I am glad to say that there are no more "bugs" on my video presentations neither for IE-Internet Explorer users nor for Firefox adepts. Please feel free to check out the my multiple album vodpod video lay-out. (currently Triple Album layout).
This new Vodpod lay-out will bring more discipline and induce more thought in choosing what to present in order to building meaningful albums according the themes and issues raised in my pages. The set-backs mentioned in the previous post and their rapid resolution to an acceptable level, at least to my mind, have opened me to new the explosion, in fact a the chain-reaction in available quality video, notably in an areas of close to my heart, that of educational videos.
After an early, strong interest in sites such as The Vega Science Trust involving-portraying, Nobel Prize Chemist, Harry Kroto or Physics Nobel, Richard Feynman and many more, I found less and less time to watch, listen and learn in favour of action.
Remember, to many philosophers "the object of education isn't knowledge, it's action.”
Today's offer, in comparison to my early incursion into my personal, self imposed, Life-Long-Learning Programme via Video, is truely overwhelming.
Hopefully I shall not need to choose between my taste for colourful presentations, perhaps a little slow depending on your computer and Internet connection or between the more simple and rapid classical video link approach bloggers and webmasters know well . As I struggle with this new library offer and opportunity or information over-flow menace I believe that with your help and feedback we can achieve a good balance between the bright-lights media and the efficiency and surprise of a link-list.
OK, I know there is still a fair amount of cleaning-up to be done (TBD!)
Further Reference in Science:
The Vega Science Trust
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Impressive Interdisciplinary Engineering Sciences Video Collection: Obstacles_Curiosity_Serendipity_Webdesign Simplicity.
Obstacles, curiosity and serendipity, again led me to the excellent iMechanica website and to this most impressive video collection.
A Motto:
"Don't keep a good thing to yourself" Perhaps, truer than ever in tackling issues facing up-coming generations?
A short story:
A short story of how obstacles oblige us to think and dabble. It may be of some interest in presenting this particular light-weight link, the older classical, but very efficient video collection approach used in most early university professors and lecturers' sites, the one's which brought me to Internet and the clear simplicity of links and later Google AdSense, the web site's I wished to build but didn't!
Obstacle I.
While setting-up eye catching science, engineering and management video collections, motivated and perhaps side-tracked by fashionable web-based gadgets named widgets, I encountered a problem: My latest video catching and presentation video finally worked, roughly to my satisfaction, but although I set-up under IE-Internet Explorer, OK only to find that IE could not open it but FireFox could! (who is laughing at whom?)
Obstacle II.
I was also, as usual, confronted with an over-sized choice of materials to treat, notably how best to contribute to what I, and many more competent than I, see as the most important issue facing humanity ie. the current energy-climate and related human issues whose bottom line is based on hard science. cf posts...
Task prioritisation:
At least, my site should be made to work especially since so many use IE -Dire Straights indeed! I was overwhelmed. I decided to side step and check my page rank via FireFox, clicked my back-links, unimpressive, clicked similar pages, that was better and should be examined in a more routine basis. I came across a site in Spanish, with some RSS feed in english. The latter led me to iMechanica a very good rich resource, who listed this Impressive Interdisciplinary Engineering MZ's Video Collection. Both iMechanica and MZ's site merit separate reviews.
Sources:
Interdisciplinary Engineering Video Collection
iMechanica
A Motto:
"Don't keep a good thing to yourself" Perhaps, truer than ever in tackling issues facing up-coming generations?
A short story:
A short story of how obstacles oblige us to think and dabble. It may be of some interest in presenting this particular light-weight link, the older classical, but very efficient video collection approach used in most early university professors and lecturers' sites, the one's which brought me to Internet and the clear simplicity of links and later Google AdSense, the web site's I wished to build but didn't!
Obstacle I.
While setting-up eye catching science, engineering and management video collections, motivated and perhaps side-tracked by fashionable web-based gadgets named widgets, I encountered a problem: My latest video catching and presentation video finally worked, roughly to my satisfaction, but although I set-up under IE-Internet Explorer, OK only to find that IE could not open it but FireFox could! (who is laughing at whom?)
Obstacle II.
I was also, as usual, confronted with an over-sized choice of materials to treat, notably how best to contribute to what I, and many more competent than I, see as the most important issue facing humanity ie. the current energy-climate and related human issues whose bottom line is based on hard science. cf posts...
Task prioritisation:
At least, my site should be made to work especially since so many use IE -Dire Straights indeed! I was overwhelmed. I decided to side step and check my page rank via FireFox, clicked my back-links, unimpressive, clicked similar pages, that was better and should be examined in a more routine basis. I came across a site in Spanish, with some RSS feed in english. The latter led me to iMechanica a very good rich resource, who listed this Impressive Interdisciplinary Engineering MZ's Video Collection. Both iMechanica and MZ's site merit separate reviews.
Sources:
Interdisciplinary Engineering Video Collection
iMechanica
Friday, April 17, 2009
Life-Cycle Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Route_Cradle-to-Grave, GHG-CO2equivalent emissions_Nuclear Inspections
Nuclear Inspections
In two of my recent posts:
1.Renewable and Alternative Energy Sources Ranked_Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, energy security_Information Overload Mastered, (09 March 08).
2.Solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security reviewed _Parametres used to classify and rank_Follows previous post (21Feb 09).
I introduced readers to Mark Z. Jacobson's strong pitch, in his "Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security", in favour of "renewable energy sources" his 1st and 2nd choices, termed, Tiers 1 and 2. followed by his less favoured 3rd choices, Tier 3, which includes alternatives energies; coal-fired power with the "elusive" carbon capture and sequestration (Coal-CCS) , and the experienced and successful Nuclear route. Both coal without CCS and Nuclear are current main and acknowledged alternative power supplier respectively. By the same, both are major users of high-temperature corrosion resistant alloys and as a very early retired specialist in the later fields, I -and colleagues- shall come back, with some delight, to talk about what the metallurgists, materials scientists and engineers can hope to bring to humanity's energy-climate plight which is unlikely to miraculously disappear.
At present, it is the latter 3rd choice, tier 3, in particular Nuclear, which will be considered here thanks to Benjamin K. Sovacool, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, who recently analyzed more than one hundred life-cycle studies of nuclear plants around the world, his results published in August in Energy Policy (ref1.).
The life-cycle-assessment (LCA) evaluates the total carbon output of the nuclear industry involves calculating those emissions and dividing them by the electricity produced over the entire lifetime of the plant.
The Good News:
From the 19 most reliable assessments, Sovacool found that estimates of total life-cycle carbon emissions ranged from 1.4 grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO2e/kWh) of electricity produced up to 288 gCO2e/kWh.
Sovacool believes the mean of 66 gCO2e/kWh to be a reasonable approximation.
and according to his analysis,
-nuclear power, at 66 gCO2e/kWh emissions is well below
-scrubbed coal-fired plants, which emit 960 gCO2e/kWh, and
-natural gas-fired plants, at 443 gCO2e/kWh.
However, nuclear emits twice as much carbon as solar photovoltaic, at 32 gCO2e/kWh, and six times as much as onshore wind farms, at 10 gCO2e/kWh.
."
"A number in the 60s puts it well below natural gas, oil, coal and even clean-coal technologies. On the other hand, things like energy efficiency, and some of the cheaper renewables are a factor of six better. So for every dollar you spend on nuclear, you could have saved five or six times as much carbon with efficiency, or wind farms," Sovacool says. "Add to that the high costs and long lead times for building a nuclear plant about $3 billion for a 1,000 megawatt plant, with planning, licensing and construction times of about 10 years and nuclear power is even less appealing.
The Bad News-Work To Be Done (TBD)?
Over and above the already extensive ranking of the nuclear route there remains many serious concerns about the risks caused by uranium mining (eg radon gas levels on miners), and waste disposal both from the mining operations on miners and locally exposed populations-cradle side or to local populations on the end waste "grave side" if I may use the expression. A rapid Google Search turns-up an impressive list of concerns. however at the time of this post, again a scientific pointer is given by BK Sovacool in his paper on bird mortality or rather avian mortality (birds, bats...etc) (Ref. 2 below) which surprisingly ranks wind the least harmful to avian species followed by nuclear and worse of all coal power generation. (personal communication by Mark Z. Jacobson.)
NB. in both references there is strictly no reference to "Superman or woman! " This is perhaps a lesson in it's self!
References:
1."Valuing the greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power: A critical survey" [pdf].
2. Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity [abstract]
In two of my recent posts:
1.Renewable and Alternative Energy Sources Ranked_Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, energy security_Information Overload Mastered, (09 March 08).
2.Solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security reviewed _Parametres used to classify and rank_Follows previous post (21Feb 09).
I introduced readers to Mark Z. Jacobson's strong pitch, in his "Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security", in favour of "renewable energy sources" his 1st and 2nd choices, termed, Tiers 1 and 2. followed by his less favoured 3rd choices, Tier 3, which includes alternatives energies; coal-fired power with the "elusive" carbon capture and sequestration (Coal-CCS) , and the experienced and successful Nuclear route. Both coal without CCS and Nuclear are current main and acknowledged alternative power supplier respectively. By the same, both are major users of high-temperature corrosion resistant alloys and as a very early retired specialist in the later fields, I -and colleagues- shall come back, with some delight, to talk about what the metallurgists, materials scientists and engineers can hope to bring to humanity's energy-climate plight which is unlikely to miraculously disappear.
At present, it is the latter 3rd choice, tier 3, in particular Nuclear, which will be considered here thanks to Benjamin K. Sovacool, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore, who recently analyzed more than one hundred life-cycle studies of nuclear plants around the world, his results published in August in Energy Policy (ref1.).
The life-cycle-assessment (LCA) evaluates the total carbon output of the nuclear industry involves calculating those emissions and dividing them by the electricity produced over the entire lifetime of the plant.
The Good News:
From the 19 most reliable assessments, Sovacool found that estimates of total life-cycle carbon emissions ranged from 1.4 grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO2e/kWh) of electricity produced up to 288 gCO2e/kWh.
Sovacool believes the mean of 66 gCO2e/kWh to be a reasonable approximation.
and according to his analysis,
-nuclear power, at 66 gCO2e/kWh emissions is well below
-scrubbed coal-fired plants, which emit 960 gCO2e/kWh, and
-natural gas-fired plants, at 443 gCO2e/kWh.
However, nuclear emits twice as much carbon as solar photovoltaic, at 32 gCO2e/kWh, and six times as much as onshore wind farms, at 10 gCO2e/kWh.
."
"A number in the 60s puts it well below natural gas, oil, coal and even clean-coal technologies. On the other hand, things like energy efficiency, and some of the cheaper renewables are a factor of six better. So for every dollar you spend on nuclear, you could have saved five or six times as much carbon with efficiency, or wind farms," Sovacool says. "Add to that the high costs and long lead times for building a nuclear plant about $3 billion for a 1,000 megawatt plant, with planning, licensing and construction times of about 10 years and nuclear power is even less appealing.
The Bad News-Work To Be Done (TBD)?
Over and above the already extensive ranking of the nuclear route there remains many serious concerns about the risks caused by uranium mining (eg radon gas levels on miners), and waste disposal both from the mining operations on miners and locally exposed populations-cradle side or to local populations on the end waste "grave side" if I may use the expression. A rapid Google Search turns-up an impressive list of concerns. however at the time of this post, again a scientific pointer is given by BK Sovacool in his paper on bird mortality or rather avian mortality (birds, bats...etc) (Ref. 2 below) which surprisingly ranks wind the least harmful to avian species followed by nuclear and worse of all coal power generation. (personal communication by Mark Z. Jacobson.)
NB. in both references there is strictly no reference to "Superman or woman! " This is perhaps a lesson in it's self!
References:
1."Valuing the greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power: A critical survey" [pdf].
2. Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity [abstract]
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Conversations-on-Innovations: Tyre Recycling#links#links#links#links
Conversations-on-Innovations: Tyre Recycling#links#links#links#links: "I have just added the The European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) website to my recycling list on my left hand side menu bar for easy reference. Road transportation tyres and alternatives are quite obviously a Pan-European issue."
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Free ebook_Light Hearted Approach to the Scientific Method and Project Management
Following the previous post and directly related to it, here is a link to my free ebook.
Cogprints-eprints: Metadata Visibility matches "Always Show" AND Subjects matches "Decision Theory"
Conversations on the Search for a ‘Physics & Chemistry – an Alchemy’ of Innovation - Reward Systems. - Alexander, Mr James (2009) Conversations on the Search for a ‘Physics & Chemistry – an Alchemy’ of Innovation - Reward Systems. [Preprint]
It is also one of the approaches which led to my original blog title Conversation-on-Innovations
Cogprints-eprints: Metadata Visibility matches "Always Show" AND Subjects matches "Decision Theory"
Conversations on the Search for a ‘Physics & Chemistry – an Alchemy’ of Innovation - Reward Systems. - Alexander, Mr James (2009) Conversations on the Search for a ‘Physics & Chemistry – an Alchemy’ of Innovation - Reward Systems. [Preprint]
It is also one of the approaches which led to my original blog title Conversation-on-Innovations
Friday, March 20, 2009
New look at the Processes of Science_How Science Really Works_A Big Picture.
Step back for a minute and take a new look at our fundamentals as is said in rugby football circles.No I am not asking the reader to embark on what can be seen as some unpleasant introspection of the human condition it's weakness or failure. On the contrary let's take a break from my/our current bandwagon of economic, climate and energy dilemmas if only to better our approaches to finding "sustainable solutions" to these very serious issues and to look at the positive and strong supportive role of science (in society).
"Science's Big Picture."
A newly developed website has made understanding science, its processes, it's interactions and it's wide reach, a relatively simple, very attractive and enjoyable task. Although the site has been designed by teachers and lectures for teachers and includes elementary teaching resources, I firmly believe that the site will prove highly significant in clarifying the scientific method not as a linear process but as a system of interactions. It is, not only, a timely reminder and support for all professional in the science industry: a must for all scientists technologists, engineers including science communicators, be they scientists or laymen, but also to the general public, intrigued often worried by the influence of the scientific industry, its technology and engineering on their daily lives.In fact we are all to some extent scientists, for science arises from observation: observation of our surroundings both the natural world and change as well as man's contribution, material products and systems.
Of course testing ideas remains central to the new presentation, but it's no longer a simple thumbs -up or thumbs-down on a hypothesis. Instead, the data need to be interpreted, and researchers are often forced to go back and either revise their hypothesis, or the assumptions on which the hypothesis is based. No matter what happens, the arrows in the diagram make it clear that the process must be viewed as a system with multiple rounds of testing and revision are needed to refine ideas.
More...
Sources
1. Ars Technica.com/
2. Understanding Science accessed on 20 March 2009. University of California Museum of Paleontology.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security reviewed _Parametres used to classify and rank_Follows previous post
Worldwide available energy, technical potential energy, current installed power, capacity factor of currently-installed power, and current electrical generation of the electric power sources considered cf table.
KEYS TO THE PREVIOUS POST:
Its about energy and it's use. A multi-variable study by Mark Z. Jacobson in his “Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security"
Twelve combinations of energy sources and vehicle type considered.
To place electricity and liquid fuel options on an equal footing, twelve combinations of energy sources and vehicle type were considered. The overall rankings of the combinations (from highest to lowest) were:
(1) wind-powered battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), (2) wind-powered hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, (3) concentrated-solar-powered-BEVs, (4) geothermal-powered-BEVs, (5) tidal-powered-BEVs, (6) solar-photovoltaic-powered-BEVs, (7) wave-powered-BEVs, (8) hydroelectric-powered-BEVs, (9-tie) nuclear-powered-BEVs, (9-tie) coal-with-carbon-capture-powered-BEVs, (11) corn-E85 vehicles, and (12) cellulosic-E85 vehicles.
The resultats are shown in the attractive graph opposite
Four Clear divisions of ranking, or tiers, emerge.
Tier 1 (highest-ranked) includes wind-BEVs and wind-HFCVs.
Tier 2 includes CSP-BEVs, geothermal-BEVs, PV-BEVs, tidal-BEVs, and wave-BEVs.
Tier 3 includes hydro-BEVs, nuclear-BEVs, and CCS-BEVs.
Tier 4 includes corn- and cellulosic-E85.
Nine electric power sources:
1. solar-photovoltaics (PV),
2. concentrated solar power (CSP),
3. wind,
4. geothermal,
5. hydroelectric,
6. wave,
7. tidal,
8. nuclear, and
9. coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
Two Liquid Fuel Options.
1. corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic-E85.
Eight possible impacts of proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security considered which may impact on:
1.water supply,
2. land use,
3. wildlife,
4. resource availability,
5. thermal pollution,
6. water chemical pollution,
7. nuclear proliferation, and
8. undernutrition.
LCA_Life Cycle Analysis E
Effects on climate-relevant emissions
The CO2-equivalent (CO2e) emissions [emissions of CO2 plus those of other greenhouse gases multiplied by their global warming potentials] of each energy technology (11 types enumetated above) are reviewed. Jacobson also examines CO2e emissions of each technology due to planning and construction delays relative to those from the technology with the least delays ( opportunity-cost emissions ), leakage from geological formations of CO2 sequestered by coal-CCS, and the emissions from the burning of cities resulting from nuclear weapons explosions potentially resulting from nuclear energy expansion.
Source and Acknowledgement:
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