science... always harder than you thought it would be...

Quote of the day:

Every problem is like an infinite goldmine of hard.
~hubby

And so I continue to muddle though, working on this thing that was just supposed to be quick and easy, but turned into a way bigger thing than I wanted right now. Thankfully hubby can help!

Il Neige

Yes. It is snowing. Did we just get rid of this stuff? Ugh.

Lest we forget...

Today is Remembrance day (Veteran's day in the US).

I have always taken a moment to mark Remembrance day. This comes primarily as a result of growing up in a military family, but also because my grandfather fought in World war II. I typically attended Remembrance day ceremonies with my parents, and of course it was a day of reflection on what so many sacrificed in war for us.

However, regardless of your feelings about war and military, I hope you will take a moment today to reflect on the many sacrifices our parents, grandparents and many more before them have made to give us the lives we have today. The world is as it is today because of those decisions and efforts, and it's really not such a bad place. We also have a long way to go and that is our responsibility now.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

~Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

CO2 eating rocks? Cool... but wait a minute...

So, now that I have a PhD, I should probably try to say intelligent things more often. Or maybe I should do my corrections... nah.

Anyway, I saw this article: Scientists say a rock can soak up carbon dioxide, and I thought "Cool! I mean, we should still stop burning around in giant unnecessary vehicles, but in the meantime, this sounds interesting. I'm going to blog this!"

But then my critical faculties came online again (I guess I'm not hung-over enough), and it occurred to me that this is about equivalent to burying your garbage/nuclear waste/toxic shizz-nizzle. So, let's see if everyone is with me here... If a rock absorbs CO2... at some point it has to release it again, right?

So, maybe burning coal and just shoving those emissions away in a rock for someone to deal with later... not such a good idea?

Many companies are hoping to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by siphoning off large amounts of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and storing it underground.

Because I'm pretty sure we should check into this...

That method could require thousands of miles of pipelines and nobody is sure whether the potentially dangerous gas would leak back out into the atmosphere in the future.

before we smother our future progeny with our procrastination regarding fossil fuels rather than just getting on with doing things better. :(

That's Dr. to you.

I am done. That will be Dr. physics*chick from now on.

Must go drink now. Details maybe later... maybe fuzzy...