Latest Ideas

One of the best places to put wind power turbines is in the sea.  But for both construction reasons and envrironmental reasons it can be problematic to sink huge towers into the sea bed.

One of the best places to put wind power turbines is in the sea.  But for both construction reasons and envrironmental reasons it can be problematic to sink huge towers into the sea bed.

Require LEED for all new building permits: LEED Certified in 2010, Silver in 2014, Gold in 2016, Platinum in 2018, Carbon neutral in 2020.

Require LEED for existing buildings as well.

Use mass media ideas to government advantage. Provide local DSS/health dept offices with various propaganda (for lack of better word) to run on looped tv in waiting areas. My personal preference would be to have dvd or vhs of basics of child care/ discipline techniques/ what to do with a crying baby. Why not use this format to saturate clients with skills to prevent child abuse and neglect from the beginning? Also, make sure a piece about birth control options as available at health dept is included  (right after screaming baby sequence).

VDSS uses contractors with VCU  to conduct training. Go back to regional specialists doing the training. It will save money and give more consistent guidance to line workers. Statewide, workers would get the same information in the same way. Record  update trainings for future use/reference and have on DSS website.

One of the biggest hair-brain schemes by the bureaucrats who brought you things like the instruction manuals for the IRS tax rules is the ONE-WAY STREET.  If a road is physically wide enough to accomodate two lanes of traffic, the one-way street adds to congestion, burns extra gasoline, and adds to frustration.  Cars must travel 3 sides of a square block to get where they are going instead of only 1 side.  That equals 3 times as much traffic (distance traveled per number of cars), adding to congestion.  Because cars must go around and around to get where they are trying

The failure to design Virginia roads intelligently is costing the country tens of thousands of barrels of wasted oil.   Roads that are GUARANTEED to cause traffic jams by creating choke points  (e.g., 6 lanes merge into 2 within a one-half mile stretch where the Dulles Toll Road 267 merges into I-66 in Arlington, Virginia) are costing Virginians thousands of wasted hours but also wasting tens of thousands of barrels of precious oil, and causing pollution of the air.  If VDOT does not take their jobs seriously, maybe we could start fresh with a new batch.