I was browsing on wikipedia and came across an article about heat-based contraception
which was a bit of an eye-opener. I've heard that wearing the 'wrong'
underwear can reduce your sperm-count, but never really thought about
it. So I was surprised to learn that people may actually heat up their
testicles as a contraceptive method.
There were a few interesting links with the article which supported the idea. The Male Contraception Information Project offered a very informative viewpoint, while the Burning Balls Blog
documents one man's attempts to temporarily sterilise himself. In
summary, by warming your testicles regularly - 45 minutes a day - for a
few weeks you can inhibit sperm production for months after you stop
the treatment. The process damages the sperm-producing cells, which are
kept outside the body as they need a cooler operating environment.
Eventually they recover, and full production is resumed with no
apparent effect on long-term fertility. Sounds great! After all, we all
hate condoms and the pill is hardly a satisfactory solution either.
So how can you conveniently raise the temperature of your scrotum to
40, or even 45 degrees every day for three weeks? Taking a bath at that
temperature for that period of time is going to be a bit impractical,
especially as you would have to constantly monitor the temperature of
the water. You would need to take a lot of cold drinking water with
you, and there is the possibility of doing harm to the rest of your
body too. So you need a scrotum-warmer.
I guess one idea would be to have a little battery-powered heating
element in your underwear. Maybe something that you could keep in your
car and plug into the cigarette lighter socket on the way to work?
Personally I don't like that option, especially as I ride a motorbike,
but there might be a market for it if you can deal with the hygeine
issue.
A better way may be to build something you would use in the privacy
of your own home. I envisage something that looks a bit like a toilet
seat, with a space in the centre that you would put water into. Add a
small heating element with a VERY RELIABLE temperature gauge
controlling it and a timer that goes 'bing' when you're cooked!
Your customers would still need to find time every day (for three
weeks) to use it so maybe it would have to be supplied with a colouring
book or crosswords or something. But it sounds to me like the perfect
internet product.
Taiwan is a very orderly place. One of the nice things about it is that
it's so safe and that people are generally respectful of property. And
this manifests itself, amongst other ways, with a lack of graffiti.
Graffiti, in and of itself, is not necessarily a good thing. But it is
a means by which people who would otherwise have no voice comment on
things publically. And some of it is quite artistic. But in Taiwan
there is very little graffiti, there is no Banksy , no social activism.
So is this a bad thing? I'm beginning to think it is. Business here
suffers from a lack of innovation. Nobody ever dares to rock the boat
or challenge the way things are done. But things are not always done
well and without some feedback mechanism the people at the top are
often unaware of the impact of their decisions.
I was reading the article about scooters , and started thinking about where the electricity will come from.
Taiwan has a fairly active oil industry, and also burns a lot of coal,
but doesn't do a lot to use the renewable resources at its disposal.
For some reason, the Chen government committed to tripling the amount
of electricity produced from natural gas between 2000 and 2010. At that
time the price of gas was less then $3/1000 cu ft, and now it's often
more than $10. (Last year it touched $15 for a while.)
For more information, take a look at this report by the DoE in the US
. It's a few years old but contains a lot of useful information, such
as the fact that hydro-electric power accounts for less than 2% of
Taiwan's energy supply.
So, how do you make renewable energy in Taiwan? Well, the most
obvious answer is probably from solar energy. But that's a bit erratic,
and it's also very fragile. At least, it's fragile if you use
traditional photo-voltaic panels which would probably be trashed by
some of the rainstorms and typhoons we get here.
But here's a simple alternative: You use the sun to heat up some
liquid at a site near the coast. (Taiwan has plenty of coast!) And you
also pipe seawater into the same site, which if it's coming from
reasonably deep is going to be nice and cool. So now you have a
temperature differential, hot water and cold water side by side, and
there are all sorts of heat engines that can be placed in between them
to make electricity. I'm a big fan of the concept of the Stirling Engine , although I have yet to see one in action. It sounds like the perfect device for this application.
But Taiwan doesn't need to be totally reliant on the sun for heat
energy. Anyone who has been here for any period of time knows that
Taiwan is geologically very active. We get earthquakes, and there is
hot water gushing out of the ground at sites all over the island.
Surely if you drill down you're going to find hot rocks pretty quickly?
Geothermal energy sounds like a great way forward.
For the last week I have been watching a Swedish TV show. They have all
the season's of the show on their website so I have seen a couple of
episodes every other day. For anyone who has ever had any money trouble
(I think that would cover about 99.9% of everybody) it is nice to see
that a) there are people who are more screwed up than I am and b) there
are solutions and ways out. The show hosts are 2 accountants who spends
about a week with the family/person in need and helps them get things
in order. The first thing that happens is that the family has to sign a
power of attourney which means that the two accountants have full
rights to make any decisions the feel is necessary. They can sell
houses, boats, TVs or they can take out new loans or cancel loans;
whatever they think is needed to right the economic situation.
I wonder if this show would work in Taiwan? Does something like it already exist maybe?
There were a few interesting links with the article which supported the idea. The 
Graffiti, in and of itself, is not necessarily a good thing. But it is
a means by which people who would otherwise have no voice comment on
things publically. And some of it is quite artistic. But in Taiwan
there is very little graffiti, there is no 