Sunday, at least in my part of the country, was a gloomy day of bitter cold, rain, and gray skies. As a result, I stayed indoors and read a fair share of blogs. Here are a few gems I uncovered:
- The Japanese space agency, in partnership with Mitsubishi, launched a ridiculously cool satellite. This is an amazing step forward in terms of connectivity, and I’m excited to see how this seemingly cheap (given the scale?) project pans out:
“[The satelite] will bring high-speed internet access to Japan and neighboring countries. The $342 million project [...] is expected to culminate in a terrestrially accessible internet connection reaching speeds of 1.2Gbps, dwarfing current [DSL] connections that typically allow data transfer to occur at [or] below 8 Mbps.”
- In about three months, domestic airlines will use 100% electronic tickets. That doesn’t mean a complete end to paper during the course of your travels, but it does complete the seemingly obvious transition to computer-based records in place of paper tickets. Oh, by the way: it will save the airlines over $3 billion a year.
- A Spanish firm will soon begin construction on the largest solar power plant in the world near Phoenix, Arizona. Initial estimates price the power (enough to serve 70,000 homes) at 20 cents per kWh, or twice the price of coal-fired plants. But, as the article points out, that cost disadvantage could disappear if the US moved toward a cap-and-trade or carbon tax system.
- Recent major events in my life (ahem#getting engaged#ahem), made me think about this piece dissecting colleges and universities’ outdated means of connecting with young alumni for contributions:
[Alumni magazines are increasingly irrelevant to recent grads]. “Why wait four months for ‘class notes’ when you could simply check Facebook to see what a friend is up to?” Further, while many colleges have online giving programs, many also still communicate with alumni as if writing a check is the normal way to give. “It likely shocks most development officers as to the percentage of young alumni who don’t write checks, or own stamps.”
- I watched an embarrassing number of episodes of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel today. They ran an all day marathon, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. You see, I used to look down my nose at Dirty Jobs as sort of a one-trick-pony: “I get it…he gets dirty doing disgusting things.” But the combination of host Mike Rowe’s quick wit and this Fast Company profile describing his motivations for the show and evolving view of work turned me into a fan. The profile is a great read.
That should get your week started. Hope it’s a good one.
I spent the beginning of last week at a great conference on North Carolina’s Energy Future. While in future posts I want to offer specific reflections based on individual speakers, let me first quickly highlight a few clean tech and energy policy ideas from various sources that I found particularly compelling:
- “Feebates” — the idea is simple: tax owners of high-emissions/low-mileage vehicles and transfer money from those fees (in the form of a tax rebate) to owners of low-emissions/high-mileage vehicles. An easy, straightforward incentive that pays for itself.
- Composite Cars –many Americans have a tremendously dangerous misconception that heavier cars are safer. In reality, heavier cars yield deadlier accidents. An alternative to bulky steel frames are carbon composite shells that can be manufactured 10-100 times stronger than steel. The great part? They weigh just a fraction of a similar sized steel frame. This is crucially important considering the energy wasted by conventional (heavy) cars, SUVs, and trucks. As a Rocky Mountain Institute Report points out:
“The contemporary automobile, after a century of engineering, is embarrassingly inefficient: Of the energy in the fuel it consumes, at least 80 percent is lost, mainly in the engine’s heat and exhaust, so that at most only 20 percent is actually used to turn the wheels. Of the resulting [20%] force, 95 percent moves the car, while only 5 percent moves the driver, in proportion to their respective weights.”
- Smart Power Grids –power distribution systems with at least three key features: (1) a two-way flow of electricity, allowing micro-level power generation systems (solar panels on houses, to use an obvious example) to feed excess energy back into the grid; (2) energy storage capacity that’s dispersed over a given area to optimize power flow (minimize the distance electricity travels) and (3) a decentralized power-generation system that makes micro power plants like wind turbines and solar cells more cost effective by drawing all energy produced by those sources into a common pool and sharing the power-generating burden across a variety of sources. I’ll be the first to admit that I have a lot to learn about Smart Grids, but these types of major infrastructure overhauls will eventually be necessary as we transition to new energy technologies. I’ve heard of at least one company working on this technology, though I know there are many more.
Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user EdTarwinski.
Apparently, some of you folks don’t have to go to work today. Aren’t you special. Since I’m clearly bitter for not having the day off, let’s cut the commentary and get straight to the links:
- From the “Things That Make You Go Huh” file, something seemingly obvious that never occurred to me: endless storage on gmail–>rarely deleting email messages–>lots of servers using tons of energy–>negative environmental impact due to archived musings from friends and frantic “OMG!@!11 NEW STAR TREK MOVIE TRAILER” messages from Jarred.
- Speaking of email, here’s a (currently) free service that allows users to track whether email recipients click-through on links in their messages. Kind of creepy if you ask me, though anyone who receives political campaign or corporate email (frequent flier promotions, etc) should know that they’re already tracked in this way.
- For anyone interested in philanthropy and social ventures, Tactical Philanthropy highlights a goldmine of free articles from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Stanford usually publishes their articles behind a pay-wall, but for a limited time they’re allowing free access to 2007’s most popular articles, including (my personal favorite) “A New Era for Business.”
- An interesting Washington Post article on guerrilla activism–environmental activists inserted leaflets in Kleenex boxes accusing the tissue maker of “wiping away ancient forests.” Is this really a trend?
“The leaflets may be part of a trend known as “shopdropping,” in which people leave items at a store, the reverse of shoplifting. Items left on store shelves have included the business cards of personal trainers tucked into weight-loss books and CDs of unsigned musicians.”
- Anyone looking at the Democratic primary deadlock and wondering about the original purpose behind Super Delegates should check out this Op-Ed by the estimable Mann and Ornstein. The authors are insightful as always, but I still view a nomination decided by Super Delegates to be a worst-case scenario in terms of future voter engagement and turnout in the general election.
- Finally, in honor of Presidents Day, take a few pointers from George Washington’s “Rules of Civility.”
Enjoy your day off………
Since I’ve already gushed with geeky joy over gadget blogs, I feel safe bringing this (extremely useful) gizmo to your attention:
The Eco-eye is a straightforward concept: a real time accounting of energy use in your home and the corresponding carbon emission. It also displays the cost of your energy use on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
Little tools like this encourage a healthy level of guilt in our consumption of energy–inspiring us though our competitive nature to turn off the lights when we leave the room and unplug “vampire appliances” that draw energy when idle. Something like this exists in most hybrid cars: a green “ECO” lights up on the dash when the car reaches peak efficiency, and a real-time display shows the driver what mileage he or she is achieving over the course of a trip. While it’s sort of silly, these types of incentives work. Sure, we’re saving money by identifying wasteful drains on our home energy or maximizing gas mileage…but it’s also uniquely satisfying to feel like you’re driving as efficiently as possible or powering your home in a sensible way.
Welcome to February, and another week here at Tropophilia. Be sure to check out new posts (including a great guest post by Bruce) from the weekend; here are your morning links:
- Fast Company gives us The Top 10 Websites You Never Heard Of. My personal favorite? Newsmap, “an amazing graphical representation of the constantly-changing headlines on Google News.”
- Following up on last week’s link about green jobs, Sustainablog describes various “green employment benefits” eco-conscious companies are offering to employees both to lure new employees and to reflect their sustainability values throughout their corporate operations. Some examples include public transportation commuting subsidies, natural light buildings, local/organic food in company cafeterias, and company outings to national parks. Where do I sign up?
- If you’ve read Tropophilia for a while, you know that I’m all aflutter about algae as fuelstock. Well, treehugger highlights exciting news of an agreement between Chevron and Solazyme (an alternative energy start-up) to ramp up testing of the green goo. What makes this particularly exciting are the particulars of Solazyme’s process (emphasis mine):
“Algae usually rely on photosynthesis for energy to consume CO2 and produce oils. Biodiesel can be harvested from the algae, which can be composed of up to 50% oily matter. But getting sunlight to the algae in industrial-scale processes is difficult. So how does Solazyme solve the problem? By growing a special strain of algae in the dark.”
- Via lifehacker comes 10 Tips to Retain More of What You Read Online. Tip #11: comment on Tropophilia posts to continue the conversation.
- Following up on my post a few weeks ago about Kiva.org: Sean at Tactical Philanthropy explores the challenges Kiva faces with an overwhelming supply of willing donors and a limited supply of projects. He makes a number of excellent suggestions, including some creative solutions the site could use to ensure willing donors are able to direct their funds to good causes–even if not through Kiva itself.
- And finally, in celebration of everyone’s favorite resource, Mental Floss points out 4 Great Wikipedia Variations. Try using Wookiepedia (exactly what it sounds like….arrrrrrrrgggggggggg) on your next assignment.
That’s all for now. I’ll be traveling for work until next week, but I have faith my co-conspirators contributors will keep the wheels churning with new material. Have a great week!
