Hitler Finds Out that Google Reader is Shutting Down

Is Google Self Aware?

Let’s consult the Google:

http://urlet.com/characters.generality or:

http://www.google.com/webhp?tab=mw#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&site=webhp&source=hp&q=is+google+self-aware%3F&aq=&aqi=&aql=f&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=4b4c77cdf5f52ee&biw=1345&bih=562

Humboldt Empowerment – Offshore Wind Power for Humboldt County

Humboldt Empowerment Project 

GOAL:  Electrical energy self sufficiency (independence) for Humboldt County using a renewable source within five years. 

MEANS:  A wind turbine farm placed in a ten mile square at sea twenty miles offshore on floating barge platforms with the electricity collected onshore in one or more stations..  On 500′ centers this will comprise +/- 11,100 turbines. 

ECONOMIC NOTES:  Turbines and barges to be assembled locally in Humboldt County.  This project should result in 500 or more local good paying jobs for welders, assemblers and mariners.  If production starts in one year, we need to produce 10 barges per day to complete the project in 5 years. 

ENGINEERING NOTES:  Barges should be plug and play, towed out to sea for production and towed to port for maintenance.  Barges, power transmission and anchors should be engineered to survive a 10,000 year tsunami.   

ENVIRONMENTAL NOTES:  Possible effect on seabirds.  Possible effect on fish and marine mammals.  Wind power production at this scale may alter global wind patterns.  Possible conflict with marine shipping routes and fishing zones. 

BENEFITS:  Bountiful electric supply for Humboldt produced locally with a small carbon load, a boost to the local economy through cheaper power and good jobs, and a power plant that is very secure against disaster or attack.  Humboldt County will be a world pioneer in wind power energy production. 

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Discuss this at http://groups.google.com/group/humboldtempowerment 

or subscribe via emai by sending a blank email to:

humboldtempowerment-subscribe@googlegroups.com

Contact: bill@humboldtempowerment.org

http://humboldtempowerment.org

Study: Offshore wind could generate all U.S. electricity:

U.S. offshore winds, abundant off the coasts of 26 states, have the potential to generate four times as much power as the nation’s present electric capacity, says a new Department of Energy report.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/10/offshore-wind-us-electricity/1

Floating turbines promise to deliver reliable wind, says report

The higher up-front costs associated with developing floating wind turbines would be offset by the fact that they would be able to access areas of deep water off the coastlne of the UK where winds are stronger and reliable.

That is the conclusion of a major feasibility study backed by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), which is due to be launched later today and will argue that floating turbines are both technically and economically viable.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/11/floating-turbines-reliable-wind

Google to invest in grid for U.S. offshore wind

Oct 12 (Reuters) – Google Inc (GOOG.O) has thrown its financial clout behind a proposed 350-mile (563 km) underwater electric cable off the U.S. East Coast that could form the backbone of a grid carrying power from future offshore wind turbines.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1216453120101012

Jeff Leonard Gets All Googley

Jeff Leonard has got himself a google.  This is a screen shot from the top of my Gmail account.  He must have shelled out some cash for a keyword or two.

google flu trends – flu mapper

http://www.google.org/flutrends/

Nicaragua Opts for Wind Power

Nicaragua Turns To Wind Power, Builds 19 Windmills
Managua – nergy-starved Nicaragua is turning to wind as it tries to reduce its dependence on oil-based power. In January, the country will begin operating 19 windmills that have the potential to generate 40 megawatts of energy.

Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli said the us$90 million project will be operating at full capacity by the end of January and contribute 6 percent of the country’s total energy needs.

http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2008/december/29/reg02.htm

Google’s Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Google’s Goal: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal

Creates renewable energy R&D group and supports breakthrough technologies

Mountain View, Calif. (November 27, 2007) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new strategic initiative to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that will be cheaper than electricity produced from coal. The newly created initiative, known as RE<C, will focus initially on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.  RE<C is hiring engineers and energy experts to lead its research and development work, which will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas. In 2008, Google expects to spend tens of millions on research and development and related investments in renewable energy. As part of its capital planning process, the company also anticipates investing hundreds of millions of dollars in breakthrough renewable energy projects which generate positive returns. 

“We have gained expertise in designing and building large-scale, energy-intensive facilities by building efficient data centers,” said Larry Page, Google Co-founder and President of Products. ”We want to apply the same creativity and innovation to the challenge of generating renewable electricity at globally significant scale, and produce it cheaper than from coal.”

Page added, “There has been tremendous work already on renewable energy. Technologies have been developed that can mature into industries capable of providing electricity cheaper than coal. Solar thermal technology, for example, provides a very plausible path to providing renewable energy cheaper than coal. We are also very interested in further developing other technologies that have potential to be cost-competitive and green. We are aware of several promising technologies, and believe there are many more out there.”

Page continued, “With talented technologists, great partners and significant investments, we hope to rapidly push forward. Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal.  We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades.” (One gigawatt can power a city the size of San Francisco.) 

“If we meet this goal,” said Page, “and large-scale renewable deployments are cheaper than coal, the world will have the option to meet a substantial portion of electricity needs from renewable sources and significantly reduce carbon emissions. We expect this would be a good business for us as well.”

Coal is the primary power source for many around the world, supplying 40% of the world’s electricity.  The greenhouse gases it produces are one of our greatest environmental challenges. Making electricity produced from renewable energy cheaper than coal would be a key part of reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions. 

“Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind,” added Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder and President of Technology.

Strategic Investments and Grants

“Lots of groups are doing great work trying to produce inexpensive renewable energy. We want to add something that moves these efforts toward even cheaper technologies a bit more quickly. Usual investment criteria may not deliver the super low-cost, clean, renewable energy soon enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change,” said Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, “Google.org’s hope is that by funding research on promising technologies, investing in promising new companies, and doing a lot of R&D ourselves, we may help spark a green electricity revolution that will deliver breakthrough technologies priced lower than coal.”

Working with RE<C, Google.org will make strategic investments and grants that demonstrate a path toward producing energy at an unsubsidized cost below that of coal-fired power plants. Google will work with a variety of organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. For example, Google.org is working with two companies that have promising scalable energy technologies: 

• eSolar Inc., a Pasadena, CA-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy. eSolar’s technology has great potential to produce utility-scale power cheaper than coal. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/esolar.pdf.
• Makani Power Inc., an Alameda, CA-based company developing high-altitude wind energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources. High-altitude wind energy has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of current global electricity needs. For more information on Makani Power, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/makani.pdf.

Ongoing Commitments

Today’s announcement represents just the latest steps in Google’s commitment to a clean and green energy future.  

Google has been working hard on energy efficiency and making its business environmentally sustainable.  Last spring the company announced its intention to be carbon neutral for 2007, and is on track to meet that goal. To this end, the company has taken concrete steps to reduce its carbon footprint and accelerate improvements in green technology, including:

• Developing cutting-edge energy efficiency technology to power and cool its data centers in the U.S. and around the world. 
• Generating electricity for its Mountain View campus from a 1.6 Megawatt corporate solar panel installation, one of the largest in the U.S.
• Accelerating development and adoption of plug-in vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative, including a $10 million request for investment proposals (http://www.google.org/recharge/)
• Joining with other industry leaders in 2007 to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a consortium that advocates the design and use of more energy-efficient computers and servers (http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/).  
• Working on policies that encourage renewable energy development and deployment, such as a U.S. Renewable Energy Standard, through Google.org.

For more information on Google’s commitment to a clean energy future, see http://www.google.com/renewable-energy

For broadcast-standard video and other multimedia files for the announcement, see http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/index.html

For more information on recruitment for RE<C, see http://www.google.com/jobs/energy/  

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20071127_green.html

 

 

 

Stuart Leavenworth: Would a constitutional convention help dig state out of its dysfunctional hole?

By Stuart Leavenworth – sleavenworth@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, September 28, 2008
Story appeared in CALIFORNIA FORUM section, Page

California’s Constitution starts with the declaration that “all people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights.”

It goes downhill from there.

Spanning 157 pages, the state constitution delves into such topics as permits for gill nets, licensing of alcoholic beverages and the hiring of private architects. By the time it gets to the final article that, among other things, bans the cloning of human beings, the constitution resembles a giant kielbasa stuffed with years of special-interest ballot amendments.

Serious consideration is now being given to scrapping this constitutional sausage, or at least seriously revamping it. Even before lawmakers and the governor produced the Budget Calamity of 2008, a San Francisco-based business group was advocating the creation of a constitutional convention that could help enact reforms to the budget process and general governance.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” wrote Jim Wunderman, head of the Bay Area Council, in an Aug. 21 column in the San Francisco Chronicle that kicked off the debate. “It is our duty to declare that our California government is not only broken, it is destructive to our future.”

Since penning his column, Wunderman and the Bay Area Council, which represents the CEOs of Google, Yahoo, Chevron and other Bay Area businesses, say they’ve been flooded with responses from concerned citizens. Many people sense that traditional routes of reform – going to the voters with single-topic ballot propositions – will only place Band-Aids on a government that produces late budgets and fiscal mismanagement. Stronger medicine is needed.

complete essay:

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1269598.html

Google’s Project10tothe100.com “Impact”

Why this project?
Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.

In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.

In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.

The question is: what would help? And help most?

At Google, we don’t believe we have the answers, but we do believe the answers are out there. Maybe in a lab, or a company, or a university — but maybe not.

Maybe the answer that helps somebody is in your head, in something you’ve observed, some notion that you’ve been fiddling with, some small connection you’ve noticed, some old thing you have seen with new eyes.

If you have an idea that you believe would help somebody, we want to hear about it. We’re looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we’re committing the funding to launch them. You can submit your ideas and help vote on ideas from others. Final idea selections will be made by an advisory board.

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html

Join this Googlegroup to discuss the project:

http://groups.google.com/group/project10tothe100

Gmail can be used as “Spam Bazooka”

INSERT, the Information Security Research Team, has sucessfully created a proof of concept exploiting the “trust hierarchy” that exists between mail service providers. Taking advantage of the way Gmail forwards messages, the team was able to send 4000 messages in a short period of time from a single account without any countermeasures taken by Google.

Using Google as an open email relay is highly desierable for spammers because Gmail is trusted by most email providers — making messages sent though Gmail immune to most spam filtering.

http://urlet.com/coefficient.backgrounds