Father Time

My Facebook Posts

2008-10-24T14:17:00.000-04:00

Not much activity here lately, eh? That's because I've been spending more and more time on Facebook, posting lots of items there. You can see some of my stuff by subscribing to this feed, if you're interested.

Carl

2008-10-12T23:52:00.001-04:00

My friend for the past 45 years, Carl in Michigan, passed away suddenly this morning, after bravely fighting brain cancer all summer. Carl and I attended the same grammar school, high school and were college roommates. He was best man at our wedding, and I was his (twice). We spent a summer in high school working together at Yellowstone Park, and we were re-visiting there with him and Yvonne in September 2001 when the 9/11 attacks occurred, stranding us for another three days on vacation. Can't believe he's gone.

Quote du jour

2008-10-09T20:41:00.002-04:00

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

-Cicero, 55 B.C.

Cleaner way to drink from the seas

2008-10-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

Besides windmills, another good idea for an offshore operation is to locate desalination plants on older ships that would operate off the coast. One company plans on having a ship operational in about a year, providing clean water at costs comparable to land-based desalination plants, but without the typical environmental problems.

World Focus

2008-10-07T18:29:00.004-04:00

By chance, I happened to tune in to my local PBS station last night just as a brand new program, World Focus, was making its debut. It looks like something that's been long needed. From their web site:

Worldfocus responds to the mainstream media�s diminished coverage of international news. All the major networks have closed foreign bureaus and cut resources for international news coverage, which amounted to just 8 percent of all American news coverage last year.

By partnering with international news organizations, Worldfocus fills the void in international news coverage and informs American viewers about the relevance of international events. The nightly news program and Web site report on events from around the world and cover the stories that don�t always make the headlines.

Another excellent source for news, worth checking out, is The American News Project.

Nearly 1 million NJ homes will be wind-powered

2008-10-05T23:13:00.003-04:00

That's the plan by 2020, and the first installment of the massive offshore project was just awarded a few days ago. A $4 million wind energy grant was awarded to Garden State Offshore Energy to construct 96 wind turbines 16 miles off the coast of Cape May County, providing power for 125,000 homes, with the first power generation taking place by 2012.

Chevy Volt Now $7500 Less

2008-10-03T14:15:00.000-04:00

As part of the financial rescue package the House just passed, there's now a tax credit in effect for plug-in automobiles, to help that technology get off the ground.

This provision provides a tax credit for buyers of plug-in electric vehicles. It provides a base of $2500 plus an additional $417 per kwh for batteries greater than 4 kwh. For the Chevy Volt, that works out to $7500 per car, a number GM had lobbied for.

The credit will be applied to the first 250,000 plug-in cars sold in the US and will be phased out to 50% for the following two quarters, and 25% for the two quarters after that before ending.

The Chevy Volt is scheduled for release 25 months from now, in November 2009.

Picasa3

2008-10-01T17:40:00.000-04:00

I've long been very impressed with Picasa version 2, Google's photo editor and web album package, but the changes that were introduced with version 3 a few weeks ago are amazing. That the developers have been working for years on this release is very evident -- easy-to-use, easy-to-find, well-thought-out features everywhere. You can read about the new Picasa 3 on the Google Photos Blog. And yes, it's all free! Picasa itself can be downloaded from this page.

Intensifying the sun

2008-09-29T14:37:00.000-04:00

Another advance in solar energy is being developed. This video with MIT researcher Marc Baldo is probably a good starting place, demonstrating how a solar collecting plate bends light rays by 90 degrees, concentrating the light on the edges of the plate, where the collectors are positioned. Gathering the light from a larger area and focusing it onto a smaller (and therefore cheaper) amount of photovoltaic material is the key. It's estimated this may result in a 40% increase in performance over current solar collector technology. More information and links about how and when this technology might hit the market can be found on this page.

Galveston photos

2008-09-23T15:51:00.000-04:00

Here's an amazing collection of photos demonstrating the destruction caused by Hurricane Ike. [Thanks, David]

Quote du jour

2008-09-21T21:29:00.002-04:00

I'm very happy to have hit the first home run in this stadium. God only knows who will hit the last.

-Babe Ruth, following the first game in Yankee Stadium, 1923

85 years later, now we know too: Catcher Jose Molina

Quote du jour

2008-09-20T07:40:00.001-04:00

It's a very strange political campaign. Out on the campaign trail, John McCain and Sarah Palin are talking about how they stood up to the Republican Party, they fought the Republican establishment, and they battled Republicans. Their message: vote Republican.

--Jay Leno

Happy 100th to GM

2008-09-17T15:38:00.000-04:00

General Motors officially unveiled the upcoming Chevy Volt, along with videos photos of the interior and exterior.

Here's an interesting chart...

2008-09-17T12:54:00.000-04:00

...comparing the effects of the two candidates' tax plans. [Thanks, Deanna]

Large Hadron Rap

2008-09-11T22:55:00.000-04:00

Your physics lesson for the day, in rap: click here. (Lyrics are available here.) [Thanks, Mace]

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

2008-09-10T12:09:00.000-04:00

If you're not sure, you can always check the latest status of the world at this site:
http://HasTheLargeHadronColliderDestroyedTheWorldYet.com/

Offshore wind farms may line US coast

2008-09-09T23:01:00.001-04:00

If offshore wind advocates have their way, scores of 140-foot blades will be spinning in the ocean breeze nearly a dozen miles [off the Delaware coast], barely visible to the sunbathers.

(Now, if we can just get Congress to prevent the renewable energy tax credit from expiring yet again...)

It's "time for some campaignin'"

2008-09-02T16:10:00.001-04:00

Try JibJab Sendables� eCards today!

Google enters the browser wars today

2008-09-02T14:10:00.002-04:00

Google Chrome is the newest entry to the list of browsers, and from the full description available in comic book form, it's a very different browser from what we've seen before, with a cleaner interface, designed for fast and secure execution, and of course open source. It sounds like what you'd expect a Google browser to look like! Visit www.google.com/chrome to download and start exploring.

Cellular extreme makeover

2008-08-29T09:57:00.001-04:00

According to Harvard biologists, a new technique could offer alternative to drugs and stem cell therapies for treating chronic diseases and afflictions without the controversy of using embryonic stem cells. Sounds extremely promising for the future of medicine.

A surprising find about magnesium sulfate

2008-08-27T23:51:00.001-04:00

The amazing results of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health show that ordinary Epsom salts reduce the chance of cerebral palsy in premature newborns by 50%.

Congrats to Facebook

2008-08-26T22:34:00.001-04:00

An entry from their blog today:

We hit a big milestone today -- 100 million people around the world are now using Facebook. This is a really gratifying moment for us because it means a lot that you have decided that Facebook is a good, trusted place for you to share your lives with your friends. So we just wanted to take this moment to say, "thanks."

We spend all our time here trying to build the best possible product that enables you to share and stay connected, so the fact that we're growing so quickly all over the world is very rewarding. Thanks for all your support and stay tuned for more great things in the future.

Animating the human face

2008-08-26T22:03:00.001-04:00

The science/art of animating human facial expressions has made some recent advances, as demonstrated in the video clip embedded on this page. It looks more realistic than anything I've seen to date, though it still makes me do double-takes. There's something still not quite right in the details, but it's definitely getting closer. Interesting stuff.

California dreamin'

2008-08-25T00:32:00.002-04:00

We traveled with friends Susan & Mike and Marge & Frank to the San Francisco area last week and crammed in lots of fun side trips and activities; it had been at least 15 years since Veronica and I had visited northern California. Here's a mini-slide show album:

To see the full-sized pictures and 30-second video clips, use the Slideshow button on this page. You can override the speed of the slideshow by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to go forward or backward.

The video clips are about 30 seconds eash, and should start playing automatically when you reach them in the show.

Press the Escape key to exit the slide show.

Think we already know all there is to know?

2008-08-20T01:30:00.001-04:00

Perhaps it would be best to review these ten greatest Solar System mysteries to review just a little bit of what we still do not know, in just the field of astronomy.