Who doesn't love a nice hot shower in the morning?

But have you considered how much energy your hot shower uses?

As the cost of energy keeps going up and up, I got curious as to how much heat is required for that wonderful morning (or evening) ritual.

The answer surprised me--and it will probably surprise you, too.

Crossposted at Politicook.net

Hydrogen bonds are not very strong, but they are common.  Looking it from an energetic standpoint, covalent bonds (the pure sharing of electrons, like in diatomic oxygen, for example), then ionic bonds, like in salt, are stronger.  But there are lots of hydrogen bonds, and numbers have power.  The only other that is so diffuse, and thus so powerful, are metallic bonds.  I have covered all of those in previous diaries.

A hydrogen bond forms when a hydrogen atom (the smallest and lightest) is bonded with either nitrogen, oxygen, or fluorine.  From a zero point approximation, a hydrogen bond is a strong dipole-dipole bond, but they are much more important and quite different.

Whilst we have not explained it well yet with models, it is a fact that it exists.  Here are some of the empirical reasons:

Crossposted at Politicook.net

None of us should be alive.  We are only because of water.  Water.  Everyone knows about it, everyone uses it, but few understand it.  Every schoolchild knows that water is H20, but few scientists realize the ramifications of that simple formula.

Water has a molecular weight of 18 atomic mass units (amu, the mass of a proton or neutron, roughly) since the common isotope of oxygen has a a mass of 16 amu, and that of the most common type of hydrogen has a mass of one amu.

Water looks sort of like Mickey Mouse, in that the two hydrogen atoms make an angle through the H-O-H bond of about 104.45 degrees.

This is an edited repost of a rant I wrote as a comment in another diary, but I presumptuously fancied that it merited it's own diary posting, simply for the purposes of advancing discussion.  There are more erudite and authoritative voices in the community who can address the science and the ethics behind each of these suggestions, so I am only offering a precis of my pet peeves about the toys which have characterized the American lifestyle for the past forty years which I find to be completely indefensible today.

And please note that I recognize my own hypocrisy. My generation is responsible for the bulk of the mess we currently must remediate, as my twenty-four year old son is so keen to point out often and repeatedly.

Being a Futurama fan, I've always wanted to say this but could not find the propitious moment. Writing about water scarcity & food shortages is taxing and angers me at times particularly when I come across disheartening news caused by blatant greed and callous disregard for our planet.

However, a huge dose of human ingenuity, human creativity and human toil will right the wrongs. I have great faith in humanity and this diary is dedicated to the good folks out there bursting their synapses coming up with novel ways of making the world less dependent on fossil fuels, working out solutions to feed the planet and generally trying to make this earth a better place (if you look at the human brain from say, 150,000 years ago, you will not see much difference when compared with today's brains. Yet the drive to learn, as well as our ability to communicate and work collectively, has lifted our human potential to unimaginable levels.)

All year long we have been subjected to an unending parade of frivolous, meaningless nonsense masquerading as "issues" in the Presidential campaign. The mainstream media repetitively parrots every bit of gossip conjured up and bats it back and forth between the candidates, to get their "reaction" to it, and that of their supporters, then the opinions of analysts as to how the gossip or their reaction to it or their supporters reaction to it will affect the campaign.  Why does this pass for news?

Perhaps this is to be expected of the same news channels that otherwise fill their airtime with the latest goings on of trashy bimbos in Hollywood, but often the more cerebral activist class gets drawn into discussing the same drivel. We should be propounding issues that matter.

Have you ever stopped to consider how some of the most mundane and boring policy changes might radically improve the world - and be enacted with a minimum of wailing and gnashing of teeth? (more...)

Help! I am feeling mighty grumpy and curmudgeonly because I find this whole NYC Waterfalls project by Olafur Eliasson and company (which cost $15 MILLION USD) grossly inappropriate for these times of recession, global upheaval, oil shock, and peak oil.

....jump....

Fluoride could damage bones of kidney patients

Water is Life, yet over 1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water and over 2 billion lack basic sanitation. As you know, due to increasingly lower availability of water in many parts of the world, water has more and more become a political commodity.

In fact, quite a few conflicts have been fought because of water. With the horrid news of Mount Kilimanjaros's imminent loss of snow caps and the inexorable march of desertification coupled with inane and unchecked deforestation, political leaders will have to start addressing the question of water shortages sooner than later.

While most of our country, rightly so, is focused on the ever increasing cost of gasoline, and its effect on our economy, this will be one of those diaries that reminds you that a much more valuable resource (now commodity?) is endangered.  This resource is something we need for life, and it is simply water.

We are running out of freshwater

In the first seven years of the new millennium, more studies, reports, and books on the global water crisis have been published than in all of the preceding century. Almost every country has undertaken research to ascertain its water wealth and the threats to its aquatic systems. Universities around the world are setting up departments or cross-departmental disciplines to study the effects of water shortages. The Worldwatch Institute has declared: "Water scarcity may be the most underappreciated global environmental challenge of our time."

For this diary, I will be offering quotes out of a new article on "The American Prospect"...follow me below

Austin, Texas, is a leader in the United States on paths toward a more energy smart future.  MSN called it the "Greenest City in America."  IT has smart growth policies, has a focus on plug-in vehicles, wind power, and ... well, many things.  

Yearly Kos 1 was in a center of conspicious consumption: Las Vegas. YK2 in a leading city when it comes to green roofs which had the Cool GlobesCool Globes up when we were there.  Netroots Nation is going to an even greener pasture.  And you can send a friend there through the DFA Scholarship for Netroots Nation.

From the earliest point in man's existence on Earth, water has played a vital part - earliest settlements were often established along the banks of rivers or lake shores to ensure a ready supply of water was obtained. Mesopotamia, the so-called cradle of civilization, was situated between the major rivers Tigris and Euphrates. For without water, where would human life be? It is the element of all people since our bodies are mostly made, anywhere from 55% to 78% of water, depending on body size. This connectivity and dependence upon water is started from the uterine protective waters of the mother's womb.

Our bodies may be able to survive up to a month without food, but without water, we can only last a week. Water is needed, not only to re-hydrate ourselves, but also to keep our muscles and other parts of our bodies (ie eyes) operating properly. We all need between 1 liter and 6 liters a day, in extreme weather. Because of this importance we need to look after our precious resource as not only our own lives depend on having fresh clean water, but also the lives of all other inhabitants on the planet. If I sound a little too "New Age", so be it, it's crucial that we start to address food & water shortages. Now, not once we've run out.

The Chinese join such countries as Bangladesh and South Africa in making the Great Leap Forward:

China Bans Free Plastic Bags

Beginning on June 1, all supermarkets, department stores and shops will be prohibited from giving out free plastic bags, the State Council said. Stores must clearly mark the price of plastic shopping bags and are banned from tacking that price onto products.

It is perhaps odd that in a country where air and water quality have experienced such shocking deterioration in recent years that this is where the Chinese put their efforts. But maybe it helps morale to pass a law that can have such a visible impact so quickly.  

The regulation is part of Beijing's increased efforts to fight the pollution that has accompanied breakneck economic growth. As factories churn out low-cost products for the world's consumers, they have severely fouled the country's air and water.

More below the fold.

For once, actually daring to choose a somewhat populist theme for an SNLC, i.e. a subject about which self knows precious little, this SNLC takes as its starting point a recent article on moderate-left-blogistan's favorite faux-right-wing pundit, Stephen Colbert.  What makes it of interest, or amusement, is that the article is from a conservative newspaper.  But since this is SNLC (2.0), and in keeping with the diarist's known esoteric tastes, the paper in question is from across the pond, namely the Daily Telegraph, a conservative British paper.  Yet something may be revealed of its particular conservatism, perhaps, from the article's title:

"Stephen Colbert: the second most powerful idiot in America"

No subtext prizes for whom the Telegraph, or at least Steven Daly, the article's author, considers to be the most powerful idiot in America, then.  With that....

    Ehud Olmert, is correct that a failure in the peace process will result in Israel becoming a "South African-style" apartheid like state, but wrong that a two-state solution is needed. A two-state solution would be like an Ireland vs Northern Ireland creation.

Two interesting student projects:

Veronica Santos and Julia Parreiras from Belo Horizonte, Brazil make solar water purifiers using recycled plastic bottles and snack food bags turned inside out.  The mylar bags are concentrators and the bottles are PET plastic, one side painted black to absorb more heat.  They found that PET had more UV transmittance and stood up better to long term use.  

Here's my own recycled solar cooker using snack food [popcorn] bags, a plastic cake box, and a dark saucepan.

Savannah College of Art and Design have been working on a homeless sleeping project, building three different models:
sleep shelter based upon a folding lawn chair
privacy screen for homeless shelter bunks
privacy tent for transitional housing bed

While climate change directs our attention largely to the melting poles, the most immediate and devastating effects will be felt from the melting glaciers.  From Bhutan to Peru, global warming is exacting a great toll now and will soon be getting much much worse.    The article Melting Andean Glaciers Could Leave 30 Million High and Dry describes a sobering narrative with a killer ending:

Loss of glaciers in the Andes mountain range is threatening the water supply of 30 million people, and scientists say the lower altitude glaciers could disappear in 10 years.

Everyone has heard about ANWR.*  It is so well known that I do not have spell out the acronym. Ever heard of the Pebble Mine Project?  Probably not. The major environmental organizations have done an extremely poor job of publicizing this disaster in the making. Pebble Mine is worse than anything the oil thugs want to do in ANWR and it is in the permitting stage, making it a critical issue in terms of time and public awareness. Please join me for an introduction to the proposed Pebble Mine Project.

*Arctic National Wildlife Refuge