Category Archives: BUSINESS

Wind Turbines: “It’s always something” [VIDEO]

UPDATE, 4/30/2012: Along the lines described in this piece: NASA Satellite Measurements Imply Texas Wind Farm Impact On Surface Temperature

UPDATE: 4/9/2012: On Wednesday, April 11th, I’ll be doing a show on Energy Independence on KPFT-FM 90.1 (Houston). You can read about the show and how to hear it here.

Since wind energy will be a topic of discussion, it seemed like a good time to re-post this piece, originally written by me in April of 2010.

– Mike

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It seems that wind turbines change how heat dissipates in the areas downwind of them, because they slow the wind as it spins their propellers. Once one begins to think about it, this domino effect makes perfect sense.
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Commercial Access To Space: Soon Coming To An Orbit Near You?

[Excerpts] …Paul Allen has … a pioneering vision for commercial space travel. Allen, on Tuesday, unveiled designs for an efficient air-launch system that resembled a giant airplane split into two fuselages. The craft will take both government and commercial payloads into orbit, with human missions as an eventual goal.

…Allen funded the development of SpaceShipOne, the first manned private spaceflight.

The commercial space transport system will be built by Stratolaunch Systems, Allen’s new company. Burt Rutan, an aerospace engineer integral to the development of SpaceShipOne, will be helping Allen develop his new project. The billionaire believes that the carrier plane lifting rocket ships to higher altitude will be both safer and more cost-effective than launching a rocket from the ground.

Article: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/paul-allen-unveils-new-business-for-commercial-space-travel/