Chile is a major agricultural producer for international markets. However, its domestic market for fruits typically sold to the international market is still relatively new. This means that Chileans are learning about fruits and vegetables being grown for other parts of the world, and most of these foods don't have much of a strong history in Chilean culture, and so people are pretty open to learning a series of sounds that they then associate with what that item is. However, the sounds used to describe these fruits and vegetables are often inconsistent with what other parts of the Spanish speaking world refer to the same item. Not only that, the words used in Chile are either do not make distinctions that are made in other languages or they are a word that literally describes a completely different plant.
Case in point: cranberries.
Cranberries are native to wetlands of North America. However, they are grown in Chile, too. But for the longest time, the word that was used in Chile for "cranberry" was "arándano," which is the word used for blueberry. What makes matters worse is that the Spanish-language Wikipedia page that links to cranberry is.... "Arándano rojo" (red blueberry).
Also: redcurrants.
Similarly, the word "arándano" was also used to describe redcurrants. This has recently changed, and now redcurrants are "zarzaparillas." Okay, so the name has changed to make them distinct from blueberries (which are still referred to as "arándano"), but this has entered into a different problem: "zarzaparillas" are an actual fruit that has next to no relationship with redcurrants (or currants of any kind). Let me explain. "Zarzaparilla" is the common smilax, which is found around the Mediterranean. It is a monocot evergreen climber that happens to have bunches of dark-red berries. In comparison, redcurrant is a deciduous shrub that also happens to have bunches of berries, but these are bright red and somewhat translucent.
In other words, there is nothing at all similar between smilax and redcurrant, except that they happen to have red berries. Even if the berries aren't at all the same kind of red.
But just how dissimilar could two red-berry plants be? Well, smilax is a monocot and redcurrant is a eudicot, which means that their common ancestor had to have existed prior to the monocot-dicot divergence.... which took place 140-150 million years ago. So the common ancestor of these two plants was at least this long ago. To put that in perspective, this was right around the end of the Jurassic period, which means dinosaurs: the last time these plants had a common ancestor was when dinosaurs were walking around.
Apparently, the word used in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world for redcurrants is "grosellas." So why doesn't Chile just use "grosella"? Because it's already used for describing blackcurrants.
Ah well.....
Showing posts with label Chile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chile. Show all posts
Friday, January 26, 2018
Monday, August 18, 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Units Conversions: Square feet to square meters
Apartments in Chile - as in much of the rest of the world - are measured in square meters. However, in the US, they are measured in square feet. Since people get really used to the meanings of various measurements, seeing (or hearing) the same thing measured in different units provokes a different response (or sometimes just a sense of puzzlement).
One such measurement is living area. In Ann Arbor, I lived in a ~800 sq. ft., single-room cabin in the woods. To others who use square feet to designate living area, this has an intrinsic "feel" to it. To people in Chile (and much of the rest of the world), this means ... not much.
Sure, you can make quick back-of-the-envelope calculations to say, "Well, 3 feet is roughly 1 meter," but that fails (utterly) to account for squaring. Without a quick-and-dirty conversion factor, in order for Chileans to understand how big that cabin was, they'd have to take the square root of 800 (28.284) and then divide it by 3 (9.428) and then square it (88.888), which is kind of difficult to do on the fly.
However, there is an easier way. Using the handy site, onlineconversion.com, one can find that 1 square meter is equal to 10.763910417 square feet. To change this to a handy back-of-the-envelope conversion factor, just multiply square meters by 11 or divide square feet by 11 (a handy trick might be to multiply square feet by 9 and then divide by 100).
Ergo: My 800 square-foot cabin in the woods is roughly (9*800)/100) = 72 square meters (plus a bit). The actual answer is closer to 74 square meters, but this conversion is far easier (and far more accurate) than the one presented above.
One such measurement is living area. In Ann Arbor, I lived in a ~800 sq. ft., single-room cabin in the woods. To others who use square feet to designate living area, this has an intrinsic "feel" to it. To people in Chile (and much of the rest of the world), this means ... not much.
Sure, you can make quick back-of-the-envelope calculations to say, "Well, 3 feet is roughly 1 meter," but that fails (utterly) to account for squaring. Without a quick-and-dirty conversion factor, in order for Chileans to understand how big that cabin was, they'd have to take the square root of 800 (28.284) and then divide it by 3 (9.428) and then square it (88.888), which is kind of difficult to do on the fly.
However, there is an easier way. Using the handy site, onlineconversion.com, one can find that 1 square meter is equal to 10.763910417 square feet. To change this to a handy back-of-the-envelope conversion factor, just multiply square meters by 11 or divide square feet by 11 (a handy trick might be to multiply square feet by 9 and then divide by 100).
Ergo: My 800 square-foot cabin in the woods is roughly (9*800)/100) = 72 square meters (plus a bit). The actual answer is closer to 74 square meters, but this conversion is far easier (and far more accurate) than the one presented above.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Units Conversions: Chilean Pesos/Liter of Gasoline to US Dollars/Gallon of Gasoline
Well, living in Chile - and expecting guests to visit from the US - means that there are many things to get accustomed to. Including measuring things differently. Since Chile - like most of the rest of the world - uses the metric system, and the US - like few places in the world - chooses to stick to an arcane system of weights and measures (with its citizenry either blissfully unaware of any different reality or loudly proclaiming anything different to be just plain weird), it is necessary - from time to time - to stop and recognize that visitors don't have the luxury of time to get accustomed to what a particular measured value means. Sure, sure, it's easy to use back-of-the-envelope conversions for simple, everyday things:
"One meter is a little longer than 3 feet."
"One kilogram is a little bigger than 2 pounds."
"One kilometer is a little more than 1/2 mile."
"One hundred kilometers per hour is roughly 60 mph."
"One liter is a little more than 2 pints."
Sure, they're only kind of correct, but it lets visitors from the US get a grasp on the kinds of weights and distances that are discussed, and for the day-to-day kinds of uses, this sort of calculation puts the results in the correct range at least. So when you're buying stuff at the store, you can make a quick conversion from kilograms to pounds; when you're looking at walking distances in the city, you can make a quick conversion from kilometers to miles; etc.
However, less common conversions don't necessarily have such easy rules of thumb. One such is the price of gasoline. If you are going to rent a car in Chile, you're likely going to want to know how much you're paying for gasoline. But while you might know that one liter is roughly 2 pints (and - by extension - there being 8 pints in a gallon, that 4 liters is somewhat more than 1 gallon), combining that knowledge with an exchange rate is not that simple. What would be great is a simple unit conversion.
Well, the exchange rate between the US Dollar (USD) and Chilean Peso (CLP) has been relatively stable at between 540 CLP/1 USD (or 0.001852 USD/CLP) and 565 CLP/1 USD (or 0.00177 USD/CLP). We can use this in the following unit-conversion:
USD/Gallon = x CLP/Liter
USD/Gallon = x CLP/Liter * 0.26417205236 Liters/Gallon * USD/CLP
USD/Gallon = 0.26417205236x CLP/Gallon * USD/CLP
(Using 0.00177 USD/CLP to be conservative:)
USD/Gallon = 0.26417205236x CLP/Gallon * 0.00177 USD/CLP
USD/Gallon = 149.2497x USD/Gallon
x = 0.0067
Or, to give it a nice back-of-the-envelope-calculation value:
"900 Chilean pesos/liter is roughly equivalent to $6/gallon."
And - given that gas prices in Chile are ~830 CLP/Liter (~$5.50/gallon) - this back-of-the-envelope conversion rate is kind of handy. (I did write about Chilean vs. US gasoline prices before; general trends haven't changed too much.) By the way, did you know that the price of gasoline in the US is the lowest among OECD countries and non-petrostates?
Next: Unit conversions of square area.
NOTE: For people familiar with UK pre-metric weights and measures, these numbers may seem to be a little off. Remember that these conversions are for people from the US, where liquid measures are slightly smaller than the those used in the UK pre-metric. In other words, people who refer to the US system of weights and measures as the "imperial system" are technically wrong. (Unless they mean to say that the "imperial" refers to the US empire, and not the British one.)
"One meter is a little longer than 3 feet."
"One kilogram is a little bigger than 2 pounds."
"One kilometer is a little more than 1/2 mile."
"One hundred kilometers per hour is roughly 60 mph."
"One liter is a little more than 2 pints."
Sure, they're only kind of correct, but it lets visitors from the US get a grasp on the kinds of weights and distances that are discussed, and for the day-to-day kinds of uses, this sort of calculation puts the results in the correct range at least. So when you're buying stuff at the store, you can make a quick conversion from kilograms to pounds; when you're looking at walking distances in the city, you can make a quick conversion from kilometers to miles; etc.
However, less common conversions don't necessarily have such easy rules of thumb. One such is the price of gasoline. If you are going to rent a car in Chile, you're likely going to want to know how much you're paying for gasoline. But while you might know that one liter is roughly 2 pints (and - by extension - there being 8 pints in a gallon, that 4 liters is somewhat more than 1 gallon), combining that knowledge with an exchange rate is not that simple. What would be great is a simple unit conversion.
Well, the exchange rate between the US Dollar (USD) and Chilean Peso (CLP) has been relatively stable at between 540 CLP/1 USD (or 0.001852 USD/CLP) and 565 CLP/1 USD (or 0.00177 USD/CLP). We can use this in the following unit-conversion:
USD/Gallon = x CLP/Liter
USD/Gallon = x CLP/Liter * 0.26417205236 Liters/Gallon * USD/CLP
USD/Gallon = 0.26417205236x CLP/Gallon * USD/CLP
(Using 0.00177 USD/CLP to be conservative:)
USD/Gallon = 0.26417205236x CLP/Gallon * 0.00177 USD/CLP
USD/Gallon = 149.2497x USD/Gallon
x = 0.0067
Or, to give it a nice back-of-the-envelope-calculation value:
"900 Chilean pesos/liter is roughly equivalent to $6/gallon."
And - given that gas prices in Chile are ~830 CLP/Liter (~$5.50/gallon) - this back-of-the-envelope conversion rate is kind of handy. (I did write about Chilean vs. US gasoline prices before; general trends haven't changed too much.) By the way, did you know that the price of gasoline in the US is the lowest among OECD countries and non-petrostates?
Next: Unit conversions of square area.
NOTE: For people familiar with UK pre-metric weights and measures, these numbers may seem to be a little off. Remember that these conversions are for people from the US, where liquid measures are slightly smaller than the those used in the UK pre-metric. In other words, people who refer to the US system of weights and measures as the "imperial system" are technically wrong. (Unless they mean to say that the "imperial" refers to the US empire, and not the British one.)
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
After Lunch in Llay-Llay
It sits well and good,
Lunch in Llay-Llay.
The sun sidles down, soaking
Leaves, roof tiles, walls, and road.
Dogs lie down after eating
Lunch in Llay-Llay.
Their sides heaving up and down, panting
Looking to find a place to nap.
In the cool office after
Lunch in Llay-Llay,
I look to a side street that borders a plaza,
Sandias y melones are for sale.
Women's voices chat over
Lunch in Llay-Llay.
In sideways discussion over the town's life,
Noting, examining, judging, and moving on.
Life rumbles to a halt during
Lunch in Llay-Llay,
And the repast is a side-effect of this daily event,
Reaping smiles from what was sowed.
Lunch in Llay-Llay.
The sun sidles down, soaking
Leaves, roof tiles, walls, and road.
Dogs lie down after eating
Lunch in Llay-Llay.
Their sides heaving up and down, panting
Looking to find a place to nap.
In the cool office after
Lunch in Llay-Llay,
I look to a side street that borders a plaza,
Sandias y melones are for sale.
Women's voices chat over
Lunch in Llay-Llay.
In sideways discussion over the town's life,
Noting, examining, judging, and moving on.
Life rumbles to a halt during
Lunch in Llay-Llay,
And the repast is a side-effect of this daily event,
Reaping smiles from what was sowed.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
August Photos (from Chile)
EULA campus: Universidad de Concepcion
View of Concepcion from Hotel El Araucano
View from the judicial building
Barros Arana street view
Clothes drying in a museum in Lota
Let sleeping dogs lie... Storm clouds gather over Lota
Statue of Summer (I think) in Lota Botanical Gardens
"Hardwork triumphs over all"
Very severe pruning of trees.
Moss-covered stairs
The Andes!
Water intake chutes for a run-of-river dam
A bird watches the river.
Stone bench.
A non-functioning clock tower near the Bio Bio River
A modern-looking building of some sort.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Holy crap!
Holy crap! I looked in at a store at the airport and there was a 20x markup on things I purchased in Chillan! Da~amn!
Learning Spanish
My Spanish competency has improved from absolutely nothing to being able to understand simple sentences, based on unconsciously deciphering what is being said based on my relatively wide-ranging understanding of Latin roots. (Not based on any formal learning of the language.) Some words, however, escape my understanding, even when written down (which normally helps me with understanding content better than hearing the word). I will have to work on this if I ever have any hope of learning Spanish. (It is, after all, like a whole other language!)
Why do I now want to learn Spanish? Well, I've decided to limit myself to an eventual job search in areas of the world where I can speak the language. Student loans aside (and that may well be another concern), I would like to try and find a place to teach somewhere other than Michigan - somewhere where national and international concerns are part of people's minds. Originally, I thought about learning Mandarin, since China is becoming quite the up-and-comer. However, only three countries speak Mandarin: PRC, ROC, and Singapore. This doesn't really widen my options viz countries in which to teach. Coming to Chile has made me realize that the world's second language may well be Spanish (and is - for all intents and purposes - the lingua franca of the Amwericas, no matter what the US and Canada - and Brazil, French Guyana, Suriname, Belize, and much of the Caribbean - think).
So I plan to learn Spanish. How am I going to do this as a PhD student? How am I going to keep interested in pursuing it when it doesn't impinge on my research or ability to live in Ann Arbor? Truth be told, I'm not really sure...
However, there is an opportunity to learn, and I will try and sign up for a class in Spanish with all the young Freshmen. That should be interesting (if I actually can get in). One wonders, though, about the teaching method used during a semester - do people learn via rote memorization and learn grammar rules form the point-of-view of a linguist, or is there an attempt to learn something more than this?
Why do I now want to learn Spanish? Well, I've decided to limit myself to an eventual job search in areas of the world where I can speak the language. Student loans aside (and that may well be another concern), I would like to try and find a place to teach somewhere other than Michigan - somewhere where national and international concerns are part of people's minds. Originally, I thought about learning Mandarin, since China is becoming quite the up-and-comer. However, only three countries speak Mandarin: PRC, ROC, and Singapore. This doesn't really widen my options viz countries in which to teach. Coming to Chile has made me realize that the world's second language may well be Spanish (and is - for all intents and purposes - the lingua franca of the Amwericas, no matter what the US and Canada - and Brazil, French Guyana, Suriname, Belize, and much of the Caribbean - think).
So I plan to learn Spanish. How am I going to do this as a PhD student? How am I going to keep interested in pursuing it when it doesn't impinge on my research or ability to live in Ann Arbor? Truth be told, I'm not really sure...
However, there is an opportunity to learn, and I will try and sign up for a class in Spanish with all the young Freshmen. That should be interesting (if I actually can get in). One wonders, though, about the teaching method used during a semester - do people learn via rote memorization and learn grammar rules form the point-of-view of a linguist, or is there an attempt to learn something more than this?
A silly realization
Sitting in the "A" seat allows me to write comfortably left-handed. It looks like I will have an A seat enroute to Lime and Detroit, too. I will try and sleep on my Lima-Atlanta leg, when I'm in seat "G". (Hopefully, though,, seat "G" doesn't mean an aisle seat...)
Still in Concepcion
Just realized that the plane that landed wasn't mine. Of course, it did take me to go and try and get on it fro me to realize that flight 206 was mine, not flight 208, and although flight 205 was taking off at 14:10 (the time on my boarding pass), what is printed on my boarding pass is my estimated boarding time, which just happens to also be 14:10. WHO~OPS!
On the bright side, this saved me a potentially embarrassing encounter inside the plane when I would be confronted by the actual ticket-holder of the seat in which I was sitting.
On the bright side, this saved me a potentially embarrassing encounter inside the plane when I would be confronted by the actual ticket-holder of the seat in which I was sitting.
In Concepcion Airport
Sitting at Concepcion airport is really not that bad. The airport is rather small, but modern, with a large sloping ceiling and support pillars all covered with some sort of light-colored wood. I got to the airport several hours before take-off and spent a good amount of time in the coffee shop outside security after checking in. Check-in was interesting, because the entire airport is much larger than necessary to handle the amount of people who use it. Therefore, when I arrived at the LAN counter, only one representative was sitting there - behind the ticket sales desk. After realizing that I did not need a ticket, and that I was trying to check in, she moved over to a check-in desk and proceeded. One small thing, though. LAN can only (apparently) check my bags through to Lima. From there, I have to get my bags and get to the Delta counter, check in there, and hope it all goes without a hitch. Luckily, I'm arriving in Lima at 11PM. Unfortunately, I only have 1.5 hours to get my bag, possibly go through immigration and customs, find my way to the Delta check-in, check my bags, go through security, find my gate, and board the aircraft. Otherwise I'll have to wait for the next flight, which I'm not hoping to do. "Frustrating" to say the least. I wonder if I can talk to a Delta representative in Santiago.
The airplane to Santiago isn't here yet... Oh, it apparently just landed. It's going to be a fast turn-around...
The airplane to Santiago isn't here yet... Oh, it apparently just landed. It's going to be a fast turn-around...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Laja trip
9:12am. Today we are going off to see a part of the Biobio River - the dams and upland areas... The temperature is quiteb low, and the river -as we head over the brigde is quite foggy. It is a very shallow river for how wide it is. I suppose that for much of the year it is quite low, but I also know there is a hydropeaking dam along its length, regulating the water flow daily from 10cms to 150cms, so knowing that it isn't surprising that it might not seem so full, even during what is normally a wetter part of the year.
10:44am. We just crossed the Biobio upstream and it still looks like a big river - for the area. Perhaps about as wide as the Grand River near Grand Rapids. Prior to that we crossed the Verigata River, which was being used as a water supply by the cmlp paper company's two factories - one for making presses paper (mainly for newspaper production) the other for making cellulose fiber for export (to make paper elsewhere). These two factories - and their biomass power plant - were much smaller than the paper mill we saw on our trip on Sunday to Chillan.
11:04am. We just entered the small city of Los Angeles. although I didn't get a cheesy photo of the city sign, I still managed to ge one of the power substation. The main road has a very nice park that runs between the two directions of traffic, and I would have taken pictures if the sun wasn't in my face (I did get one picture facing back along the road). Going along the road I saw something striking: a sign for Thames Water prominently displayed on a water tower. Since none of the local rivers are called 'Thames', I'm assuming that it's another example of globalization.
12:17pm. We are sitting in the conference/lecture room at the Rucue dam. The head engineer is describing the role of this run-of-river dam in the creation of energy in the Laja River (a tributary of the Biobio). They are able to control the river to a height of 140m head to produce about 180MW. There is a second loading chamber at Quilleco that can generate 70MW of power from the same water (if I understood it correctly). The energy is transmitted to the central substation in Charua (sp?) to the main grid. The energy production level is controlled at the dam. The energy is all generated by gravity, and is 140m and at Quilleco is 54m. There is a drop of 200m across 26000m, with a slope of 0.017 (check calc).
The head engineer is telling us how the entire system works. The water comes through the loading chamber and goes through the 'butterfly valve' - whic protects the Italian-made generator from the French-made turbine. (The plant chose this valve over the needle valve because the latter is better when there is a larger head. In addition, a larger head requires less flow, but since the head is not high, the butterfly valve is used. In Quilleco, the use a gate, not a valve.) It then passes through a 'snail' to generate a hydraulic force equal to that of the turbine. The water passing through the turbine turns the generator, producing energy. They take all the energy and transforms the 14,000V to 220,000V (50Hz) for transmission. As the water passes out of the turbine passes through a diffuser to minimize hdraulic disturbance in the river. The power house is divided into different levels - power generation, turbine, butterfly valve, and diffuser.
The head engineer is now going to give an overview of the company. Apparently, the colbun company was the first in Chile to offer carbon credits/offsets relating to the Kyoto Protocol. They are also involved with restoration projects in the upstream areas.
Even due to the diversion of the Laja River, a flow of 4.6cms is left in the river as a minimum ecological flow. If more than 120cms, it will be diverted to the spillway (not the river?). However, in the dry season, 4.6cms remains in the river. Immediately downstream from the diversion area, however, there is a lot of river recharge from groundwater.
Ari asked a question of the economics of distribution, and got a very interesting, and long, answer. The transmission of electricity in the central region is done by a third party company to whom distributors need to pay a tariff. Apparently the generation and distribution companies may be part of the same holding company (and there are many distributors and generators), but there is only one transmission company.
3:17pm. We just finished looking at both the diversion dam and the headworks of the dam itself. The first was in a large open area, and with all the rain we've been having these past few days, the reservoir was overflowing. The dam had nine passages, but only one was partially open. The rest of the water was either being diverted toward the dam or through a hand-constructed spill-way (a little was spilling over the reservoir dike). After returning to the dam area, the bus climbed a steep slope up just above the headworks. Needless to say, the view was great.
3:25pm. Inside thye power plant portion of the dam. It's quite loud from the turning of the generator. Standing on the metal plating, you can feel the thumming come up through the floor. It's so loujd that I can't hear the explanations without getting really close... But that's okay, because I'm not too interested in the specifics.
3:31pm. Going down to the generators. It is expected to be even louder.
3:41pm. Back on the top floor. Indeed, the generator room was very loud, and the pipes leading out of it were quite warm. Now we go into the control room. Lots of computers, and very quiet... The dam controllers also seem to have won a few soccer trophies. "Copa la Amistad" (2000, 2002 & 2006).
4:07pm. Outside, and the sun's warmed it up a bit. Out back of the dam were, of course, the 'siphons' making all the hydropower possible. After obligatory photos at the site, we're off to the Laja River falls.
5:41pm. On route 5, 'almost' at the falls. Actually, we just now got off the highway, and the sign for the falls is nearby. Getting odd the highway, we passed a dog running down the off-ramp. Don't want to know how that happened. The light nis turning that lovely shade of on-the-cusp-of-spring evening. Here we are now! Yay!
8:00pm. Back at the hotel. I'm going to bed now...
10:44am. We just crossed the Biobio upstream and it still looks like a big river - for the area. Perhaps about as wide as the Grand River near Grand Rapids. Prior to that we crossed the Verigata River, which was being used as a water supply by the cmlp paper company's two factories - one for making presses paper (mainly for newspaper production) the other for making cellulose fiber for export (to make paper elsewhere). These two factories - and their biomass power plant - were much smaller than the paper mill we saw on our trip on Sunday to Chillan.
11:04am. We just entered the small city of Los Angeles. although I didn't get a cheesy photo of the city sign, I still managed to ge one of the power substation. The main road has a very nice park that runs between the two directions of traffic, and I would have taken pictures if the sun wasn't in my face (I did get one picture facing back along the road). Going along the road I saw something striking: a sign for Thames Water prominently displayed on a water tower. Since none of the local rivers are called 'Thames', I'm assuming that it's another example of globalization.
12:17pm. We are sitting in the conference/lecture room at the Rucue dam. The head engineer is describing the role of this run-of-river dam in the creation of energy in the Laja River (a tributary of the Biobio). They are able to control the river to a height of 140m head to produce about 180MW. There is a second loading chamber at Quilleco that can generate 70MW of power from the same water (if I understood it correctly). The energy is transmitted to the central substation in Charua (sp?) to the main grid. The energy production level is controlled at the dam. The energy is all generated by gravity, and is 140m and at Quilleco is 54m. There is a drop of 200m across 26000m, with a slope of 0.017 (check calc).
The head engineer is telling us how the entire system works. The water comes through the loading chamber and goes through the 'butterfly valve' - whic protects the Italian-made generator from the French-made turbine. (The plant chose this valve over the needle valve because the latter is better when there is a larger head. In addition, a larger head requires less flow, but since the head is not high, the butterfly valve is used. In Quilleco, the use a gate, not a valve.) It then passes through a 'snail' to generate a hydraulic force equal to that of the turbine. The water passing through the turbine turns the generator, producing energy. They take all the energy and transforms the 14,000V to 220,000V (50Hz) for transmission. As the water passes out of the turbine passes through a diffuser to minimize hdraulic disturbance in the river. The power house is divided into different levels - power generation, turbine, butterfly valve, and diffuser.
The head engineer is now going to give an overview of the company. Apparently, the colbun company was the first in Chile to offer carbon credits/offsets relating to the Kyoto Protocol. They are also involved with restoration projects in the upstream areas.
Even due to the diversion of the Laja River, a flow of 4.6cms is left in the river as a minimum ecological flow. If more than 120cms, it will be diverted to the spillway (not the river?). However, in the dry season, 4.6cms remains in the river. Immediately downstream from the diversion area, however, there is a lot of river recharge from groundwater.
Ari asked a question of the economics of distribution, and got a very interesting, and long, answer. The transmission of electricity in the central region is done by a third party company to whom distributors need to pay a tariff. Apparently the generation and distribution companies may be part of the same holding company (and there are many distributors and generators), but there is only one transmission company.
3:17pm. We just finished looking at both the diversion dam and the headworks of the dam itself. The first was in a large open area, and with all the rain we've been having these past few days, the reservoir was overflowing. The dam had nine passages, but only one was partially open. The rest of the water was either being diverted toward the dam or through a hand-constructed spill-way (a little was spilling over the reservoir dike). After returning to the dam area, the bus climbed a steep slope up just above the headworks. Needless to say, the view was great.
3:25pm. Inside thye power plant portion of the dam. It's quite loud from the turning of the generator. Standing on the metal plating, you can feel the thumming come up through the floor. It's so loujd that I can't hear the explanations without getting really close... But that's okay, because I'm not too interested in the specifics.
3:31pm. Going down to the generators. It is expected to be even louder.
3:41pm. Back on the top floor. Indeed, the generator room was very loud, and the pipes leading out of it were quite warm. Now we go into the control room. Lots of computers, and very quiet... The dam controllers also seem to have won a few soccer trophies. "Copa la Amistad" (2000, 2002 & 2006).
4:07pm. Outside, and the sun's warmed it up a bit. Out back of the dam were, of course, the 'siphons' making all the hydropower possible. After obligatory photos at the site, we're off to the Laja River falls.
5:41pm. On route 5, 'almost' at the falls. Actually, we just now got off the highway, and the sign for the falls is nearby. Getting odd the highway, we passed a dog running down the off-ramp. Don't want to know how that happened. The light nis turning that lovely shade of on-the-cusp-of-spring evening. Here we are now! Yay!
8:00pm. Back at the hotel. I'm going to bed now...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Workshop developments and questions
An interesting thing has come to light: the electricity company has submitted a single 1000+ page environmental assessment for the five-dam project, instead of five individual environmental assessments. This is a good thing because all the eggs are in one basket. The entire environmental assessment can be rejected for the whole five-dam project. This is a good thing because it creates the possibility of having an action on the dams project as a system of dams as opposed to a set of independently considered dam projects. One of the things that we have learned here is that Chile does not require environmental impact assessments to be done in series with other projects; each project can be done in independence of other projects. This this seems to my ecological/systems-thinking mind to be nonsensical. How, for example, can you determine the full costs and benefits to society without assessing the project in terms of its system; a new addition to a network? I would argue that you cannot do it; at least without a serious amount of serendipity.
The area around Patagonia is little-developed, and the addition of five major dams in the region (although these dams are not of the scale of Hoover Dam) will be a problem of future management and development of the region. Today, we talked about economic methods of examining environmental costs of projects. However, two questions came to mind that I don't think have been sufficiently been answered (at least to my rather limited knowledge).
The first question is whether or not contingent valuation (or other non-use measures) of a project are subject to a discount rate. If it is, then does it fit into the assumption that an environmental Kuznet's Curve will happen: people with a higher wealth level will have more environmental desires, and will take actions to minimize pollution or maximize environmental factor? Also, how can you set a discount rate on future society's behavior or choices? This feeds into a related problem: once massive infrastructure is on the landscape (complete with its supportive infrastructure), the cost-benefit analysis changes into one where the question shifts from, “Should we build the dam?” at the beginning of the project to, “Should we get rid of the dam?” at the end of the project.
The second question is how to assess costs of mitigating dam projects based on future changes in management unforeseen at the time of the initial benefit-cost analysis was done. For example, we know that the Grand Coulee Dam has gone through several iterations of water and environmental management goals. The addition of fish ladders and the barging downstream of salmon could not be conceived of when the dams were constructed in the 1930s. However, this is a current management strategy, costing millions of dollars. True, one could say that it is an analysis of cost (to provide fish transport) to the benefit (of having salmon runs) is valid by using current-day measures. However, I would contend that if these costs were to be assessed in the 1930s (and if current legal structures were in place, that The Great Depression wasn't happening, etc.) the Grand Coulee Dam would have been built in a different manner. However, these exact costs could not be foreseen. However, there should have been some sort of percentage cost that holds no discounting.
Finally, the Patagonia dams project is one of an international scale. The company proposing the project is a private Spanish company. Therefore, profits are taken outside the country, with no need to invest profits directly in the country. This bypasses the possible benefits that might be accrued under GDP growth than if the company was a Chilean one. In this case (and possibly with all cases of international private investment), GNP (gross national product) or NDP (net domestic product) should be the method of assessment, since these two measurements only look at product that are nation-bound (and therefore directly “invest-able” in the host country).
The area around Patagonia is little-developed, and the addition of five major dams in the region (although these dams are not of the scale of Hoover Dam) will be a problem of future management and development of the region. Today, we talked about economic methods of examining environmental costs of projects. However, two questions came to mind that I don't think have been sufficiently been answered (at least to my rather limited knowledge).
The first question is whether or not contingent valuation (or other non-use measures) of a project are subject to a discount rate. If it is, then does it fit into the assumption that an environmental Kuznet's Curve will happen: people with a higher wealth level will have more environmental desires, and will take actions to minimize pollution or maximize environmental factor? Also, how can you set a discount rate on future society's behavior or choices? This feeds into a related problem: once massive infrastructure is on the landscape (complete with its supportive infrastructure), the cost-benefit analysis changes into one where the question shifts from, “Should we build the dam?” at the beginning of the project to, “Should we get rid of the dam?” at the end of the project.
The second question is how to assess costs of mitigating dam projects based on future changes in management unforeseen at the time of the initial benefit-cost analysis was done. For example, we know that the Grand Coulee Dam has gone through several iterations of water and environmental management goals. The addition of fish ladders and the barging downstream of salmon could not be conceived of when the dams were constructed in the 1930s. However, this is a current management strategy, costing millions of dollars. True, one could say that it is an analysis of cost (to provide fish transport) to the benefit (of having salmon runs) is valid by using current-day measures. However, I would contend that if these costs were to be assessed in the 1930s (and if current legal structures were in place, that The Great Depression wasn't happening, etc.) the Grand Coulee Dam would have been built in a different manner. However, these exact costs could not be foreseen. However, there should have been some sort of percentage cost that holds no discounting.
Finally, the Patagonia dams project is one of an international scale. The company proposing the project is a private Spanish company. Therefore, profits are taken outside the country, with no need to invest profits directly in the country. This bypasses the possible benefits that might be accrued under GDP growth than if the company was a Chilean one. In this case (and possibly with all cases of international private investment), GNP (gross national product) or NDP (net domestic product) should be the method of assessment, since these two measurements only look at product that are nation-bound (and therefore directly “invest-able” in the host country).
Reflection on the workshop so far...
The workshop is going... Much of the sessions have been review for me. Having been in courses of economics, policy, ecology, fish physiology, ecosystem modeling, and physical modeling, much of the discussion is review. Very boring... Still, the context of Chile makes it very interesting - however, much of the discussion is being led by American experts. However, the experts are on-the-whole much more interested in working in concert with others, which goes a long way in integrating the work detail of the thirty-odd people here, roughly half of whom (primarily in the US contingent) haven't ever met each other prior to coming to Concepcion.
I was worried about my lack of Spanish competency. However, there are many people here (the University) who speak English, and all but one of the presentations (which was translated) have been in English.
The food here is good, especially due to the availability of fresh seafood. Concepcion seems to have several universities, the best on being Universidad de Concepcion - which is our hosting institution. But the city is very utilitarian, except for a few places, compared with Ann Arbor, Flagstaff, or St Andrews (more similar to my memories of Ulaan Baatar than anywhere else).
I'm a little worried about week 2 of the workshop since five of the US experts are returning to the US before the documents are starting to be written. That there are some new people coming in for the writing portion is also professionally disturbing for me... I will wait and see before passing final judgment.
I was worried about my lack of Spanish competency. However, there are many people here (the University) who speak English, and all but one of the presentations (which was translated) have been in English.
The food here is good, especially due to the availability of fresh seafood. Concepcion seems to have several universities, the best on being Universidad de Concepcion - which is our hosting institution. But the city is very utilitarian, except for a few places, compared with Ann Arbor, Flagstaff, or St Andrews (more similar to my memories of Ulaan Baatar than anywhere else).
I'm a little worried about week 2 of the workshop since five of the US experts are returning to the US before the documents are starting to be written. That there are some new people coming in for the writing portion is also professionally disturbing for me... I will wait and see before passing final judgment.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Picked up bag
The first day is running late... By two hours...
However, I got my bag and changed into a clean shirt. Luckily, the woman at the counter was the woman to whom I talked on the phone last night. I'll admit that I was being a pushy American, but she was very helpful, and said, "Oh, you're Mr. Lacy," when I told her who I was.
The topic is the role of engineers. Interesting. I didn't know that the ASCE has a statement about how their mission includes sustainable development (and defines what that means).
However, I got my bag and changed into a clean shirt. Luckily, the woman at the counter was the woman to whom I talked on the phone last night. I'll admit that I was being a pushy American, but she was very helpful, and said, "Oh, you're Mr. Lacy," when I told her who I was.
The topic is the role of engineers. Interesting. I didn't know that the ASCE has a statement about how their mission includes sustainable development (and defines what that means).
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Atlanta dropped the ball
So apparently my massive bag-missing problem was not caused by LAN, but by Delta (presumably at Atlanta). What's really annoying about learning this is that the baggage handlers at Atlanta (Delta's hub airport) were unable to move bags from one airplane at one terminal to another airplane at another terminal - but belonging to the parent company - over the relatively not-short time of three hours. Not only were they unable to do this, they were unable to forward a message saying they had committed a SNAFU. I'm going to try and talk to them when I get back to Atlanta to get some discount on a future flight.
Anyway, I get to wear these dirty clothes tomorrow, when I get to meet some very important people in Chilean government. (At least I was able to find a 24 hour chemist near the hotel, so I could get toothpaste, soap,etc.)
Off to bed.
Anyway, I get to wear these dirty clothes tomorrow, when I get to meet some very important people in Chilean government. (At least I was able to find a 24 hour chemist near the hotel, so I could get toothpaste, soap,etc.)
Off to bed.
Adventure!
I arrived in Santiago where I had to go through customs and immigration. Got through immigration just fine. Went down to baggage claim, and wazited for my bag. Waited some more, and the went to the airline desk to confirm that I should be waiting for my bag. "Yes, your bag should come on the carousel, and then you take your bag up to the third floor and drop it ff again up there." Okay, so I go back to waiting for my bag. It doesn't arrive (along with four other people). While waiting for the LAN Airlines counter person, I noticed that my flight to Concepcion was becoming ever more imminent. Seeing that I was on the now soon-to-be-departing flight, the people told me to get on my connecter and inquire at Concepcion. That flight was a little cramped, and there was an English highschool soccer team onboard, but it was tolerable. I finished the piece of pulp I picked up in Atlanta, and went to baggage claim with the high hope of finding my bag there. However, as in Santiago, no luck.
After having a very limited conversation with the baggage handler - consisting of me showing him my luggage tag (really lucky I held on to it), him going to look or call it in, finding nothing, and coming back to tell me to go to the counter. So off to the counter I went with my baggage ticket, and talked to a nice woman who informed me - after checking on her computer - that my bag should have been on the flight from Santiago, but I could wait for it with the arrival of the next flight. She also gave me the numbers for Delta (in Santiago) and LAN (in Concepcion).
We'll see how it goes...
After having a very limited conversation with the baggage handler - consisting of me showing him my luggage tag (really lucky I held on to it), him going to look or call it in, finding nothing, and coming back to tell me to go to the counter. So off to the counter I went with my baggage ticket, and talked to a nice woman who informed me - after checking on her computer - that my bag should have been on the flight from Santiago, but I could wait for it with the arrival of the next flight. She also gave me the numbers for Delta (in Santiago) and LAN (in Concepcion).
We'll see how it goes...
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Getting ready for Chile
So I had originally played with the idea of changing out my laptop for my trip to Chile, or to put in a new internal drive for my four-year-old machine. However, I think that I'll try a different tactic.
Purchase an external drive, dump all my data onto that drive, format my computer, re-install Windows XP (downloading all the service packs and stuff), also install Ubuntu, and have the option to load as either. This way I can use Linux as my 'default' OS, and use XP when I need to use a program that doesn't work on Linux. (Of course, I'll download OpenOffice so I can do my wordprocessing stuff and Firefox to let me do interweb surfing.)
Another benefit of this option is that I can remove the partition on my drive - something that has driven me a little batty at times. Hopefully, the re-install will also fix some bugs that seem to have developed over time, like my wireless card becoming incompatible with the UMich wireless system, automatically showing me the blue screen of death when I try to connect.
I'll be getting the external drive on the fourth, so we'll soon see whether my idea was folly or not... (I plan on copying all my images onto DVD so I can have them in a more physically robust form. However, based on the timeline at Amazon, this might be after I transfer my files onto the external drive, meaning that I should probably pick up some blank DVDs.)
Purchase an external drive, dump all my data onto that drive, format my computer, re-install Windows XP (downloading all the service packs and stuff), also install Ubuntu, and have the option to load as either. This way I can use Linux as my 'default' OS, and use XP when I need to use a program that doesn't work on Linux. (Of course, I'll download OpenOffice so I can do my wordprocessing stuff and Firefox to let me do interweb surfing.)
Another benefit of this option is that I can remove the partition on my drive - something that has driven me a little batty at times. Hopefully, the re-install will also fix some bugs that seem to have developed over time, like my wireless card becoming incompatible with the UMich wireless system, automatically showing me the blue screen of death when I try to connect.
I'll be getting the external drive on the fourth, so we'll soon see whether my idea was folly or not... (I plan on copying all my images onto DVD so I can have them in a more physically robust form. However, based on the timeline at Amazon, this might be after I transfer my files onto the external drive, meaning that I should probably pick up some blank DVDs.)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Testing some computing capabilities of my "internets" tablet
This entry is being slowly typed out by stylus on my new (!) N810 internet tablet. I've been using it for aa coupl of days now, and I think that I'm starting to get the hang of how it operates. The screen, although almost painfully vibrant and sharp, is a little smaller-rhan-optimum, and I'll readily admit that it's zoom fezture is not as nice as the iPhone's. (And the layout of the screen is more favorable for righr-handed users than southpaws like myself.)
It does have a nice fingerboard that slides out from underneath, allowing for faster typing than the stylus method of above, or the hunt-and-pray method of finger-typing on the screen that the iPhone uses.
Although I've now set up a Skype account (to really capitalize on the strength of this device over the iPod touch), I haven't used the device to talk with someone, so I don't know how it will look. I know that Skype has developed a version to work specifically with this device, so we'll see how it goes once I get 'round to it.
Still a few weeks before Chile, so I have a little more of an opportunity to figure out what all's what...
It does have a nice fingerboard that slides out from underneath, allowing for faster typing than the stylus method of above, or the hunt-and-pray method of finger-typing on the screen that the iPhone uses.
Although I've now set up a Skype account (to really capitalize on the strength of this device over the iPod touch), I haven't used the device to talk with someone, so I don't know how it will look. I know that Skype has developed a version to work specifically with this device, so we'll see how it goes once I get 'round to it.
Still a few weeks before Chile, so I have a little more of an opportunity to figure out what all's what...
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