Monthly Archives: July 2009

Silicon Solar’s Portable Solar Power Systems

Silicon Solar has a wider selection of Portable Solar Power Systems than we’d recalled, including some, like the flexible (in fact, rollable) panels pictured below, which are presumably fairly robust. We’re not sure which models/systems can be daisy-chained – one of the principal virtues of the Solar Stik system. We hope to be able to manage, in the near future, a comparison either of the respective specifications – or perhaps even a field test.

Global P3 Flexible Solar Panel - 30 Watt output - weight: 1 lb. from Silicon Solar

Global P3 Flexible Solar Panel - 30 Watt output - weight: 1 lb. from Silicon Solar

The Global P3  – at right – at full capture/output generates 30 watts of energy, sells for a bit over $500 – and weighs, according to Silicon Solar – one pound. For those of you on the Standard Metric system – that slightly less than one kilogram.

We hope that government purchases and other economies of scale push prices down further. However, without having data at hand, we think it safe to say that the weight to yield ratios of solar PV systems has been improving.

Alternative Energy Info: Nanosolar's thin-film cells

Alternative Energy Info reports that the thin-film cells, originally announced in 2008, appear to be in production, and that the Nanosolar has been adding employees. From Alternative Energy Info, based on reporting by Earth2Tech:

Earth2Tech has noted that there hasn’t been much news from the thin film company Nanosolar lately.    I haven’t seen much from them either – they’re one of the companies I try to keep a close watch on.   So Reuters decided to check it out and try to find out what was happening in the Nanosolar world.   What they found is that there is some activity going on behind the scenes – Nanosolar has been hiring, and there’s a number of new job and internships opening with the company.   Nanosolar’s CEO, Martin Roscheisen told Reuters that the company is “purposely keeping quiet and plans to start talking again in September.”    But based on the job openings, it looks like Nanosolar has been busy ramping up production.  Nanosolar said last year they had developed a new tool that would allow them to crank out up to 1 gigawatt of their thin film CIGS  solar cells each year, but since Nanosolar didn’t say how many cells they were actually making, it’s always been hard to tell what they’ve actually been doing.  Perhaps September will see some hard numbers.

Nanosolar: No news is good news at Alternative Energy Info .

Via Blogopolis Blueprint .

A Self-Powered Sentinel | Creative Synthesis Blog | Shae Davidson

of the Creative Synthesis Collaborative posted this on June 2nd:

Massachusetts-based Voltree Power is currently developing a network of sensor nodes that will monitor forest conditions and immediately alert users to wildfires. The system, the Early Wildfire Alert Network (EWAN), resembles other efforts to create decentralized monitoring networks. The network tracks humidity, air temperature, and other factors, sending the data via wireless transceivers to centralized processing centers or sending up red flags when wildfires appear, and has been designed to integrate seamlessly into the Department of the Interior’s Remote Automated Weather Stations system. EWAN’s power source, however, makes the project unique. Rather than relying on battery-operated sensors and transceivers, Voltree is working to perfect a method of harvesting energy from the trees themselves.

EWAN uses the small (usually 50-200 mV) current created by a pH imbalance between the tree and surrounding soil to power the system. The converter that powers each unit is fairly small (”about the size of a pack of gum”) and allows each sensor to operate for the lifetime of its arboreal host.

While Voltree’s pilot project focuses on wildfire monitoring and prevention, the company hopes to find broader uses for this type of self-powered, decentralized monitoring network. Researchers could easily use the system to monitor fragile ecosystems or gauge agricultural conditions, and Voltree has started exploring applications that would incoroprate [sic

] similar monitoring networks into border security.

Creative

Synthesis Blog

On The Media: A King's Farewell

Bob Greenfield points out things which were less important than Michael Jackson’s funeral: wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the roughing-up  of ethnic minorities in the People’s Republic of China, and legislative attempts to address health-care and energy policy. Hats off to Greenfield and his colleagues at WNYC’s On the Media

On The Media: Transcript of “A King’s Farewell ” (July 10, 2009).

Nurse to Patient Ratios and Hospital-Acquired Infections

In response to Paul O’Neill’s opinion piece “Health Care’s Infectious Losses,” in the Times of July 6th, one letter stands out, which we here reprint in its entirety:

To the Editor:

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill leaves out a significant factor in his formula for reducing hospital-acquired infections and medical costs: making sure there are enough nurses taking care of patients.

For example, central venous catheter-associated bloodstream infections cost millions each year. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that this infection is more likely to occur when there are fewer nurses in the intensive-care unit, regardless of other infection control measures.

Infections are prevented by careful, constant monitoring and assessment of patients by the nurses in attendance. This cannot happen when nurses are assigned too many patients. Infection control is not just making rules — it’s about having the right number of professional nurses to carry them out.

Deborah Elliott,Deputy Executive Officer

New York State Nurses Association
Latham, N.Y., July 6, 2009

Medical care is by its nature labor-intensive. Nurses and other skilled staff act as force multipliers for physicians – and often make the difference between the mediocre medical care and excellent medical care. With respect to hospital-acquired infections, excellence and cost control are not in conflict.

Increase the ratio of nurses to patients – medical outcomes will improve – and what’s more, we’ll lose fewer nurses to burnout.

Letters | Cutting Hospital Infections to Cut Costs.

Disclosure: my wife is an R.N. and member of the New York State Nurses Association.

CAFE Standards – Not Meaningless, But Trivial

Pres Obama has raised the CAFE standards from 27.5 mpg to 35.5 mpg, by 2016.  Raising the CAFE standards to 35.5 mpg in 7 (or 26) years is not the change we need. It is very little, and very late. The standard for cars has been 27.5 mpg since 1990 (DieselNet).  However, at least we are starting to move forward. Union of Concerned Scientists provides a good summary.

CAFE standards were effective in increasing new car and truck fuel economy by 70 percent between 1975 and 1988. In 2000 alone, CAFE standards saved American consumers $92 billion, reduced oil use by 60 billion gallons of gasoline, and kept 720 million tons of global warming pollution out of our atmosphere.

Dependence on Foreign Oil. American cars, trucks and SUVs account for approximately 40 percent of all U.S. oil consumption. Much of this oil is imported and our foreign oil reliance continues to grow. U.S. consumers currently spend $1 billion every day to import oil and other petroleum products. Achieving 35 mpg by 2020 as directed by the recently passed energy bill will save 1.1 million barrels of oil per day in 2020—over half the oil the U.S. currently imports from the Persian Gulf.

Environment. For every gallon of gasoline that is consumed, approximately 24 pounds of global warming pollution are released into the air. Drilling, refining, and distributing gasoline account for about 5 pounds of global warming pollution per gallon of gasoline, and burning gasoline during vehicle operation produces another 19 pounds of global warming pollution per gallon. Increasing fuel economy standards to 35 mpg by 2020 can cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 206 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020.

Economy. A fleet of cars and light trucks that reaches 35 mpg will cost about $1,000 to $2,000 extra per vehicle. This additional cost will be more than offset by the fuel savings consumers will enjoy over the life of the vehicle. Consumer fuel savings along with automaker investment to produce a 35 mpg fleet by 2020 will help spur the creation of more than 170,800 new jobs in the year 2020.”

“It’s important to note that all companies will be required to make more efficient and cleaner cars,” said an unnamed EPA official quoted on the “Personal Money Store“. “We do that by proposing individual standards for each class size of vehicle and then a fleet average for each company. This has the effect of preserving consumer choice – you can continue to buy whatever size car you like, all cars get cleaner.”

The Hummer, the Escalade, seat 5 and get 8 miles to the gallon.  Even if you double the milage, or triple the mileage, you’re talking 16 to 24 mpg. That’s terrible. There are no logical and compelling reasons to buy, drive, or build these vehicles – which is part of the reason for GM’s decent into bankruptcy.

Aside from the environmental problems; we buy petroleum from Iran, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Veneuzeula, and soon, Iraq. There are profound national security problems associated with this, with petroleum, with a dependence on foreign powers for a resource on which our whole economy is based.
We have the technology. The Toyota Prius gets 50 mpg, and has been available since 2001. The new Honda Insight gets 40 mpg. Bright Automotive has announced a cargo van that will get 100 miles to the gallon, and which will be on the road in 2010.

100 mpg vehicles are the change we need.

The next step would be a Plug-In Hybrid that runs on Bio-Deisel.

One problem is that we all are stuck between the rock of the environmental and national security challenges associated with obtaining a resource from potentially or occasionally hostile foreign powers and the hard place of people like the Heritage Foundation, which has been fighting against the CAFE standards since 1991. Back then they said small cars are unsafe, American car manufacturers don’t know how to build small cars so CAFE would cost jobs, and big cars are our birthright. Today they say government standards don’t work, it will cost more to retool auto plants to build cars people need so we should just keep churning out vehicles that people don’t need and can’t afford, and we have the right to drive trucks (2009). A Heritage Foundation post from 2001 claimed that a) small cars are unsafe, and b) because oil imports have risen the CAFE standards have failed. Oil imports have risen because demand is inelastic and domestic wells have run dry. The Heritage Foundation doesn’t believe in “peak oil” it says the taxpayers should subsidize oil shale. As a taxpayer, I’d rather subsidize solar and wind than oil shale, especially since the subsidies will be lower.

But the fact of the matter is that there are no Jed Clampetts in Louisiana, Oklahoma, or Texas shooting at varmints and hitting gushers. The new “Texas Tea” will be brewed in a solar tea kettle. Or it will be air temperature – and pretty hot.

Training Thoughts

My friend Jon recently honored me by asking if I would occasionally contribute to this forum.  I have never blogged before, so as I peck away I feel a bit like the Moliere character who was pleased to learn that he was speaking prose.

For my maiden entry, I offer up some thoughts on training, based upon 25 years of active duty military service–things that I have seen, heard, read, or done.  It occurs to me that, with some modification, what follows might be applicable to training in many other fields as well.   This hardly represents  the last word on the subject and I don’t necessarily expect everyone to agree with everything here, but I hope people might think about this and even attempt to capture their own thoughts on the subject.

1. The best form of welfare for the troops is first class training–Rommel

2. All training must be assessment-based.

3.  It thus follows that evaluation is a critical step in training management.  Unevaluated or poorly evaluated training is worthless–a waste of time at best and positively harmful at worst if it reinforces bad habits.

4. Hard work and enthusiasm don’t automatically equal great training.  They are necessary but not sufficient conditions.  Trainers must know their stuff.

5.  Leader training should be an organization’s top training priority.  Good leaders can carry less than well-trained organizations; weak leaders will bring down the best units.

6.  Senior leaders must be prepared to underwrite mistakes in order to encourage prudent risk taking; however, never send unprepared leaders out to practice on live subordinates.  Rule of thumb–four days of trainer prep and one day of good training is better than five days of lousy training where unprepared trainers flounder.

7.  In other words, quality over quantity.

8. Good after action reviews/critiques are essential.  However, no organization ever improved simply because it conducted a good critique.  Go back and do it over.

9. Practice doesn’t make perfect.  Perfect practice makes perfect.

10.  Build progressivity into training: Crawl, Walk, Run.  No football team scrimmages on the first day of practice.

11.  Safety and realistic training are not antithetical.  There is nothing safe about going into combat untrained.  Train realistically and safely.

12.  Most soldiers/students/people forget what they hear, remember what they see, and know what they do.  Try to make your training “hands-on.”

Thoreau: Voice of Environmentalists, Anti-War Radicals, Civil Rights Activists, and … Ronald Reagan?

Henry David Thoreau, an American Transcendentalist writer, philosopher, and activist, 1817 to 1862, lived his ideals of simplicity, self-reliance, and individualism. He lived for 2 years and 2 months on a cabin on the edge of Walden Pond in Massachusetts. He built the cabin himself on the estate of his friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, using recycled materials. After leaving Walden Pond, he worked against slavery as an abolitionist and on the underground railroad. In the book, he describes his philosophy and his life, and asks two questions, which resonate today.

  1. How much is enough?
  2. How do I know what I want?

Continue reading →

Health Care Costs and Access, US, Canada

Back in 2006, 45 Million Americans, one out of every six people, had no health insurance. When those one of every six people got exposed to something contagious, they exposed a lot of other people. Given the level of unemployment today, the number of people without health insurance is probably higher. It includes everyone who lost their job and can’t afford or no longer qualifies for COBRA.  According to a report on CNN, produced by Jennifer Pifer-Bixler, published March 4, 2009, at some point during 2007 or 2008, 86.7 Million Americans –One out of Three were without health insurance.

As Peter Barnes put it, in Capitalism 3.0, (ISBN-10: 1-57675-361-1)

Here’s the bottom line.  All Canadians get health care and peace of mind at a per capita cost that’s about 45% lower than ours. Canada lays out less than ten cents of every health care dollar on administration, while we spend nearly thirty cents (and that doesn’t include time and energy patients themselves spend on paperwork.) What’s more, our health care system doesn’t even keep us healthy. Our infant mortality is higher than Canada’s, our life expectancy is lower, and we have proportionally more obesity, cancer, diabetes, and depression. To top it off, forty-five million of us have no health insurance at all.

Health Care By The Numbers, 2005 United States

 Canada
Estimated per capita expenditures (2004; US $) $6,040 $3,326
Percent spent on administration (1999) 26% 10%
Monthly premium for family of four $1045 $88
Male life expectancy (years) 75 77
Female life expectancy (years) 81 84
Infant mortality (per 1,000 births)

6.4 4.7

This is not why Paul Revere rode thru Boston on the 18th of April in ’75. This is not why John Hancock, Sam Adams, John Adams, Richard Stockton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the rest of the 56 delegates signed the Declaration of Independence (U S History . org , wikipedia).

This is not the America I know and love.

Here’s the article on CNN :

Study: 86.7 million Americans uninsured over last two years

By Jennifer Pifer-Bixler, CNN Senior Medial Producer
March 5, 2009: 1:44 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNN) — One out of three Americans under 65 went without health insurance at some point during 2007 and 2008, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study, commissioned by the consumer health advocacy group Families USA, found 86.7 million Americans were uninsured for at least a portion of those two years.

Among the report’s key findings:

  • Nearly three out of four of those uninsured Americans were without health insurance for at least six months.
  • Almost two-thirds of them were uninsured for nine months or more.
  • Four out of five of the uninsured were in working families.
  • People without health insurance are less likely to have a usual doctor and often go without screenings or preventative care.

“The huge number of people without health coverage is worse than an epidemic,” Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said in a news release. “Inaction on health care reform in 2009 cannot be an option for the tens of millions of people who lack or lose health coverage each year. … The cost of doing nothing is too high.”

Coal Is Really Dirty

Burn Coal – release arsenic, mercury, radioactive particles, and carbon – lots of carbon.  Here’s how the National Resources Defense Council, NRDC, describes it:  Coal is Dirty and Dangerous

Coal is America’s dirtiest energy source — and the country’s leading source of global warming pollution.

Coal mining destroys land, pollutes thousands of miles of streams and brings massive environmental damage to mountain communities.

… produces dirty air, acid rain and contaminated land and water … childhood asthma, birth defects and respiratory diseases that take nearly 25,000 lives each year.

“Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet.” – James Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientistThere are far cleaner and cheaper ways to meet America’s energy needs. Yet industry apologists are spending millions of dollars to block clean energy solutions and persuade Americans that they can keep using coal without the consequences.

…

Green technologies and renewable fuels will create millions of good-paying jobs, … reduce dangerous pollution and help fight global warming.

TouchTable video demonstration

Our friend Bill Campbell – our resident guru on Skype and other comms technologies, and always ahead of the curve – sent me this link to a PBS video about the new TouchTable

It’s part of the PBS/Wired Wired Science series, which is new to me.

At current prices – in excess of $90K – it’s going to take some time and/or big orders to drive prices down – but it’s one impressive tool.

TouchTable .

NATURAL CHICKEN – WITH SALT WATER

Chicken labeled “Natural” can contain salt, and lots of it: 200 to 400 mg sodium per four-ounce serving – almost as much as in French Fries. One third of all fresh chicken sold in the US is “plumped” with salt-water. Real natural chicken contains 45 to 60 mg sodium per serving. According to Melinda Beck at the Wall St. Journal,

(click here) and the Truthful Labeling Coalition, chicken producers can inject up to 15% of saltwater and seaweed into the birds and call them “natural” because saltwater and seaweed are natural, even tho they don’t naturally appear in chickens.  $2 Billion worth of Salt Water in $40 Billion worth of Chicken.

The industry says “People like salty chicken.” Well, we like cigarettes, French Fries, and soda, but that doesn’t make them healthy or natural.