Walmart suing Tesla for Solar panel fires

Yeah, I guess you get your knowledge of the US from movies so you think people in the US do too, eh?

But less biomass. The stumps of old logged trees here are in the ten-foot-diameter range, and the recent regrowth isn't anything like that; more than an order of magnitude mass ratio.

An old-growth fir (here in Washington state) is worth a few dozen kilobucks, and in eight decades (starting about the Alaska gold rush) got mainly cut down. There was a big fuss when the remainder were declared protected (endangered species need the big trees for habitat), but the last of 'em would have lasted only a decade anyhow (that was thirty-odd years ago).

Small-bole trees (and mixtures of other vegetation) are easier to damage in a fire than the old giants.

This seems improbable. The vulnerable living part of the old giants is just underneath the bark.

At least pines have a thick barks, which can survive short wild fires, only damaging the outer layer of the bark.

The ARM example exactly makes my point.

The other interesting thing about Microsoft and Apple and Google is that they are USA West Coast companies. Aligns with my double-distillation of crazy creative people idea.

I found the old-world elistist culture of New Orleans, where I grew up, stifling for technology innovation. So I moved to California.

I suspect that the cultures of many places - Europe, Japan, China - have too much respect for degrees and authority to allow talented amateurs to prosper. The UK is maybe not quite so restrictive.

I have seen some innovative niche-type small electronics-oriented companies in the UK. A few in mainland Europe.

Kentech sounds like a fun place to work.

And history books.

Right. We have great deserts too. And a bit of ice. 3.5e6 is a lot of square miles.

Since they killed themselves off, seems not. The US is net gaining trees. Looks like we'll get more:

Mature trees generally survive small fires. They don't survive giant firestorms.

Our older giant redwoods have on average survived hundreds of fires.

The old giant redwoods got old _because_ of fires that keep the insects down (we're talking about 3 millenia some of those trees). The longevity was different in northern climes, other species won the local size competitions in less fire-prone sites. A Canadian fir is reportedly 13m diameter, California giant redwoods get to over 8m.

Fires have been burning in the Amazon and Africa long before Trump arrived. Satellite photos of the fire locations:

FIRMS world fire map (last 24 hrs):

EODIS world fire map (from May 8, 2012 to today):

How do you interpret those maps? In April it appears to show much of the US south in flames. Zoom in and it looks more like some backyard barbecues. WTF???

Certain sorts of "history" books designed to appeal to a certain kind of well-heeled American. John Larkin is clearly part of that target audience. He's forever posting the titles of books that have fed his vanity by misrepresenting reality.

For EODIS, click on the little "i" with the circle around it in the "Overlays" box on the left. It will give you some more detail. The VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) Fire layer shows active fire detections and thermal anomalies, such as volcanoes, and gas flares. Fires can be set naturally, such as by lightning, or by humans, whether intentionally or accidentally.

I went to April 15, 2019 and yes, it does look like much of the eastern USA has fires burning: One reason that you're seeing more fires on April 15 is that the lack of cloud cover offers better IR sensitivity from the satellite view. Sorry, but the NASA satellite data don't attempt to identify the type or source of each fire. However, if you click on "Events" in the "Worldview" box on the left, it should give you a list of current fires and storms. There's also a check box to "Only show events in current view" which will limit the list to fires and storms for the orange dots show. If you then click on the name of the fire, it will zoom to its location.

Getting back to the Amazon, please note the rather large number of fires in the Amazon and south central Africa. Those are nothing new and have been a regular occurrence for many years before Trump.

Reminds me of a Brad Paisley song a friend likes about a guy who tries to report to his insurance company the loss of cigars in a series of small fires. lol

I wonder if these fires are trash barrels or reflections from car windows.

Looks to me like Central Africa is a lot worse off. Who is trying to blame any of this on Trump? Does he smoke?

obucks,

cut down.

ngered

ve lasted

age

just underneath the bark.

it seems they need fires,

Jeff is like "Don't worry! why humans have been burning down huge sections of irreplaceable old growth rain forest down there regularly for decades! it's a natural process"

Elon Musk once opined on the reason he fled the continent to avoid service in the apartheid South African military "I didn't feel oppressing blacks was a good use of my time" I don't believe he's ever said explicitly that it's a bad idea in general, just that it's a task he prefers to be left to other more qualified people who feel it's a good use of their time to do.

Trash barrel fires are too small to be detected and solar reflections have the wrong IR frequency band profiles. It won't show barbeques, small trash fires, smoke stacks, cooking fires, and other small fires. However, volcanoes, controlled burns, swamp fires, large building fires, municipal dump fires, agricultural waste burns, oil tank fires, refinery gas flares, and such are possible. I'm not sure about Burning Man. There's quite a bit in the FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) FAQ on the topic:

Fires appear in the M13 band of the spectroradiometer: There's some complexicated algorithm that fire detections with readings form the other IR bands and other satellites to eliminate false fire detections.

VIIRS Active Fire - VIIRS vs MODIS The collection 6 improvements include: Reduce false alarms in Amazon caused by small forest clearings.

Incidentally, if you zoom in close to the Amazon basin, you might notice that the fires seem to be located in the brown agricultural areas, while very few are in the green jungle areas: (Aug 25, 2019) However, the same date in previous years show far fewer fires appearing in the satellite photos (partly due to cloud cover): (Aug 25, 2018) (Aug 25, 2017) (Aug 25, 2016) (Aug 25, 2015) (Aug 25, 2014) What it does show is that burning the fields, and possibly the slash and burn forest clearing, is an annual event in the Amazon.

Yep. It happens every summer. "Thousands of Fires in Africa Continue To Burn Bright"

Nope: "President Donald Trump is healthier than he looks at least partly because of two life choices: abstaining from drinking and smoking." Perhaps he would return to sanity if started smoking and drinking?

I've heard stories that, 35 years ago at least, Germany paid attention to the academic degree and job title.

But that hasn't stopped them doing rather well in some respects, if not in others.

There's more than one way to be successful.