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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