Early Snow Melting Marvels Stuck in Beta

Cool. I had no idea. You can melt it and not move it. Makes sense, I guess.

Last week, I was quizzing someone from the Northeast about how their city removed all the snow. He said their community just bought a new machine to melt their recent snow. Not just any machine, a Snow Dragon melter. Some of these units can melt 60 tons of snow per hour or the equivalent of 20 to 25 truckloads per hour.

So, with a little bit of wide-eyed wonder, I discovered snow melting machines were generally stuck in beta for about 100 years.

Revecca Rickard in 1808 patented the first device to clear snow from pavements. Think of it as a fireplace on wheels. A person could move the firebox over the snow to be melted. I don't think this device was too successful.
Soon bigger vehicles, some horse drawn, some with revolving brushes, were designed. Most melted snow at less than a cubic yard per minute. Most failed due to the cost of melting, the lack of speed, or because the machine could not handle the rigors of use on the streets.

Take a look at these early snow melting machines.

Me + Blender = Water Conference Video

This seems like good Friday blog post material. I thought I would share the opening of the South Carolina Environmental conference video I worked on last year. Yes, that is me with a blender. Yes, the blender still works. No, I did not throw up.Check it out here.

This year to help market the conference we created a series video ads to parody those UPS Whiteboard ads. We started to release some of the ads this week. Here is one of them. And no, that is not me in the wig.

If you are interested in attending the conference, its only 16 days aways. Here is the flyer.

2010scecbrochure Final

First Glimpse of the new Apple Data Center in NC

Its really there.

Apple has started building a new 500,000-square feet data center in Maiden, North Carolina with construction to be completed by late 2010. The data center reportedly will use about 20 megawatts annually – enough to power 16,000 homes. Here is the first glimpse from the air:



The new Apple facility will be the company’s East Coast operations center and would according to some take advantage of the 3 hour time change on the East Coast to facilitate communications between European operations/sales and California for data transmission.

This data center is estimated to cost over a billion dollars which is double the cost that Google is investing in a large data center in Lenoir, NC, 28 miles to the north.

Related Posts:7 Reasons Apple picked Maiden, NC
Behind the Scenes at a Google Data Center

Mudhole Water Skiing Southern Style

Honestly, I was going to write this morning about a new water permitting bill being proposed in South Carolina. I was going to breakout its major components, but it's just going to have to wait.

This is another reason why I love living in South Carolina. There is no shortage of ingenuity, adaptibility, and perseverance. Bring on climate change. As long as there is some muddy water left and a little carbon to burn, we are fine.

This spurred me into making a motivation poster.


Ok. Just one more poster.


Must stop now. I could have fun with this all day long.

Debunking the #1 Water Scarcity Myth

I thought CBS News's story about water scarcity was good considering the short duration (Watch the video here). However, one myth continues to be spread in the popular press. The myth is that 36 states will face water shortages.

This statement comes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report published in 2003 titled "FRESHWATER SUPPLY: States’ Views of How Federal Agencies Could Help Them Meet the Challenges of Expected Shortages" The report was generated after the 2002 drought to help federal agencies determine how their activities affect states and how they can be more supportive of state efforts to meet their future water needs.

The report states that "even under normal conditions, water managers in 36 states anticipate shortages in localities, regions, or statewide in the next 10 years."

How did all the water resource planners in the GAO calculate this shortage?

They didn't.

The results were only a compilation of web-based surveys of state water managers. Three important states didn't even participate; California, Michigan, and New Mexico.

FAIL.