If you have a large window in your house that gets a lot of sun, whether the blinds are open or closed through out the day could make a significant difference in your heating and cooling energy costs.
The photo below shows the difference in temperature inside and outside a parked car in the winter. The temperature inside the car is about 20 degrees Celsius warmer then outside.
What if your blinds worked automatically to take advantage of this heat energy. In the winter time when the sun was shinning through the window the blinds would open to use the radiant heat from the sun to help heat the house and at night or when it was cloudy the blinds would close to help insulate from the outside cold.
We all know how much heat can build up in a car in the summer and the same goes for your house if the sun is shining in. In the summer time the blinds would do the opposite. When the sun was shining through the window the blinds would close keeping the house cooler and saving on air conditioning costs.
PROTOTYPE PLANS
Only when direct sunlight comes in contact with the solar cell would the circuit board activate the motor. When the 3 way switch was set to winter the blinds would open but when there is no direct sunlight making contact with the solar cell the blinds would close. When the switch is in the manual position the power is disconnected to the motor and the blinds remain in what ever position they are set. When set for summer the blinds would close whenever direct sunlight comes in contact with the solar cell. The solar cell would also keep the 2 x “AA” rechargeable batteries charged.
Dave Lister
listerlogic.com
Note: This is an original idea by me but there may be similar products or patents already. I am not an expert, if you attempt to build always consult with an expert and check with all local code and laws. Build at own risk.
From the beginning of life on Earth all species have evolved through the process of natural selection. With natural selection only the strongest of each species survived to reproduce and pass on their unique genetics to there young. If the gene combination between the male and female was not favorable the offspring would not survive, but if it was good, a healthy, strong, disease resistant offspring would survive to reproduce again. Over time the species would gradually evolve. For hundreds of thousands of years humans have been no exception, until now.
How will the rapid and continuing advances in Medical Science over the last 100 years effect the genetics of our future generations?
Is medical science making us sicker?
Out of all the people close to you, take a moment to think about how many would not still be alive if not for recent advances in medical science such as asthma treatments, cancer treatments, antibiotics, surgeries etc.? The fact is medical science has saved a dramatic amount of lives but of all the people saved it has not done anything to change the genetics that caused the problems in the first place. Are weak and disease prone genes being passed on to our children causing them to be sicker and develop even more medical problems? Are we slowly becoming weaker as a population? Elementary schools have already shown a dramatic increase in the average number of students off sick on any given day as compared to 25 years ago. Is this just the beginning of what will be an ever increasing trend in the future?
Some might argue that there is no problem, people are living well into their 80’s now, but when you think about it people in their 80’s now were born back in the 1930’s. Their parents would have been born in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s back when Medical science was not nearly as advanced as it is now and didn’t have such a profound effect on natural selection. Being born with good healthy genes and having the benefits of modern medicine at a later age, these people could be on average one of the healthiest and longest living generations ever. Will we soon start seeing a decline in the average life expectancy of future generations?
Is Medical Science keeping up? We now have antibiotic resistant bacteria, superbugs, SARS, and most recently Ebola that has left scientists scrambling to find a cure. As bacteria and viruses continue to evolve and we become weaker what’s next? Will medical Science be able to keep up with our ever increasing genetic shortfalls? At what costs?
In some third world countries where modern medicine is not widely available the process of natural selection still continues. Are these people slowly becoming genetically stronger then the people in developed countries? If there was a new major global disease outbreak that science could not find a cure for quick enough are they more likely to survive?
Research into genetics and DNA is making dramatic differences in our lives today. We now have drought resistant crops, disease resistant livestock even apples that don’t go brown but when it comes to humans there is currently a moral barrier. Some people believe experimenting and altering genes and DNA in humans is crossing the line and too much like playing god. Have we already crossed the line? Does this line even exist or is it just our way of dealing with the current way we think? Aside from going back to natural selection is gene and DNA altering the only way for us to continue to survive and evolve?
Cancer can not survive without a host. In small numbers it goes basically undetected but as its numbers increase the effects begin to break down various systems of the host. Eventually the cancer becomes so large in numbers the host can no longer survive and dies, and with it so does the cancer.
Are we the cancer of the Earth?
In the last 50 years the world population has more then doubled from 3.3 billion to 7.3 billion people. At our current population the environment is already noticeably stressed. Estimates show that the world population could reach 9 billion by 2050. Even with breakthroughs in science how many people can the earth support? 10 billion? 15 billion? 500 billion? At what point will we realize we cannot go on the way we are and how badly damaged will the environment be by then? Will it be too late?
Cancer Cells have no idea that there ever increasing numbers will eventually kill there host, along with them.
Are we smarter then a cancer cell?
Evidence of how fast the population is growing is not hard to find. In Toronto Canada there are so many new condos going up it’s not uncommon to find 3 construction cranes close together.
The city of Bradford 65km to the north of Toronto has seen hundreds of acres of new housing built over the last 10 years, the edge of which can be seen in the distance of this photo. In the next 2 years housing will cover all of the empty field shown.
Tapping the brakes on world population
Raising a child is one of the greatest and most fulfilling basic things in life and no one should be denied the experience, however our current mind set that large families our enviable has to change and changing our mind set and values takes time. If the average family had only 1 or 2 children the world population would begin to decline. Even if the average amount of children per family were 2, the population would no longer increase. No one should be told how many children they are allowed to have but through education and government incentives on a national and global level people need to be encouraged to have smaller families. Our increasing population is by far the single greatest threat to ourselves and the environment, it is also the easiest thing to fix.
Currently in Canada the government is still encouraging large families and offers thousands of dollars in tax savings for every child you have, in effect paying Canadians to have more children. What would happen if the government announced over the next ten years these tax savings would not change for the first child, be reduced by one half for the second child and nothing for any additional children? Would Canadians reconsider how many children they are going to have? If not, what if the money the government saved from this was given as a form of tax credit to the families that just had one child or no children? It’s hard to say right now what and how much it would take in government incentives to get the average family size down to a sustainable level and no doubt incentives would vary between countries. Could there be other benefits to this kind of government policy? Would financial incentives to have less children also possible reduce the number of unwanted or abused children? Would having less children result in better care for the ones we have? The sooner we start, the more time we have to learn and adjust and the easier the transition will be.
Governments also need to do more when it comes to contraception. Young people need to be educated before the age they become sexually active. Affordable methods of contraception need to be made available to everyone and more research into new reliable methods needs to be done. The number of unplanned or unwanted pregnancies needs to be reduced as close to 0 as possible.
Not only do we need time to adjust to the idea of smaller families, what about the economy? How would a slowing population growth effect the economy? Doe’s our current economy rely on the pyramid system requiring more and more people every year to keep going? By a slow and gradual reduction in population growth we can hopefully avoid any major economic disasters.
We can no longer think that we can sit back and as long as we recycle, conserve energy, use green products and green companies that everything will be fine. The fact is unless we can start to control our population now all other efforts are for nothing. In the 5 minutes it took you to read this article there are over 700 more people on earth. By this time tomorrow there will be another 200,000.
Few people would disagree that construction is a big cause of the traffic problems in Toronto. As a driver, and former employee of a large company that does work on Toronto’s roads it is clear to me that most construction companies have little regard to how they effect traffic. I can recall a number of times when I shut down a lane of traffic on a major street and not going back for days because my employer had other work and didn’t want to pay overtime to finish that job and free up the lane.
SOLUTION:
REQUIRE CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES TO OBTAIN A PERMIT TO SHUT DOWN A LANE OF TRAFFIC FOR MORE THEN 1 HOUR AT A COST OF $200.00 PER HOUR BETWEEN 6:00am and 10:00pm. NO CHARGE OR PERMIT REQUIRED BETWEEN 10:00pm TO 6:00am.
Only by effecting companies bottom line will they effectively make use of road closures. They will also be motivated to come up with creative ways to avoid it or speed things up:
-The company I worked with has many jobs that cause lane closures that are currently done during the day that could be done between 10:00PM and 6:00am.
-In some cases 3 construction crews doing the same type of work at 3 different locations could be all assigned to 3 different 8hr shifts at 1 location eliminating 2/3 of some road closures (max DB levels would have to be established and enforced at the outside wall of any residential buildings between 10:00PM and 7:00AM).
-Maybe the new condo could be built without taking out a lane of traffic in front for months which is currently the case in several locations along Adelaide St West.
In any case if construction Companies are required to pay, no traffic lanes will be closed unnecessarily. Motorists might be a little more tolerant with construction knowing the company that closed down the lane ahead of them is paying for it.
COSTS
A lot of road work is paid for by the City of Toronto and therefore a lot the permit costs received would be reflected back in contractor bids for the city jobs but the winning contractor would be the one that could keep these costs to a minimum.
The remaining money from permit costs would be more than enough to fund the cost of implementing and maintaining this system and would be a significant revenue stream for the city of Toronto.
IMPLEMENTING
0-6 MONTHS- Establish an office, staff and user friendly web site for the public that can display a map of the city showing every hour of the day for the next 12 months
6-18 MONTHS- Require companies to have a permit to shut down a lane but no charges yet to allow them time to adjust their job bidding costs, come up with new solutions to avoid costs and for the permit office to refine web site and procedures.
-Construction company calls permit office for permit with street numbers from __ to __, direction and lane to be closed and the times it will be closed
Permit employee goes on the permit office web site with Toronto map for that street, date and times and verifies other parallel streets in area not already shown closed with other permits
Permit employee changes map and adds red line for east bound lane closures and green line for west bound closures between addresses given and notes the permit number next to it.
Permit employee then e-mails permit right away to construction company that they are required to display in windshield of vehicles at work site.
Public is given access to view permit web site in real time. They could enter any date and time between 6:00am and 10:00pm in the next 12 months and view a map of Toronto showing what lanes are scheduled to be closed anywhere in the city.
18 MONTHS + Charging for permits begins. Same procedure as 6-18 months except construction companies credit card info taken and billed before permit is e-mailed. For larger amounts certified cheque or bank transfer must be received before permit is issued.
The permit web site for the public would have a phone number for the public to call to report any construction lane closures that do not appear on the web site map for that date and time. If calls for same company and location are received more than 2hrs apart (1hr no charge + 1hr grace) an inspector is dispatched and the company is fined.
The permit web site would also have a phone number for the public to be used for noise complaints from construction companies between 10:00pm and 7:00am. An inspector would be dispatched to check predetermined DB levels at the outside wall of nearest residential building. If the level are too high the construction company would be permitted to work only between 7:00am and 10:00pm with a valid permit.
Only by effecting construction companies bottom line will they truly avoid non-essential lane closures.
Dave Lister
listerlogic.com
NOTE: the above article was written by me on May 29/ 2014 and sent by e-mail to the following:
Globe and Mail
Toronto Star
Frances Nunziata
Rob Ford (Toronto’s Mayor at the time)
David Soknacki
Karen Stintz
Olivia Chow
The John Oaklew Show Am 640
John Tory (Toronto’s current Mayor)
Since John Tory has become mayor he has implemented some of the above ideas such as 24hr construction, and a construction coordination centre.
SOLUTIONS TO TORONTO’S TRAFFIC PROBLEM / PART 2: POPULATION DENSITY
PART 2: POPULATION DENSITY
You don’t have to go too far in downtown Toronto to find another construction crane putting up another 300 unit condo or office tower where there used to be a parking lot, green space or block of single family homes. In fact there are so many that in some areas the cranes look like they could crash into each other as they spin around.
With the major traffic problem and the inadequate public transit in Toronto’s downtown core why are so many permits still given out for all these condos adding hundreds of units a month and cramming more and more people into an already gridlocked city? It is time to stop giving out building permits that add to the population density in areas of Toronto that have transportation inadequacies (almost all or the downtown core). Like a glass of water being overfilled, too much effort is put into trying to clean up the mess rather then the simplest solution of stop pouring the water into it. The longer the city waits to fix this problem the harder it gets and the more expensive it becomes. Building first then trying to update the infrastructure is like packing a house full of new furniture then renovating the walls and floors.
The argument that because most of the people in some newly built condos do not own a car and therefore do not add to the traffic gridlock is a myth. Anyone living downtown that does not own a car requires a wide range of goods and services to be shipped in from groceries, clothing, mail, repair and maintenance services as well as anyone that comes to visit them that travels by car. Also, the more people that do not have a car moving downtown are stressing our current public transit system even further beyond it’s limits.
Once Toronto stops issuing building permits that increase the population density the gridlock will stop getting worse. Let’s get the sewers and hydro upgraded, fix the roads, add subways and once the existing gridlock is gone then issue permits for new condos and projects that add to the population density in the areas that can handle it.
Dave Lister
listerlogic.com
NOTE: the above article was written by me on June 16/ 2014 and sent by e-mail to the following:
Toronto Sun
Toronto Star
Frances Nunziata
Rob Ford (Toronto’s Mayor at the time)
Karen Stintz
Olivia Chow
John Tory (Toronto’s current Mayor)
SOLUTIONS TO TORONTO’S TRAFFIC PROBLEM / PART 3: ONE WAY STREETS
After driving for my job for more then 20 years in downtown Toronto there is one method that works to move traffic when done right and that is one way streets. Although they haven’t been a good example in the last several years due to condo and road construction causing multiple closed lanes in multiple locations, Richmond and Adelaide make up a vital east west artery in Toronto. With the 2 streets in close proximity to each other and Adelaide being a 4 lane street east bound and Richmond being a 4 lane street west bound it was well worth driving out of my way to use them when I had to cross the city.
The reason for this is simple. With a typical 4 lane 2 way road like Yonge St. at every intersection if a car wants to turn right on a green light they have to wait for a break in a sometimes never ending line of pedestrians leaving only the left lane of traffic to get through. If a car wants to turn left on a green light they have to wait for a break in oncoming traffic and a break in a sometimes never ending line of pedestrians on the other side of the road leaving only the right lane to get through. If a car is trying to turn right at the same time another car is trying to turn left then no one gets through. The current solution Toronto uses is to ban right, left or both turns at intersections but this sometimes makes cars drive past there turn causing them to drive further and longer getting to their destination resulting in even more congestion.
With a 4 lane one way street like Richmond or Adelaide, at each intersection a car can be turning right at the same time another car is turning left and the 2 centre lanes are still open for traffic going straight through. It also makes it possible for cars to turn at all intersections either direction without effecting the 2 centre lanes. This not only works, but works well.
By converting more carefully selected streets to one way Toronto can create arteries that would be able to move multiple times the traffic of the current layout.
Dave Lister
listerlogic.com
NOTE: the above article was written by me on June 25/ 2014 and sent by e-mail to the following:
Toronto Star
The Globe and Mail
Frances Nunziata
Rob Ford (Toronto’s Mayor at the time)
Karen Stintz
Olivia Chow
John Tory (Toronto’s current Mayor)
SOLUTIONS TO TORONTO’S TRAFFIC PROBLEM / CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Are you in good mood?
If you answered yes then you probably haven’t just travelled through downtown Toronto. The fact is that gridlock and lack of public transit have reached a critical state. Whether your watching another packed bus or streetcar pull away without you or you’ve just been cut off yet again in your car, few people can not help feeling frustrated and angry after even a short trip downtown. Government solutions are mostly years away from completion if they ever get built at all and we need to something now.
The solution is to put future plans submitted for any future developments that add to the number of people living and working downtown such as condos and office towers on hold. The city needs to charge construction companies by the hour for shutting down lanes to prevent unnecessary road closures and we need to create traffic arteries buy changing some 4-lane roads to one way streets to better move traffic. If we act now to get things under control we might make getting around Toronto bearable again. If we do nothing we are heading for years of even more misery and a disaster that can only be fixed by huge tax hikes and deficits.
Dave Lister
listerlogic.com
NOTE: the above article was written by me on June 27/ 2014 and sent by e-mail to the following:
If you have a large window in your house that gets a lot of sun, whether the blinds are open or closed through out the day could make a significant difference in your heating and cooling energy costs.
