As many of my readers know, my wife and I ventured into homeschooling in the not too distant past. We love it. We love the way we have connected with the educational process with our children. We love that we can determine the time and speed our children need to grasp subjects. We love that we are involved in the day to day process of educating our children. We are not indoctrinating them, we are educating them. We are teaching them in the way we thing they should be taught and are able to adjust our schedule based upon their interest and how well they are understanding and retaining what is being taught. It was with great joy that my wife and I were referred to this wonderful place that caters to the homeschooling community.
Leftovers, Etc. is a wonderful place for homeschoolers. It is a non for profit 501C based out of St. Charles, MO. This place is dedicated to supplying children and educators many of the basics needed for creative learning by providing surplus resources. These are things donated by businesses, industry and individuals within the community that are committed to the development of children in the fields of education and the arts. Put basically, it is like the biggest thrift store that you will find with recycled items or all types that can be used for teaching. For example, you can find Styrofoam egg cartons that you can use for painting trays. Baby food jars and bottles that you can use for storage or to hold bugs for homemade bug colonies. There are a lot of other things and all at very reasonable prices.
It is not just great for the resource center, but it also great for their enrichment programs. Leftovers offers several classes, some of which are recurring, while others are monthly. An example of their schedule can be found HERE.
The other big reason that we really like Leftovers is because it is common sense green. As you all may know I am big into sensible green technology. This is just a sensible method of being green and practical recycling. Any chance to support being green and recycling, I think, is smart.
So, if you get a chance, check out Leftovers, etc. Even if you are not a homeschooler, they are well worth checking out. You can find more information on them including their hours, directions and much more by going to their website HERE.
As many of my readers know, I am a supporter of common sense green technology. Any time you can make something smarter, that consumes less but gives equal or more, I am all for it. That is why I am all for anyone that wants to buy a Prius or Volt. More power to you. For me, though, I like a little kick to what I drive. That is one of the reasons why I love the new Taurus SHO.
This car just screams kick ass in so many ways it is not even funny. For a middle class dude like me, this is the perfect combination of sports and luxury. Yes, it is pricey so I will be buying a used one when it comes time. That said, I just love this car.
MCJ, why did you bring up green tech when you talked about this? you may be asking. Let me tell you. Rather than go with the V8 like previous Taurus SHO's, Ford got smart and installed what they are calling their Eco-Boost engine. For non gear heads I will keep this simple. Using two turbos that kick in at different stages of performance, the car is able to generate 365 horsepower using a 3.5 liter V6. If you want to read the details on this, go HERE. Basically, you can get a really fast sports car that gets 18 MPG in the city and about 27 MPG on the highway. Not bad. This is the type of smart engineering that I feel a lot of middle class people are looking for in a sports and/or luxury car. Speed and luxury done smartly.
The other nice thing, even though it is a sports sedan, it adds a touch of luxury but there is still room enough for a car seat or two and trunk space that a mafioso would be proud to have if you get my drift (if you don't, email me and I will explain it to you).
I like that Ford has made a car that can compare with the Audi or the Lexus as far as space, speed and styling but is American made. In fact, it is produced about 6 hours away from STL in Chicago.
As it is, Ford is on many people's list of buycotts due to them not taking a bailout from the government and being smart about restructuring before the economy went in the tank. By the way, I do not work or am in no way related to Ford or the Ford Motor Company.
This car is not cheap in any way, shape or form. A new on will run you about 36K, but in a year or two, you should be able to find a used one for 25- 30K. So, if you are middle age, middle class but want a touch of luxury and a touch of kick ass, this may be the car for you to look into. If I get the chance to drive one for a bit, longer than with a dealer salesmen, I will follow up to this post.
In the meantime, if you are interested, here are some cool videos to watch that show just how kicken this bad boy is.
My friends. I told you that I probably would not post unless I saw something that I thought needed to be shared. Last week, I saw such a thing.
As someone who does his research before going out with a story, I watched three hours of truly remarkable television that i want to share. Glenn Beck did an amazing three hours on George Soros AKA "Spooky Dude" and his influence, power and attempt to change the United States.
I suggest each of you watch this. Dedicate some time to it and reflect. Then as Glenn says, go out and do the research. I can tell you from a personal standpoint, there have been countless times as I investigate different things, whether it be Lacy Clay or various other things that I look into, groups like the Tides Foundation continue to come up.
As I talked about in an earlier post HERE, the census is very important to politicians. Yes it gives government an idea of who lives where and all sorts of statistical data, but it also plays a very important part to the House of Representatives. After the 2000 census, St. Louis was re-districted.
Here is what the 1st, 2nd and 3rd districts looked like pre-redistricting. Maps courtesy of the US Census
The districts were changed after the census to look like this.
The third district saw some changes, but the second and first districts were changed the most. Parts of north county as well as a decent chunk of west county were all taken from the second district and moved into the first. This change was done in such a way to almost guarantee the status quo, thus meaning the first district would be represented by a Democrat.
The sad thing is, a lot of people do not know that they were moved around. This became very apparent when a co-worker who lives in Maryland Heights was complaining that she had no one to vote against Todd Akin (she is a yellow dog Democrat). When I challenged her on whether or not she was in Akin's district, she swore she was. I had her go to this tool HERE. Low and behold she found out that she is in fact in District 1. She was not even looking because she was sure that she was in the 2nd district. This got me thinking, so I started asking more and more people that live in Maryland Heights, Hazelwood area and many, not all, thought that they were still in the second district.
So, it was with great surprise that I received an email with the following video.
Take the time and learn what district you are in and make sure you cast your ballot come November 2nd.
Space A little over 41 years ago, man first walked on the moon. For the first time in probably centuries, a human being was walking on terrain that had never been touched by a human being. And during that time, the whole world was united in watching as a man gently floated down to the surface of the moon, implanting his footprint into the dusty surface.
As we all should know, the lunar race was sparked by a call to action from John F. Kennedy. He called for man to break the bonds of Earth and move into the stars. Unfortunately he was not able to live to see that, but his call to action was answered. That call to action also brought forth economic prosperity and technological advances that are still in use today or spawned greater advances in technology. I could write a whole post on that, but Computerworld did a great article on this which I will occasionally reference. It can be found HERE.
The beauty of the 60’s space program was that it was similar to the early days of America. It is almost fitting that popular culture moved from Westerns to Science Fiction/Space. I say this because; space exploration is the wild west of now. Much like the early explorers of the Americas, whether it be the Spanish and French explorers, discovering the new lands or those on the East Coast looking for land and prosperity and exploring the “wild west”, the journey into space is the journey into the unknown.
With the journey into the unknown, there is a price. This price is an investment in the future and an investment into discovering the unknown. Much like the Spaniards of old, they invested gold into exploration of the western hemisphere. The reward, they believed, would be faster trade routes. What instead they found were lands full of riches. These riches included new foods, animals, minerals and land. Seeing the investment pay off, the kingdoms increased their investment and expanded their expeditions. These early kingdoms, Spain, France, England, etc., saw the value of investing in these ventures as they provided benefit for now and the future.
Fast forward several hundred years and we see that our government is not looking towards the future. Since mothballing the Apollo program, NASA has been asked assigned to manage flights for the delivery of satellites and to limit the true exploration to the use of satellites. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is smart to use satellite technology to act as our “scouts”, but we are not following that scouting up with additional exploration. The investment in space exploration and colonization is essential for our long term growth.
First, let’s talk turkey. Space exploration is expensive. It is really expensive. It is really, really, really expensive. That said it is completely worth it. According to Scott Hubbard of Stanford University where he is a professor in the aeronautics and astronautics department, $7 or $8 in goods and services are produced for every $1 that the government invests in NASA. Scott should know, he used to work for NASA for 20 years. Right now, NASA is set to receive just 0.52% of the overall national budget or 18.7 billion dollars. Imagine what could happen to our economy if the US Government were to initiate a true space exploration program or an aggressive lunar or mars mission. The money needed would be great, but the rewards could be tremendous.
NASA does it right when they work with various companies. They provided some “seed” money to get the various companies to solve various needs. In doing so, these companies are allowed to keep the patent on whatever they create. In 1998 a study was done on the impact of this process. Of the 15 companies that agree to participate it was found that NASA gave $64 million, these companies invested and addition $200 million and the return on that investment is conservatively estimated at $1.5 billion. This does not even include the social benefits that come from these discoveries. That means that about $23.4 dollars per dollar was generated off of NASA’s initial investment. More information on this can be found HERE
In regards to MO 1st district, McDonnell Douglas played a big part in the early space program. All of the Mercury and Geminispace capsules were actually built by McDonnell Douglas here in St. Louis. Specifically, they were engineered and built at the MD facilities just north of Lambert Airport. While I could not find any studies done to give specific impact, I would have to believe there was some. Personally I know of many former McDonnell engineers and technicians who do or used to live in the North County St. Louis area. Anecdotally, those people lived there because it was close to work.
Just think of what advances and economic stimulus the country would have if the government were to truly re-invest in space technology. All presidents have spoken with words, but few have chosen true action. An aggressive space agency would help bring major innovation to technology, bio-science, aerodynamics, and propulsion technologies, just to name a few. By letting these companies keep the patents, we could see consumer ready variations of these products in the market in just a few years. An investment in an aggressive space program, similar to what NASA received in 1966, 5.5% of total budget, would give the US space program $198 billion dollars which is less than the total committed to TARP.
This type of funding would help employ jobs at all levels and should yield substantial increases and technology.
Moving beyond the economic impact, think of the social impact that this type of program would bring. With the jobs, would come greater prosperity for many people. Using the current NASA model, many companies would be able to offer additional services. Daniel Lockney, the editor of Spinoff, NASA's annual publication that reports on the use of the agency's technologies in the private sector, said the advancements during the Apollo missions were staggering.
"There were remarkable discoveries in civil, electrical, aeronautical and engineering science, as well as rocketry and the development of core technologies that really pushed technology into the industry it is today. It was perhaps one of the greatest engineering and scientific feats of all time. It was huge. The engineering required to leave Earth and move to another heavenly body required the development of new technologies that before hadn't even been thought of. It has yet to be rivaled."
Imagine what would be created for a manned mission to Mars, or a true lunar base. We would need to create all of these things along with green, renewable energy and more importantly sustainable nutritional technology to sustain such missions.
Instead of looking to future, our government and politicians have grown short sighted. Rather than looking at investments, they are too worried about the here and the now, the special interest groups and the party politics. During the 60’s we were united on a cause of reaching where no human had gone before. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon, all of mankind watched. It was a spectacle to behold. It was to be the first step of many. It was a promise to the future.
That promise has turned into a lie. Instead of moving forward, we have become stale. Rather than moving out the way, government has made spaceflight a bureaucracy. Rather than see the potential for jump starting innovation, we have become mired in the politics of it. In regards to blame, it is across the board. Both Republicans and Democrats have cut funding to this agency, routing it instead to their pork barrel projects or social programs.
If the government is not going to move forward, then they need to get out of the way and let private enterprise move forward. The problem is private enterprise can’t. In the United States, there is so much red tape that someone has to go through to test and launch a vehicle; it becomes nearly impossible to do it without government intervention.
While kingdoms sponsored the early exploration to the western hemisphere, it was the small groups, individuals and private industry that helped pave the way to western America. These explorers and pioneers went west to discover and lay claim to the untapped land and resources that were out there. These people/parties did so by financing projects on their own and just moving forward. It was their work that helped pave the way for the rest of the country. They were able to do so because the government encouraged them and staid out of their way. The same could be done for the space program.
By loosening up the restrictions on space flight, allowing companies access to closed military bases for storage and launch sites or even allowing limited land, discovery or mining rights for interplanetary travel, companies would be willing to invest in space exploration using their own money.
While we may not see the economic increase that a government sponsored program would bring, loosening restrictions as well as incentivizing participation would create opportunities that many companies would be willing to take the risks on.
Now, there will be some that say that this is too risky and dangerous and not worth the costs. Space travel should be limited and left to the government. To that I say this. If we had lived by those standards over all these years, we may just now be discovering the Americas.
Man is a wanderer and explorer by nature. We yearn to see what else is in store for us and what is on the other side of the mountain. Curiosity is part of our makeup. You can see it in babies. They take their first steps and immediately begin going to the places they were told not too. They do this because they want to see and know more. Space is the next frontier. It is an infinite place, filled with wonder and danger, where we can go, “what’s next.”
Those who participate know the danger they are exposed too. Those brave men and women who have died in the name of space, knew the dangers that were inherent with space travel. They knew it and went anyway. We cannot and should not try and overly protect those who are willing to go forward. We should encourage that growth and discovery balanced with safety, whether it be via a government sponsored program or private industry. I long for the day that I can sit on my sofa and watch as a human being takes steps off of some Martian lander and makes the first imprint on Martian soil.
In closing, I ask you to think about this as budgets and politics are discussed. Think about tomorrow and the greatness that could be achieved. Think about the potential that an aggressive space program could give us. And think of the promise of a future among the stars for our children. While you are doing that, watch the following videos and just think of what could be.
Health care passed without one Republican vote. Hundreds of thousands of voters, Republican, Democrat and Independent shout and plead their opposition. Obama, Pelosi and Reid shrug. Why do they shrug? Because they do not understand or care what we think. People, we need to wake up. The leaders within our government think they know better than us. They went to ivy league schools and many of them lived a privileged life or lived a life of politics and academia. Since they do not understand the real world, they are saying, "Let them eat cake."
Barack Obama and his various minions have long said that once health care legislation passed Congress and it was signed into law, the people would rally around it. This is dangerous thinking my friends. These highly educated politicians think the know better than the populace. History has seen this before and it was called an Aristocracy. Aristocracy is close relative to Socialism or a Communist state. These elitist think they know what is best for us and are forcing it down our throats and they are doing so with well though out and funded marketing packages.
Health care is the first step in a well thought out plan to change the way this country functions on a day to day basis. Had the economy not been tanking, there would have been no way for the government to take ownership stake in private industries. With the US in major recession, it was easy to sell the concept of the government owning stock in major corporations, or in the case of GM, a complete takeover of a publicly traded company. Had the recession not been in full effect and GM on the verge of bankruptcy, the first thing he would have gone after would have been health care. Why is that, because it is easy to paint anyone who is against health care for all as uncaring. It is also easy to make comparisons between universal health care and things like civil rights or medicare.
Now that health care has passed, it legitimizes government intervention into other areas. Just look at the student loan process. Even though it had nothing to do with health care, Congress and the Senate saw fit to add having the government run this program. This was done supposedly to save millions of dollars. That is until you find out that the payback program.
The bill will lower the monthly cap on loan repayments from 15 percent to 10 percent. Beginning in 2014 students will not be required to spend more than 10 percent of their income on loan payments. In addition, loans issued after 2014 will be eligible for loan forgiveness after 20 years rather than 25 years. As long as students make their payments in a timely manner for 20 years they can be forgiven of the remaining balance. This has the potential to cost even more money and cause continued job loss in the financial sector. In addition, it is another piece of the pie that the government is now controlling.
Next the Obama administration wants to tackle the financial sector. Of course this is done all in the name of protecting the populace. Consider the comments of VP Joe Biden in an interview with Aaron Task
"It's a simple proposition to us: Everyone is entitled to adequate medical health care," Biden says. "If you call that a 'redistribution of income' -- well, so be it. I don't call it that. I call it just being fair -- giving the middle class taxpayers an even break that the wealthy have been getting."
The VP of the United States is legitimizing the redistribution of wealth under the guise of fairness to the middle class. You have to wonder, though, what this administration considers middle class.
This is why it is not too far of a stretch to imagine the government trying to dictate who we can purchase vehicles from. Can't you see the government demand that all new cars be a Chevy Volt as part of some new climate change or green technology government package. What
Representative Michael Burgess had to say this week is not that far off.
The point is, the leaders in Washington are not looking out for us. They believe they know more than each of us and can tell us how to live our lives. The Republicans were just as responsible for maleficence as the Democrats are now. The difference is the Democrats are quickly making up for lost time.
There are many incumbents who are good Congressmen and Senators, both at the state and federal level. We need to support these people as candidates. In this upcoming election, each one of us needs to take a long hard look at the candidates and determine whether or not they are politicians looking to live off of the public teat or are they public servants who want to perform the act of representing the constituency. I do not know about you, but I would rather have a Congressman or Senator that I disagree with, who at least listens to and acts upon the needs and desires of his constituents versus a politician who caters to special interests, their own self interests or what they think is the best.
And since I know that you and or your staff read this website Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan. Yes I am talking about you two and I look forward to you two being private citizens come January of next year.
If you have ever worked in Earth City during the summer, depending upon the winds you may have had a very fowl smell blow your way. If you do not know it, there is a landfill near Earth City, just off of St. Charles Rock Road. If you are unfortunate enough to work near there, it can be a particular odious place to work during long hot summer days. Recently I was discussing this with a relative of mine and she extolled the virtues of St. Louis County now requiring recycling and the need for the government to push more green jobs. This got me thinking.
There has been a lot of talk about green jobs. Obama and the Democrats want to create green jobs all over the United States. I hear the President constantly talking about creating green jobs to replace the ones lost and how we need to move from coal and oil based power plants to wind and solar.
This sounds great and honestly, I am all on board with green energy. If it is wind turbines, sea turbines, more hydro-electric plants, etc. let's do it. The thing is, not all of these programs will sufficiently work. Based upon the climate that you live in, you may not receive enough wind, or sunlight to effectively utilize the capacity of a wind turbine or solar panels. On top of that, in the Midwest we have to deal with a little thing called hail. Hail does not work well on a solar panel and the cost of replacing solar panels is not cheap. I know the argument is that if more people use them, it will drive the costs down, but no one can say that it will drive the costs down so that it is cheap enough to replace every time there is a decent hail storm. Add on top of it, these forms of green technology are not efficient and can raise the cost of electricity, it does not make sense. What we need is a common sense way to green technology. A way to take what is readily available and convert it into energy. Scientists are already working on ways to convert mud to fuel or harvesting energy from humans but these are a long while off.
As an avid reader of Popular Science, I was intrigued by an article that came out in March of 2007 called the The Prophet of Garbage. In this article, you find that scientists and engineers have already created a way to convert garbage into energy. Without getting too techie, the trash is fed into an auger that shreds it into small pieces. Then the mulch is delivered into the plasma chamber, where the superheated plasma converts it into two by-products.
One is a syngas composed mostly of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is fed into an adjacent system to be converted into energy or fuel .
The other is molten glass that can be sold for use in household tiles or road asphalt.
This process and industry could easily eliminate our landfills and pay for itself in approximately 10 years. In addition, the syngas could be used to create energy by using turbines. In fact, over a year later Popular Science posted online an article on Florida to Make Gas from Trash which explains how St. Lucie County is planning to build one of these , to vaporize 500 tons of trash a day into pressurized gas, which will then use turbines to generate 60MW, enough electricity for 50,000 homes. Unfortunately, the St. Lucie County plan was put on hold and is still awaiting permits. Other US cities are proposing this technology but continue to receive a lot of push-back. So the question is, why is this not already in place here in the United States and why isn't the president pushing for this kind of green technology.
It is not 100% green. A program like this does produce byproducts such as Syngas, Heat and Slag. The Syngas is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The plant scrubs the Syngas and uses two-thirds of it to generate the electricity that powers the plant. The remaining one-third is sold to utility companies. The Slag is a solid residue resembling obsidian that can be cleaned of contaminants and be processed into bricks, synthetic gravel or asphalt, and other materials that we currently mine out of the ground. In regards to the Heat, there is no current plans for using it that I am aware of but am sure that ways to harness and use it for steam or building heating are being looked into. Currently two of these plants are in place and operation in Japan and Japan’s air quality standards are slightly stricter than those in the United States. Groups like the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) are pushing to delay projects like this in the United States. They call for more studies to review and research this process. Reviewing their website, you find that the GAIA is an international organization, made up of several pro-environmental groups. In North America, the group is made up of such groups as Zero-Waste USA, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and Eco-Cycle USA. These groups' basic mission is to create a waste free and 100% recycling society. The GAIA is so far to the left that they did not support "Cap and Trade" because it did not do enough to stop the use of fossil fuels for energy. Many of these type of groups were active supporters of the Obama and contributed to his candidacy.
It is important to note that the the GAIA does/did have some loose ties to the White House. This organization worked with several other organizations including Van Jones' Green for All at various conferences and joint ventures, including a May 2009 conference titled "Job and Equity Impacts of Carbon Pricing Policies Conference". The GAIA has received funding from the liberal philanthropic group The Overbrook Foundation, who also funded Kevin Jennings' GLSEN. Additionally, the GAIA initiated the campaign "Recycling Works! A Jobs, Energy and Climate Solution" with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and was supported by Van Jones' Green for All.
Not in my backyard or NIMBYism. Some of the opponents do not support the process simply because it is new and they do not want it in their backyard. It is fine that it is fully operational in Taiwan, Japan, England and Canada, but they do not want it here. These are generally the same people who do not want the US to build more nuclear reactors. Because the technology does pose some risk they would prefer safer tried and true methods. In addition, these opponents call for more testing and more smaller scale facilities as a proof of concept. In the meantime, they would promote methods such as increased recycling, etc.
This is new, to the US, technology. To make these plants profitable and also handle current and future needs, they would have to be built on a larger scale than those in places like Japan and England. While the technology is available it is not common enough to be "cheap", thus putting a higher price tag on it. Uneasy investors and city/state governments are leery and sometimes unwilling to finance the entire thing considering the unknown in regards to a return on their investment and the publicity that comes with outspoken environmental groups as mentioned on bullets 1 and 2. That is why the St. Lucie County project was so important as it would prove viability of this project. Add on top of that, landfill facilities usually charge on average $35.00 per ton of garbage, it is cheaper to dump the garbage in a landfill. Add to that, many investors are leery to invest and make some of the mistakes seen with ethanol plants.
If the president insists on federally supporting green technology, this should be the type of technology we invest in. Every city/county in the United States could benefit from a program like this. Not to compare it on par with space exploration in the 60's but this could be a program that would not only reduce our landfill needs, but take care of much of our toxic waste, reduce methane output from landfills and create much needed additional power to the national power grid. Much like nuclear power, there are risks to the creation of these plants but they rewards could be huge. At a minimum, the government should do what it can to make it easier to allow private companies that are willing to invest in these plants to do so.
Is this technology perfect. No, it is not 100% green and it may increase some of the costs related to garbage. If we are to focus on the creation of green jobs, this program and ones of its type will see realistic benefits by just decreasing the size of landfills, the amount of methane in the air, the creation of additional energy and the creation of additional jobs that would be needed to build, run and maintain these plants.
Finally, let me state this for the record. I am in no way affiliated with any power/energy, trash or green tech company. This entire article was written based upon my interest in technology and as a response to those who are constantly calling for more green tech.
I am just a regular guy, who is tired of getting the short end of the stick. After 35 years of sitting on the sidelines and saying nothing, I am speaking up and letting my voice be heard.
You can email me at mdlclssmah at gmail dot com and follow me on Twitter as MdlClssJoe
Leftovers, Etc. is a wonderful place for homeschoolers. It is a non for profit 501C based out of St. Charles, MO. This place is dedicated to supplying children and educators many of the basics needed for creative learning by providing surplus resources. These are things donated by businesses, industry and individuals within the community that are committed to the development of children in the fields of education and the arts. Put basically, it is like the biggest thrift store that you will find with recycled items or all types that can be used for teaching. For example, you can find Styrofoam egg cartons that you can use for painting trays. Baby food jars and bottles that you can use for storage or to hold bugs for homemade bug colonies. There are a lot of other things and all at very reasonable prices.
Leftovers, Etc. is a wonderful place for homeschoolers. It is a non for profit 501C based out of St. Charles, MO. This place is dedicated to supplying children and educators many of the basics needed for creative learning by providing surplus resources. These are things donated by businesses, industry and individuals within the community that are committed to the development of children in the fields of education and the arts. Put basically, it is like the biggest thrift store that you will find with recycled items or all types that can be used for teaching. For example, you can find Styrofoam egg cartons that you can use for painting trays. Baby food jars and bottles that you can use for storage or to hold bugs for homemade bug colonies. There are a lot of other things and all at very reasonable prices.
This car just screams kick ass in so many ways it is not even funny. For a middle class dude like me, this is the perfect combination of sports and luxury. Yes, it is pricey so I will be buying a used one when it comes time. That said, I just love this car.
