My brother's going solar

Part of rooftop array that my brother is installing on his house. One of his first tasks since installing the collectors is using the sun to run his lawnmower.

He now (2014) says he gets around 1/2 his energy needs from solar. This includes his car that runs on electricity and he charges it at home as well as at some charging stations along the road. It gets up to 60 miles on a charge. For some longer trips, he still has a gas powered hybrid. Solar power provides much of his electrical needs and he still buys some of his power from the power company. When he has extra solar power, he sells power back to the grid which helps offset the cost of power he uses from the grid during times of low, or no sun. Overall his solar collectors cut energy costs in half for his family's fairly middle class lifestyle.

Cartoon idea about Obama and gulf oil spill

I can't draw so here's the description.

"Obama's hands are tied" is the caption showing Obama at the gulf with his hands stuck in a sticky oil like substance.

Most likely, this idea is already out there in some cartoon, I just haven't seen it yet, but how many papers do I read? Not that many.

No, I don't think there's much the President can do. It's a deeper cultural problem of economies based on cheap oil.

Hoping Earth got struck by an asteroid today

Tiny particles from an asteroid aboard Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft. A return capsule just landed today in the Australian desert. Successful landing, but is there dust on board? The world should know after several weeks of analysis in the lab.

If there is enough dust for a sample, we'll find out more about asteroids and the origins of our solar system.

Launched from Japan's Kagoshima Space Center in 2003, Hayabusa (which means "falcon" in Japanese) visited asteroid Itokawa in 2005. A lot was learned, from photos and other readings about the asteroid. It's quite a bit different than expected. Rather than solid rock, it's more like a rubble pile.

Beset with some malfunctions, the spacecraft may have not been able to scoop up any sample. Hoping it got some at least. Amazing, after what it's been through that it still worked and at least the sample return capsule has landed safely on Earth.

Congratulations, Dust Has been found. Update added Nov. 2012.

Bicycling Point Whitehorn Road

Yes, much of the world is associating BP Oil and danger, but here it's just unstable cliffs they don't want you to scramble down.

From beside the road, this view at the top of those cliffs.

Point Whitehorn is a beautiful segment of road. Blocked off to motorized travel, but used for hikers, bicyclists and some dog walkers.

Highlight of the bike ride from Blaine to Bellingham that I took last Saturday.

Goes through buffer lands near BP's Cherry Point Refinery, yet it's still a break from the hubbub of traffic.

Mount Baker was visible that day.

Bike racks on the front of a WTA bus got my vehicle to Blaine and then I bicycled back.

Some of the roads I took were Drayton Harbor, Harberview and Birch Bay Drive to Point Whitehorn.

After crossing Grandview, there's a yellow gate where the car free section begins from the north. Soon the road turns a corner and becomes Aldergrove. Light traffic resumes after (I think) Gulf Road. Eventually I followed Kickerville, Rainbow, Mountainview and Lake Terrell Roads back to the south and east. Douglas got me to Ferndale with Labounty and Pacific Highway taking me back to Bellingham.

Thanks to co-operation of local industries and Whatcom County For the availability of Point Whitehorn Road.

Historic Depot in Blaine

Last Saturday was a somewhat rare sunny day for June in Bellingham. I took a WTA bus up to Blaine and then bicycled back to Bellingham.

I've been reading about efforts to preserve the old railroad depot in Blaine. There were plans to move it to Blaine Harbor and use it as a ferry terminal, but those efforts have run into a few snags. Just leaving it where it is looks reasonable to me, except I read that BNSF Railroad wants to expand their tracks where it's at and has plans to tear it down.

I'm wondering if they could expand the track to the west, rather than through where the depot is now? Preserve the depot where it's at?

Peace Portal Drive is the main drag through town, right behind where the depot is now. They've done a good job developing plazas along the street. Couldn't a walkway connect the old depot area to businesses along Peace Portal which are right behind it? Couldn't some use be found where it's at? Seems like a lot of trouble to move the depot.

Window display about oil spill

Seen through the window of Mindport Museum of science and art in downtown Bellingham.

Someday, gasoline powered cars will be the stuff of old car shows

Part of display in Boulevard Park during the Ski to Sea race.

From what I hear, natural gas (often used in home heating) could power vehicles. There's still quite a bit of that in the USA and it burns a bit cleaner than oil. Might work for a while at least.

Lots of bicycles parked around Fairhaven District for the festival at end of Ski to Sea weekend.

Better, more costly regulation of oil industry

Oil has been too cheap. Increased safety procedures and environmental mitigation will most likely add to the cost of producing oil within the US. Also remember that bad things like spills can happen overseas as well. As we increase the cost of domestic production, we should do better than just start importing more cheap oil from overseas.

We've allowed the economy and people's lifestyles to develop around the assumption of cheap oil. Reducing executive salaries can take up some of the cost, but most will likely be passed on to the consumer.

Bicycle powered blender

I tried one of these bicycle powered blenders at the Farmer's Market. Takes about one minute to make a smoothie. Normally, I don't drink smoothies, but wanted to try this. Cost $5.

Next day, I explained the process to someone who ask me a few questions. When he asked, "cubed ice?" I thought he asked, "cute men?"

The answer was, quite a few cute men around the market.

We both got a good laugh out of that one. I heard cute men when he asked about cubed ice. My mind was following the money thinking, "was it worth $5?" Part of the equation of value is the experience. Cute men would add to the experience.

On another note, today was the festival in Fairhaven which marks the last day of Ski to Sea.

I bought this T-shirt.

Marketing bicycling.

Also, the festival in Fairhaven was more enjoyable than years past. They had a section of booths for non profit organizations. This was a nicer atmosphere than having all of the festival be commercial and a beer garden.

Whatcom PFLAG in 2010 Ski to Sea Parade

Turning the corner of Cornwall and Champion.

Rainbow banner.

Betty Desire and sign for Bellingham's gay pride events, July 7 to 11. That parade and festival will be on Sunday July 11.

They could try pouring drilling mud and concrete into Facebook to slow the leaks

Woops! Maybe that's a solution for the BP oil leak.

I'm not worried about privacy leaks on Facebook. If I put it up there, it's for the public anyway.

On the other side of the coin, it's easy to just feel like a "needle in the haystack" on the Internet. Can anyone find this blog?

Mysterious power wheel

Mysterious through the glass of a display window at American Museum of Radio and Electricity. One can barely make it out, but it's a stationary bicycle hooked to a generator. It can power amplifiers for concerts.

There's the reflection in the window of another bicycle parked behind me. Also my reflection in the window.

A vendor at the Bellingham Farmer's Market has bicycle powered blenders for smoothies. I tried it last week even though I don't normally drink smoothies.

Bicycle powered appliances may not save that much energy in the great scheme of things, but they can be good publicity. In the home, heating and air conditioning are usually the big energy hogs. On the road, it's motorized transportation and bicycles do help there.

On the other end of the spectrum, I remember some people who went camping in a large RV. Everything in their RV was "power this power that." Power windows, power steering; even the can opener. They couldn't open a can without starting up a gas powered generator.

How I-1098 could even help control state spending. Yes, for the state income tax on wealthy

Washington is one of the few states with no state income tax. I-1098 would create an income tax for couples making over $400,000 and individuals making over $200,000 per year.

It would raise around 1 billion dollars plus cut some other taxes.

Wow. That's quite a bit of money it could add to state government that's strapped for cash even though, I read, it would only tax the top 3 percent of incomes in the state.

Ya, I guess there is a lot of money out there in the hands of the wealthy.

Some say the state should do a better job controlling spending.

Well, what would they cut?

I'm not opposed to that idea either. There's a lot spent by the state on education, for instance.

I'm not against education, but many of our university presidents make well over the amount that would qualify them to pay this tax. Let's tax back some of that income.

Not just college presidents, but there are many other high end employees of the state that would be fertile ground for collecting this tax. Also many contractors who claim to be in the private sector, but end up getting much of their revenue from doing work for the state.

We could tax back some of this excessive income as a way of controlling state spending.

Sounds kind of funny. Pay large salaries and then tax it back.

Well, maybe that's the only way we can get the markets and political realities to solve the problem.

A reason why some of the state salaries are high is the whole "keeping up with the Joneses" idea. They go up when high end private incomes go up. This is what institutions claim they have to do for retaining and attracting talent.

Both government and private enterprise are often locked into a bidding war for what is supposedly thought of as talent.

Maybe some of those high end people are really talented, but listening to news about corporate executives and the 2008 banking debacle, I wonder.

The whole picture, both public and private, is driving up costs so it's time to tax some of that income back if we want to maintain the level of services that our state provides.

Bike To Work Day again in 2010

Yes, they did have great artwork for their poster in 2008 that they used again in 2010. Worth repeating. Image taken from one of their posters. Vince is a good artist.

May 21 is Bike to Work and School Day in Bellingham.

Hope the weather is OK, but it's a bit iffy this year. Forecast calls for scattered showers and sun breaks. Many will ride rain or shine. Also one can remember that any day can be a bike to work day except that May 21 is the day in 2010 when celebration stations are up at the party happens early that evening in Boundary Bay Brewery.

Oil spill response. She tossed out her car keys after reading my letter to the editor

In 1989, my letter to the editor was a contributing factor for a local woman to throw out her car keys. Bellingham Herald did an article about her back then. My letter was one of the factors leading to her lifestyle change at the time.

This was not long after the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

Another ride with your politician

New place where the trail goes under I-5 just north of Fraser St.

Flag seen in background is at Diehl Ford.

Each year, people gather with some local politicians to go on a bike ride. The politicians get to see parts of the city from a bicycle perspective.

This year, the group went from Depot Market Square to civic field. A fairly short ride with good conversation along the way. Ellen Barton, seen at right, from Whatcom Council of Governments leads the ride.

More bike signs starting to appear in this area

A dip in the trail along Interurban Trail south of Bellingham.

I lucked out

Biked up to Fragrance Lake near Larabee State Park on Saturday. Found this table of snacks set up in the woods. A Skagit running club was just finishing up their event. They were about to toss everything so they said, "help yourself to as much as you want." The home made peanut brittle was particularly good.

Thousand point plunge in stock market

I slept through it.

Blink and you probably miss it.

I have a small amount of money in a mutual fund. Hope it rode out the blip OK. I wouldn't know for quite a while as the fund charges a fee for hour by hour access to watching it on the Internet. I haven't paid that fee.

Better on a bicycle, not so good as a car bumper sticker

Saw this bike parked downtown.

Better to see this sign on a bike than on the bumper sticker of a car even though I wrote earlier, in this blog "if we keep consuming oil we might as well drill for it in our own territory."

I wasn't against Obama's plan to open up more offshore areas to drilling, even though I've never driven a car. Domestic production is still better than imports, but better yet is less consumption and more alternatives.

Oil well blowout in Gulf of Mexico is "rough seas" for the politics of oil drilling. Here in this area, people of Anacortes, WA. are still morning the loss of 7 workers in the Tesoro Refinery accident.

Even though it's better to produce locally, it's still best to figure out how to consume less fossil fuel.

Laura Bush killed a guy

Car accident in 1963 where she ran a stop sign, and the driver of another car going through the intersection was killed. This and more in former first lady Laura Bush's new book, "Spoken from the Heart." It's now in the news.

Makes me think of the horror stories hidden in so many people's lives about auto accidents. Some folks famous and powerful, others ordinary. So many have been traumatized that I think Americans would be too shell shocked to drive, but this isn't the case. People go right on driving, for the most part.

Roads have gotten safer over the years, I hear the highway death toll in US is down to a bit over 30,000 per year when it was closer to 40,000 several years back. News reports even come out saying it's the lowest it's been since 1954; co-incidence, the year I was born.

Safer roads, better drunk driving enforcement and safer cars have helped, but the carnage is still too high. Back in the 50s and 60s, seat belts weren't as common, but now we have distracted driving from cellphones and the like.

If this many people kept dying in workplace accidents, or terrorist attacks, imagine how outraged the nation would be. Car accidents are still a silent slaughter.

I just think people and society would be more traumatized by this. So traumatized that folks would be afraid to drive and there would be more planning around alternative transportation.

Hubble celebrates 20th anniversary

I say, "even if you don't live in a big fancy house, you can still say you live in a fantastic universe."

Descriptions below reprinted from Hubble web site.

Hubble's 20th anniversary image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising in the Carina Nebula. The top of a three-light-year tall pillar of cool hydrogen is being worn away by the radiation of nearby stars, while stars within the pillar unleash jets of gas that stream from the peaks.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

Below:

A brilliant white core is encircled by thick dust lanes in this spiral galaxy, seen edge-on. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light years from Earth.
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Last few posts, I've been on a "space roll." Just found out that this is the 20th anniversary of Hubble. Thursday was Earth Day and Wednesday was "first light" for a solar observatory.

I was a custodian at the Bellingham Yacht Club when Hubble was launched back in 1990.

Back then, something called "a spherical aberration" caused images coming back from the Hubble mirror to be blurry. Not as easy to fix as cleaning the mirrors in Yacht Club bathrooms with Windex.

Still, scientists were able to figure a "work around" and some good science came from Hubble, even in the early years.

Then Shuttle astronauts went on that repair mission in 1993 and solved the problem; not with Windex, but a set of mirrors, called COSTAR - "Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement."

Worked like a charm. COSTAR has since been replaced because Hubble's newest cameras have the feature built in.

Then there's "Coinstar."

When I get a jug full of nickels, dimes and pennies, I go to the supermarket and pour them into a vending machine called Coinstar. It tallies the coins for me. Much easier than counting out all those pennies by hand. Ah, technological innovation.

Today is Earth Day

This image of Earth from NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, March 25 2007. Taken by Apollo 17 crew back in the 1970s.

Yesterday, I had a picture of the Sun. Also from NASA. They've got a lot of good stuff.

I'm going to an Earth Day dance.

Looking at the sun with our new eyes

Today was what they call "first light" for a huge new observatory that's looking at the sun with ten times the resolution of high definition TV.

Image courtesy of:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/ / CC BY 2.0

This video is fun to watch and the guy's cute also.

Here's a BBC news report.

I've been following SDO since it's launch in February.

Most people take the sun for granted, but it's quite something.

Just think, the Earth only gets a tiny fraction of the sun's energy. We're like a gnat just intercepting a tiny fraction. Most of that energy just pours out into space in all directions from the sun. Accountants would be horrified. All that energy going to waste. At least it isn't entering our defenition of "being employed" if it doesn't reach Earth.

There's certainly a lot of abundance coming from the sun. Most of it just radiating out into the vastness of space.

Rainbow in window at Garden Street Methodist

Biking past window on Magnolia St. side of Garden St. Methodist Church.

The Great Unleashing Event by Transition Whatcom

Parts of Bellingham High School housed "The Great Unleashing" last weekend. Sponsored by a network called Transition Whatcom.

Workshops, speakers, music and events revolving around how to live in a future with less fossil fuel.

Bellingham High School reminded me of an arcology that day. Arcologies are "city in one building" structures. This could be a "mini arcology."

I pictured that building full of apartments with the commons (pictured above) being an indoor "town square."

What a concept in our rainy climate.

It's normally just a school cafeteria, but a nice looking one with natural light. BHS was remodeled recently.

Wouldn't it be neat to live in a place like that?

I've often thought schools, malls and college campuses could make nice arcologies.

My thinking is a different direction from many other folks in the transition movement who talk about people growing food and going closer to the land.

Some folks have a rural vision, I have a more urban vision of the future.

I ask, "can the farmland hold all the people?"

Just one of many discussions that can get going.

That weekend turned the school into a "virtual city of thinking people."

I was ask to be on a panel for one of the many workshops. A discussion about "car-less in Bellingham and beyond?" I've never driven a car and survived so far.

We met in the "Staff Room."

Way back when I was in high school, wasn't the staff room where faculty snuck off to smoke?

There were many other events including a few keynote speakers in the theater.

Was a full house not that long before I took this picture.

Several bands brought music to the cafeteria where folks mingled and impromptu conversations broke out.

They say around 800 people attended Unleashing.

Cafeteria was closed, but Food Not Bombs had their table set up near the "food service" sign. They were one of many participants in the Unleashing.

Each Friday, Food Not Bombs rolls this table to the corner of Cornwall and Magnolia streets where people gather around 4-5pm for the Bellingham Peace Vigil. That corner becomes another place for mingling and conversation.

Transition Whatcom is quite successful in bridging on-line with face to face experience. It has an active social networking site, like a local Facebook, but also sposors events where people meet in person.

Both the on-line and face to face experiences enhance one another.

Xerox copy price remains stable for decades

Around 5 cents. Even when the machines were first introduced in March 1960.

I remember 5 cents per copy in the 1970s during my first experience with copy machines. Some machines were 10 cents per copy. Coin operated at the WSU library where I grew up in Pullman, WA.

Meanwhile, house prices in Seattle, WA. have soared from around 20 thousand dollars in the 1970s to approaching one million dollars for the same house today.

Amazing.

Diverging rates of inflation.

Fancy new bike rack made from old bike parts at downtown Bellingham Food Coop

Painted purple. Made by The Hub Bicycle Collective in Bellingham. Check out similar one at North side Coop.

Large Hadron Collider and the slow lane

Riding my bike and working as a custodian gives me lots of time to ponder questions like "where did the universe come from?"

March 30th was that historic day of first proton collisions in Hadron at 7 TeV.

It's interesting to follow the news and watch some of the videos from Cern Lab as they celebrate this event. Brings back childhood memories of the TV when Apollo astronauts first landed on the moon.

Nice to see scientists all over the world cooperating on something that provides more grist for pondering of cosmic questions. Much better than using their technical minds for waging war. Also more interesting than building shopping malls.

World universities turn out lots of educated minds and at times it seems like there's a glut of educated people for the job market.

After the Soviet Union crumbled, there was a scramble to try and find gainful employment for lots of physicists to keep them from having to find work in more destructive fields such as oil funded terrorist mills of the Middle East.

Keeping the Soyuz space flights going helps. One took off today for the International Space Station; for instance.

Some people grumble that these scientific efforts take lots of energy.

They do use energy, but not anywhere near as much as billions of people all over the world trying to live the "typical USA drive everywhere lifestyle." Look at the millions of "show boat homes" all over the place.

It seems like people don't want life to be mundane. If we start living in smaller places and use less energy, life does present the hazard of becoming more boring; especially if people start suffering withdrawal pains from previous lifestyles of driving and jetting around the world.

Pondering cosmic questions, by just reading interesting things on the Internet, can put more spice into our lives, even if we don't all live in showboat homes.

It's like a spiritual quest, wondering what's being discovered next about the laws of physics and the origins of the universe. One doesn't have to have lots of money, or be something more than "just a custodian" to enjoy that.

As long as we (USA) keep using oil, we might as well drill for it in our own territory

Obama's decree to allow drilling off more of our coastlines doesn't bother me. As long as USA is so dependent on oil, we might as well extract more of it locally.

On the other hand, I like working so locally that I can walk to my job. I never owned a car. Transportation accounts for 2/3 of our oil imports.

Some environmentalists feel that restrictions on oil drilling can force us to kick the habit, but that strategy hasn't seemed to work. Instead, it's like squeezing one part of a balloon that bubbles out another direction. Drilling for our consumption just goes overseas.

If we really want to cut back on oil consumption, as supplies diminish and the price goes up, we need to make living without a car more doable and affordable. I can do it, but my rent is affordable living near the heart of town. Some people can't afford to live where they can do their errands without driving.

We really need to think about affordable living, density, lifestyles, transit and urban planning. Also, of course, greener energy sources, but these transitions take time.

If we have a clear direction toward change, we can still get to a greener future, but since we've floundered on these things over the last 30 years, we've been burning more and more imported oil.