Wind Power Combats Global Warming

Let me preface this by stating I'm a big fan of wind power. A lot of our current problems in the world could be solved by simply building a shit-ton of wind turbines (thats an official SI unit of measurement btw).  However... let me convince you that wind can SOLVE global warming, but not in the way you think!

First, lets look at the causes and effects of global warming. Particles that block sunlight from radiating back out into space are good (we aren't mars!), but bad (we could be like venus). Well, after 200 years of burning carbon basically in the form of fossil fuels, we now are realizing that putting 400,000,000,000 square feet of CO2 in the air eventually ads up (thats per year btw). 

So. What are the effects of global warming? A DIRECT effect of more heat being trapped on the earth means there is more ENERGY in the earth's atmosphere. This means that the strength of winds/hurricanes/storms will be greater. Hurricanes and winds and so on are nature's way of balancing out imbalances in pressure. The more energy in the total system, the stronger these "checks and balances" will be. Hence, we have been seeing more tornados, and hurricanes than ever before. 

There is... however... a possibility...

Energy can't be taken away, or added, which means that wind power works by taking energy OUT of the atmospheric system, and into electricity. Of course the wind is just an extension of the sun's energy (so wind power is solar power, kickin').  So while global warming will be continually adding energy to the overall "system" WIND power (besides not polluting carbon vs. fossil fuels) actually removes energy from the overall system, thereby combating some of the effects of global warming. Cool huh? Lets run some numbers.

http://atmosdyn.yonsei.ac.kr/nrl/seminar/Hansen_etal_SC2005(S).pdf

This is a great paper on the energy involved in some of these systems.

It basically says that to warm all the Air by 1°C you get.... 

The Earth’s atmospheric mass is ~ 10 m of water. Heat capacity of air ~ 0.24 cal/g/°C.
Energy to raise air temperature 1°C: 1°C × 1000 g/cm2 × 0.24 cal/g/°C × 4.19 joules/cal × area Earth ~ 0.26 ×10^22 joules ~ 0.32 W yr/m2.

Joules is what we want. Joules, or units of energy basically (i'm sure i'll get some heckling for that), is a unit we can compare electricity with. Follow me!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption

Another great resource.

This states that humans use about 15 Terawatts of electricity every year. Thats a lot. 

Also... google tells me that one joule =2.7778 ×10−7 kilowatts

Take the number of joules x the number of kilowatts per joule... and we get 7.22228 x 10^14 kilowatts.

OR

722,228 TW.

So, therefore the energy it would take if we completely converted to wind power, all of humanity would use .00002 % of the energy it takes to warm the air 1 degree C. 

Hummm.... and the models predict the earth to perhaps raise 5 C in the next 100 years. 2.5 is a closer estimate. Hummm... So yes, it'd offset that global warming thing, but basically i think getting rid of carbon is a "smarter" option.

Still, it was uber fun to run the numbers, and it IS an interesting thought. Feel free to rip my math appart ya'll.

Enjoy, have a great day, and may I give a shoutout to my girl Gina. Yup, hi.

Thanks,

Guthrie

Find Whats Wrong.

Here are two pictures. One is the orginal, the other has been... "doctored".  Figure out what the changes are. Enjoy!

Barack's Victory Celebration

Let me Preface this by stating that it hasn't truly set in that Barack is President -- yet.

I was in Madison for the election however, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Wisconsin held the second highest voter turnout percentage in the nation (behind MN I might add), and to have such a high turnout, and really be a "gimmie" for Barack in the final week is very impressive. Over 70% of the population turned out to vote, and though it was expected to be higher, the idea was that an unmotivated Republican Voting bloc had poor voter turnout. Obviously something happened to the GOP. The news is flooded with talks about "circular firing squads" that is the Republican party -- now fractured and divided and apparently out of touch with the majority of American Voters (who, may I add are tired of the be with us or we hate you and you are a terrorist saber rattling).

But, this is not about me, this is about YOU. Ok, I lied, this is about me. This is my epic journey on election night. The triumph that was the victory -- the jubilation of the riot/march/demonstration/clusterfuck afterwards -- and of course what would election night be like without having hundreds of people run the wrong way down a 4 lane one way onto oncoming traffic? I'm not sure, I've never experienced anything other than the former. 

So, my night began in Devra's appartment actually. My goal was to finish my Arabic homework before jetting off to the Union. I didn't get it all done because the excitment got a hold of me, and the polls closed in Virginia, and votes started pouring in. So i rushed to the Union, and was just about to go to Colin's house (sorry bud) when a bunch of my friends all of a sudden poured into the Union to watch the election. The vote went as everyone knows it did. Of course the climax was when the Pacific vote came in, and boy, did the Rath have an Orgasm. Check it out -- 

 

So the night ends, I hug some bro's, I have a good time, but then its time to go home. So I go outside to get on my bike, and go home, but I hear voices, and yells, and all of a sudden, 40 people are marching towards me with an American Flag! And I'm like -- a march! Awesome!! So I join in, and we run up bascom hill in jubilation! Well... From Bascom Hill we walk up Johnson, and we start getting more and more people to follow us... And we all of a sudden get to State Street and BAMB! We run into ANOTHER march! And we combine, and all of a sudden there are THOUSANDS of people all on state street yelling, and cheering, and wooping, and being in the most excited state I have ever seen people. It was like nothing else I've ever done. One of those - "tell your grandchildren" moments. I have some video of the night, but it doesn't do it justice, not even close. You had to be there. You just had to be there. 

Hazza!!!

It was a great night. I'm excited for when he gets into office.

Thanks,

Guthrie

Barack Obama

Let me preface this by stating that I easily could be writing my econ paper right now (about how government barriers in Latin America are hindering economic progress), but I am taking a moment of my time to talk to you -- the people -- about the future.

And the future is Sir Mr. President Barack Obama. Congratulations sir. The world we live in is obviously in turmoil, and whoever is going to be the next president will set the world in a new course. The Fall of the USSR ended a forty year chapter that defined how people saw the world. After the fall of the USSR, the world had not moved on yet.  The world that I grew up in was indeed a new chapter in the global history, but it was much more of a "Razr 2" then the iPhone. That is -- there had not been a paradigm shift. It hasn't happened. The way that people see the world, especially in terms of countries, and in terms of global citizenship, has remained the same as it was during the cold war. Europe and the US got along, and then there was the "rest of the world". But the internet lay the framework for the 21st century. And now we are here. As Barack comes to the office of the president, the world is facing mounting challenges, BUT, here is what I believe the paradigm shift will be -- the world will come much closer. People will become much more interconnected as a species, and less territorial over "nations".  Europe will continue to move towards a "united states of Europe", and in the US kids are taking an interest in learning a new language, traveling, and especially working abroad. 

The keys to this new world will come in two forms. The first is the economic crisis. It is obviously only a matter of time until Macroeconomics doesn't just look at one country, but has the antiderivative taken of it... and zoom out to make efficiency at the global level. In one day countries from around the world lowered their interest rates, but they did so coordinated. The cooperation of different macroeconomic policy will have a huge impact on how other countries must depend on each other. Obviously China and the US trade a lot, fine... BUT, once their economic plans start working as a team to help both countries, that is when a new level, or paradigm shift, in the connection between the two countries increases.

As a side note... I talked to several girls who are visiting from China, and I learned quite a lot. First, the Chinese are not going to change to democracy any time soon. They are a very proud people, and they (like I do) assume China will become a global superpower. If they aren't already.  They also understand things on a level which the US is seriously lacking. They tackle problems as a country, and I think this will give them a huge motor for change. For example, every person from China was absolutely thankful that the Chinese government imposed the "one child per family" policy. They believe it saved china, and I agree with them. This step is obviously impossible to imagine here in the US, yet, it saved China, is spurring their economic progress, and will ultimately be better for the world. They understand it, and their central government got it done. The US government could never think in such long term, and global terms. While the strength of democracy of course is its resistance to corruption, and ultimately hopefully will be more flexible in the long run, no one can be certain that the lack of central control will be able to solve problems that need a strong central government.

The good news about China is that not a single one of them had qualms about the restrictions of freedom of speech, or rights. They all believe that the government will continue to act in their best interest, and gradually introduce more rights as the living conditions improve. They are very convincing, and I am certain that China is moving in the right direction. We shall see.

The second challenge that the world will overcome together is climate change. The fact that air has no national borders will force countries to operate together. New economic policies regulating pollution will change the paradigm of how countries interact. 

So... This is a transformational figure, in a transformational period. Mark my words... In a decade the world will look nothing like it did in 2007, while honestly... 2007 looks quite a lot like 1997 from the view of someone who came into this world without communism, and never felt that shift from communism to 1992. 

9/11 was 7 years ago. That is crazy. 

Thanks,

Guthrie 

Snibbiets of my Life

Let me preface this by stating that the things I do are not linear... rather... I am an ADHD kid except that the period of interest lasts hours or days instead of minutes. I jump around with sorts of weird and cooky projects and ideas. Let me enlighten you with just a little a lot of small things that have been popping around in my head.

1) Facebook has a new "app" that allows your status to change to support the election. It says --

"Guthrie is the 527,007th person to donate their status to get out the vote for Barack Obama. Donate yours: http://causes.com/election/3901073?m=655ab854. "

And this has happened throughout the day. Andtwo hours later the tally sat at 583,000. That is 55,000 people to join together in a span of 120 minutes. Do some simple math... and you get 7 people a second that are jumping on. This is true power, and boggles the mind. If facebook can pull something like this off, just imagine how future figureheads can lead! Democracy just became a lot more flexible.

2) I'm dumping down into another bout of "emo depression". I watched spiderman III, and the whole "dark is power" resonated very strongly with me. So I'm listening to more metal, and not really giving a shit. It will pass, as it always does, but it feels good now. And yes I'm ok, and no I'm not going to kill myself, and yes I would like your comfort, and no I'm not going to ask for it.

3) I want cobra starship. If anyone has their albums get in touch with me. Keytar rocks my world.

4) I've moshed/danced like crazy two weekends in a row. Its a pattern I'm enjoying, and I do not plan on stopping. If you know of a dance/electronica party... invite moi.

5) I'm waiting for CS4 to arrive. If you don't know what CS4 is, then you needent be impressed. But I ordered the very cheap student rate, and I can't wait. I'll show you guys my results as I start "creating".

6) My electronic guitar is still shaky. I've been sanding for weeks, and soon the drilly time will come. Sorry colin for taking so damn long.

7) This is an awesome song. It was made for kids who get bored too quickly, and its damn catchy. Bird. Horseradish. ADHD kids. Nice! The song can be downloaded here.  

Enjoy your day! Election tomorrow, and online gambling sites has obama at a 93% chance of winning. Not too shabby.

Thanks,

Guthrie