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    Got a Light?


    2008 - 09.16

    Posted in electricity, updates, weather, writing | Comments Off

    I wasn’t lying about catching up on posts. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had an alternative plan. Sunday evening, the lights flickered off and on several times before going dark at 8:00 PM. It was only at 10 PM tonight (two hours after being reassured, so to speak, by the electric company that power wouldn’t be restored until Friday) that my bedroom light astonishingly began to glow once more.

    So, the past 48 hours has been spent panicking about coffee, figuring creative means to cook meals, and feeling immense frustration at getting NOTHING done. I managed to write a few paragraphs of work longhand, but all my research was on my laptop (which was nearly dead), so that little deadline of mine? Yeah… it’s beyond crunch time now. Three days of lost work at a time when I was eager to tackle things. Yipes.

    For having days without power, the “storm” was an exaggeration. Two hours of gusty breezes with winds capping at 65 MPH. After the winds turned to stillness, a trickle of precipitation fell in the dark hour before midnight. I’ve seen much worse, and for the power to be lost like this boggles my mind.

    Nonetheless, it’s back to work… and back to blogging tomorrow, followed by a ton of catch-up work.

    Stop to Smell the Roses…


    2008 - 04.22

    Posted in australia, earth day, electricity, environment, united states | Comments Off

    Once again, it’s time to celebrate Earth Day: a day of environmental awareness around the globe. Though it may have come under fire in recent years, its message is poignant. With the current debate on global warming, this is a good time to contemplate the state of out environment and the impact we have upon it.

    No, I’m not some insane, radical “tree hugger” who is hellbent on bringing down the corporations and creating hippie communes around the world. Yet I do see carelessness constantly and an very mindful of out effects on the planet. Pollution is still a critical problem and our dependence on fossil fuels is a major issue. We all need to seriously take a look at our lives, and try to do something, however small, to avoid turning the world into our own private toxic waste dump.

    We are very much a throw-away society. Everything ends up in landfills. We burn coal, oil, gas, and petrol to an insane degree, forgetting that it isn’t replaced overnight. Even if we don’t care about the pollutants thrown into the atmosphere and water supply, we’ll soon run out of the fuels we use. By the time we wake up to that fact, it will be a desperate scramble to find alternative means of energy.

    Of course, there are efforts around us to change. Australia is experimenting with solar power in the Outback, using the heat of the sun to power a wind turbine that could eventually power thousands of homes. On the east coast of the United States, people are using the tidal currents to power turbines to supply power to businesses. Modern windmills are sprouting up all across the globe to harness power for communities. Electric and hydrogen-powered cars are becoming a reality.

    If you want to do your part without taking much effort, start small. Instead of driving two blocks away to visit friends or go to a small store, take a walk instead. When going to the grocery store, avoid plastic bags… purchase an inexpensive, reusable canvas grocery bag instead. Replace a few incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent ones. When you’re not home, unplug your televisions and electronic devices to save on wasted standby power. Plant a tree.

    Take a moment from your day to see the world around you in a different light. Doing little things now just might save you from severe alterations in your lifestyle in the future…

    Grounded for Life…


    2008 - 03.20

    Posted in electricity, new york, news, schools, science, teenagers, united states | Comments Off

    New York has more than its share of strange people. But not all of them are intentionally weird.

    A 12-year-old boy from Pulaski has been causing problems at Lura Sharp Elementary School. Whenever he would work at a computer, it would freeze and crash. An awards show was nearly canceled when the slide projector near him malfunctioned. Once he was moved away from the hard drive, things went smoothly.

    Is he a troublemaker with a eye for technology? not at all. Somehow, he effects electronic devices in his general vicinity. The trouble isn’t limited to school, either. At home, his Xbox 360 would freeze up every time he tried to play it.

    School officials gave Joseph Falciatano, a.k.a. “Magneto Boy”, a special wristband to wear, grounding him and any possible electrical field, and have had no further problems. An expert in static electricity was called in and has yet to discover the cause of these unusual problems.