serene’s posterous

"How Iceland's Financial Meltdown Wound Up in British Soccer, Midfield"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122471425257060191.html

Unsurprisingly, the global financial meltdown is affecting the English
Premier League. Over the years, with TV money and sponsorships, clubs
are spending more money on salaries and signing on star players, and
going into debt at the same time. As the sponsors and owners are
hemorrhaging money, some clubs would probably end up being sold or run
into danger of bankruptcy.

And to think, the main worry of the clubs used to be about being
relegated and subsequently losing a large chunk of TV money and their
star players. Hmmm...hopefully Spurs would miraculously lift
themselves off the bottom of the table, and stop being the butt of
jokes.

Source

A friend sent this to me. Hilarious!

This article brought back memories of our painful day hike of Mount
Whitney almost 3 years ago:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122005156389884849.html

We went in October, so there had been snow storms on the mountain
already. I don't quite remember when we started hiking, but it was
probably about 4am in the morning. The switchbacks were particularly
bad, because of the snow and ice. Although we had STABLicers, which
are strap on cleats on our shoes, and hiking poles, it was slow going
to the treacherous icy trail. I think on that day, only the people
with some kind of traction device or crampons made it up to the
summit. It would have been too dangerous to descend otherwise. Our
acclimatization was also less than ideal, so I was feeling the
altitude nearer the summit. We got to the summit around 2pm, and
waited another 45min or so at the summit or so for the rest of our
group. It was probably a bad idea to wait that long, because I felt
horrible on the way down. And it was a good thing that we got past
the switchbacks while there was still light. The last 4 miles to the
car felt particularly long because we mistakenly thought there were
only 2 miles left! We only got to the car at about 9pm, which made it
a terribly long day. I wouldn't say that the views on Mount Whitney
were super spectacular or maybe I was too tired and woozy from the
altitude to enjoy the views. At least there was a sense of
accomplishment...

This article raises the point that just producing energy from
alternative sources such as wind and solar farms is not the end of the
story. One needs to transmit the energy to the consumers too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/business/27grid.html?em=&pagewanted=all

Fossil fuels are so entrenched in our lives because they contain their
energy in a stable package that can be utilized where and when we need
the energy. For all the other alternative energy sources, we need to
figure out how to store and transmit the energy. The electricity
supply has to be stable.

For the small amount of energy generated by home solar panels
currently, it is not complicated to just hook it up to the electricity
grid. But beyond a small percentage of alternative energy, more
extensive work is probably needed to figure out how to maintain a
stable supply since there can be a long series of cloudy days or
windless days, or the time of highest demand is not when there is high
supply. Presumably, energy storage technology would have to be
improved. Lithium-ion batteries will not be suitable, sufficiently
energy dense or cheap.

Solar and wind farms are probably located a great distance from urban
centers where there is high demand for energy. There would therefore
be transmission issues. Is there sufficient capacity on transmission
lines? Transmission lines are expensive, and for great distances
there may be unacceptable energy losses especially if AC transmission
is used.

The path for alternative renewable energy sources isn't simple. A lot
of new peripheral technology needs to be developed for solar or wind
farms to be competitive to traditional power plants.

Ear candling, which involves lighting a candle and sticking the other
end in the ear, seems like a particularly silly and probably dangerous
thing to do. To my surprise, at the mall today, there were lines of
people waiting to have ear candling done in the atrium. 4 or 5 people
were having it done at a go. I can't imagine having a flaming candle
in your ear and near your face does anything for your health. Also, I
wonder if fire safety rules were violated, because open flames are
probably not allowed in these areas.

Some information about ear candling:
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/med/ear-oreille-eng.php
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-01-13/goods_health.php

In the US, countries at the Olympics are ranked by the number of
medals won, but in the rest of the world, countries are ranked by the
number of gold medals won. Currently, US is leading the total medals
won table, but China is leading the number of gold medals won by a
fair bit.

This article discusses the divide:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121856271893833843.html

I think that any kind of ranking of the countries is inherently
unfair. Is it possible to compare a wealthy country with a large
population with a tiny and poor one? Maybe, the glory of representing
your country and participating in the Olympic games is more important
than the medals.

Someone was bored enough to do this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080808/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_homersimpson_euro_spain

There's quite a good likeness to Homer Simpson. Photo from Reuters.

I was reading this article from IEEE Spectrum about First Solar, a
start-up that produces thin film cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic
(PV) cells.

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug08/6464

The price that has been bandied around for PV cells to be competitive
with traditional power sources is US $1 per watt. Unfortunately that
does not give a complete picture. Some of the other concerns include:

1) Efficiency - if your cells are less efficient, even if the cost per
watt is the same, it requires larger areas and therefore higher
installation costs, which is not included in this number;

2) Expected life of the cells - should be included in cost calculations;

3) Availability of the raw materials - Te is rare on earth;

4) Toxicity of the materials - Cd is quite toxic; and

5) Alternatives and Competition - other possible options for PV cells
are CIGS (can be deposited as a thin film easily, but efficiencies
have been lower than expected); multi-junction high efficiency cells
(efficient but very expensive - probably best as niche applications or
need to use lenses and mirrors to focus light); amorphous silicon
cells (low efficiency but easier manufacturing process); and the
conventional silicon cells (mature technology, efficiency unlikely to
improve further but materials costs would decrease if current
polysilicon shortage disappears).

I guess the key takeaway point is that solar power is all about
economics, the winner would be the technology that has the lowest
overall costs.

Unsurprisingly, while reading this article, I developed an itch on my
scalp. The brain is amazing.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all