Monday, March 19, 2012

Happy New Year

سال نو مبارک
Happy New Year
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The First day of Spring is considered New Years day by the Persians. Its based on Earth's orbit rather than the number of rotations (days) or Lunations (full moons/months)

Its one of the only calendars that actually recon years by tracking the orbit of the planet making a year about 365 days 5 Hours and 48 Minutes 46 Seconds.


The months of January and February were added to the end of the calendar after December (the tenth month) around 700 BCE. in an attempt to align the calendar with solar year fixing the dates of equinox and solstice (first day of spring, summer. fall, and winter).

Around 153 BCE New Years day was moved to January 1st to coincide Roman consuls first entered office and had a year term begging on that day. Prior to that the New Year was celebrated 25 of March roughly near the vernal equinox which drifted due to the calendar being short a number of days . Nearly the rest of the world still celebrated the New Year on March 25.

Celestial observations during the time of Julius Caesar indicated that the calendar year was still a bit short. Julius Caesar adding a Leap day every 4 years by doubling 24 February to put the equinox back in line with the calendar.

The spring equinox was set to the 21st March in the year 325 by the council of Nicea. The solar year being a little over 9 minutes longer than the calendar year caused the spring equinox to be near 11th March by 1582 A.D. To correct this 11 day error Pope Gregory XIII corrected the calender by subtracting 11 days causing October 5th 1582 of the Julian calendar to be followed by October 15, 1582 in the new calendar restoring the equinox to the correct date. Gregory also instituted a new leap year rule - Leap year is every 4 years except years ending in 00 (every 100 year) are not leap year unless also divisible by 400, adjusting the calendar to 365.2425 days while this is still off the actual time being closer to 365.2421.

The Gregorian Calendar was adopted by many countries at different times. Britain and the colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar in a 2 step process when January 1,1752 became new years day and September 2, 1752 was followed by September 14 1752 (yes that was an adjustment of 12 days because by that time the old calender was yet another day off. 1751 was a short year March 25,1751-Dec 13,1751).

Monday, June 8, 2009

biodiesel from algae (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/solazyme-algae-biodiesel-biofuels-3-years.php)

We need things like this

Take a look at this video from the TED (www.ted.com)site.

What if we use this sort of refrigeration in places where its warm?

How about to Cool buildings?


http://solar-aid.org/

I was Green Before it had that name

Being "Green" as its been called is mostly doing what many native people have done since the beginning.
  • If you Kill something use all parts of it and give thanks.
  • You don't need LOTS of STUFF.
  • Buy Local because shipping and packaging costs money.
  • Buy in bulk when it makes sense (aka it wont spoil etc.) its cheaper and there is less packaging and shipping
  • Grow a garden - you have fresh food, its often better
  • Learn to preserve food by "canning" and drying etc.
  • Turn off the lights when not in use
  • Close the doors and windows when the temp outside is too hot or cold
    • In Summer open them in the morning to let the cool air in and close them by 8am or so
    • In the Summer close the curtains/blinds to keep the hot sun out, In winter close them at night to keep heat in