The International Dark-Sky Association is pleased to announce the
inclusion of specifications calling for the full shielding of solid
state lighting (LED) luminaire street lights in the proposed criteria
for the federal efficiency program Energy Star. If passed, the pending
requirements, released August 20, 2008 by the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE), in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), will have a major impact on the design and marketability of
all future LED street lights. These criteria are the result of input
gathered at a series of DOE sponsored workshops held in Phoenix,
Arizona; Atlanta, Georgia; and most recently in Portland, Oregon in
July. During his participation in the workshops, IDA Technical Advisor
Pete Strasser spoke repeatedly with DOE officials to emphasize the
necessity of a fully shielded luminaire design. In the category of
outdoor pole/arm mounted area and roadway luminaires (outdoor street
and public lighting), the guidelines propose that the "Luminaire shall
deliver 100% of total lumens within the 0\260- 90\260 zone, with a
maximum of 10% of total lumens delivered within the 80\260- 90\260 zone
(bilaterally symmetrical)." In lay terms, these specifications mean that
the requirements for how the light is directed in each luminaire meet
IDA standards for total dark sky compliance. Energy Star's consideration
of this standard for LED street lights signals official recognition
of the environmentally positive capabilities of fully shielded light
fixtures and helps to ensure that future public LED fixtures will be
both energy efficient and dark sky friendly.
/n
Friday, 22 August, 2008. 01:13:02 PM
Line from McCain's ad where he claims he's not a fat cat: "Celebrities
don't have to worry about family budgets. But we sure do."
Ummmm, what about this crap?
The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain's tax returns.
McCain spends more on Butlers and servants than most people do on their entire house!
/n
Tuesday, 19 August, 2008. 03:46:57 PM
David Byrne and Brian Eno released a new record yesterday on their website
http://www.everythingthathappens.com/.
All the songs can be streamed from the site, and MP3's can be downloaded for 9 bucks.
The track "Strange Overtones" was released a few weeks ago in advance of the rest of the tracks
and it's been played a few times every day since then.
/n
Monday, 18 August, 2008. 01:11:18 AM
Back in Atlanta. I've been flying out here every week since January, with just a
break of a couple months for another project. Tonight I made Platinum again with
American. I made Diamond at Hilton again a couple weeks ago.
/n
Saturday, 16 August, 2008. 11:58:29 PM
I'm getting pretty sick of the party line against Russia for their part
in the war. Quite a few Americans I have spoken to seem to think Russia
is the bad guy here, picking on poor little Georgia. Well, that's wrong.
Georgia started it, they pretty much wiped out South Ossetia, and
Russia's hand was forced. They ended up overreacting in turn, but let's
be clear - Georgia had it coming.
This American girl was in a cafe when the bombs started falling. The
Fox News guy is pushing the lie that Russia bombed South Ossetia,
and the girl corrects him.
This is not the cold war, where anything Russia does can always be
wrong. We should not be taking sides in this situation either, and
except for the geopolitical struggles over the oil pipeline in Georgia,
which the US helped to build, we wouldn't be overly worried about some
small nationalistic nations in Russia's backyard.
/n
