The vast majority of people in Indonesia use kerosene for all their energy requirements. Kerosene or paraffin oil is a colourless flammable liquid usually used for fuel. Kerosene is made from petroleum, it is used mainly for cooking and lighting.

Kerosene is widely used as a major subsidized fuel for household cooking (9.9 Million KL, over 60 % of 230 millions population, 4 billion USD/year). Government subsidies are used to reduce the cost of a fuel to encourage its use. These subsidies policy becomes counterproductive as they are expensive for the government and eating up significant portions of the national budget because the kerosene demand is getting increase and becomes highly subsidized, On 2008 the Kerosene subsidy estimated reach up to 7 Billion USD and tend to increase in the upcoming years.

The energy conversion is one of the Government efforts to reduce subsidized fuel consumption, The launching of energy conversion from kerosene to LPG has officially commenced the government program to convert kerosene consumption to LPG for domestic use. By the conversion, budget for subsidized fuel is expected to reduce considering that subsidy for 1 kg LPG (of 1.7 liter kerosene energy equivalent) is lower than subsidy for kerosene. In three or four years ahead, 80 % of kerosene consumption is expected to convert to LPG – current kerosene consumption reaches

Science can make robots virtually indestructible, omniscient and powerful. Daily human preoccupation and toil will rarely need such robotic qualities. Robots of today are used in various purposes and undesirability is nowhere in that level. Powerful may be correct as most are AI-based or have inferential engines to assist in decision making processes while many others are powerfully built in factories and science labs dealing with toxic substances or adverse conditions that pose physical hazards to the frail human body, but hardly omniscient.

Interactivity

Robotic contraptions work on programmed instructions that depend on its interaction with external stimulus. Sensory perceptions become their means for data input employing electrodes that give them the tactile sensory ability to determine size, form, shape, temperatures and consistencies of substances. Tiny cameras can give them visual acuity while microphones impart aural sensitivity to recognize speech patterns in spoken commands.

But interactivity won’t be complete with a response these stimuli. The most common is in performing tasks specific to their purpose like those assembly robots in manufacturing plants. Some experimental robots do have speech capability but the more mundane robotic application just mimics the same I/O interfaces of computers like printers and displays.

Manipulation and Mobility

Being able to recognize objects, pick them up, handle, process and deliver them is another major trait of robotic contractions. Mechanical hand-like servo-controlled grippers from simple tong-like structures, vacuum-suction grippers to more complex gripping devices are essential in many robotic applications that require handling of objects for assembly and processing.

Locomotion

Short of saying mobility, current robots have restricted movements and most robotic applications in manufacturing plants are stationary. But there are robots that move on motorized wheels with rudimentary GPS-like direction finding facility to move around and deliver things that humans may consider menial. Sophisticated hospitals employ such robots to deliver medication to patients in every floor and can interface with computer-controlled elevators to bring them to different floors in the building as needed.

Other modes of locomotion include flight extensively used in the military service like the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk drone aircraft used for enemy surveillance and bombing missions which serve the same purpose as targeting missiles but are able to return after their missions are done. They fall in the category of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAV which are basically like your remote controlled toys but have significantly longer control ranges.

Autonomy and Control

What puts robotic application at a higher plane than mere computers is its cognitive abilities to have near-autonomy to execute tasks based on immediate input with little or no human intervention. In short, they can act on their own guided only by the programmed directives that focus robots to specific tasks.

Hence, robotics in hospitals are expected to deliver medication in the room and floor it is tasked to do but will refrain form doing it if there are no attending nurses in the room. Robots in warfare can be expected to bomb their targets but not adjacent non combative areas. Even in complex assembly plants, robots have complete autonomy to work within the parameters defined for their tasks. GP

Toronto is going green. I’m sure you’ve noticed a large majority of Grocery stores in Toronto are now encouraging shoppers to bring their own recyclable grocery bags. As well, Torontonians took part in the earth hour which demonstrates that we are becoming more aware of our environment. Did you ever think about living your every day life more green? Well now you can as Toronto has jumped on green band wagon with over over 2,000 green condos units.

You’re probably wondering what exactly makes a condo building green. Well for example TAS DesignBuild, also Green Builder of the Year, is currently building a Green condo called the M5V, located on King at Blue Jays Way in Toronto. They have included motion sensor light switches in the common areas of the condo, energy efficient appliances, dual flush toilets and a roof top rainwater retrieval system with on-site water recycling just to name a few. Living Green can also mean better indoor air quality as developers use low-emission products when installing hardwood, painting etc. Living green means residents can enjoy energy savings of up to 25% which results in lower utility bills, less strain on our energy supply and by reducing green house emissions. All these elements contribute to increasing resale property values.

To encourage Toronto developers to build green condos, the Better Buildings Partnership- New Construction (BBP-NC) provides incentives and technical support. The goal of the BBP-NC is to encourage and assist condo developers to design and build condos in a more energy efficient manner and not to just meet the minimum standards as set out by the Ontario Building Code.

So next time you are in the market for a condo, why not be good to yourself and the environment and think Green.

Everywhere, there is the attempt of making people understand that taking care of the nature and environment, where we live and work, is crucial for our planet’s well-being and for us. There are messages everywhere, which tell us that we should be careful about wasting fresh water and electricity. Therefore, it has become very popular to produce items, which will help in the attempt of being aware of nature: solar panels, solar hot water heaters, solar fountains and pumps, solar battery chargers. It has become our reality to power whole building or houses with electricity by using the power of the sun. One of those items is outdoor solar lights.

Outdoor solar lights are very useful and practical. They are useful because they can be placed anywhere without depending on an electrical source. That allows the owner to light even the darkest corners and parts of his garden or parking for the security purpose or for the purpose of art to lighten up a special spot in your garden, like a fountain or some beautiful flowers. However, outdoor solar lights do not find their uses only in private houses. At business properties, you can use them to highlight billboards. At places that are far from any electrical source like boat docks, they are more than welcome.

Their practical side is not using any electricity, monthly costs are none, they are very simple to use and easy to maintain. Very rarely, you need to hire a professional. The Only thing is that solar flood light uses the quartz halogen bulbs, but they last up to three years so can you call it an expense. What is not in favor of solar floodlights is that they cost more than other outdoor solar lights, but if you look it from the other side, you will get that money back on monthly savings.

Outdoor solar lights are not intense lights like other kinds powered with electricity but they are more than enough for the purposes that we have spoken of. They are also more attractive and even more practical now. They are making them with sensors that switch the bulb off when sun rises and switches it on when sun goes down. Therefore, it saves even more energy.

What follows probably shouldn’t be called a “factoid.” Factual events are involved, but the analysis of their significance as a cause of climate change, that part is my opinion. That said, what events conspired to make climate change happen?

Were we simply ignorant of the science involved? I’m afraid not, the greenhouse effect was well understood as far back as the 1890′s and has been discussed frequently since. Here’s a headline from an article in the May 15, 1932, edition of the NY Times, entitled “Next Great Deluge Forecast by Science – Melting Polar Caps to Raise the Seas and Flood the Continents.” Could that be made more clear? The article talks about CO2 and runs down the science pretty clearly. We knew, but it’s also quite possible that the warnings were dismissed as whining by tree huggers or scare tactics by eco-terrorists.

If not ignorance, what then. I think the central story starts in Berlin during the early 20th century. Einstein was teaching there and he was part of a small clique of brilliant scientists that included Fritz Haber, the discoverer of ammonia synthesis, which is the basis for modern chemical plant fertilizers. Oddly, Haber also discovered the poison chlorine gas that was used on American GI’s during WW I. Ammonia synthesis was believed to make it possible to grow virtually unlimited quantities of food because it enabled food production in soils previously considered too infertile to grow crops. The natural method of controlling population had been overcome and hunger had been banished. The world was thrilled, but serious use of the technology would have to await the end of WW II when we planted food crops, wall to wall, across our central plains, fertilized the crops with Fritz Haber’s miracle, and then proceeded to feed a world left starving by the ravages of global conflict. At that moment, Earth’s population was 2.7 billion.

The ability of the miracle chemical to feed seemed unlimited, and best of all, it solved a problem that would allow the U S to become the world’s most powerful nation. We now had the tools to grow population continuously, which resolved the mathematical problem in our economic system which requires continued growth, to avoid complete collapse. Now, we could grow consumers and grow them we did, to nearly 7 billion of us today. Sixty years to grow 4 billion new people and 1 billion of them own cars. Anyone who questioned our path, or cautioned us about the environmental savagery that accompanied the growth, was pushed to the side by the economic engine, now singing in full throat. One simple little law of physics brings the whole thing down: You cannot grow infinitely, in a finite space.

I offer no opinion of corporate capitalism, as an equitable system for the distribution of wealth. I leave that entirely to you, but, if climate change is to be prevented from being our final struggle, it will be because we revised our economic system in a manner that allows us to “build down” our population to sustainable levels. Failing that, will the last person alive, please turn out the lights.

(Peer reviewed research, supporting the claims made in this factoid, can be found at the website)