[a little duct tape and some glue, please] As I've mentioned a few times, this blog has a double purpose.
I want to celebrate technological advances, of today, the past and the future, but I also want to talk sense about what all this progress is doing to the planet and our lives.
Too many toys means too much garbage, and too much debt.
So, my alter-ego is the one that takes care of stuff so that it doesn't break, and fixed stuff that does. Only if I have to look good, do I show my best, and that was got on discount anyway.
e.g. a new phone is 300 quid, while a two-year old model is 30 pounds. I'm paying 30.
On the podcast that you can get below, the speaker, Angela Saini is a tech writer, so you don't need to see me as a luddite. She writes about tech for a living, but is frugal and conscious of waste in her personal life. That's because her family was accustomed to poverty.
So was mine. And all the riches of the West opened up our appetites for waste and ridiculous spending, and we all lost the skills that generations of people practiced, like farming, mending, sewing, carpentry.
If the Occupy Wall Street or LSx has taught us anything, technologically speaking, it is that people can survive with little more than a tent to their name.
download some ideas: Four thought http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fourthought
I've always thought that agri-business is the place where farmers and chemists poison their customers in the hopes of making a larger profit.
I think that encourages immorality. Also, the trade restrictions on poor countries mean that, even if they can export, the rich world won't take their products and they'll, in turn, dump all the First World extra produce on poor countries, undercutting local producers.
So, as HaJoon Chang says, we have to let poor countries operate the way that they know how. Let small entrepreneurs thrive in those countries and you'll see how the whole world will have food.
checkitout: In agriculture, small is beautifulInvesting in small farmers brings a developmental double whammy, helping to put food into circulation while also boosting the income of some of the poorest people on the planet 2011 Blog Action Day on 16 October - World Food Day - is, naturally, themed around food MDG : Food in Colombia : A Colombian fruit vendor in La Alameda market in Cali A Colombian fruit vendor arranges strawberries at her stall in La Alameda market in Cali, Valle del Cauca department. Photograph: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images Small farmers get a bad press: developing country governments often see them as a throwback, and hanker after the glitter of modernity that surrounds large-scale investment in biofuels or export crops. Aid agencies and donor governments with more money than staff prefer the scale the big farms can offer. But there are at least two good reasons why, when it comes to agriculture, small is still beautiful. First, investing in small farmers brings a developmental double whammy: it helps put food into circulation and at the same time boosts the income of some of the poorest people on the planet – small farmers. It is an enduring and horrible irony that the people who grow the food are often also the ones who go hungry, because their crops are too paltry, or prices too low, for their harvest to see them through the year. Jobless agribusiness growth won't help those people; boosting small farm output will. Second, helping small farmers get access to the kinds of things big farmers take for granted – bank loans, technical support, land rights – can have a catalytic effect on their productivity. Forget all those myths about stick-in-the-mud peasants – most small farmers are businesspeople, keen to experiment, manage risk, break into new markets and better themselves. That goes particularly for female farmers, who in many countries grow most of the food but have least access to such support. Worldwide, providing female farmers with equal rights to land and agricultural support could feed up to 150 million additional people. Here's one example from dozens in Oxfam's work around the world. Small-farmers supply 67% of the food consumed in Colombia's capital, Bogotá (population: 7 million), but they don't earn a decent price for their produce. Much of the produce sold in urban markets is handled by commercial intermediaries, who buy from individual producers at low prices and then sell high. So Oxfam teamed up with local NGOs and peasant organisations and tried to find out what the problem was. Government officials told us that the peasant economy was no longer viable and that "the peasants are lazy, they support the armed groups, they take advantage of the drug mafias, and take their cut growing coca". What emerged was the need to change attitudes towards peasant farmers, both among officials and the urban public. The timing was propitious: in 2004, the office of the mayor of Bogotá had begun to speak openly for the first time about poverty and food security. It had drawn up a draft food supply master plan, but this failed to recognise the potential of small producers. The plan was based on obtaining food supplies for the minimum possible price, but did not consider the needs of producers or the potential for reducing rural poverty. Instead of a minimum price, campaigners suggested a "fair price" principle. The mayor's office remained sceptical of small farmers' ability to supply food efficiently, so the project organised farmers' markets in strategic locations around the city, including the main square. Officials and shoppers were duly impressed by the level of organisation and capacity on display, but also by the prices. Monitoring showed that the average net increase in prices for farmers were 64% in wholesale markets and 52% in retail, while urban consumers also benefited, paying average prices that were some 15% lower. Supported by political lobbying and savvy media work, the farmers' markets got the message home. The mayor agreed to revise the city's plan to one based on fair prices, and backed it up with some funding to help small producers supply the city and seats for small farmers on the relevant committees. Since then, more than 30 municipalities in the area around Bogotá have organised their own local markets; Bogotá's mayor has signed contracts with five other regional governments, pledging to increase rural investment for food production. Oxfam is now trying to replicate the initiative in Medellín and Cali, the two other big mayoral cities in Colombia. There are hundreds of millions of small farmers who could benefit from schemes like these. When it comes to ending hunger, how food is grown and marketed (and by whom) matters at least as much as growing more of it.
I've always said that my apples should be sent around the world to receive the best chemical treatment that money can buy.
Since fuel is still very cheap, we can get New Zealand lamb and Fijian bottled water. Doesn't mean it's right.
checkitout:
AlterNet / By Tara Lohan Economics of happiness movie Vision: 8 Reasons Global Capitalism Makes Our Lives Worse -- And How We Can Create a New Kind of Economy A new film explores how globalization has resulted in crises of the economy, the environment and the human spirit -- and points the way to a new path. ... 3. Globalization wastes natural resources. Consumerism is threatening the planet, natural resources are stretched to the breaking point and yet we have an economic system that encourages us to consume more and more, says Norberg-Hodge. Consumer culture is increasingly urban and when rural people move to the city the food they used to grow themselves is now grown on industrial-sized chemical-intensive farms. Food must be trucked to cities, waste must be trucked out. Large dams are needed to provide water and huge centralized power plants must be fueled by coal and uranium mines. 4. Globalization accelerates climate change. Globalization's "success" is often attributed to efficiencies of scale, but mostly it is fueled by deregulation and hidden subsidies that make food from around the globe cost less than food from down the street. With efficiencies of scale, it's really the opposite, says British MP Zac Goldsmith, "Tuna caught off the east coast of America is flown to Japan, processed and flown back to America to be sold to consumers; English apples are flown to South Africa to be waxed, flown back to England to be sold." Treaties like NAFTA promote international growth through economic trade, which sounds good on paper, except that you end up with countries importing and exporting nearly identical amounts of the same products -- which means we're needlessly shipping goods across the world that we are already producing at home. ... 7. Globalization is built on handouts to big business. "If there is one thing that political parties from the left to the right seem to agree on today, it is the power and value of the free market," says Goldberg. "But the irony is that the majority of really polluting things that happen today wouldn't exist in a genuinely free market -- nuclear power, for example, wouldn't exist without massive state support ... We're about as far away from a free market as it's possible to be."
I like new gadgets especially since they can
change the way we conduct our lives.
The great ones always seem to simple.
There's the fanbrella with the fan installed, to protect against
sun and heat.
however, if you're unavoidably stuck in the heat, strap on an i-pod
and plug it into your bathing suit. Yup. the solar rack.
I say, old boy: "top shelf"
the UFO alarm clock
You gotta chase it around the room, so no easy snooze function for you, no more.
If it weren't for bikes, cars would have had it tougher.
bikers were organised and seeking smooth roads way before
the car people even started.
the implied message is that cars have to share the road.
They don't own it, although I know some drivers who believe they do.
Here's an interesting Guardian story that sets the record straight.
checkitout:
19th century cyclists paved the way
by Carlton Reed
Wooden hobbyhorses evolved into velocipedes; velocipedes evolved into safety bicycles; safety bicycles evolved into automobiles.
It's well known that the automotive industry grew from seeds planted in the fertile soil that was the late 19th century bicycle market. And to many motorists it's back in the 19th century that bicycles belong. Cars are deemed to be modern; bicycles are Victorian.
Many motorists also assume that roads were built for them. In fact, cars are the johnny-come-latelies of highways.
The hard, flat road surfaces we take for granted are relatively new. Asphalt surfaces weren't widespread until the 1930s. So, are motorists to thank for this smoothness?
No. The improvement of roads was first lobbied for – and paid for – by cycling organisations.
In the UK and the US, cyclists lobbied for better road surfaces for a full 30 years before motoring organisations did the same. Cyclists were ahead of their time.
When railways took off from the 1840s, the coaching trade died, leaving roads almost unused and in poor condition. Cyclists were the first vehicle operators in a generation to go on long journeys, town to town. Cyclists helped save many roads from being grubbed up.
Roads in towns were sometimes well surfaced. Poor areas were cobbled; upmarket areas were covered in granite setts (what many localities call cobbles). Pretty much every other road was left unsurfaced and would be the colour of the local stone. Many 19th century authors waxed lyrical about the varied and beautiful colours of British roads.
Cyclists' organisations, such as Cyclists' Touring Club in the UK and League of American Wheelmen (LAW) in the US, lobbied county surveyors and politicians to build better roads. The US Good Roads movement, set up by LAW, was highly influential. LAW once had the then US president turn up at its annual general meeting.
The CTC individual in charge of the UK version of the Good Roads movement, William Rees Jeffreys, organised asphalt trials before cars became common. He took the reins of the Roads Improvement Association (RIA) in 1890, while working for the CTC.
He later became an arch motorist and the RIA morphed into a motoring organisation. Rees Jeffreys called for motorways in Britain 50 years prior to their introduction. But he never forgot his roots. In a 1949 book, Rees Jeffreys – described by former prime minister David Lloyd George as "the greatest authority on roads in the United Kingdom and one of the greatest in the whole world" – wrote that cyclists paved the way, as it were, for motorists. Without the efforts of cyclists, he said, motorists would not have had as many roads to drive on. Lots of other authors in the early days of motoring said the same but this debt owed to cyclists by motorists is long forgotten.
The CTC created the RIA in 1885 and, in 1886, organised the first ever Roads Conference in Britain. With patronage – and cash – from aristocrats and royals, the CTC published influential pamphlets on road design and how to create better road surfaces. In some areas, county surveyors took this on board (some were CTC members) and started to improve their local roads.
Even though it was started and paid for by cyclists, the RIA stressed from its foundation that it was lobbying for better roads to be used by all, not just cyclists.
However, in 1896 everything changed. Motoring big-wigs lobbied for the Locomotives Amendment Act to be repealed. This act made a driver of a road locomotive drive very, very slowly and the vehicle had to be preceded by a man waving a red flag. When the act was jettisoned, speeds increased, automobilists demanded better road surfaces to go even faster on, and "scorchers" and "road hogs", terms first used against cyclists, took over the roads.
By the early 1900s most British motorists had forgotten about the debt they owed to prehistoric track builders, the Romans, turnpike trusts, John McAdam, Thomas Telford and bicyclists. Before even one road had been built with motorcars in mind (this wasn't to happen until the 1930s), motorists assumed the mantle of overlords of the road.
A satirical verse in Punch magazine of 1907 summed up this attitude from some drivers:
"The roads were made for me; years ago they were made. Wise rulers saw me coming and made roads. Now that I am come they go on making roads – making them up. For I break things. Roads I break and Rules of the Road. Statutory limits were made for me. I break them. I break the dull silence of the country. Sometimes I break down, and thousands flock round me, so that I dislocate the traffic. But I am the Traffic."
At the time, the CTC had little inkling cyclists would soon be usurped. An editorial in the CTC Gazette of July 1896 admitted the "horseless carriage movement will make an irresistible advance" and asked members whether motorists should be admitted to membership. Such a move was declined by members but cyclists were later instrumental in the foundation of the Automobile Association, an organisation created to foil police speed traps.
Motoring and cycling soon developed in very different directions and by the 1950s it was clear the future was to be one of mass ownership of cars. Car mileage increased, roads were now always designed with motors in mind, and, rider by rider, cyclists – once dominant on Britain's roads – started to disappear. In the evolutionary timeline of hobbyhorse-to-velocipide-to-bicycle-to-automobile, the riding of bicycles should have been all but extinguished by the 1970s. Town planners certainly thought that way, and declined to design for anything other than motorcars.
But there's a problem with mass car ownership: there's not enough space to put them all. Gridlock is the unforeseen outcome of planning solely for cars. When a city grinds to a halt, that's money down the drain. Cities are waking up to the fact that unrestrained car use is bad for people, and bad for the local economy. Unrestrained car use leads to ugly cities.
Now, the cities that first woke up to this are the bicycle-friendly cities beloved by cycle campaigners.
Towns and cities that design for people, not machines, will be the most progressive of the next 150 years, the towns and cities where people will most want to live, work and play. Far from being a 19th century anachronism, the bicycle is fast becoming a symbol of urban modernity, and cyclists are again at the vanguard of making cities better places. Cyclists have always been ahead of their time.
• Carlton Reid is executive editor of cycling trade magazine BikeBiz and is writing a book on cyclists' contribution to better roads. He has received writing grants from the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund and the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation
I wonder why things are going so slowly in the West. Perhaps, we haven't gone broke trying to power and heat our homes, yet. YET! Once it starts to bite, lots more will switch, and follow the lead of
Bangladesh!
checkitout: from e360 digest yale .edu One Million Households Powered by Solar Energy in Bangladesh 16 Jun 2011: The number of households powered by solar energy in Bangladesh has passed the one million mark — the fastest expansion of solar power in the world, according to Bangladeshi officials. Aided by non-governmental organizations that provide low-cost loans to install solar panels, Bangladesh’s rural households — most of which are off the electricity grid — have driven a dizzying expansion of solar power in recent years. In 2002, only 7,000 households were using solar panels. The country reached the 1 million-household milestone 18 months ahead of schedule, and by 2014 Bangladeshi officials are aiming to power 2.5 million homes with solar energy. “It’s the fastest expansion of solar energy anywhere in the world,” said Nazmul Haq, of Bangladesh’s Infrastructure Development Company. An estimated 60 percent of Bangladesh’s 150 million people have no access to reliable electricity, and a World Bank report last month said that solar panels had “changed the face of the remote, rural areas of Bangladesh.”
As much as I like his taste in women, I think that Berlusconi will be remembered in history as the guy who at least tried to get Italy to stop cooking Nukes, for electricity generation.
He probably figured that since the Japanese are an advanced nation, and they made a 'bruta figura' at Fukushima, then
what hope does Italy have? Italians (guys at least) are more than a little distracted by Berlusconi's handiwork:
[Berlusconi's channel is channelling some other ideas] The RAI weather girls he dated. RAI Miss Italia [RAI's Striscia la Notizia- guys talk, gals dance]
checkitout: 1 wikileaksnews.net The fresh list of glamorous women linked to the billionaire Italian prime minister by prosecutors included 25-year-old Manuela and Marianna Ferrera, brunette twins who present the weather on Italian TV in skimpy clothing.
Others named were Maylin Aguirre, 28, who was nominated as Italy’s candidate for Miss World, and 18-year-old beauty queen Ambra Battilana.
Berlusconi is accused of paying for sexual relations with a girl under the legal age limit for prostitution in Italy, which is 18, and abusing his position as prime minister to have the girl, a Moroccan-born belly dancer known as Ruby Heartstealer, released from custody for theft last May.
His trial is scheduled to start next month, and if found guilty he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.
2 nukes Italy nuclear power probably dead after referendum-PM ROME, June 13 (Reuters) - Prospects for nuclear power in Italy appear to have disappeared due to the probable result of a referendum, meaning the country must focus on developing renewable energy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said.
Speaking to reporters on Monday as Italians continued to vote in four referendums on various issues, Berlusconi said the result of the vote proposing to abandon plans to invest in nuclear energy appeared clear.
"Following the decision the Italian people are taking at this moment, we must probably say goodbye to the possibility of nuclear power stations and we must strongly commit ourselves to renewable energy," Berlusconi said. (Writing by Gavin Jones in Rome)
This is something that I've been wondering about for a good 15 years. Don't believe me? try to follow the discussion below. Maybe I should have been an engineer. I like solving real problems.
more later 1 the sound would need to be different for different speeds. Fast cars would need to be very loud to warn people. 2 fast acceleration should be very loud, if you're crossing at a traffic light 3 the closeness of a car to an intersection is important 4 cars could communicate with other traffic equipment (e.g. traffic lights) and other cars, 5 iPods could have an override button so you'll know when a car is near 6 if it's computerised, the app should be modifiable for later updates or safety updates. 7 the wind could be used to create sound
other issues Tire noise does help cars be heard, but most electric cars are on thin tires which make little noise. Option to have cars fully traffic controlled. Save on insurance. It’s boring commuting anyway, except people should not use cars to commute. But, you could read a newspaper. From that point of view though, public transport would have to get alot more snazzy to keep people. Imagine driving in traffic without getting frazzled nerves.
I'm going to check to see if there are any debates going on about this.
[this guy's got the right sort of idea, except I'd use the sound of a Rottweiller. Heart attack, anyone?]
-Cosine67 ~~
checkitout:
from the BBC 17 May 2011 Last updated at 10:22
Should electric cars be made to go 'vroom'? By Nick Holland BBC News Cars may make artificial noises to improve safety With whisper-quiet electric cars set to proliferate, the motor industry is under pressure to give them an artificial noise for safety purposes, but should they sound like traditional petrol vehicles? It is an unsettling experience watching a car drive around, hearing little more than the whisper of the wind it generates as it glides down the road. There would have been little time to get out of its way had it gone unseen. Such a moment is the essence of the debate over how electric and hydrogen fuel cars should sound in the future. The answer could determine how different cities could sound in 10 or 20 years. The rise of the electric car presents a rare opportunity to tackle the persistent roar of traffic that many city dwellers are used to. Electric and hydrogen fuel vehicles are inherently quiet. The sound of the tyres on the road is noisier than the engine and this could prove lethal at slow speeds for pedestrians and cyclists. Motor manufacturers acknowledge there is a problem. Some, like Nissan, are already fitting speakers under the bonnets of these vehicles to emit sounds for the safety of other road users. “ It's incredibly important for the sounds of the engines to reflect traditional engines sounds that we are used to” End Quote Andrea Cooper Blind student And with the UK government predicting 8,600 electric cars will be sold by the end of this year, sound engineers say there is a pressing need to come up with some ground rules as to what sounds to pick. So why not just stick with the current sound of a conventional combustion engine? "That would be losing a huge opportunity," says Prof Paul Jennings from Warwick University who leads a project looking into alternative vehicle noises. "We all know traffic noise can be annoying and the levels are significantly high. We do not want to lose the benefit we could get from using new reduced sounds." He says: "The challenge is to create sounds that are as safe as possible but also ones that are much more pleasing for the urban environment." As part of the engineering project, an electric vehicle called Elvin (Electric Vehicle with Interactive Noise), is being driven around the university campus demonstrating a small sample of made-up sounds. Chief among them are a deep sounding buzz, a high pitched hum and one that sounds like a piece of cardboard stuck in the spokes of a spinning bicycle wheel. And then there is something that sounds like a 1950s UFO movie. Nissan Leaf The Nissan Leaf noise was the product of four years of research "It's important that the sound is associated with transport and a lot of how people interpret sound is based on their experiences," says Prof Jennings. "For electric vehicles and futuristic vehicles a lot of those experiences are from the media, from games and from science fiction films." There are certain noises that people associate with transport and they alert us that a vehicle is heading in our direction. Whatever car manufacturers choose will only be effective if it does the same. But balancing the needs for safety and improving the environment are not the only requirements. Clearly the manufacturers will have a big say in what happens. If, for example, Ferrari were to ever make an electric car they would want it to sound like a Ferrari does now. Luxury 'noise' "Manufacturers know what the right sound is for their product," says Roger Williams, whose company Novisim provides computer simulators to help design car sounds. "What they are keen on is a sound that matches the image of their vehicle, whether it's a sporty one or a luxury one." Other road users will want to have their say too. In the next couple of months a group of blind and partially sighted people will be invited to Warwick University to give their verdict on what they hear. The synthetic "engine noises" will be played to them through one of Novisim's computer programmes, which can simulate how a whole town of full of electric cars would sound all at once. Vulnerable groups * Blind pedestrians - used to petrol vehicle noise, dogs trained to respond to these noises * Children - easily distracted * Older people with hearing difficulties "Guide dogs are obviously trained to respond to the noises of vehicles," says Andrea Cooper, a student at the university who has been blind since birth. "So obviously I think it's incredibly important for the sounds of the engines to reflect traditional engines sounds that we are used to." The more you delve into the issue the more apparent the complications become. How loud they should these vehicles be? Do they need to make a noise when they are stopped at the traffic lights? How would hundreds of unmatched vehicle noises sound altogether on our streets? Researchers at Warwick University intend to make the results of their research available to the EU, which is planning to legislate on electric and hydrogen car sounds sometime in 2011. The conclusions will determine the noise you hear when you open your window 20 years from now.
The process now used around the US to get at natural gas, called fracking, is causing a stir everywhere. It seems to be cracking the bedrock to get at trapped gas, but most often gets gas to mix with ground water.
Would you like a match with your water? I just keep getting this apocalyptic vision in my head that it's gonna cause those areas to just explode and sink into the ground.
Already, fracking seems to have brought a non-stop chain of earthquakes to Arizona
Apparently this was foretold in a James Bond movie. More soon, Miss Moneypenny. There musht be shum mishtake!
Here's a story about people who have solar and wind energy, and don't need the grid, and the expensive land that goes with it.
I suppose you'll have limit your electricity use, but then you won't become the plaything of the private energy companies and Ofgen, the shockingly lazy government watchdog. More like a sleeping policeman, if you ask me.
checkitout: 2 things 1 video http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2011/feb/28/life-offgrid-family-video 2 From the maker of BedZed comes ... PortZED, the self-powered apartments UK's largest off-grid housing development includes traffic lights indicating energy use and will be powered by renewables * Bibi van der Zee * guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 February 2011 09.00 GMT PortZED CSH Level 6 zero carbon development, Shoreham Port The proposed plan for 70 off-grid homes at the PortZED development in Shoreham, East Sussex The UK's largest ever off-grid housing development will have a traffic light system prompting residents to keep their energy use low, say developers awaiting planning permission.
PortzED is the 67-apartment development dreamed up by Bill Dunster – the architect famous for the BedZed eco-development in Sutton – and it is designed to be entirely self-powered.
The six apartment buildings, to be built at the mouth of Shoreham port near Brighton, will be linked by wind turbines, and their southern face will be tiled in solar thermal and photovoltaics panels.
Batteries will be charged during the day in order to keep the lights on at night, and the apartments themselves will be heavily insulated in order to keep power use as low as possible.
But resident behaviour will also play a key role, says the developer, Colin Brace of Bohogreen, who has worked on previous low-carbon projects. "We can't tell people that you only have so much power, and no more. But there are studies showing that if you give people renewable energy they think, oh good, it's free, and their energy use actually goes up. So an important aspect of the project will be to educate people about their energy use.
"The apartments will be designed to encourage communal living as much as possible," says Brace, "rather than having everyone in their own rooms using their own sources of power." There will also be LED lights on the wind turbines which light up red, amber and green to show which block is using power most heavily, in order to foster "a healthy sense of competition between residents to keep their power use low".
"The most important thing is that residents have a sense of ownership," he adds. "There will be resident panels, and if there's something like a football match coming up, the idea is that they will be able to talk through how to handle the attendant surge in power demand."
Rachel Shiamh, who built her own off-grid house in Wales last year, and who is organising an off-grid conference this summer, argues that being off-grid makes her more aware of her power use. "When the sun comes out I think 'oh brilliant, I can use the hoover.' It's made me far more aware of the elements. And I think it's really important that this isn't just seen as some hippy and low-budget thing; this kind of development is so important for getting off-grid into the mainstream."
The apartments in Portzed will be up to 22% more expensive than an "on-grid" development, due to the extra costs of installing high-spec insulation and renewables. At current market rates, that could add £20-24,000 to the final price of a two-bedroom flat. The developers believe however that there is a high demand for this kind of home due to their rarity. The financing for the project is already in place and the project is expected to be financial viable.
The final decision over whether the housing project will be off-grid, or remain online, will be made at a later date, depending on the feedback from potential buyers. "I'm not absolutely sure that the market is ready for it yet," says Brace. "But that [off-grid] would certainly be the ideal."
The development is generally seen as a rare bit of good news from the housing industry, which has flatlined since the recession, and is still struggling to reach agreement with the government over the target for zero-carbon homes. In 2006, Labour announced a world-leading target to make all new housing zero carbon by 2016; when the housing minister, Grant Shapps, came into office last year he confirmed that the target would remain in place, and announced that they would have nailed the definition by the end of the summer. Nearly a year later, however, a final definition has still not been announced.
"We are now two-thirds of the way to having a working definition for 'zero carbon'," said John Alker, policy director at the Green Building Council. The government's Zero Carbon Hub believes that, as of last week, agreement has been more or less reached on the standards for the fabric and the energy use of new residential buildings.
But the third part of the definition is the tricky 'allowable solutions', section. If builders cannot make a building entirely zero-carbon they are permitted to try off-site solutions, such as investing in a community energy scheme. Opponents of the allowable solutions argue that it should be possible to achieve zero-carbon fully onsite. But the building industry say that in some sites this is just not practicable.
"There just isn't enough sun or wind on some sites," says Alker, who points out that the position of Portzed – right on our south coast with lots of wind and sunshine – gives it an advantage that other sites just don't have.
"There are only a very few zero-carbon homes in the UK at the moment, so it's wonderful to see something like Portzed come along," he said. "It's this kind of exemplar which gets us all excited about it again."
I was out there in 2005. It's one of Ferrari's test tracks, near Florence. Great scenery, up in the mountains. Nice bowl track. I'll post some photos later. I saw Michael Schumacher, (slumped in a fast racecar), a bunch of old F1 cars in the hands of the rich drivers hired by some very rich people. I went there by train. And a whole wack of Ferrari F1 Enzos.
For now, here's how a motorbike racer sees the track: [off the track's website]
[Central Barcelona 2005] [Pantera on kart track, Athens 2001?] [Darzak] [motorbike, upwardly mobile] some fast moving vehicles and people. The theory of relativity and some nifty camera work. never ceases to amaze me. For us, they seem to bend the space-time continuum, if only in one direction.
Indeed research has shown (I'll find it) that life does go at a different pace for those speeding along and those waiting for them to pass by, e.g. at a Lemans pit, when the driver comes in for a fill-up and new tires.
[keeping it out of the fire] [pedal to the metal] I finally got myself onto a race track, banging doors with other cars. It's only been 25 years in the making. Note the car number.
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[a little duct tape and some glue, please]
