Solar panels... that work at night?

I thought I'd seen it all but some braniacs over in Idaho have come up with a way to tap infrared energy.

Nightime solar panals

Actually I was thinking about something similar this week. With all the ambient electromagnetic bouncing around would it be possible to capture it for reuse? Think of it as recycled energy. Reason I thought of this is because when I was a kid I had a tiny crystal radio. You powered it by putting two allegator clips on the harp of the nearest lamp hence using the power bleed from the lamp. It only received one station but you didn't need to buy batteries.

The incredible shrinking country

Home values as we all know are taking a dive. According to one analyst the equity in homes has gone down by $1.2 trillion. With the present economic situation banks are putting the squeeze on borrowers. With that you won't be seeing signs like this for quite some time:

Easy Credit

I don't know why anyone would want a $10,000 limit on a credit card. It's not like you could pay that one off at the end of the month. My general rule of tight finance is: If you can't pay for something within three months then don't buy it. I've had to change that recently because the banks have changed their ideas about the cards. Now if you skip a payment or even if you make a partial payment they can change the rates and add hefty fees. My new rule is if you can't pay it in full then get a fixed rate loan to pay it in full.

Zimbabwe

We won't be going there anytime soon.

After doing a brief study of the country via the cia world book ( I love getting something for my tax dollars). The country is in a mess. I know Shrub and his gang won't be in there anytime soon as they have no oil. But that seems to be the least of their troubles. In addition to having to import all of their oil they must purshase part of their electricity from neighboring countries. Mugabe put a freeze on prices that caused a run on food leaving stores empty. With short supplies inflation is through the roof. 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars are equal to one U.S. dollar. Unemployment is at 80%. Life expectancy is 39 years. The only exports of value are gold and platinum. Their total exports are 1.2 billion. Not a great prize for Shrubco.
The government put up an electric fence at the borders not to prevent invaders but to keep people from leaving. We have seen recently that after the crack down on the opposition party that people are fleeing the country. The people have pleaded for the U.S. or the U.N. to intervene but there is no indication that that will happen.

Busy Beaver

Must be a republican beaver eh?

$162 BILLION

Congress just passed the war funding bill. The bottom line is really less than the $162 billion as there's money for the flood victims along the Mississippi. I'm not against the troops, but how much of this will really go to the troops and how much will go to Haliburton and KBR?

Oh, and a special note for Gary. Your wonderful friends in Washington cut the funding for Medicare (payments to Drs) by 10.6%. So if you are having problems getting medical attention or your doctor drops you, you'll know who to blame and it's not those "liberals".

War spending

Poll

Poll
I think taking military action against Iran now would be a:
Good idea - 6 votes (3.21%) Bad idea - 181 votes (96.79%)

This is a poll brought to you by the people who would actually have to fight - via Vet Voice

Who says the military has no intellegence. There is if you ask the right people...like the troops themselves.

Here's a question

If gasoline prices just across the border in Mexico are running around $2.50. Why aren't the independent gas stations in southern Ca. Az. and Texas contracting to buy Mexican gasoline. Even if they had to pay .50 a gallon for transportation costs, plus the federal and state taxes, they could still sell it under $3.75 and make a profit.
Just a thought