The original solar powered home appliance

With all this push for green technology there is a tendency to overcomplicate the solutions. Sure you could go buy a hybrid car but using public transport is much more effective. You can also spend a small fortune getting your home setup for solar water heating and battery charging, or you can start drying your clothes on a clothes line.

I live in Arizona so its pretty much a sin that I don’t do this already. Well here is my new weekend project.

We’ve covered this topic before, but to be honest I hadn’t realised just how big the issue was. Probably because backyard clotheslines are a cultural icon in Australia. The adjustable rotary clothesline, known as the Hills Hoist, is such a part of our psyche it is exhibited in national and state museums, and was even incorporated into the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games. By 1994 some 5 million Hills Hoists had been sold, which is pretty impressive considering its country of origin only had 5.2 million detached houses at the time.

So it comes as a shock that America is resisting something that we take for grante…

: TreeHugger

Clotheslines Hung Out to Dry

Edited: February 26th, 2008

Phoenix/Arizona Business links for Feb 22nd 2008

Happy Friday!!!!

A few interesting business stories today:

• Toxic emissions up 52 percent in Arizona from 2005 to 2006, EPA report shows – Out of sight but still in your lungs and water.
• Apollo Group’s $170M headquarters sale in limbo – In case you were wondering what was happening with that huge building by the I-10, nothing. Oh and Apollo Group/University of Phoenix is rich!
• Gov. Napolitano imposes hiring freeze for state positions – remember how we had that surplus last year? Well its gone plus some now.
• Arizona gas prices jump, but still lower than most of U.S. – Valley metro anyone?
• McCain rebuffs ‘New York Times’ story – This story is strange. On one hand it is galvanizing the GOP, but it also brings Lobbying back into the debate. This is why the GOP is scared of Obama and his lack of Lobbying ties.
• APS building what it calls world’s largest solar power plant – Its a start, only covers 1% of AZ population, but its a start. My question is why are we using a Spanish company to build this?

Edited: February 22nd, 2008

Applying Rules to an Illegal Situation

Watching Frontlines latest program regarding the Haditha incident from 2005 causes so many conflicting emotions its really hard to sit through the whole thing. On one hand I am against us being there altogether so that whole situation is an inevitability. The problem is that the Marines we are sending over there are real people that I have to respect for doing a job I would never want to do.

FRONTLINE cuts through the fog of war to reveal the untold story of what happened in Haditha, Iraq — where twenty-four of the town’s residents were killed by U.S. forces in what many in the media branded “Iraq’s My Lai.” With accusations swirling that the Marines massacred Iraqi civilians “in cold blood,” the Haditha incident has led to one of the largest criminal cases against U.S. troops in the Iraq war. But real questions have emerged about what really happened that day, and who is responsible. Through television interviews with Iraqi survivors and Marines accused of war crimes, FRONTLINE investigates this incident and what it can tell us about the harrowing moral and legal landscape the U.S. military faces in Iraq. : FRONTLINE – Reports | PBS

Rules of Engagement

Edited: February 20th, 2008

Oil goes higher, time to take a look at alternatives

I recently wrote about using the Valley Metro system for getting to my new job. That analysis was based on gas being $2.80/gallon. As gas goes up it will only be saving me even more money to take the bus and eventually the light rail (it goes right in front of my new offices).

The price of oil ended trading at a record high of $100.01 per barrel on Tuesday. Analysts say supply fears helped push prices up. If the prices stay above $100, companies and consumers could face higher costs.

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: NPR Programs: Morning Edition

Price of Oil Ends Day at Record High

Edited: February 20th, 2008