Myrtus

Solar Bill of Rights

This one's for my friend Andy, especially because he doesn't believe in SOLAR. 

h/t SolarFred

Solar Bill of Rights

To secure a policy environment that allows solar energy to compete and empowers consumers to choose, Rhone Resch declared today, October 27, 2009, in the City of Anaheim, California, a Solar Bill of Rights:

We declare these rights not on behalf of our companies, but on behalf of our customers and our country.  We seek no more than the freedom to compete on equal terms and no more than the liberty for consumers to choose the energy source they think best. 

1.   Americans have the right to put solar on their homes or businesses. Restrictive covenants, onerous connection rules, and excessive permitting and inspections fees prevent too many American homes and businesses from going solar.

2.   Americans have the right to connect their solar energy system to the grid with uniform national standards. This should be as simple as connecting a telephone or appliance. No matter where they live, consumers should expect a single standard for connecting their system to the electric grid.

3.   Americans have the right to Net Meter and be compensated at the very least with full retail electricity rates. When customers generate excess solar power utilities should pay them consumer at least the retail value of that power.

4.   The solar industry has the right to a fair competitive environment. The highly profitable fossil fuel industries have received tens of billions of dollars for decades. The solar energy expects a fair playing field, especially since the American public overwhelmingly supports the development and use of solar.

5.   The solar industry has the right to equal access to public lands. America has the best solar resources in the world, yet solar companies have zero access to public lands compared to the 45 million acres used by oil and natural gas companies.

6.   The solar industry has the right to interconnect and build new transmission lines. When America updates its electric grid, it must connect the vast solar resources in the Southwest to population centers across the nation.

7.   Americans have the right to buy solar electricity from their utility.  Consumers have no choice to buy clean, reliable solar energy from their utilities instead of the dirty fossil fuels of the past.

8.   Americans have the right, and should expect, the highest ethical treatment from the solar industry. Consumers should expect the solar energy industry to minimize its environmental impact, provide systems that work better than advertised, and communicate incentives clearly and accurately.

 

Are you putting yourself at risk with the H1N1 flu shot?

I've never taken a single flu shot in my entire life and I'm not about to start.

Remember Google's Project 10 ^ 100

Remember we talked about it here about a year ago?

And remember how Google changed the voting dates a few times after that and then kind of went quiet about the whole thing altogether?

Well, after so many broken promises, I guess Google wasn't trying to make us forget about it after all.

I'm not sure when the voting started, since I didn't get the email notification Google promised, but it ends on October 8.  So hurry and vote on the issues you google ab...uh...I mean care about, to help change the world.

Oh wait...the video says the voting started today!

If Google did send me that notification and I somehow missed it among my other 12 thousand 800 and some unread emails, then oopsie...I do apologize.

PITTSBURGH welcomes G-20, rocking da house with "Clean Energy Jobs Now!" concert

Rockers, Politicians, Unions To Rally For Clean Energy Today

PITTSBURGH -- Despite some downtown streets being closed, a rally for clean energy jobs hopes to attract a few thousand people to Pittsburgh's Point State Park on the eve of the G-20 economic summit.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers and Kathy Mattea are among the acts scheduled to appear tonight at "Clean Energy Jobs Now!" Start time is 6 p.m.Members of the United Steelworkers and other unions say they will be there, along with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Gov. Ed Rendell.

On David Letterman, President Obama puts emphasis on Clean Energy for fast track to economic recovery

A couple of days after President Obama's appearance on David Letterman, people are still talking about his comments on healthcare and the fact that he claimed he was black before he became president, as an attempt to put the racial issue to rest (probably because the issue was re-ignited recently by President Carter).

 

What very few people seem to have paid attention to is Obama's comments on the state of the economy and some of his ideas on how to get it back on track.  Of course it doesn't help that CBS only made a couple of clips from that show available on Youtube and has since diligently enforced the removal of any segment that was posted by other YouTube users, but luckily someone posted some audios, probably hoping to dodge CBS's persistent suppression of information attempts.

    

Now here's the part that interests me the most....the part where the economy and CLEAN ENERGY are the focal points:

President Obama says:

 

We are not out of the woods yet....things are still fragile...most economists think that we'll start growing this quarter for the first time, but the problem that we've got, the biggest problem that we have right now, is that employment lags, so even when businesses start to invest, they don't start hiring people back right away and obviously folks are going through incredible hardship because of that loss of employment. That means that the housing market is still weaker, it means that people are still having a hard time paying their bills....

 

...even when the economy is going well, one of the great things about the US economy is it's dynamic, and so people are starting their own businesses, moving to better jobs, they're deciding to move to another state in search of other opportunities, so there is always turnover in terms of employment.  The problem right now, we lost so many jobs over the last year and a half....I mean when I came into office we were losing 700 jobs a month!  And what ends up happening then is, that trying to make up for all those losses in the last year is going to take some time, we're going to have to grow in a much faster clip...

 

(4:50) ...the single most important task for my administration and my economic advisers is how we make sure that we put people back to work...now there is some areas like for example Clean Energy, that has huge potential!  Every building all across the United States probably could use some retrofitting to make it much more energy efficient.  Doing that, that one thing, could put hundreds of thousands of people back to work and that's why we emphasize things such as Clean Energy.

YAY for Clean Energy!

Hang in there folks...

Tired of the boring old blue solar panels on your home? Try Solar Ivy

Melding design with technology, Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology or SMIT, the brother-and-sister start-up out of Brooklyn, N.Y., is developing a miniature solar panel system that, once interconnected, takes the form of ivy sitting on the sides of buildings.

More on SMIT here

☼☼~ Solar Cuisine With Solar Oven Chef ~☼☼

If you don't know how much fun you can have with solar baking, most likely you haven't heard about the Solar Oven Chef yet.
And did you know there are solar cookbooks out there being sold too?
Well, neither did I till a few moments ago when I discovered Solar Oven Chef's lovely blog. 
Once there, I learned about how to make solar breakfasts, solar soups, solar cookies, solar pasta, solar falafel, sun dried tomatoes and so many more yummy recipes...and heck, I even found myself inspired to start having them Solar Meatless Mondays!

But first I'll need to get my hands on one of these Sun Ovens though:

Special note from Sun Ovens International:

SUN OVENS International is involved in solar cooking projects in deforested countries on 5 continents and relies on the domestic sales of GLOBAL SUN OVENS® to help finance these endeavors. If you would like to learn more about what we are doing around the world please visit the International section of this web site. Thank you for your support.

You can learn all about the benefits of solar cooking here, but here's a few to get you going:

• Cook for free
  Bakes, Boils or Steams Any Kind of Food with the Power of the Sun - No Fuel Needed!
• No learning curve
  Create your favorite recipes as you feast upon natural sun baked treats!
• Just like your home oven
  Reaches Temperatures of 360° to 400° F!
• Totally Safe - No Danger of Fire - Never Burn Dinner Again!
• Versatile, Easy-to-use, Portable as a Small Suitcase!

Solar Oven Chef claims that solar cooking tastes better, but be warned though, "A cloudy day is like a power outage for the SolarOvenChef".

***US residents, if you're still not sure whether solar is right for where you live, head over to Sunpluggers to see the level of sunshine in your state.

Still don't like the idea of driving an electric car? Try this!

To get us used to what to expect in the future, Volvo proudly presents its first ever electric car....this adorable little golf cart will cost you about $8000 if you want to have one for your backyard:

Via Autoblog Green

Volvo is planning to launch its first hybrid car in 2012.

Gold Price Jumps Up Again Today & All Eyes Are On China

Head over to Gold Central and check it out.

 

Also make sure to read Jim Willie's fantastic insights to get a better idea why the global economy is what it is today.  You won't believe the politics behind it all! (read it from beginning to end, it's well worth it): 13 Reasons for Major Gold Breakout

I really dig all the stuff he says about China, but I'm surprised he didn't mention the aggressive development of its renewable energy sector in the last two years, especially when it's been all over the news in the last two weeks.  There has been an overabundance of news reports on its MegaWatt solar farm plans and its mass-production of cheaper solar panels are forcing many companies in Europe as well as in the US to close shop or cry for protectionism, not being able to keep up with the competition.

CHINA DECLARES A SUBTLE FINANCIAL WAR
China made three major announcements in the first week of September, each highly disruptive, enough to add thrust to the Paradigm Shift, enough to usher in the nasty phase (see Trade War escalation). The timing of late August and early September for disruptions and onset of instability has not been a disappointment. China has shaken the global system in three key ways, resulting in a grand challenge to the power structure. China announced:

• permission granted for state owned firms to selectively dishonor OTC derivative contracts by means of self-administered Stop-Losses in reneges
• Hong Kong demands the return of its gold bullion held in custodial accounts held in London, to make its own airport vault facility (the Zurich Switzerland model)
• Mongolian rare earth metals will no longer be exported to the West, an assault against hybrid cars, certain electronics, and military weapons (missiles).

Implications are enormous. The OTC abrogated contracts for crude oil and metal contracts, ripe with corruption and entirely unregulated, could wound deeply Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. The demand for Hong Kong gold is more a symbolic threat, adding thrust to what already has begun. Germany, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates have demanded a return of their gold from US and UK storage locations, the bank centers where some accuse the gold was routinely leased. The trend puts considerable pressure on the COMEX, which could be deeply wounded from lack of underlying metal. Some accuse its routine shorting is conducted without sufficient required collateral. Neither the USGovt nor the USMilitary have accumulated stockpiles in rare earth metals, a clear lapse. The distraction of profits from bond trading and organized USGovt fund channels must be too great. Rare earth metals are critical for weapons programs, and their absence could put further strain on the over-extended and generally strained USMilitary. See scandium (21), yttrium (39), and 15 elements from lanthanum (57) to lutetium (71), whose atomic numbers are cited in paranthesis. By the way, copper, silver, and gold are all in the same column for the periodic table of natural elements, a key point, since they share unique traits in their valence.

The Chinese actions border on extreme, but are part of a grand mosaic of change, if not rebellion amidst a Paradigm Shift. THE CHINESE ARE EXTREMELY ANGRY. They are angry about amplified USTreasury debt monetization. They are angry about outsized USGovt deficits. They are angry about USFed Chairman Bernanke being reappointed. They are angry about the battle waged by the USGovt against Swiss bankers. They are angry about Yuan currency manipulation charges. They are angry about being given second class seats at the global banker tables. They are angry about being set up as US debt bagholders. They are angry about the slow retreat of USMilitary presence in Asia. The entire foundation will undergo powerful changes from these three salvos, and more to come, likely even more defiant and elevated. The US-UK wizards who wrecked the banking system will soon find themselves hurtling downhill, weighed down by their own insolvency. That bank system insolvency grows worse by the month, as fresh credit portfolio losses still outpace USGovt 'gifts' and new capital infusions.

Twitter is creating a generation of sheep, eager to blindly follow

Twitter is definitely a great medium to share information and get one's point across, but do you think people actually check the facts before they retransmit info that happens to catch their eye in a split second on their Twitter home page? 

Does anybody even click on the links to actually read the content they pass along in their retweets?

Do they question the source?

It is much easier to catch inconsistent information on a story if you happen to follow people in a specific niche talking about the same story and often adding their own slant, but what happens if you follow people at random, sharing random info that gets passed along en masse?

Be careful people!

You could possibly become a sheep who blindly follows, a harmless fool, but a clueless tool...who maybe unknowingly helps facilitate the spread of harmful information, lies, propaganda, etc...so please check your sources.

Here's an example on a story that keeps popping up with different slants however harmless.  And I'm sure there is plenty more cases out there like this one or even worse.

*Google announced its plans for going solar to cut cost.
*Two different sources report on Google's new solar project.
*One source says Google will reduce its cost by 60%.
*Another source says Google could reduce the cost by a quarter or more.

Exibit A:

Treehugger

Google's Custom Solar Technology Will Reduce Costs by 60%

by Jerry James Stone, San Francisco, CA on 09.10.09

Exibit B:

Reuters 

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google is disappointed with the lack of breakthrough investment ideas in the green technology sector but the company is working to develop its own new mirror technology that could reduce the cost of building solar thermal plants by a quarter or more.

It's worth noting that Treehugger mentions the 60% only in the title, but nowhere else in the content of its post or the sources it links to.

Many other (news) sources have reported on this story. I tried googling for Google's official press release, but couldn't find one.

Now here's a little sampling of how word gets around and things get lost in translation...

1. GetSolar Google hopes to reduce cost of making #solar energy by at least 25%: http://bit.ly/3WQD08 4 days ago from Twittelator
2. KACOnewenergy RT @ThePhoenixSun: RT @solarafrica: RT @GetSolar Google hopes to reduce cost of making #solar energy by at least 25%: http://bit.ly/3WQD08 4 days ago from TweetDeck

1. ecpeixoto Google's Custom Solar Technology Will Reduce Costs by 60% http://bit.ly/W293K about 10 hours ago from web
2. pplupo Google's Custom Solar Technology Will Reduce Costs by 60% http://j.mp/4qNLZv about 23 hours ago from reader2tweet    

1. LolCrunch GOOGLE AIMS 2 HALVE TEH COST OV SOLAR POWR http://bit.ly/ppyIJ BY DEVIN COLDEWEY 5 days ago from API
2. djetch Google aims to halve the cost of solar power - http://shar.es/1o34Y about 19 hours ago from ShareThis.com

Will You Get Seduced By These Solar Beauties?

OK, maybe you don't find these solar goodies all that irresistible anyway, but perhaps if you look at them long enough they'll start to grow on you eventually.

And maybe the whole Solar concept sounds kind of alien to you right now, but if you think of it as a clean and wholesome source of energy handed to you straight from the sun in order to make free electricity, which could possibly last you a lifetime with minimal investment, then maybe...umm...

I guess that still doesn't do it for you, but there comes a day when a light will go on...or off in your head and make you realize all the money you could have saved or made, if you had paid attention sooner to all the amazing practical purposes of buying into solar.  Hopefully when that time comes for you, solar still hasn't gone mainstream and there is still time for you to profit from it in a big way and make a significant difference in your life.

Solar Trees via AT Casa

O*GE» Solar Powered Night Garden (<~click to see more & scroll down on the left side )

 

Inhabitat » Solar Sunflower Field Energizes Austin, Texas

Inhabitat » Sleek Solar and Wind Powered Hybrid Street Lamps

Solar flowers announce the launch of the new Toyota Prius | Cherryflava

Inhabitat » Solar Forest Charging System for Parking Lots

Solar-Cell Tree Charger by vivien MULLER design: PhotonSynthese

Well, these solar-tree darlings may grow pretty someday, but they're pretty practical as it is and that's what really counts....via Solar Feeds

Sign up for Google Reader & put Twitter spammers out of business

For people on Twitter who are getting sick and tired of spammers...

I recommend you start using Google Reader to follow only the people you're interested in/share whatever interest with and maximize the fun in your interaction.

Follow @googlereader for tips and tricks on how to use it or just google keywords: Google Reader Twitter for all kinds of tips on how others are making it work for them.

I don't get these people who keep jumping on the spamming bandwagon and ruining the social networking experience for others.  With all the spam filters ever invented you'd think they realize by now that everybody hates spam, no? 

They also should know by now that it is through one on one personal interaction that worthwhile relationships are built to help expand a network, whether personal or business.  Potential sponsors/business partners are not interested in hyped up numbers that are heavily populated with fake profiles, they want to see real tangible results before they do business with you.

Telemarketers NO, I'm not talking about you!  I don't want your personal interactions, so please stop calling me!

I remember 9/11 and the many innocent lives we lost

I pledge to promote peace, love, freedom and coexistence whenever/wherever I CAN, with simple acts of kindness......and remember we're all humans first and foremost.

Show me your Twitter Blog Roll and I'll show you mine

OK here's mine for now....more to follow...

***If for any reason you're not happy being on my list, let me know and I'll have you escorted out with a hug and a smile...no worries, no hard feelings.

Vaya con dios! (:

My Special weebl-Roll

• @Altern8Power
• @AlternativeNRG
• @AngryInfidel
• @AsmaRegragui
• @BootsOnTheRoof
• @EcoChic
• @EdgeOfDark
• @FatBottomBags
• @GHarman
• @Greenwala
• @JilliancYork
• @JoelEisen
• @KnowledgeNode
• @Maroqui
• @PlentyWays
• @PowerHungryFilm
• @PreventHate
• @REWorld
• @RightTruth
• @SolarFeeds
• @SolarFred
• @SolarFund
• @SolarIndustry
• @SolaRoy
• @TeamSustainable
• @ThePhoenixSun
• @TreeHugger

China urges its citizens to buy gold - Uh oh look out!

Power to the people!

 

This could very well be the last call to buy gold on the cheap side folks. 

Good for China, but not so fast!  Don't think for one minute that the Chinese government is interested in turning more than a billion Chinese citizens into overnight millionaires. Heck no! 

China, being the world’s largest gold producer and second-largest consumer, is probably using its sizeable population purely as leverage to hike up the value of its gold reserves and help put the dollar out business.  China will probably continue to do so just long enough to secure its financial position and then crank it up a few notches higher to make the price of gold way out of reach for your average peasant.

Come on now, let's be real...who's going to work the fields otherwise?

American Eagle Gold Coin

Whether the official urging by the Chinese government for its citizens to buy precious metals is merely prudent, "fatherly" advise to its citizens, or part of a somewhat more sinister campaign the result will be the same: soaring precious metals prices indefinitely into the future.

With gold and silver having just broken-out above their summer trading ranges (the weakest season of the year for the precious metals market), precious metals appear poised for spectacular runs this fall, as I suggested a month ago (see "Two short-term scenarios for Gold Market"). Those who have continued waiting for cheaper prices have been shut out of this market (notably the price-conscious buyers in India), and the window for buying at current, bargain prices appears to be closing quickly.