Category: Tumblr crossposts

Democrats demand that Trump rescind Bannon appointment

adreadfulidea:

Hey guys, I just wanted to link this here because I haven’t seen it reported by a major publication yet – it’s important to remember that the many of the news outlets reporting on the meltdown of 2016 have a vested interest in normalizing Trump. Think of how they keep saying that the Republicans present a ‘unified’ front when in fact Donald Trump’s transition team is struggling over a peanut someone found on the floor and hitting each other in the face with rocks.

Over 100 Democrats have signed on to the movement to fire Bannon. Your campaign of contacting your reps is having a noticeable effect. 

Portland Now Generates Electricity From Turbines Installed In City Water Pipes

shadesofmauve:

pnwdoodlesreads:

You’d be forgiven if the phrase “Portland goes green with
innovative water pipes” doesn’t immediately call to mind thoughts of
civil engineering and hydro-electric power. And yet, that’s exactly what
Oregon’s largest city has done by partnering with a company called Lucid Energy to generate clean electricity from the water already flowing under its streets and through its pipes.

Portland has replaced a section
of its existing water supply network with Lucid Energy pipes containing
four forty-two inch turbines. As water flows through the pipes, the
turbines spin and power attached generators, which then feed energy back
into the city’s electrical grid. Known as the “Conduit 3 Hydroelectric
Project,” Portland’s new clean energy source is scheduled to be up and
running at full capacity in March. According to a Lucid Energy FAQ detailing
the partnership, this will be the “first project in the U.S. to secure a
20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for renewable energy produced by
in-pipe hydropower in a municipal water pipeline.“

A short promotional video describes the technology and benefits involved in harnessing energy from municipal water pipelines.

As the video explains, Lucid Energy’s system isn’t affected by the
sort of external conditions (namely: the weather) upon which
other renewable energy sources–like solar and wind power– are reliant.
Nor does the technology, completely ensconced within a pipe, have
adverse effects on a surrounding environmental ecosystem, as an
exposed hydroelectric dam might.

Fast Company points out that, in
order to be cost and energy effective, Portland’s new power generators
must be installed in pipes where water flows downhill, without having to
be pumped, as the energy necessary to pump the water would negate the
subsequent energy gleaned. However, Fast Company also notes
that the system does more than simply provide electricity: It
can monitor both the overall condition of a city’s water supply
network as well as assess the drinking quality of the water flowing
through it.

That is SO COOL! West of the cascades we certainly don’t lack hills (excepting a few towns in the Willamette valley and the tiny places basically built on glorified sandbars like Ocean Shores). Water towers are built on hilltops anyway.

Does it noticeably change pressure, I wonder?

Ontario launches guaranteed-income pilot as feds back away from ‘costly’ program

tinierpurplefishes:

allthecanadianpolitics:

The long-debated idea of a guaranteed minimum annual income for Canadians moves a small step closer to reality this week.

Former Conservative senator Hugh Segal delivers a report this week on how the “basic income pilot” announced in Ontario’s February budget might work.

The Ontario government earmarked $25 million this fiscal year to establish a pilot project in the province sometime before April 2017, and appointed Segal in late June as an unpaid special adviser.

In an interview with CBC News, Segal gave some hints about his report, which is expected to be made public in mid-September for three months of public consultations.

He’s quick to dismiss suggestions that guaranteed incomes foster laziness.

“For all those good folks on the right … who say that if you pay people to do nothing, they will do nothing, I remind them that 70 per cent of the people who live beneath the poverty line in Ontario … have jobs.

“They just don’t earn enough through minimum wage to be above the poverty line,” he said.

“So the notion that this is about chocolate, and couches, and popcorn, and watching TV is actually without any substantial basis in fact.”

Segal, long an anti-poverty advocate, says any pilot project in Ontario must be in place for at least three years to be able to measure impacts effectively.

Continue Reading.

Let’s hope it doesn’t get buried like Mincome did