Have you ever been so frustrated with a piece of computer equipment you feel like chucking it out a window? Smashing it with a baseball bat? Shooting it with a shotgun? If you have felt this way you’ve felt the urge for percussive maintenance. Recently having taken a new position and having to revert 10 years to use Windows as the backbone of computing has magically transported me to this world. You might sense I’m feeling a little frustrated with technology given this post and the prior “Fax Machine Murder”.

For your viewing enjoyment, percussive maintenance demonstrated clearly and concisely. I’d provide image attribution, but I can’t find the source, only dozens of sites listing it without attribution…whomever you are, that’s one clever picture and, ahem, hits the nail on the head for many people like me!

Artist’s rendering of Hero’s aeolipile

Quick, who invented the steam engine? Thomas Newcomen? James Watt? Or a hero?

The answer is Hero of Alexandria (sometimes Heron of Alexandria) around 60 A.C.E. He created a hollow metal globe with small angled exhaust points 180 degrees offset and mounted it in a frame allowing free rotation of the sphere. When water and heat were added, steam would be emitted from the exhaust ports rotating the sphere up to 1,500 times per minute. Unfortunately, Hero’s aeolipile was viewed strictly as an amusement and was lost for some 1,600 years until Newcomen’s engine of 1711. Why write about this now?

Well, I saw this video on the net and it reminded me of Hero’s breakthrough. If you’re looking for a fun little project to do with the kids that shows Hero’s principal, try this:

Here at MeV, we’ve been shallow temperature survey fans for some time, see the first article we wrote on the subject from the 2007 Stanford Geothermal conference. Well, this week, the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy is releasing information on the discovery of new geothermal resources by shallow temperature survey (and other confirming means.) They’ve had a number of successes, but Teel’s Marsh is interesting.

It’s well known in geothermal circles that the Basin and Range province is an area of relatively thin crust with many faults that allow for upwelling of hot material from the mantel that transfer heat to surrounding rock formations. Also, since the BR province is surrounded by mountains, the runoff provides a charging system for underground hydrothermal systems, most of which are “blind” – meaning there is little or no surface manifestation of the hot water/steam below the surface. Hot springs, geysers, mudpots, tufa towers, sinter deposits, etc. all provide hints about what may lie beneath the surface.

At Teel’s Marsh, it’s simply a blind resource as there are no known thermal springs or wells, but there is a borate-rich evaporate crust on the playa. The 2m temperature surveys have uncovered anomalies that need further exploration – this is really important since there isn’t much actual geothermal resource exploration happening, most development activities are occurring with discoveries from mineral and petrochemical exploration discoveries of hot water from before the 1970’s. The images below are from the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy presentation on their discoveries.

View of the Teels Marsh area – Click for a larger image

Map of survey measurement points and faults – Click for a larger image

As we celebrate yet another Valentine’s Day, I decided to look for a little humor to lighten the mood. Since love isn’t the easiest thing we humans do, I thought a look at our fellow travelers, the animals, and their approach to love for each other (and certain man-made objects) would give some interesting context. Thus this jewel from the YouTube archives, Animal Love. Note: May not be suitable for work or younger viewers… Enjoy your Valentine’s Day!

Yesterday Nevada Geothermal reached an agreement with Ormat to provide infrastructure for its Blue Mountain geothermal power plant. The agreement calls for a $20M fixed price procurement and construction plan under the guise of a “Limited Note to Proceed” agreement. After the characterization of the resources at Blue Mountain, this is another step toward commercialization and harvest of the resource, which appears to be about 10MW per well and a 190C (375F) temperature.

Drilling at Blue Mountain, Nevada

Photo Credit: Nevada Geothermal