Out of Balance?

While driving down the road, I noticed a whomp whomp whomp kind of feeling coming from my front tires. So I pull into NTB (National Tire and Battery) to have them look into why I was feeling a vibration while driving. To make a long story short, one of the front tires had thrown off a wheel weight used for balancing the tire and what I was feeling was a tire out of balance.

Thinking about my out of balance tire wobble brought me to another subject that I have been reading about -- the Earth's wobble. Actually, there are several known wobbles in the Earth's rotations, and I am sure some of them are a direct result of the Moon pulling gravitationally on the Earth, planet alignments and the Sun. But that doesn't explain the motions of the 'Chandler Wobble'. On 18 July 2000, however, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that "the principal cause of the Chandler wobble is fluctuating pressure on the bottom of the ocean, caused by temperature and salinity changes and wind-driven changes in the circulation of the oceans."-- I don't dispute their finding of facts, just their interpretation of those facts. Those facts could be the result of the Earth being out of balance.

When you observe the direction of drift of the Earth's plates, another conclusion may contribute to the findings of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. What if the world is out of balance? Take a good look at the following drawing of the Earth's plates, the arrows indicate direction of drift, and follow my reasoning as you look at the drawing.

Take notice that the two largest plates are the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. The North American plate seems to be rotating in the counter-clockwise direction. There is subduction on the Western and Southwestern side. The North American plate is in conflict with the Pacific and Eurasian plates. The Pacific plate appears to be in conflict with its Western counterparts with subduction occurring along the borders with the Australian, Filipino and North American plate. The Pacific plate appears to be traveling to the Northwest. The convergent edges are where one plate subducts the other back into the Earth's crust.

Now notice the Eastern edges of the Pacific and the Nazca plate. They move away from each other. The same holds true for the motions between the western side of the Eurasian and the Eastern side of the North American plates. Plates that are moving away from each other form a divergent border. As they spread apart, magma from within the mantle fills in the gap and spread the two plates apart. The small plates are probably sections that have broken off under the duress of plate motion.

My logic is that the crust of the divergent zones is thinner and is the weak sister of the tectonic world. The weakness of the thin crust enables the divergent zones and is the motivation for the plate movements that we observe. As the Earth spins on its axis, the major plates are energized to the point that they want to float on the Lithosphere a little higher, and in the process, the thin crust of the divergent zones are cracked enough to allow magma to erupt from the Lithosphere.

The best way I can illustrate the idea is to put a wad of chewing gum on a ball and spin the ball. The gum will certainly want to come of the ball, but while it is on the ball, the ball doesn't rotate evenly. (Wobbles) Not exact analogies but close enough for illustration of having so much of the worlds weight spread unevenly about the surface. Note also that the divergent edges are all in the Oceans where the crust is the thinnest. Take note of the notch carved out by the North Atlantic ridge through Iceland. Iceland has volcanoes, but is not thin crusted nor does the magma solidify as soon as it emerges and does not split apart at the same rate as the underwater sections.

The convergent zones and the divergent zones seem well distributed in both the northern and southern hemispheres. It looks like the Earth is trying to get the weight of the masses floating on its surface to balance. If we could live long enough, we might someday see the world spinning smoother with fewer Earthquakes and other tectonic phenomenon. It has probably balanced itself in the past, but collisions with Asteroids or other bodies--messed things up and changed the balance.

Caution! This article is only my musings. This is a stab at a logical interpretation of what may be true. Not a tested fact.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Asleep at the Switch

Do we assume that less power is a substitute for more power? Manufacturing lighter, smaller fuel-efficient vehicles seems to be the remedy of choice for saving energy. Sounds good, but how much thought has really gone to this pie in the sky solution?

My situation may illustrate what I mean. When my son, their two children, and his wife come over for a visit, going anywhere together usually takes just the one SUV for a family outing. But a world without vans and SUVs would look a lot different. Instead of one vehicle, we now would have to take two. Plus, we would miss the family closeness of the outing. Using two vehicles would mean not only greater pollution, but also would degrade the way we interact with our family. Just a few of the nuisances of using two vehicles, and one of them is parking. More cars mean bigger parking lots (more concrete), and finding parking places close together would be a problem.

Safety is also a concern. Not long ago I bought a Chevy S-10 pick-up. The small four-cylinder engine did not have the power to accelerate fast enough for me to enter a busy street. But I saved a lot on gasoline. Mixed emotions; one part of me wanted to save on fuel, but after several close calls, I gave up on the small engine for one that allowed for a greater margin of safety. Putt putts have their place, but not on todays busy streets.

Then there is the effect on car-pooling. It will take several more vehicles to get the same number of people to work and back.

Electric cars anybody? Try heating and cooling a vehicle that will just barely get you to and from work without needing a recharge. Again, Liberal Elites force us to surrender some of our way of life for their empowerment. In a few short years, we will be wishing for some greenhouse gases as the Earth continues its cooling trend.

I am not opposed to saving energy, but carefully crafting our national energy policies will save us all a lot of grief. And in a lot of instances, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
Our failure to drill for and develop domestic energy resources will come back to bite us should our economy ever recover. There will never be enough wind to fuel our economy, and other so-called "green" sources are woefully short of the energy needed to maintain our way of life. But there is hope! Nuclear, clean coal and developing our oil and gas reserves can lift us out of the looming calamity.

Should we ever throw petroleum under the bus; the resulting economical disaster will be of such proportions that we could not recover. Can't you picture our industries trying to compete with the third world and their cheap petroleum based economies while we bask in the desert of our expensive "clean" energy? Just look at the industrial base that we have already lost to China. Now imagine things getting a lot worse because our remaining industries cannot compete. Can't you just picture our poor having to chase cows and other animals for their dung? Dung may become the only affordable fuel around!

I ask, why the headlong rush to kill our way of life? The global warming hysterics are just that, hysterics. But the rush to trade in carbon credits is real. Some people will profit heavily from the trading of carbon credits, but the average American will just continue to have to pay through the nose so that these profiteers can line their pockets.

What is really funny is that while the Earth is cooling, the global alarmists are now saying that the Earth is cooling because of global warming! Go figure.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Republicans Outflanked and Outsmarted

It is becoming abundantly clear that the Democrats do not want the Governor of Illinois prosecuted. The strategy is to get him to resign so they don't have to go through with an impeachment hearing and trial. Why ---?

Governor Blagojevich knows where all the bodies are hidden, and to put him through a trial means that the evidence against him would have to be exposed and witnesses testify. That is also why U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald stopped his investigation before a serious crime was committed. The Democrats do not want all of the individuals exposed by going to trial. This is a massive CYA by the Democrats. Blagojevich is the only target the Democrats want to be involved. To be sure, this Governor is a bad actor. But the Democrats want him excised cleanly without having to expose others to the corruption in Illinois. Just a guess, but the list of crooks in the Illinois political world is long, and no telling where a trial would lead.

So the cacophony of Democrats calling for resignation is becoming a din. They are all roaring for Blagojevich to resign. Getting the Governor to resign also gets this untidy business off the front page as well as protecting other Democrats.

The Republicans have nothing to say, they just sit and watch while a golden opportunity to advance decency just trickles down the road. The passivity of Republicans is getting to be very annoying. The Republican Party reminds me of a chicken with his head pulled off, just flapping, and dancing that dance of death. With no head, the chicken has no idea of what to do. There has got to be a leader out there among the Republicans, but where is he or she? Please stand up!

Cheers,

-Robert-