Aug/070
Rain + Construction = Flooding
There has been a lot of construction around my apartment lately.
This has led to a situation where the storm drains are not working properly
During the big rain last night the street outside my apartment flooded. Someone happened to drive through it and stalled so I had to help push them out.
Jul/071
Wireless in Minneapolis
Mineapolis is currently making progress to bring wireless internet to its residents. The target timeframe is around the end of 2007
Part of the plan includes building portal pages that will serve as information hubs for each of the neighborhoods.
It should be interesting to see how the city uses this infrastructure to cut costs and bring a paperless governement closer to reality.
Jul/071
Hourcar
Minneapolis has a really cool idea.
For the people who don't have a car, Minneapolis provides a vehicle that you can use for an hour(or more) to run your errands.
There is a fee, but it is pretty reasonable compared to owning a car.
Apr/070
Tracking Renewable Energy
The great plains institute just released news of a new software called M-RETS(Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System).
Basically it is a app that allows Minnesota, Wisconson, Iowa, and Manitoba to trade renewable energy in a market type scenario. This will function to keep the cost down, and encourage the use and development of more renewables.
I think this initiative will go along way in providing the necessary push we need to move in the direction of renewable energy.
Feb/070
White Tail Deer Shortage
AAccording to the MN DNR there are only two counties with a white-tail deer population.
I know that in MN they sell Deer Hunting Licenses and hunters have to register after they shoot a deer, but apparently this app is separate from that.
What would be the point of this application? It is obviously woefully inaccurate, I wonder how much tax money went into the development of this application and it's underlying data.
In my opinion if that data is not refreshed and does not pass the common sense test, get rid of it.
Who knows someone out there might be using this handy interactive map to make business decisions.
Feb/070
Howling Wolves
There are between 2301 and 3708 Wolves in Minnesota according the wolf survey taken in 2004, which is a 26% growth from the 1997-1998 numbers.
It seems pretty likely that Minnesota will eventually open up a wolf hunting season once they are removed from the Endangered Species List.
The wolves are pretty staying up on the Arrowhead pennisula, so I think even if they do hunt a few wolves to control the population we will still maintain that signature boundary waters atmosphere.
There is nothing like sitting on a peaceful rock, with a fishing pole in hand, listening to the wolves howl, and the loons sing.
Jan/070
Solar – energy that is staring us in the face.
Printed Solar Panels
Tomorrow's solar panels may not need to be produced in high-vacuum conditions in billion-dollar fabrication facilities. If California-based Nanosolar has its way, plants will use a nanostructured "ink" to form semiconductors, which would be printed on flexible sheets. Nanosolar is currently building a plant that will print 430 megawatts' worth of solar cells annually—more than triple the current solar output of the entire country.
Eventually we can just roll out the solar panels on every home in the US. A major step toward a distributed energy grid.
I think this is a pretty exciting innovation, then again maybe I am just a geek:)
Jan/070
Energy Townhall Meeting
I went to a really interesting energy conference last night.
It was put on by the Great Plains Institute they were gathering community feedback regarding their energy roadmap.
It was a very thorough roadmap, with bullet points like.
Energy Efficiency
Establish numeric milestones for the years 2015, 2030, and 2055 in each state or province to achieve the potential identified in its comprehensive energy efficiency and conservation assessment.
.......
Measurable Milestones for Coal
By 2015, the region should have at least two integrated gasification-combined cycle (IGCC) coal power plants with CCS.
By 2015, the region should demonstrate commercial scale post-combustion capture of CO2 at a pulverized coal plant.
.......
Measurable Milestones for Biomass
The region wil
By 2015,
Expand production and market penetration of corn ethanol and biodiesel, while making improvements with respect to input use and conversion effieciency.
Demonstrate key biomass technologies, including
- Biomass combined heat and power systems to utilize waste heat for power production;
- Biomass integrated gasification-combined cycle (IGCC) to produce power, either with or without coal;
- Cellulosic ethanol production from a broad range of materials (native grasses, wheat straw, corn stover, etc.)
- Synthetic natural gas from biomass, especially manure; and
- Pyrolysis based utilization of biomass(heat and pressure) to produce bio-oil.
.........
Measurable Milestones for Wind
The regional shall obtain from wind energy:
- By 2015, 10 percent of total retail sales;
- By 2020, 20 percent of total retail sales;
- By 2030 30 percent of total retail sales;
These excerpts are taken from the Summary of Draft Regional Energy Roadmap, provided by the Great Plains Institute.