Idea?

I was just reading some interesting conversation over on today's NASW-Talk Listserv. They were talking about wind farms and various other forms for generation of energy from natural sources, like sunlight, etc. This guy Mike Wofsey was talking about how in the future wind generators are going to look like chain link fences - and that we are going to "have plenty of gaps to allow for migrating land animals" which I thought was interesting. Then I was thinking maybe it would be better if the generators looked and acted more like blades of grass, could be bent as animals walk over them or as the wind pushes them. I have no idea if there is anyway to generate power from the bending of a long stalk-like thing, and I guess it wouldn't gather much energy if it was relatively thin- but I can just see the wind wipping fields of wheat over the plains or whatever.

OK, that might actually be completely impossible / useless but I figured I should start putting down my ideas incase someday one of them might be useful.

Book Review

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was fairly interesting. I usually enjoy books like this, with scattered entries from multiple people at multiple times.
If you don't like books like that it will probably annoy you throughout the whole book. Other than that the book was short and an easy read.


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Earth's Magnetic Field

This was totally an idea I had last week while watching a NOVA on the earth's magnetic field's changes. Seems the strength of the field has been dropping steadily and fairly quickly for the last few hundred years. Luckily someone already looked into it, and I was totally right! anyway, no one is saying we aren't responsible for climate change, but when it comes to those balance sheets there are plenty of other small factors influencing all the different parts of the climate to make a difference.
I can't imagine what kind of chaos will reign down on us when the poles do get to flippin'- seriously, they switch back and forth for thousands of years. People will be more than willing to invest in spaceflight and colonization efforts then.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

Hi all,
Hope holidays went well for everyone! I've been busy playing with my new iPod, and I have been creating a list of the podcasts I've been adding to my list.

I enjoy all the NOVA/PBS and NPR podcasts (both video and audio)

I started at the beginning of the brain science podcasts (http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/), which have been interesting but hopefully they get a little better as the author gets more experience. It seems more like a brain book review, but its nice that it is structured around the books and she makes an effort to explain everything, but it would be nice to cover new research.

One of my favorite has been This Week in Virology, which I just started listening to today (http://www.twiv.tv) and has been very entertaining to listen to while doing lab work. I'm gonna go back to the beginning and listen to all of them. I can't wait until we start publishing and they start talking about us!!!!

I just discovered through their websties this sciencepodcasters.org group(http://docartemis.com/sciencepodcasters/) which I will be looking into when I get home. So check it out, and get some science in your head!

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm upset that this wasn't the last book. I didn't come to the realization that it wouldn't wrap everything up neat and tidy at the end until I was already 2/3 trough the book and Eragon didn't even have a sword!



Anyway, one of the funniest things about this book is the way Palioni uses GRE words like it's his job, he must have been studying for them while he was writing. The saddest thing is that sometimes it brings the flow of the work down. I didn't notice this in the previous books, perhaps because this time I was also studying those same words (a good excuse to get away from those flash cards- reading a chapter of this book is just as useful)!



I would have like some more development of relationships between characters (Eragon and Ayra, especially). There were a few good twists in the plot. Seemed a lot like Eldest though, with the conclusion of the book at a battle. The writing could be more imbued with emotion, usually I am pretty effected by writing, and thinking back on it I would have guessed I would cry when Gladeyr and Ormis died, but I didn't.



Perhaps my review is tainted by the disappointment that I will have to wait even more years to finish the series. I really thought that I could put another to rest.


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