Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Buy some SF, help with Gulf Relief

This in my inbox today, from one of the Seattle area authors involved in creating this. I think it's worth sharing, so feel free to pass it along to those you know who read Science Fiction.

Book View Café Publishes Benefit Anthology for Gulf Relief

Book View Café has launched their benefit anthology, BREAKING WAVES. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

The collection features over thirty stories by a wide range of best-selling and award-winning authors, including a previously-unpublished poem from Nebula and Hugo award-winner Ursula K. Le Guin, as well as a chapter from Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book The Sea Around Us. Authors contributing stories of environmental rescue and recovery include Vonda N. McIntyre, Judith Tarr, Deborah Ross, Sarah Monette, David D. Levine, David Gessner, and Lyda Morehouse among others. Tiffany Trent and Phyllis Irene Radford edited the collection.

The book is available in epub, pdf, mobi, and prc formats in the Book View Café bookstore (http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Book-View-Cafe-Breaking-Waves) and will be coming to the Kindle store soon.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Tidal power in Snohomish - coming soon!

Today's email brought a link to this article about tidal power research in Snohomish County, just to the north of Seattle. Our federal dollars were important in funding the research, and will lead to power coming from the tides in 2012, if all goes as planned. I'll be interested in seeing how this goes. I think each area will have a better form of alternative energy depending on the local conditions. Hot and sunny, go solar. Lots of wind or tide, use that. I also think decentralized and multisource is a better way to go than a single giant electric grid, but that's a different post for another day. *smile*

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Birds & Wind Power - how to really tell how many birds are being killed

Okay, that's a provocative title on my blog post, but I'm seriously torn about this issue. I'm a birder, and I do bird themed art, so I care deeply about birds. I also think renewable energy sources are definitely the way to go. So, I've been following the various reports about birds and wind turbines quite closely. I was pleased to see the birdnote coverage about a local project and the new technology to not only tell how many birds are in the area, but potentially shut off the turbines when endangered species (specifically marbled murrelets) approach. See the birdnote short here (actually hear it, since it's a 2 minute radio bit) and follow the 'still more' link to read a more comprehensive article about it. F or those that care, wind turbines kill about 6500 birds a year in the USA while other common causes of bird deaths such as skyscrapers and cars kill several million. Just sayin'.