Pilots and frequent flyers face increased cancer risk

Saad Faruque/Flickr

“I’m referring you to a dermatologist,” the doctor said. “It’s probably nothing, but I don’t like the looks of this mole on your back.”

My employer’s insurance company was requiring employees to get preventive physicals. After the revelation of my mother’s sudden diagnosis with colon cancer a few months earlier, the idea of a physical to get a clean bill of health actually sounded like a good idea. With no health complaints, I didn’t expect any problems to arise. After all, I was seeing an AME twice a year for my first class physical and if there were any serious problems, he would have found them. Right?

I didn’t hurry to the dermatologist. I had a few moles, but didn’t really worry. They weren’t irregular and they didn’t get larger. A couple of months later, I found time to make the appointment.

 

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Listen live as solar airplane crosses US

press.solarimpulse.com

The Solar Impulse, a solar powered airplane that Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre’ Borschberg hope to fly around the world without using fuel, is crossing the United States.  The airplane is flying today from Dallas to St. Louis using only the energy of the sun for propulsion.  The flight can be watched live on the internet at the SolarImpulse.com.  The team plans to land in St. Louis in the early morning hours of June 4.

 

The plane was disassembled and transported to Moffet field in Mountain View, Calif. earlier this year.  From California, the Solar Impulse began its journey across America on May 4.  The first leg consisted of a flight from Moffet field to Phoenix Sky Harbor airport in Arizona, a distance of approximately 550 nautical miles.  The Solar Impulse made the trip in 18 hours and 18 minutes for an average speed of about 40 miles per hour.  The average altitude was 10,000 feet, but the plane flew as high as 21,000 feet on its trip to Phoenix.  The 18 hour 21 minute leg from Phoenix to Dallas took place on May 22.

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Alternative fuels for aviation

J. Rivella/Solar Impluse

As high oil prices cut into airline profits, companies and governments are researching alternatives to traditional oil-based jet fuels for aviation. The quest for synthetic aviation fuels goes back to World War II when Nazi Germany’s lack of resources led it to develop processes to convert coal into gasoline.

More recently, the U.S. military has been working toward synthetic fuels as a means of protecting its ability to operate in the event of an interruption of oil supplies. In 2006, the Air Force operated a B-52 Stratofortress using a 50/50 blend of JP-8 jet fuel and a natural gas based synthetic fuel according to the Sohbet Karbuz blog. In 2012, the Air Force flew an A-10 Thunderbolt on Alcohol-to-Jet fuel (ATJ), which is derived from cellulose from wood or plants according to Oil Price.com.

 

Read the rest on Examiner.com:
http://www.examiner.com/article/alternative-energy-for-aviation?cid=db_articles

Solar storm diverts flights

The Earth is currently experiencing the impact of a massive solar storm that experts believe may be strong enough to impact aviation and commonly used electronic devices.  GPS satellites, power grids, and telecommunications are a few of the areas that might be affected by the storm on the sun.  The current solar storm is expected to be the largest in at least five years.

 

Nasa Earth Observatory image of a 2010 solar storm

According to NASA, solar storms are caused by solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that erupt from the sun.  The flares and CMEs send billions of tons of magnetic radiation hurtling through space and occasionally planets and spacecraft travel through its path.  NASA further states that solar activity rises and falls on cycles that last about 11 years.  In 2009, NASA forecast that the current solar cycle would peak in May 2013.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Solar storm diverts airline flights – National Aviation | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/aviation-in-national/solar-storm-diverts-airline-flights#ixzz1oYvcsJQ0

Global warming and the Blizzard of ’11

Kids in Georgia got a week of sledding this year.

As Georgia digs itself out of a record-breaking winter storm that followed its first white Christmas in more than a century, people are starting to ask, “What happened to global warming?” After a series of mild winters, Georgia is experiencing its second harsh winter in a row. In the winter of 2009-2010, Atlanta received more than its average annual snowfall in one storm on February 12. Ironically, this was my son’s birthday and his party at Chuck E. Cheese was almost snowed out! There were several other snowstorms in addition to that one.

The trend seems to be one of bigger snowstorms in Georgia that occur earlier in the season than in the past. The trend seems to be one of harsher winters in many countries around the world, not just the United States. Records for cold weather are being set across the United States and around the world this winter.

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Global warming and the blizzard of ’11 – Atlanta Conservative | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/global-warming-and-the-blizzard-of-11#ixzz1B1me8goy

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Part 2:
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/is-global-warming-still-occurring-part-2

Part 3:
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/is-the-global-warming-cure-worse-than-the-disease-part-3