Articles like this one induce expatriate dreams in me. I should just up and move to Germany, so I can buy a passive house and get my electricity from a wind farm. Also, allow me an energy snob moment here, but I was infatuated with passive heating and cooling when I first read about it, as that old entry attests. I'm just psyched that it's going ( Read more... )

I had grand plans of getting work done this morning, but I just need to document some of this before I can go back to the real world. Too many thoughts are in my head, but I'll try to make this coherent ( Read more... )

Tomorrow's weather report is sunny and 65, with a very light west wind. I'm trying to still act like one of those day-before-a-snow day evenings, where you try to get work done in case it isn't Mountain Day. But, as this post indicates, my plan isn't working so well. Who wants to hunker down on a thesis intro when one of the world's best ( Read more... )

My dad is in Haifa, the site of recent rocket attacks from Lebanon.  He's all right; no one was hurt in that bombing, but he was eating dinner in his hotel, on a hill just above the port that was hit.  He'll be spending the night with a friend and fellow researcher, and they're trying to leave as soon as possible for their village in the Negev.  ( ( Read more... )