Video test

“Smug Alert” A South Park conservation commentary

This is barely linked to conservation, but I watched the Smug Alert episode of South Park this evening, and I have to say these guys are genius at what they do.  South Park, when you look past the immature comedy, offers some of the most biting, even-handed social commentary you will find anywhere on television, and it is a shame they go unrecognized for that.  I still can’t tell if they are liberal or conservative, and I have been watching their show its inception.  Which, to me is not only their genius, but also qualifies them as imminently fair in their treatment of newsmakers.   Smug Alert is about the way people who consider themselves to be conservationists of higher social standing because of their progressive attitude.   I am not going to write about the whole episode, but for any of you people that might fall into the San Franciscan type liberal that they are poking fun at, I would love to hear from you how things really are.  Can you admit to this kind of holier than thou smugness, or will you pretend that it simply doesn’t happen?  I would really like to know.  By the way, the method how they “enjoy” their smugness is one of the most brilliant if crude plot devices I have ever seen, and the imagery of it makes a terrible but stingingly illustrative point.  There is no way not to love it.  This episode fits into the pantheon  of brilliant episodes, like the “Jared has Aides”, and the “Ellian Gonzales Easter”, as well as the election episodes.  I suggest people who have not watched south park watch a few epsiodes and you will see, despite their crudeness, a witty, incisive commentary on serious issues.  The smug alert episode just happens to be one of my favorites.

Visit Althingamerica for more conservation oriented commentary and postings.  DV

A little Vacation from Conservation…

I have been promising to write that article about window energy savings in the warm climates, but it is going to have to wait a little longer. I have been redesigning a website, with new software to boot, and it takes a ridiculous amount of time. This writing being a hobby while work being necessary to my existence, it takes precedence. This is not about my work, which I am going to keep private. It is about what I have been reading about a lot with envy, as I have not been able to take a vacation myself for quite a while.

I started by reading about Belize, which is formerly British Honduras. It is a tiny country off the boot of Mexico. It doesn’t get the publicity of Costa Rica in Central America, and here is why: There are only 250,000 people in the whole country! I keep thinking about going there for a year to write, as they do speak english there, and I thought that would be convenient. But I heard it is hard to change the money there-they love american hard currency and hate to see it leave the country. It should be a great place to go, but I don’t think that it is as polished a vacation destination as is Costa Rica. I had two young girlfriends go there for several weeks a couple of years ago, and they found it to be incredibly beautiful and interesting, and more importantly, safe. They are very attractive young gals, and they experienced no problems whatsoever. After they came back with their photo albums and stories, I talked to a buddy of mine about renting a Costa Rica Vacation Home for a few weeks just to see what it would be like to be there. Unfortunately, the wifey wouldn’t hear of it-of course, she wasn’t invited, so that might have had something to do with it. All the pretty ticas-as Costa Rican girls are known-and I would have to worry about being if you would like to read the rest of this article, you can find it here….althingamerica

Windows on our world…New, energy-efficient, windows on our world.

If you are the owner of an older home that has never been remodeled, chances are you peering through one of the chief energy wasters in your home-bad windows. Older windows sin in a variety of ways. See here how this occurs. The frames leak, the glass is sealed poorly, and they are often single-paned. The Department of Energy estimates that almost half of all American homes have single-paned windows. You might say, “so what? How much difference can it make?” Well, simply put its a lot. Windows account for the expenditure of 10%-25% of your energy costs. You really want your costs to be on the low end of that range. If you have single-paned windows, then your cost certainly are in the higher end of that range, and may actually be higher. This is tremendously wasteful, and quite likely it makes your house uncomfortable or even drafty in extreme weather. If you are interested in efficiency, and in a place financially to do so, consider changing those windows. Here are a few things for you to look for.

Energy Star refers to a program formed between the EPA and the Department of Energy. These entities “introduced ENERGY STAR as a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, according to the Department of Energy–If you would like to read the rest of this article, it is posted at www.althingamerica.blogspot.com.

Energy Technology that’s good for the planet…and your pocketbook.

There are a lot of things we can do as consumers to benefit the environment, but there are very few that can have as much positive impact on the planet as conserving water and energy. That also means you save money on your water and energy bills. And, it will likely qualify for a energy saving tax credit from the feds. What could be better?

What is this magical product, you ask? It is a simple household appliance that we all should be converting to willingly, and likely will be willingly or no in the next 10 years. It is none other than the tankless water heater. The tankless water heater is already mandated throughout Europe, where water and energy resources are especially scarce. Why is this so important to us? For several reasons, not the least of which is that it will slow our consumption of water drastically. Cate Blanchett can take all the 2 min showers she wants, but it can’t compare to half a millon households in every major city in the western United States drawing on only the water they use during the day, instead of storing 50-70 gallons a day in a metal tank. The less water that gets pulled out of the ground, the more groundwater for left for nature. Think of your water tank heater as withdrawing money out of interest bearing investments and redepositing instantaneously it to cover your withdrawls as you incur them,  for the sole purpose of keeping your balance at some fictitious number you will never spend.

The second benefit, obviously, is the energy savings of not maintaining the water temperature of 50+ gallons at 125 degrees all day, even when you are not using it. Depending on your location, the energy required to heat water could be very minimal. If you are in a warm climate, such as Arizona, you will require very little energy. Even in the winter months, you would only have to heat water 30-45 degrees; in the summer, on 20-30. The energy savings would be most dramatic in warmer climates, where water has to be heated to a lesser extent.

I am not going to get into all the particulars of this; you can read all about them on retailers sites; what I do want to get across is that they are not particularly expensive to buy, and they are very efficient, and very worthy of our attention, especially in a desert state like Arizona. There are numerous good manufactures of these tanks, Rinnai, Eemax, Paloma, Stiebel Eltron, Bosch, to name a few. Again, these things are all over Europe, so it is not untested technology. There is a great amount of data available on the net about them, and I encourage you to look into them. One of the authorities on these is Low Energy Systems, a leading distributor of the Paloma and other tankless water heaters. . 

There are tradeoffs, or we would all be using them already.  One, obviously is cost, and a likely lack of familiarity by plumbers.  As I mentioned, the cost can be slightly higher than a tank heater, but those costs are certainly offset by monthly bills over time.  There is also the tax credit, which further offsets the higher cost.  The next time you get a chance to talk to a environmental activist or oily-haired celebrity, I would certainly want you ask them if they have considered saving water and energy by installing a tankless water heater.  I would be most curious about their answer. 

Clinton, Obama, Stand in Accord…its okay to make fun of John Edwards.

Saturday, August 18, 2007 

Turkey Knob, IA 

Senator Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards met for lunch Saturday to discuss the increasing rancor in the Democractic primary race.  Clinton called for the meeting after Barack had flashed signals in speeches that he was going to start playing rough.  Obama has been losing ground in democratic stronghold states, specifically California.   The meeting went very amicably, with all candidates re-stating their commitment to limiting their personal attacks to the President and the Republican Party.  

 The meeting ended with Obama glancing sidelong at Hilary, before turning to Edwards and saying his campaign would be glad to pick up the check, as he could see John needed another haircut.  At this point Barack and Hilary broke into laughter.  Hillary then told Edwards she hoped he had been paid for all his work with the hedge funds, as it didn’t look like they would be paying anything to anybody any time soon.  Clinton then offered to give him a ride in her caravan, if it would help save him gas money.  Mr. Obama, who had been enjoying a glass of milk with his chocolate pie, did a nice job of covering his face,  which was surely covered in milk as a liquid snorting sound could be heard clearly in a three table radius.   

Edwards quickly called into “Hardball” asking for another appearance, once again blaming his fundraising efforts on that ”she-devil” Ann Coulter. He felt it was crucial that  he be allowed to make a public call for another $25,000,000 in donations.  John Edwards was last seen sucking his thumb and stamping his foot outside the cafe when Chris Matthews told him he was on vacation, and none of his guest hosts wanted to interview Edwards.   Ann Coulter, responding to the news on The Factor, said simply “Buy my book, or I will scratch your eyes out.”

Thank you for reading “I wish It Were News.”  For real, not-made up political news, try this.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/ 

The Energy Revolution…

I want to talk about something that is so very important to me, and to the rest of the world.  It is energy.  The western world has moved through the industrial revolution, the electronic revolution, and also the internet revolution.  I have been talking about the next revolution since 1999.  It should have already happened.  The energy revolution needs to change the way we interact with the world the same way that the internet did.  I still don’t see how, but I know that America needs to grab the bull by the horns and change how we use energy.  It is strange to me, as an avowed financial conservative, that we would spend a trillion in Iraq (without getting some free oil out of it) instead of spending it on infrastructure to power fuel cell cars.  There is no doubt in my mind we should have been here already.  This is not a political post, so I will move on, but there are numeous things that should and could be addressed today, and our government does little to nothing to encourage it.  These are not political-driven items.  Just for fun, I am going to start a list here of new technologies that I think should be pushed, and I would like you ingenious people of America to add to the list.  I am not looking for celebrities washing their hair less, or fred flintstoning your car down the street, but be ingenious, but limit it to available technology.  Here are just a few items that I think should be at the top of the list.

 1.  Geothermal-My dad in a small town in the middle of nowhere, has a geothermal heating and cooling system.  The technology is not overly expensive, and it is ingenious.  It has been around since roman times in simpler form.  Look it up in wikipedia.  Basically you sink some wells in the ground, run some heat exchange coils, and use the  temperture of the earth to “warm” the coils in winter, and cool them in summer.  If the outside air is 20 degrees, heating 50 degree air is a lot to cheaper, right?  And the same radiated air is cheaper to cool in summer too.  The temperature of the ground doesn’t change much at depth, and this system works incredibly well in certain locations.   I haven’t even heard of it in arizona yet.

2.  Biofuels, but particularly biodiesel.  Okay, internal combustion should be on its way out, but it is probably necessary for heavy duty engines.  Hydrogen Fuel cell tech,  as I understand it, will not likely be great for large earth moving equipment, so we will have internal combustion around for quite a while, so don’t write off the diesel just yet.  The beautiful part about biodiesel is that we don’t have to change current engine tech much to use it, and as we all know the biggest obstacle to changing over is infrastructure, not the tech.  If you have a 1985 mercedes diesel, you can use biodiesel with very little modification.  Ethanol is a little more complicated, but manufacturers are stepping up and making e85 Vehicles.   Biodiesel is not the long term solution to passenger car use, but it is the best stepping stone.   It provides great economy, and soy is one of the easiest things for farmers to produce.  Canola is even better as a biodiesel fuelstock, but rapeseed (that’s what they call it in europe) grows in North Dakota and parts of canada and not much of anywhere else.  Biodiesel  has its gelling problems in cold weather states but nothing that can’t be overcome with blending.  Still, we don’t need to eliminate oil use immediately, we just want want to cut it back to where our foreign imports is cut as much as possible.  We still produce oil here, we just use so much.  If you are interested in the subject, check out this biodiesel trade site.

  I salute minnesota for its efforts to increase the use of biofuels. It is really pushing it. They have other reasons, of course.  They are pandering to their voter base in Minnesota, and rightly so.  The other upside of Biofuels is that even if it is as expensive to produce as buying foreign oil, what nobody seems to mention is that the money stays here with american farmers, american processing plants, and american companies that market it.  When we buy foreign oil, we are paying for gold plated Mercedes among our friends in the middle east, and AKs and RPGs for our enemies. What do the TV pundits and academians not understand about that?  Every time they interview one, they talk about the excessive cost to produce ethanol, and the tax incentive.  Bottom line is, even if is not particularly cheaper, at least the money isn’t draining away to the middle east, Chavez, or Russia.  Macro Econ will tell you that the more money we keep in our system, the richer we will be and the less influence the chavezes and putins have in the world.   The higher price we pay for corn-related food is a trade off, but there are always trade offs.  Maybe someone would then figure out switchgrass or burning cornstalks if corn got too high. 

3.  Hydrogen fuel cell.  I know nothing about this except for two things:  1.  We are not working hard enough on it, so it is not ready for general consumption yet.  Two.  The cost of the infrastructure to install hydrogen fuel tanks at gas stations is a massive investment, and will only be done if the government encourages it with incentives.  The clearest explanation I found was also on wikipedia.

 Those are my top three.  I will compile the list from your entries in a couple of weeks.  I am so interested in hearing from you about this topic! 

The Drudge Report: Comments?

How many of you read the Drudge Report on a daily basis?  I am adddicted to the darn thing, and I am curious if other people find it as interesting as I do.  Don’t be shy; it is not as bad as it sounds.  It is only partially gossipy. 

 Do you find a bias on Drudge, or is pretty good headline writing?  I can’t make up my mind on that.

Discount Rate Cut…How does it affect you?

Wassail!

 Well, we have now been told that the Fed has cut the discount rate to banks?  Great.  How is this helping you, Average Joe Six Pack?  What does it mean?  I am interested in what you think it means.  I can tell you, but what I am interested most in is the affect on public sentiment-what you feel as you get it straight from the news.  Please tell me what you think this is going to do for us.  I will chime in with my own 2 cents + 1 for the government later.