Did you know yesterday was Super Tuesday II?  Not that it mattered, but both Joe Biden and Donald Trump officially are now their party's choice to run on November 5.  Of all the ironies, Hawaii, the state that never votes electorally for Donald Trump, almost pushed him over the line to officially make him the Republican primary victor.  However, Washington was that state. By the way,  Georgia Judge Scott McAfee  just announced that 6 of the 41-count indictment returned by the Fulton County grand jury in August must be quashed.  These were not all that critical, and a lot more is left for Trump and his cronies to worry about.  McAfee reiterated that he will announce his decision on Friday about the fate of Fani Willis.  The nation awaits the televised trial of Donald Trump.  Remember Trump's mug shot?  Done in Georgia. Oh, one more political matter.  GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado not only will not run for re-election, he will quit at the end of next week, leaving Speaker Mike Jo

There are two types of wind turbines:  horizontal and vertical axis.  The type you mostly see, from those classical Holland windmills to utility wind farms feature blades that revolve around an axis horizontal or parallel to the ground.  The other type has an axis that is up and down or perpendicular to the ground.  Today I feature the latter variety. Wind energy conversion systems have pros and cons.  The good: Non polluting. Domestic source. Relative low maintenance. Wind farms can continued to be farmed for agriculture. About the cheapest source of renewable electricity. A few cons: Not reliable.  Need storage for home or farm applications. Thus storage costs can be a problem.  Meaning today, mostly batteries. A threat to wildlife like birds and bats. Deforestation can create an environmental impact.  Deserts are great. Noise. Unsightly. NIMBY:  various communities, especially Hawaii, are saying Not In My Back Yard. Last year, wind energy produced 9.2% of all the electricity in the

I post a lot about the Blue Revolution and hydrogen.  My early experience had mostly to do with: Biomass in 1962 at the Hutchinson Sugar Company on the Big Island. Then a decade later I joined the faculty of the University of Hawaii, and began a program to grow microalgae in a raceway to both produce biofuels and remediate global warming by feeding the equivalent of stack gases into the system.  Soon thereafter, I became part of the  Hawaii Geothermal Project , and in 1976 we succeeded in drilling the hottest ( 676 F ) well in the world, which went on to generate 2.8 megawatts, a baseload power source that could supply electricity for 5000 homes. All those effluents were being discarded as an environmental nuisance, so I helped create  Noi'i O Puna, or the Puna Research Center  in 1985 to assist the private sector initiate new companies in a variety of agriculture, aquaculture and tourism activities.  This was the geo-equivalent of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority