Safety In Lights

This morning was warmer; was a bit overdressed on the bike - but pitch dark as usual. A and I missed the bunch by about 30 seconds (around 300-400 metres). It was a really big bunch of riders this morning, and since they weren't so far ahead we thought it would be a snip to catch them. Problem was, my light is about as good as the light from my watch - no, worse, and Alex only has a ruby red light on the back (he'd given his to his sister for the Mugg & Bean MTB 24 hour thing). So, as any sensible cyclist does riding on a pitch dark road, you slow down a bit.

It took us a good 10-15km to close down that 30 second gap. Probably the gap got bigger because around corners we couldn't even see them. What made it hard was I have been PROPERLY sick and my heart rate was telling me so. So this was the day for a heroic chase. We took a short cut and still the bunch flew around the corner 100 metres ahead of us. Jeepers! Also, this morning the wind was blowing unusually strong - I felt it especially on the long drag where we finally caught the bunch. Once in the bunch it felt - suddenly - absurdly slow, and easy. What gives?

The moral of the story (there always is one isn't there ;-) is that without lights, life becomes a LOT tougher. A lot tougher than you can imagine. The folks in New Orleans have a month to learn that lesson. Here in South Africa we've learned that in fits and starts. But get this - when the lights go out you're dealing with a whole different order of magnitude of life out there. It's a different universe requiring a lot of schlepp, a lot of effort. You don't want to find yourself in that position. Coal prices, I read yesterday in FM (not FHM ;-), waiting on a couch for my movie to start are around $163 from about $60 a year ago. What do you think the world uses to get its electricity?

Nice to have an early start to Friday. Will try to be at work before 7:30am so I can leave early.

This morning's stats:
Time - 1:29:24
HR - 152 avg/172 max
Distance - 40.4km
Avg speed - 26.8km/h (max 59.5km/h)
Altitude average - 1566masl
Temp - 8min, 10 av, 28 max
Ascent - 375m
KCal - 1528

Was good to end this morning's ride in the light. The last couple of months have meant getting up in the dark, riding in the dark, and arriving home in the dark. With Spring here now, that's changing.

Madiba Magic Keeps The Lights On In Houghton

Okay so I live in the neighborhood of Madiba...unfortunately not quite a stone's (a bouquet's?) throw away. I say unfortunately for more than obvious reasons. Some friends of mine live closer and they NEVER EVER experience power failures. I am like 1km away and the lights are off and on so much I sometimes feel I'm in a 24 hour disco. Okay, slight exaggeration. Thing is, whenever I call them they say they're still watching TV and shame, do I want to come for dinner (a nice warm meal with refrigerated refreshments).

Alrighty then. Last night at just such a dinner banquet (regrettably no bouquets for after dinner tossing into Madiba's garden) I asked when DO they ever experience power cuts. Answer: Never.

It's the Madiba Magic. Is Mbeki as magical I wonder?

10%: Are You Able To Cut It? Huh? Punk?

So Eskom has laid down the law: 10% or else. Do you feel efficient? Punk? Well there is a very, very simple way to cut 10% or more. Easy. Want to know what it is? When you get home from work, do not turn on the TV, do not cook food, do not take a hot (or even cold) shower. Do not pass go, just go to bed.

Realistically though, with a little bit of consistent discipline, 10% ought to be a snip. We will probably realise just how inefficient (read: wasteful) we are. Ne.

All of us are lazy when it comes to leaving lights, computers and other gadgets on. The Times has a great headline which expresses this lack of efficiency quite ironically:
The Lights Are On But Nobody's Home. Excellent !-)

UK's take on SA's Power Cuts (GUARDIAN)

Power cuts a good sign, sceptical South Africans told

The South African government has told millions of people left in the dark by rolling power cuts that have swept the country over the past week, and which are likely to go on for years, to look on the bright side.
The blackouts are the result of surging demand for power caused by a booming economy, it says. But as the lights go off more frequently and for longer periods, the national mood has darkened.

Hospitals have lost power in the middle of operations, prompting doctors to warn it is only a matter of time before someone dies as a result.
Huge traffic jams have clogged cities as traffic lights, known as "robots" in South Africa, cut out. Commuters in Pretoria set fire to six trains on Friday evening after services were delayed for two hours by the loss of power.

The sound of generators, part of the background noise of many African cities, can now also be heard in Johannesburg. Restaurants coping with up to thee power outages a day are emphasising the benefits of candlelit dinners.

Being South Africa, there's also the security issue. A Johannesburg woman was robbed with a gun pressed to her head because the electronic gate to her home would not open.

More.

Blackouts prompt scramble for renewable energy

ESKOM’s scramble to mitigate an electricity crisis of gargantuan proportions is likely to accelerate the diversification of the power utility’s energy mix and its move towards renewable energy sources.

“Solar is something that has a lot of potential and, given the power shortages now, the economics of it is swinging much more in favour of using solar energy. It still needs careful analysis but should be done urgently.”

For more of this Business Day article, go here.

NVDL: Solar isn't capable of providing that much energy. I'm not saying don't try, I'm just saying for the investment and the amount of energy gained, you're not going to dig SA out of its hole any time soon. Bio is a joke. Wind is similar to Solar. You get very little for something. Nuclear is the answer, but it takes a helluva long lead up time. Let's face it, we're in kak. So we have to accept the long term constraints and downscale. What does that mean? It means, Koo Koo, a lot of people must change their lifestyles. Go and change your lightbulbs, turn off lights and computers when you're not using them (common sense stuff like that) - make it a habit. Change how you consume energy. It means being conscious of what we do, and conscious of our impact on others. That's something we divorced ourselves from, making ourselves disconnected, and we've created a monster. It was a foolish and lazy way of living from he start.

Why The 2010 World Cup Will Be Remembered (PICTURE)

ESKOM: We're Learning

So we've had a few irritating periods of load shedding, followed by announcements to say that load shedding won't happen for several days. What does this mean? It means we're learning that if we DO SOMETHING, if we co-operate, if we get those messages that we once ignored on TV and get up and turn off a few lights etc., it can save us the bother of having everything going off for a few hours.

One of the nasty consequences, in Jozi in particular, of a blackout is that your perimeter fencing goes off; in other words your fortified prison no longer works. Sit in the dark, grab a knife, hold thumbs and pray it comes back on before the Tsotsi's find your house...

That's great. I hope though that we'll be able to maintain these habits, rather than have to endure a schoolyard system. What's a schoolyard system? It means behaving reasonably for a limited time, then misbehaving, being taught a lesson, and repeating the process about a gazillion times. It's not very nice because everyone suffers.

Hopefully, at this early stage, we will have learnt that in terms of wasting energy, (using) less is more (for all). There's one teeny tiny snag though. Let's say we collectively manage to cut down our consumption, thereby raising capacity, what also happens is that there will then be a semi-artificial situation created where additional users get added to the grid (because there's theoretically additional electricity available).

Think about it: the housing rollout in South Africa also includes the rollout of electricity en masse. Whatever we don't use, at the end of the day, is going to be used up by additional users. In the this sense our electrical feature in South Africa seems increasingly, well, dim. The roll out of Nuclear Power stations is at least 10 years away, and they will only come online if the costs of inflation don't go through the roof. That's also not guaranteed. But, I digress. I need to send off this email before the power goes out in the building (something that's happening more and more often eeek!)

Here's more:
Load shedding in Tshwane
Matric students (in Pakistan) blame results on blackout nights of study
Integrated load shedding schedule for Cape Town and the Western Cape
Eskom Load Shedding Schedule
What to expect and what you need to know about the current shortfall of electricity in the Western Cape