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Munich Pact
Munich Pact, 1938. In the summer of 1938, Chancellor Hitler of Germany began openly to support the demands of Germans living in the Sudetenland (see Sudetes) of Czechoslovakia for an improved status. In September, Hitler demanded self-determination for the Sudetenland. Disorders broke out in Czechoslovakia, and martial law was proclaimed. Meetings between Hitler and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain, first at Berchtesgaden and then at Bad Godesberg, failed to achieve a satisfactory agreement. War seemed unavoidable. After appeals by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Benito Mussolini, a conference met at Munich (Sept. 29). Great Britain was represented by Chamberlain and Halifax, France by Edouard Daladier and Georges Bonnet, Italy by Mussolini and Galeazzo Ciano, Germany by Hitler and Ribbentrop. Neither Czechoslovakia nor the Soviet Union, which had offered aid to the threatened country under the terms of a 1935 treaty, was invited to the conference. England and France quickly surrendered to Hitler's demands, and the Munich Pact was signed Sept. 30 (but dated Sept. 29). It permitted immediate occupation by Germany of the Sudetenland, but also provided for plebiscites, which were never carried out. France and Britain guaranteed the new Czechoslovak boundaries. When Chamberlain arrived in London, he announced that he had secured
peace in our time.Abandoned by its allies, Czechoslovakia gave in to the terms, and President Beneš, the target of Hitler's most venomous attacks, resigned. Poland and Hungary, for whose minorities promises had been made at Munich, were allowed to seize, respectively, the Teschen district and parts of Slovakia. The Munich Pact became a symbol of appeasement and shook the confidence of Eastern Europeans in the good faith of the Western democracies. World War II began about one year after its signing.
See J. W. Wheeler-Bennett, Munich: Prologue to Tragedy (1948, repr. 1966); studies by K. Eubank (1963), F. L. Loewenheim, ed. (1965), and D. E. Lee, ed. (1970).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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Power Quality
Protect your electronic equipment from power interruption, before you make the power connection
We are proud of our reputation for providing safe, reliable, electric power. However, severe storms, lightning, high winds, power equipment failures, cars hitting utility poles, and even small animals climbing on utility wires can cause power line disturbances.
Electrical load changes within your facility can also affect the quality of power. There are a number of things you can do to protect your sensitive electronic equipment from power disturbances. This information has been prepared to help you understand the causes and results of these disturbances and how to protect against them.
Equipment in your home or office that can be affected includes computers, digital clocks, answering machines, DVD and Blue Ray players, electronic cash registers and security systems. Other equipment impacted by power quality problems include energy management systems, variable speed drives and phone systems.
Most electrical devices can tolerate short-term power disturbances without any noticeable effects. However, more serious power disturbances can cause data loss, memory loss, altered data, product loss, and other functional errors, as well as equipment damage. These problems often cause expensive downtime, inefficiency, lost orders, scheduling problems and accounting problems. It is often necessary to troubleshoot to determine the cause of these problems. Having the right kind of power protection for your electronic systems becomes more important every day. It is difficult to predict when a minor power-related problem might become a major problem for your home or business.
Identifying the Problems
Since power disturbances are almost always intermittent problems, they can be difficult to identify.
Once a problem has been isolated as a power problem, it is important to identify the type of power disturbance so the cause can be found and a solution can be implemented. Sometimes identifying the cause of a power disturbance can point to a low or no-cost solution.
Phase Protection
The kind of protection you need depends on the type of equipment you have and how you operate. Faults, which occur on the utility system or within your facility's distribution network, may be caused by squirrels, birds, auto accidents, tree branches, overloads or other occurrences that trip a protective device. When faults occur, one, two, or all three phases of your electrical supply may be affected. However, you may not notice when only one phase is interrupted, a condition known as "single phasing."
During single phasing, motors and other equipment may continue to run, but excessive current will flow in the two energized phases causing motors to overheat and possibly burn out. The only way single phasing can be identified quickly, before equipment is damaged, is to install a monitoring system to alert you. If you wait until you notice that your equipment is overheating, most likely the damage has already been done.
The National Electrical Code requires that three-phase motors and equipment have adequate electrical protection against power disturbances or interruptions. Our customers are responsible for installing single phasing and ground fault protection for three-phase equipment to prevent damage in the event of a disturbance or interruption. Without proper protection, disturbances or interruptions, known as faults, may damage three-phase motors and equipment.
We strongly recommend that you review your motor protection with an electrician, the equipment manufacturer, or a consulting engineer to ensure that your equipment has the proper protection. The protective equipment should be sensitive enough to detect abnormal voltage conditions on any or all phases.
Types of Disturbances
There are three types of irregularities, which could affect your power supply:
- Voltage fluctuations
- Switching transients
- Power outages
Voltage Fluctuations
In many states, including Maine, Public Utility Commissions have established allowable voltage tolerances for electric service. In Maine, these tolerances require that the voltage provided to residential and commercial customer's facilities not exceed plus or minus 5% of the "expected voltage" for periods longer than one minute. For example, a residential customer's expected voltage is 120. To stay within the requirement, we must maintain our voltage requirement of between 114 and 126 volts. For industrial customers, the normal voltage variation is plus or minus 10% of the standard voltage for any period longer than a minute.
Some electrical equipment has been developed with very sensitive power quality requirements. This equipment may be so sensitive that even fluctuations within the tolerance limits can cause problems.
Sometimes, power problems cause the voltage to fluctuate outside the allowable tolerance. These voltage fluctuations can usually be detected by a visible flickering of lights. Overvoltage or undervoltage conditions can result in damage to equipment, loss of data, and erroneous readings in monitoring systems.
Undervoltage, also known as voltage sag or "brownout," can result from overloaded power circuits. Intermittent low voltage can be caused by starting large motors or by momentary tree contacts on power lines. We require that any customer-owned motor not cause the primary voltage to decrease by more than 3% upon starting.
If the sag lasts for more than a few cycles, motor contactors, fluorescent lighting or programmable logic controllers may fail to operate properly.
Overvoltage conditions, also known as voltage swells, are less common but may be more damaging to equipment. These swells occur more frequently in facilities which rapidly switch large electrical loads off and on.
Switching Transients
Transients are by far the most common sort of power disturbance. Electrical transients are short duration disturbances typically caused by switching electrical equipment on and off. You may notice a similar situation if you are in the shower and someone turns on another faucet in your home. The water pressure in your shower is decreased momentarily while the system accommodates the increased use. This is similar to the disturbance on your electrical system. Transients are sometimes difficult to detect since they last such a short time.
Voltage Spikes
Short duration impulses, in excess of the normal or expected voltage are called spikes. Although the duration is very brief, a spike may significantly exceed the normal voltage. Spikes can wipe out data stored in memory, produce output errors, or cause extensive equipment damage. In addition to the noticeable immediate damage, spikes may also cause harder to detect problems such as reducing the service life of your equipment. Subsequent random failures can be particularly annoying and expensive.
One major day-to-day cause of energy spikes is the switching on and off of electrical motors. This is called inductive load switching. Air conditioners, electric power tools, furnaces, electrostatic copy machines, arc welders and elevators are particularly guilty of creating voltage spikes. The problems created by inductive load switching are very common in industrial plants.
Larger spikes are typically caused by lightning. Though the chances of a lightning bolt hitting your facility or machinery directly are small, a lightning strike several miles away may be transmitted through power lines and show up as a voltage spike in your facility. Grounding your equipment appropriately is your best defense against voltage surges.
Electrical Noise
Electrical noise is any unwanted signal traveling on electrical wires. Electrical noise can be caused by radio transmitters, fluorescent lights, computers, business machines, motors, dc drives, arc welders, heavy equipment, load switching, and loose electrical connections. Although some electronic equipment does have internal noise filtering capability, equipment located in very noisy environments may still encounter interference, such as glitches or malfunctions with computer, electronic, and communications equipment.
Electrical noise generators cause harmonic currents. Harmonic currents are currents that alternate faster than (on a frequency greater than 60 Hz) the standard current most equipment is designed for. These faster alternating currents appear as electrical noise to other devices on the same circuit. The only way to get rid of electrical noise is through the use of "dedicated circuits" and/or appropriate filtering equipment discussed later. IEEE Standard 519-1992 provides allowable harmonic limits for both customers and the utility.
Power Outages
Power Outages, often referred to as Power Interruptions, can best be defined as a complete loss of voltage for a few seconds or longer. Sensitive electronic equipment generally does not respond well to any type of power interruption.
Momentary (short duration) outages generally range from less than one cycle to a few seconds. If the momentary interruption is caused by an event outside of ones home or business, the interruption is likely caused by a device known as a recloser.
A recloser turns off the power in response to a short circuit or an electrical fault on the utility system, commonly referred to as the power line. These faults are often caused by trees or animals coming into contact with the utility system. Though momentary outages are considered a nuisance, reclosers provide many benefits. In addition to protecting the public and utility personnel, reclosers are designed to reenergize the utility system if the fault was able to clear. This feature reduces the frequency of extended power outages.
Extended power outages are caused by larger scale problems, such as trees coming down on the utility system during a storm or vehicular accidents. The duration of the outage will vary based on the extent of the damages.
Power Protection: What you can do
Dedicated Circuit — Investigate Installing a Dedicated Circuit
Computer equipment should be served from dedicated circuits that serve only computers. The dedicated circuit, with an insulated ground, should originate from the main switch. The dedicated circuit will reduce voltage fluctuations caused by other equipment.
When a variety of equipment shares a circuit, voltage fluctuations may be caused by the equipment switching on and off. By putting more sensitive equipment on its own circuit, you reduce the wear and tear and help to ensure the quality of power to that equipment.
There are two main categories of power protection equipment: power enhancement and power synthesis. Power enhancement equipment modifies and improves the incoming power while power synthesis equipment utilizes the incoming power as an energy source to create "new" power.
Power Enhancement
Power enhancers refine incoming power through a filtering process and work to overcome transient power problems. In many cases, different types of power enhancement devices are used in conjunction with one another to be sure that electrical problems are reduced or eliminated.
Examples of power enhancers include:
Surge Suppressors
These units protect against transients by reducing high-voltage impulses to a level that is safe for your equipment. Surge suppressors can cope effectively with virtually any transients, although actual capability depends on the quality of the unit. Because surge suppressors are relatively inexpensive, it makes sense to install them as insurance against potential equipment damage, particularly from lightning strikes.
We recommend installing a quality surge suppressor that has a UL listing, and a UL Standard 1449 voltage "clamping" label. The best units can "clamp" a voltage transient to under 300 volts. The surge suppressor must clamp transients between line to neutral and neutral to ground. This level of protection is adequate for most applications.
Power line filters are the most widely used method for electrical noise reduction. A filter would be designed for a specific electrical noise problem. The design of the filter may require technical assistance from the equipment manufacturer or a power quality consultant.
Voltage Regulators
Quality voltage regulators maintain voltage output within narrow limits in spite of wide input fluctuations.
Isolation Transformers
These units are specifically designed to prevent electrical noise from being passed through to the protected equipment.
Power Conditioners
Hybrid power conditioners combine two or more functions in one device. A power conditioner will combine the advantages of both voltage regulators and isolation transformers. Some may also add surge protection. The term "power conditioner" is applied rather loosely, so study the manufacturer's technical literature before you buy to be sure the product is capable of performing properly for your situation.
Power Synthesis
Hybrid power conditioners combine two or more functions in one device. A power conditioner will combine the advantages of both voltage regulators and isolation transformers. Some may also add surge protection. The term "power conditioner" is applied rather loosely, so study the manufacturer's technical literature before you buy to be sure the product is capable of performing properly for your situation. Examples of power synthesizers include:
Magnetic Power Synthesizer
This is a magnetic ferroresonant system made up of transformers, inductors and capacitors that reconstruct the desired AC output. This new output is free from all power line disturbances. These units do not store power, so they cannot protect sensitive equipment from outages.
This system buffers power to sensitive equipment by virtually regenerating it. It uses utility power to drive a motor, which, in turn, drives a generator, which provides electricity to the electronic equipment. Because motor-generators isolate the incoming power source from the eventual recipient of the power, they deal effectively with noise and transients on the incoming power supply. Motor-generators provide "ride-through" of momentary power interruptions up to one-half second, with actual capability varying with the design of the unit.
Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS)
Standby Power Sources (SPS)
Although both an uninterruptible power source (UPS) and a standby power source (SPS) protect against blackouts, the cost and the degree of protection they provide differ considerably. A true UPS is always on-line, providing continuous, regulated and noise-free power under all AC-line conditions. An SPS, on the other hand, is always off-line and switches on-line only when AC power is lost. In fact, an SPS is sometimes called an off-line UPS.
An alternate power source, like a UPS, contains a battery and an inverter to convert DC to 120 volts AC. But that's where the similarities end. An SPS also has a transfer switch. Normally, the inverter is at rest and the primary AC power passes through the switch to the equipment. However, when the AC voltage drops below a pre-set transfer point, the transfer switch transfers the load to the output of the inverter, which then supplies 120 VAC power to the equipment.
Several factors must be considered before selecting a UPS or SPS. If a power outage is the only problem to be rectified, an SPS provides the most economical solution. As a minimum, the SPS should meet the IEEE 587 standard.
However, if voltage fluctuations occur frequently (causing havoc with a computer being used in a more critical application) a UPS is the best choice.

subset: commoncrawl


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Recall petition on Salinas Mayor Gunter filed by Castaneda supporter
A supporter of Salinas City Councilman Jose Castaneda filed paperwork Wednesday in the city clerk's office to recall Mayor Joe Gunter.
The papers were filed by Salinas resident Juvenal Ibarra, City Clerk Patricia Barajas said. Ibarra states that Gunter should be recalled because he is wasting the city's time and money by pursuing a lawsuit against Castaneda.
The recall effort was launched the morning after the Salinas City Council voted 4-2 in favor of taking legal action against Castaneda because he may be violating California's conflict of interest laws. Castaneda refused to step down from his position as an Alisal Union School District School Board member after he was sworn onto the City Council in December.
"I am here whether you like it or not," Castaneda told his fellow council members at Tuesday night's meeting.
VIDEO: KSBW's Tom Miller reports on the tense moment
Castaneda attempted to stand his ground, comparing the city's threat of legal action against him to the civil rights movement.
"What you're doing is no different from what has been happening under the civil rights era," Castaneda said.
Tuesday's vote, however, didn't follow racial lines.
Councilman Steve McShane was one of two against the motion, while Councilwoman Gloria De La Rosa joined three others in the majority.
"If we walk away from it and say, 'well nobody is really hurt,' then what we're doing is excusing someone who may be breaking the law," Councilwoman Jyl Lutes said.
Castaneda abstained from voting. He dodged questions from reporters and eventually retreated into his office after the city council voted against him. Castaneda also did not return phone calls from KSBW on Wednesday seeking comment.
Gunter told KSBW that he is not worried about the recall effort, and questioned the validity of the recall's signatures.
"I can't sit at home and worry about that, I've got city business to do and move forward," Gunter said.
Next week, the city will seek the state attorney general's permission to settle the issue in court with a lawsuit. The purpose of the lawsuit is to force Castaneda to step down from the school board, not the city council.


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They're tearing down the Spectrum, but there's still a ton of crap inside. So for $25, fans get three hours alone with the old arena, and may take home whatever's not bolted down. They were probably going to do that anyway.
It's always sad when an arena is demolished. So many memories. Like when the Harlem Globetrotters played a game on the roof of the building, or that time I went to the Nine Inch Nails concert and a dude in the parking lot was totally handing out nitrous balloons for free.
Saturday fans are invited to take some of their memories with them, in what's actually being called "If You Can Carry It, You Can Keep It." That includes, according to Comcast-Spectacor, folding chairs, used televisions, office furniture, couches and computer equipment. Basically, it'll be like Supermarket Sweep in an Office Depot. Except for the fact someone is going to die.
This isn't even about it being Philly fans. Put a bunch of collectors and diehards in an enclosed space, tell them they can take whatever they want, but they've got to get it before everyone else, and there's going to be body checks, tramplings, and the whole place will probably be on fire within 20 minutes. Maybe that was the plan all along: let the fans handle the arena's demolition.


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Grab your coat and get your hat
Leave your worries on the doorstep
Life can be so sweet
On the sunny side of the street
—Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields (1930)
You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you
In the era of global warming, peak oil, and the perilous petroleum dependency of the OCED countries, solar energy is now the hot ticket. Venture-funded companies compete for investment and market share. The scientific community is doing its part, proposing grand visionary plans for meeting most of humankind's energy needs by mid-century by tapping the original source of our fossil fuels—the Sun.
The late Nobel laureate Richard Smalley spent his last years in a quest for terrawatts. A posthumous summary of his work published in the Houston Chronicle, Imagine a world that's energy rich, states the central themes of the new solar movement.
I have been on a personal journey for the past year and half in a search to find some happy answer to the energy problem. I believe the problem is, simply stated, that we have to find a new oil. Oil was, unquestionably, the basis for prosperity for this country and the planet in the last century — particularly the last half of the century.
But it is very clear to many of us, including leading scientists and policymakers, that if oil remains the basis for prosperity for the world throughout this century, it cannot be a very prosperous or happy century.
And so, if you have one word in this scenario to describe this new oil, it would not be ''oil," it would be ''electricity." That is the key conceptual insight that makes things work.
In A Solar Grand Plan, Ken Zweibel, James Mason and Vasilis Fthenakis flesh out a scheme by which "solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050" (Scientific American, January, 2008). In Powering Civilization to 2050, The Oil Drum's Stuart Staniford describes a scenario—not a forecast—which depends on a huge, anomalous rise in marketed primary energy production from solar photovoltaics and other renewables after 2020 (graph left). How plausible are these kind of stories?
Such sweeping visions of our solar future beg the central question of humankind's destiny on this planet—
Do we live in a world of ever flowing abundance, or do we live in a world of limits to growth?
If your answer is "abundance", your approach to the future requires a shift in direction in a context of business as usual. If your answer is "limits", your approach requires a shift in behavior in a context of living within your means. What follows examines possible constraints on the expansion of solar energy in the 21st century.
A Long, Long Way to Go
All visionary schemes start with the really large numbers1 measuring the available solar energy. Using a calculation based on the solar constant, which ≅ 1366 watts per square meter, the available energy is 3844 zettajoules per year. Another source calculates that the Earth receives 89,000 terrawatts (TW) of solar power. All of humankind's power consumption amounted to only 15 terrawatts in 2004, so converting less than 0.0002% of the Sun's power delivered to the Earth would have replaced all of it (graph below). Any way you slice it, that's a lot of energy.
According to the IEA's 2007 fact sheet Renewables in Global Energy Supply, solar provided only 0.039% of the world's primary energy in 2004, and their latest data for electricity consumption in the OECD indicates that only 2% came from geothermal, solar, wind and other sources combined. Year on year growth in January-November 2007 compared to 2006 was an impressive 20.2% for renewables, amounting to 166 terrawatt hours altogether. However, 4.1% growth in electricity from combustibles (fossil fuels) amounted to 245 terrawatt hours during the same period, which equals 147% of all electricity from renewables.
If our electric future is solar, there is a long, long way to go.
Potential Limits to Solar Cell Manufacture
Solar power is all the rage2 in the energy markets because of the thin film revolution, which promises low-cost mass production of photovoltaic (PV) cells (Technology Review, July 27, 2007). Leading the way is First Solar, which uses cadmium-telluride thin-film PVs in its solar panels. Scientific American's solar "grand plan" cites cadmium telluride as the cheapest option today.
To provide electricity at six cents per kWh by 2020, cadmium telluride modules would have to convert electricity with 14 percent efficiency, and systems would have to be installed at $1.20 per watt of capacity. Current modules have 10 percent efficiency and an installed system cost of about $4 per watt. Progress is clearly needed, but the technology is advancing quickly; commercial efficiencies have risen from 9 to 10 percent in the past 12 months...
First Solar has its detractors, who "assert that the company could be hurt by limited supplies of raw materials in the future and increased competition." It turns out that tellurium is one of the nine rarest elements on Earth. Here's the smoking gun from altenergystocks.com—
In 2006, First Solar's 60 megawatts of production consumed 4% of the world's annual supply of [tellurium]. In 2008, analysts expect revenues of approximately 4x the 2006 number, meaning they will need approximately 16% of new annual Tellurium supplies.
60 megawatts is nothing, a drop in the bucket. So much for cadmium-telluride thin film. But what of the many other alternatives?
Companies using silicon-based photovoltaics still have the largest market share by far. Silica, or silicon dioxide, comes from sand or quartz. The largest component of glass, silica is not rare at all, but appearances can be deceiving. The semi-conductor and solar industries, which are now in direct competition for processed materials, require highly refined polycrystalline silicon (polysilcon) or monocrystalline silicon for making chips or solar cells. Almost all this refined silicon is still made using the complex, expensive and energy-intensive Siemen's Process (1st graph left, with a 2nd simplified version from the Wall Street Journal).
For four years now, purified silicon has been in short supply. See the Wall Street Journal's The Silicon Shake-Up (September 21, 2007). Polysilicon prices soared from $25/kilogram in 2004 to around $200/kilogram in 2006, and PV production growth has come to a virtual halt. Sharp, the largest solar cell manufacturer in the world, "produced panels that could generate 434 megawatts of electricity [in 2006], or the equivalent of a single gas-fired power plant, about the same amount it made in 2005." The shortage has spurred the "thin film craze" because investors are leery of the supply & demand imbalance, even though thin film PVs are only 7-10% efficient in converting sunlight, as opposed to about 15% for commercial silicon PVs.
How long will the purified silicon shortage last? An optimist will say at this point that the supply crunch is only temporary—high prices will stimulate supply and the market will come into balance again. However, in any steep exponential growth situation like those required by Staniford or the Scientific American authors, manufacturing capacity, even where potential breakthrough technologies exist (for pure polysilicons) will periodically lag behind demand, inhibiting steady growth over and over again as the market overheats and cools down. Large price volatility is destructive to markets. And then there is the question of scale. Should using purified silicon remain the method of choice, just how much built-out capacity would be necessary to create enough solar cells to meet 5% of our electricity needs? 10%? 20%? There is no free lunch.
In the case of depletion, as with cadmium telluride, the optimist might also respond that there are other alternatives, such as the copper-indium-(gallium)-diselenide (CIS or CIGS) thin film technology being pursued by Siemens, Nanosolar or Global Solar Energy. The risk is that the current bullish commodities market may become a permanent feature of the economic landscape. Take the indium used in thin films. Resource Investor reports that—
The Earth is estimated to contain about 0.1 ppm [parts per million] of indium which means it is about as abundant as silver. However, bullish supply-demand fundamentals have propelled the price from US$70/kg in 2001 to over US$1,000/kg today.
Indium is produced mainly from residues generated during zinc ore processing but is also found in iron, lead, and copper ores. In recent years, supply has decreased after a number of Chinese mining concerns stopped extracting indium from their zinc tailings.
At present, about 75% of the indium in the world is used in the manufacture of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD's), in computer screens and the new generation of flat screen TVs. The LCD industry is expected to achieve growth rates exceeding 30% over the next three years.
The flat screens will only be for the super rich some day because unlimited growth always entails scarcity eventually. Substitutes are not always readily available for elements on the periodic chart. It will always be something. There is no way out of this maze.
Bigger is Not Better, or Even Believable
Richard Smalley saw energy storage as the biggest challenge for solar (and wind) because each day the Sun shines on only half of the rotating Earth and thus it does not shine all day anywhere. Clouds also impede insolation, further dimming our ability to collect solar energy. One solution, discussed by Staniford, involves building out a slightly modified global power grid as proposed in Project Genesis (Global Energy Network Equipped With Solar Cells and International Superconductor Grids). Staniford, who does not want to depend on future breakthrough technologies, would replace the superconducting cables with high voltage direct current (DC) transmission lines, which are efficient over long distances. Such a grid gets around the storage problem by shifting the Earth's global electricity generation focal point to follow the Sun.
It is hard to directly criticize something like Project Genesis, for it seems so outlandish in its gigantism, requiring such a huge strain on Earth's limited resources and such an unprecedented level of co-operation amongst disparate peoples, that it is hard to imagine how it could ever get off the ground. A global electric grid seems akin to science fiction fantasies like terraforming Mars or mining Saturn's moon Titan for its hydrocarbons. "Make it so," said Jean-Luc Picard.
Driven by their hopes and fears, people often can not distinguish between what they can imagine doing and what they can, or will, actually do. Why do engineered solutions need to be implemented on a planetary scale? The more grandiose the solution, the more unlikely it will ever be implemented. Bigger is not always better.
A somewhat more down to Earth proposal put forward by the "Grand Plan" authors envisions vast solar farms in America's southwest where daytime insolation (watts/meter2/time) is high. If you view the Genesis project as a network graph, the solar farms in Arizona would represent one node of that graph which is not connected to vast solar farms elsewhere on Earth. This standalone electricity generating site thus requires large amounts of energy storage to supply reliable current when it is dark or cloudy.
The Scientific American authors envision that compressed air in underground caverns would provide that storage. "Electricity from photovoltaic plants compresses air and pumps it into vacant underground caverns, abandoned mines, aquifers and depleted natural gas wells. The pressurized air is released on demand to turn a turbine that generates electricity, aided by burning small amounts of natural gas."
Again, the problem is scalability. Small compressed-air storage has been used successfully in German and Alabama, but Zweibel et.al. are talking about supplying 69% of America's electricity consumption by 2050. This is another Big Engineering Project that is unlikely to ever be implemented. Richard Smalley preferred a "small is beautiful" approach that makes more sense.
The biggest single problem of electricity is storing it. When we are trying to find a way to store electrical energy on a vast scale, as we generally need energy in gigawatt power plants, there are very few options that one can imagine on that large scale for energy storage.
But if you imagine attacking the energy storage problem locally, at the scale of a house or a small business, the problem becomes vastly more solvable because there must be many more technologies that are accessible at the smaller scale.
If 100 million local sites each had their own local storage (based on improved batteries, hydrogen conversion systems and fly wheels), and they locally decided for their own particular sociological, economical reasons to use a particular technology to give themselves an hour of buffer or a day of buffer, five days of buffer, however long they have decided to do it — then the electrical grid could afford to be fairly erratic.
Only this kind of smaller-scale, distributed solution to generating the electricity we need in the future has any chance of being implemented.
The first obstacle we must overcome in solving the power problem of the 21st century is acknowledging that there are inherent limits to growth and thus what people can or can not do. A lesson in humility is required here. There are limits at the small-scale, illustrated by the problems with solar cell manufacture discussed above, and limits at the large-scale, where planetary engineering is unlikely to ever lead to real solutions for real people.
Residential solar electricity and heating is good. Vast solar farms in the world's deserts are unworkable and inherently risky. Imagine New England connected to the solar grid by only a few very large DC transmission lines emanating from Nevada. Tomorrow's power grid will not look like today's. Everybody is jumping on the Solar Bandwagon, but solar energy growth fantasies that allow us to power our plug-ins and keep the lights on without disruption are not helpful in making the stepwise changes we will need to get us to 2050 all in one piece.
Contact the author at firstname.lastname@example.com
1. Think of Energy (Work) = Power x Time. Or equivalently, Power = Work / Time. Power is measured in watts, energy in joules.
The standard metric unit of power is the watt. As is implied by the equation for power, a unit of power is equivalent to a unit of work divided by a unit of time. Thus, a Watt is equivalent to a Joule/second. For historical reasons, the horsepower is occasionally used to describe the power delivered by a machine. One horsepower is equivalent to approximately 750 Watts.
A terrawatt (trillion watts) = 3.6e+15 joules/hour. 1 zettajoule = 1021 joules. Electricity is standardly measured in kilowatt hours, where 1 watt hour is equivalent to 3,600 joules. A kilowatt is thus the amount of energy "produced, transmitted, distributed, or consumed in a hour", which = 3,600,000 joules.
2. See Silicon Insider: Solar Companies Glow Despite Economic Slump for an example of bubbly hype in the venture capital-funded solar power industry.


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Although I had a home birth and have never taken my new son to a doctor's office, I somehow managed to be targeted for the "Strong Moms" (TM) campaign. The initial mailings were generic take-care-of-yourself promotions, with cute images of babies and healthy-looking women. I honestly could not figure out what they wanted from me.
Yesterday, all became clear when I received two complementary cases of Similac.
Being a healthy, breastfeeding mother, I have never had reason to look at formula ingredients. Only one of my children ever needed formula (5 bottles total); after catching an upper respiratory infection that landed me totally dried up in the emergency room, my husband fed her something (I know not what), and she became so constipated he had to give our then-5-month old an enema. After getting 3 bags of IV into my system, I pumped every 15 minutes for a full day until my supply was back, and treated sick people with hostility for the following year.
At any rate, I decided to look at the ingredients of this gift for me – one of the "Strong Moms" (TM) targeted in this campaign – and my jaw literally dropped to the floor. I'm sure the lactation people out there know all this, but here's a reiteration of a few of the main ingredients of one the cans of Similac that was mistakenly mailed to me, with a little of my own online research thrown in:
43.2% Corn Syrup Solids. Corn syrup, which consists mostly of dextrose, is a sweet, thick liquid made by treating cornstarch with acids or enzymes. It may be dried and used as corn syrup solids in coffee whiteners and other dry products. Corn syrup contains no nutritional value other than calories, promotes tooth decay, and is used mainly in foods with little intrinsic nutritional value. http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm
14.6% Soy Protein Isolate. A very large percentage of soy – over 90% – is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages contamination by pesticides of any of the foods we eat. Soy protein isolate (SPI) is not something you can make in your own kitchen. Production takes place in industrial factories where soybeans are first mixed with an alkaline solution to remove fiber, then precipitated and separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralized in an alkaline solution. Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches high levels of aluminum into the final product. As a result, soy-based formula also has over 1000% more aluminum than conventional milk based formulas. Finally, the resulting curds are spray-dried at high temperatures to produce a high-protein powder. A final hardship to the original soybean is high-temperature, high-pressure extrusion processing of soy protein isolate to produce textured vegetable protein. Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during spray-drying, and a toxin called "lysinoalanine" is formed during alkaline processing. Numerous artificial flavorings, particularly MSG, are added to soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein products to mask their strong "beany" taste. http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/soy.htm
10.3% Sugar (Sucrose). Added sugar in infant formula, specifically sucrose, is linked with several health risks, including damage to tooth enamel, a preference for more sweet foods and the inclination to overeat. Research shows that babies and children prefer sweeter foods and tend to eat more of it than foods that are less sweet. Babies who overeat and have rapid weight gain in the first year are more likely to become obese during childhood. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113347.php
The materials they sent with the formula include an attractive little booklet with 7 pages on how to breastfeed, then 6 pages on how to pump and store breastmilk, then 16 pages on the basics of formula and supplementing for the busy mom, then 14 pages of advertisements on the varieties of Similac formulas.
Abbott Laboratories has gone to a whole new level with their newest campaign. Perhaps we need a short addendum to Cate Colburn-Smith's program, which highlights the strategies and effectiveness of the marketing of these "cans of crap".
I like to think of myself as one of the "Strong Moms" (TM). However, it took very little strength to pick up these cans and throw them into the nearest trashcan.


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Posted by Editoress on 07/27/03
Tour de L'Abitibi
Stage 7: Preissac to Val d'Or, 102.7 km
Kevin Lacombe (Equipe Quebec) has fought off challenges to his lead for another day, after a seemingly minor crash at the back of the peloton almost shook up the general classification. The 102.7 kilometre stage from Pressiac to Val d'Or featured to Intermediate Sprints in the first 30 kilometres, and French sprinter Anthony Jaunet has been gradually eating into Lacombe's lead with a few seconds every day. Jaunet began stage 6 in third, 15 seconds behind Lacombe, and conceivably could have taken the overall lead with a stage win and intermediate time bonuses.
Lacombe's team has not been particularly effective in the past few days at trying to contain the French threat, however, on Saturday they were much more aggressive, and were assisted by other teams looking to gain a stage win.
In the first sprint, Jaunet took the maximum 3 seconds, but Lacombe was right on his wheel for 2 seconds, with second place overall Matt Crane (Hot Tubes) third for 1 second - the lead was down to 14 seconds over Jaunet and up one second to 10 ahead of Crane. The second sprint didn't go according to French plans, with two riders jumping away early, leaving third place for Jaunet. Still, he gained another second on Lacombe.
The race settled down after this, with no more time bonuses until the finish line, after 8 laps of the 2.2 kilometre finishing circuit in Val d'Or A light drizzle began to fall, slickening the road and, just before the halfway point, Lacombe swerved to avoid a pothole, with Crane behind him hitting it and going down, causing a chain reaction across the road. No one was seriously hurt, and the major contenders all reassembled in the field after a few kilometres of chasing, but a break had gone as the crash was occurring...
So, a peloton tired from 6 days of racing had to chase, with the onus on the French to do the work and bring it back together for a field sprint. The group was caught 10 kilometres from Val d'Or, but then another group of 12 broke clear, gaining 10 seconds. Among the riders in this group driving the pace were Symmetrics team mates Marsh Cooper and Brad Fairall.
Again the French went to the front to drag it back, but they were visibly fading, with one rider finally dropping off the back of the peloton. Cooper stayed away the longest, joined by team mate Max Plaxton at the end, but they were caught in the final lap, and Jurgen Roelandts (Belgium-Sweet Paradise) took his second stage win. Jaunet was unable to grab any extra time bonuses, although his team mate Mathieu Chiocca took third, and retrieves the Orange Points Jersey from Jaunet.
So, the race enters the final stage with Crane nine seconds behind Lacombe, and Jaunet at 13 seconds. The 32 lap criterium has no intermediate time bonuses (although this was a matter of debate - see Race Notes), meaning it will require a stage win and a breakaway to dislodge Lacombe from the overall win.
Race Notes:
- halfway through the stage it was announced on race radio that 2 intermediate time sprints would be added to the final stage. The French were very happy, Team Quebec furious. The reason given was that they had been inadvertently left out earlier in the race bible. That may be, countered Quebec, but they aren't in the bible, and you can't just add them in.
Josée Robitaille, who manages the VW-Trek squad Lacombe usually rides for said "do you want to tell these crowds that their local leader could lose because of this - there will be a riot!"
Eventually, cooler heads prevailed, and the intermediate sprints were removed.
- you know that you are in the North when the police at the front of the race have to stop and shoo some curious moose away from the road...
- Lacombe is the second Abitibi native to wear the Brown Jersey, and would become the first to win the overall victory, should he hold on to his lead today. The only other local wearer of the jersey was Bernard Deshaies, who wore it for 3 stages, back in 1971. Deshaies is from Amos (the same as Lacombe).
- I was rather amusing to see the Mavic boys repairing a flat on their motto before the start of the stage. Especially when they had to put a call out for a puncture repair kit, as they did not have one. See photo in gallery.
|Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top


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/ Source: The Associated Press
According to studio estimates, late-night screenings of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" have earned $2.2 million at the North America box office.
Distributor Sony calls those results "unprecedented" for a Tuesday in October. The film chronicles Jackson's concert preparations for what would have been 50 comeback concerts in London.
"This Is It" opened in 99 countries and expanded its release Wednesday. Sony has already called Wednesday box office numbers "explosive" and says matinees alone have doubled Tuesday night's haul.
The film show Jackson preparing for a marathon concert stand in London that never happened.
The pop star died in June at age 50. His death has been ruled a homicide.


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The $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility is finally open for business. Housed in a 10 story building as wide as three football fields, it will aim 192 laser beams at a 2mm ball of frozen hydrogen gas to achieve nuclear fusion—in 2040.
If they're successful, it'll be the most monumental discovery of the modern era, basically solving all of our energy problems. If it's successful. Which it damned well may not be.
Unfortunately, it's going to be a while before we find out if it works or not. It is open now, but it's got tests scheduled on it until 2040. Once they have it all set, they think that heating up that hydrogen to 100,000,000C will cause it to fuse to form helium, making it the first machine in history to create more energy than it uses. Exciting stuff, if it works. [National Ignition Facility via Inhabitat]


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Supreme Court Will Release Audio From Gay Marriage Cases
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court will release audio recordings of next week's arguments in two gay marriage cases just a few hours after they conclude.
The court will post audio files and transcripts on its website roughly two hours after the end of the proceedings on March 26 and March 27.
The justices will hear arguments over California's ban on same-sex marriage on Tuesday and the federal Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday.
The justices have never allowed cameras inside the courtroom, but occasionally provide same-day audio for cases with unusually high public interest.
The most recent instance was last year's health care case. The first time was for the Bush v. Gore argument over the disputed outcome in Florida's presidential vote in 2000.
In recent years, the court has posted the audio from arguments on its website at the end of the week in which they take place. Argument transcripts are routinely available a few hours after the justices hear a case.
Reporters are not allowed to carry recorders or cameras into the courtroom.


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Good Morning Football
How CB Kenny Moore II has emerged as one of NFL's premiere defenders | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" discuss how CB Kenny Moore II has emerged as one of NFL's premiere defenders.
Dalvin Tomlinson shares why he decided to sign four-year deal with Browns, how Alabama prepared him for NFL draft
Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson shares why he decided to sign a four-year deal with the Cleveland Browns, how Alabama prepared him for the NFL draft, and more.
'GMFB' reacts to Zay Flowers having dinner with Saints, Giants
"GMFB" reacts to Boston College wide receiver Zay Flowers having dinner with the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants.
'GMFB' reacts to the NFL memo that warns teams to only negotiate with Lamar Jackson
"GMFB" reacts to the NFL memo that warns teams to only negotiate with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
What's the biggest question mark in the NFC South? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" shares what are the biggest question marks in the NFC South.
'GMFB' reacts to HC Nick Saban comments on QB Bryce Young and EDGE Will Anderson Jr.
"GMFB" reacts to Alabama head coach Nick Saban comments on quarterback Bryce Young and EDGE Will Anderson Jr.
Would you rather talk about Lamar Jackson or Aaron Rodgers next week? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" shares if they would rather talk about Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson or Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers next week.
DE BJ Ojulari shares the significance of LSU's No. 18 jersey, why should NFL team draft him
Defensive end BJ Ojulari shares the significance of LSU's No. 18 jersey, why should NFL team draft him, and more.
Do you think Aaron Rodgers was a factor in Mecole Hardman's decision to sign with Jets? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" discusses New York Jets wide receiver Mecole Hardman, and more.
Elijah Moore on playing with QB Deshaun Watson: 'It will just make life easier'
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Elijah Moore is on playing with quarterback Deshaun Watson.
What do we need to know about Will Anderson Jr.? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" discusses Alabama EDGE Will Anderson Jr.
Does Levis need to have 'wow' moment at UK Pro Day? | 'GMFB'
NFL Network's Jason McCourty breaks down quarterback Will Levis ahead of Kentucky Pro Day.
Will Anderson Jr.'s takeaways from conversations with NFL teams during draft process
Alabama EDGE Will Anderson sits down and talks to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo at Alabama Pro Day.
Who ultimately decides who Panthers select first overall? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" discusses who ultimately decides who the Carolina Panthers select first overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
OL Oday Aboushi recaps Rams '22 season, Geno Smith's development
NFL offensive lineman Oday Aboushi recaps the Los Angeles Rams '22 season, former teammate Geno Smith's development.
Comparing Aaron Rodgers potential first season with Jets to Russell Wilson with '22 Broncos | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" comparing quarterback Aaron Rodgers potential first season with the New York Jets to quarterback Russell Wilson with '22 Denver Broncos.
Laremy Tunsil on moves GM Nick Caserio has made: 'He's cooking right now'
Houston Texans offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil on moves general manager Nick Caserio has made, "He's cooking right now."
Creating states' ultimate NFL rosters | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" crew each picks a state and chooses the best players born there to create the ideal NFL roster.
Do Jets have best roster on paper in AFC East? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" debates if the New York Jets have best roster on paper in AFC East.
WR Xavier Hutchinson on his experience meeting Mike Tomlin at pro day
Iowa State wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson wakes up with "GMFB" and shares his experience meeting Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin at pro day.
Which pro day we'll still be talking about Monday: C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Will Levis? | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" debates which pro day we'll still be talking about Monday between quarterbacks C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Will Levis.
Impressions of WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba's pro day workout | 'GMFB'
"GMFB" share their impressions of Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba's pro day workout.
'GMFB' previews QB Bryce Young's pro day
"GMFB" previews Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young's pro day.
'GMFB' reacts to QB C.J. Stroud's pro day
"GMFB" reacts to Ohio State Buckeye quarterback C.J. Stroud's pro day.
Rodney McLeod gives advice for prospects who go undrafted
Safety Rodney McLeod wakes up with "GMFB" gives advice for prospects who go undrafted, success of 2022 Philadelphia Eagles team.


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That's the official legal guidance from the New York City Commission on Human Rights:
We have to use "ze," a made-up word that carries an obvious political connotation (endorsement of the "non-binary" view of gender). We have to call people "him" and "her" even if we believe that people's genders are determined by their biological sex and not by their self-perceptions — perceptions that, by the way, can rapidly change, for those who are "gender-fluid" — and that using terms tied to self-perception is basically a lie. (I myself am not sure whether people who are anatomically male, for example, but perceive themselves as female should be viewed as men or women; perhaps one day I'll be persuaded that they should be viewed as women; my objection is to being forced to express that view.) We can't be required to even display a license plate that says "Live Free or Die" on our car, if we object to the message; that's what the court held in Wooley v. Maynard (1978). But New York is requiring people to actually say words that convey a message of approval of the view that gender is a matter of self-perception rather than anatomy, and that, as to "ze," were deliberately created to convey that a message.
What's more, according to the City, "refusal to use a transgender employee's preferred name, pronoun, or title may constitute unlawful gender-based harassment." The label "harassment" is important here because harassment law requires employers and businesses to prevent harassment by co-workers and patrons and not just by themselves or their own employees; this is particularly well established for harassment by co-workers, but it has also been accepted for harassment by fellow patrons. So an employer or business that learns that its employees or patrons are "refus[ing] to use a transgender employee's preferred" pronoun or title would have to threaten to fire or eject such people unless they comply with the City's demands. (The logic would also apply to landlords having to threaten to eject tenants who refuse to use co-tenants' preferred pronouns or titles, but that's less certain.)
But of course "ze" and "Ms./Mrs." are just examples. We have to use the person's "preferred … pronoun and title," whatever those preferences might be. Some people could say they prefer "glugga" just as well as saying "ze"; the whole point is that people are supposed to be free to define their own gender, and their own pronouns and titles. Seems improbable that some people would come up with new terms like that? Well, 10 or 20 years ago it would have seemed pretty improbable that today New Yorkers would be required to call some people "ze." Check out this list, which already includes "zie," "sie" (not the German version), "ey," "ve," "tey," "e," "(f)ae," "per" and "xe." Why wouldn't some creative folks decide they want to add still more?
Or what if some people insist that their title is "Milord," or "Your Holiness"? They may look like non-gender-related titles, but who's to say? What if someone decides that one of the 56 genders is indeed especially noble or holy and that those really are the preferred gender terms? Or even if "Your Holiness" is understood as purely religious (again, why would that be so, given that the point is that people are supposed to be free to define their own gender self-conception and the words that go with it), presumably the same logic that applies to gender-related self-chosen titles would apply to religion-related self-chosen titles. Both sex and religious discrimination are, after all, prohibited by the same laws; by the City's logic, if you call a Catholic priest "Father," you'd have to use whatever other self-chosen religious titles people insist on. Nor is the mandated "ze"-talk analogous to simple requirements that people be treated the same regardless of race or religion (requirements that may themselves be constrained by the First Amendment in some situations). The analogy would be if the government demanded that people have to be addressed using their own preferred race- or religion-linked titles — hypothetically, enforcing people's demands that "you need to use the title 'Sun Person' when you refer to me, because I'm black," or "you need to use the title 'rav' with me because I'm Jewish," or "you need to use the title 'friend' with me because I'm a Quaker," or "you need to address me as 'thee' rather than 'you' because I'm a Quaker." Such a requirement would be just as bad as the "ze" one.
And this isn't just the government as employer, requiring its employees to say things that keep government patrons happy with government services. This is the government as sovereign, threatening "civil penalties up to $125,000 for violations, and up to $250,000 for violations that are the result of willful, wanton, or malicious conduct" if people don't speak the way the government tells them to speak. Nor is this likely to stay in New York City: The New York officials are arguing that this is just what the New York gender identity discrimination ban requires, and indeed it is part of the standard ideology expressed by many transgender rights activists; the same logic would be easily applicable by jurisdictions that have gender identity discrimination bans, or will have such bans; the federal government is taking the view that existing federal bans on sex discrimination also in effect ban gender identity discrimination, and the New York analysis would equally apply to that view; and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has already taken the view that it is illegal under federal law to persistently call employees by pronouns that correspond to their anatomical sex but not their gender identity, though it has not yet had occasion to opine about "ze."
Feel uncomfortable about being forced to use terms that express social status views ("Milord") or religious views ("Your Holiness") that you may not endorse? Well, you should feel uncomfortable about people being forced to use "ze," which expresses a view about gender that they might not endorse. And, more broadly, I think we should all feel uncomfortable about government regulators forcing people to say things that convey and support the government's ideology about gender.
Thanks to the pseudonymous Richard E. Thompson (Federalist Society Blog) for the pointer; Prof. Josh Blackman also blogged about this issue a few months ago.


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Summer is a great time for fashion, especially when it comes to scoping out what our favorite celebrities are wearing in their street style on vacation & for blockbuster movie premieres on the red carpet. It's August & we're basking in the post-Met Gala glow of the finest in fashion, preparing for Fashion Week in September, all for the harried & sparkly zen that is keeping up with awards season. One name among all the frenzy that is constantly impressing in the world of fashion is designer Zac Posen.
In the newest trailer for the fashion documentary House of Z, fashion lovers catch a glimpse of Posen's career triumphs, devastating struggles, & return to fame. There's nothing I love more than a fashion doc, which is why I'm super excited to learn more about Posen's creative process & journey. The Project Runway judge / creative director of Brooks Brothers is an unstoppable force whose story teaches viewers that if you have a dream, you must go on & continue creating.
In the video below during an interview with BUILD Series, Posen discusses the documentary's development, his familial strain, his favorite red carpet moments, & how the film served as therapy when revisiting his past troubles in the industry.
Zac Posen's impact on the red carpet continues to make waves, especially on celebrities like Heidi Klum, Claire Danes, Reese Witherspoon, Rihanna, Gwyneth Paltrow, January Jones, Eva Longoria, Lena Dunham, Amanda Seyfried, & Sofia Vergara.
House of Z premieres on Vogue.com on September 6th. I know I'll be watching! What is your favorite Zac Posen red carpet moment? Are you going to watch the fashion documentary? How do you express your creativity? Happy Styling!


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What to Expect When Using Private Lending in Texas
Many investors rely solely on private lending to purchase properties. You can go for this method, or combine private loans with traditional bank financing to get the capital you need. If you have not worked with a private lender, we can help you understand what to expect when using private lending in Texas. We have … Continued


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A dollar here, a paintbrush there: Community rallies to save teachers, support schools
They came. They saw. And this past Saturday, they — nearly 1,000 volunteers from almost 50 churches — painted, scraped, powerwashed, mulched, planted and repaired the campuses of 14 Haywood County schools.
When First United Methodist in Waynesville put out the call for volunteers, Mary Thomas said she "absolutely" knew why without having to ask.
"When they are having to cut teaching positions, they need all the help they can get," said Thomas, who was decked out in a wide-brimmed hat and spent her morning pulling weeds and tidying up flower beds at Central Elementary.
The volunteer workday originated as part of the Save the Teacher campaign, which started out with the goal of saving one teacher's job and has since turned into something much bigger.
The effort was kicked off in June by the Haywood County Schools Foundation following the announcement of the first round of teacher layoffs earlier this summer. The Foundation pledged $30,000 to pay for a teacher's salary, and asked the community to get involved.
"We can't just stand by and not do anything. The children are the future of this world," said Steven Brown, director of the foundation.
The community listened. Neighbors talked to neighbors. Pastors appealed to their congregations. And soon, the idea was born for a hands-on, volunteer workday that would provide the schools with some much needed maitenance — and carry a much bigger message.
"We can show the students we're going to rally around and support you, and make this a place you can be proud to come to school," said Matt Wells, president of the Foundation.
Erik Evans, a rising sophomore at Tuscola High School who chipped in with his youth group, viewed the project as mission work in his own backyard.
"I thought it would be fun to come out here and do mission work that's inside our own community," said Evans, leaning on his shovel.
Before he could finish, Steve Brown, director of the Haywood Schools Foundation, thundered by performing the role of both task master and pep squad.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go, go, go! Just 25 more minutes folks to get this wrapped up," Brown said.
Elly Cirino, one of the volunteers from Bethel, said the workday was a small sacrifice in her life, but due to the huge turnout, it made a huge difference.
"It is my four hours, his four hours, your four hours that all adds up. It is the little thing that change the world," Cirino said.
Without the volunteer effort, Cirino doesn't see how the work could have been accomplished.
"The skeleton crew they have can't possibly get it all done," said Cirino.
At Waynesville Middle School, where three churches pitched in to paint metal awnings over the walkways between buildings, the volunteers themselves seemed surprised by the difference their work made. The flaking paint and rusted metal was shabby-looking indeed, but as volunteers leapfrogged their way down the covered walkways with brushes in hand, they left a shiny and new look in their wake.
"I think there are two people on the paint crew for Haywood County Schools. There is no way they could do this in a morning like we have," said Paula Nichols, a volunteer with First Baptist Church in Waynesville, who is also an elementary school music teacher.
A fight that won't end
Between volunteers turning out in droves for the workday and donors dipping into their pockets to Save a Teacher, the outporing has developed a life of its own. Volunteers have stood in front of Super Wal-Mart in Waynesville to collect money to save teachers' jobs, gather school supplies for the needy, and raise awareness of the plight of the county's teachers. Businesses around the county now sell buttons at the register to benefit schools. A bingo night fundraiser is planned Saturday. Aug. 29, at the Haywood County Fairgrounds.
"It's an example of a negative becoming a positive," said Bill Upton, a former superintendent in Haywood and now a county commissioner. "In a crisis situation, our people in Haywood County will step up to the plate and do what is necessary to make things better."
There's plenty more to be done, said Wells.
"We're not going to stop on the success of this Saturday," Wells said. "This is still a cause for concern that we want to make people aware of. The budget problems may not end this year. There's still handrails that need to be painted and teacher positions we still need to try to save. We want people to continue to rally around the system and continue to show their support, whether it's a $2 donation or a $2,000 donation, whether its mulching or handrails."
Upton, a member of the Haywood Schools Foundation, knows the campaign can't make up for all the cuts in teachers passed down by the state, but it raises awareness of the issue.
"We need to maintain certain levels of staff to still do a top-notch job in eduaction," Upton said.
A gift that keeps giving
While the tangible benefits are important, the symbolic gesture in a community rallying cry for education is invaluable, according to Brown.
He said the efforts are helping the community connect with the schools.
"We want to bring awareness to the community about the needs of the schools," said Brown. "Now they have a partner. They have someone in the community that is vested in them."
The effort in Haywood County might send a message to legislators that the public values education.
And it may also pay off when Haywood County courts new teachers to its schools. This year was the first time in ages the county didn't have to worry about competing for the new pool of teachers in the state since it was laying people off. But one day, the county will be in the position of recruiting teachers again, and pointing to the commnity support of the Save a Teacher campaign will let prospective hires know they are coming somewhere they are valued.
"It makes me feel like they know the importance of our education system," Rena White, now a fifth-grade teacher in Clyde Elementary School, said of the campaign. "This is awesome."
Upton said Haywood County residents have historically supported education. Voters approved $26 million to fund school construction five years ago. And Haywood is one of only two counties in the state where voters approved a voluntary quarter-cent sales tax with the understanding it would be dedicated to Haywood Community College.
As for the workday, it sends a message to students.
"I think kids will come and think, 'They are ready for us. They are welcoming us back,'" said Paula Nichols, who volunteered with First Baptist Church in Waynesville. "I think they will notice. When something is rusted and kind of worn out looking you think, 'Oh they don't care.' But when it is freshly-painted and freshly mulched, everything looks really nice, it will inspire them."


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