kansas, which has recreated itself as a model of green efficiency and sustainability after a mile-wide tornado nearly wiped it away in 2007."

It's very encouraging. They repeated what was said two years ago that the town had been dwindling for decades. It took something like this to force the people and their leaders to think in a completely different way. The best news is that they didn't waste this opportunity. They are doing it right. They didn't just re-build. They are building differently.

Another thing to remember is that they didn't do it themselves. They have had outside help from the state federal government and from local and national businesses. They weren't just handed money (remember, you can't just throw money at a problem). There had to be planning and commitment. Hats off to the people of Greensburg.

Why am I here?

No, this isn't a great religious or philosophical question. It's what I sometimes say when I've just entered a room, "Now, why am I here?" In the few minutes it took to walk to the room, I've forgotten why I wanted to go there. As I've aged, I don't think these types of things are happening more often - I just worry more about them more. I wonder if I'm starting to get senile. I'll forget someone's name that I've known for years. I'll forget that I left the kettle on the stove heating water for tea or I'll put a box with cables and electronics in our basement, forget I put it there and blame my wife for throwing it away. I just chalk it up to getting older.

I heard a very interesting story on National Public Radio on the way into work this morning. It was encouraging in that it seems that research is showing that yes, some things decline in our brain as we age but some things actually get better. And we can help our brain out. The radio story, "The Grown-Up Brain: Sharper Than Once Thought", was an interview with Barbara Strauch who has written a book titled The Secret Life of The Grown-up Brain. In the book, she tells how scientists point out that while our brain may slow down as we age (like the rest of our body) it doesn't have to be an inevitable decline. There are things we can do to improve ourselves. And part of what seems to be forgetfulness is really just our being distracted because, after all, we have more on our minds now than we used to. When we were young, we didn't have to worry about our spouse, our children, our house and our jobs. We were lucky if we had one or more of those things.

On a blog I read, the author was writing about talking to himself and how it can be embarrassing. I wrote a comment to admit that I also talk to myself but part of the reason I do it is so that I will hear my own thoughts. That way, my thought is not only in my mind where it originated but now, since I just heard myself say it, it is in that other place in my brain reserved for things I've heard someone say. Right there I've doubled my chance of remembering the thought.

What an idea!

I was reading the paper at lunch today and one of the letters to the editor struck my fancy. The writer was commenting on the fact that the phone company, the cable provider and the electric power company were not being very responsive. For instance, after fixing a bad land line, the phone company ignored followup calls to bury the line so it wouldn't be damaged again. Also, the power company was going to be spraying herbicides along its lines in spite of requests not to do it (because it damaged neighboring vegetation). I know from personal experience that the cable company keeps raising rates while taking channels away. What can you do? Well, we're told that if the company won't cooperate, we can stop buying their product. But what if you need that product? What if there is no alternative? What if the only alternative (in the case of cable TV or phone service) is to switch to the other company which is just as bad? The companies, of course, try to please their customers and if you leave them, they will suffer.

That's not really true. Companies will only suffer if enough of the their customers leave or complain. If it's just a few of us, they can just ignore us. So, the letter writer ends with this (I've edited out a couple of things):

"Unfortunately, [these companies] have become too powerful, so powerful they have forgotten customers are supposed to come first. As an individual, I can't do much to change the way these companies behave, but [...] , if ordinary people like us unite, we have power."

What a great idea. We could all get together and make the companies acknowledge our requests. We couldn't all go there, like a mob, so we could get together and select people to talk for us. Maybe we could have a vote to select those people. Maybe, since things like this continue to happen, we could select the people to do this for a few years at a time. Maybe, since it will be time consuming to get all the facts straight and define reasoned arguments, the people we select should be paid. We could all chip in a little money and if enough of us do it, these people we select could afford to do this full time - like the companies we are dealing with. Let's come up with a name for it. Let's call it a government.

I don't know. The letter writer was probably being subtle. The letter writer probably assumed we would all recognize what he was describing. But when a non-subtle person like me reads the letter, he just can't help making a non-subtle blog posting about it.