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Rants and Raves

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Entries from October 2008

When Off Is Not Really Off

July 28th, 2008 · No Comments

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
It is also amazing how many products, such as microwave ovens, regular ovens, televisions, and stereos, still are consuming power when they are assumed to be “turned off.” Many of the manufacturers of these products claim that the consumption of these “phantom loads” is negligible, but this isn’t true [...]

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Tags: Energy/Environment · saving money

Why Electric Utilities Avoid Solar Power

July 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment

By Sid of Stone Marmot
Why do the electric utilities have few solar power facilities? Why do they invest so little in solar power? Why will they probably never have major solar power facilities?
The simple answer is that they have great difficulty competing with homeowner sited solar power systems for the following reasons:

The [...]

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Tags: Energy/Environment

Are You Adhering To The Kyoto Agreements?

July 21st, 2008 · No Comments

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
Many Americans are rather vocal about their disappointment that the U. S. hasn’t ratified the Kyoto Agreements on environmental concerns. But nothing is stopping them from individually meeting the Kyoto Agreements. How many of these concerned Americans are making any effort to adhere to the agreements themselves?
Summarized, the Kyoto [...]

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Tags: Energy/Environment

Forced To A World Of Extremists

July 18th, 2008 · No Comments

By Cindy of Stone Marmot
Extremists are trying to force the rest of us into their molds. These extremists, be they left or right, liberal or conservative, Muslim or Christian, whatever, expect you to recite exactly what they believe without questioning. If you deviate from any of their beliefs in the least little bit, [...]

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Tags: Politics/Philosophies

Carbon Credits = Environmental Indulgences

July 14th, 2008 · No Comments

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
The Roman Catholic Church had this concept that God may forgive sins during the sacrament of penance, but some punishment is still due for these sins. This concept was abused in the 1400s and 1500s where monetary punishments were encouraged to raise funds for churches, hospitals, universities, etc. (with [...]

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Tags: Energy/Environment

What Are Digipaks?

July 11th, 2008 · No Comments

By Sid of Stone Marmot
Our band, Stone Marmot, chose to use the 8 panel Digipak for the package for our “Babes Of An Alien Persuasion” CD and a 6 panel Digipak for our “Rock - For People Who Don’t Dig Rock” CD. The Digipak is a cardboard package reminiscent of the old vinyl LP [...]

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Tags: Music Business

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Basics

July 7th, 2008 · No Comments

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
Lights account for about 10% of the electricity used by a typical private residence. Most of these lights presently use incandescent light bulbs. Fluorescent bulbs use about one quarter of the electricity of an incandescent bulb with the same light output. Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs are [...]

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Tags: Energy/Environment

Why Wait For A Leader?

July 4th, 2008 · No Comments

By Bruce of Stone Marmot
I recently participated with some friends in a rather heated discussion about the massive amount of oil used by the United States and its dependence upon foreign oil. Most of us agreed that, at least in the short term, conservation is the only real solution (Some of us feel [...]

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Tags: Politics/Philosophies