William Kamkwamba of Malawi 14 year old Windmill builder

[Windpower]

This is really an amazing story.

A 14 year old boy saw a picture in a library book and built a operational electricity generating wind mill from junk

He hand made switches and circuit breakers from wire and nails

Having built a couple gennies myself with pretty awful results this is nothing short of genius

Oh I almost forgot, he and his family were starving to death on one meal a day at the time -- his father was starting to go blind from the lack of food.

some links

http://www.ted.com/speakers/william_kamkwamba.html

documentary trailer

http://movingwindmills.org/documentary

the first mill




circuit breaker




light switch



light



the tool box

[glenn kangiser]

I saw this -or maybe a reference to his story and pix of his cool tower -  seems about a year ago.  It is pretty amazing that he was able to do this.

[Windpower]

He was on the Diane Rheem show yesterday as I drove into Chicago to fix a Chromatograph

He is giving a talk today at Northwestern University

I am going if I can get in  -- more later

[Windpower]

Well this was a great day

we went to Northwestern U ---it took almost 2 hours with the traffic and construction but it was worth it

I now have an autographed copy of the book he and Bryan Mealer wrote -- it is very good so far

William is very down to earth and ready to laugh and enjoy life

his design for a circuit breaker is ingenius -- I have never seen a similar design

2 nails wound with wire and a magnet centered between them which is connected to a interupt switch -- if one of the coils 'overcurrents' then the magnet will be attracted to the 'overcurrent nail' and disconnect the circuit

He devised this because he was concerned about the grass roof of bedroom catching fire due to a short

an inspiration

after the talk we went to a Greek restaurant named Mykonos -- I thought it was very apropos (and the food was great too)

[glenn kangiser]

That is cool.

Sounds like he may end up being a bit of an African Tesla.

[glenn kangiser]

I did a search to where I first heard of William.  Looks like it was in 2007 or so on Boing Boing.

Here is a story from around that time.

http://www.afrigadget.com/2006/12/18/homemade-windmill-in-malawi/

other African ingenuity  http://www.afrigadget.com/

[Windpower]

Bryan Mealer the co author of the book was also on stage and helped William present things.

Bryan explained:

In 1999 - 2000 the IMF 'encouraged' the Malawi government to sell of the strategic cash of grain that it stored for the frequent droughts in the region. saying it cost too much to maintain it and the money would help to pay off its debt.

In 2000 the drought hit and thousands of people starved to death because there was no stored grain --- nice huh

The IMF loaned the government of Malawi money to put in an extensive cell phone system and of course a couple massive hydro power generating dams (at great ecological costs) to support the cell phones. Unfortunately the land which has been badly deforested by subsistence farming for centuries does not retain the water from the storms. The runoff clogs the turbines and shuts down the power until they can be repaired

So here we have a classic case of the "Economic Hitman" strikes again.

Malawi has a huge unreliable power and cell phone system while people are still living a subsistence existence because people cannot even get clean water or irrigation -- since the power --unreliable as it is is extremely expensive and is nearly impossible to get it wired into your home because of the up front costs.

At the  cost of a huge debt to the IMF.

I think William and men like him can make a difference. He understands that the solution must come from within and be under control of individuals.

 

[glenn kangiser]

Another fine example of how the elite want every peasant indebted to them to support their greed.

Like a bunch of cattle in a pasture each putting on a few pounds a month to benefit the rancher at slaughter, the people of the world are simply farmed by the elite, so each can contribute to their wealth, no matter what it does to them. 

We, the global community, are simply commodities to be harvested by the elite.

[John Raabe]

What a great story of appropriate technology  ... and inappropriate economic management. 

[emcvay]

Bryan Mealer the co author of the book was also on stage and helped William present things.

Bryan explained:

In 1999 - 2000 the IMF 'encouraged' the Malawi government to sell of the strategic cash of grain that it stored for the frequent droughts in the region. saying it cost too much to maintain it and the money would help to pay off its debt.

In 2000 the drought hit and thousands of people starved to death because there was no stored grain --- nice huh

The IMF loaned the government of Malawi money to put in an extensive cell phone system and of course a couple massive hydro power generating dams (at great ecological costs) to support the cell phones. Unfortunately the land which has been badly deforested by subsistence farming for centuries does not retain the water from the storms. The runoff clogs the turbines and shuts down the power until they can be repaired

So here we have a classic case of the "Economic Hitman" strikes again.

Malawi has a huge unreliable power and cell phone system while people are still living a subsistence existence because people cannot even get clean water or irrigation -- since the power --unreliable as it is is extremely expensive and is nearly impossible to get it wired into your home because of the up front costs.

At the  cost of a huge debt to the IMF.

I think William and men like him can make a difference. He understands that the solution must come from within and be under control of individuals.

 

Sad story in many ways -- but also a lesson in it.  The IMF is 'Big Government' at it's best.  It's run primarily by Socialist nations and not Industry or Capitalists.  Lesson to be learned there.

In fact, the IMF has recently be convinced by the Chinese to sell off it's gold and to take US dollars for it -- hmmm....but I digress.

Read the book:  The Really Inconvenient Truths; Seven Deadly Sins Liberals Don't Want You to Know About.

Very informative and something to ponder:  Socialist Governments have caused more ecological disasters and destruction then any other.  They are the Bane of Mankind.

[Windpower]

"Confessions of an Economic Hitman"  by John Perkins

In this book Perkins spells out exactly how U.S. corporations profit from the IMF 'loans' to third world countries.

[emcvay]

"Confessions of an Economic Hitman"  by John Perkins

In this book Perkins spells out exactly how U.S. corporations profit from the IMF 'loans' to third world countries.

Of course they do -- and why?  Becuase US Politicians need them too.

So many want to go after the US businesses and forget that they do what they do with the good gracious of Washington DC.  It's naive to think 'Big' whatever does what it does without the express written permission from Mr. Politician.

Who do you think loosened up the regs so they could all move to China?  Bush Sr. and Mr. Clinton thank you very much.

Seriously, I'm tired of "Those Evil Capitalists" by those who can't see the forest from the trees.  Those evil capitalists are indeed in many cases corrupt no doubt, but it's 'Those Evil Politicians' then allow and enable it.

How to fix it?  Start by getting rid of the politicians and reducing government.  Big whatever will follow.

[glenn kangiser]

Mostly maybe except that big business money, profits and donations own the politicians, so after the buyout the criminal politicians do the bidding of the big business/big money, and infact they see to it that their legislation benefits their family businesses.

Their legislations are not for the benefit of middle class America, and no, in fact are aimed at the destruction of middle class America. 

They are only interested in profiting from globalization now - more money to be made, and in their opinion, middle class America can all become peasants.

[emcvay]

Mostly maybe except that big business money, profits and donations own the politicians, so after the buyout the criminal politicians do the bidding of the big business/big money, and infact they see to it that their legislation benefits their family businesses.

Their legislations are not for the benefit of middle class America, and no, in fact are aimed at the destruction of middle class America. 

They are only interested in profiting from globalization now - more money to be made, and in their opinion, middle class America can all become peasants.

Sorry my friend but that's both mislead and naive.  It's also what the lunatics that espouse 'government can save you' crap want you to beleive.

The truth is somewhere else.  Sure big money supports politicians but not all of them -- what they are far more about is controlling big money, pushing their ideology and creating a state of poor and rich.  The Elitists are all the same - politicians AND businessmen.  It's the same thing.

However, it's plain stupid to think it's all of them.

Now, I will tell you this:  I work for some folks that have money and are making anew business.  Why?  To make more money of course.  And there is NOTHING wrong with that.  It's moronic stupidity to think otherwise.

But, here's the rub, some of those who have the money and are making more call themselves 'socialists'  one in particular makes that statement boldly to any who will listen.

So what does that mean?  It means that some of those making money -- which many American's have been blindly lead against -- are actually the same people pushing socialism.  Why is that?  Try studying Socialist countries you....seriously, didn't you notice that the Elitists running socialist countries are all rich but everyone else is dirt poor?  Duh.  So that is what you are asking for each time you get angry with rich capitalists.

How to defeat them?  For one, start working hard to make more, for two DO NOT vote for their candidates.  It's a war of attrition.  Vote out ALL incumbents.  And lastly, the one thing most American's WON'T do -- RUN FOR OFFICE.

That's right, get in there and run!  If enough decent American's who DO NOT espouse Socialist views but rather support the American system and it's founding documents actually run for office sooner or later they will make it in there.  And then they can start to dismantle the nonsense.

Regulations breed regulations, government breeds bigger government.  You must control it, keep it small and limit it.

Alex Jones isn't the answer, he's the problem -- move away from that crowd and look closer at the Constitution, the Federalist papers, Thomas Payne's works etc and educate yourself and others.  And work to get incumbents out of office -- trust me, you do that and they will all be scared to death -- it's like a house of cards.

Consider this:  George Soros is a rich rich man, he's also the moron who's pushing masses of money into politics to get socialists elected.  Look around, you will see that what I am saying isn't some nonsense conspiracy theory put out there by nutjobs who beleive in Fema camps but rather common sense.

[glenn kangiser]

Fact be known, I see little difference in the current administration policies and actions and what has been going on for the last eight years.  Seems to be just more of the same with different angles of attack.

Alex Jones - brings up some interesting points sometimes but is a bit of a screamer in my opinion.  Common sense seems to come out there somewhere in the middle.

[emcvay]

Fact be known, I see little difference in the current administration policies and actions and what has been going on for the last eight years.  Seems to be just more of the same with different angles of attack.

Alex Jones - brings up some interesting points sometimes but is a bit of a screamer in my opinion.  Common sense seems to come out there somewhere in the middle.

Yes of course -- one progressive was exchanged for another.

[glenn kangiser]

Getting back to the windmill, I would like to bring up that many treadmills have permanent magnet motors - not all are PM motors though.  I happen to have two of them and soon possibly I may get it together enough to make my own windmill to assist my Bergey.  Free energy is fun.

Permanent magnet motors make a simple wind or other generator charging source if spun at the proper speed and of the proper type.  All that is required in the simplest form is a diode to prevent backflow of electrical power when speed is too low or nonexistent.

[muldoon]

he was on jon stewart last night, there should be video of it online at his site.  the young man is 22 now, and was given a grant to attend school and college. 

towards the end of the interview he was asked something along the lines about what he thought of how americans lived.  he recanted a story of someone telling him to google something and he didnt know what it was.  they showed him and he googled "windmills" and gets millions of hits.  he asked where was this google all this time? 

think about that and consider the quality of life we have versus others. 
then think about the amount of complaining we do about our lives versus those same others. 

[NM_Shooter]

think about that and consider the quality of life we have versus others. 
then think about the amount of complaining we do about our lives versus those same others. 

Excellent point.  I should be thankful more and critical less.