Wet energy
"If there's lightning, you get right out of the ocean."
"Don't plug in anything electrical when you're taking a bath."
These warnings by my parents are the first ones I can remember linking electricity and water. Stern advice, spoken with conviction and authority. In the ears of a young child, they weren't a subject for debate, only correct action.
Our cover story (right), has an entirely positive take on mixing water and electricity - a simple fact stated with the same conviction and urgency as a parent, only for an energy-hungry world.
Under the right circumstances and with the right equipment, the movement of water can produce electricity in an economical, decentralized, and environmentally safe way.
The flow of a river or stream, the perpetual motion of the tides through a bay or channel, the ascending and descending currents caused by thermal layers in the ocean, can meet some of our world's energy needs. New technologies in small-scale hydroelectric power generation offer the right mix of water and electricity.
If ever there was a need for a slayer of stereotypes, there certainly is one when it comes to misperceptions about the portrayal of gender roles attributed to the Koran. Move over Buffy - the first lady of Indonesia puts a stake in the heart of falsehoods about the roles of men and women attributed to Islam.
In a remarkably forthright interview (page 18), Sinta Nuriyah Abdurrahman Wahid talks about the enlightened understanding Muslim men and women should hold about each other.
A spiritual reading of the Koran guides her thinking. Polygamy and the education of women are just two of the topics she demystifies with nuance and grace.
(c) Copyright 2001. 海角大神