As a humanist, with technology interests (For a while I was a text/fact-checker for an aeronautical magazine - I was in heaven), I know how easy it is to write fuzzily, so that readers misunderstand what you mean, and that is true for scientific text, as well as any other kind of text, including judicial. Then we have our 'mental filters' on, which try to deduce the meaning of a text, which in itself might be a story in fourth iteration, or worse. Much magazine text is very far from the original facts, and our filters can be very effective. An example of a good book: An excellent book, when it comes to truthfulness, is 'Practical Junk Rig', as the authors, Hasler & McLeod, write clearly what is based on their own experience, and what is not, or just observed by others. If only all were! Global Warning is a subject non of us have experienced (as it takes so long time for radical, irrefutable changes for anyone of us to experience then personally - man's other activities (like deforestation) affects it so much). History tells us that the climate has changed back and forth over time - the Medivial being unusually warm, and the Potato Famine years, unusually cold and wet, caused hundreds of thousands of Europeans to move to the US. What is certain is that the coral reefs around Sweden's coastline has dwindled to a mere remnant, since two hundred years back, when man started to pour lots of CO2 into the atmosphere (then due to the 'coal and steam revolution'). The Earth's path around the Sun is not simple, and the Sun itself increases and decreases in strength cyclically, thus we can't really be certain which came first, the chicken or the egg! When I grew up it was said that to build a nuclear power station you used up more energy than the power plant would ever produce (making the materials, including millions of tons of concrete, and the strip-mining for the uranium, transports and manufacture of all the steel for the pipes, and so on). One wonders if it was true, or not (a parable to the Humwee/Prius discussion), but it is certain that nuclear powerplants - if everything is electrically powered, moves the CO2 exhausts from the cities elsewhere. Same is true with the Humwee and the Prius: If all cars were Priuses, the air in the cities would be much better, no matter what the final energy bill is. If we go for all-electric vehicles we'd need many times more nuclear power stations! With it many more security personell, and many more dangerous transports, and millions of tons more of radioactive waste we don't know what to do with! My own take on this is to use as energy-efficient vehicles we can afford, but I see no future for an all-electric vehicle park. Instead try to build as light and safe vehicles as possible, as the lighter, the less resources a vehicle uses (less tires, less oil, less road-wear, et cetera). Kayaks are pretty efficient, even if many of them are transported across the world, before reaching their customer - same is true for four-stroke mopeds, bikes, and sailboats! Many motorbikes are as wasteful as medium-size cars, while taking half the useful load of a small car! Heavy transports on land should all be electric train-based, or using rivers and channels (should be possible with electric channel boats, with overhead powerlines, like a tram?!). Does anyone know how much energy (including the energy in the crude used) is needed to make one liter of gasoline - I bet it is a lot! Tord And the nuclear power stations should be built where the consumers are (human or industrial), not in far-away places, where only those totally innocent, will be in harms way! -- Be Yourself _at_ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> My own take on this is to use as energy-efficient vehicles > we can afford, but I see no future for an all-electric > vehicle park. I see no future even for my personal all-electric "vehicle park" :-). With maximum speed 45 km/h they are banned from most municipalities. Not that I like driving at 120 km/h, but such a 45 km/h vehicle should have a designated lane, like bicycle, and I don't expect this to happen in the nearest future. > Heavy transports on land should all be electric train-based, ... and banished out and away, underground :-), 'cause nobody but deaf or permanently high on dope would be able to live next to the tracks. Even those light trains are annoying enough, when they dart past your window from 6 am to midnight or to 1 am, every 30 seconds in rush hours, considering both directions. Not to say that busy street with cars is better. > And the nuclear power stations should be built where the consumers > are (human or industrial), not in far-away places, where > only those totally innocent, will be in harms way! Chernobyl nuclear station in Ukraine was fairly remote from Western Europe, and yet, with agreeable winds, radioactive cloud reached Finland and Sweden a few days after the disaster (weakened and dissipated already, but enough to register). Not that I'm against nuclear stations at all - just to note that there is no place on this planet that can be considered far away enough to be completely ignored. Coal smoke and dust from China goes around, because the globe is round (obvious, isn't it), and settles down where you don't want it, and so on. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi, Noticed your mail today - don't know how I missed it! Sorry! Anyway, while electric cars, and electric scooters, have made great inroads lately the problem is still where can we get all that extra power, without building a nuclear power plant in each county. Some alternative power sources, like windmills, and voltaic cells, will help a little bit, but will not go far! Yes, we still have areas in Sweden where the mushrooms are considered too radioactive for human consumption, after the little Ukrainian nuclear plant went amok, after some engineers tried something they shouldn't! Electric cars (and ditto motorbikes) have come a long way the last few years, but their range is very restricted, compared to conventional vehicles! In models of all kinds electric power rules supreme, except in the really big models (say 1/3 scale aircraft), and more and more tools are battery-powered. This means the tools use more power than their cord-powered cousins, as charging a battery is to this day very wasteful, some 20% is lost as heat during charging, and another 20% when discharging, no matter what type of battery we're talking about. And they all have a life-expectancy (when half their charging capacity is gone) of about 7 years. NiCads, NiMHs, LiPos and SLAs have all their very much built-in age limit - if we treat them very kindly we might be able to use them marginally longer, but if we mistreat them they age fast! Let's hope that one day we can make light and efficient vehicles, that pollute less than a 1hp moped, but it will not come soon! The trend seems to be more horsepower, instead of less, SUVs instead of compacts. The number of diesel-powered cars are increasing, but the soot these highly efficient modern diesel engines emit, if you stomp on the accelerator, is just the right size to find its way down into the smallest parts of the lungs of those unfortunate that don't have highly effective air filters in their cars, or does like to wear a gas mask with efficient filters, while they walk, or bike, along the busy streets of today! The most sensitive are the infants, but I haven't yet seen a baby carriage with built-in filtered airconditioning! The world is going to hell, it's just a matter of years - latest figure I've heard was 4 million, but man will be gone long before that! Take care, enjoy while you can, Tord -----Original Message----- From: Alex M <al.m_at_3web.net> To: Tord S. Eriksson <tord_at_mindless.com>; PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net Sent: Tue, Jan 6, 2009 9:55 am Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] A last turn on Global Warning > My own take on this is to use as energy-efficient vehicles > we can afford, but I see no future for an all-electric > vehicle park. I see no future even for my personal all-electric "vehicle park" :-). With maximum speed 45 km/h they are banned from most municipalities. Not that I like driving at 120 km/h, but such a 45 km/h vehicle should have a designated lane, like bicycle, and I don't expect this to happen in the nearest future. > Heavy transports on land should all be electric train-based, ... and banished out and away, underground :-), 'cause nobody but deaf or permanently high on dope would be able to live next to the tracks. Even those light trains are annoying enough, when they dart past your window from 6 am to midnight or to 1 am, every 30 seconds in rush hours, considering both directions. Not to say that busy street with cars is better. > And the nuclear power stations should be built where the consumers > are (human or industrial), not in far-away places, where > only those totally innocent, will be in harms way! Chernobyl nuclear station in Ukraine was fairly remote from Western Europe, and yet, with agreeable winds, radioactive cloud reached Finland and Sweden a few days after the disaster (weakened and dissipated already, but enough to register). Not that I'm against nuclear stations at all - just to note that there is no place on this planet that can be considered far away enough to be completely ignored. Coal smoke and dust from China goes around, because the globe is round (obvious, isn't it), and settles down where you don't want it, and so on. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Wow... the resurrection of an old thread. There are several companies working on new (and much cheaper) methods of producing the materials to manufacture solar cells. The methods are proven and at least one plant has been built (right here in Moses Lake, as a matter of fact); more are being designed. I believe that widely distributed solar generation is the key to at least the power problem. Get enough panels so that every rooftop in the world produces a couple of kw of electrical power during daylight hours and you remove the problems with darkness, clouds, etc. This will drastically reduce the need for new power plants, at least. Needless to say, the utility companies will do everything they can - including spreading false information - to defeat this. The major problem in the USA is that political will is diluted by the need to collect money for re-election. If we could just overcome *that* hurdle we might actually make some real progress. Hence the Craig Jungers term-limits program: If you're in office, I vote against you. After six or seven cycles we can re-think the situation. By that time we might have politicians in office that will listen to the voters and not the lobbyists. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Alex wrote: > I see no future even for my personal all-electric "vehicle park" :-). With > maximum speed 45 km/h they are banned from most municipalities. Not that I > like driving at 120 km/h, but such a 45 km/h vehicle should have a > designated lane, like bicycle, and I don't expect this to happen in the > nearest future. The electric-powered Tesla sports car runs as fast as a Ferrari, is cheaper in use, but costs a lot! No electric vehicle I know of, bar those three-wheeled oddities that one occasionally sees on in bike-lanes, just goes 45 km/h here! Most electric cars are based on normal cars (small GMs, et cetera), but due to their heavy batteries, don't have very good load-carrying ability! >From a resource-point of view the so called moped cars (most built in Italy) are a much better option. They have a small two-cylinder diesel boxer - same as used in many garden tractors - and have a maximum legal speed of 70 km/h (same speed limit as mopeds in the European Union). They use very little fuel, and are small, thus use very little resources. Sadly, they are pretty expensive, due to the small series production. >> Heavy transports on land should all be electric train-based, > ... and banished out and away, underground :-), 'cause nobody but deaf or > permanently high on dope would be able to live next to the tracks. Even > those light trains are annoying enough, when they dart past your window from > 6 am to midnight or to 1 am, every 30 seconds in rush hours, considering > both directions. Not to say that busy street with cars is better. I live near a highway, with a very busy railway line a bit further off. One train equals more than a thousand cars (as there is usually just one or two in each car), or up to 200 semis, and I can tell you that the noise from all those trucks far over-power the trains! But high-speed trains, so loved by environmentalists as an alternative to aircraft, sure are a pain to those living next door, especially if the ground is clay, as the equivalent to sonic booms travel through the ground as the train screams past. Been onboard a train that got into harmonics with that vibration - among the scarier experiences in my life. I thought we would derail, but we didn't. Everything was a blur, you couldn't stand up and reading was definitely out! > And the nuclear power stations should be built where the consumers > are (human or industrial), not in far-away places, where > only those totally innocent, will be in harms way! > Chernobyl nuclear station in Ukraine was fairly remote from Western Europe, > and yet, with agreeable winds, radioactive cloud reached Finland and Sweden > a few days after the disaster (weakened and dissipated already, but enough > to register). Not that I'm against nuclear stations at all - just to note > that there is no place on this planet that can be considered far away enough > to be completely ignored. Coal smoke and dust from China goes around, > because the globe is round (obvious, isn't it), and settles down where you > don't want it, and so on. Yes, we all learned a lot about Cesium and Becerel then, and about nuclear power plants not so endearing sides, especially when people make mistakes. The mushrooms were inedible in many parts of Sweden after that, and animals that love lichens, and mushrooms - like roe deer and rein deer, could not be used as food. Worst off were an area in the geographic center of Sweden, where the fish for years on (at least a decade) were inedible (the deer problem just lasted a few years). But the area around Cherbonyl itself was much worse affected, where still today the radiation levels are sure to give you cancer, just by being there, unless you have the proper protective clothing and do the right procedures. Oddly enough one type of mammals thrive: the common moles! There is a US researcher that have studied the moles around the failed, leaking, plant itself, and the irradiation has somehow changed the moles genetics, as the professor explained it, dormant genes (from a prehistoric mole type, perhaps) had been activated and the result is big, happy moles, with lots of healthy siblings :-)! So watch out, one day we'll all be surrounded by these Super-moles! For more nuclear plants are sure to leak, just sit back and relax (isn't much else for us to do, is there?). Tord S Eriksson PS All the best! -- Be Yourself _at_ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>> I see no future even for my personal all-electric "vehicle park" :-). >> With >> maximum speed 45 km/h they are banned from most municipalities. Not that >> I >> like driving at 120 km/h, but such a 45 km/h vehicle should have a >> designated lane, like bicycle, and I don't expect this to happen in the >> nearest future. > > The electric-powered Tesla sports car runs as fast as a Ferrari, is > cheaper > in use, but costs a lot! > > No electric vehicle I know of, bar those three-wheeled oddities that > one occasionally sees on in bike-lanes, just goes 45 km/h here! I think it's Chrysler, a bit slower and cheaper than Ferrari, costs from US$ 14,000, legal maximum speed is 40 km/h http://www.e-suv.ca/ . http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=b7c086d2-a19b-4c64-a3e2-efa7cf05203c Vancouver city bosses are still discussing the very isssue of letting it be, with some mumbling about "high-speed electrical cars" (the arcticle is 5 months old), and with American car manufacturers right now being at the brink of extinction, I suspect they have more urgent problems on their hands, unfortunately. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At least it looks like a Hummer! -----Original Message----- I think it's Chrysler, a bit slower and cheaper than Ferrari, costs from US$ 14,000, legal maximum speed is 40 km/h http://www.e-suv.ca/ . *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
G'Day All, Craig you're absolutely right. Theres enough readily accessible renewable energy in the world right now in either wind or solar to run 5x humanities present usage. And many other alternative energy options: geothermal, geosequestration, energy management etc as well. Its a bit of a trap, however to put all of ones eggs in one basket. How would solar perform in the event of a major volcaic eruption? How would we cope with the "electrical variability of wind turbines when they reach more than 20% of baseload. Current thinking is to invest in a range of alternatives. And fusion reactors are just 50 years away again! Lightweight electric vehices can already be made - Anyone who uses an electric bike would understand the potential. I've been using one for years and cut down my petrol bills by two thirds and my doctors bills and blood pressure tablets by a half! Its not a big step to applying the technology to light weight cars. And if NY can be one of the most energy efficient cities in the western world it does provide hope for the rest of us BTW I did indeed see a kayak with an outboard electric motor the other day. It had about 3 hours of running time. Just enough to get it outside the South Australian nautical mile limit and it had a sail as well to get back if the wind was blowing in the right direction. Not sure what you'd do without the wind. Heavens you might have to paddle! Except the SA Government wuldn't allow that - hmmmm Of course I wouldn't dream of encouraging controversy or tangential topics :~) but if anyone wants to take this up off line! All the best ________________________________ From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net on behalf of Craig Jungers Sent: Mon 19/10/2009 2:26 PM To: tord_at_mindless.com Cc: al.m_at_3web.net; paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] A last turn on Global Warning Wow... the resurrection of an old thread. There are several companies working on new (and much cheaper) methods of producing the materials to manufacture solar cells. The methods are proven and at least one plant has been built (right here in Moses Lake, as a matter of fact); more are being designed. I believe that widely distributed solar generation is the key to at least the power problem. Get enough panels so that every rooftop in the world produces a couple of kw of electrical power during daylight hours and you remove the problems with darkness, clouds, etc. This will drastically reduce the need for new power plants, at least. Needless to say, the utility companies will do everything they can - including spreading false information - to defeat this. The major problem in the USA is that political will is diluted by the need to collect money for re-election. If we could just overcome *that* hurdle we might actually make some real progress. Hence the Craig Jungers term-limits program: If you're in office, I vote against you. After six or seven cycles we can re-think the situation. By that time we might have politicians in office that will listen to the voters and not the lobbyists. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 12:31 AM, rebyl_kayak < rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com> wrote: > > Of course I wouldn't dream of encouraging controversy or tangential topics > :~) but if anyone wants to take this up off line! > > > I'm not at all sure it's tangential. Paddling itself is, after all, a form of alternative energy. Any, or all, of us could simply switch to some sort of engine other than the human one if we were so inclined. My wife and kids and I cruised on a sailboat for years that was powered by a combination of solar panels and one wind generator (as well as a Volvo diesel that could be hand-cranked to start). Of all those forms the wind generator was by far the most intrusive. The diesel was louder in decibels but would only need to be run an hour to do the same charge as 24 hours of that almost equally noisy wind generator. But the solar panels only needed to be repositioned a few times a day and never interfered with sleep! The hills around here are alive with wind generators.... gigantic things that would meet with a lot of resistance among one's neighbors if you tried to erect one. So I think that the only way we'll get completely distributed power generation is with solar panels. But other forms of generation will need to be in place as well. Yesterday (Sunday) I took the aluminum overcast (my Streamline trailer) up to Jones Bay on Banks Lake; about 60 miles north of Moses Lake for an afternoon of paddling. One nice thing about taking the trailer is that it gives me a private place to change into - and back out of - paddling clothes. Another is that I re-read John Dowd's book on kayaking while I was eating my lunch (and just before my nap). The edition I own is probably not the latest but I was amazed to see how much has changed in kayaking over the past ten years or so. Greenland techniques, for one. Navigation, for another. I suspect we all have GPS units now. Most of us carry some form of communications when we paddle: VHF or cell phone (or both), most likely. Thinking about power comes naturally when paddling around the rocky islands of Banks Lake because it's an integral part of the Grand Coulee Dam system. I was paddling only about 9 miles away from the great dam itself. Interestingly enough, hydroelectric power in this state (Washington) is not considered "green" power. I suspect that it's because we're probably tapped out in dam construction and there is so much of it in place here now that the powers-that-be are probably encouraging other alternatives. So I paddled the F-1 a few miles (lots of work... next time I'm taking the Express) accompanied by my Garmin Colorado GPS and my Apple iPhone (both consuming power) and then I relaxed in the Overcast listening to jazz on the stereo while reading a book on kayaking. I guess I'm not exactly a purist, huh? Anyway, I'm going to put a solar panel on the Overcast and carry one for the kayaks. I remain a big fan of distributed solar because it seems so much easier to be ubiquitous; lots less obtrusive, almost certainly cheaper, and the technology is about to change readically. I'll worry about volcanoes later (Mt. St. Helens is less than 300km WSW from me. Yikes! Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Craig Jungers wrote: > On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 12:31 AM, rebyl_kayak < > rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com> wrote: > >> Of course I wouldn't dream of encouraging controversy or tangential topics >> :~) but if anyone wants to take this up off line! >> >> >> I'm not at all sure it's tangential. Paddling itself is, after all, a form > of alternative energy. Any, or all, of us could simply switch to some sort > of engine other than the human one if we were so inclined. > > My wife and kids and I cruised on a sailboat for years that was powered by a > combination of solar panels and one wind generator (as well as a Volvo > diesel that could be hand-cranked to start). Of all those forms the wind > generator was by far the most intrusive. The diesel was louder in decibels > but would only need to be run an hour to do the same charge as 24 hours of > that almost equally noisy wind generator. But the solar panels only needed > to be repositioned a few times a day and never interfered with sleep! > There was an interesting article in the local newspaper (Ottawa Citizen) the other day. A gentleman in Ottawa had undertaken, at considerable expense, to install solar panels on his roof in order to power his own systems and to sell the excess to Ontario Hydro. While everything is working as he planned, as far as the equipment itself is concerned, the Ontario government changed the rules (possibly in reaction to the USA's "Buy American" policies) and now claims that they will not pay for his excess power because an insufficient percentage of the hardware is of Canadian origins. So he gives the excess power away -- and they don't seem to be complaining about getting it. This same gentleman attempted to install a small wind turbine in his back yard. The city, while encouraging "green" ventures, refused him a permit because the structure was tall enough that, if it fell over (despite being anchored VERY solidly), some part of it would encroach on a neighbour's yard. It would certainly seem, from this particular gentleman's experience, that governments large and small are not as "green" as we'd like them to be. (Which also ties in, in a way, with the thread about PFDs and offshore kayaking in Australia. Elected officials may know how to get elected, but it seems they run out of knowledge right after the votes get counted.) -- Darryl *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Darryl Johnson wrote: > The city, while encouraging "green" ventures, refused him a > permit because the structure was tall enough that, if it fell over > (despite being anchored VERY solidly), some part of it would encroach on > a neighbour's yard. Umm, the word "tree" comes to mind. Also "ham radio." Steve -- Steve Cramer Athens, GA http://www.savvypaddler.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I'm not sure we're not missing the boat here, so to speak. I can envision the construction of very large health clubs, where everyone is required to join, and everyone must spend x numbers of hours per week on the exercise bikes, which are used to generate electricity. This might not only supply our power needs, but also virtually eliminate obesity and various health problems, like stroke and heart attack. I'm really sorry I thought of this. BRC > Craig Jungers wrote: >> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 12:31 AM, rebyl_kayak < >> rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com> wrote: >> >>> Of course I wouldn't dream of encouraging controversy or tangential >>> topics >>> :~) but if anyone wants to take this up off line! >>> >>> >>> I'm not at all sure it's tangential. Paddling itself is, after all, a >>> form >> of alternative energy. Any, or all, of us could simply switch to some >> sort >> of engine other than the human one if we were so inclined. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 12:55:01PM -0700, Bradford R. Crain wrote: > I'm not sure we're not missing the boat here, so to speak. I can envision > the construction of very large health clubs, where everyone is required > to join, and everyone must spend x numbers of hours per week on the > exercise bikes, which are used to generate electricity. ...which in turn power the server farms located underneath them. There are all kinds of creative possibilities out there like this; the problem isn't the lack of ideas, it's a lack of minds sufficiently open to them and -- simultaneously -- sufficiently clueful to do the math and figure out which will work, and which just sound good at the time. For example: why locate the server farm in Texas, where it's quite hot a lot of the year and still more power must be used to keep it cool? Why not locate it a few thousand miles north, where what *was* waste heat is now a useful byproduct? Why isn't every roof in downtown {insert name of bigcity} either covered in solar panels or rooftop gardens? Why aren't there half a million unemployed folks at work right now in a WPA-like program [1] to plant half a billion trees? Why are more soon-to-be clogged highways being built (e.g.: "Inter-County Connector" in Maryland) when peak highway usage in urban areas is about 25 hours/week -- and could be largely mitigated by telecommuting? (Which, by the way, is a pet cause of mine. I often point out to people that some of us have spent lifetimes building this thing called "the Internet" and we would really appreciate it if folks realized that they could actually use it to be in one place and work in another instead of sitting in "shiny metal boxes" on 8-lane parking lots twice a day five days a week.) Would all of these ideas work? Maybe -- the last one most certainly would and is decades overdue, but I think analysis is required for the others to figure out if they're a win or not. That's not the problem: we have creativity in abundance generating thousands of ideas like these every day. The problem is the lesser minds that belong to the "...but we've always done it this way" crowd, minds which are simply not agile enough to grasp that we can't do it that way any more and that we can, should, and must change how we run our planet. And this is why I was recently passed on the road by a Hummer with a "drill baby drill" sticker. I was unaware that lower primates with obvious brain damage were issued driver's licenses, but apparently so. ---Rsk [1] For non-US folks: The WPA was the Works Progress Administration, a creature of the Great Depression. The concept was to put masses of unemployed to work while simultaneously tackling public works projects that required huge semi-skilled labor forces. Thus it (a) created jobs and (b) got things done. Much of the national infrastructure in place to this day was built at that time. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi, Google bought in March 2009 a whole factory building in Summa, Finland, with EUR 40 million. They are installing servers there. Kinda interesting project -I am curious in knowing about the waste heat (the link is to the Finnish newspaper article with an image): http://www.hs.fi/talous/artikkeli/Google+investoi+Haminaan+200+miljoonaa+euroa/1135244018214 Ari Saarto Finland the fin-land - navigare necesse est - http://asaarto1.blogspot.com/ On 20. loka 2009, at 14:19, Rich Kulawiec wrote: > > For example: why locate the server farm in Texas, where it's quite > hot a lot of the year and still more power must be used to keep it > cool? > Why not locate it a few thousand miles north, where what *was* waste > heat is now a useful byproduct? *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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