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My Facebook Posts - Not much activity here lately, eh? That's because I've been spending more and more time on Facebook, posting lots of items there. You can see some of my stuff by subscribing to this feed, if you're interested.
—Mike @ 14:17
Carl -
My friend for the past 45 years, Carl in Michigan, passed away suddenly this morning, after bravely fighting brain cancer all summer. Carl and I attended the same grammar school, high school and were college roommates. He was best man at our wedding, and I was his (twice). We spent a summer in high school working together at Yellowstone Park, and we were re-visiting there with him and Yvonne in September 2001 when the 9/11 attacks occurred, stranding us for another three days on vacation. Can't believe he's gone.
—Mike @ 23:52
Quote du jour -The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.
-Cicero, 55 B.C.
—Mike @ 20:41
Cleaner way to drink from the seas - Besides windmills, another good idea for an offshore operation is to locate desalination plants on older ships that would operate off the coast. One company plans on having a ship operational in about a year, providing clean water at costs comparable to land-based desalination plants, but without the typical environmental problems.
—Mike @ 09:49
World Focus - By chance, I happened to tune in to my local PBS station last night just as a brand new program, World Focus, was making its debut. It looks like something that's been long needed. From their web site:Worldfocus responds to the mainstream media’s diminished coverage of international news. All the major networks have closed foreign bureaus and cut resources for international news coverage, which amounted to just 8 percent of all American news coverage last year.
By partnering with international news organizations, Worldfocus fills the void in international news coverage and informs American viewers about the relevance of international events. The nightly news program and Web site report on events from around the world and cover the stories that don’t always make the headlines.
Another excellent source for news, worth checking out, is The American News Project.
—Mike @ 18:29
Nearly 1 million NJ homes will be wind-powered - That's the plan by 2020, and the first installment of the massive offshore project was just awarded a few days ago. A $4 million wind energy grant was awarded to Garden State Offshore Energy to construct 96 wind turbines 16 miles off the coast of Cape May County, providing power for 125,000 homes, with the first power generation taking place by 2012.
—Mike @ 23:13
Chevy Volt Now $7500 Less - As part of the financial rescue package the House just passed, there's now a tax credit in effect for plug-in automobiles, to help that technology get off the ground.This provision provides a tax credit for buyers of plug-in electric vehicles. It provides a base of $2500 plus an additional $417 per kwh for batteries greater than 4 kwh. For the Chevy Volt, that works out to $7500 per car, a number GM had lobbied for.
The credit will be applied to the first 250,000 plug-in cars sold in the US and will be phased out to 50% for the following two quarters, and 25% for the two quarters after that before ending.
The Chevy Volt is scheduled for release 25 months from now, in November 2009.
—Mike @ 14:15
Picasa3 - I've long been very impressed with Picasa version 2, Google's photo editor and web album package, but the changes that were introduced with version 3 a few weeks ago are amazing. That the developers have been working for years on this release is very evident -- easy-to-use, easy-to-find, well-thought-out features everywhere. You can read about the new Picasa 3 on the Google Photos Blog. And yes, it's all free! Picasa itself can be downloaded from this page.
—Mike @ 17:40
More? - There's additional reading available in the Archives.
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