Bloomberg’s got some pretty good news for the power generation industry in America, at least. Total power-plant energy output was 89.8 million megawatt-hours last week, up 3.8% from the previous year. The numbers come from Genscape, an energy information company. They create their power generation numbers by measuring output at 280 monitored power plants, and have a margin of error less than 2%.
Azerbaijan is increasing its power generation capacities in a big way with a recent move. The former Soviet country is adding three industrial power generation units to its arsenal this week, all operated by BP.
The units are made by Rolls Royce, and will be installed in the Chirag Oil Project to supply the area near the Caspian Sea with power.
Each unit measures 60” long by 15”7’ wide by 14”3’ tall, and each weighs 185 tons. Their total cost and installation will total about $6 billion, and they should help Azerbaijan’s power generation situation, which has seen a steady oil production over the last two years of about 40 million tons of oil per year.
It started with an innocuous question: “If music can be art, why can’t food?” Well, former Microsoft whiz kid Nathan Myrhvold—a physicist and engineer by trade—is used to asking (and solving) such thorny questions. That’s why, after retiring at 40, Mryhvold holed himself up in a lab with an autoclave, centrifuge, tanks of liquid hydrogen, ultrasonic bath, and regular cooking equipment, as well, to create the formidable tome Modernist Cuisine.
And it is quite a formidable tome. At six volumes, 2,438 pages, costing more than $600, Modernist Cuisine is quite the doorstopper. Mryhvold spent years crafting the techniques used in the book, and gaining knowledge about food.
The book is not a normal cookbook. In fact, as the question above suggests, it’s more about art than eating. But still, it’s quite the culinary accomplishment.One of the keys to enabling this kind of allusiveness is increasing our knowledge of culinary history. “Even those who are very into food are — and I don’t want to sound arrogant — ignorant about the history of food,” says Myhrvold. He points out that the molten-centred chocolate cake, star of those near-pornographic Marks & Spencer adverts, was invented within our lifetime. More surprisingly, it isn’t just the rich who eat foreign food: “Africa survives on maize and cassava — those are the number one and two staple crops — and they are both from South America.”
Myhrvold is a font of odd facts such as this. Mark McClusky of Wired likened talking to him to taking several graduate seminars all at once. My favourite anecdote is the history of Egypt’s national dessert, Om Ali. “It is clearly not an Egyptian dessert,” he says, “because it is puff pastry with nuts and heavy cream poured over the top. It’s bizarre — puff pastry cannot possibly be Egyptian. The story is that it was [thought up by] an Irish chef at the British embassy named O’Malley.” He laughs, loudly.
Green power generation in the New England area is getting a big, green boost. A six state area covered by Cape Wind, a $2.5 billion project to build 130 wind turbines, will see an increase in its green energy very soon.
Recently, National Grid signed a 15 year agreement locking in 50% of Cape Wind’s power at 18.7¢/kWh. Once the Cape Wind project is completed, it is expected to supply about 75% of the energy needs of residents in Cape Code, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard.
Even though the Cape Wind project seems like a great boost to the green power generation industry, it has seen some opposition from local residents and politicians. One prominent group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, includes John Kerry and Mitt Romney. Despite that, Cape Wind is optimistic. Its CEO, Jim Gordon noted they’d been at it for more than ten years, and they’ve been victorious against opposition groups every time. They have a perfect 15-0 record, and it seems like Cape Wind will be right at the forefront of supplying the US northeast with wind generated power for years to come.
According to this story in the Beaumont Enterprise, a group of four students worked on the autoclave over the course of their senior year as part of a special design course.
They landed the project because Dougherty and Scott Hoffman, a Honeywell engineer, crossed paths at the right time. Dougherty was looking for class projects and Hoffman was needing assistance to help his friend, Dr. Mark Byler, a medical missionary in Zimbabwe, who was in need of a reliable autoclave.
Hoffman did some research at first, but quickly realized that it would be too time-consuming for him. So, he’s glad the KU students were willing to take on the challenge.
The fact that the students worked with a medical missionary from Zimbabwe is really great. They got to get some essential experience while helping out an ailing nation, even if just a bit. By next May, the students will be done with the autoclave and a community in Zimbabwe will have another autoclave.
Ever since Pope John Paul II was the target of as assassination attempt in 1981, the so-called Popemobile has been fitted with extra defenses to keep the leader of the Catholic church safe in transit. The Telegraph has an extremely interesting breakdown of the Popemobile, going over its clever uses of Kevlar, hydraulic seats, and three” “plastic glass.”
According to the story, the Popemobile is based on a Mercedes-Benz M-class, but that’s where its similarities to a consumer car ends. The vehicle was specially designed with two kind of contradictory needs, “safety and visibility.”
The Popemobile’s body is Kevlar-plated half-inch thick plate steel, and its windows are three-inch thick plastic glass. The vehicle can withstand explosives, and it also has an air filter to protect occupants against biological attacks. In all, the vehicle can reach speeds of 70 mph even though it weighs five tons.
The Popemobile is one of the iconic vehicles of the world, and it shows well how Kevlar and steel can combine to create something special.
We use kevalr as an insulating material in industrial power generation. Since it’s stronger than steel and incredibly resistant to heat, it’s an extremely versatile material for a ton of power gen applications. Of course, kevlar’s strength and heat resistance means its great for many other, as well.
Another kevlar application, outlined here, is fire juggling. Pretty cool hot, huh?
The article talks a bit about the what and how of fire juggling, including its main tool, the “poi”:
Originally from New Zealand, the poi typically is a rope or chain with a ball attached at one end. It’s now used worldwide as a hobby, for exercise or for performing arts. Modern fire poi usually is a ball chain with a Kevlar blend material for a wick, soaked in lamp oil, lighter fluid or kerosene.
For the Fire Family, the fire jugglers in question here, they also need to pony up $800 a year for insurance, which actually seems pretty reasonable when you consider they’re juggling fire.
The group also offers workshops, so if you happen to live near Evansville, Indiana, be sure to check it out. And be thankful for kevlar. Not only does it keep police and soldiers safe from harm and insulate giant power generation machines, it also allows people to chase their dreams and juggle fire.