At the end of young street

A cool stop motion video of walking down Young street in Toronto (Well, part of it at least.)

At the End of Yonge St from Fixinmytie on Vimeo.

Robotic dance comptiton

Like I always say, sciencific advance does not go like people think. It is always considered that robots would be advanced by useful endevors like building stuff, or cleaning... but I bet that leaning to make them dance is advancing the study more than anyone would have thought.

Osmotic power

Using osmosis to provide a pressure difference, and then this pressure to drive a turbine; a great idea using a microscopic principal.

There is now a company, Statkraft, making a prototype system.

The hormone that brings us together

A great article in the NY times about oxytoxin, a hormone found to influence animal social behaviour; allowing animals to interact in a positive way to one another;

The researchers found that the oxytocin-enhanced subjects were significantly more likely than the placebo players to trust their financial partners: whereas 45 percent of the oxytocin group agreed to invest the maximum amount of money possible, just 21 percent of the control group proved so amenable. Moreover, the researchers showed that the oxytocin boost didn’t simply make subjects more willing to take risks and throw their money around. When participants knew they were playing against a computer rather than a human being, there was no difference in investment strategy between the groups. Trust, it seems, is a strictly wetware affair.

Yet the hormone doesn’t turn you into a sucker. In the Nov. 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry, Simone Shamay-Tsoory of the University of Haifa and her colleagues reported that when participants in a game of chance were pitted against a player they considered arrogant, a nasal spritz of oxytocin augmented their feelings both of envy whenever the haughty one won and of schadenfreudian gloating when their opponent lost.

As a rule, though, oxytocin is a joiner not a splitter. Analogues of the molecule are found in fish, perhaps to help facilitate the delicate business of fertilization, by inhibiting a fish’s natural tendency to flee from other fish. The more elaborate grew the social demands, the more roles oxytocin assumed, reaching its apotheosis in mammals. If you’re going to give birth to a litter of needy young, why not let the same signal that helped push those mewlers into the world give you tips on their care and feeding? And if you’re a human, bent on turning everything into an extended family affair, here is oxytocin again to cheerlead and teleprompt. C. Sue Carter of the University of Illinois at Chicago, a pioneer in the study of oxytocin, suspects that the association between the hormone and childbirth long kept scientists from taking it seriously. “But now that it’s been brought into the world of economics and finance,” Dr. Carter said, “suddenly it’s very hot.”

Good/Bad science jokes

Bike racks

Ensenada is in need of bike stands. Here are a few links to bike stands; Google Image search and a decient post on R U Biking. Of course I'm use to the classic Toronto solution of the bike ring (see image.)

asum scottish band

After listening to a few rememberence podcasts from the CBC I've had a craving for hearing the bagpipes..

Here is an great video of a bags and pipe band on the streets in Scotland.
Talent with Bagpipes.

Religous biggots threaten land owner to remove Godless billboard

A billboard in Cincinnati has been taken down and moved to a new location after threats to the owner of the land were placed; most likely by "peace loving christians".

The billboard put up by the United Coalition of Reason read “Don’t Believe In God? You are not alone”.

The full article in RichardDawkins.net. Ensenada needs a free thought group. I had to correct a person when they said "I respect belief..." Why!? Do you respect people who believe that Harry Potter is real too.. no you ridicule them for being idiots." We laugh a children who cover their eyes and ears to hide.. belief is the same thing, but on a much more dangerous level.

Belief: "an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists" But without proof. This is dangerous, and in any other context is called stubborn.

A couple of good videos have been posted on you tube.

Transition to atheism, and my favorite No true Scotsman. A nice little tidbit of wisdom is in the first video; "one of life's little rules, People who don't want you to think are never your friends."

Lots of water on the moon

NASA sent a probe to the moon that took its old booster and threw it into a crater wall on the lunar pole; LCROSS mission. The idea was to make a large explosion of material from the moons surface that is in permanent shade (at -230 deg C) and send the ejecta into the sun light. The probe, who collided several minuets later to make its own crater, quickly looked at the spectra of the ejected material to see what it was made of. They were hoping for teaspoons of water in a football field sized area, but have found buckets of water.



Why is this important? Because water is heavy, and crucial to life and rocket propellent. Ideally, we want to send up people and a few machines to the moon, but need there to be raw materials there to live off. A base on the moon is useful because it would be an ideal jumping point to go to other planets.

Videos are on CNN and youtube. I'm excited. A dream for me would be to design habitats on the moon and mars for people to live in. Sustainable living in these environments would is a necessity and the idea of designing this type of habitat here on earth is what I've been thinking of for a while.

An open letter to President Caldarón to not permit GM maize in Mexico

The letter in english and en espanole.

We are compelled to write this letter, given the latest element of a scientifically unjustifiable drive, embodied in the publication of amendments to the Law for the Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms (published by the Diario Oficial de la Federación on March 6, 2009), which disable the Special Protection Regime for Maize and other crops, for which Mexico is center of origin and diversification.

Sears coming to Ensenada

Seams like Ensenada has contracted yet another big chain store; I'd really like to find a good way to get tailored clothing. CNC sewing machine?

Yea! Google wave invitation!

I finally got my invitation to goole wave!! While google wave sounds totally cool, I think its not going to really peak until it there are enough people signed up.. but really.. I haven't done anything more then send invites to a friend in spain. I think I'll also send one to some in Vancover, San Fran, a Toronto jazz artist, someone who likes sports and politics, and my brothers. I really like the combination. Astrophysicist, carpenter, economist, environmental engineer, drummer, waiter/legal-assistant, economist, and two scientist.

Science never sleeps

Gizmag; Data in from a NASA mission to map emissions of neutral particles from the outer heliosphere. This is cool because it is defining better the image that people have of our place in the universe and will help to get rid of the idea that we're sitting in space around a fixed sun. It is more like we're in the nucleus of a ball
rocketing around a galaxy full of gas and fields.

cool bladless fan

Gizmag article about a bladeless fan; actually I think there is a fan in the base. Apparently it uses an air foil to amplify the output. Cool idea if it works..

The speaking panio

Very cool

Stirling Engine

A GreeTrust article on Stirling engines; they cover the main pages of information. But they always make stirling engines seem simple, while they are apparently very complicated to make and require a very good machine shop to make.

But I'm sure that many car modern plants could make these engines in an efficient affordable way.

There, I fixed it..

So beautiful, a site dedicated to odd fixes.. I think here in Mexico many good examples could be added to this site.

Heliostat Links

Here is a series of links to sites with useful info on sun tracking and heliostats;

http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Secliptc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_path
http://www.dur.ac.uk/john.lucey/users/solar_year.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_tracker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time
http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/mbs/tools/vrsolar/Help/solar_concepts.html
http://www.redrok.com/main.htm
http://www.practicalsolar.com/technology.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/eclip.html
http://www.rossen.ch/solar/miniheliostatfaq.html
http://www.barli.org/solar-storage.html
http://www.heliotrack.com/Products.html
http://www.rossen.ch/solar/
http://www.solbot.at/
http://www.inspira.es/newsroom/981130.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic
http://www.solardiy.info/?p=50
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Concentrating/concentrating.htm
http://www.aquaflector.com/technology.html
http://www.redrok.com/analemma.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_daylighting

Festival Eco Cultural la Raza

CEARTE, telar and various other groups in Ensenada are getting together to promote an ecofriendly festival. This is the same day as Day of climate action by the group 350.org (esp).

The festival is described as

La finalidad del festival es usar un espacio público para dar información, crear un ambiente de participación activa y multiplicar la visión de los grupos organizados en la ciudad en favor de una mejor calidad de vida.

Barrelponics- Aquaculture and Hydroponics

A Green Trust post on barrelponics, similar but much better designed to something I was planning at the bakery. The idea is to combine a fish tank and hydroponics system; called aquaponics. The fish clean and make nutrient rich the water that then is used by the plants. The plants clean and airiate the water for the fish. Barrelponics is a small version of this idea. I really like it, and hopefully when we get some land, I'll try making one of these.

Migraines and dizzy spells

Several years ago I was working in a laser lab in Toronto. The laser consisted of several flash lamps that fired once every second. Like most optics labs, we worked with the room lights off and once a second the room lit up as the laser fired and the beam made its way through all the optics. This was a normal night and I was painstakingly aligning the mirrors when one laser flash seemed to be accompanied by the room shaking. Then with each heart beat the room shook again. I thought an earth quake was running through the lab, then I realized it was me... I went to the adjoining offices and was hit with the worse head ache I'd ever experienced. I couldn't move, but couldn't stop moving from the agonizing pain. I took several aspirins, drank water, but was left lying alone under my desk for four hours. I'm not sure how, but I went up to the library to ask for help and found Sunny (one of the other students) and she gave me advil, and this helped. Enough that I called my girl friend and went to her house to rest. That was the first time I had what I think is a migraine. That year I suffered from about one a month. The doctors had nothing they could do aside from me taking a strong drug every day as a prevention; not something I was willing to do for what seemed to be a not too frequent experience.

Now, almost then ten years later I suffer once every several months. But in the past year I don't get the head aches, but just the nausea, and two days ago an extreme dizziness (vertigo).

I've been looking for information on this for years, and while there seems to be many people suffering from this, I've found very little.

There is a site called Dizziness-and-balance.com and they have a great post on Migraine Associoted Vertigo (MAV) which gives good numbers and comment that agrees with my experience.

As well, I've found an excellent forum of people discussing their problems. From what I can tell, I think, for me at least, that this problem comes from my neck. I've had stiff necks for years, and working in laser labs is about the worst thing for it, and when combined with excessive computer writing and bad eyes, it is no wonder I have a stiff neck more often then not.

But, I have no solution, nor cure yet. I'm considering going back to swimming as that relived a sore back in weeks last year; I'm just waiting for last months scholarship check to come in.

As a final note, these attacks seem to come 12 hrs before a major change in weather. I've been checking the local weather station, and they are not associated directly with pressure nor temperature, but there is a slight relation to changes in pressure. It could be that it is a type of arthritis pinching a nerve. The arthritis set off by weather changes, and made worse by bad habits in posture.

Comment if you have similar problems and have information on solutions.

Converted buses

I never thought that people buy used buses and convert them to motor homes, but they do. Here are a couple of well done conversions.

A diesel flat fronted school bus; Jake's School Bus conversion - I really like the idea of a bunk room! And The Alice Project made from a public transit bus.

Freewheel energy storage in buses

Gizmag has a good post on bolt-on flywheel system for city buses claiming to reduce energy consumption by 30%. I've recently read about flywheel systems for electrical energy storage and have also been talking to some local scientists about similar systems that were installed in Mexico's UNAM university as a electrical backup system back in the 70-80's. These systems seem like a good idea, tying to increase efficiency which is usually less expensive then energy generation, and in the case of flywheels, in a compact case.

Return to old; Al:silicate cement more environmentally friendly

From gizmag, a post about research in what they are calling a new type of cement; a great example of reading the comments giving the really important info!

This technology isn't as "new" as some people think. Cement used in the Roman Empire had a similar Aluminium-Silicate base as Geo-polymer cement (which is probably why so many of their structures are still standing after around 2000 years). Also, buildings in the former Soviet Union also used Aluminium-Silicate based cements over those using Calcium Oxide (Portland Cement).

Sort of makes you wonder what hold the makers of Portland Cement have over Governments & the Building Industry, that their obviously INFERIOR product has been a staple of construction-in the West-for the last couple of centuries.

Too cool not to repost; Carl Sagen and S. Hawkin remix'

Other stuff by the same author here and the Carl Sagan Appreciation Society.

New discovery of human ancestor; 3.2 million yrs old

A discovery of what is considered to be a human ancestor dating back 3.2 million years has been released; a good article at National Geagraphic. While this is news, and I haven't seen the data myself, I'm always curious how they know it is a human ancestor and not a cousin. But the discovery is important as it is more of a missing link than the previous find of Lucy since it is much older and shares more traits with tree apes, but is less similar to chimps than was previously thought.

An evolutional map is also shown in NG site fits the new finding into our evolutional history.

Correlation vs. Causation

At a meeting/workshop that I was recently at for Baja State's plan of action for climate change (PEAC BC) there was a good and needed comment to one of the presentations. Someone had shown a correlation to heat and lack of water to increase in disease (mainly diarrhea), to which his language seemed to say "droughts and heat spells cause increase in disease." This is not valid, a correlation shows just that, that two things happen at the same time, but not that one is the cause of the other.

For example, on sunny days I like to have a BBQ, and when I cook with charcoal I tend to inhale smoke and that makes me cough. You would see a correlation to sunny days and me coughing. Incorrectly you would conclude that sunny days makes me cough, but the causal relation is that BBQ, and the way I make them, cause smoke inhalation, and that is the cause of coughing.

Correlations are useful in guiding research, but are not causal! Below is a good video outlining this. I'm still skeptical about the final statement about the flu and the H1N1 shot, but that is intuition and I have no real evidence on it. I probably wont get the shots, but that is because I don't know where to here in Mexcio.

Mexican bicycle congress

A great video from the bicycle congress that just happened in Guadalajara Mexico. Other links for the Network of cyclicts in Mexico; BICIRED (Red Nacional de ciclismo Urbano y Cicloturismo).

If your going to be at the paseo Roserito-Ensenada, I'll be there on the Hogaza Trike with Grupo Pro Ciclo Va! today. (their blog, and facebook.

And finally, a great video of downhill mountain bike race in Mexico.

Putting Faith in its place

via onegoodmove

Afghan bicycle presidential candidate

There is something beautiful and inspiring about this Afghan presidential candidate, riding his bicycle and running his own campaign for president. Humble and inspiring! Good luck!!

Cut laundry water usage by 50%

Using the used rinse water from one load of laundry to wash the next load! A simple idea; DIY available as an instructible.

Electronic Hitch Hiking

Called open-carpooling, the idea is to find ways to locate drives willing to give a lift to other people. I think this is a great idea, altho it does bring up concern of crazies.. but I guess having a passengers credit history etc should help.. The best thing, is that this is to use existing infrastructure, with just an added communications system (that most likely could function as a phone app); devolped by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems

via Gizmag

Goats to cut the grass

I've heard of using grazing to maintain grass.
Quoting from UofC


Weeder geese. Geese can often be used to manage grass weeds in vineyards. Geese prefer grass species and will eat other weeds and crops only after the grasses are gone and they become hungry. If confined, they will even dig up and eat johnsongrass and bermudagrass rhizomes, which they have a particular preference for. Both of these weeds can be especially troublesome in vineyards. Generally, about 4 geese per acre are needed. They require water for drinking, and some form of protection from predators (dogs, coyotes, etc.). Young geese are preferred, as they eat larger quantities of food, although having at least one older goose, helps to protect the younger birds. Consult the following Website for further information on geese: http://www.metzerfarms.com/weeder.htm. Other animals sometimes used in organic vineyards include sheep and goats. Sheep will effectively remove all weeds down to ground level. Goats are browsers and must be carefully managed to avoid damage to the vines. Both sheep and goats are generally used during the time when grapes are dormant and the chance of grazing damage is minimal.

Dwarf Goats

Apparently Google is doing this as well, bringing in goats once a year to cut the bush back.

Not allowed to close your eyes in the Ventana al Mar in Ensenada

That is right! While sitting on a picnic bench with my little lady after breakfast on Saturday I decided that I wanted to relax for a few minuets before we went to a meditation class. Not being interested in what my woman was reading I lied back on the bench and covered my face with my hat. The breeze was soothing, and everything was great.. until the security guard came up and told me that I was not allowed to lie down with a hat covering my head like I was sleeping. That sleeping was not allowed in the Venatan al Mar! I didn't argue too much; I mentioned that I would understand if this was Nazi Germany, and that I was surprised, but a second look at him.. with pants two sizes too big, and a really skinny "I get paid next to nothing" look in his face, made me think twice, and I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

What is worth the effort is that his bosses told him to do this, and that is a sad reflection on the city. Parks are made for resting. For afternoon naps and children playing. Once you start sending guards around trying to control how people behave, you've lost the point and are just wasting tax payers money. When we were in Toronto we had a lovely hour nap on the lawn in front of Queens Park (the Provincial Government building) without a single problem, I'd like to see that type of atmosphere here in Ensenada.

New blog for lab

While I'm hoping that CICESE will give me an internally based blog, I've taken it upon myself to start a wordpress page. It will be much more technically based than this one. I am also trying to write it is (poorly written) spanish. If your interested please stop by and comment.

Cheers

Blog de Laboritorio de Energía Alterna Sostenible Renovable de CICESE

General comments for CICESE

I was asked what general comments I have from my time at CICESE. I did like my time studying here, and if I wanted to improve the center these comments outline what I feel is missing;

CICESE esta falta cultura de ciencia. No hay comunicación entre departamentos. No hay platicas general por estudiantes de áreas diferentes a encontrarse. Los edificios son falta áreas común. No hay cocientes para preparar comida y lavar trasteas (se ve muy mal un investigador lavando su taza en el baño), no hay regaderas para gente que viene en bici, o que trabajan con materiales sucios. De cursos, hay gente dando lo mismo curso por muchos años, y la curso no es actualizado. No existe cursos por estudiantes de afuera de la departamento; e.g. curso de óptica por estudiantes de oceanografía. No hay cursos sobre comunicación de ciencia; los estudiantes, generalmente, no pueden presentar ni escribir muy bien. No hay cursos sobre filosofía de ciencia; muchos estudiantes no saben que es ciencia. Como extranjero, tuve muchos problemas con los requisitos de la escuela y la administración no estaban preparados a ayudar; los extranjeros siempre triar ideas deferentes y nuevos y pienso que muchos oportunidades pueden presentarse con mas ayuda por ellos.

If you can think of other comments leave them below, and I'll forward them on to the admin.

Cheers

The importance of the plastic liners in soda cans

I've recently started reading the CR4 discussions. One of their latest experiments was where they removed the plastic liner from Al cans before filling them with muriatic acid; it is a good example of focused curiosity. The discussion and youtube video outline their results. They wanted to see if the contents of the soda would eat through an unprotected can. They found that it did, but mold growth brought their experiment to an end. So to push the limits and get quicker results, they filled the cans with muriatic acid. The result; in 5 min, the three unprotected cans are completely eaten away by the acid while the unaltered can remains.

Oil rig to ecoresort

The idea of taking an old oil rig and converting it to an ecoresort is a great flip. Hopefully these rigs will become obsolete and this would make a great second life. As well, they would make excellent scientific base stations for ocean studies!

Cure penut alergy with... penuts!

A study from Duke university outline in a gizmag post shows that by ingesting slowly increasing amounts of peanut flour, children previously allergic to peanuts could rid them selves of the adverse reaction.

Imagine the tenth dimension

Very cool animation of 10 dimesnions; very much the multi universe theory on steroids!

Sonic Ruler

Definatly one of the apps I would buy if I had an iphone..

Sonar Ruler Demo from cc laan on Vimeo.

no end to stupidy

Wow... too many people believe what the see on TV. Every now and again a crazy makes it into a science meeting, and you get comments completly off topic, and always at the wrong moment. Humility is what is needed; the ability to think " you know what, I may be wrong sometimes!" But the crazy never lets this happen, and then they start shouting, or asking questions.. erg...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Healther Skelter
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Conferences and Forms on Renewable energy

Several large conferences/forms are quickly approaching; here is the short list.
Global Renewable Energy Form (GREF); Leon Mexico; 7-9 October 2009
The form is summarized on the web site (concept note):

It is expected that some 1000 officials, planners and energy experts from all world regions will participate in the event, including representatives from governments, international organizations, academia, civil society, and private sector.

The Global Forum will feature a series of plenary sessions around the following themes:

• Energy Poverty, Economic and Financial Crisis, and Climate Change;

• Renewable Energy and Energy Transition;

• Renewable Energy Potential;

• Renewable Energy and the Access Agenda;

• Biofuels;

• Investments in Renewables;

• Policy and Innovative Institutions.



West Coast Green; San Francisco CA USA, 1-3, October 2009. This conference seems to be aimed at the design community with what promises to be a full exibitor floor. The educational track are listed as;

• Building Communities 2.0

• Business Opportunities and the New Economy

• Clean Tech and Cool Products

• Smart Systems

• Social Innovation

• Water and Energy

Cost, Students $250 USD, full pass $795 USD.

Institute of the Americas presents the Cross Border Climate and Renewable Energy discussion; August 13th, 2009, La Jolla CA

The event will convene policy makers from Mexico and the United States, renewable energy project developers, suppliers, analysts, NGO representatives and others for several panels. The focus will be on the significant opportunities that exist in the Cross Border region for renewable energy projects, as well as how to best work together to confront the critical challenges the issues of energy and climate present for us all.

Cost; General Public $100, Academics $25.

NASA and cafe announce green aircraft challenge

In an announcement made on July 31, 20009, NASA and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) have offered a 1.5 million dollar prize to a plane that can average 200 passenger miles per gallon of gas on a 200 mile flight averaging over 100 mph.

These contests are great ways to insight new innovation, and I think inspire new small firms to be formed. I'd love to see many more of these contests with housing, bike design, car design, solar and wind power systems etc...

I think the Mexican government could use this to promote more research. Instead of asking for proposals and giving grant money to the best looking option (which has way too much ability for corruption) offer a prize for someone who satisfies the demand. Where the initial cash comes from, that is still a problem, but companies will be more inclined to offer funding if they see a direct gain from completing the goal. Right now they win patent rights and tax incentives, but hard cash is even better!

Steven Pinker; the world is less violent

This is a great video for anyone who thinks that the world is going to shit (saw it about a year back, but it was brought to my attention by onegoodmove.org.) I've heard many times how violet the world is becoming, but here is his talk Mr. Pinter gives a very good argument how the world has become much better. When we think about this, it makes sense. The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan draw a great deal of attention when 4 or 5 soldiers are killed, when it was 10 thousand lives ended in a battle in the major world wars. Any death caused by a person is regrettable, and it seems that we are finally getting that. The fact that people are caring for homeless dogs and cats is a sign that we are even looking outside of our species. Sound very Buddhist to me; several aspects of the eight-fold-path can be seen.

US gas milage hasn't improved in 80 years

A good post on gizmag about the US gas milage. My comment is below. This brings up one of my biggest concerns about cars here in Ensenada. Called 'Chocolate Cars' illegally imported clunkers crowd the streets here. Polluting more then any 100 times more then newer well maintained cars. If the government wanted to clean the air quickly they would run these cars off the street. The poor people who use them are throwing their money away in maintaining blown engines, burning oil, and excessive fuel consumption. They should buy a bike, which would also help with their obesity as well.

Moon engineering

A great post about the lunar orbiter and the engineering success of that marvelous machine. To me it is like the bicycle of space probes; not the biggest, nor most powerful, but the biggest bang for the buck. Simple ingenious engineering, and a mark of how great the American scientific effort can progress when the politicians and administration keep out of the actual design and implementation.



I don't want to take away for the feat that they accomplished, but to note how the current energy problem could be solved if the scientists were given free range. Currently we are told to make a wind/solar device that works such way... instead they should say; "give me electricity from the sun." The other big problem right now is the constant use of patents. As a scientist I hate patents. They bring the lawyers into the equation; if you think a politician or admin screws things up, try a lawyer!!!

Lastly, but still very important is this fact;

But of the first six Rangers, two failed to leave the Earth's orbit, one failed en route, two missed the Moon completely, and although the sixth reached the target, its cameras failed.

Errors are natural, and acceptable! But currently, if something blows up, or fails the whole project becomes threatened. This is dangerous and stupid! If we learn from our errors, then firing a failed team is losing your more experienced people! We can not be scared to fail; we must be excited to learn!

House cooling for small homes

The Tiny house Blog had a great post about cooling small homes. The majority of the post mentions how to reduce the heating of a home. I see many new constructions with southern windows covering the entire side of a hose, and without a square inch of shading. Theses home are only for the rich, because they must need AC on most of the year (not to mention how cold it must be at night in the winter...



Here are some other links. From Build it Solar about window shading, and from doItYourself.org about redwood trellis.

Green Carier pathways

While I have a lot of work, it is wise to keep an eye open for new opportunities. In my case this is just being abreast of what work is out there. The Center for sustainable energy in San Diego has an upcoming fair on green jobs; costs $15 pre $20 door registration. Its on Aug 1st.. hope I'll close at hand to go...

How to read science papers; the kindel

It was a common sight of a scientists desk to have stacks of unread, or highlighted journal articles. When I was in undergrad and my masters these mountains were formed during long nights in the library photocopying journals. But with the publication online of the majority of journals, people started printing out their pdf files.

I've been reluctant, and have been trying several data base programs. Currently I'm using DevonThink which is ok, has a great search function (A see also function lets you look for similar documents) but this sticks me to a computer for reading. The program also works best when you import the documents, leading to big databases (mine are 1-4GB).

I've tried sending pdf's over to my iPhone, but the screen is a little small, and there is no way to mark up the pdf, or add book marks etc..

The Kindle seems to be a possible solution, but does not handle pdf natively, so back to exporting, and having several copies of the same article. To send in pdf's there are a couple of hacks or kindle functions that you can use.

To bring in files there is an open source project Savory with instructions well outlined on Jesse's blog.

So will I buy a kindle to read papers? Well, that is about 4000 pesos. So maybe next paycheck,(too bad the mac tablet still isn't out yet!!) but maybe. I'm still not sure about the service in Mexico. If you have experience on this, please comment. Cheers

Open access journals

I've been looking for open access journals to publish in. One of the main ones we use is Optics Express. Its a little pricy, but free to read.

In Eileen's Blog she mentions a talk on this topic. I hope that more universities take this seriously. Its very disturbing that so much research is done on public funds, but the public has no access to their results.

One of the better know groups is the Public Library of Science (PLoS), but their journals are mainly medicine and biology related.

What I've found so far;

Open Renewable Energy Journal

The International Journal of Photoenergy; seems to be mainly chemistry type stuff

Geotermia, a Mexican journal on geothermal studies.

To find open access journals check out the Directory of Open Access Journals

Seems like OREJ is the best bet for what I'm looking at publishing. If you know of any other journals, please leave a comment.

My back hurts!

Ya, thats all this is. Somehow I'm sitting badly. Here is a good page by ErgoSum consulting on proper seating posture. I was all wrong. I remember someone telling me to tuck your feet under the chair. Apparently that is wrong!

-Don't put your feet on the spokes of the chair

-Support feet on the floor, or on a foot rest if your feet don't reach the floor

-Adjust chair height for comfortable keyboarding



Hopefully this helps.. but the chairs here are not the best I've seen. Really, I need to get back to exercising! Too lazy for my own good.

Funding in the lab; FOMIX

Until I get a blog set up as an eJournal in CICESE, I'll use this blog space to post some current notes. If you have ideas, feel free to comment..

Grant funding FOMIX

Damanda 4.2; Estudio de factibilidad para la creación del Parque Tecnológico en el Municipio de Ensenada.

I've been wanting to make a hacker space and a sustainable energy center here in Ensenada. Its a bit a stretch to call them a Tech Park, but they would accomplish much of what they want (I think.)

desarrollo de empresas de alto valor ; There is not really the type of people here to make new things, mainly there are a lot of people who follow the status quo. But a hacker space would combine the engineer with the artist, and that could make something; basically we need to bring Hacking and the Hacker Ethic into the Mexican culture.

A sustainable energy center may do something similar, but again there really is no industry here making anything for energy production.

But they want incubación de empresas de alta tecnología , and that gets back to hacker spaces.

Demanda 4.6 Fortalecimiento a la industria asociada a la generación y manejo de energías renovables no convencionales para el estado de Baja California. Modalidad A Investigación científica aplicada

While this seems to be set for our lab, they seem to focus on renewable energy for helping big industry. That mean finding new sources for their existing machinery; which means electricity, or gas. I've been trying to avoid electrical production, it is very hard to be cheaper then gas. Ideally I'd like to try something like industrial hot water heating. Maybe after we have a lab built with some decent solar collectors we can look again at stirling engines or concentrated photovoltaic, but not right away. We'll see if they like industrial hot water production, or maybe solar desalinization?

Water car; free energy

Here is an response I sent to someone who sent me the below video.

WebIslam

and my response (sorry, it is in bad spanish)

Hola ____:

No soy tan seguro de que proceso hablan, pero fue algo similar aquí:

Se llama Oxyhydrogen y hay buen referencia aquí:

La proceso necesita mas emergía para separar la agua que produce en energía mecánico o termal.

Hay otra procesos similar que se llama 'water car';

Es posible que este puede subir la eficiencia de la carro, pero otros tecnologías como frenos rejuvenecer que son mas simple, y menos pelegroso (no tiene H2); entonces su uso en muchos autos hibridos.

Gracias para la link. Si ves otras cosas interesante por favor mandaremos.. mientras muchos ideas son mal ciencia, algunos tiene material muy internaste y bueno!

Saludos

Rodger

note:
just remember, until we figure out some completely new relm of science (I have no idea what that could be, other universes, multidimension etc,) in our daily experience energy can never be free! So when you see "Free Energy" the first thing that you should think is.. 'most likely bull shit!'

Vino-Tourism

A great article by Steve Dryden in Mexidata. If you want to read about this years wine festival he has a good summary of the main events. The main page for the Festival de Vindimia is here. (altho it is a somewhat heavy flash page.. ergg)

Every summer the wineries of Baja California, Mexico pool their talents and wares to host an amazing series of wine, food, music and cultural events throughout the region. Most of these festivities take place in Ensenada and/or the Valle de Guadalupe, with a few events in other areas. You may need to get a bank loan to attend some of the events, but if you’re selective and practical you can enjoy some great wine, food and entertainment.

via mexidata

Lens baby; shift tilt lens?

Seems like a simple application of a shift tilt lens with a bunch of added optics attachments. I'm sure I could have lots of fun with a Lensbaby set.. maybe I'll become religious and pray for one.. maybe not..

An interesting solar concentrator

Seem pretty much like a fresnel lens, but in reflection behind the optic (actually I think it is the upper part of a series of nested parabolic reflectors.) Anyway, from SVV tech , it looks neat. But, I don't know how they patent this stuff, its cool, but not too original. Anyway... good luck..

Draw a parabola with a carpeters square and string

Thanks to the link from Red Rock Heliostats, here they outline a simple way to draw a parabola.

Used car parts for solar power

I heard about this a few years back, out of MIT the Solar Turbine Group has a system made from car parts and parabolic trough to create power and cooling. Their system which uses an organic Rankine cycle is described on their web page. This is the type of project that I'd like to see made open source.

Solar Roasted Coffee

A well done project of using solar energy to roast coffee. I've talked with many people about the idea, and there have been several sites with attempts at this, but Solar Roast Coffee seem to be the only example of industrial size solar coffee roasting. They just had a contest end where they offered $1000 prize for an electronics package to track the sun (currently they do it by hand). Very interesting, and well done!!

Sundoller, active daylighting

I've seen several ways to actively track the sun and send the light indoors. Sunflower's solution is the simplest of optical design, though I'm not sure why they don't use a full parabolic (I see, it is a 2D reflector, makes sense.) And I really hate these sites that can't tell you what they cost! Call for a quote my ass.. come on, at least order of magnitude.. $1000, $10,000.. Is that too much to ask? Its like an overpriced restaurant, " if you have to ask the price, its too much for you.."

Plasma arc garbage eater

S4 Energy Solutions uses a plasma arc into molten glass breaks garbage into its base elements. Metal sinks and dielectrics melt and float. The gases escape and can become combustibles.
Could this be used with a heliostat array? I think yes, might make the worlds coolest solar toilet

Molten salt research

An interesting video from the UW-Madison lab that studies molten salt; an apparently useful material in solar applications. I'm still curious how you transport the salt when it is solid.



via PDD net

Back online

I've started my new line of investigation at CICESE in renewable energy (we still haven't set the lab name, it is currently the "Alternative energy lab" but I'm not in love with the name; any ideas?)
Unfortunately I could not get Qumana to go through the firewall/proxy so I've now switched to Marsedit.

A brief recap; a few weeks back was the Guateque and the Feria de Hongo. Both great events and very full!

This coming week I will be filling applications for funding and also will start looking at opensource hardware. If you have any thoughts on the matter add a comment.

Que vereuenza, 0.33% of Gross Internal Product for science and Tech in Mexico

In an interesting article in Green Momentum that looks at the investment the Mexico, in comparison to Brazil, is investing in its science and technology. Correction( $1.3, thanks Alex!) 1,300 million USD is the  Conacyt budget! A first world country should be putting 1-2% of their Gross Internal Product into science and education. Brazil is at 1.2%. Mexico is 0.33% !! That is a disgrace, and the Mexican people should realize this is why their country is not advancing!

Powered by Qumana

33 of the most healthiest foods

A huffington post article outline healthy foods for post hospital visits.

Powered by Qumana

Writing a thesis; learn to touch type

One of the best things I did before writing my thesis, was to take two weeks of free time, and learn to touch type. This will help you to write quicker and more accurately since you can read as you type.

I used a program for Mac called Ten Thumbs, I saw in Life Hacker a link to a free online program to teach you called typing web. When I learnt I recalled hearing that there was a different keyboard layout called Dvorak. In the apple keyboard menu I can set a shortcut to switch between QWERTY and Dvorak (QWERTY); the brackets note that pressing the apple key uses the QWERTY settings. This helped me to learn because looking at the keys didn't help you at all, so I couldn't cheat.

Powered by Qumana

Femtosecond laser makes super bright light bulb

Reported in U. of Rochester web anouncements a femtosecod pulsed laser exposure to a tungsten light filament would increse the light production eficiency by 50%. This would be something of interest to CICESE's optics department! The current proposued theory is that the femtosecond laser, which is well known to cause the formation of nanometer sized particles and defects, gives the material a complex three dimensional structure with varialions smaller then a light wavelength. How this couples into light will described in the forthcomming publication in Physical Review Letters.

Powered by Qumana

Starting a hacker space in Ensenada!

Starting a hacker space in Ensenada would be an interesting addition to the city with its collection of scientists and artists. Featured today on Boing Boing a video on hacker spaces.

Powered by Qumana

Electric folding bikes

In my current pursuit for a new bike (which I hope to make as shown in a previous post) I found a great collapsible bike for $700 USD, with the possible addition of electrical assist, this makes for a great idea for traveling!  I hope to use a python style bike, but a lesson can be taken from their design and style which I would be glad to ride. This bike doesn't look at all crappy like many other models; I think bikers tend to be very vain (you have to be to wear spandex and shave your legs.. )

Ciclovia in the news

I've been away visiting family, but in the past week grupo prociclovia made it into the news!

I got a lot of riding on the bike trails in Toronto, which are under supported by the city there, but still rock in comparison to what is here in Baja! ( I should also note that Toronto put them in back in the 70-80's when the city wasn't much bigger then Ensenada is now!

Powered by Qumana

Natural Tiny Homes

A great blog with many great ideas!!

Powered by Qumana

That is a lot of sugar

From SurgarStacks.com, images of fast food drinks with sugar cubes representing the amount of sugar it contains. Kinda makes you want it that much less....

via BoingBoing

Powered by Qumana

Great video on Canadian Copy Fight

An interesting video about Canadian Law C61.

Powered by Qumana

Come to Ensenada; drink wine, and throw tomatos!

Bibayoff, my favorite Russian-Mexican vineyard in the Valley is bringing a Spanish tradition to the Guadalupe valley. I'm hoping on going!!

TOMATINA MEDIEVAL EN BIBAYOFF - Lugar: Viñedos Bibayoff
29 de Mayo del 2009 // Fecha: 29 de Mayo 2009
Hora: 5:00pm
Actividad: Cena y Campamento Medieval.
Precio: $400 pesos preventa $500 el dia del evento

Fecha: 30 de Mayo 2009
Hora: 1:00pm
Actividad: Tomatina Medieval!
Precio: $400 pesos preventa $500 el dia del evento

Precio ambos dias: $700 pesos

Mas información:
Vinifera Enoteca & Wine bar, Av. Ruíz esquina Reyerson 37-b Centro tel:(646) 178.77.70
Nextel: 152*153960*3 y 152*153960*4
covelli_vinifera@yahoo.com.mx

Rest. Uno Tijuana Tel.664 681 32 03 y 152.202290.3

via Vino Club

Powered by Qumana

A novel chainless, folding bicycle

An impressive design from Speed Studio Design, from the quick folding design to the ratcheting drive train.

Similar to the bike by Linearc

Powered by Qumana

White tea to help rid fat

Apparently white tea helps to burn and keep off fat. Interesting. I tried white tea for the first time this year. It is like a mild green tea. Very nice. In Hogaza Hogaza you can by the white tea by Cha'nte; I think I'll start drinking more!

Possible anti-obesity effects of white tea have been demonstrated in a series of experiments on human fat cells (adipocytes). Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism have shown that an extract of the herbal brew effectively inhibits the generation of new adipocytes and stimulates fat mobilization from mature fat cells.

via EurekAlert! photo via SunnyCanuck on Flickr

Powered by Qumana

Cough in your sleve

I've been coughing in my sleeve since I worked at Magoo's Hamburgers. Not sure why, just seemed smarter.. Well, here is a tacky video about it.. Enjoy

Powered by Qumana

Macbreak weekly pics site

Finally, there is now a couple of websites that list the pics of the week from one of my favorite podcasts Macbreak Weekly.

They are; MBW Picks of Week and MBW Picks. Thanks for the sites. I usually listen while walking  (or some other activity that lasts an hour) that leavs me without internet connection. And blasted web 2.0 names are creative, but a pain in the bus to remember!

via: targuman

Powered by Qumana

Pot legal in Mexico?!

Well, not really, but it is less of a crime. This law seems similar to what passed in Canada, where small amounts (personal stash) is not illegal.

Under the bill, it would be legal to have 25 milligrams of heroin, a fifth of an ounce of marijuana or half a gram of cocaine. The bill also makes it legal to possess small amounts of LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote.

This way people with large amounts are called dealers, and can be treated more harshly. I like to think that this law as well will allow for the legalization of all drugs where to sell requires a licence. Personally, legalize drugs, charge lots of tax, and force the Mafia either out of business through competition, or make them into mainstream businesses. From a use point of view, this would also allow for open competition of growers, and better control of product; i.e. protecting the citizen better. Only thing left is for the US to change its policy as well, and all of North America will be finally leaving the puritan experiment started in the early 20th century!

via NY times

Powered by Qumana

1ra paseo ciclista en Ensenada

Around 50 bike enthusiasts gathered at Ensenada's city hall and rode from there to CEARTE yesterday as a show of support for the city's new plan of a bike lane network in the city.

The bikers arrived at CEARTE in time to see an out door jazz concert. The ride, more symbolic then exercise, was well organized and full of smiles. The group will meet every Thursday at 7 and ride to CEARTE to finish by talking drinking coffee and enjoying the state art center has to offer.

Photos of the ride are posted on my flickr account. Take a look, and see you next week!

Powered by Qumana