| Wednesday, September 21, 2005 |  |
| GO OFF THE GRID WITHOUT LOSING POWER | 1 comment |
| 21 Sep 2005 @ 20:38 PLUGGING IN TO THE WIND AND SUN GO OFF THE GRID WITHOUT LOSING POWER By Rose Miller Utne.com July 28, 2005 Issue [link] Letting go of electric appliances and other modern conveniences is a form of environmental asceticism that most people aren't willing to undertake. But unlike those in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, not everyone who moves off the grid has to do away with all, or even any, modern accoutrements. Contemporary back-to-the-landers aren't retreating from modernity; they're bringing it with them, constructing homes and retreats equipped with solar panels and wind turbines that provide plenty of power year-round. Writing in E Magazine, Jim Motavalli highlights the success stories of a handful of families who live electrified lives off the grid hand-cranking a wringer for laundry and cooking by flashlight, the Lillys installed solar panels and wind turbines to bring electricity to their West Virginia farm. Jim and Mindy Phypers don't have to do without a refrigerator, stereo, computer, or even a microwave, let alone lights and hot water. The couple, who live in sun-drenched Tucson, Arizona, get their power from twelve solar panels, a wind turbine, and solar heating tubes that put hot water in the taps. For those who would follow in the Lillys' and Phyperses' footsteps, organizations in the US and Canada are springing up to help. Grist's Umbra Fisk provides a trove of such resources for people looking to install micro-wind turbines on their property recommends visiting the National Wind Technology Center's online Clean Power Estimator determine the viability of wind power in a specific area. The Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States that can be helpful in deciding whether to turn to wind as an alternative power source. The Solar Living Institute nonprofit spin-off of Real Goods California green-living company, has the goods on renewable energy and green building design and demonstrates them in action at the organization's Solar Living Center California. Several companies sell products that help consumers convert their households to alternative power sources. Among them is John Schaeffer's aforementioned Real Goods, founded in 1978 to meet the needs of participants in the original back-to-the-land movement. The company now sells solar panels, micro-wind turbines, batteries, and environmentally friendly appliances. According to Motavalli, many back-to-the-landers rely on Lehman's nonelectric appliances and other necessities for an off-the-grid lifestyle. More > |
| SOS - Safeguard Organic Standards | 2 comments |
| 21 Sep 2005 @ 18:53 SOS - Safeguard Organic Standards After 35 years of hard work, the U.S. organic community has built up a multi-billion dollar alternative to industrial agriculture, based upon strict organic standards and organic community control over modification to these standards. Now, large corporations such as Kraft, Wal-Mart, & Dean Foods--aided and abetted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of the Organic Trade Association are moving to lower organic standards by allowing Bush appointees in the USDA National Organic Program to create a broad list of synthetic ingredients that would be allowed in organic production. Even worse these proposed regulatory changes will reduce future public discussion and input and take away the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) traditional lead jurisdiction in setting standards. What this means, in blunt terms. is that USDA bureaucrats and industry lobbyists, not consumers, will now have more control over what can go into organic foods and products. (Send a quick letter to your Senator online here) During the week of Sept. 20 through Sept. 23, acting in haste and near-total secrecy, the U.S. Senate plans to vote on a rider to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that will take away control over organic standards from the National Standards Board and put this control in the hands of federal bureaucrats in the USDA (remember the USDA proposal in 1997-98 that said that genetic engineering, toxic sludge, and food irradiation would be OK on organic farms, or USDA suggestions in 2004 that heretofore banned pesticides, hormones, tainted feeds, and animal drugs would be OK?). For the past week in Washington, OCA has been urging members of the Senate not to reopen and subvert the federal statute that governs U.S. Organic standards (the Organic Food Production Act—OFPA), but rather to let the organic community and the National Organic Standards Board resolve our differences over issues like synthetics and animal feed internally, and then proceed to a open public comment period. Unfortunately most Senators seem to be listening to industry lobbyists more closely than to us. We need to raise our voices. (Send a quick letter to your Senator online here) In the past, grassroots mobilization and mass pressure by organic consumers have been able to stop the USDA and Congress from degrading organic standards. This time Washington insiders tell us that the “fix is already in.” So we must take decisive action now. We need you to call your U.S. Senators today. We need you to sign the following petition and send it to everyone you know. We also desperately need funds to head off this attack in the weeks and months to come. Thank you for your support. Together we will take back citizen control over organic standards and preserve organic integrity. Call the Capital Switchboard here: 877-762-8762, and tell your US Senator to not support any ammendments to the ag appropriations bill that would lower organic standards - or send a quick letter to your Congressperson online here: www.organicconsumers.org/rd-ofpa.htm More > |
| Hotel Key Cards | 1 comment |
| 21 Sep 2005 @ 18:47 Hotel key cards Remember this for the future: You know how when you check out of a hotel that uses the credit-card-type room key, the clerk often will ask if you have your key(s) to turn in...or there is a box or slot on the Reception counter in which to put them? It's good for the hotel because they save money by re-using those cards. But, it's not good for you, as revealed below. From the Colorado Bureau of Investigation: "Southern California law enforcement professionals assigned to detect new threats to personal security issues, recently discovered what type of information is embedded in the credit card type hotel room keys used throughout the industry. Although room keys differ from hotel to hotel, a key obtained from the "Double Tree" chain that was being used for a regional Identity Theft Presentation was found to contain the following the information: a.. Customers (your) name b.. Customers partial home address c.. Hotel room number d.. Check in date and check out date e.. Customer's (your) credit card number and expiration date! When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner. An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense. Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee re-issues the card to the next hotel guest. At that time, the new guest's information is electronically "overwritten" on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process. But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT!!!! The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them. NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them in to the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader. For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket. Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip! Information courtesy of: Sergeant K. Jorge, Detective Sergeant, Pasadena Police Department More > |