The Phoenix area might not have snow or hot-cocoa weather on Christmas Eve, but one thing the Valley does have to get people into the Christmas mood is the Festival of Lights annual holiday display in the Ahwatukee Foothills. In early 2007, the 20-year tradition was threatened with darkness after a series of thefts left the nonprofit organization in need of new generators. The challenge remained, however, to find a reliable and efficient way to continually power the display’s 1 million white lightbulbs. Dan Jones, a retired IBM employee, immediately had a solution. He thought of his invention, born out of necessity in the hills of upstate New York and utilized for eight years at his home there – – a mobile solar-powered generator. ‘I said to one of my investors, ‘why don’t they just use a mobile solar generator?” says Jones, ‘and the next thing I know she contacted them, and they were interested.’ Jones then began work on an updated replica of the mobile solar- powered generator he built originally in 1999. The unit uses the same technology found in rooftop photovoltaic solar panels. An internal battery stores excess electricity produced when […]
PARIS — There is both growing public reluctance to make personal sacrifices and a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the major international efforts now underway to battle climate change, according to findings of a poll of 12,000 citizens in 11 countries, including Canada. Results of the poll were released this week in advance of the start of a major international conference in Poland where delegates are considering steps toward a new international climate-change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. There already are reports emerging that some countries, such as coal-dependent Poland, are pushing for special treatment to avoid making major commitments to slash carbon emissions during a global economic downturn. Less than half of those surveyed, or 47 per cent, said they were prepared to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions, down from 58 per cent last year. Only 37 per cent said they were willing to spend ‘extra time’ on the effort, an eight-point drop. And only one in five respondents – or 20 per cent – said they’d spend extra money to reduce climate change. That’s down from 28 per cent a year ago. The Canadian […]
WHEATLAND, Wyo. — The man who came to Elsie Bacon’s ranch house door in July asked the 71-year-old widow to grant access to a right of way across the dry hills and short grasses of her land here. Ms. Bacon remembered his insistence on a quick, secret deal. The man, a representative of the Little Rose Wind Farm of Boulder, Colo., sought an easement for a transmission line to carry his company’s wind-generated electricity to market. His offer: a fraction of the value of similar deals in the area. As Ms. Bacon, 71, recalled it: ‘He said, ‘You sure I can’t write you out a check?’ He was really pushy. A quiet land rush is under way among the buttes of southeastern Wyoming, and it is changing the local rancher culture. The whipping winds cursed by descendants of the original homesteaders now have real value for out-of-state developers who dream of wind farms or of selling the rights to bigger companies. But as developers descend upon the area, drawing comparisons to the oil patch ‘land men in the movie ‘There Will Be Blood, the ranchers of Albany, Converse and Platte Counties are rewriting the old script. […]
BAGHDAD — In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation’s history as the man who ended the American occupation. He took the mantle of a nationalist in televised remarks Thursday night after the pact he helped broker passed parliament by a landslide 149-35 vote. ‘We have gotten an important achievement by signing the withdrawal agreement for the foreign troops from Iraq and bringing back its sovereignty,’ he said. That’s a major role change for Maliki, who came to power in 2006 as a sectarian Shiite lawmaker propped up by a tenuous coalition of political blocs. He has taken an increasingly assertive role as Iraq’s leader since March, when he launched a military offensive in Basra against Shiite militias loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr. Maliki put his fingerprints all over the U.S. security agreement, condemning early drafts as unsatisfactory to telegraph his toughness to the Iraqi people in the spring and summer. He changed course and endorsed the deal only two weeks ago, when he said the […]
There was something peculiar about dolphins that stumped prolific British zoologist Sir James Gray in 1936. He had observed the sea mammals swimming at a swift rate of more than 20 miles per hour, but his studies had concluded that the muscles of dolphins simply weren’t strong enough to support those kinds of speeds. The conundrum came to be known as ‘Gray’s Paradox. For decades the puzzle prompted much attention, speculation, and conjecture in the scientific community. But now, armed with cutting-edge flow measurement technology, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have tackled the problem and conclusively solved Gray’s Paradox. ‘Sir James was certainly on to something, and it took nearly 75 years for technology to bring us to the point where we could get at the heart of his paradox, said Timothy Wei, professor and acting dean of Rensselaer’s School of Engineering, who led the project. ‘But now, for the first time, I think we can safely say the puzzle is solved. The short answer is that dolphins are simply much stronger than Gray or many other people ever imagined. Wei is presenting his findings today at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
