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Here’s Real DIY Spirit

Hannu Vartiala has captured the real spirit of ProvideYourOwn.com. He needed a hand rail for his spiral staircase, and instead of buying the expensive factory one, he ingeniously fashioned his own out of… you’ll never guess – polypipe and then covered elegantly in leather. The polypipe was made rigid by filling with smaller dowels, then filled with epoxy. <a href="http://koti levothyroxine synthroid.kapsi.fi/hvartial/spiral/spiral.htm” onclick=”__gaTracker(‘send’, ‘event’, ‘outbound-article’, ‘http://koti.kapsi.fi/hvartial/spiral/spiral.htm’, ‘Check out his article ‘);”>Check out his article for full build details.

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The LED Lighting Revolution – A Primer

White LED

A lighting revolution is coming. LEDs will usher it in, but the road may be rocky along the way. Why? Because LEDs are a radically different type of lighting than what we are used to. For them to be used effectively, we need to change our way of thinking about lighting.

The Problem

LEDs are so different from Edison-style incandescent bulbs, that trying to create a drop-in replacement is problematic. This article in particular points out that current LED offerings have poor color spectrum, poor luminosity, and poor reliability. Ouch – they don’t sound very good at all, at least as screw-in replacements for a hundred year-old technology. While I think that they will eventually achieve a screw-in replacement that is fairly decent (look at this innovative offering from Phillips as an example), this pursuit is really the wrong approach. If you want to learn more about how LEDs work and how we can create some really special lighting that is hard or impossible to do with yesterday’s technology than read on. The best thing about LEDs is that the technology to solve our lighting problems is not in the future. It is available today. You just need to know … Read the rest

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Following Your Passions

Steve Jobs was best known as a man who followed his passions.  With his recent passing, I found a commencement speech that he gave to Stanford University graduates provided an interesting view on his accomplishments. In his speech he reflected on his life, his successes and his failures. You can either view his address or read the transcript here. It is worthwhile reading or viewing.

Gary North recently wrote about his own impressions on Job’s speech. I have some of my own observations to offer as well.

Education

Regarding college education, Jobs found it to be:

  • extremely expensive
  • most of the courses to be of little value yet required in order to graduate
  • some courses were very useful and could be taken for free if not concerned with getting credit for them

These observations mirror my own regarding college. Now I know that education, especially college education is considered to be sacrosanct in this country, yet I find its value similar to what Jobs found it to be. The sole reason to pay for an expensive college education is not for the education value, but for the piece of paper that opens doors into the job market. The truth … Read the rest

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#1 Cause of Accidental Deaths – Not What You Think

Do you know what the #1 cause of accidental deaths in America is? Is it:

  1. Terrorism
  2. Car Accidents
  3. Gunshots
  4. None of the above

If you answered number 4, go to the head of the class. The #1 cause of accidental deaths is no longer car accidents, but drugs. Not just illegal drugs mind you, but legal drugs as well. In fact the number of deaths due to legal drugs far outnumbers those for illegal drugs.

Most people are not aware of the extreme dangers of legal pharmaceutical drugs, even ones available over the counter. Did you know that taking Tylenol even as indicated or prescribed can lead to liver failure? Did you know that the FDA’s main interest lies in maximizing pharmaceutical companies profit rather than public safety? That’s right. The head of the FDA is a political appointee. Who gets appointed? Whoever gives the most to the president’s campaign. In this case, the big drug companies name their man – usually a former CEO of one of them. Just do some research on Donald Rumsfeld and aspartame if you don’t believe me.

Another way in which drugs become more dangerous is when they go off patent. A drug … Read the rest

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