Its Tricky Doing a U-ey Down a One Way Street!

Local Environmental Atrocity

This 'footprint' is a photo of the strata of a local environMENTAL catastrophe. The locale is an ex-mining district of a Northern English provincial city. At the bottom of the photo you can see the lowest sub-layer (at least to where I was able to dig with a stick!) which looks like spent lyme ash. Next up is a burned version of the former - sorry, I'm no Geologist. After that is a burning organic matter which seems to be layered upon what the local people commonly call a "slag heap". On top of that is a less destroyed layer of organic matter consisting of twigs, etc. Then finally the top layer consists of leaves.

The two videos below demonstrate the effect of this deadly combination. The smell which exudes from this monstrosity is close to sulphur, which wouldn't surprise me. However, a proper analysis needs to take place of the burning mess.

Unfortunately, for some of us, we have to live down wind of the smoke. Certainly when walking past the heap if I am walking in the prevailing direction of the wind then I always cover my face with something as the smoke makes me cough.

I also noticed that some of the facing trees seem to have been stripped of their bark by something. I'm not sure if this is connected.

There is some local action to try to fix the problem although its quite obviously of limited impact so far. The problem has been around for some time now and nothing has happened. Meanwhile we continue to cough and splutter. I have no idea how the local wildlife is affected but it can't be pleasent for them either?

Making Wind Power, er, Sexy?

Windpower Prototype 2.0

This is the second prototype of my wind power project. The first version was based upon an old, scrounged DC motor with the props constructed from balsa wood. It flew very well but produced little power due to the size of the motor. This version uses an improved stepper motor design (not yet wired up) which I purchased from Ebay. Although it still retains the original balsa wood/cain tail fin and the main vertical strut.

The main prop is now scrounged from an old room cooler thingy I found lying around the woods, believe-it-or-not. It spins quite nicely in a light breeze when just placed loosely on a dowel but now I'm awaiting a strong breeze to test this rig. There's a little resistance and quite a bit of weight on the prop (which may improve) so this version will require stronger winds than the previous prototype. This is a good thing though since, due to the plastic props, it should be capable of spinning pretty quickly and sustaining high winds. Should. As ever, the proof of the prototype is in the testing!

So, wish me luck - I'll make further posts as no doubt the design improves as bits drop off and others are added!

Cheers.

Blair Witch Project!

came acr0ss this old wreck in the woods
it was better off than good
in the hood
pud pud pud

needy are greedy
seedy

;-))

cops n robbers

Achim Steiner (of UNEP) and Sir Mark Moody-Stuart invited yours Truly (and 5000 others) to participate in a survey of "elite climate change decision makers and influencers".

Today I actually got around to completing it as its importance dawned upon me.

Actually, the results will be fed into COP14.

It took me more than the estimated 20 minutes to complete as it was pretty heavy in places! Some of these ideas may feed into a post-Kyoto agreement...

I mostly used solar energy to complete the survey but ran out of juice at around 63% completion, a point I made in the survey: there isn't enough sunlight in the UK (yet)! Must get back to the wind turbine prototype ASAP.

As the tree bears fruit
We all loot
Forget the soot
We build new shoots

The trees all cry
When Mothers die
I wipe my eye
As chips we fry

Let go the past
It will not last
A New Age dawns
As generations morn.

Peace Out. DD.