Eco-genius invents the dehumidifier

Surely I can't be the only one to have realised that this new machine that can magic water out of thin air is little more than a humble dehumidifier, the like of which has been around for....well I don't have a clue actually but it is hardly a new invention. They are very common in Japan (either as a function of an air-con or as a stand-alone unit) where the summers are extremely humid. I wouldn't fancy drinking what comes out of the back end, mind you, but that only requires a bit of sterilising and filtering.

As for the cost of the resulting water, at $0.30 per litre...I do not know how that compares to existing dehumidifiers but it makes a nonsense of the breathless claims that this gadget could make a useful contribution to water production. The claim of paying for itself in a couple of years is clearly absurd and refers only to an alternative of living off bottled water - and who does that?

Desalination plants can generate water at about a thousandth of the price (random google).

The 2000W challenge

the energy use each of us must stick to if we’re to keep the planet hospitable: precisely 2,000 watts.

Well I just looked at our fuel bills. The max monthly electricity bill I can find is 440kWh (December) and the min is 142 in May (neither heating nor air-con). The summer air-con peak is about 300 and the monthly ave is comfortably below this but I will round it up a little to 10kWh per day - this is for two people and covers the vast majority of our domestic fuel use since gas is just for hot water and cooking.

The cited article (which has some silliness like conflating max rated power with actual energy usage) says that domestic energy, food, and travel make up roughly 1/3 of the total each. So by that reckoning we are using about 1/3 of the suggested max for domestic energy. Our Japanese diet is certainly lower in energy demand than a typical Western diet, being rather low in meat (and calories!). We even cycle to work most days and don't own a car. But we probably make up for it with ~2 long-haul air trips per year...

I didn't think there could be any family silver left by now

Officials are drawing up plans for a sale of government assets including the Met Office, the Ordnance Survey and thousands of acres of Forestry Commission land.

Hmm...I wonder if I should put in a bid for the Hadley Centre...

Pinder v Fox

Russ Pinder's case against Fox Racing Shox (MTB fork manufacturer) is finally underway in the High Court. There are two brief articles about it here and here, and lots of ill-informed argumentation on the STW forum as usual, despite the best attempts of the proprietors to shut down any discussion (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It is interesting to see that 5 years after I worked out what was going on and wrote it all down in simple terms, people still seem to feel the need to make up uninformed nonsense (although I'm sure all climate scientists will be familiar with such behaviour). As I mentioned recently, this stuff is not rocket science, it is just the way that bolted joints work (or rather, how they fail if over-stressed) and has been basic engineering knowledge for decades.

I don't know the details of their case, but for the background to the incident that underlies it you can look here and here. It seems like there should be a verdict early next week. I hope they have done their homework and wish them all the best.

It's deja vu all over again

As Yogi Berra is reputed to have said (I'm sure he can't be the only one).

This caught my attention in the news yesterday:

Passengers at risk from track design flaw

A design flaw found in thousands of places on the country’s rail network is putting passengers at risk of a catastrophic derailment similar to the Potters Bar and Grayrigg disasters, according to a secret analysis by rail safety inspectors.
[...]
It says that the joint “may not withstand normally encountered forces imposed by the operating railway, resulting in the potential for loose fasteners and consequent changes to the configuration of the points leading to further points degradation and subsequent train derailment”.
[...]
A source close to the investigation said: “We should not just be relying on track workers to spot loose bolts in time. We need to stop the bolts from coming loose. This is about making sure that the points are fail-safe.”

Sound familiar? Of course, it's exactly the same process that I uncovered with quick-release failures on disk brake-equipped bicycles - an underspecified bolted fastener working loose due to an applied load that exceeds the capacity of the design.

Here is the full report on the Grayrigg crash. A few excerpts:

The fasteners in the third permanent way stretcher bar joint failed by unwinding. This occurs when the applied load exceeds the clamping force on the joint. The RAIB has concluded that, in this case, such loadings were a result of the passage of trains.
[...]
The RAIB has concluded that the design of the joint between the permanent way stretcher bar bracket and the switch rail at 2B points, and of other similarly configured points, was such that it could have been subjected to forces beyond its design capability and therefore the points system had significant reliance on regular inspection and maintenance to maintain safe operations.
[...]
The RAIB concludes that this incomplete understanding of the performance of S&C with non-adjustable stretcher bars, and the relationships between its design, usage, loadings, inspection and maintenance, led Network Rail to consider that the risk associated with the design was low and was being adequately controlled. This also resulted in an absence of clear and properly briefed standards for the setting up and adjustment of S&C.

[S&C - switches and crossings, a generic term for various railway track junctions]

There is lots more to wade though for anyone who is interested. But there is hardly any need. It is hardly rocket science - it took me literally seconds to find out what I needed to know via Google and this web site, once I guessed at what was going on back in 2003 (in relation to disk brakes). It is worrying to think that there are supposedly qualified engineers out there who don't know this stuff like the back of their hands...

Bath

I know it's been some time since I blogged anything. I'm a bit bored of it, to be honest. But last weekend we had a bath, so I thought I would share a picture or two. We do have a bath at home, but it doesn't look (or smell) like this open-air sulphurous pit at Azohara Onsen:


Actually we had several baths in the three days we were up in the mountains - that was the most spectacularly sited one though, high up in the Kurobe Gorge 5h walk from the nearest access (a little narrow-gauge rattling train). The autumn leaves were perhaps just a little short of their peak colour, but the mountain huts are about to close for the winter (in fact one of them will be completely dismantled to avoid snow damage) so we thought we had better take advantage of the good weather while it lasted.


It was pretty spectacular but a little difficult to photograph with the high contrast. And in a month or two we'll get to enjoy a second dose of the autumn colors down here in Kamakura...

f*ing BIZWALK!

Why oh why oh why???

Another from the department of "you couldn't make it up"

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Saturday formally announced his intention to retire from politics and said he will not run in the next House of Representatives election.

Koizumi, 66, also named his second son and secretary, 27-year-old Shinjiro Koizumi, as his heir apparent to the Kanagawa No. 11 district.

Koizumi did acknowledge criticism about giving his political base to his son, saying, ‘‘I too was criticized for being a third-generation politician. However, no-one will be able to accuse my son of such a short pedigree.’’

Shinjiro is now 33rd in line to the throne Prime Minister's Office and his inauguration is scheduled for early 2045.

[Editor's note: not all of the above is strictly true. Scarily, most of it is.]

Austin...where even the atheists worship on Sunday

A couple of weeks ago I went to the PMIP workshop in Estes Park. Since I was "in the area" (about as close as Tokyo to Beijing perhaps but we haven't yet popped to Beijing for tea) Michael Tobis and Charles Jackson arranged for me to visit Austin and the grand new climate science initiative at the University of Texas, although even now I am not quite sure if saying "climate" in the USA is really allowed. Even more excitingly, I arrived in Austin on Saturday so had a whole weekend to enjoy the city. For recreation I rented a carbon-forked vision of loveliness (but still their cheapest road bike) from the local vast glittering mecca of bicycleness. Of course I'd read doom laden apocalyptic warnings like this and this, and so was wondering if I'd get out alive. Yet I found that Austin surpassed all other US cities I've tried cycling in, including Boulder, the self-proclaimed cycling capital of America. I only cycled at the weekend, and I'm sure traffic is considerably heavier on weekdays, but in 7 hours of cycling I felt uniformly safe and unthreatened. For comparison, I usually get cross with a driver or two when riding my single bike in Japan, and urban Merseyside cycling was open warfare. The Austin drivers treated me with generosity, taking care at junctions and even changing lanes to overtake. There are a large number of wide, relatively clear bicycle lanes along the sides of many of the roads and I also had no trouble cycling on the roads that had no cycle lanes. Maybe I am just too comfortable jostling along with cars. The cycle paths are prone to stopping just before important junctions, but such is the way of the world, and things seemed nowhere near as foolish as in the UK. Finding my way was more of a challenge, and my compass was as invaluable in Austin as it is in Tokyo. Out of the city grid, there is some great cycling. Although the hills are too short, there are quite a lot of them, and there are trees and deer and stuff like that just a few miles from the city centre.

As I touristed around I found religion everywhere: the First Methodists, Second Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and I stopped for coffee in the Tenth St Arbucks. Not having stumbled upon an Episcopalian of any numeral, on Sunday morning I rejoined the minority bicycling sect instead. The roads were very clear. This seems to be because, on Sunday mornings in Austin, absolutely everyone is indoors expressing their beliefs, even the atheists, and the humanists. Although everyone else looked at me very very oddly when I remarked on how hilarious I found this, I suppose it is all the better for the cyclists. I was misunderstood on a number of other occasions too, those same odd looks appeared when I had been expecting a smile. Is this because Austin is Weird? I think it is rather because there is a tendency to take things literally. I even heard Biblical Literalism used in a positive sense, by some proponents of the teaching of Intelligent Design. To fend off all this literalism, perhaps it is British humour that should be taught in American schools.

Hooray for Gordon

Just thought I'd take the opportunity for that blog title, since there are unlikely to be many more chances.

"The government says its aim is to insulate every home in Britain by 2020 - and energy companies, councils and voluntary organisations will be making door-to-door visits in deprived areas to promote the scheme."

Whether or not it is "enough" (and I'm sure plenty of people will be lining up to say it's inadequate), it is still a positive move. Although our old house will certainly not have cavity wall insulation by 2020, due to the fact that it has no cavity...

Back when I was living in the UK, Gordon was one of the most (if not the most) successful Chancellors ever. Now it seems that he is destined to be remembered primarily as one of the feeblest PMs. A sad but entirely predictable end to a political career (and yes I did predict it confidently, although maybe not in writing). Of course it is well-known that all political lives end in failure. I wonder why they never manage to quit while they are ahead. Did anyone ever get out at the top, leaving the masses desperate for more?

(Thinks for a minute.....ah, John Smith. That's taking things a little too far, though.)