Wireless power has been on the news ever since Tesla, but recently Intel hit a breakthrough. Intel claims advances in lighting wireless power in their developer forum - wirelessly powered 60-watt bulb
NYTimes gives background on Intel's improvement to the 'wireless resonant energy link' technology pioneered at MIT, where researchers achieved 50% efficiency of power transmitted several meters via magnetic fields. Intel reached 75% efficiency. Now they just have to make those coils a lot smaller.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
What makes up the price of Gasoline?
Consider the game of chicken that plays out every day across Pennsylvania Highway 441. In Marietta, where the road hugs the Susquehanna River, a Rutter's Farm Store gas station stands on one side, a Sheetz gas station on the other.
Kelly Bosley, who manages Rutter's, doesn't even have to look across the highway to know when Sheetz changes its price for a gallon of gas. When Sheetz raises prices, her own pumps are busy. When Sheetz lowers prices, she has not a car in sight.
She calls Rutter's headquarters to report the competition's new price and wait for instructions.
"I call a lot of times and say, 'They went down, hurry up! Hurry up! Call me! Call me!' Or it could be where theirs goes up, and I'll say, 'Take your time! You know, I like being busy.' But I have no control over that."
You think you feel helpless at the pump?
Bosley makes a living selling gas -- and even she has little control over what it costs.
So how exactly are gas prices set? What determines the hair-pulling figure you see displayed in large electronic or plastic numbers? Why is a gallon of gas, say, $4.11 -- not $4.10 or $4.12? Why is the price different across the street?
It all starts with oil.
The biggest factor in the skyrocketing price of gasoline is the historic ascent of crude oil, which has surged from $45 per barrel in 2004 to more than $135 last week, setting new record highs all the while.
In the first quarter of this year, based on a retail price of gas that now seems like a steal -- $3.11 a gallon -- crude oil accounted for all but about a dollar, or 70 percent, of the cost, according to the federal government.
The rest is a complex mix of factors, from the cost of turning oil into gas to taxes to marketing costs to, sometimes, nothing more than the competitive whims of gas station owners.
Not that understanding the breakdown makes it any less cringe-inducing to fill 'er up.
Step by step
First a primer on how gas gets to your tank:
Once oil is pumped from the ground, it can be sold on the spot market, a last-minute trading arena where oil companies and distributors buy and sell to each other, or straight to refiners. After it's brewed into gasoline, the product can again be sold on the spot market, or directly to wholesalers, who in turn can supply their own stations or sell it to other retailers.
Each step of the way, buyers and sellers negotiate a price.
At the starting point of all this is the price of oil -- which, like the oil itself, is nothing if not crude.
The knee-jerk villains are the oil companies, fat with multibillion-dollar profits, frequent targets of populist anger. But wait: The oil companies don't set the price of oil or the cost of gas.
Prices are a function of the open market, the result of futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and other exchanges around the world.
Buying the current July crude oil futures contract means you're buying oil that will be delivered by the end of July. But most investors who trade futures have no intention of ever accepting the underlying oil: Like stock investors who frequently buy and sell their holdings, they're simply betting prices will rise or fall.
Lately, oil futures have been rising.
Why? Blame the falling dollar. Oil is priced in U.S. dollars, and the weaker the dollar gets, the more attractive dollar-denominated oil contracts are to foreign investors.
The rush of buyers keeps pushing oil futures to a series of new records, and the rest of the energy complex, including gasoline futures, has followed. That pushes up the price of gas that goes into your tank.
"Crude is the driver," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "As long as it stays up there, gasoline's not going to be able to decline much at all, even if demand slips. That's just the way it is."
There is some evidence Americans are buying less gas as the price marches higher, and common sense suggests they would cut back even more if gas rose to $4.50 or $5 a gallon.
Lower demand should mean lower prices -- but it takes time for that to happen, given the enormous scale of refining operations that produce gasoline.
"Once demand begins to slow, that needs to translate into inventories, then you get some price weakening," Ritterbusch said. "But it takes a while."
Oil and gasoline prices often move in the same direction, but they aren't linked directly. In fact, while oil prices have more than doubled in the past year, gasoline is only up about 19 percent during the same time.
Oil prices often fluctuate with production decisions from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude, or when conflict in the Middle East or Nigeria threatens supplies.
As for gasoline prices: They're closely tied to demand from U.S. drivers and how efficiently refineries are operating. Falling production or inventories often send prices skyrocketing.
Those prices can vary greatly depending on the region.
The Gulf Coast is the source of about half the gasoline produced in the United States, and areas farthest from there tend to have higher prices because of the cost of shipping gas via pipeline and tanker truck all over the country.
Beyond oil
It's not only about the price of oil. Other costs are a factor -- though they've remained relatively stable.
For example, federal and state taxes added 40 cents to a gallon of gas in the first three months of this year, roughly the same amount as they added four years ago.
California's 63.9 cents of tax is the nation's highest, Alaska's 26.4 cents the lowest. (Iowa's is 40.1 cents; Illinois, 57.9; and Missouri, 36.0 cents per gallon.) How the money is used varies from state to state, though the federal take helps to build and maintain highways and bridges.
Marketing and distribution costs -- the tab for delivering gasoline from refiner to retailer -- were 27 cents to start the year, only 6 cents above the cost four years ago.
The cost of refining added 27 cents to a gallon in the first quarter of this year, a nickel less than what it added in 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration.
That refining occurs at sprawling industrial complexes across the United States, with most of the biggest along the Gulf Coast. Barrels of crude arrive each day by pipeline, ship and barge. The refineries, by heating, treating and blending the raw oil, turn out products like diesel and lubricating oil.
And, of course, gasoline.
Maintaining a balance
What happens when that gasoline makes its way to your neighborhood gas station?
Major oil companies own fewer than 5 percent of gas stations. Most are owned by small retailers -- and many of them say they're struggling these days to turn a profit on gas. That's because wholesale gasoline prices have risen sharply in recent months -- again, blame it on crude -- but station owners have been unable to raise pump prices fast enough to keep pace.
And you can't keep jacking up the price when drivers are buying less.
Gas station owners face a balancing act: They must try to maintain a price that allows them to afford the next shipment of gasoline but not give the competition an edge.
Stations pay tens of thousands of dollars for each gas shipment before they see a cent in the register. Eventually, many make only a few cents on a gallon of gasoline, a margin that can disappear altogether when credit card fees are added in.
Thank goodness for beef jerky and sodas.
Most gasoline retailers long ago got past any illusion they can make money selling gas. They rely on gas sales to drive traffic to their shops, where they hope auto repairs or food and drink sales will help them turn a profit.
"You're always out there competing with the guy next door -- literally with the guy across the street -- and worried too about how you're going to pay for your next supply," said Rayola Dougher, a senior economic adviser at the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's trade association.
In the Philadelphia suburb of Havertown, Pa., earlier in the week, Sunoco station operator Steve Kehler received a load of gasoline -- 9,000 gallons -- which, at a wholesale price of $3.729 a gallon, cost him 4 cents more than the previous load.
That left him in a sticky situation: Should he raise prices right away to recoup some of his higher gasoline expenses, or should he hold off for a couple of days in hopes his competitors also will have to raise their prices?
"I'm surrounded by $3.89's, and I'm already at $3.91," said Kehler, referring to his prices and those of some nearby competitors. "I'm going to play a little waiting game right now."
The $33,600 Kehler must pay for his overnight gasoline delivery won't be debited from his bank account for a few days. That gives him a little breathing room, time to hold prices steady. Hiking prices too quickly will hurt sales.
"I'll probably change it tomorrow night, at closing," Kehler said. "I'll go up 4 cents."
That will put Kehler at a gross margin of about 20 cents a gallon. After paying credit card fees, labor and rent, Kehler will be lucky to break even on his gasoline sales.
Of course, the plight of retailers is little consolation for drivers.
Mayra Perez said she works two jobs to help support her family, and gasoline is becoming harder to afford.
She was filling the tank of her car in Miami last week to the tune of $3.89 per gallon.
"This is horrible," she said. "On the weekend, my husband and I use only one car to save on gas.
"But then there's the cost of food, milk, eggs, the rent."
As William K. Whiteford quotes “Smell that! That's gasoline you smell in there. You can't buy any perfume in the world that smells as sweet.”
...Anand Varadaraja
Source: By JOHN PORRETTO and JOHN WILEN - The Associated Press
Kelly Bosley, who manages Rutter's, doesn't even have to look across the highway to know when Sheetz changes its price for a gallon of gas. When Sheetz raises prices, her own pumps are busy. When Sheetz lowers prices, she has not a car in sight.
She calls Rutter's headquarters to report the competition's new price and wait for instructions.
"I call a lot of times and say, 'They went down, hurry up! Hurry up! Call me! Call me!' Or it could be where theirs goes up, and I'll say, 'Take your time! You know, I like being busy.' But I have no control over that."
You think you feel helpless at the pump?
Bosley makes a living selling gas -- and even she has little control over what it costs.
So how exactly are gas prices set? What determines the hair-pulling figure you see displayed in large electronic or plastic numbers? Why is a gallon of gas, say, $4.11 -- not $4.10 or $4.12? Why is the price different across the street?
It all starts with oil.
The biggest factor in the skyrocketing price of gasoline is the historic ascent of crude oil, which has surged from $45 per barrel in 2004 to more than $135 last week, setting new record highs all the while.In the first quarter of this year, based on a retail price of gas that now seems like a steal -- $3.11 a gallon -- crude oil accounted for all but about a dollar, or 70 percent, of the cost, according to the federal government.
The rest is a complex mix of factors, from the cost of turning oil into gas to taxes to marketing costs to, sometimes, nothing more than the competitive whims of gas station owners.
Not that understanding the breakdown makes it any less cringe-inducing to fill 'er up.
Step by step
First a primer on how gas gets to your tank:
Once oil is pumped from the ground, it can be sold on the spot market, a last-minute trading arena where oil companies and distributors buy and sell to each other, or straight to refiners. After it's brewed into gasoline, the product can again be sold on the spot market, or directly to wholesalers, who in turn can supply their own stations or sell it to other retailers.
Each step of the way, buyers and sellers negotiate a price.
At the starting point of all this is the price of oil -- which, like the oil itself, is nothing if not crude.
The knee-jerk villains are the oil companies, fat with multibillion-dollar profits, frequent targets of populist anger. But wait: The oil companies don't set the price of oil or the cost of gas.
Prices are a function of the open market, the result of futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange and other exchanges around the world.
Buying the current July crude oil futures contract means you're buying oil that will be delivered by the end of July. But most investors who trade futures have no intention of ever accepting the underlying oil: Like stock investors who frequently buy and sell their holdings, they're simply betting prices will rise or fall.
Lately, oil futures have been rising.
Why? Blame the falling dollar. Oil is priced in U.S. dollars, and the weaker the dollar gets, the more attractive dollar-denominated oil contracts are to foreign investors.
The rush of buyers keeps pushing oil futures to a series of new records, and the rest of the energy complex, including gasoline futures, has followed. That pushes up the price of gas that goes into your tank.
"Crude is the driver," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill. "As long as it stays up there, gasoline's not going to be able to decline much at all, even if demand slips. That's just the way it is."
There is some evidence Americans are buying less gas as the price marches higher, and common sense suggests they would cut back even more if gas rose to $4.50 or $5 a gallon.
Lower demand should mean lower prices -- but it takes time for that to happen, given the enormous scale of refining operations that produce gasoline.
"Once demand begins to slow, that needs to translate into inventories, then you get some price weakening," Ritterbusch said. "But it takes a while."
Oil and gasoline prices often move in the same direction, but they aren't linked directly. In fact, while oil prices have more than doubled in the past year, gasoline is only up about 19 percent during the same time.
Oil prices often fluctuate with production decisions from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude, or when conflict in the Middle East or Nigeria threatens supplies.
As for gasoline prices: They're closely tied to demand from U.S. drivers and how efficiently refineries are operating. Falling production or inventories often send prices skyrocketing.
Those prices can vary greatly depending on the region.
The Gulf Coast is the source of about half the gasoline produced in the United States, and areas farthest from there tend to have higher prices because of the cost of shipping gas via pipeline and tanker truck all over the country.
Beyond oil
It's not only about the price of oil. Other costs are a factor -- though they've remained relatively stable.
For example, federal and state taxes added 40 cents to a gallon of gas in the first three months of this year, roughly the same amount as they added four years ago.
California's 63.9 cents of tax is the nation's highest, Alaska's 26.4 cents the lowest. (Iowa's is 40.1 cents; Illinois, 57.9; and Missouri, 36.0 cents per gallon.) How the money is used varies from state to state, though the federal take helps to build and maintain highways and bridges.
Marketing and distribution costs -- the tab for delivering gasoline from refiner to retailer -- were 27 cents to start the year, only 6 cents above the cost four years ago.
The cost of refining added 27 cents to a gallon in the first quarter of this year, a nickel less than what it added in 2004, according to the Energy Information Administration.
That refining occurs at sprawling industrial complexes across the United States, with most of the biggest along the Gulf Coast. Barrels of crude arrive each day by pipeline, ship and barge. The refineries, by heating, treating and blending the raw oil, turn out products like diesel and lubricating oil.
And, of course, gasoline.
Maintaining a balance
What happens when that gasoline makes its way to your neighborhood gas station?
Major oil companies own fewer than 5 percent of gas stations. Most are owned by small retailers -- and many of them say they're struggling these days to turn a profit on gas. That's because wholesale gasoline prices have risen sharply in recent months -- again, blame it on crude -- but station owners have been unable to raise pump prices fast enough to keep pace.
And you can't keep jacking up the price when drivers are buying less.
Gas station owners face a balancing act: They must try to maintain a price that allows them to afford the next shipment of gasoline but not give the competition an edge.
Stations pay tens of thousands of dollars for each gas shipment before they see a cent in the register. Eventually, many make only a few cents on a gallon of gasoline, a margin that can disappear altogether when credit card fees are added in.
Thank goodness for beef jerky and sodas.
Most gasoline retailers long ago got past any illusion they can make money selling gas. They rely on gas sales to drive traffic to their shops, where they hope auto repairs or food and drink sales will help them turn a profit.
"You're always out there competing with the guy next door -- literally with the guy across the street -- and worried too about how you're going to pay for your next supply," said Rayola Dougher, a senior economic adviser at the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry's trade association.
In the Philadelphia suburb of Havertown, Pa., earlier in the week, Sunoco station operator Steve Kehler received a load of gasoline -- 9,000 gallons -- which, at a wholesale price of $3.729 a gallon, cost him 4 cents more than the previous load.
That left him in a sticky situation: Should he raise prices right away to recoup some of his higher gasoline expenses, or should he hold off for a couple of days in hopes his competitors also will have to raise their prices?
"I'm surrounded by $3.89's, and I'm already at $3.91," said Kehler, referring to his prices and those of some nearby competitors. "I'm going to play a little waiting game right now."
The $33,600 Kehler must pay for his overnight gasoline delivery won't be debited from his bank account for a few days. That gives him a little breathing room, time to hold prices steady. Hiking prices too quickly will hurt sales.
"I'll probably change it tomorrow night, at closing," Kehler said. "I'll go up 4 cents."
That will put Kehler at a gross margin of about 20 cents a gallon. After paying credit card fees, labor and rent, Kehler will be lucky to break even on his gasoline sales.
Of course, the plight of retailers is little consolation for drivers.
Mayra Perez said she works two jobs to help support her family, and gasoline is becoming harder to afford.
She was filling the tank of her car in Miami last week to the tune of $3.89 per gallon.
"This is horrible," she said. "On the weekend, my husband and I use only one car to save on gas.
"But then there's the cost of food, milk, eggs, the rent."
As William K. Whiteford quotes “Smell that! That's gasoline you smell in there. You can't buy any perfume in the world that smells as sweet.”
...Anand Varadaraja
Source: By JOHN PORRETTO and JOHN WILEN - The Associated Press
Sunday, June 22, 2008
General Gyan
More & more stores are encouraged to use bags made of recyclable paper, cutting down on plastic bags. Customers are also encouraged to get their own bag.
- Plastic bags cost about a paisa 50 each, paper costs about a Rs.2 and compostable bags can run as high as Rs.10 each.
- The bags also must be segregated from regular plastic, making recycling efforts more difficult.
Meanwhile:
- Paper bags generate 70 percent more air pollutants and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags, according to the Environmental Agencies.
- This is because four times as much energy is required to produce paper bags and 85 times as much energy is needed to recycle them.
- Paper takes up nine times as much space in landfills and doesn't break down there at a substantially faster rate than plastic does.
Public education campaigns about littering and recycling can help more than ineffective bans on products that are used every day by billions of people worldwide.
...Anand Varadaraja
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Concentrating solar power
Read an interesting article on Concentrated Solar Power & this technology has been overshadowed by photovoltaic solar energy.
A brief on Concentrating solar power
Concentrated sunlight has been used to perform useful tasks since the time of ancient China. A legend claims Archimedes used polished shields to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from Syracuse. In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine, and subsequent developments led to the use of concentrating solar-powered devices for irrigation, refrigeration and locomotion.
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to
focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated light is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exist; the most developed are the solar trough, parabolic dish and solar power tower. These methods vary in the way they track the Sun and focus light. In all these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.
The SEGS plants in California and Acciona's Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada are representatives of this technology.
A parabolic dish system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the reflector's focal point. The reflector tracks the Sun along two axes. Parabolic dish systems give the highest efficiency among CSP technologies. The Big Dish in Canberra, Australia is an example of this technology.
A solar power tower uses an array of tracking reflectors (heliostats) to concentrate light on a central receiver atop a tower. Power towers are less advanced than trough systems but offer higher efficiency and better energy storage capability. The Solar Two in Daggett, California and the Planta Solar 10 in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain are representatives of this technology.
Please click here to read more on this amazing technology
Ralph Nader quotes ~ “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”
...Anand Varadaraja
Source:Wikipedia, Leonardo Energy
A brief on Concentrating solar power
Concentrated sunlight has been used to perform useful tasks since the time of ancient China. A legend claims Archimedes used polished shields to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from Syracuse. In 1866, Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine, and subsequent developments led to the use of concentrating solar-powered devices for irrigation, refrigeration and locomotion.
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to
focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated light is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exist; the most developed are the solar trough, parabolic dish and solar power tower. These methods vary in the way they track the Sun and focus light. In all these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.The SEGS plants in California and Acciona's Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada are representatives of this technology.
A parabolic dish system consists of a stand-alone parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned at the reflector's focal point. The reflector tracks the Sun along two axes. Parabolic dish systems give the highest efficiency among CSP technologies. The Big Dish in Canberra, Australia is an example of this technology.
A solar power tower uses an array of tracking reflectors (heliostats) to concentrate light on a central receiver atop a tower. Power towers are less advanced than trough systems but offer higher efficiency and better energy storage capability. The Solar Two in Daggett, California and the Planta Solar 10 in Sanlucar la Mayor, Spain are representatives of this technology.
Please click here to read more on this amazing technology
Ralph Nader quotes ~ “The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.”
...Anand Varadaraja
Source:Wikipedia, Leonardo Energy
Talentnow - Recruitment with a Eco Touch
Talentnow - A recruitment group is a privately held company and is supported by the Vora Group, a highly successful group with 11 companies and 2100 employees world-wide.
But why are they featured here? :-)
Talentnow has taken a pledge for World Environment Day that they will plant a tree for every resume or job that gets registered with us during the month of Jun 08. Each of these trees they believe would symbolize growth and well-being of all of us.
Lets salute them in this effort.
As an Englinh Proverb says "If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.”
...Anand Varadaraj
But why are they featured here? :-)
Talentnow has taken a pledge for World Environment Day that they will plant a tree for every resume or job that gets registered with us during the month of Jun 08. Each of these trees they believe would symbolize growth and well-being of all of us.Lets salute them in this effort.
As an Englinh Proverb says "If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree.”
...Anand Varadaraj
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
SexInfo - Awareness Messaging Service
Youth, and in particular young African Americans, are at an alarmingly high risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STD). The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 25%, or 3.2 million teenage girls in the U.S. have at least one STD, with the highest prevalence is among African American teen girls, 48% of which have at least one STD.
Where can youth go for accurate health information? With 85 percent of San Francisco's youth owning a cell phone , providing health resources and STD-prevention information via cell phone simply makes sense. Through mobile technology, health care advocates can reach youth with the technology they use most often, and for youth text messaging is confidential and easy.
SexINFO is an innovative text messaging pilot public health program that allows youth to access health information via their wireless device. By providing basic health facts along with contact information for health care clinics, SexINFO aims to decrease rates of STD transmission among at-risk urban youth. By texting "sexinfo" to 61827, youth can interface with a helpful set of answers to key questions about safer sex, HIV, STDs and pregnancy.
Launched in 2006, San Francisco's SexINFO program is the first program of its kind in the U.S. This pilot has the potential to influence the way public health advocates throughout the country connect at-risk youth to health care services.
SexINFO was designed by health educators at I.S.I.S., Inc. with funding from the San Francisco Department of Public Health's (SFDPH) STD Prevention and Control division, and programmed by Hip Cricket.
...Anand Varadaraja
Sources:
Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use (PDF), Sheila Kinkade and Katrin Verclas, UN Foundation–Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Telecommuting - The Sun Micro way
More than half of Sun Microsystems’ employees work from home or in a flexible office, and a study of some of those employees found big savings in vehicle expenses and energy use.
As the quote goes "I am the King at my Home"
....Anand Varadaraja
The company’s Open Work Energy Measurement Project studied more than 100 participants in the company’s flexible work program to see how much energy they used at Sun offices, at their homes and when commuting to and from work. 
Employees saved more than $1,700 a year on gas and vehicle upkeep by working from home an average of 2.5 days a week. They also saved an average of 2.5 weeks of commute time.
Office equipment in Sun offices used twice as much energy as home office equipment, the study found. And commuting accounted for more than 98 percent of the employees’ carbon footprints.
About 19,000 Sun employees are in the flexible work program, accounting for 56 percent of the company’s workforce.
According to a telecommuting survey recently conducted by Dice, a technology career resource website, about 37 percent 1,500 technology professionals said they would be willing to cut their salary by 10 percent or less to telecommute. Thirty-six percent said they wouldn’t take a pay cut, 19 percent said they would take any job, and seven percent already telecommute.
Many companies in India have started Work from Home option. Genpact is implementing this in a big way.As the quote goes "I am the King at my Home"
....Anand Varadaraja
China - Rowing ahead on Wind Power
China plans to triple its wind power capacity over the next two years in line with the central government's goal of promoting clean energy and more sustainable economic development.
Chin
a's total wind power capacity now stands at 6,000 megawatts, but by end 2008 this would have reached 10,000 Mw. And by 2010, the central government will have boosted wind power production to 20,000 Mw, estimates China's Energy Research institute (ERI).
China's rapidly expanding economy -- its average annual GDP growth has been surging at around ten percent over the past five years -- has made it a major energy consumer.
China depends primarily on coal, an abundant and cheap indigenous energy resource. In the next 20 years, as China's economy continues to rise, the Energy Information Administration forecasts that the demand for coal will grow at an annual rate of 3.5 percent. But coal-fired power plants boost carbon emissions that hasten global warming. The World Bank reports that China has 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities, largely due to high coal use.
Global warming and consequent climate change are taken seriously by the Chinese government. Already, the melting of glaciers in Tibet and Xinjiang and increased temperatures in western China threaten to reduce the rain-fed rice yields. China's coastal areas have also suffered from extreme storm surges in the past few years that have been attributed to climate change.
Compared to leading wind energy producers and consumers such as Germany, Spain and the United States, China's installed capacity is still low.
As the proverb quotes “If there is no wind, row.” China is all set to row in wind power.
- Anand Varadaraja
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Gravity Lamp
"A lamp power by gravity has won the second prize at the Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC. From the article, "The light output will be 600-800 lumens — roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours. To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour glass-like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gentle glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp ... Moulton estimates that Gravia's mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year."mmm..Interesting !! But I might just need a little more weight to power my laptop....
Monday, February 11, 2008
"20 rupees extra madam..." ???
HELLO WORLD!!!
My first words in the virtual space....
Yes.. It was the output of our first programs too written in BASIC, PASCAL, C etc etc
etc...
Surprisingly, but not so surprisingly, it seemed quite appropriate here too!!!
OK.. enough PJing... hope this article will be read further ahead too...
Again, late but not soooo late posting... The blog still exists!!! :D
(Repeating:- Better Later Than Never!!! )
I always thought its better we wrote on some matter that we knew about quite a lot, or even better, what we have experienced... so that it comes out not as a movie script... but more as an issue/problem that needs to be thought about and dealt with appropriately n I never felt "qualified" enough as these other guys to comment/write on the serous issues discussed. I finally felt today, I could write on something.... infact I should... whatever be the outcome...
What inspired me to do what I am doing now is what happened today mornin... n whats been happening for quite some time now (sadly)...
I miss my 7:20 AM Volvo.... Not sure if I missed it because I was 2 minutes late... or because the driver wasn't in a mood to wait...
After waiting for more than 45 mins, (BTW, the Volvo Buses are supposed to come every half-hour, 30-earth-minutes...), took an auto till silk-board, in hopes to find another reasonably empty bus. But the buses at Silkboard again were not in a "boardable" state... (By boardable... i dont necessarily mean even sit... a reasonable place to rest both my feet wud be good enough...)
Again, after looking at my watch for 50 times in 2 mins pushed me to another auto guy... asked him if he wud take me to the destination... the response:
AUTO GUY: "OK... 20 rupees extra"
ME: "WHY???"
He just shakes his shoulder and nods head...
I walked off in fury... to another set of auto guys... again, the same response...n the reason they give... are not new to anyone who is reading this I am sure...
"Allinda khali barbeku madam..." which translates to "We must come back empty from there..." (Oh yeah??? May be we should charge extra we we r on bench @ ofc...)
"You are IT people madam..." (What??????)
The next auto guy thankfully took me to the destination without an unpleasant word or expression... inspite of the Marathon Monday Morning Traffic... in the end... I paid him 6 bucks extra... just becoz he returned even the last buck change he
is supposed to...
My friends who aren't from here, kept tellin me about the sad state of autos in B'lore.. but I never really understood them.... until after my recent trip to Mumbai...
Now, I got some thing else to compare them with... :)
There are times when those demanding auto guys are taken to the police... and not much help if offered... infact they are mostly backed by everyone... "Afterall 20 rupees na sir... It is nothing big for you.." (NEVER MIND!!!!)
After that, I realized how much we so-called "IT" people (This term enrages me as much as the term "Bollywood enrages Aamir Khan") are literally harassed...
This, by-the-way has been happenning for quite some time now... before and after the auto price hikes... n ofcourse not only to me..
Infact it has sadly become a common topic of discussion @ cofi and lunch at
office... "How I dealt with the auto guy today..."
There was in-fact even a Citizen Journalist report on CNN-IBN about this issue recently... This made me realize how big of an issue this must be...
It is always believed that you shouldn't act in a state of extreme emotions.... (n for a good reason... I am sure :D )
But there are times... when you have to act at the moment.... So.. here is my act.... a virtual act tho'...
This is an almost everyday issue we face.... and I have some simple questions I ask myself when I face these situations... (m sure all of us do... )
- Can I call it a social issue?
- How can I deal with this problem?
- Are the reasons these guys give (even remotely) reasonable enough???( Trust me...n Call me crazy if you wish... I have stood n argued about this to auto guys
themselves... )
I believe every problem has a solution (Like all of us do...)
And this is a problem... for which I realized, I cannot find the solution alone...
It would be great if people suggested the actions that needed to be taken...
What I am going to do next?
- Ofcourse, eagerly await for suggestions...
- I will too try to look into this Citizen Journalist forum... I even save the web-page as a Favorite site now... :)
- Will try n approach one of the police stations... n try talking to one of them.... Will update this article then....
So long fellas.... :)
My first words in the virtual space....
Yes.. It was the output of our first programs too written in BASIC, PASCAL, C etc etc
etc...
Surprisingly, but not so surprisingly, it seemed quite appropriate here too!!!
OK.. enough PJing... hope this article will be read further ahead too...
Again, late but not soooo late posting... The blog still exists!!! :D
(Repeating:- Better Later Than Never!!! )
I always thought its better we wrote on some matter that we knew about quite a lot, or even better, what we have experienced... so that it comes out not as a movie script... but more as an issue/problem that needs to be thought about and dealt with appropriately n I never felt "qualified" enough as these other guys to comment/write on the serous issues discussed. I finally felt today, I could write on something.... infact I should... whatever be the outcome...
What inspired me to do what I am doing now is what happened today mornin... n whats been happening for quite some time now (sadly)...
I miss my 7:20 AM Volvo.... Not sure if I missed it because I was 2 minutes late... or because the driver wasn't in a mood to wait...
After waiting for more than 45 mins, (BTW, the Volvo Buses are supposed to come every half-hour, 30-earth-minutes...), took an auto till silk-board, in hopes to find another reasonably empty bus. But the buses at Silkboard again were not in a "boardable" state... (By boardable... i dont necessarily mean even sit... a reasonable place to rest both my feet wud be good enough...)
Again, after looking at my watch for 50 times in 2 mins pushed me to another auto guy... asked him if he wud take me to the destination... the response:
AUTO GUY: "OK... 20 rupees extra"
ME: "WHY???"
He just shakes his shoulder and nods head...
I walked off in fury... to another set of auto guys... again, the same response...n the reason they give... are not new to anyone who is reading this I am sure...
"Allinda khali barbeku madam..." which translates to "We must come back empty from there..." (Oh yeah??? May be we should charge extra we we r on bench @ ofc...)
"You are IT people madam..." (What??????)
The next auto guy thankfully took me to the destination without an unpleasant word or expression... inspite of the Marathon Monday Morning Traffic... in the end... I paid him 6 bucks extra... just becoz he returned even the last buck change he
is supposed to...
My friends who aren't from here, kept tellin me about the sad state of autos in B'lore.. but I never really understood them.... until after my recent trip to Mumbai...
Now, I got some thing else to compare them with... :)
There are times when those demanding auto guys are taken to the police... and not much help if offered... infact they are mostly backed by everyone... "Afterall 20 rupees na sir... It is nothing big for you.." (NEVER MIND!!!!)
After that, I realized how much we so-called "IT" people (This term enrages me as much as the term "Bollywood enrages Aamir Khan") are literally harassed...
This, by-the-way has been happenning for quite some time now... before and after the auto price hikes... n ofcourse not only to me..
Infact it has sadly become a common topic of discussion @ cofi and lunch at
office... "How I dealt with the auto guy today..."
There was in-fact even a Citizen Journalist report on CNN-IBN about this issue recently... This made me realize how big of an issue this must be...
It is always believed that you shouldn't act in a state of extreme emotions.... (n for a good reason... I am sure :D )
But there are times... when you have to act at the moment.... So.. here is my act.... a virtual act tho'...
This is an almost everyday issue we face.... and I have some simple questions I ask myself when I face these situations... (m sure all of us do... )
- Can I call it a social issue?
- How can I deal with this problem?
- Are the reasons these guys give (even remotely) reasonable enough???( Trust me...n Call me crazy if you wish... I have stood n argued about this to auto guys
themselves... )
I believe every problem has a solution (Like all of us do...)
And this is a problem... for which I realized, I cannot find the solution alone...
It would be great if people suggested the actions that needed to be taken...
What I am going to do next?
- Ofcourse, eagerly await for suggestions...
- I will too try to look into this Citizen Journalist forum... I even save the web-page as a Favorite site now... :)
- Will try n approach one of the police stations... n try talking to one of them.... Will update this article then....
So long fellas.... :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)