Bloom Box

Energy generation is at the very foundation of any economic and political entity. I am including this essay on this page because energy is so vital. I have largely excluded technology from these pages other than as a passing reference. My focus was on political and economic issues. There are of course always technology issues. I did not wish to focus on those because I tend to become very passionate about technology. I am in this essay bringing technology to center stage.

Frankly I doubt that this device is any more realistic than was cold fusion. That said I do believe that we must continue to search for some method of accomplishing the generation of large amounts of energy without a continuous outpouring of waste gas that contaminates the atmosphere. Failing that we must concentrate on technology that removes the spent carbon (in the form of CO2) from the atmosphere in a more rapid cycle than is accomplished with living plants. Here algae farms seem to offer the most hope of converting CO2 into something more useful like bio diesel. But once again we are years away from a solution.

Rather than repeat information already presented I will give a link:
60 Minutes | Bloom Energy | Transmission Line Losses | Ziff Davis

Some other ideas to reduce consumption.
Self Tinting Windows


Something that has been overlooked in this discussion is transmission line losses. Adding to the loss from transmission is the simple cost of maintaining the lines themselves. If this technology can be implemented the overall cost of supplying electricity to every home in America will definitely decrease. Add to this the increased security of such a delivery system and the argument for these devices becomes almost compelling.

It is Time to Roll up Your Sleeves:

My father was a well-dressed man. I remember picking dad up at the train station when he would return from New York City. The first thing dad would do was to change from his business suit into what he called his casual outfit. Casual to my father did not mean jeans. In fact I don’t think I ever saw my father wearing jeans. To dad they were always blue jeans, never just jeans. That simple fact gives you a feel for the properness of my father. Yet my father was a workaholic. I can recall many occasions when dad said let’s get to work. Trust me my father did not mean we would be dilly-dallying. When dad worked it was not a flurry of activity. It was a measured assault on whatever task was at hand.

In the fall we would cut fire wood we had gathered from the beach or split logs we had delivered to the house. Whatever the task it would be proceeded by the phrase let’s roll up our sleeves and just do it. Often that was exactly what we would do. We know what we must do to get America back on track. We must use less and produce more. We must do those jobs that we have traditionally said were so undesirable that they should be performed only by workers considered outcasts. Funny thing about my father was he considered all jobs worthy of his best effort. Not a second hand effort. He insisted that if a job was worth doing it was worth doing well.

I was thinking of my father today and his approach to work. Can we as Americans say we always put out our best effort? I rather think not. Somehow we have lost the ability to roll up our sleeves. We leave a task half undone and then wonder why the work does not satisfy us. We start out with the best of intensions but often it seems we do not give it our best effort and the task is not completed well. My father never declared a job done until the tools were oiled and put away and the work area cleaned up. Dad was a person of order. He was not a neat freak but rather felt that if things were orderly then he had completed the job. He took great pride in whatever he did. Every job from painting to wood splitting had to be done to the best of his and my ability. Even today anything less than my best effort leaves me feeling he would admonish me with his ultimate disapproval which was “you can do better than that.” Yes dad America can do better than that too. So let us roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing America. This time let’s do the job well. Let us do it to the best of our ability. Let us make my father proud.

Failed States and No Cook Rice:

I read with great interest today about a new strain of rice developed in India. This rice may be made ready to eat by soaking rather than by boiling in water. Now this may seem to be an unimportant development by folks that don’t have a scientific viewpoint. Water you see has a very high specific heat. That is to say it takes quite a bit of heat to raise water to its boiling point. Heat and energy in this example can be used interchangeably. That is to say water requires more energy to be raised to its boiling point than almost any other substance.

Now this fact is not interesting until one connects it with an over populated island like Haiti which just underwent such disastrous earthquakes. Part of the reason that Haiti was so decimated by the earth quakes is because the population of Haiti has cut down most of the trees to make charcoal for cooking. This same thing can be seen to be happening in the poorer parts of Africa. The trees could not hold the land in place when the island was lashed by several hurricanes a few years ago. I will not say this is the only reason Haiti is today experiencing problems. What I am saying is that cooking fires that leave the land barren of trees are an indication of problems that will arise in the future.

I think anyone that does not realize that we have more humans living on the planet than we can safely support has missed the obvious. We are running out of everything including cheap energy. While we lower the overall population and find new sources for energy we simply must actively practice conservation at all levels of society. When we can do that with minimal impact upon those who are currently alive I think we should. I strongly urge that countries that are large energy users help by eating rice that does not require cooking. Of course this assumes a water supply that you do not have to kill the bacteria by boiling. Bacteria in the water supply is of course the other reason one might boil rice.