On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 03:40:13 GMT, "Bob Schmall"
calmly ranted:


"Larry Jaques" wrote in message

Yes, well, this is a bit too far south for the nothern lights. I have
missed
them for a long, long time now.

Here ya go. Mario pointed me at this earlier this week and
I'm very glad. I've never seen them in person.

Oops, I forgot to include the bloody URL. blush
http://www.extremeinstability.com/04-11-8.htm
These are a bit more real that your beaut below.

Try this: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041109.html


-------------------------------------------------
- Boldly going - * Wondrous Website Design
- nowhere. - * http://www.diversify.com
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Leon wrote:


"David Hall" wrote in message
om...


I am sure that you could if you were willing to build out the
distribution network for the community and keep it maintained and do
all the individual billing and collections,

The electrical company is responsable for maintaining lines. The company
that maintains the lines is not the one that I buy electricity from. I
live in Houston and buy my electricity from a company in Dallas.

Texas is different from most of the country in that they have separated
generation from infrastructure maintenance. Presumably there is some
arrangement whereby the Local Wires Companies are paid by the Retail
Electric Providers. You may not buy electricity from them but one way or
another you're paying for their services.

One reason that large consumers get a discount is that the distribution
infrastructure on the customer's campus is the customer's responsibility,
not the power company's. In residential use the power company (in Texas
the Local Wires Company) is responsible for everything up to the connector
on the customer side of the meter.

If the home owners' association wanted to take care of the infrastructure
the same way that GM does in their plants then I'm sure the power company
would give them the same kind of discount. In effect they'd be becoming
their own Local Wires Company for their neighborhood.

Personally I would not want to live in any community where the home owners
association was responsible for keeping the power going.

with the inevitable bad debt but you have to keep supplying them anyhow,
and absorb the costs
during low usage periods when the overhead charge you apply doesn't
actually cover the overhead required to maintain sufficient capacity
to serve everyone's needs during the peak usage periods.....

If the HOA took care of the billing it could cut the power off to the
family
that does not pay the bill.

If the applicable statutes allowed it. Do they really want the lawsuit when
the baby freezes to death because they cut the power off when it was 30
below?

I suspect that the home owners in my small
subdivision could save at least $225,000.00 per year. 3 years ago a
family
was ecvicted from their home and their home repaired and sold. They
refused
to pay the HOA anual bill of $250.00. I really do not think there would
be problem with non payment.

Fascinating. So the home owners association actually owns the property. I
would not want to live anywhere that I was in the position of renting
property that I had paid for. I'm really kind of disappointed in
Texans--there was a time when anything that high-handed would have gotten
somebody shot.

(any idea
what the cost is when a single neighborhhood step-down transformer
blows and needs replaced on an emergency basis while it is 10 below
outside)

That will never happen in Houston. Transformers will blow but still the
electric company will be responsible for the repair.

Then why would they want to give you a discount?

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

WoodMangler wrote:

Charlie Self did say:

I love this time of year, early morning before it's light, and nippy air
that helps clear the head. Today, I need to cut some cabinet doors, and I
don't want to waste plywood, so I was standing outside thinking it
out--this sometimes works better than pencil and paper--when I realized
my rural area was suffering from a bit of light pollution that wasn't
here a few years ago.

I think it's these blasted dusk to dawn insurance lights. Every small
church has at least five (insurance companies require them at every
entrance and every obstacle of certain types). Many houses, including one
across the road, and two others a quarter mile up the road, have one.

I guess those are basic directional pointers for thieves, much like a
sign saying, "Hey, here's something worth stealing".

But I did get the placement figured out for my two doors. I can warm the
shop and get those cut today.

Just how difficult is it to create light fixtures that direct all of the
light DOWN? One of the great things about where I live was the night sky.
Now, I get to see about 75% of it due to the streetlights glaring skyward.

If you fly over the area at night you'll likely find that most of the
streetlights are not "glaring upward". You'll see nicely illuminated
little circles of ground with no bright spot in the middle.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

If you fly over the area at night you'll likely find that most of the
streetlights are not "glaring upward". You'll see nicely illuminated
little circles of ground with no bright spot in the middle.


I just flew from chicago to albany NY the night before last, and I was
amazed at the number of lights that still DO have a bright spot in the
middle. It was noticable enough so that the nicely illuminated circles of
ground (kinda orange, actually) were definitely a noticable minority.

Bob said: Another is the insane amount of lighting auto dealers snip
The lights could easily be properly shielded and
directed to the ground, snip

Bob, I am one of those insane auto dealers. We do use a significant
amount of light on our lots. The lamps are 1000w Metal Halide. They
are
shielded and focused only to point down and trimmed to stay on the lot
but
it still a large amount of light.snip

Bob again: 1,000 watt? There is a better method. Go he
http://www.darksky.org/.

They can help.

John said: I'm curious--do they have a "better method" that renders colors
with some
accuracy when compared to their appearance in daylight? snip


Bob & John, I did visit the website and followed the link -
http://www.darksky.org/fixtures/areashoe.html

These are the same type we currently use. I was really hoping for a better
solution. In addition, I emailed them stating my situation and as yet - no
reply.

Dave

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 13:37:43 -0500, "J. Clarke" wrote:

Fascinating. So the home owners association actually owns the property. I
would not want to live anywhere that I was in the position of renting
property that I had paid for. I'm really kind of disappointed in
Texans--there was a time when anything that high-handed would have gotten
somebody shot.

I suspect that most homeowners in the entire U S of A are already in that
situation. I know I am. Today, I received my annual "rent" bill from the county.
They call it "real estate tax", but if I don't pay it, I can be evicted.

I don't see much _effective_ difference between that and paying rent to a
landlord except that the landlord would have more legal difficulty evicting me
from his property than the county would have evicting me from my own property.


Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS USA