The next big thing: a way to produce cheap, clean water

Whoa!! Echoz
A little tight there, huh?!?! And I thought my Community Dark Roast was good!!
I believe we'd all agree that there are way too many of those characters you're talking about out there and they are killing the world ever so slowly and in all their self righteousness, they're too stupid to even realize it or care.

I agree with mittenzz and dco. Again, it ain't just him either. He gets some really interesting guests and they usually click really well, because he knows how to spin things around. He's a comedian. We all can learn as much about what is going on from comedians more so than the "truth" telling newspeople.

That is some interesting history TouchArt. Had never even heard... And a great idea too, while being more possible than most may generally think... Too bad "Governor" Richardson isn't more like this one! >>>>

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/scimedemail/la-fi-solar27mar27,0,3837069.stor...

"Solar energy is getting a big boost in Southern California with the unveiling of two projects that will be capable of generating a total of 500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve more than 300,000 homes.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Southern California Edison plan to announce today the country's largest rooftop solar installation project ever proposed by a utility company. And on Wednesday, FPL Energy, the largest operator of solar power in the U.S., said it planned to build and operate a 250-megawatt solar plant in the Mojave Desert.

The projects would help California meet its goal of obtaining 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. In 2006, about 13% of the retail electricity delivered by Edison and the state's other two big investor-owned utilities came from renewable sources such as sun and wind, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Energy experts were struck by the size of the two projects, which would bolster the state's current total of about 965 megawatts of solar power flowing to the electricity grid.

"Five hundred megawatts -- that's substantial," said spokesman George Douglas of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "Projects of that size begin to show that solar energy can produce electricity on a utility scale, on the kind of scale that we're going to need."

I'd been "complaining" in another thread that Richardson just doesn't have even close to the progressive vision like this for New Mexicans much less America as a potential VP, being more concerned about his political *career* than actually (actively) serving the people who elected him.

When we took Martin Luther King III up to the Spanish Land Grant villages in the mountains of Northern New Mexico, he saw the gutters for raw sewage in the plaza of the church at Cordova, and the construction for the first water treatment facility in Chimayo and said, "People in the U.S. have no idea that we have this level of third world poverty right here in America."

There are plenty of people living in third world poverty throughout the United States in rural, reservation and urban communities. Skyrocketing energy and gas prices put people on the edge in crisis. We need to figure out a way to decentralize energy production for heat and cooking in a sustainable way that is accessible to poor people, not just the upper classes that can afford it.

What if 37 million people in poverty had access to green sustainable technology like the Stirling Engine? It would have a much bigger impact on global warming and healing the earth than the small percentage of the elite going green.

Lobby for sustainable green technology for all, not just the rich.

i think the reservations and the other poor people of America are probably the last thing on his "making a difference" list, marketing it to the U.N. for "third-world countries" probably where disease is known or "publicized" to be epidemic.

Where are all those g'dam "do-gooder" philanthropists like Bill Gates with Buffett's multi-millions when we need 'em??? The bass turdz only "give" when it effectively advances or enforces their phuktop political ideologies...the useless indolent mferz...

This is a great invention.
How can we help make it accessible to people world wide?
The Stirling engine would be great out on the Indian reservations in New Mexico, Navajo Nation and up at the Lakotah reservations up in South and North Dakota.
In the center of the Navajo Nation, there are many families without clean potable water. At homestead lease sites above Canyon de Chelly (see picture below) there is no water source besides the stone basins on the solid rock tops of the mesa that collect water after the infrequent rains. (Navajos own land in common and families have homestead and grazing rights that are inherited through the mothers)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/229/489878237_57ab7312c5.jpg?v=0

Many villages in Northern New Mexico lack potable water and a water treatment plant and this Stirling Engine would be invaluable.

It's not the real Colbert that you see on the show. It's his personna. The real Colbert is the guy who bad-mouthed Bush, and the guy wh mocked Bill O'Reilly (and stole his microwave!!!). Colbert is a brilliant comedian, he's just satirical. It gets a little tired after a while, but the insight is great. I'd rather a mock up of FOX than a duplicate of the Daily Show. Of course, Jon Stewart is easily more ingenious than Colbert, he's got thirty years of stand up under his belt! Colbert is a good thing, you just have to appreciate him. This takes no more than watching him and O'reilly back to back. Colbert mocks his Catholicism constantly, though he still teaches Sunday school. 90% of what he says should be inverted, because that's his actual opinion. It's a joke.

Also, that water thingy was cool...

Colbert is exaggerating the role of a very knowledgeable, yet abusive, typical American. He's trying to say what he think REAL Americans are thinking about some top social and political issues (and I think he's nailing it.)

He's just a smart ass, cynical asshole that tells the truth.

awe, i credited somebody on this, what happened..?

Marvelous invention, no doubt.

As far as Colbert, of course he's a pain. However, he does get some good air time for some very worthy guests that you would never get to experience otherwise and that makes it a good show. I have thoroughly enjoyed a number of his guests, even if he acts like an idiot with them sometimes. He just has a very unique way of giving us some really good stuff. Not that I'm a regular for sure, but if ever I'm sitting back, flipping channels and come across his show, I will watch it. Usually very interesting, mind provoking.

Very fascinating device, but the burning stuff kind of defeats the goal of clean air. Smoke would contribute to the air pollution.

"...Kamen has invented lots of things, but he didn't invent distillation. The trick is to do it using as little energy as possible. However, 1,000 watts of heat won't boil much water, so Kamen developed a closed system, powered by whatever fuel is at hand, that traps the energy released when the boiled water vapor recondenses. Essentially, he's recycling heat. Result: a low-power, low-maintenance device that will cost around $1,000 to manufacture and makes 10 gal. of drinkable water an hour."

(quote gleaned from
http://www.time.com/time/2003/inventions/invwater.html
)

still wonder how available this is going to be for certainly more than a thousand it sounds like. Maybe Walmart will have it if they can convince the Chinese to build it without lead =D

I wonder if Karmen is still working on this project? It sounds like a good idea.

"I would like to know that I left the world a better place than I found it ... I'd like to think that no matter how much I take out of it, I put more in," says Kamen.

This water purifier could help make his desire a reality.

I agree with you phillyharper, Colbert is so obnoxious. At least he had Kamen on the show, though. I think that since he's a comedian that's not funny, he has to go for annoying. After all, isn't he a spin off from a "comedy" show that also isn't funny? Although, to his credit, John Stewart is not as annoying as Colbert.

I'm just happy that they have some real news and insight sometimes. Admittedly I don't watch either show, so I am by no means an expert.

I do hope Kamen's water purifier can make a difference.

Good story, but damn Steve Colbert is annoying. Maybe it's because I'm British and I "don't get it".

I think I do get it. It's just...tiresome and annoying. Take something seriously. Once.

excellent invention! I want one for my rain catchment system.