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We bought a new home the other year, one built to Colorado's "Built Green" standards, or higher. All air ducts permanently sealed at every joint (i.e., no duct tape, which dries out and falls off after a few years); furnaces and water heater draw combustion air from outside the house; double E windows; extra insulation; storm doors; xeriscaped lawn to use less water, etc. Will use CFLs to replace standard bulbs in 40+ can lights as originals burn out.
Have joined the Colorado Renewable Energy Society to get info on the topic, with an eye to the future and on investing.
May get involved with President Obama's "Organizing for America" effort in the area of energy.
For those who aren't aware of it, there's a movement called Free-cycling, where folks can alert people as to things they need and things they're offering to give away for free. I'm signed up with my local Free-cycling group and it's really cool! You'd be amazed by the perfectly good things people give away!
Here's the website so you can see if there are groups in your area! The Freecycle Network
Freecycle is great, and started in Tucson, Arizona. We just gave away a Kenmore Progressive vacuum today, and another vacuum is going on Monday, as we couldn't sell them, even though they work fine.
We've gotten things we've needed from Freecycle, ourselves. Food, sheets, plants - all kinds of stuff. It's a nice way to keep stuff out of the landfills.
I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device. Cosmic ray investigation is a subject that is very close to me. I was the first to discover these rays and I naturally feel toward them as I would toward my own flesh and blood. I have advanced a theory of the cosmic rays and at every step of my investigations I have found it completely justified.
Brooklyn Eagle July 10, 1932 Nikola Tesla
Quote:
By 1897, the War of the Currents between AC and DC or between Westinghouse and Edison continued unabated. In 1895, Tesla's laboratory in New York City was totally destroyed by fire. Half a lifetime of priceless inventions were destroyed. Tesla usually worked through the night, but that particular night he was not in his shop, and miraculously escaped death.
Huge mergers took place between J. P. Morgan and Rockefeller controlled companies like Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric to form the present day General Electric Company. This new General Electric Company tried to take over Westinghouse and force them to abandon AC. They insisted that Westinghouse STOP paying royalties to Tesla:
“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
(This might shed some light on why it's a little disturbing to me to see GE in the White House...politic sides aside)
And for anyone that thinks that Tesla's ideas are crazy and inconceivable... let's not forget everything around you is a spawn of his ideas for the most part.
Two days after Tesla's death in 1943, the FBI
raided his residence in the Hotel New Yorker. Tesla's notes were believed to contain a
description for the construction of the death ray.
One of the primary reasons, as stated in the internal FBI documents for the raid
was that the FBI was concerned that Tesla's nephew, Sava Kosanovic, would give the notes
to the Soviets.
Quote:
We may never know for certain,
but fear stemming from this development lead to Reagan calling for the Strategic
Defense Initiative (SDI) or “Star Wars” as it was called.
Last edited by BigJon3475; 03-14-2009 at 06:38 PM..
Freecycle is great, and started in Tucson, Arizona. We just gave away a Kenmore Progressive vacuum today, and another vacuum is going on Monday, as we couldn't sell them, even though they work fine.
We've gotten things we've needed from Freecycle, ourselves. Food, sheets, plants - all kinds of stuff. It's a nice way to keep stuff out of the landfills.
The only problem I'm having is that you have to claim the items FAST in most cases. And, being disabled, I'm just not! I have to find someone to help me pick up items and that takes a bit of time. Any suggestions about overcoming that?
Another great idea is shopping and donating to the Habitat for Humanity RE-Stores. You can buy GREAT items for renovating your home at extremely cheap prices. I recently bought pull knobs for my kitchen cabinets at 50 cents each and a brand new chandelier still in the box for $10.
Stores, contractors, and private people donate to the Re-Stores and the proceeds are used to build Habitat for Humanity homes! They have furniture, appliances, tile, lighting fixtures, windows, doors, plumbing products, even tubs, toilets, sinks, you name it!
I will say that, there are, and never will be, any of those CFL bulbs in my home. The only thing I use them for now is target practice - hit those suckers with a .30 cal round and the sure do explode!
I have a stockpile of the incandescent bulbs to last 3, maybe 4, generations of my family.
CFLs throughout the house, ceiling fans, gas appliances, recycle dryer heat, NO TELEVISION for last 20 months, just bought a laptop, drive an 82 Volvo (27-28 mpg), use the radiator-type space heaters, waterbed. Ho-hum, do what I can for myself, not particularly worried about the rest of the world.
Don't forget to ask people about travel plans as well, like if they have cut back on flying in jet planes.
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Just some interesting things for the future
They have furniture, appliances, tile, lighting fixtures, windows, doors, plumbing products, even tubs, toilets, sinks, you name it!
