May 2006 Wrapup

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I've been busy with the upcoming wedding and work, etc. Jodie and I have been enjoying living in our new house. It's great coming home to our own place. We've had a few interesting things happen so far.

New Hampshire received a lot of rain in May, particularly the weekend of the 13th and the 14th. I was up in Maine with my Parents enoying some beautiful sunny spring weather, but when I returned home on Sunday night, our street was flooded just beyond our house. Southern NH had severe flooding causing many schools to close for the majority of the week. The town of Hooksett was closed on Monday. They weren't letting traffic in our out of town due to the flooding.


For the last month or two, Jodie and I have enjoyed the company of a pair of barn swallows. The pair has been sleeping in the overhang just outside out front door. They didn't seem to mind us going in and out of the house as long as we were relatively quiet. Each night around 7:00pm they would fly in, spend the night and fly out around 6:00am. They are no longer staying with us - they seemed to stop coming about the same time we got the dog.


Yes, we have a dog. We are taking care of Sampson, an eleven year old yellow lab. He is owned by one of Jodie's friend's parents. They moved to California for about six months and were looking for someone to take care of Sampson while they were gone. It's been pretty fun watching Sampson. For the most part he's a really good dog, but we have had some trouble with him going to the bathroom in the house while we're at work.

I've only had the chance to go up to the lake in Maine a couple times so far. We've had nice weather both times - I even caught a bunch of fish over Memorial Day Weekend. We won't be able to go up all that much this summer because of the wedding and honeymoon.

It's hard to believe the wedding is only a couple weeks away.

Which Car should You Be Driving?

Answer: A diesel-electric hybrid using 100% biodiesel. Unfortunately, I don't know of any diesel-electric hybrid cars on the market, and biodiesel isn't readily available. BAE SYSTEMS does make diesel electric buses for New York City.

Biodiesel Retailer Map
Hybrid Buses

I recently found out UNH has a biodiesel group, and they have a comparison between several different cars. They compare cost per mile (strictly fuel cost), and fossil energy input per mile (again strictly looking at the fuel) for six different cars; a Jetta TDI on biodiesel, a Jetta TDI on petrodiesel, a Jetta 2.0L on regular gasoline, a Toyota Prius Hybrid, a Honda Fuel Cell vehicle (hydrogen), and a Dodge ESX3 diesel hybrid. The diesel hybrid was the cheapest to operate per mile at 3 cents per mile followed by the Prius at 3.5 cents/mile, the Jetta TDI on petrodiesel at 4 cents per mile, the biodiesel Jetta at 4.7 cents/mile, the gas Jetta at 6.2 cents/mile, and last the fuel cell at 19 cents/mile. The price of fuel used for the comparison is outdated, but I don't think the order would change much with updated fuel costs.

As far as fossil fuel use, the diesel hybrid (using 100% biodiesel of course) was the clear winner again, using only 0.55 BTUs of fossil energy per mile. The runner up was the Jetta TDI on biodiesel at .89, then the fuel cell car at 2.4, the Prius at 3.4, the petrol diesel Jetta at 3.7, and the gas Jetta at 6.0. The energy balance data for biodiesel used in the calculation seems a little optimistic, but biodiesel would be the clear winner regardless - unless the hydrogen for the fuel cell car is obtained from renewable sources. The hydrogen was assumed to come from natural gas.

The UNH Biodiesel group also has a great introductory presentation on biodiesel.

Car Comparison
Biodiesel Presentation
UNH Biodiesel Main Site

New House Photos

Wachusett Skiing / Snowboarding

Jodie and I went to Wachusett Mtn in Princeton, MA yesterday for some skiing and snowboarding. I snowboarded and Jodie skied. It was awesome!

We got a coupon book from Mr. Tux when we signed up for them to provide our tuxedos for our wedding. The coupon book is great! We used a coupon for a free "Learn To Turn" package for both of us. The package included free rentals, a free lesson, and a free lift ticket for the lower mountain. We didn't pay a dime for the whole day!

Originally I was thinking of bringing my skis and using the coupon for an entire mountain lift ticket while Jodie did her lessons, but then I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try snowboarding. I'm really glad I decided to go the snowboarding route. It made it so Jodie and I were on the same level. It was her first time skiing and my first time snowboarding, so we were quite content to stay on the lower mountain. In fact we didn't progress to the chair lift until around 2:00 pm. We were in lessons in the morning, and then still needed to work on a few things using the "magic carpet" lift before trying the chair. Apparently, the days of rope tows and "J" or "T" bars are gone, and these conveyer belt things are the standard "bunny slope" lift.

I didn't really know what to expect from snowboarding. Part of me thought I'd pick it up pretty easily because I've skied before and I'm generally pretty good at picking up things like this. But, another part of me feared I'd be quite bad because I'd never skateboarded in my life (the few times I tried to even stand on a board went very badly) and a lot of people compare snowboarding to skateboarding. At the beginning of my lesson, I struggled quite a bit. Though I was one of the better people in the class, I was still struggling to go straight for a few feet and make one turn. By the end of the 1.5 hour lesson, I could occasionally link two turns together.

There were a couple things I found very surprising about snowboarding. I was surprised to hear the rider is supposed to weight the front foot heavily, when intuitively I would have thought, and my body seemed to agree, the rider would want to weight the rear foot more. I also was surprised to find out I ride "goofy", meaning with my right foot forward. I had heard the term "goofy" before, but I had always assumed riding with the left foot forward was "goofy". There are a couple questions they ask a first time snowboarder to help them decide which foot should be forward. First, what foot do you kick a soccer ball with, and second, if you ran and then slid on a slippery surface, which foot would you put first. I definitely do both those things with my right foot. It is quite surprising to me that most people don't, especially since most people are right handed and so am I.

After a lunch break, Jodie and I stayed together somewhat and used the "magic carpet" for awhile. When the 1:00 pm snowboarding classes invaded the slope, there really wasn't much room to practice. Even though I was still struggling a lot, and falling regularly, I suggested to Jodie that we take the Monadnock Chair lift up. She agreed with a little convincing. I figured the trail was a green circle, so it would just be a lot more of what we had been doing already. I was right, for me, it was a lot more falling.

By the end of the day, I was feeling quite beat up from the repeated falling, but I was doing pretty well linking my toe-side and heel-side turns together. I was finally able to ride down the slope in a reasonable fashion.

Jodie did amazingly well. She had vowed never to try downhill skiing, especially after getting a small taste of downhill on some cross country ski trails. Thanks to this coupon, I was able to convince her to give it a try, and she did great! And liked it! Jodie has a difficult time when she's not in full control, and sliding downhill definitely fits in that category. Once she learned to turn and stop, she could control herself to her likening. She also is afraid of falling down. Who would have thought, but that made her learn much more quickly because she really didn't want to fall. She actually made it through the whole day without falling, which must be a record for a first timer. Though, it might have been nice for her to fall a couple times just to realize it's not that bad. Trust me, I can attest to that!

Summary:
Number of falls for Jodie: 0
Number of runs without a fall for Pat: 1

The House Saga Continues ...

The seller on our original house came back and offered to give us $6,000 back at closing if we came back to the house. Apparently, he was disappointed that the house didn't sell fast after we left. This was an attractive offer given the radon and septic issues at the new property. Jodie and I felt we could move right into the house and bank the $6,000 to use in the event the septic system has issues or if we sell the house and the new buyer wants some concession.

The sellers on the new house have offered us a total of $11,000 in a combination of cash back at closing and escrow funds. That almost covers the cost of both radon mitigation systems and a new septic.

After some going back and forth on our decision, we've decide to stay with our "second" property. It will involve a little more money on our part, but we like the house and sellers better than the first house.

Another Bad Septic! Plus High Radon!

The inspection on our "new" house turned up a failing septic system and high radon levels in the air and the water. The septic system had a lot of water and sewage in the leach field. The radon level in the basement air was 6.5 pCi/L and the water radon was 15,000 pCi/L. An Air radon level of 4.0 pCi/L is the EPA recommended level above which action should be taken. There is no agreed upon level for radon in the water, but a level of 4,000 pCi/L has been proposed in NH. Maine uses 20,000 and Massachusetts 10,000 pCi/L. Most literature indicates the largest health risk from water radon is when it outgasses from the water, such as when showering.

After quite a bit of investigation, I've decided the radon treatments for air and the water are warranted. Obviously, a new septic system is warranted as well. Here's what I've found for estimates for the various systems. These estimates are just ballpark estimates based on the information I could give over the phone. A site assessment is necessary to get a good estimate.

$6500 - $8000 for a septic system design and installation
$900 - $1200 for air radon mitigation system
~$3500 for water radon mitigation

Resources:

http://www.des.state.nh.us/EOH/Radon/FAQs.asp

http://www.radonh2o.com/

http://www.radongas.org/

One House Out, New House In

Jodie and I are now under agreement on a different house. The inspection on the first house went fairly well. The boiler is older and needs a new coil, and some of the electrical wiring was out of date, but the big issue was the septic system. The septic system is undersized and not state approved. There is a 500 gallon metal tank and a trench line rather than a leach field. Kent Septic did the inspection and said they don't even like to pump metal tanks because they collapse. The inspection results were somewhat disappointing, but I wasn't too upset because I thought the inspection was enough to force the seller to make a concession.
The seller was unwilling to make a concession. His standpoint was that the system works, so there was no need to do any work. Jodie and I felt the seller should make concessions because based on the inspection results we felt the system was inadequate for the size of the house and unmaintainable because of the metal tank. It seemed to us that we'd be stuck with a large bill to replace the system, if not right away, then probably before we could sell the house.

Jodie, our real estate agent, and I met with the seller's original septic inspector, who inspected the septic a year ago. These septic people painted a much better picture. Saying the system does work now and is serviceable. They have in fact pumped it many times. They claimed the problem with metal tanks was the cover collapsing and this septic has a concrete cover.

Jodie and I still didn't feel too great about the septic system. Even if it works, it's too small and we'd likely have problems in the future. We weren't happy with the seller, who had bought the place a year earlier, made some updates, and was basically just trying to make as much money as possible. So we decided to spend the rest of the day looking at other houses on the market to see what our other options were.

We ended up finding another house in Hooksett for the same asking price. We made an offer, and ended up getting the house for the same price as the first one, with some money back for closing. The house has more finished space than the first house and has lots of storage space (2 garages) and a lot of land (5.5 acres, though some of it is wetlands). We're very excited.

Another Semester at WPI: Spring 2006

Last Monday was my first day of graduate classes for the Spring 2006 semester. My plan for the semester was to take a class in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and to do three credits of directed research work. So, on Monday I left work early to drive down to WPI for my first MEMS class. I get there, I’m a little confused at first because the room number given for the course turns out to be the computer lab, but other students show up so I figure I have the right place and find a seat. About 10 minutes after the class is scheduled to start a professor type person walks to the front of the computer lab, asks if anyone is here for the MEMS course and then proceeds to tell us that the professor is not in today, so we have no class. Well that was a great, worthwhile hour drive down to Worcester! Thanks for the heads up professor!

While I’m at campus, I figure I’ll make good use of my time. I buy the book for the course ($135!), and setup my WPI computer account at the computer center. I assume that since the course meets in the computer lab, I’ll probably have to log in to the computer at some point.

Thursday rolls around and back down to WPI I go for the second, but really the first MEMS class. I’ll also be meeting with my professor to start the directed research afterward. The MEMS professor shows up on time and mentions he was out on Monday, but doesn’t offer any sort of apology. He proceeds to handout approximately a hundred pages of notes that are relevant to the first two class lectures. He then proceeds to go through the first two classes worth of PowerPoint slides (we wouldn’t want to be behind schedule so early in the semester). We never once touch the computers in front of us, nor does he mention them. The professor does interrupt lecture a couple times to chastise the other students in the computer lab for talking quietly. These other students are actually trying to get some work done. I can’t figure out why the professor would hold the lecture in the computer lab other than the fact there is a projector screen for his PowerPoint slides. There are screens in other classrooms, though maybe not quite as big a screen as the one in the computer lab. Anyway, I find the computer lab a very distracting environment for a class. People are coming and going all the time, there are keyboard/mouse noises, and not too mention the much more interesting material a few clicks away on the Internet.

Overall, I’m not impressed with the course or the professor. The class will have homework for every lecture, two exams, a project, multiple laboratories, and mandatory seminars in addition to class time. It looks like a lot of work, and potentially additional trips to campus other than scheduled class times, for a subject that is not that interesting to me. I should have known to drop the class on Monday when he didn’t show up and never told us beforehand.

One of the sheets the professor gave to us in his handouts was a sheet outlining his Homework and Exam Requirements (HER). This sheet lists sixteen items about the required formatting of homework assignments. “Points will be taken off during the evaluations for not satisfying these requirements”. My favorite one is number fifteen. “15. Staple (no folded corners, no paper clips, or other separable fasteners) all sheets for specific homework set (or exam, or report) in the upper left corner – do not staple more than one homework set at a time; make certain that the staple has a positive slope of approximately 45º”.

Thankfully, my directed research meeting when a lot better. I am going to be studying Biodiesel fuel and assessing its “cradle to grave” environmental effects. I think it will be very interesting and somewhat fun.

I’ve decided to drop the MEMS course and add the Advanced Dynamics and Vibrations course instead. I was originally going to take the Adv Dynamics and Vib class, but I had the professor last semester for graduate level dynamics and wasn’t too impressed. I’ve heard this advanced class will be spending a lot more time on random vibrations, which is a topic we deal with a lot at work.

Found a House!

Jodie and I found house! It's a ranch that has been renovated, and is only a few minutes from our current apartment in Manchester. The house is actually in Hooksett. We're under contract and only need to complete the inspections and other paperwork for closing. Maybe we'll be in the house by the end of February!

The house hunting process was fun at first. It was nice to look a bunch of houses, but the process became more stressful as we kept looking and didn't see anything we really liked. Then we found a great house at a great price and made an offer. Unfortunately, the seller went with another offer even though we offered their full asking price. It was very disappointing to lose that house, but there were several houses on the market we hadn't seen yet, so there was still hope the right house was out there for us. When we made an offer on this house that we are now under contract with, I was very stressed. At that point, we had looked at basically every house on the market in our price range and location requirements. It was a very unsettling feeling to think "what do we do if we don't get this house". Thankfully, the stress ended last night when we got word the seller had signed our contract even though they received two other offers last night. It's a very good thing we got our offer in early (the house had only been on the market two days).

New Year's 2006

Jodie and I spent New Years in Syracuse with Ben and Jaclyn. It was so much fun! Their New Years Party consisted of good food, fun games like trivial pursuit, and watching some of the Giants football game. There was some wine and champagne, but also some sparkling cider. It was my kind of party, low key, with fun people and only a little alcohol. There were six or seven of us. Ben and Jaclyn’s friends Josh and Jess were up from Arkansas; Adrian, who is in medical school with Jaclyn, and Brian, her fiancé, were there. Phil stopped by briefly.


On New Year’s Day, we sat around in our pajamas all day, played some more games, and read. I finished Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card, and started Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons.

Ben & Jaclyn have a great house with very modern colors. I really liked the yellow walls in their living room and the hardwood floors. Jodie and I would be lucky to find such a great place.

Adam Greenberg

Adam Greenberg was a great person whose life was too short. I only met him a few times, but he was very memorable. He had a great sense of humor, very witty. He could deliver these sharp one liners that would make the room erupt in laughter. Though I didn't know him that well or for that long, he touched my life. One of the most immediate ways he changed my life is through his speech at Ben and Jaclyn's wedding. He was the best man and his speech was very funny and heart-felt. Adam's speech was in July, and when it became time for me to give the best man speech at my brother Ben's wedding in October, I looked back on Adam's speech and in many ways tried to emulate his style. My speech would have been very different, and much worse, if it hadn't been for Adam.

Not knowing Adam very well, it was hard to realize how much he went through as far as his health is concerned. He never complained and embraced every hurdle he face. He had lymphoma, and though he was cancer-free for several years, he had many other health complications due to his treatment. His death was sudden and unexpected. Jodie and I were expecting to pick him up yesterday to bring him to Ben and Jaclyn's New Years party. I will miss him.

5 Million Tons of CO2 Pumped Underground

The Department of Energy has successfully pumped five million tons of carbon dioxide underground. The carbon dioxide is from a coal gasification plant in North Dakota and has been pumped underground to a Canadian oil field. This technology sounds very promising because it could significantly reduce CO2 emissions into our atmosphere while increasing the oil production of a given oil field.

When I heard about this successful test, I was very interested. This technology is highly suggested by Deffeyes in his book Beyond Oil. I hope to hear more about this technology in the future as it is implimented in more places. It seems to me a win-win situation for global warming and oil companies. The technology sounds like it could make a significant dent in our carbon dioxide emissions. The article I read states that if the process were used in all the oil fields of western Canada, “we would see billions of additional barrels of oil and a reduction of CO2 emissions equivalent to pulling more than 200 million cars off the road for a year.”

Click here to read the article.

Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert’s Peak by Kenneth S. Deffeyes 2005

I just finished reading Beyond Oil by Deffeyes. The main point of the book is that world oil production has peaked and we need to find alternatives to fill the energy gap that will be created as oil production drops off. Deffeyes points out that heavy investment in research and development of alternatives should have started fifteen years ago. We need to start such research now, but that won’t help us in the next five to ten years. Deffeyes presents a few existing technologies that we need to focus on in the near term.

1. High Efficiency Diesel Engines: Current technology can achieve 90+ miles
per gallon and using new computer controls can reduce some of the engine pollution.
2. Coal Fired Electric Plants: Trap the carbon dioxide produced when the coal is burned and pump it underground to enhance oil recovery.
3. Wind Turbines: Turbine technology is well developed and Wyoming (and other locations) has lots of wind.
4. Nuclear Plants: Learn to stop worrying and love the cheap electricity.

Deffeyes also points out a few actions individuals can take to help the energy problem.

1. Buy a Hybrid Car and/or Move closer to work
2. Buy Local Crops to reduce food transportation energy
3. Switch to Fluorescent and LED Lighting
4. Upgrade Home insulation

For the most part I agree with Deffeyes. High efficiency diesel engines will certainly reduce the amount of oil we use, but I think hybrid engines and existing fuel cell technology should be used as well to limit the air pollution from diesel engines. Or what about a hybrid diesel-electric engine? I haven’t heard anything about that concept.

Coal electric plants make me nervous because of the air pollution they cause. Trapping the CO2 and other pollutants from the coal and storing them underground sounds great. My only question is do we really have the technology already to trap CO2? If we do, why haven’t we implemented that already?

Further implementation of wind turbines is a great idea, though I’d also add other alternative energy sources such as solar and geothermal to Deffeyes’ list.

Nuclear energy makes me worry as well. Maybe Deffeyes is right, that we need to stop worrying so much about nuclear energy, and enjoy its benefits. I’m not so much worried about the electric plant exploding as I am about the nuclear waste. Deffeyes points out the physical size of the nuclear waste produced is relatively small. That makes me feel good, but the waste has to be contained for 15,000 to 240,000 years. How exactly are we going to do that? 15,000 years is so long, it’s really beyond comprehension. We have no idea how much change the earth could go through in that time. Nuclear fusion sounds like a great solution. Deffeyes says it produces no radioactive waste, but is at least 20 years away.

The individual actions suggested by Deffeyes to reduce our energy consumption all make very good sense. I’ve heard about taking such actions before, so this wasn’t anything new to me.

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed in the book, but my disappointment was really my own fault. I didn’t do much research into this book before I purchased it and started reading. The title alone seemed reason enough to get the book. My disappointment was largely due to the fact the book primarily discusses the state of oil in the world and other possible fossil fuel replacements, such as natural gas, coal, tar sands, and oil shale. I feel we need to move away from fossil fuels by using renewable energy sources and promoting energy efficiency and conservation. The book does discuss nuclear and hydrogen energy options, but does not discuss renewable energy sources in any depth. The book sticks to the topics that Deffeyes is familiar with. He is a geologist and therefore most renewables are outside his realm of expertise. I would still have expected some discussion of geothermal energy.

I did find the overall conclusion and message of the book very interesting. I knew world oil was running out, but I didn’t realize we are already at or past the peak.

Favorite Quotes

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist." - Kenneth E. Boulding

"The absolute simplicity. That's what I love. When you are climbing your mind is clear. Free of all confusion. You have focus. And suddenly the light becomes sharper, sounds are richer, and you are filled with the deep, powerful presence of life." - Brad Pitt (Heinrich Harrer) in Seven Years in Tibet

Hybrid Cars and Fuel Cells are old Technology

Gas electric Hybrid cars have been around since at least 1970. Fuel Cells were used during NASA's Apollo missions during the 1960s. The reason these technologies aren't more prevalent today is simply that there hasn't been significant push to develop the technologies until more recently.

I am mentioning this fact because the other night I was early for my graduate class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Since I had a few minutes I was looking at the posters in the hallway. One of them was called "Mechanical Engineering Through the Years." It had a bunch of old photos, one of which was a group of guys and an old car with "WPI Hybrid Electric" on the side. I looked into it a little more and found out the car was for a Clean Car Race back in 1970. The race was organized by several colleges to raise awareness of the significant air pollution coming from automobiles.

It's hard to believe that such an event took place 35 years ago considering the lack of progress made towards cleaner vehicles.

Evangelical's Push to Curb Global Warming - What will Bush do Now?

The National Association of Evangelicals plans to release a statement calling for mandatory greenhouse gas controls. The statement will be signed by over 35 evangelical leaders from across the US. The evangelicals believe there is a moral obligation to preserve the Earth.

It will be very interesting to see if such a statement causes any change in Bush's stance on climate change. Bush will be caught between his conservative base, which based on this news is pushing for climate change legislation, and his industry base which has opposed such legislation. I would think the conservative base holds more votes than a few industry lobbyists. I hope that means Bush will choose to go along with the evangelicals and support climate change legislation.

I always thought it was weird that saying the environment was considered a liberal idea. The word conservation is the same root as conservative, so by definition environmental conservation is a conservative idea. Saving the environment is resisting change. It is preserving the environment in its original state. That is a conservative idea. Maybe the conservatives have finally figured this out and the liberals and conservatives will now agree and we'll make some progress. We can only hope.

Read the article at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Maybe I Should Have Voted for Lieberman

I found and interesting newspaper article online today. It was called Lieberman proposal: Hybrid autos to combat manmade global warming. Basically, the article states that Senator Joseph Lieberman plans to introduce a bill requiring 10% of new cars to be hybrids or alternative fuel vehicles by 2007. Additionally, the bill would require 50 percent of new cars sold in America to be hybrid electric or based on other gasoline-saving technology by 2012.

I was very happy to hear about this bill. It's about time we started to push for more efficient cars to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. This bill would be similar to raising the mpg standards for vehicles.

One other thing the article mentioned, was that Lieberman and McCain are planning reintroduce their Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, which would mandate a rollback of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. to 2000 levels by the end of the decade.

Now, let's hope these bills pass through congress.

The Rain Finally Stopped

We saw the sun today for the first time in 9 or 10 days. It was a welcome and much needed sight. There hasn't been much flooding impact in Manchester, but elsewhere in the state has been hit hard. The worst hit areas are in the westerner part of the state, Keene and Alstead in particular. I drove over the Merrimack river today and it was higher than I can ever remember seeing it. The water is so high even though only a few weeks ago, it was about as low as I've ever seen it.

Jodie and I participated in the Breast Cancer walk at Greeley Park in Nashua. It was a nice walk, but I unfortunately volunteered to help set up. The walk was at 10:00 am, so I figured helping to setup would entail getting there around 8:00 am. Instead I was told to get there around 7:00 am. Jodie and I got there early and help set up a few things, but we really didn't do much. Soon, we found ourselves without much to do, and more than 2 hours to wait until the walk began. We ended up walking around Greeley Park and playing on the swings for awhile. I don't have a problem helping setup. I mean, I did volunteer, but I didn't really enjoy carrying about 6 boxes and then having nothing to do. I'm glad to help out, but if I'm not needed, I rather not show up early to stand around.

Overall, the walk was a success. We enjoyed the walk very much, and it's great to raise money and awareness for such a good cause.

Buffalo

Last night I saw a brief part of a show about Yellowstone National Park and the railroad industry. It was on NH Public Television, and was called YELLOWSTONE: AMERICA'S EDEN. It was very depressing. It started out showing footage of huge herds of buffalo roaming the plains. There used to be 60 million buffalo in the western US. The white men, railroad people from what I took from the show, wanted to own the land that was presently occupied by native americans. They noticed that the native americans relied heavily on the buffalo for survial, and they thought that a nice indirect way of getting rid of the native americans would be to kill off the buffalo. The show had pictures of enormous piles of buffalo skulls and said that St. Louis sold 200,000 buffalo hides a day! The pictures and facts were deeply distrubing about how incredibly quickly and thoroughly the buffalo were distroyed. In fact, the buffalo were thought to be extinct until about two dozen buffalo were found in what is now Yellowstone National Park.

Ironicly, the same railroad people saw the beauty of yellowstone and realized it was worth perserving. They were one of the main groups lobbying for yellowstone to become the first national park. Of course, the beauty to them was the number of people who would ride their railroad to see the natural wonders. Suddenly the buffalo, elk, sheep, and deer were valueable to these people. So valueable that they decided to kill gray wolf and bear to reduce the predators of these animals. As a result the population of these grazing animals increased. Unfortunately, the population increased beyond what could be supported by the small yellowstone ecosystem. The over population lead to over-browsing, which lead to the decline of beaver, which lead to the loss of wetlands, which hurt duck and fish populations, etc.

The program went on to show the vast influx of people via automobiles and the detrimental impact they had. They showed the park rangers cleaning Morning Glory pool of all the trash people put in there. They pulled 86 dollars of pennies out of the pool!

I went to Yellowstone a few years ago, and luckily a lot of the damage of previous visitors, such as trash in Morning Glory Pool, is temporary. Much of the damage has not been temporary. The buffalo still are a fraction of their original numbers, grizzly bears are not present in Wyoming like they used to be, nor or the wolves.

I was depressign to me to see such destruction to beautiful and innocent creatures and habitat. There is a delicate balance between enjoyment of our natural wonders and over use.

Ben & Kate's Wedding

Saturday was Ben & Kate's wedding. It was a lot of fun. The ceremony was very nice. It was at First Church in Nashua, NH. The reception was at the radisson in Chelmsford, MA. I was the Best Man. It was my first experience being part of the wedding party. I was a little nervous about having to stand in front of the church during the ceremony and giving my speech as best man. I was nervous during the speech, but I think it turned out pretty well.

It was nice to see several people from my family who I haven't seen in a long time. I suppose that's one of the best things about weddings is getting to see everyone. Todd Thamer was their photographer. I mentioned him to Ben and he ended up using him. I didn't know until he walked in on the wedding day, so that was a bit of a surprise. I kind of was able to have a day long interview with Todd. I got to see him work, and he did a nice job. I think he'll do a great job at our wedding too.