Meteor Crater

Did an alien space ship crash, or was it really a meteor?

I live about an hour’s drive from Meteor Crater in Arizona. One of my daughters peddles space alien lore (such as it is) for fun, and the theory of a spacecraft augering in and smacking Arizona 50,000 years ago is still in the running. However, I expect that it was a meteor. But what fun is that?

Geothermal Energy

There is a not new theory that “we” – sort of a “royal we” – can drill down to the center of the Earth and harness the energy contained there to create “new green energy”.

Let’s explore this latest wet dream, in which the grievance lobby is trying to create a new industry. The new solar? But looking down.

Context and Precedence:  The Russians drilled the deepest hole ever drilled into the Earth.  They managed to drill down 7 miles into the Earth’s crust. They didn’t get anywhere near the mantle and didn’t tap into “lava” and the new energy revolution. The Russians learned by spending money what any geologist could have told them for free (or for a reasonable professional fee). Solid rock is not quite solid when you get down seven miles because of pressure considerations. They kept losing drill bits because they were stuck in the somewhat ‘plastic’ conditions that they encountered.

You don’t need to drill deep to find superheated water (steam). A number of countries do this now. Iceland comes to mind as the most aggressive user of geothermal steam to power the grid.

The Fly in the Ointment – And while it sounds incredibly progressive to pump water deep into the Earth to heat it up, and then pump it back to the surface (two holes), there are dissolved minerals that come up with the water. History and experience have shown that much of that is radioactive. Geothermal energy is a huge producer of radioactive pollution. And the people of Nevada don’t want Yucca Mountain to store radioactive waste, so where do you put this huge byproduct of geothermal steam?

Yeah, not in my back yard…or in my Congressional District.

 

 

The Wall

lest we forget

There will be another post for Memorial Day, but this weekend, it’s useful to think of all of those names, then those un-named who came back broken from a pointless war in Southeast Asia. All the blood, all the treasure, all of the damaged lives and shattered families.

The bravery and sacrifice needs to be remembered. Are we going to have another wall across from this one for Afghanistan? Twenty years in Afghanistan.

I’m not anti-American and I’m not anti-military. Not in the slightest. But we as a nation need to decide that war means fighting and fighting means killing, and if we’re going to do this, we need to be able to “win”.  (I don’t like being ticked off on Memorial Day.)

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Just mapped it out, and didn’t Meteor Crater was so close to Winslow. WoW…I could do a double header, by seeing the crater, AND I can go Standing On A Corner!

    Patton was a Warrior. The general public, and sheeple in particular, don’t understand Warriors….AT ALL.

    God Bless and watch over our fallen Warriors.

    • The La Posada Hotel is quite the attraction in Winslow, as is the corner (and statue) of which you speak. After that? Not much. Head to Flagstaff or Prescott.

      • The La Posada has downgraded its famous breakfast, but the food is still the best in Winslow (it’s an old railroad hotel where the rich and famous stayed). But yeah, not much in Winslow…but the corner.

        • It had quite a good reputation when it was a Harvey House.

          I’d heard of Harvey Houses before, but never looked into them until we moved here, and I began to learn more about the Transcontinental Railroad. I knew The Railroad was big deal from grade-school history, but never had much knowledge or appreciation of it until we moved here.

          It was the Apollo Program of it’s time.

          Thanks to WSF for introducing me to Real Steam, and the resultant interest in the history of the area. It gives me a whole new appreciation of the American West, and what it took to build it.

    • drjim; When I was in Winslow, I was standing on a corner; no flat bed Ford or girl to be seen.
      I hope you have better luck.

      Paul L. Quandt

    • It’s deep enough to stock it with Mackinaw. You’re right. It would make an exceptional lake. There’s plenty of water in the aquifer there, just very little on the surface.

      • So, has someone thought of tapping that aquifer and pumping that water into the crater? I like Mackinaw, but don’t like going to Michigan in the fall to catch them… and I am from Michigan.

  4. Practical geothermal is very attractive, until you realize that the reason it’s practical is because there’s a super-volcano or multi-volcano field (of which Iceland is both) underneath it all powering it.

    Yeah. No. Rather live somewhere not geothermally active, thank you.

    Though some people run pipes under their house, up to 100′ deep, to run cooling/heating water (ground being mid 60’s or so) for heat exchangers. Other just run air pipes to do the same thing. But like Solar or Wind Power, it is only practical in individual applications, and not scalable commercially. Big outlay in money right off the bat though.

    As to war, the only use-of-force should be ‘Yes’ and the only power-level should be ‘Max.’ To play global policeman or to have screwed up orders that you can’t shoot unarmed fighters is supremely stupid. Make WAR! Force peace.

    • The geothermal power station on Hawaii (the Big Island) was eaten by the volcano. It’s no longer producing electricity.

    • Anyone who has read history knows that fighting a protracted land war in Asia is a loser. Ask Hitler, Napoleon, Alexander, the British Lion, etc. I understand about the need to kill Bin Laden, but I question how many times we had him and he “escaped” before that final mission in Pakistan, down the street from their military academy… I’m a cynic, Linda.

      • Call me a conspiracy nut, but I am firmly under the opinion that the CIA hid his location from Bush II in order to deny Bush the victory.

        It may not be, but it’s far more likely than Bin Laden just was being good at hiding while we dropped bombs and special forces everywhere.

        And the timing. Oh, look, here comes election time. Let’s pull out Bin Laden’s address and make some good PR to cover all the non-scandals…

        It may not be, and I used to not believe in political conspiracies, but after watching the Clinton-Gore poop show for 8 years, and then all that they did wrong gets blamed on that schmuck Bush, well…

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