Afromusing

This was my first time flying with Air-France, i typically do the KLM thing all the time, but Air France offered the best fare at the time when i was looking for tix.Good thing you can still earn miles since they have a partnership agreement and are part of the ’star alliance’ with KLM. The plane from Newark to Paris was a new looking Airbus A330. The interior was a snazzy looking navy blue with off white, there was a faint hint of ‘new plane smell’. It had an interesting addition of a web cam; well, make that a ‘nose cam’ where the images of what is going on in front of the plane is displayed on the screen in front of the seat.Nothing particularly interesting happened before we took off, just airport staff walking into a side entrance. I wished one of them would stop and do a little dance just to liven things up, perhaps something like Hugh Grant’s moves from the movie Love Actually? Flying these days is just drudgery.

We left Newark at about 19:10 so it was still sunny out. After take off the ‘nose cam’ pans to the bottom of the plane giving you a view of the land below. The pilot seemed Jazzed about this and pointed out Central Park NY when we flew over it. I wasn’t impressed. The nose cam is cool though. Aerial view of central park…not so much. During the trip, the plane sounded abit noisier than the KLM flights i had taken before, a little crickety during turbulence, its a good thing disposable ear plugs are provided, or perhaps its because of where i was sitting, just behind the left wing.

Food - med

Lint from little blanket on black sweatshirt - Very High

Courtesy of staff - med

Overall experience thus far - so, so.

I will skip the whole thing about Air France being able to check baggage all the way to Nairobi, but not able to give me all the boarding passes, especially the boarding pass for flight from CDG to Nai. The agreements between airlines appear to favor baggage but not people?!!! I am just used to having all my boarding passes before i leave. Oh well, maybe its because my ticket was ‘cheap’

Paris wifi which they pronounce weee feee (?!!) cost $16 for an hour…I really should write my posts without being connected to the net. A few habits that i have to shed very very quickly.

The folks in Nai, see you at the geek dinner . Other readers, please check back starting June 3rd for posts from TED Global ‘Africa The Next Chapter’ - Arusha.

**Disclaimer - During the coming week, if I drop too many exclamation marks from over excitement, please oh please forgive me! (see see i started already)

My next flight is on KENYA AIRWAYS! I hope they have the KCC butter with the meal, or is that only on flights from .KE?

Other random items from Wired mag from this month…wired.com and just search for the stories, had to do this post without looking up the links. Fuel costs $4.20 in Nairobi, $4.17 in Mumbai and woudl you believe that in New Jersey its $2.99? How now?! Does the ‘Arm pit of the US’ have oil refineries nearby or an invisible pipeline to oil deposits on the moon? (NJ is actually pretty ok, i was just told that it was the arm pit of the US the other day, laughed my head off. Would that make california the tanned and buff abs of the US?) moving along… Cows emit more methane gas by burping than by farting.What with all the 4 stomachs, who can name them? (No googling?!)

Currently reading ‘The best Technology writing 2006′ compiled by Brandon Koerner. (Link is on my sidebar) - Very cool book. What i could garner from it so far…to be a good tech writer, you need a narrative and some banging metaphors.

JJR has a post on the BOGO light, a solar flashlight.

A light, simple and well designed flashlight great for rural areas where there isn’t much electricity, plus everyone needs to have a flashlight in case of an emergency.

BoGo means Buy one, Give one. We want our lights to benefit the less fortunate; therefore, with each light purchased in the developed world, a second identical light will be donated to an organization that will distribute it in the developing world with our direct financial support

You can read about the success stories which just warm your heart…

The BOGO light is also available at Whole Foods markets around the US, which is where i first saw it, it costs $19.99.

Whis brought up an important issue on the last post - CFLs in Uganda. Namely that CFLs contain mercury, a heavy metal that is quite toxic and dangerous if not disposed of properly. A common concern is mercury in fish which results in the advisory for pregnant women to avoid eating fish. I decided to buy a CFL since my desk lamp light blinked out and in the process try to answer Whis’ question about disposal. Home Depot, $5 dollars for 1 40watt bulb and i was set.
CFL front

CFL back

Desk lamp with CFL

And voila! Light!

What i was able to find on the package no less, is that in North America, lamprecycle.org is a great resource, it has the state and EPA regulations for disposal of spent lamps. It also points to Earth911 where you can enter your zip code and it gives you the location of your local recycling center.

As for Uganda: I am afraid Whis i do not know…couldnt find a website for now, the other ministries appear to have a site but not the Energy ministry. Info from anyone there on the ground is greatly appreciated.
Daud in Kenya also pointed to the launch of PANARECC

Panerecc Launched at the Grand Regency on Thursday 26th April 2007

The Parliamentary Network on Renewable Energy and Climate Change (PANERECC) is a proposed Parliamentary network to promote renewable energy and climate change policy and particularly the synergy between New and Renewable Energy (NRE) as a tool for combating climate change

As of this posting I am getting a 401 error on their site, so check it again later.

Other Stuff

Tech/Internet - Its a bad URL world out there i.e malicious code can found on the URLs of sites …so get Finjan secure browsing addon for firefox. (Yes i know that attempt at channeling 3-6 mafia was lame oh i will say its maxi priest “Uuu baby its a wild world ” Bugger, that aint it either, i am leaving it in the post despite its hobbliness.)
Econ -2 links to articles by James Shikwati, he is one of the speakers in the upcoming TED Global. Link 1 on harmonisation of tax laws in the EAC with the somewhat hilarious question “Will the East African Federation increase the size of matoke on our plates?” Link 2 - “Urbanizing Kenya to fight poverty”. Speaking of urbanization and poverty, Atanu Dey has excellent posts on this very issue.

Music and TV (Diaspora US): VH1 soul has a cool program One Planet One soul, airs on sundays. Soul from Africa and aroung the world. Likes of Les Nubians, Somi etc. This was also mentioned over at Annansi Chronicles, a very cool blogger and designer, check out the blog here and the cool afrocentric tshirts here. If you arent subscribed to Benn Loxo yet and you are a world music fan…what you waiting for?! Gems on that site i tell you.
Annoyances: SMSs asking you to not buy gas/petrol on May 15th. Here is the snopes entry debunking that urban legend.
Last but not least, thanks for reading this far… and Happy Mothers day to all moms, especially our fellow bloggers who are new moms, KP, Mrembo and Medusa.

Stephen Colbert is bananas… Watch the video of him impersonating a Korean pop star.

Pic by Bankelele.(Thank you!)

The Ugandan energy resources department has a program where regular light bulbs are exchanged for higher efficiency CFL’s (Compact Flourescent Lamps). CFL’s last longer and are energy efficient. They are guaranteed by the department such that if they blow out within three months, they are replaced at no fee.

While on the topic of energy efficiency, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) issued its report which you can read the pdf here.

The economist had an article summarizing their take on the above report. Relevant to this post -

In some areas of economic activity, emissions could be cut with no cost to consumers or taxpayers. The heating and lighting systems of many buildings, for instance, are startlingly inefficient. Improving this would cut both emissions and bills. Economists are troubled by this, for it implies that people and businesses are not maximising their economic self-interest; yet the low take-up of energy-efficient lightbulbs suggests this is indeed the case. Governments are therefore beginning to tighten regulations on the energy efficiency of buildings, and to talk about, for instance, banning incandescent lightbulbs. The IPCC reckons that such measures could cut 30% of projected emissions from this sector at no extra cost.

This is where i state the obvious - consider changing your light bulbs to CFL’s, if i had changed mine already i would say something like, “Please change your light bulbs to CFL’s”.
For those in Kenya, i would interested in knowing where you can buy CFL’s, please leave a comment if you notice them next time you are shopping, I will list the locations if we get enough feedback. What is in this for you? How about this, i have 2  Joost invitations up for grabs.

Another excellent report from BBC (Story was featured in tonights’ world newscast). This time the possibility of energy independence for Rwanda by use of methane gas from Lake Kivu. On to the blurb:

Three hundred metres below the surface are an estimated 55 billion cubic metres of methane gas.

The Rwandan government has signed an $80m deal with an international consortium, Dane Associates, to start exploiting the methane.

The aim is to double Rwanda’s electricity supply within two years.

But in the longer term, the potential is even higher. Methane could increase Rwanda’s energy production by more than 20 times.

“We are talking of more than 700 megawatts of energy supply which goes far beyond what our country needs. It could be used for export purposes, or regional sharing,” said Albert Butare, Minister of Energy.

The technology required is already available.

A brewery next to Lake Kivu has used methane from a pilot plant to power its boilers for more than two decades.