“Green” Energy the way out of Recession? Pt. 2

In my previous post I mentioned how issues Trasportation & Infrastructure Energies need to be dealt with for green energy to be practical. In this post the issue of Waste & Recycling is addressed.

Waste & Recycling

This is the clearest area where the divide between intelligent, practical environmentalists, and intelligent, idealist environmentalists is greatest. To eliminate (or at least drastically reduce) uses of fossil fuels and the accompanying CO2 emissions, there is only one practical solution that still allows for the use of combustion engines: hydrogen power. The difficulty arises in that (in addition to infrastructure issues previously discussed) mass producing hydrogen gas from H2O is energy-ineffecient. In other words, electrolysis requires energy to undertake. All of the proposals by idealist environmentalists, off-shore wind farms; tide-based water-power generators; solar panels; natural gas, don’t provide enough energy to support our current demands, much less enough energy to waste splitting water. The best possible source that could accomplish both supplying current demands and enough extra energy to split water is nuclear power. Not just a few plants will do, rather we would have to build a multitude in the next 5 years. To avoid the N.I.M.B.Y. issue, the plants could be located on old off-shore oil rigs that are reinforced against attack. Civilian guard units, created and run by the state, could be tasked to provide constant security.

Assuming the plants utilize non-breeder reactors, the amount of nuclear waste is far less than the waste produced by coal or oil power plants. With enough extra cheap energy, we could mix the waste with iron-rich glass and bury it in the deepest parts of abandoned mines, or bundle the waste up and launch it into space (preferably on a collision course with the sun). Since we are already using the power to separate water, the hydrogen and oxygen for the rockets would be readily available.

Although I’m hopeful, it is not likely a massive drive to build nuclear reactors will be initiated in the next 5 years. The idealist environmentalists hold too much sway over the environmental lobby; they are expecting some miracle discovery that will solve the global warming and pollution problem while ignoring the interim alternatives that could pull America out of its oil addiction and cement us as a premier energy provider for the world.

Performing Arts on the Web cont.

Today’s Selections come from the later parts of a documentary on Sylvie Guillem.

Video Clip: Sylvie Guillem – Part 4

Video Clip: Sylvie Guillem – Part 5

Video Clip: Sylvie Guillem – Part 6

Video Clip: Sylvie Guillem – Part 7


Over the past few years, I have pondered what the best ways of chronicling performing arts are. Some documentarians focus on particular pieces or instillations of art. Other documentarians focus on the artists: choosing to isolate their focus on particular traits/characteristics of the artist or how the artist approaches his or her medium. The last major focus of still other documentarians is the performance art/artist in historical context: what does both the artist and the art indicate about the place and period the artist existed in; does the artist challenge, ignore, or support convention; what is the relationship between the particular artist and his/her art, and does that relationship help or hinder the presentation/acceptance of that art?

As I continue to post findings from my internet meanderances, I will (on occasion) comment on which of the above strategies the filmmaker chose, and my thoughts and that choice.

The Sylvie Guillem documentary seems to have focused on the second option: isolate focus on the artist and view how the artist approaches her medium. Without subtitled translation, I cannot parse exactly what the people said. Perhaps someone who understands French will translate for me someday. Regardless, both the nature of how the documentary was shot and the style of editing allow the former conclusion to be made.

Is 'Green Energy' the way out of the Recession

The topic of Green Energy keeps popping up in the news. Our President even mentioned it in his speech to the joint houses of Congress. But my skepticism is increasing regarding how practical these ideas of solar panels in the desert, off-shore wind farms, and tide-based water-power generators. There seem to be great sweeping statements by environmentalists and energy producers/providers that either ignore or fail to recognize the multiple aspects of energy needs. While I’m clearly not a chemical engineer nor a physicist, it appears that there are at least XX facets to this: Transportation Energy; Public Use Energy; Waste & Recyling; and Energy Infrastructure. For this post I’ll address Trans. Energy & Energy Infrastructure,in a later post I’ll address the other two facets.

Transportation Energy
Both our previous and current Presidents have spoken about Americans addiction to oil. With the exception of some buses and trains, the majority of both private and commercial transportation has its lifeblood on oil(gasoline and diesel). This remains so because there is no commonly available technology that is more efficient (with such a high power-to-weight ratio) for land vehicles than the internal combustion engine. What this means is that any ‘solution’ for our oil dependence must replace the fuel with an alternative, not eliminate it. Biodiesel may serve this function, but that would require conversion of many gasoline powered vehicles. If the government is going to push for vehicle conversion, it may be better to push for converting vehicles to hydrogen power instead. This removes the majority of the pollution emissions generated by vehicles on the road.

Energy Infrastructure
Unfortunately, without the improvements, developments, or refinements necessary to both the power grid and fuel grid, any type of mass vehicle conversion program will falter. American’s N.I.M.B.Y. issues have delayed or halted the production of many power plants (oil, coal, or nuclear). Without having an overabundance of cheap energy, the inefficient tasks—such as splitting water to get hydrogen or pumping water uphill into dams and reservoirs—cannot be undertaking if the power demands on the current grids are to be met. The lack of cheap energy may also effect the willingness of energy providers to expand the capabilities of gas stations to include hydrogen fuel. In other words, if there isn’t an efficient way to distribute the hydrogen fuel to your stations, and there isn’t a high demand for the hydrogen fuel, why invest in retrofitting your stations to carry it?

Performing Arts on the Web cont.

Today’s Selections come from what appears to be a documentary on Sylvie Guillem.

…from wikepedia: “Sylvie Guillem CBE (born 23 February 1965 in Paris, France[1]) is a French ballet dancer. She was the top-ranking female dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet from 1984 to 1989, before becoming a principal guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. She is currently performing contemporary dance as an Associate Artist of London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. Her most notable performances have included those in Giselle and in Rudolf Nureyev's stagings of Swan Lake and Don Quixote.” (Wikipedia)

Video Clip: ">Sylvie Guillem - Part 1

Video Clip: Sylvie Guillem - Part 2

Video Clip: Sylvie Guillem - Part 3

The film clips are entirely in what sounds like French, which I don’t speak. Consequently, I do not know what they are actually saying throughout the film. It appears that the documentary is more about Sylvie Guillem, the dancer, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvie_Guillem) than about a particular performance. I don’t know if it was the choice of the director or more the reality of the dancer, but the film shows how isolated a life Sylvie leads, even whilst she operates amongst the other people involved in the same productions. I wonder if that is characteristic of all high-level dancers.

There are 7 clips total to the documentary; the second half of which will be in a later post.

Performing Arts on the Web

In the past year, there was a distinct dearth of performing arts events that I attended. The numerous reasons for this, though the primary reasons are a paucity of disposable funds and location/distance of the events from my location. Consequently, I have been searching the Internet for various alternatives to tide my interest in the meantime. Over the many of the following posts, I’ll be inserting some of the content I find. Please note: None of the embedded content is owned or licensed by me.

Video Clip: Alessandra Ferri & Sting


Choreography by Heinz Spoerli. Music by Johan Sebastian Bach – ‘Prelude’ from “Cello Suite No. 1 in G major”

One of the first thoughts to run through my head while viewing the video was how surprisingly flexible Sting was. Overall I thought the clip was very interesting. I don’t have a background in dance, but I think the ballet choreography was more towards modern than classical. The short clip itself was well-lit and filmed, and may serve as an introduction to types of ballet that people unfamiliar with dance as a performing art may appreciate.

Beginnings Novel News

As much as I intended to have the novel finished by this date, my progress has been significant but limited. I just finished writing a ‘marathon’-length scene between two of my characters. That scene may be the longest single scene I have ever written that takes place inside one fixed location. I have yet to actually type it into the computer, but I’m guessing it will be around 20-30 pages. Considering that the entire scene utilizes just two characters, I’m curious what my opinion of the scene will be when I reread the novel as an entire whole. The remaining parts of the novel won’t be any easier to write, but should be comparatively quicker to produce.

Photoshop Work

Sorry for the dearth amount of posts these past few weeks. Though I'm spending more hours of the day in front of a computer, most of the time is spent on accomplishing activities I am required to do rather than activities I am seeking out (such as this blog and my website).

I am spending the little photography time I have available working on two skills I need to develop: learning how to get the sepia- & chrome-style images from digital photographs, and attempting to teach myself airbrushing and photomanipulation techniques.

Below is an example of one attempt at sepia-style black & whites.

Photo from a Sep. 2006 Agora II performance in Brooklyn, NY.

More Agora II Images added

More images have been added to the Agora II Photogallery. As of yet, I still haven’t fixed the comment feature problems I'm having. I keep trying, so I can get viewer responses added into the gallery. I've added several images from just before and during the Sleep section of several different shows. I reduced the image size and added filter effects to soften/haze the image to increase the difficulty in identifying specific individuals, since I know some of the performers did not want their images displayed on the internet. Hopefully they appreciate the methods I took to protect their identities; there is nothing left more identifiable than what could be picked up by walking past them on the street or at a beach.

Click to go the entrance page for Dae's Agora II Photogallery.

Within the next five days or so, I hope to add more images to the Prospect Park and Brooklyn Botanical Garden Galleries. I’m also working on a new article for the General Writing Section, that I hope I can finish by the middle of June. Sometime next week I’ll upload 1 or 2 short fiction stories I have had for several years but haven’t looked at in a while. After a quick editorial review they should be ready for the website.

Genius

I was pondering the concept of genius on a subway ride today. While I haven’t descended upon a firm conclusion, I’m hovering around some central ideas. It seems to me that based on observation of all the people that get labeled as genius, it is actually possible to break down the concept into its constituent parts. I would proffer that there are 5 general categories of genius, and they are as follows:

• Recall Genius
• Tactile Genius – Fine Motor
• Tactile Genius – Kinesthetic(Whole Body)
• Creative/Innovative Genius
• Pattern & Flow Genius

There are additional subcategories which will examine a bit later, but let’s run through each general category first.

Recall Genius is probably the most common attribute of those given the genius label. This type of genius means that the individual essentially has the ability to store information better and in greater quantities than the average person. People who claim photographic, near photographic, or perfect recall fall into this category. These individuals can pull out studied information—no matter how long ago it was studied—and often have exceptional recall of non-studied information as well.

Tactile Genius – Fine Motor is also another common attribute of geniuses, however it is usually due to particular subcategory membership. There are 3 subcategories: 1) Stop-motion dexterity; 2)Flexibility & Strength; 3)Sensitivity. Stop-motion dexterity is the ability to hold the digits in the hand and feet motionless for extended periods of time without incurring trembling. Flexibility and Strength are the abilities to manipulate the digits beyond standard range of motion, manipulate the digits into uncommon or difficult shapes and positions, and to apply a greater range of forces with the digits. Sensitivity is the ability to more precisely detect properties of objects such as texture, rigidity/flexibility, and temperature.
Examples of these types of geniuses are commonly found in music(string instrument players, piano players), mechanics(jewelry/watchmakers) and in medicine(surgeons).

Tactile Genius – Kinesthetic is an uncommon attribute of geniuses, however it does have higher occurrences that other genius types in particular fields. This type of genius has an extremely high degree of control of body position, movement, and/or an exceptional ability to know the position of the body in 3-dimensional space.
Examples of these types of geniuses are most commonly found in two areas, athletic sports and performance art. These are the rare performers and competitors that have a body that manages to do everything they can think to demand of it.

Creative/Innovative Genius is a very rare attribute of geniuses, and typically has a limited lifespan. This type of genius causes an individual who possesses it to generate and create new and different things. It is a costly form of genius for the specific reason that it almost impossible to turn off; as long as the individual is focusing on a particular item of interest that individual will be generating additional output that may sometimes only be tangentially related. This type of genius is also more difficult to find because social systems & organizations typically pursue progress more than creativity, and also because existing systems & organizations usually have a collective historybank of ideas. Even when the individual comes up with an idea that is new to him/her, unless that idea is new to the system/organization and helps said organization progress further, the individual is not typically recognized as genius.
Examples of this are spread through many different fields. In performing arts, these types of geniuses are often composers and choreographers. In science, these types of geniuses are often theoreticians and inventors.

Pattern & Flow Genius is a common attribute of geniuses, and—aside from recall genius—one of the easiest to recognize. These type of geniuses are able to take in large volumes of information (sometimes disparate information) and see how(or make how) the information fits together. They are also able to see organizational structure of information well enough to postulate about missing information pieces, and how those unknown pieces effect the structure & flow of the information available.

Usually people that are termed genius have 1-2 of the above listed types. Occasionally you can get a person that may have 3 of the types, but it is nearly impossible for someone to have all 5. This is because there are biological costs, and the more genius types you have, the higher the cost. While there may be cultural factors that contribute to what types of geniuses arise in a given generation, there are often type clusters that emerge. Here are some common ones along with examples of what field these geniuses often end up in:

• Recall , Tactile-Fine Motor.
• Surgeons, Musicians
• Tactile-Kinesthetic, Pattern & Flow.
• Athletes in multi-person sports
• Creative/Innovative , Tactile-Fine Motor.
• Sculptors, Painters, Physical Mechanics Inventors
• Recall, Pattern & Flow.
• Physical and Theoretical Scientists