Right now, some of the smartest people on the planet are hunkered down in Silicon Valley and a dozen other entrepreneurial hotspots trying to figure out how to improve smartphone hardware and software. "Improve" here means getting it, The Cloud, and its swarm of Devices, to become more efficient at parting everyone else from their e-money. They have been inspired by the new Robber Barons, sometimes called by name but more often simply associated with corporations: Zynga and Facebook and Square and LinkedIn and a hundreds of others, whose fans all act surprised when you have not heard of them, much less have used them.
Given the way the world is headed, here are some Apps you can expect to see soon:
WaterUp will tell you where you can find potable water once the electricity grid goes down for the last time. It will guide you to the nearest pond or stream, based on GPS, which should keep working because the GPS satellite system works on solar energy. You can even agree with groups of friends in advance where to meet up!
TeaPartyIn provides an endless loop of helpful reminders that weather fluctuates naturally and all societal problems, including your being unemployed, hot, hungry, and thirsty is the fault of Communists in the government. Show a little enterprise! If you got corpses, open a hamburger stand.
BadaBingo turns your iFad tablet or phone into a three-card monte table. Whatever the chumps have left to bet with can be yours. Use WaterUp to find a good location early.
MyTurret allows your device to control the aim of the armament of your choice, whether mounted to the roof of your car or at the entrance to your home. Be sure to stock up on ammo, they won't be making more once the music stops.
OpenSourceUniversalApp will monitor the Cloud to determine when the government and multinational corporations are no longer functioning well enough to enforce their laws or property rights. It will then download every book ever written, song ever recorded, movie ever distributed (including porn), and App ever made be greedy geeks to you device. You can have all that entertainment at your fingertips. Until your battery needs recharging.
Showing posts with label electricity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electricity. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
small green gift ideas
Anything you buy, from a stick of gum to a Prius, requires energy for its creation. The amount of energy required is usually proportional to the price tag. Those who support a Buy Nothing policy, I applaud. Despite that, I have found a few small items to really be worthwhile in terms of their providing comfort while lowering overall impact on the environment.
First and foremost are flannel lined jeans, and similarly lined pants. I like to keep my heating bills to a minimum. In my barn-style house that means cutting firewood for the upstairs wood stove, and minimizing electric space heater use for downstairs (which is where I work). I've tried many warm clothing items over the years with varying success. Last year I finally bought LL Bean flannel lined jeans. I typically buy regular jeans at Target for around $15, so these seemed expensive at $49.99, but they totally changed the warmth equation. They are a lot more comfortable than wearing long underwear beneath jeans. I see this year the price has been raised to $54.95. Land's End is selling a variety of lined pants (jeans, corduroy, and chino) for $69.50. Another choice is NorthernTool.com, where fleece-lined work jeans are $39.99 and flannel-lined dungarees are just $34.99. I'm sure there are other brands and vendors as well.
With my flannel jeans I like thick wool socks over thin cotton socks, a knit long-sleaved mock turtleneck basic layer, and a quilted flannel work shirt.
Then there ... truthfully, I can't think of anything else right now. I don't really buy anything for myself except food, clothing, and books. I still collect physical books.
Oh, I know, I get a lot of utility out of blankets, including an electric blanket I keep by my office chair. You can keep your house or office at 62 degrees F. if you have warm clothes and an electric blanket handy.
Need to give a special person a gift despite your anti-consumption ethic? Check out my wife's environment and peace oriented jewelry site, PeacefulJewelry.com.
First and foremost are flannel lined jeans, and similarly lined pants. I like to keep my heating bills to a minimum. In my barn-style house that means cutting firewood for the upstairs wood stove, and minimizing electric space heater use for downstairs (which is where I work). I've tried many warm clothing items over the years with varying success. Last year I finally bought LL Bean flannel lined jeans. I typically buy regular jeans at Target for around $15, so these seemed expensive at $49.99, but they totally changed the warmth equation. They are a lot more comfortable than wearing long underwear beneath jeans. I see this year the price has been raised to $54.95. Land's End is selling a variety of lined pants (jeans, corduroy, and chino) for $69.50. Another choice is NorthernTool.com, where fleece-lined work jeans are $39.99 and flannel-lined dungarees are just $34.99. I'm sure there are other brands and vendors as well.
With my flannel jeans I like thick wool socks over thin cotton socks, a knit long-sleaved mock turtleneck basic layer, and a quilted flannel work shirt.
Then there ... truthfully, I can't think of anything else right now. I don't really buy anything for myself except food, clothing, and books. I still collect physical books.
Oh, I know, I get a lot of utility out of blankets, including an electric blanket I keep by my office chair. You can keep your house or office at 62 degrees F. if you have warm clothes and an electric blanket handy.
Need to give a special person a gift despite your anti-consumption ethic? Check out my wife's environment and peace oriented jewelry site, PeacefulJewelry.com.
Monday, June 8, 2009
The Air Conditioned Nightmare
The United States Congress apparently appropriated some $5 billion to help certain American citizens decrease their air-conditioning bills. This is supposed to be green and a stimulus to the American economy at the same time. Low income people get their houses insulated. Their air-conditioning becomes more efficient, so their electricity bills go down. Less electricity means less carbon dioxide emissions, so less global warming. At the same time, jobs are created for unemployed construction workers. Who could argue against that?
Me, of course. I don't see why low income citizens need air conditioning at all. Put me in charge, and I would ban air conditioning except for special circumstances, such as hospitals and nursing homes.
I don't advocate that simply because the amount of electricity used in the United States would plummet the first summer after such a law is enacted. Although that should be a good enough reason for an environmentalist.
I think air-conditioning has deconditioned the human species in the United States more than heat and humidity ever did.
I speak from experience. From the ages of 6 to 9, I lived in a house in Jacksonville, Florida that was not air-conditioned. We did have fans, but mainly we just adjusted to the heat. The schools I went to in Jacksonville never had air conditioning. Somehow we survived. We even played in the heat in the summertime. Sure, we liked to go swimming in cool waters too. But you can't play baseball in a swimming pool.
My family moved into a house with central heating and air conditioning when I was 9. My mother controlled the thermostat, setting it to 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 72 degrees in the winter. Man oh man, had we arrived in the middle class. It threatened to ruin the outdoors for me. If the inside of a house is 95 degrees and outside it is 95 degrees, you might as well be outside. At the age of 8 I had been well-acclimated to the heat. At the age of 12 I was acclimated to the "perfect" indoor climate. I still went outside in summer, but I often had a bad attitude about the heat.
A lot of people did not just play outdoors in the heat. They worked outdoors in the heat. A man who would not work in the heat, if that was the work that was available, was considered a lazy man.
So, when did air conditioning become a human right? Not just a luxury for the rich, but such a necessity that taxpayers are required to pay for it for poor people? Even though it is a major creator of greenhouse gasses?
Some early cultures had primitive versions of air conditioning, but the modern versions were based on cooling engines of various types first created in the 1800's. Willis Haviland Carrier is credited with the first practical air-conditioner, invented in 1902. The invention of Freon in 1928 made air-conditioning more practical, but mostly until the 1950's air conditioning was a luxury item. In the 1960's air conditioning became a standard feature of middle class homes in the southern sweep of the United States. Air-conditioned automobiles did not become common until the 1970s. But some time between then and now air conditioning came to be considered a necessity, not a luxury or just something nice.
Which means, we can do bloody well without them. Let us stop denying nature. Let us feel nature's summer heat. Let us feel that Autumn is a relief and that even Winter has its merit.
Me, of course. I don't see why low income citizens need air conditioning at all. Put me in charge, and I would ban air conditioning except for special circumstances, such as hospitals and nursing homes.
I don't advocate that simply because the amount of electricity used in the United States would plummet the first summer after such a law is enacted. Although that should be a good enough reason for an environmentalist.
I think air-conditioning has deconditioned the human species in the United States more than heat and humidity ever did.
I speak from experience. From the ages of 6 to 9, I lived in a house in Jacksonville, Florida that was not air-conditioned. We did have fans, but mainly we just adjusted to the heat. The schools I went to in Jacksonville never had air conditioning. Somehow we survived. We even played in the heat in the summertime. Sure, we liked to go swimming in cool waters too. But you can't play baseball in a swimming pool.
My family moved into a house with central heating and air conditioning when I was 9. My mother controlled the thermostat, setting it to 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 72 degrees in the winter. Man oh man, had we arrived in the middle class. It threatened to ruin the outdoors for me. If the inside of a house is 95 degrees and outside it is 95 degrees, you might as well be outside. At the age of 8 I had been well-acclimated to the heat. At the age of 12 I was acclimated to the "perfect" indoor climate. I still went outside in summer, but I often had a bad attitude about the heat.
A lot of people did not just play outdoors in the heat. They worked outdoors in the heat. A man who would not work in the heat, if that was the work that was available, was considered a lazy man.
So, when did air conditioning become a human right? Not just a luxury for the rich, but such a necessity that taxpayers are required to pay for it for poor people? Even though it is a major creator of greenhouse gasses?
Some early cultures had primitive versions of air conditioning, but the modern versions were based on cooling engines of various types first created in the 1800's. Willis Haviland Carrier is credited with the first practical air-conditioner, invented in 1902. The invention of Freon in 1928 made air-conditioning more practical, but mostly until the 1950's air conditioning was a luxury item. In the 1960's air conditioning became a standard feature of middle class homes in the southern sweep of the United States. Air-conditioned automobiles did not become common until the 1970s. But some time between then and now air conditioning came to be considered a necessity, not a luxury or just something nice.
Which means, we can do bloody well without them. Let us stop denying nature. Let us feel nature's summer heat. Let us feel that Autumn is a relief and that even Winter has its merit.
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