light and easy

I've always been a big proponent/fan of renewable energy in general and solar power in particular. Hitherto i had always held the idealized belief that solar power is a never-ending and perpetual source of power with zero emissions and is 100% environmentally-friendly. But when i delved deeper into the subject today, i discovered that there may be a darker side to solar power as well as its obvious benefits. You see, currently a lot of solar power is produced by old-fashioned solar panels. The manufacturing of solar panels requires polysilicon, a material which is made from silicon. In the process of making polysilicon, a waste/by-product is produced, called silicon tetrachloride. Now silicon tetrachloride can be processed and recycled safely at high temperatures (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) and put back into the production process. But this processing entails high investment costs and time. According to a Washington Post article dated March 9, 2008 by Ariana Enjung Cha, in China the problem is some companies that make polysilicon dump the waste/by-product silicon tetrachloride unprocessed in the factory's immediate surrounding countryside areas. Yep, just like that and easy as pie. Unprocessed silicon tetrachloride releases highly toxic and corrosive hydrochloric acid ("HCL" - remember secondary school chemistry class? yep the same stuff, old HCL) and generates fine powder silicon dioxide which is so fine that it can be easily ingested or inhaled. HCL is produced when silicon tetrachloride reacts with water in the soil. Crops cannot grow in this and it is certainly not suitable for people to live nearby. For each tonne of polysilicon produced, the process generates at least 4 tonnes of silicon tetrachloride liquid waste. And some Chinese companies manufacturing polysilicon have been dumping their unprocessed silicon tetrachloride wastes right outside their factories where there are rural communities living on and working the land. Crops die and the peasants complain but nothing is done except denials from the bosses and a promise from the local authorities to "look into the matter". Companies save a lot of money by not treating their silicon tetrachloride wastes. As you can imagine, the margin thins dramatically when you have to foot a huge electricity bill and additional manpower/time spent just to treat your waste/by-product. The solution? Just dump it.
In Malaysia we already have a solar power outfit "First Solar" operating a RM2 billion plant in Kulim, Kedah and it recently expanded its production lines there. Next to come to Malaysia, that is in Malacca where Yours Truly is domiciled, is another solar power outfit called Sun Power, a San Jose, California based company founded in 1985 (First Solar is also a US company). It's a given that they will be manufacturing solar panels which require polysilicon as raw material. Not a problem. Problem is when someone sets up a factory to produce polysilicon here and the aforementioned potentialities ala China, may then surface. If they are importing polysilicon say from China, we will not suffer the ill-effects of indiscriminate dumping of silicon tetrachloride here. I hope.

On a brighter note, there is new technology that doesn't require polysilicon, for example "Solar Paint" developed by Nanosolar (a solar power outfit also based in San Jose, California)and "Solar Ink". Popular Science magazine's Michael Moyer writes: "Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint that takes light and converts it to electricity. Popular Science's Innovation of the Year for 2007 is a solar cell that can be printed like paper and applied to roofs or any other flat surface, delivering solar energy at 1/10th the cost of a traditional glass and silicon cell."

One hopes that First Power and Sun Power will invest in Solar Paint/Solar Ink as well as producing traditional solar power panels. Woe betide us if anyone decides to make polysilicon in Malaysia, decides to save some money/increase profits the easy way and not process its waste/by-product silicon tetrachloride but just dumps it all in some kampung. Remember Asian Rare Earth's case in Bukit Merah, Perak during the 80s? I liked HCL better in the confines of my secondary school chemistry laboratory.

Miracle in Sibu

A few days ago Yours Truly made a dire prediction that the Sibu, Sarawak Parliamentary by-election would go the same way as the one in Hulu Selangor, Selangor. That massive vote-buying, promises of cash and aid infusions and "development" projects from the government would sway voters into voting for the government as it swayed the people of Hulu Selangor. I was wrong. The Opposition has won the Sibu seat, albeit by a slim majority of 398 votes. My respect for the people of Sarawak has gone up by at least 5 points (10 being perfect)to the region of 7 1/2. Perhaps it was the choice of candidate which mattered at the end of the day but the fact is that the people of Sibu rejected the corrupt and welcomed into their fold a veteran opposition campaigner who had thus far not won in any of the elections which he had thrown his hat in. This is good news indeed, it is very encouraging news and there is a ray of light. My hopes for a just and vibrant democracy in Malaysia hs revived and come back to life again. I am planning a little celebratory feast tomorrow.

Oily mess

The oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in another catastrophic oil spill the likes of which have been unmatched since the Exxon Valdez tanker spill off the coast of Alaska on March 24, 1989. But it's unlikely that they can avert oil spills in future since there is always the risk of another oil rig exploding or an oil tanker hitting the rocks no matter how detailed the precautionary measures taken. All of which is even more convincing evidence of why we need to move away from reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source and explore and develop renewable energy sources such as solar, wind or ocean wave power. There will always be industrial uses for oil in plastics and fertilizers, but the bulk of oil consumed today is to supply our energy demand. Fossil fuel has been around for only a short 2 centuries, on an industrial scale at least, and the damage it has wrought on the environment has been nothing but short of catastrophic. It threatens our very survival as a species. For ancient fuel we have sacrificed clean air, clean environment for the smoggy choke of our cities. The costs in terms of health care and damage to the environment alone would make economic sense not to use oil as an energy source or at least to move away from oil immediately. With the age of the internet where the world wide web is a treasure trove of information and research tools, one hopes that research and development of renewable energy sources, especially solar power and its storage capabilities, will be greatly enhanced. Imagine waking up every morning to breath clean, pure air! No carbon monoxide emissions, no combustion engine produced CO2 added to the greenhouse effect, cars running on highly efficient solar panels with batteries to store enough solar power for a 100km drive! Will this become a reality for our children? Let's do it. We can, we can, we can.

dulled and duller

i don't know what, it must be the current prolonged hot spell combined with the staidness of sleepy hollow that makes a man feel out of sorts in all sorts of ways. Outwardly i'm the same as usual, but inside there is a puppy howling to be let out. This is when i feel like taking a trip OUT of the Golden Chersonese and be away for maybe a week or so - so that i can regain my lost perspective on things important and not-so-important. One gets mired in the customary pettiness of day-to-day living simply by being fixed to one place and routine for too long. My cough has almost completely cured itself, after a dose of antibiotics and boiled menthol leaves over a span of 1 1/2 weeks - which prescription was responsible for curing me I cannot tell. ok, first things first. The reason why over 300,000 fellow countrymen have emigrated abroad in the last couple of years? Well for all the usual reasons. Politics, a sense of grievance, greener pastures (this is probably the greatest lure) and a sense of despondency over the state of this here our dear old Golden Chersonese. An old uncle friend kept saying to me whenever we met up: "Get out now while you are still young!" Uncle I'm not young (but i didn't let slip my chronological age to dear old uncle. People always assume that yours truly is young but some are smart enough to suspect otherwise). Uncle was convinced that sleepy hollow was a dying community. And he's probably right in many ways. Short of being overawed by the voting pattern in the next general election which i wearily predict will return the same old folks to their accustomed seats of power (hey look at Hulu Selangor and coming soon-to-be Sibu) and you'll see what i mean. I always could depend on our voters voting intelligently. Or not. So the sense of despondency hangs thick and creepily in the air. Confounding me, adding to my asthmatic cough. The thickness which i caanot swallow anyway at all easily. Oh Lord pity me, a fool! Someone wrote a poem about that. Nice things in life come at a price, so i have grown to believe in a dark despairing way. Nothing oh nothing save perhaps for the love of God, is free. No one is holding you back, and yet you let yourself be a "victim" of circumstance. The loneliness of the long distance runner - aye, if only my hip allows me to run as before. I can understand why people pop themselves. Life is too dull, too tragic, too unbearably stupid and brutal for some of us to put up with. But most of us are too cowardly to take our own lives. And not courageous enough to live it to its fullest. We exist in a twilight of the almost-netherworld, neither living nor dead. Just existing, as a HongKong friend in a moment of quiet reflection once told me. We exist simply because we are afraid. We vote for the same people simply because we are afraid. We let fear govern our lives. We are not strong enough, not brave enough, to change our destinies. Well, but life has to go on! There was the black death, and life went on. There was WW1, and life went on. WW2, and life continued. The polar caps are melting, so what life goes on. It goes on and on and on. Says Monty Python : Always Look On The Bright Side of Life. Oh brother we must!

fevered ramblings

a dry hacking cough, fever at 38 degrees celcius and bed-ridden for most of this afternoon was how yours truly came to be. i gallantly went to work till shortly after 11.20am today when the dry hacking coughs made their presence volubly heard in my office. Not wanting to waste more manpower by transmitting my flu/cough viruses to my esteemed co-workers, i took MC for the rest of the day. The Minah at the company clinic was wearing a surgical mask when i explained to her how i probably caught the flu/cough from my mum. The stetoscope, tongue depresssor and head thermometer examination was over fairly quickly and she prescribed some antibiotics, cough syrup and fever pills. On my way home i dropped by at the local wet market to pick up some papayas and pineapples, fruits that i like to think will have a beneficial effect on my sickly condition. Reached home and quickly showered, had my lunch and took the minah's medicines and went straight to bed. Woke up around 3pm, had a tea of sliced peeled apples (2 apples) took the minah's medicines again and read today's papers and a book. Time runs really slowly when you're not working. Then when you're working it doesn't run fast enough for you to clock off work and run back into the safety of home and hearth. But anyway, the flu virus seems to be everywhere now so a word of caution to my friends and the wise : stay away from crowds. unless your own brings home the virus, which means you're fated to be sick.

I'm almost tempted to go for the free H1N1 flu jabs at the government clinic nearby but most of people i spoke to have shyed away due to fears about getting sicker or possible side-effects after receiving the H1N1 jabs. But the thought continues to play out in my head and i will probably make up my mind about whether to get the free H1N1 jab over the next few days.

Headlines news today: Malaysia to get 1st nuclear power plant up and running by 2021. I don't want to sound like a wet blanket, but as i recall in the not-too-distant past calls have been made loud and clear to preserve south east asia as a nuke-free zone much in the same spirit as New Zealand? But having said that, i do recognise the need to source for power other than our oil and coal power stations. Hmmm, i hope our nuclear power plant won't be like the power plants in SimCity that explode after 20 years. And i think of how they're going to get rid of the nuclear waste. Cruises to nowhere? load them onto ships and keep paying the sailors, hahaha. But what about solar power? We're practically drenched in sun in Malaysia, no fear of lingering overcast days here. Anyway, whatever the outcome, let's pray and hope that we live to see our kids/grandkids live in a safe and secure environment free of the mushroom cloud.

Auditor-general's report be damned

Remember last year's auditor-general's report on government contracts and procurements for over-priced computers and furniture? a set of jacks for many times more than what you can buy off the shelf? Well, now how about a defence contract worth over RM8 billion tentatively to be awarded to a local company (DRB-Hicom BHd's wholly-owned unit Deftech) for 257 armored personnel carriers (APCs) priced at around RM31.12 million each APC, which is about 6 times more expensive than an American make or about 3 times more expensive than a German-Dutch make? Yaaaay! we can afford it! And we can build our very own too! It's ok that they cost several times more than tried-and-tested APCs available in the open market, cos what's important is we be self-sufficient, right? who cares about comparative advantages or our lack of it as such? We have our own national car already, now let's start on the big bucks department, military hardware and equipment! Hmmm, if we bought it for say a third of RM8 billion, we'd save about, say conservatively estimated, over RM5 billion? RM5 billion would buy a heck lot of schools, hospitals, public services, right? Naaaaaah! Let's just throw money around like it's going out of fashion. after all, there's lots lots lots more where that came from. Auditor-General's report be damned.

learning to fly

Work-related stress is probably the Number One cause of much unhappiness in many households today. Learning how to cope with stress, stress management is a skill i would like to learn. Just today i was feeling quite irritable and tired after work. My wife was having diarrhea after holidaying abroad last weekend and she hadn't recovered even 4 days after coming home. We went to see a doctor and i gave her token words of comfort but inside i was really hoping that she would get well again quickly, immediately, and not get us bogged down in sickness. i wanted her to be well again for my own selfish reasons. i should have been more sympathetic to her just as she would surely have shown great sympathy for me had i been the sick one. But it really wasn't about her or her being sick. It was rooted in my having had a long day at the office, things not working out as i'd like them to be, mistakes at work which, had i been more meticulous and careful, could have been avoided. All of which rolled together into a tangled ball of stress that i couldn't untangle out of on my own. And so i took it out on my wife who was feeling poorly. i blamed her for being weak and for falling sick so often eventhough this was something that one couldn't assign blame for. It's funny how easily we look for a convenient scapegoat whenever things don't run smoothly for us. it's always somebody else's fault, not ours. So this general moodiness and irritability carried on even after dinner, but thanks to recently having prayed more often than before, i maintained a slender but tenacious grasp on hope and inner peace. While visiting our daughter at the baby sitter's i played with our daughter and made her laugh out loud in delight. That took away the tightly-wound up ball of stress immediately. Hearing her little shrieks of joy had a deeply therapeutic effect on myself that i simply cannot describe sufficiently in words. You have to experience it personally to understand how that felt. And it felt good. Other self-help measures such as prayer helped too. The root of one's unhappiness can often be traced back to events that happened at the office/outside and work-related stress. All sorts of hardships and challenges do and they will come. It's important not to be too sucked in by the nitty-gritty details and to be able to take a calm and peaceful step back and put matters into perspective. It's work it isn't anything else really. And work will never finish. But one keeps at it all the same and commit to even more effort and sustained effort at that, come what may. Work-related stress shouldn't be brought home to spoil your day and your relationship with your loved ones. It should be left at the office. It's difficult to untangle oneself from the ball of stress, sometimes almost impossible to get out of the trap. I am rather thankful that the laughter of a baby could help me achieve that. And so effortlessly too, at that. :)