Monthly Archives: February 2011

Virgil’s Aeneid, Part 4

27 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in Astyages, Virgil's Aeneid

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Rendered into prose by

D L Rowlands

*****     *********     *****

Meanwhile Aeneas lay awake in the dark of the night, unable to sleep for his burden of care. But when the sun rose, he too arose to survey the coast and the country near their landing site, anxious to learn more about the nature of the land in which they now found themselves. The region seemed wild and uncultivated, but they did not know whether the land was inhabited by men or solely by beasts.

He hid his fleet underneath a rocky overhang, above which grew tall trees which covered the mountainside and provided a safe retreat. Arming himself with two pointed darts and with the faithful Achates at his side, he left his friends, and when they had reached the deep recesses of the woods, all of a sudden, his goddess mother stood before him, a huntress by habit and manner; her dress suggested a maiden but her air confessed a queen. Her skirt was bound up and her knees were bare; her hair was loose and windblown; her hand held a bow and a quiver hung at her back. She seemed like a virgin of the Spartan blood: With such an array as this Harpalyce bestrode her Thracian courser and outstripped the rapid flood.

“Ho, strangers!” she addressed them, “Have you seen one of my sisters, dressed like myself? I think she wandered into the forest; she had a quiver, painted with spots at her back and she wore a lynx’s hide, and in full cry pursued a long-tusked boar.”

Thus spoke Venus, and her son replied, “We have seen none of your sisters, o virgin; or whatever other title you may call yourself above that… Oh, you are fairer than any mortal woman; your voice and manner betray the celestial nature of your birth! At the very least you seem like one of the chaste goddess, Diana’s retinue… Hear my plea then and do not let a humble suppliant beg your help in vain; but tell me, a stranger long tossed on the tempestuous sea, what earth we tread and who commands this coast? And then wretched mortals shall call on your name and offer sacrificial victims at your altar.”

“I dare not assume the name of goddess,” she replied, “or claim celestial honors; Tyrian virgins carry bows and quivers and wear purple buskins on their feet… Know, gentle youth, that you are in the land of Libya; a people rude in peace and rough in war. The rising city, which can be seen from afar, is Carthage; a Tyrian colony. Phoenician Dido rules this growing state, who fled from Tyre to escape her brother’s hatred. Great were her wrongs and her story is full of fate, which I shall sum up in brief: Sichaeus, a man known for his wealth, and brother to the Tyrian king, was engaged to her but both brothers were struck with an equal dart.

Her father gave her to Pygmalion while she was still a spotless maid. Then Pygmalion, who condemned both divine and human laws, attempted to seize the Tyrian scepter; then strife ensued, caused by accursed gold… The king, blinded by his greed for his brothers’ wealth, by stealth slew him before the sacred altar, but for a long time concealed from her this cruel deed. Every day he framed some new pretense about his brother’s whereabouts to soothe his sister, and delude her mind.

At length, in the dead of night, the ghost of her unhappy lord appeared; the specter stared at her as he bared his bloody bosom and told her of his cruel fate at the altar. Then he warned the widow to take her household gods and flee to seek refuge in faraway places. Finally to support her on such a long voyage, he showed her where he had hidden his treasure. Thus admonished and seized with a mortal fear, the queen gathered companions from among all those who had cause to hate or fear the tyrant, to join her in her flight.

They found a fleet, ready rigged, which they seized, taking Pygmalion’s treasure with them. The vessels, thus heavily laden, put to sea, with fair winds and a woman to lead the way. I don’t know if the weather or Heaven’s fate drove them, but at last they landed, where from afar your eyes may view the turrets of new Carthage rise. They bought a space of ground, named Byrsa, after the bulls hide, which they first enclosed and walled… But where are you from? Where were you born, and what do you seek on our Libyan soil?”

 To her, with sorrow streaming from his eyes, and sighing deeply, her son replied, “Had you the patience to hear, or I to tell, oh nymph, the tedious tale of our fate, I’d take you through such a train of woes that the day would be over before the tale was done! We come from Troy – have you heard of her? – from which we were expelled by force and have been driven by tempestuous storms on various seas…

At length we landed on your Libyan coast. My name is Aeneas; a name not unknown to fame while Fortune favored me. With pious care I rescued my household gods, the companions of our woes, from our enemies and set sail for Italy; and I am descended from the King of Heaven. With twenty ships I crossed the Phrygian sea; my mother goddess leading the way. Now only seven ships remain; preserved from the storms here within your harbor. Now I am an exile, unknown and in distress; barred from Europe and thrown out of Asia to wander the Libyan deserts alone.”

His tender parent could no longer bear to hear his tale and interrupted him, seeking to soothe his care, “Whoever you are, you are not unbeloved by Heaven, since your ships have been driven onto our friendly shore. Have courage, and leave the rest to the gods. Go to the queen and ask her for her help. Your scattered fleet is now safely gathered upon the shore; the winds have changed and your friends are free from danger, or I’ll renounce my skill in augury!

Do you see those twelve swans, flying in beautiful order? Not long ago they were chased by an eagle, who pursued their scattering throng through the clouds; now reunited and in good order, and with returning joy, they flap their wings and fly in circles as they skim the ground looking for a friendly stream. Thus it is with you and your ships; all you have to do is to follow this path before you… You can already see the town from here.”

Having said this, she turned to leave and, as she walked away, allowed him to see her graceful neck and disheveled hair, which flowed over her shoulders and reached the ground; scenting the air with ambrosia, and, letting down the train of her long gown, by her graceful walk revealed herself as the Queen of Love.

The prince pursued the parting deity, calling after her, “Where are you going? You are unkind and cruel to deceive your son with borrowed shapes and to shun his embrace… never to let me see you except thus in disguise and to speak to him not in your own language but in a foreign tongue!”

Thus he complained against the goddess, but he obeyed her commands and took the path she had indicated and marched, invisibly, for Venus had shrouded their persons with mist so that no-one would stay their passage or force them to tell where they were bound and what was their purpose. This done, the sublime goddess flew off to visit Paphos, her native land; where garlands, ever green and ever fair, are offered with vows and solemn prayers at a hundred altars in her temple wile a thousand bleeding hearts invoke her power.

The Trojans climbed the next hill and, looking down beheld the town. Now much closer, the prince beheld with wonder the stately towers where until recently had been nothing but huts and shepherd’s hovels. He viewed the gates and streets and from everywhere heard the noise of the busy marketplace; the toiling Tyrians calling to each other, exhorting each other to work.

Some extended the wall while others built the citadel; or dug, or pushed unwieldy stones along. Some chose a spot of ground for their dwelling place, which, once designed, they surrounded with ditches. Some ordained laws; and some attended the election of holy senates. Here some drew up designs while there others lay deep foundations for a theater. From mighty quarries, mighty columns were hewn for ornaments depicting scenes which expressed their future hopes.

All worked as busily as bees in the flowery plains, when winter is past and summer scarce begun. Some conduct the youths about the city, while some make wine, which sitll others dispense. Some wait at the gate to receive the harvest and relieve their friends of their golden burden. All, with united force, combined to drive the lazy drones from the laborious hive.

Stung with envy, they viewed each others’ deeds as the fragrant work proceeded diligently. “Thrice happy you, whose walls already rise!” Aeneas said as he viewed, with lifted eyes, their lofty towers; then, entering the gate, still concealed in prodigious clouds, he mixed, unnoticed, among the busy throng, as, borne by the tide, he passed unseen among them.

***** ********* *****

A Cloud Across His Face

27 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in Lehan Winifred Ramsay

≈ 11 Comments

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A Cloud Covers His Face (2)

Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

Every ant we see is carrying a small world on his back. You didn’t know? It’s easy enough to tell once you do. Every so often they slow down a little and stretch out their aching back. That’s all. One tiny gesture. Go outside and find one, and and watch for a while.

We don’t see the ants that don’t carry a world. They haven’t fallen yet. Still up in the clouds. Golden hued. Not yet afraid of heights.

VIVIENNE’s Thoughts and Recipes for Autumn

27 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in The Dining Room, Vivienne

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I feel that Autumn is a time for being re-inspired in the kitchen.  If it has been too hot and humid for a long time, cooking (for me anyway) often becomes a bit of a chore in as much as I really would like a magic wand.  Sometimes I find myself making a potato salad (with cream and mayo and spring onions), throwing together a tossed salad and then cutting up a bought chicken or just cooking a decent piece of steak.  Sometimes I ask my husband ‘what would you like to cook tonight darling?”

Right now the hot and humid days have finally gone and energy is coming back.  Here are some of my favourites for weekend family eating.

Shami Kebabs (lamb meatballs)

For this I suggest you ask your butcher to bone out a leg of lamb, skin it and put it through the coarse mincer (not fine).   About 600g will make plenty as a snack for 4. (The remainder goes in the freezer.)

Put 3 slices of white bread (crust removed) in a bowl and add milk to soak until it is mush.  Pour off any milk and squeeze till bread no longer drips.   Mix the meat and bread together and add the following:

  • 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
  • 3 cloves of crushed garlic
  • 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, grated
  • 2 teaspoons of garam masala
  • 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1-2 tablespoons of fresh chopped mint
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon of plain flour

Mix very well.   Form into small balls about the size of a walnut (definitely no more than 3cms diameter).   Traditionally about three of these would be threaded onto a metal or bamboo skewer and then deep fried.  However, I think it is easier (and possibly safer) to just shallow fry individual balls in peanut oil, fairly quickly.   It doesn’t take long.  Drain on absorbent paper and keep warm until you have finished doing a number of batches (you can’t do them all at once).

Great eaten hot, warm or cold – as a snack or part of a bigger spread.  Mango chutney goes well as does a minty yoghurt.

American style Pork Ribs

The trick to this dish is finding the right spare ribs.  I really do mean RIBS – they don’t have a lot of meat on them so you need to be fairly discerning in picking out the best.  My butcher doesn’t have them but I usually find them at the Safeway meat section.  Ridiculously expensive at $5-7 for just one slab of them.  To feed four people I need five or six packets.

Place ribs in a large baking dish and pop into medium hot oven to cook about ¾ through.  Add nothing, just the ribs.  The purpose is actually to cook out any fat.  Take pieces out and cut into sections of 4 or 5 ribs each.  Clean out the baking dish and arrange rib pieces side by side.   Mix the following together in a bowl:

  • About 150 ml of golden syrup
  • ½  teaspoon of cayenne pepper
  • ½  teaspoon of salt and a little pepper
  • 2 cloves of crushed garlic (more if you like)
  • 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
  • 1 ½ tablespoons of dijon mustard

Coat the top side of the ribs with this mixture and cook in oven till it becomes sticky.  Turn ribs over and coat the other side and cook again till sticky.

The mixture can be increased proportionately to fit the quantity of ribs you are cooking.  The above amount probably is just enough for 4 sets of ribs.

Serve with a little boiled rice and salad or whatever takes your fancy.

 

Duck de Chirico

Duck with Muscat-Honey Sauce

Buy a good duck such as Luv-a-Duck (size 20-22) which is sufficient for four people.

Place in baking dish, sprinkle with salt and then into medium hot oven.  Cook for about three hours, turning occasionally, sprinkling more salt and pricking here and there to release fat.  About 2/3rds of the way through reduce oven temperature a little.  You want the duck well cooked but not ruined.  This is a sort of confit style.

While duck is cooking boil at least one potato per person until at least half done.  Peel and cut into large cubes.  About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat, heat a large pan and add butter and the potatoes plus salt (Murray River flakes if you have them).  Turn about every now and then till crisping up.     Also prepare whatever other vegetable you might like or preferably make a really good mixed greens salad with cherry tomatoes, slices of pear, shaved real parmesan etc.

Now for this part you need to take care – remove duck to large plate and then drain off the fat in the pan into a jar for use later.   You should wind up with at least half a cup of total duck juices.   Put these juices into a small saucepan on the stove top.  Add equal quantities of Muscat (about $10 for a bottle of Chambers regular muscat) and honey (about the same quantity as the juices you have saved).

Cook and stir till it starts to foam.  Remove from heat and let settle so you can test taste.  It should be about right – sweet and yum.

Cut duck up into quarters or carve if you prefer.  Carefully share out the sauce for each serving.    Make your plate look nice and have an appropriate good wine to accompany (my favourite sparkling Shiraz-Durif goes down particularly well).

—ooo—

Hell Hospital 11

25 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by in Astyages, Hell Hospital

≈ 20 Comments

 

HELL HOSPITAL

Episode 11

By theseustoo

(Disclaimer: this series of stories is completely fictional and none of the persons, places or institutions in these stories are real, but figments of my own imagination. Any similarity to any real person, place or institution is entirely coincidental.)

Dave had had a particularly wearying eighteen months since his accident; his foot had been crushed and dislocated simultaneously as he was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle after a female driver had driven out of a side-street to make a left turn right in front of him; he’d seen her approaching the junction and, as she had looked right at him, Dave had of course assumed that she was going to stop and give way as the law demanded in such a situation. She hadn’t, however, and the result had been just about every bone in Dave’s left foot being shattered. After eighteen months he’d returned for his check-up, expecting to be told he would soon have bone fusion surgery and that this would lessen some of the pain he still felt in the leg, even though he’d begun to walk on it some time ago.

“I remember you…” the doctor said, frowning heavily under his thick-rimmed glasses

“I remember you too!” Dave said. This doctor had seem him once before and had demonstrated such a judgemental attitude towards Dave and his injury that Dave suspected him of working for the insurance company which was dealing with his claim for compensation. At the very least, thought Dave, this guy has the bedside manner of a house-brick; in fact he was sure he’d known friendlier and more compassionate house-bricks.

The doctor made Dave take off his shoes and socks and, after looking at the X-rays Dave had just had done, took the latter’s left foot in his hands; taking one end of his foot in one hand and the other end in the other hand, the doctor then suddenly twisted both ends of the foot in opposite directions; “Aaargh!” Dave yelled instantly as he felt something go ‘click’ painfully in his left foot. Another wrench of the foot upwards towards the kneecap brought another yell of pain from the patient, who was beginning to wonder what he’d ever done to the doctor to deserve such treatment.

“That’s bad…” the doctor was saying, “Your ankle is still very stiff; and the x-rays show that your bones have all decalcified; your foot now has osteoporosis as a result of protracted disuse; there’s too little calcium in your bones for the bone fusion surgery to work, so you’ll need to walk on it as much as you can for the next six months… Then come back and we’ll see if there’s enough calcium in it for the bone fusion operation… The good news is that if you walk on it enough for the next six months you may not need the bone fusion…”

Dave had patiently ignored the violent urges he felt towards this doctor and even more patiently made another appointment for six months later; it had been six months since his last appointment; one thing Dave was sure of was that he was not suffering from ‘over-servicing’. He made a mental note of his determination that if he had to see the same doctor on his next visit, that he would ask for another doctor; he had been assured that none of the hospital’s doctors ‘worked for the insurance companies’, but who, he asked himself, could one possibly believe in this wonderful 21st century? And this quack seems downright hostile!

His determination was redoubled when a visit to his own GP confirmed a suspected fractured fourth meta-tarsal; and his GP’s method of examining the foot for flexibility was not only much gentler, but, it seemed to Dave, also produced greater flexibility in the whole foot.

***** ******** *****

“Well,” Doctor Frood was saying, “Vat does zis ‘saint’ of yours look like, then…?”

“Well, she’s kinda tall and slim… blonde and speaks with a slightly Scandinavian accent.

“So you actually do see her, then; she’s not just a voice inside your head?”

“Oh yes, Doctor… I see her as plainly as I see you sitting here in front of me!”

“Most unusual…” the psychiatrist said, suddenly standing up and agitatedly starting to pace the room; he stopped in front of the window, staring out of it into space, as he continued, “… few schizophrenia patients actually see visions; the voices remain internal to their heads, but clearly, you understand that this cannot be real? It must be some kind of hallucination! People just don’t appear and disappear like that!”

He turned round only to discover with astonishment that Loreen had somehow disappeared. She couldn’t have left by the normal route; his secretary was trained to try to stop and question anyone who left an interview early and he’d have heard; besides, when he asked her if his patient had left, his secretary had just said, “Patient?” as if she hardly knew what such at thing was. Nervously he reached into his drawer, took out a small pill-bottle and poured himself out a generous handful of ‘little yellow helpers’; then he withdrew a silver flask from a hip pocket and washed his pills down with a good strong slug of brandy…

It wasn’t possible, was it? That he could be imagining patients? Patients who talked about seeing saints? Was this, he began to wonder, some kind of guilt manifestation from his own rejection of religion at an early age? Perhaps, he thought, I need to see a psychiatrist!

***** ******** *****

Line Dancing at Brayton

25 Friday Feb 2011

Posted by in Gerard Oosterman

≈ 26 Comments

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 The big distances between rural properties makes the supply of services very difficult. The telephone line goes zigzag from property to property and if one line drops out, the whole lot drops out. The same with electricity. It is not like in the cities and suburbs where everyone is provided from a main phone or power line going through the streets.

Even though we were within 170km from Sydney, many properties did not have power connected and used solar energy backed up by batteries. To get main power connected would cost $40.000 for just a single pole.

We had 5 poles on our previous farm and I was so sick of drop-outs that I would regularly inspect the poles. The main problem was drop-down insulators. They were a device that would allow electricity to drop out during violent lightning, preventing the burning of cables or power poles.

These insulators were at an angle so that gravity would allow them to drop easily out of their clamps. When they did, I used to phone Country energy and they would come with a huge grapple stick and push the insulator back in their clamps while standing on the back of the truck.

Sometimes a farmer would switch on a huge electric pump from miles away and that would then cause a surge with the whole area out of power again.

 It was all very rural and this is why you finally just go for line-dancing at the local art school to eat a home- made muffin, shuffle your RM Williams and donate to the VFB of NSW. The noise and the fiddle would somehow calm the whole of rurality and that’s how power failures became accepted and part of the parcel, almost to the point where one was expecting it when things were going well for too long.

I, as you would all imagine, was hopeless at line dancing which calls for some kind of spontaneity or letting go, an ongoing life- long task I am still working on. Even Peter Garrett’s dancing is a Nureyev ballet compared to mine. So, I would normally bide my time and only join in when most were too intoxicated to notice my bizarre effort at line dancing.

To think all those lessons at Phyllis Bates back in the late fifties or early sixties with Cha, Cha, and Foxtrot would have left some kind of elasticity.

It seems like yesterday Svetlana  and I were still doing the Lambada.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AfTl5Vg73A

Euronews/NoComment

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Politics in the Pig's Arms, The Public Bar

≈ 16 Comments

I posted a comment over at the Crikey video of the day, praising the work of ordinary folks who filmed the Christchurch disaster live from their mobile phones and posted faster on Youtube than any of the mainstream media.

More than that, there was no offensive bullshit halfwit news reportage a la ABC 24 hours.  There were the images – use your own mind to assess what you see.  No explanation needed.  Not helpful for some talking head to say how awful it all was.

“Lambkins” added a useful tip – that Euronews has a comparable segment called “no comment”.

So I had a peep – for example – surprised to hear what’s happening in Egypt as far as the important ancient site tourism.  I was wondering if I might ever get to see the pyramids and Valley of the Kings – and catch up with both the Emmlets who have been there independently….

“At euronews we believe in the intelligence of our viewers and we think that the mission of a news channel is to deliver facts without any opinion or bias, so that the viewers can make their own opinion on world events.

We also think that sometimes images need no explanation or commentary, which is why we created No Comment and now No Comment TV: to show the world from a different angle…”

And so we have   Euronews no comment

Check it out

Earth Hour and the Art of Non-Consumption.

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Gerard Oosterman

≈ 13 Comments

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In our household we have put into place the minimum use of energy and at the same time maximising the benefits of energy with minimum or no wastage. We have instantaneous hot water heated by gas. No more storing hot water, so gas is only used when turning the tap on. The temperature of the hot water is set at a comfortable 46c. We cook by gas and only heat water by gas. No electric kettles, no terrible wastage of energy by electric cooking and boiling water. All our 50 watt down-lights with 10 watt transformers are being replaced by either LED or 9 watt fluorescent lights. We were horrified that our town house had those very dangerous down-lights. They can produce 320C heat and are a fire hazard anyway. Not long ago our houses had one light per room and a couple of power points. Now houses are bristling with dozens of lights and all sorts of CO2 producing gadgetry. Our modestly sized town-house had 33 of those high energy burning down-lights. One bathroom had 3. Why? At the more advanced age that most of us are creeping into, even half a light would suffice. Burning just a candle would be even better, if not more romantic as well.
Of course, TV size is the next one to economize on. What about the 82 cm model to the max? Those giant screens are so ugly and dominating, who wants to see our politicians and their egos blown up even bigger? Why would you want to look at most of the TV programs anyway?
 For our kids, definitely no extra TV’s in bedrooms. Most experts reckon that we ought to get tough and ban kids from anything with buttons and remotes. Dr Spock had it all wrong and whole generations of scowling and nervous kids have been spawned by letting them set the agenda instead of parents and teachers. If they protest, let them take out the garbage or take the dog for a walk.
As for wasting water with those obsessive twice daily showering, stop it in the bud. Don’t even shower daily. It’s not the bunch of flowers that regulates this game of love; it’s our smell and pheromones that drive the opposite (or same) sex into frenzy. No wonder there are so many lonely but well scrubbed people about.
We complain about the rising cost of electricity, and no doubt, they will triple in the next ten years. The obvious answer is to reduce the power consumption equally. It can be done. Our last gas bill was $94. -. This was over a period of three months and included a $42. ‘-availability’ charge. Total usage for hot water, cooking and heating was $52.-, and to paraphrase a popular slogan ‘the lower costs are just the beginning’.
The lowering of energy consumption should be joined together with lowering consumption of all superfluous items as well, especially when those items are phrased in the most terrible two words ever to appear in a western consumer driven society, “LIFE STYLE”. Simply never buy anything associated with those words, if you have; repent and chuck them out or never plug them in. Do you really need an electric knife or lettuce spinner?
 Life style is simply not something you can buy.
Naturally, using conventional electricity to keep out solar energy to cool or heat our houses is pure tautology as well as total earth vandalism. Chuck the air-conditioner on the foot path or install solar.
Perhaps the idea of a total ban on consuming anything should follow Earth Hour? Don’t keep a date with the Earth Extinction, consume less.

http://www.earthhour.org/

The Hanged Man

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Lehan Winifred Ramsay

≈ 16 Comments

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The Hanged Man

Painting and Story by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

Here’s what I learned, in my ant struggles. It is not enough to give up. You need to be mercilessly diligent in your efforts to not give up. Sure, it may seem like an eternal hassle to get that phone company to do something about your problem. And it will be: that’s not the point. The point is that as long as there is something that can be done, there will be something that you can do. No more frustration at the impossibility of everything. You need to turn each dumb-arse impasse of service into a breathtaking new canyon of possibilities with a far horizon. Yes, we’re talking doco-more. A Soft Bank of them to land on. The Aye! Phone.

Start at the bottom, with the first point of contact, and continue with it until it takes you up a step. Understand that that step has been introduced merely to give you a place to step down to. Step down if you must. Then start again. This time you might find another step. Take that. Understand that it’s merely a way to provide you with a chute by which to slide down to the bottom. Slide down if you must. Each time you meet the impasse, try to get a sense of what’s ahead. Before you go down again I mean. Next time, aim for the other side.

What you discover after a time, if you don’t get frustrated, if you choose not to see a wall, is that there are probably going to be ways, and some people some times are going to get along a bit. Your goal cannot be the fulfilment and resolution of the original problem. Most likely you are not going to manage that. Is that important? You need a new goal: understanding and entering the system. It’s a different kind of win. But much more entertaining. By all means Hang. But do a bit of hacking while you’re about it.

Alternative Energy Sources: With Will There’s A Way

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Warrigal Mirriyuula

≈ 9 Comments

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© XKCD (I borrowed this cartoon from: http://xkcd.com/556/)

Story Edited by Warrigal

It’s been a matter of some perplexity to me that governments and industry the world over have failed to pick the low hanging alternative energy fruit. While solar rebates and subsidies for domestic solar cell installation have enjoyed mixed success here in Australia and similar schemes operate globally, there seems to be a general blindness to the full potential of these existing technologies.

So if I said that a recent paper from no less august an institution than Stanford sets out a clear path to an alternative green energy future that would save perhaps as many as 3 million lives a year and simultaneously halt global warming, reduce air and water pollution and develop secure, reliable energy sources; nearly all with existing technology, and at costs comparable with what we spend on energy today you’d have to be pretty interested wouldn’t you. Further we can achieve all that according to this study by converting the world to sustainable and renewable energy sources and completely obviate the need for burning fossil fuels.

The new study co-authored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi sets out a scheme for achieving exactly that.

“Based on our findings, there are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable energy sources,” said Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “It is a question of whether we have the societal and political will.”

Jacobson and Delucchi, of the University of California-Davis, have written a two-part paper in the publication Energy Policy, in which they assess the costs, technology and material requirements of converting the planet, using the plan they developed.

The world they envision would run largely on electricity. Their plan calls for using wind, water and solar energy to generate power, with wind and solar power contributing 90 percent of the needed energy.

Geothermal and hydroelectric sources would each contribute about 4 percent in their plan (70 percent of the hydroelectric is already in place), with the remaining 2 percent from wave and tidal power.

Vehicles, ships and trains would be powered by electricity and hydrogen fuel cells. Aircraft would run on liquid hydrogen. Homes would be cooled and warmed with electric heaters — no more natural gas or coal — and water would be preheated by the sun.

Commercial processes would be powered by electricity and hydrogen. In all cases, the hydrogen would be produced from electricity. Thus, wind, water and sun would power the world.

The researchers approached the conversion with the goal that by 2030, all new energy generation would come from wind, water and solar, and by 2050, all pre-existing energy production would be converted as well.

“We wanted to quantify what is necessary in order to replace all the current energy infrastructure — for all purposes — with a really clean and sustainable energy infrastructure within 20 to 40 years,” said Jacobson.

One of the benefits of the plan is that it results in a 30 percent reduction in world energy demand since it involves converting combustion processes to electrical or hydrogen fuel cell processes. Electricity is much more efficient than combustion.

That reduction in the amount of power needed, along with the millions of lives saved by the reduction in air pollution from elimination of fossil fuels, would help keep the costs of the conversion down.

“When you actually account for all the costs to society — including medical costs — of the current fuel structure, the costs of our plan are relatively similar to what we have today,” Jacobson said.

One of the biggest hurdles with wind and solar energy is that both can be highly variable, which has raised doubts about whether either source is reliable enough to provide “base load” energy, the minimum amount of energy that must be available to customers at any given hour of the day.

Jacobson said that the variability can be overcome.

“The most important thing is to combine renewable energy sources into a bundle,” he said. “If you combine them as one commodity and use hydroelectric to fill in gaps, it is a lot easier to match demand.”

Wind and solar are complementary, Jacobson said, as wind often peaks at night and sunlight peaks during the day. Using hydroelectric power to fill in the gaps, as it does in our current infrastructure, allows demand to be precisely met by supply in most cases. Other renewable sources such as geothermal and tidal power can also be used to supplement the power from wind and solar sources.

“One of the most promising methods of insuring that supply matches demand is using long-distance transmission to connect widely dispersed sites,” said Delucchi. Even if conditions are poor for wind or solar energy generation in one area on a given day, a few hundred miles away the winds could be blowing steadily and the sun shining.

“With a system that is 100 percent wind, water and solar, you can’t use normal methods for matching supply and demand. You have to have what people call a supergrid, with long-distance transmission and really good management,” he said.

Another method of meeting demand could entail building a bigger renewable-energy infrastructure to match peak hourly demand and use the off-hours excess electricity to produce hydrogen for the industrial and transportation sectors.

Using pricing to control peak demands, a tool that is used today, would also help.

Jacobson and Delucchi assessed whether their plan might run into problems with the amounts of material needed to build all the turbines, solar collectors and other devices.

They found that even materials such as platinum and the rare earth metals, the most obvious potential supply bottlenecks, are available in sufficient amounts. And recycling could effectively extend the supply.

“For solar cells there are different materials, but there are so many choices that if one becomes short, you can switch,” Jacobson said. “Major materials for wind energy are concrete and steel and there is no shortage of those.”

Jacobson and Delucchi calculated the number of wind turbines needed to implement their plan, as well as the number of solar plants, rooftop photovoltaic cells, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal and wave-energy installations.

They found that to power 100 percent of the world for all purposes from wind, water and solar resources, the footprint needed is about 0.4 percent of the world’s land (mostly solar footprint) and the spacing between installations is another 0.6 percent of the world’s land (mostly wind-turbine spacing), Jacobson said.

One of the criticisms of wind power is that wind farms require large amounts of land, due to the spacing required between the windmills to prevent interference of turbulence from one turbine on another.

“Most of the land between wind turbines is available for other uses, such as pasture or farming,” Jacobson said. “The actual footprint required by wind turbines to power half the world’s energy is less than the area of Manhattan.” If half the wind farms were located offshore, a single Manhattan would suffice.

Jacobson said that about 1 percent of the wind turbines required are already in place, and a lesser percentage for solar power.

“This really involves a large scale transformation,” he said. “It would require an effort comparable to the Apollo moon project or constructing the interstate highway system.”

“But it is possible, without even having to go to new technologies,” Jacobson said. “We really need to just decide collectively that this is the direction we want to head as a society.”

 

Jacobson is the director of Stanford’s Atmosphere/Energy Program and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations) from ScienceDaily.

Source materials provided by Stanford University. The original article was written by Louis Bergeron.

Journal References:

1. Mark Z. Jacobson, Mark A. Delucchi. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials. Energy Policy, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2010.11.040

2. Mark A. Delucchi, Mark Z. Jacobson. Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies. Energy Policy, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2010.11.045

 

Where’s there’s Hope, there’s Cagney

23 Wednesday Feb 2011

Posted by in Entertainment Upstairs

≈ 15 Comments

Contributed (drawn from the Spam-o-sphere) by an old mate – Rod

REAL STARS… 

James Cagney and Bob Hope at a Friar’s Club Meeting back when actors were real performers, Bob Hope was 52 and James Cagney was 56. For the young folks, here is something you probably have never seen before and, unfortunately, you may never see again. For us older folks, this is the best of the best, and we had it for many years! This is a side of these two entertainers you hardly ever saw but it shows you their enormous talent. Bob Hope, the best of the comedians, and Jimmy Cagney mostly cast as the bad guy, gangster in the movies. Enjoy!