According to a recent press report, LifeLine Development Group of Sacramento, California, plans to submit an application for approval of a 200 generator wind power site on Shepherds Flat, up the Columbia River gorge. It will produce 750 megawatts in optimum conditions, which the gorge is usually generous in providing. The Shepherds Flat wind [...]

Wind power generating capacity has increased at a rapid rate across the U.S., with Oregon wind farms presently able to produce over 700 mega-Watts. Efficiently integrating this power source with peak load demands is a problem because of the uncertain nature of the wind. To smooth out the energy produced and match available power to [...]

Little Johnnie is heading out the door, a four year old demon whom God has seen fit to send your way. “Don’t play in the street,” you tell him. “Up yours!” he shouts, “I can if I want.” “No you can’t. You might get whacked by a car.” “You don’t know that,” he screams, beginning [...]

Oregon’s power distribution network, with its switching, conversions, input and output, is a circuit design that must adapt to the lean energy scenario predicted by Peak Oil; an idea induced by the sight of high-voltage transmission lines across the canyon as I crested a ridgeline above the Detroit Reservoir.
Electricity remains the prevalent medium for unifying [...]

Lately there have been a few letters to the editor in the Oregonian debating the idea that children need one father and one mother in a household in order to grow up to be decent human beings. I’d have to say I feel lucky that when I was growing up with one mother and [...]

San Francisco non-stop to Charles DeGaulle. Fourteen hours. We endured.
From the basement of the airport terminal we caught the train into Paris. Change to the inner city subway at a designated station. We know which one. You can buy a Metro map before you leave home or perhaps consult one in your public library. Got [...]

On the issue of Oregon’s energy future, it is apparent that once again we are being called on to lead the nation in a search for answers. What the northwest has to offer is abundant hydroelectric power, but the harvest of this potential energy must be adapted to minimize the impact to aquatic ecosystems. More [...]

History is good stuff, sometimes fun. I keep a few reference volumes on the subject by my desk. One very handy reference is “The Timetables of History”, a very large volume available at a surprising reasonable price from any bookseller. Let’s me recall the past in some detail. Let’s try a little of that here.
1962. [...]

In my last piece I noted an important development in solar technology. The source of my information has re-emerged. It is “Science News, June 3, 2006”.The article, “Quantum-Dot Leap” is written by Peter Weiss.
The substance of the article is that if the semi-conductor materials used are produced in very small units – 8 nanometers is [...]

… that global warming is the single most important threat to humanity today. And that we as voting citizens of the United States of America and the state of Oregon have a duty to our fellow humans, our children, grandchildren and those yet to be born to elect leaders who understand this truth and [...]