Wind farm ‘mega-project’ underway in Mojave Desert

It’s being called the largest wind power project in the country, with plans for thousands of acres of towering turbines in the Mojave Desert foothills generating electricity for 600,000 homes in Southern California.

The project will probably be a wind power bellwether, affecting the way renewable energy deals are financed, the development of new electricity storage systems and how governments regulate the industry, said Billy Gamboa, a renewable energy analyst with the California Center for Sustainable Energy.

Came across this site a while ago, and I really think this can be a vital resource:

A picture is worth a thousand words. SkyTruth uses pictures taken from orbiting satellites and aircraft to show people the impacts of our activities on the planet.

At SkyTruth, we specialize in designing and conducting projects that use images to study and communicate environmental impacts. Our technical staff uses advanced image processing techniques to turn raw image data into a wide range of useful products, including large-format maps and posters, page-sized brochures and flyers, virtual globes (Google Earth) and Web-friendly digital graphics. We also provide custom-processed images in digital formats compatible with the most widely used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.

Fascinating- and very needed- stuff.

Now this is a nifty app, Visible Vote:

Your vote now counts past Election Day! Visible Vote lets you advise congress on how to vote on the major upcoming legislation, follow current events, understand your legislators’ voting records and compare your voting preference to your legislators’ voting history.

* Vote and Advise Congress on the Bills your Legislators are debating.
* Add any bill in Congress to your profile to track and then update your Legislators on how you feel.
* Easily know how your legislators are voting on issues you care about.
* Call your legislator’s office with one click.
* Follow your legislators twitter accounts easily.
* Send a FAX to your Legislators through Facebook.
* View State Vote tallies on each issue to see where everyone in your state stands.
* Look at each issue your legislator agrees or disagrees with you on.
* Submit a Job Approval Rating for All Legislators.
* Leave personal comments to Facebook Friends or the Visible Vote community on Legislators and Bills.

I have it, and not surprisingly, I don’t match up with my “representatives” at all! Download it and keep up with your local flavor of elected crooks…

Been trying out a few apps on the iPhone developed to help you out in the marketplace.

The first one, GoodGuide, allows you to scan a bar code in the store and find out how the company ranks on health, environmental, and social impacts as well as nutritional information. A quick glance at products in our kitchen revealed, somewhat surprisingly, that Frito Lay ranked higher as a company than Whole Foods.

A fun app (scanning works better on a 3GS iPhone than a 3g), and one that can assist you making choices to be a better consumer.

Ever find yourself in a new area and not sure how to “go green”? There’s an app for that- Greenopia. Based on your GPS location, Greenopia can find recycling centers, vegetarian restaurants, public transportation and more.

More apps to come including a way to communicate with local government on the run.

Years and years ago I discovered what is known as “distributed computing”, which is software that sits on your computer, and when you’re not using it, runs computations using the idle computing power of your machine. Back then I ran a program known as “SETI”, (“Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”), but since then, the scope of this sort of thing as grown quite a lot, headed up by something from IBM called the World Community Grid.

Current projects include attempts to discover drugs to treat Dengue fever, cure Muscular Dystrophy, or creating a more robust form of rice. So when I’m at work, or doing something more important than staring at a monitor, my computer is using its idle time to actually make a difference.

The software is free, easy to set up, and requires no input from you to run. Give it a try, and make a difference…effortlessly.

After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all

Exactly a century after rumours of his death turned out to be entirely accurate, one of Mark Twain’s dying wishes is at last coming true: an extensive, outspoken and revelatory autobiography which he devoted the last decade of his life to writing is finally going to be published.

The creator of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and some of the most frequently misquoted catchphrases in the English language
left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit bookshops for at least a century.

Frank Frazetta, Pioneering Fantasy Artist, Dies At 82

PHILADELPHIA — Pioneering fantasy artist Frank Frazetta died Monday in a Fort Myers, Fla., hospital, a manager said. He was 82.

Frazetta had been out to dinner with his daughters Sunday but suffered a stroke at his Boca Grande home later that night and was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, manager Rob Pistella said. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed the death, as did his daughter Heidi Frazetta Grabin.

First encountered the work of Frazetta while working at a used book store in my youth. His images graced the cover of a series of Robert E. Howard “Conan” novels that I was reading, and his stuff was all over comics, graphic novels, and posters. A legendary artist that defined a genre.

A nice look at his stuff here.

Tom Waits joins the twitter generation with this first tweet:

Kathleen and I came up with this idea of doing music that’s surrural– it’s surreal and it’s rural, it’s surrural.

That dude is weird.

HBO mulls series based on sex advice column

CHICAGO (Editor and Publisher) – HBO is considering a show based on “Savage Love,” the sex advice column syndicated in alternative weeklies.

Quoting from a draft press release for the show, Savage said the possible show “will focus on current events and cultural trends with sex as the filter.”

Excellent!

My first novel, Hide In Light has been published and is available on Amazon and Amazon Kindle.

Soon to be available at the Book Nook in Decatur. And if you really like it…merchandise!