Hodgepodge of thoughts, technical notes, and random observations

NPR had a story this morning about recycling energy.  This is such a better area to be investing some research into over biofuels.  It demonstrates a fundamental understanding of what constitutes waste heat and thermodynamics.  One processes waste can be another’s source.  One of the examples they used, was if I recall 10 years old and it was simply placing a boiler over the ovens that make coal-coke (part of making steel).  This requires very high temps, and the electricity generated by this was 100MW.  To put that in perspective, most wind turbines out there are only 1-3 MW - so this one boiler was like a whole windfarm, and it was using energy that was considered waste product from another process.  Now this isn’t free energy, the original energy input into the coal-coke oven is HUGE, but at least you try to harness as much as possible.  Taking this a step further, you could take the waste steam out from the boiler/turbine system and heat oil which, if there were an infrastructure for it in the surrounding community, could be used to heat every house in the area.  The coal-coke oven is thousands of degrees, the boiler runs at hundreds of degrees, easy enough to get heated oil at 90-100 degrees to then heat housing with.  This is the energy equivalent of an eskimo eating every part of the seal and letting nothing go to waste, instead we are killing the elephant for the tusk.

NPR had a bit this morning on carbon offsets. IMHO these are a pretty poor way to address the problem of carbon output. Most of these credits go towards things like wind and solar power and often claim to help you be “carbon neutral”. These may reduce growth of carbon output, but they don’t actually help remove any of the carbon you spewed in the activity you took part in (and for which you are buying credits). Its mainly a guilt alleviator, and really just serves to enable people to not improve or better their behavior or lifestyle.

Think of it this way, would you support a murder offset credit, that let you kill someone, but then donate money to help starving children somewhere (who otherwise would die). In the end you may be “life neutral”, but you still did bad thing, and you can’t right it by paying someone to make you feel better. Extreme comparison for sure, but I think it is apt.

I’m sure this is going to circulate far and wide in the Mac blogging world, but it is worth giving it one more airing.  I can’t imagine how long this must have taken to get all the timing right:

This one on how the economy woes are tied to what people expect in terms of lifestyle.  And for things to get better, people will have to change their lifestyle - not something most Americans want to do - hence, I think the economic problems will last longer.

A new NPR collaboration between All Things Considered and This American Life sounds promising. Their first program looks at the root origins of the subprime mess. Something I wish I had acted on earlier because I was one of the ones in 2004-5 predicting a train wreck (from the sidelines).

They had a teaser version of the show during the ATC show and the full length show is today.

Really looking forward to a weeklong series starting today on NPR focusing on Debt.  I think along with energy, the issue of the amount of debt we have both as a nation, and as a nation of individuals is going to compound with the future of energy problems.

In the first episode there is an excellent interview with Tim Harford who brings up some very interesting things, including:

• The problem of people saving less is not that we are less virtuous, its that back when people saved more, there was less credit available.
• The brain is hardwired to make irrational decisions in the short term.  He talked of an economics experiment where people were offered a snack: Chocolate or Fruit.  People chose fruit if you told them the snack was for a week from today, or chocolate if it were immediate.  When the experimenter came back and offered that a person could change their mind, they would switch to chocolate.  I think the brain works this same way for many many things, and it gets in the way of “solutions” that depend on people “doing the right thing”.

There was also an interesting pitch to increase savings by letting people commit future raises to their 401K.

Worth checking out.

Lee Iacocca’s book in the 80’s was one of the first books of that genre (contemporary, memoir/commentary).  And while I don’t remember much of it, it remember it made a pretty big impression on me.  Turns out he is still writing and has interesting things to say.

Continue reading →

One of a bunch of cartoons about high gas prices someone sent, but this one had a creative design that needed highlighting;

I’m hearing more and more about people buying plastic cutlery based on corn and or potato starches.

The thinking is “Hey, these are plant based, and biodegrade”.  The problems?:

• It takes an awful lot of petro to grow, process the crops, the manufacture this stuff (maybe as much as just making them from oil directly).
• Most of these are just tossed in the regular trash, where they end up in a landfill, sealed up by more layers on top.  No Oxygen = No biodegredation.  If you are going to toss these, the best place would be with your yard waste if you have that picked up by the city.

There are actually several ratings for these kinds of plastics:

• Degradable
  • Biodegradable
    • Compostable

This is just one small example of how people are quick to think there is a way to get something for nothing in the eco sense.  There is no such thing as “good disposable”.

This morning as oil hit a new all time high, Shell’s chief strategist all but spelled out Peak Oil, albeit somewhat indirectly.

Referring to a ‘plateau of readily accessible conventional liquid oil’ or some other euphemism for: “we’re not going to have enough oil to meet demand”.  Those who know me, know that I’m a pretty staunch believer in the concept and reality of Peak Oil.  Severity and timing can be debated, but no longer is there much wiggle room about its eventuality.