Solar Energy and Livestock

 

SOLAR ENERGY, CROPS, AND CATTLE WORK TOGETHER

ELEVATED SOLAR ARRAYS PERMIT AGRICULTURE AND ENERGY PRODUCTION TO WORK TOGETHER.

By 

Raylene Nickel

10/3/2019

Rob Davis

Solar energy, crops, and cattle work together at the University of Massachusetts Crop Research and Education Center. A research trial launched in 2010 suggests that generating solar energy can occur hand in hand with grazing livestock or growing vegetable crops.

“The purpose of our work has been to see if we could generate solar energy while keeping the land in agricultural production,” says University of Massachusetts (UM) agronomist Stephen Herbert. The research results show that agri-voltaics – or dual-use farming – can indeed work. The key is the design of the solar array.

Click to read more:

https://www.agriculture.com/technology/livestock/energy-partners

https://onpasture.com/2019/09/23/your-pastures-would-make-great-solar-farms/

Circular Firing Squad

 

A circular firing squad is a reference to an organization standing in a circle and shooting.  Everyone gets shot. This is not a good idea. It usually refers not to actual shooting but rather the gibes and insults routinely made by people of different political persuasions.

That is precisely what the United States is doing now.  This has always happened but it particularly bad now.

Some of it can be humorous. But much of it is angry and cruel and lies and divides our nation.

Our enemies of course love this.  Some of them aid and abet it with sophisticated campaigns to spread disinformation.

Social media adds substantial to the level of vitriol. People post outlandish things and many people believe these things and forward them to their friends.

Another term similar to the circular firing squad is the old fashioned pissing contest. Everyone gets pissed on.  Best to be avoided.

Perserverance

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56133281

   

Why America Is So Angry About Our Politics

 United We Stand, Divided We Fall

Our country is very divided now. The right is angry with the left and the right is angry with the left.

I am disgusted by all of them.  Why are we so angry?

We listen to our own media - back in the day there were only a few national TV networks and we all listened to the same political pundits. They tried hard to be fair and consider both sides of the question.

Now we choose our media - on the internet, cable, radio, etc. People listen to their favorite pundits who spend all their time yelling about the other side.  The more they scream about how bad the other side is the happier their base is and the more money they collect.

And social media is terrible. I get emails all the time from people copying and pasting and forwarding the last outrage from the other side.

And our enemies love this.  Watching our country hate each other.  The Russians and Iranians are overjoyed.  Russia spends a lot of effort stoking the anger - many of the hateful screeds you get on social media were created by them.

Is there any fix?  Yes.  Intelligent people should listen carefully to the arguments made by both sides.  If you only listen to arguments from one side you are not very bright.

Is there any chance this will work?  Not likely.

America has become Archie Bunker, without his charm and humor.

Sad.

TEAM MEMBER: AVAILABLE

TEAM MEMBER: AVAILABLE

Dear friends,

I have done mostly pro-bono work over the last 5 years.  Now that the end of the pandemic is in sight, I mean, within a year, I want to do more planning work.

Please note I am available for consulting work or for roles on teams working on larger scale projects. I can help in writing and managing work programs and in the development and evaluation of alternatives.  If you want to bolster your team with experience I would love an opportunity to contribute.  Areas of special expertise:

• Development and evaluation of conceptual alternatives for land use and transportation projects;

• Public involvement;

• Historic preservation; 

• Teaching and workshops for staff, clients and public bodies; and,

• Municipal planning, zoning and development.

I have over 55 years of experience which includes:

• 7 years full time and 3 years part time teaching at the university level in planning and design;

• 13 years with an international planning and engineering firm where I was a vice president in charge of the community and environmental planning department, directing projects in 25 states and 4 foreign countries;

• Founder of an interdisciplinary consulting firm working with more than 70 units of local government in Illinois and preparing site plans, ordinances, comprehensive plans and conducting plan review services;

• Consulting Village Planner for several fast-growing cities and acting director of planning for 5 communities; 

• Member, board of directors of 5 not-for-profit corporations, chairman of the board for two; 

• Author of the book “Planning Connections – Human, Natural and Man Made” and a free e-book “Readings in Urban Planning and Design” with 60 papers (52 published) and over 250 illustrations;

• Demonstrated commitment to historic preservation including: Chairman of the first preservation committee in the Pullman community in Chicago, now a National Historic Landmark District; 9 years of service on the National Historic Resource Committee of the American Institute of Architects(AIA); project manager for the first State of Illinois Plan for Historic Preservation; and, Chairman of the AIA Illinois Historic Resource Committee;  and,

• Expert witness on 73 cases of land use, transportation, zoning and planning litigation.

Please contact me so we can discuss possible involvement in a proposal or project. 

Sincerely, Pete Pointner  FAICP, ALA, ITE 630-222-2424 or peteandei@att.net

Small New Rental Homes, One and Two Bedrooms, Single and Duplex Units

 

I dictated the text below to my Pixel 3 phone using the Recorder App which instantly transcribes the conversation. The transcription is not perfect but close enough. The text below is unedited.

So this is an interesting development in Lakewood Ranch Florida. Their rentals their duplexes and single-family rentals and their small units have built it pretty high density. They don't have parking right in front of the units, so there's a common parking lot and then you walk back into the unit. 

It gives you it gives you the convenience of an apartment but also it's all one story single family no steps. So it's an interesting competition to your standard development. I don't know how successfully it'll be I'm recording this document on my Google Pixel. 3 using the recorder app and transcribes it into text. 

It doesn't do it perfectly but it's close enough for Governor work.

Thank you.

More info about the development:

https://estialakewoodranch.com/