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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea



Registered: 04/27/03
Posts: 10,447
Loc: The War Machine
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How to solve loads of the third worlds problems
#8654307 - 07/19/08 08:23 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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&feature=related
This model is clever but there are very simple stirling engines.
From sun light to kinetic energy to electricity.
Free electricity.
Disease free water could be made available anywhere there is sunlight and dirty water.
Why do we not teach africans etc how to help themselves and build these devices or even give them to them as well as food aid?
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Boom
just a tester

Registered: 06/16/04
Posts: 11,252
Loc: Cypress Creek
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Ego Death]
#8654333 - 07/19/08 08:40 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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That's badass, but why is it still a prototype?
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DieCommie


Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Ego Death]
#8654361 - 07/19/08 08:55 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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I didnt watch the video, but stirling engines put out an incredibly low wattage.
Quote:
Why do we not teach africans etc how to help themselves and build these devices or even give them to them as well as food aid?
Good question. Why dont you?
Africa's problems are deeper than any invention or food aid can solve (which is evident from decades of aid supplied, and no improvement had).
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zouden
Neuroscientist



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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: DieCommie]
#8656341 - 07/19/08 07:17 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Exactly. The food aid is sent there to keep people alive (especially in Darfur where there are 4 million people relying on it) - but it will take a remarkable change to bring Africa out of the darkness.
Back on topic - wouldn't a wind turbine be better than this?
-------------------- I know... that just the smallest part of the world belongs to me You know... I'm not a blind man but truth is the hardest thing to see
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Epigallo
Stranger
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: zouden]
#8656731 - 07/19/08 09:16 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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It's a similar idea to a concentrating solar power plant, but I think they usually use steam turbines instead of stirling engines. It seems like the stirling engine would be more efficient, although I'm not sure if the gigantic hubcap design is that great.
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zouden
Neuroscientist



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Posts: 7,091
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Epigallo]
#8656807 - 07/19/08 09:41 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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I'm much more positive about large scale things like that picture. They're planning big things like that in Australia because we've got so much sun and space.
I don't see stirling engines being the saviour of Africa's energy needs because it would require a fairly large scale system to get a decent amount of efficiency. A 30 foot dish? That would be stupidly expensive! Much better off using wind turbines. They're really cheap.
-------------------- I know... that just the smallest part of the world belongs to me You know... I'm not a blind man but truth is the hardest thing to see
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Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: zouden]
#8657874 - 07/20/08 06:52 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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That's still requires manufacturing that's difficult to do.
What'd be better is going over there and showing how to make filtration systems (a bin lined with charcoal and sand, materials rural africans have access to, unlike parabolic dishes, and moving parts for a stirling engine) or simple solar stills, using a pane of glass, a water trough made of black plastic, and a collection dish. The difficulty in such a system is keeping the glass cool, apart from running water on the top, I can't think of how to easily do it.
What africa really needs is for the wars (and those that instigate those wars) to stop. Then companies will come in and build factories, build water mains, build electricity generators.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Visionary Tools]
#8658611 - 07/20/08 12:02 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Again with you advocating private enterprise and *gasp* corporations.
I feel the world getting topsy-turvy under my feet.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Visionary Tools]
#8659268 - 07/20/08 02:52 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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> What africa really needs is ...
... to be able to produce liquid oxygen.
I'm very serious. It is the ability to produce liquid oxygen that differentiates 3rd world countries from developed countries. Liquid oxygen is the foundation that allows industrialization to survive.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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DieCommie


Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Seuss]
#8659295 - 07/20/08 02:56 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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I think developing agriculture would be needed first, before attempting to industrialization. The only thing we can do is end farm subsidies and allow africa to compete in the global food market. The rest it up to them. Their political, social, religious and cultural institutions are all their own problems.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: DieCommie]
#8659431 - 07/20/08 03:22 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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> I think developing agriculture would be needed first, before attempting to industrialization.
Yes, but to develope agrictulure, you need steel... and for steel, you need liquid oxygen. (Though I do agree with your premise... ending subsidies is a big step.)
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PhanTomCat
Teh Cat....



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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: zouden]
#8660030 - 07/20/08 05:57 PM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
zouden said: A 30 foot dish? That would be stupidly expensive! Much better off using wind turbines. They're really cheap.
If it was made out of metal, yes.... I would love to see the size of that press/die....! It would shake the ground.... Then the dishes would have to be polished.... Yep, stooopidly expensive....
But, the dish could be manufactured out of different materials.... If they made the male half of the dish as a form (the die half - very smooth), and sprayed fiberglass onto it to make the dish, then add a reflective coating, it could work.... It would be more labor intensive, but I have to imagine it would be cheaper (saying this blindly without knowing the costs of fiberglass and such)....
>^;;^<
-------------------- I'll be your midnight French Fry.... "The most important things in life that are often ignored, are the things that one cannot see...." >^;;^<
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Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
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Re: How to solve loads of the third worlds problems [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8662050 - 07/21/08 07:53 AM (15 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Madtowntripper said: Again with you advocating private enterprise and *gasp* corporations.
I feel the world getting topsy-turvy under my feet.
What's wrong with people getting together to sell things? I have no problem with that.
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