tonari no shibafu

Constructive procrastination

Recently I've been going nuts on the podcasts and here's one I recommend: CBC Ideas Massey Lectures. I just listened to a two-part discussion with David Sanborn Scott. His solution to our energy problems is the most reasoned and reasonable I've ever heard.

How to maintain your bicycle

Wikihow presents a step-by-step for maintaining your bike.

via LifeHacker

dh Love Life

Darryl Hannah's super crunchy site.  (WARNING: annoying music alert)

description from Treehugger

She has friendly chats about biodiesel with Fox’s venomous Bill O’Reilly, was the keynote speaker at this year’s Natural Products Expo West, helped kick off World Water Day in Rwanda, and has been conducting clandestine missions to far away places freeing young girls from human trafficking rings. Superhero? There is that possibility. One of the newest tools in Daryl Hannah's utility belt is dh lovelife, a weekly video blog that highlights colorful stirrings in the green community.

 

Fuel Cell Train

Treehugger has beat me to the news about fuel cell powered trains in Japan. 

Gotta read Akihabara News more closely.

Something else to add to my earthquake bag

Portable solar power cells....sweet.

via Gizmodo

Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a cadillac

Not really, but I did see a Prius taxicab.  Tried to get a pic, but I was on my scooter and was a little slow of trigger.  As I was looking  at it, the Don Henley song came into my head and at just that moment a Mazerati pulled into our lane, which of course reminded me of Joe Walsh.  It was an Eagles kind of trip home.

Done for now

Just got back from my seminar. My presentation didn't go smoothly, particularly at the beginning. As I mentioned before there are some fundamental concepts that I just do not understand thoroughly. Also, in my zeal to be about 2/3 prepared for my entire 3-week chunk today, I didn't read last week's section very thoroughly. In any event, more than a cohesive presentation from the word jump, I put an outline of the arguments on the board and then asked questions about the things that I found vague. In the end, this was productive, and sensei and one of my sempai directing a discussion of ways to conceptualize 識 shiki, 刹那滅 setsuna metsu and 種子 shuuji. I have found that our professor becomes very animated when asked to explain doctrinal differences, and matters of comparitive interpretation between "sects" (I have to find a better reference book for this), and the more engaged he is the better the seminar is in my opinion. In the end it went ok, and I found out that I prepared almost twice as large a section as that for which I was actually responsible, and so I am mostly prepared for next week's seminar as well. I only need to go back over the portion that we didn't get to today at the beginning of next class (probably only should take 15 minutes, but I feel like I should do a little extra, since my section was a bit small and we average about 2.5 sessions per presentation), and spend maybe 5 hours or so building on what I have prepared so far to keep myself a little ahead of the game.

So I am home now and have to set my sights on cleaning my ratty apartment. Three days of heavy library time has allowed things to go south here a little bit. After I do the kitchen I'll have to put a few more hours on the books, though, but if I do it today that's a little more free time for the w/e. I'm going to listen to NPR, catch on some blogs, and post anything interesting, but I gotta be off by 4:30 to stay on schedule.

We'll see...

NPR Coverage about the Supreme Court Hearing Drug-Sniffing Dog Case

Can Large-Scale Windmill Use Affect the Global Climate?
A post from a while back about a really cool consumer wind turbine

NPR story on FCC Vonage VoIP Ruling
FCC Website
Vonage Website

Reply to Tod

I received an interesting comment to the NRDC post a few days ago from my friend Tod. His comments are appreciated and his main points well taken. It is imperative that we look critically at any and all information that we receive (esp. by electronic means).

While at work I managed to (in between editing) look up a few things and read the energy bill more carefully. So, a few comments before I head home.

I am not sure what you (Tod) mean by the bill being cosponsored by so many folks. According to a search I did here it is sponsored by Pete Domenici and had no cosponsors. Domenici is one of the leading beneficiaries of campaign contributions from energy interests, which makes sense once you realize that he is the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Link to Domenici's campaign contribution info

And I cannot say that I agree fully with the NRDC's characterization of the contents of the bill. However, ome of the gems that I found are:

Sec. 202 Renewable Energy Production Incentive
The amendment adds “landfill gas” to the list of renewable energy sources that qualify for an (cash) incentive. Municipal Solid Waste, also makes the list of renewable energy sources.

Sec. 332 Natural Gas Market Reform
(a)
(1) The phraseology “false or misleading or knowingly inaccurate reports” changed to “knowingly false or knowingly misleading or knowingly inaccurate reports”. This seems to me a loophole to allow large natural gas companies a chance at plausible deniability when it comes to malfeasance. Now it will be ok for false or misleading reports to be submitted as long as they cannot be proven to have been knowingly so.

As for how they chose to apportion the money, what they have subsumed in the summary (that Tod provided) under energy efficient products [sic], the lion's share of that $12+ billion (@$11.4 billion) goes to Low Income Housing assistance and Weatherization assistance. While I would consider those both good causes, I would hesitate to call them "products." Also, though many of the cost increases here are likely due to the rising cost of petroleum, I'm sure a bit of the increase is due to the number of people who newly qualify for this subsidy due to having lost (or changed) jobs in recent years.

Another point that Tod brings up is the $5 billion that goes to ethanol. The site that you cite (tee hee) has a number of commentaries about the need to get rid of ethanol subsidies because they benefit primarily large companies like ADM, and because the benefits of ethanol as an additive (as opposed to MTBE for example) are questionable.

In addition there are a few points in the bill where the government basically guarantees petroleum speculation on government land to lessen the risk that the speculators must incur. Also, there is money to explore the impact of increasing fuel efficiency of automobiles, the introduction of fuel-cell vehicles, and some other (i forget now) auto-related potential energy conservation method. Exploration? I don't think that it requires an advanced degree in geology to determine that increasing the gas mileage of our vehicles (all other things being equal) would conserve energy as compared with the rate that we consume now. This is just so that the current legislature can say that they are addressing the issue, and do so without getting on the wrong side of the petroleum producers, or the auto industry (bigger vehicles=higher profit margin/ unit), or those who feel that conspicuous consumption is somehow admirable.

As for calling something a "stealth bill", I agree that that is rhetoric used precisely to enrage the reader and provoke an emotional response. What I will say is that most people (for whatever reason) do not take the time to read the bills that the legislature takes up. I think that if more of us did, then there would be a lot less pork flowing out of the beltway. But I know that I don't have time to read even about the issue areas that I care most deeply about (education, the environment), and I have DSL and no kids.

Anyway, I hoped to make this a very well-reasoned and structurally sound essay, but I didn't. Just made some comments and attached some links to sites that may help us all to get to the bottom of what's going on with our elected (and appointed) representatives.

Thanks for the comment.

It's Friday and I'm going home.

Scotty Would be Proud

The Scottish company Renewable Devices Limited, has developed a small wind turbine (about the size of a satellite dish), that can be mounted on urban (or suburban, or rural) rooftops. The "Swift Wind Turbine" is said to produce approximately 4200 kWh of energy per year (roughly 35% of the amount used by the average single family unit in the US).

If you allow for the fact that most people in the US either have (approx. 57% in 2001) or use (laundromats) electric clothes dryers, simple hanging of clothes could reduce the average kWh consumption from 11,965 to approximately 11,000. A few other energy saving measures (for example not using microwave ovens, or...um... downloading video constantly) could move most single family homes very close to the range of reasonable off-the-grid levels of electrical usage.

link

Present in only 14 percent of households nationwide in 1980, microwave ovens were found in 86 percent of U.S. households by 2001. In the New England Division, the share was 7 percent in 1980 and 73 percent in 2001.

While I have little faith that the Democrats in the US, if elected, will do much more than the Republicans have to encourage energy/resource conservation, I believe that on a personal level everyone can make a difference. I think that more responsible living does not lead inexorably to a monkish existence, but that things such as driving small (relatively) energy efficient vehicles, bringing your own bags to the grocery store and such would do wonders toward stemming the tide of environmental degradation, if those were behaviors that were to catch on to any degree. As I hope to one day be a home owner and many of my friends have in recent years moved into those ranks, I feel it behooves me to educate myself into some of the green alternatives out there such as the wind turbine. I hope one day to have the financial freedom to build or retrofit a house that takes advantage of renewable energy generation, techinques such as passive solar, and low energy technologies like heat pumps (exchangers). So, I have decided to follow some renewable energy/sustainable living issues a bit more closely and as such I believe that that will be reflected here. I will endeavor to clearly mark these posts so that those of you uninterested can avoid them with little difficulty.

BBC article on Wind Turbine Installation in School