I had a workstation set up in my garage. Every year, about midsummer, a dragonfly would fly up in front of my face, hover, checking out what I was doing onscreen for about 10-15 seconds, then leave. Coolest freaking thing ever. Must have been something about the refresh rate or colours, but still hilarious.

First time I heard it, I thought they were singing "Midsummer's Day"

Wasn't particularly attentive back then.






...or now.

Heh, no, I said we are capped at 5 KW/h input, our product midsummer is around 35-40 KW/h @ 8 cents per, or $2.80 paid to us (assuming no rain/clouds, winter is closer to 5-12 KW/h per day). Then from 5pm-about 6am, we buy energy back at 36 cents an hour. And as the wife and I are both working during the day, we use the bulk of our energy between 5-12pm, meaning any profit we make during the day is completely overwhelmed (eg. 20 KW/h @ 36 cents = $7.20). I live in Australia where the days of 45 cent feed in tariff are long gone (and further, it's a false economy where non solar users are subsidising that tariff for the few fortunate enough to take advantage of it).

Even with the 4 grand gov. rebate (my system ended up costing ~$12,000 AUD for 6KW), it's not likely to make the money back prior to the end of life for the panels (25 years) if electricity prices keep rising without the feed in keeping pace. Add a battery system so you can load shift from daily production to cover nightly usage (where the real cost kicks in) means that you'll be running at a significant loss over the same period, as you'll probably have to replace lead batteries at least twice over the life time of the panels. Even if hydrogen fuel cells or some form of Li Ion battery becomes far cheaper, it's still loss making for the owner, subsidised to boot and the cheap manufacturing is because the panels are produced in China where even the most efficient of factories are utilising enormous amounts of carbon resourced energy, materials that are carbon intensive to make and manufacture etc.

I'm not saying solar is bad because I want it to be, I'm saying it's very easy to sell to people to make them feel better, but like any "too good to be true" story, there's a hell of a lot more beneath the surface than most people realise.

As for nuke and hydro, yep, they have downsides, but they are the most effective sources of energy in terms of return on energy invested that we have available to us at the moment. And the damage of hydro, if it replaces coal burning facilities, might be significantly less than the damage from allowing GW to continue to run unabated.

>> ^bareboards2:

Midsummer night's dream, anyone?


Or Pinocchio?

Midsummer night's dream, anyone?

XFREAK. YES.
they celebrate midsummers day... google lapland.

btw love this

Hooray for VideoSift! Get the bonfire started and dance the night away!

<embed src="http://folk.uio.no/arvidsk/Dump/Bilder/Astrup.jpg" width="440" height="453">

(Nikolai Astrup, Midsummer Bonfire)

good for you

the point here is not cherry picking quotes from the OT, but rather about the fact that there's nothing about christmas in the bible other than explanations about why you shouldnt celebrate it.

i once went to a wedding on midsummer day, and the priest said "and midsummer we celebrate because thats when john the baptist was born". it was hard not to laugh.

i'm a former christian who decided to really read the bible, and found nothing divine in it. just lots of hate, rape, war, ridicolous primitive superstition, violence, and an inconsistent god that evolves as the culture worshipping him evolves and gets "modernized".

If you’re going to fire someone, you want to make sure you do it in a place where the now-unemployed can’t make a scene.

You know…a place like, say, a church.

That, according to a new book – “Machiavelli’s Shadow” – by former Time magazine reporter Paul Alexander, is where President George W. Bush informed trusted advisor Karl Rove in 2007 that his services would no longer be needed at the White House.

“On a Sunday in midsummer, George W. Bush accompanied Karl Rove to the Episcopalian Church Rove sometimes attended,” writes Alexander. “They made their way to the front of the congregation. Then, duringtheir time in the church, Bush gave Rove some stunning news. ‘Karl,’ Bush said, ‘there’s too much heat on you. It’s time for you to go.’”

Maybe Bush knew what he was doing in breaking such bad news in such serene atmosphere: As Alexander documents, Rove has quite the temper.

"He's got a temper and a loud voice and he used it," said Bill Miller, a consultant who worked for and against Rove in Texas. "He's known for getting hot. There are buttons people know about. Losing and getting screwed with will [upset] him in a hurry."

-- http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/YeasandNays/bush_confronted_rove_s_sins_in_church2008-06-09T06_41_32.html