chuck kottke

everything but the double-chocolate butter cookie!:laugh3: What's the Caesar dressing going on, Rick? Romaine, Ice-berg, Cos, Endive, Arugula?

Snow just is - like it or hate it, we've got to get used to it. Here, if you don't like it, it's a long unhappy winter for sure! (30 inches total accumulation thus far; but 10 inches all at once is quite a bit..) All they needed were some chains for those tires!! And what's wrong with a day off now and then from school - I'm sure the kids were happy!! Anyhow, looks like some folks made the best of it.:)

Mayo is good, but it's got to be good Mayo. Best on a BLT sandwich. I have to agree, Caesar salad dressing is good, but I like a basic vinegar & olive oil mix myself.. Today's fare was baked black beans, wild rice, and cooked carrots. Desert, a double chocolate butter cookie.

Welcome to the board, Jacob! Enjoy the madness, and keep the East lively!

Sleep & water, glass of water.;) I was thinking about how every conversation is filtered and recorded - all the internet, phone, voice mail - everything, is fed off the main fiber-optic cables, and send to government computers, routed to the NSA. Never mind that the NSA had been tracking Osama bin laden for years, and his associates. Never mind that they could have notified someone at the FBI, or at least told the courts and asked for a warrant, and handed the information over. Then 9-11, and one might think a time of reconing. But the result in the end was more spying on virtually all the traffic going into and out of the US, without any warrants. All the fluff about rights, and where are those protections? One has to wonder where this could all lead. Thought police? Someone suspected of thinking preliminary thoughts that might lead to a crime being arrested on suspicious thoughts? Filtering information and selling it to private companies for profit? Profiling areas and individuals to an even more obscessive level?? Losing your families' cherished oatmeal cookie recepie to NSA workers?? NSA is larger than the department of Labor, or Justice; I think they should be scaled back. Only oversees calls, and if there's a lead, then go get a warrant like the Constitution demands you do. It's not all that hard - warrants are even issued after-the-fact if there's emergency precedent. And then share the information with the FBI and CIA. Well, that's probably happening, but why wasn't it you might ask? Nobody knows (or will answer). My guess is that it's out of each agency pride in it's abilities, and because of the arrogance of those in high places, sharing information might give a 'competing' agency a high-profile case success, and put them 'up a notch' in funding and especially news ranking. The bosses all wanted the big nab, and no sharp-shouldered upstarts. So, instead of stopping disaster, they chose rather to hoard their pieces of the puzzle, and let tragically misled individuals strike. Not once, but twice! Meanwhile, on another planet it would seem, 4 out of 10 veterans of the resulting wars are not getting the adequate care they need and deserve, and poverty is not being addressed as much as it needs to be in those places that often harbor extremists. Dis-connect-ed. Our economy is dropping like a led balloon because high-roller pyramid schemers were allowed to loosen the rules and create shell-game enterprises that caused the crash, and the very problem - money flowing from those with "needs" to the politicians that OKed the changes is not being stemmed. Alright, I'm a bit disgusted, but hearing of all the unemployed in the area, and the slow shops where pistons, valves, and cabs are made is unnerving, when one considers what caused this mess, and how much money is diverted to tripling the size of an agency that should be limited to it's primary mission, I begin to wonder where is sanity in this nation.. Those who squeek the loudest get all the grease. The rest of the wheels cause the train to derail. That's what I'm thinking - pardon my rant.

That sneaky treat! Obviously the ice-cream is changing tactics!:laugh3: You'll have to outsmart it - try wearing earmuffs when you go to sleep, then in the morning, the tune won't be audible.:earmuffs::P

The Beatles!

:rolleyes: But it was worth it, I would imagine!;) The trouble with ice cream is that it calls to us. You can usually hear it singing at certain times of the evening, and then one's stomach starts to hum the same tune. Now if you keep a lid on it, and it's locked away in the freezer, you're less likely to hear it humming..:P

BUMP PV cell - they do require plating for a conductive surface. Actually, sputter coating; the cells I had were plated with silver, but copper has been used as well - it requires very little copper (super thin), which is a relief. Perhaps in the future aluminum can be sputter coated onto the surface, and perhaps soldered with aluminum solder, though this would be less reliable. Anyhow, just searching for eco-friendly ways.. Lithium Iron Phosphate cells should come down in price as well, given time.. they're more eco-friendly than anything else, outside of carbon nanotube cells. Flywheels may be competitive too, but the composites use some wicked chemicals to manufacture, so I'm hoping for better here too.

:laugh3:57 channels and nothing's on!:P (and goodnight Julie)

Images for Silicon:Facts, pictures, stories about the element Silicon in the Periodic Table

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You've got to see that they're very much into the charity side of things - I think they're calling attention to the need to recognize all people, regardless of faith, as good fellow humans on the planet we share, and the Palestinians really have been put through hell recently, regardless of the extremists - the civilians are victims in need of help.

Goos?? H - haddock!

Tangy as a tangerine?? Best today was some nice young Swiss Cheese..

Tar get, where you get tar!:P A step above Mall Wort.

(Rudy, don't forget Zwieback bread!) F is for Fillet of Fish! :P123

I believe so, or at least that's my thinking. Oxfam is busy bringing relief to Gaza, and so this would tie-in well.

This is interesting Art:Images of an evolving world by artist Don Simon | Grist | Grist Feature | 29 Jan 2009 Alligators in the tires; cows on the garbage heaps. Says a lot without saying a word.

Wonderful song, but to have an understanding of what we're doing to get the glitz is important to human kinds future. I believe some gold is fine, but a lot of it todays is causing a net negative on the planet.

That's an interesting proposal, Jay! An electronic 'lock-box' for secure investment, so market fluctuations could never erode it's true value.. I often wonder if much of gold currently being traded isn't just on paper anyhow? But that's a very good idea, if it could be implemented, it would improve stability in the economic world I think as well. But I wonder, if we wouldn't be better creating investments into commodity metals that are plentiful (virtually inexhaustible), mining does minimal damage, and have continuous demand in the economy, like silicon or aluminum? Perhaps not as stable a guarantee if the demand drops suddenly, so maybe that's not the answer.. We could always just invest in hermetically sealed containers of dried food, which would be the best form of secure investment? But in reality, yes, the computer lock-box investment makes sense..

I can understand the worker's concerns, as it's unfair to undercut the worker's union strength. How about bringing in labor from another country to replace the upper management positions? I'll bet that never happens!:laugh3: But the real answer isn't more of the same. After seeing the enormous, almost unfathomable amount of wasted energy in the world, I'm beginning to wonder if being narrowly focused is the answer. Better would be to shift jobs from the energy sector to the efficiency sector. Homes in either the US or UK could be significantly upgraded to use one-tenth of their current energy needs, and oodles of good-paying jobs created in the "NegaWatts sector" as Amory Lovins likes to put it. And the benefit is no more need for coal or peat (unless you just want some for that mineral collection) in the long run; it's where we have to go anyhow, so we might as well begin the process, and shift jobs to that sector. Solar is sweet, Wind moves the spirit, but Efficiency answers the big question. It's been a long long time since I've seen the movie, "It's a Mad, Mad World" - I need to go review..:laugh3: (pardon me Bart, but the way things happen sometimes is almost comical).

The way to Heaven is clear. You just need two Fair-Trade double-chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and that's about as heavenly as it gets!:P Details Inside: (place the cookies on 20 cubits of silk cloth, in a tabernacle laid out 100 cubits on a side, and within the tabernacle on an alter made of the finest rosewood, covered with pure cashmere wool.) Six cross-legged contemplating pure happiness while muching on God's finest food.) Two is for sharing.;)

We are all important and precious; we are the people we've been waiting to find. The answers are there for all to see and participate in; the future looks bright, as we're the captains of the ship, and if we get the problems solved, all will improve. It's a problem solving challenge, that's what we're faced with. The spark of innovation and creativity, of interacting in positive ways sets up the probability of all good things happening...

Back to Silicon: I've been doing some searching, and ran across the price for Solar Cell grade silicon. It's fluctuating quite a bit, with the futures markets, but for 2008 ran around $165 per Kilogram. (This works out to around $75/lb.). It's set to drop in response to both other thin-film technologies, and it's own supply improvements, possibly down to $113/Kg. (~$51/lb.). Silicon of this purity requires quite a lot of processing, and leads to a price roughly half that of silver on the open market, but the quantity of 'ore' is inexhaustible, it's 'green', and the ability to refine it is getting less and less expensive with newer methods. Improved availability may drop the price per watt of solar power from the current $4.00/watt down to $2.60/watt. Currently, it takes about 5-7 years for a set of panels mounted on a rooftop to pay back their cost in savings of electricity (all externalities aside); this drop could knock down the payback period to 3-5 years, and adding more government incentives to go solar could dramatically increase the number of installed panels. A link, alread in the green thread, but here it is again if anyone's interested: PV Costs Set to Plunge for 2009/10 - Renewable Energy World Also, if you're interested in a general synopsis of silicon solar cell manufacture, here's a link ( a bit dated, but a good overview):How solar cell is made - Background, Raw materials, The manufacturing process of solar cell, Quality control