From the article:
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Solar Aero has recently been awarded a patent for a new bladeless wind turbine, the Fuller Wind Turbine, which is being claimed to be entirely safe for wildlife and as an added advantage, it generates electricity without any noise.

The entire assembly is contained in the housing and the only movement visible to an observer is the movement of the housing as it adjusts to the direction of the wind. The company expects that their wind turbine will be able to deliver power at a comparable cost to coal-fired power plants.
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This is not a lot of information. First, we measure energy in use over time, so the statement of 10KW in the heading is without supporting information. Does the 10KW come from the portable size unit shown in the picture or a unit that is 50x larger? Does the 10KW come as a monthly value since our utility bills come monthly? These are questions I am curious about.

What I can tell you with some certainty is this, a class 1 air flow contains about 200 watts per square meter. This means; If your machine can catch 1 square meter of air in a class 1 flow, 100% efficiency would mean collecting 200 watts of energy. Classes range from Class 1 (200 watts/square meter or less at 50 meters altitude) to Class 7 (800 to 2000 watts/square meter). However, there are problems with this possibility I will address in a minute. Take a look at that photo, lets assume the opening is about 1 square meter. This means the maximum, in a theoretical perfect world, that this machine can harvest is 200 watts in a class 1 air flow.

Now the problem: There is a little piece of bad news called Betz' law. Back in 1919 a smart German physicist named Albert Betz figured out that the most you can possibly get out of a wind turbine is around 59% of the power in the wind. This is a nondisputable bit of physics. I'm not going to prove it here but it is not hard to at least understand why we can never convert 100% of the wind's power.

Imagine a wind energy extraction machine of 100% efficiency that could take all of the kinetic, (moving), energy out of the wind. That would mean the velocity, (movement), on the "out" or "leaving" or "exit" side of the turbine blades would be zero, zilch, nada. No kinetic energy left. No velocity left. No wind. Dead calm.

If the velocity leaving the blades is zero then the air wouldn't be leaving at all. There would be no air movement, meaning the air after the blades isn't getting out of the way of the air coming in, which would mean the fresh air couldn't come in, which would mean there is no air flowing through the turbine blades, which would mean no power. In order to at least keep the wind moving through the turbine there has to be some velocity or energy in the air after going through the blades so that the air can get out of the way of the air coming through next. Sort of a "Catch-22". Just to keep the machine running at all the efficiency has to be less than 100%.

Mr. Betz pointed this out and then proceeded to prove, with solid physics and math, that the best that could be achieved by a wind turbine is around 59%. In other words, a perfect best-possible wind turbine would be able to convert almost 59% of the power in the wind into mechanical rotating power.

With this in mind, take another look at that photo. The idea is nice, the execution is elegant, however the promise is very big compared to known processes.

Consider also, this machine needs to be aligned with the wind to function. In areas that the wind changes direction, there will have to be another device or feature to keep the alignment.

This type of turbine will spin very fast, but there is also no torque for doing work. If you are interested, here are some further references on the Tesla turbine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_turbine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine

American Modular Systems has unveiled the Gen7 - its line of green indoor learning environments. The Gen7 represents the state of the art in green classroom environments, offering a range of time, money and energy-saving features that provide a safe, healthy, eco-friendly, low-maintenance environment that fosters optimal learning potential.

Gen7's self-contained classroom solutions are delivered 90 percent complete and installed in as little as a few days with minimal job-site disruption.

Among the highlights of these grid-neutral classrooms are their high recycled and recyclable materials content, low and zero-VOC interiors, state-of-the-art acoustical design, energy-efficient mechanical and electrical systems, and smart lighting system with integrated daylight harvesting features. In addition, Gen7 has California Department of the State Architect approval. Piggyback-able and with PC approval, Gen7 saves time and money in the procurement process, which can take as little as 90 days from order to installation.

If you are going to buy flowers for mothers day, there is still time in many cases to get them at a local farmers market. This will help ensure they are locally grown and picked. This also helps support the local economy.

Remember, honoring mom does not mean you have get her big splashy gifts or special order flowers, the extra effort you make to be involved will be appreciated too.

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were forced to leave Mexico.

So, why celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.

As Americans, we should also celebrate this particular holiday because the French may have gained a foothold if the battle of the Mexican army had failed. Remember, at the time, the US was in a state of civil war and not in the best position to defend itself if the French army had turned our direction next.

By the way, if you are planning to go out for a Mexican Food dinner, make reservations ASAP.

As I'm sure you are aware, most of our roads, fuel, energy and plastics come from crude oil sources. You have probably also heard that there is a finite amount of oil on the planet and other groups claiming that new oil is forming naturally as well. Lets take a minute to get it straight. If part 2 of that statement is true, then part one is false. However, we need to consider the types of oil. The crude oil we are talking about in part one took millions of years to form. Part 2 of the statement is true except that it will take millions of years before that oil is ready for consumption and at the current rate, we have not seeded enough to get us through one day of our current use.

With this in mind, we will discount part two and say with some certainty, there is a finite amount of crude oil on the planet. Knowing this allows us to understand peak oil. Peak oil is theoretically the moment we have used exactly half of all the oil available on the planet. Because the amount can not be calculated with accuracy down to a moment, it is estimated by taking in to account all that we know about our oil sources and allowing a margin for error. Even with a margin for error, it is entirely possible that we have passed the "peak" moment sometime in 2008.

This means several things, first that energy from fossil fuels will go up in price, second the energy source is running out and third we need to focus on renewable energy now. Fossil fuels hurt the environment because we use them in such high concentration compared to the millions of years it took for them to form. With renewables, we benefit from a cleaner healthier environment and eventually, cheaper fuel sources than we currently have.

Dr. Michael Lardelli from the University of Adelaide looks at how the bulk of the world's oil production comes from a relatively small number of very large fields discovered decades ago. The rate of world oil production has been maintained at current levels only by finding and bringing on line an increasing number of smaller fields, but the financial cost and the energy required to find and develop these new fields is constantly increasing. According to Dr. Lardelli the so-called peak of oil production was actually in 2008.

Read more of Dr. Lardelli's work by following the related link below.

Interesting: Burning one liter of oil releases energy equivalent to 20 days of hard human labor. A fully-tanked jumbo jet contains an energy equivalent to around 13,000 years of human labor.