This is really cool and creative…
Empire Strikes Back Lego Chess Set
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Monthly Archives: August 2010
Michigan’s Largest Solar Energy System Will Take An Estimated 36.25 Years To Pay For Itself
Ford, Detroit Edison and Xtreme Power are constructing Michigan’s largest solar energy system at a cost of $5.8 million ($3 million from DTE and $2 million from the state of Michigan). Proponents of the system are estimating that this system will save Ford $160,000 per year in energy costs. Via Ford press release:
The combined systems are expected to give Michigan Assembly the largest solar power array in Michigan and save an estimated $160,000 per year in energy costs. Installation of the system begins later this year.
“With this solar energy system, we will be able to gain vital understanding about the integration of renewable power, smart-grid technologies and energy storage at an industrial facility,” said Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president, North America Manufacturing. “This project is a part of the transformation of Michigan Assembly from a large SUV factory to a modern, flexible, and sustainable small car plant.”
SolarCurrents and the future of sustainability in Michigan
Ford will work with Detroit Edison to install a 500-kilowatt solar photovoltaic panel system at Michigan Assembly. The system will be integrated with a 750-kw energy storage facility that can store two million watt-hours of energy using batteries – enough to power 100 average Michigan homes for a year. Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas, is supplying its Dynamic Power Resource on-site energy storage and power management system.
The solar energy installation is part of Detroit Edison’s pilot SolarCurrents program that calls for photovoltaic systems to be installed on customer rooftops or property over the next five years to generate 15 megawatts of electricity throughout Southeast Michigan.
The Michigan Assembly project is made possible by a $3 million investment by Detroit Edison’sSolarCurrents program, a $2 million grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission in support of the state’s smart-grid initiative, and approximately $800,000 from Ford.
If the system operates as advertised and requires no maintenance, the system will pay back the initial investment in an optimistic 36.25 years (exuding opportunity costs).
The Environmentalists at the EPA want to have “Greenversation”
So much for the tolerant ,left…
A worker at the EPA, Blaine Collison, tried to have a “greenservation” with a citizen who discarded a cigarette butt on the streets of DC:
I was commuting home on my bike – my colleagues and I appreciate EPA’s bike facilities every single day that we use them – and I followed a car down 17th Street, across the National Mall. The passenger stuck his hand out of the window and I could see a nearly-finished cigarette. I got a bad feeling about what was going to happen: Sure enough, the passenger dropped his butt onto the street right between the Monument and World War II Memorial.
I’ve seen this plenty of times before, but lately I’ve grown tired of resigned acceptance. I caught up to the car at the next light and had a conversation that went like this:
Hi. You dropped your cigarette on the street.
What? No.
Yes, you did.
No.
You dropped it right there on 17th Street at the light. By the World War II Memorial.
So what?
Well…why? That’s not where it goes.
What?!?
That’s not where it goes. No one wants your trash on our streets. Why’d you put it there? Why not just put it in the trash?
That’s where I [colorful adverb] put it!
Yeah, but why? It’s just going to go into the [Potomac] river.
‘Cause that’s where I [repeated colorful adverb] put it!
But no one wants your trash on the street.
Well, clean up the [adjective form of the previously-used colorful adverb] street!
It would be easier to do that if you wouldn’t drop cigarette butts on it.
The light changed and the exchange ended. No one had called each other a name or made a threat, but it also didn’t seem like anyone had made any progress.
One of EPA Administrator Jackson’s key strategic priorities is “Expanding the Conversation”; bringing into the environmental protection process people and stakeholders that have not traditionally been part of it. I’m pretty sure that I had a conversation tonight with one of those folks. Not dropping trash on the street is more basic even than Environmentalism 101. And this was the National Mall. It’s sacred American public space. That we need to have a conversation at this level…
I’m still frustrated and amazed by this. But tomorrow, I’m going to try a little harder. And I’m going to reach out a little further.
Isn’t that great. An EPA bureaucrat will chase you down and confront you about ‘pollution.’
The EPA worker’s actions are strangely reminiscent of this jewel from the 2008 campaign:
Sunday Morning Quick Hits: The F-22 as Art Edition
Polish photographer Slawek Krajniewski captured the F-22 at the Fairford (UK) Royal Air Force International Air Tattoo (RIAT). Be sure to check out the rest of the fantastic photographs.
Treason & Tyranny: The Truth about Abraham Lincoln (VIDEO)
Race-ready limited production 2012 Mustang Boss 302 unveiled
Unfortunately for this driver of a new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Switzerland doesn’t have fixed fines for speeding. Instead they use a formula similar to that in Finland where the fine is calculated based on the vehicle’s speed and the driver’s income. Back in 2002, Nokia executive Anssi Vanjoki had to pay a fine of $103,600 for going 47 mph in a 31 mph zone.
In this latest incident, the driver faces a penalty of just over $1 million for traveling at the highest speed ever recorded on a public road in Switzerland. Apparently the SLS escaped being clocked by several older cameras that are limited to 125 mph before finally being recorded by a new camera with a higher radar speed range. His excuse: The speedometer was faulty.
He was clocked at only 180 mph.
The EPA is giving helpful hits on back to school shopping. Here is one of the many helpful hint:
When you do need to buy new, choose products made from recycled materials such as pencils made from old blue jeans, binders made from old shipping boxes, and of course recycled paper products.
Gee, thanks EPA…
Great Day At Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
As I’ve said before, Michigan has it share of problems, but it has tremendous upsides as well.
It was a beautiful day and my pictures don’t do the scenery justice. If you have never been to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, I highly recommend visiting.
George Washington Motivator
EPA Is Using Global Warming Hoax To Seize More Control From States
Effective 2011, if a state wants to wants to construct a new Coal fired power plant, their plans must include mitigation of CO2 emissions to address the global warming fraud. Via the EPA:
The Clean Air Act requires states to develop EPA-approved implementation plans that include requirements for issuing air permits. When federal permitting requirements change, as they did after EPA finalized the GHG Tailoring Rule, states may need to modify these plans.
In the first rule, EPA is proposing to require permitting programs in 13 states to make changes to their implementation plans to ensure that GHG emissions will be covered. All other states that implement an EPA-approved air permitting program must review their existing permitting authority and inform EPA if their programs do not address GHG emissions.
Because some states may not be able to develop and submit revisions to their plans before the Tailoring Rule becomes effective in 2011, in the second rule, EPA is proposing a federal implementation plan, which would allow EPA to issue permits for large GHG emitters located in these states. This would be a temporary measure that is in place until the state can revise its own plan and resume responsibility for GHG permitting.
This is is the implementation by fiat of the fatally flawed Progressive Federalism concept where the Federal Government establishes regulatory floors rather than having states regulate themselves, and it will not work.
And we all know that this is going to cause more economic distress. Via Alan Caruba @ Warning Signs:
What it doesn’t say is that this power to regulate that does not exist in the present Clean Air Act.
It will cause electricity costs to skyrocket along with gasoline and all other oil derivatives. It will utterly wreck the U.S. economy that is already in dire straits.
If an invading nation had imposed these kinds of restrictions on Americans, we would be in the streets with guns and any other means to fight them.
There is NO global warming. Carbon dioxide plays NO role in this non-event.
This is regulation by deception, by lies, by the arrogance of environmentalists who view the human race as a cancer on the planet.
Thank you Richard Nixon for giving us the EPA:
Video: Democrat Pollster Sees a Voter Tidal Wave in November
Having been Jimmy Carter’s pollster, Pat Caddell would know a thing or two about voter ‘tidal waves.’
h/t: Lee
Guitar Wars: Steve Lukather- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Stay with it… The song starts out a bit slow, but it picks up.
Tuesday Night Links: The Top Gear America Edition
For quite a while there has been talk of the BBC show Top Gear coming to America. It seems to be getting closer to reality:
I started getting into the show on BBC America. It was becoming appointment viewing for me. Then ass hat Jeremy Clarkson had to open his mouth and I haven’t watched an episode since. Hopefully the American hosts aren’t so obnoxious.
Enough of that, on to the excellent posts from around the blog-o-sphere…
Worlds most irritating woman speaks, our ears bleed
More False Flag? Are Democrats Running Tea Party Candidates?
Again confirming, no sacrifice is too great for the little people like us. Any personal sacrifice is beyond the comprehension of Her Majesty the Queen. After all, she only recognizes the economic disaster we are in, but makes no example to the people to live by in her own regards. You know, do as I say, not as I do! I’m the Queen, sacrifice is for the subjects.
Students Asked To Stop Singing National Anthem at Lincoln Memorial
BIO-key(R) Awarded Additional Large-Scale Fingerprint Biometric Contract
Truth-Lite: Tell me what I want to hear
Rand Paul is dealing with the same issue in Kentucky. He came out blazing with the hard truth and won the support of the Tea Party movement in that state. As soon as he won the Republican nomination he had to back off because he realized that even though the hard truth got him to where he was, most people don’t warm up to it. And if he was going to increase the size of his tent he needed to modify the message or at least tone it down. He needs the votes from the center and people in the center tend to prefer the modified less scary version of the truth. So his team walked him back from his original positions and presented a more voter friendly version of the truth. But how does hearing a friendlier version of the truth really help us? Well it doesn’t.
Joe the Biden, Get out there, STAT
