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May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
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Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
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The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
How snow making works
By
Marshall Brain
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT)
Let's imagine that you are standing at the top of a phenomenal black diamond ski run. As you look down the hill, a mile-long runway of beautiful, clean, fluffy snow stretches like a white carpet toward the ski lodge at the bottom.
But when you look to either side of the trail, there may be no snow at all. Even in the "heart of winter," nature can be fickle. Malibu may be seeing snow flurries for the first time in 20 years, but some ski slopes haven't had a flake.
In other words, the ribbon of snow you see at the ski slope may be completely artificial. The whole thing is created at night using snow guns, specialized snow bulldozers and a big lake of water in the valley.
There's even some dead bacteria thrown in to help the process. The technology that makes this all possible is absolutely fascinating.
The first thing you need is the right weather. It's got to be cold to make snow, and we still depend on nature for freezing temperatures.
Fortunately, despite the worries about global warming, it usually gets cold enough in the mountains to make snow at night. Temperatures in the teens are perfect. But if the humidity is low enough, you can make snow at 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next you need a lake full of H2O. Covering a ski slope takes a gigantic amount of water. If you think about it for a minute, you can see why. To blanket one acre of slope in 1 inch of snow, you need about 12,000 gallons of water. A good size ski run may measure 30 acres or more from top to bottom. And a ski run needs at least a foot of snow to be credible for skiing. So, just for a single run, you have to pump more than 4 million gallons of water up the hill - enough to fill 300 backyard swimming pools. A big ski resort can burn through 10,000 gallons of water every minute when it is making snow.
Lots of ski resorts add something called a nucleator to the water. When water forms into ice, a nucleator speeds up the process by giving each ice crystal a seed to start on. Using a nucleator, you can make snow in warmer temperatures. One popular brand of nucleator is called Snomax, which is made from dead bacteria cells. They grow the bacteria in giant vats, freeze-dry their little bodies and then zap them with nuclear radiation to make sure they are sterile before shipping them off to ski slopes.
I know what you are thinking: "Bacteria to make snow?" Turns out that some species of bacteria (Pseudomonas syringae is one of them) have special ice-nucleation proteins on their outer cell walls.
All of that nucleated water feeds into the snow guns. The simplest gun is nothing more than a lawn sprinkler and a huge fan. The sprinkler atomizes the water, and the fan blows enough cold air through the droplets to freeze them. More sophisticated guns use giant air compressors and then shoot the compressed air through the water to atomize and freeze it.
Now that you've made all this snow, you have to put it in the right places. That's where the snow groomers come in. A groomer is really just a specialized snow bulldozer that can push artificial snow around. They have very wide metal tracks so they can move up and down the mountain easily, even when things get icy. For the really steep black diamond trails, a winch can help pull the groomer up the hill.
As you might imagine, all of this pumping and blowing uses a lot of electricity. Some resorts burn through so much juice that they actually build their own power plants. The HoliMont ski resort near Buffalo, N.Y., has a plant that produces 3.5 megawatts. And this gets us to an important point about making artificial snow. The snow that nature brings is absolutely free. To make snow artificially you need to pay for electricity, nucleators, equipment, maintenance and people. Those costs can really add up.
All of which means that, whenever the real white stuff falls from the sky for free, it makes the owners of ski resorts very, very happy. As long as there is not too much of it.
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© 2007, How Stuff Works Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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