New Purpose Built ‘eco Community’ Being Developed in Cornwall

Posted: October 2009 in Real Estate
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Cornwall’s first tailor-built “eco community” - described as an experiment in cutting-edge green and economical living and a potential model for the nation to follow - is coming to life in Hayle. The £3 million first phase of 12 houses is nearing completion in the Fairglen project, which is targeting near-zero energy bills for its occupants and is believed to be one of Britain’s largest sustainable new communities currently under construction.

Its creators, Redruth-based Percy Williams and Sons Ltd, first conceived the £7.5 million scheme nearly a decade ago and have been working closely with the Government’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme.

“What makes this scheme so unusual is that it is a whole collection of new eco homes - a mini- community - being designed and built at once, for the mainstream market, rather than the more typical schemes involving one-off individual properties for architects or wealthy clients,” said Simon Williams, managing director of the developers.

“It is very much an experiment, with commercial gain not the immediate priority. Our company has been in business in Cornwall for nearly a century and we quite genuinely want to make a positive contribution to the continued advancement of sustainable living.

“We set out to see just how interested the public were in this concept - how ready they were to embrace the emerging technologies and buy in to the ‘green’ eco homes concept.
“We regard Fairglen as only semi-commercial from our viewpoint. The results will guide our future developments as a long-established home provider in Cornwall and will, we hope, act as something of a pilot for provision of new homes nationwide,”

Seven of the three and four-bedroom houses now nearing completion off Loggans Road have already been sold. Buyers include the scheme’s lead architect, John Stengelhofen, of Lilly Lewarne, who is relocating his family there.

Situated just off the coastal road to the beach, the new homes on the south-facing former nursery site benefit from “passive solar gain” - heating up naturally from the sun - and will use proven ground-source heat pumps, which extract heat for hot water and heating from boreholes 100 to 120 metres deep.

The properties have significantly higher insulation values than required under current building regulations, along with high efficiency heat recovery ventilation systems and photovoltaic roof systems.

These systems achieve a net contribution to the national grid and effectively provide free electricity for residents. Features also include underfloor heating and rain water harvesting.

Mr Williams commented: “This is emphatically not just a token or a gesture in the direction of eco-building. The principle offers enormous gains for occupants and for the future of our planet. It is instructive, for instance, to note the current price of oil - at over a hundred dollars a barrel and rising - compared with the level of under 25 dollars when we first conceived the project!”

Fairglen is being built by John Nicholls Builders, of Goonhavern, and the five three and four- bedroom eco houses are still currently available in the first phase are priced from £250,000 to £330,000.

A flood plain adjacent to the development is being converted by Percy Williams and Sons into a nature reserve.


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How can I make an charity organization to raise money to benefit the ‘Going Green’ scene?

Posted: October 2009 in Community Service
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How can I make an charity organization to raise money to benefit the ‘Going Green’ scene?
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Where can I find an online list of eco-friendly baby products?

Posted: October 2009 in Newborn & Baby
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I’m trying to find a good baby list of eco-friendly products to buy a gift for a friend’s baby shower. Any suggestions?
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How Do I dispose off my old computer in an eco- friendly manner?

Posted: October 2009 in Desktops
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I live in Montgomery County, MD. I have a couple of working old computers 2GB hard drive, 256 MD RAM etc (obselete now), and bulky monitors. I don’t think anybody would be interested in them anymore and I feel that I cannot donate them. How do I dispose them off in an eco friendly manner (without harming the environment)?
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Faith in Fakes by Umberto Eco

Posted: October 2009 in Culture
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Faith In Fakes by Umberto Eco is a superbly entertaining beginner’s guide to semiotics. To what? Semiotics is the study and interpretation of symbols. In our increasingly iconic age, the discipline has much to say, and to do so must delve deeper and wider, into sociology, philosophy and psychology. In this superb selection of essays, Umberto Eco discusses topics as widely spaced as blue jeans, the film Casablanca, ancient monuments and theme parks. Throughout, he manages to communicate intensely difficult ideas with ease, making Faith In Fakes a truly enlightening read that both informs on theory and entertains via the mundane.

The reader must be prepared to go part-way into the discipline, however, especially in relation to specific authors and rarefied vocabulary. While names such as McLuhan, Foucault and Barthes might not deter most readers, words such as oneiric, corybantism, synecdoche, mytonymy, eversive and anthopophagy could prove to be stumbling blocks. There aren’t many of these specialist words, however, because overall Umberto Eco’s style is beautifully communicative and easy to read.

A particularly pleasing piece was Eco’s analysis of the film Casablanca and its cult status. He contrasts Casablanca with other films, ones that might be cited as “works of art”. He then makes a distinction not because these other films are intrinsically “better”, but because they aim higher in that they are better focused and constructed, intellectually. Basically they have potential meaning or significance, have been well written, well acted and well characterised, though most of them might not achieve any of their targets. Hence they are not necessarily better films.

Casablanca, on the other hand, Eco describes as a hodgepodge (bricolage) of ideas, badly characterised, poorly written and ultimately incredible, either as a film or as a reflection of any kind of reality. (Eco, I am sure, would also argue here that this latter point is wholly valid since the film employs realism both in its style and in its definite historical setting.)

But the point is that a near random juxtaposition of elements eventually becomes an art form of its own, able to make statements in its own terms. Copying from one learned text is called plagiarism, Copy from fifty and it’s called research. Use one cliché and it’s culpable. Use a hundred and it’s called Gaudi. It’s a brilliant point.

As a film, Casablanca, he argues, never inhabits a single genre, never communicates merely a single message. It is presented almost as a series of unrelated tableaux, where the characters do as required by the passing scenario. It thus becomes a pastiche where there’s something for everyone, where it can become more entertaining to spot, categorise, recognise and then discuss the loosely-related vignettes than to appreciate the whole, because there is no whole to appreciate.

McLuhan advised us that the medium had become the message. Eco takes us further, illustrating how mass media are no longer conduits for ideology because they themselves have become the ideology. So now, when we watch television news that concentrates on celebrity and the entertainment industry, we ought to be rendered keenly aware of the motives and interests at play. When, come to think of it, did you last hear a wholly negative film review? So where lies the line between reviewer and promoter?

We seem, according to Eco’s logic, to confuse three similar, related, but different concepts – popular, populist and demotic. What we call popular culture should really be labelled populist culture. Popularity is its aim, not yet its achievement. In a row over music downloaded via the internet, reports in July 2008 claim that over eighty per cent of musicians earn less than five thousand British pounds a year in royalties. And remember that they are the ones that actually have the recording contracts!

So what should we call this not so popular popular music? I argue we should refer to populist music and populist culture, because it aims to achieve popularity, though little of it ever will. But what happens if or when it does? At that point its very success becomes its prime platform for further promotion.  Now it carries the illusion of being demotic, that it both stemmed from and is the property of ordinary people, rather than, obviously, a marketed commodity aiming to achieve a status that will foster that illusion. Its adherents to date can now be trotted out as evidence of its potential to attract and as proof of its worthiness to do so. The medium has thus become the ideology, the mechanism by which a commercial enterprise that aspires to popularity from a narrow sectional origin might achieve popularity and then use its achievement to seek more of the same.

Finally, it is the demotic currency provided by success that then suggests we should make aesthetic judgments on that basis. Success becomes proof of worth, almost as if the winner has run for election to that office. Success then becomes the only basis for aesthetic judgments, thus denying the validity of those made an any other basis, because they lack demotic legitimacy and must therefore be based on snobbery or elitism or both. The ideology thus rejects any basis for aesthetic judgment except that which its own ideology defines. Aesthetics, incidentally, tend to resurface when the advocate is reminded of the success, and hence aesthetic worth, of The Bridies’ Song or Remember You’re A Womble!

The essays in Faith In Fakes by Umberto Eco are stimulating, eye-opening and enlightening. They provoke thought rather than the desire to write a simple review. For that, I apologise.


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How many of you care about going green and what are the steps that you are taking to do so?

Posted: October 2009 in Other - Society & Culture
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Do you even know what going green means? Do you know that if you don’t know, that is could be the difference between you living your whole life or you children and their children’s children being here on earth. This is a test to see if you know what it means and what you ae doing about it!
Okay, need more feedback from city folk like from LA or Chicago etc.
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What color green and yellow paints go together?

Posted: October 2009 in Painting
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Im painting my living room a green, looking at warm shades or sage and my dining room a warm yellow or tan. Nothing too bright. I have been looking at paint swatches for over 2 months and I cant decide which ones go nice together because the rooms are basically touching. I want the green not too dark and the yellow not bright more neutral. I need help find 2 really nice colors. Please help!!!
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what are you doing about rising prices and going green?

Posted: October 2009 in Current Events
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honestly, i think things are getting way way out of contoll!! i bought pullups for my youngest last week, and they went up 4 friggen bucks!! how are we supposed to live like this? what are you doing as far as “going green” if we all did just a little, it may be a little easier on everyone else!
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Fitting into a Green Collar Job

Posted: October 2009 in Human Resources
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President-elect Barack Obama intends to remedy the economic woes of the United States with the creation of three million jobs during his first term. In December 2008, he reaffirmed the commitment of his incoming administration to specifically targeting those new positions at one field currently experiencing unparalleled growth: green technology.

“[We will]…support high-growth industries by training the workers that they need. This includes promoting green-collar jobs,” said Obama’s Secretary of Labor Nominee, Hilda L. Solis. “These are jobs that will provide economic security for all working families while securing our energy supply and combating climate change.”

Solis couldn’t be any more right betting on growth in green sector, even as the economy spirals towards record setting lows. At a time when other industries are weakening, downsizing, and losing money, nearly every sector of the green energy market is experiencing growth. Green industry – and the requisite “green-collar” jobs that come along with it – is on the rise as businesses and governments face an increasing pressure to protect the environment, reduce energy costs and ease global warming.

That being said, business is going green not to just save the environment, but because it makes sense. With the aid of cutting edge technology, corporations are cutting their energy bill by 40% and saving millions. Green buildings are now more cost effective now than energy-guzzling counterparts and green cars make financial sense no matter what price oil is. Furthermore, green employees are a huge asset to their companies.

IBM’s most recent marketing campaign indicative of the corporate attitudes towards cutting energy and going green. It opens on a scene shot entirely in black and white, evoking the public perception of “the big faceless corporation.” A CEO-type leans across his desk and says, “Why should I go green?” Cue the voiceover: “Because it will save you 40% of 18 million dollars.” Suddenly the world blossoms into color and it’s that Technicolor explosion that is representative of the corporate attitude today. From small local firms to Fortune 500s, businesses are queuing up for their chance to snag individuals who can accommodate the dramatic shift in the market place. For the eco-minded, there’s never been a better chance to get a foot in the door and, contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t require a PhD in ecology to make it happen.

Whether you are a college student, a recent addition to the job market or a seasoned workforce veteran, chances are that somewhere in your chosen field there are openings for someone with a little green savvy and the proclivity to learn the ins-and-outs of this ever-growing field. Architects, lawyers, construction managers, consultants, journalists, engineers, scientific researchers and educators are but a few of those that have received the call to go green from on high. Even the entertainment industry plans to expand into the green arena as corporations like NBC Universal and Discovery Communications have publicly announced their intent to downsize their carbon output, while at the same time creating new media to cater to a green-centric niche.

With so many opportunities in green sector, Kevin Doyle, President of Green Economy, a Massachusetts-based workforce-consulting firm, says, first and foremost, one should choose their area of specification. Says Doyle: “Do you want to be up on a roof, retrofitting a house, setting policy or perhaps making a ton of money as a venture capitalist?”

It’s an important distinction. Wind farming, carbon trading, wastewater treatment, green building and bio-energy technologies all fall under the green umbrella, but there are several types of green certification one can achieve to order to market one’s self and skill set on a personal, rather than industrial, level. Green certification leads to green jobs, and the time is ripe to secure both.

As of this writing, there are but a handful of LEED-accredited professionals throughout the United States. Nearly every construction project going to ground in the coming year is seeking a LEED-certification – the industry standard for officially labeling a building or development as green –and trained professionals are need to facilitate the inspection process. Several other types of training are available in the “green auditing” sector, including inspecting energy efficient retrofits of existing homes (RESNET’s HERS certification) or businesses (green business certification). Fortunately, there’s a source for finding information on this diverse array of opportunities in one place.

Greenjobstoday.com is just one of the emerging businesses that have created an education and training platform to help people learn how to take their applicable skills and transfer them into the green arena. Greenjobtoday.com takes all of the guesswork out the green sector by bringing together green employers, seasoned professionals and the industry’s up-and-comers, so that never again will you find yourself asking, “What is a green job and how do I get one?” The answer is quite literally at your fingertips.

“We are going to aggregate the best of the best content with partnerships with the leaders of the green industry,” says Greenjobtoday.com’s CEO Chris Marentis, formerly a Senior Vice President of AOL-Time Warner. “We are building a proprietary publishing and marketing platform that will become the leader in the green space. Key here is content and web services to support the business turn-key solution to getting a green job and educating people on how to make money while saving the environment.”

The company’s newest release, Green Job Guide 2009: Secrets to Finding and Getting the Job You Want, is the ideal tool for empowering newcomers to the green marketplace . “With unemployment at record levels there has never been a better time to switch into a green collar job. Our book lays out a step-by-step process to help people get the proper education and training they need, so they can get the green job they want,” says the book’s co-author, Elliott Mizroch.

As the inside track for green job information, strategy and helpful tips, Greenjobtoday.com lets the layman get in on the ground floor of the biggest growth industry of the 21st century. As the federal government repositions the employment sector to go eco-friendly on all fronts, green collar jobs will cease to be the question mark looming over the head of Joe Q. Public. In just a short time, they’ll be the industry standard - and Greenjobtoday.com will be right there beside them.


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How do you say GO GREEN in a few different languages, like Spanish, French, and any others?

Posted: October 2009 in Languages
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I’m doing an environmental project, and I am going to write Go Green in many different languages. It’s kind of like the way McDonalds does I’m Lovin It. Any Help will be appreciated. :)
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