systems of using Solar Energy to directly heat something (vs turning Solar Energy into Electric Energy) (more)

An associative array (also associative container, map, mapping, dictionary, finite map, and in query-processing an index or index file) is an abstract data type composed of a collection of unique keys and a collection of values, where each key is associated with one value (or set of values). The operation of finding the value associated with a key is called a lookup or indexing, and this is the most important operation supported by an associative array. The relationship between a key and its value is sometimes called a mapping or binding. (more)

how the civilized world transmits Energy (more)

The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice-versa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect (more)

consumer-review service (more)

aka Solar Power

We treat Electric Energy as the Medium Of Exchange for power transmission/conversion (Currency hah!). But, as John Michael Greer points out, there are significant inefficiencies in (more)

place to store Electric Energy

John Michael Greer on MicroHydro: for those of my readers who don’t speak appropriate tech fluently, this means a Hydro Electric system meant to generate power from very modest amounts of running water. Less popular than wind and solar, mostly because sun and wind are more widely distributed than streams, micro-hydro has nonetheless had a presence in the Alternative Energy scene since the Seventies. What sets the Eco Innovation systems apart from others, though, is that the generators used in them are salvaged washing machine motors.

windmills, etc. for Energy (more)

each Community Of 7000 should have its own Local Town Hall as a hub for its political and community activities - (Necklace Of Community Projects)

Ex-GooGle engineer Patri Friedman (son of David Friedman) is running a Sea-Steading quasi-StartUp. Neo-SeaLand. (more)

article by E F Schumacher (more)

From Alexander Patterns: (more)

David Brin notes: *A federal court has stepped in with the most important decision and precedent of our times, one that will make a more crucial difference to our role as citizens than anything since the Civil Rights Act: Citizens may now record their encounters with police. (more)

an alternative Money system, a Local Currency created in Ithaca Ny (more)

see SubCulture (more)

one of the founders of the Sudbury Valley School (Sudbury School), has published several books on the Sudbury model of school organization,[1] and has been described by Sudbury Valley School trustee Peter Gray as the "principal philosopher" among its founders.[2] He is a former physics professor at Columbia University, and is described by Lois Holzman as the school's "chief 'philosophical writer'". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Greenberg_(educator) (more)

Douglas Rushkoff wonders whether Job Creation is pointless. Our problem is not that we don't have enough stuff -- it's that we don't have enough ways for people to work and prove that they deserve this stuff... People may have always worked, but until the advent of the corporation in the early Renaissance, most people just worked for themselves. They made shoes, plucked chickens, or created value in some way for other people, who then traded or paid for those goods and services... The question we have to begin to ask ourselves is not how do we employ all the people who are rendered obsolete by technology, but how can we organize a society around something other than employment?... What we lack is not employment, but a way of fairly distributing the bounty we have generated through our technologies, and a way of creating meaning in a world that has already produced far too much stuff... We start by accepting that food and shelter are basic human rights (Guaranteed Annual Income). The work we do -- the value we create -- is for the rest of what we want: the stuff that makes life fun, Meaningful, and purposeful... We can make games for each other, write books, solve problems, educate and inspire one another -- all through bits instead of stuff. And we can pay one another using the same money we use to buy real stuff. (more)

Looking into usefullness in Barrington Il - 2011-09-06-LocalWalnuts (more)