Solar power makes a step

The much touted Nano Solar corporation, seems to be ready to actually ship it's first product. Supposedly it makes it cost competitive with coal. A welcome development.

A cool idea

ThinkCycle.org - an open source community for machines.

A mad scientist period

For some reason I'm going through a mad scientist phase right now. My current idea is pair a passive solar heater with a Stirling engine and see how much power is actually generated. Hopefully I'll have time to work on it in a few weeks.

The tin can Stirling engine

I came across simple plans for a tin can Stirling Engine on the interweb, I think I'm going to build one. I've had some thoughts on how to pair one up with a solar chimney that might actually work. I'll keep everyone posted.

Friday Rapid Fire

• European Solar Power - with an array of mirrors instead of photo voltaic panels
• CogMap - an online organization chart maker, pretty cool, very Ajax-ey
• SilverLight - Microsoft's Next Big Thing has it's first (that I've seen) user generated application. And I just learned Ajax...
  

Passive solar power

Via TreeHugger.com, I came across this interesting how-to article on passive solar power. An expanded article can be found on Instructables.com.

The old round up

• Digital Camera crop factors
• 20 things not to do when starting a business - I stayed away from most of them
• More solar power
• via Marginal Revolution -

  The public's opinion of past wars improves as a new war approaches. Thus, after Vietnam most people thought the war was a mistake and this held true for decades until the beginning of the Iraq war when the opinion of war in Vietnam suddenly improved! Even more dramatically, a majority of people thought that World War I was a mistake until World War II approached when the percentage thinking it was a good war doubled.
  

• The worst school murders actually happened in 1927, though it did not involve shootings. It's a horrifying story.
  

Friday round up

• Crime Crews
• Where the Fortune 50 CEOs went to college - appearances by Georgia State and Georgia Tech, surprisingly little Ivy League.
  
• Government menstrual forms, really, to quote

  Women officers must write down their "detailed menstrual history and history of LMP [last menstrual period] including date of last confinement [maternity leave]," the form says.

  I like the use of the term "confinement" for maternity leave.
• Solar Power - I was wondering why companies like this didn't already exist. Essentially they install (and own) solar panels on top of your house, and you buy it from them them at the rate you're paying the power company. I met them yesterday at the Home Show at the World Congress Center. A good idea.
  

Monday rapid fire

• An interesting John Robb post - check out the map
• Solar powered home fueling station
• "I'm proud to pay taxes in America, but I could be just as proud for about half the money." by Arthur Godfrey
  

Quick Wednsday rapid fire

• Free Fusion Razors
• Folk Alley seems cool
• Photoshop Tutorials
• Microsoft launches an html editor called Expressions. I'm quite curious.
• Republican uses animals, mariachi band to critique border security
• Google goes solar
  
• Crunching the Numbers on Hydrogen
  

Friday rapid fire

• A super sonic blaster in Los Angeles (and Iraq)
• Cool military gear
• Practical and unsubsidized solar power
  

Wednesday rapid fire

• A post well worth reading at Asymetrical Information
• Solar Drone New Endurance Champ
• Orwell on Fascism