New Power from Old Energy

I recently blogged about the energy that we all produce just moving around and the possibility that one day sneakers might be equipped to harness that energy and store it in battery packs, but then I came across this posting on my new favorite website: Mental Floss about a flexible ramp that Hughes Research has created that can be placed in roadways to harness energy to power traffic signals. Called the "RP190 Power Ramp" (the video can be seen here, enjoy it's wonderful cheesy industrial video-ness and rocking soundtrack). I think it sounds like a great idea, considering it seems like a win-win situation: it calms traffic down while providing free energy. Dissenters however think that maybe wind turbines that are built into freeway jersey barriers (like the photo) might be a better use of funding. I'm kinda jazzed about these new ideas and wondering why they aren't in place already...what's the hold up people!

Earth Day, the Day After

I've been a bad bad girl this year, I allowed both Climate Control Day (or whatever they were calling it) and Earth Day to pass without much fanfare on my part. I had grand ambitions of standing on an overpass with a banner with a slogan that said something to the effect of "Hey you, dumbass, your car is killing the planet." (or something much sweeter and more diplomatic, but I have little energy for either emotion lately). Sigh, I shall try to be more earth-conscious in the coming weeks. I did manage to ride my bike to and from work yesterday (remarkably 28.7 miles, according to the cyclometer... I think it might be a weeee bit off there) so that at least, was something. I have a couple plans to get back on track... most notably bringing my own food containers/plates and silverware to work. I need to be more conscious of how much paper products I use and throw away. When going through the catering line, I hardly ever think twice about taking the styrofoam clam shell container and chucking it 10 minutes later after scarfing about 15 lbs of catered meal. Earth Day, everyday is the mantra... let's see if I can make it happen.

Goals and Aspirations

So I'm not sure how this slightly over-ambitious goal popped into my head the other day, but I have decided that I am going to attempt to ride my bicyclettes 1,000 miles this summer. I'm currently at about 31 miles. Rules of this contest are few, but it's always good to have something to strive for. Looks like the distance between home and new job will be about 9 miles, so if I just ride my bike to work 55 days, I should be all set. Okay, unfeasible, but there are 147 days between now and Labor Day, so chances are I can get a good 20 or 30 trips to work in that timeframe. The financial savings will be fairly minor, since it only costs about .08 cents for me to drive a mile (in terms of gasoline bills) $80 isn't a huge monetary savings. The ecological savings will also be fairly minor, since I only give off minimal emissions as well. Where I'm looking for the most gain is physical- hopefully this will gain me some new strength... somewhere. So stay tuned for the Summer Biking Challenge...

Oh the air outside is frightful...

Here in my little nook of the world, (next to the 5 Freeway, the train tracks and within spitting distance of the Burbank airport, at the base of the Burbank hills) the air quality today is somewhere between 1967 diesel school bus exhaust and Pennsylvania coal mine. Made even more noticeable by how clear and beautiful it was outside yesterday. Alas, I shall have to dig the gas mask out of storage.

Wish List: Power on the Go

I have my next item on my wish list... a
travel solar panel to power my laptop! Considering the quantity of time I spend on my laptop... this could be cut my production budget in half!

Holistic Vet, the sequel

So Adventure Kitty's follow up at the holistic vet was tinged with a bit of ... how shall we say, "sassiness". Alright, he attacked me in front of the vet. We left many dollars poorer and with the phone number of a "pet behaviorist" in lieu of being asked to return to their services. But interestingly enough, in the week since the vet visit, he has calmed down considerably and doesn't engage in his usual aggressive tendencies as much. Could the power of my positive thinking have altered his emotional state? Was it really that easy?

We've got the power!

So in anticipation of this weekend's "Springing Ahead" (3 weeks earlier than usual) and the potential the switch has to save billions of dollars in energy costs... I came across this little tidbit in last month's Utne:

The gist of it is that every footstep creates 6 to 8 watts of energy, "energy that simply scatters into the ether." A British company is working on creating vibration-harnessing sensors that charge batteries and could be placed in train stations, bridges, any building that vibrates energy. Other companies are working on ideas such as cell phone-charging shoes. Harvesting this free, available, and green energy could quite possibly an energy revolution.

Kitty Ch'i

So Adventure Kitty has been feeling a bit cranky and under the weather for about 6 months now. After repeated attempts by the regular vet to cure him of a bladder infection using various antibiotics failed, I thought it time to give alternative medicine a try, especially because I'm so concerned about how antibiotics affect my own body, why would I subject a poor animal to them? And so we headed to Limehouse in Studio City for a consultation. Within moments, I felt at ease there, the staff didn't have the disorganized feel that our regular vet has (not mentioning any names...) they weren't tripping over each other to get the phone, there seemed to be only 2 gals working the front desk (not the crew of 17 that the regular vet has, so disorganized and slipshod, I often wondered how any work was accomplished), and the plus was I was allowed to take him out of the cage so that he could wander around and get his bearings. After meeting with the doctor, he deduced kitty's ailment and resulting inability to get better was caused by stress. Not too much of a shocker, we had moved a month or so before he was first diagnosed, to an apartment close to the airport. The apartment previously held two cats that have since moved next door so not only can he smell where they've been, they come lurking around outside while he is forced to watch them through the security door. And last but not least, I'm not the most calm and relaxed choice he could have for a caretaker. So we left after some kitty acupunture and laser therapy with some herbal tinctures, some homeopathic remedies, and a feline pheremone diffuser—and NO antibiotics. Too early to tell the effect the treatments have had, but he does seem to have a better aura about him. And no, I'm not just saying that. If any of it calms his sassiness down, I'll take it.

Pull up to my bumper baby...

I'm on the hunt for the perfect bumper sticker to express my thoughts on global warming...something not too belligerent, not too ambiguous, and not too wishy washy. After some search of Cafe Press, I think I came across this one.


Not quite sure who designed it or if it's an original quote, but you can order them here on Cafe Press.
Be warned, you're all getting one for your birthday this year.

In a global warming funk, just a short note today, inspired by the catch phrase of the NBC series "Heroes":

SAVE THE EARTH... SAVE THE WORLD.

Car Bonks & Fraud

So Thursday I had a little fender bender on my way to work—a woman cut in front of me and I didn’t have enough time to stop and ended up bonking her front bumper. Her 2007 Mercedes Benz received a cracked reflector, my car had some scrapes on the bumper. But after all was said and done with the day, I had to spread far and wide what I had learned from the experience. After the bonk, we both pulled over to the side of the road to exchange information. Lo and behold, a tow truck operator who had witnessed the whole thing was already investigating the injuries to our cars. Thinking I was the easier target to take advantage of, he looked at my car and promptly deemed it undriveable due to the fact that my air bag was ready to blow at any time. Pointing to a non-existent crack under the hood “You see that there? That means your air bag sensor needs to be reset.” I saw nothing. He persisted and said I couldn’t drive the car. Next thing I knew, my car was attached to the tow truck and we were headed to a “Honda approved” garage of his employ. After unhooking my car, I called the insurance company and they suggested I move my car to one of their approved garages where they would guarantee the work done on my car. Sounded like a good idea to me. After an overnight stay at the 2nd garage, they deemed my car completely fine (not including a $300 bill to repaint the scratches on my bumper, not even worth the effort) and the ‘brid was back in my care. Lesson learned from this situation: NEVER let anyone take your car away on a tow truck, unless it is blocking traffic. Even in that case, have them move it to a location where someone you trust (your mechanic, your roadside assistance company, your insurance company) can look at it for you. You have the power to say NO. You have the RIGHT to get honest service. And if you get taken advantage of such as I had, the Better Business Bureau and your state’s Auto Repair Department of Consumer Repairs (here's the link to California's page). If everyone reports fraud we can all lower insurance rates and stop others from being taken advantage of.

Yippee! Report Card Day!

At long last the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report on global warming has been released. Among the highlights are phrases like "very-likely man made" for the causes of global warming and the admission that in fact, stronger hurricanes (such as our evil friend Katrina) are a direct result of global warming. So huzzah IPCC, let's hope your warnings are heeded with the severity they deserve. And just for kicks, let's all stop by Stop Global Warming.org and see if there's anything we all can do to get our grades up.

To Buy or Not to Buy

So my cute little refrigerator bit the dust the other night, in hindsight, I'm well aware that it was entirely my fault (I tried to chip away at the glacier in the freezer and apparantly chipped away at the evaporator instead). So the freon has been released (the National Inst. of Health assures me that liver damage is not imminent) and the whole system is inoperable now. The question is, do I cough up the $65 for part then the $75 for a half hour of labor ($90 if it goes longer) when the whole rig only cost me $300 in the first place? (And yes I've realized that I cannot attempt to fix this myself, sadly).

Tick, Tick, Boom

A lovely cheery announcement this morning at the top of Google news page: Doomsday Clock Closer To Civilization's End. I mean I'm pretty sure Dr. Stephen Hawking wouldn't lie to me, he seems like a trustworthy guy. But the committee that created the clock isn't just concerned about nuclear weapons, but has also added their concern over global warming to the equation. "Nuclear weapons still pose the most catastrophic and immediate threat to humanity," said Martin Rees, president of The Royal Society. "But climate change and emerging technologies in the life sciences also have the potential to end civilization as we know it." The time table for this literal "End of the World (As We Know It)"? Thirty to forty years.

Monopoly? I love that game.

Out on a walk today I noticed a billboard… “Every 11 seconds another person switches back to the new AT&T.” A blatantly misleading billboard to say the least, as no one has a choice in this matter. (my own local phone carrier has changed 3 times in 10 years: PacBell to SBC and now AT&T).
It seems the country has forgotten all about the mandatory breaking up of AT&T for monopolistic practices starting January 1st, 1984 into 7 separate “Baby Bells”.

I read this quote on DIYMEDIA.NET today: “Right before the new year, without the benefit of a public meeting or vote, the FCC approved the corporate marriage of AT&T and BellSouth. With this $85 billion deal, Ma Bell is basically just two mergers away from being fully-reconstructed.” Why is Bill Gates being prosecuted for monopoly practices but AT&T isn’t? No one else is noticing this giant whale eating all the fish in the sea??

Baby it's cold outside...

I am bummed today, as I sit shivering in my apartment—I moved my long-time companion ficus tree inside to the kitchen after freezing temps hit over the weekend. It's not looking too good, 90 percent of the leaves have frost damage and it has a strange odor of pumpkin to it. Also frozen over the weekend were basil plants and tomatoes, but I am less attached to those as they seem to bounce back from all my brown thumb attempts at gardening. Ficus, however, was one of my first purchases when I moved to Los Angeles 10 years ago. As I moved from apartment to apartment, it came with me and lent an ecological air to my many, many residences. No doubt it also cleaned many an airborne chemical out of the air too. And my silly whining about my silly tree is nothing close to what local growers are dealing with— many are reporting almost total loss of crop, and they are predicting the damages and loss to reach almost a billion (that's billion with a B) dollars. Global warming for everyone!

Doc Review: Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke"

Checked out part I & II of Spike Lee's latest the other night, a documentary that's often described as the "Hurricane Katrina story" but watching it makes you realize that the title is more apt—the situation was influenced by Katrina, but it was really the breaching of the levees that caused the flooding and the chain of events that the government failed to react to. The story was new to me, since I was unaware of the full magnitude of the situation because I was recovering from my "tree incident" which occured on the same weekend. I was shocked to see what was happening and how long it took our country to get in gear and begin the clean up. 40,000 people sleeping in filth inside the Superdome for 4 days. Dead bodies on the freeway. People trapped in their homes with water up to the roofs. No organization, no leader, no plan of escape for 4 days. What is even more frightening watching this at a distance of a year and a half later, is the fact that as global warming continues out of control, polar ice caps melt, sea levels will rise. When this happens, the world's coastal cities will face the same situation as New Orleans. We're talking cities such as Manhattan, Beijing, Boston, all of Florida, the lowland European countries, underwater. In today's Washington Post, Marc Kaufman writes: "Last year was the warmest in the continental United States in the past 112 years -- capping a nine-year warming streak "unprecedented in the historical record" that was driven in part by the burning of fossil fuels, the government reported yesterday. According to the government's National Climatic Data Center, the record-breaking warmth -- which caused daffodils and cherry trees to bloom throughout the East on New Year's Day -- was the result of both unusual regional weather patterns and the long-term effects of the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." Is anyone else freaking out about this?

Smart Cars, NA Auto Show and the Return of the Electric Car

I didn't consider myself a car geek but I think I may be inching toward that label real soon. Lots of quiet excitement in the auto industry this week with the North American Auto Show taking place in Detroit later this week. An article in the LA Times yesterday (Return Trip for Electric Vehicles LA Times 7 January, 2007) also talked about how auto makers are actively pursuing the battery/plug-in electric version of hybrid cars as the next big revolution in eco-auto fashion. 2010 is still a long ways off, but with any luck it'll get to California ahead of schedule.

Also got my first glimpse of a Smart Car on the road this morning (that's it to the right). It's almost literally a two-seater... While ZAP stands for Zero Air Pollution, mpg is about 40 (ho-hum) and U.S. limited release price is around $25,000. Personally, I think what's the point when I paid less than that for my hybrid, my gas mileage is better and I've got the trunk space to spare?

Simplicity and the Holidays

Just got back from a whirlwind tour of the country, 1 month, 7,665 miles in the 'brid and good times had by all. Trying to start my New Year's Resolution (a few days late) and try to remember to blog every day. Thought I'd catch up first with some of the highlights from the trip.

Got everyone gift certificates for Christmas, and didn't want to do the boring old envelope thing, so I tried to think of entertaining ways to wrap them so that the gift giving process would last a bit longer than 15 seconds. Aunt P got a series of gift bags placed within each other, sort of a Russian Nesting doll of gift bags. Think I was able to get about 15 or so bags within each other. Dad (below) got his wrapped in scraps of holiday paper (recycled from my stint of wrapping presents for Haddassah at the Columbus Circle Borders Books), that ended up like the magician's scarf of paper. But the piece de resistance, had to be mom's which was the GC envelope placed in a box, place in another box, placed in a 3rd box, placed in a 4th box, placed in a 5th box, placed in a 6th box, placed in a 7th box...and each box was entirely covered with those charity address labels that they send my grandmother for making a donation. In progress: and the finished product: Crafty and recycled!

Simplicity and the Holidays pt 2

So my usual holiday stance of buying as little for people as possible or making gifts has worked out well for many years now, but in the hectic hustle and bustle of traveling cross country and working like a crazy person for 8 months, I have neglected the wee ones in my life. I have a 3 year-old and a 1 year-old that I'm visiting shortly with nothing in hand. But I figure I shall spend the morning (er...early afternoon, sorry, slow start today) here in NYC scouring the city for an eco-friendly toy store. Don't fail me now Google!