April 2009

Via Cryptome. This statute has been reauthorized. Our limited understanding is that it makes the United States government the guarantor of insurance company losses due to terror atttacks over certain threshold amounts. Whether there’s a moral hazard – discouraging insurers and insureds from taking preventive and mitigating measures – we don’t know. We hope to [...]

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Cryptome with resources (but not a complete list) of High-Hazard reservoirs in the New York City Area.watch tangled full movie online

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Coal plant with carbon sequestration plan to pipe tons of carbon dioxide 70 miles to be buried 1 mile under the sandstone floor of the Atlantic.

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Tom Mouat has produced current NATO map symbols as a font set called MapSymbs which is in fact used by NATO member countries. Popular Logistics editor and artist/animator/engineer Garry Osgood (Particular Art; site under construction) is currently experimenting with the construction of an icon set to be used as tools for planning and communication for [...]

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100 MPG Plug In Hybrid

by L J Furman on April 27, 2009

in Hybrids

RMI and Bright Automotive designed and will produce a 100 mpg plug-in-hybrid cargo van.

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Burning fossil fuels and using nuclear power create tremendous waste problems. Harnessing the sun, the wind, and the heat of the earth use energy with no fuel – therefore no pollution. The question is Eco-Watts v Killer-Watts. The choice is ours!

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Belmar, New Jersey has just graduated its first CERT class, and has started to recruit a second. Belmar, sensibly, takes an approach that makes it easy for participants to complete the one night per week/eight week program, apparently also providing gear rather than making new volunteers find their own (and, alas, often get fleeced in [...]

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For the  lion’s share of urgent posts here – reports about contemporaneous threats – I;m lucky to have good acccess to a  number of physicians, medical  personnel epidemiologists and other informants. But the single most useful resource is the blog The Pump Handle What’s more, Liz Borkowski and  Celeste Monforton, two of the Pump Handle [...]

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Go Solar. Fight Climate Change. Make Money.

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“Poisoned Waters focuses on the Chesapeake and the Puget Sound.

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President Obama will meet with U. S. credit card company executives Thursday. (Reuters.) Obama is expected to press the companies to change practices the Administration sees as “Deceptive” that have saddled consumers with high debt and high interest rates.

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From this morning’s Weekend Edition Saturday, Scott Simon’s essay, Captains of Integrity. Even if you’re a regular listener – it’s worth reading on the page for the essay itself, as a reminder that at times the production values of radio – and a familiar voice – can prevent us from catching the full power of [...]

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The Woman Behind the New Deal, by Kristen Downey, a new biography of Frances Perkins, U. S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. Perkins was largely responsible for the U.S. adoption of social security, unemployment insurance, federal laws regulating child labor, and adoption of the federal minimum wage. One of the items on her agenda that she did not accomplish was universal health care.

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Insufficient numbers of users and industries exist in most of Alaska to support large-scale utilities. Distribution systems must be constructed in very rough country, which increase costs and accessibility for repairs….Alternative small-scale power systems have a place in rural Alaska. Potential improvements in power distribution, generation and efficiency are available to residents of Alaska. Distribution performance can be improved by the use of small-scale power generators. Smaller generators can be placed much closer to the actual point of power consumption. Disruptions to the power supply are reduced and access for line repairs is much easier. Short power lines lose less power in transmission, and the power delivered is also “cleaner”, since there are fewer opportunities for broken insulators and lightning storms. The generation of power is changing with improvements to technology. Small-scale power generation can take many forms. At a village level, there are gas or diesel fired co-generation systems available. Co-generation means there is an effort made to produce power efficiently and utilize the waste heat for community needs. Fuel cells are becoming feasible. Communities that gain access to new natural gas pipelines may make good use of these. Hybrid generation systems seem to make good sense for rural users. A primary generator is powered by diesel or natural gas. By using a computerized inverter, large banks of storage batteries are charged while the generator is running. During periods of low consumption, the generator shuts down and the household runs off of power inverted from the batteries.

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Duct tape. Wrapped around a piece of a drinking straw. And there are other variation – see the comments on this brilliant post Make Your Own Pocket Duct Tape Dispenser.By Brad Isaacs on LifeHacker.Brad Isaacs is the creator of the blog Persistence Unlimited. takers movie download

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