Myrtus

Why China is beating the US in Clean Tech

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Home Solar Power Discounts - One Block Off the Grid

Going Solar Top to Bottom

That's what I'll do when I finally get to build my dream house.

A solar porch, a solar deck, a solar driveway, a solar pool and heck, why not....solar shingles too!

All to make my own electricity. 

And when that time comes, I hope they'll be making solar panels and tiles in different colors too. :)

Solar paving tiles made from glass and ceramic by Onyx Solar & Butech

Solar Shingles made by SolTech

And btw, who's afraid of the smart grid?

My friend likes coal, but I love solar

Everyone who knows me, knows that I'm a huge fan of solar by now, but unlike me, my friend Andy is a self-confessed shameless coal lover, who rather enjoys rubbing it in every chance he gets.

Here's the latest thing he sent me to demonstrate coal's superiority complex and why he loves it so much:

Myrtus Keepsakes Charity Fundraiser - see anything you like?

In these tough economic times charities are having the toughest time raising funds and doing great things to help keep our societies afloat and empowered to sustain themselves, so I thought I'd chip in with a little fundraising of my own to help some of my favorite charities.  Fundraising is not exactly one of my fortes, I find it a heck of a lot easier to give than ask people for donations, so I thought it might be a good idea to give stuff away in exchange for donations, stuff that I have no use for myself, but might mean something to someone else.

These are not your ordinary dust collectors, they are practical and functional keepsakes, most of which have never been used, just sitting in my garage taking up space, but have a collectible value that keeps going up over the years, because they're hard to find discontinued collectible items. 

I'm pricing them at about 30% - 50 % lower than their original price. (let me know if these are fair prices)

I'll pay the shipping fee if it's in the US.

Waterford Crystal Spirit of America Champagne Flutes $75 

Waterford Crystal Clarendon Amethyst Hocks $75

Waterford Crystal medium size Metropolitan Candlesticks $65

Waterford Crystal small Make-up Brush $35

Waterford Marquis Crystal Ice Bucket & 2 D.O.Fs $50

Kosta Boda Crystal Tulipa Vase $75

Kosta Boda Crystal small Bowl $20 

Kosta Boda Crystal Large Atoll Bowl $60

Kosta Boda Crystal Candle Sticks, medium $60, small $50

Kosta Boda Crystal Dish - Days of the Week - "Sunday" $20

Orrefors Crystal Raspberry Votive $15

Orrefors Crystal small Bowl $15

Orrefors Crystal Discus Votive $10   

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I originally started out thinking of having a yard sale for the the 4th of July holiday weekend and make one big party out of it.....but then I thought the fundraising aspect might make some people uncomfortable, so I decided to go virtual instead.  This way I can at least help raise awareness for the charities in a ton of places online, even if I don't sell anything. :)

 

All proceeds from this sale will go to PreventHate.org's Witness Humanity program, which is a conflict resolution and reconciliation program where friends and adversaries experience each other in a productive and compassionate manner by working together to help others in need of urgent assistance.

PreventHate.org’s Witness Humanity program has designed original, transitional housing for homeless people living with disabilities. Inexpensive, sturdy, and eco-friendly, these houses are designed to be powered with solar energy and are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They can be used in communities recovering from war or disaster that have populations needing shelter, or for any municipality that has people living with disabilities in immediate need of  housing. 

You can find more details on this project at Crowdrise.

If you would rather make a donation than buy any of my dust collectors that's fine too and there's several ways to do it.

(1) Donate via my page at Crowdrise

(2) Donate via my Paypal Tip Jar which is located on this blog's left sidebar

All transactions have to be first confirmed via email before making the donation.

And if you see a different fundraising project on my Crowdrise page you would rather donate to, please also indicate that via email.  Each and every one of them is a great cause I believe in and I'm hoping you do too.

For more on the BEST fundraising site on the planet read the following article:

Edward Norton's Crowdrise website goes the distance - USATODAY.com

Crowdrise.com is not your typical charity site.

Its slogan is "If you don't give back, no one will like you." Dollars raised earn donors such titles as Doctor, Tsar, Sir and Dame.

And donating $17 toward scholarships for cancer survivors earns you a bottle of Will Ferrell's "Sexy Hot Tan" sunscreen, emblazoned with the likeness of his Speedo-clad body.

Created by actor and activist Edward Norton, producer Shauna Robertson (Superbad, Knocked Up) and Robert and Jeffrey Wolfe (founders of the quirky online retailer Moosejaw), Crowdrise is harnessing the appeal of social networking to make giving go viral.

Solar Hybrid Lawnmower

Introducing the perfect gift for Fathers Day (or any other day):

Via IfItsHipItsHere

The Automower® Solar Hybrid is the world's first fully automatic lawn mower that is partly powered by the sun.

 

International Clean Tech Fair Casablanca 2010

Building on the success of Pollutec’s trade shows in France, Algeria and in the United Arab Emirates, and under the supervision of the Secretary of State for Water and the Environment, Pollutec Maroc is set to become the number one event for environmental professionals in Morocco.

If you're in the Clean Tech Industry, this is one major investment opportunity you don't want to miss out on!

In case you haven't heard, Morocco has been making huge progress with its socioeconomic development lately, trying to improve the country's overall living conditions as well as the economy. 

As it is right now approximately 35% of its population lacks electricity, so in order to take care of that problem, Morocco is investing heavily in energy efficiency with solar and wind farms as well as hydro energy.

The other primary objective is also focusing on protecting the environment to help improve the quality of the agricultural and fishing industries, and desalinization to provide fresh water to remote areas.

For more information on Casablanca's Clean Tech Fair, please visit www.pollutec-maroc.com

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.

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.