What would it take to stop senseless destruction?

Astronaut Mark Kelly's brother, Scott Kelly, currently on the

International Space Station, broadcast a message to the world

when he heard the dreadful AZ news.

"As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that

seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not."

My friends.. What would it take to stop all senseless killing and destruction on this planet?

It would take that all people in the world would

realize at a very deep level how beautiful and

precious life is....

That's why at every chance you get ... share

and teach love for life ...

First Night Flight by a Solar Plane ! ! !

Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Scientists with the University of South Florida say laboratory tests have confirmed that oil from a spewing Gulf of Mexico well has accumulated in at least two extensive plumes deep underwater.The researchers said in Baton Rouge on Friday that tests confirmed their initial findings that were based on field instruments. BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward has said there was no evidence of large underwater plumes.The researchers say the extensive layers of oil are sitting far beneath the surface miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The university is collecting data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.The lab tests are the most conclusive evidence yet in a vigorous scientific debate about where much of the oil is ending up."

Definition: In hydrodynamics, a plume is a column of one fluid moving through another. Several effects control the motion of the fluid, including momentum, diffusion, and buoyancy (for density-driven flows). When momentum effects are more important than density differences and buoyancy effects, the plume is usually described as a jet.Usually, as a plume moves away from its source, it widens because of entrainment of the surrounding fluid at its edges. Plume shapes can be influenced by flow in the ambient fluid (for example, if local wind blowing in the same direction as the plume results in a co-flowing jet). This usually causes a plume which has initially been 'buoyancy-dominated' to become 'momentum-dominated' (this transition is usually predicted by a dimensionless number called the Richardson number).

OUR DECENTRALIZED ENERGY FUTURE

What is decentralized electrical power generation?

Currently electrical power is generated in centralized power plants by means of burning coal, other fossil fuels or through nuclear reaactions. The produced electrical power is then transported to businesses and homes via high voltage lines.

Imagine instead a system where all users were also producers of electrical power for their own consumption but also connected to other users/producers through a network. This would allow energy from a user that has energy surplus to be transfered to a user that has a shortage at that moment.

Decentralized power generation also called Distributed generation,on-site generation, dispersed generation, embedded generation, decentralized generation,decentralized energy or distributed energy, generates electricity  from many small energy sources.

The advantages of decentralized generation over centralized generation are many.  

Distributed resources can improve the efficiency of providing electric power.  Transmission of electricity from a power plant to a typical user wastes roughly 4.2 to 8.9 percent of the electricity as a consequence of transmission losses. At the same time, customers often suffer from poor power quality—variations in voltage or electrical flow—that results from a variety of factors, including poor switching operations in the network, voltage dips, interruptions, transients, and network disturbances from loads.  Overall, DG proponents highlight the inefficiency of the existing large-scale electrical transmission and distribution network.  Moreover, because customers’ electricity bills include the cost of this vast transmission grid, the use of on-site power equipment can conceivably provide consumers with affordable power at a higher level of quality.  In addition, residents and businesses that generate power locally have the potential to sell surplus power to the grid, which can yield significant income during times of peak demand.
Industrial managers and contractors have also begun to emphasize the advantages of generating power on site.  Cogeneration technologies permit businesses to reuse thermal energy that would normally be wasted.  They have therefore become prized in industries that use large quantities of heat, such as the iron and steel, chemical processing, refining, pulp and paper manufacturing, and food processing industries.  Similar generation hardware can also deploy recycled heat to provide hot water for use in aquaculture, greenhouse heating, desalination of seawater, increased crop growth and frost protection, and air preheating.
Beyond efficiency, DG technologies may provide benefits in the form of more reliable power for industries that require uninterrupted service.  The Electric Power Research Institute reported that power outages and quality disturbances cost American businesses $119 billion per year.  In 2001, the International Energy Agency (2002) estimated that the average cost of a one-hour power outage was $6,480,000 for brokerage operations and $2,580,000 for credit card operations.  The figures grow more impressively for the semiconductor industry, where a two hour power outage can cost close to $48,000,000.  Given these numbers, it remains no mystery why several firms have already installed DG facilities to ensure consistent power supplies.
Perhaps incongruously, DG facilities offer potential advantages for improving the transmission of power.  Because they produce power locally for users, they aid the entire grid by reducing demand during peak times and by minimizing congestion of power on the network, one of the causes of the 2003 blackout.  And by building large numbers of localized power generation facilities rather than a few large-scale power plants located distantly from load centers, DG can contribute to deferring transmission upgrades and expansions—at a time when investment in such facilities remains constrained.  Perhaps most important in the post-September 11 era, DG technologies may improve the security of the grid.  Decentralized power generation helps reduce the terrorist targets that nuclear facilities and natural gas refineries offer, and—in the event of an attack—better insulate the grid from failure if a large power plant goes down.
Environmentalists and academics suggest that DG technologies can provide ancillary benefits to society.  Large, centralized power plants emit significant amounts of carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides.  The Environmental Protection Agency has long noted the correlation between high levels of sulfur oxide emissions and the creation of acid rain.  Because they concentrate the amount of power they produce, large power plants also focus their pollution and waste heat, frequently destroying aquatic habitats and marine biodiversity.  On the other hand, recent studies have confirmed that widespread use of DG technologies substantially reduces emissions:  A British analysis estimated that domestic combined heat and power technologies reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 41% in 1999; a similar report on the Danish power system observed that widespread use of DG technologies have cut emissions by 30% from 1998 to 2001.  Moreover, because DG technologies remain independent of the grid, they can provide emergency power for a huge number of public services, such as hospitals, schools, airports, fire and police stations, military bases, prisons, water supply and sewage treatment plants, natural gas transmission and distribution systems, and communications stations.  Finally, DG can help the nation increase its diversity of energy sources.  Some of the DG technologies, such as wind turbines, solar photovoltaic panels, and hydroelectric turbines, consume no fossil fuels, while others, such as fuel cells, microturbines, and some internal combustion units burn natural gas, much of which is produced in the United States.  The increasing diversity helps insulate the economy from price shocks, interruptions, and fuel shortages.