Geek Habitat

Video showing what’s washed into the rivers near the spill site
-> Tennessee Valley Authority coal fly ash slurry spill — Emory River
(There’s an annoying click in video — sorry; maybe they’ll edit that out at some point.)

This is the largest-ever spill of coal fly ash slurry in the USA and has polluted land and waterways and destroyed homes as well as rendered others unusable until cleanup efforts occur.
It’s 50 times larger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in terms of volume of pollutant spilled.

More Info:
* Tennessee coal sludge spill – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
* TVA Coal is Killing Tennessee (includes more videos & high-res aerial fly-over photos)

It’s been a terrific Christmas and birthday (mine) in the Moore household. In case you missed the Christmas pics somehow, they’re on Flickr — Sara’s 2nd Christmas.

My 35th birthday (today) was low-key, just as I wanted it to be. Hung around with Justin and the kidlet until about 1 PM, then visited with my parents and brother to take in a movie (the comedy Get Smart) at their house and grab b-day loot. Then headed home and enjoyed a rare un-rushed shower with no one beating the shower door down or screaming and crying at it (it’s *so* embarrassing when Justin does that! –Kidding!–) since kidlet was with Grandma & Grandpa M. while Justin took in a much-needed currency flight in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk (rental, obviously) w/the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. He’d offered to take me up for my birthday, but for reasons too convoluted and boring to go into I opted not to… not because I don’t still love flying with him, far from it, by the way.

Haven’t been in a blogging mood, so in case I don’t get around to doing any further posts before New Year’s Day, here’s wishing you and yours a safe, prosperous and very happy 2009!

NORAD’s Santa Tracker

It all began with a misprinted telephone number in the SEARS catalog. No joke -> Cool story -> http://gizmodo.com/5106141/the-curious-origin-of-norads-santa-tracking

Best line? “…that thing couldn’t be greener if it ran on soybeans and baby farts!”

Oh, and Merry Christmas, Everyone

Alive, well and just not in a blogging mode. My thoughts are of the shorter variety, which means you’ll find me (in order of recent frequency) on either Flickr, Facebook or Twitter until I get inspiration again.

USAA, a major local employer (headquartered here in San Antonio, Texas) — one I used to work for and Justin still does work for — is taking a leadership role in supporting wind power. Awesome! So proud of them for taking this step!

Read more at USAA signs up for CPS Energy’s Windtricity program.

You can learn more about City Public Service’s Windtricity program on their website.