Geothermal Energy Helping the Move to Renewable Energy

As the price of fuel and oil rises and becomes scarcer, the human race must find new sources of energy. This subject is discussed a lot these days as the search for the "free energy" continues and there are many new types of energy becoming available to the public.

The use of renewable energy sources is on the rise, especially with its green and economical credentials. Some of them make use of everyday objects such as the sea, land, sun and wind to generate energy in a way that doesn't harm the environment.

In the U.S. the use of geothermal energy is building, it is described to many people as "Free heat at our feet". Geothermal energy is the heat of the earth which is collected by pumping water through long pipes under the ground. This heated water is then is then put through a machine, called a ground source heat pump, that condenses the heat in the water. This can then be used to heat a house or produce electricity.

The growing interest in this sort of energy is due to government grants, low running costs and because its renewable. I spoke to Dr. John Lund of the U.S. national renewable energy laboratory  who told me he only spends U.S.D. $10 a month on his utility bills as he has geothermal in his house.

As of August 2008, 103 new projects are under way in 13 U.S. states. When developed, these projects could potentially supply up to 3,979 MW of power, meeting the needs of about 4 million homes. At this rate of development, geothermal production in the United States could exceed 15,000 MW by 2025.


So geothermal is helping to cut carbon emissions, its use is growing and as soon as people hear about its economical benifits they will become intrested.

Rush Hour on Information Super Highway

The internet is being stretched further day by day. This story on Fox News shows the growing problem of insufficient internet infrastructure as more and more devices are becoming connected.



The first device that took hold of the market was the iPhone followed by a line of others, all trying to get a grip in the market. The internet at the moment is designed for less devices that require less bandwidth but as the number of these new smaller devices, that use a lot of bandwidth, start to grow the speed and amount of information that can travel that can travel to and from each becomes less. For example, take a busy motorway at rush hour. When there is many cars, at the same time, trying to travel to and from different places everyone gets there slower as the road is not big enough to take this many cars.

This story has a few things that I think make it a little bias:
1) The choice of words and the tone of the reporters makes this out to be a disaster, but in reality it is not, it a a problem but not a disaster. a disater would be a nuclear war but not the internet being slow.

2) The story gives the statistic that 50,000,000 tablet PC's are estamated to be sold in the USA in the next year.

3) The peice of news was in the front page when I found it so lots of people will see it. This could mean it could make people angry.

4) The internet is being made faster and larger all the time with new fibre optic cables and faster computers so as long as these continue to be put in place faster than the growth in use of these hand held devices the problem should be containable.

Finally the story is not quite focused on one specific subject as it starts off by saying the we are running out of bandwidth and moves on to the speed of WI-FI and the same problem there.

Do the kind of words chosen by Sissy Jupe and Mr Gradgrind say something about their character, and their views of the world?

In Hard Times Mr Gradgrind and Sissy Jupe's choice of language gives clues of their character and views of life. Mr Gradgrind uses words that are more formal and show that he is from the middle class, above the lower people. He also tells Sissy Jupe not to use certain words which indicate thoughts about "fanciful" ideas which he does not like, he thinks that life is all fact, fact, fact.

On the other hand Sissy Jupe is always saying "Sir" and curtsying. This shows respect and that she is from a lower class. She also use words that are to do with the circus and other "non-factual" ideas indicating that she has a more fictional out look on life.

Postmodernism

Post Modernism is the result of discoveries and events that were made and happened during the time of modernism. (roughly 1870-1960's) These included the new idea of science, the move away from religion as a way to explain the world and the changing of the social classes. All of these and a few more ideas have led to new ways of thinking such as people going back to philosophy. with these new ideas have come questions:

What does it mean to be human?
How do humans fit into this vast cosmos?
Where to from here?

These are the questions that define our life's today and there is still no "definite" answer for them. Also post modernism has a few main ideas about society:

The quest for truth is lost.
Truth is a mythical object; there is no one truth. In the search for truth we have come across only "truths" and if we make the mistake of claiming to know the truth , we are deluded at best and dangerous at worst.

A Person's sense of identity is a composite constructed by the forces of the surrounding culture.
A person is formed by the culture in which they grow up. Their thoughts, ideas, likes and dislikes are all given to them by their culture.

The languages of our culture literally "construct" what we think of as "real" in our everyday existence.
The reality is in text all scientific discoveries are written down and this how we discover different aspects of reality, through reading or other form of language.

"Reality" is created by those who have power.
This states that whoever dominates or controls the "official" use of language in a society holds the key to social and political power.

We should neutralize the political power inherent in language by "de-constructing" it.
Language is made up of binaries. for example "Honey is better for you than white sugar". This is putting honey over white sugar and this is what the "de-constructing" refers to.

One well known example of post modernism is popular media. Media these days is split into two groups the new and the old. The new does not have to have any order or coherence as this is normal for post modernism  were nothing is really right or wrong.

In conclusion post modernism is the result of new ideas and thinking and influences everyone.