Wildfires and such.

Well, I've been hearing a lot about wildfires lately and wanted to share a bit with you. The first I heard about was actually not California, but Canada. Apparently, the Mountain Pine Beetle has killed and dried up more than 50% of the mature pine trees in British Columbia, and experts say that there is likely to be a huge forest fire their in the near future because of the problem. Apparently, these dead trees are so dry it would only take one lightning strike to burn down the whole 20 million acres of forest(twice the size of West Virginia). Also, though the Canadian government is allowing loggers to chop them down, not many are doing it, because there's not much used for beetle-kill trees. The wood is much too brittle to build a house from or anything, all there is for their use is a small market for specially designed firniture that's supposed to look cool when made from beetle-kill.

Well, there is a solution. Have you ever heard of wood pellets? Apparently they're a new alternative fuel, basically would dried and compressed into tiny little pellets (looking like rabbit food). It's cleaner and cheaper than coal, electricity, gas or oil. Lost of people are starting to use it to heat their homes, and the Chinese government wants a large supply of it to make their coal electric plants cleaner and more efficient. Beetle kill is a perfect natural resource for make wood pellets. It's already dried up and so much easier to make into saw-dust than healthy trees.

The first I heard of it was from DailyWealth, a free financial newsletter I get via email just for fun. The first article I got on November 14th called Why Chinese Power Plants Need Rabbit Food, and the other I got on the 16th was The Alternative Fuel Industry You've Never Heard Of. Finally, I also heard more about it from this blog called Storybook, in the blogpost Anatomy of Wildfire.


In other news: I am going home to The United States of America for 3 months! See here for details.

Also, today is the 1st anniversary of Lisa and I being legally wed. We'll be going out to eat and that's about it. We're not fully decided on where we want to go, but I'll post about it in a comment tomorrow or something.

8 Appendiged Girl in Myanmar, assisted by South Korean defense min. Kim Jang-soo, discovers weight beinifts, nicotine vaccine, and new Earth via PK

Girl Born With 4 Arms, 4 Legs Has Successful Surgery

Myanmar Junta's Hold on Power Must End, UN Envoy Says (Update1)

North Korea Still a Threat, South Korean Tells Gates

Extra Weight May Have Health Benefits

Nicotine Vaccine May Help Smokers Quit

A Planetary System That Looks Familiar

Bush speaks to Musharraf

In other news, yesterday Bergen saw its first snow of the season. The tips of the mountains were white, and all way beautiful. Then, as the day warmed, is began to rain and hail, with a bit of snow/hail/rain mix at the end of the day as it got colder again. I feared that Bergain was going to be covered in a thick layer of ice the next day (today) but no, it warmed and we had rain, lots and lots of rain and hail. Once it was hailing so hard that I could hardly see out the windows (wich are out our slanted ceiling rather than the wall)! Now it's just raining and Lisa said there's supposed to be some kind of big storm comming either tonight or tomorrow, let's take a look..... can't seem to find much about, just an alert for stormy weather, no actual named storm.

US navy helps injured North Korean sailors after pirate attack

Hey, would you look at this? Pretty sweat eh? Those North Korean sailors won't forget the kindness the the American sailors who addressed their injuries. It's a bright, beautiful touch adding to the warming that's been going on.

US navy helps injured North Korean sailors after pirate attack

Jonathan Watts, East Asia correspondent
Saturday November 3, 2007

Guardian

It has taken half a century, but North Korea and the United States have finally found a common enemy: the pirates prowling the waters off the coast of east Africa.

In one of the world's most unlikely rescues, a US naval vessel cruised to the support of a North Korean cargo ship this week after it repulsed a boarding by Somali pirates. The mission - which would have been almost unthinkable a year ago - was described by US diplomats as a goodwill gesture that underscored the thaw in ties between two of the cold war's oldest and, until recently, most bitter enemies.

US sailors were invited aboard the North Korean ship to provide medical assistance to wounded crewmen after a deadly fight with the pirates. The North Korean seamen had already won the battle, killing one Somali, wounding three and overpowering the others. The US medics helped to treat the injured, including three North Koreans.

"I think we were pleased to be able to help in this regard and I hope the North understands that we did this out of the sense of goodwill that we have on this," said the US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill. "You'll always find our navy prepared to help any ship in distress and certainly any ship that is confronting pirates."

The cooperation came as US experts arrived in Pyongyang to start disabling the reclusive state's nuclear plants. Little more than a year ago the US was calling for inspections of North Korean ships in protest at the latter's nuclear bomb test.

"This is a very serious security problem on the African coast. These are not pirates who will remind you of [Pirates of the Caribbean actor] Johnny Depp. These are quite different kinds of pirates," said Mr Hill, who heads the US negotiating team with North Korea.

The coast off Somalia has the world's second most pirate infested waters, after Indonesia. There have been more than two dozen shipjackings already this year.

Pyongyang has yet to comment on the incident.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

See also:
USA Today
Fox News
Boston Herald

Bergen Weather

Hey, just wanted to give you all a good glimpse of how the weather is in Bergen this time of year. Yes, that's hail clattering upon and sliding down the window. In case you can't view the video, here are some pictures:


















These pictures, as well as the video, were taken on October 30th, 2007 through the windows of our Løbergsveien Studentboliger appartment. We've had more rain since that day of hail, and Lisa tells me there have been some semi-serious flooding problems in the area. With all the hills around I'm surprised we don't get land-slides. To be fair, we have gotten the random bit of clear-skys, and the more common thick gray clouds without precipitation (as we have right at this moment).

Here's hoping the weather is better where you are. :)