Wind power accounts for roughly 2.5 percent of total worldwide electricity production but is growing a rate of about 25 percent annually. For as long as ships needed to be propelled, sails have been employed to make use of wind energy. Windmills provided mechanical power for centuries and wind pumps lifted water out of the ground.

The potential of wind power is 20 times more than what all of humankind needs. Wind power is renewable. Mankind cannot run out of it since wind energy originates from the sun.

The worldwide potential of wind power is more than 400 terawatts. One terawatt equals 1 trillion (10 to the 12th power) watts. According to federal resources, the U.S. wants to produce at least 20 percent of its electricity by wind power by 2030.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

This brief sermon was delivered by Bob Kalk during a music service at Bell Church in Leicester, North Carolina on July 6, 2014. The guest pianist is Gerald Ball from nearby Mars Hill University. Bell Church was organized immediately after the civil war in 1866. At that time, the circuits in and about the Blue Ridge were largely served by native preachers, either ordained or local. Leicester was a center for “Northern Methodism,” with a great emphasis on education and connectional ministries. Today Bell is wired for, and focused upon, a set of challenges that include new educational initiatives and outreach.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

“The way solar is progressing it will just be a matter of time before it becomes competitive with fossil fuels and eventually replace them.”

So says Dr Jon Major who led a team at Liverpool University that has found a way of replacing one toxic element, used in the process of manufacturing solar cells, with a material found in bath salts.

Around 7% of the solar cells manufactured today are made from a material called cadmium telluride. The cadmium telluride cells are thinner than silicon and they are popular because they are also lighter and cheaper.

They have more than one drawback. Tellurium is rare. And a toxic chemical, cadmium chloride, is needed to manufacture the the cells. Cadmium chloride is also expensive. In addition, a significant proportion of the manufacturing cost of cadmium telluride cells is to protect the workforce from toxins and to dispose of contaminated waste products safely, according to the research team.

Dr Major discovered that a cheaper, non-toxic alternative, magnesium chloride, could be used instead of the toxic compound and work just as well. Magnesium chloride is completely safe. It is used to make tofu and is found in bath salts. It also extracted from sea water and so is a small fraction of the price of cadmium chloride.

Dr. Major believes that solar energy could eventually meet the world’s energy needs.

“There is enough sunlight that falls on the Earth every hour to generate enough electricity for the planet for a year,” he said.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word choreographed an assembly of amino acids into an exquisite array of specific proteins. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” In so doing God demonstrated a penchant for genomic writing, preceeded by an amazing series of prebiotic events, in a highly orchestrated presentation of evolutionary overcontrol.

More about God’s Handiwork!

Ethanol is but one of the products the bacterium can be taught to produce. Others include butanol and isobutanol (transportation fuels comparable to ethanol), as well as other fuels and chemicals-using biomass as an alternative to petroleum.

Janet Westpheling, a professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of genetics, and her team of researchers — all members of U.S. Department of Energy-funded BioEnergy Science Center in which the University of Georgia is a key partner — succeeded in genetically engineering the organism C. bescii to deconstruct un-pretreated plant biomass.

Pretreatment of the biomass feedstock — nonfood crops such as switchgrass and miscanthus — is the step of breaking down plant cell walls before fermentation into ethanol. This pretreatment step has long been the economic bottleneck hindering fuel production from lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks.

The UGA research group engineered a synthetic pathway into the organism, introducing genes from other anaerobic bacterium that produce ethanol, and constructed a pathway in the organism to produce ethanol directly.

“Now, without any pretreatment, we can simply take switchgrass, grind it up, add a low-cost, minimal salts medium and get ethanol out the other end,” Westpheling said. “This is the first step toward an industrial process that is economically feasible.”

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word choreographed an assembly of amino acids into an exquisite array of specific proteins. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” In so doing God demonstrated a penchant for genomic writing, preceeded by an amazing series of prebiotic events, in a highly orchestrated presentation of evolutionary overcontrol.

More about God’s Handiwork!

At the end of 2012, Germany had approximately 400 MW of solar power capacity per million people. The United States produces about 25 MW of solar power per million people.
Germany set a new world record in July of 2013, producing 5.1 terawatt-hours from direct solar. Germany’s world wind power record of 5 TWh was set in January earlier this year.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

This is probably the biggest acquisquishin’ candidate we’ve ever seen. Just think about the number of J.P Morgan wannabe’s that would like to see this initiative die a premature and speedy death. The inquest report would likely mention the usual suspects such as public utilities, the energy monopolies, even the pollution remediation industry. Talk about making them irrelevant!

Solar Roadways are built from energy producing solar panels that fit together like puzzle pieces. They would also glow for a variety of purposes including lane markings warning signs.  They’re ridiculously expensive, unless of course you compare them to the cost of building and maintaining the tar and chip pavement we use today. Suppose we consider upgrading the transportation infrastructure at each maintenance interval? As each cost justification is built, based upon site specific criteria, we could roll out new highways and byways that precisely fit local requirements.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

Five major internet service providers in the US and one in Europe have been accused of abusing their market share to interfere with the flow of the internet for end users. The accusations come from Level 3, a communications company that helps connect large-scale ISPs like Comcast or AT&T to the rest of the internet. According to the company, these six unnamed ISPs are deliberately degrading the quality of internet services using the Level 3 network, in an attempt to get Level 3 to pay them a fee for additional traffic caused by services like Netflix, a process known as paid peering.

“They are not allowing us to fulfill the requests their customers make for content.”

“They are deliberately harming the service they deliver to their paying customers,” writes Level 3’s Mark Taylor. “They are not allowing us to fulfill the requests their customers make for content.” While Taylor doesn’t name names, he describes the six offenders as “large broadband consumer networks with a dominant or exclusive market share in their local market.” He adds that “in countries or markets where consumers have multiple broadband choices (like the UK) there are no congested peers.” He also says that Level 3 won’t be paying up. “Our policy is to refuse to pay arbitrary charges to add interconnection capacity,” he explains.

The situation recalls recent claims by Netflix that Comcast is intentionally throttling traffic with intermediaries like Level 3 and Cogent, a problem that Netflix says ultimately led it to start signing direct traffic deals — Comcast and Verizon have been paid so far, with more likely to come. Since the Comcast deal, Netflix says its streaming speeds on Comcast have increased 65 percent. But despite the performance improvement, Netflix doesn’t appear happy about the arrangement. “While in the short term Netflix will in cases reluctantly pay large ISPs to ensure a high quality member experience,” CEO Reed Hastings said back in March, “we will continue to fight for the internet the world needs and deserves.”

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

The Windbelt is a small-scale wind turbine that can generate 40 milliwatts in 10-mph winds and only costs a couple of dollars. Working in Haiti, Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, California, saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional wind turbines don’t scale down well — there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components. “With rotary power, there’s nothing out there that generates under 50 watts,” Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).

Frayne’s device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best micro-turbines. Frayne envisions the Windbelt costing a few dollars and replacing kerosene lamps in Haitian homes. “Kerosene is smoky and it’s a fire hazard,” says Peter Haas, founder of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, which helps people in developing countries to get environmentally sound access to clean water, sanitation and energy. “If Shawn’s innovation breaks, locals can fix it. If a solar panel breaks, the family is out a panel.”

Frayne hopes to help fund third-world distribution of his Windbelt with revenue from first-world applications—such as replacing the batteries used to power temperature and humidity sensors in buildings. “There’s not a huge amount of innovation being done for people making $2 to $4 per day,” Haas says. “Shawn’s work is definitely needed.”

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!

Very little fat on this baby!

Obesity and diabetes are epidemic, and yet the only relevant fact on which relatively unambiguous data exist to support a consensus is that most of us are surely eating too much of something.

In 1960, fewer than 13 percent of Americans were obese, and diabetes had been diagnosed in 1 percent. Today, the percentage of obese Americans has almost tripled; the percentage of Americans with diabetes has increased sevenfold.

Meanwhile, the research literature on obesity has also ballooned. In 1960, fewer than 1,100 articles were published on obesity or diabetes in the indexed medical literature. Last year it was more than 44,000. In total, over 600,000 articles have been published purporting to convey some meaningful information on these conditions.

It would be nice to think that this deluge of research has brought clarity to the issue. The trend data argue otherwise. If we understand these disorders so well, why have we failed so miserably to prevent them? The conventional explanation is that this is the manifestation of an unfortunate reality: Type 2 diabetes is caused or exacerbated by obesity, and obesity is a complex, intractable disorder. The more we learn, the more we need to know.

Here’s another possibility: The 600,000 articles — along with several tens of thousands of diet books — are the noise generated by a dysfunctional research establishment. Because the nutrition research community has failed to establish reliable, unambiguous knowledge about the environmental triggers of obesity and diabetes, it has opened the door to a diversity of opinions on the subject, of hypotheses about cause, cure and prevention, many of which cannot be refuted by the existing evidence. Everyone has a theory. The evidence doesn’t exist to say unequivocally who’s wrong.

Consider the Source

 Consider the First Source!

When we align our objectives with the Divine will, when we strive for the attainment of a worthy goal, when we begin our work with a well defined plan, and when we have ability to work together with others effectively, we have already achieved the trajectory for success. For we know that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Learn how to enjoy boundless opportunity and unlimited progress!