Thursday, June 29, 2006
Dim days on the solar front
Our worst June yet, for photovoltaic production. The new grass is lush and green, but all the clouds and rain have meant that our measly little 270 kilowatt hours is just barely more than May (265) and way less than March or April. (316 and 340). June of last year was our all-time monthly high - 368.
June usually wins just on the basis of sheer number of daylight hours. However, hour for hour, sunshine in early spring is more productive, because there is less stuff in the air – pollen, leaf fragments, insects, etc. – blocking the light. Also, I believe that around the equinox the sun spends more time at an angle of inclination that makes the light fall perpendicularly on the panels, which makes them somewhat more efficient.
Also, we’ve added to the power consumption side, by breaking down and getting a dehumidifier for the basement, to slow down the growth of mold. I am reminded of the Steven Wright joke “I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. ... I put 'em in the same room and let 'em fight it out.”
June usually wins just on the basis of sheer number of daylight hours. However, hour for hour, sunshine in early spring is more productive, because there is less stuff in the air – pollen, leaf fragments, insects, etc. – blocking the light. Also, I believe that around the equinox the sun spends more time at an angle of inclination that makes the light fall perpendicularly on the panels, which makes them somewhat more efficient.
Also, we’ve added to the power consumption side, by breaking down and getting a dehumidifier for the basement, to slow down the growth of mold. I am reminded of the Steven Wright joke “I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. ... I put 'em in the same room and let 'em fight it out.”
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Solstice light
This is the furthest south that morning light will advance on our wall for the year. (Well, more or less. I wasn't being precise about the time of the picture.) Compare to the little sliver of light on the window frame from late March.
The hairy green spike is from that ridiculous night blooming cereus. The grandfather clock is another story, which I'll get around to eventually.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you*
I recently spent several days in the Midwest, including Detroit, my birthplace. I’ve been a resident alien in Boston for a couple of decades, and I was struck, as I usually am when I go back, by the subtlety of the Midwestern landscape.
Massachusetts has hills, granite outcroppings, blatant geography like that. Southeastern Michigan has changes in elevation. Not everyone appreciates it, it drives many crazy. As I sometimes observe, you’ll notice I don’t live there anymore. However, simply to say that the landscape is flat and boring is an insufficient response to it.
*That, no kidding, is the Michigan state motto. It is marginally less goony in the Latin it appears in on the state seal: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice.
Massachusetts has hills, granite outcroppings, blatant geography like that. Southeastern Michigan has changes in elevation. Not everyone appreciates it, it drives many crazy. As I sometimes observe, you’ll notice I don’t live there anymore. However, simply to say that the landscape is flat and boring is an insufficient response to it.
*That, no kidding, is the Michigan state motto. It is marginally less goony in the Latin it appears in on the state seal: Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Perfect Joke Revisited
Apparently others have given a lot of thought to the perfect joke, including whether the ability to tell the perfect joke is an attribute of God. One would think the answer would be yes, since S/He is, after all, omnipotent: the creator of heaven and earth ought to be able to tell a better joke than the rest of us. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?… Have you commanded the morning since your days began,and caused the dawn to know its place … ” etc. etc. (Job 38)
However, God may not be able to deliver the ultimate Stand-Up. Just for starters, the Almighty may not actually have a sense of humor, despite near-daily evidence to the contrary offered by the Republican leadership.
However, God may not be able to deliver the ultimate Stand-Up. Just for starters, the Almighty may not actually have a sense of humor, despite near-daily evidence to the contrary offered by the Republican leadership.
Comedy is the art of the inappropriate. We laugh at the unexpected, not the
routine. But nothing can be unexpected for a God who knows everything--past,
present, and future. There can be no punch lines or novel twists for a God who
is incapable of being surprised. Everything happens on schedule according to a
divine plan; and God, the author of that plan, is never taken aback. Thus, if
God is to laugh at all, he must provide his own humor and laugh at his own
jokes, because there is nothing to surprise or amuse him in the course of human
events. (George H. Smith)
