Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company
FRIDAY REPORT OF 02/16/07
The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy
“‘NO TWO SNOWFLAKES THE SAME’ LIKELY TRUE, RESEARCH REVEALS”
Portions of an article by John Roach from 02/13/07 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS
“…Why? The answer, according to New York-based writer Mariana Gosnell, is in the way snowflakes form and fall to Earth. The process is detailed in her book Ice: the Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance.
“A snowflake begins to form when water vapor condenses around a speck of dust high in the clouds – up to six miles (ten kilometers) up – and then crystallizes…
“Between 27 and 32 degrees F (-2.8 and 0 degrees C), for example, crystals take the form of six-sided plates. Below that, needles form. A few degrees colder yields hollow columns; chillier yet, fernlike stars. If temperatures drop further, plates and columns form again.
“These crystals – usually six-sided because of the way hydrogen atoms bond with oxygen to create water – may eventually sprout branches, which continue to grow as additional water molecules cluster on the crystals’ surfaces…
“Humidity also plays a role. Drier air encourages growth across flat surfaces, for example, while higher humidity encourages growth at the tips, edges, and corners. More water vapor also leads to faster-growing and more intricate crystals.
“To further complicate matters, as a crystal falls, frost could freeze to it or another passing flake could break off some of the crystal’s branches. Even the approach of a water drop can influence how a branch grows. ‘By the time it reaches Earth it may not have any resemblance to the very simple crystal that it started out as six miles up,’ Gosnell said…
“In her book, Gosnell cites snow scientist Charles Knight at the National Center for Atmospheric Research at Boulder, Colorado. Knight estimates there are 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 water molecules in a typical snow crystal. ‘The way they can arrange themselves is almost infinite,’ Gosnell said.
“And, she adds, David Phillips, the senior climatologist with Environment Canada, has estimated that the number of snowflakes that have fallen on Earth over the course of time is 10 followed by 34 zeros…”
To read the complete article, click on http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070213-snowflake.html
“CHEAP OIL TO LAST, ‘DOOMSDAY’ FEARS OVERBLOWN, AUTHOR SAYS”
Portions of an article by Brian Handwerk in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS:
“There’s no crystal ball to predict oil’s future, but Leonardo Maugeri believes that much can be learned by looking at the industry’s past. Maugeri is the author of ‘The Age of Oil: The Mythology, History, and Future of the World’s Most Controversial Resource.’ As a senior vice president at the Italian oil corporation Eni SpA, he’s also an oil industry insider. In his book Maugeri explains how prices affect the cycle of oil production and why he believes oil ‘doomsday theorists’ are tapping an empty well…
“He discussed his controversial ideas in an interview with National Geographic News…
“People usually assume that the planet is thoroughly explored [for oil], but this is not true. The United States and Canada are the thoroughly explored, and the latest discovery by Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates that they are not really so [thoroughly] explored.
“Other parts of the world are really not explored at all. Even today more than 70 percent of the world’s oil exploration wells are concentrated in the U.S. and Canada – countries that hold only 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Conversely, only 3 percent of the world’s exploration wells are drilled in the Middle East. Many countries, Saudi Arabia in particular, have discovered oil fields in the past but have never developed them because of their fear of creating excess capacity.
No one knows how much oil there is. But all the hints we have – for example surveys made by the U.S. Geological Survey – indicate that the world still has really huge oil resources in its soil…
“What’s behind today’s relatively high oil prices? These prices are not due to the world’s oil drying up – they are simply derived from the low investments of two decades. In the 1990s OPEC repeatedly asked countries to find an agreement in order to sustain prices, because prices were very low due to overproduction…
“Now the production crash has come. We’re paying today for the low prices of yesterday. Refining is another pillar of the current crisis. Right now there’s not enough refining capacity in the world, but the world is not running out of refining capacity, because humans build refineries…
“American people consume 26 barrels of oil per person per year. That’s down from the peak of per capita consumption of oil – in 1978 each American consumed 32 or 33 barrels per year. Yet an American still consumes more than twice what a European consumes (less than 13 barrels per year), and we in Europe also waste a lot of oil. The Chinese consume about 1.7 barrels per person each year, and only about 8 percent of the global demand. My preoccupation is not how much China will consume but how we can reduce the foolish consumption of the Westerners.”
To read the complete article, click on http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070214-cheap-gas.html
“NEWS FROM THE SCHOOLS”
An article in the 02/14/07 print edition of The Economist
This article gives considerable information on Harvard Business School, Yale University, Wharton School of Business, Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, London Business School, China Europe International Business School, Judge School of Business, Said Business School, Aston Business School, Fuqua School of Business, Cranfield School of Management, and International University of Monaco.
To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/business/globalexecutive/education/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=8655270
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