Fixing everything, really slowly

I went to see Gomez at the Hammersmith Apollo last night. A friend had a spare ticket and I’m always up for going to a gig (as long as its not totally talentless crap R’n'B or Pop. I’ve not followed Gomez at all so I only recongnised a few of the songs, but I thought they put on a good show.

Two things annoyed me about the night.

1. Gigs are starting way too early. The band came on at 8:30! We’d only just left the pub by then! We missed the first few songs by the time we got in. The band played a full set, but we were out and back in the pub before last orders (11pm). The situation wasn’t quite as bad as Koko (where they use the venue as a club that starts at about 10:30, forcing the band on stupidly early), but it still sucks.
2. Crap beer. Please Carling just stop ruining live music venues. I don’t wan’t to pay £3.50 for a plastic bottle of 4% dishwater! (To non-UK readers Carling is the crap R’n'B of the beer world, think Budwiser but with slightly less gas). Why not offer a choice of drinks rather than beer or water!

Some readers may be supprised to learn that a company that makes beer is buying up large music venues, but its true. Its a sad state of affairs and they are ruining the atmosphere of the venues they run. If wish I could boycot Carling venues and still see great bands but the fact is most bands don’t play more than one venue when they come to town. I guess the only thing I can do is support independent venues and only go to the larger venues for bands I really like.

Here is a chance for us all to be heard!

Energy inefficient light bulb petition: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lightbulbs/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price

(International readers this is a UK only petition but I think you’ll appreciate the sentiment. If there are similar efforts in your own country leave a comment and tell people about it. If there isn’t why not start one!)

My aim was to write about one good thing a week, I think that was a little ambitious to be starting with. Having got the hang of this blogging lark I’d say once a month would have been a better target, but I’m not going to fuss over it. Lets just say I’m behind, and I owe you 11, ok?

Good thing #2: Reduce your snail mail (and recycle the rest)

Simple really, less mail means less paper manufacturing and less physical transportation of mail and that has to be a good thing. There are a few ways I’ve done this, but I’m sure there are others:

• Switch to online billing. Most utility (Internet, mobile phone, water, electricity, gas etc.) companies have an online billing facility, go to their web site and set it up. If your provider doesn’t have online billing, call them and ask them when they will and if its not soon switch your provider.
• Cancel solicited mail you don’t need. If you’ve bought from catalogues or companies that keep sending you stuff email them or call them and ask them to stop. Tell them you use thier web page. Tell them you’ll stop recommending them to friends or stop using them yourself if the don’t stop sending you paper. Yes, its nice to recieve a nice glossy holiday brochure, but if you booked the first holiday online, do you really need a paper version for next year’s break?
• Try and cancel unsolicited mail. In the UK you can use the Mail preference service to try to stop unwanted mail. There are most likely equivilant sites in other countries (take a look and leave a comment if you find one). One cool thing about MPS is it lets you enter old addresses, so you can get rid of junk from your old homes! Also consider that you can cancel mail to previous ocupants who still get mail sent to your home.

It obviously takes a few weeks to come into effect, but I’ve noticed a difference since I did this a while back. Once you have done this, make sure you recycle the paper that does come through your door. For confidential stuff, use a shredder and either compost the waste or put it into the recycling too.

Another good article from Mike’s very informative and interesting blog, this one is about generating electriicity from geothermal energy.

Electricity from hot water

That’s right, geothermal resources (hot fluid and/or gas) can and is being used to generate electricity the world over. Geothermal literally means “heat from the earth.” The first successful geothermal electricity generation installation was in Larderello, Italy in 1904. The largest is the Geysers in Northern California where 21 plants generate around 3% of California’s electricity.

[...]

Perhaps the most interesting and useful of the conversion technologies is the binary plant which uses a series of heat exchangers to transfer the geothermal fluid’s heat energy to a working fluid in a closed system. Typically, the working fluid has a boiling point that is less than that of water (~75C) which is then converted to steam and run through the turbine system, cooled, and recirculated through the system. In this way, the geothermal resource is never in direct contact with the turbine which extends the lifetime and reduces the maintenance associated with the system.

[...]

Of all the renewable technologies, geothermal has the best chance to compete at scale with traditional fossil fuel plants on the basis of cost, predictability, and reliability.

If you are interested in renewable energy technology, check out Mike’s previous postings on energy. Of particular interest are:

• Biomass for the masses
• OPEC, cartel extraordinaire
• A mighty wind
• What is the environmental cost of a MWh?

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/12/1286/Hawley_Arms/Camden

It might be good, I’ve never been, but one things for sure they know their market!