April MRES Speaker

April's speaker for the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society's meeting, Brandon Hathaway, is working on some really interesting fuel production methods using concentrated solar. This link will take you to his power point presentation, and this one will take you to the audio recording of his presentation I made with my iPod before I realized my phone does much higher quality recordings. Enjoy!

MRES billed the event this way:
"Join us for the next MRES Board Meeting on April 9 at Flannery Construction. Our guest speaker will be Brandon Hathaway from the University of Minnesota, who will discuss solar fuels and solar thermal research at the U of M. Research at the Solar Energy Laboratory in the department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Minnesota considers several approaches for harnessing the most plentiful energy sources available to us on Earth, radiant energy from the sun. Some of the newest approaches to utilizing solar energy on a larger scale are the production of solar fuels that may be utilized to offset traditional non-renewable fuels. This presentation will focus on these solar fuel projects, which produce hydrogen and other gaseous fuels which may then be utilized in many different ways.

Brandon Hathaway is a graduate research fellow at the University of Minnesota working on a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering studying solar energy and solar thermo chemical processes under professors Jane Davidson and David Kittelson. Originally from Huron, South Dakota, he obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute Indiana in the spring of 2007 and now resides in the Marcy Holmes neighborhood of Minneapolis."

Talk of the Stacks

I ditched Family Yoga on Tuesday, with a hefty twinge of regret, to see one of my favorite authors, Tom Robbins read from his new children's book about beer at the Central Library in beautiful Downtown Minneapolis.



If you've never read his work, I recommend starting with Still Life with Woodpecker, which has all the princesses, pyramids and pirates you could need. Oh, and sex. Of course.

Earlier in the day he talked to Euan Kerr at MPR, which you can listen to here.

At 6 I made my way down the Mall to the library, where I lucked out and got a seat near the back, strategically placed under a speaker. I recorded the reading on my crackberry for those of you that couldn't make it, you can listen to it by clicking here . The book sounds incredible, and I'm hoping for a copy to show up on my birthday (hint, hint).

The Raingarden Grows a Little More

We got nearly an inch of rain on Sunday, or was it Monday? Thanks to the moisture, the raingarden was looking quite fine.

Spring Wing Ding

The Spring Winging was held in Audubon Park in NE Minneapolis on Saturday. I'd never been to the park before, but the playground was really nice, and the plans I saw for what the Park Board and neighborhood have planned to do to it are incredible. You can read the plan here.



I mainly convinced Optimus to go so that he could build a bird feeder. Turns out he found quite a few things he was interested in doing. . . making "organic" bird seed mix with the coop,




building the aforementioned bird feeder, built with the help of the Elpis Enterprises team using scrap cedar fencing to make the majority of the feeder, using sections of plexiglass to keep the seed in. Once we get it installed near the bird house Opti built, I'll post a picture.







mixing non-toxic household cleaners with the Mississippi Watershed volunteers,




jumping in the inflatable bouncy castle and hanging out with his friend Ginger and her sister Genevieve at the 4H table. You know, the good stuff that happens when you go to neighborhood events at the park in the city you live in.