Where’s My Confouded Article? This post was originally about 7 ways to give THANKS – repost for 11/28/08

Posted on November 28, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Unfortunately when I went back to the Monterey County Weekly where I swear I stole (borrowed) the article and IT WASN’T There. The 5th way was environmental cleanup. It even had a picture of a little girl picking up trash from a scenic California beach. So these articles will have to due do.

;]

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2008/2008-Nov-26/carmel-cops-to-council-hybrids-are-for-wimps/1/@@index

Boys in Blue Won’t Go Green

Carmel cops to council: Hybrids are for wimps.

By Kera Abraham

The Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council is interested in replacing old police cars with hybrids, but city cops prefer to stick with the tried-and-true.

The advantages of hybrid police cars are obvious, Sgt. Paul Tomasi told the City Council on Nov. 4. They emit fewer greenhouse gases, save up to $800 per year on fuel, are quieter and earn bonus points with the public.

But the drawbacks, he said, are prohibitive. Hybrids are lighter and more likely to tip over. They’re expensive to buy and equip. The California Highway Patrol doesn’t think the tech is up to patrol standards yet, and even the agencies that have hybrids won’t use them for emergency purposes.

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2008/2008-Nov-26/local-ecolaw-crusader-reported-to-be-in-stable-condition/1/@@index

Zan Henson Survives Plan Crash

Local eco-law crusader reported to be in stable condition.

By Kera Abraham

Carmel Valley attorney Alexander “Zan” Henson crashed a single-engine plane into the Monterey Pines Golf Course northwest of the Monterey Peninsula Airport around 6pm on Tuesday night, Nov. 25.

Henson was taken to the Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula. His passenger, Santa Cruz attorney Jim Rummins, was airlifted to a hospital in San Jose. The two men, both in their 60s, reportedly sustained injuries that are not life threatening.

Henson’s wife, Holly Henson, told The Monterey County Herald she expected her husband to be released from the hospital Nov. 26. Rummins reportedly was still being treated for back, head and lung injuries.

For years, the Weekly has reported on Henson’s battles for “slow-growth” development, a voter-owned desalination plant and other environmental causes. He directed the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board from 1981-1982 and 1999-2003 and was founding director of the Monterey chapter of Surfrider Foundation.

;]

Newt Gingrich Plans To Save The Earth – Maybe the silliest use of energy yet

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

So silly in fact that the price of the book has fallen from $20 to $2.39.

http://www.amazon.com/Contract-Earth-Newt-Gingrich/dp/0801887801

This from a man who does not believe in global warming. This from a man who helped start the “Drill Here, Drill Now” movement. This from a man who adamitly opposes Cap and Trade even though it’s an industry ameliorative. Oh and a forward by the man who once hypothesized that people with black skin have lower I.Q.s then people with white skin color. But don’t listen to me:

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0801887801

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

If we pass the test, we get to keep the planet (Everglades), December 6, 2007

Local Book Review by John Arthur Marshall, (JAMinfo@AOL.com); President
Arthur R. Marshall Foundation and Florida Environmental Institute, Inc. www.ArtMarshall.org

A Contract with the Earth: Newt Gingrich and Terry Maple; John Hopkins; 2007

Contract with the Earth is an overdue call for local, national and international action in a time of serious need for we planetary occupants to pay much more attention to what we are doing to the planet (destroying our life support system at a seemingly indiscernible rate, with enormous consequences given ubiquitous inaction). This is the major problem that Contract addresses.

Contract might be summarized as a re-call of Teddy Roosevelt conservationism with emphasis on the authors’ new advocacy of entrepreneurial environmentalism. All this verges on a matter of insistence, which is good, even great, if twice as many folks that are engaged in the present environmental movement read and heed… Then engage at least one neo-conservationist politician on the need to take on stewardship of the environment as a major issue in the current election debates. We can do it!

As the authors astutely note: Everyone ought to participate in discussions of environmental policies and to that end should have a rudimentary understanding of the processes that make a habitable planet.

Of particular importance in the current elections scenario, the authors identify the need to get the environment elevated as arguably the most important issue confronting society today. How can presidential candidates not pay attention to long-term effects of climate change, and the need for conservation and preservation of what remains of our life support system? A bonus is a call for strategic planning, and adherence to planetary needs.

The authors acknowledge that insufficient attention is being paid by politicians, and with the rest of us, lament that the current administration has been a failure here, even with the late attempt at for lasting legacy to cover inaction regarding potential disastrous consequences in the future.

The author’s define the distinction between conservation and preservation in a manner that deserves further consideration. That is left for future readers to discover, in a book that is worth reading, and begging for action by the non-reactive information-overloaded majority.

As President of a tree-planting organization, my most favorite spot in this book is Chapter 8: Renewing the Natural World. This chapter emphasizes the need to preserve rainforests and restore forests and wetlands. Here in Florida we call them forested wetlands, or swamps (lots of cypress and custard apple trees and related species normally in standing water). In the sequence of quotable quotes at the beginning of each chapter, Chapter 8 also holds my favorite quote:

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest perseveration would vanish. John Muir [Founder Sierra Club]; there were also lots of pine trees in Florida. The past-tense is not good.

This quote is an appropriate sequel to another salient section in Chapter 10, with the mention of Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods. Louv amplifies the need for the younger generation to be more exposed to nature, as previous generations were. Something is missing. Louv points out that staying indoors in front of a computer, rather than more exposure to nature, may lead to nature deficit disorder, which he relates to potential attention deficit disorder and maladjustments in life.

As a sixth generation Floridian, following progress of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) I very much appreciate Newt’s observation on page 226:

“Florida has the opportunity to become a laboratory that the entire world studies… There are very few places where you have a complex fragile ecosystem this close to this many people”. Newt, Associated Press, 1997. Recent AP headlines – Everglades Restoration bogged down – is inappropriate.

The authors also recognize that the proximity of massive land-fills (Mt. Trashmore’s we call them) to the Everglades are inappropriate to conservation and preservation of important ecosystems. Currently, local government is considering locating a Mt. Trashmore right next to the Arthur R. Marshall National Wildlife Refuge, a primary subject of CERP implementation. Not only will the landfill be a dominant terrain feature, the creatures this will attract will pose a serious threat to native wildlife, especially wading birds. This could also pose a serious threat to federal funding.

The authors also implore us (again!) to think globally and act locally. OK Palm Beachers, CERP implementation is also about sustaining a viable water supply. This is need to know stuff.

Unfortunately the behavior of government toward CERP, especially in the current federal administration, is much like the authors describe:

The American government, however continues to posture and vent, unable or unwilling to commit or act decisively…. Except possibly to give development overwhelming priority.

If there is one thing that might call for a little reconsideration, it is the authors’ inclination to view technological solutions as sometimes preferable to natural one’s, without mentioning the precautionary principle, an approach advocated by scientists when there is a dearth of knowledge. Scientists caution on reliance of engineered solutions, as there are always unforeseen, usually adverse consequences here. Humankind’s intrusions require natural solutions. Natural solutions are most often perpetual, and the most cost-effective. OK, green energy may be an exception.

At the onset, Contract challenges the readers to take a Test to determine whether (or not) you (the reader) is a mainstream environmentalist. In the end the authors challenge the readers to support the broad principles of the contract, by contributing time and ideas to create together a new kind of environmental movement.

From the Everglades Restoration endeavor, a more widely applicable quote is attributed to the Mother of the Everglades, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, author of Everglades, River of Grass:

If we pass the Test we get to keep the planet!

DISCLAIMER: The Author of this review, an Everglades restoration advocate, is not a professional book reviewer.

John Arthur Marshall
2806 South Dixie Highway, WPB 33405; 561-801-2165

On the other hand:

Same old, same old, April 18, 2008

By	Arthur E. Lamontagne –

A lot of rehash of old ideas and trite science. I was disappointed, especially since I have been a big fan of Newt’s philosophies and politics.
:}

If you want to hear what the great man himself thinks try, are you ready for it?, newt.org:

http://newt.org/AContractwiththeEarth/tabid/220/Default.aspx

Scientist Fred Bortz sees it a little different:

http://www.fredbortz.com/review/ContractWithEarth.htm

I am a scientist, and I vote. To put this review in context, I place myself in the moderate to progressive segment of American politics. But I never let my political views get in the way of interpreting what observation, experiment, and scientific analysis tell me about the world.

For instance, when I reviewed Chris Mooney’s provocative The Republican War on Science (RWOS), my first reaction was skepticism. “Show me the evidence,” I demanded of that book. In the end, Mooney’s thorough research persuaded me that his thesis deserved serious consideration.

RWOS covered a broad range of topics, but the one of greatest concern to me was the political foot-dragging and outright denial of human-induced global warming, especially in the Republican controlled congress and the George W. Bush White House.

I often wrote in my blog that I would listen to any proposed political solution to the problem–liberal, conservative, or otherwise–as long as the discussion began with the best understanding of the science and considered a range of plausible scenarios. Thus I was heartened to learn of this new book by one of the United States leading conservative thinkers, Newt Gingrich, in collaboration with conservationist Terry Maple.

I assumed that I would disagree with Gingrich’s proposed political approaches. But I also assumed that the book will make an important contribution to the debate on global warming. I was correct on both counts. A Contract With the Earth has the potential to move the debate away from whether global warming is occurring and whether human activities are causing it, and move toward issues where conservatives and liberals argue about how best to deal with the problem.

However, I am disappointed that it pussyfoots around the Right’s nonsense about calling global warming a hoax and a liberal conspiracy. Gingrich frequently points fingers at the Left for their “doomsday scenarios.” I disagree with that characterization, though I understand that a warning can be delivered too stridently, thereby turning off the people you hope to reach.

But if turning people away from the solution is a problem, then Gingrich needs to be equally critical of outright denialism on the Right. To deny and obfuscate is far more than simply to “disdain” environmental action, which is about as far as he goes in criticizing his own party. He may not have agreed with leading denier Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, but by remaining quiet he facilitated Inhofe’s misuse of his Chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to block action on global warming. In this book, Gingrich is continuing to give Inhofe and his cronies a pass.

In other words, I don’t doubt his sincerity about the need to act, and I don’t question the value of conservative approaches to the solution. But Gingrich is clearly worried about his right flank in this book. Mainstream Republicans have known for some time that global warming is a problem and would welcome some courageous leadership from Gingrich. Instead, many of them will see this as opportunism by someone who wants to be president and thus can’t afford to alienate the Right.

Physicist Fred Bortz is the author of numerous science books for young readers.

Leave it to the Washington Post to get it right:

http://www.powells.com/review/2008_01_04.html

Green Republicans

A review by Juliet Eilperin

Yet they gloss over some of the toughest questions facing international policymakers today, and they compare the environmental records of Bush and former President Bill Clinton in a way that strains credulity.

On the central question of global warming, Gingrich and Maple are closer to Bush than to most of the world’s business and political leaders. They argue that climate change poses a serious threat and that the United States should reengage in international negotiations. But they question the wisdom of imposing a mandatory, nationwide cap on carbon emissions on the grounds that Europe’s carbon dioxide emissions rose faster than America’s between 2000 and 2004. (It’s worth noting that since 2000, U.S. emissions have risen at 1.5 times the rate they did in the 1990s, not exactly a stunning model of restraint.) Like Bush, Gingrich and Maple rest their hopes on technological innovation: “The world can be changed faster by the spread of brilliant ideas than by any plodding bureaucracy, and we gladly put our faith in such intellectual and social processes.”

In that sense this book is classic Newt, brimming with military metaphors and grand visions of America leading the rest of globe to a brighter future. In environmentalism, as in war, “we must demand a complete and decisive victory,” the authors say. “Renewing the earth is surely one of the greatest challenges this generation has confronted, and we understand how important it is to succeed.”

To show the value of what they call “business partnerships on behalf of the environment,” the authors describe how the Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and the Wildlife Conservation Society have made common cause with such corporate entities as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s. As a result, much of the book reads like the kind of corporate advertisement that appears on newspaper op-ed pages. Gingrich and Maple contend that the private sector, not government, holds the answers to the globe’s biggest problems. The question is whether people in places such as Bangladesh can afford to wait and see if they’re right.

Juliet Eilperin is the Post‘s national environmental reporter.

Ed Begley, Jr. And His Bicycle Powered Toaster – Is this really good for the environment?

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Is Ed Begley, Jr. Silly? The answer is not so easy to discern.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkFr9XWaKuU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28_3Rzw-VCA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPECtUoeqP8

September 17, 2007 5:01 AM PDT

Human energy harvesting–

a very silly idea

Posted by Peter Glaskowsky

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9779334-7.html

Power to the people” was a popular rallying cry among anti-establishment activists in the 1960s.

“Power from the people” appears to be the latter-day equivalent.

The theory behind the slogan is that humans move around a lot, and the only result of all this motion is that the humans end up in a different place.

According to some, this isn’t good enough.

The MIT News reports that two MIT graduate students in architecture have proposed to extract energy from the motion of humans through public spaces such as train stations:

A responsive sub-flooring system made up of blocks that depress slightly under the force of human steps would be installed beneath the station’s main lobby. The slippage of the blocks against one another as people walked would generate power through the principle of the dynamo, a device that converts the energy of motion into that of an electric current.

But if there’s enough motion to provide harvestable energy, there’s enough motion for the humans to notice. Ever walked along a pedestrian suspension bridge that bounced under your feet? It takes more energy to walk on such a surface than it does on a rigid surface.

Where does that energy come from? From you, of course. It’s like carrying a parasite that takes a little bit of your energy. In fact, this approach is also called parasitic power generation. By keeping the parasite fed, you get a little more tired and you eat a little more food. In effect, you become a highly inefficient motor that runs on food.

Food calories are inefficient to produce. A wheat field is a giant biochemical solar panel that turns a small part of the sun’s energy into chemical compounds that you can eat.

And then those compounds have to be kept cool and transported large distances, then cooked and eaten. By comparison, traditional electric power generation is hugely more efficient.

So when you see celebrity Ed Begley Jr. using a stationary bicycle to turn a generator to power his toaster, remember that this is a crime against the environment–not environmentalism.

The same goes for parasitic energy generation–it creates exceptionally expensive energy. Nevertheless, there are places where this approach is entirely appropriate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvesting

Piezoelectric energy harvesting

The piezoelectric effect converts mechanical strain into electrical current or voltage. This strain can come from many different sources. Human motion, low-frequency seismic vibrations, and acoustic noise are everyday examples. Except in rare instances the piezoelectric effect operates in AC requiring time-varying inputs at mechanical resonance to be efficient.

Most piezoelectric electricity sources produce power on the order of milliwatts, too small for system application, but enough for hand-held devices such as some commercially-available self-winding wristwatches. One proposal is that they are used for micro-scale devices, such as in a device harvesting micro-hydraulic energy. In this device, the flow of pressurized hydraulic fluid drives a reciprocating piston supported by three piezoelectric elements which convert the pressure fluctuations into an alternating current.

Piezoelectric systems can convert motion from the human body into electrical power. DARPA has funded efforts to harness energy from leg and arm motion, shoe impacts, and blood pressure for low level power to implantable or wearable sensors. Careful design is needed to minimise user discomfort. These energy harvesting sources by association have an impact on the body. An international Workshop is organized by Virginia Tech on Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting ^[2] every year which reviews the past developments and current state of the technology .

The use of piezoelectric materials to harvest power has already become popular. Piezoelectric materials have the ability to transform mechanical strain energy into electrical charge. Piezo elements are being embedded in walkways ^[3] ^[4] to recover the “people energy” of footsteps. They can also be embedded in shoes ^[5] to recover “walking energy”.

Pyroelectric energy harvesting

The pyroelectric effect converts a temperature change into electrical current or voltage. It is analogous to the piezoelectric effect, which is another type of ferroelectric behavior. Like piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity requires time-varying inputs and suffers from small power outputs in energy harvesting applications. One key advantage of pyroelectrics over thermoelectrics is that many pyroelectric materials are stable up to 1200 C or more, enabling energy harvesting from high temperature sources and thus increasing thermodynamic efficiency. There is a pyroelectric scavenging device that was recently introduced, however, that doesn’t require time-varying inputs. The energy-harvesting device uses the edge-depolarizing electric field of a heated pyroelectric to convert heat energy into mechanical energy instead of drawing electric current off two plates attached to the crystal-faces. Moreover, stages of the novel pyroelectric heat engine can be cascaded in order to improve the Carnot efficiency.

http://humanbatteries.com/

(:=}) The Human Batterry site is a movie site using a flash player technique. It argues that many houses use 3,000 watts a day that can be offset by energy harvest. There is also a game where you can generate electricity from typing on the key board of your computer. (:=})

http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/MPRV.2005.8

This month’s Works in Progress column has four contributions. The first examines how harvesting environmental energy in sensor networks changes the way an application developer views energy management, and discusses prototype devices. The second proposes devices that combine energy harvesting and data acquisition. The third explores novel approaches for optimizing the power extracted using piezoelectric materials. The final one explores kinetic and thermal energy harvesting from human users’ activities.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=857199.858024

As the power requirements for microelectronics continue decreasing, environmental energy sources can begin to replace batteries in certain wearable subsystems. In this spirit, this paper examines three different devices that can be built into a shoe, (where excess energy is readily harvested) and used for generating electrical power “parasitically” while walking. Two of these are piezoelectric in nature: a unimorph strip made from piezoceramic composite material and a stave made from a multilayer laminate of PVDF foil. The third is a shoe-mounted rotary magnetic generator. Test results are given for these systems, their relative merits and compromises are discussed, and suggestions are proposed for improvements and potential applications in wearable systems. As a self-powered application example, a system had been built around the piezoelectric shoes that periodically broadcasts a digital RFID as the bearer wal

http://www.citeulike.org/user/ingedwar/article/2940413

Over the past few decades, the use of portable and wearable electronics has grown steadily. These devices are becoming increasingly more powerful, however, the gains that have been made in the device performance has resulted in the need for significantly higher power to operate the electronics. This issue has been further complicated due to the stagnate growth of battery technology over the past decade. In order to increase the life of these electronics, researchers have begun investigating methods of generating energy from ambient sources such that the life of the electronics can be prolonged. Recent developments in the field have led to the design of a number of mechanisms that can be used to generate electrical energy, from a variety of sources including thermal, solar, strain, inertia, etc. Many of these energy sources are available for use with humans, but their use must be carefully considered such that parasitic effects that could disrupt the user’s gait or endurance are avoided. This study develops a novel energy harvesting backpack that can generate electrical energy from the differential forces between the wearer and the pack. The goal of this system is to make the energy harvesting device transparent to the wearer such that his or her endurance and dexterity is not compromised. This will be accomplished by replacing the strap buckle with a mechanically amplified piezoelectric stack actuator. Piezoelectric stack actuators have found little use in energy harvesting applications due to their high stiffness which makes straining the material difficult. This issue will be alleviated using a mechanically amplified stack which allows the relatively low forces generated by the pack to be transformed to high forces on the piezoelectric stack. This paper will develop a theoretical model of the piezoelectric buckle and perform experimental testing to validate the model accuracy and energy harvesting performance.

Hunter Lake Meeting December 3rd at UIS – CWLP and the City of Springfield wastes more of your money

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Who knows how much the video will cost, but the permit will cost $10,000. The City is never going to be able to raise the money in the current credit crunch to finance Hunter Lake. So why do they keep throwing good money after bad? Want a hint, BTRSSABTECWI.

http://sustainablespringfield.org/ssblog/

An Appeal from Don Hanrahan About Hunter Lake & Dam

October 17th, 2008

Just when you think this dinosaur might actually go extinct, it rears its ugly head. I am writing to ask for your support and for that of the members of your groups/organizations. Specifically, I seek notification of your members of this pressing environmental concern, and everyone’s input regarding planning for a large and critically important public hearing which has now been scheduled.

CWLP has decided once again to press ahead with the permit process for Hunter Dam. CWLP needs two permits: one from Illinois EPA (effect of dam on water quality) and one from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (to impound waters by building a dam).

The last public hearing – a joint hearing sponsored by IEPA and the U.S. ACE – will be held on December 3, 2008 at UIS Brookens Auditorium, beginning at 3 p.m., running until 5:00 p.m., then a break for supper, and resuming again (I believe) at 7:00 p.m. I will pass on the details as they become available.

Both the IEPA and ACE will also allow, and concentrate heavily on, WRITTEN COMMENTS submitted within a specified deadline ( I do not know what that is at present – usually within 30 days of the end of the hearing). The public hearing itself presents a superb opportunity for the environmental community to make its voice heard on this issue.

I am writing to you all with the hope that we can hold a meeting within the next 2-3 weeks of any and all interested folks, with notice to the environmental community at large and to your mailing lists, to prepare for this opportunity. I can reserve the library or some similar convenient location.

Citizens for Sensible Water Use has lots of factual information we have gathered and distilled over the years. We are working hard right now on a document that addresses every position taken in FAVOR of building the dam with factual information that rebuts each and every point. At a public hearing, it is essential that the opposition comes armed to the teeth. Each speaker will get five minutes, no more. Every speaker and every group should send written comments.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU THINK MY MEETING IDEA IS A GOOD ONE. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any actual organizing; my rabble rousing on the issue is fine, but this requires some help and expertise from respected folks such as yourselves, and the dedicated members of the organizations. We am open to anything you folks suggest!

Donald J. Hanrahan
Citizens For Sensible Water Use
1119 S. Sixth
Springfield, IL 62703
217-789-1200

DonaldHanrahan@aol.com

For the meeting notice:

http://www.epa.state.il.us/public-notices/2008/cwlp-hunter-lake/index.pdf

City of Springfield – City Water, Light and Power (Hunter Lake)

Public Hearing Date: December 3, 2008
Public Comment Period Ends: January 5, 2009
Available Documents:

More of the 40 years of Drivel:

http://www.sj-r.com/news/x466653166/CWLP-to-film-Hunter-Lake-informational-video

CWLP to film Hunter Lake info video

By DEANA POOLE

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Posted Nov 12, 2008 @ 11:52 PM

Last update Nov 13, 2008 @ 06:31 AM

As the city of Springfield pursues a permit to build a second lake, City Water, Light and Power officials this week will film an informational video that will cram Hunter Lake’s 40-plus years of history into 30 minutes.It’ll probably never make the Big Screen, but it will be aired on Municipal Channel 18 and available on CD in a few weeks.The video will explain the history of providing water in Springfield, the present sources, needs in a drought and alternatives to Hunter Lake, said Tom Skelly, CWLP water division manager. It’s an attempt to educate the public, he said.

“There’s a lot of misinformation flying around,” Skelly said.

By the way, Skelly wouldn’t know misinformation if it bit him anywhere.

If It’s Good Enough For The Queen Why Not Us – America is always behind

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Maybe that will change with a Democrat in the White House:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/22/technology/queen_turbine.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008092212

Her majesty’s big,

honkin’ windmill

The Queen of England is buying

the world’s largest wind turbine,

which towers over Big Ben and

will light up thousands of British

homes.

By Todd Woody, senior editor

Last Updated: September 22, 2008: 12:15 PM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) — It’s been a century or so since Britain ruled the waves, but Queen Elizabeth II will soon reign over the wind. Earlier this year the Crown Estate, which manages royal property worth $14 billion and controls the seas up to 14 miles off the British coast, agreed to purchase – for an undisclosed sum – the world’s largest wind turbine.

It’s a 7.5-megawatt monster to be built by Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif. Now the Royal Turbine is getting even bigger: Clipper has revealed to Fortune that Her Majesty’s windmill has been supersized to ten megawatts, producing five times the power generated by typical big turbines currently in commercial operation. The giant’s wingspan stretches the length of two soccer fields. At 574 feet, the turbine soars over Big Ben and roughly equals 111 Queen Elizabeths (the actual queen) plus one corgi stacked on top of one another.

The Queen’s turbine will displace two million barrels of oil as well as 724,000 tons of CO2 over its lifetime. This prototype will be the flagship for Clipper’s Britannia Project, an effort to create a new generation of massive-megawatt turbines to be placed on deep-sea floating platforms. When the windmill goes online in 2012 somewhere off the British coast, it could power 3,700 average homes.

http://gizmodo.com/5053873/queen-of-england-buying-the-worlds-largest-wind-turbine

We don’t know how much it cost her, but word is that the Queen of England has put down some mega-bucks to buy the world’s largest wind turbine. The 10-megawatt monster machine built by Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, California will have a wingspan larger than two soccer fields and will stand 574 feet tall when completed. The windmill is expected to displace two million barrels of oil as well as 724,000 tons of CO2 over its lifetime. It will also serve as the flagship for Clipper’s Britannia Project, an effort to produce massive new turbines on deep-sea floating platforms. If all goes as planned, the Queen’s windmill will light up thousands of British homes starting in 2012.

Space Shuttle Disaster – Well it would be if they quit flying it

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Normally I stick to the light commercial/ residential energy consumer markets and grass roots environmental issues. This blog will occasionally address industrial issues especially involving large power generators. The Space Shuttle is so way past industrial that well it’s hard for this blog to comment. I am also very conscious of the 2 we collectively blew up. I lived through both of them and the fire aboard the Apollo 1 space flight testing. That said I think NASA needs to keep flying the Shuttles until they have an effective replacement for it. NASA argues that they don’t have the money or the manpower to do both. I think that is sissy talk myself. The Hubble needs them and so does the International Space Station. We are never leaving this solar system of ours. That’s a fact Jack. Even Asimov said it would take us 100 years to have the infrastructure in place to go to Mars so let’s slow down and get this one right. The first thing we need to do is create an integrated space command so that everyone is flying together.

We need to create reuseable space stuff too. Our orbit is starting to look like a flying garbage dump. We have our stuff scatterred willy nilly over 4 planets besides our own. We have even thrown something out into the galaxy. But throwing stuff away, like Burning Behavior will take several posts.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn15145-space-shuttle-is-key-issue-for-obama-agency-says.html

Space shuttle is key issue for Obama, agency says

22:48 06 November 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Rachel Courtland

Incoming president Barack Obama must decide the shuttle’s fate soon if he wants to keeps its replacement on schedule, the Government Accountability Office says (Image: NASA)

Problems mount for NASA’s Ares rocket
28 October 2008
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03 October 2008
Moonlighting engineers design alternative NASA rocket
21 July 2008
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US president-elect Barack Obama will need to decide soon whether to retire the space shuttle in 2010 or extend its life, a government oversight office said on Thursday.

The space shuttle is one of 13 ‘urgent’ issues that face the next US president, according to a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) list. “These are issues that will require the attention of the President and Congress early on in the next administration,” says GAO spokesperson Chuck Young.

Deciding the fate of the shuttle is particularly time-sensitive, Young says. If the government decides to fly more shuttle missions, it could impact how quickly NASA can move forward with a shuttle replacement, set to be ready to fly by March 2015.

The replacement, the centrepiece of a NASA programme called Constellation, would end a five-year gap in the US’s ability to transport astronauts to space. During the interim, astronauts will have to hitch rides to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz capsules.

Interdependent programmes

Extending the shuttle’s lifetime means that if “NASA’s budget doesn’t change, it will put Constellation off”, says Cristina Chaplain of the GAO.

But even with more money, NASA may not be able to close the gap in its access to space. That’s because the shuttle and Constellation programmes are interdependent, Chaplain told New Scientist.

The agency needs to free up facilities and personnel that currently maintain the shuttle fleet for work on the replacement vehicle, an Apollo-inspired capsule called Orion that will launch atop the Ares I rocket.

Congress built in time for Obama to decide the shuttle’s fate. NASA is not allowed to take any actions before 30 April 2009 that would prevent the shuttle from flying safely after its scheduled retirement in 2010, according to the agency’s new authorisation act, which passed in October.

Would you care to bet on that?:

http://www.hubdub.com/m21244/Will_the_Space_Shuttle_retire_by_the_end_of_2010_as_planned

Will the Space Shuttle

retire by the end of

2010, as planned?

Current forecast: 30% chance

Combining all predictions, the current forecast is that this is 30% likely to happen (unchanged in last 1 day)

The addition of an extra mission to NASA’s space shuttle flight manifest could significantly reduce the chance of retiring the orbiter fleet in 2010 as planned, possibly to as low as 5 percent, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report released Monday [Nov 3, 2008].
The CBO studied risks associated with delaying the space shuttle’s retirement and how that would affect work on the replacement system – consisting of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Ares I launcher – which is expected to debut in 2015.
The report concluded there was a 20 to 60 percent chance NASA would be able to fly all of the 10 scheduled shuttle missions in the next two years. The addition of an 11th mission to transport the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the space station, as Congress has directed, would reduce that probability to between 5 and 30 percent, the CBO report said.
:}

Then again the way the Orion and the Constellation are going they may have all the time in the world:

http://www.space.com/news/081104-nasa-shuttle-retirement-cbo.html

The gap between the shuttle’s retirement and the first flight of Orion and Ares I could widen if NASA cannot keep Orion’s mass from growing during development. Other issues that could delay Orion and Ares I include a longer-than-expected development of Ares I’s J-2X upper-stage engine, difficulties with the Orion’s heat shields and excessive thrust oscillation in Ares 1’s first stage, the CBO report said.

The report also said a $577 million reduction in NASA’s 2007 funding prompted NASA to forego some robotic lunar surface exploration missions, which could delay plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020.

http://www.space.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=SP_080821_parchute_test

http://www.space.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=SP_080721_constellation1

http://www.space.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=SP_080721_constellation2

http://www.space.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=080626-constellation-rock

No To 100 Nukes – Thanks for that.

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

We waited breathlessly last night to find out if we would be building 50 nukes with a goal of 100. The answer NAH. Energy drenched America may have finally woken up.

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/happydays.htm

[Music and Lyrics by J. Yellen and M. Ager]

So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last

Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

Altogether shout it now
There’s no one
Who can doubt it now
So let’s tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again

Your cares and troubles are gone
There’ll be no more from now on
From now on …

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So, Let’s sing a song of cheer again

Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
Are here again!

Contact NIEHS (NIH, DHHS)
Children’s Privacy and Other Disclaimers
NIEHS Sing-Along Index
NIEHS Kids Page Main Index

Gas Prices In Springfield Illinois Fall To 1.85$$ – We are all going to die!

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

Conspiracy theoriests say that this is the result of collusion between, Big Oil, Dick Cheney, President Bush, the Big Refiners, the Gasoline Dealerships and certain Rich Republicans (you know who you are) to artifishally lower the price of Oil and Gasoline to steal the election from Barack Obama and hand it to John McCain. Damn that was a long sentence.

It’s not because the Oil Markets were destabilized by speculators for the first time in nearly 100 years and prices are going to swing widely as a result. I bet Oil Prices go to 40$$ per barrel, before they skyrocket out of sight again. The Saudi’s are getting soaked. That sucking sound you hear is billions of Saudi $$s flowing into the US. I imagine at some point the Saudi’s will take murder contracts out on the hedge fund managers, the super wealthy, and the currency traders who caused all this craziness in the first place. Which is fitting I suppose.

I am busy with the election so maybe no energy post to follow but Dan Piraro asked me to pass along a couple of cartoons that were rejected by a really really famous magazine that ethics prevents us from naming (Time):

http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/

If you find the titles too hard to read the first one says “mommy is too tired to run her hands under your bed clothes tonight, honey” and the other one says “let me put my glasses on because it doesn’t look as big as you said”

And if you believe that well you probably believe the conspiracy theory above. Oh go to dan’s web site and click on the cartoons. They magically get bigger and then you can read the print.

GET OUT AND VOTE!

To Continue In The Halloween Spirit I give you Frankenstein! Oh god the little kiddies love their candy

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

OK so it is really the Miami Museum of Science Exhibit on electricity safety. But shouldn’t it be Frankensteen?:

http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/frankenstein/index.html

With lessons like this:

What is young Dracula doing wrong? If you guessed “using a hair dryer near water” you’re right!

Hair dryers and water don’t mix, and can be very dangerous! Never use a hair dryer near water and never place a hair dryer in water.

If you see a hair dryer or any other electrical appliance in or near water, stay away and go tell your parents or an adult!

Remember: Electricity and water don’t mix!

And messages like this:

What is the young Mummy doing wrong? If you guessed “putting something near a lamp” you’re right!

Lamps use electricity to make light and can get very hot! If things get to close to a hot lamp they can catch on fire!

Never place anything near or inside the lamp shade. The lamp shade acts as the lamp’s safety zone. Nothing should be inside this safety zone.

Remember: Lamps can get very hot! Never place anything near or inside the lamp shade.

Wish they would have know that at GE when they first started making these:

http://www.mikeholt.com/mojonewsarchive/Safety-HTML/HTML/State-to-Warn-About-Halide-Light-Dangers~20050314.php

January 31, 2005Oregon schools, warehouses and businesses will soon be getting a state safety warning about the potential danger of ultraviolet exposure from cracked metal halide lights.State officials said they will also notify the federal government about an unusual but very real danger of severe “sunburn” and irritated eyes that can come from such exposure.The warnings follow a November incident that left about 80 Lake Oswego teachers suffering a range of symptoms after being exposed to ultraviolet radiation from a cracked metal halide bulb burning in a school gym.It was similar to a 2000 incident in which several spectators at a junior high basketball game in Sutherlin suffered from sore eyes and skin rashes that resembled sunburn.An environmental specialist hired by the state estimated that those sitting directly under the cracked light in Lake Oswego would have received a full day’s exposure to ultraviolet radiation in just eight minutes.

Metal halide lights are common in large spaces because of the bright, white rays they emit.

But a 1980 federal Food and Drug Administration directive says only metal halide bulbs that self-extinguish when cracked should be used in places where people could be exposed for more than a few minutes, unless other safety precautions are in place.

The FDA also ordered that warnings be placed on the packaging of metal halide lights that don’t self-extinguish.

Last week, the Oregon office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded an investigation that found many school districts and other employers are not aware of the danger of ultraviolet radiation.

The Lake Oswego incident happened when a metal halide light in the Bryant Elementary School gym in Lake Oswego was struck by a volleyball Oct. 18. The district maintenance staff didn’t change the bulb because, although cracked, it was still emitting light.

But a four-hour teacher training session in the gym in November left many teachers with symptoms ranging from sensitive skin to burned corneas and temporary blindness.

Teachers union president Kathy Lundeen said although doctors told teachers their symptoms should soon subside, “more than a handful” of teachers are still suffering dry eyes and sensitivity to light more than two months after the incident.

“I don’t think anyone should have to go through what the employees have gone through here,” Lundeen said.

A final one:

What is the young Wolf Man doing wrong? If you guessed “placing something on top of a power cord” you’re right!

Placing objects on top of power cords can damage them, causing power shortages or even fires!

Remember: Don’t place objects on top of power cords.

But this is my favorite:

Just In Time For Halloween – Want to be buried in a reef?

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Doug Nicodemus

I have heard of sleeping with the fishes but how would you like to be turned into a reef. Help the sea, help the sea life and help the environment in general. Kind of hard for relatives to visit but I guess they give you photos:

http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2615803/Sea-burials-help-rebuild-reefs.html

Sea burials help rebuild reefs

23.October 2008, 15:21

A company is marketing a service for those who want to help the environment in the afterlife, or forever be part of the memories at a sports stadium. They are offering a burial service that is supposed to be an environmentally friendly and less expensive alternative to traditional burials.

How is it done? Cremated remains are mixed into the concrete used to make so-called reef balls that it places at sites along the U.S. East Coast.

Community Energy Systems

Censys.org

Category Archives: gaia