For the past week on the National Mall in Washington, international crews have been dusy putting up structures for an event showcasing a radiant source of energy that some once revered as a god.
The Solar Decathlon, a biennial event that began last Thursday, puts modular, solar-powered homes through 10 tests to determine which is the new sun king.
Over the course of a week, teams of students from Canada, Germany, Spain and the United States will take part in competitions judging the houses they designed and built for everything from aesthetics to engineering to whether the water heating system can meet a couple's hot water needs.
Judges will determine whether the houses are properly fitted out with the modern conveniences most Westerners cannot live without, and whether the appliances consume less energy than those in the average US home.
The houses displayed on the Mall, the sprawling grassy esplanade between the US Capitol and the Washington Monument, are restricted to a footprint of 800 square feet or 74.3 square metres and are supposed to target a specific market.
Scores of teams applied to compete in this year's decathlon, but only 20 were accepted, including Team Beausoleil from the University of Louisiana which built a house inspired by Cajun culture and facts of life in the southern US state, such as hurricanes. The 14-centimetre insulated walls can resist winds of 209 kilometres per hour, and the insulation would also "cut your energy rate by about half if the house's solar panels were not producing for the home," said Catherine Guidry, one of the sutdents working on the home.
The house featured a porch - almost a requirement in laid-back Louisiana - with moveable doors so it can be closed off on all sides or open on two sides. Plants indigenous to Louisiana thrived in planters in the small garden.
"We wanted it to feel like Louisiana from the inside and outside," Guidry said.
Team Germany, winner of the 2007 decathlon, has reconstructed a house whose exterior walls and louvered windows are covered with small integrated solar panels.
Like the Spanish team's abode, which features a large, raised moveable solar panel on the roof, the house was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean for the competition.
The entry from Cornell University students in New York state features three corrugated steel cylinders and walls insulated with five inches of soy-based foam and sy-lights in all three cylindrical rooms.
The house is visually striking and, according to Cornell architecture student Chris Werner, can hold its own in a new category in this year's decathlon - the "net metering" contest, which measures the energy a house produces for or takes from the electricity grid during the competition.
Even the heat that gets trapped in the structure's steel exterior is used to heat water, said Werner.
And when Cornell put its house through its paces at last month's New York state fair, it achieved "net-zero or better the entire time", meaning it is efficient enough to not require energy from the grid, according to Werner.
After two years of work on their houses plus nearly two weeks of constructing and competing, the winners will take home "bragging rights and lots of good feelings about the last two years of our lives", he said.
They will also take home a little culinary insight into the regions represented by other competitors because the "home entertainment" category of the decathlon requires teams to cook dinner for members of rival line-ups.
The German team's menu will feature dumplings known as knoedeln, but no sauerkraut, said Sardika Meyer, a spokeswoman for the team.
No German beer either - alcohol is banned at the competition.
The University of Arizona team, whose house is made up of four modules that look like glass-domed funicular railway cars, plans to treat guests to tamales - the Mexican answer to chapatis - filled with dried, sharedded beef known as "machaca" and a cactus salsa.
Team Beausoleil will serve up Louisiana specialities, including gumbo and bread pudding - but has ditched the idea of serving fried alligator.
"We thought it might scare away the neighbours," said Geoff Gjertson, the team's faculty advisor.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
"Alien" star promotes gorilla rescue project in DR Congo
Actress Sigourney Weaver said on Saturday that orphaned gorillas desperately need a permanent rescue and rehabilitation centre that's currently being built in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (Grace) is set to open in March, about a year after construction began. It's a joint project of the Atlanta-based Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and several other organisations.
Fossey, a Californian who was killed in 1985, made researching and rescuing the African gorilla population her life's mission. She lived among the rare mountain gorillas and observed their behaviour over roughly 10 years at Karisoke, a research camp she established in Rwanda.
Ms Weaver played Fossey in the 1988 movie Gorillas in the Mist and is honorary chair of the fund. While filming, Ms Weaver said she spent many days with gorillas.
"These little gorillas just steal your heart. They're very sensitive creatures,"she said."So it's no surprise that this is a very demanding and ambitious project,the Grace Center, but we need it."
Ms Weaver was at Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center Saturday to talk about the project.Gorilla's in the Mist will be shown on a big screen for the first time in about 20 years at Woodruff on Oct 17 as part of fundraising efforts.
The centre will house orphaned gorillas who may have behavioural, develop mental, physical or psychological problems after being rescued from poachers.
Ms Weaver said the centre aims to care for and rehabilitate the gorillas to the point that they may be able to survive in the wild, instead of living out their lives in captivity.
The other organisations partnering with the gorilla fund in this project are the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the national park authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
The Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (Grace) is set to open in March, about a year after construction began. It's a joint project of the Atlanta-based Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and several other organisations.
Fossey, a Californian who was killed in 1985, made researching and rescuing the African gorilla population her life's mission. She lived among the rare mountain gorillas and observed their behaviour over roughly 10 years at Karisoke, a research camp she established in Rwanda.
Ms Weaver played Fossey in the 1988 movie Gorillas in the Mist and is honorary chair of the fund. While filming, Ms Weaver said she spent many days with gorillas.
"These little gorillas just steal your heart. They're very sensitive creatures,"she said."So it's no surprise that this is a very demanding and ambitious project,the Grace Center, but we need it."
Ms Weaver was at Atlanta's Woodruff Arts Center Saturday to talk about the project.Gorilla's in the Mist will be shown on a big screen for the first time in about 20 years at Woodruff on Oct 17 as part of fundraising efforts.
The centre will house orphaned gorillas who may have behavioural, develop mental, physical or psychological problems after being rescued from poachers.
Ms Weaver said the centre aims to care for and rehabilitate the gorillas to the point that they may be able to survive in the wild, instead of living out their lives in captivity.
The other organisations partnering with the gorilla fund in this project are the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the national park authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
PRESERVING THREE NATURAL LEGACIES
Vichit Phanumphai, a traffic/highway engineer specialising in safety, wrote to ask my opinion concerning the 100-year-old trees in the Sanam Chandra Palace compound in Nakhon Pathom.of proper care," he wrote."According to the gardeners I talked to a few weeks ago,the trees are not allowed to be pruned.
"One large tree in particular near the dog sta
tue needs some urgent remedial care."
Sanam Chandra Palace is about one kilometre from Nakhon Pathom's majestic golden pagoda, the Phra Pathom Chedi.King Rama VI had the palace built so he could have a place to stay when he visited the pagoda and watch the combat practice of his elite Wild Tigers Corps, a paramilitary troop.
The palace comprises five buildings and a shrine for the Hindu god, Ganesh. In front of King Rama VI's Chaleemongkolasana residence, a tiny castle built in combined French and English styles, is a statue of the king's loyal dog, Yalae. Silpakorn University now uses part of the 136-hectare compound as its campus, but the palace grounds and its buildings, which have been turned into museums, are open to the public.
To have an idea of what Mr Vichit was talking about, my son drove me down to Nakhon Pathom, some 56km south of Bangkok, last Sunday. The Sanam Chandra Palace compound is shaded by many trees,mostly rain trees and mahoganies, several of which were planted when the palace was built 100 years ago. Many showed signs of proper pruning, but as I went deeper into the compound I saw huge, old trees that had been taken over by strangler figs, or had dead branches or trunks that needed urgent surgery work. One tree was still standing but already dead.
The palace compound has 35 gardeners,and four of them were pruning a mediumsize Lagerstroemia tree. When asked why the Lagerstroemia was being pruned while the old rain trees which needed proper attention seemed to be neglected, they said they were allowed to prune the young trees, but not the old ones.
"We are waiting for the go-ahead from our boss. He has already asked for permission from Bangkok, but so far hasn't received any reply," one of them answered."We dare not cut down even that dead tree without permission."
The tree that Mr Vichit was most con-cerned about is a huge rain tree, one of three that flank the Chaleemongkolasana residence. But it is not alone, as two, and possibly all three, need urgent remedial care.
Two of the trees have been eaten to the core by termites, which have built anthills inside the trees' cavities. A more concerned caretaker would not have allowed the trees to deteriorate this far, and when asked what they thought about it, the gardeners said they had no choice but to let the trees die.
Not many people in Thailand see the aesthetic if not the historical value of old trees. The palace grounds, and certainly the Chaleemongkolasana residence, would not be the same without the trees, which have provided them shade for more than 100 years.
The rain trees heralded a different era,when Thailand was still called Siam, and without the trees the old atmosphere of the palace grounds would be gone; it would be akin to an old palace museum showing modern things that do not have a historical meaning.
In fact, the trees are still holding out and need not die if they are given proper care and maintenance now. First, the termites must be eradicated. There are a number of do-it-yourself termite control products -termiticides, baits, aerosols,insecticides, dusts - but it might be better to seek the services of a termite control professional.
After the termites have been eradicated,scrub out the termite mound and dead wood from the trees' cavities before applying a fungicide such as copper sulphate on the wound. Fill up the hollow cavity with brick and mortar; it might be necessary to use a piece of chicken wire mesh to strengthen the structure. Fill up the mesh's holes with cement until the tree's cavity is fully covered and then apply paint, if desired, to make the cemented part blend with the colour of the bark.
The trunks of old trees sometimes have fissures where rainwater and old leaves collect until they rot, killing the surrounding wood and forming a hollow cavity. These should be treated the same way, whether they contain termites or not.
The work does not stop there. The trees must be monitored regularly to make sure the termites have not come back and invaded the roots instead.
Actually, termites feed on dead wood and for them to establish clay mounds in the cavities of trees means that the old trees at the palace compound have been neglected for a long time. To be fair, one of the trees beside the Chaleemongkolasana residence showed signs of surgery, but the mortar had been pushed out by the clay mound or anthill.
It's as if there had been a change of caretaker; one looked after the trees well,but after he left he was replaced by someone who couldn't care less, or who needed someone else's permission before he did anything, to the detriment of the trees.
"One large tree in particular near the dog sta
tue needs some urgent remedial care."
Sanam Chandra Palace is about one kilometre from Nakhon Pathom's majestic golden pagoda, the Phra Pathom Chedi.King Rama VI had the palace built so he could have a place to stay when he visited the pagoda and watch the combat practice of his elite Wild Tigers Corps, a paramilitary troop.
The palace comprises five buildings and a shrine for the Hindu god, Ganesh. In front of King Rama VI's Chaleemongkolasana residence, a tiny castle built in combined French and English styles, is a statue of the king's loyal dog, Yalae. Silpakorn University now uses part of the 136-hectare compound as its campus, but the palace grounds and its buildings, which have been turned into museums, are open to the public.
To have an idea of what Mr Vichit was talking about, my son drove me down to Nakhon Pathom, some 56km south of Bangkok, last Sunday. The Sanam Chandra Palace compound is shaded by many trees,mostly rain trees and mahoganies, several of which were planted when the palace was built 100 years ago. Many showed signs of proper pruning, but as I went deeper into the compound I saw huge, old trees that had been taken over by strangler figs, or had dead branches or trunks that needed urgent surgery work. One tree was still standing but already dead.
The palace compound has 35 gardeners,and four of them were pruning a mediumsize Lagerstroemia tree. When asked why the Lagerstroemia was being pruned while the old rain trees which needed proper attention seemed to be neglected, they said they were allowed to prune the young trees, but not the old ones.
"We are waiting for the go-ahead from our boss. He has already asked for permission from Bangkok, but so far hasn't received any reply," one of them answered."We dare not cut down even that dead tree without permission."
The tree that Mr Vichit was most con-cerned about is a huge rain tree, one of three that flank the Chaleemongkolasana residence. But it is not alone, as two, and possibly all three, need urgent remedial care.
Two of the trees have been eaten to the core by termites, which have built anthills inside the trees' cavities. A more concerned caretaker would not have allowed the trees to deteriorate this far, and when asked what they thought about it, the gardeners said they had no choice but to let the trees die.
Not many people in Thailand see the aesthetic if not the historical value of old trees. The palace grounds, and certainly the Chaleemongkolasana residence, would not be the same without the trees, which have provided them shade for more than 100 years.
The rain trees heralded a different era,when Thailand was still called Siam, and without the trees the old atmosphere of the palace grounds would be gone; it would be akin to an old palace museum showing modern things that do not have a historical meaning.
In fact, the trees are still holding out and need not die if they are given proper care and maintenance now. First, the termites must be eradicated. There are a number of do-it-yourself termite control products -termiticides, baits, aerosols,insecticides, dusts - but it might be better to seek the services of a termite control professional.
After the termites have been eradicated,scrub out the termite mound and dead wood from the trees' cavities before applying a fungicide such as copper sulphate on the wound. Fill up the hollow cavity with brick and mortar; it might be necessary to use a piece of chicken wire mesh to strengthen the structure. Fill up the mesh's holes with cement until the tree's cavity is fully covered and then apply paint, if desired, to make the cemented part blend with the colour of the bark.
The trunks of old trees sometimes have fissures where rainwater and old leaves collect until they rot, killing the surrounding wood and forming a hollow cavity. These should be treated the same way, whether they contain termites or not.
The work does not stop there. The trees must be monitored regularly to make sure the termites have not come back and invaded the roots instead.
Actually, termites feed on dead wood and for them to establish clay mounds in the cavities of trees means that the old trees at the palace compound have been neglected for a long time. To be fair, one of the trees beside the Chaleemongkolasana residence showed signs of surgery, but the mortar had been pushed out by the clay mound or anthill.
It's as if there had been a change of caretaker; one looked after the trees well,but after he left he was replaced by someone who couldn't care less, or who needed someone else's permission before he did anything, to the detriment of the trees.
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