Cooking up the Liquor, for your Vehicle that is.

Fossil Fuels are on the ropes. Don't get me wrong they are here to stay, but their reign is now on the decline. Why? Fossil Fuels are a finite resource, and we have extracted most of what comes out easily... particularly with oil. Alternatives are beginning to come into the fore-front, vying for future supremacy as the fuel of choice. Bio-diesel and Bio-ethanol are two fuels, renewable and potentially viable. Bio-diesel was what the first diesel engines ran on. If I remember correctly, the first diesel engine ran on peanut oil... break out the JIF.

Bio-ethanol has already been successfully adopted by Brazil. There sugarcane is refined into Bio-ethanol, a far more efficient process than that which makes corn into Bio-ethanol. However the future for ethanol is a bit hazy. There are more efficient ways to create electricity, and electric vehicle production is on the rise.

Yo momma is my momma

Mitochondrial Eve, the Woman from whom we are all descended. Some 200,00 or so years ago in East Africa it is believed the First Homo-Sapiens Mama lived. All of us and our differences stem from minor adaptations to environments that different peoples experienced as they moved out of East Africa and into the rest of the World.

Amphioxus

This little guy is the first Organism to have a Vertebrae according to the Fossil Record. All Modern day animals with a backbone can trace their evolutionary history back to the Amohioxus. Hmmm, looks a lot like tadpole to me.

Darwin's Dilemma (Burgess Shale)

Darwin's Origin of Species was predicated on the belief that all modern day species had evolved from one ancestor, in a gradual and methodical event taking hundreds of millions of years. However then and now, questions have been raised about whether Darwin's theory is totally accurate. The Cambrian Explosion found within the Burgess shale is used by Intelligent Design supporters as evidence that Darwin's theory is not complete and always true. During the Cambrian Explosion, a myriad of different animals suddenly appeared seemingly from no where. The debate continues.

Chillin' in Hitchiti

Had to hold the smile too long, but trust me the love is there

Everybody loves Hitchiti, there are trees, rivers and streams and even some cool Ginger plants. We learned that Hitchiti is called an Experimental Forest because of the species introduced into it and the intentional burning of large swaths of shrubbery to study growth. Just so you know, I love me some trees.

My big lake brings all the shipping to the yard, and their like, its better than yours...

Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world by Surface area. Part of the 'Finger Lakes' on the border of Canada and America, Superior is the largest of the five lakes. This system of lakes holds 21% of the Earth's surface freshwater. As basically an inland sea due to the connection of the lakes by locks and channels, shipping from Detroit can reach New York and the world at large without ever having to be shipped over land. Lake Superior and the other finger lakes also house a myriad of fish types and are the centerfold for a vibrant eco-system. However danger always lurks on the horizon. The flying carp infestation has spread up the Mississippi and now the only thing separating devastation of a multi-billion dollar fishing industry is the lock between the Mississippi and the finger lakes.

I Keep on Fallin'

In Carroll County, Maryland a fall line exists that separates the Piedmont region with that of the Coastal plain. Rolling hills transition into sandy flat lands that slowly sink in elevation to sea level. Thousand of years ago this fall line is where the ocean met the continent... Carroll County (and Macon) was beach property once upon a time.  I lived in the Piedmont region where farming was common and Suburbs plentiful. The coastal plain was naturally more urbanized because it was easier to access in early American history. The movement of people out into the country came with the introduction of more advanced modes of transportation.

Negative Feedback

In order that an equilibrium be maintained, negative feedback loops respond to change in order to bring conditions back to their original state. The way the Human body deals with the intake of sugar is a great example of this. Insulin is produced and the Sugar is metabolized to bring back sugar levels to the original constant. The Y axis of the graph above measures sugar content in the blood and the X axis is displaying time. Notice the trend over time to regain equilibrium.

Getting Down and Dirty

Dirt, most of the time we think of it as that brown stuff on the ground that gets on our clothes and messes up our houses... but it is so much more. In fact, dirt is actually the name given to a substance that has limitless formations and compositions. In order to simplify its study, scientists have created  12 Soil Orders ranging from soil in the presence of permafrost to dirt consisting of volcanic ash. Although Ultisols is the order under which Georgia's famous red-clay dirt falls, in lab when we out to the garden we likely observed Histosols. Histosols is an ideal soil type for growing plants and bodes well for the garden as it is rich in organic material. Hopefully lead content in the soil will one day be considered safe so that the agriculture can take full advantage of this soil.

River Escapade

Plants and Stuff

                                                                     Datura Wrightii

                                                                     Ilex aquifolium

                                                          Dendranthema x grandiflorum

 

                                                               Lagerstroemia indica

                                                               Juniperus osteosperma

                                                                       Pinus palustris

                                                                     Loropetalum chinensis

                                                                Magnolia grandiflora

                                                                 Ophiopogon japonicus

                                                                   Betula papyrifera

                                                                        Ginko Biloba

                                                                        Allium cepa

Animal of Interest

Although most certainly not a native species of North Georgia, I have always found the Albatross a fascinating animal. Living its entire life at sea and only touching down from time to time to breed, the Albatross lives in high latitudes where the winds are strong enough to allow the great bird to glide around the globe. However. the Albatross is encountering choppy seas. Plastic debris fields occasionally attract the eyes of the bird. Once ingested the plastics do not digest, an accumulation of garbage eventually leads to death. Some of that plastic, no doubt, is endemic of Georgia.

The Grey-Headed Albatross

Cartography

Dot Density Map

Isarithmic Map

Proportion Map

My happy place

Mean Annual Precipitation in Georgia