Q-Blox and VibrantHomeTown.com

In looking for simple community-usable planning tools -we’ve come across an impressive consultancy called Vibrant  Hometown, and a 3-D modeling tool they’ve developed called Q-Blox. It’s not yet clear if their urban planning

consultancy takes into account Popular Logistics’ concerns about disaster risk mitigaton and response – or whether the Q-Blox are available without engaging their services. In any case – Vibrant  Hometown

is certainly worth a look.

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FastRadios.com

We’ve been casting about for two-way radio vendors – and sophisticated advice. And found, for our purposes, an amazing oufit in FastRadios.com – based in Naples, Florida – but they sell at very competitive prices and on very competitive terms (extended warranties, for instance, on batteries as well as radios). After a long conversation with Manzie Lawfer (purportedly their sales manager, but it seems that his function is more about finding configuration solutions). Lawfer was able to propose simple, elegant and inexpensive solutions to certain problems we’ve been having in designing a model comms system for community-based disaster response organizations. Being a natural-born cynic, and having spent most of my career cross-examining and interviewing all manner of fabricators and prevaricators – and being concerned about budget – I dropped several opportunities for him to propose more expensive solutions. Straight arrows, it seems, these guys. Look for several posts about solutions they’ve devised for clients – including using existing UPS systems in power failures and solar power in emergencies to keep comms up. Readers may want to start with their “Little Green Radio Book” (free).

CONGRATULATIONS, BARACK OBAMA AND AMERICA!

President-Elect Obama’s campaign was focused, disciplined, and effective. He has shown himself to be bright, calm, and decisive. He listens, and he has good judgment. We at Popular Logistics wish him and the country well.  And we know this: If President Obama governs the way President-Elect Obama campaigned, the country will do well.  Very well.

Das Schwimmhaus

Via Design-Milk and Monoscope , Das Schwimmhaus Boot

:

For our usual purposes – principally housing/work platforms which can be used in floods – this design might not be as as stable as we’d like.  Nonetheless – it’s a reminder of how beautiful things can be made with sustainable material.

Artist creates solar/wind powered "emergency respond

(Via Inhabitat) Which may, in fact, exceed FEMA’s exertions – despite the fact that, as Paul Villinski, a New York-based artist has demonstrated, it’s entirely possible to construct livable/usable emergency structures which rely on solar and wind power. From Bridget Steffen at Inhabitat, Solar Powered Mobile Emergency Response Studio:

Better yet, make sure you read the whole piece and see the images – the one above the jump, taken alone, doesn’t do it justice.NB: as of this writing – October 30th – Villinski’s bandwidth limit had been exceeded. Waiting and checking back later will, we think, be worth it.

Villinski – main site.

Emergency Response Studio.

Other coverage.

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Obama, McCain on Energy – Solar, and Wind, Oil and Nuclear

John McCain and Barack Obama both talk about energy independence. Both also talk about the need to drill for oil offshore. Obama says oil companies should use their leases, or lose them. McCain once put the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, off-limits, “for now.” But that was before he picked Sarah “Drill Baby Drill” Palin for V. P., Now he calls her an “Energy Expert” and says “Sarah Palin knows more about energy than anyone else in America.”

Palin wants to drill in ANWR. She also doesn’t understand the science that has been used to study global warming, preferring to believe that it doesn’t exist.

Obama reminds us that drilling won’t help much and won’t help at all in the near future. Obama and McCain also talk about solar and wind – but Obama talks about about building a new energy economy.  And McCain has a history of voting against solar and wind because he’s against subsidies.  He’s for nuclear power, even tho the nuclear industry relies on subsidies.  Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the feeling that Obama knows what he’s talking about.

McCain says nuclear power is safe, nuclear submarines are safe. He wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2035, and another 55 after that. He wants to plan and build a total of 100 new nuclear plants. Continue reading →

History of the Red Cross Logo

Logo Design Love, a leading graphic design blog, has a short piece on the logos used by The International Red Cross, including the current claim by Johnson & Johnson that the logo infringes on their trademark when used by the Red Cross to brand goods sold, in part, as fund-raisers for the U.S. Red Cross and its state chapters. 

On the one hand, it’s immediately recognizable. On the other – given questions about RC effectiveness and transparency – once it’s recognized, do we have a common understanding about what it means?

See also “Civil Defense Logo Dies at 67, and Some Mourn Its Passing,” (Times), and Wonkette’s   Proud Symbol of Fear Replaced By Wuss Emblem.

Flagspot notes that Article 66 of the Geneva Protocols (1977), establishes this as the international civil defense symbol:

We hope return to this issue shortly. We’ll leave you with these variations of the ICRC symbol reported by Flagspot:

Interview with signage expert Mies Hora

Just came across a remarkable interview of Mies Hora (“Navigating Today’sSigns – An Interview with Mies Hora”)(TinyUrl here ) by Stev Heller in the AIGA blog. Mies Hora is the founder of UltimateSymbol, which publishes books and usable electronic images of signs (as well as fonts and some other goodies). In a sense, these books make him the heir to Henry Dreyfuss

and Otto Neurath.

quiet revolution: elegant solution(s) to wind-power problems

outline-home-img-150x86.gif

One of the basic problems with wind power capturing wind regardless of direction. Ask any sailor. A number of turbine designers have solved this problem with vertical turbines, which will turn regardless of wind direction. Quiet Revolution, a London-based firm, has one model in production and producing power all over the United Kingdom. Installations of the Q5 turbine, according to quiet revolution, numbered 25 in June of this year, and were expected to top 100 by the end of the year. Quiet Revolution’s FAQ

describes  the advantages of the QR5, which sounds ideal for locations like lower Manhattan: coastal, with a pre-Revolutionary street grid (i.e. narrow streets) and extremely tall buildings, which conspire to amplify windspeed. From the quiet revolution FAQ:

What are the advantages of quietrevolution turbines?

The qr5 is a vertical axis wind turbine that we have designed specifically for the built environment:

* it is much more appropriate for winds near and around buildings, which are characterized by gusty windspeeds and constantly shifting wind direction.
* it is significantly quieter because the blade tip speed is lower.

* it is more easily integrated in buildings and on towers.
* its active control system uses gust tracking to maximize power harnessed from the wind.

QuietRevolution has a number of other systems in development. We think we might like to see a much smaller model, because they’re so nice to look at. Aesthetic considerations aside, we often ask about how new energy technologies can be scaled up; – if one our goals is to decentralize the grid, lots of relatively small and local  production will be essential.

NJ BPU Approves Offshore Wind Farm

Great news from the Jersey Shore. Writing in the Asbury Park Press, David Willis reported Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008 that

New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities

gave a green light to a Garden State Wind Offshore Energy

, a joint venture between PSEG Renewable Generation and Deepwater Wind, one of several competitors, including BlueWater Wind, Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey LLC, Occidental Development & Equities LLC, and Environmental Technologies LLC. David Harper of The Press of Atlantic City covered the story Sunday.Street Insider published the Press Release.

Map showing approximate location of the offshore wind farm.

Map showing approximate location of the offshore wind farm.

“Offshore wind is probably the most cost-efficient and reliable form of energy we can have” said Jeff Tittle, director of the Sierra Club’sNew Jersey Office. “We will have offshore windmills or we will have offshore oil” until the oil runs out and the shore will move as the sea rises and as storms pummel the coasts.

The $1 Billion project will generate 350 megawatts of power, enough for 125,000 homes, and meet approximately 5% of New Jersey’s needs. The $1 Billion cost for the 350 mw facility is $2.86 per watt for construction, compared to $1.87 for the Atlantic City wind farm, and $6.00 per watt, according to Rebecca Smith in the Wall St. Journal for Florida Power & Light’s proposed Turkey Point 3 & 4 nuclear plants.

The wind farm will be generating energy within four years, and be completed by 2013. The first 1 gw wind farm that T. Boone Pickens’ Mesa Power, is building in Texas is forecast to cost $2.00 per watt and be operational by 2011.

New Jersey’s wind farm will be historic. It will be the first offshore wind farm in New Jersey, and with the Delmarva Wind Farm that BlueWater Wind is building off Delaware, and the plant that Deepwater Wind is building off of Rhode Island, one of the first three offshore wind farms, possibly the first in the United States.

While the US will still lag far behind Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain, other nations in Europe and the rest of the world, this is a start.  I hear the sound of a paradigm shifting.

Sanders Votes “NO!” on the Bailout

“The bailout package is far better than the absurd proposal originally presented to us by the Bush administration, but is still short of where we should be. If a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, if we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from President Bush’s tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation who should pick up the tab, not ordinary working people.”

Sanders proposed a five-year, 10 percent surtax on families with incomes of more than $1 million a year and individuals earning over $500,00 to raise $300 billion to help bankroll the bailout. Senators, however, set aside the amendment on a voice vote. Continue reading →