Ethanol Not Only Culprit In Rising Food Costs
*******
Austin Herald:
Despite popular belief, ethanol may not be a prime culprit for higher food prices, according to several panelists at a community forum Monday night.
“I think you’d find that the price of grocery goods don’t necessarily correlate to what happens to prices of corn and soybeans,” said John Monson, vice president of rural markets for Ag Star Financial. “It’s more due, probably, to fuel costs and maybe other transportation costs.”
His remarks, made during a forum hosted by KSMQ and KAAL-TV, refute the suspicions of the 60 percent of Americans that took part in “The Hormel Hunger Study 2007: A National Perspective,” which examined the experience and perceptions of hunger in the U.S.
Hormel Foods said Monday the findings of the survey said that many Americans connected ethanol use, an emerging fuel technology derived from corn, to food inflation because of increases in the crop’s cost. About half of the respondents also said they believed corn subsidies forced food prices up, while reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. More.
Sourse: Ethanol Not Only Culprit In Rising Food Costs
How To Get Free Alternative Energy - Build A Sunspace!
One you have decided that your home is ready for solar conversion; you really need to decide the very best way to do it… The first step in converting an existing house for a solar power system is to select which solar strategies will work in your home. Then evaluate each choice in terms of how much solar power will it collect, how much money it will take to build the system & what the system will do to the appearance of the home. One bright way to welcome the sun into your home is to build a solar addition, or sunspace. Constructed properly, a sunspace not just gives a ray of hope in the fight against rising energy bills, it also can serve as a cheery, light-filled living area.
A sunspace is the most popular solar retrofit because sunspaces usually work well with any size or style of home. Besides providing inviting sun-warmed living space, sunspaces are also very efficient. They usually contribute anywhere from ten to fifty percent of the heating needs of an average house. A sunspace collects energy efficiently only if it is built to take the heat. That ability depends primarily on three considerations - location, size, & glazing.
There is computer software now available to help establish design & performance criteria for specific solar projects like sunspaces. There is more. This software makes it easy to avoid making uninformed & potentially costly decisions about a sunspace addition. Once you have determined where to build the sunspace, you really need to decide how large it should be. Generally speaking, bigger is better, but deeper can be wasteful. You do not want to build a sunspace so deep that sun light can not penetrate to the back wall. Exactly how deep it should be depends on the height of south-facing windows & how much roof glazing, if any, the space will have, as well as sun angles, shading, & other factors at your site.
The third consideration is the amount, type, & placement of glazing. Under the best circumstances, each square foot of glazing will collect enough heat to warm two square feet of sunspace area. Thus, glazing is usually installed on the entire south wall but kept to a minimum on the east & west walls. Glazing slightly angled usually to a maximum of sixty degrees collects more sun during winter. The right amount of glazing for each house will vary. The most popular kind of glazing is fixed glass, but if you want to keep down costs, you should consider other materials. Fixed windows are less expensive than the operable variety & lose less heat. Wood framed windows lose the least heat through the frames. For metal frames select a brand that has good thermal breaks between the outside & inside surfaces. Double insulated windows are the best buys in most parts of the country.
Now that you have collected & stored all that free heat, you have to find a way to distribute it as evenly as possible. You can do this in two ways, take advantage of natural forces, or give Mother Nature a little help by adding a fan or two. Many solar designers like to give the convective process a boost by inserting small fans inside some of the vents. Another way to enhance a passive solar system is to use a fan to force solar heated air past an indirect thermal mass, which makes heat transfer faster & making the mass more efficient. By example, you can use pre-cast concrete slab sub-floors that have cores running from one end to the other. Fans pull solar heated air through the concrete storing the solar heat in the slab for later use. Another even more extensive hybrid is an underground rock-bed that has heated air forced into it for storage.
Just about any home can tap into this source of almost limitless, free nonpolluting alternative energy source. Once you have mastered a few basic principles about passive solar energy, you can open your house to sunlight, capture & store its energy & distribute energy & heat when & where you need it.
Build a Sunspace & get free alternative energy. Besides providing inviting sun-warmed living space, sunspaces are also very efficient. They usually contribute anywhere from ten to fifty percent of the heating needs of an average house, visit http://www.solarenergyassociation.com to learn about building a Sunspace.
Sourse: How To Get Free Alternative Energy - Build A Sunspace!
Crude oil glut
Tags: crude oil eod ohlc , trading oil, crude oil
-
I reckon I’ll not go up to your house to-night, Dave said in a carefully modulated voice. “I’m dirty and unshaven, and anyhow I’d rather not go to-night.”
Tags: Home Page
Sourse: Crude oil glut
Teacher Pension Funds Investing In Chinese Coal Industries
We hope that by posting on this seminal story, first encountered on the Cincinnati Enquirer, more teachers will investigate whether they, prospectively like members of the Texas Teacher’s Union, may be dependent in their old age on the perversity of pension funds invested in Chinese coal: mining, shipping, and utilities. The thought of teacher pension funds going into Chinese coal plants is as bad, if not worse, than investing them in toys made with lead paint. One can not possibly argue that the US should take a global lead in mitigating against climate change, regardless of what China does, and allow this situation to go without remedy. We suppose that plenty of other climat…
Sourse: Teacher Pension Funds Investing In Chinese Coal Industries
Meet the Information Specialist
If your group at ARRC is already meeting (regularly or irregularly) I would like to join you for a session. I would like 15 minutes or so of your agenda to meet your group and talk about my role and the services that I and the new Libraries and Records teams can offer. Please get in touch.
Sourse: Meet the Information Specialist
Bad Propane Tank
Attempted to refill propane tank. Mike from the marina took us to refill the tank. What should have been a quick trip transitioned into trips to 3 separate propane places. None could refill tank. Went to West Marine to return new tank and order replacement. Found out pump is too small for air conditioner. Keeps causing recurring problem. Did laundry. Still working on unpacking. Beautiful sunny day despite prediction of bad weather from nor’easter.
Sourse: Bad Propane Tank
New Interview with Chevy Volt Chief Engineer Nick Zielinksi: Part II
This is the second part of my recent interview with Chevy Volt Chief Engineer Nick Zielinksi.
Topics on the video:
-Charging issues
-Hydrogen
-Mules
-Efficiency
-Future product plans
-Certainty of production
Sourse: New Interview with Chevy Volt Chief Engineer Nick Zielinksi: Part II
Energy Vampire: Sucks Your House’s Electricity
Just in time for Halloween comes the news that homeowners have a vampire-like threat to their electric bills looming within their homes. And, like the fictional vampires, this threat has to be invited into the home by the homeowners themselves.
More on the electronic Dracula residing in your house from CNN:
A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar’s worth of the electricity that seeps from your home’s outlets.Insert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That’s “vampire” electronics.
Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as “standby mode” rather than shutting it off: That’s vampire electronics.
The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year.
The percentage could rise to 20 percent by 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
No garlic, wolfbane or crosses are needed to combat this menace. Just pull the plug. Whew! As usual–for better or worse–California was the first state to act on this threat.
In California, lawmakers passed a proposal last year — dubbed the Vampire Slayers Act — to add vampire electronics labels to consumer products, detailing how much energy a charger, computer, DVD player, PlayStation, microwave or coffee maker uses when on, off or in standby mode.
What else can one say? Electric boo?
by Mondoreb
Back to Front Page.
Sourse: Energy Vampire: Sucks Your House’s Electricity
Modify Your Car to RUN ON WATER
THE PROBLEMS: Extremely high petrol prices, petrol battles, pollution
and global climate change. You know what I’m referring to.
THE BAD NEWS: One likely way out, that you may have heard of, is water
automobiles. As distinct from water hybrids, water powered automobiles
are yet to be rolled out of the assembly plants. You could get a minimum
of 10 strategies of water powered automobiles to try out. Regrettably
those designs are too costly to put together, are very knotty, and
absolutely unpredictable.
THE GOOD NEWS: Widespread development and experimentation by numerous
back yard engineers has proven one method FEASIBLE. With this method you
can run your traditional automobiles PARTIALLY ON WATER (that’s a “Water
Hybrid”) with little or no modifications.
• You should be able to increase your gas efficiency by as much as 59%
(Toyota 99) or even 70% (Cadillac 99). • You could drastically cut down
discharges and help reduce Global Warming. • You can improve efficient
burning of fuel and consequently lessen wear and tear, engine clatter,
high temperature in the engine, carbon deposits, etc.
You see, you have just hit upon a unique piece of information. As there
is a small number of persons on the World Wide Web who will not sell you
products, but rather when you become a member of a group or club, you
will will gain knowledge of how to make these stuffs yourself at home. A
number of them will even provide you a COMPLIMENTARY HYDROGEN BOOSTER
SYSTEM, fully put together set to go into your vehicle, so you can
authenticate its practicability and have a copy for replication. Again,
this is a COMPLIMENTARY GIFT for you, for becoming a member and a
researcher You could make use of this mock system to switch nearly any
vehicle into an trial, wholly functional WATER HYBRID in one slow day,
with the aid of simple tools at home. Back in I knew nothing about
automobiles, I had no garage and no special tools, yet I installed one
un-aided within a quarter of an hour. This was in an era when all I had
was half a page of instructions. Nowadays you can obtain complete
informational products or ebooks, packed with guidelines and
suggestions. There are also support groups to assist you with any
mechanical, electrical or tuning trouble. These new groups have labored
hard to make it SIMPLE FOR YOU. And it is the influence of the group
that makes your path so much easier and smoother.
IT GETS EVEN BETTER: You will also be skilled in how to become a home
manufacturer of numerous models of hydrogen generating system. Again,
basic skills and easy tools is all that is need to replicate these
systems for your friends, family or clients. PAY NO ROYALTIES OR LICENSE
FEE - you keep all the cash! When you get into one of these exceptional
clubs or groups, you can discover answers to your questions:
1. Is this really practical? How come it’s so easy? 2. Why didn’t anyone
tell me about it before? 3. could water technology do for me? 4. Why
should I become a member of a group/club? So…you will start to realize
why water hybrid (water car / watercar) secrets have been unknown until
today.
To get involved in knowing all there is to know and in learning how to
POWER YOUR CAR WITH WATER, click here
Sourse: Modify Your Car to RUN ON WATER
About
This site about power resources in any possible way.