A New Facet in Sustainability: Energy Recycling

Ever since I can remember, the argument for environmentalists have been to move to Solar and Wind power as the only way to save the planet.  Their position is from a green point of view:  that is, if it isn't natural, it isn't an option.  This is fine, and there are a lot of merits to these methods of generating energy, but right now it just isn't enough.  We need something else to bolster our energy needs until these more green technologies can be made more efficient.  And the best move that can be made right now is energy recycling. 

What's Energy Recycling?  It's the process of using the excess heat created by a process to boil water, create steam, and move a generator.  One excellent example of wasted energy this way would be many cooling towers in Atomic plants.  

But that isn't all!  Many factories, refineries, and smelters are major sources of excess heat, and as such could be producing electricity.  Just place a boiler on top of the plant, capture the heat, boil water, create steam, use that steam to move a generator and you are all set!  

Now, you may ask where I got this idea in the first place.  Well, I'm guilty of perpetuating an idea of others.  It seems that Europe and Japan has been doing this practice for years, bolstering their grids with additional energy from their factories, refineries, etc.  Heat is not wasted if it's sufficient enough to boil water.  This was reported this morning on my way to work on NPR, by the way.  

So why don't we do the same thing?  It's such a simple idea, why haven't the US thought of this before?  Because there are currently State and Civil laws that protect power companies from having to pay retail prices for the power that gets pumped back into the grid from an non-system source.  That, and most older facilities would be subject to new EPA regulations if they made any modifications to their facility.  

Now, the other day, I was listening to Sean Hannity on the radio.  Now, this isn't a regular thing for me, as I don't like to get just one side of the story (I find NPR the least biased news source).  But he had an interesting argument for the Republican Party:  Rebuild yourself.  He pointed out 10 items the Republicans could do in order to rebuild the party.  Number 4 was Energy Independence.  What could be more independent than using recycled energy?

So, my challenge to Government, both parties actually, is to challenge the protection laws currently in place for energy companies to allow energy recycling.  We could generate almost twice the energy we have now, if we follow Denmark's model (half their energy comes from recycled energy projects), and lower our energy growth needs.  That's the kicker: the need for foreign oil could be lowered as far as overall energy production, and allow more oil to be diverted to transportation (at least for now).  

Now, I don't expect it will magically solve our nation's energy needs overnight.  But wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about rolling blackouts?  More energy means cheaper electric manufacturing costs, and cheaper overall bills on the consumer.  Also, those factories that produce a lot of heat in order to produce their product can save even more money as they generate that excess heat into energy savings, or potentially a secondary revenue line.  

Those are the benefits, at any case.  Now the hard part needs to be hammered out:  negotiating with power companies and potential power generating sources a fair and sustainable model.  Perhaps they can offer to buy the recycled energy at wholesale costs..  Anyway, that's a fight that will be well worth the effort.  

Vacation post: Local Government, and iPhone Hype

THis week I am on vacation, working in the yard and spending some quality time with my son. But, being the geek that I am, I have kept busy with other things too. I've spent some time looking at video compression software, working with sharing images to my Apple TV, and looking for an acceptable way to activate an iPhone without having to worry about monthly charges (I don't like cell phones period, even if it's really cool). So, here's a quick review of what I've been doing, for those who are interested.

The Back Yard
Since I worked for an obscure ISP that stopped paying me, I have been letting my back yard go wild. THis isn't because of any particular choice, more because I haven't had the money to really fix it up. Well, as we are started to get a handle on things, I have started to work on the back yard. I had a lot of plans for it (as documented in my blog), but zoning laws have been keeping them from happening.

Well, I decided to shoot a bit lower with my plans, and just go for your basic back yard. I started by tilling under the weeds that have grown with a vigor that has daunted me for years. I then set some bricks down in a rough patio on the side of the house. All this in 100 degree weather (37.778 C for those metric fellows). I dismantled the foundation to the greenhouse I was going to build, and will settle for a quick and easy one over the current garden area. That will be easier to set up, and simpler to build. THe cob project is still under construction, and will be completed by the end of the month.

VIdeo Compression
I have a lot of video that I would like to convert to an Apple TV-Friendly format. These videos are in RealMedia format. I thought I could do it with VideoHub, but it doesn't support a lot of RealMedia formats. The video converted just fine, but it converted without any audio. Ah, well, back to the drawing board.

Streaming Video to Apple TV
With the latest version of iTunes, you can now stream your photo content to your Apple TV, and it displays in a slide show with music from your iTunes library playing along with it. Unfortunately, it plays all your iTunes library, so those tracks that I have of my "Teach Yourself Gaelic" are playing along. This is turned on within your Apple TV section within iTunes, in the Photos pane.

iPhone Hacking
Yes, I admit it, I really want an iPhone. Any surprise, considering that I have been talking about Apple products for quite a while? But I don't really want a cell phone. I hate them, because it's an additional expense that is hard to justify when I have phones everywhere I go. What I really want is a PDA that can do network SIP phone work, or have Skype installed. Something like that would be perfect.

Well, as such, the iPhone would be great (if you could install Skype on it, or any SIP phone client). I honestly believe that it's on the way, and will worry about that when I finally get the funding to purchase the phone. But for now, I would just like to know that it can be activated without having to sign up for an AT&T account.

Having partly answered that question, the folks at Hackint0sh have found a way to do it. In this post here, some one found out that you can activate one phone, and then activate the other without having more than one phone number. It was all by accident, and will probably be taken care of in future releases. THey are also working on a number of hacks to open up the phones to other services. I'll be happy if they can find a way to activate the phone without having to purchase a service. This was one step.

Local Government Blues
As many of you know, I have been actively petitioning the local governments here for various things. Now, I don't expect them to actually act on the things I petition for right away. After all, I'm not that important. But I would at least like the consideration of a response, even a form letter of some sort. As of yet, I have not heard from County Mayor Peter Corroon, or West Valley City Councilman Joel Coleman. Needless to say, I'm not going to even consider voting for these men without some sort of acknowledgment of my petitions. After all, one is for the betterment of the County, the other for West Valley City.

So, that's what I have been up to this week. I would like to send out a really Happy Birthday to my good childhood friend Marc Steffensen, who is turning the bid 3-1 today. I don't know if he is reading this, but perhaps he will. Happy Birthday Marc!

Open Letter to Salt Lake County Mayor: Regarding the Utopia Project and County Acceptance

Lately, I have to admit I have been impressed with Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon. While I opposed his election to begin with, he began to make sound choices within the county government that I was rather impressed with. To begin with, he denied the funding from the County to build a soccer stadium in Sandy City that would only benefit Sandy City financially. As I live in West Valley, I didn't see the financial benefits coming directly to my City, and saw it as a way to fund growth within only one aspect of the County. My understanding of the County government is to provide leadership and growth to benefit the whole county, instead of just one city. Well, the State is funding it now, and I'm OK with that. The State will get more funding from it, and it will be less of an impact on the taxpayers overall.

Well, with this understanding that the County government is there to benefit the entire county, I thought I would try contacting Mayor Corroon to see if the UTOPIA project could be expanded to the whole of Salt Lake County, instead of a few cities that ignored the interests of the communication monopolies, er, companies that oppose the measure. Here is the letter that I sent:

Dear Mayor Corroon,

I would first like to say that I have a lot of respect for you. Being one that normally votes with the Conservatives, I was rather impressed with your decisions you have made as mayor, and will probably vote for you again should you run for re-election.

But there is something that has been playing on my mind, and on the mind of many of your constituents within the Salt Lake County: That of affordable, usable network connections.

Now, this may sound like a small and simple issue, but businesses live and breath by the speed and bandwidth of their internet connection. New businesses are just waiting in the wings for the affordable bandwidth to start providing video streaming, network services, and various other services that require high speed, reliable connections.

Many cities, such as West Valley City (my city), has reacted by focusing on bringing their people and businesses the UTOPIA project. I'm sure you are aware of this project, and the arguments for and against it.

My interest is in those cities that have refused to participate in such a ground-breaking move. These cities have received assurances from various companies that communication companies that they will be able to provide the same services with the aging infrastructure that has yet to provide satisfactory service to their customers, let alone businesses. These companies seem to feel that a municipally organized and run infrastructure is a threat to their business model, and (in my opinion), their monopolies.

That is actually the case. No longer will they be able to charge inflated prices based on maintenance of their network. Instead, they are placed within a level playing field by the municipal network, and will have to compete with other companies that can now host their own services. Ultimately, it's a win for consumers.

So my request is that the County consider the Utopia project as the next possible leap to developing the county infrastructure.

I thank you for you time, and look forward to your response!

Jeremy Robb
Concerned Citizen

Now, I haven't had a lot of luck getting local government officials to respond to my emails. West Valley City Councilman Joe Coleman seems to have completely ignored my appeal for cycling lanes and paths in West Valley going East to West (which means I will not be voting for him again anytime soon). But I think I may be able to get a response from Peter Corroon, in that he's a bigger fish, and may have a more vested interest in keeping tabs on bloggers and what they say.

So, for those of you in cities that have refused to address the idea of the Utopia Project being implemented, I'm swinging for you. I think that everyone in the valley should have an internet connection that will allow for better living through communications. The benefits for Education alone would be outstanding. Imagine not having to build any more schools because we have distance education classes allowing kids to remain at home for part of the week. That would be a huge savings to the school districts in and of itself. All because the County did what cities were too afraid to do: wire their citizens up.

Recipe for a Successful Representative Government

Since the apparent success of the American Revolution in the 18th Century, Americans have been trying to spread their ideals of Republicanism and Democracy across the globe. And in almost every instance, those ideals have failed. South America continues to struggle between democracy and totalitarian dictatorial governments. France needed to try for a Republic 4 times before the current system managed to succeed. And Iraq is currently going through the same growing pains that these other countries had gone through.

My question was, why? Why is it that the American Revolution seemed to succeed when others struggled? What makes a country ready for revolution, and what makes the revolution succeed? Believe it or not, it has nothing to do with America, but rather the society that existed at the time of the revolution. Other countries, such as England, Canada, and India, have all managed to reach a democratically lead government as well. It all has to do with the conditions of the society that is seeking independence, and how they go about preparing for the coming storm.

The Tradition
In order for any type of Democracy or Republic to work, you need to have a tradition of self government. the American Colonies were pretty much autonomous in their day to day management, which made moving to a new representative government of the same type possible. It was built around the corporate structure with leadership, with the ability to elect those that were best suited for the job. All this started at the town level, and slowly progressed upward.

The brilliance of this model is that is can be scaled rather easily. A small number of people representing the larger percentage of the group. Generally the person elected would represent the majority consensus on most of the issues, and therefore would be well qualified to handle all government matters and leave the rest of the people to live their lives as usual.

As this model spread up through the towns to regions (counties, parishes, etc.), and eventually to the entire colony, the people became familiar and comfortable with their model of government. So when it came time to cast off from Great Britain, Parliament, and Monarchy, they already had a system of government set up, just waiting for the next tier.

Popular Support
Yes, in order to perform such a dramatic change to the Political system, there needs to be a social and economic support system in place. This is perhaps the most overlooked portion of the search for Democracy. In 1775, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington were all concerned about the possible success of the revolution, because independence was not a concept that was very popular. At least until Common Sense was written.

Once that pamphlet was in circulation, the popular support of independence grew at such a pace it took the Tory support in Congress by surprise. In the 5 months from the publication of Common Sense the nation was impatiently waiting for the Declaration of Independence to be made.

The lesson here is that the populace needs to know what representative government means, and how it will benefit them. They also need to have a general understanding of how it will be a benefit over the previous government. Too many "revolutions" have been quickly stamped out or overtaken by dictators because this all to crucial fact has been neglected.

It also means that those getting their independence would need to apply the concepts to everyone, including those that were previously in power. Yes, even the oppressed can become the oppressors if they are not careful. It's important to realize the dangers of dehumanizing another group to get your political agenda advanced. Everyone needs to be part of the political process, not just a few groups.

Universality of Beliefs
Religious conviction is probably one of the greatest gifts mankind can possess. It's a moral compass in a world where morality becomes marginalized too often. That being said, excluding people based on religious conviction from society leads to oppression, and undermines the basic premise of democracy: That people have inherent rights based on their existence, and not by the grace of the government. Too often are these concepts forgotten in all political circles, and too often are people willing to give up some of these rights in the name of safety.

These rights and liberties that are universal across all cultures should represent the basis of law, and therefore warrant government protection. Once law, or government intervention, begins to eliminate these liberties, the government has become corrupt and needs a reformation. At this point, those rights that were oppressed give the oppressed a rallying point for action toward change.

Once the action has been put into place, the oppressed have a choice to make: Either they become in turn the oppressors, and return the same injustices upon those who were previously the oppressors, or they can opt to include those who were the oppressors into the system, acknowledging their rights as fellow humans. Notice I don't say that agreements need to be made, just that the basic human rights need to be acknowledged.

The Revolution
I love the story of Gandhi. He was truly a brilliant man in his execution of the Indian Revolution against the British Empire. Instead of mobilizing a huge army and getting thousands of people killed, he gained public support by passively resisting the Empire. As such, India became independent, and now the largest Democracy in existence. And, I might add, one of the few true Democracies in the world. The idea of a radical revolution doesn't mean active disobedience, violence in the streets, and open conflict.

Radical revolutions begin at the core, looking at the one issue that ties one to the existing regime and then replacing it with a tie to a new regime. Gandhi did so by calling into question the intents of the British Empire with regard to India. The American Colonies had Common Sense to question the reason for continued ties to the British Crown. That is the real revolution. Once the revolution is over for the population in general, they are then defending their new core beliefs with a united cause.

Even when you look at labor disputes from the 1920's, they were generally diffused by the management conceding to one or two demands instead of all the labor unions demands. Why? Because they were the core issues that the workers really wanted. They got it, so why continue to strike? It took years for Labor Unions to understand this and adapt accordingly.

Liberty, and Justice for All
Yes, that is for all involved, not just one ethnic group, one religious group, one gender, one level of education. It's for everyone. Too often are the oppressed masses put into power, only to become the new oppressors. If we spend more time looking at the universality of liberty, then we can perhaps stop that vicious cycle from continuing.

With these pieces in place, with the work of some very brilliant and caring individuals, it is possible to build a revolution that will lead to a successful representative government. Unfortunately, too many people quest for just that and fail to see the work necessary to bring it about. Perhaps, if we all spent more time studying our History, we would understand how the process works, and how it can succeed.