Buzillions and no two the same

Snowflakes are one of earths tiny miracles. They are formed from a clear liquid and turn into a six sided clear crystal that is light enough to fall from a great height without breaking. When enough of them arrive on the ground they collectively form a white blanket. This blanket is an essential part of the system that regulates the earths temperature. So while an individual snowflake may not be very important life on earth depends on all snowflakes working together to do what they do. Like bees and many of natures other miracles we humans can learn a lot from them when it comes to working together.

Canadian arctic Dec. 11. 2009

This picture was taken by a European Space Agency satellite high over northern Canada. At the bottom of the picture you can see parts of Nunavut. The water is Fox Basin which is a sallow extension of the Atlantic ocean between Baffin Island and Nunavut. Nunavut was the former eastern portion of the North West Territories.

This area is now the subject of intensive research due to the fears that the arctic ocean ice is melting and that if this happens the global climate with be adversely effected.

The Preussen

This (second picture) was the largest cargo sailing ship ever. It traveled between Germany and Chile. This trip took between 58 and 79 days. So on the fastest trip the Preussen averaged 13.7 kts without a motor. It was launched in 1902 and destroy when it was run into by another ship in 1910.





The colored picture is of the Eugen Maersk. This ship is currently the largest and fastest cargo ship. It is 1300 feet long and can cruise at 26 kts but it never does. Due to fuel costs the ship is restricted to 10kts, considerably slower than the Preussen. Even at this speed the Eugen Maersk uses 150 tons of fuel a day and produces the amount of pollution produced by millions of cars.

So it seems to be time to return to the days of sail.

A mistake for 80 years!

The Flapper Skate was miscategorized over 80 years ago. That has meant that this fish and a similar looking fish have been caught for seafood in the North Sea for many years. Only recently have scientists discovered that there are two distinct species of fish. Unfortunately there are far fewer Flapper Skates than the other type of Skate. This problem was recognized in 2006 but it took a long time to protect the Flapper Skate and now it may be too late. It is considered entirely depleted from its natural ocean area and may become extinct. This is the worlds largest skate and it is hoped that the fish can survive although it will probably never be the common fish it once was.

Boys and Girls??

A recent study out of Denmark has shown that young children are at risk from a wide array of "gender bending" chemicals. These chemicals are found in thousands of items from rubber boots, disposable diapers, food, sunscreen, cosmetics, laundry products, household cleaners, etc. etc.

The official 326 page Danish report shows that this chemical cocktail is driving down sperm counts and "feminizing" boys in the so called 'developed world'. The researchers found that young boys could be at "critical risk" from just a few exposures to high levels from rubber clogs, food or sunscreens. Also implicated are dioxins, PVC, flame retardants and phthalates, which are widely used to soften plastics. A study of umbilical cords from British mothers found that every one tested contained hazardous chemicals.

Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls. Now the number of boys is dropping and in some countries more girls are born than boys. In parts of Canada, that are contaminated with higher levels of chemicals, far more girls are born than boys.

Tires, tires, tires!!!

Many of the impacts on our environment from the automobile are never included in the purchase price of a vehicle. This is the way our system works. Huge costs are incurred in many areas and they are never considered. For example gasoline is currently about $1 a liter. The actual cost is over $2 a liter and that price does not include the horrific price that will surely emerge if global heating does what it is forecast to do.

So we need to change the price of things so that we pay the real price and this could only be done by governments. A tax could be applied to make every price more realistic and that tax could be used to pay for the cost of fixing the damage that item caused. Unfortunately governments do not work to protect our environment. On the contrary they actively work to damage the environment and the basic reason for that is that the men, usually men, who run governments are greedy and shortsighted. We will continue to witness less diversity and more environmental degradation until voters choose politicians that demonstrate more wisdom.

Cars, cars, cars!!

Here we have just one car lot, this one for Volkswagen, in the United States. There are an estimated 10,000 cars here but in America there are approximately 500,000,000 vehicles for 330,000,000 people. That works out to more than 1 and 1/2 vehicles for every man woman and child. Imagine a parking lot 50,000 times as big as this one.
America imports about 12,000,000 barrels of oil a DAY to keep these vehicles going. Not so long ago America was the worlds largest oil EXporter.
Ford produced a Lincoln in 1997 that got 7 miles per gallon and all the big car companies including Toyota produce cars and trucks that are much bigger than anyone needs. However building cars is not about what people need it is about what people think they want. If the worlds most credible scientists are right people are soon going to want cars that use no oil.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

A large area in the Pacific ocean has been identified as the 'graveyard' for plastic. When plastic of all kinds is thrown in this ocean some of it eventually drifts to this area and stays there due to the ocean currents. Over time it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces but this is not the end of the problem. The smaller pieces just affect smaller creatures in negative ways. The UNEP estimates that 90% of all pollution floating in the oceans is plastic.
The second picture shows some of the plastic stopped by a net in the Los Angles river. This net is regularly cleaned out but most rivers do not have a net to catch plastic.
I was on a nice sandy beach in Trinidad not too long ago and the beach itself was invisible. All you could see, and walk on, was discarded plastic.
Some potential health problems for people using plastic have recently come to light so whenever possible avoid buying plastic. Use glass, china, wood, wax paper or ceramics instead.

Worlds dirtiest coastal ecosystem.

The University of California did a study that showed that the Mississippi delta was the worlds most contaminated coastal area. The contamination results from the chemical runoff from thousands of large farms that rely on artificial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. The pollution from thousand of businesses as well as millions of people who live along this great river is also dumped into the river. This has resulted in the largest "dead zone" in which marine life cannot survive.
Due to these chemicals this coastline is more polluted than the coastlines near the Mekong or the Ganges rivers. In any case the cost of this environmental disaster is greater than the cost of cleaning up the pollution. This fundamental fact regarding pollution is ignored in our society because we do not count the cost of pollution when we create it.

Yemen may be the first.

The first country to run out of water, that is. Yemen has always been a dry country that relied on wells for water. In the Sanaa basin water could once be found at 20 meters. Now a well must be 200 meters deep to find water. In the capital, which is also called Sanaa the authorities expect that the ground water will run out within 10 years. This problem is exacerbated by all the people who are moving into the city because they are running out of water in the country. Yemen also has one of the worlds highest population growth rates, 3.5% per year. Because Yemen is a poor country they can not afford a desalination plant to make fresh water from sea water. If Yemen cuts the amount of water that irrigation provides to crops the country will have to import more food. Yemen has some difficult choices to make in the years ahead.

River runs dry.

The Ewaso Nyiro river in Kenya has run dry. It is the light brown channel in the picture. This is a result of a drought that has gone on for almost a year. The May thu June rains were much less than normal and now the river has been dry for 6 months. Elephants as well as many other animals have died as a result of this drought. 3.8 million people are being fed by various relief efforts. If the rain in November and December also fail the situation here will become much more serious.

Photopollution is everywhere.

Human made night time lighting is usually considered to be very useful. Unfortunately there are many negative effects, particularly for animals but also for people.

Some of those negative effects were first noticed over 150 years ago when birds ran into lighthouses. 20 years ago it was discovered that baby turtles cannot find their way to the ocean if artificial lights confuse them. Birds are also killed by the thousands when they run into tall buildings that leave their lights on all night.

Research has also shown that women who work at night or who do not get enough darkness produce less melatonin and this can contribute to increased breast cancer. If your daytime/nighttime rhythm, which is called your circadian rhythm is disrupted by a lack of dark sleep on a regular basis you are more likely to have insomnia, depression and other problems such as cardiovascular disease.

It has been estimated that needless night time lighting wastes 32 million barrels of oil or 9 million tons of coal in the US each year.

Some towns have reduced this needless lighting and made their towns more desirable in the process. Stowe, Vermont specifies what kind of outdoor lighting may be installed, they do not allow internally lit signage, sodium vapor lights or any lights higher than 16 feet. It has made a real difference and is one of the reasons that Stowe remains such a desirable area.

Needless outdoor lighting is one simple thing that many of us can do to improve our own environment.

Yum, more 'Mucus blobs'!!

These 'mucus blobs' are showing up more often in the eastern Mediterranean sea. Usually along a coast line and in warmer water. Now they even occur during the winter and they are getting bigger, sometimes stretching for over 100 kms.

Just why these blobs form is not really known but it is known that they contain viruses and E coli and can contaminate the beach sand when they dry out. Even large fish can be smothered by the blobs and large blogs can sink thereby smothering the sea floor animals.

Recent studies have shown that the blobs are spreading and have also been found near Australia. Beware of the blob and this time it's real!

A free windmill.

William Kamkwamba desperately needed water to grow food for his family in Malawi. He could not pump or carry it by hand so he built this windmill for free. He had an old school text that showed a windmill and a nearby junk yard where he found pieces of metal he could use. It was difficult for him to build because he didn't even have a drill to make holes but he got it finished and it worked.
Because this was such an unusual project he was selected to go back to school. He had dropped out of school when he was 15 because he parents could not afford the fees. He has since started a club he calls the 'Doers' and he hopes they will be able to do something useful in the future.

1380 kilometers per hour in 1791!!

The optical telegraph was an important but now largely forgotten means of communication. It was invented by the Frenchman Claude Chappe and quickly spread over much of Europe. It consisted of towers 5 to 20 kms apart with a mechanical semaphore system and a telescope. An operator would sit in the tower and simultaneously receive and send visual signals from an adjacent tower.

The first line of towers was built between Paris and Lille during the French revolution, close to the frontline. It was 230 kilometres long and consisted of 15 semaphore operators. The very first message – a military victory over the Austrians – was transmitted in less than half an hour. In less than 50 years time the French built a national infrastructure with more than 530 towers and a total length of almost 5,000 kilometres, see the map picture. Other countires quickly copied the system but they were not usually connected because Europe was a region that was often at war. In a little over 50 years the sytem was finished. The electrical telegraph with morse code was introduced and this proved to be more reliable, cheaper to construct and faster. It is interesting to remember that the optical system worked well without wires or energy. Something that can not be said for the internet.

Dust storms around the world.

Here in western Canada we don't think we have dust storms but that is not quite true. The Sahara desert is the birth place of the largest dust storms and sometimes this dust goes twice around the world. So the whole world gets dust from these storms.

As you can see from the pictures these storms can ruin your day. They also remove millions of tons of topsoil because the topsoil is the lightest type of dust. The cause huge cleaning bills in areas where the dust is bad. They can transmit viruses over long distances. They are hard on machinery and other mechanical devices, like computers and they are increasing world wide.

The bottom pictures shows Australia where dust storms have increased significantly over the past decade. Sydney Australia had two serious dust storms in the last month. Visibility in the city at that time was less than one mile.

China has had more dust storms and these are blamed on poor forestation and farming practices in large parts of China.

In spite of this increase in storms governments around the world still promote the cutting of forests while doing little to reforest newly created deserts.

The worlds largest???

OK, this is the worlds largest ??

A hint, it is part of something that weights 2,200 metric tons.

Neat buildings

Architecture often the design of buildings and there are many interesting designs. Here are a few very different ones. Often buildings are unusual or special when the people doing the building have a lot of money.

The first building is the head office if ING, a Dutch bank.

The second picture is a library parking garage which is covered with large books. They may have to change this in the future if books change to an electronic format.

The last picture is a gallery in Germany with an upside down house stuck on to the top of it.

There are many neat buildings and architecture would be a very interesting career.

Funiculaire de Montmartre

This was a train in Paris France that operated without an engine and without energy. It carried over one million passengers per year and operated between 1900 and 1930.

The system was very simple, very reliable and very safe but with the introduction of cheap energy the authorities decided to do away with something that was impossible to improve on.

There were many trains like this and they all operated in the same way. There were two cars, when one went up the hill the other car went down. In this way most of the energy was provided by one car pulling the other. But extra energy was needed to overcome friction and other energy losses. Therefore the car that was going down carried water equal to the passenger load being carried. This helped gravity and only gravity was used to move both the cars. There were brakes on the cars if they went too fast. When the top car got to the bottom they would empty the water and add water to the other car at the top. So this train was operated only by gravity and it worked great.

Pretty neat eh? and pollution free!!

The World Bank again!!

The World Bank is spending billions of dollars subsidising new coal-fired power plants in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change.

Although the number of coal fired power plants has slowed in the more prosperous countries many more are being built in poorer countries. China, to name just one country, is building one new coal fired power plant every week.

It is no wonder that global atmospheric carbon levels continue to increase. Not only are they increasing they are increasing at an ever greater rate. There is a growing scientific consensus that the atmosphere level of CO2 must not exceed 350 ppm. Currently it is 385.92 and increasing about 2ppm per year. That means that in 50 years the level could be almost 500 ppm and every atmospheric scientist agrees that this will be a disaster for planet earth.

Wherever man goes he messes up!

These are computer generated images of space junk. 19,000 objects, 10 cm or larger that no longer serve a useful purpose in space. Of course none of these existed before man first launched things into space. Running into a piece of space junk can be deadly as these pieces are traveling very quickly and can punch a hole in a space ship.

In the first picture which shows high earth orbit, a distinct line can be seen abut 40,000 kms out from the earth. This is the place where satellites can remain stationary over a spot on the earths surface. Of course they are not stationary as they spin around the earth as quickly as the earth rotates.

In the second picture the space junk in a low earth orbit are shown. This is much more congested than the high earth orbit. Not so long ago two satellites collided and both were destroyed. Satellites have also been moved to avoid running into a piece of space junk.

So it is crazy but humans pollute everywhere they go, including space.

Super Typhoon Choi-Wan

Hurricanes are called typhoons in the far east. This one is one of the biggest ever. A category 5 storm, the strongest rating, with sustained winds of 260 kph or 160 mph. Because it is located over the north west Pacific ocean it has not generated much public interest. If it was going to hit Florida it would be big news world wide.

It is expected that these storms will become stronger as ocean temperatures increase due to global warming.

Worlds largest navy is unknown.

Off the coast of Singapore is the worlds largest fleet of ships. They have no crews, no cargo and no destination.

They are parked here because of the global recession that governments around the world would rather that you ignore.

The rates for shipping have declined drastically in the last 10 months. Back then it used to cost about $50,000 a day to charter a 80,000 ton ship now it is about $6,000 a day.

The number of ships joining this fleet continue to expand and is now over 500. While shipping declines by 8% a year new ships that equal 12% of global capacity are still being built . That means that the surplus of ships is growing due to orders that were placed up to 3 years ago.

The Baltic Dry Index measures all this and this shows that global shipping is still in decline and the global economy cannot improve if this is the case.

Annapurna 1

This is a view of Annapurna 1 taken from the north. This mountain is the 10th highest on our planet but has the worse climbing fatality rate. 40% of the people who have tried to climb this mountain have died in the attempt. This totals over 60 climbers 5 of which have just disappeared, never to be seen again. Most of the deaths were caused by avalanches which are very common on this mountain.
The mountain which has the dubious distinction of having the second highest fatality rate is K2. K2 is the worlds second highest mountain but does not have so many avalanches. Serious climbing like this is probably the worlds most dangerous activity and certainly the worlds most dangerous sport.

Stick charts

These may look like simple stick decorations but they had a much more serious purpose.

The Polynesians were spread out over thousands of islands in the central and southern Pacific ocean. They were master navigators who made their way over this vast expanse of empty ocean without any of the navigation aids we associate with navigation.

This was only possible because they were keenly aware of the ocean, winds, weather and stars and they used that knowledge to determine which way to go. Individual navigators made 'stick charts' using cowrie shells to represent islands, thin strips of palm fronds displayed the routes and wave patterns. These charts were not taken on these long voyages but the navigator memorized what he needed to know. This knowledge was passed on to others on the voyages and it took many years of experience to become a master navigator. Some of these voyages have been duplicated in recent years but like many of the skills that previous generations perfected the art of navigating by listening to the environment is mostly lost in Polynesia.

CCD, Coloney collapse disorder

In 2007 honey bees suffered from the worst fatality rate ever known. In many case over 50% of the bees died whereas 20 years ago less than 10% was normal. In the last two years the reasons for CCD have become better known and it turns out that there are a number of causes. Mites are a bigger problem. The bees are more stressed due to their higher workload and this makes them more vulnerable to viruses. Some colonies have three viruses and this makes the stressed bees less likely to survive. The bees nutritional health has deteriorated and this means that the bees are less able to fight the problems that may come their way.
As a result of CCD beekeepers are now taking better care of their bees and their health is improving. In the last two years the winter loss rate has been about 35 and 30 percent. Not good but getting better. Pesticides are also a factor and obviously this is something bees did not have to deal with before the introduction of pesticides. Another factor that was covered in a recent post is the vast part of North America that is now paved or built on. Obviously bees cannot survive in a concrete jungle.
There are two things that many people can do to help the bees. Plant lots of flowers and stop using pesticides. The research is incomplete but the wild bees have also been seriously affected by the deteriorating environment that we hmans have caused.

Fastest human ever

On July 6, 2006, 'Fast Freddie' Markhan pedaled 53.43 miles in one hour to set a new worlds speed record for human powered travel. Fast Freddie was the first person to travel 50, 60 and 65 miles per hour using muscle power alone and Fast Freddie was almost 50 years old at the time.

The picture shows his bike and the bike in the background is the same kind of bike without the cover on. As you can see it is a very aerodynamic bike and the reason Fast Freddie was so fast.

First full pressure suit.

This pressure suit was designed and built by Spanish Colonel Don Emilio Herrera Linares in 1934 and 1935. He was going to use it in an open balloon which he want to fly into the stratosphere. This would have been higher than any one else had flown at that time. This effort was canceled when the Spanish Civil War started in 1936. Although this war was a disaster for millions of people it may have save the colonel's life as many things could have gone wrong on his planned flight.

Pavement, lotsa pavement.

Roads and payment in North America total about 100,000,000 acres. This is about 90,000 times more than greater Vancouver. Not only was a huge amount of energy used to create all this paved land but an even larger amount of energy is used move cars and trucks along this pavement.

With this money a very efficient train system could have been built using about 20% of the land and energy we use today. This train system would not only be much more efficient but it would also be much faster. In many large cites the commuting car traffic is actually slower than horses were before the car was invented.

So it is a great shame that the leadership in many countries has so little vision and so frequently make such poor long term decisions. Here in British Columbia the government has announced that it will replace a bridge with a new 10 lane bridge at a cost of almost $4 billion. Or as Everett Dirksen was supposed to have said, "A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking real money."

The leaning tower of Pisa and its bells

This is the Assunta bell at the top of the Tower of Pisa. It was cast in 1654 by Giovanni Pietro Orlandi and weights 3,620 kg or 7,981 lbs. It is one of 7 bells at the top of the tower and together they weigh 10,496 kgs or 23,091 lbs. Originally the tower took 177 years to build usually because wars interrupted construction which began in 1173. Donna Berta di Bernardo, a widow and resident of the house of dell'Opera di Santa Maria got the tower construction started in 1172 when she gave sixty coins to purchase some of the stones, which still form part of the base of the tower today.
The tower started leaning soon after construction started because of a poor foundation. Various efforts were made to stop the leaning but it was not until 1970 when an international team decided on a plan to fix the tower. Although the rate of leaning increase was very slow the tower would have eventually fallen over if they had not stopped the increased leaning. It took 20 years but the tower was stabilized at the lean it had in the 1830's. Now it should be stable for at least 200 more years.

Optical illusions are neat.

Here we have 4 optical illusions that seem strange or unbelievable but they are true enough. Try staring at the blue birds on the yellow background. After a bit the birds will move slowly.
Next focus on the black dot in the center of the 2 grey circles. Move your head in and out and the circles will turn.
When you look at the 2 blue tables which is the widest table A or B? And when you look at the 2 leaning towers of Pisa which one is leaning more, the one on the right or the one on the left?

The answer to the last 2 questions may seem strange but they are completely true. The 2 blue tables are the exact same size and the 2 towers are leaning the exact same amount. Try turning your head 90 degrees and they might look the same. If this doesn't work for the blue tables hold a ruler up to the screen and you can see that they are the same. So seeing is not always believing.