Earth Hour 2008

I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Sure, at first it seems like a great idea! I mean anything to conserve energy is a good thing right?
But for some reason, this also saddens me... one hour, out of an entire year, and we're supposed to feel good about this?
I also don't like how the video uses scare tactics about global warming. You can't just suggest "global warming" then show a bunch of tornadoes ripping buildings apart. It's a false image, tornadoes have been around since we've had weather!
So amidst a message that overall I agree with (helping the planet), I'm reluctantly posting this youtube video to encourage you to join in. This Saturday, from 8pm - 9pm - turn off all your lights and as many electronic devices as you can.
One more troll like comment...
The video shows everyone gathering around candles. Candles pollute too! In fact they are worse than a light bulb. I hope people don't jump in their SUV's to run to the store and buy a bunch of candles and matches to do this. I have a feeling it would be defeating the purpose. That said, If you already have a candle(s) in your house, I'm sure lighting it for an hour would be better for the planet then a house full of lights.
What encourages me the most about this "movement" is that corporations are doing this also. Now that I see as a benefit. These high rise office buildings who keep their lights on all night long is something people should notice and do something about.
Ok, I'm stepping down off my soapbox now.

Tech Tags: earth+hour energy environment globa+warming

new batteries from Toshiba

Been a while since I posted anything "green" so here's a cool discovery...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22240865/

And it's a short post to make up for my "book" post yesterday.

more free energy

I just realized that this idea of "free energy" may be misleading... technically speaking a hydro-electric plant is free energy in that the company is simply harnessing the power of the water via a damn to creat energy then selling it to the users. Hmm, pretty good deal for them huh. Well, There's been mention of this idea before, and I think it's a GREAT idea... to harness the power from the ocean via the ups and down of either waves of tides. This guy over on the MAKE magazine site has made his own prototype and it works pretty well. (though one person claims it's only genereating a minuscule amount of power). The real point of this though is that it can be scaled up and used to create continuous power, and cleanly too! I think this is the answer in the future that there will be large off shore power plants that are anchored to the ocean floor yet bob up and down on the tidal flow. Here's the link to the make site.

Tech Tags: Makezine Make Free+energy prototype waves ocean