Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Are mushrooms the new plastic

Mycellium has almost mystical significance to some greens, but as Eben Bayer of ecovative design notes in this TED Talk, it can also be used to make a biodegradable packaging material called "mycobond" from a variety of different types of waste biomass, thus eliminating the need to make materials like styrofoam from fossil fuel inputs - Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic ?.
Product designer Eben Bayer reveals his recipe for a new, fungus-based packaging material that protects fragile stuff like furniture, plasma screens -- and the environment.

Eben Bayer is co-inventor of MycoBond, an organic (really -- its based on mycelium, a living, growing organism) adhesive that turns agri-waste into a foam-like material for packaging and insulation.



Im not sure if this is truly a form of bioplastic, but Im going to count it as a variety of green chemistry. Apparently Dell is going to use this in some of their packaging, so it is gaining some traction already.



You can view the growth process in this video - and unlike most plastics used in packaging, it is fire resistant.
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Wind Electricity Generator

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NASAs Spitzer Images Out of this World Galaxy

NASA's Spitzer Images Out-of-this-World Galaxy (7/23/09)
NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a wild creature of the dark — a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center.

The galaxy, called NGC 1097, is located 50 million light-years away. It is spiral-shaped like our Milky Way, with long, spindly arms of stars. The "eye" at the center of the galaxy is actually a monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of stars. In this color-coded infrared view from Spitzer, the area around the invisible black hole is blue and the ring of stars, white.

The black hole is huge, about 100 million times the mass of our sun, and is feeding off gas and dust along with the occasional unlucky star. Our Milky Ways central black hole is tame by comparison, with a mass of a few million suns.




NGC 1097 – click for 1000×1000 image


More: here, here, here
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Solar saved southern states from new and costly demand peaks

ReNew Economy has a pair of articles looking at the benefits provided by solar power during the recent heatwave in southern Australia - Solar saved southern states from new and costly demand peaks.
Victoria and South Australia have just finished a week which put the highest stress on the electricity grid since a similar heatwave occurred on 28th-30th January 2009. Despite the population of Victoria and South Australia increasing at least 7%2 since then, the electricity demand supplied by the grid during the heat wave was just lower than the peak usage reached on the 29th of Jan 2009.

Electricity demand from the grid in the recent heatwave peaked on Wednesday. There were initially warnings of potential load shedding1 from the grid operator after the usually baseload Loy Yang A3 brown coal unit and one of the Torrens Island gas units tripped offline on Tuesday. However, demand came in slightly lower than forecast and apart from some minor local transmission outages, demand was fully supplied. ...

If no solar had been installed, Victoria would have set a new demand record of 10,675MW at 1:55pm today 17th-Jan-2014, higher than the metered demand of 10,572MW used at 12:35pm on the 29th-Jan-2009. South Australia would have set a new demand record of 3,549MW at 4:30pm yesterday 16th-Jan-2014, higher than the metered demand of 3,441MW set 4:25pm on the 29th-Jan-2009. Solar reduced the maximum combined VIC & SA demand by 448MW.

Asking what happens when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow ignores the spare capacity built into the grid to handle record demand days like yesterday and today. For the majority of the year, spare generation capacity can backup variations in solar or sudden failures at fossil fuel plants. Record demands, where there is little spare capacity, are caused by hot conditions and strong sunlight. Solar is now a critical component of the generation fleet that reliably supplies our power.

An the second from Giles Parkinson - Solar puts heat on big generators as demand peaks subside.
There seems no doubt that solar is playing a key role in moderating demand and stress on the grid.

It’s interesting to note that the differences between the peaks of previous years – such as in 2009 when there was little solar – correspond with the amount of solar that has been installed (notwithstanding the need to add in population and air-con growth, offset by more energy efficient appliances and less manufacturing).

On Wednesday, for instance, the interval peaks were 10,110 MW in Victoria and 3,108MW in SA. The corresponding numbers on January 29, 2009, were 10,446 MW and 3,270 MW. According to the APVI’s Live Solar website, the PV contribution at the peak times was around 220 MW in each state. Some suggest that without solar, Victoria would have hit record demand from the grid on Thursday – and prices to boot.

In WA, the peak in electricity demand has fallen well short of previous years, despite the record-breaking streak of temperatures, rising population and growing use of air conditioning.

In 2011 and 2012, peak demand peaked at more than 4,000GW. In the past week, it made it only as high as 3,733. How much solar does WA have on its rooftops? About 340MW.

This has had an impact on peak pricing events. In 2009, the average spot price between 8am and 4pm was over $6,000/MWh. The average price – despite a few peaks – in the latest period has been about one tenth of that.

On Thursday, the volume weighted pool prices between 08.00 and 16.00 yesterday were $299/MWh in Victoria and $377/MWh in South Australia, despite the huge levels of demand. The reaching of super peaks of $12,000/MWh or more in Victoria occurred mostly when Loy Yang A – the biggest brown coal generator – had one of its four units off-line for urgent repairs .

Generators and retailers use elaborate hedging policies to reduce their exposure to such fluctuations – which can be triggered as much by bidding tactics and other factors as much as weather – but the fact remains that a large revenue pool has been evaporated by the impact of solar.

In the same way that one third of the network costs are to cater for about 100 hours of peak demand a year, generators source a huge amount of their annual revenue from similar events. The problem for many coal generators is that they grew to rely on these peak pricing events to boost their revenue, and inflate their values. Solar eats into those revenues whenever they produce – because the output comes during the day-time period, when prices are normally higher.

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Monday, September 29, 2014

Bixi Bikes Coming to Vancouver

Were thrilled to see progression in the plan to introduce Bixi bikes to Vancouver as the Velo-City Conference was attended late last month: 

Bike share is coming to Vancouver, and we must make it work

The international Velo-City conference is underway in Vancouver as of Tuesday morning and I arrived in time to hear an inspired talk by urban cycling advocate Gil Penalosa. Judging by the Twitter activity throughout the morning, Penalosas message excited the full house in attendance at the Wall Centre. While Penalosas full presentation — available here — is fast-paced and rich with detail, it was nicely summed up by an Australian delegate named Stephen Yarwood.
Given the way the Vision council have married themselves to the cycling issue, it was perhaps predictable that the site of the Velo-City conference felt like an offsite City Hall. Mayor Gregor hung around to do interviews while his chief of staff parked himself in front of the venue most of the morning. Even Penny Ballem paced around the site. The always affable Jerry Dobrovolny, Vancouvers Director of Transportation listened intently to Penalosas speech, which he quipped might put him out of a job. Penalosas message was to be bold, to be fearless in the face of public opposition, and to make cities as safe as possible for cycling with many miles worth of separated bike lanes. Vancouver, said Penalosa, has not been nearly bold enough when compared to cities like Chicago.The real star of the show that morning, however, were the over 600 Bixi bikes shipped in for the conference and parked in front of the Wall Centre convention facility. Bixi is the Montreal-based bike share manufacturer that will be providing the two-wheeled transport for Vancouvers bike share program. The operator for the Vancouver bike share will be the Alta company based out of Portland, Oregon.
I had the pleasure of having my first bike share experience, after I signed an insurance waiver and gave conference organizers a stamp of my credit card. To get access to a bike I simply inserted the card provided by Velo-City, waited a few seconds for the light to turn from red to green, and pulled the bike out while slightly lifting the rear of the bike from the seat. With my complementary Lazer bike helmet strapped on I took a short ride downtown. 
The Bixi bikes are beautiful machines. They are definitely more sturdy than your typical hybrid or road bike, and sport wide tires with a street-friendly tread. The seat is wide and comfy, something many casual riders prefer. 
The seat post – which I got a blurry image of – is easily adjustable, and thankfully youre not able to easily slide the seat and post right off the bike. That would be a big target of theft otherwise. 
My demo bike was a three-speed but the bikes on order for Vancouvers bike share will be a seven-speed bike to better manage our citys hilly terrain. The gear changer is located in the right half of the handlebar, and the left side has a small bell you can ring with your thumb when needed. There is a small amount of space over the handlebars to locate a small basket if necessary. 
The brakes are built into the wheel hubs, and while youre riding enough power is generated to run safety lights embedded into the frame of the bike, improving your visibility in traffic. Overall its a solid and comfortable ride, but the slightly heavy frame had my quadriceps burning up a few hills. For all my Bixi bike images see this Flickr set... Read the full story at City Caucus

Bicycle sharing programs have been active in many cities throughout the globe, much like car-shares and other eco-transportation services that are new to Vancouver. As part of Vancouvers Greenest City Action Plan we are expecting to see a significant increase in bicycle transportation services and improvements. The increase in bikes and bike lanes pose a natural deterrent to motor vehicles as those that are inclined to choose cleaner modes of transportation can with ease, and those that prefer to utilize motor vehicles may chose to go elsewhere. The citys green transportation initiatives focus on walking, cycling, transit, and greenways. By designing streets with pedestrian priority, expanding the bicycle network, improving public transit, and increasing public green space, one can imagine a healthier, greener city in the future. Bixi is expected to be active in Vancouver by 2013.


Watch here to learn more about Velo-city Vancouver:



Sources: City Caucus, Bixi, Vancouver Greenest City, Velo-city, Vancity Buzz, UBC Transportation

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Global Investment in Renewable Energy Czech Republic

The final country on our list of the largest reported investments in renewable energy in 2010 is the Czech Republic
                               

In the Czech Republic, renewable energy is supported through either a guaranteed feed-in tariff or a green bonus paid on top of the market price. System operators are free to choose either option. Furthermore, renewable energy is promoted through several subsidies and an exemption from the tax on income gained from the sale of electricity from renewable sources.



Policies


Here are a few of Czech Republic’s renewable energy policies (click here for more information):

Tax exemption – No income tax is foreseen neither in the year of putting in operation renewable electricity plants nor for the following 5 years.

EU Structural Funds – From 2007, investors in renewable electricity production had the opportunity to obtain aid from the EU’s Structural Funds via the Operational Programmes. The Operational Programme (OP) for 2007-2013 focused, amongst other things, on the construction and restoration of plants using RES.

Motives


The share of renewable energy sources has been increasing, although still below EU average.


Coal is the main energy source for electricity production. The second most important source is nuclear power.

The share of renewable energy sources has also been increasing, although still below EU average.

 


Renewable Energy Availability

Click to see larger image
and for more information.

Gross electricity production from hydro amounted to 2,090 gigawatt-hours while the total installed capacity amounted to 1,031 megawatts.

Gross electricity production from biomass amounted to 968 gigawatt-hours in 2007 (with an annual increment of 237 gigawatt-hours).

Wind plants produced 125.11 gigawatt-hours in 2007. By the end of 2007, 113.8 megawatts of wind power had been installed in the Czech Republic. In 2007, 10 projects with a total capacity of 70.3 megawatts were put into operation.

To learn about the other countries on this list please see our blog archive or take a look at our GREENcyclopedia for much more!
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about renewable energy - Knowledge Is Power! For more information go to www.endeavorscorp.com or write to us at info@endeavorscorp.com if you have questions or want to get involved. Have a green day!
Res-Legal, EREC, EREC, EREC, Endeavorscorp, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and United Nations Environment Programme (2011)
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PacPyro A Landfill Listing

The Climate Spectator has a report on a company looking to exploit biochar production for carbon credits - Landfill listing.

Landfill energy and biochar specialist Pacific Pyrolysis has decided to push the go button on its backdoor listing on the ASX less than a week after the federal government got its Carbon Farming Initiative through parliament. ...



The company has developed technology that uses a process of slow pyrolysis to convert low value, non-food biomass, such as municipal green waste and industrial sludges into renewable energy and biochar, and says it has an extensive pipeline of projects with major corporations and councils. It has a demonstration plant north of Sydney and expects its business to be able to generate renewable energy certificates and also be included in the CFI, which will allow farmers and others to generate credits for carbon abatement initiatives.



PacPyro hopes to tap into the $10 billion landfill market, exploit rising landfill costs and energy prices to deliver its technology as a cheaper and more profitable option. It expects to deploy its first commercial scale plants from 2012, depending on its ability to strike commercial partnerships, and to potentially tap government funding, as well as its ability to generate renewable energy and carbon credits.
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NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter

Ive written about dark matter a number of times, most recently here. A more extensive article is here.

The gist of things is that, although there has been much indirect evidence for dark matter, there have also been many skeptics, both among astrophysicists and in the general public.

Uncomfortable with the idea of dark matter as a postulated solution to a number of astrophysical puzzles, the skeptics have devised a number of alternative explanations for the various anomalies -- often by attempting to modify long-accepted principles of Newtonian gravity and general relativity.

But heedless of the skeptics, evidence for dark matter just keeps piling up. Here is the latest, just released today, and it is a lot less indirect than previous evidence:

NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter
Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter.

"This is the most energetic cosmic event, besides the Big Bang, which we know about," said team member Maxim Markevitch of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

These observations provide the strongest evidence yet that most of the matter in the universe is dark. Despite considerable evidence for dark matter, some scientists have proposed alternative theories for gravity where it is stronger on intergalactic scales than predicted by Newton and Einstein, removing the need for dark matter. However, such theories cannot explain the observed effects of this collision.


For more commentary, see this at particle physicist Clifford Johnsons Asymptotia.

Tags: dark matter, astrophysics
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Sunday, September 28, 2014

Venezuela Says Oil Reserves Surpass Saudi Arabias

CNBC reports Venezuela has increased their (heavy) oil reserves figures - Venezuela Says Oil Reserves Surpass Saudi Arabias.
Venezuela has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world leader in oil reserves with certified deposits leaping to 297 billion barrels at the end of 2010, President Hugo Chavezs government said Saturday.

Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told Reuters that the new reserves, which pushed the total 41 percent higher than the previous year, were booked in the South American OPEC members vast Orinoco extra heavy crude belt.

A jubilant Chavez told parliament that Venezuelas reserves now surpassed those of Saudi Arabia.

"We have enough for 200 years," the former soldier said in a speech in which he denied he was a dictator, complained that he was being unfairly "demonized" and offered to give up much-criticized decree powers a year ahead of schedule.

There are suggestions that countries, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, have exaggerated their oil reserves in the past, though the producers deny doing so.

Some analysts point out that some OPEC members reserves figures have not changed in years, suggesting new discoveries had exactly matched output, while others say the lack of independent verification gave rise to doubts.

OPEC said that Saudi Arabias reserves stood at 265 billion barrels in 2009.

Saudi Arabias advantage is that its oil is mostly light, conventional, easily-pumped crude, while the Orinoco deposits are extra heavy tar-like sour crude that must be upgraded or mixed with a lighter grade to create an exportable blend.
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Global Gasoline Guzzling Set To Plummet

Cleantechnica has a post on some research into future oil demand for transport - Global Gasoline Guzzling Set To Plummet.
Policies designed to minimise and redefine dependence upon oil for transportation have been the talk of many towns around the world over the past several years, leading Navigant Research to posit that gasoline consumption for road transportation will fall by 4% from 2014 to 2035.

Policies intended to reduce fuel consumption have ranged from subsidising alternative fuels and alternative-fuel vehicles, making the development of new and economic biofuels a priority, as well as higher fuel-economy requirements for new vehicles. Each policy has been one step in a cleaner future, and another nail in the coffin of traditional fuel-oriented transportation.

“The anticipated effects of climate change are driving international cooperation on mitigation efforts, including reducing oil consumption in the transportation sector,” says Scott Shepard, research analyst with Navigant Research. “Markets for both vehicles and fuels have gradually begun to respond to these efforts, and alternative fuels ‑ including electricity, natural gas, and biodiesel ‑ are beginning to have an impact on global oil demand.”

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Interlocking Cross Laminated Timber Could Use Up Square Miles Of Beetle Killed Lumber

TreeHugger has a look at a use for the glut of timber from trees killed by pine beetles - Interlocking Cross Laminated Timber Could Use Up Square Miles Of Beetle-Killed Lumber, and Look Gorgeous, Too.
The Mountain Pine Beetle is killing trees across North America, including up to 44% of Colorados forests. If there was any infrastructure investment to be made right now, I would have thought it would be to set up a pile of cross laminated timber factories fast, and put people to work churning out panels at a standard size and stockpiling them; CLT is strong, fire resistant, it sequesters carbon dioxide and it makes very pretty buildings.

At the University of Utahs Integrated Technology in Architecture Center, (ITAC) they are working on a modification of the design of CLT for the American market, namely figuring out how to make it cheaper.

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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Induced pluripotent stem cells IV

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) may again be judged one of the most significant scientific developments this year, and the news keeps coming. (Of course, it was near the top last year also.)

Some of our previous discussions are here, here, and here.

The ability to turn nearly any type of adult cell into the equivalent of a pluripotent stem cell seems almost too good to be true. And so far, that goal is still elusive, as a practical matter, with respect to treating diseases.

There have been at least three principal difficulties with experimental processes reported so far.

  1. The process depends on a kind of gene therapy that inserts a few desired additional genes into cellular DNA using certain types of viruses, and the process itself significantly raises the chances of affected cells becoming cancerous.
  2. One or more of the genes that are added to cellular DNA to induce pluripotency can also raise the chances of a cell becoming cancerous.
  3. Alternative methods that address the first two problems tend to be substantially less efficient, therefor slower and more expensive, for producing the desired iPS cells.

The research well consider here addresses the first of these problems.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Generated Without Viral Integration
Pluripotent stem cells have been generated from mouse and human somatic cells by viral expression of the transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. A major limitation of this technology is the use of potentially harmful genome-integrating viruses. Here, we generate mouse induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from fibroblasts and liver cells by using nonintegrating adenoviruses transiently expressing Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. These adenoviral iPS (adeno-iPS) cells show DNA demethylation characteristic of reprogrammed cells, express endogenous pluripotency genes, form teratomas, and contribute to multiple tissues, including the germ line, in chimeric mice. Our results provide strong evidence that insertional mutagenesis is not required for in vitro reprogramming. Adenoviral reprogramming may provide an improved method for generating and studying patient-specific stem cells and for comparing embryonic stem cells and iPS cells.

Perhaps a little more explanation would be in order. Weve discussed the four transcription factors, Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, in earlier articles.

The "insertional mutagenesis" mentioned here refers to the use of a type of virus that inserts some of its genes directly into the cellular DNA. Such viruses include lentiviruses and other retroviruses. HIV is an example of a lentivirus. The genetic material of this kind of virus is in the form of RNA, which must first be translated into DNA (by an enzyme called reverse transcriptase) and then integrated into the host cell DNA. The transcription factor genes are artificially added to the virus RNA so that they are copied along with everything else.

That integration step is what enables genes for the transcription factors to be inserted into host DNA. Although genes for those factors are already present, of course, in non-stem cells, they are in a form that is less readily translated into proteins than in pluripotent cells. The newly-integrated genes, however, can be easily translated, and they produce the protein transcription factors that go on to turn the cell into a pluripotent stem cell.

The drawback of this method is that the new genes can be inserted at arbitrary points of the host DNA, and this can harmfully affect other genes, which may make the cell susceptible to becoming cancerous.

What the research in this latest work has done is to add the transcription factor genes to a different kind of virus, called an adenovirus. The significant difference of an adenovirus from a retrovirus is that the genetic material of the former consists of double-stranded DNA, like the DNA of the host cell. When an adenovirus infects a cell, its DNA floats freely within the cell, and it can be translated into proteins by the same process as for the host cell DNA.

So what the new work described in this study does is to add the transcription factor genes to the adenovirus DNA, and then allow the virus to infect normal adult cells. This has the advantage of not damaging the host DNA, because it does not get integrated into it.

Naturally, this is an obvious approach to try, and it has been attempted before, but not successfully. The reason it hasnt worked before, probably, is that the adenovirus DNA is diluted every time an infected cell divides, since there may be, at most, only a couple dozen copies of the virus DNA in each infected cell. It does not get copied reliably into daughter cells, and thats a good thing on the whole. (Otherwise an infection might never go away.)

Fortunately, it turns out that simply having the adenovirus-carried transcription factor genes in a cell for a sufficiently long time can trigger further gene expression that confers pluripotency – which remains even after the virus genes are no longer present. Persistence pays.

The research was carried out using various types of mouse cells – fetal liver cells, adult hepatocytes, and fibroblasts from the mouse tail tip. The last of these can, of course, be obtained quite easily.

There is, however, a downside. The efficiency of inducing pluripotency by this method is still very low. Typically, only 0.0001% to 0.001% (1 in a million to 1 in 100,000) of cells are converted. This compares with 0.01% to 0.1% when DNA-integrating viruses are used.

The research proceeded to compare the adenovirus-induced pluripotent cells with natural pluripotent cells. The similarities were quite close:

  • Pluripotency genes of the reprogrammed cells lack methylation (a chemical modification that inhibits expression), just like the genes of natural pluripotent cells.
  • The pluripotency genes (including Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc, and Nanog) of normal pluripotent cells are also expressed in the reprogrammed cells, even after all traces of adenovirus DNA are gone.
  • The iPS cells formed teratomas (cell masses consisting of many different cell types) when injected into adult mice.
  • When the iPS cells were injected into mouse blastocysts, which then developed into mostly normal, but "chimeric", young mice, evidence of descendants of the iPS cells turned up in many different tissue types.

The next step for research in this direction will be to find out whether the low efficiency of adenoviral reprogramming can be improved by techniques similar to those used to improve the efficiency of retroviral reprogramming.

News reports on this research:

  • Important new step toward producing stem cells for human treatment (9/25/08) – Harvard University press release
  • A New, Improved Stem Cell Recipe (9/26/08) – ScienceNOW
  • Safer iPS cells (9/25/08) – The Scientist
  • Cell rebooting technique sidesteps risks (9/25/08) – Nature
  • Safer Creation of Stem Cells (9/25/08) – Science News
  • New way to make stem cells is safe: research (9/25/08) – Reuters
  • Stem cells created without cancer-causing viruses (9/25/08) – New Scientist




ResearchBlogging.org
M. Stadtfeld, M. Nagaya, J. Utikal, G. Weir, K. Hochedlinger (2008). Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Generated Without Viral Integration Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1162494


Tags: stem cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells
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Bruce Schneier banned from testifying to Congress

The Register has an article on the controversy over the use of body scanners in US airports - TSA bars security guru from perv scanner testimony. I recently travelled through a few US airports and didnt really notice the scanners (the retina recording they do at customs was much more in-your-face to me) - however I did find the "security theatre" performed by the TSA way over the top - I think there were more people participating in the security pantomime at Bozeman airport, for example, than there were people traveling through the facility each day. As a job creation scheme it may have had some merit but a less productive one would be hard to imagine...
Security expert Bruce Schneier was been banned at the last minute from testifying in front of congress on the efficacy – or otherwise – of the US Transportation Security Administrations (TSA) much-maligned perv scanners.

Schneier is a long-time critic of the TSAs policies for screening travelers, and was formally invited to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearings. However, the TSA objected to his presence because he is currently involved in a legal case over the use of said scanners in US airports.

"I was looking forward to sitting next to a TSA person and challenging some of their statements. That would have been interesting," Schneier told The Register. "The request to appear came from the committee itself, because theyd been reading my stuff on this and thought it would be interesting."

Schneier, who is currently involved in an Economist debate on just this issue, has criticized the TSAs procedures as "security theater", designed to give the appearance of security without actually being effective. He has pointed out that the scanners are easily defeated, and that since people who do have items are merely forced to give them up and sent on their way, terrorists simply need to send enough people through the systems until one of them succeeds.

This isnt the first time the TSA has been less than willing to have itself subject to anything like the same scrutiny that aircraft passengers are routinely put through. Last year they ducked out of similar hearings at the last minute, apparently because they didnt want to sit next to representatives from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

The use of the perv scanners is highly controversial. The TSA has spent millions of dollars to buy them, and the industry hired ex–Homeland Security supremo Michael Chertoff as a lobbyist to push the technology. However, there have been numerous examples of people claiming to be able to beat the scanners, concerns about the health implications of scanning, and the so-called "homosexual" pat-downs introduced to encourage people to use them caused a national day of protest.

There are currently several ongoing legal cases against the scanners, including one recent case in which, it is claimed, attractive female subjects were being repeatedly ordered to use the devices. Personal airport searches have to be performed by a member of the same sex as the target, but no such rules are in place for operators of the scanners.
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What Is Eco Friendly Technology

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Friday, September 26, 2014

LEDs will slash energy use for lighting by 95

RNE has a look at the energy efficiency revolution in lighting - LEDs will slash energy use for lighting by 95%.
A simple (but not perfect) measure for lighting efficiency is the number of lumens (a measure of light intensity) a lighting source produces per watt. A conventional incandescent bulb gets 13 lumens per watt to light your room, while a replacement LED bulb from Philips that can be bought at Coles or Woolworths achieves 80 lumens per watt (a compact fluorescent globe gets about 60 lumens per watt).

CREE (the industry leader who, it is speculated, may purchase the next best, Philips’ Lumileds division) has successfully demonstrated Light Emitting Diodes running at 300 Lumens per watt in the lab. CREE currently sell a $10, 9.5W bulb (available in the US), which produces 85 Lumens per watt and can directly replace an old style 60W globe.

Other breakthroughs and innovations are contributing to achieving higher efficiency’s in LED lighting, including a breakthrough by German researchers which will not only effect LED lights, but laptop and mobile phone chargers, cutting losses in today’s most efficient power supplies by half from 10% to just 5%.

Taking all this into consideration, according to the US Department of Energy SSL (Solid State Lighting) program http://energy.gov/eere/ssl/solid-state-lighting we should be able to achieve wall plug efficiencies of 250 Lumens per watt by 2020 which means that a conventional bulb replacement in 2020 would be available using only a third of the electricity of today’s LED bulbs.

At that staggering rate of 250 lumens per watt, it will only take 3W to light a room, when it used to be done with 60 Watts of power. This represents a 95% reduction in energy required for lighting.

This will have a profound effect on the world’s requirement for lighting energy. We can expect - on an absolute basis – that 19% of the world’s electricity which is currently used for lighting to dramatically drop by at least 75%. On today’s numbers the reduction is the equivalent of the entire electricity consumption of the European Union.

In developed nations these huge efficiency gains from LEDs in the lighting sector will contribute to the continuing restructure of the electricity supply industry, which is currently facing a death spiral unless it can electrify the remaining residential energy services coming from fossil gas and supply a fast tracked electrification of the world’s vehicle fleet.

In developing countries, rooms that can be lit with 3W and task lights with even lower electricity consumption. This means that almost all the remaining 1.5Billion of the world’s population without an electricity supply will be able to access one at very minimal marginal cost in the next 5 years.

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Climate change episode of Frozen Planet wont be shown in the U S

The last episode of the high rating "Frozen Planet" was on TV here tonight, which reminded me of this story in The Daily Mail (of all places) noting that US viewers wont get to see it because it is about global warming, now apparently a taboo topic - Climate change episode of Frozen Planet wont be shown in the U.S. as viewers dont believe in global warming. Once science is abandoned you an only assume collapse wont be far behind...
An episode of the BBCs Frozen Planet documentary series that looks at climate change has been scrapped in the U.S., where many are hostile to the idea of global warming.

British viewers will see all seven episodes of the multi-million-pound nature series throughout the Autumn.

But U.S. audiences will not be shown the last episode, which looks at the threat posed by man to the natural world.

It is feared a show that preaches global warming could upset viewers in the U.S., where around half of people do not believe in climate change.
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Beijing sunrise

Time has an interesting photo of a modern Beijing sunrise, brought to you by that wonderful substance, coal - Smog in Beijing Is So Awful You Have to Catch the Sunrise on a Big Screen.

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Thursday, September 25, 2014

Wireless Charging Of Electric Vehicles While In Transit

CleanTechnica has an article on recharging electric buses while they are on the move - Active Wireless Charging In Transit; Remarkable Progress In Korea For Electric Vehicles.
Improvements with the electric transit infrastructure unfold at light speed. Active wireless charging in transit with electric vehicles, in this case electric buses, is taking place. Korea has broken through with accelerated wireless power efficiency with the Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV). This technology from the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is setting another standard that increases the development of electric vehicles and addresses the (slight) time issue of charging. This breakthrough works for personal or public transportation presently, allowing vehicles to be charged while stationary or while moving. “This is accomplished by solving technological issues that limit the commercialization of electric vehicles such as price, weight, volume, driving distance, and lack of charging infrastructure,” ResearchSEA writes.
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Examples Of Green Technology

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what are some inventions out there best answer the solar electric ro it can provide not only all the electricity the house uses but also provide its heat without using electrical6 inspiring groundbreaking tweet share on tumblr email this article is underwritten by veercom isnt just about wind turbines solar panels and alternative fuel anymorewhat is subject areas energy perhaps the most urgent issue for this includes the development alternative fuels

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