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I believe Mr. Lang brought up some very good point a long with one of the callers. I'm an industrial designer here in Portland, I've worked as a garbage and recycle truck driver, and I lived in Hawaii on Oahu for four years.

First Mr. Lang brought up the fact that the city of Honolulu need to to establish a recycling program! Hawaii touts itself as being very precautionary about allowing invasive species into the islands, I'm a little shocked that they would ever allow something from there to potenually harm someones else land, not very good Aloha Hawaii.

One of the callers mentioned the carbon pollution of transport of the garbage some two thousand miles. This is a very powerful point and should not be over looked.

All over Hawaii, signs, tv and radio spots, print advertisements encourage vistors and locals to "Protect the land" or “Malama Ka Aina, Pulama Na Mea Oiwi,” ("care for the land, cherish the spirit and the culture of the land and its people")

Given their spirit of wanting to do good. Hawaii should set it's sights on establishing state wide "craddle to craddle" certified product requirements for all inbound products to their state. In the mean time establish a state wide program that looks at waste as a resourse and not something to pass off to someone else would be a great start.

Thank you.

James Yarger

posted 2 years, 9 months ago
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Here is a useful link from the VA site for folks in the Northwest; http://www2.va.gov/directory/guide/region.asp?ID=20 There are benefits to joining the reserves for sure, you just can't let kids join without making them aware of the possible pit falls, like catching a bullet, or worse. If you understand the dangers than you can avoid them, for the most part. But until the Miliary medical system gets fix, which is one of the biggest benifits people go after in joining the reserves, I'll keep advising kids to stay away or just go active. No one is getting rich off of reserve pay or getting that dental work they might desperately need unless they're doing their anual drill. The benifits are weak, and the danger of getting injuried and left high and dry are too great a risk for someone just starting out. If you already have time invested in the military, its not so bad.

posted 3 years ago
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That was just beginning really of where I had to then fight with the VA (veteran Admin) for a disability rating. That took another year and getting help from Rep. Peter Defazio’s office and former   Senator Gordon Smith to get my rating established with the VA.

I still advise young people today, NOT to join the reserves because you get treated like a second class citizen by your civilian employers, and the active duty military whom you work with on your drill weekends and god forbid you get hurt. Because then you’ll be in a really world of hurt and left to fight for your rights that were promised you when you signed up.  

If I had not gotten my self into counseling while going through that period, I don't think I would be here typing this today.

If you’re out there going through something similar, or someone in your family is. Please, please, please get them to find a VA counselor, or check at your local Vet's center. It saved my life and helped me to work my way out of despondency (I dug myself out of the hole I feel into). 

Asking for help is the hardest thing to do sometimes, but you have a duty to yourself, your family and our fellow veterans to get the help you deserve. Because if you don't fight for it, then they'll just take it all away.

posted 3 years ago
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The problem that reservist face in regards to medical coverage for injuries on active duty is facing the most conservative sector of the military system, domestic military medical personal, meaning medical personal who never deploy themselves, and have a huge chip on their shoulder against reservist whom they feel are only serving to advance themselves in having some form of medical coverage. That they feel is taking away benefits for active duty personal. They hold reservist with as much contempt as terrorist. Because they see huge waste in government money across their service as medical personal in the military many of them have singled out reservist as free loaders, and so they fight against care for reservist because they feel it is their only way of stopping waste.

I was in the Naval reserves in the late nineties out of Whidbey Island Washington. In March on 1999 I blew out my Knee on a drill weekend. This injury took two surgeries and over a year of rehab for me to walk again. My reserve job involved heavy lifting, my civilian job was driving a garbage truck for a small family run business in Eugene.

The medical expenses were covered by Tri-Care. But in order to get that coverage, I was paid a stipend over the year I went through rehab, but it was a full time job to keep sending authorization forms back and forth from Eugene to Whidbey and my case manager in Chicago. 

My pay was late almost every month, the medical staff in Whidbey were combative towards me, unavailable to take my calls, filing my paper work late resulting me not having an income for almost two months during that period. Also because my injury happened during a reserve weekend, I was unable to file for unemployment here in Oregon because I was unable to return to work hauling garbage. My income dropped over that year from almost 40K to 9k. I fell behind on child support, no medical coverage, and I was almost homeless at one point.

After two surgeries, my surgeon and physical therapist said I should not return to work involving heavy lifting. The military medical staff at Whidbey cleared me for return to duty, I then asked for a discharge because I could not in good conscious return to either of my jobs with a bum knee and possible endanger my fellow service men while lifting and loading bombs on to an airplane. My civilian job had disappeared at that point the company I worked for was bought out by a larger garbage hauler.

posted 3 years ago
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thank you for posting this, people really need to see this, it's Awesome!!!!

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I second your question. Why are they not exploring this technology? They are getting over 100 miles to a fill up in France ans Spain in taxis. It takes less than three min. to fill the tanks at a station. Why are we not making the change at the pumps here, we will never have change if we don't start at the pump. Don't believe anyone posting here saying they are an expert on air pressure, and defending the auto industry.

We should not bail them out. No one bailed out the timber industries in the 80's, or the steel industries.

The guy from Ford had ready made "talking points" saying that we need to buy new cars to get the older higher carbon producing cars off the road is Hog wash. We should as one of the callers said, stop making cars. Start fixing and retro-fitting the existing cars.
Thank for your post.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I second your question. Why are they not exploring this technology? They are getting over 100 miles to a fill up in France ans Spain in taxis. It takes less than three min. to fill the tanks at a station. Why are we not making the change at the pumps here, we will never have change if we don't start at the pump. Don't believe anyone posting here saying they are an expert on air pressure, and defending the auto industry.

We should not bail them out. No one bailed out the timber industries in the 80's, or the steel industries.

The guy from Ford had ready made "talking points" saying that we need to buy new cars to get the older higher carbon producing cars off the road is Hog wash. We should as one of the callers said, stop making cars. Start fixing and retro-fitting the existing cars.
Thank for your post.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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I think a couple of people who called in had good points, and the answers from John Viera, and Chris Warner are telling of just how little the auto industry wants to change. I was super glad to hear someone get the air car out there. It's a super little car, thats only emissions are air. here are links;

http://www.mdi.lu/english/

http://zeropollutionmotors.us/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_vehicle


The auto industry, to save it's self needs to read that book, "who moved my cheese?" if making cars is not profitable, then they need to make street cars. Or airships, light rail, and high speed rail systems. Cars and road have a place, but it need to be moved to the back seat of how we get around.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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hi just another poster, but to comment on your post;
1. We need more wind, solar, a different style hydro-plants. every year in Portland we have millions of gallons of rain run off, why isn't anyone doing something with it besides letting it run away? Coal is huge lobbying group in DC that is why so much coal is used for electricity.
2. The auto industries unions have a lot of "pork barrel" fat to barrow from politics that need trimming. If car sells slump, then they need to made something else. Hopefully something that helps push green techno.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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Air powered cars are real, they are safe, do a search on google or youtube, for more details.

Oregon and the nation need to make fueling stations start to offer alternative fuels. If we are serious about change, we need to start at the pumping stations.

Everyday on the roads of America people die, from auto accidents, this is wrong. We need to move away from cars as our principal means of transport.

The media need to change peoples perception's of hydrogen. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, when it is burned water vapor is it's only emissions!

Airships and personal airships are a practical answer, they need no roads. We just need to change the way people see hydrogen for filling them to make it practical.

Thank you.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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