Live?from the Built Green Conference 2012. Session 1 | Green ...

Coming to you live this morning from the Built Green Conference in gorgeous Mukilteo. We are at the Rosehill Community Center above the ferry terminal.

The structure this year is breakout sessions bookending a keynote speech at lunch. There also is an expo where we can meet vendors and other stakeholder sin energy efficiency and green homes. It is hard to decide which session to go to. I picked the one that best matches my personal interests and professional role as a real estate broker.

So I am in the Fowler Room in ?Transforming Markets: Community Power Works, 20/20 Home Refit Challenge, and Community Energy Efficiency Programs.?
This is a panel of multiple perspectives, including building science, outreach, marketing, and workforce development.
Jason Lear (Batt+Lear)
Andrea Petzel (City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development)
Ruth Bell (Community Power Works)
Dan Wildenhaus (Senior Building Science Specialist for Fluid Market Strategies)

Topics this session
Community Energy Efficiency Program
Do Energy Efficiency Programs transform markets?
Have local programs transformed our market?
How do we know?
What?s next?

Interestingly enough, I was an early participant in the Community Power Works program, before it reached its current iteration of providing a $95 energy assessment. A volunteer came to my home and talked about energy efficiency and how to cut your personal energy use. Low hanging fruit (one of the easy. low cost things you can do) included replacing all of our existing light bulbs with CFL bulbs. This was about two years ago. I had not changed out the light bulbs from when we bought the townhome as new construction in 2007. It is a 3-Star Built Green Certified home in the Built Green Certified Community of High Point in West Seattle. Besides energy efficiency, changing to a lower usage bulb makes your home more comfortable. All of those incandescent bulbs put out a lot of heat.

There are a number of measuring tools that are being utilized to show the results of the Community Power Works retrofits. Over 500 homes have been completed, with over 240 in the pipeline now. The gal si to reduce energy use by at least 15%. Only one home has not met that goa, anf there are some ?audacious? homes that are saving 50-60% in energy use on their utility bills.

Building science
Rather than write all new specs, they use Department of Commerce specifications for building performance.
Reducing air leakage in a home (insulation)- leaky recessed lighting fixtures increases heat loss/gain, and can cause ice dam problems.
Most often performed corrective action taken in homes in the program:
Air sealing
Attic insulation
Wall insulation
Floor insulation
uct sealing
Duct insulation

Measurement used to be in carbon savings. Most people couldn?t understand it so it was changed to energy savings. Quality assurance has to be evaluate frequently so course corrections can be made. Programs like this leverage current training to bolster both new and existing workers and create not just jobs but quality companies.

Who are the customers/
Income between $50-$150k. There is a significant drop off in the higher income brackets, perhaps these flks don?t consider government programs for tem. There also is a low number of households with people of color. Perhaps there is a language barrier or translation problem that needs to be increased. More outreach to lower income communities. There are cultural liasons speaking about 12 languages
33% of households have children in the home
Most homes were built before 1959.

Average cost of upgrade $14,500
Average CPW rebate: $2,600. (18%)
Average utility rebates: $700 (5%)
Customers with CPW loans: 25%

Washigton State University (WSU) is a big participant in the program, helping with surveys of homeowners after they have participated in the program.

Now what? (Jason Lear)
20/20 Home Refit Challenge: 20,000 ohomes with 20% energy savings
Program participants get: Special financing and the market value of a Buitl Green Certification + Energy Score
Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union (PSCCU) has developed a special home equity loan for homeowners who participate in the program.
?Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union understands the challenge in affording energy-efficient alternatives for your home. We?re here to help with our Energy Smart Loans. Our loan products cover everything from heating and cooling, hot water tanks, gas conversions, windows and even renewable energy like SOLAR! Need to do some prescriptive measures before you can make your home more efficient? We can usually help with that as well.?

What is the future of Community Power Works?
Under negotiations now withs stakeholders trying to get interest gauged from utilities and assessing market need. By Jan or Feb 2013 there may be an extension to the program (but no new money coming in).

This is a working blog post and will be updated as more information becomes available to flesh out the details of this session.

Wendy Hughes-Jelen is a Seattle-area Realtor? who is EcoBroker Certified? and is a Earth Advantage? Broker AND Built Green? Certified Professional. She helps people find and create their own healthy home, and is trained to assist those with chemical sensitivities, asthma, allergies, or other health concerns that indoor air quality can impact. Wendy is certified to use Energy Star's Portfolio Manager for Energy Efficiency Accounting and Benchmarking (NRGbenchmarking.com). Be sure to look for Westside Green Living With Wendy on Facebook.

Source: http://greenspacesrealestate.com/?p=1581

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In NFL ref woes, key role of expertise spotlighted

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? If good help is hard to find, just how expendable is expertise?

In a year of strife between worker and manager, NFL referees found themselves with a bargaining chip that Chicago teachers, striking bulldozer builders and locked-out sugar makers lacked: a staggering blunder by overmatched replacements, resulting in a worst-case, told-ya-so fiasco laid bare for millions to watch in disbelief on national television.

On Wednesday, the NFL and the referees' union appeared on the brink of ending a three-month stalemate, two days after the Green Bay Packers lost a game they would have won if not for a less adept crew of replacement officials.

The whole mess ? and pretty much everyone involved agrees it is precisely that ? puts the spotlight on a nebulous notion that is often overlooked when it works as it's supposed to: the question of expertise.

Workers leverage theirs by going on strike, while lockouts are a bet by management that they can make do without it. It's an impasse that usually plays out on picket lines and private bargaining tables, and the fight has trended in recent years toward management.

But few unions have benefited as much as the NFL's striped shirts from such a high-profile validation of the value of expertise. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from rank-and-file laborers to the most senior of American managers, this one has hit home.

"The big difference is that 100 million people can see football on TV, so the mistakes are glaring," said Mark Froemeke, who's been locked out of his job as a loader-operator at an American Crystal Sugar Co. plant in East Grand Forks, Minn., for 14 months. "The mistakes that the scabs are making in the factories are behind closed doors."

Froemeke said he knows the people hired as replacements for the 1,300 locked-out union workers inside the plants are bumbling with beet slicers and unable to dry pulp in techniques passed down through generations. "If the farmers and the management want to be like the NFL owners and deny it, that's what they're going to do. But nevertheless, it's the reality."

Ken Margolies, a senior associate at the Worker Institute at Cornell University, said the instant upper hand that NFL referees commandeered this week is increasingly rare for uniquely skilled workers in labor disputes. One major culprit is technology: tool-and-dye workers in the auto industry couldn't be replaced easily before automation, and management can now outsource jobs like customer service to overseas.

The NFL referee lockout, he said, is most recently comparable to the 2007 writer's strike in Hollywood in terms of profile. But Margolies said he couldn't recall such a "blatant example" where a labor standoff turned on this kind of debacle.

"It's just so obvious that people couldn't be replaced and get the same result," he said.

Attitudes about expertise can also make it a risky hand to play in a negotiation, depending on who's on the other side of the table. The idea that no one is irreplaceable and there's always a guy next in line willing to do the job run deep in America. Professing expertise can also bring on suspicions of elitism and scratch an itch to knock someone down a peg.?

Other work stoppages around the U.S. this year also illustrate the role of expertise, albeit in varying ways:

? In Houston, Adrianna Vasquez makes $8.60 an hour doing what she knows people think is the world's most replaceable job: She's a janitor. When the 37-year-old returned in August to resume cleaning the 100 toilets on 10 floors in a downtown Chase Bank tower after a citywide janitor strike that won a 12 percent raise, Vasquez said the bathrooms cleaned by replacement crews looked like stalls in a seedy bar. "I just wanted to cry when I saw it," she said.

? In New York, Consolidated Edison locked out 8,000 workers in July and brought in replacements from other states to work power lines and operate the grid. It ended just as severe storms hit and threatened power outages. "Not enough people that knew what they were doing," said John Melia, a spokesman for the Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America.

? In Illinois, where the Chicago teachers' strike kept 350,000 students out of class for a week this month, a lesser-known strike began in May at a Caterpillar Inc. plant. The heavy machinery manufacturer hired replacement workers and the strike ended in August in what was widely seen as a victory for the company. John Hunt, 51, said he saw what appeared to be empty and lightly loaded shipping trucks leaving the plant under the replacement workers, but he never saw it as a turning point. "The company's line was, 'Doing great and we're not hurting production.'"

The NFL referees' union wants improved salaries, better retirement benefits and resolution of some other logistical issues. The NFL is proposing a pension freeze and a higher 401(k) match; the union is balking because of the greater risk to the nest egg that comes with the loss of a defined benefit.

For American Crystal Sugar, which locked out employees in five factories in three states, vice president Brian Ingulsrud acknowledged that the union workers are "very skilled" and said it was a "big challenge" to bring in replacements. He said the company worked hard at training the new workers in the months when the plants were not processing beets.

"It was a learning curve, there was no doubt," Ingulsrud said. "Last year we did have some bumps in terms of working through that. We feel we're on the right side of the curve right now."

The sugar executive, by the way, thought the right call was made at the end of the Monday night football game.

"When I saw the replay," Ingulsurd said, "it was really the case where the tie goes to the offensive guy."

___

Associated Press reporters Deepti Hajela in New York, David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., Dave Kolpack in Fargo, N.D., and Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso, Texas, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: http://twitter.com/pauljweber

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-26-Referees-The%20Expertise%20Factor/id-97fb84fe412046a78875df42e72c93e7

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Most Popular Money Making Methods On The Internet

Earning money is a person?s primary concern in life. He or she needs to pay bills, feed the family, buy expensive things, etc. Nowadays, the internet is an inextricable part of a person?s life and people stay online for a large part of the day. If this time spent on the internet could also be utilized to make money, nothing could be better. There are several means by which this particular objective can be achieved. All that is needed is a personal computer and some time to spare, coupled with a burning desire to succeed.

Presented here is a discussion of some of the methods that can be used to earn money on the internet.

Getting Paid To Read Emails

This is one of the earliest and most surefire ways to earn money online. All that is needed is a working email address with a valid address provider like Yahoo! or Hotmail or Rediff. It is a very simple task. Advertisers and service providers from all around the world pay people to view advertisements that they send via email. All that a person needs to do is open the email and click on the given link. Every email read adds some money to an online account which is then transferred electronically to your own bank account. However, a single email will fetch a person not more than $1. The best method to increase such income is to refer people to the website and increase your referral chain. The original person gets a certain percentage of the referral income as well.

Taking Online Surveys

Marketing companies are very eager to know about the likes and dislikes of their consumers. This way they can channelize their resources into manufacturing products that will actually be appreciated by consumers. They do not want to waste time and energy making things that nobody wants to use. Hence they design questionnaires and surveys to help gauge the popularity of their products or services. They also pay people who take time to answer those surveys. This is how one can earn through taking online surveys. The payment depends on the length of the survey taken.

Make Money By Testing Games

This is an extremely popular method of money making today. Though it may sound like a dream, it is true indeed. People and companies will pay you to test games and applications they design, before going public with them. There are several people around the world who today earn millions by testing games and apps.

Promote Affiliate Products

This method helps one earn the largest online bucks. The aforesaid ways are good no doubt, but barring a few cases, money earned by those methods reach stagnancy after a certain point of time. Affiliate marketing has an edge in this respect. As the affiliate chain goes on branching and branching more, the percentage income of every node or person in the system increases proportionally. However, a clear knowledge of how the affiliate marketing system works is very necessary in this case.

Article Writing

This is a rage among online money makers nowadays. It includes a huge gamut of activities. From writing product reviews to blog posts or lifestyle articles, a person can write on almost any topic that catches his fancy and get paid for it. This job is also totally freelance based and people generally get paid depending on the number of words they write in a given time period. The main criteria is that the quality of articles should be decent and although referencing can be done off the internet, they should never be entirely copied. Plagiarism is a strict restriction in this particular field.

Sell Pictures

A lot of money can also be made by selling pictures that a person takes on the internet. This is a new method of earning money that is catching up nowadays. People today take lots of pictures on their digital cameras and a surprising number of those pictures turn to to be of really superior quality, owing to excellent editing tools as well. Hosting these pictures on blogs or personal websites for sale is a good method to make money. Magazines and periodicals often buy pictures from such websites for use in their publications.

Online Tutoring

This is another innovative method of earning money that has gained popularity among college students today. They use applications like Skype or other video chat softwares to tutor other students at remote locations on previously worked out timings. Often they also make tutoring videos and send them to their subscribers. Their payment gets directly transferred to their bank accounts via electronic fund transfer facilities.

These were an introduction to some of the most popular money making methods of the day, whereby a person can earn a quick buck while using the internet to supplement or add to his or her regular income.

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Source: http://www.howtoee.com/most-popular-money-making-methods-on-the-internet/

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Adding An Internet Affiliate Marketing Program Into An Existing Online

If you have set up an online business, with a significant number of consumers that provides a steady flow of income. You might want to take your company to the next level, by adding an affiliate program in your marketing campaign. Affiliate programs can improve the traffic to your website; it can also help in producing more earnings for your online business. But before you embark deeper into an affiliate marketing business, you need to know some of the essential information which will guide you into making an effective affiliate marketing program.

Initially, you need to produce a viable affiliate program by checking the quality of your products or services before showing them to your prospective affiliates. If you are already sure of the quality of your respective goods and services, you then market your affiliate program using the different social networking platforms available on the internet. Also point out the advantages that they can anticipate if they determine to join your affiliate program. It?s also important to purchase an affiliate tracking software to monitor the daily activities of your affiliate business.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most preferred tools in the internet industry. There are lots of methods accessible on how you can efficiently start an affiliate marketing program, and many ways to start a business based on affiliate marketing. But initially you need to know the things that are important for your affiliate marketing program. Basically, starting an affiliate marketing business is not that easy and you need to consider a lot of aspects like audience, the items or services you?re planning to promote and the affiliate program you wish to link up with.

In affiliate marketing your primary objective would be to drive traffic to another website using your own site, and you get paid through commissions. Though it might seem simple enough, it is certainly one of the more profitable businesses on the internet these days and raking in a lot of money. To be effective in affiliate marketing, your main concern would always be to drive visitors into the affiliate website.

It?s also possible to check out the numerous sources on the web and find out the most effective methods of starting an affiliate marketing business. Always remember, you have to be aware of the ins and outs of affiliate marketing before you venture into this kind of business.

Sarah Redfieldis a senior affiliate executive of severalaffiliate marketing programs as well as a renown onlineentrepreneur. It is possible to check out this website if you?re interested in knowing the most effective affiliate tracking software or you can go to her website to learn more about online business.

Comments

Source: http://affiliatemarketingonlinebusiness.com/adding-an-internet-affiliate-marketing-program-into-an-existing-online-business/

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Pirelli Sponsors Green Rally of Montr?al | Hybrid Cars

Published September 27, 2012

By Philippe Crowe

Pirelli has stepped into green-flavored Canadian motorsport by entering in a partnership with the Green Rally of Montr?al, formally known as the Rally of Alternative Energies of Montr?al.

Pirelli will be the official tire supplier of the series with the Cinturato ?Green Performance? family.

The three-day, 600 kilometer competition is restricted to vehicles utilizing alternative energy. Unlike other rallies, the Green Rally of Montr?al runs its course on the open road and follows the legal speed limits.

Drivers are challenged in operating their vehicles in the most efficient manner possible since consumption index ? the relationship between the energy used and the weight of the vehicle ? is taken into account in the final scoring.

?We?re truly excited to participate in this year?s Green Rally of Montreal,? said Mattia Bussacchini, president of Pirelli Canada. ?The Cinturato tire has over 60 years of motorsport history and this will be a fantastic way to demonstrate the latest technology and advancements in an increasingly eco-conscious environment.?

Pirelli says its ?Green Performance? range is noted for its low rolling resistance, reduced road noise and high mileage. New eco-friendly materials result in the elimination of highly aromatic oils from the compounds and minimize environmental impact, both at the production stage and over the life of the tire.

The Green Rally of Montr?al complies with the International Sporting Code and is a sanctioned race as part of the International Championship of the Alternative Energy Cup organized by the F?d?ration Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

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Source: http://www.hybridcars.com/news/pirelli-sponsors-green-rally-montr%C3%A9al-52584.html

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NBA: Think you'd ever see @DenverNuggets Coach George Karl singing "One Love" with Bob Marley's band The Original Wailers?? http://t.co/INqtfcpl

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Source: http://twitter.com/NBA/statuses/246745167049158656

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Beyond Structured Settlements: ELNY Appeal - Injunction 1

As reported earlier by S2KM, attorney Edward Stone filed a Notice of Appeal May 30, 2012 with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Second Department, on behalf of 18 Executive Life of New York (ELNY) structured settlement shortfall payees, as Objectors and Appellants, challenging the Order of Liquidation and Approval of the ELNY Restructuring Agreement approved by Judge John M. Galasso on April 16, 2012.

The Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (Superintendent), as ELNY Receiver and Respondent, and attorney Stone, on behalf of Appellant/Objector ELNY shortfall payees, subsequently and jointly agreed to and requested calendar preference and an accelerated briefing schedule for this Appeal.

Status of Appeal:

• The Appellant/Objectors' served and filed their brief and the record on appeal on Friday, August 17, 2012. For S2KM's summary, see: ELNY Appeal - Objectors' Brief.
• The Superintendent/Respondent served and filed its brief on Friday, September 7 ,2012. In addition, the National Association of Life and Health Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA) also served and filed a supporting brief the same day.
• Appellant/Objectors are expected to serve and file a reply brief on Friday September 14, 2012.
• The Appellate Court is expected to schedule oral argument "as soon as practicable".

Copies of all briefs filed to date in the ELNY appeal will be posted on the structured settlement wiki.

In prior blog posts, S2KM:

This blog post summarizes the Appellant/Objectors' allegations that no statutory or common law basis existed for Judge John Galasso's "extraordinarily broad grant of injunctive relief" to protect the Superintendent and his agents, including the New York Liquidation Bureau (NYLB).

The objecting structured settlement shortfall payees have requested the Appellate Court to reverse the following sentence contained in the ELNY liquidation order:

"All persons are enjoined and restrained from commencing or further prosecuting any actions at law or other proceedings against ELNY or its assets, the Receiver or the New York Liquidation Bureau, or their present or former employees, attorneys, or agents, with respect to this proceeding or the discharge of their duties under Insurance Law Article 74.

To support their objection and request, the Appellant/Objectors maintain:

• The liquidation court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to enter an injunction unrelated to the collection or disposition of ELNY assets.
• The injunction is not authorized by Article 74 of the New York Insurance Law.
• The injunction is not supportable on any non-statutory basis.

Subject matter jurisdiction

• Subject matter jurisdiction is ?the authority of the courts to adjudicate classes of cases.?
• Subject matter jurisdiction may be limited by statute (e.g. Article 74 of the New York Insurance Law).
• A court cannot entertain actions in which it lacks subject matter jurisdiction.
• In this case, the New York Supreme Court had before it the ELNY estate ? and only the ELNY estate.
• Under Article 74, subject matter jurisdiction in a liquidation proceeding is limited to the collection and disposition of the insurer?s assets.
• As a liquidation court, the New York Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to prospectively adjudicate claims or issue orders not involving the estate?s assets.
• During the ELNY liquidation hearing, the Superintendent incorrectly suggested that all claims against him and/or against his agents, regardless of capacity, constituted claims against the estate.
• Injunctions granted to the Superintendent as regulator, however, do not apply to his role as Receiver where he stands in the shoes of management and should be subject to the same standard of care and responsibility.
• Claims against the Superintendent and/or his agents acting in their personal capacities as ELNY's Receiver, therefore, are not claims against the ELNY estate.
• The Superintendent also argued that similar injunctions were included in interim orders during the rehabilitation proceeding.
• However, the same rationale upon which the injunctive provision is void and unauthorized by law should also invalidate similar provisions in interlocutory orders.
• Because Judge Galasso's injunctive protection for the Superintendent, as ELNY's Receiver, and for his agents, in their personal capacities extends beyond ELNY's assets in liquidation, it exceeds the New York Supreme Court?s subject matter jurisdiction and should be void.

Article 74

• Unlike immunity, Article 74 of the New York Insurance Law contains a provision involving injunctions. However, it is inapplicable to the Receiver?s request.
• The injunctive provision are concerned with enjoining actions against the assets of ELNY, not those of the Superintendent, as ELNY's Receiver.
• Article 74 Subsection (a) limits injunctions to those which prohibit persons other than the Receiver ?from the transaction of its [the insurer?s] business or the waste or disposition of its [the insurer?s] property.?
• Article 74 Subsection (b) permits injunctions as necessary to prevent ?waste of the assets of the insurer, or the commencement or prosecution of any actions . . . against the insurer, its assets or any part thereof.?
• An action against the Receiver in his personal capacity is not the same as an action against the insurer or the insurer?s assets.
• Barring all claims against the Receiver is inconsistent with Article 74?s express purpose of protecting policyholders.
• A Receiver is judicially immune from liability if he acts in good faith and with appropriate care and prudence.
• Therefore, the only actions that are effectively enjoined by Judge Galasso's liquidation order are those where the Superintendent, as ELNY's Receiver, breached fiduciary or other duties.
• As a result, Judge Galasso's broad injunction is unsupported by, and inconsistent with, New York Insurance Law.

Non-Statutory Basis

• The Superintendent did not present any evidence that his property rights would be irreparably harmed absent the injunction.
• Instead, without evidence or argument, the Superintendent simply asked for unlimited injunctive relief, and Judge Galasso granted the request.
• As argued above, a lawsuit against the Superintendent in his personal capacity is not the same as a claim against ELNY or its assets.
• Even if the Superintendent might be inconvenienced by claims against him in his personal capacity, mere annoyance and litigation expense, even substantial and unrecoverable cost, does not constitute "irreparable injury? sufficient to authorize an injunction.
• The Superintendent also argued that interlocutory orders issued in 1991 and 1992 as part of ELNY's rehabilitation proceeding contained similar language.
• Those injunctions, however, were by definition temporary, not permanent.
• Any past bar to the filing of claims by ELNY shortfall payees is immaterial where such claims did not accrue until Judge Galasso's liquidation order resulted in a loss of benefits
• Regardless, prior injunctive provisions possess the same jurisdictional and statutory defects as the injunctive provision in the ELNY liquidation order.

For S2KM's complete and ELNY reporting, see the structured settlement wiki.

Source: http://s2kmblog.typepad.com/rethinking_structured_set/2012/09/elny-appeal-injunction-1.html

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