MR. GOLDEN SUN FINALLY SHINES DOWN ON RJUKAN

Residents of Rjukan, Norway, have had it with darkness. Located in a deep valley surrounded by mountains, the city gets no sunlight for about seven months out of the year. About a century ago, an engineer proposed the idea of using mirrors to reflect sunlight down into the town, and last week, it became a reality. On Wednesday, three large, computer-controlled mirrors installed on one of the surrounding mountaintops began reflecting sunlight into the main square below, where assembled residents relaxed on loungers, played beach volleyball, and sipped cocktails while soaking up the rays. More… Discuss

 

Quotation: Frances Hodgson Burnett about thoughts and thinking

One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) Discuss

 

SOLAR POND

A solar pond is a man-made pool of saltwater that not only absorbs heat from sunlight, but is able to store it for use in heating or power generation. In a freshwater pond, sun-warmed water rises to the top, loses its heat to the atmosphere, becomes denser, and sinks again. In a solar pond, however, a layer of highly salty water remains trapped at the bottom by its own density, even as it is warmed by sunlight—thereby storing heat. Typically, how hot is the bottom of a solar pond?More… Discuss