Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
The Raw Story | Obama: 'Science is key to our survival'
The Raw Story | Obama: 'Science is key to our survival': "Obama: 'Science is key to our survival'
RAW STORY
Published: Saturday December 20, 2008
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President-elect promises new focus on technology hand-in-hand with efforts to curb global warming.
President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday signaled climate change and genetic research will be among his top priorities when he takes office as he named White House science and technology advisers.
'Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation,' Obama said in a weekly radio and video address.
'It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology.'"
RAW STORY
Published: Saturday December 20, 2008
Print This Email This
President-elect promises new focus on technology hand-in-hand with efforts to curb global warming.
President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday signaled climate change and genetic research will be among his top priorities when he takes office as he named White House science and technology advisers.
'Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation,' Obama said in a weekly radio and video address.
'It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology.'"
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
How about an OPEN SOURCE GOVERNMENT??
Open question to the Obama crew...
T. Pitre,
10 November, 2008
T. Pitre,
10 November, 2008
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email posting OR signature suppressed
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Coal...Clean...no cleaner...Green? No....
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/11/06/is-it-green-clean-coal/?rss
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email posting OR signature suppressed
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
produce natural gas from the methane
San Antonio, Texas will be the first city in the United States to produce natural gas from the methane that comes from the poop of its residents on a large, profitable scale. Our excrement is being more technically referred to as “biosolids” by the companies and agencies involved in the project. And the project is by no means a joke.
San Antonio signed a deal with a Massachusetts company that will make the city’s waste into natural gas. According to the principal operator of the city’s water system, Steve Clouse, “the private vendor will come onto the facility, construct some gas cleaning systems, remove the moisture, remove the carbon dioxide content, and then sell that gas on the open market.” The gas will then be sold to companies who can use it in power plants and fuel furnaces.
The most impressive thing of all about this decision is that more than 90% of the city’s toilet and sink water will be recycled. Some of San Antonio’s waste water is already used for irrigation. Some of the solids are used for compost.
The company that will make the plan a reality is called Ameresco, who’s website uses the slogan: “Connect to smarter energy solutions.” The company won a prestigious award from the government of Massachusetts earlier this year for a project that saves Bridgewater State College $1 million annually in energy costs. The project involved upgrades to numerous college facilities as well as the college’s air conditioning system. It also utilizes a water conservation initiative.
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email posting
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Biomass fuel
************************* Gasoline produced from biomass could be in fuel tanks by 2010 with new technology PhysOrg.com Aug. 19, 2008 ************************* Texas A&M University scientists have developed a process to make converting biomass to high-octane gasoline possible, at $1.70 and $2.00 per gallon. Biomass includes garbage, biosolids from wastewater treatment plants, green waste such as lawn clippings, food waste, and any type of livestock manure. Additionally, since it does not use crops... http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=9248&m=44681
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email posting
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Education and Cheating.
Dear Abby:
My husband and I recently retired from teaching at a highly rated, competitive Midwestern public school. Cheating was rampant, from copying homework to text-messaging during tests in the classroom. When confronted, the cheaters were surprised and usually asserted that "everyone else does it." And they were right.
Cheating occurs in the classroom, in sports, in extra-curricular activities and in the hallways, and has become more acceptable among students than ever before. Teachers are practically powerless to control it; administrators seem to have no idea how to handle it. Parents don't want to get involved for fear of angering their children, and a strong leader may be "asked" to back down from pursuing it.
My husband and I tried many times to make students understand that what they were doing or thinking was wrong and needed to be corrected, only to be met with an incredulous stare, a sneer perhaps, and then, "Can I go now?" We began asking ourselves that same question and realized last year that WE "could go now" -- and we did. More of our time was spent trying to teach moral values and ethics and less was spent on the required curriculum.
DEAR ABBY: In recent years it seems cheating is encouraged by parents. I have seen it when teaching Sunday school to seventh-graders. The father of one of the Scouts in our local Scout troop even called cheating "just a form of competitive advantage."
For a long time I have carried a quote in my wallet that is my favorite saying: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." The person who said it was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
My husband and I recently retired from teaching at a highly rated, competitive Midwestern public school. Cheating was rampant, from copying homework to text-messaging during tests in the classroom. When confronted, the cheaters were surprised and usually asserted that "everyone else does it." And they were right.
Cheating occurs in the classroom, in sports, in extra-curricular activities and in the hallways, and has become more acceptable among students than ever before. Teachers are practically powerless to control it; administrators seem to have no idea how to handle it. Parents don't want to get involved for fear of angering their children, and a strong leader may be "asked" to back down from pursuing it.
My husband and I tried many times to make students understand that what they were doing or thinking was wrong and needed to be corrected, only to be met with an incredulous stare, a sneer perhaps, and then, "Can I go now?" We began asking ourselves that same question and realized last year that WE "could go now" -- and we did. More of our time was spent trying to teach moral values and ethics and less was spent on the required curriculum.
DEAR ABBY: In recent years it seems cheating is encouraged by parents. I have seen it when teaching Sunday school to seventh-graders. The father of one of the Scouts in our local Scout troop even called cheating "just a form of competitive advantage."
For a long time I have carried a quote in my wallet that is my favorite saying: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." The person who said it was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
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email posting
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Why we should buy from local farmers
Why we should buy from local farmers:
http://www.gardenmandy.com/real-reasons-why-we-should-buy-from-local-farmers/
http://www.gardenmandy.com/real-reasons-why-we-should-buy-from-local-farmers/
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email posting
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tuk-Tuks
Tuk-Tuk is the sound these make when they run.
In July 1998, the Supreme Court of India ordered the Delhi government to implement CNG or LPG (Autogas) fuel for all autos and for the entire bus fleet in and around the city. Delhi observed a dramatic improvement in the quality of air with the switch to CNG, and this is important for a city where it is not uncommon to see pedestrians and drivers wearing nurse's masks for protection against the prevalent city smog. Initially, auto rickshaw drivers in Delhi had to wait in long queues to get their CNG cylinders re-filled, but the situation has improved drastically with the rise of filling stations that sell CNG. Certain other local governments are also pushing for four-stroke engines instead of the current two-stroke versions. Typical mileage for an Indian-made auto rickshaw is around 35 kilometres per litre of petrol (about 2.9 L per 100 km, or 82 miles per gallon). Cambodian tuk-tuks are one piece.
They are the front end of a motorcycle comprising of steering, tank and engine/gearbox with a covered tray mounted at the back. The power is transferred by chain to an axle mounted to the modified rear fork which drives the two rear wheels. Suspended upon the rear fork is an open cabin with an in-line seat on each side. This arrangement can carry 6 people at ease, with their luggage in the leg space. It is not unusual to see these vehicles greatly overloaded, especially in outer suburbs and around markets. We recently reported on the unfortunate demise of the Bajaj 3-wheeler from the American market due to slow sales. Happily, a new brand of funky 3-wheelers is set to make its debut in the U.S. by way of Thailand. T
Tuk Tuk North America (TTNA) reports that its vehicles are currently undergoing EPA and NHTSA testing for road-use approval, though its line of trikes is reportedly already for sale for off-road use. Available in a number of passenger, cargo and truck body styles, the Tuk Tuk comes equipped with either a 200cc or 650cc version of a newly-designed, liquid-cooled four-stroke powerplant. This replaces the original two-stroker from which the vehicle received its funny-sounding name. TTNA also reports that its vehicles are available with both automatic and manual transmissions. Interestingly, the options page of the TTNA site shows an LPG kit which would convert the engine to run on dual fuels -- both liquefied petroleum and gasoline. http://www.tuktuknorthamerica.com/ Some of the models available have a Mitsubishi 650cc, water cooled gasoline engine that gets mid 50 mpg.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Economics
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...
Global Research, July 16, 2008
With the economic news of the week of July 14—the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000—we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy.
Even the super-rich are becoming nervous as cries for an emergency suspension of short selling ring out.
What is really taking place, however, is that the producing economy of working men and women is being crushed by the overall debt burden on households, businesses, and governments that could reach $70 trillion by 2010. The financial system, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is bankrupt, as the debts it is based on cannot be repaid.
This is because the producing economy of people who work for a living simply can no longer generate enough purchasing power for people either to pay their debts or allow them to purchase what is being sold in the marketplace. In turn it is the debt burden and the loss of societal purchasing power that are crashing the stock market. Thus the collapse of the financial economy has started to destroy the producing economy as well.
It’s a “perfect storm,” the result of a 200-year-old financial system where money is largely created by bank lending and where since 1980 our industry and jobs have been increasingly outsourced abroad to cheap labor markets. Thus domestic incomes have stagnated while the nation’s GDP has not been able to keep up with the exponential growth of debt.
While the mainstream media are blind, deaf, and dumb as to the causes, the victims within the middle and working classes are seeing their livelihoods ruined, jobs taken away, pensions eroded, homes foreclosed on, and are being saddled with ever-increasing debt and forced to work under more and more stress due to rising burdens of taxation, gas and food price inflation, and bureaucratic rules and regulations. The only places a more-or-less normal life may still be possible will be the wealthiest imperial centers like Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, or San Francisco.
All that the current bailouts being engineered by the Federal Reserve are doing is to create more debt to shore up failing financial institutions. No new wealth is being created. It’s band-aids on band-aids.
Global Research, July 16, 2008
With the economic news of the week of July 14—the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000—we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy.
Even the super-rich are becoming nervous as cries for an emergency suspension of short selling ring out.
What is really taking place, however, is that the producing economy of working men and women is being crushed by the overall debt burden on households, businesses, and governments that could reach $70 trillion by 2010. The financial system, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is bankrupt, as the debts it is based on cannot be repaid.
This is because the producing economy of people who work for a living simply can no longer generate enough purchasing power for people either to pay their debts or allow them to purchase what is being sold in the marketplace. In turn it is the debt burden and the loss of societal purchasing power that are crashing the stock market. Thus the collapse of the financial economy has started to destroy the producing economy as well.
It’s a “perfect storm,” the result of a 200-year-old financial system where money is largely created by bank lending and where since 1980 our industry and jobs have been increasingly outsourced abroad to cheap labor markets. Thus domestic incomes have stagnated while the nation’s GDP has not been able to keep up with the exponential growth of debt.
While the mainstream media are blind, deaf, and dumb as to the causes, the victims within the middle and working classes are seeing their livelihoods ruined, jobs taken away, pensions eroded, homes foreclosed on, and are being saddled with ever-increasing debt and forced to work under more and more stress due to rising burdens of taxation, gas and food price inflation, and bureaucratic rules and regulations. The only places a more-or-less normal life may still be possible will be the wealthiest imperial centers like Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, or San Francisco.
All that the current bailouts being engineered by the Federal Reserve are doing is to create more debt to shore up failing financial institutions. No new wealth is being created. It’s band-aids on band-aids.
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