Web Echoes

The Power of Words

2011-04-02T18:46:00.000-04:00

I couldn't initially think what to say about this one, beyond: Watch and Pay Attention to the Words! And then I typed the paragraph below because, you know, words matter, and I can't shut up when handed a keyboard and powerful content.

Words have power to convey a story, emotion, build empathy, instill confidence and are the only way that we have to communicate how ever poorly through an imprecise medium. And yet, we can still listen to someone else's story and understand something, about the person telling, about the world. All in the careful choice, clever ordering and timely delivery. I'll never be anyone's Point B, in the sense that Sarah Kay states, but I can be that point for anyone who asks.

Fear And Arrogance

2011-03-29T21:33:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, I and a bunch of people who had been or have become the people I most trust in the world worked during the DotCom bubble of the late 90s. We were there in 1996 and 1997 when no one really new what providing web services on the internet meant, how to do it and most especially, how to do it well. I think we did okay, thanks to some reasonably strong leadership and definite ideas on how to serve a customer efficiently, and not in small part to a lot of Fear and Arrogance. 15 years later, on the rare occasion I find the shirt with that on it in my drawer, I smile to remember the highs, lows, challenges, successes and failures that phrase encompasses. The Fear of failure and the Arrogance to know that you can achieve anything is how the incoming Director of Operations characterized the staff he inherited. And we got more organized, developed standards, and learned what "operations" meant. Mostly a lot of testing, research and diagnosis of problems, rather than seat of the pants "I think that'll work" solutions.

The video below reminded me of that time, not least as I consider how I can free up my time and energy consuming "day job" to be able to defiantly charge into the field(s) I want to tackle armed with nothing but audacity, and delusion as Tara Hunt puts it in the TEDx Concordia presentation embedded below

Its easy to be comfortable in a job, showing up, working, earning a paycheck, take the easy road of not going "all-in". It's hard to actually be happy with who you are, what you are your doing and feeling like what you do matters, not only to yourself, but to the world. To those who do, my congratulations and thanks.

Pave Over Everything, 'cause the market demands it

2011-03-25T15:47:00.000-04:00

I recently started reading Commute Orlando and have been reading through a backlog of posts there. In a recent one, Eric posts the content of a piece from the Washington Examiner by Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard that complains about recent government interest to spend transportation money on projects other than roads for automobiles.

Towards the end of the article, Mr. Barnes has this to say:

Cars and drivers, sad to say, don’t function in a free market world. Both are highly regulated, sometimes for good, sometimes not. If the law of supply and demand were operative, we’d see a smarter approach to improving transportation in America.

The supply of cars would create a demand for more roads and bridges to accommodate them, just as food lines outside a grocery store create demand for more grocery stores....

Apparently he hasn't seen the research indicating that increasing road capacity only temporarily reduces congestion. By this supply and demand interpretation and voice he apparently has no problem with paving over the world so that there is more space to operate those cars --which is only possible outside of built cities, therefore necessitating more construction in a way to allow room for cars that requires cars to successfully operate. Oh, and apparently limitless supplies of money to build and maintain those miles of highway.

"But that won't happen to me"

2011-03-03T19:39:00.000-05:00

I am not a fan of the "scared straight" method of trying to get people to alter their behavior, but, these are powerful stories about real people and the dreadful results of their misunderstanding of their responsibility to themselves and others. To quote a Jethro Tull song, "I may make you feel, but I can't make you think." In the case of the video below, certainly got me on both.

I wonder how many drivers in Rhode Island are aware that it is illegal to send, read or write text messages while driving. How many police officers take it seriously themselves to enforce the law every time they see it violated? According to a recent AP story, 185 tickets for texting while driving were issued in the first year that the law was in effect. I wonder how many actually paid the $85 fine, or went to traffic court and had the infraction dropped. 11 towns had no citations, and the highest in a single town was JOhnston at 11. The dollar figures given in the article, seem to indicate that the average fine is under $60. So far as I know, no one has been killed or injured directly because of texting in that year, but I'm certainly not an expert.

The following 10-minute PSA video is quite moving.

Sure are a lot of technology 'fruits', eh?

2011-02-24T18:18:00.000-05:00

Image by optimal tweezers

A humorous skit focusing on the many everyday technologies (and language) that have names based on fruit and other grocers products. I think after 3 views I've finally picked up on all of the in-jokes.

Oh, and if you don't get the joke about Orange, it's the name of a wireless service provider in the UK.

Four Sentence Bonk

2011-02-09T18:43:00.000-05:00

The rare grassy verge along a rural highway was a welcome respite as I lay along a rural highway, forty miles into my first sub-24 hour camping expedition. My lightly loaded bike lay abandoned next to me, ignored and reviled but to find food and water among its stores, having been too drained to use the kickstand properly. Over half an hour of gluttony from consuming all of the immediately edible food and over a liter of water restored some mental balance and strength. Returning to the saddle, covering ten miles more to find a convenience store near a secluded camping site.

Much as I dislike how little I write while simultaneously not being able to force myself to sit down and write daily, I love taking on small writing challenges. Last year I attempted my first 6-word story to describe a weeklong outdoor leadership class as part of a talent night. Wrestling that number of words to evoke emotion and communicate a story is quite a challenge, even with my tendency to mostly objective brevity.

While I'm not terribly interested in winning the prize, some retweets were going around today for a contest to write a 4 or 5 sentence story of bonking. For the non-bicycling readers - a bonk or bonking is used to describe what happens when a rider loses motivation and strength, frequently stepping off the bike because they can't go on due to poor food intake while riding. (and now you see what we need a term to cover this)

RE: My Meagre Economic Understanding

2011-02-02T22:22:00.001-05:00

A good set of questions that everyone should be asking, even if there aren't any answers here.

Growth cannot continue forever since the only resource that appears to still be increasing is our ability to consume resources.

From: http://ping.fm/vaAQz

My Joyous Winter Commute

2011-01-18T19:54:00.000-05:00

Cheery Sight, N. Main Street, Providence

I don't want to call it a commute, as that implies a chore that one does because it is required to complete the obligation of going or coming from work. Rather call it a joyous experience riding a bicycle that happened to have my work place as its destination.

I had the joy of handling the bicycle on slushy streets that had been plowed or driven before I transited them, though this pleasure can pale quickly after a few blocks as the hands tire from keeping the wheels under me and the body warms.

First Tracks

I had the first experience of making first tracks on several side streets near my home on a bicycle path and the unplowed office parking lot. The crunch of the snow and the sure footing it offered engendered the feeling of exploration in my neighborhood despite its daily familiarity. At the office, the crunch of snow, and the unsullied expanse of white pulled at me such that I took a couple of circuits of the front parking lot just to continue the thrill of riding through accumulation of fluffy, uncrushed snow and leave my ephemeral mark.

Along the way, I also had the exhilaration of being not entirely under control as the bike slid faster than the wheels were turning on a well traveled road and somewhat cleared road resulting in a slippery surface. It was almost skiing, while balancing on two small points with naught but balance and precession to keep upright.

Snow Accumulation through helmet holes

It was hard not to uselessly gloat over coworkers that I had such a fun trip to the office when they were arriving to work disgusted, annoyed and late.

And while the weather had warmed, and the rain was falling steadily, even the trip home was not disheartening. Arriving home mostly dry, thoroughly pleased to have completed a new challenge in choosing not to use a car on a daily basis, and preferring the bicycle to transit.

Speedy Escalator's

2011-01-06T18:26:00.000-05:00

In another rendition of "Remember When" generated by the internet, I had a lovely reminder today of a trip a grand journey that I was on nearly 10 years ago. In 2001, I and 3 extremely close friends ventured from our doors and traveled around the world with little more than 30 pounds of gear in our backpacks, our friendship, some money, and a willingness to experience food and customs far and wide.

One of the places we had the great fortune to visit was Russia, and specifically, as related to this web echo, the city of Moscow's subway system. Unfortunately, I just checked my photo archive, and I don't have a single photo of any of the fantastic stations. The only notes I can dig up are the travelogue that I wrote in June 2001, "Underground Touring." (Please excuse the formating, the Virtual Tourist website has apparently changed their rendering language since it was written. OOh, and a factual error about a station name Mosokovskaya should be Mayakovskaya)

What brought this on was the article "In Moscow, escalators to carry the city" in the Washington Post from December 14th which discusses the escalators used in that subway system and their remarkable uptime and service load. I'd suspect the WashPo included this given the recent coverage of the failings of the Washington DC Metro System's escalators. (<90% reliability I believe I read).

One of the the things that isn't explicitly called out, and which we commented on while there was the incredible speed at which the Moscow Metro escalators moved. No dawdling in the way on these babies, easily moving twice the speed of any such device in the USA. And while we were there, moving around, not a single person stumbled, fell or otherwise had a mishap to interrupt the quick flow of people on and off the moving steps, which were used, as far as we could see by people of all ages.

Flashbacks to old computer games

2010-12-30T10:10:00.000-05:00

I've long been following Shamus at TwentySided's discussions of implementing graphical elements/world building using procedural methods to generate a world (versus using static maps, hand placed art, etc.) He recently linked to Sea of Memes, and the programmer there's project to build a game and his discussions about his approach, technical explanations etc.

All of which, is interesting, to a certain set of people, what really struck home for me today in the latest Sea of Meme's Let's Code #6, in which one paragraph gave me a very vivid reminder to a computer game I played in the early 1990s.

I have a number of reservations with this approach. First, it's not very user friendly. People need to know how to get from one place to another. They need to give each other directions. And they need to be able to form a mental map of the place. Saying "start in the space station, go out the airlock and you'll be in this shopping mall, then exit the mall and you'll be in a jungle with dinosaurs, then jump into the volcano and you'll be at my place", probably won't work well.

From late 1990 through 1993, I played LPMuds, MUSHes and MUSEs, and eventually collaborated with some good friends to build our own world. The description above fits many of the adhoc, player built worlds that were around and dedicated to a particular theme (Pern, Dune, Star Trek).

Much more vividly, it recalled my favorite LPMud, whose name I can't recall that I played in 1991 (and I think was served out of Los Alamos National Labs). There was no purpose to the game aside from being able to run around, hack and slash in environments created by other people with other players present, the real fore-runners of todays MMORPG games. The game had similar elements as the quote above, you could go to the Brady Bunch area, and kill Alice to retrieve Sam the Butcher's cleaver, one of the best weapons for low level characters. You could then wander through about 20 rooms with at least 3 different themes to get to an enclave of actors and actresses to beat up. I remember that Keifer Sutherland was one of the tougher ones in that zone.

In many ways I miss those days, especially the creativity of building and programming the world for other people to enjoy and play in. As a privileged user, you could create objects, attach descriptions to them, and by putting the right text in the right places, create ambiance through words. Want that ball you just picked up to convey something more than just being a ball? Simple, set the get property to tell the player "You grasp the ball and are suprised by its unexpected weight before putting it in your bag". Want every one else to know that the person just picked up the ball, set a different property to send the text to everyone in the same location "<Player> strains to pick up the ball before putting it in their pocket". The programming could get a lot more complicated. On the project my friends and I worked on, we had a working sustenance, economy and combat systems all built using the in-game programming language.

Thanks for this walk through fuzzy memory lane with me...8) And ya know, if you take out the space station, there are elements of World of Warcrat that pretty similar as the authors paid homage to SciFi and Fantasy worlds that had come before them.

Patience and Passion, Writ Large

2010-12-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

Many people out there are really dedicated to accomplishing something. It makes one feel like a slacker just for getting up in the morning to see the amount of time people spend on 3 minutes of video. Some people make sculptures, some make videos, some donate their time to help others. Its a shame that we recognize those that entertain us more than we recognize those who help others. With that said, Kudos to these guys for putting together this geeky accomplishment.

@feliciadayFelicia DayThe patience it took! RT: @brainpickerInsert Coin – cleverest stop-motion I've seen in a while, from Denmark

More bike frame "ground effect" lighting.

2010-12-14T08:42:00.001-05:00

Another interesting vanity lighting system for bicycles. This fits my riding better than the last one I mentioned. Though, I still think I'll stick with the flashing christmas lights for this year.

From: http://ping.fm/wxidh

A new (folding) ride

2010-12-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it is about the bike.

I purchased a Dahon Mu back in April as a low cost folding bike to meet my occasional needs to travel by train and plane. My goals were to spend under $500, have a gear range that could handle moderate hills, such as are found in Providence, RI. The spur for this acquisition was jealousy of several of my colleagues at the National Bike Summit who had convenient transportation to and from their accommodations. (And you know, walking 2 miles from the hotel to the halls of Congress in dress shoes HURTS). Since I had some upcoming trips by train at the time planned and relatives short plane flights away, it seemed a logical investment.

There weren't many bikes that fit the criteria I had set out, particularly the price range, ruled out Brompton and Bike Friday folders. Between what looked to be a bad gear range for Breezer Zip models and mixed reviews from prior owners, I decided to avoid these as well. This left several options from Dahon, wheel size being the next significant one. It seemed to me that that 20" wheels were more desirable leaving a limited set of models. It was tempting to upgrade the price range to get a model with 24 gears, full racks -- essentially a folding touring/commuter -- but for what was expected to be an occasional use bike, it didn't make sense to over buy. In the end, the Mu P8 had the right price tag and seemed to be the right platform. Ordered online and shipped direct via amazon.com, the 2008 model arrived well packed and mostly assembled.

I road it a little bit in April, getting used to the handling, shifting and making sure nothing was obviously amis before taking it on it's first train journey and loaded trip. In those early rides, I quickly found it to be very capable bicycle, easily usable as someone's only commuter or general purpose bicycle. Aside form general riding around for errand and commutes, a friend invited me along on what we've taken to calling Eric's Raids. These usually include a bit of off-road exploration of abandoned rail lines, overpasses and interesting means of reaching those bits. This ride is what cemented this bike in my mind as a good alternative to my Breezer Liberty for utility riding. The photo above came from one of these raid rides while we took a break before trying the next bit of deep gravel.

Loaded for Travel in Richmond, VA.

The following month, I attached a gym bag to the rear rack and rode around Richmond, VA. With the approximately 20 pound of luggage, exploring and climbing the hills of this city in the river valleys and then taking the 30 mile trip to Pocahontas State park for some cabin camping and education. While there, I had the opportunity to try to keep up with some seriously fast road riders in hilly terrain and must say that again, the bike performed admirably. I had considered taking panniers for this trip, but wasn't sure that I could fit everything I needed into 2 rear panniers and couldn't really fit even small panniers onto the rear rack. This is probably the most significant issue I've found with the bike and the next item to be replaced. I've seen a folding rack from Bike Friday that looked promising if it will fit the mount points of this frame.

And in the ultimate test of confidence, it got to be my primary ride for about 4 weeks when I foolish hopped a pothole and damaged the rim for the rear wheel of the Liberty. Between vacations, product line changes and discontinuations, it took me that long to get a new rear wheel for the commuter. I got plenty of practice curling a single pannier around the back of the rack. If a ride were particular bouncy, the pannier could actually curl in and start rubbing on the wheel.

Overall, I'd recommend this bike. At 20 pounds, and its folding ability, coupled with the folding pedals or upgraded to MKS quick-release pedals, this bike is perfect for rail commuters where full size bikes are prohibited, or even on Amtrak trips.

I did have to make some adjustments for the bike since it has a much more upright position and the handling can be a bit twitchy. Initially I was uncomfortable getting out of the saddle to climb hills, but after a month of commuting, I was standing almost exclusively for short climbs. Road feel is pretty good at 50psi on the stock Schwalbe 20x1.5" tires, but large cracks, sticks and such definitely transfer their vibration into the handle bar and saddle more than on my road bikes. On the upside, with the responsive handling, doding such obstacles is quite easy, even at the last moment.

Even with 8 speeds, the gearing offers a good range in terms of gear inches low 30s to 90s. I did find that I could spin it out easily on downhills or flats with tailwinds, but never encountered a hill that I couldn't climb with the lowest gear.

Just before I got my Liberty back on the road, I noticed that what I thought was chain noise coming from the chain watcher is actually being caused by a slightly bent chainring. It is entirely possible the bike came with this problem and I didn't notice until too late. A very good reason to heed the advice given on all of the materials to have the bike checked over by a mechanic before using it.

Nit Picks:

- cable braze-on on right chain stay might catch on someone's heel if they have large feet (personal shoe, US 9.5/10) (caught a sandal edge on it once, but a tendency to ride heels somewhat out due to #2), presumably present for other drive-train options, but should be elsewhere.

- Large feet with wide soled shoes (Teva sandals) feel like they're rubbing the chainstays.

- Rear rack is small and curved at the rear, positioning a pannier far enough back to be out of the foot path requires a standard sized pannier to be forced curled around the back.

- Locking up properly (awkward to get a cable lock through the bottom-bracket supports and both wheels, no rear triangle, easiest lockup seems to be to fold the bike up and catch both wheels from one side and the BB support triangle on the other.)

- Grip Shift 8-speed, sometimes sluggish to shift, good sized grips and solid-click prevent accidental shifts.

- Lots of chain noise rubbing on the chain watcher in lowest 3 gears.

Usage so far
Since purchase in late April total mileage comes in at around 500 miles, I don't think I've had a reason to ride it since late August, though I expect to take it to VA in December.
9 miles of commuting most days for over a month (when the weather wasn't wet - no fenders yet)
60 miles loaded with a duffle of clothing and gear for a 4 days of hotel and cabin camping
45 miles mixed on- and off-road exploring abandoned rail lines (deep, loose gravel; dirt; weeds; debris)

For another review of a different Dahon folder versus a Strida, check out Katie Mattison's article "The Tale Of Two Folding Bikes" at Commute By Bike.

2010-11-30T08:39:00.001-05:00

I'll stick with reflective sidewalls, but fun lighting idea and ridiculous video http://ping.fm/8wmkX

2010-11-23T13:52:00.001-05:00

Out of Work Chef + Cargo Bike= New Green Business http://ping.fm/war9d

2010-11-22T08:50:00.001-05:00

I wouldn't have expected Providence RI to be in top 5 for "work from home" percentile. http://ping.fm/9xOdu

2010-11-19T12:10:00.001-05:00

Very cool Tool, fun to play with Boston. "mapnificent":your freedom to roam http://ping.fm/Ss5Cv

2010-11-17T08:28:00.001-05:00

Danny MacAskill riding in Edinburgh, Isle of Skye on some very unlikely hardscape http://ping.fm/VD95T via @carltonreid

2010-11-16T18:31:00.001-05:00

Great Satire from @carltonreid - Study finds that e-cars take up same roadspace as normal cars http://ping.fm/nTs7h

2010-11-15T13:38:00.001-05:00

If you read Bruce Schneier, this will make perfect sense: http://ping.fm/Vsn8V

2010-11-10T08:38:00.001-05:00

Very nice write up on Pittsburgh's Post-Steel recovery: http://ping.fm/UFcJR

Behind the OK GO Rube Goldberg Video

2010-11-01T18:12:00.000-04:00

I've always been fascinated by Rube Goldberg type machines. I thought the Ok GO video was awesome when it went viral earlier this year. Knowing what the rules were behind the video make it fascinating to watch on a new level, understanding why certain aspects of the machine are present, other than because they could.

Adam Sadowsky engineers a viral music video | Video on TED.com

2010-11-01T18:05:00.001-04:00

The has been around the net for OK Go before, but the rules that they worked under are illuminating...http://ping.fm/LLu8t

2010-11-01T07:49:00.001-04:00

Dance Fortress 2 http://ping.fm/Q3KP2

The Big Tent - Opinions in Bicycling Advocacy

2010-10-31T08:12:00.004-04:00

The deeper I get into bicycle advocacy, the more I see that our opinions are so divergent about the correct operation of a bicycle on a roadway, building a consensus and taking action is nearly impossible. To make things worse, the people who have probably put the most thought into the matter tend to be the most impassioned and most easily dismissed by their fellow advocates, government officials and even other bicycle riders. How does one build a coalition to advocate for improving people on bikes safety and defending the use roadways, educate people who drive cars that people on bikes are allowed to be there, and in the end, increase the number of people who use bicycles in their daily lives?

Just a quick rundown of the basic types I encounter, and in some cases, fear.

Vehicular - The bicycle is just another vehicle on the road, and the operators of vehicles are prescribed to operate their vehicle in a particular manner in accordance with the laws. The extreme example of this group is opposed to bike lanes and segregated bike paths, believing them to decrease bicycle user safety and insisting that in the stream of traffic is the safest place.
Libertine - The road exists for people to use, and motorized vehicles are regulated in their manner of usage to keep other users of the roadway safe, but generally, laws for motor vehicle operation don't apply to bicycle operation on a roadway.
Safety - Essentially generally following the rules of the road is desirable, but getting to your destination alive is the most important thing when mixing with traffic. Many obligations placed on road users are unsafe for bicycle riders (such as signaling, or using bike lanes). This might actually be the same as Libertine, but is based on the 10 rules for Urban Commuting posted by Josh King to Commute By Bike. Alternately, it's a moderate and pragmatic variant of Vehicular.
Expediency - This is more of an observed class of riders who don't appear to follow any rules. They frequently behave more as pedestrians than road users, riding where convenient at any moment and trusting other users of the roadway to look out for them.

Obviously, these are gross generalizations that don't capture the nuance's of any particular person's behaviors and beliefs when riding. I consider myself to operate my bicycle primarily in a Vehicular mode, obeying roadway usage regulations for the most part as prescribed by state law. I regularly come in contact with a wide variety of people who hold opinions all along the spectrum above, and they're all valuable, but we end up talking past each other a lot.

When someone is telling me that signaling is optional, riding through a red light during the all-red portion of the cycle and that the laws that apply to motor vehicles don't apply to other roadway users, I find it difficult to accept and have a meaningful conversation with them, and further, to agree on a course of action that will produce a safer environment for people to ride bicycles in their daily lives, as well as increase perceived safety.

Perhaps the problem is that people who are trying to improve conditions and increase the number of people who use a bicycle regularly are too involved, too polarized and don't represent the people we want to help and reach? Other transportation modes are perceived to be simpler and safer, having a multitude of opinions shouted of how to do it is probably too daunting to someone who can walk out of their home with a key, get in a car and drive to their destination and is very willing to accept the costs, risks and annoyances of doing so.

So how do we integrate everyone's opinions into plans of action that really do increase safety, protections for the injured and get more people riding?

More to come. No sparing the electrons for this topic.

The Car Whisperer: Thursday Hate: the right (of) way

2010-08-15T12:16:00.000-04:00

For those who don't follow Brian at The Car Whisperer, now would be an excellent time to go read The Car Whisperer: Thursday Hate: the right (of) way about automobile drivers improperly being gracious and yielding the right of way to cyclists.

Unlike The Car Whisperer, if the operator of another vehicle yields the right of way to me, and I've satisfied the requirements of the traffic control device or road situation, I'm not going to turn that down if it is safe to do so. Soemtimes it happens that the driver is encouraging me to cross an intersection and other traffic has not evidenced any intention to yield the right of way. That usually results in a driver who shakes their head and is apparently disgusted that their graciousness has been rebuffed. Far be it for me to stay alive on the road. Put me in the camp with the timid pedestrians who have no faith that they won't be struck and injured by brain dead drivers.

In his view, Drivers who give way at inappropriate times are enabling and conditioning bicyclists to not properly obey traffic controls such that cyclists won't stop for pedestrians or begin to assume that other traffic is going to automatically yield for them, despite not having the right of way.

I disagree. I suspect that the same cyclists who don't stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk are the same ones who won't do so when they're driving their car. I don't believe the conveyance in use at the time makes a difference, but rather the attitude of most road users that if you aren't a vehicle, get the hell out of the way.

I think this goes to Brian's recurring point "You drive like shit." Most people who are on the roads seem to have a very superficial familiarity with the rules of the road and even if they know better, have determined through countless examples and repeated reinforcement that driving like shit doesn't have any consequences. If you are never given a ticket for taking a right on red without stopping, breaking the maximum speed limit, rolling through a crosswalk when pedestrians are present or as a cyclist blowing a stop sign or red light, the entire method of driving will quickly degrade to the minimum necessary to get from A to B as fast as they possibly can.

On the Pedestrian side of the world, I see two types of pedestrians. The timid, afraid to cross, afraid to slow down traffic, afraid to get hit type who won't step off the curb until the road is clear for more than ample time to allow them to cross. The other is the pedestrian who steps out without looking at any point on a block and cross lackadaisically as though there were no other road users. Actually, the second group can be interesting, as often they'll stare down approaching cars after strolling into the road.

In the first group, I once had a pedestrian in a tourist area refuse to cross in front of me while I was on my bike, because there was a car behind me. Never mind that I was already stopped and telling them that they had the right of way and had no need to wait. My impression was that somehow the pedestrian felt they were impeding traffic to cross the road and felt guilty to get in another person's way. Talk about an overdeveloped sense of graciousness.

And finally, for the cyclists. Many of the ordinarily courteous riders that I have the pleasure to ride with get bent out of shape when riding on a bike path and not being yielded to by a vehicle coming from a cross street. These cyclists apparently do fall in to the class of enabled cyclists that Brian is concerned is developing. Apparently enough people have yielded the right of way to them that they feel entitled to be yielded to now.

Brian closes with a very simple statement that captures the essence of Motor Vehicle, Non-Motor Vehicle and Pedestrian interactions under the law:

Determining the right of way isn't hard. Bikers: ride like a vehicle. Drivers: bikers are vehicles. Pedestrians: stand up for your goddamn rights. Hey, if you're not killed, you'll get a helluva'n insurance settlement out of it.

Maybe more of those signs that you see on trails near crosswalks would drive the point home, except put a Pedestrian where the horse is, remove the arrow between the bike and original pedestrian and put a car silhouette in place of the original pedestrian?

Local Sourcing, Global Distribution

2010-08-10T18:45:00.000-04:00

I was travelling recently and saw a brand of granola bar with which I was unfamiliar, conveniently placed near the register as an impulse grab, and it worked. For $2.99 (plus whatever sales tax is in Reagan Airport) I was the proud owner of an 18 Rabbits brand granola bar. I knew nothing else about it beyond the orange wrapper, though as the cashier was giving my change, I did see that the bar's name was "Nibble a Sultana".

My amusement came about 2 minutes later when I sat down to try to find the ingredients list and look over the product more. Apparently I was hungry and suggestible, as the tagline in the black box hooked me in solidly, "Why Not Go All The Way?"

WHY NOT GO ALL THE WAY?

While it's true this bar is more tan 91% organic, sourcing 100% organic ingredients would entail looking outside the state or even the country. 18 Rabbits chooses to work with sustainable farmers in California who graciously provide our nuts, honey, butter and fruit.

I was immediately amused. No where else on the product had it indicated anything about being 91% organic that I could discern. I did know that it was made in California and I was over 2000 miles away in Washington DC. Before I could even care what it tasted like I was being asked to forgive them for what I, and apparently they too, thought was an incongruous, perhaps even hypocritical participation in the locavore movement in sourcing and producing a product that was then shipped over 2000 miles for helpless air travelers in search of quality nutrition at reasonable prices ($7.50 for 2 slices of ordinary white bread and whatever counts as a vegetarian filling, yowza!). If this bar is going to be shipped so far to be sold, why not go the extra distance on sourcing ingredients and provide an 100% organic product?

The bar was pretty good, nothing particularly spectacular when I finally did get around to eating it on my return trip through Philadelphia airport (where I didn't see any 18 Rabbits on display). I've made bars of equal quality, but it was convenient in a nice sealed package when I needed it.

And as I sat down to write this, I was struck by 2 other observations:

The bar is Handmade in San Francisco -- Not sure what that means, but it actually wasn't all that appetizing a thought.
The package design is truly horrible - It show cases the brand name of the product and you have to work at reading anything else about the product, except that its Dairy Free, and of course, only 91% organic.

A not so late call

2010-07-07T19:17:00.003-04:00

The phone was ringing.

I woke and looked around, remembering where it was that I had laid down. A dormitory at some college without air conditioning after a hot day. But there was still a breeze. The advantage of a corner room.

The phone was still ringing, as expected. My friend was calling to let me know what time the team was meeting for breakfast in the morning. I grabbed the phone from the windowsill and read the time. It was 9:30, I'd been asleep for about an hour and a half, starting to recover from a hard ride in 90+ temperatures.

I stared at the display on the phone for another second, it rang again. I couldn't remember how to answer the phone. I was clear that swiping my finger across the bar at the bottom of the screen would answer the call from Ted West. The mechanics were easy of answering the phone, the problem was I couldn't remember how to answer the phone. What did one say after one had made the swipe?

Apparently, I hadn't gotten it right by saying a less than certain hello when the caller said "Hi Matt, it's Ted, how are you?" As much as I cared about when breakfast was, I was struck that he identified himself at the start of the call, after all, I had a cell phone with caller-id and we'd agreed earlier that he'd call me to relay that info. Ah well, nevermind, a trip to the bathroom, a fresh glass of water, setting the alarm for 5:20 and more sleep would solve all of these concerns.

Two weeks later, I'm still amazed at my inability to figure out how to interact with another human by saying "hello", a perfectly acceptable greeting, but the mechanics of making the phone answer the call weren't.

reBlog from fooducate.com: Vitamins that Kill | Fooducate

2010-01-08T09:01:00.001-05:00

I've recently discovered the Fooducate blog and it is quickly becoming one of my most looked forward to reads of the day (thank goodness they only post one article a day [I'm looking at you TreeHugger])

Says Emily Anthes – we should stop treating supplements like health candy and more like prescription meds, to be used only when there’s a demonstrated need.fooducate.com, Vitamins that Kill | Fooducate, Jan 2010

Today's post talks about the supplements industry, essentially saying that supplements are unnecessary for most people's lives if they eat a varied diet of real food. (In the Michael Pollan sense). I've personally gotten off all of my supplements as they've run out in the last year, partly because of repeatedly seeing statements to this effect. The last one I quit taking was Glucosamine/Chondroitin, largely because for a long time I had pain in my knees when flexing them deeply. After several months, I believed I felt an improvement. After several years, I now wonder if self-medicating is related to the tinnitus I've developed in one ear.

I also found interesting their recent article discussing a study that indicates that artificial sweeteners such as those found in diet soft drinks may be linked to weight gain and obesity due to a dulling effect on the sweetness receptors on the tongue. Worth a read as well.

Human Powered Snow Blower

2009-12-27T11:30:00.000-05:00

I get the craziest ideas.

I have this idea to figure out how and to build a human powered snow blower. Ideally, pedal powered, but perhaps arm powered or a hybrid (human/electric of course). Why you ask? Why not, I say.

Last year, this pedal powered snow plow was built. I think its neat, but I suspect not very effective in deep snow, as the snow will simply spill over the top of the plow blade.

I'd think that it should be possible to build something a single stage snow blower connected via belt or chain to a set of pedals. Perhaps with a 3 speed gearing to allow for getting the blade turning at sufficient speed to not lose all momentum on contact with snow. Another thought along those lines would be to add a flywheel/weight to the system so that the rotating mass counters the mass of the snow contacting the blade. Or, add a pedal assist motor along the lines that are seen on the various e-bike designs out there.

It would also need to have 3 or 4 wheels for stability while moving at such slow speeds, and have a disengage-able drive, either connected to the primary pedals, or using a battery powered propulsion so as to control the rate that snow is fed into the chute. Obviously, the target usage would be primary for sidewalk clearing. If you could make the snowblower removable/interchangeable, I could envision other add-ons. Sweeper brushes, reel style lawnmower blades (a long time idea of mine), golf ball gatherer.

Winter, Crotchety Pedestrian Edition

2009-12-26T10:42:00.004-05:00

It's probably not a good thing to have one of my long standing pet peeves reinforced by one of the local blogs, however, since the point of this thing is echoes, it does give me a good touch point for reinforcing my own opinions, and there is nothing better than a blog

for echoing the opinions of others.

At any rate, in standing tradition, Jef Nickerson at GC:PVD can always be counted on to blog the aftermath of the snow storms, as written on the sidewalks. And yes, it took me a week to

get to this, sue me.

To add some additional areas and pet peeves to Jef's already comprehensive lists, below are some photos taken along my route from home to work. As with Jef, I note that the city doesn't seem to have any interest in clearing the walks of parks and bridges.

Some business owners don't instruct their snow clearing contractors to clear the sidewalks, and worse, leave their plowed and packed piles of snow square on the sidewalks. My personal favorite is the Mobil station at Atwells and Valley where I walk through the car wash to get to the minimalist path of the church sidewalk.

After getting past the churches narrow shovel width path, which were completely filled in on Wednesday when the city sent the plows around to push the street out wider. (sorry, no picture). And then, after dodging on and off the

street in front of generally uncleared sidewalks of the apartment houses, and the uncleared bridge is RI

Collision which plows their snow piles onto the sidewalk

and makes no attempt to clear the sidewalk connecting them to the check cashing shop (cleared curb to wall, this streets winner).

On the opposite side of the street, I appreciate the sidewalk clearing done in

front of Lumere Auto Body, especially the thoughtful clearing of a path to the street at the bridge.

Unfortunately, their work was initially undone by their neighbor at Rising Sun Mills which left a pile on the sidewalk. However, by the end of Tuesday, someone had gotten a path shoveled through this pile.

And lastly, the bus stops. This little island of cleared well cleared sidewalk appears to be otherwise unreachable. On Monday there was a path to the street, unfortunately plowed over on Tuesday. Impossible to reach without going in the street or over the pile at the Mobil station.

And lastly, on the topic of public areas. Who clears the Fire Hydrants?

Granted, the city is big, and probably owns lots of land, and policing priorities are for more significant crimes, but given the the alternative is to put pedestrians in the street with vehicles that are probably not at their most controlled seems pretty egregious. Who has to die before the city gets serious about enforcing ordinances about cleared sidewalks and curb cuts?

In my own neighborhood of summit, I took a walk on Sunday night after the end of the snow and found that the few streets I walked down had a very high, say 90%+ cleared in front of homes. Unfortunately, the businesses on Hope Street were apparently waiting until Monday to take care of their walks, as only about 80% of them were done.

And here's a bonus pothole the drivers are enjoying on Valley Street bridge.

RIPTA on my mind

2009-12-10T16:41:00.003-05:00

Apparently RIPTA is the target of my thinking today. Earlier today I received an update email from Walk Score about the City-Go-Round site. As a result, I submitted my name to support asking RIPTA to make their schedule data Open Data, which shouldn't be that big a deal, since they already publish the data for Google Maps to provide transit trip planning, which I use quite extensively. I'd love for other uses to be available as well however, such as the UniBus iPhone application, or who knows what else. (Fritz at Cyclelicio.us points out that only 84 public transit agencies out of 784 provide their data openly.)

At any rate, I was looking at post on Infrastructurist that was pointing out that various recovery monies that have been in the pipeline seem to be spend focuses on the county that the seat of government is located within, and linked to the data on Propublica.org. How does this tie into RIPTA? I was drilling down into Providence County (yes, there is a disproportionate amount of money reported there versus the rest of the counties) looking at the projects receiving the most money and saw this:

RHODE ISLAND PUBLIC TRANSIT AUTHORITY

$24,280,000.00

Grant

Capital and Operating Assist Formula Grants Hybrid-Electric Buses and Capital Projects - This grant will invest in public transporation by: purchasing approximately twenty (20) hybrid buses; upgrading approximately forty (40) diesel buses to hybrid-electric propulsion; upgrading ten (10) replica trolleys to hybrid-electric propulsion; and purchasing twenty-four (24) engines for installation on the 2004 fleet.

Federal Transit Administration

7/10/2009

Anyone know anything about the progress of actually spending this money, are these buses in service? I don't see anything on the website announcing anything like this.

And on the capital county inequitable amount of money issue: I wouldn't be suprised if money is showing as allocated to the capital county because the office that administers the program is based in that county, but not that the project itself is actually based in that county. I could be wrong though.

12/10 EDIT: Oops, in all that link confetti, I think I missed linking to the Infrastructurist. Fixed.

Another quiet thought, courtesy of a TED talk.

2009-12-04T11:28:00.003-05:00

A nice talk about energy, sustainability, resilience. I especially like the intro, where he talks about the amount of energy/work that is stored in liter of oil.

And, like him, I think that it's amazing to have been alive in this period.

I laughed so hard, I could have snorted milk

2009-09-21T09:52:00.002-04:00

I was reading cyclicio.us this morning and encountered Fritz's amusement and a link for purchasing milk from amazaon.com. For some reason, it is disturbing to think of ordering milk over the internet through Amazon, $69.99 was the lowest price for a gallon. However, as has happened in the past, I suspect that this is a humor product that was put in the catalog. I recall a listing for Men's Clean Underwear several years ago when clothing started appearing on the store. Reading through the comments on the item was awesome. Between the user provided photos such as Tusken Raiders and cow udders, and the user contributed comment, this is a fantastic listing. Among the comments are a re-envisioning of Poe's The Raven as well as text that would be at home in a romance novel.

Once upon a mid-day sunny, while I savored Nuts 'N Honey,
With my Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 gal, 128 fl. oz., I swore
As I went on with my lapping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at the icebox door.
'Bad condensor, that,' I muttered, 'vibrating the icebox door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Though, you know, if they partnered with local companies in select markets, like Munroe Dairy in Rhode Island, which has order submission over the internet , it could be a real product.

And more humor, in the "also viewed" section, a "Badonkadonk tank". Perhaps due to having had my mind shifted to gutter mode by the name of the item, I kept giggling loudly at the perceived innuendos of the description.

Odyssey Catchup: Test Rides, GPS Tracking, and more

2009-07-28T20:59:00.005-04:00

In the last 2 weeks, in the mad dash to make sure that I'm ready, at least from a packing list point of view, for this expedition, I've done a few longer rides and an overnight camping trip.

The first weekend of test rides was to set out with the bike fully loaded for the trip, but to do a 50 to 60 mile loop from the apartment. Starting out is a little strange, as the handlebars and bike handling drastically change with the addition of a bunch of weight, not least of which is about 10 pounds of liquids. I was doing well for the first half of what turned out to be a 66 mile test ride, but as the day got longer, I started making mistakes about taking breaks and consuming enough water. Despite all the jokes about the wet, cool summer we've been having, I can attest that there have been some days that were clear and hot enough to bring on heat exhaustion in the unprepared and stupid. I compounded this with a 30 mile ride the next day in similar heat and again didn't drink appropriately. However, otherwise, the legs felt good for 100 miles in 2 days.

2 weeks later, it was time for an overnight camping trip to do a real test of the proper gear being on the bike and a stab at starting to sort gear into appropriate locations and levels within the Panniers. 51 miles each way on back to back days, with breaks every 12-15 miles and consuming just over a quart of water in that distance resulted in feeling great. While not a good example of the hill climbing that will be required on the real trip, I'm sufficiently satisfied that even with the bike loaded, the bike has low enough gears to climb most reasonable grades.

Speak of hills, looking at Google Maps using the Terrain layer instead of satellite is really cool, and somewhat frightening to look at central Pennsylvania. Check out this map segment, by Pittsburgh standards, that section on the left above Northern Cambria is pretty hilly(by RI standards, it'd be mountainous...8)

On the Gear Front, the bad news is the Dynotec Solar charger is a no go. I've returned the unit to the manufacturer. After corresponding with them, they suggested using a USB port to charge the device, which seemed to work a little better than using the wall charger, but what it really turned out is that there is something wrong with the connections, as sitting on a counter undisturbed, the units charging light will go out, even though the unit was only plugged in for a few seconds and was completely drained. The other problem was that the solar panel was just too small to give the battery a significant charge in a reasonable amount of time. In my experience, a week sitting on a roof or a sunny window sill didn't give the unit more than a minimal charge.

I've replaced that with a larger secondary battery pack from FastMac that should nearly quadruple my running time between mandatory recharging. I'll just make it a point to stop by libraries, cafes, etc where I can recharge the backup battery while I'm waiting. The bonus is that the FastMac iV also includes a superbright LED, which gives me a third flashlight for the trip. The second is a Petzl headband mounted LED lamp on loan from a friend.

One of the reasons I'm so concerned about power is that I'd like to provide semi-accurate, semi-live GPS track recording, or a live tracker via a web portal. I believe what I'll be using is the InstaMapper website with their GPSTracker app. While I'd like a super accurate GPS track of my exact travels, the battery drain is pretty big. While not a lot less, I think it may be more useful to be able to have my position plotted to within a mile for emergencies, and with the position posted every 15 to 30 minutes, except in an area with a lot of turns, it should be accurate enough.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Renewable, yes, but is it sustainable?

2009-07-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

While attending the Apeiron Sustainable Living Festival at the beginning of June, I was introduced to a new concept in alternative power source vehicles. A Dave Nichols of Killingly, CT was demonstrating and speaking about the virtues of a biomass powered Ford F-150 (1989 I believe). While the concept is cool, and a few such vehicles running around the roads certainly wouldn't cause an issue, how much biomass would need to be available in order to power a large deployment of such vehicles? Based on the information given during his presentation, I've set out to try to estimate that. According to Mr. Nichols vehicle can travel about 2 miles per pound of consumed wood or other similar biomass. I've done some back of the envelope type calculations below to figure out what the equivalency to gasoline is and how much wood would be required to power a vehicle exclusively for 1 year. Never mind that it would really only work in a vehicle with a cargo area available to stick the converter such as a pickup truck, at the expense of cargo area. (heck, you need cargo area to haul the fuel...hence why liquid fuels are so desirable and convenient).

1 pound of wood for 1.5 to 2 miles
energy content of 1 pound of wood (well dried) = ~8000 BTU
energy content of 1 gallon of gasoline = ~125,000 BTU
energy content of 1 fl. oz of gasoline = ~968.75
1 pound of wood =~ .069 gallons (8.832 oz)
@ 14mpg, 8.8 oz = ~0.96 miles
volume of wood per pound = 600kg /cubic meter ( ~ 1 pound per 61 cubic inches or a solid square of wood, 6 x 5 x 2 inches per side, eg: about 6 1/4 inches of a standard US 2x6, or about 4.25" x 1 x 12 [.42 board feet])

Assuming an average miles driver per year of 15,000, that reduces to 7,500 pounds of wood, or, using the 2x6 example, about 3,750 linear feet of 2x6, or 3150 board feet, or about a fourth of the wood required for a 2000 square foot home. Making that number more interesting, about 375 10 foot long 2x6's. Or, more directly, a cube of wood nearly 7 feet high, 10 feet long and 4 feet wide. (for a very non-nonsensical attempt to give that number real world meaning, I calucated this: On 16" centers, that's enough wood to build 1420 feet of standard stick frame wall, enough to enclose a 126 thousand square foot (3 acre) area. )

To realistically implement this would require a huge lumbering industry, and lots of time, or even more wood in order to use the much more common and fast growing pine. At around $4 per board foot, if one were purchasing this form of energy, it's equivalent to about $2 per gallon, ignoring impact of increased demand on prices. The other issue I see, is how many trees and acres of trees are required to yield that volume/energy density of wood, plus processing into small chunks for gasification, and transport to local distribution points. My guess is that on a widespread basis this isn't practical, but if one owns a few acres of trees and were to use such a vehicle, and were willing to harvest and process biomass locally, it could be done, without denuding the land.

To be fair, trees give up a lot of biomass in the form of leaves every year, compressed blocks of dried leaves could work well without cutting trees to supply fuel, and really anything that can be rendered to a syngas at 2200 degrees Fahrenheit could be used (as mentioned, grass clippings, trash (essentially, anything compostable).

While I was watching the demo, I couldn't help thinking of the Mr. Fusion from the end of the first Back the Future movie. I suspect that the energy density of a banana peel is probably not high enough to power a car for more than a few seconds...

For other media coverage, The Norwich Bulletin has a brief article up, and wtnh.com has a video article up, which you can see here:

Footnotes/Resources:

BTU of wood comes from an article by Sam Foote, P.Eng in a PDF on Masonry Heater Association of North America's web site.
BTU per gallon of gasoline (US) from Wikipedia article on Gasoline.
The 14mpg above comes from fueleconomy.gov for that model and year.
Density to volume conversion based on ash (a soft wood) from Allmeasures.
Wood required for a 2000 square foot home via Realty Times.

Odyssey Route: As Final as it Gets

2009-07-03T11:28:00.003-04:00

After much stressing, and a way too busy life, the 4th of July holiday has given me time to focus on getting the map finalized. Coupled with having a pseudo-decision from Family to have a large gathering on August 15th at the "country estate". On the upside, this means I'll have an enforced rest day. Downside is it forces a 100 mile day, assuming I don't choose to sag the last 100 miles into Pittsburgh. Of course, getting to the farm also implies a bit of a northward jog. Perhaps I'll redo the route off of the water gap to remove the need to work north again on day 7. This means I now have semi-fixed dates of travel. Leaving Providence on Saturday the 8th, arriving Patchinville, PA on Friday the 14th, Arriving Pittsburgh on the 16th. Only question now is how to get back after spending a couple of days in Pittsburgh visiting friends.

There comments embedded in each days route about my expectations for that days riding, unfortunately, I wanted to keep the entire route on a single page, so I eliminated all of the routes that would have indicated the more southern route implied by following the Adventure Cycling Atlantic Route to Norristown and then catching PA Bike Route S.

View Prov to Pitt Bike Route in a larger map

Bike Lane shirt at Cycle Dallas

2009-06-30T08:36:00.004-04:00

Hrm, cool design, but may be a bit too confrontational to actually wear. I don't think it will win any friends among drivers already disposed against cyclists in their lane.

From Cycle Dallas.

Odyssey Gear: Devotec Solar Charger

2009-06-09T19:01:00.004-04:00

In researching solutions for portable charging, I found the Devotec Solar Charger that seemed to be a good fit to my needs. 1800mAh storage battery, rechargeable from a built in solar panel, USB port, or wall socket... essentially, all the features of a Solio unit except for the swiveling triple panel and a little less expensive.

The unit is nice and small, perhaps even a little too small. I like that it has an LED on it to indicate if it is receiving enough solar power to charge, and the LED varies in intensity with different lighting conditions. It has a second LED labeled charge, but I've not yet seen it lit.

It comes nicely packaged and well equipped with changeable tips to charge darn near any device, and with a USB female converter, almost any device that isn't represented can probably be covered too. (like, say a digital camera with a funky not-quite mini-USB connector).

Only downsides I've found so far is that there is no way to figure out how much of a charge is currently stored in the battery. Reading the instruction sheet only indicates that the charge light comes on when the unit is fully charged using a USB or wall socket, presumably to prevent overcharging/overheating.

I've also had some issues with getting it to connect to my iPhone and charge it, almost as though there is a slightly loose or mismatched connector, as jiggling the connector yields the charging connection tone. In theory the unit when fully charged can recharge the iPhone just short of twice.

Since I can't see how charged the battery is, I can't gauge how much power is being collected and stored on a sunny day on my kitchen window. Based on 2 attempts at charging the phone, the answer, at least on cloudy days is, unsurprisingly, not much.

Are bike racks installed and used incorrectly?

2009-06-08T11:36:00.005-04:00

I had a paradigm shifting experience recently when I saw a bike locked to a standard "circle on a post" parking area that has me wondering if the majority of these 2 bike racks aren't oriented and used incorrectly.

Almost invariably, I would have said invariably before last week, what you see is a bike locked to one or the other sides of the rack parallel to the metal hoops that extend to make the circle. I've often found that if someone is already using the other side of the rack, there is no choice but to move their bike a bit in order to get clearance to thread the lock through rack and to take care not to accidentally create a knot of interconnecting locks.

My eureka was in seeing a a bike locked perpendicular to the extension, thereby placing the bike a little way from the post, and leaving a wide unobstructed half circle extending in the opposite direction for another person to use, without needing to in any way be concerned about the existing occupant. This seems a much more intelligent and correct way to use the rack for a number of reasons and I'm embarrassed to say that I never even thought of that, even when parking at an unoccupied rack. Another advantage is that the extended hoop gives something to lean the bike against, in the case that it doesn't have a kickstand, and that doing that lean isn't going to impede another person using the rack, or require them to touch someone else's bike and/or lock in order to park.

I suspect that part of the reason is that the racks are installed in corners and adjacent to streets with the circle jutting out in parallel to the street or wall. This doesn't leave enough space for a bike to be locked perpendicular to the rack. Add to this a conscientious cyclist who prefers to park their bikes out of the way and don't want them extending perpendicular to the curb or wall into a pedestrian walkway.

While I'm on the topic of racks, have some lovely photos of a bike rack that is too close to a wall, though of a different type, and what has got to be the worst bike rack design out there, as you can see from the bikes parked already at the on on the right. Positions are too close together, not designed for getting anything other than a cable lock (hope you have a long one) through it with whichever wheel you trust to it. I try to park outside the rack on the ends and lock the frame to it when I can, otherwise, rear well goes in to get the frame closer to the rack.

Images from Flickr/SteveVance

After doing a quick search, lots of people talk about the correct things to lock up and and how on the bike to a (semi-)permanent object, no one says how to actually position the bike with respect to a rack.

Oh, and to make this even a little bit relevant to locals, does anyone trust the new racks (parallel to the curbs!) installed around Kennedy Plaza that appear to be bolted to the bricks adjacent to the parking lane and sidewalk ramps on Exchange Terrace?

Double Refraction

2009-06-03T10:37:00.004-04:00

In an echo of the David over at Greater City: Providence, a post of a TED video, that I should have linked to long ago.

James Howard Kunstler on the design of buildings, public spaces and the physical arrangement of accommodations for people, rather than our autos. Strong language, humor and just possibly something to make you think (or, to quote a Jethro Tull song: I may make you fell, but I can't make you think." - hopefully this video does both)

Self-Supported Odyssey planning

2009-05-28T19:27:00.003-04:00

Setting new goals to challenge myself for the year, I've decided that one of this years cycling goals is a one week self-contained trip. I'll be making a series of posts tagged under "cycling" and "odyssey09" to share the planning and hopefully completion. For my first such trip, I've settled on cycling from Providence, RI to Pittsburgh, PA sometime in late July or early August.

I'm still gathering the equipment, thinking about how much and what gear I want to carry with me, reading a lot, and planning the route.

So far, for equipment, I'll be using my Breezer Liberty, to which I've already had added a Jannd front rack and some extra battery powered blinkies. I have a pair of sealed pannier's in the REI Novarra brand, and need to acquire another set. I haven't determined the size, as I don't konw if they would be okay as front panniers and to get a second set with larger volume, assuming using them for lighter items (clothing) or if I should invest in a set of panniers marketed as front's for their smaller size.

The route is pretty well decided, though exact details will be pretty fuzzy until the moment my wheels go by. I've been looking at a couple of different routes to intersect with the Adventure Cycling Atlantic coast route in northeast Connecticut, somewhere near North Woodstock. From there I'd follow their route as far as Norristown, PA. From there, I'm thinking to use PA Bicycle Route S to get across the state and follow the Great Allegheny Passage into the city. Since Route S follows the trail for a portion of its length, this should be okay. Hopefully I'll have a google map up with a route track on it to share soon.

I anticipate needing to do on the upper end of 60-80 miles each day in order to complete the journey in a week, have a little time to visit with friends, and then catch the train (I hope) back to Providence. I have some trepidation about being able to get the bike back home by train as I don't think that it can be checked through. One of the annoying features of Amtrak service is the lack of baggage services on many trains on the routes that I find myself using (across PA only one of the 2 trains each day has baggage service).

For the remainder of the gear, I anticipate that I'll be taking a tent for wet/cool nights, a small hammock for warm nights and a small stove. From reading Ken Kifer's anecdotes and suggestions, I'm hoping to do a little back country camping, at least in Connecticut where campgrounds are not located at suitable distances for my use. I also need to figure out in the next couple of months if a smaller tent would be a good investment. I'm hoping to do a couple of weekend or overnight excursions within the state to test my gear and loading choices. Expect updates as those occur.

To supplement any printed maps I take, I'm hoping to use a GPS device with maps along the way to help resolve last minute routing decisions, assist when lost, or really need to find something like a motel or McDonalds (for the bathroom, of course). The problem I'm foreseeing with any of the electronics I might bring is keeping them charged. I've considered purchasing a portable solar charger, such as one of the models from Solio. Since I expect the device to be off most of the time, I might be able to go a whole week on a single charge, but it would be a real pain to be wrong on that account.

And most importantly, on the safety side of things, I just received my new RoadID. I opted for the updated style which provides a phone number that emergency personnel can call to get my personal, vital information. Or, they can login to a website to get my emergency information such as blood type, insurance info, contacts, etc. I expect this will be somewhat more useful than the simple list of names and numbers of the old ID, as I have the ability to update the information available at any time without having to get a new ID.

Shamus' Time Capsule thought experiment

2009-05-25T08:49:00.003-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Shamus Young at Twenty-Sided posed an interesting hypothetical question this week: What would you include in a time capsule for recovery 200 years later if you saw an unavoidable disaster about to destroy human civilizations? I've included the first paragraph below, but its worth visiting his site to see the rest of the rules and guidelines.

Time Capsule

Posted by Shamus on May 21st, 2009

Previous in Random Thoughts: Timetravel: What to Take?

Civilization is about to undergo some calamity. You can see it coming, but you can’t avert it. (Perhaps it’s unavoidable.) Sometime before the end of this century, civilization is going to be blasted back to the stone age, but projections suggest that things will calm down again in 100-200 years. During that time it’s expected that humans will lose nearly everything, technology-wise. We’ll be back to spears and animal skins.

Anyone who has read the Mote in Gods Eye, an excellent Science Fiction novel, has already encountered at least one author's approach. Dedicated museums housing technologies (mainly weapons as I recall) to "jump start" the finders technological and conquest abilities.

The rules in Shamus' challenge don't allow for such elaborate facilities or the inclusion of any large technologies, space being limited to a 1 cubic meter volume, however mass is of no concern in this case. Interestingly, many people were attempting to include information in various ways to perform a similar jumpstart of technologies. Many are trying to figure out ways to provide electricity or electric devices to provide interactive media, or ways of storing books. Some have thought of the very Asimov Foundation Series approach of limited access to layers of the repository that require unlocking and achieving a certain piece of information to presumably have reached a technological maturity to handle the decoding and understanding of the next layer. Most writers seem to be focused on giving the inheritors of the earth a technological leg up, either with help knowledge of agriculture, medicine, and advanced sciences, or even attempting to include the as much of the body of knowledge of human society as possible, frequently in some digital/electronic form. Admirable as these are, my thoughts diverge quite significantly. To quote one of my favorite science fiction series, answering a slightly different question, but essentially what is probably the most interesting aspect of the thought experiment to hand, what do we want to be remembered for when we are gone:

"Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu, Einstein, Morobuto, Buddy Holly, Aristophanes .. and all of this .. all of this was for nothing unless we go to the stars."

--Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, Babylon 5--

In my opinion, what we want to communicate about ourselves should reflect what we, as a species want others to know about us, and also what we've decided to be the truth about ourselves. Since it is unclear what the source or cause of the calamity in this scenario is, the cautious skeptic in me half assumes that humans themselves are to blame. I see no reason that future humans should be asked or channeled into making the same choices (let historians and future anthropologists determine which are mistakes) that have been made up to now.

The contents I would choose capsule would simply be a history of every civilization for which one can be provided, translated into as many languages as possible, printed onto something akin to Tyvek sheets and collected in bound volumes. Maps of the world to accompany the texts would be important.

I would also include a series of graphical or comic style books that cover the same material, though at a much less detailed level. I would also include texts on art from all corners of the world and examples of the same. My goal is to include as little as possible of a technical nature, no details of science, chemistry, technology. My theory being that providing such information would create a "shoulder of giants" situation, where they've inherited technologies without the moral frameworks or understanding to realize their implications. It is naive to assume that whatever tribe discovers the capsule will share the findings with any other, also thereby possibly setting up one tribe/clan/culture to dominate others by having a technical head start on everyone else.

The Tyvek is difficult to tear or rip, and durable against abrasion, though of course, it isn't indestructible. Include a bunch of blank copies of this material for it to be played and experimented with so that the discovers can learn the limitations of the material without destroying the collected works on first discovery. (Hey Xingoran, Who cares what this strange symbols on here is, it makes a great lining for a bowl to hold liquids and roofing material!)

I'd rather that civilizations arise in new and wondrous arrangements, based on the needs and proclivities of the people who survive, creating human civ 2.0, rather than Human Civ 1.5. As is probably in evidence, my preference is to leave well enough alone and simply preserve as much of the knowledge of who humans were, rather than what we had built and learned.

Bad Signage...

2009-03-25T12:36:00.002-04:00

By way of the Greater City:Providence blog, I was pointed towards an article about sign design in Rhode Island, more specifically, the lack of good signs. What piqued my interest was the inclusion of a photo of the new India Point Bridge on Jef's post, lifted from the RI Monthly article talking about the same topic.

I've always thought that the lettering on the new India Point Bridge was underwhelming in its presentation. The colors and letters make me think that the thing was build in the 1950s and its a miracle the letters are still there. Pretty bad for something that was completed and opened just last year. Following in Jef's tradition, below is the original on the left and a suggested improvement as suggested by Tyler Smith

Tyler doesn't point it out, but given the width of that label on the bridge, what driver has time to read it...Though I think his version may be a little too small, dropping the word bridge is certainly welcome. Reminds me of the very well labeled building on Thayer street. [which I can't get to my picture of because I don't have a flickr pro account...grr]

At any rate, some interesting ideas about sign design and Rhode Island's state identity can be read over at RI Monthly, and be sure to check out Jef's thoughts too over at GC:PVD.

Snort

2009-03-06T10:01:00.002-05:00

This is too good not to share...

Thoughts on RI's proposed 3-foot law

2009-02-21T16:21:00.002-05:00

Image by dullhunk via Flickr

It's amazing how much clear thinking you can do while riding a bicycle. While out for a ride this morning, I started mulling over the current debate in bicycle advocacy circles of so-called "3-foot laws."

In general, I think that such rules are a good idea and apparently cyclist and legislatures agree, as such rules have been enacted in many states to date.

While bicycles are treated as vehicles, and have the same rights and responsibilities, they aren't the same as their larger cousins. Bicycles are smaller and inherently don't protect their operators in the same way that an motor vehicle does. Factors such as lack of shocks, narrow tires at high pressure, some modicum of balance required for operation cause bicycles to be operated slightly differently than autos. Obstacles that larger vehicles can navigate with little risk to the vehicle occupants become more threatening to bicycle riders.

As a cyclist, situations arise where I need more than a few inches of space, which is all some drivers and cyclist consider necessary for my safety. Consider the cases of accidentally riding in the door zone and needing to react to an opening door. If there is a vehicle immediately to your left and no room to change path around the door, a pothole or broken glass in the path of the cyclist requiring a deviation in path to safely navigate. Even with enough control and warning to stop, the alternative is that the cyclist may be forced to interact with the hazard and go down on the road. Never mind the discomfort of having a 1 ton or heavier vehicle pass at such a close distance.

Why a law; because if its a law, its much more likely to come up during drivers education and makes for a potential question on drivers exams. It serves to reinforce that bicycles have a right to use the road.

A concern voiced by some cyclists in opposition to such laws is that by drawing attention to cyclists as a special class of vehicles brings the danger of more onerous laws restricting their use. Yes, there is a danger of backlash at singling bicycle riders out in a statute that could lead to unwanted consequences. There probably isn't any more danger than already exists because of motorists observing bicycles operated counter to existing laws, particularly stop sign and traffic signal stops, which seem to gather the most attention from motorists, though certainly "salmoning" also causes great agitation.

One way I see to mitigate this is to clarify the existing passing statute with respect to ALL vehicles, not just bicycles. My thought is to reword RI Laws 31-15-4, 31-15-6, 31-15-11 to a wording that means something like the following:

On a multi lane road, the overtaking vehicle must change lanes to pass. On single lane roads, a safe passing distance of at least 3 feet should be maintained while overtaking until safely past the overtaken vehicle. If a safe distance cannot be obtained, the overtaking vehicle must slow and wait until conditions permit safely overtaking the slower vehicle.

Wording such as this would also benefit carriages, scooters and farm vehicles. It would also serve to clarify the poor choice of wording in the H5074 of "slowing to 10 to 20 miles per hour below the posted speed limit". Nobly intended under the assumption that a bicycle is likely to be traveling less than 25 miles per hour, but too wishy-washy to be meaningful.

An issue I have with the proposed law is the inclusion of a new term, instead of using the term defined previously in the section on overtaking vehicles. The existing law uses the phrase "shall pass to the left at a safe distance and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle." The text of H5074 reads "leaving a reasonable and prudent distance between the vehicle and the bicycle. A three foot (3′) passing distance between the motor vehicle and passing bicycle shall be deemed to be reasonable and prudent." Why can't the proposed law reuse and define "safe distance" instead of creating "reasonable and prudent" and then defining it? There is also the problem that defining reasonable and prudent in H5074 could cause unwanted effects to the use of the phrase reasonable and prudent in 31-15-12 on following distances.

Do I think such a law is enforceable? No, not really. Again, I think that it serves as an educational tool. The danger with rewording it the way I've suggested is of course that drivers who never ride bikes are still not going to think of bikes as vehicles and will continue their auto-centric methods of operation.

While it is the responsibility of all vehicle operators to be in control of their vehicle at all times, situations do occur where minimizing the risk and damage done is the best that can be achieved. By defining for all vehicle operators what is considered to be a safe margin, perhaps the number of auto on cyclist injuries and fatalities can be reduced.

Here is the text of the proposed law, H5074:

31-15-18. Keeping a three foot passing distance when passing a bicycle. —
(a) A person operating a motor vehicle, when approaching a bicyclist, shall insure the safety and protection of the bicyclist by leaving a reasonable and prudent distance between the vehicle and the bicycle. A three foot (3′) passing distance between the motor vehicle and passing bicycle shall be deemed to be reasonable and prudent. When impossible to achieve the three foot (3′) passing distance, then the vehicle shall reduce its speed to ten (10) to twenty (20) miles per hour below the posted speed limit.

Cool Interactive blocks video

2009-02-15T10:35:00.002-05:00

This video from TED shows some interesting interactive blocks that "think". Very cool demonstrations of the potential interactions of objects on the fly if they are programmed to be aware of each other.

Stimulus, Transportation and Cycling

2009-02-09T11:14:00.003-05:00

A whole bunch of cycling/alternative transport links. Of biggest note are a bunch of amendments and a couple of proposed amendments to the current stimulus bill in the Senate that would limit and/or redirect some of the funding in it exclusively to the use of highway use.

First, via one of my friends reading lists, Bike Pittsburgh is putting out the word about amendments proposed to redirect some alternative transportation funding exclusively to the use of highway projects. There is a link on the Bike Pittsburgh post that allows you to send comments to your Senators about these amendments.

Second, Mark Dietrich at Providence Bicycle Coalition is warning of some proposed amendments to the stimulus that would specifically bar spending stimulus money on cycling projects. Feel singled out? While it hasn't been presented, this one is worth contacting your Senators over as well. Links from Mark's post go the the League of American Bicyclists to lookup and contact your elected representative's.

And lastly, there is a lively debate scheduled for next month to discuss the "3-foot rule" that has been proposed and will be heard by the Judiciary Committee next month. Some interesting points have been made so far. Personally, I think the law has flaws and needs to be amended before it is passed, but I think that better defining a safe distance to maintain between vehicles when passing is a reasonable idea. To read some other opinions that have been voiced so far, see the PBC post, and information about the upcoming discussion on March 5th. I certainly think it isn't an enforceable law and I think its largest application is in educating cyclist and drivers that cyclist are entitled to use most roads. If you can point to a law to back up a statement in a drivers manual, it is hopefully more effective than simply making a statement of what is judged to be prudent.

Another Electric Motorcycle on the drawing board

2009-02-06T16:12:00.003-05:00

Continuing today's impromptu theme of vehicles, there's a very thorough writeup at TriplePundit, TreeHugger and gas2.0 about the Mission Motors Mission One.

Not the most attractive vehicle in the pictures I've seen, but sometimes it isn't about attractiveness. Now, can they do this in a cruiser format instead of a sport-bike configuration?

Aptera Electric Car Test Ride Video

2009-02-06T16:04:00.003-05:00

Via AutoBlogGreen, video of a Aptera ride and demoing vehicle systems that under consideration.

Josh's TED Aptera 2e Ride With Steve Fambro from A Nonymous on Vimeo.

Interesting Bike Road Use Marking Idea...

2009-01-19T16:47:00.003-05:00

I just saw an interesting idea that was new to me. So called "Sharrows" painted on the road to indicate bike use is prevalent in areas where a dedicated bike lane isn't marked. This seems a great idea here in Providence. We have several heavily traveled artery streets indicated as bike routes such as the prime inbound route of Angell Street through the East Side. Perhaps this would be more visible than the pole signs to remind drivers that cyclists are not only present but expected/entitled to be on the road. (Anecdotally, of the 3 shouting matches I've had with drivers in Providence, two occurred on Sundays around lunchtime on South Angell and Angell Streets. The third was on Wickenden at the intersection of Benefit).

See #5 in the TreeHugger post offering a round up of five cycling improvements available to cities to improve their bicycling facilities for a picture and description. I like the bike corrals idea, but I don't think we have enough cyclists going the same places around here to warrant it, except maybe near RISD on South Main.

Then again, we don't have lane markings half the time here in Providence, it is probably too much to hope for paint for something as esoteric as safety...8)

A look at the history of numbers

2009-01-14T14:22:00.002-05:00

One of the many emails I receive each day in the search for new and interesting tidbits, entertainments and education had a nice little gem today. An interactive slideshow about various numeric representations systems, their histories and a little bit of a math and knowledge quiz to go with.

Certainly not anything as grand as a unified tome covering the history of the use of the number zero, or pi or such, but still a fun little diversion. The Maya one took a bit of figuring to realize what was going on for higher order numbers (above 20).

Anyways, enjoy:
A Number of Numbers

The Problem with Video Game Reviews

2008-12-05T21:20:00.002-05:00

I don't follow game reviews at all. When I'm purchasing, I look at the game, look at the cover art, try to guess what the experience is going to be like and decide if I'm willing to spend the money to entertain myself. Many times I'll take the input of others who have already tried the game. At $60 a shot, I'm a lot more selective than a $10 movie, book, or really, any other entertainment event... and probably nearly equally selective to something like going to a concert (which in a lot of cases, costs about the same amount these days).

My take away, he's saying gaming review/media needs to achieve the level of sophistication that reviews for other "arts" do, because there are people out there (not me) who actually care about the art form, and aren't just going to buy the latest 'blockbuster' because a bunch of reviewers gave it a high score. Makes the thumbs up/thumbs down rating system, as symplistic as it is, more useful, because it forces you to figure out the nuance between those vastly different poles.

Thanks go to Shamus at Twenty-Sided Tale for his thoughts and posting this to his site.

Ultimate Geekery: Computer Games and Bicycles

2008-11-22T13:59:00.002-05:00

Swiped from Cyclelicio.us. -- Guitar Hero bicycle ride.

UDHR

2008-10-27T19:11:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm going to do my part to increase the 5% of the world that know what this document is by some very small amount. This document will turn 60 on December 10th of this year.

Below is a clever video that outlines what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, and which all members of the UN claim are signatories to. Compare that to the actions of nations to their practices (including this one).

Found on WorldChanging.

Reading Roundup: Oct. 21

2008-10-21T20:25:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It consists of links to articles and websites that I find interesting but don't have a enough to say to warrant a standalone post.

Waste Not, Want Not: A New Approach to Solar - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com
Combining heat collection and use and Electric generation in the same space with solar panels. Good thinking.

Are you better off than you were eight years ago? | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Probably not, some of us may be better off, but a whole lot of us aren't. Frightening to see that my state's median household income is about 15K less than the national average.

A new plan for a 'green recovery' | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
A green community view on job creation that doesn't cost the government 700 billion.

Em Oh En Dee Ay Why | The Car Whisperer

This is Katy's interpretation of cycling apparently:

We just saw an ad for a living will service. She says I need to complete one and not her because she's not the one who rides her big wheel in a pack of maniacs also on big wheels wearing only their underwear and a styrofoam cup on their head.

Action Wipes - The Ultimate Wet Wipes for Outdoor Sports & Yoga
Cool, no more smelling like a babies bottom when cleaning up in a pinch during a hike or ride.

This American Life : 355 The Giant Pool of Money
This American Life : 363 Enforcers
Interesting listens (though long) about some of the internal machinations of the financial system operation during the sub-prime mortgage bubble and resulting crisis of faith in financial markets.

First Race

2008-10-14T15:21:00.005-04:00

I completed my first bicycle race on Monday, in the traditional method of observing the Columbus Day holiday. Well, traditional if you're participating in the 33rd Jamestown Classic. I signed up several months ago after riding with some people who were slightly faster/better than I was. Being on track to complete my cycling goals for the year, I tacked on an extra goal of finishing my first race.

I wasn't nervous leading up to the start of the race, but the first 2 miles or so of the race I had adrenaline jitters. It felt like the bike was moving erratically under me during those opening miles. Once those jitters wore off, I was able to settle into a rhythm near the front of the pack early on. The pack didn't really change configuration once we got underway, the leaders stayed there through the whole circuit of the island.

About a third of a way around the island I dropped back from the front 10 to around the middle of the group. Or at least, I felt like it was the middle of the pack with about 20 guys ahead of me. I didn't actually look behind me to figure out how many were behind me. I focused on staying with the pack and trying to move up into the group when opportunities presented themselves.

As expected, riding at a high pace in a pack reduces your focus on anything besides what's going on around you. Looking for on-coming cars, overtaking cyclists from the prior race, and watching for gaps and movements of those ahead was the entire focus of my mind. In spite of that, the only other thing I noticed was the smooth hum of the wheels on the pavement, the ratcheting of freehubs, and the creak of crank arms.

I did well, avoided causing any accidents or being in any. I was bumped once by another rider moving up through the pack and swerved into someone's line once to avoid a storm drain at Beavertail Light. I saw two guys go down beside me when one of his tires popped and another rider failed to avoid him when his bike went sideways. Otherwise, no accidents that I saw.

I got dropped by the main pack on the final hill, having given everything I had to keep up and not having enough strength or reserves to push up the last and probably hardest hill on the course at any sort of speed.

Crossing the finish, I had jitters of another sort. I'd heard and read about training so hard that you vomit and while I didn't quite experience that, I'd say I was close. I needed to wait a few minutes after finishing before I could drink, walking back to the car to give my body some recovery rather than riding it.

I finished the single 19.1 mile lap 24th out of 39 finishers (there were 50 registered racers). Not bad for not training. An average of 22.4 miles/hour and finished under a minute behind the lead pack of about 18 riders.

Image by OO7fish via FlickrThe Category 4 and Pro Racers were running their laps around their laps at around 46 minutes, compared to the Cat5 races in the 48 to 50 minute range. Its amazing to me how demanding a one mile-per-hour difference in speed can be. Perhaps someday I'll be in good enough training shape to run a Cat 4 race.

Reading Roundup: Sep. 29

2008-09-29T20:00:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It consists of links to articles and websites that I find interesting but don't have a enough to say to warrant a standalone post.

A Real "Back To The Future" Engine Meets Mark Twain | TriplePundit
Not quite a Mr. Fusion powered with coffee grounds and banana peels. And why do steam powered external combustion engines get the wink-wink-nudge-nudge treatment as it isn't a practical or modern technology? Most electric generation is still a steam process as I understand it (hence the higher water demands), why should we poopoo it in vehicles?

Element Bars - Custom Protein and Energy Bars
Build custom energy/protein bars. Interesting idea, but given the breadth of bars available in the market already, probably a bit redundant.

Hobbits’ home discovered in Wales | TriplePundit
Where can I build one of these? (though it is missing the round door of a true hobbit home) I agree with the idea of low impact construction and energy needs, I don't think we're going to be looking at a world where that is a necessity because of lack of resources for a little while yet.

WorldChanging: You Can't Buy Your Way to a Better Future
A very good message in the title, and an even better set of recommendations for practices, most of them small and very doable, with enough practicioners, could use the market to change products. Take back consumption. Seems similar somewhat to the idea of BLUE.

The deniers are winning, but only with the GOP | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
I am not really surprised to see this particular angle presented. Generalizations aside, of the people I know, the deniers are almost invariably conservative and republican (note, those terms are not synonymous).

Watermill Pulls Water From Air Without Wasting Energy : TreeHugger
Awesome technology application. Not a new idea though, they existed long long ago, in a galaxy far far away as vaporators in the film Star Wars.

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip
via a link from JMG at GristMill... Global Warming Tipping Points explained. I like the visuals, but I suspect they're a bit to artsy and cartoonlike for many.

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Moral Psychology

2008-09-28T13:42:00.001-04:00

This video was linked on a recent post to Time's SwampLand blog by Michael Scherer, where he muses about the moral differences between the two major parties. The talk given by Jonathan Haidt, below, gives an interesting look through the basic 5 categories of morality, what foundations we start with, and the differences between so-called liberals and conservatives (on a social scale).

The point is very well taken that having a group composed of primary like thinking individuals can work counter to the goals of group if they fall into the liberal, open to the world, persuasion.

Sweet! Cyclist Introducing a Technology Product!

2008-09-23T13:26:00.003-04:00

Today was the announce date for the new Google Android cell phone platform, and specifically the T-Mobile G1 device. The coolness is that the video is introduced and narrated by Erick, a lead programmer on the project, and a cyclist. Cycling references are worked in throughout. Hello iPhone competitor.

Cool Data Visualization Video

2008-09-22T13:50:00.001-04:00

Ripped straight from the Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media blog:

If you are a fan of Douglass Adams' Hitchhikers series, check out the post on Data Mining for another visualization video.

Project Better Place, but probably not the US yet

2008-09-18T05:31:00.001-04:00

A debate about ideas is a good thing, it helps to challenge assumptions, refine and discard non-workable ideas and arguments. To that end, I'm happy with the recent inclusion on TreeHugger of some criticism of Project Better Place. Ever since I first read about this system from Shai Agassi, I've thought it seems to be a great idea and model to experiment with altering the personal transportation infrastructure. In the spirit of making an idea better by getting other people's takes on it, I avidly looked forward to reading the TreeHugger piece.

Unfortunately, like several of the other commenters on the article, I think the author has approached the Project, completely from the mindset of an American driver. And as the project is currently designed, it does not fit that model of driving and is not targeted to solve the transportation needs of that audience.

To recap, the idea is that Project Better Place is going to sell electric vehicles for use in Israel and build a recharging and battery exchange infrastructure. The batteries of the vehicles will be removable in order to enable quick changes should a driver not have time to sit and wait for a charge of the current batteries. The battery recharge and exchange system will be sold in a similar way to a cellular phone, as a subscription package and the batteries will not be owned by the vehicle owner. So far, Renault has demonstrated a vehicle for use with this system and Denmark and Hawaii are said to be investigating options for this could work for them.

Essentially the arguments are that because the project can't eliminate all gasoline usage, wouldn't work in areas with drive times over 80 minutes or any long drive, and the vehicles are undesireable the entire thing is a bust. The author does point out that plug-in hybrid vehicles are on the horizon, and argues that these vehicles will be more effective and appealing to drivers. In general I agree with that assessment, if you are considering US or continental European car cultures where driving several hundred miles in a day without stopping is considered a necessary feature of a vehicle.

I'd point to the number of high end, high range vehicles that have become available that could probably resolve the issue of vehicle desirability. Fisker, Tesla and others are working on pure plug-ins giving consumers choices. While non-trivial to engineer, its not impossible to imagine all of them sharing a common battery design, if not technology, to allow quick refueling at exchange stations. Or simply quick charging at a high voltage EV charging station, which is also a part of PBP plans.

Would PBP work here in the US? Probably not, because people want the single vehicle that they own to do everything they could ever want, no matter the frequency. Gotta have a vehicle that is able to cart the baseball team or all of the camping gear once a year and make the once every 3 month drive to your brother-in-law who lives 4 hours away. Will it work in the targetted geographically contained markets? we'll see soon enough, and I wish them luck. (Though, personally, I'd be perfectly fine with a quick recharge/exchange system if the network could be grown to place stations conveniently, and if the vehicles had a emergency drive mode to cover short distances at low speeds when charge is running low, eg: a limp home feature)

Reading Roundup: Sept. 15

2008-09-16T18:10:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It consists of links to articles and websites that I find interesting but don't have a enough to say to warrant a standalone post.

WorldChanging: Water filters -- "All you need is terracotta clay, a compliant cow and a match."
And coffee grounds...that part might be a bit expensive/hard for some people to get. I wonder how effective it is compared to other techniques such as activated carbon and reverse osmosis?

WorldChanging: I (heart) Fluff
While I do (heart) the marshmallow stuff, that isn't the what Cameron is talking about. Rather, Fluff, a product for soil amendment and building materials made from household waste. The production sequence is probably fascinating to get a consistent material. And probably quite energy intensive to produce. Beats using a landfill, I suppose.

Humans- Cool Cartoon!
by aniboom

Clean Coal Inches Closer With German Carbon Storage Plant « Earth2Tech
10 tons of CO2 an hour for 30MW? Yowza, its probably not a linear to scale up to 250MW, fuel usage probably being more efficient, but scaling it that way gives 83 tons an hour for a small production scale power plant. That's a lot of CO2.

WorldChanging: Why Not in America?
A look at why bicycling as a form of transportation hasn't caught on more in place other than Portland. Not surprisingly, more than anything its policy and infrastructure, according to the Washington Post.

'The car of the perpetual future' | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
An explanation of why Hydrogen as a energy source for automobiles is unlikely to ever be commonplace or affordable, and why it doesn't solve the problems of global warming, at least as currently envisaged.

Almond Growers Sue USDA : TreeHugger
USDA requires that almonds be either "cooked" or treated with a known carcinogen before being sold. USDA is responsible for a safe food supply, but their policies are incompatible with a food system that doesn't require heavy handed on-size-fits all regulation.

Would Earth miss Humans?

2008-09-10T18:14:00.001-04:00

Once, in what seems now to be a very long time ago, in the tenth grade to be precise, the teacher gave the writing assignment to describe our ideal world. I don't remember what the rest of my classmates had written for that assignment. My response was a world without humans. I don't recall many of the details that I wrote, but that was the gist of it. I remember that the teacher challenged my ideal world on the grounds that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it, since I wouldn't be a part of it. At the time, I hadn't thought of that possibility, but thought that didn't seem to be such a bad thing if it would eliminate the most destructive species on the planet. Pretty dark for the time (~1988), before global warming had become a common topic of conversation.

I was reminded of this assignment when reading a recent Sustainablog article by Justin van Kleek discussing the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT). The movements position is that humans are breeding to quickly and overusing our planets resources to the detriment of all other life on the planet. As Justin describes, the movement's goal isn't to hasten anyone's death, merely to advocate for the halt of reproduction of the human species until there are no more of us.

I still feel pretty dimly about the human species and its impact on the earth and all of the other diverse life forms on it. I suspect that anyone who defends we human's right to be a part of the earth's biosphere are also opposed to capital punishment. If not, perhaps some soul searching is in order. We are no more or less valuable than any other species on this planet, and regarding ourselves as such, in planning our own demise, or defending our own right to exist is at odds with taking responsibility for deciding or acting in such a way as to imperil any other creature. As Justin points out "we have a right to live...but also to let live."

And I wonder if perhaps our run is done, and George Carlin was right, the earth needed us to create plastic, because it couldn't do that on its own, now it has plastic, and its time to pack our bags folks, we're leaving.

To respond to Justin's closing questions: There is merit to the idea of voluntary population control through reduced birthrates. We don't know for sure how many people the earth can support, but its obvious that the current systems and divisions don't work equitably, leaving many hungry and without basic needs met. Unfortunately, it also seems that some of the worst off have the highest birth rates, exacerbating the problem. Despite the draconian seeming measures of China's restricted birth system, it seemed to be a good model for addressing a critical problem. Unfortunately such a system is unlikely to work anywhere else given current political, religious and social structures.

Reading Roundup: Sept. 9

2008-09-09T05:52:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It consists of links to articles and websites that I find interesting but don't have a enough to say to warrant a standalone post.

Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media: Photosynth Launches
Cool tool for taking a bunch of photos and using stitching to make a 3 dimensional interactive model from them. Too bad it doesn't run on macs. Reminds me of Quicktime VR a bit.

Carbon Negative Quest: Portland Gym Converts Energy Of Pedal Bikes Into Electricity | TriplePundit
Excellent application of existing technologies and creativity. I'm wondering about the choice to not install showers, though. I guess the intent is members go straight to somewhere with showers from the gym (eg: after work), or do a light workout.

Bikes as Transportation: Bike Route Mapping Archives
How to build a bike map for a city without major funding and outside the formal auspices of city government. I'm not privy to how the Providence bike routes were chosen, but so far I certainly disagree with those choices. A process such as the one outline here would probably have solved my complaints. (heavily used major routes, fast downhills into stop lights)

Creative Recycling: 747 Turned into Hostel : TreeHugger
Neat.

Eco-Libris: Can Wheat Straw Replace Trees as a Source of Paper? : Sustainablog
Good questions in the article about energy and financial costs. My own question is what happens to the wheat straw now... is using the straw in this way disruptive to some other established cycle. I also wonder if this would be subject to the same problem as cellulosic ethanol - distributed material sourcing requiring a lot of costly transportation to a processing facitity.

A By-the-Numbers Look at Paper Recycling: Does One Person’s Effort Do Any Good? : Sustainablog
Cool stats on how much paper a tree produces in common contexts (reams, magazines, newspapers).

Peter Callesen
This looks like the European (german?) art of scherenschnitte meets Origami. Browse through a couple of the galleries to see more examples like the one to the left.

Two Very Different Videos

2008-09-08T20:03:00.001-04:00

At TED 2008(tired of the TED videos yet?), Robert Ballard makes a presentation about ocean exploration. His biggest complaint is the amount of effort spent in exploring the solar system and universe and how little has been spent exploring and understanding our own oceans. Take a brief trip through the oceans with him in this 18 minute presentation.

I wanted to title a post just for the next video Echo of an Echo. Why that non-catchy title? Clay Shirky, long time web commentator and author of what I've heard is an excellent book Here Comes Everybody about collaboration and community on the internet makes a presentation (hey, look, its not a TED presentation, but it could have been) about the web (hey, an echo) and the cognitive surplus that is represented by various social software sites (eg: Wikipedia, etc.). And he asks the question, what if 1% of the cognitive surplus consumed by television went into social media? Quite possibly amazing things.

Human Family Tree

2008-09-02T09:09:00.001-04:00

Spencer Wells discusses the human family tree, as explained through the use of genetic markers to assist in confirming human migrations and a timeline for human development and migrations around the globe.

Reading Roundup: Aug. 29

2008-08-29T13:18:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It consists of links to articles and websites that I find interesting but don't have a enough to say to warrant a standalone post.

The Washington Monthly | Political Animal Column
An look at polls and why they should not be trusted as a preview of the book The Opinion Makers. Essentially, polls don't ask the correct question and seek to over-simplify the issue and positions.

Colbert on offshore drilling | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Hrm, a pretty succinct explanation of a portion of the choices in offshore drilling now, later or never.

Pandora may pull the plug on itself - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
Wah! My Music Discovery and internet music source can't survive with the new royalty scheme enabled by the DMCA and other US laws. Guess I should have been paying for the service all those years. Bad Matt.

Bad Science » The news you didn’t read
The news media does a disservice to its consumers by only reporting a portion of the story and effectively misinforming us about our risks.

Zinio: Helping Make Your Magazine Subscriptions Sustainable : Sustainablog
I was just thinking last week about suggesting to some of my magazine subscriptions that they should offer electronic delivery of their products, and then I see this, a way to get that for many. Of course, in reality, for the 3 print mags I get, I read them when I'm not near a computer, so is there a benefit to printing it myself for offline use? Something to ponder (as usual).

Eco Cabs - Emissions and Fare Free Transportation | TriplePundit
Maybe pedaling a cab is my next career? I'd need to find somewhere flatter to live though, you know that in Providence someone is going to want to go up College Hill just to make you work after having a few drinks.

Yakety yak, will Brita take 'em back? | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
There are other filter options besides the plastic based Brita, some are compatible with Brita pitchers. In the meantime, add your voice to asking Brita (Clorox) to institute a recycling program for the cartridges.

Energy at the crossroads | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Good reading/analysis of various energy solution papers by Vaclav Smil. Need more time to read all the backing materials.

As the meat matures

2008-08-25T19:22:00.001-04:00

Switching gears from the previous post about GMO's and pesticide use in our food supply, some good news for those of us with moral objections to the way in which most of our meat is grown. The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that just because a treatment is routine animal husbandry practice, it is not protected as being non-cruel. Essentially, its a "slippery slope" argument that has been reversed to more humanely treat animals. The ruling doesn't necessarily outlaw practices such as tail-docking and debeaking, just that they need to be carried out in more humane ways (eg: with anesthetics).

Some states are trying to go further, such as California, which has a proposition on the ballot to redefine acceptable enclosure sizes and holding densities. Hopefully voters will send a message about what is acceptable in our food supply for how we treat our future food. I'd be very surprised to see such measures passed in any of the big cattle or hog states, but as with anything, its a start. Be sure to read the article for more details.

Tangentially related (it's about a common protein source), did we really need to test and discover that rBGH (artificial Bovine Growth Hormone) can be used to make tilapia nearly double in size compared to non-treated fish over the course of four weeks. Maybe this is why Lilly Pharmaceuticals is willing pay $300-million for the Prosilac product line Monsanto is dumping, new markets just around the corner. This may be a sky is falling kind of statement, since it probably hasn't been evaluated for what the metabolites left in the fish are and could do when consumed, but it probably doesn't lead to healthy, of healthful eats.

The Fourth Screen

2008-08-22T16:16:00.001-04:00

I've seen a Nokia advertisement several times now while watching TED recordings. The hallmark of a good ad is that it makes you want to watch it. This ad has done that for me. Part of its appeal is that it reaches for the interface between humans and video devices, and in part puts forward an opinion on how that video has shaped our lives over the last 80 or so years. (When was the first movie?) I personally recommend viewing in fullscreen mode.

The Fourth Screen (Nokia ad) from Thomas Barthelet on Vimeo.

Wanna End your Virtual Life?

2008-08-21T20:04:00.001-04:00

Not going into a reading roundup because I don't want it to get lost in the shuffle. Among other things discussed (such as gender identity), a recent WorldChanging post discusses a product available in which you can contract with "Sabre and Mace - Second Death" to randomly end the live of one of your virtual world identities (only in Second Life at this point). Talk about going out with style. They've built a mausoleum gallery for those who have chosen to used the service. They go so far as to create a will for the avatar, since in Second Life, you may have assets that need to be disposed.

I've always wondered whether we needed a VR world that mimics the real world in so many ways (malls, shopping, commercialism, etc). Do we need to add this as well?

An explanation of what CyberWarfare is and isn't

2008-08-21T20:02:00.001-04:00

Ethan Zuckerman, writing for WorldChanging wrote a very good post questioning the use of the term cyberwar, and goes far in defining what it is and how the current attacks on Georgia's networks, websites and government infrastructure are probably not cyberwar. He also provides a very cogent description of the types of attacks that are currently in use, mostly designed to prevent access to websites and servers by keeping them too busy to respond, not the glorified and fantasy realms we see in the movies of hacking into secure systems to access data and sabotage control systems. Not that these aren't attacks, just that this doesn't seem to be what's happening in current events.

As the crops grows

2008-08-20T20:17:00.001-04:00

GMO Sugar beets may be entering the food supply, and since sugar beets provide a common ingredient, much like corn, to so much prepackages food, convincing the food companies not to accept it is an important goal now, before it is an standard industry crop that benefits only the GMO and pesticide companies. Read more at GristMill in "Not a Sweet Proposition."

A nice complementary piece in Grist about a recent inteview with Prince Charles and his view on sustainability and food. Included in the Grist summary piece are some stats about the modifications included in the bulk of GMO crops. Not health enhancing or yield enhancing benefits (slightly arguable, since if there are fewer weeds, in theory there could be higher yields), but rather, increased ability to resist pesticides like Roundup. I haven't read the entire Telegraph piece as yet, but the material on Grist is interesting in its own right.

And just how useful are those GM crops that mostly allow higher doses of pesticides? Short-lived as weeds adapt to those pesticides (ah, natural selection) and force changes to different crops with different resistances to possibly more dangerous pesticides. Superweeds by Tom Philpott summarizes what's going on in Arkansas as weeds adapt to Roundup and require additional doses of different herbicides, and for next year the extension service is recommending switching to a different seed that resists a different, possibly more dangerous, herbicide. What happens when products grown in soils dosed in these products are fed to children with developing nervous systems and the rest of us?

And further, the lastest installment of "Dispatches from the Fields" addresses the question of "Whatever happend to organic?" Meaning, why is organic falling by the wayside in favor of local, and is this a wise choice for consumers to be making. Their argument is that if yo're shopping for the healthiest/safest products, shopping local is not the best choice to be making, unless you can talk to the farmer and know the methods and products they're using. Just because they're local doesn't mean they are organic, but just because they don't pay for an organic certification doesn't mean they aren't conforming to such practices. Personally I try to stick with organic, in season, grown as locally as is possible (eg: no fresh tomatoes in winter). The downside is with my schedule, I don't get to many farmers markets, so I'm stuck with whatever the local Whole Foods manages to stock, which seems to me a small selection of what should be available in a given season, probably due to supply quantity demands in their contracts. Only larger producers can realistically compete.

Randy Pausch interview

2008-08-20T09:12:00.002-04:00

If you'd like a short summary of the 1 hour video I posted a couple of days ago, check out Diane Sawyer interviewing Randy in April of 2008 here. This is not to say that the 1 hour video isn't worth spending the time on, just a way of getting you hooked and committed...8)

Are you Eeyore or Tigger?

2008-08-19T14:17:00.002-04:00

Want to achieve your childhood dreams? Got an hour to watch a video? Perhaps the message in the video below will help crystallize what it takes to achieve those goals.

Accents of the World

2008-08-19T14:12:00.002-04:00

I apparently didn't pay much attention to accents when traveling around the world. Can you identify the accent?

LT Group: Accent Game

I only achieved 12 points and didn't get any of the cities correct when I got the country correct. How well can you do?

Reading Roundup: Aug 18

2008-08-18T18:21:00.002-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

11 Person Party Bike Car | Pedal Cloud
Amusing, impractical, and probably a complete hoot for everyone. Can I have one?

Do you Live to Work? Ecopreneurs Use their Green Business to Make a Life. : Sustainablog
A good question to consider, no matter what your position in life.

Memo To: New pedestrians, In re: Your skills | TriplePundit
Humorous look at the skills necessary to be an alternative transportation participant.

Schneier on Security: U.S. Government Policy for Seizing Laptops at Borders
I hope that this gets invoked and challenged appropriately, and quickly. This sounds like a huge breach of protections against search and seizure.

Notable quotable | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
From the "you wish this was made up file"...Lt. Governor of Kentucky says some really inane and stupid things about mountain top removal mining. Its so we can have more breating space. Right.

Green Car Congress: Nissan Introduces Eco-Pedal Intelligent Accelerator Pedal System
Gas pedal pushes back on your foot when using more gas than you need. I envision lots of people with enlarged right calves if this makes it into production vehicles. 8)

Researchers work to turn car's exhaust into power - AutoblogGreen
Yay, waste heat recovery for cars to generate electricity for powering all those electric gizmos we all love and 'need'.

The cruel offshore-drilling hoax, part 1 | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Why more drilling isn't likely to help with gas prices or oil supplies in the short or long term.

The Traffic Guru | The Wilson Quarterly
A must read on traffic control and street design. Best Quote: "When you treat people like idiots, they’ll behave like idiots."

The Key to Happiness....

2008-08-14T20:03:00.001-04:00

Don't join the Beatles. Acquire Wealth, Power and Prestige, then lose it all.

Or, just make a decision and don't have the opportunity to second guess it.

At any rate, another fine presentation from a TED conference.

Why Are We Happy? Why Aren't We Happy?

The SUBs (Sport Utility Bikes)

2008-08-12T21:55:00.001-04:00

Since I exist mostly car-free and use my bicycle for errands as well as recreation (sadly, not for commuting), I'm always interested in seeing new designs to make the bicycle even more useful. Cargo bikes and trikes are not a new development, but at least on me, the system designed by Xtracycle and subsequently built by other companies, such as Surly's Big Dummy frame are great to see.

And while checking out all the great accessories (a bike rack, yes really) that are available as well as third party add-ons (electric assist motor!) to equip these 200 pound cargo capacity wonders, I stumbled upon the blog for a family who has one of these frames and has built their own add-ons to carry two children and cargo bags on a single bicycle. And they're going on a two week bike tour.

Check out their post about the trip and what they've built to make the bike work for them at A Long Walk to Green.

Anthropology and YouTube

2008-08-12T21:47:00.001-04:00

If you have any interest in meme's, this video is worth the 55 minute investment in time. It is an anthropological explanation of YouTube. Picked up via the Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media blog.

Newport Anti-Wind farm group formed

2008-08-11T19:14:00.001-04:00

Oof, this post has been sitting in my drafts for months. Probably not the highest quality, but I don't see me going back and revisiting it any time soon.

Back in December, I posted part 1 of a rebuttal to several opinion pieces by Anthony Spiratos of Newport. I never did post rebuttals to the second and third essays on that expanded on is first article describing the ills of wind turbines and added theories about the motivations behind the governor's plans.

Mr. Spiratos has now formed a group, The Rhode Island Alliance for Clean Energy, to fight the development of offshore wind projects in Rhode Island Sound. It would appear that the website for this new activist group repeats many of the same factually incorrect, out of date, or unsubstantiated claims about wind turbines and continues the critique of the governor's motives, insisting that campaign donations from three Cape Wind developers is behind the drive to develop wind projects in the state. The group intends to raise 5 million dollars in short order to preserve the pristine and untouched sound, though how they will use the funds they raise isn't specified.

Its entertaining to me that he has formed this group to fight something that hasn't been formally proposed yet, though there there is a proposal by AllCo for development off Block Island, it isn't clear if Mr. Spiratos group is opposed to all off shore wind projects, or only those visible from Newport). Meaning, at this point, to the best of my knowledge, no wind generators are proposed for the region off Newport, Middletown and Little Compton. Locations in Rhode Island Sound off Little Compton and Aquidneck Island were high on the list of areas of state waters with good potential wind resources, most attention has been focused on the area southwest of Block Island, and so far as I can tell, that area, in both state and federal waters, is the preferred area for development, in no way threatening the viewshed of Newport residents and visitors.

As before, Mr. Spiratos also claims that offshore wind development would negatively impact fishing, lobstering and tourism industries to the area. So far as I can tell, there is no significant research or evidence of effects on these industries in Europe where offshore wind installations exist and studies have been conducted to examine long term impacts on marine life.

According to the groups web site, they prefer solutions that put power generation on every rooftop, through the use of micro wind turbines, photovoltaics, efficiency improvements (LED lighting) and geothermal. While these are all excellent opportunities to be leveraged, the policy and regulatory climate need to change to better support these initiatives. Given the high cost of installation and the slow return on investment of these technologies, they are out of reach of most RI property owners. So far as I am aware, RI does not offer any sort of tax credits for home owners who implement efficiency improvements or install micro generation facilities.

Spiratos also accused the governor of charging ahead on the wind project in order to have it realized before he leaves office. Realistically, while Governor Carcieri may want to have wind turbines up and running by the end of his term in 2011, it is highly unlikely. Allco, a company that has already expressed interest in developing offshore wind power near Block Island has proposed installing a mast to gather data to ensure that these waters would be practical locations for generating power. It wouldn't be unexpected for that data gathering to take 1 to 2 years after the mast is completed. Given the example of the stalled Cape Wind project, even if the project only occurs in state waters, a long debate and establishment of regulatory guidelines is likely to be in the future of the project.

Some other media coverage can be found in the Providence Journal and EastBayRI.com. The ProJo article is worth a read, as it includes information about the costs and revenues for RI's only wind turbine at Portsmouth Abbey.

A conversation on sustainability.

2008-08-11T19:13:00.001-04:00

Over at Sustainablog, Justin and Caroline have been engaging in a conversation for the past few days discussing what the sustainability means in terms of themselves, the world and what is possible to achieve. I recommend reading all of them, linked below.

Caroline has been working on the Sust Enable Project and relaying her experiences and conclusions via Sustainablog over the past several months. Her goal was to live 100% sustainably for three months in Pittsburgh, PA. Along the way she realized some changes in approach that would have worked better, and that taking care of herself was of paramount importance, over and above any particular sustainable practice. Widespread Sustainable Consumerism is More Vital Than Taking Individual Actions

A portion of the conversation focuses on what is the appropriate way to convert western society to 100% sustainable practices. Is the best approach a wholesale change of everything, causing great disruption, consternation and upheaval? Or is a gradual approach with people like Caroline leading the way, experimenting and reporting back the best way?

And in the end, a pair of mutually agreeable definitions are presented to the word sustainable that usefully are applicable to any, though personally I like Justin's a little better.

Sustainability: Acting to promote the holistic health and happiness of living beings, individually and collectively, while also respecting the planetary resources they depend upon.

Sustainability: to live in a way that allows all others to live.

A couple of passages throughout the series stood out to me, and I felt couldn't go by without comment:

4. Caroline

People in Third World and sometimes Second World countries live sustainably every day–and in my experience when visiting Mexico, are considerably happier than the average American. Is this because they have struck a good balance between respecting the natural world and their own personal patterns, in ways that over-worked, over-stressed and over-consumptive Americans can only dream of? It’s a theory.

I don't believe for a moment that third- and second-world inhabitants of our planet are happier and more self-actualized because they are actively considering their impacts on nature and living in harmony with it. I certainly believe her description that many do live happier lives, even if all of their needs are not being met, and they do not have the leisurely life of appliances, personal transport and inexpensive energy. Western (American?) society has been acculturated to believe that the way to happiness is through possession of these things. Those who still have access to their traditional cultures and do not doubt its efficacy have an immense leg up on us.

As promised, links to each of the posts in Justin and Caroline's conversation:
Towards a (Re)Definition of Sustainability: Justin Van Kleeck and Caroline Savery. 1-Justin

Towards a (Re)Definition of Sustainability: Justin Van Kleeck and Caroline Savery. 2-Caroline

Towards a (Re)Definition of Sustainability: Justin Van Kleeck and Caroline Savery. 3-Justin

Towards a (Re)Definition of Sustainability: Justin Van Kleeck and Caroline Savery. 4-Caroline

Towards a (Re)Definition of Sustainability: Justin Van Kleeck and Caroline Savery. 5-Justin

Towards a (Re)Definition of Sustainability: Justin Van Kleeck and Caroline Savery. 6-Caroline

Reflections on the Sustainability Dialogue–and a Manifesto for a Green with Heart

Reading Roundup: July 31

2008-07-31T18:55:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

Why Airline Travel Sux: Big Air Responds! - Christopher Hayes’ blog
This is a fascinating look into the economics and operations model of the US air industry. Moved to the top of this roundup so you're more likely to read it.

Volcano life may hold key to a hydrogen economy | greenbang
Organisms that produce Hydrogen from cellulose in extremely high heat environments. And we continue to learn from nature how to do the seemingly difficult simply.

Altairnano 2MW battery passes tests, could help green the grid - AutoblogGreen
Essentially a power conditioner/load balancer for transmission grade power, unless it can also scale out to larger capacities, but a good proof of capability. With enough of these, less power could be wasted providing a minimum baseload and buffer wind and solar output variability.

WorldChanging: Permapave and Green Infrastructure
Water permeable paving stones, reduce surface runoff, filters out pollutants.

Envirofit’s Biomass Stoves Offer | TriplePundit
Designed to reduce fuel use and thereby reduce the indoor air pollution generated from cooking in areas where biomass is a prominent fuel.

The Oil Drum | What is happening with oil prices ?
Explaining supply, demand, oil and gas prices and peak oil. Very readable, not a lot of jargon.

Green Car Congress: Kentucky County Officials Select Site for $4B CTL Plant
Presumably Gov. Sibelius will have the opportunity to stop these plants from being built under the same clean air permitting laws that allowed for the blockage of a coal plant. Coal To Liquids makes even less sense than a power plant.

Bike Snob NYC: Surly Cross-Check: Cranky Cop Coldcocks Critical Masser
Facts of the case aside, BSNYC makes interesting observations about mass stupidity and how "none of is as stupid as all of us" to quote a Despair, Inc. Demotivator.

Home Solar, Minus the Cost, Effort, Worry | Triple Pundit
Another company take on funding solar electric panels on residences.

More choices for a healthy economy | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Delving into politics a little, David Roberts proposes a response script for Democrats to Republican demands to open more areas for oil drilling and energy issues this election cycle.

Cool Stop Motion

2008-07-18T13:43:00.003-04:00

I recently subscribed to a mailing list to get links and information about new and unique things. Today's link was quite good I thought, so I'm going to share it with all of your.

The below video is by the same guy behind the Coinstar change building things on the coffee table commercials. Check out Western Spaghetti by PES. I like the use of objects and stop motion photography to and representative objects to tell the story of cooking a plate of spaghetti.

For those looking for something cute (and adult) done in the same style, you can check out the very amusing Roof Sex. Check out more at eatPES.

Reading Roundup: July 9

2008-07-09T12:11:00.002-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

Home Depot Announces Nationwide CFL Recycling ( Home+Depot,)
Still doesn't respond to the complaint about the mercury in CFLs that many are using to justify not switching. But it does take that mercury out of the waste stream. Is it possible to recycle a normal bulb?

Refrigeration without electricity | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
This is a very cool idea. I think some of the commenters on the Grist post have lost sight of the utility of this tool, objecting that starting a fire every day is a burden, and why not use other heat sources. My thoughts are is that it probably requires pretty high temperatures to initiate the effect that may be difficult to achieve without combustion. A good question though for the designers...could a solar oven be used to recharge it...work them in alternating day pairs...

Agilewaves: Knowledge is Power - Conservation through Information | Triple Pundit
The best way to fix any problem is to have enough data available to understand and deal with it effectively (too bad lawmakers don't have this sort of easy data/response loop). Agilewaves collects data on water, power and displays it at a single point, making the impacts of changes to behavior obvious and immediate. Much better than putting in an energy saving appliance and hoping your electric bills go down.

Milk jug gets a makeover | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Big box stores can cause innovation...granted in the pursuit of reduced costs, but sometimes that innovation is good for more than just the bottom line. Though, if they're putting more milk in the coolers do the chillers run more/harder?

Jon Stewart on EPA and email | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Jon Stewart summarizes 7 years of environmental policy by the Bush administration.... Stick fingers in ears and go "LALALALALALAL" really loud, and don't read anything.

Sun block | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Sheesh. Talk about hypocrisy. Solar projects need to have environmental impact studies done for the next 2 years before they can be built on public lands. But the known effects of mining, logging, drilling are okay to continue.

Scorpion gives hydrogen on demand | GreenBang
Interesting, using a portion of engine power to generate hydrogen from water, which is then used as a fuel additive to boost combustion efficiency. Presumably the system uses electricity that would normally be wasted, otherwise this starts becoming a perpetual motion boondoggle. Cool Name too.

Flipswap • Consumer Home
Another way to recycle gadgets and cell phones, aside from local collections for women's causes or the anonymous mailing envelopes of the Post Office or Best Buy. FlipSwap lets you choose how the device or its cash value is handled -- redeem for store credit, get a check, donate its value to a charity. Get paid, make a donation, etc. And they handle figuring out if the device is usable/resellable or only fit for recycling. (found via The Unofficial Apple Weblog [TUAW])

CCS: Environmental whack-a-mole | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Hard to know the real costs of CCS since it isn't widely deployed yet, but it certainly makes sense that it will cut efficiency of a power plant using it, which of course leads to other knock on effects.

Victorian Houses Can Have A Green Makeover Too : TreeHugger
An unsatisfying article that at least mentions one of the most important topics in efficiency: retrofitting the existing housing stock, particularly older/historical homes. Unsatisfying because it doesn't really link any resources for readers who are in that predicament.

AB, Food Hero

2008-07-09T09:37:00.001-04:00

For many years I've been a fan of Alton Brown. I find his quirky presentation style entertaining without significantly detracting from the core concepts of preparing good eats. Combine that with my incredible geekiness and love of knowledge and learning, and Alton is pretty close to a hero of mine. Roz Cummins of Grist.org recently had the opportunity to interview Alton and discuss a new direction that he's planning to take his signature show on the Food Network.

At the Cooking for Solutions conference held at Monterey Bay Aquarium, AB offered that he would be adding a focus on how crops are grown and animals are raised to his show. He credits his daughter as a major influence on his thinking about such issues, and hopes that the cachet he's built over the years can be used to have an influence on the foods people choose to purchase. As he points out, cost is the most important factor in almost any purchasing decision, even food, and this emphasis on cost devalues, and in my opinion, endangers, what we eat. Knowing what we eat and how it was raised and accepting responsibility for the system that raises and slaughters is a big step, a "chicken moment."

Later in the interview, Roz asked if he would serve on a GreenPeace boat to help raise awareness of illegal fishing in reaction to his bold (rash?) statement "Somebody needs to sink the Japanese tuna fleet. Everyone's willing to point the finger, but nobody's willing to pull the trigger." While he indicated that he would, he has taken the time to clarify this position with a followup note to the Grist site. Essentially he states that he doesn't necessarily agree with all of GreenPeace's positions or methods and his response in the interview was not an endorsement.

Oh, and if you like mussels, it seems any article about AB has to include a recipe of some sort. It's at the bottom, just before the commenters begin vigorously debating the merits of vegan/vegetarian diets and omnivorous ones.

Better Automatic Bike Route planning

2008-07-04T11:31:00.003-04:00

Short of poring over maps or staring at online map services trying to figure out what roads are going to be more comfortable and fun to ride on than others for hours at a time, Give Via Michelin a try. You'd think that by now Google would have added options for their maps aside from "transit" and swooping arrows to indicate when walking to and from stops is necessary. I've tinkered with various routing software offerings for cycling, with veloroutes.org having been my favorite until discovering ViaMichelin.

I've been experimenting in somewhat cycling route constrained Rhode Island -- Try getting from Providence to southern Warwick without going on a busy road with an average speed over 40 and no shoulders). I've gotten some very good suggestions for alternate routes that avoid some of the busiest roads when possible. This beats Googles "avoid highways" options by leaps and bounds. The only trick is that when entering the start and end addresses, it is necessary to hit the options button and change to By Bike. This choice is confirmed on the route results screen, making it easy to see what options are selected.

My only gripe is that they don't implement functionality to use the mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out on the map.

That's Entertainment

2008-07-04T10:54:00.002-04:00

Joss Whedon.

Neil Patrick Harris (you know, Doogie Houser)

Nathan Fillion ( Mal! )

Felicia Day (okay, you have to be a fan of The Guild to know that one...)

Simon Helberg (most recently Wolowitz on Big Bang Theory)

What do all these names mean?

An internet only musical cowritten by Whedon and featuring the talents of the above thespians. I'm really bummed I'm going to not be able to see the 3rd installment when it arrives. At any rate, check out the trailer and spread the word. Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog arrives on the 15th, 17th and 19th and won't be available after the 20th.
And check out the fan site.

Stormy Day Bike Race

2008-07-03T23:31:00.001-04:00

Below is a recounting of my experience and events I had the pleasure of watching recently. It is a vast diversion from the usual content. Enjoy.

The hum and click of a single bicycles motion can be nearly silent, startling even the most alert at the sudden passage of a rider. At 2 feet, the ticks and clicks of chains passing over cogs, through jockey pulleys and round chainrings of over eighty of them is startling in its loudness. Add to this deafening sound the hum of tires and the pressure wave caused by their passage, and you've experienced one of the most exhilarating moments of watching my bicycle race.

The prior night had brought a vicious storm, easily soaking anyone caught outside in minutes. However, with only light sprinkles in the morning and a late afternoon start, the course in Pittsburgh's downtown was completely dry as I arrived at my assigned position on the race course. Stage 6 of the 1st Tour of Pennsylvania, the largest race of its kind in the US would begin at 5pm, under threat of scattered thunderstorms that had deterred some volunteers from making the trip into the city.

Eighty or so volunteers received their instructions and assignments at 3:30, arriving on course before 4pm to assist police officers in street closings and traffic direction as athletes began to do laps around the course. Some of the local pedestrians grumbled that the city was closing streets for out of town guests and not doing anything for locals, but no one took umbrage or complained at having to wait for bicyclists to pass.

Several people in the small crowd near my position recalled the glory days of Pittsburgh road bike racing. They remembered that Lance Armstrong used to race in the Thrift Drug Classic. This annual race featured one of the most famous, though not the most brutal, climb in the city, the steep and switchback bedecked Sycamore Street.

Positioned just after the starting gate, the first few laps were still mostly a warm up for the riders, as they passed on the far side of the wide street, escorted in style by leading and trailing motorcycles. On the next several laps, standing on the curb of the street was a daunting experience as 87 riders blew by at over 30 mph, creating a pressure wave not unlike a truck on the highway. A child sitting on the curb with his feet on the television cables in the gutter probably had the best seat in the house on this first lap and barely flinched as the bike wheels came within inches of his feet. The next two laps saw the riders repeat their close pull to my location and some aggression on the outside edge could be seen as riders shouldered each other for position and advantage with wheels within inches of the cables and curb.

A thunderstorm moved into the area after about 15 laps had been run, darkening the sky to the point that at times it was as if the race was being held at night, especially when looking down course to the headlights of the race vehicles escorting the unlit peloton on its mission. Unfortunately for the racers and the spectators, the weather worsened and the rain didn't bypass the course, causing one of the streets to become extremely slick, resulting in at least two crashes, one of which was reported to have involved forty to fifty of the riders down. A tornado warning soon followed, with conflicting reports of the racing being temporarily halted, cyclists riding the wrong way on the course, and many still riding the course, albeit at less than top speed. With the race stopped, everyone took shelter under awnings, in a paramedic station and the corner convenience storm. After a 20 minute pause, the race was restarted, but shortened to account for the time lost during the stop, and the race rules changed. This criterium no longer counted towards the overall standings of the tour

With the race restarted, and the roads wet, the remaining racers (only 57 finished the day) completed the final ten laps more cautiously and with no further mishaps. Some riders took it easy and even detoured onto streets that were not part of the course. The return of rain held off until after the awards ceremony with easily 2000 people crowding the area in front of the stage for the presentations.

Watching a bike race on television is great because you can always see the best action and see cyclists, especially on the most interesting and grueling days. Watching a bike race live I can see as being best experienced on a loop course where jockeying, strategy and gallantry can be seen on every lap. And cyclists go by really fast at close range.

Unexpected and Elegant Cycling Advocacy Piece

2008-06-21T22:30:00.001-04:00

If you've ever spent any time reading Bike Snob NYC, you'll probably be shocked about to know that the author (he? she?) has a good post up that covers very well the idea of getting out of the closet and onto the bike. If you aren't familiar with Bike Snob NYC, then lets just say that generally, posts snark, insults and mocks wide portions of the bicycle culture (yes, there are multiple bicycle cultures, who knew such a niche past time could be so fragmented: to wit: "The fixter looks stupid to the roadie; the roadie looks stupid to the mountain biker; the mountain biker looks stupid to the recumbent rider; and the recumbent rider looks stupid to everyone."

The post "Get Over It: Surmounting the Obstacles to Cycling" keeps the worst of its mockery in the first three words of the title and quickly moves on to serious points. Get out there and ride, get over fear of riding by doing it and familiarizing yourself with the risks. Start with a bike path or side street, move up to crossing a busy road as a vehicle and then ride with heavy traffic. Do what is comfortable for you.

A lesson I'm still trying to learn in the fear category or other vehicles is "ignore the beeping." I'm still prone to shouting back when a driver ticks me off by shouting/honking at me, and even worse, when they've done something which has made me feel unsafe (like passing with about an inch between me and their mirror.

A driver honks to express one of three things: 1) I want you to get out of my way; 2) I want you to go faster; 3) I just don’t like you. The correct response to all of these is, “I don’t give a fuck.” Drivers don’t honk when they’re about to kill you because when they kill you it’s because they didn’t see you.

And to wrap up, an issue I've wrestled with in thinking about being an ambassador for cycling every time I ride, clothing. "If I’m hard on the fashionistas and the gear whores, it’s because I think one of the greatest obstacles to new cyclists is the uniform and equipment it seems necessary to own in order to join in the fun." Amen. Ride in what you have. I own bike clothes, and I only ride them if I'm going out for a really long recreational ride and want the comfort that it provides. Toodling around the city, running errands and such do not require special gear, other than a bike and a means of carrying stuff sometimes.

There's lots more good stuff, but I'm coming close to just copying the whole thing. Go read it.

Reading Roundup: June 20

2008-06-21T22:29:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

The Oil Drum | Tom Tomorrow: A Brief History of Gasoline Consumption in America
A comic on the cycles of gas prices and our ability to remember what has happened in the recent past, and our silly unfounded optimism that everything will always be better or like it was in the "good old days".

Yale Environment 360: The Tipping Point
Bill McKibben offers his opinion on the science, politics and the realities of how the two come together and combine with economics. I particularly found the overview of how scientist and policy reaction has changed over the past 30 years. (Thanks to Carlton at QuickRelease.tv for linking this piece)

What's One Less Species Between Friends? | THE NEW REPUBLIC | Blogs
Mass extinction caused by global warming may be a bigger direct threat to humans and the planet than global warming itself.

Half a Billion years Old and Still Kicking | THE NEW REPUBLIC | Blogs
Doesn't look a day older than when it as born either... At any rate, an interesting read about horseshoe crabs. Not sure they do much kicking though, legs are a bit short.

Bumper Cars on the Highway : TreeHugger
The title is a bit of a giveaway from this imractical, but unique approach to solving the perception that we need to be able to drive our vehicles 200+ miles between fuel stops. Project Better Place's idea of swappable batteries seems to be more appropriate to me, as well as making fast recharge available if higher voltage/amperage stations are available.

Compostableware that leaves the others far behind | Triple Pundit
I haven't looked to see where to get this or how much, but it looks like a decent competitor with the Bambu line of products. This one is better in that it is more durable (Bambu products are single use).

Epyon: 10-Minute Electric Car Charging « Earth2Tech
I've posted about fast charge options before. Essentially given a charger that can handle it and enough current, any battery can be charged more quickly. This would be a great complementary solution to interchangeable batteries on plug-in vehicles. Allow trickle charge at home and rapid charge or battery swap at a service station.

Minimizing meat | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
The takeaway for me, in my current (and hopefully permanent) reduced meat diet is the stat Tom quotes that concludes that in the US each person on average ate 200/lbs of meat, or a half pound a day. Gah. I can't even imagine eating that much meat. (2 quarter pounders a day?).

Samsung unveils heavy metalless, bioplastic phones | greenbang
interesting innovation, though, is bioplastic production just transferring fossil fuel use to corn production instead of direct use of oil to make plastic?

Solar Products Solar Products: Solar Screens at Low Impact Living
Another way to improve the building envelope and reduce home heating effects during air-conditioning season. Though I'd guess it may be good to have "normal" screens (or none?) during the heating season to maximize solar gain and reduce heating fuel needs.

Reading Roundup: June 4

2008-06-04T18:38:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

The Oil Drum | Why new ideas take time to have impact
An examination of why new ideas for energy systems, or really any other system, take so long to become a real product that we can purchase or use, given through the story of a hypothetical algae research project. And this was for a simple case where the idea proved viable in under 18 months, and easy to replicate and implement.

The Oil Drum | Biomimicry and Ocean Generated Energy: Are Humans Smarter Than Sea Sponges?
Turning to nature to find techniques for building, development and materials.

WorldChanging: Cap-and-Trade or Carbon Tax? Both!
An analysis of how British Columbia tax and the regional emissions cap and trade system many western US states and BC are a part might interoperate. But, more interesting to me, the idea of using both together to set a minimum price for emissions.

The new normal | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
The article is so-so interesting, but the 14th comment got my attention. How many kids don't know that their food comes from animals? (and on top of that, how many adults don't want to know---I've friends who want their food products to look as little like an animal as possible (deboned and skinned preferably.)

So Dave, on Monday I'm dining with two of your 2nd cousins, once removed, who are 4 and 5. Up until 4 months ago, they had only eaten foods like chicken nuggets and hot dogs so the older one was bragging how he was eating healthy now. Then we got into a conversation about where the food in the grocery store comes from. This kid is really horrified to know that animals make up his favorite foods.

Number of the Day: 20 : TreeHugger
The cost and waste of overstocked produce bins, filled by shipping products half way around the world.

Counterpoint: Dangers of Focusing Solely on Climate Change
Alex' point is well taken, yes climate change is a huge problem, but isn't the only one, and it can't be addressed without considering inter-related issues (energy, water, transportation, and more). Equitibility of world economics is certainly in the mix as well.

The Oil Drum | Weekend Energy Listening: The H2 Economy vs the Electron Economy
Hydrogen isn't competitive, even how, with using batteries for powering vehicles, largely because the system is very expensive, very inefficient and uses a lot of energy to generate the hydrogen in the first place.

Is George Soros right about an oil price bubble that will burst? - AutoblogGreen
I believe Mr. Soros that speculation is a contributing factor to the rising costs of crude oil. But how exactly does he see that there will be a collapse in demand in the US and UK? Even in a recession, people will continue to drive, as has been repeatedly calculated: As prices have risen (more than doubled), miles driven has gone down very little (under 1%).

Political Views and Global Warming

2008-06-01T18:42:00.001-04:00

Some time ago I was lamenting how it seemed impossible to change the opinion of one of my friends about existence and causes of global warming. Around the same time, I posted some interesting material I'd found about people's political leanings trumping their critical thinking abilities.

Add to that all of this, David Roberts at GristMill quotes a new analysis of survey data. The gist is that Democrats get more concerned about global warming as they learn more, Republicans tend to be no more concerned, regardless of how informed they say that they are.

Here's my one-sentence diagnosis: Democrats are more likely to be moral
relativists and epistemological realists; Republicans are more likely
to be the opposite.

I was once called a moral relativist in a discussion about social customs around the world. I don't remember the exact practices that were being debated, but the implication of the very republican, very right leaning accuser were that this was a bad thing. I still don't understand why moral relativism is a problem. This is not to say that I think that many cultural practices are okay, just that I don't hold that there is a single objective moral truth for all 6.5 billion of us. Some practices are barbaric and seem to me wrong, but it isn't mine, or anyone else's place to judge moral truths. This is also not to say it is wrong to encourage groups to change their practices to something that seems more morally right or humane. Female genital mutilation comes to mind as a horrible practice that ought to be stopped, but not by vilifying its practitioners, rather by education and encouragement to change.

Interesting digression.

Just Plain St00pid

2008-06-01T18:23:00.001-04:00

I'm going to preface by saying I don't know how WIC works. I don't know if it works like a cash account and purchase decisions are left up to the program subscriber, or, alternately, that each subscriber is entitled to a certain alotment (ration) of various goods on a schedule. I do understand the logic of only allowing certain items to be purchased under the program to prevent the system being exploited to purchase non-food and luxury food items.

That said, no matter which way the program works, someone ought to really rethink what they heck the purpose of the WIC program is and how Michigan is managing its program. I assume that the point of explicitly blocking organic products is to control the costs to the program, under the assumption that organic products tend to cost more than the equivalent conventional item. But really, to make rules for a program designed to benefit disadvantaged low-income women and children that prevents them from making their own determination of healthy choices is, as I said above, st00pid.

As Tom Philpott explains on GristMill, in many cases, the products that are banned from the program are likely to have better nutritional content, nevermind lower residues from pesticides, herbicides and other related chemicals. He follows up on these points with some examples of cost differences, and in some cases, lower costs are possible with organic.

BLUE

2008-05-28T19:01:00.001-04:00

In a recent post (well, not so recent now) to GristMill, Adam Werbach provided the text of a speech delivered to the Commonwealth Club of California. In it, he advocates that the next movement after the environmental movement is ready to start where that left off.

I've spent some time wrestling with what he's saying and my reaction to not only his words, but also to who he his and what he has been doing. I find that his idea answers fairly closely to the problems I've had with figuring out my place in the world of environmental activism. I've settled for being informed, purchasing products as best as I can and doing a little bit of writing for now, but as I've said in conversations, I find that many "green" folks are too shrill and too narrowly focused on ecological issues and ignore the realities of asking people to change their behavior and their resistance to change.

I see that this could go a couple of ways. His proposed BLUE (can you hear the capital letters?) movement becomes just another in a long list of things we want people to do, like FairTrade, Sustainable, Organic, hormone free, free range, grass fed, ad nauseum. Or, if I suspect he has his way, it could become an umbrella that encompasses all of these and more. This would make it easy, and ideally give shoppers a way to find out why the choice for one product over another can make a difference and is important.

His vision is for a 1 billion strong movement of people who are doing what is best for themselves. This movement will be driven by people's adoption of practices that are easily made a part of their lives, and that each such practice will have a benefit for the world at large. Each individuals contribution may be small, the strength of the movement will be based on the vast number of people continually adopting practices that reduce consumption and improve their lives in some way that provides happiness to them. This is presented in contrast to the consumerism, the idea that buying more of everything will make us happy. Following onto the lack of power of a consumer movement, read a response by Ryan Mickle at Triple Pundit.

What he's asking for makes sense to me, it is essentially nothing more than being an educated and conscientious consumer.. Such practices allow each individual to take the action that fits best in their life, without haranguing them for not doing more. The problem with this approach is that it doesn't address the enormity of the issues. As has been pointed out elsewhere, its very anticlimatic to watch An Inconvenient Truth and then be told to change your light bulbs. Having people be better educated and more conscious of the products, services and goods they use is certainly a desirable goal and could definitely lead to better use of resources.

It isn't unlike my current situation with transportation. Ideally, I wouldn't need to commute for over an hour to my job, but the job I want didn't exist in the location I wanted. Luckily, I am not forced to drive and can continue my mostly automobile free existence through the use of commuter rail. But, I'm also perfectly willing to use a car, despite the GHG emissions and oil use that entails should I feel I have a need that can't be satisfied using public transit, feet or bicycle. But the nice thing about this is it forces me to think about the decision to use a car, since I have to make several purchases each time, once for the service of the car, another for the purchase of gasoline. I'm sure there are ways that I haven't considered that this is also "bad", but it makes me feel like i'm doing something for the world.

Werbach and his ideas have taken a lot of criticism since being posted (see the flame fest on the Grist transcript), largely in the realm that consumerism isn't a valid way to improve the planet. He also drew a lot of fire from his association with Wal-Mart, accused of selling out to such a corporate behemoth. I choose to take him at his word, and that this is not just a grand marketing scheme to get a different set of products on the minds of consumers. I don't think that this effort of transforming consumers (shoppers) into self-actualizing, educated citizens will be enough to resolve all of the various issues facing the USA or the world, but if more people are given to understand the severity of the problems and take an active interest, perhaps they'll be more willing to make their voice heard and ask for structural change from their governments. In Werbach's words, "we need to invest more time in making a difference through our routine activities and the things we buy every day."

mushrooms to save the world

2008-05-26T19:26:00.001-04:00

Paul Stamets gives a 16 minute presentation on fungi and mycelium. In his view, aside from the fantastic sizes and capabilities of fungi to produce antibiotics, they can also solve several large and normal problems. Well worth the view, especially to hear him describe how a pile of soil and diesel fuel reacted to dosage with spores compared with other treatment methods.

Courtesy of the TED conference of 2008.

Eat Less Meat!

2008-05-22T21:23:00.001-04:00

Mark Bittman, a food writer, discusses what he sees is wrong with food today, and presents an interesting look over the last 100 years of eating, from home cooked meals from locally grown foods, to global supply chains and international foods available in any season.

He does seem to think the locavore movement isn't the answer, declaring it "elitist" (see this excellent comment on GristMill by KMP about that). Aren't all food movements elitist in some way though? Vegans and Vegetarians and Gourmet's and Locavores all of his other circles that all come together for a love of good food. At the same time he is opposed to the the idiocy of farm raised foods shipped around the world and then trucked to the local market, so he doesn't completely dismiss the idea of eating as locally as possible.

To my view, he doesn't come up with a better vision, other than to eat real foods, organic when possible, and only 1/2 pound of meat a week. Sounds good to me, now if only all of the food at my market didn't come from California, Costa Rica and Chile. My local farmers markets are just getting into the swing of things and the few local CSA's are already oversubscribed. I hope my deck containers do a good job of producing the veggies I like.

Personally, another thing I'm trying to do for my eating manifesto is to also eat in season produce, which was somewhat tough during the in winter, and seems tougher right now with the winter squashes no longer available, but no real spring produce around.

Reading Roundup: May 22

2008-05-22T20:45:00.001-04:00

Reading Roundup is a regular feature of WebEchoes. It exists to limit the number of "read this" posts with minimal commentary on my part.

Winners of First “Picture Sustainability” Photo Contest Announced! | Susty
Pretty pictures of life and wildlife, found on TreeHugger. The canopy walkway shot is somewhat disconcerting to look at.

All of Inflation’s Little Parts - The New York Times
I like data visualization thingamabobbers. This one is from the NYTimes and uses government stats to show percentage change from march 2007 to 2008 of various items using color, and irregular block sizes to show percentage of total spending. Mouse over boxes to see what they are, or zoom in to see the really small things, like Eggs (up 29.9%, 0.1% of spending). via WorldChanging.

Energy is Wasted, Wasted, Wasted... : TreeHugger
On the data visualization front, this one has been kicking around my browser a month now. Cool pie charts that show how much energy is wasted/lost (eg: electricity transmission losses, transportation, etc.) Again, seems the NY Times has some good visualization folks.

Bush Government Sues To Make Testing Meat Illegal : TreeHugger
I really wish I could be surprised by the administration trying to stop a small meat producing company from testing all of its animals post slaughter for BCE/Mad Cow. Of course, the next step will be, even if they do get the test done, they won't be allowed to label their meat as guaranteed BCE free, just like milk producers are being prevented from labeling their products rBGH/rBST free in some areas.

Toyota's foresight pays off, part two | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist
Interesting read for the analysis of the pollution comparison between a gasoline and diesel engine. There goes my theory that diesel was better (well, I knew that already because of the recent reports about soot accounting for up to 60% of greenhouse gas emissions).

What's bugging locusts?
Huh, juvenile locusts swarm to avoid being cannibalized by the other locusts when their local food sources run out, which in turn causes a moving wave of eating destruction.

StreetFilms » Lessons from L.A.: A Rush Hour Drive with a City Planner
A discussion with a city planner for LA about urban planning for people, not cars, "and if we're constantly thinking of our streets instead as just a place to move cars its almost like its a sewer pipe."

Cool Flight Sim/Bicycle integration

2008-05-20T22:20:00.001-04:00

Carlton Reid has a YouTube video up at Quickrelease.tv of a guy demonstrating a bicycle being used to provide the controls to use the Google Earth flight simulator and fly around the world. Who needs a computrainer. I kinda hope that he figures out a way to turn the whole thing into a package that could be strapped to a spinning bike or bike in a trainer. I know when i'm at the gym, having something interesting to look at and pay attention too is pretty cool. I wonder if there is any other software out there that this could be wired to for "scenery". Like say, a bike stage route?

Solar Shining Bright

2008-05-14T05:51:00.001-04:00

In recent weeks, two companies have been getting some attention for business model and process improvements to help get residential solar panels onto people's homes. The first, SolarCity, is working to ease the investment cost of the panels, while Sungevity is streamlining the process and reducing the site survey lead times.

SolarCities new program is to lower the barrier to entry by not requiring what is for most, a huge expenditure (or loan) in order to get the system installed. According to a Grist feature, SolarCity's goal is to reduce the initial outlay from $25,000 to $2,000. How can this be possible? Because the solar panels are leased from the company and the homeowner enters into a power purchase agreement. The theory is that over the course of the use of the panels, the homeowner will have lower utility bills, and not have made a capital investment, while SolarCity will make money on the deal through tax credits, installation credits and the monthly fees collected.

This isn't a flash in the pan company either, with sales over $30 million last year and over 235 employees and plans to develop their own training center to make sure they have workers with the skills they need to expand. Which they'll need if they are to realize the vision of getting entire neighborhoods to add solar to their homes, realizing economies of scale from shipping of materials and time for work crews.

$2,000 is still a lot of money, but if their claim is correct, to reduce the electric bill, even after paying SolarCity for the electricity generated and a small lease fee, perhaps for some homeowners the ROI will make sense. Lets hope, since one way of easing the burden on our aging electric infrastructure is to reduce the demand on it.

Sungevity's angle is to streamline the solar installation process by reducing the number of site surveys and visits, relying instead on satellite imagery and other technology to do much of the leg work up to the physical installation to occur more quickly. Additionally, Sungevity takes the time to explain why having solar panels on the home makes sense economically first, and on environmental grounds after. Sungevity hasn't covered the financing portion as well as SolarCity, suggesting use of equity or other loan based financing for a solar project. (via TriplePundit)

Imagine the possibilities if these two companies could team up to bring the financing/leasing aspect and streamlined, lower cost site survey techniques to bear. Even a slight reduction in costs could make a big difference.

In related news, Earth2Tech has a post up discussing the Pros and Cons of residential solar installations versus large scale solar thermal (CSP). As it turns out, a lot of the cons for CSP are probably the same as for any major new power project, such as wind or even conventional plants: distribution line permitting and construction; long permitting processes to get installed. Some folks here in RI who are opposed to large deployment of offshore wind are advocating residential wind installations, I'm sure that similar Pros can be argued for that, though I suspect getting town zoning boards to approve small turbine installations on low towers or rooftops will be quite an obstacle.

And, finally, back in April, NanoSolar sent out a message to their mailing list that included an interesting premise for "municipal" solar plants. Their idea is that on the outskirts of small towns to devote 10 acres or so to provide a localized power generating solution that covers the bulk of the town. Of course, that assumes that a town can find 10 acres of land that can be, and which they would want to build up to provide about 2MW of power, enough for about 1,000 homes. An interesting idea, seemingly well thought out, since it bypasses the need for much new distribution infrastructure, and if deployed in enough places, could provide, in their words, "delivering a GigaWatt of power in a state through one solar farm each in a few hundred cities."