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My Grandfather was known as the Father of Solar Energy, so it kind of runs in the blood. I helped him with experiments on simple solar stills and solar cookers designed for the 3rd world when I was a kid. Enjoyed your article above, and glad to see that there is hope for breaking free of the Fossil Fuel paradigm.
Synchronistically (there are no coincidences) I get this article in my email today with one of the most bizarre arguments I have ever seen FOR Fossil Fuel energy and against Clean Energy. It is full of holes that I'm sure you will see right away. For instance, all those cars, trains, ships, and such that he says would create heat in their operation on Free Energy, are already creating heat on fossil energy, with the added factor of emitting greenhouse gasses that further trap that heat.
http://www.naturalnews.com/045941_global_warming_free_energy_devices_scientific_suppression.htm
While he may have a point at some level that total energy consumption would go up, he doesn't balance that against the total lack of greenhouse gases from clean technologies. Some of his points are totally laughable, and a summary could make a good short segment for your program.
Mystic
And then, after they escaped the town of Sodom (or was it Gamorrah?), just before they were destroyed, Lot's wife defied Lot's advice to not look back to the smoldering ruins of Sodom and Gamorah and she was turned into a pillar of stone. Bad, Bad, wife! See there what happens when women don't take their husbands seriously? ;-|
Then Lot and his daughters took refuge in a cave and then Lot's daughters got him drunk and "defiled" him so that they would not be without children. Yeah, there is a lot of smut in the bible isn't there.
I wonder, is the Sodom and Gamorrah story part of the reason why the thumper crowds are homophobic? What did all those priests do all those centuries..play chess? Obviously not.
Rooftop Solar Power in Australia Forced Fossil Fuel Plants to Give Away Free Electricity
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/rooftop_solar_power_in_austr...
Hey that's the ticket, "OU"! I'll grow hemp in my back yard. Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?!!! - AIW
Ou812 ~ I know all about business start-ups thank you. I minored in business. FYI there are already a plethora of independent farmers and entrepreneurs who are ready to jump on this bandwagon as soon as the Fed releases it's ban. HEMP cultivation for any purpose is still illegal in the vast majority of the union. It would really have to be legalized in ALL 50 states before production could meet the needs of the average consumer. It is a huge undertaking not to be accomplished by merely a few, and certainly not by one.
Aliceinwonderland ~ I noticed the same thing about Kend's latest comment. Kinda scary isn't it. Like Jekyll and Hyde.
Thom Hartmann ~ (Apropos to post #6) There were a few discrepancies in your rant about the Bible I should point out. First, the mob outside Lot's house weren't after his daughters they were after the two angels God sent to him to warn him the city was going to be destroyed. The town folk noticed them walking through town and followed them to Lot's house because they wanted to gang rape them. Lot--no doubt in an attempt to win "Father of the Year"--offered his daughters in exchange for the "strangers." The angels then simply struck the mob blind enabling them and Lot and his family to escape.
Secondly, Jesus wasn't a direct descendant of Lot, he was a descendant of the family of Abraham. Lot was a member of that family.
Finally, when Jesus said he did not come to 'destroy the law but to fulfill it,' he was talking about his own role in the law, not the ancient law in it's entirety. You must remember, this was the same Jesus who helped a prostitute escape the justice of the old law and then forgave her. This was the same Jesus who when asked what someone should avoid eating in order to avoid defiling themselves replied, 'Nothing! Nothing whatsoever that enter the body can defile it, only that which proceedith out of the mouth defiles the person.' This was the same Jesus who said, 'You have been told and eye for and eye a tooth for a tooth, but I say to love your enemies and do good to them who hate you.' This was also the same Jesus who when asked straight up what must be done to obtain eternal life replied to love God above everything else, to do the ten commandments, and to love others as they love themselves. When asked what to do to be best of all and have eternal life he responded, 'Go sell all that you have, give the money to the poor, and pick up the cross and follow me.' At no time does he mention the obscure laws of Deuteronomy or Leviticus. You see, that one quote out of context does not mean that Jesus didn't in fact come to destroy the old law because that is exactly what he did.
Hemp may be a viable solution. If I were as passionate about it as you seem to be, I would develop a busines plan and start a company. Waiting around for someone else to pick up the ball won't work. Agencies like the Small Business Adminstration will assist you with developing a plan. Organizations like Score can also help as well. It' snot as hard or scary as you might think to start a business.
Yes I did Palindromedary...Thank you for correcting my mistake.
Cheers!
Okay Miss Alice.....
In what way have I defended the fossil fuel industry? I have merely pointed out flaws in the piece above. Oil, coal and gas companies have always been environmentally damaging operations, but they are not the only ones.
In what way am I minimising when I acknowledge "We are also affecting our environment in multiple damaging ways."?
Nice use if the word 'deny' there - it is always an obvious tell when that word creeps in. I always see it's use in such conversations as a Godwin moment.
PS: I know what plastics are made from, but there is a huge and separate group of chem industries that generate plastics at such a huge rate that they are damaging the environment as much as any other material.
Kend, did someone else write your last post for you? Either that or virtually overnight, you've learned how to spell. You also seem to have suddenly mastered sentence structure and the correct use of punctuation! Holy moly...
As to the actual content of your message, all I see is more of the same; yet another effort to convince us that clean energy is "too expensive". Yeah right, Kend. While our military recruits keep plundering, murdering and dying on foreign soil, stealing Arab oil; while our mountains are destroyed, our water and air poisoned, our land rights threatened, our tax dollars sucked up by fossil fuel subsidies and we pay $4.00 a gallon at the pump, you're still trying to convince us that clean energy is "too expensive". Good luck with that. - Aliceinwonderland
Thanks for that information and link, datc42! I think that is just wonderful! India has some really great technical schools and they even put the classes/tutorials on youtube. Just do a search in youtube for nptel or nptelhrd. The Indian Institute of Technology is scattered around various cities in India. They show a wide variety of University courses.
Barefoot College - Training Grandmothers to be Solar Engineers.
Have you seen a long running project which has been working in India since the 60's http://www.barefootcollege.org/ Just goes to show what can be done with a cooperative movement.
Amen, 10-K! And I propose that the "red" states secede from the union. Those confederate yahoos are a drain on our tax dollars. Who needs them anyway? - AIW
A typical 123 Watt solar panel costs about $1,000* but a Do It Yourself home-made 123 Watt solar panel costs only about $120* for the better quality material...about $93.00* if you shop around. You can buy 3" x 6" (or other sizes) solar cells which you would solder together. The solar panel can be made out of wood (if you properly treat and waterproof an paint them) or aluminum. Then you can attach the solar cells to the panel with a swirl of caulk. Caulk is fairly cheap and is flexible. Just put a swirling glob in the middle of the solar cell and carefully seat it on the panel...that's all. If you want, you can use tile spacers to space the cells and/or a small thin board strip to act as a guide. Then you need to attach the rows of cells together and the panels together, with electrical conducting busses, to carry the current to the batteries. The batteries are another fairly expensive thing to buy. If you use lead-acide batteries...I believe you need Deep Cycle batteries and not Starter batteries like you have in your cars. Don't forget the diode between the solar cells and the batteries else your batteries will discharge through the solar cells at night. The diode prevents current from running back to the solar cells. Then you need to cover the solar panel with Plexiglas but you have to make sure the Plexiglas is of a type that won't "brown out" over time, because that would reduce the efficiency of the panels over time. Use a UV resistant, and a high transmission of light..like >92%
If you plan to connect to the house electrical grid you need other equipment as well. You need a device to change the DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current)...like your normal house is AC. If you don't know anything about electricity or house wiring you probably should get a good guide or book on the subject. Best to have an electrician check it out which you might have to do anyway if you need a permit.
* These figures come from a video from a guy that was trying to sell Do-It-Yourself guides to building your own solar panels.
I've read, elsewhere, that the biggest cost of having solar panels installed by a business is the installation labor and tacked on profit for the business. It also, most likely, includes the cost of insurance...which is something you won't have if you DIY...unless you can get insurance yourself. Some states (or is it Federal?) gives you a tax break for commercially installed solar panels. I don't know if you can get the same treatment for DIY panels. Also, some building codes might prevent you from DIY. I don't know, but it is something to check out. One thing though, If you have built it yourself, you will know how to fix it if it breaks and replacement parts should be inexpensive. Solar panels are supposed to last from 20 to 35 years, as I understand it.
If you can solder, read a multimeter to read current, voltage, and resistance then you can probably build a solar panel easily.
Nachos, need I remind you this is the ONLY COUNTRY where one gets stuck in the ole debt hole just by going to school…. or getting sick? You love pointing out how your relatives in Australia and elsewhere are so happy not to be living here. (Yeah, rub it in! Make my day!) Do they get caught in the debt trap by medical emergencies, or going to college?
Need I remind you that at least half the bankruptcies in the USA are due to medical bills, and that 75% of those medical-related bankruptcies involve people who are "insured"? How about getting off your self-righteous high horse and putting the blame where it BELONGS?
This isn't "reality". It's the biggest scam in human history. - Alice IW
Deny, minimize, deny-deny-deny! Lah-lah-lah.
So tell me Mr. Mills, what behooves you to be so defensive in behalf of the fossil fuel industry? You haven't told me a thing I don't already know. It's just that the fossil fuel industry is among the worst of the worst. Are you going to deny that, Or try to minimize it? - AIW
P.S. You listed plastics. Plastics are made from fossil fuel.
They have discovered a new ceramic material that can replace silicon in solar cells and it is much cheaper and environmentally friendlier than silicon. This could reduce the cost of solar panels quite a bit.
http://www.anl.gov/articles/new-material-solar-panels-could-make-them-ch...
Sure beats leaky polluting pipelines or exploding oil-trains. (re: Lac Megantic explosion that killed 47 people)
http://online.wsj.com/articles/after-lethal-crash-quebec-town-fears-retu...
Regarding the German success story, is any further proof required that Democratic Socialism is the answer to freedom and social justice for all?
Winner take, "almost all," under-regulated capitalsim is a ticking timebomb, and it's getting very close to taking down the United States Empire for good. Maybe at the point when we all hit bottom, Blue States could switch over and emulate Germany's sustainable fiscal policy while the Red States could continue their quest to have no government and concentrate wealth into the offshore bank accounts of billionaires. A foxmerized speedy race to the bottom is certainly their right if that's what they choose.
I read the cliff notes on On the Beach. That's really nothing compared to reading the whole story though. :-) What a sad ending! :-( Actually, the whole thing was sad. And scarey, of course.
Wow............ $500 Billion in Subsidies? To OIL? I would definitely be interested in some verifiable facts that I can access on that number! I could just IMAGINE what that amount could DO to REDUCE DEBT and DEFICITS the Right Wing is always Screaming About! Maybe we need a Grassroots Campaign to run with THAT? Would ANY True Conservative have a problem with eliminating that kind of SOCIAL Handout? I'm quite certain Big Oil can AFFORD it! And it would be in THEIR Bests Interests right? Reducing the Deficit in such an astonishing way, WITHOUT raising a SINGLE TAX!!!!!!!!
Kend ~ You are as impractical as you are uninformed. The initial costs of solar energy may be high; but, in the long run they pay for themselves many times over and eventually are free. Solar panels on your roof or in a solar farm have a high initial cost to be sure. However, no higher than the cost of building a super highway or any other transportation infrastructure. The solar energy infrastructure is the same thing. However, unlike with fossil fuel energy production, solar energy costs taper off and eventually become free. I call that a much better investment regardless of the environmental impact.
Sorry for getting off topic, but Thom today nailed the Evangelical community and how Bible ignorant they really are. NOWHERE in the Bible is contraceptives or abortion forbidden. NOWHERE!! Did you know that? Hobby Lobby has some explaining to do. Check out Thoms segment. Bravo Thom! Bravo!!
http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/what-bible-says-about-contraception
This artic blast coming next week might help people think solar,
Supposed to be 45 degrees at night in Chicago instead of 70 degrees.