Monthly Archives: November 2006

Solar Industry takes LCD cues

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This looks like very good news if you’re at all interested in solar power.

EnergyBulletin reports that Sharp, already one of the most common solar panel suppliers, at least here in Canada, is increasing their ouput 6x.

But even more importantly, the economics of making solar is apparently very attractive right now… so attractive that LCD manufacturers are switching their production lines to Solar cells.

Remember how expensive a 17″ LCD was 5 years ago? Even 2 years ago, it was double the price of now…

A 120W Solar Panel (suitable for home-level powering applications in series)… is $999, about the same price point a 17″ LCD was 5 years ago.

Now, you can get an excellent 17″ LCD monitor for less than $250. For solar power, that’s the difference between being able to run a few lightbulbs, to actually putting a dent in your electricity bill.

Also, the biggest expense of a solar panel system is really the electronics. The Inverter, the batteries, and the hookup to Hydro. Cutting the Solar panel cost by 1/4 will make the entire project that much more affordable.
This also means that it is more affordable for governments and business as well. There should be no excuse soon to including these types of energy saving devices into new construction.

Remembrance but also Understanding

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I must be short as I’m headed to Victoria to visit family and celebrate my birthday (which was on the 9th).

Today is like no other Day of Remembrance in Canada that there has been for perhaps 40 years.

Canada is engaged in a War.

On this day, remember the Veterans, honour them, wave at them and shake their hands if you can.

But also remember that the current soldiers you see marching will most likely be going off to fight their own generations war in Afghanistan.

They also deserve our honour and respect.

On this most special of days, remember what became the solemn oath taken on this day in 1918.

Never Again

While that is easier said than done, it is none the less a goal we must strive for, and we must examine all of our actions as closely as possible to ensure they do not go against that overriding goal.

2006 Midterm Elections

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Following will be my attempt to live blog a bit on tonights Elections and at the same time give a little bit of Canadian perspective on the results.

Who knows how successful it’ll be but hey, i’ll be watching TV all night, so might as well use my time to its’ fullest. :)

I’ll simply keep updating as the night goes on… Just click More to see the latest updates.
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Messages from the Men: New Mission In BootCamp

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This is the first in a series…. i thought the week before Rememberance Day would be a good time to start.
I have recently had a friend join the Canadian Armed Forces. Before he left for Boot Camp (In Quebec), he asked me about my blog. We got to talking and thought it would be an interesting exercise to post our conversations on my blog. So that all can see what it’s like in the CAF. It’s easier for him, he doesn’t get much time online. It’s easier for me, as i don’t have to write a post… I’ll just be posting our conversations verbatim (or as closely a I can, op-sec and anonymity requirements respected).

So, here we go:

I will post the conversation as it appears in iChat as an image… it’s easier to read however, below the fold is the same in text form.. so that Google can index it.

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Don’t let people who don’t like us [Extremists] control our Oil!

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Says President Bush on Saturday: (via Washington Post)

You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources… And then you can imagine them saying, ‘We’re going to pull a bunch of oil off the market to run your price of oil up unless you do the following. And the following would be along the lines of, well, ‘Retreat and let us continue to expand our dark vision.’ [They] would use energy as economic blackmail.

[Extremists would be] able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel.

If he’s talking about Iraq then why have our prices not gone up that high over the past 3 years since at some point most, if not all, of Iraqi oil production has been offline and inaccessible due to sectarian and “terrorist” strife. Though they are finally making progress, they still have 1 million barrels to go before they hit pre-war peaks.

So who and what, pray tell, could he be talking about then?

Hmmm… extremists and radicals.

Who has Mr. Bush labeled with such a name other than Iraq…

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