China's Solar-Powered City

China's Solar-Powered City: "A combination of regulations and public education spurred the broad adoption of solar heaters. The city mandates all new buildings to incorporate solar panels, and it oversees the construction process to ensure proper installation. To raise awareness, the city held open seminars and ran public advertising on television."

This is an ordinary city in China but the product of three key factors. As the article points out the convergence of government policy, local industry and strong political leadership made it possible. The city has the equivalent of one half megawatt of water electric water heaters. If an ordinary city and China can do this, why can't we do it in the US? We are in the process of trying to implement additional solar capability on our house but our little town can not be called progressive on this issue. While there are a few solar water heaters in the town there is not one major photovoltaic panel that I have been able to spot and I doubt seriously if the town will welcome our implementation with open arms. I hope I am just being overly pessimistic.

CarGurus Blog � 2007 � May

CarGurus Blog � 2007 � May

Is the Toyota Prius going to reach 100 mpg in 2009? Rumors say yes. This is from CarGurus Blog.

PML Builds 640hp Electric MINI

PML Builds 640hp Electric MINI

640 HP and 250 mile range in all electric mode. Out accelerates an Aston Martin and with its small internal combustion engine running a super efficient generator it has a 1,000 mile range.

BoGo Light - Help Light the World!

BoGo Light - Help Light the World!

The BoGo Light
The BoGo Light is a scientific, eco-friendly breakthrough that is making an impact worldwide. From Cairo to Cape Town, from the Caribbean to the Amazon, it is improving the lives of individuals, families, and entire villages by replacing costly kerosene, candles, and disposable battery flashlights with an affordable, long lasting, solar flashlight.

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. Give the Gift of Light, and Help Us Change the World!

Florida Public Opinion Poll on Solar Energy

FloridaMaxon-DixonSolarPoll.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Public opinion is strongly in favor of the Florida Legislature encouraging investment in solar energy in Florida. Read the results of this recent survey. It is a PDF file requiring the Adobe PDF Reader.

Sun powers up part of Palm City Elementary

Sun powers up part of Palm City Elementary

As we prepare to install our own solar system we see news about new systems popping up everywhere. Discussions with friends and business acquaintances always seem to drift to this topic. Solar is not cheap but with state rebates and the panels working every day it can pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time. Here in Florida, the state rebates $4 a watt for residential PV systems. That means that if you put a 4 KW system up you will get $16,000 back from the state.

In spite of thinking that we have a lot of roof space for solar we find that it is a challenge to fit enough collectors on our roof to generate our desired 4 KW of power. Our design guys down at Vergona Bowersox in Boca Raton are working hard to fit the maximum number of panels on the roof.

We already have our solar water heating system in place and it has been happily making hot water for us since the end of last year. Yes, the water is extremely hot. It has an electric backup for short cloudy winter days but we keep it turned off most of the time. The water is so hot that one has to be very careful when opening the hot water tap. We have had solar hot water systems for about fifteen years now and have been extremely happy with their silent and efficient operation.

Here's a link to Palm City Elementary's website. Palm City Elementary

July 13, 2006: Supermarkets and Service Stations Now Competing for Grain

July 13, 2006: Supermarkets and Service Stations Now Competing for Grain

Biofuels are not the answer:

"In agricultural terms, the world appetite for automotive fuel is insatiable. The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year. The grain it takes to fill the tank every two weeks over a year will feed 26 people.

Investors are jumping on the highly profitable biofuel-bandwagon so fast that hardly a day goes by without another ethanol distillery or biodiesel refinery being announced somewhere in the world. The amount of corn used in U.S. ethanol distilleries has tripled in five years, jumping from 18 million tons in 2001 to an estimated 55 million tons from the 2006 crop. "

Monitor a Site Remotely for $99

I don't ordinarily plug products that I have not tried but this one appears to be quite a deal for the price. It is a wireless remotely controllable video camera that you can use to monitor a site remotely. It was demonstrated to me by someone here in Florida who uses it to check on their home up in Michigan. It was really cool. Hard to find a pan and tilt cam and all equipment needed to set it up for $99. Of course, the down side is you pay a $10 a month service fee but if you need this functionality you can't beat this deal.

AT&T Monitoring Deal

Two Computers, One Mouse

I love this application. I like surprising Barbara by moving my cursor over to her monitor and then clicking on an icon and moving it around while she is working. Besides this I cannot think of a practical application but it sure is fun. Anyone have any ideas? Add them as comments below. I would love to hear if you come up with a practical use for this neat little freeware package.

Feature - Lifehacker

Sunday Afternoon Kite Flying

Tipping Point?

I can only hope that the Don Imus firing is a tipping point in our tolerance of rude and crude behavior in public personalities. I may be showing my age but I grew up in a time when public figures set a higher standard for people to use as role models. I have seen a trend over the last decade or more of greater and greater tolerance for rude behavior by public figures. The yardstick that we use to measure what is acceptable in public has gotten severely distorted in my view. An entire network, Fox News, has prospered by supporting public rants by people like Bill O'reilly and others. In O'reilly's case his written works seem pretty reasonable and sensible but his public persona like Don Imus is rude, domineering and bullying. The man is highly skilled in public debate and often leaves his guests shredded and wounded. The point is with O'reilly in particular is that he seems a very intelligent and reasonable man but his public persona is what sells and has sold for decades, a bullying and mean one. We see it everywhere in our culture. It is now publicly acceptable to publicly bash women, cops, and "The Man", through loudly played "Gangsta Rap" when stopped at a traffic light or in a parking lot. The intrusion on our individual space has not only become commonplace but the norm. I admit to attempting on several occasions trying to watch the Imus show and I guess I just did not get it. A rude and crude old guy in a cowboy hat ridiculing everyone around him. Like O'reilly he had redeeming qualities in his private life but the point is he became a rich, rude, old guy like many other TV personalities including Ann Coulter, Nancy Grace and many others on various networks because of his bad behavior in public. We paid for him to get that way through the network polls by casting our vote for rude and crude public behavior. I can only hope that his firing is a tipping point in our society that will lead us back to the times I knew as a kid when public persona's were elevating by their public behavior even if their off camera or off mike behavior was reprehensible. But, then again I could just be a middle class old guy hoping for a return to my youth.

Kite Video

Just for fun I put my disposable CVS camcorder on my kite aerial photography rig. Get your dramamine and let's go for a ride!

Upload Video - Top 50 - Get Video Code

Wunder Blog : Weather Underground

Wunder Blog : Weather Underground

This and the newly released IPCC summary, linked in the article above, are a must read. Some interesting and scary implications to global climate change although not all are bad. One that bears thinking about in terms of not only climatic but social change is the forecast for increased dryness in the Northern Mexico area. Will this increase the desire to come across the border from Mexico? My guess is that it will in the beginning but as the desert areas expand it will create a much larger barrier to cross than exists now. Specifically the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts could become an even harsher and dryer zone. See this Wikipedia discussion of those areas as they exist now.

NOVA | Saved By the Sun | PBS

NOVA | Saved By the Sun | PBS

Set your Tivos or VCRs if you are so unlucky as to have one of those to deal with. The Nova series on public TV is having a show about solar energy on

Tuesday, April 24 at 8 p.m.
Is it time to take solar energy seriously?

Green housing gains ground - 04/05/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

Green housing gains ground - 04/05/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

US Attorney Scandal Tops News Stories

Let's see. It is ok for key people to testify as long as they do it in secret, there is no record of the "conversation", and they are not under any oath to tell the truth. I think that about sums it up. What happened to government of the people, by the people and FOR the people?



The Scent of Scandal Makes Gonzales the Big Story | Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ)

Weather Bonk

Weather Bonk is a really comprehensive real time weather site. It uses a Google Map application to display real time information along with webcams for the area and other information including local traffic, some climatic info such as monthly averages, forecasts, etc. The site is easy to navigate and customize to your individual location. I highly recommend Weather Bonk. There is even a Weather Bonk forum which you can view by clicking here.

DailyLit: Read books by email.

Well, you know me. I like to try new things. This is actually working quite well for me. I wanted to read one of Corey Doctorow's books and while browsing his web site, http://www.craphound.com/ , I ran across the fact that his books are available from this site as little readable chunks sent daily by email. Since Corey had adopted this method as one of his publication media I decided to give it a try. You know what? It works beautifully. It is astonishingly simple. You can suspend the daily email with a single click on a link in each email chunk or you can grab as many additional chunks as you might want. I am reading Corey's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom." It is entertaining but one of those sci fi stories with a lot of jargon in it. Even so, the terminology has meaning and depth so it is fun.

http://www.dailylit.com/home

Innovations by Truckers Save Energy

Interesting innovations by truckers for saving energy. How much of this will transfer over to the RV industry? We have been using auxiliary generators when stopped for years but some of the features in this article are very worthwhile reading:



NYT Article on Truck Noise Reduction — OpenPlans

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Tranquility Cove

We have spent a couple of weeks, I think, here in South Carolina at Tranquility Cove. I say, I think, because time begins to blur from a structured day by day, calendar based, set of activities to a movement through time based more on sunrise and sunset and family events. It has been 70 degrees in the day and 40 something degrees at night. Our furnace takes the chill off each morning as we listen to the honking of Canada Geese in the cove. It has been an interesting and pleasant visit in spite of having to attend the funeral of one of my dad's sisters, Betty.

Betty lived a life of public service working for the Public Health Department here in South Carolina in her home town, Sumter. She was a plain spoken person always saying exactly what was on her mind. She and her husband, Bunk, relaxed in their off work times by fishing in the Wateree Swamp. Her daughter Emily attended to her needs faithfully right up to the very end. Her son John gave a wonderful tribute to her at the memorial church service. Betty was an icon in the family and will be missed by all.

We will get underway tomorrow morning, March 12th for our trip home. We have reservations at a highly rated campground, Flamingo Lake RV Resort, in North Jacksonville. Interestingly, when I called for the reservation the owners knew an acquaintance in West Palm Beach who lives full time in their large motorhome at a local RV resort. The owners of Flamingo Lake used to run the resort that our friend Herb lives in. It is a small world. Especially when you narrow it down to RV'ers. One can always seem to find a connection to someone else.

That is all the news that is fit to print for now.