A Spurt of Quake Activity Raises Fears in Yellowstone

A Spurt of Quake Activity Raises Fears in Yellowstone
By Pat Dawson for Time

Scientists are carefully measuring the geological activity in the national park because it contains the caldera of an enormous, ancient and still active volcano

The 411 on 2012

The 411 on 2012
By Michel Anderson for Reality Sandwich

The winter solstice of 2012 marks the end date of the Mayan Long Count Calendar, and with it comes a medicine bag of fear and hope. If you are a regular reader of Reality Sandwich you are probably well-versed in the various possibilities that are speculated. Rosemary Regello’s article, “Apocalypse 2012?” is a truncated synopsis of the phenomena. It touches upon almost every hypothesized scenario out there -- from galactic alignment to sea desalination. The site is regularly updated with current information and provides a robust reading list and various links for all your 2012 needs. The information provided is succinct and intriguing, but doesn’t move far beyond the materialistic.

Some of the interesting aspects of ancient prophesy and timekeeping are touched upon, but ideas regarding consciousness transformation are a bit sparse. It’s primarily a Dooms Day list; and reading it could leave you feeling ill prepared to deal with the possible external realities looming ahead. However, perhaps it is through actively engaging our fear of the unknown that we can prepare for a meaningful 2012.

Wind Turbines for the Home

Got Wind? Turbines for the Green Home
Saverio Truglia for TIME

Doug Morrell had already installed solar panels on his house in Coopersville, Mich., but he was eager to get a little bit greener. So the 52-year-old Navy veteran bought something that might seem more at home in the Dutch countryside than in a small town in western Michigan: a personal wind turbine. The 33-ft.-high (10 m) machine, whose blades span 7 ft. (2 m) in diameter, sits next to the pole barn 100 yd. (90 m) from Morrell's home. (Turbines like Morrell's convert the energy of the wind to electricity, while old windmills are geared for mechanical power, like pulling water from a well.) On days with decent wind — which occur frequently enough, since he can feel the breeze from Lake Michigan — the $16,000 Swift wind turbine can generate 1.5 kilowatts (kW) an hour, i.e., enough to power the average lightbulb for 15 hours. Together with his solar array, that's enough to take care of much of his electricity bill. "It's clean energy we don't have to dig for. It just comes right to us," says Morrell. And best of all, he says, "it's fun watching our meter run backward instead of forward."

Thanks in part to a new tax credit put into place by Congress in October, owning your own wind turbine could be the next green trend. While it's true that wind power has taken off in the U.S. — adding more in new capacity to the electrical grid last year than any other power source — most of that increase comes from utility wind farms, vast fields of turbines more than 300 ft. (90 m) tall. For homeowners seeking renewable-energy sources, however, better-known solar power has always dominated. Home solar power currently generates 12 times as much energy as small wind power, which is defined as turbines that have a capacity of 100 kW or less (though most household turbines will produce 10 kW at most). That's partly because residential wind turbines require space and sky — at least half an acre of open land — to get access to consistent winds. Still, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), some 15 million homes in the U.S. fit that definition — and small turbines, unlike large wind farms, can be productive in weaker breezes, which puts more of the country into play, though the best areas are still windy spots like the Midwest or West Texas.

What's really held back residential wind power has been the lack of federal subsidies, which have fed the growth of other renewables like solar and large-scale wind. "We've had zero federal assistance," says Ron Stimmel, AWEA's small-wind expert.

But when Congress passed the bailout bill this fall, it added a 30% tax credit for small-wind projects, which Stimmel believes will enable the industry to grow 40% next year, even in a down market.

In other words, small wind may not be small potatoes for much longer. And that could be a boost for domestic green businesses as well: U.S. firms control 98% of the small-wind market, in contrast to large-scale wind and solar, in which foreign manufacturers dominate. "Since the tax credit, our phone has been ringing off the hook," says Andy Kruse, a co-founder of Southwest Windpower, a major small-scale-turbine producer in Flagstaff, Ariz. "It's really exciting to see the market coming to us."

More than 20 states offer separate subsidies, including ever green California and Vermont. "The federal and state subsidies can make it feasible to get a quicker payback," says Mike Bergey, president of Bergey Windpower, a small-wind producer in Norman, Okla.

Even so, buying your own windmill isn't cheap. A turbine that could produce most of your family's electricity might cost as much as $80,000 and take as long as two decades to pay back, depending on wind strength and state subsidies. (The 30% federal tax credit is currently capped at $4,000.)...

A New Vision for Refrigeration

This is amazing...Adam Grosser talks about a project where by tweaking some old technology, he has built a refrigerator that works without electricity. Think of all the uses this will have and what a vital tool to villages and clinics worldwide this will be.

Basic Survival Gear List

I came across this excellent Basic Survival Gear List on Survivalist Blog (with links to purchase items) that I thought would be important to post here. I know what I'm getting friends and family as gifts this year...

Survivalism Begins to Go Mainstream

So one of my favorite survivalist blogs was mentioned on MSNBC.com yesterday and whenever the mainstream media takes an interest in Survivalism I think it should be acknowledged. Because Survivalism has a bad rap as being just for the paranoid and End-of-Timers but not anymore “now it’s the entire political spectrum — far right, far left and everything in between,” said Rawles. With the release of the article yesterday the blog got 90,000 unique visits in one day....Pretty incredible.

In hard times, some flirt with survivalism--Economic angst has Americans stockpiling 'beans, bullets and Band-Aids’