Mt. Rainier

Did a drive around Mt. Rainier today. Nice drive, about six hours, much on slow road.

Plant Lovers, Unite!

Fox headline: Vegan Diet May Reduce Need for Type 2 Diabetes Medication, Study Finds

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,205742,00.html

One more organization recommending that we eat foods from the most highly evolved kingdom (The Plant Kingdom) instead of the lowly animals.

I'll post the full story as a comment.

It's All About Getting Re-elected

I no longer expect elected politicians to do the "right" thing. Of any party.

But, our government is structured to take advantage of the natural inclination of the elected officials to do what is necessary to get re-elected. They have to listen to the voting public. Our voices are heard. But they will do the right thing only if the voting public stands behind doing the right thing. And compared to kingdoms and tyrannies, this is a good thing.

Choosing to believe

Sometimes I conclude that our disagreements are based on what facts we choose to believe.

Why do some people want or choose to believe "facts" that others have already proven to be myths or lies? For example, www.snopes.com and others regularly research and shoot down myths that many folks continue to believe. Also for example, many people believe our President lied about the WMD in Iraq, and I admit we have found little evidence of them. On the other hand, I, and many other Americans, continue to believe that Saddam had WMD. That sounds irrational to me.

Good ol's girls?

What is the female equivalent of a “Good ol’ boy”? Good ol’ girl? Red-neck woman? Would a woman who drives a dirty jeep with the top down, while smoking a cigarette, which she tucks into the windshield, count? Would the country singer Gretchen Wilson qualify as a “Good ol’ girl”? Would a Good ol’ boy's wife who likes to go hunting and fishing with him qualify? Are smokin’, drinkin’, and cussin’ requirements for the title?

Power Shortages

Due to the recent heat wave, we have electric power shortages across the country. The reasons for our electric power crunch vary, but thanks to ventures capitalists installing massive numbers of gas-fired power plants, we generally have sufficient generating capacity. The problem is mostly one of transmission capacity -- getting the electric power from the power plant to the consumer. And transmission is over high-voltage power lines. The utilities are trying to get more transmission lines built, but it is a long slow expensive process: purchase of rights of way (NIMBY), public hearings, environmentalists protecting the plants, birds, and animals in the right of way, and bureaucratic hold-ups at all levels of government. Under these constraints, it is not now, and will not, be possible for the grid to match the growth in demand. Without changing those constraints (a difficult and unlikely prospect), I think the only answer is distributed generation. If you need more reliable power than the grid can provide, generate it yourself. It is that simple, and that expensive.

Albino Lupine

Sorry, I could not find my photo of white lupine, but here is a pretty multi-color lupine.

More Pedicularis

Just adding to my collection of Pedicularis photos on this blog. This is Pedicularis ornithorhyncha (Birdsbeak Lousewort).

Idaho bike trip

We drove to Idaho over the weekend to bike ride on the Trail of the Hiawatha. The route included high bridges, like this one, and very black and damp tunnels up to 2 miles long.

Monkey flower, probably Mimulus guttatus, in a stream along the Trail of the Couer d'Alenes bike trail alongside I-90.

The I-90 bridge across the Columbia River.

It was a fun weekend with three college friends and our wives.

Energy and Power

As an engineer, I have acquired a pet peeve about people and websites that confuse energy and power. For example, today I read the following on a company website (http://www.microplanet.com/section.asp?catid=142&pageid=33):

What is energy? How does it differ from power and electricity?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines "energy" as (1) usable heat or power, (2) a source of usable power, such as petroleum or coal, (3) the capacity for a physical system to do work. [The website continues] Electricity is a form of energy. "Energy" is often used interchangeably with "power," but they are not the same thing. While energy is the capacity to do work, power is the conversion of this energy into work over time. Electric utilities sell electrical energy, which is converted into power when you use it. Although energy, like power, can be measured in watts, power is measured by the number of watts converted into work over time, or watt/hours. While this may be confusing, the important point is that the rate at which energy is converted into power (and you pay for it) in most devices is dependent on the voltage at which it is delivered.

It is no wonder that most people are confused about energy and power, when not even a company devoted to saving energy can use the terms correctly. Wikipedia gets it right:

On their Electric Energy page: “The term Electric Power is frequently misused as an alternate name for electrical energy. Yet energy and power are two different things.”
On their Electric Power page: “When paired with a unit of time, the term watt is used for expressing energy consumption. For example, a kilowatt hour, is the amount of energy expended by a one kilowatt device over the course of one hour.

The first definition by American Heritage is incorrect, since “energy” is not “usable heat or power”. Heat is the rate of thermal energy transfer, and power is the rate of mechanical energy transfer. It is true that electric utilities sell electrical energy, but it is converted into electric power at the power plant, not when and where you use it. Energy is not measured in Watts; power is measured in Watts. Energy is measured in Joules, Watt-hours, British thermal units (Btu), ft-lb, hp-hr, erg, etc. Power is expressed as Watts, kW, horsepower (hp), ft-lb/second, etc. Heat is expressed as Watts, kW, Btu per hour, etc. Correctly restating their statement: “power is measured by the number of watt-hours converted into work over time, or watts.”

Okay, I'll step off my podium now. As they say in Congress, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mariners and Michael

For about the last five years, we have hosted an fun annual social event in honor of a Welsh/English singer/entertainer. For more on him, see http://www.mbfc.co.uk/. The event is simply a gathering of about 40 fans, family, friends, and neighbors at a Seattle Mariner's baseball game.

View of Seattle from Safeco Field (that is where the Mariners play). The white arch on the right is the Seahawks football stadium. View from our seats at Safeco Field.
Scoreboard announcing the fan club's presence at the game. Yeah, I know, it is weird. The folks sitting behind us gave a collective "Huh?" when it flashed on the screen.
Moonrise over the stadium.
It was close and low-scoring game but the Mariners lost. The biggest excitement of the evening was watching the Mariners manager getting ejected.

My favorite wildflower

Pedicularis groenlandica, Elephanthead, isn't it cute?

An unusual albino elephanthead.

Hike on the 4th

I went for a hike with a friend on the 4th in the Cascade Mountains. 15 miles with 3,000 feet gain and loss. Needless to say, it took us all day. The flower in the photo is Erigeron compositus (Cut-leaf daisy). It is not common (I have only seen it once or twice before). This is a particularly robust specimen -- usually the white petals are shorter, and the stem shorter.

The second photo shows the valley floor (where we left the car) far below. This hike is just east of Mt. Rainier, but it was lost in the clouds.

I hope you all had a great Independence Day!

Continuity of character

I have concluded that we are all born with a lot of the tendencies that we "discover" later in life (law-abiding or law-breaking, liberal or conservative, God-fearing or defiant, active or sedentary). For example, my sedentary daughter did not kick in the womb nearly as much as my always active son. This continuity of character from womb to death supports my anti-abortion stance.

Aside: I have long had the tendency to over-analyze, categorize, proselytize, and pontificate. A blog is a wonderful place for those pastimes, isn't it? :)