Colony Collapse Disorder

In case you haven't been in the loop about this problem, it's still getting worse. Bees are dying in LARGE numbers and for unknown reasons. They have theories about what may be going on but essentially all they know is that Honey bees are dying by the colony in matters of days, one day they're all where there supposed to be and the next they're gone, workers, larvae and queen all dead and missing. The bees that have been found are apparently riddled with disease which is why they are assuming some sort of immune deficiency, allowing the bees to become infected with pretty well all known Bee diseases, at once.

I bring this up today because I came across another article about the 'Colony Collapse Disorder', however this one is from Europe, where they are experiencing the same thing, link to that article here.

In case you don't bother to read the article, one thing that struck me was a quote by Albert Einstein that reads “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

In other articles they have mentioned that 1 of every 3 bites of food we take is dependant upon a Bees pollination.

Although I don't claim to understand Stocks, I think it a fair assumption that certain foods that are almost 100% pollinated by Bees are gonna change in price pretty dramatically, Almonds for one and apples another that I know of. However if we have no bees, Lets just say it would be the least of our worries.

other recent articles of interest on 'Colony Collapse Disorder', of course a google search would turn up 1000's more

Also from Celsias
KSL News
http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2007/03/29/sparta_independent/news/26.txt

5 Things I want and Can't afford

1. Land - Specifically though close to the mountains, south-ish facing hillside, Stream or more preferably river running through my property, Lots of Trees, also lots of open space as well, 10 Acre Minimum, absolutely no Drilled wells (Oil, H2S, etc.) even close to my land or potentially affecting the water table or Earth under foot, other then that I won't be too picky.
2. An Earthship Home - 3 Level Split, 2 levels partially exposed, 1 buried into the hillside. And all the goodies that go with a house like this. At least that's my vision of it right now.
3. All the Alternative energy Equipment I can get my hands onto, ie. Wind, Hydro, PV, Batteries, Inverters, etc.
4. Electric Car - Right now it would be the Tesla Roadster, but if I was on my Land I would get me a SUT from Phoenix Motorcars
5. Lot's of money ( don't really care how I get it ) so I Can afford all this stuff.

5 things I want (and could afford)

1. The 3 Part Series on Earthships, the first book would also be just fine for now and the rest later on. seen here at chapters
2. The Kill-A-Watt seen here
3. Clothing made from sustainable materials like, Hemp, Organic Cotton and Bamboo. More and more places are starting to carry this stuff, Gap started carrying some organic cotton in Khaki as to avoid dye's
4. Items for Disaster Scenarios, ie Flashlights, radio, Water purification, First aid Kit,
5. Books/Magazines on Building Sustainable housing, or Alternative energy no specifics here, just looking for knowledge.

Work

**update in comments**

I didn't know how fast to work on my project as they were unable to give me a time line.... at all. so I had to just assume they would be ready when I was done, some days I went slower, then some days faster, being unsure as to when they would be ready for me to work on the next part of the project.... turns out I went to fast... way to fast, and they aren't even sure what to do with me, I offered some suggestions and now I am also done with that. Tomorrow should be interesting as I have some garbage to deal with and then there's pretty well nothing to do.

Other then that Gore was at the white house today trying to get congress to listen to him about global warming and its imminent importance, from what I've read it went over like a gong show.. what else should we expect from those clowns. Should be more news on this tomorrow as to what happened.

Corruption

Just in case you needed a reason to doubt the current US Administration's True Agenda, take a look at this...

http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/03/20/bush-administration-systematically-lied-about-climate-change/

Yes, Politics will always be dirty, and have Scandals, but why when a certain Administration can so clearly be against the people and for Big Oil, do we allow them to stay there. Let's hope that change is not just on the horizon but a whole lot closer.

The Other Side

Here is a Video that does a decent job of, presenting the other side. I'll post the link now so you can watch it first, and come back after, or do whatever you want.

Global Warming Swindle

I would then read this article that I found about the film.

http://www.carbon-clear.com/development/comment.php?bid=95



Inconvenient truth or Global Warming Swindle, you decide, I find both movies to be pretty extreme on both sides of the coin, however I believe that the argument itself will be enough to distract many from improving there way of life, the way that we know we should, and an Inconvenient truth caused people to change for the better, this movie is seemingly trying to make us revert to old technology and just keep living the way we have always been living because its not our fault, its the Sun's.... now why would someone want us not to progress.... both sides should be taken into account as with any debate, however I don't see that either film has changed the need for improving the methodology of today's world, Why do we recycle? not because it causes global warming but because its wasteful of our current and diminishing resources. Why should we use Energy Efficient appliances? not because it causes global warming but because again its wasteful. Coal fired plants can be clean/er, so can many other methods of electrical production but a simple fact remains that the more we need the more we use, and no matter the method of production, less is better. No matter the reason behind this change we will be better for it. Less garbage, less air pollution, less water pollution, improved technology, so what is it about the debate on human produced climate change that makes people so upset, is it because things are improving.... doubt it, so why then create a movie to debunk 'the myth', maybe they just can't stand back and allow the public to be deceived????? YEAH RIGHT?

Does that mean that 'Africa' shouldn't Develop, of course not, however, is it not also unethical to develop Africa using Medieval Technology? I think it would be wrong of us not to influence Africa and other developing countries to use cleaner methods of generating electricity. Maybe I am wrong? Imagine when more of the world is using inefficient Automobiles, Planes, Trains, Appliances, Homes, Buildings, etc. then won't we be glad we improved. If China alone doesn't do more and more ( they are doing a lot ) to change then imagine the effects of 1.3 Billion people, and India 1.1 Billion ( taken from here, you can see births and deaths in active time). Also take a look at some interesting maps that show the world from a different point of view.

We need to improve, Period.

Recycling

*** Updates in comments**

I am being tested..... As part of my job I have to unpack 110 of 4 different items = lots and lots of cardboard some plastic and a bunch of paper. The paper I can deal with pretty easily as almost every business has a blue recycling bin for paper. However unless I can figure out something pretty quick a very large amount of cardboard will end up in the trash..... they must have a cardboard bin right.... its a law isn't it? I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I'm very tempted to just take it to the recycling bins myself wherever they are. I know what I should do, so why am I so crippled by the thought of asking my supervisor about it... arrgghhh.

Does anyone else feel this bad when something so obviously recyclable gets tossed out in the trash?

Work

Well here I am at work, not doing much of much. Hopefully this afternoon should be better as they have promised to have something for me to do today.

Yesterday was quite awkward as the guy I was to replace temporarily came in to visit, saying he would be back on Thursday, hmmmm well they signed a contract so I will still be here for the month, however unless work really picks up then I'm pretty sure this one is over. If so lets hope there's another company willing to pay large amounts of money to have me sit around, or possibly even work I guess.

I would like to get on this place as management really seems to understand what it takes to be good, if the phones are dead and work is dead they play a LAN based Warcraft game, surfing is not looked upon badly nor is using MSN Messenger, all the things that most people at work do anyway but have to hide from there boss, well except the LAN based Game which is just awesome. My first conversation with my supervisor, she mentioned that her motto is that 'people don't fail, management fails' ..... I'm really not lucky enough to land this type of gig so I'm not holding my breath.... for that long.

The Solution

I had an absolutely brilliant idea the other day. It solves all the debate, all the arguments, and everyone will know without a doubt who was right and or who was wrong.

Here's the plan. We all sit on our big fat duffs and do nothing, yea that's right nothing. keep building more coal fired plants, forget about fuel efficiency those old gas guzzlers are really fun to drive, It would be rude of us to not allow China and India the privilege of enjoying these cars too, continue using as old a technology as we can cause hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it. then we wait for the ice caps to melt, for city's to flood, for enormous storms to demolish coastal city's. for the weather to get so hot that you can barely stand going outside, and if you do, you'll need like UV1000 protection. But hey think of all the time and money governments can save and all that hassle of trying to be proactive. Then when there's not a single person standing that would argue with global warming ( I bet there would still be a couple ) we can throw a huge party, oh and of course we don't need to worry about the mess since at this point Earth is gone to Hell in a hand basket and there is no chance to recover. But hey don't be sad at least we can all agree that global warming was definitely happening, and that's something to rejoice about.

like my plan? I think it's ingenious, and if we do it right, we won't have to wait very long for it all to come together.

---- feel free to add in a note of sarcasm

Toilets

Toilets are one of those things that currently require a lot of water. And unfortunately that water is becoming more and more valuable as the World changes before us. So people have come up with some ideas to improve upon this idea that i think are interesting, of course low flow and dual flush options are better then current methods however by filling the tank with water from say the tap or shower that has already been used once is a much better idea.... side note - does that commercial that talks about the water in your toilet being the same as what's in your glass not make anyone else wanna puke, its the flushing action in the glass of water that does it for me... anyway back on track here, some toilets that I think reinvent this whole idea of dealing with waste are what intrigue me most.

The Envirolet - these toilets are very convenient units that save a lot of hassle when it comes to the alternative being a septic tank. there site has a bunch of information and a 24 min video that really should have been a 5 min video. I like the waterless self contained Idea most as its really the K.I.S.S. principle, although i think it needs the added electrical input in order to more efficiently burn off the water. I've read some reviews on these toilets and some bad experiences with the emptying part not being fully composted.

I hummed and hawed over this post for a while, came across this guys blog the other day talking about the same thing, so I figure I'll just link to his and be done with this one.

Anyway you look at it you just can't use a normal or even low flush toilet off the grid, there's just to much water involved, and would require a very involved septic system, which isn't exactly known for being environmentally friendly.

The Renewable Energy Handbook

The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living (Paperback) by William H. Kemp (Author)

I just finished reading this book the other day (thanks Tim), It was a very informational book with lots of resources and information about the powering of an off the grid or grid tied home, some of the information was pretty straight forward for anyone who has already looked into the Photovoltaic, and wind generation options. For me the information on Micro hydro power was the most interesting as I had not known very much about this technique, and he went into great detail of its designing and specs, the biggest eye opener for me on this subject of micro hydro was its 24/7 operation, why I never clued to this before who knows, but I always saw the low wattage ratings and blew them off, not realizing that they make up for the low watts with longer hours of production ie. 24 hr of 250W compared to 4 hours of 800W for say Photovoltaic. however that said, finding a piece of land with a usable river/stream could prove a lot harder then a nice south( Solar South) facing hillside, and of course the micro hydro system is considered the most complex setup of any other off grid power.

The book helped me understand the many options and many variables that need to be considered before diving in to any sort of off the grid setup. things I never thought about until reading this book were phones, Internet, TV, what to do with excess power generation, how to deal with not enough power generation, the many electrical devices involved in such a system, and even helped me understand electricity ie, watts, voltage, amps, 12V 24V 48V AC/DC.

There was of course much more information on other subjects, but these were some of the things that I picked up from this book.

As well I should note that it was written in 2005 and some of the information is already outdated mostly in the battery section.

Now if I could just figure out how to tie some of these ideas into the earthship design?(see earlier post)

P.S. This is the first book I've read since 2002, I can't read anything that's not non-Fiction zzzzzzz....

Darth Vader

Well I officially got a 1 month contract with possible extensions, with an Oil and Gas company downtown Calgary, I'm not too picky where the money comes from at this point seeing as they are planning on paying me a fairly obscene amount, and that's even after the head hunter takes his cut out of it.

The work is very specific and fairly simple as well ( could be jinxing myself right now ), however they did already mention that depending on the situations around the office I may end up doing more then originally specified, and it wouldn't be to far of a stretch to see me getting asked to stay on longer, not sure about that one yet, It will be pretty hard to say no to that sort of money.

I suppose I'll have to keep my yap shut about the similarities of Oil and Gas to the Dark Side, if I do decide to stay on longer. but for now they are definitely going to help our plans of becoming financially stable enough to go to school this Fall.