Month: January 2014

Ignoring the dangers of Global Warming, can only be avoided as long as those dangers are not affecting us now in our day to day lives. We simply seem to have the pretense that our problems now with the climate cannot hurt us in the present so we can kick the can down the road to future generations to deal with when the hammer falls on them. But what if the pressures of the climate change are becoming too severe? As many experienced first-hand, Hurricane Sandy devastated a significant portion of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The damage was insurmountable and the state of New Jersey is still reeling roughly a year and a half later.

Scientists across the board are pointing out a horrificfact, that Hurricane Sandy could have signifagnctly less damaging of a superstorm. Sea levels were noted to be 1 foot higher than they have ever been, which is directly linked to global warming. Also, due to warming in the Arctic did not blow off the eastern coast into the Atlantic, but instead leveled the coast of New Jersey. A fact that is also pointed out is that these storms cannot be prevented, but due to the change in climate these storms have become terrifying superstorms that are dealing tremendous damage across the world.

Scientists have proposed 3 ways that climate change could have impacted the utter severity of Superstorm Sandy.

1. Sea-levels Rising.
2. Sea temperatures warming.
3. Changing weather patterns.

 

One thing is for certain, storms in the future could be much more devastating due to the ever-changing climate, and the effects of global warming.

-Connor Mulcahy

 

 

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/hurricane-damage-climate-change_n_2081960.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shan-wells/hurricane-sandy-climate-change_b_2047384.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/climate-change-hurricane-sandy-global-warming_n_2050516.html

 

Hello All!

Getting a chance to get my hands on the Lego NXT robots was pretty awesome. I came into the class expecting we would be literally building the entire robot from scratch, but learning that there was a program which provides power and direction to the robot made it even more fascinating. My partner and I actually struggled for awhile trying to build the lego robot, because we mistakingly put the front wheel on the wrong side, so instead of a nice balanced vehicle, we had one that could not even figure itself out. Cooler heads prevailed and we figured it out after some deliberation. Up next was just the cables and figuring out how to program the robot to move forward and in circles.

By providing power to one of the ports, the car essentially moved in a perfect circle. Many of my classmates seemed to be linking into other’s robots so not many people knew who was actually running their own robot’s cycle due to the bluetooth set-up that went completely hay-wire. Seeing the robot that we put together be able to move at our discretion was well worth the struggle of finding out how to actually program it, because we were able to run a toy car on the power provided by the battery pack, and the computer’s direction.

I really enjoyed having a hands-on experience building the Lego NXT robot, and I hope we are able to incorporate more of these lessons into our course agenda, because I got a lot of working with another person and trying to figure out how to build, program, and run a robot in the direction that we chose for it.

-Connor Mulcahy

Good afternoon All,

 

While exploring information on the nation’s energy grid, I came across a fascinating site detailing a growing concern among many tech-wavy people. While technology advances further and further everyday, the energy system is still somewhat outdated, so as a result, many Americans are going without electricity because methods of getting electricity have improved, but ways of channeling that energy to different sources has remained stagnant and has yet to improve. “Today, 70 percent of the lines and large power transformers are more than 25 years old, and we don’t have enough of them in areas of the country with the bestnew energy resources.”- ….By sticking with our outdated system, we limit are ourselves greatly to increased energy, and the possibility of more affordable energy is become harder to conceive.http://http://cleanenergytransmission.org/our-outdated-grid/

To build further onto this, the energy grid is extremely expensive to operate which makes it difficult to mass produce. Albeit cheap and affordable energy should be at the top of the nation’s agenda, it seems to have fallen off the grid(pun intended). The system is outdated and the energy transfer costs more to produce than it should. By converting natural sunlight into energy, one saves a tremendous amount of money because sunlight is free, and in areas where the heat thrives(Southeastern U.S) energy obtainment can be very prosperous. Also, another pro to this is that it does not add pollution to the environment, which is of the utmost important value in today’s day and age. However, due to the steep price of these systems, it takes year to turn a profit. http://http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/consumer/solar_electricity/basics/pros_cons.htm

 

From reading on energy.gov, I was able to learn some valuablethings about our own energy grid. The basic process can be simplified by stating, “Electric power is generated at power plants and then moved by transmission lines to substations. A local distribution system of smaller, lower-voltage transmission lines moves power from substations to you, the customer.”-Energy.gov. I found it unique that the state of Texas has it’s on interconnection system, while the rest of the U.S has two interconnections, with one being to the east of the Rockies, and the other from the Pacific to the Rockies. Also, noting the fact that it costs the federal government as much as $33 billion dollars  a year to repair the electrical grid due to weather concerns, is a significant number and one wonders how much of this money could be saved by updating the system. Lastly, the article hints at a major rise in the need for cyber security, which as we all know is a major priority among businesses all over the United States due to the situation that occurred at Target over the holidays.http://http://energy.gov/articles/top-9-things-you-didnt-know-about-americas-power-grid

 

Respectfully,

Connor J Mulcahy

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