Solar LifePods

Solar LifePod’s day in the sun | Green Tech – CNET News.com
An interesting idea. The only questions I could see arising about them in Phoenix, AZ would be the effect they have on the city’s summer heat island effect and the dust and thunderstorms effects on the devices. If they contribute to the heat island or are incapable of dealing with minimal maintenance the harsh storms we get then they wont be much use in Phoenix, let alone Arizona as a whole.

I’d certainly love to replace the old early 80s system that was put on my house with the newer photovoltaics but can’t afford to right now.

Assorted news commentary…

Hearing set on imperial Bush presidency | Politics | Reuters
Meh. Conyers own words already indicate his bias and therefore any “hearing” would be worthless. Just the same old garbage that’s become common shrift for politicians to vent their own ineffectualness on the outgoing President. Bush may be an idiot, but Conyers is a moron for wasting tax payer money just like all the other idiots that have come to use threats of impeachment as a means of political vendetta and/or distracting attention away from their own questionable activities.

U.N.’s Ban pushing ahead with Kosovo handoff to EU | International | Reuters Naturally Russia is upset but Serbia is curiously silent aside from one protest from Serbia’s President Tadic. We’ll see how this goes, but I don’t see Kosovo willingly falling back under Serbian (or Russian) influence any time soon and more than likely eventually punting the EU should the EU interfere to much with the local government and people’s lives.

Pope says young inheriting scarred, squandered earth | International | Reuters While it’s good that religious leaders are finally interested in the environment beyond the old “god gave it to us, so let’s use it” attitude, I do have to question whether this is simple pandering by the Pope and RCC to prop itself up. I mean the issue of the environment and conservatism et. al. has been around a lot longer than I’ve been alive so I do have to wonder at the timing.

Plan to send Mideast refugees to Sudan draws protest – CNN.com Honestly I don’t know what to think of this. It boggles me. It seems incomprehensible to send refugees to a nation with as many problems as Sudan. What I don’t get is why not send them to the ersatz state of Palestine since they are Palestinian? The whole situation just seems…odd.

Schmidt: YouTube + ads = ‘holy grail’ | News – Digital Media – CNET News.com Meh. Of course Google is happy with in video ads so they can hock their useless wares and services that no one cares about or wants to see when trying to watch a vid. Just put the ad at the beginning of the vid and be done with it. If I want 24/7 commercials when I’m trying to watch a vid I’ll watch the various shopping channels on TV instead.