November 27, 2005

Farmer thinks hydroponics will grow sweet berry success
Tampa Bay's 10 - St. Petersburg,FL,USA
Plant City, Florida - The Parke family has been growing strawberries in Hillsborough County dirt for 50 years, but now Gary Parke is breaking with tradition. ...

Hydroponics targets market opportunities
North Queensland Register - Townsville,Queensland,Australia
... "Getting into hydroponics has been a steep learning curve. ... "Prescription" is a word that peppered Mr Shand's description of his hydroponics operation. ...

Wind power to the people
Varsity - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
... Promoters promise clean, emission-free energy, and that there are plenty of windy places in the world where it can be harnessed. ...

Medinas, Coliseums and Too Many Taxis
Digital Divide Network - Newton,MA,USA
... We pulled up in front of the Hotel Sidi Driss, aka Luke Skywalker's house. ... The reception area was basically a cave with somewhat claustrophobic ceilings and ...

Tree house builder's house burns
KFOR-TV - Oklahoma City,OK,USA
ARDMORE -- Several weeks ago Great State did a feature on the man who built a multi-level tree house near Ardmore. The place had ...

Heavenly lights shine over New Orleans
The Daily Advertiser - Lafayette,LA,USA
... I felt a strange desire to re-experience the city, especially the Quarter. ... I guess the earthly lights always competed with the heavenly ones, so much so that I ..

Earthquake in Central China Kills 15
ABC News - USA
Map locates Ruichang, China, where at least 14 people were killed from an earthquake. (AP Graphic). BEIJING Nov 26, 2005 -- A strong ..

November 24, 2005

Technology gives Berthoud couple a Loveland Herald Reporter - Loveland,CO,USA
... The Boltons have a south-side 8-foot-tall wall that's 16 inches thick of rammed earth -- a mixture of dirt that's about 70 percent sand and 30 percent clay ...

FEMA Extends Housing for Hurricane Victims
AXcess News - Carson City,NV,USA ... the federal agency's handling of the dual hurricane disasters may have caused it to cave in to ... So far, FEMA says it has spent $274 million to house the evacuees ...

Is Your Home at Risk From Ground Movement
Environmental Data Interactive - UK... Running sand, where sand can flow to fill an excavation. Soluble rocks, where limestone and salt rocks can dissolve leaving underground cavities.

Bush provides China with lectures, entreaties and a few laughs
Guardian Unlimited - UK
... Just over half of China's estimated 80 million Christians attend officially sanctioned churches while the rest worship at underground "house" churches that ...

Local firm building cataclysm shelter aid
The Desert Sun - Palm Springs,CA,USA Aquentium, a publicly traded company based in Palm Springs, is developing housing units that fold into a crate and could be dropped into disaster-struck areas ...

Draft disaster plan is ready for review Gillette News Record - Gillette WY,USA ... winds come down on Campbell County, there are few sturdy buildings where residents can seek protection and none that meet tornado shelter specifications, King .

Underground History Lesson in Pottsville
WNEP-TV - Scranton,PA,USA
... ever started. One student worked for two months to get permission from school officials for his class to venture underground. "I ...

Volcano Eruption Concerns Prompt Evacuations
Virginian Pilot - Norfolk,VA,USA... movement, which usually occurs before an eruption. It happened at Galeras in 1983 and again in 1993, when nine people were killed. The volcano has erupted more

Reconstructing Herbert
Boise Weekly - ID, USA
... of about 4,000 volunteers working with the television reality program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition razed his single-level, partially underground house and in ... (EHM should build an earth sheltered home in one of their future shows)

Solar companies look abroad for growth
Business Edge - Alberta,Canada
And Canadian companies that design, manufacture and sell solar-energy technologies are increasingly looking overseas to do business, especially in the booming

Inverters convert battery power for household use
Casa Grande Valley Newspapers - Casa Grande,AZ,USA ... with some emergency electricity for my home, but I cannot afford a big generator. ... There are small 100-watt ones which plugs into the cigar lighter socket in ...

Farm is a solar-powered research facility
Casa Grande Valley Newspapers - Casa Grande,AZ,USA ... we had lots and lots of overcast weather," Crews said , "but the generator backup has not ... the lights were on in the caretaker's house and the small food dryers ...

Photonic crystals brighten up LEDs Optics.org - London,England,UK Korean scientists have more than doubled the output power of GaN-based LEDs thanks to holographic process that etches a two-dimensional photonic crystal (PC

Indonesian president warns of 'catastrophic' devastation if bird ..Pravda - Moscow,Russia Indonesia's president warned Thursday of the devastating effects a human pandemic sparked by bird flu could wreak on the economies of the Asia-Pacific region ...

Back on the farm, Thanksgiving was a hard-working day
Benton County Daily Record - Bentonville,AR,USA
... of a wood stove. Turnips, squash and parsnips were carried up from the root cellar and cooked on the stove. Succotash made from

Checking the Pulse of EMP
Project on Government Oversight - Washington,DC,USA... If terrorists did manage to build a nuclear weapon it is highly improbable that they could produce an efficient EMP-producing nuclear weapon, according to ...

Gingrich sees Iran threat to US like Nazi Germany
WorldNetDaily - Grants Pass,OR,USA... As noted by the EMP commission, a country with limited nuclear capabilities and few choices as to delivery platforms has only a few options to deliver a deadly ...

Intelligence sources say seaborne attack could wreak mayhem ...
WorldNetDaily - Grants Pass,OR,USA... EMP attacks are generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated at altitudes above a few dozen kilometers above the Earth's surface. ...

November 23, 2005

Morey injured, but survives being prisoner of war
Mount Vernon News - Mount Vernon,OH,USA
... me.". Still healing from his wounds, Morey and the other marines on Bataan were transferred off the island to nearby Corregidor. ...

SILICON VALLEY SUPPORTS TEACHERS WITH FREE ENERGY FROM THE SUN
Earthtoys (press release) - USA
A new affordable housing complex for teachers and other public employees in San Jose, CA, recently completed a 17 kW solar system to power the common areas of ...

Desalination a smart alternative
Village News Network - Fallbrook,CA,USA
... All of the available energy in the waste steam is free energy and, in this desalination process, only a small amount of energy is added, making this water ...

Sasol's Potential Climate Solution
Tech Central Station - Washington,DC,USA
... for the CO 2 to be broken down further into carbon monoxide and oxygen which can be used to generate more synthetic fuel, if a CO 2 -free energy source, such ...

November 22, 2005

Cave houses, cave homes, cave dwellings, Andalusia Spain
The cave houses and homes of Spain`s Northern Andalusia.

Adopt a Katrina Family for the Holidays
PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA
... We are waiting for our FEMA camper to live in while our home ... cell phones, calling cards, transportation, housing, jobs, shipping, computers or Internet access. ...

Northern Australia rocked by earthquake
Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa
Sydney - The northern Australian city of Darwin was rocked by an offshore earthquake on Monday but there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Simple system for food security
Deccan Herald - Bangalore,India
... or cooperative society to boast, but the indigenously developed crop-storage system would ... While great care is being taken to prevent rain water seeping through

November 21, 2005

Tornado Safety Tips
WREG - Memphis,TN,USA
... The best preparation for a tornado is to designate a safe place in or around your home as a tornado shelter. Tornado shelters are ...

Sewage-Gas Powered Fuel Cell Commissioned in Germany
Fuel Cell Today - UK
... Situated at the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Works in Ahlen, Germany, it is the first fuel cell in Europe to operate on anaerobic digester gas

November 18, 2005

Young Boy Spends The Night Lost In Utah Wilderness KUTV - Salt Lake City,UT,USA
... The boy had recently taken a Wilderness Survival Class and was familiar with the outdoors. But he was not prepared for an overnight .

Staying alive
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh,PA,USA
... "Survival's the one thing you have to do right the first time," said Keith Butt, a Boy Scout leader who spent 30 years teaching wilderness survival at Hocking ...

Translucent Storm Stoppers are light, easy to use Marco Island Sun-Times - Marco Island,FL,USA
Boarding up in prevention of the damages caused by a hurricane was a hassle before Storm Stoppers, which are translucent, easy to install and remove, 85 ...

JOE HERO
Mirror.co.uk - UK
... the cave system, at an outdoor education centre, may have been hit by a flash flood after water thundered over the walls of nearby Scar House reservoir into ...

Whooping Cough Outbreaks Plague Kansas ABC News - USA
By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press Writer. WICHITA, Kan. Nov 16, 2005 -- Whooping cough cases have soared more than tenfold in Kansas ...

New Bayview solar panels SanFranciscoSentinel.com - San Francisco,CA,USA
New solar panels are active this morning in the Bayview reducing city utility costs, following formal launch by Southeast community leaders and Mayor Newsom

Holographic storage: Virtual reality? ZDNet UK - UK
Holographic data storage has been touted as the solution to the problem -- such systems can theoretically store enormous amounts of data in a very small area. ...

New Japanese BMD Radar Tracks Mysterious Test of Russian Missile
MOSNEWS - Russia
A new Japanese ballistic missile defense radar successfully tracked a Russian strategic missile test this weekend, UPI quoted local officials as saying.

Agency proposes a boost for solar Press-Enterprise (subscription) - Riverside,CA,USA
... Schwarzenegger's goal of a million solar rooftops within a decade, a state agency Tuesday released a proposal to add $300 million in rebates next year for ..

Hurricane victims 'must find homes'
Scotland on Sunday - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
Thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims who lost their homes in the disaster have been warned that hotel accommodation will only be subsidised for two more weeks .

Futuristic office space hides the high tech
MSNBC - USA
An open space in Carnegie Mellon University's Robert L. Preger Intelligent Workplace serves as a meeting room with a big -screen TV and conference table. ...

Pakistan Earthquake Fund ReliefWeb (press release) - Geneva,Switzerland
1. The earthquake that struck northern Pakistan and neighboring regions of India and Afghanistan on 8 October 2005 was the most serious in over a century. ...

WWII ex-POW remembers his time in Japan Whitefish Pilot - Whitefish,MT,USA
... Mills, Corregidor, in the Philippines. "I was glad to get off the ship," Nelson said. ... The island of Corregidor is 31/2 miles long and 21/2 miles wide. .

Meet this year's Distinguished Veterans: The trio includes two who ...Albany Democrat Herald - Albany,OR,USA
... He was part of air raids on the Markham Valley in New Guinea in 1943 and Corregidor Island in Manila Bay in 1945, which led to the eventual victory over the

Georgia caves are kept secret to preserve pristine condition
Winston-Salem Journal - Winston-Salem,NC,USA
... Deep underground, where cave-adapted animals depend on scarce energy sources and often live ... of the little-known caves visited for this story be kept a secret. ...

New cranberry harvesting machine hailed as cutting edge
FreshPlaza - Netherlands
Those familiar with a Wisconsin grower's "ruby slipper" say the device is more efficient than traditional water wheel beaters and could revolutionize the ...

Luehrses mill Amaizing whole-grain products
Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA
... In December, he grinds what he'll need for January and February -- freezing temperatures cause problems for the water wheel but keep the flour fresh. ...

November 16, 2005

Powerful earthquake hits northern Japan
Mail & Guardian Online - Johannesburg,South Africa
A powerful earthquake shook northern Japan early on Tuesday, triggering small tsunami waves that struck towns along the north-eastern coast about 350km away. ..

Stunning Staffa and magical Mull
Ilford Recorder 24 - UK
... But Fingal's Cave was as awesome as the time it was sculpted by the savage ... of Loch Lomond and wolfed down steaming broth at the smiling Coach House coffee shop ...

Hiking: South Canyon
Sweat Magazine - San Diego,CA,USA
... near mile 31.5, four landmarks: Anasazi ruins, a slot canyon, Stanton's Cave and something ... The road I'm traveling is marked House Rock Buffalo Ranch Road. ...

November 13, 2005

South Pole now boasts veggies
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
... Research Station. The unit uses artificial light and hydroponics technology to produce vegetables in as few as 30 days. Giacomelli ...

Survivors of the Pakistani earthquake left to die of cold
Independent - London,England,UK
At least 500,000 earthquake survivors in Pakistan still have no shelter with the fierce Himalayan winter just days away, international relief agencies have ...

Miss the madness
The Coloradoan - Fort Collins,CO,USA
... You'll also find more than 2,000 luminaries lighting the trail to a lantern-illuminated Spruce Tree House, creating an image of how the cliff dwelling might ...

Researchers unveil solar energy system for rural Uganda
AngolaPress - Angola
... The system uses small solar panels, which are affordable, they said, adding: "The LED lighting system does not require large panels, or big energy storage ...

Officials Look Toward Rebuilding Amid Tornado Aftermath
All Headline News - USA
Evansville, IND (AHN) - Crews are done draining a four-acre retention pond finding no more victims of the huge tornado that killed 22 people over the weekend.

Holographic Memory
InPhase Technologies hopes to bring its novel 3-D storage product to market by
next year--and revolutionize how you store your data.

Fears of cholera among Pakistan earthquake survivors
ABC Asia Pacific - Asia
[AFP]. Aid workers are examining the possibility that hundreds of survivors of the Pakistan earthquake are suffering from cholera.

Try Healthy Combo Meals
Ellsworth American - Ellsworth,ME,USA
... best canned food, of course, is home canned but few of us these days manage to stock the pantry shelves or even think of preparing a root cellar before winter ...

Transcendent tree house
KFOR-TV - Oklahoma City,OK,USA
... Then there is the story of a man near Ardmore who never grew up that way and he has the tree house to prove it. ... Two years ago he began building his tree house. .

Harvest need not be over
Tooele Transcript-Bulletin - Tooele,UT,USA
... snow all winter. Another option is to gather them and put them in sand or sawdust in a root cellar for winter storage. Many people ...

Holograms organize nanowires
Technology Research News - USA
During the past few years scientists have gotten good at using holograms to move and manipulate microscopic objects. The methods ...

Tornado Death Danger
WLBT-TV - Jackson,MS,USA
... One family that went through that tornado, with $16,000 damage to their house, has built a $4,000 tornado shelter, since the storm. ...

California Town Rejects Solar Development
Outside Online - San Francisco,CA,USA
By Charles Bethea. November 9, 2005 Yesterday, sunny California shot down an opportunity to boost its solar credibility. Even with ...

Buried treasure
Dailyrecord.com - Parsippany,NJ,USA
... While construction costs for an underground house are 10 to 15 percent higher than those for a traditional house, Davis said, energy costs in an earth ...

More villagers take up rainwater harvesting
Deccan Herald - Bangalore,India
... But their interest in rainwater harvesting is quite evident with more and more people taking active part in getting to know the benefits of the method. ...

Waterless toilet, new loom, solar power system honored San Jose ...
San Francisco Chronicle - United States
... can turn waste into fertilizer were two of the ideas honored Wednesday for using technology to improve ... "A lot of my early research was on sewage treatment in ...

Orissa students develop technology to recycle waste water
NewKerala.com - Ernakulam,Kerala,India
... stations, the students of a local school have come out with a technology to recycle ... plants and as a result the water merely seeps down the sewage pipeline into ...

German Wastewater Treatment Facility To Be Powered By Sewage Gas
Pollution Online (press release) - Horsham,PA,USA
... Cells have commissioned a power plant incorporating FuelCell Energy's technology to run a ... Using sewage gas produced by the Ahlen facility itself as fuel, the ...

Enormous nuclear bunker for sale
BBC News - UK
... Nick McCamley, author of Secret Underground Cities, said in the past the government "simply refused to admit" the bunker existed. ...

Environmental groups' 'green' building gets gold
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh,PA,USA
The solar-powered phones have been ringing, the energy-efficient furnace has been heating and the rooftop garden has been bearing a bounty of vegetables for ...

The beat of jeweler Oves Soyunov' heart is heard in the tap of ...
Turkmenistan.ru - Turkmenistan
... Despite the formidable veto, the Soyunovs kept working. They toiled underground, in earth-houses dug out outside of the city, several persons in one room. ...

Mobile home park residents returning to devastation
USA Today - USA
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- A white bus turned into the tornado-devastated Eastbrook Mobile Home Park Wednesday morning, bringing ...

Devastation in area hit by hurricane still 'surprising'
The Simpsonian - USA
... for it. It really is devastation and I think that whenever we talked, there were no words to fully describe the experience.". The ...

November 9, 2005

PA Governor Rendell Says PA Investing in the Future With ...
PR Newswire (press release) - New York,NY,USA
... State Park - $1.3 million to construct a shower house and sewage system at ... Wiconisco Township - $69,900 to install a new technology for a wastewater treatment ...

The heart of the city runs on biodiesel fuel
San Francisco Chronicle - United States
... in neighborhoods like the Outer Sunset where streets are wide and little used, the city could create green belts with edible fruit, rainwater catchers and gray ...

Earthquake death toll rises to 87,350 after Pakistan boosts count ...
CJAD - Canada
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The death toll in South Asia's huge Oct. 8 quake jumped Tuesday to 87,350 following a new count of Pakistan's ...

Experts embark on rainwater harvesting
The Nation, Malawi - Chichiri,Blantyre,Malawi
... "There is, therefore, a growing need to harvest and conserve rainwater where it falls," said Mia when he launched a three-year strategic plan for Rainwater ...

Inmarsat-4 Satellite Launched, Will Support Broadband Global AreaConverge Network Digest - USA
... Global Area Network (BGAN) for high-speed delivery of Internet and intranet ... One of a family of three similar spacecraft, this Inmarsat-4 F2 satellite carries a ...

November 7, 2005

'Underground City' for Sale in Britain
FOX News - USA
... "It was like a set from 'The Avengers,'" said Nick McCamley, author of Secret Underground Cities, who lived locally and first discovered the existence of the ...

For sale: Britain's underground city - Sunday Times - Times Online
The bunker's very existence was meant to be top secret until it was ... a set from The Avengers," said Nick McCamley, author of Secret Underground Cities, ...

Carmakers Offer More Gas-Electric Hybrid Choices
Chief Engineer - Crestwood,IL,USA
... New for 2006 are Mercury's first hybrid, the Mariner Hybrid SUV, and the first Toyota-branded SUV hybrid, the Highlander Hybrid. ...

Company happy to face winter with down-to-earth heating system
Edmonton Journal - Edmonton,Alberta,Canada
... Geothermal heating's popularity will multiply if gas prices stay high, predicted Edmonton Trailer project engineer Kit Leitch and a partner of Terasen Utility ...

Pick a way to keep warm
DesMoinesRegister.com - Des Moines,IA,USA
... Anthony Sherman, sales engineer for Morrell Heating and Cooling in Waukee, said the company has been fielding a lot of inquiries about geothermal ground-source ...

Translucent storm stoppers Naples Sun Times - Naples,FL,USA
... Storm Stoppers. Now shutters are translucent, easy to install and remove, 85 percent lighter than plywood and termite free. And ...

US hurricane damage 'preventable'
BBC News - UK
... The American Society of Civil Engineers found that rather than a few breaches in the levees caused by Hurricane Katrina, there were dozens of failings. ...

Insurance rate increases likely after costliest hurricane season
San Diego Union Tribune - United States
By John Pain. PLANTATION, Fla. -- This hurricane season is projected to be the most expensive ever for insurers. And when losses ...

Cumberland Gap area offers beauty and relaxation Danville Advocate - Danville,KY,USA ... everything you need. An old mill that has a water wheel sits by the brook and has been converted into a bed and breakfast. It's fun ...

~~~~One Stop Garden Shop: Shane Barrett turned his love of organic ...
Willits News - Willits,CA,USA ... Its hydroponics in action. ... There are reservoirs for hydroponics systems, carbon filters, drip irrigation systems, and propagation systems. ...

A disaster grows worse
OregonLive.com - Portland,OR,USA ... The cataclysm that wiped entire villages from their mountainous perches seems, in some ways, to have stunned the world into paralysis.

A sun-kissed coastal retreat Salem Statesman Journal - Salem,OR,USA
... faucets and appliances but to feed the home's heating system as well. The elaborate system harvests and stores excess heat up to 300 feet underground so it ...

Power Smart adds lighting rebates
The Powell River Peak - Powel River,BC,Canada
... we all make wise choices around the use of our natural resources," commented ... customers to conserve energy by replacing inefficient lighting technologies with ...

Big water surge brings devastation to Keys
Miami Herald - FL,USA
Keys residents have electricity and fuel, but are still wrestling with the aftermath of Wilma, which flooded homes and altered lives. BY JENNIFER BABSON. ...

November 4, 2005

Inhabitat
steve (UNDERGROUND HOUSE…): there was a very detailed… royman (SIMPLE DORM): "Highly
detailed website"… sassy_red_head (PREFAB TREE HOUSE… ...

Ex-governor's time as POW 'inspires'
The Courier-Journal - Palmyra,NY,USA
... in 1968. He wrote two books about his war experiences, Escape from Corregidor in 1958 and On Celestial Wings in 1995. John Jansta ...

Poor quality biodiesel causes fuel shortage
KARE - Minneapolis,MN,USA
State officials suspended Minnesota's month-old law requiring diesel fuel to be blended with a soybean-based additive after workers at fuel-blending terminals

City Offering Grants For Green Roof Development
CBS2 Chicago - Chicago,IL,USA
(AP) CHICAGO The City of Chicago is offering $100,000 dollars in grants to small business- and home-owners willing to grow gardens -- on their roofs. ...

Man rescued alive 21 days after earthquake in Pakistan
Xinhua - China... days after the Oct. 8 earthquake that hit the area in Alai, Pakistan's official television PTV reported on Tuesday. Saeed ur Rehman ...

Pipe video inspection system expanded
Manufacturing Talk - UK
... and text generator for easy identification of image files. Orbimatic (UK) are now also able to offer videoscopes with a 4mm probe head for inspection of small ...

Cities around the lake will recover
Newszap Florida - FL,USA
... the marina into something that might attract tourists from all over to the small town ... City hall operated on a generator as the power slowly began to turn on and

Dead links were last removed May 22, 2006

Date posted online: Thursday, November 17, 2005
Omaha man has low living costs in his solar powered home
 

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A house of glass in the Ponca Hills neighborhood of Omaha shimmers in the late-day sun.

This is Ron Johnson's answer to the energy crisis of the 1970s -- and the high heating bills expected this winter.

His home has no furnace and no air conditioner. Instead, it uses solar panels, insulation and earth packed up against exterior walls to maintain an even, comfortable environment.

Year round, he runs a fan and opens windows because the small house easily becomes humid. Using those controls, the temperature inside hovers around 70 degrees all year.

Before he built the house in 1978, Johnson traveled frequently.

"After I got done traveling I decided I had to have a place to live," he told the Omaha World-Herald. "I decided on a solar home because the least it cost me to live, the least I have to work."

Savings from his solar house have provided money for investment and travel.

His untamed beard and mop of red-going-to-gray hair instantly convey the look of a laid-back eccentric. The 54-year-old further cultivates that impression when wearing one of his hundreds of Hawaiian shirts.

Johnson, who lives with his two black labs, built the house on his parents' property on Kelby Road for $30,000 and with the help of friends.

He designed the house to face due south for the full effect of the sun. Soil 10 feet deep partially encases the sides and back of the home.

From the front, the house is a wall of windows. To the right of the front door is a bank of solar panels on the roof and greenhouse windows to the end of the wall. To the left are five floor-to-ceiling windows.

Once inside, there's an airlock, a space where air gets trapped to help keep the cold out. To the right is a door to the greenhouse and another airlock.

The living space, excluding the greenhouse, is 1,050 square feet. That gives Johnson four rooms -- bedroom, kitchen, living room and bath -- arranged in a rectangle, with partitions providing privacy and storage without blocking warm air flow near the ceiling.

The dynamo for this concrete-walled home is the 7-foot-wide by 21-foot-long greenhouse built along the front half of the house.

Solar panels heat water stored in tanks inside the greenhouse, set into a pit a few feet below the home's floor level.

A solar-powered pump runs antifreeze through a closed-loop pipe system to heat another tank that provides warm water for cooking and cleaning.

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2005/11/17/news/ne braska/481bec29dcbde35c86257 0bc0016e1dd.prt