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Author Archives: Jonathan Soroko
solar ad in tanzania
The World, ((The World, is an outstanding daily (weekday) radio show produced jointly by Public Radio International, WGBH, and the BBC . RSS feed here. Link to podcast subscription here.)) reports on Bringing solar power to Tanzania, about the work of nonprofit Solar Aid in Tanzania.
Solar Aid, an NGO based in the UK, which installs solar projects in African countries with the conscious parallel objectives of providing energy, improving public health, slowing climate change, and attacking poverty.
The versatile potential of bicycles and trikes: two galleries
These speak for themselves, for the most part. But it might be worth noting that none we’ve noticed have electric assist, either by hybrid electric or solar electric, which are both, we believe, in limited use around the world.
From FrogMob, the mob-sourced section of the FrogDesign Blog ((From the reknowned design firm FrogDesign – where they design everything except frogs)), Work Bikes:
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From the Cool Tools section of Kevin Kelly’s site, kk.org:
XtraCycle - Free Radical - after-market modification/accessory
This is only one of nine variations of the Free Radical Conversion kit. See that – and bicycles with cargo carrying included, at XtraCycle.
Cool Tools also has great suggestions about bicycle repair tools, and other modifications. Check their Autonomous Motion section, their Bikes/Trikes subsection of their Street Use archives for more work bike info, including Velowalla, an archive of bike/trike use for business in India.
Resources for solar cooking
This post will be updated as we gather more resources, and and attempt to make it more comprehensive and practical. – JS
There are, roughly, speaking, five types of solar cooking devices:
parabolic solar cooker
Practical plans
Instructables.com – another reminder of the brilliance of the Instructables concept and execution, searching the site with the search terms “solar oven” yielded dozens of plans of varying type and sophistication.
How to make a really hot solar cooker in concrete – by GreatHub
DIY Plans from Solar Cooking.org (most in at least two languages)
Self-repairing concrete using bacteria
From the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, self-repairing concrete which uses bacteria that excrete calcium, developed by faculty member Henk Jonkers:
Instead of costly humans having to maintain and repair the concrete, it would be ideal if the concrete would be able to heal itself. This is now possible with help of special bacteria. These bacteria are called extremophiles, because they love to live in extreme conditions. In dry concrete for example they will not only live, but they will actively produce copious amounts of limestone. With this calcium carbonate-based material the little construction workers can actively repair occurring cracks in a concrete structure.
This novel type of self-healing concrete will lead to enormous savings on maintenance and repair costs. Also the sustainability of concrete will increase dramatically, because of a lower demand for natural resources such as cement. This will lead to lower CO2 emissions and change our way of reasoning. Instead of building against nature, biological materials and processes will be integrated into traditional engineering materials and processes.
Via William Myers in his post Growing Respect for Dirt, on the Design Blog at the Cooper-Hewitt, the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum.
Max Read of Gawker.com – exceptionally concise description of Pakistani flooding
Moreover, Mr. Read’s understatement – the entire post is three short grafs and two images – makes his post more affecting, rather than less.
Here’s a NASA image of the affected area as of August 14, 2009 (Mr. Read, without saying so, anticipates speculation that this caused by seasonal variation):
2009 image
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One year and one day later, August 15th, 2010:
Max Read’s exemplary post, The Satellite Pics of Pakistan’s Devastasting Floods, from Gawker.com
Zero Race begins today in Switzerland
The Zero Race, 
a competition between automobiles powered by sustainable energy sources, begins today in Switzerland. There are, we regret to report, only four teams, none from the United States. The ZeroTracer is the Swiss entry; the Power Plaza Team is from South Korea; Team Trev is from Adelaide, Australia and the Vectrix Team is from Berlin. Additional details about the race, including route, which is intended to take 80 days, are taken from the Zero-Race website:
The Zero Tracer from Team Orlikon (Switzerland)
The Zero Race will start in Geneva (Switzerland) on 16. August 2010, and continue eastwards for a total distance of about 30 000 km. The event is planned to be completed in 80 days (excluding maritime crossings) across 16 countries with stops in approximately 150 major cities en route.
Zero Race will visit places of all sizes, such as major cities including Bruxelles, Berlin, Vienna, Kiev, Moscow, Astana, Shanghai, Vancouver, San Francisco, Austin and Madrid.
The Zero Race will visit the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun at the end of November and end it will finish in Geneva at the end of January 2011.
In each Zero Race stop along the route, there will be press conferences and events.
Matthew Wald/Times: comms failures, radar limitations may have contributed to Alaska Crash
Matthew Wald of The New York Times, assisted by Liz Robbins, adds some details to current knowledge of the Alaska plane crash of August 9th. From Communication Problems May Have Delayed Search Following Alaska Plane Crash:
The search for the plane that crashed on an Alaska hillside Monday night, killing former senator Ted Stevens and four others, may have been delayed by hours due to communication breakdowns on the ground and a problem with the plane’s emergency beacon, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday.
Two investigators for the safety board were briefly on the site Wednesday, while other investigators are waiting to interview the four survivors who are at Providence Alaska Medical Center. The crash killed the pilot, Theron “Terry” Smith, 62.
The conditions of two of the survivors improved on Thursday, as a spokeswoman for the hospital said that James Morhard and Kevin O’Keefe were upgraded from serious to fair condition. Kevin O’Keefe’s father, Sean O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator, is still in critical condition. William Phillips, 13, is still in good condition. His father, William, died in the crash.
Board investigators are having trouble piecing together a timeline of the crash, because they say they have received conflicting reports of when the plane took off and when rescuers reached the scene, said the chairwoman, Deborah A.P. Hersman.
Reports have put the plane’s departure from a hunting lodge anywhere from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., and discovery of the plane between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. It would have taken the group about 15 minutes by air from the take-off to the crash scene, unless they had “flown around a little bit, trying to make their way” in the poor visibility,” Ms. Hersman said.
A flight plan, according to the Times, was not required, “was not required and would not have made the crash any less likely, but would have alerted authorities earlier that it was overdue.”
What inferences can we draw based on current information? What questions are raised?
- Not filing a flight plan would seem to be erring away from caution – and also raises the question of whether anyone connected with the flight was interested in preventing the creation of a paper trail;
- the gross variations in recollections of departure time (two hours, in accounts given hours after a memorable event, with the ready availability of other records (mobile phone records, for instance) suggest the possibility that one account is false, or otherwise unreliable.
We’ll try to keep up with this story as it unfolds.
13 Alerting Sites | OpenJason
Open Jason lists sites which read the Web, with various emphases (with respect to sourcing), and let you know.
13 Alerting Sites | OpenJason.
The brilliant David Stephenson has, as some readers may know, done some serious thinking and writing about new media/social media and disaster response. (Put “Stephenson” in our search box and you’ll get some of our earlier pieces. Better yet, go to his site and read his work).
Apart from Google Alerts, which I use, for instance, to track public developments in the Robert Levinson case, I haven’t used these. But I think they generally need to be tweaked a bit, depending on the search terms involved, to get the signal-to-noise ration under control. In some cases, duplication and republication may be a problem.
There’s a good opportunity here to do some objective testing with a common set of search terms. Does this sound like a decent crowd-source project?
News from Pakistan floods as of 10 August – more to follow
The Pakistan Red Crescent Society reports as follows on the current floods in Pakistan:
Period covered by this update: 21st July to 10th August, 2010
PRCS along with its Movement Partners (IFRC and ICRC) and Partner National Societies (PNSs) is jointly responding to the Monsoon Floods 2010. CHF 250,000 (USD 239,406 or EUR 183,589) has been allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Pakistan Red Crescent Society National Society in delivering immediate assistance to some 35,000 beneficiaries.
Heavy rains starting from 21 July 2010 have triggered both flash floods and river floods in several parts of the country resulting in a loss of life and widespread displacements. It is estimated that more than 300 people have perished and well over 1 million others have been affected. Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KPK), Baluchistan and Punjab have been the worst- affected areas. Thousands of people have lost their homes and livelihoods.
Note that this is dated August 10th; we’re trying to provide more complete and current information as possible.
Via ReliefWeb. Link to ReliefWeb post here.
Matthew McDermott/Treehugger.com: 1,550 MW Wind Farm, World's Current Largest, Breaks Ground in Mojave, California : TreeHugger
Matthew McDermott at Treehugger reports a 1.55 gigawatt / 1,550 megawatt wind farm – probably the world’s largest wind farm in the Mojave Desert.
From 1,550 MW Wind Farm, World’s Current Largest, Breaks Ground in Mojave, California
It will boost California’s Wind Power Capacity 25%, and blows $Billions into the local economy
Ned Farquhar, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Land and Minerals Management, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, addresses the guests at Terra-Gen Power’s ground breaking ceremony for Alta Wind Energy Center in Mojave, California. Photo: Rod Thornburg
It’s been a while since we’ve seen an honest to goodness gigantic wind power project actually start construction, so this is definitely worth noting: Terra-Gen Power has announced it has begun construction on what it’s calling the world’s largest wind energy project, the 1,550 megawatt Alta Wind Energy Center, in Mojave, California. At double the capacity of the next largest completed project, the wind farm will generate enough power to electrify 275,000 homes.
When completed, AWEC will consist of 600 Vestas turbines, increase the installed wind power capacity in California by 25% and, according to Terra-Gen, conserve more than 888 million gallons of water annually–presumably based on had an equivalent amount of energy been generated via non-renewable energy.
via 1,550 MW Wind Farm, World’s Current Largest, Breaks Ground in Mojave, California : TreeHugger.
Reuters: Venezuela threatens U.S. Oil Supply Cut
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According to Reuters, via NYTimes.com, Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Eric Beech, President Chavez has threatened to cut off the U.S. oil supply. Here’s the entire copy which constitutes the piece, and the hed:
Venezuela’s Chavez Threatens U.S. Oil Supply Cut
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to cut oil supplies to the United States in case of a military attack from Colombia, in an escalating spat over charges Venezuela harbors leftist rebels.
There are, of course, reasons to be worried about energy independence, and this threat is one of them.
Rank
Country
Production
1
10,782
2
9,790
3
8,514
4
4,174
5
3,973
6
3,350
7
3,186
8
3,046
9
2,741
10
2,643
11
2,466
12
2,402
13
2,385
14
2,180
15
2,169
# 1 Saudi Arabia: 10,250,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 2 Russia: 9,876,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 3 United States: 8,457,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 4 Iran: 4,033,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 5 China: 3,725,000 bbl/day 2008 Time series
# 6 Mexico: 3,501,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 7 Canada: 3,425,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 8 United Arab Emirates: 2,948,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 10 Venezuela: 2,667,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 11 Kuwait: 2,613,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 12 Norway: 2,565,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 13 Nigeria: 2,352,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 14 Brazil: 2,277,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 15 Algeria: 2,173,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 16 Iraq: 2,094,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 17 Angola: 1,910,000 bbl/day 2008 Time series
# 18 Libya: 1,845,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 19 United Kingdom: 1,690,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
# 20 Kazakhstan: 1,445,000 bbl/day 2007 Time series
Flambeau Cases – available in bulk, customized
Flambeau, one of the most visible makers of plastic cases for hunters, fishermen, artists, and paramedic/EMT/First Aid cases. Bulk purchases and customization can be discussed by contacting the company via its commercial website, Flambeau Premiums. 
As an example, Flambeau’s Trauma Drug Kit retails at First Aid Supplies Plus for $256, and can be seen at this page. However, a CERT, rescue squad or VFD might well want to purchase them in larger or very large lots, making it reasonable to seek a quote from Flambeau.
Here are two of Flambeau’s watertight gear boxes:
July 2010 Kampala attacks – via WikiNews
Via WikiNews, some details of the recent Uganda bombings:
The first bombing was carried out at a restaurant called the Ethiopian Village, situated in the Kabalagala neighbourhood, with many of the victims foreigners.[9] Fifteen people died in this attack.[3] The Kabalagala bombing occurred during the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final.[10]The second attack, consisting of two explosions in quick succession, occurred at 11:18 pm at Kyadondo Rugby Club in Nakawa, where state-run newspaper New Vision was hosting a screening of the match.[11] According to eyewitnesses, there was an explosion near the 90th minute of the match, followed seconds later by a second explosion that knocked out the lights at the field.[12] An explosion went off directly in front of a large screen that was showing the telecast from South Africa,[10] killing 49 people.[3] The discovery of a severed head and leg at the rugby field suggests that it was a suicide attack carried out by an individual.[3] A third unexploded vest was later found.[13]
via July 2010 Kampala attacks – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
BBC News – Eta suspected in killing of French policeman
A French policeman has been killed near Paris in a shootout with gunmen who officials said might be linked to the Basque separatist group Eta.
A man arrested after the shooting identified himself as a Basque Eta member, Spanish newspapers reported.
French officials told AFP news agency that the involvement of Eta was one of several leads being followed.
The shooting happened late on Tuesday when police checked the identities of a group suspected of stealing cars.
Later, police mounted a search operation in the area, a south-eastern suburb of Paris called Dammarie-les-Lys.
Eta is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people since the late 1960s in its campaign for an independent Basque state.
If confirmed, this would be the first killing of a French policeman by Eta.
There have been frequent arrests of Eta suspects in France, often in the south-west.
However, last month one of the group's top leaders, Ibon Gogeascoechea, was arrested in north-western France.
He was detained with two other Eta suspects in a joint French-Spanish operation in Normandy.
via BBC News – Eta suspected in killing of French policeman.