The Phantom Tollbooth
It was 1981, and we were continuing our exploration for copper, zinc, gold, silver, and cobalt in a massive sulfide deposit in Southwestern Oregon, just north of the California border. It was a vigorous...
Category: Energy
Desalination (and political suicide?)
Another short one. I tried to abandon poli-sci over fifty years ago, but here I am… old and staring down toward the end of the tunnel, and sucked back into the swamp (thanks DD)....
It’s Still All About the Water
This one will be short, but really, what is there to say at this point when absolutely none of us know what is actually happening? A recent article in the New York Times titled...
Reflection v. Refraction
It was late afternoon on Christmas and I was driving west into the setting sun. It had been wet most of the day, but the rain machine had turned off for a bit, the...
Warp Speed Now
The year was 1969, and my buddy and I — a pair of newly-minted high school graduates, full of juice and looking for a bit of excitement — decided to head to the Mojave...
Barometric Air Pressure 101
A Request… Please hit the Subscribe button and sign up for updates to this blog. It costs you nothing and gives me nothing, other than a bit of emotional validation for my efforts. What...
All Lakes Are Temporary
… for a very good reason. I read an interesting article in the DeseretNews about Lake Powell — the impoundment behind the Glen Canyon dam on the Colorado River. The dam is in Arizona,...
The Magic of Density
Before we get started, we need to agree on a couple bits of background information gleaned from the realm of physics (sorry, but it’s gotta be done). First, all matter is composed of tiny...
Plastic Water Bottles: Friend or Foe?
I read yet another article about the dangers of plastics (this time from Newsweek on 09 January, 2024). I could go on and on about the possible permutations of the controversy and potential dangers...
Fusion and Clean Energy
The big science news of the week (possibly the decade, if not the century) comes out of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, where nuclear physicists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) finally...
