More on Green Tech...
As you, the reader, have already concluded, I am not a technical guy
Smoke and Fire
The camp fire over in Butte county is now fully contained, but has become the deadliest fire in California history. Although the investigation is still in the preliminary stages, there is some speculation that an arcing PG&E power line during a high wind event may have been the culprit. The greater question is how could the fire grow to such monumental proportions in such a short time. I do know that heavy winter rains encourage lush vegetative growth and then when the dry season comes, the heavy growth dies off leaving very dry brush that will ignite instantly under the right circumstances. Climate change may be a major factor.
I don't think there is much doubt that there have been significant shifts in climate worldwide, but nobody seems to know what change is in store. Some experts say global temperatures are warming and there may be some evidence of that with shrinking glaciers and ice caps. See this for your dose of doom porn.
Others say we may be on the verge of a mini ice age as a result of what is termed a grand solar minimum.
Although the jury is still out with regard to causation, the correlation seems to be there. The current consensus among climate scientists regarding the last mini ice age is that the cause was increased volcanic activity. The electric universe model provides an interesting explanation about volcanic activity
"Large 'telluric currents' have been found circulating through Earth's crust because our magnetic field induces current flow in conductive strata. Thousands of amperes flow beneath the surface, varying according to conductivity. Since the Sun can affect Earth's magnetic field through geomagnetic storms, fluctuations in telluric currents can occur when there is an increase in sunspots or solar flares, because they create oscillations in the ionosphere."
Who knows? What I do know is that this past summer here has been on the cool side, but also dry. Our tomato crop, which usually does well has been disappointing as tomatoes require good heat to flourish. Not so this year, but admittedly its a tough call since other parts of the country have experienced record heat. There may be many things happening simultaneously which has resulted in unusual weather globally.
Meanwhile, back at home, the rains have finally started to everyone's relief. Things are greening up and I am hoping the peas, carrots, beets, spinach and onions we have planted will winter okay. We have had a few days of light frost in the mornings, but thus far they seem to handling the weather okay. Onion shoots have been nice to have with our breakfast pallack paranthas.
Mmm...
Tags: climate-change, wild-fires, food
Taking the Plunge
Yes, I still maintain that Gopher is the simplest and most efficient protocol when it comes to the learning curve and power consumption, however I did find a very simple blogging tool called Bashblog which is just a 500 line bash script. It's elegant simplicity convinced me it might be worth the effort. The learning curve was relatively shallow in that I had to learn a little Markdown:
Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax. It is designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor.
I'm glad someone came up with a simple text processing language for the mere mortals. Being a boring person myself, I don't mind reading plain text, but I suspect many readers would like some visual elements and not have to copy and paste urls to just look at an image. Alright, enough blabber.
Meanwhile back at the ranch
The smoke from the fire over in Butte county was so thick, we were not able to do any work in the garden. As I am writing this, 23 are dead and the fire has grown to 109,000 acres. A horrific fire by any measure. We have just stayed indoors and kept the air filter going. Although Butte county is way over on the other side of the central valley, a high pressure system has been bringing the smoke into the north Bay counties. Ask any fire fighter and they will tell you in no uncertain terms that this is climate change at work. Just a few weeks saw the largest fire in California history just on the other side of the county from us. The Guardian has a grim piece about the fires and what the future holds. I have learned to pay attention to the surroundings and keep a close eye on the Cal Fire news updates. I'm sure everyone will breath a sigh of relief when the long awaited rains finally come.
Unfortunately, there is no rain in sight and the forecast is not promising. The persistent smoke has obscured the sunlight which has resulted in cooler than normal temperatures . The last few mornings have seen a layer of frost on the deck which, for our part of the country, is a bit unusual for November.
Stay tuned...
Tags: climate-change, computing