Convenient Lecture
(Pictures will be posted soon)
Last night, my wife and I were able to go and hear Al Gore speak at a local synagogue. So while I try to keep this brief, I could probably write a blog the size of Maine.
While it was mostly his famous “Inconvenient Truth” presentation, three other things struck me.
The first was that the movie was an abbreviated form of the presentation. There was a lot more information, some of which was only a few weeks old. This impresses me in that he’s not resting on his laurels. He’s improving his presentation all the time.
Then there’s his demeanor. Not only is he more passionate than I had seen, but he’s also more humorous. He’s a pretty funny guy. Some of this comes across in the movie in saying things like “I am Al Gore… I used to be the next American President.” But he also related stories to make the experience seem more unique than just going to see a keynote presentation (Apple’s version of PowerPoint).
The last thing that truly jumps out is that I remember is the large amounts of pandering to the organizers in the introduction and peppered throughout the evening. This is part of what seems like either he can’t get away from his political past, or he intentionally keeping it within grasp.
So to reuse some things I’ve said previously, the biggest problem was that like myself, almost everyone in attendance was there just to meet him. We’re not the ones that needed to see this type of presentation. This would have been better if it was in a much larger venue and possibly opened for educational establishments to attend for free or at a reduced price.
Then there’s my overarching view on global warming. The critics call it a ruse and/or call Gore Chicken Little for claiming that the sky is falling. My point to them is lets say we act on global warming and they end up proving that it was not the case sometime in the future… What’s the worst that can happen? We use some money learning to become more efficient and environmental. No one dies like being wrong about armed conflict. It’s things like learning to generate electricity from oceanic tides. How is that so harmful? Chances are that any money we do spend is recouped in the form of technological prowess gained. But if you reverse that scenario, what if global warming is the case and we do nothing about it? But to worry about that is to know the possible consequences. Those possibilities keep me up some nights.
I did see a very funny bumper-sticker in the parking lot that resembled a Prius rally. “Gore / Obama: Let’s re-elect our president”. I really think that he should be president at some point soon. Not only is he more viable than any other current candidate, but he’s also what the world needs in an environmental leader in a position of power with the looming crisis that is taking place.
Happy Earth Day
The title says it all…
I look forward to seeing what Al has to say this Tuesday.
Here’s to hoping for greener years to come…
Drink a lot… Cut yourself… Cry a little… And um…
So there seems to be a new type of battery that should solve a bunch of energy problems if implemented in proper ways. I haven’t been able to trace this to it’s source, but it’s funny and intriguing enough to mention.
Apparently some scientists in Asia successfully created a battery where one of the main active ingredients is urine.
… a piece of paper in a solution of copper chloride and sandwiched it between strips of magnesium and copper. This sandwich was then laminated between two sheets of transparent plastic. When a drop of urine is added to the paper through a slit in the plastic, a chemical reaction takes place that produces electricity.
This battery produced 1.5 volts of elecriticy (the same as a AA battery) for 90 minutes. Imagine a day when your house if powered by your normal evening and morning urinations… Or when your electric car gets you around thanks to your drinking habit…
The kicker, it works equally as good with blood, semen and tears. Those are some dedicated scientists.
Speaking out of one’s cornhole…
Thursday, February 22nd, George W. Bush flew to North Carolina to speak of energy initiatives. In his speech to a biotech company concerned with ethanol, Bush said:
“Someday you’re going to be able to get in your car, particularly if you’re a big-city person, and drive 40 miles on a battery,” he said. “And by the way, the car doesn’t have to look like a golf cart. It could be a pickup truck.”
I know he doesn’t write his own speeches, but why pick one out of the unused bin from his fathers’ presidency? I say this because Ford produced an electric version of the Ranger pickup from 1998-2002 that had a range of 65 miles… It’s not the future GW, it’s the past… Most current electric vehicles going into production have 150-200+ range (250 in the case of the Tesla). And all this is without governmental assistance that companies like Hummer get.
I guess all the fact checkers haven’t been replaced since that whole WMD thing… But who needs facts when you have spin?
The Chronicle via Jalopnik…
Distributed Computing
This is an area that I’ve looked into a few times here and there. It has showed promise, and it’s improved to the point that I’m comfortable not only doing it, but endorsing it. Distributed computing is the splitting up of an extremely complex, data driven experiment or project across many computers. This is in an attempt to speed up the process and increase data integrity. Anyone with a computer of meager specifications can contribute and in some cases be rewarded for doing so in a manner of different ways.
So how does this impact me? No, I don’t have a rogue computer contacting me that likes to be called Joshua… But I have a program on my machine that allows me to choose which projects I’m donating computation time to. My desktop is no supercomputer, but it’s no slouch. I’m currently donating computational time to a climate experiment. I could donate time to environment models, protein folding, genetic mapping, mathematical experiments, even SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence). In a given day, my computer doesn’t make a huge dent in the portion of the experiment I’m working towards, but when hundreds of people sign up, a super computer of sorts is created that completes the project faster and with multiple results in the same relative time of many mainframes or a super computer working on the same problem.
I remember reading some time ago that Sony was throwing around the possibility of placing a distributed computing client on the new Playstation 3 (which has a great CPU inside). If only 10,000 PS3’s run the client, then it’ll essentially be a supercomputer on the peta-flop scale which is more than twice as fast as any super computer currently in existence. Despite the expense of a PS3, one must remember that the PS2 was the best selling console of all time (at 
over 4 milion if my memory serves). This is exciting in that it’s possible to have a piece of the worlds most powerful computer in my living room that is trying to make a difference. That or it’s the beginning of Skynet.
Yeah, I know about two people read this… But the ability to give a little towards the research is so easy. I’m currently giving climateprediction.net my newer desktop at home 100% of my time. Here’s a little article explaining this project. Each core of my computer’s processor is crunching a different area of project just about 1% a day if left on 24 hours at a time (all of my power comes from wind power, so I don’t feel guilty at the possible irony of wasting energy). I’m not sure if I endorse that everyone I know does this (some level of technical knowhow is useful)… But it’s another way to assist in a cause you are passionate about.
The two best places for information are distributedcomputing.info and Boinc. And remember – in terms of Tic-Tac-Toe and Global Thermonuclear War – the best move is not to play.
Opposition Cooling
Yeah more green stuff… I iead a interesting article at TreeHugger yesterday about Ronald Bailey. He is the science correspondent for Reason Magazine who also edited a book in 2002 titled “Global Warming and Other Myths: How Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death”. Apparently Ronald has admitted his error in his column here and here.
Take note of the dates on the articles – this is not recent news. But it was the first I’d heard about it. I knew of the 2002 book, but I didn’t remember who edited it or have any knowledge that he’d revised his position.
Why am I bring this up, because within the past year when discussing politics and environmental issues, I have had friends use the defenses previously used by Bailey and the other authors in the book. You know, things like:
- “It’s all part of a trend that always levels out”
- “Even if it was happening, it wouldn’t impact more than a few degrees in our lifetime”
- “Scientists can’t agree, and therefore it’s inconclusive”
It’s time for anyone still hanging on to the inconclusive, natural pattern, or the not within our lifetimes defensives to get their heads out of the toilet. The supposed science calling global warming into question has been proven false over an over to the point where people like Bailey have been forced to eat their words.
I’m of the opinion that the situation is so important that environment is easily the most important issue in any election for the foreseeable future. Why bother worrying about our economy or defending ourselves if we put our planet on the course to becoming inhabitable? There is no political issue that matters as much for our short term, and especially our long term than the environment and the global warming reality.
I’ll vote for the more environmental candidate for any political position regardless of party affiliation at this point.
One hell of a concept
Now to blog about what I intended to this morning. If you’ve come this far I beg you to hear me out on this one.
This is an image of a General Motors concept hybrid vehicle. It’s code name is the XP-883 and if built it would have an electric motor that also drives the car when enough energy is stored up in the batteries thus vastly increasing economy. But wait you ask, aren’t all hybrids like this? No. All GM hybrids produced and planned for production to date do not have any electric motor within the drive train. Instead these “hybrids” have larger banks of batteries that allow the car to shut the engine off and run all other functions from the batteries (everything in the electrical system) when the car is parked or at a stop. Because there is no electric motor component to this type of system, it is referred to as a “hollow hybrid”. It does increase the mileage, but not much. In the case of the Saturn Vue, the mileage is increased more by using a smaller engine than the larger battery system.
So producing a hybrid that actually has an electric motor encorporated into the drive train would be a big step for GM to join Toyota, Honda, Ford and Nissan in the “non-hollow hybrid” game.
But wait, you ready for the kicker? This is a concept from 1969 published in Popular Mechanics (thanks Finkbuilt and Jalopnik). Think about that for a second… First of all, if it was published in a magazine, how long had GM been sitting on it? GM has had the foresight to put R&D into this field at least 36 years ago, but they still do not have a real hybrid on the market. Even throughout the oil embargo days when the Japanese automakers started kicking Detroit’s butt with fuel efficient cars, GM didn’t even think of actually trying to produce something that could blow everything away.
Now that it predicted that Toyota will overtake Ford and GM within 12-18 months in volume of production, what’s GM’s reaction? To show off concepts of what they have had the ability to make for years and will never see the production line for years if ever. It’s not just GM, but every company other than Toyota and Honda are also guilty (Ford and Nissan license Toyota technology for their hybrids).
I think we’re past the time for concepts in this realm. Put up or shut up. For the sake of the American economy and the global environment, just do it.
Stability for the Masses
It was recently announced that the federal government is going to require that all US passenger vehicles be equipped with stability control as a standard feature. While I applaud ability for this innovation to increase the safety of vehicles, two things came immediately to mind…
One, this only makes the cars more resistant to becoming unstable. This in no way accounts for bad drivers which seem to be everywhere (especially in Florida and New Jersey).
And second, why not turn that power of vehicle standards to MPG ratings? They’ve done it before, why not now? Not only could this spur innovation (or just require companies to give us the cars they already sell in the rest of the world), but it could lower fuel costs from an increasing supply thanks to more efficient vehicles.
I guess everyone is happy with gas $0.50 cheaper than a few months ago…
Renewable Amazon
I was happy to see that you can now buy an electric wind turbine on Amazon for $799 with free shipping. While I may be pessimistic about a lot of things, this is one of those that give me hope…
Green Fun
I recently uncovered that I have an option from my power company to have all my electricity supplied from renewable sources (in this case, a wind farm). This costs a premium over the rates that are state regulated. The information available states that this premium is currently $0.0035 per kilowatt hour, but can possibly raise to $0.03 per kilowatt hour. As long as the current rates stand (double, or triple even), I’m willing to fork over a few bucks a month to support the expansion of implemented renewable energy.
I decided to partake in this program, so I called this morning hoping that it’d be a quick and easy option. Ha… The first three people I talked to had no idea what I was talking about, and the last person knew of it – but dealt with it so little that he didn’t even know the vanilla information that is online.
As it stands, they are going to send the contract needed to initiate the program and also to seek out someone who can answer a question. Apparently a contract is needed because it deals with the modification of state regulated rates.
