MY BLACK GIRLFRIENDS
By Tiger Woods
dedicated in memory to Wilt Chamberlain
___________________________________________
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY
By Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan
Illustrated by Michael Moore
Foreword by George Soros
________________________________________
MY CHRISTIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS
& HOW I HELPED AFTER KATRINA
By Rev Jesse Jackson & Rev Al Sharpton
______________________________________
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BILL
By Hillary Clinton
_________________
Sequel: THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY
By Bill Clinton
_________________
THINGS I CANNOT AFFORD
By Bill Gates
____________________________________
THINGS I WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY
By Dennis Rodman
_________________________________
THINGS WE KNOW TO BE TRUE
By Al Gore & John Kerry
_____________________________________
GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC
By Amelia Earhart
____________________________________
HOW TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
By Dr. Jack Kevorkian
__________________________________
TO ALL THE MEN WE HAVE LOVED BEFORE
By Ellen de Generes & Rosie O'Donnell
__________________
GUIDE TO DATING ETIQUETTE
By Mike Tyson
__________________________________
THE AMISH PHONE DIRECTORY
_______________________________________
MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLERS
By O. J. Simpson & Casey Anthony
_________________________________________
HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE SAFELY
By Ted Kennedy
_________
MY BOOK OF MORALS
By Bill Clinton
With introduction by
The Rev. Jesse Jackson
and forward by
Tiger Woods with John Edwards
____________________________________________________
HOW TO WIN A SUPERBOWL
BY THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS
___________________________________________________
Just added:
MY COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF MILITARY STRATEGY
By Nancy Pelosi
________________________________________________________
And the shortest book of them all:
THINGS I DID TO DESERVE THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
by Barack Obama
Sunday, April 14, 2013
World's Shortest Books...
A great collection of titles, via my mom:
Sometimes That Handgun Comes In Mighty Handy...
This fellow had something that is practically unobtainable here in San Diego: a concealed carry permit. He used that to do some takin' care of business:
The Battery Problem...
The phrase “the battery problem” is shorthand jargon for a problem well-understood by those designing renewable energy systems (especially wind or solar). The problem is that people need power when these renewable sources aren't available. You aren't going to get a lot of solar power at night; this is the most obvious case.
The problem is slightly subtler than that, though. If you look at solar power alone for just a moment, it turns out that you have to account for a lot more than just nighttime. There is less solar power available in bad weather (like a snowstorm) than in good weather. There is less solar power available in the morning and the evening than there is at noon (this is true even for systems that orient themselves to point toward the sun).
For all these situations, what's needed is a way to store power when it is plentiful, for use when it is not. The conventional answer for this storage is a battery, specifically a lead-acid battery very similar to what is in your car. This battery was invented over 100 years ago, and nobody has ever come up with anything that beat its cost vs. storage capacity. But lead-acid batteries are far from ideal; in fact, in many ways they are simply awful. If you've ever carried one of these beasts, you know they are full of environmentally-unfriendly lead. And then there's the nasty acid. Lead-acid batteries used in the way that renewable energy systems need to use them (deep-discharge cycling) wear out quickly, typically in three to five years – at which point they must be replaced. That's an expensive proposition!
Hence the shorthand “the battery problem”. Renewable energy is always going to be of limited value until someone solves the battery problem by inventing a way to store electrical energy that is cheaper, more reliable, and more environmentally friendly than lead-acid batteries.
Here's a Kickstarter project that's taking a stab at the battery problem, using another very old technique (mechanical flywheels) with some very modern twists. Their own claims are for relatively modest improvement over the cost of lead-acid batteries, but with much higher reliability and vastly better environmental friendliness. It's not a quantum leap, but it sure looks like an improvement. They claim to be essentially finished with development other than the need for a better magnetic bearing, which is why they went to Kickstarter for some funding (a very modest amount, actually). I don't know enough about the details of what they need to accomplish to be able to even think about their chances of success...but I wish them well. It's a clever idea, and certainly we could use something better than those danged batteries!
More info (and explanatory videos) here, here, and here:
The problem is slightly subtler than that, though. If you look at solar power alone for just a moment, it turns out that you have to account for a lot more than just nighttime. There is less solar power available in bad weather (like a snowstorm) than in good weather. There is less solar power available in the morning and the evening than there is at noon (this is true even for systems that orient themselves to point toward the sun).
For all these situations, what's needed is a way to store power when it is plentiful, for use when it is not. The conventional answer for this storage is a battery, specifically a lead-acid battery very similar to what is in your car. This battery was invented over 100 years ago, and nobody has ever come up with anything that beat its cost vs. storage capacity. But lead-acid batteries are far from ideal; in fact, in many ways they are simply awful. If you've ever carried one of these beasts, you know they are full of environmentally-unfriendly lead. And then there's the nasty acid. Lead-acid batteries used in the way that renewable energy systems need to use them (deep-discharge cycling) wear out quickly, typically in three to five years – at which point they must be replaced. That's an expensive proposition!
Hence the shorthand “the battery problem”. Renewable energy is always going to be of limited value until someone solves the battery problem by inventing a way to store electrical energy that is cheaper, more reliable, and more environmentally friendly than lead-acid batteries.
Here's a Kickstarter project that's taking a stab at the battery problem, using another very old technique (mechanical flywheels) with some very modern twists. Their own claims are for relatively modest improvement over the cost of lead-acid batteries, but with much higher reliability and vastly better environmental friendliness. It's not a quantum leap, but it sure looks like an improvement. They claim to be essentially finished with development other than the need for a better magnetic bearing, which is why they went to Kickstarter for some funding (a very modest amount, actually). I don't know enough about the details of what they need to accomplish to be able to even think about their chances of success...but I wish them well. It's a clever idea, and certainly we could use something better than those danged batteries!
More info (and explanatory videos) here, here, and here:
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