A Bunch of Hot Air?
8/15/08
With all the talk of using alternative fuels and biofuels, there are researchers in Taiwan who are trying to tap a source as ubiquitous as sunlight to power motorcycles. Using compressed air seems like such a cool idea, but as always there are considerations to be made. The motorcycles will still need an energy source to compress the air, which will need to be provided by power plants. So it is still unclear whether or not there will be any pollution decrease by using this new compressed air technology, but it just shows that some of the best ideas are often the simplest. Now if only there was someway to use wind energy to power the batteries to compress the air to run the motorcycles (or solar energy instead of wind energy). The obvious step for the future is to improve the efficiency of the naturally occurring energy sources (water, wind, solar), because without it we will always be shackled to power plants.
Even if the dollar is slightly gaining strength again, the penny has been an afterthought for as long as I can remember. However it seems that retailers, in an effort to bring parents and children in for back-to-school shopping, are offering ridiculous discounts on school supplies like 8 pencils for a penny. The term for selling items at a loss is called “loss leaders” and it is done in an effort to bring consumers to the store and buy more expensive items. Saving a few dollars in one area seems to compensate for spending more in another area. I often feel this way whenever I use a coupon, return an item, or purchase a less expensive item. The difference in the price I should have spent and the price I did spend is still in the back of the back of my mind and is always used as an excuse for spending more. I wonder if there is more information on this…
-Amit
akooner@brilliont.com
Tags: alternative fuels, biofuels, solar energy, Taiwan, wind energy
