Nebraska's Wind Energy

So, I'm a big advocate for finding ways to limit our dependency on oil, not foreign oil, not domestic oil, but OIL. I personally believe that unless we are putting as much money as possible into researching wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy we only should be spending as much money on combustible fuels only to sustain us until we are capable of weaning ourselves off of these combustible fuels.
I have attached a couple of articles here that I have read that will help to answer some questions about why Nebraska has the 6th most wind energy producing land, yet is ranks 23rd in wind energy production. The situation seems to be more complicated than just having not yet build wind turbines.

(Yes, I do realize that wind turbines in Nebraska probably will not be submerged in the ocean like this picture may suggest. It's just for aesthetic purposes. People like pictures and I like pictures.)

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10542824

Although, as I have kept reading articles about wind power generation, there has obviously been some difficulties in the regions that have these turbines. Many manufacturers still have many operational issues, which is probably why I always see wind turbines stopped on windy days (maybe producing faulty turbines would create more jobs?)

Also, in in one of the following articles they showed a statistic from research at Stanford University that of 7500 wind stations, only 13% of them are at altitudes that produce enough wind speed to generate electricity.

http://freeenergy.ca/news/121/ARTICLE/1271/2007-03-17.html

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/28/business/wind.php

Sometimes it seems like wind power could be the magic bullet to our energy needs, but there seems to be many things in way. I have always liked the idea of wind power. I have always talked about how someday I'm going to have a radio on my back porch that will be powered by the wind. I actually will probably hope to have that project well under way by the time I have house or even a house with a back porch. With the help from physics and an old beat up box fan, I plan on getting my generator turning lamps on or charging batteries soon.



For your viewing pleasure.

Change Rining for The Presidential Inaguration

So, one thing that I'm interested in is Christianity, the traditions and music and especially the musical traditions. On the day Pres. Obama was inagurated, Wall Street Trinity Church conducted a 12 bell change ringing. There are over 3000 combinations of bell patterns that were rung for about 3 and a half hours.

Follow-Up to Dr. Kuhn

So, I have stayed in contact with Dr. Kuhn since he left Seward. He is actually living there while his wife, daughter and son are still here in Nebraska. His wife actually was on contract to teach at Lincoln Lutheran for another year, his daughter is planning on finishing High School at Lincoln Lutheran where I believe that she is now a junior, and his son spent first semester this year as a sophomore at Concordia University and at the beginning of the second semester he transfered to Concordia in Portland Oregon to be closer with his father and his Dr. Kuhn's in-laws live in Oregon somewhere. So I am confident that they are making the best of the situation. Dr. Kuhn came home for Thanksgiving. I stoped by one day when I was in Seward but he and his family were out and about. For Christmas his family went to Oregon to see him. He has some pictures of his home there which is beautiful (see photo).
Every so often I send him something fun. Like one day in band I used an MP3 player to record a fellow band member (Raymond Kreuger for those of you that know him) trying to explain something about the music to Dr. Kuhn. Raymond has a funny way of going about things and again if you know him, you know this, and I sent him that recording and a photo of him watching a show while we were in China. And I see that people facebook him every so often from CUNE so that 's good to see.
In the words of Beyonce, He's "a survivor", he's "gonna make it". He has a wonderfully supportive family and a wonderful faith to see them through these times.