We just bought a Ford Escape

Sue sold her VW bug diesel when we lived in SF because a) it needed major repairs, b) the dealer offered us an excellent price for it, c) we didn’t need two cars because we lived next to a BART station.

However, that changed once we got back to southern California. It’s obviously more [...]

Generating electricity from kites

In order to generate power the kite pulls a string attached to the generators on the ground. Upon reaching their maximum height, they are reeled back down to repeat the process.

Wind a kilometer up is much stronger and more dependable than wind on the ground. The Google Foundation, researchers in the Neterlands, and [...]

UK report: Poverty impacts early child development

No big surprises here, to be sure, but researchers have documented that poverty has major effects on young children.

The difference in outcome is stark. The study identifies that by the age of three, 26 per cent of children in persistently poor households are exhibiting cognitive delay compared to 6 per cent in non-poor households [...]

Benchmarks for Sri Lanka

D.J. Mitchell photo.

Sharif Abdullah writes:

I shed no tears for the passing of the LTTE or its leader, Prabhakaran.  The goal of the organization was always unrealistic and its methods always brutally violent.  I am not sorry to see them go.

I do lament the orgy of violence, and [...]

Taiwan’s solar stadium is 100% powered by the sun

Inhabitat has all the details.

Wind turbines inside power transmission towers

Three young French designers hatch an ingenious plan to use existing infrastructure to create clean energy.

Their designs, which won the Metropolis 2009 Next Generation Prize, puts horizontal or vertical axis turbines inside the transmission towers. Thus power can be created as well as being transmitted, and hey, if you’re going to build [...]

A message to all you perkypants out there

What ‘green shoots’ look like. Via Infectious Greed

We’ve “stopped falling off a cliff.” Oh, sure, sure. Now we’re bouncing down the scree:

Housing starts unexpectedly slid 13 percent to an annual rate of 458,000, led by a 46 percent tumble in multifamily starts, which tend to be more volatile, Commerce Department figures showed [...]

California ballot propositions crushed

All the ballot propositions were defeated except for F (which limits pay raises for state officials). The budget train wreck continues.

Make no mistake, this was a voter revolt. And it was across the board. As mentioned before, both the right wing Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Foundation and the Peace and Freedom Party, the only [...]

Merkin to cede control of hedge funds to liquidator

J. Ezra Merkin, the New York financier who lost more than $2.4 billion of his clients’ money in Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, has agreed to place his three hedge funds into receivership and turn them over to a liquidator.

Merkin has also been charged with lying by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and [...]

WindCube generates electricity in moderate wind, small space

The Windcube is designed to go on a roof anywhere, has a small footprint, works in moderate wind, and one unit can generate 60kW. It has a shroud which amplifies the power of the wind and can move to meet the wind.