Tony Smith wrote: >>>> For those who have never seen Australian notes, they are made of >>>> plastic - which is annoying in that I can no longer fly into a rage >>>> when I wash them in error. The same technology that prints the notes >>>> can be used to print these solar panels. >>>> >>>> A 2" x 3" panel produced 380uA using a desktop lamp as the solarator >>>> or illuminator if you prefer. >>> >>> Transcript: >>> Video: >>> > >> solar.flv> >>> >>> Love the "no need to support the oil industry anymore" comment toward > the >>> end. I wonder where they think plastic comes from. I should ask... >> Hemp? You can make 'plastics' from other things but you are correct. > > > I know about plastic from plants, but I don't know if anyone actually uses > it. Most people think "oh no, no more cars!" when told oil is running out, > I think "bugger, no plastic!" > > A while back I was thinking we'd have to go back to making stuff out of > steel instead, but that'll probably get too expensive. Then I figured we'd > go back to wood, like old TVs & radios. I started wondering what a fridge > with a wooden shell instead of steel would look like. I've haven't yet put > wood panelling on mine, but I briefly considered it. A lot of things are made with oil products and would take a lot to shift gears to other things. The one thing I always love about the move to 'electric' cars is that we end up having new forms of pollution. Somewhere we have to start spreading the load to more than just one technology. I also feel that human power could be taken advantage of (ignore the sweat factor, I haven't figured that out yet). :-/ The plain fact is that we are running out of everything unless we get real smart, real fast. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist