Friday, February 3, 2012

Home


I worked from home today and realized that a lot of  us in the information technology business, customer service, accounting, and countless other jobs can very easily work from home 1 day a week.  Imagine the collective savings of time, energy, and money, especially those who drive to work.  On a 5 day work week, that would equate to a 20% reduction in fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and unproductive time.  Nothing new to me, as I work from home from time to time, and when there is a need, or the weather is really bad.

Today I had Mercury Solar come to check out my Solar panels and inverter.  By my calculations, they have underperformed recently and I urged them to come take a look.   They arrived at 8am, and with 1.5 hours already in the books for work, I took a five minute break to show the technician the system, and to explain my thoughts on the under performance.

Thirty minutes later, he comes to the door, and seems a little bid jumpy.  Turns out he had to use the bathroom.  Back out on a cold roof, it is February, I can hear him walking around, moving his ladder from time to time.  I resist the urge to watch, or interject and finally about an hour after he arrived he come to the door again and says, Mr. Jenkins, you may have a problem with one of the three sets of panels.  I am happy to hear that I am not the guy who cried wolf, and ask if he has any spare panels, or equipment to tshoot further.  He says an install crew will have to come back next week.

I have urged my employees in various offices to work from home 1 day per week.  Most have taken me up on my offer, and just think of how many less cars on the crowded roads, and being able to get onto a conference call in the PJ’s.  I ended up taking my shower at 10am , and a 30 minute power nap at lunchtime….I can get used to working from home.

This day in history “Alien Planet - Newly Discovered Super Earth” 

A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.
The planet is located in the habitable zone of its host star, which is a narrow circumstellar region where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.
"It's the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told SPACE.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone — there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."
Vogt is one of the authors of the new study, which was led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a private, nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C.
"This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it," Anglada-Escudé said in a statement.


This super-sized earth like planet is 4.5 times as large as earth.  With the population of earth set to explode, and our limited resources coming under pressure, it is a good thing we have spotted a potential earth annex.  I don’t think in my lifetime, but future generations may have the opportunity to explore new frontiers, and stake new claims as we once did when we settled this great nation we call the United States of America.

Another this day in history “On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union accomplishes the first controlled landing on the moon, when the unmanned spacecraft Lunik 9 touches down on the Ocean of Storms. After its soft landing, the circular capsule opened like a flower, deploying its antennas, and began transmitting photographs and television images back to Earth. The 220-pound landing capsule was launched from Earth on January 31.”

Now we have our eyes focused on remote destinations.  If we can accomplish getting to the moon, why not clear across the universe one day.

Photo of the day “Home”


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