Ones and Zeros

The short answer to the above question:  No.  Nor does a a single warm winter mean global warming is valid either.  The trend of average temperatures over time is much more informative and useful.  (Hint: That’s going up.)

The long answer is more interesting.  Climate change - a better term than global warming - is affected by the movement of heat and cold through the atmosphere.  When the planet averages warmer, not all areas are made equally warmer.  The areas with more sun - like the tropics - get warmer proportionally than the poles do. (Although the poles do also warm some.)

But there’s a flow of heat from warmer areas (tropics) to colder areas (poles) through areas in between the two (like temperate areas like Washington DC).  If there’s more heat to move, it has to move faster.  The way that that heat moves is through broad atmospheric masses of air swirling along.  A shorter term for that is “storms”.

So the higher the average temperature on earth, the more extreme the weather since the more extreme the storms.  There are wider swings of temperature and weather at any given point over time.  Washington DC area’s weather doesn’t mean that climate change is invalid. But basically, extreme weather IS climate change.

Senators DeMint and Inhofe as well as others either are being ignorant, stupid, or are being demagogues.  Nothing new there.

The headline read, “Organic food has no health benefits, study finds” in the Times Online from the UK. There’s other similar headlines in other news sources too, I’m not just picking on the Times here. And at least the Times did the courtesy of having a link to the actual study paper. The first paragraph of the paper’s executive summary reads:

There is currently no independent authoritative statement on the nature and importance of differences in content of nutrients and other nutritionally relevant substances (nutrients and other substances) in organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs. This systematic review of the available published literature was designed to seek to determine the size and relevance to health of any differences in content of nutrients and other substances in organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock products. This review does not address contaminant content (such as herbicide, pesticide and fungicide residues) of organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs or the environmental impacts of organic and conventional agricultural practices.

So, what the study is actually saying is NOT what either the headline or the article says. They’re actually saying that there’s no real difference in nutrition between organic and non-organic food. The authors of the study specifically say that they’re not addressing contaminant content from pesticides, nor are they addressing the effects on the environment either. Personally, given some of the issues from contaminants, I’d say organic food is worth it. And since I can buy it locally at the farmer’s market, that’s another good thing.

Three paragraphs down the authors say:

Significant differences in content between organically and conventionally produced crops were found in some minerals (nitrogen higher in conventional crops; magnesium and zinc higher in organic crops), phytochemicals (phenolic compounds and flavonoids higher in organic crops) and sugars (higher in organic crops).

So, since flavonoids and phytochemicals strongly contribute to flavor, this means that organic food are more flavorful and sweeter (higher in sugars), than non-organic foods. Everyone has spent a bit more for better quality.

This is a problem with the media echo chamber. While have probably been exceptions, the average report or article gets something wrong, sometimes something really critical. Many years ago I worked in a small radio station and did a Sunday morning news report. Like all stations, this place had the AP and UPI news wires. I would tear the wire reports from the printer, select out something more or less relevant, then read it on the air. Over time I ended up seeing the AP and UPI reports for about a dozen things for which I had direct knowledge.

In no case did the AP or the UPI report have the whole story, nor were they even accurate in what they did report. In one case I knew a professor well who was interviewed by the AP. He spent some time trying to get the story right with the reporter including editing the draft later. The article from that interview was published without any corrections at all, it was hopelessly wrong and inaccurate.

Basically a journalist is a person who expects to in a short time understand a topic that others may have spent months or years on, and to understand that topic well enough to explain it to others. Some do this well, I like Rachael Maddow for example.

But this is rare and others don’t do as well, like Brian Williams or any number of mainstream journalists. They simply go with the “conventional wisdom” for the most part and don’t dig very deep. Doing it well is hard work and most aren’t up to it.

Then we have those that don’t even try at all like Glen Beck, O’Reilly, and Limbaugh. It’s just easier to make things up after all.In fact, the latter three aren’t journalists at all. They don’t report, they have commentary. This blurring of news and commentary is yet another problem for another post.

So, the solar-charged camper works well and the 65 AH battery is sufficient. Even on cloudy days we were getting some charge. We were able to charge brother-in-law’s rechargeable blender charged too.

The solar panel was supported by a piece of wood cut to a good length and with a notch at the top. I set it at an angle roughly equal to the latitude. Through the day, I also moved it - rotated it - this kept it pointing directly at the sun. One night during a windstorm I laid it flat on the ground so it wouldn’t blow over. This “maintenance” was a trivial effort.

Some lessons were:

• I probably overestimated our load. No problem there as I didn’t drastically overestimate. And, I’d rather overestimate than underestimate.
• It would have been good to see some measure of charging current and load current and of battery voltage. I have no easy way to see what my battery level is right now.
• Wiring in a popup camper is hard. The up-and-down of the camper is difficult on wires. Nothing broke, but my wire mounts did not hold.

All it all it was a good idea and much quieter and more pleasant-smelling than the generator at the other end of the campground too. My setup probably cost about the same too. And I have no ongoing expenses for fuel or engine maintenance either. Ours wasn’t the only solar system in the campground, it’s an idea catching on.

Later at some point, as requested, I’ll put up my wiring diagram and a component list for anyone interested in doing something similar.