There should be more incentive

Posted on 18th February 2012 in Environment, Home and Garden, Life, Shopping

With the global concerns about carbon footprints on the rise, consumers are looking towards their governments to give them some financial incentives to improve their homes in such a way as to reduce energy costs and the carbon footprints that we all leave. In the United States there are tax credits available for a variety of home improvement projects.

There has been some misrepresentation by some double glazing window companies as to whether or not consumers can receive any type of tax credit or scrapping bonus. I’ve heard that some companies give the consumer the impression that if they purchase these replacement windows then they will save money not only on heating and cooling costs, but through tax credits. The reality is that the companies are giving you a sale price on the spot, the future savings will be on the utility bills. The government does not have a program in place to reward the consumer for this type of home improvement.

In my opinion, there would be more people replacing their old windows with the new ones if there was a tax credit in place for that. Tax payers and consumers LOVE tax credit programs! Wouldn’t it be better to give people tax incentives to replace their old windows than to subsidize their heating expenses? That would be better for the environment and save money too!

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Flower and Plant Care Info Online

Posted on 12th February 2012 in Entertainment/Fun, Environment, Opinion, Technology/Gadgets

Who would have ever thought that you could one day (and that day is now here) get on a computer (a computer that fits on your lap, no less) and learn all that you need to know about flower and plant care and then order the ones that you want right then and there and then within a matter of days receive in the mail the ones that you had just a few days ago decided on. It sounds like something right out of “The Jetsons” the popular futuristic cartoon show from back in the days of my childhood cartoon watching days, in the 60′s, which ended up showing us the way of the future that actually came true in so many ways that they depicted it to be.

I don’t think that they ever did a show specifically about how to plants buy online, and the computers that they showed being used were not as small and handy as they have now become and they didn’t show that you could get on a computer and find plant care information and instructions from various websites like wikipedia and ehow.com, just to name a few. But if you didn’t get the chance to see The Jetsons back in the day and if you can find the re-runs on your current cable and/or satellite listings I would really urge you to check it out and see what it was all about. I think you will be surprised to see how much they portrayed the way that we live our lives in today’s high tech world as we know it.

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Not something I think about too much

Posted on 10th February 2012 in Environment, Friends/Family, Home and Garden, Internet, Life, Opinion

To be perfectly honest, interior design is not something that I spend a lot of time thinking about. Sure, it’s nice to have colors coordinated, and it’s nice to have the furniture look like it was all designed in the same style, but being a guy who prefers spending time in his “man cave” or in the garage, I leave the details of the interior design of the house to my wife.

Today when I came home I noticed that my wife had put a boot tray by the front door, and had positioned some boots and shoes on it. And she had a couple of cardboard boxes marked “donate” filled with some old clothes on the floor nearby. I asked her what was going on and she told me that she had been looking at an interior design website that had led her to a webpage about living greener and she decided to put some of their suggestions into action. Well, I have to agree that it makes good sense to donate old clothes and leave the shoes/boots by the door, but I don’t know how easy it is going to be for me to remember to take my shoes off when I come inside. We never had to do that at my parent’s house when we were growing up, so it may take a while to get re-trained.

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Can coal be clean?

Posted on 20th October 2011 in Business, Environment, Life, News, Opinion, Technology/Gadgets

Over the past few months, I’ve been hearing a few people talking about “clean coal.” From time to time I hear something about new technologies being developed to make coal a “clean” energy source. I’ve watched a lot of television news stories about how coal is removed from the earth, how dangerous coal mining is, and how the economies of states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania depend largely on coal, but I am not convinced that coal is the direction we should be going. I think that we still need to be looking at solar energy, wind energy, and bio-diesel fuels made from algae.

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Coast

Posted on 13th September 2011 in Entertainment/Fun, Environment, Friends/Family, Life

A trip to the coast is always a fun time.  Today will be the last one of the season.  My friends and I are gearing up to take the bikes down.  We will mostly likely grab a bit to eat at the local seafood restaurant.

This restaurant always had good food.  They have tables overlooking the bay which adds to the relaxing environment.  We may encounter some heavy traffic in the way home since it is the start of leaf peeping season.

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