We sit on a Thursday night dinner table at 15 Craigside, a retirement community.   Three of the seven have birthdays around the same time in September.  Add up our years, and you get 266.  One of our dinner mates, Bob, is currently on the hospital floor, so we went up to his room to start the party. We then went down to the dining room to continue the party. We actually, rarely eat in the 15C dining room, and I usually take-out food to eat in my apartment.  I like to enhance these meals with items like sashimi, truffles and foie gras.  Went to Tamashiro's, and saw this large opah.   Watch this fish being caught in Florida .  Can get up to 600 pounds.  Is a prized fish, with flesh firm and fatty, blend of tuna and swordfish, and rich in Omega 3s. Chicken Kaarage with sesame/miso sauce is one of my favorite lunches. Fish and chips with the latest Stanford Sauvignon Blanc. We have a monthly Sunday karaoke night.  I don't like to use vi...

What do you see that is unusual about the above photo?  Those are  square waves : This scene is off the Isle of Rhé, west coast France, where this natural spectacle occurs regularly. They form when two strong weather systems send opposing swells crashing into each other at different angles. They form quickly and vanish. But watch out! There is hidden danger. When square waves occur, they come with powerful currents and high waves, up to 10 feet. For swimmers and boaters, you are faced with unexpected forces of nature. Swimmers caught in these waves often feel as if they are swimming against two competing currents. Boats navigating these waters may be overwhelmed or swamped by the waves themselves. So what do you do? Simple, leave the water immediately, if you can. If caught, signal for help, and stay calm, floating on you back if needed, and try to swim parallel to the shore to escape the currents. Square waves have been linked to shipwrecks and drownings worldwide, not only i...

Energy Matters  is a weekly publication of the American Energy Society.  Here are some bits of energy news covering the past month . The new director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ( NREL ) in Golden, Colorado from 1October2025 will be Jud Virden. Has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Washington.  Is known for his strong record in forging public-private partnerships and advancing grid resilience and energy technologies. Lots of luck with  President Donald Trump , who yesterday, in a one hour speech to the UN General Assembly, called climate change and green technology the greatest con job ever perpetuated...and a scam.  Further:   All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.  They were made by stupid people . Plus: “They said global warming will kill the world, but then it started getting cooler. So now they could just call it climate change, because t...