News
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Mont Blanc Tram at Chamonix
Douglas Ramsdenposted a photo:2007-01-01 20:22:54 - 1 Km from Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, Rhône-Alpes (France)
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curl pattern
curl pattern
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Things to do at home while your sick ?
Having been home sick for a few days this week, I have had plenty of time for reading. After watching"An inconvenient truth" last weekend, my thoughts and reading turned to environmental issues. First thing I did was go lookup our carbon footprint, and while checking the utility bills, I noticed that we have been spending almost double on electricity each month over last years total. The ONLY thing I can attribute this to is increased computer usage, and the fact that we now have 3 computers that remain almost allways on. From now on I will try and make sure they are either off, or hibernating when not in use. The other interesting observation is that 60-70% of our carbon usage comes from our cars. So without changing cars (not due for another 3 years at least) there isnt much we can do about that one. I did a lot of reading on electric cars and hybrid cars. After digging deeply into the subject, it looks like a homebuilt electric car is the only way to go, although thats a pretty expensive project, and Im still not sure of the full life cycle economics of it, but it would be cool to drive an electric car to work every day :) What we can do is reduce the power we use, and thats going to accelerate my home made solar panel project. This started as just a couple of batteries and an inverter to makeup an emergency lighting system that I setup when we had a load of power outages during the winter. What I didnt have was a way to recharge the batteries each day. Well a couple of homebuilt solar panels should help with that, and a small wind turbine will be a usefull addition to keep the batteries topped up during the winter. To qualify for any grants or rebates the system has to be grid tied, and that looks like it means a massive additional investment in a better control system.com>1=stevewort">. Without the grid tie, its pretty easy to hook everthing up thru a Xantec charge controller (C12 model should work just great) then I need to get some books from Home depot on local wiring codes so I can split of a couple of lighting circuits from the main household feed, and drive them directly from the inverter and batteries. I have already made up a couple of small solar panel arrays, but need to start planning for a more serious panel capable of permanent outside installation, and the ability to provide charge to my 2 battery bank. I did read an interesting articla about the different kinds of solar cell, and that for our grey North west days, using a particular type of cell is better as it picks up more of the available light on overcast days. I am hoping to add some instrumentation so I can measure how much energy the panel is providing and compare this with the amount of sunlight available each day. Not sure how Im going to measure the available sunlight tho. More reading needed to solve that one. Something else I came across last night was that in the Pac NW, you can possibly get much more energy from PV by using a movable array that keeps the panels as perpendicular as possible to the suns rays as the sun moves thru the sky. THis is less important in sunnier areas were there is plenty of strong mid day sunshine, but up here were its often grey, maximizing the rays your capturing can make a big difference ( maybe) Now I need to learn more about how to mount a movable PV array, and how best to track the sun? . So I have a fair bit more investigating to do to find the cheapest / most cost effective way of creating a home built grid tied system
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Destiny
There had beenquite a number of things I wanted to share for the last few days but nothingcompelsme to write as much as what happened tonight. I have just recently made a decision to continue my education to reach for my dream, to find work that I am aligned with such that I won't ever look for a holiday. For that purpose I have just signed up for a new set of courses that costs a few thousand dollars. Sure I couldn't have bought 10Playstation3's but that would be adifferentkind of investment all together... Anyway today while I was taking a college from Melbourne out for dinner I stopped by a DVD store then... out of no where a man approached me and started talking about an IT project involving scanners. Unfortunately straight of the bat I alone am not capable of performing a hugh commercial project but that isn't to say that it is impossible if I be resourceful about it. I want to share that's another instance proving the concept of what mental focus. It is just amazing how the universe has its way to making things happen for someone who's focused, regardless whether it is a dream of a problem. There are plenty of examples in the world that shows this if we look hard enough isn't it? The tired and the unsatisfied will find more ways to become unsatisfied with their life and the happy and ambitious people finds their way to achieve that? It's a dangerous power not to be abused on misuse to work against one self...?
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Statistician, Oxfordshire
Junior Statistician to join the Data Analysis team in a leading market research group. With an MSc in Statistics or Biometry or an BSc with at 75% statistics content and at 2.1 or better (or equiv qualifications); you will have experiencealbeit ac....
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Apprentice to Journey Level Carpenters (CLP Resources)
Does working for a contractor offer you the challenges, security and flexibility you deserve? Have you ever been laid off? Have you had to start networking to find work? At CLP we put thousands of skilled tradespeople to work on a daily basis. Our jobLocation: Portland Metro, ORPay Range: $13.00 - $21.00/HourSource: Jobs.net
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CITROEN SAXO VTR 2000(X)reg Black
1600cc e/windows, sunroof, cd/hifi, 68Kmiles, 3/door, VGC inside outside, Tax/MoT Jan'08 reliable good runner £2,750 0117 9...
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VERY GOOD condition baby cot
light wood includes mattress, quick sale needed, £...
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EMG Wins Silver at the W³ Awards
Earthbound Media Group is honored with Silver at the W3 Awards for the ULV Virtual Tour under the Rich Media Category.
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Renovation giving new life to movie palace [11-17-07]
NewsOK.com Nov 18 2007 7:09PM GMT