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December 2004

Desperado Days - what drives the environment's adversarys

December 26, 2004

This essay was interesting, if we don't understand the adversary's motivations it is hard to predict their actions.

Alternative Press Review: Desperado Days

Occasionally, we need to step back from the facile criticism of the Bush Administration and think deeper about why it does what it does. It is fun to merely label it insane and delusional and idiotic, for Mr. Bush, in particular, deserves most of those labels.

However, many of us believe that Mr. Bush is just the figurehead for a larger Design and Policy, and he, himself, has acknowledged as much. The “others” responsible for the administration's actions could, too, be idiotic and delusional, but they may not be insane.

We must acknowledge that it is very dangerous not to understand what drives our adversary.

Apart from pure avarice and ego, the actions of the Bush Administration have the appearance of incredible desperateness. It is that desperateness – their desperado-like, passionate, furious recklessness – which must cause us to ask, does the Bush Administration know something that we do not know? What do they know that makes them act like desperadoes?

Perhaps the better question is, do we know anything that the Bush Administration does not know?

Separating, for the moment, “knowledge” from the will or reason to act on that knowledge, we must assume that everything that is known to those of us outside the corridors of power is equally known to them inside the corridors of power. Logically, we should also assume (based on their access to money, sources and data that we cannot ever have) that those who walk the corridors of power have available to them more information than we can ever hope to have.

If, as Shakespeare wrote, the world is a stage, then we sit in a darkened theater watching a dimly lit performance where, at best, we see the silhouettes of the actors brushing against the curtain. Those in the Administration, however, act on the other side of the curtain. They can clearly see the unfolding drama that we can only guess at.

So what do we know about our world and the Administration's way of dealing with it?

...

Posted by at 6:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Harvard Gazette: Academic turns city into a social experiment

December 24, 2004

I enjoyed this piece about an innovative mayor of a troubled city.

Harvard Gazette: Academic turns city into a social experiment: "Mockus, who had no political experience, ran for mayor of Bogotá; he was successful mainly because people in Colombia's capital city saw him as an honest guy. With an educator's inventiveness, Mockus turned Bogotá into a social experiment just as the city was choked with violence, lawless traffic, corruption, and gangs of street children who mugged and stole. It was a city perceived by some to be on the verge of chaos."

Posted by at 9:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Electric Bikes and power rules

December 22, 2004

I have been participating in a discussion on Greenleap about Electric Bikes, and the necessity to change restrictive legislation in Australia that currently limits them to 200w.

The posts are excerpted here, with full posts available below.

Alan Parker:

Power assisted bicycles (petrol and electric battery powered) are
available on in Japan the EU, the USA and Canada. Unfortunately, the
safest electric bicycles cannot be purchased in Australia because of
road rules that result in restriction of free trade by preventing
Australians from buying the safest electric power assisted bicycles
(Parker 2004 A). Even so there is scope for using power assisted
bicycles to substitute for many short single occupant car trips of less
than 10 km and they would use between one twentieth and one sixtieth of
the fuel used by cars per km. In 2004 the combined production of
electric power assisted bicycles in China, Japan and Taiwan is expected
to reach four million and many of these will be sold in Japan the EU,
the USA and Canada. Power assisted bicycles both have great potential
as access modes to public transport in low density areas of Australia's
capital cities

...

However, it will be necessary to change
the existing legislation for electric bicycles by lifting
maximum power output from 200 to 250 watts for able bodied
people and for electric bicycles with a power output of 500
watts to be available to the elderly, the lame and those
who are partially disabled with arthritis.

Mitra:

Alan's advocacy of electric bikes as a highly appropriate transport mechanism, especially in cities, is excellent. His comment is also important that the newer bikes have progressed a long way from the initial entries in this field, and the better ones allow motor and pedals to both provide energy, unlike some of the "toy" bikes, that are electric only, and have less range and less speed than even a moderately fit human-powered bike.

However I would like to suggest that he doesn't go far enough in his suggestions. Even 250 watts is pretty anaemic for a transportation device, especially if their are hills involved, and the range needs to be higher to enable people to get to AND back from their destination. ....

Alan Parker:

I agree with Mitra that in the hilly suburbs of Sydney and Brisbane 250 watts in not much of a boost for electric power assisted bicycles ( E-PABs) although it is adequate in the flat areas of cities if you are able bodied. In my email I did not want advocate the 750 watt new US regulation because of the known opposition by the road Authorities in Australia and stuff up made in the drafting of Australian road rules a few years ago. So I settled on the 250 watts which is now law in within the EU and Japan. The other problem with 750 watts without a performance and safety based standard it would allow Segways to mow down pedestrians at 20 km per hour on shared footways. I know some freeway freaks who want to legalize Segways in Australia.

Full posts are here ....

Continue reading "Electric Bikes and power rules"

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Flexible Solar Panels

December 22, 2004

New Scientist reported on 18th Dec 2004

Pliable solar cells are on a roll

Imagine wearing a jacket or rucksack that charges up your mobile phone while you take a walk. Or a tent whose flysheet charges batteries all day so campers can have light all night. Or a roll-out plastic sheet you can place on a car's rear window shelf to power a child's DVD player.

Such applications could soon become a reality thanks to a light, flexible solar panel that is a little thicker than photographic film and can easily be applied to everyday fabrics. The thin, bendy solar panels, which could be on the market within three years, are the fruit of a three-nation European Union research project called H-Alpha Solar (H-AS). (more)

More discussion of progress in this area happened on the Greenbuilding list, and I've excerpted it ....

Continue reading "Flexible Solar Panels"

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A Return to the Age of Sail?

December 22, 2004

From: WorldChanging: A Return to the Age of Sail?: December 08, 2004

Wind power is not a new concept. Windmills have been around for centuries, and wind-powered sailboats have been around for even longer -- since 3200 bce, or even earlier. The advent of engine-powered shipping relegated wind-powered boats to hobbyists, tourists and adventurers. But if the German company SkySails is right, we may soon see a return to shipping powered by the wind.

The notion is straightforward: a large parasail-type kite on a tow cable can add significant power to a standard diesel engine ship when lofted to 500 meters or so in the air. How much power? SkySails claims that a cargo ship can increase speed for a given fuel consumption by at least 10%, and often more; conversely, a sail-enabled ship can run at its standard speed but cut fuel consumption by as much as one-half. technology is more efficient at capturing wind power than standard sails, takes up less shipboard space, and supposedly does not require additional crew. Navigational software linked to real-time weather data routes for optimal wind speed and travel time. The design has won a number of German innovation awards, but has not yet been field-tested in its full configuration (at least as far as I can tell); SkySails proposes that the design would work not just for commercial vessels, but for ships of all types.

If SkySails works, the benefits are more than reduced fuel cost or shipping time. The SkySails site claims that "the toxic emission volume of the world trade fleet equals that of the United States." A system (such as SkySails) which can cut fuel consumption and reduce travel time would in turn reduce those emissions.

While there is something superficially absurd about massive cargo ships being pulled along by kites, upon reflection the notion makes sense. It's a novel form of "hybrid" power, taking advantage of strengths of diverse propulsion systems: the consistency of diesel engines and the free availability and startling strength of wind power. While SkySails still needs to demonstrate that their system works as claimed, we will undoubtedly see more of these "situational hybrid" power generation systems in years to come."

Posted by at 4:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Election fraud - sum up.

December 5, 2004

The debate over the US's stolen election goes on, rather than keep posting about it, on a Blog that is basically about a different topic - i.e. Sustainability and Sustainable Businesses, I suggest that if you are interested in this topic you check any of the sites listed below.

From my own perspective, having been in the US at that time, the election was clearly fixed, while no single event tipped the scale, the combination of factors such as lines up to 10 hours long to vote (in democratic neighborhoods of course), machine counting irregularities and many others were enough to tip Bush over the line. But anyway we'll never know for sure, because as Jimmy Carter said

"some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida." Most significant, he said, were requirements that a nonpartisan electoral commission or official organize and conduct the electoral process and that voting procedures be uniform for all citizens.
(Source AP NewsWire)

Of course, even in a fair election, it would still be influenced by the over US$4bn of bribes campaign contributions that were made, that's around US$35 per vote cast. That dwarfs the corruption in any other country.

And even if the election wasn't bought, the choice was between two multi-millionaires who both supported the war on Iraq and the Patriot Act (the police state legislation), in a system which effectively rules out any third party.

Some sites that are continuing to document the process of questionning the election include:

I've also pulled all my old material and links into the Extended version of this article to avoid it cluttering up my Blog.

Continue reading "Election fraud - sum up."

Posted by at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Red Terra's show on BayFM

December 3, 2004

These are some of the items I plan to talk about on Red Terra's show today. I might not get around to all of them, or might add a few, so check back in a few hours for an update. Or email me if I mentioned something not listed here (or call on 02-6684-8096). I know most of the people here and can probably help make connections for people locally (Byron Shire).

Papyrus: Paper from Banana trees, using no chemicals or water

Highlights of the Bioneers Conference:

Social Venture Network - a network of business people who care about the environment and society, or email me about local contacts. Highlights:

Green Festival - 50'000 people at a trade fare. Highlights:

  • Green Glass - turning wine bottles into glasses - I'm working on this one and looking for a partner with experience running a small factory.
  • Jade Planet - Recycled Shoes and Treetap bags

Posted by at 9:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)