Black Earth

There's been a buzz in the papers lately about this fellow Tim Snyder who has written a book, Black Earth, directly comparing the Holocaust to climate change.

Here's a couple examples, the first one, from the NYT, sent in by Jake from our EII class, the other from the Grauniad.

You can find a lot of material in the pages of this blog and annex where I look at climate change through the lens of twentieth century history. WWII is an important comparative case, but so, I tend to think, is the Cold War.

More on this later in class.

North Woods National Park, for ESS

(As an example of macroeconomic arguments for and against environmental action.)

Another great Hans Rosling TED talk

Refugee crisis material for EII

Guardian article and video:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/05/refugees-and-holidaymakers-in-kos-patrick-kingsley

BBC news clip:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34194298
 

Also, Jake found the data below about comparative scale:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/5-graphs-that-show-how-the-refugee-crisis-has-got-worse-10483439.html

Fessing up

A French spy has confessed to bombing the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. As a just-starting environmentalist, this was an incident that had a huge effect on me at the time:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/06/french-spy-who-sunk-greenpeace-ship-apologises-for-lethal-bombing

Supply and demand in the ivory trade

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/economics-illicit-ivory-trade/

Getting ready, plus highlights of our family summer

School starts next Monday, and students will be back shortly, if not already for those in rental housing nearby. I've switched gears and am in get-ready mode. Some reminders and notes for all the SEM students:

1. For new SEM students, seek me out as soon as possible in the semester. I'll need to talk to you about career expectations, about your internship, and about your academic plan. This is not optional. Not coming to get the correct information can cost you an extra semester or two. 
2. All new SEM students should try to get into Physics during drop-add if you aren't already assigned to it. If you don't have moderately good (high school) algebra, you can delay this a year while you catch up (come see me to talk about this), but otherwise you should be in Physics. There are still seats in the Friday lab.
3. For existing SEM students, the key engineering course, PS3003 Renewable Energy, will be taught in the spring of 2016. It gets taught only every second spring. There's a recommended tool kit, some of which you may be able to bring from home. If not, and if you can't afford to purchase these, don't worry. We have enough in the Physics Lab to go around. But professionals have their own tools, and the sooner you start getting at least some, the better. Buy only good quality tools. The cheap stuff doesn't hold up, and can hurt you by breaking at inopportune moments. Here's the list:
   110/220 Volt pen-style voltage detector
   12 Volt test light
   Pencil and tape measure
   Jackknife or craft knife or both (for sharpening pencil, shaving splinters, etc)
   Philips number 3 and number 2 screwdrivers
   Flat screwdriver
   Pliers (linesman’s, small)
   Wire cutter-strippers
   Multi-meter (volts, ohms, milliamps)
   Small pry bar or “cat’s paw”
   Screw-gun or battery powered drill and selection of bits
   Hand-held “laser” thermometer
   Kill-a-Watt ® meter
   Calculator

Finally, for those of you who'd like to know what the Womerlippis got up to this summer, here are some photos of our various activities:

We own a small farm, and one thing we did was grow a lot of food. Here little Roo is getting ready to feed waste apples to the pigs.

We took a fmaily trip to Aimee's home in southwest PA, where I met this old friend, one of the airplanes I worked on while an engineer in the RAF. This is a Jet Provost airplane, used for pilot training. I used to service and repair the propulsion systems, including overhauling the Rolls Royce engines.

I also overhauled the engine in my own Land Rover, a complete rebuild.

Here's the engine going back in after the rebuild. This kind of thing is fun for me.

We built a swing set for little Roo.

Here we are enjoying the swing set.

Later in the summer, I dragged our old VW campervan out of the woods where I'd stored it for several years, and began to restore it, pulling and stripping the engine and repairing all the rust damage with new metal. When we get done with this, it will look and run like new, and we'll use if for family camping..