Yea, I was going to mention it but not wanting to repeat it I found your post when I searched. I've been reading "Home Power" for years, along with "Solar Today" and "Backwoods Home".
A full-scale home lighting system is going to use vast amounts of electricity.
Maybe I missed it but I don't see where the person asking about DIY solar says anything about lighting a whole house, all I see is a "large shed", now what that means I don't know. And depending on what lights are used vast amounts of electricity may or may not be needed. CFLs use 1/4 the electricity of incandescent lights while providing the same amount of light.
Because it's a DIY project, requested by someone without basic electrical knowledge.
I have a problem with this too, I don't see where the person says how much electrical knowledge they have, or what type. Someone who knows AC may not know much about DC. A good example of this is with High Voltage DC transmission, I've heard licensed electricians admit they don't know much about it. That is a person may be able to design an AC system but not one that's DC. Where knowledge of both is needed is where there's an intertie.
Light tubes like the Solatube would come in handy here. However with a battery bank work could be done when it's dark. Last year or the year before IEEE's "Spectrum" had an article on how people in South Asia have been able to increase their income by buying a solar panel and batteries which allows them to do some work when dark. And the panels generate more income because they are made locally creating jobs. Ump, I just searched the site but didn't find anything, maybe it's only in the print edition.
Honda also makes some super quiet generators that are less of a pita than solar.
I'd only use generators as a backup, even when converted to run on alcohol or methane.
Having a volcano or two to tap into is helpful, too.
Yea, I'd imagine if they could tap into the volcanoes more more of their energy could be geothermal. Though not as much as Iceland Hawaii could generate a lot of energy that way.
The reality of the political process RIGHT NOW is that you can't have both. Either the law passes as amended or it doesn't. Getting the amendments removed is a VERY long shot.
The amendments didn't need to be, and shouldn't have been, added to begin with.
You are reading waaay too much into it as a conspiracy.
Ah so you can read my mind? Fact is is I don't put anything into it being part of a conspirancy. I admit nobody knew what was going to happen though I also say they used 911 to their advantage. Clinton sought the same powers as president as the PATRIOT Act gave Bush, but congress didn't want him to have that power. And I doubt one congress critter that voted for it read it, Democrat or Republican. Ralph Nader offered to donate a lot of money to any charity of their choice to any member of congress who would take a test on what was in the act. None took him up on the offer.
if the japanese had attacked in the East, USSR would have ceased to exist
I doubt it, the Japanese would have had to cross the vast expanse of Siberia to reach anything where they could do damage. Most of the USSR's manufacturing capabilities was in Europe, yes part of Russia is part of Europe.
we can do it better, but overall it's still the best bang for the buck (calculating the waste output, and handling of said waste output, into the buck) that we have.
How is nuclear power the best choice? We don't even have a way to deal with the waste.
I'm hopeful that when we do get around to building new reactors, they'll be of a more modern and efficient design than the ones running currently.
Where are these designs? And not just general hand waving but actual designs. And doing more research into new designs don't count, the same energy and money put into alternative resources may come out with better things.
Sorry, Falcon, but solar, wind, wave, hydro and all the other renewables won't cut it at our current consumption levels (see the link at the end).
So your news link beats my science links?
A nearly-as-bad downside is the fact that the footprint for enough of a solar or wind farm to replace a coal plant means you're eating up many times more real estate with concrete and metal than the coal plant did, and I've no desire to pave the planet.
Did you even read the Sciam article? Or the Wind Atlas?
So the big objection to coal power (which also pertains to combustion engines; cars) is that we're running out of the power source and there's not more we can get or make.
My biggest issue with coal, and nuclear power, is that it is dirty. If you're going to bring up carbon capture and storage, show one such plant in operation that actually works.
and then there's the limited-fuel-resources-from-few-suppliers drawback as well
Now I'll admit here the US doesn't need to worry about running out of coal, there's hundreds of years of coal in the US alone. As stated above though it's dirty. And not just the burning of coal but the mining as well. Mountain Top removal is probably the dirtiest mining there is, though uranium mining comes close. And underground mining isn't any better, healthier, or safer. It causes Black Lung as well as other health problems. There are a number of underground fires in coal mines, the Centralia mine fire in Columbia County, Pennsylvania has been burning since 1962.
However, with only a few thousand nuclear plants, eventually, powering the US
We don't need more centralized power, we need more distributed power. Nor do we need to devote land for just one purpose, which nuclear power requires. With wind gennies, generators, farmers can lease small plots, or use as their own, to erect a genny. This would create a second source of income for farmers. One of the biggest problems with wind farms are all the NIMBYs, such as the ones fighting siting wind farms off the coast of Cape Hatteras. The Mid-Atlantic Coast Could Supply 330 gigawatts of Electricity, from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, alone according to researchers at University of Delaware. Meanwhile 4 Nuclear Power Plants in California had a capacity of 4 gigawatts in 2005. That comes to 1 gigawatt per power plant, whereas the wind potential off the Mid Atlantic comes to 330 nuclear power plants.
For instance, there is no reason for handguns to be available.
Have you ever been hog hunting? Or in close quarters combat? How about trying to protect your family when robbers broke in? Though I haven't in a long tyme I used to go hunting in Hog Valley, FL outside of Gainesville where the University of Florida is located. Although only for training I've also been in urban and close quarters combat. And then I wished I did have a handgun, not the.45 APC but something like a.451 Magnum or.41 Magnum.
Did they really? Because there was a lot of discussions surrounding how the administration thought they had the authority to do it.
I'm no constitutional authority, but nowhere in the Constitution of the USA does it give that power to the executive branch. And the Constitution is a limit on what government can do. It doesn't seem like it today but that's how it was written.
If they knew, you would think they wouldn't have bothered writing legal opinions and such to do it.
It just as possible any "legal opinions" were written to cover their asses. "See we wrote these to show we believed what we did was legal."
Would you want el Duce, Hilter, or Stalin to have the same power? How about Pol Pot? Idi Amin?
Totally irrelevant. Nothing this administration has done is remotely close to those people and going after the telecoms has no relation to any of it either.
It's very relevant, not even the NAZIs did everything at once. Instead they slowly whittled away. Hitler wasn't even given all the power he had until after the Reistag fire. And going after the telecoms will show they can be made to pay if they do anything illegal.
Would you prefer a government willing to go all the way when those people decide to invade?
What people invading where?
Or how about when your shopping at a mall and terrorist decide to blow it up for 72 virgins.
I'm more concerned about the Christian Talibans And Reconstructionists and Theocratic Dominionists who want to dictate how I live, if I don't live the way they dictate I'm stoned to death. Or how they are trying to get rid of science in school and teach Creationism, ID, instead. I still recall having an elementary school teacher in a public school forcibly apply a ruler to children's hands and arms, including my own, because we wouldn't say the pledge of allegiance with "under god". In a public school.
Dude. if we had had the tools then, the towers would still be there.
HAHA!!! The Bush admen knew something was going to happen but didn't prevent it. Heck the Justice department even prevented FBI agent Coleen Rowley from investigating a potential hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. Personally though I agree with that decision. As Benjamin Franklin said " Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
If Obama wants to get the money and support of the democrat party
Obama doesn't need party funding. He's got the largest war, er campaign, chest by collecting millions of dollars off of individuals over the net. Actually he went back on his pledge to use public financing because he's doing so well fund raising. McCain is starting to use that as an issue.
if I were in the senate right now and the two choices were "stop this from happening going forward, but let the first batch go through" and "nail the guys who did this, but continue to have this fight every time the issue comes up", I might just pick the future over the present.
Either or aren't the only choices, you can have both. Actually by showing businesses they will be prosecuted it may stop them from doing something illegal when they are asked next tyme.
As much as I am against the wiretapping, it isn't actually wrong to make the telcos immune to something the government required them to do.
It is very bad. Those telcoms who followed government orders, Qwest was the only one to refuse, must of known they were given unconstitutional orders. Just saying you're following orders isn't any good.
Does anybody actually think they had much choice in the matter?
Yes, they had a choice. Qwest told them to bring back a warrant issued by the courts and they're still in business.
I have respect for Libertarians, but 3rd party is a tougher fight because Repubs/Demos already legislated the playing field to suit themselves so it's easier to take over a major party than to get Libertarians in prominent political positions in order to have the average voter consider them a valid force.
Except most Libertarians started as Republicans. The LP itself was started by Republicans who were fed up with Nixon and the party.
If Dr. Paul truly wishes to change the Republican party, he needs to lead an exodus from the Republican Party.
Ron Paul did leave the Republican Party in a way. In 1988 he ran for president for the Libertarian Party. The LP itself was started by Republicans who were fed up with Nixon.
As a sidenote, he's not even an ardent supporter of small government. He supports a small federal government, and huge overbearing state governments.
A small federal government is what the Constitution of the USA is about. That says nothing about the size of state government though. I used to support Paul because of this, however I disagree with large state government, I want as small of a government as possible at all levels.
Ron Paul and his supporters and trying to change the Republican Party. This will be a slow process, probably taking 5-15 years before we have significant leadership positions in that party
People have been trying to change the Republican Party for more than 30 years now. The Libertarian Party was started by Republicans who were fed up with the republican party and Nixon. However Libertarians have been fighting in the party at least since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for president. What ironic is that Ike is the same person who warned about the military industrial complex.
About the only thing I agree with McCain on is that we need one heck of a lot more nuclear power plants.
I totally disagree with McCain, and you, on this. More nuclear power plants are not needed, and those in operation now can be shutdown. Sciam has the article "A Solar Grand Plan" explaining how solar power can provide "supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050." Then the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States details the wind energy potential of the continental US. The Rocky Mountains alone contains enough potential wind power. A sizable portion of energy can be sourced by geothermal sources as well. Then there's recoverable waste heat. Many megawatts of wasted heat goes up smoke stacks daily. But possibly the biggest source of energy is the negawatt, energy that's not needed. Combined with tidal and other energy sources there is no need for nuclear power plants.
But our global diplomatic stance, Iraq (drawing down), Afghanistan (stepping it up), health care, taxes, net neutrality, education, Supreme Court nominations, transparency and information availability from government - all of these are why I'm voting for Obama.
These are the same reasons I currently support Bob Barr as the Libertarian candidate. If the election were today or tomorrow I'd vote for Barr. But between McCain and Obama I'd vote for Obama.
Mind you, I've had a long day so far, but the only thing I can think of is a reference to Bush 1...?
After rereading the post I see my post was wrong. For some reason I was thinking your comment was about Clinton. I see now that while the ggp did say something about Clinton-bashing, the post I replied to did not. What I meant though is that Clinton was the "NEXT to LAST almost-as-obnoxious turd" to be in the White House.
I'm confused, and feeling like maybe my hair is messy from a *WOOOSH* but at least I've got the balls to stand up and proclaim my ignorance loudly!:-D
No need, it was my mistake. Oh and Bush 1 is the second from last.
What kind of checks and balances in a Republic is that?
Unlike a democracy a republic does not require checks and balances. All a republic requires is "a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch". A dictatorship can very well be, and most likely is, a republic.
This kills all of the lawsuits by quaffing each suit prior to the discovery process.
Only until the US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional. Now whether they would or not is up in the air. The current court has rubber stamped some of what the Bush admin wants to do but has barred others. The recent court ruling upholding habeas corpus for instance was a 5 to 4 ruling. However the Gonzales v. Raich ruling, the case about states rights and California voters approving medical marijuana, was 6 to 3 against states rights, without giving any logic based on the USA Constitution for the ruling.
Slashdot Mirror
Home Power is what you want to look at.
Yea, I was going to mention it but not wanting to repeat it I found your post when I searched. I've been reading "Home Power" for years, along with "Solar Today" and "Backwoods Home".
FalconA full-scale home lighting system is going to use vast amounts of electricity.
Maybe I missed it but I don't see where the person asking about DIY solar says anything about lighting a whole house, all I see is a "large shed", now what that means I don't know. And depending on what lights are used vast amounts of electricity may or may not be needed. CFLs use 1/4 the electricity of incandescent lights while providing the same amount of light.
Because it's a DIY project, requested by someone without basic electrical knowledge.
I have a problem with this too, I don't see where the person says how much electrical knowledge they have, or what type. Someone who knows AC may not know much about DC. A good example of this is with High Voltage DC transmission, I've heard licensed electricians admit they don't know much about it. That is a person may be able to design an AC system but not one that's DC. Where knowledge of both is needed is where there's an intertie.
FalconLight tubes like the Solatube would come in handy here. However with a battery bank work could be done when it's dark. Last year or the year before IEEE's "Spectrum" had an article on how people in South Asia have been able to increase their income by buying a solar panel and batteries which allows them to do some work when dark. And the panels generate more income because they are made locally creating jobs. Ump, I just searched the site but didn't find anything, maybe it's only in the print edition.
Honda also makes some super quiet generators that are less of a pita than solar.
I'd only use generators as a backup, even when converted to run on alcohol or methane.
FalconHaving a volcano or two to tap into is helpful, too.
Yea, I'd imagine if they could tap into the volcanoes more more of their energy could be geothermal. Though not as much as Iceland Hawaii could generate a lot of energy that way.
FalconSolar is economically competitive in some markets today, like in sunny places with high electricity prices, e.g. Hawaii
The big island of Puna in Hawaii gets 30% of it's energy from geothermal power.
FalconThe reality of the political process RIGHT NOW is that you can't have both. Either the law passes as amended or it doesn't. Getting the amendments removed is a VERY long shot.
The amendments didn't need to be, and shouldn't have been, added to begin with.
FalconYou are reading waaay too much into it as a conspiracy.
Ah so you can read my mind? Fact is is I don't put anything into it being part of a conspirancy. I admit nobody knew what was going to happen though I also say they used 911 to their advantage. Clinton sought the same powers as president as the PATRIOT Act gave Bush, but congress didn't want him to have that power. And I doubt one congress critter that voted for it read it, Democrat or Republican. Ralph Nader offered to donate a lot of money to any charity of their choice to any member of congress who would take a test on what was in the act. None took him up on the offer.
if the japanese had attacked in the East, USSR would have ceased to exist
I doubt it, the Japanese would have had to cross the vast expanse of Siberia to reach anything where they could do damage. Most of the USSR's manufacturing capabilities was in Europe, yes part of Russia is part of Europe.
Falconwe can do it better, but overall it's still the best bang for the buck (calculating the waste output, and handling of said waste output, into the buck) that we have.
How is nuclear power the best choice? We don't even have a way to deal with the waste.
I'm hopeful that when we do get around to building new reactors, they'll be of a more modern and efficient design than the ones running currently.
Where are these designs? And not just general hand waving but actual designs. And doing more research into new designs don't count, the same energy and money put into alternative resources may come out with better things.
Sorry, Falcon, but solar, wind, wave, hydro and all the other renewables won't cut it at our current consumption levels (see the link at the end).
So your news link beats my science links?
A nearly-as-bad downside is the fact that the footprint for enough of a solar or wind farm to replace a coal plant means you're eating up many times more real estate with concrete and metal than the coal plant did, and I've no desire to pave the planet.
Did you even read the Sciam article? Or the Wind Atlas?
So the big objection to coal power (which also pertains to combustion engines; cars) is that we're running out of the power source and there's not more we can get or make.
My biggest issue with coal, and nuclear power, is that it is dirty. If you're going to bring up carbon capture and storage, show one such plant in operation that actually works.
and then there's the limited-fuel-resources-from-few-suppliers drawback as well
Now I'll admit here the US doesn't need to worry about running out of coal, there's hundreds of years of coal in the US alone. As stated above though it's dirty. And not just the burning of coal but the mining as well. Mountain Top removal is probably the dirtiest mining there is, though uranium mining comes close. And underground mining isn't any better, healthier, or safer. It causes Black Lung as well as other health problems. There are a number of underground fires in coal mines, the Centralia mine fire in Columbia County, Pennsylvania has been burning since 1962.
However, with only a few thousand nuclear plants, eventually, powering the US
We don't need more centralized power, we need more distributed power. Nor do we need to devote land for just one purpose, which nuclear power requires. With wind gennies, generators, farmers can lease small plots, or use as their own, to erect a genny. This would create a second source of income for farmers. One of the biggest problems with wind farms are all the NIMBYs, such as the ones fighting siting wind farms off the coast of Cape Hatteras. The Mid-Atlantic Coast Could Supply 330 gigawatts of Electricity, from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, alone according to researchers at University of Delaware. Meanwhile 4 Nuclear Power Plants in California had a capacity of 4 gigawatts in 2005. That comes to 1 gigawatt per power plant, whereas the wind potential off the Mid Atlantic comes to 330 nuclear power plants.
FalconFor instance, there is no reason for handguns to be available.
Have you ever been hog hunting? Or in close quarters combat? How about trying to protect your family when robbers broke in? Though I haven't in a long tyme I used to go hunting in Hog Valley, FL outside of Gainesville where the University of Florida is located. Although only for training I've also been in urban and close quarters combat. And then I wished I did have a handgun, not the .45 APC but something like a .451 Magnum or .41 Magnum.
FalconDid they really? Because there was a lot of discussions surrounding how the administration thought they had the authority to do it.
I'm no constitutional authority, but nowhere in the Constitution of the USA does it give that power to the executive branch. And the Constitution is a limit on what government can do. It doesn't seem like it today but that's how it was written.
If they knew, you would think they wouldn't have bothered writing legal opinions and such to do it.
It just as possible any "legal opinions" were written to cover their asses. "See we wrote these to show we believed what we did was legal."
Would you want el Duce, Hilter, or Stalin to have the same power? How about Pol Pot? Idi Amin?
Totally irrelevant. Nothing this administration has done is remotely close to those people and going after the telecoms has no relation to any of it either.
It's very relevant, not even the NAZIs did everything at once. Instead they slowly whittled away. Hitler wasn't even given all the power he had until after the Reistag fire. And going after the telecoms will show they can be made to pay if they do anything illegal.
Would you prefer a government willing to go all the way when those people decide to invade?
What people invading where?
Or how about when your shopping at a mall and terrorist decide to blow it up for 72 virgins.
I'm more concerned about the Christian Talibans And Reconstructionists and Theocratic Dominionists who want to dictate how I live, if I don't live the way they dictate I'm stoned to death. Or how they are trying to get rid of science in school and teach Creationism, ID, instead. I still recall having an elementary school teacher in a public school forcibly apply a ruler to children's hands and arms, including my own, because we wouldn't say the pledge of allegiance with "under god". In a public school.
FalconA box was left out, soap. "Soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.".
FalconDude. if we had had the tools then, the towers would still be there.
HAHA!!! The Bush admen knew something was going to happen but didn't prevent it. Heck the Justice department even prevented FBI agent Coleen Rowley from investigating a potential hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui. Personally though I agree with that decision. As Benjamin Franklin said " Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
FalconIf Obama wants to get the money and support of the democrat party
Obama doesn't need party funding. He's got the largest war, er campaign, chest by collecting millions of dollars off of individuals over the net. Actually he went back on his pledge to use public financing because he's doing so well fund raising. McCain is starting to use that as an issue.
Falconif I were in the senate right now and the two choices were "stop this from happening going forward, but let the first batch go through" and "nail the guys who did this, but continue to have this fight every time the issue comes up", I might just pick the future over the present.
Either or aren't the only choices, you can have both. Actually by showing businesses they will be prosecuted it may stop them from doing something illegal when they are asked next tyme.
FalconLast I checked, Qwest wasn't brought up on "not doing the executive branch's bidding"
That's because you didn't really check [fiercetelecom.com] at all, did you?
Being blacklisted, if Qwest was, is not being put on charges of "not doing the executive branch's bidding". That's not even a crime.
FalconAs much as I am against the wiretapping, it isn't actually wrong to make the telcos immune to something the government required them to do.
It is very bad. Those telcoms who followed government orders, Qwest was the only one to refuse, must of known they were given unconstitutional orders. Just saying you're following orders isn't any good.
Does anybody actually think they had much choice in the matter?
Yes, they had a choice. Qwest told them to bring back a warrant issued by the courts and they're still in business.
FalconIt was the government that started this whole ball rolling and the telcos were (more or less) just following orders.
The same excuse was used during the Nuremberge Trials, "I was just following orders."
FalconI have respect for Libertarians, but 3rd party is a tougher fight because Repubs/Demos already legislated the playing field to suit themselves so it's easier to take over a major party than to get Libertarians in prominent political positions in order to have the average voter consider them a valid force.
Except most Libertarians started as Republicans. The LP itself was started by Republicans who were fed up with Nixon and the party.
FalconIf Dr. Paul truly wishes to change the Republican party, he needs to lead an exodus from the Republican Party.
Ron Paul did leave the Republican Party in a way. In 1988 he ran for president for the Libertarian Party. The LP itself was started by Republicans who were fed up with Nixon.
FalconAs a sidenote, he's not even an ardent supporter of small government. He supports a small federal government, and huge overbearing state governments.
A small federal government is what the Constitution of the USA is about. That says nothing about the size of state government though. I used to support Paul because of this, however I disagree with large state government, I want as small of a government as possible at all levels.
FalconRon Paul and his supporters and trying to change the Republican Party. This will be a slow process, probably taking 5-15 years before we have significant leadership positions in that party
People have been trying to change the Republican Party for more than 30 years now. The Libertarian Party was started by Republicans who were fed up with the republican party and Nixon. However Libertarians have been fighting in the party at least since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for president. What ironic is that Ike is the same person who warned about the military industrial complex.
FalconAbout the only thing I agree with McCain on is that we need one heck of a lot more nuclear power plants.
I totally disagree with McCain, and you, on this. More nuclear power plants are not needed, and those in operation now can be shutdown. Sciam has the article "A Solar Grand Plan" explaining how solar power can provide "supply 69 percent of the U.S.'s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050." Then the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States details the wind energy potential of the continental US. The Rocky Mountains alone contains enough potential wind power. A sizable portion of energy can be sourced by geothermal sources as well. Then there's recoverable waste heat. Many megawatts of wasted heat goes up smoke stacks daily. But possibly the biggest source of energy is the negawatt, energy that's not needed. Combined with tidal and other energy sources there is no need for nuclear power plants.
But our global diplomatic stance, Iraq (drawing down), Afghanistan (stepping it up), health care, taxes, net neutrality, education, Supreme Court nominations, transparency and information availability from government - all of these are why I'm voting for Obama.
These are the same reasons I currently support Bob Barr as the Libertarian candidate. If the election were today or tomorrow I'd vote for Barr. But between McCain and Obama I'd vote for Obama.
FalconMind you, I've had a long day so far, but the only thing I can think of is a reference to Bush 1...?
After rereading the post I see my post was wrong. For some reason I was thinking your comment was about Clinton. I see now that while the ggp did say something about Clinton-bashing, the post I replied to did not. What I meant though is that Clinton was the "NEXT to LAST almost-as-obnoxious turd" to be in the White House.
I'm confused, and feeling like maybe my hair is messy from a *WOOOSH* but at least I've got the balls to stand up and proclaim my ignorance loudly! :-D
No need, it was my mistake. Oh and Bush 1 is the second from last.
FalconWhat kind of checks and balances in a Republic is that?
Unlike a democracy a republic does not require checks and balances. All a republic requires is "a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch". A dictatorship can very well be, and most likely is, a republic.
This kills all of the lawsuits by quaffing each suit prior to the discovery process.
Only until the US Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional. Now whether they would or not is up in the air. The current court has rubber stamped some of what the Bush admin wants to do but has barred others. The recent court ruling upholding habeas corpus for instance was a 5 to 4 ruling. However the Gonzales v. Raich ruling, the case about states rights and California voters approving medical marijuana, was 6 to 3 against states rights, without giving any logic based on the USA Constitution for the ruling.
Falcondon't go all melodramatic and talk about the NEXT to LAST almost-as-obnoxious turd to grace the office just to make yourself feel better.
Fixed that for you.
Falcon