British future energy supply - some problems with the numbers

As I travel around the UK there are the odd sign of the coming General Election. Relative to the activities that one would see in the USA t...

Wind over St John's Town of Dalry

There was, a few years ago, some controversy in the South West of Scotland, over the location of a wind farm in the region. It was to be p...

Manually mining coal underground

Since last I wrote I have travelled to London and then up North into southern Scotland (I write this looking down at the station in Dumfries...

Some hopefully closing thoughts for now on Icelandic volcanoes

The re-opening of the European skies means, among other things, a couple of days of quiet here at Bit Tooth, as I have now left home on a s...

Winds, plumes, travel and the Iceland volcano is not predictable

Following an increase in the ash clouds generated by the volcano at Eyjafjallajokull NATS has issued the following statement for today: ...

Some thoughts on aircraft damage from the Iceland volcano

There is increasing pressure on the governments in Europe to allow commercial aircraft flights to resume , because of the financial hardshi...

European airspace 6:45 am CST

This image showing 128 aircraft in European airspace, would indicate that airlines are beginning to find ways of getting planes into the ai...

Early mining and transportation of coal

On the 18th April, Ugo Bardi posted a piece on The Oil Drum discussing some of the dark sides of coal mining. In particular he started wit...

Iceland volcanoes and when can I travel?

Yikes! Flightradar has taken out their inclusion of the airports in the overall picture, and the emptiness of the European skies becomes ...

Asphalt highways, gravel roads and the pig manure answer

One of the problems that the rising price of crude has created lies with the related cost of asphalt. As a result states are being more cre...