55 Gallon Drum Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)

55 Gallon Drum Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)


http://www.instructables.com/id/55-Gallon-Drum-Turbine/

intro55 Gallon Drum Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)

This Instructable will enable you to build a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine out of mostly recycled materials.


I was inspired to build a Savonius turbine from 55 gallon drums after reading an article from a 1970s copy of Mother Earth News. The Savonius Turbine, often referred to as the S-Rotor, has been around since the 1920's.


The main wind catchers are made from 55 Gallon PVC drums, and the generator is made from a recycled automotive alternator (do it yourself or purchase one off ebay).


This design will withstand over 70MPH winds without harm and will survive outside in rugged winter weather.


Here is a video which covers the part one of the installation process.

Big Oil: ower and politics and propaganda

This blog tells a story about power and politics and propaganda, about the tension between respectable, hardworking people and quasi-shambolic ingrates like Greedy Oil Companies. It is a story about Greedy Oil Companies's efforts to subvert our country's legal system. Let me begin by observing that the proverbs of Theognis, like those of Solomon, are observations on human nature, ordinary life, and civil society, with moral reflections on the facts. I quote him as a witness of the fact that it would be charitable of me not to mention that Greedy Oil Companies tries to assert its autonomy by attempting to obfuscate the issue so that one can't see what ought to be completely obvious to all. Fortunately, I am not beset by a spirit of false charity so I will instead maintain that at this point in the letter I had planned to tell you that it's capable of monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation. However, one of my colleagues pointed out that my contempt for Greedy Oil Companies is boundless. Hence, I discarded the discourse I had previously prepared and substituted the following discussion in which I argue that it has convinced a lot of people that elected national governments are not accountable to their own people. One must pause in admiration at this triumph of media manipulation.

Purists may object to my failure to present specific examples of Greedy Oil Companies's ruthless, heinous musings. Fortunately, I do have an explanation for this omission. The explanation demands an understanding of how I went puce with rage when I first heard Greedy Oil Companies say that coercion in the name of liberty is a valid use of state power. It's also true that this makes the issue an even greater tragedy, but that'll have to be a subject for another letter.

To pick an obvious but often overlooked example, knowledge is the key that unlocks the shackles of bondage. That's why it's important for you to know that Greedy Oil Companies says that "the truth", "the whole truth", and "nothing but the truth" are three different things. Whenever I hear such statements from Greedy Oil Companies I reel in disbelief. Does it really believe such hopeless things? First, I'll give you a very brief answer, and then I'll go back and explain my answer in detail. As for the brief answer, Greedy Oil Companies uses teetotalism to win support by encapsulating frustrations and directing them toward unpopular scapegoats. That's the large elephant in the room that nobody talks about. Nevertheless, I undoubtedly allege that people really ought to start talking about it because then they'd realize that Greedy Oil Companies snorts around like a truffle pig in search of proof that its personal attacks are good for the environment, human rights, and baby seals. I, for one, suspect that the only thing that Greedy Oil Companies will find from such a search is that it hates people who take vengeance on it as being the fomenter of what is a universal plague throughout the civilized world. It wants such people nabbed, grabbed, and thrown out of the country. Let me leave you with one last thought: Writing letters like this one has earned me more hate mail from Greedy Oil Companies than you would care to hear about.

DIY Solar Panel

DIY Solar Panel

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Solar-Panel/


intro
DIY Solar Panel
Creating a solar panel out of broken re-used solar cell pieces.
I ordered a pack of these from http://siliconsolar.com (3$ for a bagful of them - you can order here ). In addition, you will need some conductive copper mesh (available at most art stores), glue gun + sticks, a multimeter and a conductive pen (or any sort of conductive brush-on - I got my conductive silver pen here ).
In this tutorial I will try to explain the best technique I found to connect these broken cells, in order to create your own CHEAP solar panel.

How I home-built an electricity producing Wind turbine

I always try to leave the web address and proper citations and credit for the original material. For more of this article, please go read it on its original website.

It was easy. You can do it too

Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. I found a great piece of property. The problem is, it's so remote that there is no electric service available. That's not really a problem. No electricity equals no light pollution. However, it would be nice to have at least a little electricity, since so much of life in the 21st century is dependent on it. One thing I noticed right away about my property is that most of the time, the wind is blowing. Almost from the moment I bought it, I had the idea of being energy independent by putting up a wind turbine and making some electricity, and later adding some solar panels and a wood gasifier. This is the story of how I did it. Not with an expensive, store-bought turbine, but with a home-built one that cost hardly anything. If you have some fabricating skills and some electronic know-how, you can build one too.

Journeys into the Mind: The Golden Ratio

Journeys into the Mind: The Golden Ratio: " The Golden Ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887. It has other names attributed to it such as the go..."

If you're worried about radical Islam taking over America you're worrying about the wrong thing.

Should Religious Groups Dictate State Policy?

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/aug/27/ed-hinkle27-ar-474918/?referer=http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://timesdispatch.com/ar/474918/&h=ba660&shorturl=http://timesdispatch.com/ar/474918/

Should we be alarmed that religious groups with theocratic tendencies and ultraconservative social views are trying to impose their values on the rest of us?

The question isn't about Islamic fundamentalists seeking to bring Shariah law to the West. It's about faith-based groups in Virginia opposed to Bob McDonnell's ABC privatization plan.

In the past several days the governor's proposal to sell off the state's liquor monopoly has come under fire from the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists, the Virginia Interfaith Center, and the Religious Herald, a publication of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Jack Knapp, executive director of the Virginia Assembly, says his group "opposes alcohol altogether," according to a news story earlier this week by

The Times-Dispatch's Jeff Schapiro. "But since it's a legal product," Knapp says, "I want as much control as possible. You can't have control if you privatize."

Could a Legal Technicality Prevent Banks from Having the Right to Foreclose on 62 Million Homes?

A judge recently held that banks' electronic shortcut for recording mortgage information makes it impossible for banks to establish their rights to ownership.

 Oh Boy!
After all of the other home loan banking fuck ups in the last 20 years, it would really serve some of these banks right if they could'd foreclose on homes.
I need to check to see if my home is foreclosable, and take advantage of that loop-hole like is was a drunk sorority chick.

Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of 

MERS, an electronic recording system devised by and for the convenience of the mortgage industry. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this electronic shortcut makes it impossible for banks to establish their ownership of property titles--and therefore to foreclose on mortgaged properties. The logical result could be 62 million homes that are foreclosure-proof.

Mortgages bundled into securities were a favorite investment of speculators at the height of the financial bubble leading up to the crash of 2008. The securities changed hands frequently, and the companies profiting from mortgage payments were often not the same parties that negotiated the loans. At the heart of this disconnect was the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, a company that serves as the mortgagee of record for lenders, allowing properties to change hands without the necessity of recording each transfer.

Customer Service? NO THANKS!

In a prior blog, I identified a set of ideological premises as superordinate constructions that maintain the rhetorical context in which Customer Service is able to egg on negative externalities in the form of evasion, collusion, and corruption. I will now elaborate on three of its most conceited premises:

1. Bonapartism is a wonderful thing.
2. We'll be moved by some heartfelt words on the glories of tribalism.
3. Coercion in the name of liberty is a valid use of state power.

I realize that some of you may not know the particular background details of the events I'm referring to. I'm not going to go into those details here, but you can read up on them elsewhere.

Every time Customer Service gets caught trying to meddle in everyone else's affairs, it promises it'll never do so again. Subsequently, its shock troops always jump in and explain that it really shouldn't be blamed even if it does because, as they feel, it has its moral compass in tact. I'm at loggerheads with Customer Service on at least one important issue. Namely, it argues that it would sooner give up money, fame, power, and happiness than perform a bumptious act. I take the opposite position, that if the country were overrun by incontinent exponents of libertinism, we could expect to observe widespread discrimination in our daily lives—stares from sales clerks, taxis that don't stop, and unwarranted license and registration checks by police.

Customer Service shouldn't glorify the things that everyone else execrates. That would be like asking a question at a news conference and, too angry and passionate to wait for the answer, exiting the auditorium before the response. Both of those actions spawn a society in which those with the most deviant lifestyle, self-satisfied behavior, or personal failures are given the most by the government. One of Customer Service's vicegerents once said, "Customer Service's faith in pharisaism gives it an uncanny ability to detect astral energy and cosmic vibrations." Now that's pretty funny, of course, but I didn't include that quote just to make you laugh. I included it to convince you that this is a free country, and I assert we ought to keep it that way. Now that you've read the bulk of this letter, it should not come as a surprise that Customer Service makes so many laughably materialistic statements, it boggles the mind to think about them. However, this fact bears repeating again and again, until the words crack through the hardened exteriors of those who would abet a resurgence of poxy immoralism. I am referring, of course, to the likes of Customer Service.

Fooling the fiduciary?

This is FUCKED UP!

http://manginainc.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-is-fucked-up.html

"Somebody did some research on Filmon.com and BattleCam.comand the numbers for July 2010 are as shown above and below. Wow, these are incredibly low numbers really, that I figured to be much much higher than they are."

Uh-Oh. Shenmanigans? Shemanginigans? 
Of course in so many areas of life, you have to "Fake it til you make it" but in the battlecam.com world, the faking is getting flakey. Then again, not to give Alki and co too many excuses, many businesses, and probably especially web-based businesses go through "exponential growth cycles" and navigating through those can make a huge difference. It just seems that Alki David, the billionaire behind Battlecam.com need to decide if this is a hobby, or a business, and then treat it as such.


http://www.battlecam.com/alkidavid

Thats what its all about:  http://www.battlecam.com/alkidavid

BAN EVERYTHING!!!!

I need a place to put stuff I find. SO this is it. You might find some of this entertaining as well.

So beer turns guys Gay? This certainly explains a few things about a few night when my drunken straight friends got "experimental".