Eco Factor: MicroCSP solar thermal plant to generate 2MW of renewable electricity.
Sopogy Inc has inaugurated the world’s first MicroCSP solar thermal plant at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii. The 2MW thermal energy project spans 3.8 acres in the hot Kona desert and makes use of 1000 Sopogy MicroCSP solar panels.
by David Roberts
In response (I think) to my post on efficiency and economists, Matt Yglesias cautions against abandoning the presumption of rationality just because people don’t consistently maximize profit. It may be rational in some circumstances to sacrifice profit for gains in time and attention. There’s more to personal welfare than money.
Anyone who advocates efficiency runs across this point. Maybe people walk by some/all of these alleged $5 bills on the sidewalk because they have better things to do than watch the sidewalk all the time and bend over every few blocks. I agree, but I think the point ultimately works the other way than Matt intends it—it weakens, not strengthens, the presumption of rationality.
If welfare is some admixture of wealth, time, and attention, it’s many more things as well: physical health, familial and social ties, health/car/life insurance, mobility, freedom of speech and association, etc. These are complex and murky issues about which people make dozens of small decisions a day. Some small fraction of those decisions is part of a conscious weighing of options and planning; most are reflexive. Why would we assume individuals have reliable insight about what best serves their own welfare? Self-destructive behavior is as human as desire, impulse, and limited information. We see through a glass, darkly.
Wealth—GDP at the national level, net assets at the individual level—is often used as a proxy for welfare, but this is problematic for any number of reasons. (Over a certain base level, wealth doesn’t track satisfaction.) Money is often used as a proxy for value: what people will pay (or forego profit) for is what they value, their “revealed preferences.” But this way of looking at things verges on tautology. If rationality is satisfying preferences and preferences are reflected in what people do, then what is rational is what people do. That makes economics easier but it doesn’t really tell us what we want to know.
What we’d like to know is whether there can be a science of human welfare. Can we develop a reliable enough understanding of the conditions that lead to human flourishing to redirect public policy toward that broader goal rather than the narrow goal of maximizing GDP? Can policy improve upon spontaneous, distributed decisionmaking? Obviously efforts in the 20th century to plan entire economies proved disastrous, but it’s a long way from there to the laissez faire attitude of neoliberal economics. A better understanding of human behavior couid lead to policy that’s less intrusive but more efficacious (a la Nudge).
As I see it, the strong case against Gayer-style economics involves three claims:
Human welfare can be understood and measured, if not fully then enough to inform policy.
Systemic market and behavioral failures impede welfare in ways that can be understood and predicted.
These failures can be partially meliorated by public policy, increasing individual and social welfare relative to the BAU case.
No. 3’s the sticky wicket. It’s one thing to say people don’t do what’s best for them, it’s another entirely to say that public policy— “government bureaucrats,” in teabag parlance—can improve on their decisionmaking. But we can’t get to a serious discussion of No. 3 until we get past 1 and 2, which are contentious in their own right. If people reliably understand and pursue what serves their own welfare, there ought to be a presumptive bias against active, progressive policymaking. If people are, in Dan Ariely’s words, “predictably irrational,” then public policy based on sound understanding of human behavior can increase welfare.
(By the way: Happy New Year! to all you Grist readers.)
Related Links:
Economics as pathology, part two
Is the ‘climate debt’ discussion helpful?
Article Tags: ClimateGate, Joanna Nova
Here’s a Spectacular Poster of ClimateGate Covering 3 Decades
You have to see this to believe it. Look up close and admire the detail while you despair at how long science has been going off the rails. To better appreciate the past and what was exposed by the CRU emails, the Timeline chart consolidates and chronologically organizes the information uncovered and published about the CRU emails by many researchers along with some related contextual events. That the chart exists at all is yet another example of how skilled experts are flocking in to the skeptics’ position and dedicating hours of time pro bono because they are passionately motivated to fight against those who try to deceive us.
Download The PDF (788k)
Source: joannenova.com.au
Eco Factor: Low-emission car powered by a hybrid engine.
Details of Honda’s upcoming green ride, the new CR-Z, have scant but some Japanese websites have managed to get their hands on a sales brochure, revealing the car’s design and some technical specification as well. The production car which is expected to be launched at next month’s Detroit motor show will be powered by a hybrid engine for a low-emission drive.
Article Tags: Web Article
The continuing battle between climate realists and alarmists in 2009 will be most remembered for the leaked UEA CRU ‘Climategate’ emails, which provided an insight into the climate science ‘gate-keeping’ perpetrated by around 20 to 30 dominant, influential IPCC activist scientists. The unmasking of the ‘consensus’ where uncertainty is presented as certainty undoubtedly helped increase public scepticism about the computer modelled scare of a future CO2 driven climate catastrophe, which can supposedly be averted via more taxation and restrictions enforced by a global carbon dictatorship.
Fortunately, the Copenhagen orgy of climate alarmism, vested financial interests, environmental extremism, rich celebrity hypocrites, and politicians out of touch with reality and voters, failed to produce a meaningful agreement or legally binding treaty. Common sense would suggest that this marks the end of climate policy lacking a sound scientific basis and political feasibility. However, the global warming industry gravy train has so many passengers that the climate summit circus can’t afford to be diverted by reality. Meanwhile, the alarmist mainstream media, such as the BBC, continued to bombard the public with predictions of climate doom, which intensified in the run up to the Copenhagen Summit.
Source: climateresearchnews.com
Four years ago (could say five, actually, as we just entered 2010 – already!), University of Chicago economics professor Steven Levitt and noted journalist Stephen Dubner debuted with Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. That first duo-effort quickly became a mega-bestseller and spawned the popular blog of the same name, housed on the New York Times site where Dubner was an editor and writer until 1999 (and still writes a monthly “Freakonomics” column with Levitt for NYT Magazine).
The recent follow-up, SuperFreakonomics, proved a near-instant bestseller … hubby and friends swore I didn’t need to have read the first to enjoy the latest, which definitely proved true. And as I often do things backwards, SuperFreak has absolutely inspired me to read the original Freak one of these days (soon). One small confessional concession, however … no one does BIG-LIFE-concepts-reduced-to-remarkably-digestible-and-downright-entertaining-tidbits better than Malcolm Gladwell, so while SuperFreak was undoubtedly worth the seven-plus hours of iPod commitment (Dubner even sounds a wee bit like Gladwell), I remain a Gladwell-devotee first.
So what makes SuperFreak super? Read even a few chapters and you’ll have some of the best (and impressive) additions to your cocktail conversation arsenal. Let me offer just a few prime examples … family reunions are a major boon for prostitutes in Chicago (stay clear of the windy city when planning your own family’s next get-together!), friends don’t let friends walk home drunk, the seat belt that comes already installed in your car works just as well as that complicated bulky thing you invested in to protect your precious small children, getting doctors to just wash their hands is one of the biggest challenges in hospitals (take note for when you might land in one next!), and if you teach monkeys the concept of money, they’ll be buying a lot more than treats … when it comes to prostitution, our nearest animal relatives show disturbing similarities to our (very) flawed human race!
Levitt and Dubner expertly combine careful research by countless experts and their convincingly relevant statistics to create a real-life-economics-for-dummies treatise perfect for today’s attention-deficit intellectuals looking for knowledgeable shortcuts. They’ve done all the work for you … now all you have to do is just read (or even easier, just listen).
Readers: Adult
Published: 2009
Eco Factor: Mixed-use energy-saving development.
Wilkinson Eyre Architects have unveiled their proposal for the redevelopment of the 20 Blackfriars Road in the city of London. The sustainable mixed-use development will combine a 23-story building containing 18,000sqm of commercial and a 42-story tower with 286 unit residential building and a new public square.
The new 2010 Volvo S60 is featured in a new YouTube video where we get a closer look at what is a very attractive design for the new sedan. The official S60 presentation will take place at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in March, with production starting early this coming summer.
A statement from Volvo reads: “We will ensure that this is the first car video on YouTube in 2010. It will be released on Volvo Car’s channel on YouTube a few seconds after we have entered the new year,” says Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Olle Axelson.
To see the video, go to Volvo’s YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/user/VolvoCarsNews, or see after the jump. Here’s hoping that 2010 is a brighter year for Volvo, with this lovely sports sedan bringing some spark to the company.
Update: Video added after the jump.
Engadget now available for Pre and Pixi: the first webOS app of 2010 (and 1000th in the Catalog)! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve long said that wireless video streaming direct from a laptop is one of our dream gadgets, and while most of the gear we’ve seen is based on Wireless USB, it looks like Netgear’s trying something a little different: this PTV1000 Push 2 TV Adapter just hit the FCC database, and it looks to send video from your laptop to your TV over WiFi. It’s apparently built on an upcoming Intel standard called Wireless Display that requires a Core i3, i5, or i7 processor with integrated GMA graphics and Windows 7, but nothing’s been officially announced yet — and what little info we have isn’t great, as the docs warn users that Wireless Display is unsecured and won’t play all DVDs or Blu-rays. That’s not a huge problem, we suppose — all we want to do is beam a Hulu window to our TV simply and easily. We’re assuming we’ll find out a lot more at CES next week, stay tuned.
Netgear PTV1000 Push 2 TV WiFi video card hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Happy New year! It’s time to put the joys and regrets of the past behind us and start the new year with a fresh foot forward. And along those lines come people’s New Year’s resolutions to improve themselves, lose weight, or somehow better the lives of others.
But who cares about that. To get into the spirit of things, we at 1UP have compiled a list of what really matters: our gaming resolutions, hopes, and videogame goals for 2010. We’re joking of course — we want everyone’s lives to be better, too. And we wish you the best with that weight loss, language learning, etc. But if you also have a gaming resolution, please share it below in the comments. Good luck to everyone in 2010!
“My resolution is to finally turn on my Wii again and see why the hell it’s been blinking at me for the past few months. I feel like I completely neglected the system in 2009 — of course, New Super Mario Bros aside, Nintendo hasn’t given me many reasons to even bother. Here’s hoping Zelda, Metroid, and Pikmin will do the trick this year.”
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Happy New Year! Taking a time out from fireworks and festivities, Palm has cleared an arbitrary numerical milestone: one thousand apps are now available in the (U.S.) webOS App Catalog. Not a bad number at all, especially considering that webOS devices have only been available to the public for six months. And, of course, that’s not counting the numerous homebrew applications out there in the unofficial distribution channels…
So what was that thousandth app? No less than Engadget’s new webOS app, a well-crafted little piece of software that lets you browse through the popular gadget blog with a flick and a swipe in a very mobile-friendly format.
Congratulations Palm – here’s to thousands more apps in 2010!
Tiny, glitter-sized solar cells have been developed by the Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories. It might turn out to be the perfect alternative energy preference for the holiday season. This project is funded by the American government. The dimensions of the snowflake sized crystalline-silicon photovoltaic cells are merely 14-20 micrometers thick and […]
Posted in: Future Energy, PhotoVoltaics, Solar Power
Filed under: Advice, Health, Fitness, Fit Family Guy
The Pot-Smoking Hippie’s Guide to Your New Year’s Fitness Resolution
You probably took one look at that title and said, “What the Hell?”
The ganja-loving Beatnik I refer to is John Lennon, because the Beatle had some good insights that can be applied to your New Year’s fitness resolution: “All you need is love.”
Before you say “What the Hell?” a second time, allow me to explain.
Love may not be all you need, but developing a passion for the physical activity you engage in is critical for long-term success. People who get up early to run in the cold, adapt their schedules to go to the gym, push themselves to the limit in exercise classes, or cycle to work every day all have one thing in common: they don’t hate what they’re doing.
Purveyors of bogus fitness products sell a quick-fix miracle cure for getting in shape, but not only are they lying about the effectiveness of their products, they perpetuate the mistaken idea that exercise is a punishment to be endured, not enjoyed. That’s why they say things like “Just minutes a day…” Unfortunately, those who see exercise simply as means to an end rarely last more than a few months.
How do you learn to love exercise? It helps if you start off by not hating it.
Continue reading Learning to Love Exercise: How to Adopt a Permanent Lifestyle Change
We know it’s the holiday season and we should only talk about Santa, good deeds and other pleasant things, but we can’t help but report you a terrible thing that happened at Ford’s Truck Plant in Kentucky. Ronald S. Cassady, 54, dies while cutting down an I-beam with a torch during the past weekend. According to the Detroit Free Press, the beam fell on hid head and neck and, even if he was transported to the University Hospital, he was declared dead shortly after the accident.
Unf… (read more)
While the articles that drove the most clicks this year were a combo of lists and FAQs, we know our loyal readers came back on a daily basis to check out our solid reporting, our trend-spotting, our startup profiles and our scoops. We worked hard in 2009 to cover the entrepreneurs and innovators of green […]
I wanted to wish all of you loyal readers a very happy New Year. I hope you are all not too hung over to read this. Anyway, 2009 was a pretty good year for Bauer-Power. We have steadily increased our RSS Subscribers, and we steadily have about 50-60,000 visitors per month. Not bad for something I try to do in my spare time!
We hope to bring you even more techy goodness in 2010. In the mean-time, I thought I would show you a funny video my buddy sent me. It is a spoof on Andy Samberg’s “I’m on a Boat” video. It is called, I’m on a Mac! Check it out:
What did you think? Hilarious right? How many of you are switching to Mac for the new year? I’m not, but want to know if any of you are. Hit me up in the comments. Let me know why you are making the switch or not.
… by Walter and Rosemary Brasch
The Philadelphia Eagles honored reserve quarterback and admitted dog-killer Michael Vick with an award for courage. Yes, you read that right. “Michael Vick” and “courage” are in the same sentence.
Each of the 32 NFL teams annually honors one of its own with an Ed Block award, named for the Baltimore Colts head trainer who was an advocate for improving the lives of neglected and abused children; the Foundation says it celebrates “players of inspiration in the NFL.” Unfortunately, there is no stipulation that football players who abuse animals are ineligible receivers.
Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb told the Philadelphia Inquirer the award was “well deserved.” Vick, his team, and what appears to be a loyal foundation of fans who believe Vick will help lead the Eagles into a SuperBowl, all believe the man who ran Bad Newz Kennels has “seen the light,” has reformed, and is now a model citizen.
However, Vick’s own words show the humility and humbleness that he should have are still missing from his egocentric world of sweating multi-millionaires.
“It means a great deal to me,” Vick told the media, gloating that he “was voted unanimously by my teammates. They know what I’ve been through. I’ve been through a lot. It’s been great to come back and have an opportunity to play and be with a great group of guys. I’m just ecstatic about that, and I enjoy every day.” He further justified the honor by explaining, “I’ve overcome a lot, more than probably one single individual can handle or bear.” Elaborating, he declared, “You ask certain people to walk through my shoes, they probably couldn’t do. Probably 95 percent of the people in this world because nobody had to endure what I’ve been through, situations I’ve been put in, situations I put myself in and decisions I have made, whether they have been good or bad.” He said, “There’s always consequences behind certain things and repercussions behind them, too. And then you have to wake up every day and face the world, whether they perceive you in the right perspective, it’s a totally different outlook on you. You have to be strong, believe in yourself, be optimistic. That’s what I’ve been able to do. That’s what I display.” Not once in his statements to the media did Michael Vick apologize for what he did, or for the deals he cut in order to be restored to the status of a millionaire athlete. Everything he said was focused upon his own “courage,” with “I” being the prevalent word.
Perhaps Michael Vick isn’t aware that courage is not being so vacuous as to believe it was acceptable to breed and arrange for dogs to fight to the death, to allow equally malevolent “fans” to bet on the matches, and by the cruelest means possible to kill dogs who didn’t perform as well as he thought they should. Going to prison for 18 months, losing two seasons of multimillion dollar income, having to work out to get into fighting condition, and then earning about $1.6 in his first year back into the NFL, with a second year option for about $5 million, isn’t courage.
In case Michael Vick doesn’t know what courage is, here are just a few examples. There are thousands of others.
Courage is the soldier who is on 100 percent disability from combat wounds who is now working almost every hour of every day with physical therapists, social workers, and other medical personnel to try to regain even the most remote possibility of being able to walk again.
Courage is the firefighters who risk their lives to rescue people and their pets from burning buildings.
Courage is law enforcement personnel who put their lives on the line to serve and protect the people.
Courage is the “whistle blower” who risks a job and family stability to point out greed and corruption within a business, educational institution, or governmental agency.
Courage is the lone dissenter who fights for social and economic justice in a society that is determined to continue the “me generation.”
Courage is the recent graduate who delays entry into the job market, the mid-career executive who gives up the fast track, or the senior citizen who decides there is more to life than retirement, and volunteers for AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or any of hundreds of non-profit organizations that have taken on the burden of helping those who society has made invisible.
Courage is the parents who work two low-income service jobs, support their families, and still donate time and money to charities that help those less fortunate than they.
Courage is the family who last year had a home and job, and this year has neither but survives day to day.
Courage is the animal rights advocates who risk their lives to fight against governments that allow the killing of whales, bears, seals, wolves, and hundreds of other animals; and to humane society staff and innumerable volunteers who rescue abandoned and abused animals, and who work with them to try to give them a better life.
But most important, courage is all the people who know no matter what obstacles they overcome today, tomorrow will present the same challenges, and that they will never have any hope to be a millionaire or to receive an award for surviving against tremendous odds.
In his comments after being notified of the award, Michael Vick proved himself to be an unworthy spokesman for anything or anyone other than himself.
[Dr. Walter Brasch is an award-winning social issues columnist, former newspaper investigative reporter and editor, and journalism professor. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. Rosemary Brasch is a former secretary, Red Cross national disaster family services specialist, labor activist, and university instructor of labor studies.]
Filed under: Advice, Fitness, Ask a Fitness Expert
Hi Sarah,
My resolution for 2010 is to lose 50 pounds. I am 5’4″ and weigh around 200 lbs. I have a treadmill and would like to know the best way to use it as I’m not ready to run as I find it too hard on my knees and I have a bad back. What do you suggest?
Thank you,
Kim
Hi Kim,
Before starting any exercise program it is important to consult your doctor. Let your doctor know of your intent to exercise and of any discomfort your are currently experiencing (i.e. your knees and back).
Weak knees and a bad back are common ailments of having too much weight on your frame. The excess load stresses the joints and alters your posture. If you follow the program set out below, coupled with a strength training program and a healthy diet, not only will the pounds start to come off, the stress on your frame will also be reduced.
A treadmill workout for beginners, after the jump…
Continue reading A Treadmill Workout for Beginners
Another “best of” for 2009 – this time from REW – RenewableEnergyWorld.com’s Most-read Stories of 2009.
With sales slumping, many companies used 2009 as a year to focus on improving technology and cutting manufacturing costs. Our most read-stories of the year indicate that this was a hot topic for companies and readers alike.
In Burning Issues: An Update on the Wood Pellet Market, which was first published in our UK print edition, Renewable Energy World magazine, Christiane Egger and Christine Oehlinger explained how burning wood pellets for heat and power is becoming common across central and northern Europe. While not a solely technology-focused piece, the authors describe the entire wood pellet market in Europe and detail how pellets are manufactured and describe the various technologies that use pellets as a source of renewable heat and power.
Readers are always hungry to learn about cutting-edge technologies and this feature, The Next Solar Frontier: Distributed Inverter Architecture, gave them exactly what the needed to know in the distributed inverter space. Written by RenewableEnergyWorld.com contributing writer, Justin Moresco, this story looked at one of the most talked-about technology topics of the year: how to harvest the most electricity from a solar panel in the simplest, most elegant way.
On that same topic of technology that harvests more energy from a solar panel, we brought you Solar Trackers: Facing the Sun, by UK Associate Editor, David Appleyard. In his piece, Appleyard explained how tracking systems that adjust the position of PV modules to follow the sun can boost yields from solar installations by 40% or more. This article showed what trackers are available and who is building them.
Our Dutch Wind Technology expert Eize de Vries was on the scene checking out new wind turbine technologies this year. In Wind Turbine Technology Gets Bigger and Better, he traveled to the Hannover Messe, an industry technology fair that boasted more than 6,000 exhibitors and 210,000 visitors. From the fair, he brought us insights into many of the newest wind turbine technology trends to watch out for as companies in this space continue to create more massive and more efficient turbines.
Readers were also interested in BIPV, another hot topic in 2009 and something we expect to see much more of in the coming years. In February, we brought you Jennifer Kho’s story, Energy Conversion Devices’ Turnaround: Is BIPV Finally Ready To Take Off? In this article, Kho detailed how ECD Ovonics emerged as a leader in the building-integrated photovoltaic market.
Biofuels also proved to be something readers were interested in hearing about, with algae-based biofuels stealing the show. In Blooming Biofuel: How Algae Could Provide the Solution, Jeffrey Decker showed us how interest is growing exponentially in this field. He wrote about the handful of companies that are planning to make the leap from research to commercial production of algae-based fuels in the near future.
