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Monday, July 19, 2010

York, Pennsylvania Charges into Reverse Auctions for Procurement of Municipal Electrical Power







Here  at the Reverse Auction Research Center, we have delved into the growing trend for government agencies to use reverse auctions to save money on their electricity contracts for the often growing needs these public sector entities have for electrical power in an our age that is heavy on technological - and air conditioning - needs. We have seen how entities in a number of states have done so successfully, including:




Now, the County Government of York, Pennsylvania is charging into the future as well.






York currently spends $2 million a year on electricity, and York County's Director of Facilities, Scott Cassel, will be employing a reverse auction for the first time for the county's electrical purchases.  With electrical rates expected to increase in 2011 in the deregulated environment in the State of Pennsylvania, Cassel hopes to try and hold the line at least, and perhaps save money, on its overall electrical budget. The auction is planned for July 25th. You can read the article from the July 18th, 2010 edition of The York Daily Record "York County to go shopping online for electricity provider," below:

York County to go shopping online for electricity provider - The York Daily Record

We'll post an update on the results of York Country's reverse auction efforts when they are released post-event. In the meantime, we wish Cassel well in this program!

David

powerImage by Torley via Flickr

About the Author:


David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.blogspot.com/). He currently serves as the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a noted expert on reverse auctions and e-procurement topics, being widely published on the topic and a recognized expert/consultant in the area.
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Oil Cap Leaking: Seepage Detected Two Miles From Wellhead

Scooby-Doo (character)Image via Wikipedia


As the great philosopher Scooby Doo always liked to put it, Ruh Ro! And it fits to almost any screw-up - see how a latter day contemporary of the Scoobster, Dr. House, used it:

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmDugcG8KrU




David http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/


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Summary and Review of Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas Friedman, American journalist, columnis...Image via Wikipedia
This book summary and reviewed Hot, Flat, and Crowded was prepared by Ryan Charbonnet while an Accounting student in the College of Business at Southeastern Louisiana University.


Executive Summary

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman is an interesting book. It tells us about how if we, as citizens of Earth, don’t start managing our output of greenhouse gasses our children’s children will be out of luck. This is a re-release of his original Hot, Flat, and Crowded; he added two chapters to the beginning of the book to add more current issues to it. He is calling this period of economic trouble “The Great Recession” and also the transition into the “Energy-Climate Era.” Friedman almost blames this on the United States saying that the rest of the world is trying to become more Americanized. More and more countries around the world are growing at astronomical rates. In fact, India grew by 156 billion people in the last decade, that’s as many people as the populations of Britain, France, and Spain combined.

Friedman also discusses how economies around the world are bringing the masses out of poverty level incomes and bringing them into the middle class. This very rapid expansion of the middle class is more than the economy can take. Many of the developing countries around the world are rapidly expanding and burning as much if not more fossil fuels than America is.

We as Americans have come up with alternatives to these fossil fuels not to become completely independent from them, but to at least become less dependent on them. We are building fields on windmill stations, relying more on solar energy, and even building electric and hybrid cars. The windmills alone will help eliminate a lot of the emissions of green house gasses not to mention the amount of people starting to line their roofs with solar panels to break free from the power companies. The hybrid cars now are getting great mileage, some cars getting upwards of forty-five miles per gallon. Even SUVs’ are getting thirty-five plus miles per gallon.

Friedman also states and in my opinion is correct on that we as Americans, even though we are changing slowly to be more energy efficient, cannot preach to other countries about the consumption of fossil fuels because that would turn us into hypocrites.



The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

1. If there is any way possible to become more energy efficient, do it.

2. There are many economies that are developing and may become as strong as America’s.

3. The urge for everyone to go “green” is getting bigger.

4. Big SUV’s for company vehicles are no longer acceptable.

5. By the year 2100, if we keep going as we have been, the temperature will have risen 3-5 degrees over pre-industrial conditions causing the ice caps to melt and water levels rising.

6. By the year 2050 the population of the world is predicted to be 9 billion people.

7. By 2020 the Chinese will have the largest bloc of tourists in the world.

8. From 1990 to 1999, global CO2 emissions increased at a rate of 1.1 percent per year. And from 2000 to 2006 we tripled that rate.

9. “Going Green” is now becoming a political issue.

10. Roughly 30 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation.


Full Summary of Hot, Flat, and Crowded

I. Why Citibank, Iceland’s banks, and the Ice banks of Antarctica all melted down at the same time

This chapter describes that as Americans were borrowing more and more money and spending more and more money in the years preceding the recession that began in 2008 that more people became caught up in that lifestyle and the economy was booming. People became less responsible with their money and funding, and we entered a period of dishonest accounting which allowed firms or individuals to underprice risks, privatized gains, and socialize losses and get away with it.

The major problem with the economy right now started with the housing market. People were able to obtain sub-prime loans and mortgages on their homes even if they didn’t make enough money to pay the notes. The banks weren’t worried about what this could do because as soon as they made the mortgage they sold the mortgages on the open stock market and these were labeled as triple A which is the highest quality marking a stock can get in terms of risk.

The real problem came when the housing market collapsed and no one could sell their houses for what they played for them and weren’t able to pay the notes. The banks could no longer demand the note be played because the mortgages had been sold. Of course these were still being sold on the market as triple “An” even when the loans weren’t being met.

II. Dumb As We Wanna Be

This Chapter describes how the period from 11-9-1989 to 9-11-01 was a very interesting period in American history. He called it a period for the triumph for unrivaled American ingenuity, but also a period of crisis for the American spirit. We relied too much on credit and carbon, and forgot the core values that made America such a rich and powerful nation that was respected, trusted, and inspiring to many developing nations. Until the bottom fell out. Subprime mortgages and very unethical decisions flooded the market and causing it to collapse.

III. The Regeneration

This chapter is about we can achieve sustainability and the values that support sustainable behavior. Economical sustainability is when it protects, restores or regenerates the environment rather than degrading it. “The same could be said about the financial section, a market financially sustainable when it fosters practices, investments, and innovations that promote long term growth of the economy. “ This means that the only way for the economy to be able to handle itself it to be able to stand on its own feet for a long period of time, not just a few days or weeks.

IV. Today’s Date: 1 E.C.E. Today’s Weather: Hot, Flat, and Crowded

We’re going to call this “new era” the Energy-Climate Era. This is where we are in a climate change crisis, one in which temperatures are rising and the polar caps are melting. The five key problems in this book are finally specifically labeled in this fifth chapter; they are: “the growing demand for ever scarcer energy supplies and natural resources; a massive transfer of wealth of oil rich countries and their petrodictators; disruptive climate change; energy poverty, which is sharply dividing the world into electricity haves and have-nots.” There is also a rapid increase of plants and animals going extinct. If all of these problems aren’t dealt with properly, if just one isn’t dealt with properly it could cause irreversible conditions that will affect all generations to come.

V. Our Carbon Copies (or Too Many Americans)

In this chapter Friedman travels to several cities around the globe to describe what is going on in them. He describes how two cities, Doha and Dalian have changes so much that he hardly recognized them when he first arrived there after only a few years. These two cities have grown so much that there a re now skyscrapers that have been erected and are currently being built. These buildings and city expansions are a direct result of the average income per capita rising. Again Friedman is blaming these conditions on America because these people are aspiring for an American way of life.

VI. Fill ‘Er Up with Dictators

This chapter describes our dependence on foreign oil, and how badly we need it. As G.W. Bush said in 2006 America is “addicted to oil.” The chapter also tells that the middle eastern countries almost control us by providing us with our biggest and worst addiction, oil; The one thing that really and truly runs this country. Our oil addiction makes global warming worse and worse and OPEC, our petrodictators even stronger.

VII. Global Weirding : Climate Change

This chapter starts with the water temperature that fueled hurricane Katrina and if we had anything to do with them. The water temperatures during that week were a full two degrees higher than average causing the enormous storm to gain the power to top the levies and flood the city of New Orleans. This was an act of God as it is called. This cannot be neither controlled by nor caused by man. It later goes on to describe Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary and how the doubters of global warming are paid by the fossil fuel companies or republicans who refuse to believe it because they refuse to accept the only solution, stronger government and stricter policies.

VIII. The Age of Noah

This chapter is about how we as people are destroying plant and animal life around the world. About how we are destroying the ecosystems with expanding further and further out. It talks about how certain plants and fungi cure or help treat certain medical conditions and how we may never know what else is out there if we kill everything off.

IX. Energy Poverty.

The term energy poverty originated with Robert Freling talking about developing nations not having electricity and with him helping provide them with it. This is caused by the lack of power sources in these areas and/or the all of a sudden population booms in these areas.

X. Green is the New Red, White, and Blue

This chapter begins to tell us that we have the opportunity to change the situation. Friedman states that these conditions cannot be hidden any longer and that we NEED to change. He states that going “green” is “geopolitical,” “geostrategic,” ”capitalistic,” and “patriotic.” He talks about how going green will make America stronger and solve our problems by helping the world solve its problems, and we help the world solve its problem by solving our own problems.

XI. 205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth

Friedman “Googled” for books and magazine articles about how to save the earth. He found numerous articles about the topic and decided to accept that all of these articles may or may not be correct but all have the right intentions. He describes that even though we do “green” things it still isn’t enough it’s merely a mask of what needs to be done, but we’re working on it.

XII. The Energy Internet: When it Meets ET

“Revolution is not a dinner party, not an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly and modestly”- Mao Zedong. This quote simply implies that if we’re going to have a “green revolution,” then we can’t just say that we are. We have to be one hundred percent committed and all at once and to give it all we have. Otherwise it simply won’t work. This is the first of four chapters that describes the Clean Energy System. It describes that 30 percent of CO2 emissions come from the transportation section in our daily lives. Friedman talks about taking the emissions caused by buildings and transportation together and making them cleaner, safer electrons. It still sounds very far into the future for me though.

XIII. The Stone Age Didn’t End Because We Ran Out of Stones.

Again Friedman talks about this Clean Energy System but now how we will develop one or run one. He talks about how it would help America and the rest of the world but not how or who can develop this system. He describes that we have not developed this system to get the innovation that we need in clean power. He goes on to describe how every other field of business has seen innovation but not finding a more environmentally friendly way to supply us with clean energy.

XIV. If It Isn’t Boring, It Isn’t Green

This Chapter discusses how GE Transportation in Erie, Penn. has had a trade surplus with China, Mexico, and Brazil. It also discusses about how their innovation has created the most efficient and powerful locomotives on the market. The reason that GE transportation had to create such an efficient locomotive is because the EPA developed stricter emissions policies for locomotives. Freidman is implying that is the government would place these regulations on energy and electricity companies that they would have no choice but to develop new ways to create and deliver electricity.

XV. A Million Noah’s, A Million Arks

This Chapter is discussing biodiversity in depth with Indonesia and several other countries saying that everything is intertwined and correlated in one way or another. Think about it, we have to save the plants and animals from extinction because what do we as human beings consume to survive? Plants and animals.

XVI. Outgreening al-Queda

Friedman makes an interesting point about out-greening opponents. It can be a military movement. These officers came together looking for better ways to power their stations in the field whether it be dessert or jungle.

XVII. Can Red China Become Green China?

Now that China has a very capitalistic economy, they have been actively competing with the United States for several years now. China is one fifth of all humanity. China is now the world’s biggest carbon emitter. Friedman states if we can convince China to transition into clean power we could actually slow the rate of global warming.

XVIII. China For a Day

This last chapter in the book describes that china has banned the sale of thin plastic grocery bags in order to get consumers to use the reusable baskets or satchels that they purchase and bring back and forth to the marketplace with them. Friedman says this revolution cannot happen soon enough and that it will help the entire globe, but America has to do it first for others to follow.



Personal Insights

Why I think:

· The author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $%&#, because:

Friedman is a very political man. He wrote this book on the basis of three hot topics today. I’m not arguing two of the points just that one has many fallacies. The main topic in my opinion of this whole book he was arguing was incorrect. Well, incorrect still maybe a little over board, I will provide you with information that will argue my point and you can make your opinion.

Global warming in my opinion is not happening; lets face it is an opinion right now after the last winter that we had. About thirty years ago there was massive concern with Global COOLING! That’s right many of us will remember this. A new ice age was predicted to fall upon us and the government decided that it needed to step in then. There was talk of the shorelines receding destroying lakes, streams, other estuaries, and wetlands. This is completely 100 percent opposite of what we’re hearing today with global warming. There are “To date, 19,700 scientists, including 2,660 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and environmental scientists, have signed a petition sponsored by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine that discounts global warming. Its accompanying report concludes:

There are no experimental data to support the hypothesis that increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are causing or can be expected to cause catastrophic changes in global temperatures or weather. To the contrary, during the 20 years with the highest carbon dioxide levels, atmospheric temperatures have decreased.” On the other hand since 1997 only 1,559 scientists have signed a petition supporting global warming.

· If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1. I would have provided more concrete evidence on Global Warming.

2. I would have supported that the Earth’s climate actually has cycles and we are actually in a cooling phase.

3. Crowded I would have mentioned policies like China’s population control policy where families can only have one child, and this even becoming a problem over there.

· Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1. It made me realize that the world’s population really is growing at astronomical rates.

2. It made me research global warming on my own and realize that it’s just another government policy to add more taxes.

3. I actually researched the “Flat” issue on this book and found that Greece and several other countries’ economies are collapsing. Germany however is doing rather well right now.

· I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1. This book has taught me not to trust the housing market.

2. If I find myself in bank management one day, there will be extensive credit check on every mortgage that is applied for. The qualified will obtain them and the unqualified will not.

3. I will not worry about Global Warming; this is a political issue as you may tell I feel strongly against.

· Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

“That environmental movement reserves a hallowed place for those books or films that have stirred people from their slumber and awoken them to the fragility of the planet: Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” Bill McKibben’s “End of Nature” and, most recently, Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Thomas L. Friedman’s new book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” may lack the soaring, elegiac qualities of those others. But it conceivably just might goad America’s wealthiest to face the threat of climate change and do something about it.” This comes straight from the New York Times and the review was written by Jonathan Freedman. He goes on to support his fellow journalist saying that even thought this book may not have the impact that Gore’s documentary did, but it does concentrate of probable solutions and allows him to “vent.” This word right here describes this whole book very accurately. This man wrote this book out of passion and decided that he would only prove his side and not the opposition.



Bibliography

Freedman, J. Eco-nomics. The New York Times. Retrieved May 10,2010, from

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/books/review/Freedland-t.html.

Ritenbaugh, R.T. A Cool Appraisal Of Global Warming. Retrieved May 10, 2010 from http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/PW/k/737.

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Contact Info: To contact the author of this “Summary and Review of Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” please email ryan.charbonnet@selu.edu.



BIOGRAPHY
David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also maintains compilations of his student’s publications regarding book reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and international foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).

AN INVITATION TO WORK WITH US, TODAY!
If you enjoyed this publication, why not make one of your own with us! Are you a college or university student from anywhere in the world who would be interested in publishing your work in an edited online journal appropriate to your topic? Such a move can help put muscle into your resume and make a great impression on potential employers and graduate schools (and needless to say – and perhaps most importantly in the age in which we live – likely be the first thing that companies/universities view about you when “Googling” you)! If so, we can help you get that first publication for free (and more if you desire)! Visit Wyld Publishing Services (http://wyldpublishingservice.yolasite.com/) for details. We can work with you to publish your quality essays, research articles/papers, reviews, etc. – and even audio and visual media and PowerPoint presentations – given our network of edited publications and relationship with publishers around the world who want to work with you and your work. Contact us today at dwyld.kwu@gmail.com




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Originally Published: Summary and Review of Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution- And How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman

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Summary and Review of The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer




This book summary and review of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was prepared by Frederick Maher while a General Business Major Student in the College of Business at Southeastern Louisiana University.



The Top Ten Things Practicing Managers Should Take from This Book


1) Every managers job is to encourage and to assist in helping everybody to be the best they can be. From the first time William took apart a radio he did not just look at ot he wanted to learn everything about it and what he learned from it use it later on in life. William did not just settle for a radio fixer he wanted to be something more.

2) All managers should always learn from people who have experienced the stuff you are trying to learn or teach. William always was at the library reading what other people have done, he could not get enough info.

3) A good manager should never let you give up. William is a perfect example of never give up he could not afford school but that did not stop him.

4) Every manager should show leadership. William showed leadership by doing something that no one else would even try to do. He showed leader ship to his family

5) A good manager is always observant. William observed from the books he read and the radios he took apart.

6) Managers should always be good decision makers. William knew there was a problem with electricity and he solved that problem.

7) A good manager will always find a way to make it work. There are so many examples of this in the book William would make it work know matter what.

8) A good manager always sets goals. William knew what his goal was and that was to creat power and he was determined to accomplish that.

9) One of the main things managers do is recognize problems. William knew that his village had a electricity problem and he fixed that.

10) And finally to be a mentor. William is a mentor to his family friends neighbors and to anybody who read his book including me.




Full Summary of “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”

The book “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” is a true story about William Kamkwamba a young boy who grew up poor, on his family’s farm in Malawi Africa. William who was very uneducated defied the odds and built a Windmill to harness energy and bring electricity to his family’s farm. William was the only son of his father and would have to stay home from school and help his father especially when it was planting season. The village where the Kamkwambas lived was prone to floods and also extreme droughts. When Mother Nature decided to turn her back on the village of Malawi the people where at the mercy of the Government, who did not care as the people were starving and eventually started stealing from each other.

With the farm not being able to make any money because of the weather Williams Dad could not afford to pay for School. William and his friend started their own business fixing radios, William wanted to know how things work and spent most of his time figuring that out. He becomes furious how much electricity costs and how much easier it would be if his farm could be run off electricity. Around this time Williams family was down to one meal a day, William was waking up at Four A.M. to work the fields and then had to skip breakfast because there was not enough to go around.

William wanted to get back in school so he applied to one of the top school but did not get in. A few of the kids started making fun of William but he retook the test and got in. William could not afford the books so he shared with one of his friends. A few weeks later the school fees where due, he could not afford it and had to drop out. At the start of the semester there were seventy something students but at the cutoff date only twenty something remained.

William starts spending all of his time at a library donated by the US government. He is determined to keep up with the students who are still attending the school. William discovers a book on physics and eventually found a book on windmills and how they can provide power. William makes a model of a windmill and it works, so he begins looking for parts to build his windmill. Eventually William finishes the windmill and is ready to try it out, people come from all over the village came to see Williams invention most of them are mocking him and laughing at his windmill. William proves them all wrong when he lights up a light bulb from the power of his windmill. After a few more improvements the windmill is the talk of the town and William even gets a interview on the radio. It was a long, hard journey that most could not dream of but eventually persistence and determination paid off and he is able bring back money to help out his people and make his family proud.

Chapter one starts off with William Kamkwamba the main character talking about his childhood, and how important and how much they believed in magic in his home town of Malawi Africa. William idolized his father and grandfather like most kids do at his age. William also describes his town and the people who lived there like the chief of the village, who did not dress in feathers and jump around a fire like most people think of, when you think of a chief. He actually dressed like a professional business man in a suit and tie. Williams’s village was extremely poor but they did have some essentials like bars, and you’re typical market place where they sold food. Most of the people owned or worked on farm as their way to make a living. Other people made a living at the market and some as teachers.

Chapter two really gets into how much William looked up to and respected his father, who use to be a heavy drinker and would always be getting into fights. At one time in Williams fathers life he got into a fight with 12 men and we won, the fight was at a reggae concert where there was a lot of drinking being done. He also received his nickname the pope from back in those days. Williams father eventually changed his life around and became a Christian and quit drinking. He eventually met his wife at the market and realized that he wanted to become a family man. A little while later his brother gave him some land and he built a house for his family with his own hands.

Chapter three starts off with the death of Williams uncle John, this was the first time he saw his father cry. This was a shock to William who considered his father as the strongest man in the world to be shedding tears like a women. After the passing of uncle John Williams father was forced to give the land to Jeremiah the oldest son of uncle John and within a few years there was nothing left he wasted everything. William starts hunting and becomes pretty good at it he starts killing birds with a sling shot which is not easy. William is starting to become a man and already providing for his family.

Chapter four is when William starts to get interested in radios, he loves to take them apart and try to fix them. The first time he took apart the radio he wanted to see what parts controlled different parts of the radio and ever since then was addicted. He even opens up his own business fixing radios. This is the first time he realizes what he wants to do he wants to be a scientist unlike everybody else who settles for being a farmer. His father is having trouble with the crops because of a sever drought his farm and they have not been doing well for the last few years.

Chapter five is about how some people in Williams village have electricity running to their house but most people don’t because it is so expensive. Also if you want electricity run to your house you have to draw a map to your house and even if you do they might not find it. Williams family is having a extremely hard time feeding the family everybody was only eating one meal a day. William was waking up at four in the morning and working the fields and when he was done could not even eat breakfast. Everyone in the village was starving and the president would not help the people. So eventually the chief went to talk to the president and ask for help from the government. Even at this time William was trying to get into another school but it was expensive but William was determined to become something other than a farmer, and he knew he had to be educated to become someone in this world.

Chapter six Williams family is still only eating one meal a day which is dinner. This is the first time that the family eats together. In their culture the son is not allowed to eat with the daughter and the father is not allowed to eat with the mother. Williams sister leaves and gets married and that is looked down upon by Williams father because she did not go through the process that is required by their culture. Later their mother has another daughter which is another mouth to feed.

Chapter seven shows how dedicated William is because he did not get into the school that wanted to and the kids start making fun of him but William eventually gets in. William cannot afford the books the school requires so he shares the books with one of the other students. A few weeks later William has to drop out because he cannot afford the school dues like many of the other students. This shows how poor there community is because the people who are willing to learn cannot afford the school dues.

Chapter eight could be one of the saddest chapters so far William has grown very attached to his dog Khamba who is vey sick. All of Williams friends are telling him he needs to put his dog out of his misery. William does not want to do it because he thinks the dog will get better if it can just eat some food but the food source is still very slim. William decides to chain his dog up on a tree and leave it to die. The dog is not the only thing that is starving people are starting to get desperate and start stealing from each other. The people who get caught are dealt very harshly. Williams father said he would just forgive them desperate times call for desperate measures.

Chapter nine starts off with all students taking a leave because the famine is so bad the people are starving to death. After a little while the people start getting and eating pumpkins which their village needed very badly. Now that the people have some food the students return to school but William cannot attend. William did not just give up on his dream everyday he would walk to the public library that was donated by the US government. It was at this library where he came across a book called Using Energy that explained how electricity is created thru a windmill he decided to build a model of a windmill. He built the model from a motor that he got from a old radio and the mill worked. After this experiment William knew he had to build a bigger windmill.

Chapter ten William eventually got back into the school that he has been wanting to be in for quite some time. For the next few weeks was catching up with all the other students. William still did not pay the fees for the semester he was currently in. Williams dad went and talked to the school and asked for a extension on the pay until he could sell his tobacco plants he was growing. A few weeks later they could not afford the payments so William was asked to leave again. After this William focused most of his time and energy on building his windmill. He started looking behind his old school at a scrap yard and found most of the stuff he needed. The only thing left he needs is a dynamo which his friend bought for him.

Chapter eleven William finally puts the finishing touch on his windmill. By this time the whole village hears about it and everybody wants to see it for themselves. Most of the people there think it’s a joke and want to see it fail and the other half have no idea what it is. Williams family stays in the back of the crowd and want to see it for themselves. He has the windmill hooked up to a light bulb and sure enough he gets the light to turn on and the crowd is amazed. His next goal is to get a light in his room but this is more difficult because the wire needed to connect the two is expensive.

Chapter twelve William finds another way the windmill can help out the people in the village. His cousin comes in and has a phone that needs to be charged and William decides that’s his next goal to be able to charge phones through the windmill. After little while people start coming over to charge their phones and then he puts light bulbs in his parent’s room. Then he starts to store power in batteries and he can store the power for a few days.

Chapter thirteen Chief dies in this chapter and his mother becomes very sick with malaria. Their father has to carry her down the road where they flag down a pickup truck and she gets in the bed and brought to the hospital. She does get better a short stay in the hospital. William is still going to the library every day and trying to learn as much as possible. He still cannot afford to go to school but this does not stop William from trying to learn as much as possible.

Chapter fourteen starts off with a guy from the teachers training academy come to the village to see Williams windmill. Once he has talked to William and has seen what he built the teacher knows that this a story that other people need to hear. So the teacher brings a journalist from a radio station to meet William and to do a story about him. After the interview was played on the radio and written about in the newspapers Williams amazing story and how he overcame so many odds and made such a amazing machine to create power. After people hear Williams story he is flown to a conference and is given a room at a hotel. After he gets the news that he will be attending school which he could not be happier about.

Chapter fifteen William is at the convention where he will get some help on his presentation. He is also introduced to the internet which blows his mind and to a lot of other things that we take for granted every day. William is finally getting the respect that he deserves and starts getting donations from people so he can go home and help out the people in his village. William also travels to America and visits a huge windmill farm where he can for the first time see a windmill in real life not just a picture in a book.

Personal Insights

What others have said about the book and its author?

1) http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2009/1015/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind

If you thought physics was tough to grasp in high school, William Kamkwamba will seem like a hero to you. And really, he is. Forced to drop out of secondary school when his family couldn’t afford school fees, 14-year-old Kamkwamba used his free time to build a windmill that operated on principles of physics he managed to teach himself. This windmill brought electricity to his home and eventually his entire village – a luxury that in Malawi is often reserved for the government and the wealthy.

To help Kamkwamba tell his story, journalist Bryan Mealer traveled back to Africa. He’d lived in the Congo for three years while working for the Associated Press. His first book, “All Things Must Fight To Live,” came out in 2008, and told the story of a country ravaged by war. This time Mealer started in Malawi. There, he spent months living with Kamkwamba’s family, interviewing friends and relatives. He spent hours learning about physics, magnets, and electricity so he could understand what Kamkwamba had created.

The result is The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, an autobiography so moving that it is almost impossible to read without tears. In understated and simple prose, Kamkwamba and Mealer offer readers a tour through one Malawian boy’s inspiring life.

Kamkwamba’s inquisitive nature is apparent from the start. As a boy he takes apart radios to discover how they work, builds go-carts out of beer cartons, and creates screwdrivers with household materials. When he turns his inquisitive mind toward truck motors, he is taken aback that no one understands how they work. With the innocence that only a child can pull off, he wonders, “Really, how can you drive a truck and not know how it works?”

Then, as he fiddles and tinkers with all he can, tragedy strikes. A famine caused by drought ravages Malawi, and we see the results from Kamkwamba’s perspective. Friends are starving and people try to sell their children in the marketplace for food. Kamkwamba’s own family is reduced to eating one minuscule meal a day.

In a particularly disturbing scene, Kamkwamba recounts the day he witnessed mobs trampling children in their frantic push toward food. “If there’s anything I remember most about that day in Chamama,” he writes, “it’s the sound of crying babies.”

When the famine finally subsides, Kamkwamba, armed with American physics textbooks, starts construction on the windmill. His perseverance in creating this structure is coupled with altruism. Aiming to use the power of the windmill to pump water to the crops, he hopes to free his family from enslavement to the whims of weather.

Despite the highly charged events in Kamkwamba’s life, the telling of his story is surprisingly levelheaded. No sympathy is requested and no blame is bitterly assigned. In fact, a light humor darts in and out of the pages of this book, providing laughs where you wouldn’t have imagined even smiling. As the chief of Kamkwamba’s village begs the government to provide food during the famine and not toilets, Kamkwamba wryly asks the reader, “Because really, how can you use a toilet when you never eat?”

Pictures with captions are peppered throughout the book, giving the story depth and providing more humor. One image shows Kamkwamba as a toddler, with a caption explaining he was “surely plotting some mischief to cause [his] mother grief.”

After the windmill is constructed, Kamkwamba’s life becomes much more upbeat. He gets the chance to visit many places, among them New York City, California, and Las Vegas, (where Kamkwamba marvels that “women in their underpants serve free soda.”) When Kamkwamba is shown the Internet for the first time, his reaction is endearing.

If there is anything to complain about, it would be the simplifications. The authors describe bits of Malawian culture, like the roles of women and men, in mere sentences. The cycle of deforestation and poverty receives only a paragraph. A big slice of context seems to be missing, and Malawi is never more than a backdrop for this story.

Yet the infectious enthusiasm, heartbreaking tragedy, and final triumph make for an unforgettable story of success in the face of overwhelming odds. And as the story ends, it leaves us wondering about the future: Kamkwamba is accepted into a prestigious South African school where students who are considered future leaders of Africa have been hand-selected to attend.

As you read this book (I’d suggest keeping a box of tissues handy) you can be sure that William Kamkwamba’s future is bright. If this tale is any indication, we’ll be hearing his name again in the years ahead.

2) http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind-Electricity/dp/0061730327

American readers will have their imaginations challenged by 14-year-old Kamkwamba’s description of life in Malawi, a famine-stricken, land-locked nation in southern Africa: math is taught in school with the aid of bottle tops (”three Coca-Cola plus ten Carlsberg equal thirteen”), people are slaughtered by enemy warriors “disguised… as green grass” and a ferocious black rhino; and everyday trading is “replaced by the business of survival” after famine hits the country. After starving for five months on his family’s small farm, the corn harvest slowly brings Kamkwamba back to life. Witnessing his family’s struggle, Kamkwamba’s supercharged curiosity leads him to pursue the improbable dream of using “electric wind”(they have no word for windmills) to harness energy for the farm. Kamkwamba’s efforts were of course derided; salvaging a motley collection of materials, from his father’s broken bike to his mother’s clothes line, he was often greeted to the tune of “Ah, look, the madman has come with his garbage.” This exquisite tale strips life down to its barest essentials, and once there finds reason for hopes and dreams, and is especially resonant for Americans given the economy and increasingly heated debates over health care and energy policy.

3) http://boingboing.net/2009/09/29/the-boy-who-harnesse.html

William Kamkwamba’s parents couldn’t afford the $80 yearly tuition for their son’s school. The boy sneaked into the classroom anyway, dodging administrators for a few weeks until they caught him. Still emaciated from the recent deadly famine that had killed friends and neighbors, he went back to work on his family’s corn and tobacco farm in rural Malawi, Africa.

With no hope of getting the funds to go back to school, William continued his education by teaching himself, borrowing books from the small library at the elementary school in his village. One day, when William was 14, he went to the library searching for an English-Chichewa dictionary to find out what the English word “grapes” meant, and came across a fifth-grade science book called Using Energy. Describing this moment in his autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (co-written with Bryan Mealer), William wrote, “The book has since changed my life.”

Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. “A windmill meant more than just power,” he wrote, “it was freedom.”

For an educated adult living in a developed nation, designing and building a wind turbine that generates electricity is something to be proud of. For a half-starved, uneducated boy living in a country plagued with drought, famine, poverty, disease, a cruelly corrupt government, crippling superstitions, and low expectations, it’s another thing altogether. It’s nothing short of monumental.

Why I think the author is one of the most brilliant people around.



Image via Wikipedia

I think that William Kamkwamba is brilliant because not only did he teach himself how to build a windmill and it actually worked which incredible by its self, but he had everything going against him. He had no money no food no one telling him that he could do it and don’t give up, people were making fun of him for trying. What he was doing was unheard of especially where he lived and the conditions he was dealing with. I will recommend this book not only to my family but to my friends. We have it so easy compared to what he was going thru. I am so glad that he never gave up and that it actually worked. Usually people will build something of this caliber by watching a pro or taking a class he did it by pure determination and will power. I will truly love to see what he can do once he gets a good education the sky is the limit for William. I am going to follow William on the internet and see he can do next I am sure that this is not the last time he will make something incredible.

If I was the author I would have done these things differently

1) I would of tried to work for the school cleaning cooking or whatever for them to let me stay in school.

2) I would of tried to get in touch with the author of the book that he read to learn how to build a windmill and tell him my story and maybe get some parts.

3) I would of given up as bad as that sounds I would of tried to get some land and follow my father and just been another farmer in a dried up area.

Reading this book made me think differently about the topic



1) First off it makes me realize how blessed I am that I am getting a education and that I should not take that for granted.

2) It makes me think what could I do if I put my mind to something and not give up. If a uneducated boy from Africa can build a windmill what could I do.

3) Makes me think how lucky we are to have good doctors and not surrounded by death every day.

How I will apply what I have learned from this book in my caree.

I have already started my career I as a fishing guide in the great state of Louisiana. I thought of school not only as slowing me down from doing it full time but getting in the way from me competing with the best of the other captains. After reading this book, I know that it is a privilege to be in school and to learn as much as I can for my future. Especially since this massive oil spill that happened in the heart of where my company is located in Venice, Louisiana.

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BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY
David C. Wyld (dwyld.kwu@gmail.com) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also maintains compilations of his student’s publications regarding book reviews (http://wyld-about-books.blogspot.com/) and international foods (http://wyld-about-food.blogspot.com/).

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Read more: http://bookstove.com/book-talk/summary-and-review-of-the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-by-william-kamkwamba-and-bryan-mealer-4/#ixzz0u9Ya1teh

Originally Published: Summary and Review of The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer


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Ethics 101: Former LSU scientist appearing in videos on BP web site






Here's an ethical conundrum for you to consider - perhaps too heavy for a Monday morning! Click to watch the video from WWL-TV in New Orleans about the actions of Ivor Van Heerden, who was an outspoken hero in that aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and later fired by LSU for being so outspoken), but is now being attacked for his appearances as a consultant/contractor for BP (everyone's favorite corporate punching bag these days in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, I know!). Interesting case - watch:



The print version of the story can be viewed by clicking below:
Former LSU scientist appearing in videos on BP web site | wwltv.com | WWLTV.com News







So, whadya think? Post your comments here on the blog site and I will post a follow-up.

David




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