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rooter

Grass roots off-gridder

Grass roots off-gridder

A UK green weekend in Nottingham will hear a keynote speech this evening from Mark Boyle, who has been living without money for more than a year.
His talk is part of a weekend of environmental events in Nottingham at the Art Organisation, Station Street, as part of the Space For Life: Big Green Weekend event.

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2012 and the age of stupid

November 12, 2009
2012 and the age of stupid 2012, the Movie, is aimed at really stupid teenagers, and was made by a really stupid foreign guy. The Europeans, as we all know, hate America, but Roland Emmerich born 1955, in Stuttgart,  has such a bias, one has to wonder if he's French. Emmerich blew up the White House and New York and most other American cities in "Independence Day" (1996). In 1998, he picked on the Big Apple again, having "Godzilla" stomp most of it with incompetent resistance from a number of pinheaded Yankees. (The only characters who seemed to know what they were doing were a team of French commandos -- French, mind you! led by Jean Reno.)

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German village goes off-grid ready

October 17, 2009
German village goes off-grid ready 750 Germans cant be wrong A tiny village in Germany ends its dependence on the grid this month.   Juhnde in central Germany has attracted the attention of renewable energy advocates because it makes all the electricity and heat for its residents from a combination of manure, silage and wood chips.

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Don’t buy solar panels

July 5, 2009
Don’t buy solar panels

Wait a year before buying solar panels - that's the advice from industry experts who think the price of solar PV will fall, grants will rise, and the cost of grid power will rise too, delivering a triple whammy in favor of solar power.

But not just yet.

Although the cost of solar panels has fallen as low as $2.48 a watt according to the latest issue of Homepower magazine, its likely to go to $1.50 next year.  A company called Skyline Solar hopes to achieve grid parity before the end of 2010 -- way ahead of the rest of the industry.

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Let him bee!

June 17, 2009
Let him bee!

A bee-keeper living in a cave in Sussex, UK, has been ordered to leave by his local council on the grounds he does not have a fire exit.

In a case of Health-and-Safety-gone-mad, Hilaire Purbrick (pictured), 45, has been told he must leave the seven-foot cave in Whitehawk Hill  he has inhabited for the past 16 years. Mr. Purbrick's troubles started when he first came to national attention in 2003 after he calmed a swarm of angry bees using a feathery sex toy. His selfless act led the council to focus on his unconventional lifestyle.

He and four neighbours have lived and dined off the land with no ill effects, but after having the dwelling checked by the fire brigade, Brighton and Hove City Council decided it did not have enough exits and sought an injunction banning him from entering it.

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Junk Mail

December 3, 2008
Junk Mail

Found this in my junkmail - it looks like rubbish to me but maybe someone out there in Britland was going to pay full price.

"Sschhhh!! Just sharing a secret Love Eco discount code with you. Go to http://www.webuser.co.uk/specials/273226.html and pick up your 15% discount code now. Quick, before it goes!

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British widow in off-grid protest

October 13, 2008
British widow in off-grid protest

Everybody should try it A 72-year old woman has switched off ALL power in her home in protest at 'crazy' energy bills. Anne Myall refuses to use electricity in her home after receiving massive bills she claims were incorrect. The electricity company, NPower has promised her a full refund, but Ms Myall continues to live by candlelight and use a wood fire for her heating report several British newspapers.

In protest at the cost of her energy bills, Myall no longer spends her evenings watching television in front of an electric fire, instead the grandmother listens to a battery-powered radio wrapped up in bed.

She has dispensed ...

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Six ways to save the planet

June 26, 2008
Six ways to save the planet

Stern: relaxed

British academic Nicholas Stern shocked the world last year with his simple statement that we have to pay now for the pollution already done to the planet, or else we will pay a lot more soon. Since then, the bill has already doubled he says. And now he is back with a six point plan. "The plan is not ambitious in relation to the problem," he told Prospect Magazine. "It is ambitious in relation to world politics. It has been out for only a few weeks, but has already been picked up by people in ministries around the world. The proposed deal has six basic elements. "First, we need to cut total world carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels, with rich countries committing at Copenhagen to cut by 80 per cent by 2050.

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Reinventing the nation state

May 21, 2008
Reinventing the nation stateThiel - building his own country A $500,000 donation from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, has kickstarted the Sea-steading Institute, to create experimental ocean communities "with diverse social, political, and legal systems." There's a long history of people founding independent nation-states out in the ocean, most recently on an abandoned gun emplacement off the coat of Britain. They offered mail order kidney transplants and tax breaks to drug dealers, and eventually fled their "nation" to escape from some other bad guys. But the Sea-Steaders have an unusually coherent philosophy, and an impressive track record in getting things done.

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