The USA has much clean energy.  Better we are than most of the world.

I urge people on both "sides" of the clean energy issue to read the relevant and accurate data not just what confirms to some extent their side of the issue.

The trouble is, no matter if we are talking about energy or climate or taxation and yes, even transgender issues, people have a strong confirmation bias.  Lies on both sides will be propagated.  Emphasis will be given to events or data that support their side of the issue.

So little true critical thinking exists.  One has to want to see all sides, one has to truly wish to listen.

All well.

I would rather talk about fashion and hiking and travel and other things.  But, there is a place for good discourse on many things.  Makes life somewhat more interesting, don't ya think?

Chrissy

Quote from: Sephirah on August 09, 2025, 05:07:33 PMWe are approaching our fourth heatwave in the UK this year. It's kind of unprecedented and feels like every week we get the whole "Hottest since records began" speech. And over the last few years, every summer, half of Europe seems to be on fire. So I think we have to look at what we're doing to the planet and look for different options.

We are seeing record heat and extreme weather all over the planet. Long before Al Gore became VP, I found a webpage at NOAA's website. It tracked ocean buoys in real time. As a former Navy lass, you know what I am talking about. These buoys track sea level, water temperature, wind speed, and ocean currents. This data is compiled so that accurate weather forecasts can be made.

The webpage I found listed historical data going back about 100 years (or something). What the data showed was that the ocean temperatures warmed up just a fraction of 1 degree (F) over the past 20 years or so. (My memory is not good enough to recall exact numbers). People said that it was no big deal. What they missed was that the previous 20 years, the increase was even less, and 20 years before that, still less. It showed that the rate of warming was increasing (for whatever reason).

Another table showed that the ocean level rose at the same rate, correlating with the rate of warming. So the rate of ocean level rise was also increasing. This makes sense because warmer ocean water warms the air blowing across it, and glaciers start melting. Teams of experts went to Greenland, Alaska, Russia, and the poles and confirmed that the glaciers were melting. Glaciers hold most of the planet's fresh water.

Several years later, the term "Global Warming" was changed to "Climate Change" because people pointed to the data and the melting glaciers, and the "experts" (politicians) wanted it known that the climate warms and cools over a very long time. Millions of years.

But none of us will be around when it cools. In the meantime, we have heat waves, flash floods, wildfires, and air pollution that we have to deal with right now. As sea levels rise, coastal cities will be the first impacted. We are already seeing this.

I was having a discussion about this with my dad and went to pull up the webpage to show him the data. Error 404 Page Not Found. I did a Google search to try to locate where they stashed it. It was gone.

Can you spell C-O-V-E-R U-P? 

Quote from: Lori Dee on August 08, 2025, 09:58:08 PMI got them online. I am happy with them in general, but I left a scathing review on Amazon.

I very much enjoyed your review, Lori. I hope you're able to modify them so that they meet all of your requirements. There have been occasions when I've found it worthwhile to buy something that was *almost* what I wanted and then tweak it to get there. This may be the case for you withe these.

I've been burned a couple of times by those weird-named Chinese brands (and even straight-up counterfeit brand-name stuff) on Amazon, enough that I can't bring myself to buy any again. Like so many other things these days, it feels like one of those "too bad this has gone to hell; it used to be quite good" situations.

I don't want to clutter Lori's blog with political and semi-political content, but I do want to say that where I live hydroelectric dams have been demolished because they were generating more power than was being used. That drove down the cost of electricity, so the big utility companies weren't making enough money. Yes, removing them has benefited the environment in all of the ways expected and many that weren't, but ultimately the decision was agreed upon because the wealthy weren't making enough money.

There's a big push in the UK for homes to have photoelectric cells on the roofs. Solar power. I mean we have that giant, fiery ball in the sky... why not use it for something other than skin cancer? It usually comes down to money, Pema, you're right. And I don't think it's necessarily a political issue. It's just an issue. That, whatever your ideology, you can't really ignore when stuff catches on fire.

Oceans take longer to warm up because that's just the nature of how they are. But they hold the heat longer... and, worryingly, they contain most of the world's CO2, trapped at the bottom after the last ice age. When they get warmer, it gets released at an increasing rate.

The weird thing is, it would only take one huge supervolcanic eruption to send us all back into an ice age, lol. Dump a few billion tons of sulphur dioxide into the air... problem solved. How's Yellowstone looking these days?

Money and sex often seems to control many actions, and that can be quite unfortunate.


Unless that is not true, of course.

Morning funny, aka a comedy of errors.

We had a thunderstorm roll through last night with ping pong ball-sized hail. This morning, I turned on the local news to see how bad the storm was. Local news stations are prone to making small errors, some of which are quite funny.

After the weather segment, the news anchor said the next story coming up was about why two rattlesnakes had to be moved. They had the banner at the bottom of the screen that said, "Two Rattlesnakes Had To Be Moved". The video above the banner showed Trump and Putin shaking hands.

That made me laugh. I almost spit out my coffee. 

It turns out, the story was about two rattlesnakes that were being relocated to a remote area of the Garden of the Gods so they would not pose a threat to visitors to the park. After the commercial break, they showed the correct video of a Ranger moving the snakes.

I'm going to name those snakes "Trump" and "Putin". 

Lori,


Has all your rain stopped? 

Is all of your furniture repair work done?

Do you have everything setup at your new place?

Gotten use to the heat outside?

Meet with all the new health providers you needed to yet?

Found a great place to eat out?

Chrissy

@ChrissyRyan

Has all your rain stopped?  For now, yes. When it rains, it is very short and not the monsoonal downpours. We are getting out of the monsoon season by September.

Is all of your furniture repair work done? The repairman came out and confirmed that it was damaged during shipping. I called the store and left a message for the manager to give me an update. If I haven't heard from him by Wednesday, I will go to the store and kick over his trash can. His options are Repair, Replace, or Refund.

Do you have everything setup at your new place? Mostly. I just ordered a laserjet printer so that I can print documents that I will need next month for my visit to the DMV (driver's license and vehicle registration). As a disabled veteran (80% rating) my plates and registration are free, but I will have to pay state tax on the Jeep. Since it is 10+ years old, those taxes will be $3. I love Colorado. 

Gotten use to the heat outside? I have acclimatized quite a bit. It doesn't bother me as much anymore as long as I pay attention while working outside. I can tell when I am starting to overheat, so I quit and go inside to cool down. I am hoping to get out into the forest for some scouting of prospecting locations very soon.

Meet with all the new health providers you needed to yet? I had my therapist appointment for Sept. 3rd, but they had a cancellation and moved me up to Aug 22. Since this is my first appointment, I am at the VA's mercy about when I have appointments. Once I am an "established patient," they will transfer my records from South Dakota, and then they will be more flexible if I want to change something. After that, the driver's license on the 2nd, then I can get the vehicle registration done (must have the license first), then my first Endo appointment up in Aurora at the Regional VA Center. Somewhere in there, that should also set me up with a new Primary Care Physician, but I haven't heard anything about that from them yet.

Found a great place to eat out? I know a place on the north side of town. I don't eat out much, but today I had lunch with Jessica and some of her friends in Colorado Springs. It was great to meet these wonderful ladies.

Quote from: Lori Dee on August 10, 2025, 09:43:23 AMWe had a thunderstorm roll through last night with ping pong ball-sized hail.

That is wild. I have seen videos but we never get that in the UK. I only recently learned that hail and sleet are kind of different. Hail only happens in spring/summer, when ice forms around a bit of dust, and forms layers like plywood. We rarely get that here. What we call hail is just kind of sweetcorn sized ice chunks in winter. Actual hail is the Chuck Norris of destroying stuff.

Quote from: Sephirah on Yesterday at 05:28:58 PMThat is wild. I have seen videos but we never get that in the UK. I only recently learned that hail and sleet are kind of different. Hail only happens in spring/summer, when ice forms around a bit of dust, and forms layers like plywood. We rarely get that here. What we call hail is just kind of sweetcorn sized ice chunks in winter. Actual hail is the Chuck Norris of destroying stuff.

The ice chunks form when rain falls through freezing air and chills the drop into ice. Hail is the same thing, but the air currents toss it back up in the air. Then, as it falls, more ice collects, and then it gets thrown back up again. This process repeats until the hailstone is too heavy for the air current and gravity just pulls to to the ground. Sometimes with considerable force.

Spring and Summer storms are more likely to produce rain (versus snow). If the air is very cold up high, the rain freezes, then melts slightly on its way down. Then gets tossed back up into the cold and freezes. Each trip causes it to collect more wet rain, which then freezes, making the stone bigger.

These are the same air currents that cause tornadoes. In the hailstorm, the cyclone rotates horizontally, which causes falling things to get pulled back up into the atmosphere. In a tornado, that vortex is vertical instead of horizontal.

Mhm, you folks have some fierce updrafts and wind shear that make everything kind of nasty. Makes the storm rotate vertically because slightly destructive isn't quite enough!

Quote from: Sephirah on Yesterday at 05:44:55 PMbecause slightly destructive isn't quite enough!

We have more land to destroy. 
If we were just a small island, heavy rain would be enough. 

You might be interested in this, Lori. Was kind of a big deal back in the day...



Was a really big deal back in the day, in the UK. Probably the biggest deal we've had before and since.

@Lori Dee
Dear Lori:

I am "certain" that you are aware....

    Pueblo, Colorado Pride Parade
    August 17, 2025, 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM (10:30 AM – 4:30 PM MST)
              Mineral Palace Plaza, Santa Fe Blvd, Pueblo, Colorado


HUGS, Danielle

Quote from: Northern Star Girl on Yesterday at 07:54:09 PM@Lori Dee
Dear Lori:

I am "certain" that you are aware....

    Pueblo, Colorado Pride Parade
    August 17, 2025, 9:30 AM – 3:30 PM (10:30 AM – 4:30 PM MST)
              Mineral Palace Plaza, Santa Fe Blvd, Pueblo, Colorado


HUGS, Danielle

I have it on my calendar. The parade is at 10:30 am, then the festivities continue until 4:30 pm. There will be music, food, and vendors. I am going to try to go, as it will be my first Pride Parade. I'm mostly interested in doing some shopping and supporting the vendors that come out to celebrate.