Let Us Stop Identitiy Theft!

Identity theft. The scourge of our time and becoming worse every day. Or these latter times I should say. I remember when I was younger such a thing was never heard of simply because it didn't happen. I remember in the days of my impatient youth getting a loan every now and then and I can assure you the creditors made sure they knew who I was.

But the thing is these days we have shall we say 'super banks' which specialize in mass producing loans. Somebody comes in, or even sometimes through the mail even, or on the net, then gives over a social security number and the lender figures OK I've got you. So an identity theft is perpetrated. The lender however becomes partner in crime and sticks it to you the little guy simply because they don't want the burden of actually verifying who you are until it's time to send the sheriff with the summons. By the time your head stops spinning its too late. You're financially ruined and facing jail time only because you was so daft as to not call your creditors today to make sure nothing was wrong! Ahgast this is a barbaric imposition upon man and beast!

A noticeable fact is back in the old days the banks would not have had enough information to prosecute you the little guy but its different today isn't it. Whether it is banking laws or whatever I'll let you put a finger on it.

The real cornerstone of the problem is the social security number. Originally it was meant to identify you for the social security program however it has since become the all purpose identification number. The real fact is you have a name and an address and a computer can transliterate this into a number and another number just isn't required.

If your really want to stop identity theft it is easier than you might think. Just call upon your legislators to enact legislation to remove the requirement of the social security number from any and all banking transactions and let's make the LENDER responsible in these situations. This will result in changes in banking record keeping and just watch the incidence of identity theft plummet!!

True democracy is the competition of ideas.

Photovoltiac Technology.

Announcing newly functional technology! This is a breakthrough in which solar photovoltiacs produce 2 1/2 times more power and efficiency than standard technology. This is thoroughly tested and functional technology and the culmination of years of research. This should shed a whole new light on solar power. The premier green energy technology.

Ever since the days of my youth I've been fascinated by solar power. Man's first adventures into outer space always held my interest and the moon shots et al. The photographs of space technology and their photovoltiacs. Then I consider the status of solar power today and I must explore what has gone wrong. Of course one aspect of solar's image problem is the disgruntled neophyte who typically knows little of electricity and has a problem and in utter frustration is quite vocal about it. Public acceptance is a significant problem and much of which is based in ignorance and fear and un-willingness to change their way of doing things but these types of problems can usually be fixed when the price is right.

Often times I think of solar power as King Energy. I'll explain some reasons why. Well the main reason why I give solar power such a title as King Energy is because of potential cost effectiveness. Fact is that advanced societies must have quantities of energy at dirt cheap prices. First I'll repeat some data that I have found in U. S. government publications. The actual cost of silicon in solar panels is about $5. Actually the primary cost in solar technology is the supporting framework and hardware and this why the cost to manufacture a solar panel is about $100 which to me shows clear room for improvement. Yet these same panels can retail from about $400 to $600 or more. Why?

Well the first place one might want to consider pointing the finger of blame is the government itself with all the incentives to go green which actually have the effect of removing any need for cost reduction. Yet this still may not be the primary reason for the grossly inflated prices of solar technology.

Let's explore how the typical solar manufacturer approaches how to determine the pricing of their product. First they consider the typical home and what the energy cost of such over a 5 to 10 year period is. Then they consider just how they can get that money. Instead of the typical capitalist approach of just how can they provide the consumer with a better product at a cheaper price. This is what is really wrong with solar today.

The fact is that photovoltic manufacturing can benefit from the same economics any other electronic devices can. Such as automated manufacturing plants powered by their own product. The materials need for photovoltiac manufacture such as silicon are found everywhere on the Earth. Dirt cheap energy. The bottom line is the fact that their is no way that petroleum, even at long ago prices, can compete with this kind of technology. King Energy technology.

Light Bulb Fiasco

I went to my local Wal-Mart today and one of the things I had to get was light bulbs. It was not a pleasant surprise. The sticker shock of fluorescents that nobody wants. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen for a couple of years yet! I thought. I was fuming and thinking about this post so much that I even left behind a bag o' grub!

So let's talk about it a minute shall we. No this isn't going to be the usual gripe piece. Let's get into the real science about that fool light bulb law. This law has as a basis that the ordinary incandescent light bulb wastes energy. So let's discuss some elementary science briefly some of which some of you may already know.

First of all it is commonly accepted scientific fact that energy can neither be created nor destroyed true enough. Another lesser known fact is that all types of energy, no matter how, what, when or where always ultimately ends up as heat energy from combustion, friction and even noise. From this it can be stated that heat energy is one of the few things than can and is always produced with 100% efficiency! This is not to be confused with the concept of moving heat from one place to another which is a different matter entirely.

Now the incandescent light bulb more specifically. It is indeed a trait of the incandescent light bulb to produce more heat than light which is a result of having to heat a filament to such a high temperature before light emission occurs. It is this heat that some numbers person has arbitrarily labeled as "waste" and keeping in mind that heat production is directly proportional to the movement and quantity of electric current. Evidently this person hasn't considered the whole picture or is from Hawaii or some other perpetually warm place.

So now let's look at the rest of the picture. This gets really simple. Most light bulbs are found in buildings which of course must be heated in the winter time. It can indeed be stated with all gravity and truthfulness that an incandescent light bulb operating in a room that needs heating is without doubt operating at 100% EFFICIENCY!!!!

Consider the other most common form a heating in a building. These are usually heat pumps found in your yard. These not only produce heat but must also move it into a building. They have efficiency losses during their operation which can be described as heat carried away in the winter winds. When you remove the incandescent light bulb source of heat in such a building it is only going to increase the load on the heat pump. Nothing is gained.

This argument does get more difficult in the summer time but they invented daylight savings time didn't they. Problem solved. The only real way that energy can be saved with lighting is to reduce the use of daytime lighting in the summertime. If you really want to save energy then dry areas of the country should switch to evaporative cooling in the summertime instead of using a heat pump air conditioner. The savings are significant and more significant than a light bulb could ever be. It is in my case $5 verses about $100 a month not to forget that a new evaporative cooler usually costs about $500 verses more than $2000 for a heat pump. It's a no brainer.