  We present a simple, material-specific model Hamiltonian for stripes and use
it to explain the observed differences between the angle-resolved photoemission
spectra of La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO4 and Bi(2)Sr(2)CaCu(2)O(8+x), e.g, along the nodal
line and around (3pi/4,0). Next we compute the string tension for stripes and
find it to be smallest in the materials with the highest observed Tc,max.
