Sunday, August 31, 2008

International Artwear and Fashion Show and Sale



Everyone is invited to this great event co-sponsored by the African Refugee Women Rebuilders and Cardea Center for Women/Footprints Guild.

It honors, celebrates and promotes refugee and immigrant artisans and vendors of artisan products. It gives opportunity to newcomers and the planned fair and marketplace is a good example of mission based enterprise and marketing.

Karita Hummer

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Let's Discuss Election Reform: Purges, Hanging Chads, Disenfranchisement, anomalies, glitches





Alan Dechert,
Alan Dechert, One of our American heroes fighting the war for election reform.

Let's discuss what belongs in Election System reform.


http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/






Cross-posted from EENR Blog: http://eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2354
by: Karita Hummer
Sat Aug 23, 2008 at 23:09:40 PM EDT

photofix The election is at risk. Let's keep our eyes on the prize.

Can there be anything more important to a democracy than a fairly run and executed election, without fraud, hanging chads, caging, disenfranchisements, purges, machine glitches and anomalies.

John Gideon at Voters Unite has been playing the role of a Paul Revere, sending out alerts on bad voting news. It behooves us all to stay on top of the dangers lurking in our electoral system To get this news, write to John Gideon for it at: jgideon@votersunite.org, or for more election reform information, go to the general Voters Unite site: http://www.votersunite.org/ Velvet Revolution is another important site: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/.

One of my favorite places for election machine remedy is Open Voting Consortium(OVC). See: http://www.openvotingconsortiu... There you will learn about the pioneering work of Alan Dechert, who has been working on software to solve voting machine problems. He's a American Democracy Patriot if there ever was one.

http://www.openvotingconsortiu...

Another group that has been in the forefront for election reform has been the Alliance for Democracy with their HONEST AND CLEAN ELECTIONS CAMPAIGN. See: http://www.thealliancefordemoc...

Today, in his Email blast on the subject, John Gideon sent out an alert of three current stories in the news about voting problems:

He reported on a news story of problems in two counties in Florida.- as acknowledged by company spokesperson from Premier Election Solutions Inc. http://www.bradenton.com/news/...

Actually, there was a bit of good news in one of the articles. A number of States are trying to dump their touchscreen machines, but they can't seem to find buyers, no matter how cheap they set the price: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/...

In another story, he sends a news clip of how difficult it is to vote from overseas, a story of how one voter just gave up. http://www.stripes.com/article...

Why don't we discuss what belongs in Election System reform.

NO question about it, we don't have real election reform yet, because the Republicans have set their teeth against it and Democrats - despite two stolen elections in a row - have been afraid to be labled as whiners and are too "noble" to call theft when they see it or smell it.



Karita Hummer

Edwards Democrat, who insists that our Party retain the backbone to fight for the common good.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Jim Wallis gives solace and guidance

Cross-posted from EENR Blog

http://eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2286


by: Karita Hummer
Fri Aug 15, 2008 at 19:45:34 PM EDT
[edit diary]
Just as disparagement and mockery rise to terribly distasteful levels, wisdom and guidance are offered by Jim Wallis of Sojourners to all of us who are smarting and quite broken-hearted about the news surrounding John Edwards these last couple of weeks.

Especially heartwarming to me is that Edwards' vision and mission for ending poverty is still given proper credit, recognition and confirmation by Jim Wallis as the preeminent moral issue that it is.

For some reprieve, respite, and inspiration, visit Jim Wallis's blog site, called "God's Politics, a Blog by Jim Wallis and Friends":

http://blog.beliefnet.com/gods...

Here's the paragraph that warms my heart especially and hopefully provides validation for us all, including John Edwards:

I have respected John Edwards' championing of the moral issue of poverty, and that's why he appears on the cover of the latest issue of Sojourners, along with former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. I interviewed them both several weeks ago about how we could truly put poverty on the agenda in America. On last month's cover, we featured Elizabeth Edwards, who wrote eloquently about the need for everyone in America to have the kind of health care she has in her courageous fight against cancer. Jim Wallis, http://blog.beliefnet.com/gods...

Let's make sure that this preeminent issue of poverty in America, and the fact of two Americas is given the preeminent attention it deserves at the Democratic Convention.

If you haven't already contacted Howard Dean on this subject, let him know that you want the issue of poverty and Two Americas addressed adequately, appropriately and respectfully at the Democrats' Convention.

To write Howard Dean, go to:

"http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/chairman"

Karita Hummer
Edwards Democrat, A Democrat who insists that the Party's core values for the Common Good be advanced

Thursday, August 7, 2008

MIT announces major Solar Energy Discovery by Daniel G. Norcera!



Let the sun rise!





Cross-posted from EENR Blog
http://eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2213
by: Karita Hummer
Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 01:57:33 AM EDT


My good friend, Richard Waddell, from a Partnership for a Better Future Yahoo Group, just sent me a most remarkable announcement from MIT, announcing the discovery by MIT Professor Daniel G. Norcera of how to achieve large-scale solar power generation.

It is so exceptional, I believe, because it appears to be one of the safest and most far-reaching breakthroughs in alternative energy that could set the whole world on an important trajectory of great prosperity.

Here's this remarkable Press Release in its entirety:

"Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution
Thursday 31 July 2008
by: Anne Trafton, MIT News

MIT's Professor Daniel G. Nocera has discovered a way to do large-scale solar power generation. (Photo: Donna Coveney)
Scientists mimic essence of plants' energy storage system.

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today's announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. "Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon."

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

The key component in Nocera and Kanan's new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity - whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source - runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.

Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.

The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up, Nocera said. "That's why I know this is going to work. It's so easy to implement," he said.
"Giant Leap" for Clean Energy

Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year.

James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.

"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
"Just the Beginning"

Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.

More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
"This is just the beginning," said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. "The scientific community is really going to run with this."

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity- by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.

The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that "this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science."

The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.

_

Now, mind you, MIT sent out this press release on July 31st, but have you seen one word about this possibly truly revolutionary announcement in or on Corporate Media? Wouldn't you think an announcement of such magnitude would deserve front page coverage everywhere and anywhere?

What could be more timely than an announcement about the potential of solar energy as McCain raises the spectre of large scale nucleaar energy as an alternative for US energy?

Hello! We want safe , large-scale energy solutions and we want the news when it exists. Isn't it time to celebrate-with proper recognition - the work of people like Daniel G. Norcera of MIT? The whole story, please, and nothing less!!

Karita Hummer
Edwards Democrat

An Edwards Democrat is a Democrat with backbone who stands up for our Party's core values.
Karita Hummer :: MIT announces major Solar Energy Discovery by Daniel G. Norcera!
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