A few things

Well I don't really have any one coherent theme for this post. So here are just some random topics (well not just random, how about just unrelated to one another).

Weather

The weather is changing. I love summer and each year I look toward the changing of the seasons with a something bordering on dread. I don't want to be cold, locked up inside etc.

And then the weather changes... and well it's great. Today was the first 'real' fall day in Couer d'Alene and I loved it. I biked a lot (to get to various places) and it was wonderful to be outside in the cold and just feel the crispness of the air.

I think my deep rooted dislike of colder weather goes back to my high school days. I liked high school, actually I think it would be fair to say I loved it (well parts of it). However, it prevented me from doing quite a lot of things. Instead of being out side I was forced to be inside, sitting at a desk. So, I never really got to enjoy the nuances of the colder seasons.

Now that I'm emancipated things are changing. Yes, technically I'm in school, but college is a different beast (well at least for me). I have more free time. I can actually go outside and enjoy the cold weather. So, I'm all ready for the Northwest Winter. It's going to be a good one.

Biking

The last week or so has been an excellent bike week. Unlike today the weather has been warm (actually hot) and the sun has been shining. I've been putting in a lot of miles, going on 40 mile rides every other day or so.

There is something about road biking that is so amazing for me. It's so peaceful, so quite. I'm able to go places and see the natural beauty of this area in way that I never would be able to, if it weren't for my bike.

Plus it is such a clean way of moving. I don't mean environmentally clean (although it is), I mean just clean feeling. It's just you, the bike and the road. If you have a bike that is efficient and tuned up... oh boy, what a great feeling.

When all the fish are gone?

Here is a great picture and memory:

After a good night’s sleep, you awake to a great sunny morning and reflect upon the wonderful relaxing experience that you enjoyed last night. The memories of that great meal you shared with your special someone rests in your mind. The feeling of comfort and closeness you discovered, over the candle light casting shadows at your secluded table while soft music

Abalone Farming

This Blog site by Robert J. Bishop is to help people better understand abalone farming or other types of marine/fresh water farming from time to time.

The Marine Environmental Aquaculture Recirculation Systems (MEARS) is one of the ways I believe is the future for aquaculture farming.

On land MEARS will help to minimize the use of natural resource and improve productive and profit.

In brief a MEARS works like this.

1. The building is made of freezer panel to keep the temperature the same all year which has better R value than normal building material. With aluminum wall coverage this makes the farm easy to wash down keeping the farm cleaner and faster to put up.

2. Since the farm uses seawater we can use fresh water to clean all equipment without using harsh chemicals.

3. Using a Geothermal system for temperature control help greatly cut down on the electrical cost by using the ground temperature to main our requirements temperature all year round.

4. By using new technology we can monitor, control and maintained all our parameters to achieve a better product while making less need for import materials to the farm.

5. We use rain water from the roof of the building to help make up the loss in the normal farming environment and cleaning. This even in a 50% less rain fall than normal for North Carolina will still save us 68% in water cost pumping and taking of ground water.

I’m working to help people make a difference for the future so we can feed ourselves and not keep going to the ocean which is not an open and endless seafood basket.

Stealing. An effective way of making change.

Well, I've done it. For a long time I've lusted after this program. It's the premier photo editing program. It gives you the power to do anything, more or less. But it also comes at a hefty price. 1,000 dollars a pop is kind of a lot of money.

And then I discovered the student edition. It's the same program. As far as I know. And it only cost 200 dollars. Quite a deal, if you ask me.

I'm not a hundred percent sure why Adobe would offer their software at an 80 percent discount. I was thinking about it and I decided that it probably had to do with stealing. I imagine that students are the primary 'stealers' of programs (like Photoshop). So, I guess it would make sense for Adobe to try and incite us students to go through the proper channels.

Basically, I think that the rampant downloading of programs from sites like BitTorrent, encouraged Adobe to lower their prices, for some. So, stealing can be a form of protest, yes? I think these kind of programs are worth a lot of money, but asking a college kid to spend 1,000 dollars is kind of ridiculous. So, keep stealing, maybe the price will go down even farther. Or listen to your conscience and let others do the stealing for you.

Aquaculture sees surge in worldwide production

A new report by an international team of researchers, published September 07 in the online edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), states that Aquaculture now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally.

Once considered to be a fledgling industry not so long ago, "Aquaculture is set to reach a landmark in 2009, supplying half of the total fish and

Some good old color replacement.

I know color replacement is kind of old hat if you will, however, I still think it's one of the coolest things you can do. So, I took this photo of two 'bucket drummers' that I took while in Chicago, and messed with its color...

... so here is the original...

... and here it is with a B&W mask on it...

... and here is the good old replaced color.

Hundredth Post

Well, I'm home from my Chicago adventures. It's good to be back. I've been incredibly busy with my new job as the managing editor of NIC's newspaper, The Sentinel. Basically the impetus for creating this post is that I just want to be able to join the hundred post club. I don't know if there is such a thing, but if there is, you can count me in. Because this is my hundredth post!

When I first started blogging. I kind of felt like it had no purpose. Sometimes I still feel like that (like right now, for instance). But generally speaking I feel like blogging is a great way to express what you are seeing and thinking. Everyone has a different perspective, on everything. So, being able to easily publish that on the web is wonderful. Gone are the days of newspapers having hegemonic control over our media consumption.

It also helps to know that you have readers. When I first started blogging I installed a program called Google Analytics. It lets me know when people are looking at my blog, where they are looking at it from (just a general region, no specific addresses), how long they are looking at it and a slew of other things that I don't really understand. It keeps me motivated, so thanks to everyone who has followed this blog.

Speaking of blogging (because that is of what we are speaking) you all should check out my good friend Heidi Groover's blog. She is spending the semester/year in Ghana. She is an amazing writer and is obviously seeing some amazing stuff. So check it out here.

Anyways, I'm going to sign off now. Again, thank you all, your readership means a lot to me. I will post again soon, hopefully it will deal with biking our journalism. We will see!