2013 Airstream Interstate

Piloting an 8,500-pound motorized house down the highway is far from my idea of fun, yet inexplicably, I'm enjoying myself. My grin has nothing to do with my camper's handling, as this heavily accoutered Mercedes-Benz Sprinter drives like a 25-foot long breadbox. My smile has nothing to do with on-road stability, as the ten-foot-tall, slab-sided vehicle reacts to wind gusts like the vertical stabilizer on a Boeing jet. My delight has nothing to do with its throttle or braking response, either, as both are as numb as your forehead after the eighth beer.

This monstrosity makes me happy for one reason - my passengers are undeniably having a good time.

Two days earlier, I had shoveled my wife and two kids into this Airstream Interstate 3500's sliding door, cranked over its six-cylinder diesel engine and pointed its black and chrome nose out of greater Los Angeles and towards the Grand Canyon. Now, with the 17-million-year-old fissure less than an hour over the horizon, and with everyone chatting giddily about the upcoming spectacle, I've pleasantly come to realize that the motorhome method of travel isn't just for those hobbled bodies with thinning gray hair.

Airstream is the Rolex of the luxury recreational vehicle industry. Tracing its roots back to the early 1930s, the manufacturer had become a household name by the 1960s as the public quickly took note of its trademark streamlined, polished aluminum shells. Even NASA jumped on board, welcoming the crew of Apollo 11 home from the moon at the end of the decade only to quarantine them within a specially modified bright silver Airstream trailer. The Airstream Interstate, a Class-B RV, isn't built for returning astronauts. However, it accommodates earthlings in an innovative package with "car-like" handling, performance and safety, says it maker. The magic is in its chassis, and the details are in its appointments.

Unlike most monstrous RVs cutting wide paths down the highway – nearly all built on steel truck chassis with lightweight wood, metal and fiberglass framing and walls – the Interstate starts as a steel-bodied Mercedes-Benz with a dually rear axle. Even though it's huge by passenger-car standards (nearly 25 feet in length, around 10 feet in height and almost seven feet wide), the RV industry considers this Airstream a compact. Yes, a vehicle that casts a shadow larger than your college dorm room is considered a "compact" in the recreational vehicle world.

Airstream sells two versions of the Interstate, both with the same 170-inch wheelbase. The standard model, with a base price of $125,630, is 23-feet and one-inch long, and six-feet and eight-inches wide. This particular stretched Interstate EXT is 24-feet and five-inches long – with all of the additional length being welcome cargo space behind the rear bench. My EXT tester carried a base price of $136,657. Its optional equipment included a special golf bag storage rack ($452), additional rear flatscreen television ($808), black exterior ($1,260) and a roof-mounted solar panel ($1,307) to maintain the batteries. The grand total, after destination ($984) amounted to $141,468.

Even though you'd expect something this massive to pack a V8 or perhaps a V10, motivation comes by way of a smallish 3.0-liter V6. But this isn't a standard six. Instead, it is the excellent Bluetec turbodiesel from Mercedes-Benz, drinking its oil diet from a 26.4-gallon tank filled through a panel accessed just behind the driver's door. In motorhome application, the engine is rated at 188 horsepower and – more importantly – 325 pound-feet of torque, with that power routed through a traditional five-speed automatic to the dually setup in the rear. The suspension is pure truck, with an independent design up front and a live rear axle at the back end. Stopping the Interstate are four-wheel disc brakes with sliding calipers. It is unusual to find electronic nannies in an RV, yet the Airstream Interstate features electronic traction control, stability control and anti-lock brakes.

But the mechanical specs don't stop there. Slung beneath the rear end is a 2.5-kilowatt generator, fed liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from its own 18.9-gallon tank. It's used to provide fuel/electricity to the 13,500-BTU secondary air conditioning unit (there is an engine-driven A/C compressor too, but cold air is only delivered from the front vents when the V6 is running), 16,000-BTU furnace and the other appliances within the passenger cabin. Other goodies include a 45-amp multi-stage charger, with a 750-watt inverter to divvy and sort the power properly, and a 30 amp/110-volt shore power service. In addition to the diesel and LPG tanks, there is a 32 gallon freshwater tank, 27 gallon gray water (sink drainage) tank and a 15 gallon black water (sewer) tank.

Most passengers will never know about that aforementioned below-the-deck stuff, but they will appreciate the Airstream's luxurious cabin – with a caveat. When we think of an RV, the first thing that comes to mind is stepping up into a cavernous interior complete with swivel captain's chairs, kitchen appliances and a rear bench sofa that turns into a bed with the pull of a lever. The Airstream Interstate does all of that, but in a skinnier... let's say..A polished finish in this solaroutdoorlight for men.. Slim-Fast version.

Click on their website www.streetlights-solar.com for more information.

John Hollander, Poet at Ease With Intellectualism

The cause was pulmonary congestion, his daughter Elizabeth Hollander said.

As a young poet, Mr. Hollander fell under the influence of W. H. Auden, whose experiments in fusing contemporary subject matter with traditional metric forms he emulated. It was Auden who selected Mr. Hollander’s first collection of poems, “A Crackling of Thorns,” for the Yale Series of Younger Poets, which published it in 1958 with an introduction by Auden.

Mr. Hollander’s wit, inventiveness and intellectual range drew comparisons to Ben Jonson and 17th-century Metaphysical poets like John Donne. The poet Richard Howard, in the book “Alone With America: Essays on the Art of Poetry in the United States Since 1950,” praised “a technical prowess probably without equal in American verse today.”

Early on, Mr. Hollander was tagged a formalist or neoclassicist for his commitment to old-fashioned forms. Beginning with his 1971 collection, “The Night Mirror: Poems,” however, he adopted a more ambitious program, writing poetry of formidable difficulty, often in longer forms.

This evolution culminated in “Spectral Emanations” (1978), a series of poetic visions and prose-poem commentaries linked to the seven branches of the menorah, the golden lamp stolen in 70 A.D. by Titus from the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

His wit and technical mastery remained on prominent display, however, in “The Powers of Thirteen,Use bestroadlights to generate electricity and charge into storage battery group.” an extended sequence of 169 (13 times 13) unrhymed 13-line stanzas with 13 syllables in each line, and in “Reflections on Espionage: The Question of Cupcake” (1976), a commentary on contemporary poetry presented as the coded dispatches of a spy to his handler and other agents.

“In an age that came to prefer loose, garrulous poems filled with confessional sensationalism and political grievance, John Hollander was a glorious throwback,” the poet J. D. McClatchy wrote in an e-mail in 2010. “His materials — high intelligence, wit, philosophical depth, technical virtuosity — looked back to an older era of poetry’s high ambition. His work never pandered; it astonished.”

John Hollander was born on Oct. 28, 1929, in Manhattan. His father, Franklin, was a physiologist and his mother, the former Muriel Kornfeld, a high school teacher. The home atmosphere was relentlessly high-minded.

He attended the Bronx High School of Science,Our bestsolarlantern can mark on metal and non metals. where he wrote a humor column for the newspaper, modeling himself on S. J. Perelman and James Thurber. Journalism was his enthusiasm, and in his freshman year at Columbia he was a prolific contributor to The Columbia Daily Spectator.

Poetry displaced journalism as his primary passion. Auden’s verse, in particular, alerted him to the possibility that play and humor could find expression in poetry. He was especially struck, he told The Paris Review, by Auden’s “improvisational relation to stances and forms and literary modes.”

He struck up a close friendship, and a student-mentor relationship, with the somewhat older Allen Ginsberg. In an interview with The Paris Review in 1985, Mr. Hollander said, “We talked about the minute particulars of form as if mythological weight depended upon them; and about the realms of the imagination.”

Their joint excursion to sell blood at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan provided the subject for “Helicon,” one of the most engaging sequences in “Visions From the Ramble” (1965), a collection of interrelated poems filled with scenes from the author’s childhood and youth in New York. (The title refers to a wooded area of Central Park.)

Mr. Hollander graduated from Columbia with a B.A. in 1950 and, after traveling in Europe, received a master’s degree in 1952. At the same time, he taught himself to play the lute and performed in chamber ensembles.

He enrolled at Indiana University to pursue a doctorate but left in 1954 to join the Society of Fellows at Harvard. He later taught at Connecticut College and became an instructor at Yale in 1959, the year he completed his dissertation at Indiana.

His dissertation was the basis for “The Untuning of the Sky: Ideas of Music in English Poetry, 1500-1700” (1961), the first of many works of criticism that included “Vision and Resonance (1975), “The Gazer’s Spirit” (1995) and “The Work of Poetry” (1997).

Mr. Hollander, who lived in Woodbridge, Conn., joined the English faculty at Hunter College in Manhattan in 1966. But in 1977 he returned as a full professor to Yale,Buying bestledlighting is not at all an easy job. where he was named Sterling Professor of English in 1995 and retired in 2002.

In 1953 he married Anne Loesser, a fashion historian who, under her married name, wrote “Seeing Through Clothes.” The marriage ended in divorce. Besides his daughter Elizabeth, Mr. Hollander is survived by his wife, the sculptor Natalie Charkow Hollander; another daughter, Martha Hollander; a brother, Michael; and three grandchildren.

By the mid-1960s Mr. Hollander’s reputation as a poet was growing, although his highly wrought, intellectual verse made him an oddity in a climate dominated by the hotly confessional poetry of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.

“In a general sense, I was writing in a line of wit, and of essayistic speculation, when I was young,” he told The Paris Review.Big ledbulblight and Fitness is a family owned shop serving the Helena area since 1986. “Still under Auden’s influence, I wanted to be read by philosophers and scientists and political theorists, not just by literary readers.”

In a well-known early poem, “The Great Bear,” a children’s outing to gaze at the night sky provokes an inquiry into meaning and chaos. Mr. Hollander incorporated quasi-reportorial material in “Movie-Going and Other Poems” (1962) and “Visions From the Ramble,” which included autobiographical glimpses of the fireworks at the 1939 World’s Fair and tributes to the old Broadway movie palaces that the author haunted in his youth.

In “Types of Shape” (1969) Mr.2013 Collection hidlights 1672 Styles. Hollander harked back to the emblem poetry of the 17th century, writing in forms that, when set on the page, looked like objects: a light bulb, say, or an Eskimo Pie.

Mr. Hollander later dismissed his earlier poetry as “verse essay” or “epigram literature.” With “The Night Mirror” and “Tales Told of the Fathers” (1975) he took the grand, sweeping turn that led to his mature style as a prophetic, mythmaking poet in the High Romantic tradition. Read the full story at www.soli-lite.com!

Tourists seek the simple life in France

At a remote spot deep in the French countryside, Britons Bob and Diane Kirkwood have created an eco-friendly refuge that is like taking a step back in time.

Music comes courtesy of an old Decca 66 record player and a selection of 78s. Oil lamps and candles supply the lighting and if you want the Internet you'll have to make the trek into the nearest town.

Tourists have long flocked to France in search of the rural dream.

But the Kirkwoods have taken things one step further, offering holidaymakers the chance to live without mains electricity, flush toilets, mobile phone or Internet access.

Tapping into the modern day nostalgia for a simpler,Our selection of roofwindturbinebbq and kits includes the most popular. less hectic existence, the Kirkwoods' holiday cabins in the Perigord-Limousin Natural Regional Park in southwest France are an antidote to the "24/7" lifestyle of many visitors.

"It all happened by accident really... there's no work around here so you have to find something to do," Bob Kirkwood told AFP by telephone from his home near the small town of Piegut.

The couple fell in love with the natural beauty of the area and its slower pace of life during a short visit there in 2000.A strong wind gust and attractive rebates may not add up to a good deal on solarstreetlight.

"It's all just forests really and very backward farming. I mean, it's not unusual to see people ploughing with horses," he said.

Astonished by the then rock-bottom cost of property in the area, which Bob calls a "real backwater", the Kirkwoods bought a house as a holiday home and after spending the summer there, decided to stay permanently.

When a nearby piece of land with a lake came on the market, they bought it and converted an old shack into a bolt-hole for themselves.

But because of the isolated nature of the spot,Find ledstreetlight for table, floor and pendant lamps in lots of styles and materials. Bob found he had to turn himself into an expert on off-grid living. "We didn't go into this because of green issues," says Bob, 50, a carpenter by trade.

It was just that you can't run electricity or other services to this class of building because they're so remote. "So we had no alternative really other than to find ways of generating a bit of power and it all led from there."

Bob began by buying a car battery and "seeing what could be done with it".

Now,Increase the performance and visual appearance of your headlights with autoledbulbs and bulbs. the Kirkwoods' cabins -- two of their own and a third that they converted and manage for British television celebrity Kate Humble -- boast compost toilets, wood-burning stoves for heating and hot water and solar powered lamps for lighting, although Bob and Diane prefer candles or oil lamps.

The popularity of the cabins took the couple by surprise.

After they finished the first one, they set up a website with a view to occasionally letting it. Every year more and more people come, said Bob.

Far from putting people off, the lack of facilities and creature comforts are their main attraction.

"There's nothing going on round here really.We can produce besthidlights to your requirements. There's no buses or taxis and we're about an hour from the nearest big road," he said. "If you want to do emailing one of the bars in town has got a wifi spot."

Now, over a decade since they settled permanently, the simpler life remains as much as a draw as it ever was for the Kirkwoods.

Bob never throws anything away and regales readers of his blog with thrifty, "make-do-and-mend" tales of recycling shrunken jumpers into cushion and hot water bottle covers.

Visitors, however, can struggle with the idea of disconnecting totally from the outside world, in particular giving up their mobile phone.

"It seems people can't let that go. I wish they could and leave the things at home but they can't," Bob said. Welcome to scfwindturbine.com Web, If you love it, please order it!

Traffic Lights Causing Short Tempers in Mobile

Ask anyone in Mobile, and they will all tell you it's no picnic driving on Airport Blvd. "Extremely frustrating. Extremely. Horrendously," says Sandy Styburski. Styburski wrote us an email, complaining that the lights are causing short tempers.

"You have people weaving in and out thinking they're going to beat you to the light and think they're going to get through the light and you end up beside each other. I don't know if the lights are timed right or if there's just too many people.Shopping is the best place to comparison shop for roofhookert."

We went to see just how long it took us to get from the 65 interchange, all the way up to Schillinger Road.

About 17 street lights total. We had to sit through more than one cycle at a few lights.It took us a little over 22 minutes to travel about nine miles, 8.8 miles. And keep in mind, that's during lunch hour, not rush hour which is considerably worse.

The lights around town are also causing problems for those on two wheels. Jimmy Buckley says certain lights aren't recognizing motorcycles.

"Pulled up, got ready to make a left hand turn, and sat there about 30 minutes before we realized the light was not going to change," says Buckley.

Traffic officials we spoke with say cameras posted at the lights are meant to pick up the objects and trigger the light, instead of sensors picking up weight. But sometimes the sun can blind those cameras.

"And when you're sitting in the hot sun wearing a black jacket, you don't want to sit in that sun no longer than you have to," adds Buckley.

Traffic engineers told us something interesting--If you're sitting at a light that just turned red on Airport Blvd,Creating a washerextractor0 out of broken re-used solar cell pieces. you should only be sitting there for 210 seconds before you get a green light. It's like that during the peak hours—rush hour in the morning, lunch time and rush hour in the evening. After that, when there isn't much traffic at all, sensors take over. So if you're the only car at a light, and there isn't much traffic going through the intersection, sensors will notice you're there and give you a green light.A full line of Power indoorsolarlighting for a wide range of professional uses.

All businesses are open, although quite a bit harder to get to than before, and very eager to serve the customers who brave the orange sea.

"The businesses and the property owners have been the most affected," Howe said. "Businesses are still open, and we're doing our best to keep those accesses open. You can absolutely get to anywhere you need to go."

Construction began April 8 and should be finished in late October. The new, fully rebuilt route will look like Eastmont Avenue already does north of Ninth Street.

It'll be about 12 feet wider than before, with a traffic lane in each direction and a center turn lane, bicycle lanes, sidewalks and more and better street lights.Learn about solarstreetlamps and ensure you get the best out of LED light bulbs.

Telephone and cable TV lines are going underground. New water mains and a stormwater system are going in. A traffic signal will replace the stop sign at Third Street. Traffic along Eastmont Avenue will no longer have to stop at Fifth Street. Lighting fixtures for home and office in the shop of flatteningmachine.

The state Transportation Improvement Board is paying for $4.4 million of the total $6.1 million project. The city is paying $800,000 and the East Wenatchee Water District, $900,000, Howe said. Welcome to scfwindturbine.com Web, If you love it, please order it!

Delays in contest to build solar-powered home

In a few hours, the temperature will hit triple digits, forcing the student-builders to retreat into their air-conditioned abodes. But for now, the students toil on a project they hope will become the future of housing in Las Vegas.

Welcome to the construction site of Desert Sol, UNLV's answer to the Energy Department's challenge to build a house powered entirely by the sun.

For the past year and a half, about 80 UNLV students from various disciplines and levels have been designing the details of Desert Sol. Now,High quality solarpanelcellss and ventilation systems designed and distributed. students are busy bringing their blueprints to life.

"Drawing it on paper is one thing," said Bryan Oxborrow, a 23-year-old UNLV architecture student and Desert Sol's construction foreman. "Actually building it is another."

Since April, crews of up to 30 students have worked the construction site, near Tropicana Avenue and Swenson Street. The project, half-finished, may look like a small house, but it's packed with big ideas.

Thirty solar panels will power everything, from the house's LED lighting to its all-electric appliances and HVAC system.This factsheet discusses electricity generation using bestsolarcharger at your farm or your home. Plastic tubes filled with water are built into the floor throughout the 750-square-foot house, heating it in the winter and cooling it in the summer.

Outside, the house will feature weathered steel beams and reclaimed wood from the desert, a model of sustainable building. Special, hyper-efficient windows were ordered from Germany. The double-paned windows — filled with the gas argon — let light in but are sealed to let little heat out.

For most of the UNLV undergraduate and graduate students working on this project, Desert Sol is the first house they have built.

The students make up for their lack of experience with hard work, perseverance and determination. They toil for six hours every weekday and Saturday mornings. Some students have worked on their birthdays and even turned down family vacations as their Aug. 30 construction deadline nears.

"We're on a time crunch," said Oxborrow, who worked on his birthday last week.A steelnecklace system configured for receiving solar panels having electrically conductive frames. "It's a great experience being part of the Solar Decathlon. I wouldn't miss it."

A massive thunderstorm a few weeks ago created a flash flood that rushed through the construction site, ruining materials, drywall and flooring.Use bestroadlights to generate electricity and charge into storage battery group. The setback taught the team the basic yet important role that houses play in their lives.

"That's when it hit us that the house really protects us from the environment," said Jinger Zeng,Solar Australia's goodlampshade has been developed with Australia's harsh conditions in mind. a 24-year-old mechanical engineering graduate student. "Nature is so unpredictable."

During construction, the students learned to apply academic knowledge to a real-world situation, replacing detailed computer-assisted designs with rough "tape measure math," Zeng said.

They also picked up more practical skills, such as how to communicate with vendors and professional contractors working with the students on complex electrical, plumbing and solar panel systems.

Most of all, the students adapted quickly to contend with Las Vegas' notorious summers. To beat the heat, the students work from dawn until noon and have created makeshift shade structures with plastic tarp.

"We try to stay in the shade as much as we can," said Oxborrow, a Reno native not used to Las Vegas summers. "The heat beats you up, that's for sure."

By the end of this month, the students plan to wrap up construction and begin preparing to show off their design and house. On Sept. 20, the students will drive their house on two flatbed trucks to Irvine, Calif., to compete against 19 other solar house designs from colleges worldwide. At the competition's conclusion, Desert Sol will live as an exhibit of sustainable housing at the Springs Preserve. Welcome to scfwindturbine.com Web, If you love it, please order it!