Here we are again, burning the midnight oil. It’s been a long day. At noon, I took the dogs for a walk and it was 75 degrees F. This is the current weather:
Scout would like to speak to the manager. It’s supposed to snow through Saturday. Because, of course it is, all the lilacs and fruit trees were starting to bloom.
In better news:
Apr 13, 2025Rooftop solar PV is THE best way to reduce your household energy bills (alongside good insulation of course!). But the technology is woefully underutilised on a global basis, especially in regions that have the best sunshine, like Africa. Now a new report has crunched some numbers and calculated the climate mitigation potential of all those unused roofs around the world. And it’s quite the impact!
This is a wide-open thread for you night owls and early risers!
War for Ukraine Day 1,148: No Truce, No Ceasefire, Just More Russian Attacks on Ukrainian Civilian Targets
Dr Daniel Price (excruciverbiage)
Our new solar PV installation was completed today. It is our third consecutive house with rooftop solar panels.
NotMax
@Dr Daniel Price (excruciverbiage)
House in the neighborhood has a big sign in the yard, facing oncoming traffic in both directions, reading “DON’T GET [name of a company] SOLAR.” Not a satisfied customer (obviously).
;)
TaMara
@Dr Daniel Price (excruciverbiage): Bravo! I am surrounded by trees (which I love) so no panels for me. :-(
PsiFighter37
Heading home today after a week in Europe. I think what sticks with me the most is our boat captain from the canal cruise we took in Amsterdam; he is Dutch, probably in his 60s, and had spent 7 years in America (in Ohio and Pennsylvania) when he was younger. He said he felt that he had always viewed America as a champion for democracy and that it would get through this time. I did not have the heart to tell him that whatever fond memories he has of Ohio should be replaced by a bunch of backwards-looking cretins, and that so much damage has already been done by America that, even if America hit pause for the next 3 years and 9 months, we have already caused harm to ourselves and to the rest of the world that would not be repaired in his lifetime.
Viva BrisVegas
Rooftop solar water heating in the third world could also save lots of wood and charcoal burning.
TaMara
Just going to add this here before I sign off for the night, in case anyone missed the Senator’s social media posts on his meeting:
eclare
@TaMara:
Same here!
sab
@TaMara: So he is alive, well and knows that many people are working for him.
Anyway
Good for Sen Van Hollen pressing on to see García. I worry about the effect of the Fed layoffs on the MD economy — blue state bearing a disproportionate brunt of this administration’s callousness.
sab
@Anyway: Red states do not need federal help to phuck up their economies. Blue states do. Red states it’s all graft and grift. Blue states need help, because their normal is to help.
Baud
@TaMara:
Good. So many Reddit comments that he’s already dead. At least that’ll die down for a couple of days.
Gloria DryGarden
I spent several hours doing snow prep in the yard, as the temperature plummeted in east Denver. Mid afternoon it was 77, when I came in from the wind and the cold it was 37, “feels like 27”. At least I got the bulb food out on the rest of the tulips, and planted cold season veggies into my pots.
Denver is full of flowering quince, forsythia, ornamental pears and crabapples, all at the height of their bloom. This often seems to happen right when the crabapples are in bloom. There were some amazing red buds in bloom too, as I drove around town. So lovely
it’s supposed to only go down to 29, and hover within a few degrees of freezing all day. I’m hoping all is not ruined. The 40 degree drop is tough on plants.
a few weeks back, my peach was starting to bloom, and we froze to mid 20s I think. I don’t think I’ll get any peaches this year.
Ten Bears
You know what we say about the weather around here? No, no no no not ‘fools and newcomers predict it’ : ‘if you don’t like it wait a minute’
Not to be confused with atmosphere, or climate …
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Princess
Someone on Bluesky suggested JBP-AOC in 2028 and for the first time I felt a glimmer of hope.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37: I think the captain has some wisdom and you should have listened to him
JoyceH
@sab: what I found slightly suspicious is that they brought him out for the meeting, didn’t let a vocal critic see the inside of the prison, found him some civvies and a cap to cover the head shave, and had a government minder present for the conversation. I doubt if Abrego Garcia felt secure enough to speak frankly.
xjmuellerlurks
On the solar rooftop issue: I’ve been following the highlighted YouTube channel for a few years now. Just Have a Think covers both academic and industry R&D in the non-fossil fuel energy sector. The videos usually drop on Sundays and run about 15-20 minutes. It’s interesting to see what is being studied and/or developed and the technical issues that have to be resolved to make commercially viable products. If you have an interest in this sort of thing it’s a pretty good channel.
JML
When I was getting ready to leave work yesterday, the sun came out and it started bucketing. Had bright sunshine and heavy rain for like 7 minutes before the faucet turned off. That’s always a weird one.
WaterGirl
@Princess: JBP?
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Made me look, also too.
Your good governor. :-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Betty
I have lived n the Caribbean for 30 years and have been whining about using solar since then. There is some use here, but it has been too expensive for most. In the meantime, the government has sunk millions over the past decade trying to develop a geothermal project which does not make economic sense. It’s a long story, including a highly corrupt government.
pluky
@WaterGirl: Pritzker, Governor of Illinois.
dnfree
@PsiFighter37: As a counter to your observation, I’ll share our Italian guide in June 2024. We were on a tour for university alumni, centered on the places Dante had lived, and his influence on the country. We did not talk politics, but the guide, a man in maybe his early 50s, asked me if I thought there were any Trump supporters in our group. I told him I doubted it.
He told me that when he and his friends saw January 6, they thought the American Dream was dead. “You have always had peaceful transfer of power”, he said.
Of course at that point we couldn’t predict the results of the election last November, but I have often thought that the guide must be quite convinced by now that the American Dream is dead. What kind of country could re-elect Trump having seen January 6?
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
Re: weather, boo climate change! early warm temps in March brought early, prolific buds on the wisteria. Yay! It’s going to be a beautiful spring! Then, late frosts in April killed all those buds dead! No wisteria for another year, at least. :-(
Re: roof solar panels, we installed panels and a storage battery in 2017. They keep our electric bills low, even in winter, even when our son was charging his electric car several times a week. For example, a February comparison of before/after (with charging) was $300/$70. I don’t know if they have paid for themselves yet; my husband was keeping track of that. I do know that the battery has paid for itself in convenience. We live in an area where summer storms frequently knock out power for hours. That battery automatically flipping on and providing power to critical systems such as refrigerators, computers, bedrooms is such a comfort.
Dr Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)
@TaMara: Our two previous homes were in your state, on suburban lots. The first was older, as were the trees around it, but the sun angle was still adequate for net generation. The second had no such blockage, apart from neighbors’ roofs, but was less efficient as a percentage of usage.
Dr Daniel Price (Saint Vincent)
@NotMax: Clearly so. We hope that our installation is all that it promises to be.
TheronWare
Hey Scout, BOOP!