tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-333384092009-04-13T17:14:14.321-06:00Environmental news and things that I find interesting.Dereknoreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-69613593559427953232008-03-07T22:30:00.000-07:002008-03-07T22:32:51.932-07:00

I just want to say that I have a terrible spelling mistake in the title of this page: http://envirostuff.blogspot.com/2007/10/greenpease-videokids-rise-up.htmlyet I still get a couple hits a month to it. It must be the glorious content.

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-52735411122519010272008-03-02T20:20:00.000-07:002008-03-02T20:33:25.584-07:00

The Family Guy character named Brian says "Undecided voters are the biggest idiots on the planet". I would agree except I know some really nice and smart people who are either undecided or simply think voting doesn't matter. So I won't belittle them. Here is what I say to them.Have you ever smoked pot? Any of your friends or family ever do it? Well, one party will put them in jail and the other

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-69197301156077790572007-10-13T10:01:00.000-06:002007-10-13T10:09:13.723-06:00

I like this video but I'm not sure I'm ready for the main streaming of Earth First style militancy. I also don't believe kids care about anything beyond their petty inflated egos. And finally, I have a conflicting feeling of "it's about f***ing time" this battle to protect the environment got kicked up a notch.As an aside,I hate hate hate hate the treatment of SUV torchers are terrorism.

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-74888876090596367532007-10-13T09:57:00.000-06:002007-10-13T10:00:48.773-06:00

This is not uncommon, China closing factories for pollution violations. I haven't been keeping up lately with Chinese news but it is a regular occurance from what I remember of the business magazines I used to read daily.

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-42116722936780280142007-10-11T08:45:00.000-06:002007-10-11T08:48:00.671-06:00

This carbon calculator ... well, does what it is titled. I like that it is based in the UK as I wouldn't trust a present North America government to produce anything truthful or accurate with regards to global warming.

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-80528048264475866302007-10-11T07:47:00.000-06:002007-10-11T08:08:29.934-06:00

Privatizing water is just a stupid idea. Unless you are one of the rich who will benefit and you care not for your fellow man.http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/And there are 1000s of other articles about the subject if you Google it.My point is this. Companies exist for the sole purpose of generating profit. It is their primary concern. Their concern is not what is best for people unless that

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-30129760129836829122007-10-11T07:32:00.000-06:002007-10-11T07:46:47.146-06:00

I'll try to be back continuously but that seems never to happen. I've been really busy with my other site http://upwithabang.com/If you have a web site and could use help in developing it, that site has lots of how-to docs about things like style sheet div tags and html etc. It also offers free things you can put on your web site that my site will host, like calendars, directory listing, mail

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-53848638618375127072007-09-19T03:44:00.000-06:002007-09-19T03:55:37.687-06:00

This article probably applies to kitchens too.Notice how modern taps are lever style? Old style are the kind you turn. I call them "dials" but I don't know if that is the correct industry term.Years ago I worked in an office tower that renovated. One of the changes were the dial taps were replaced with lever taps. Thereafter men hit those levers upwards and washed their hands with full blasts of

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-50736276805355305812007-09-18T01:56:00.000-06:002007-09-18T02:06:18.051-06:00

As far as I can tell diapers are used minimally here in China. Often to great comic affect. Around a year old (or even much younger) babies where Kai-deng-ku pants...which literally means "open crotched pants". There are no underwear or diapers underneath them so the little ones are just taught to squat to do there business where they are. Eventually they are led to do it in appropriate places.I

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-26803236460916824582007-09-17T21:11:00.000-06:002007-09-17T21:16:05.017-06:00

In case you missed it this is painfully sobering. The picture alone should make you cringe. Can you imagine living like that?

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-7716665788734338932007-09-08T03:14:00.000-06:002007-09-08T03:23:25.643-06:00

This links to a great site showing before and after shots of celebrity retouching. It is amazing the difference a little photoshop makes to an aging face.I just included this entry for fun but it makes me wonder if this kind of cover up will soon be the norm for nations and companies to cover up their environmental damage. For example will we see the Government of Canada and Province of Alberta

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-57583286092061936892007-09-08T03:07:00.000-06:002007-09-08T03:13:55.906-06:00

Is it more comforting that the dying bees may be due to a virus?Alternate theories were global warming, genetically modified crops, and cellphone signals.I'm happy to hear it is most likely a virus. That is like an "old" cause of death. Viruses have forever been around doing occasional cleanings of populations and usually a stronger population eventually survives. Now if it was one of the other

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-90907577372666259082007-09-07T00:25:00.000-06:002007-09-07T00:38:52.175-06:00

Here are a couple companies that have or will have electric cars available soon. Miles Automotive and Phoenix Motors.Miles Automotive, top speeds of 25 mph. Not impressive.Phoenix Motors truck, 0-60mph in 10 sec. Not impressive.The Toyota Prius is also 0-60 in about 10 seconds. I was a Prius owner and I was never a car affectionado so I never realized how slow that was until I read the complaints

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-89213038800195861282007-09-06T08:58:00.000-06:002007-09-06T09:51:02.166-06:00

Sometimes you might wonder why is something so hard to do. For example why is it so hard to make solar energy an efficient reality? Here is an example of the devil in the details and the possible solution. It is somewhat technical but gist of it is that electrons are normally re-absorbed rather than displaced as electricity. The technique described here is about how atoms can be arranged to

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-78351089436411570412007-09-05T02:58:00.000-06:002007-09-05T03:12:25.501-06:00

Americans are getting shorter, less "wealthy" people are of the world are getting taller. This article has the shocking conclusion:"In some ways it gets to the fundamentals of the American society, namely what is the ideology of the American society and what are the shortcomings of that ideology," Komlos said. "I would argue that to take good care of its children is not part of that ideology."

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-84134186360512315212007-09-05T01:36:00.000-06:002007-09-05T01:48:36.307-06:00

Go back through my posts and you'll read I hate these TVs. Hate hate hate. Not because they are not beautiful and ultra-cool, but because they are a perfect example of our fucked up priorities as a species. New things that are making things worse instead of better.Yet another UK article about their impact.I'm not sure you can even buy a CRT TV in Beijing anymore. So if you, like us, have no

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-37362058740217343392007-09-05T00:57:00.000-06:002007-09-05T02:10:51.695-06:00

I am no fan of psychological counselling. My degree is in psychology and therein I learned it is bunk. I appreciate psychological research but not "treatment". Time and time again the damage and bullshit of psychology rears its ugly head. "repressed" memories have now been completely debunked after destroying how many lives? There are many other examples but since I have not the time I won't list

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-55885352075264847262007-09-05T00:27:00.000-06:002007-09-05T00:56:52.264-06:00

I've been soooooo busy lately writing new code. I got the game done (see left side ad, please download and play and log in and compete your scores online. I almost have web services ready to release. These services will give you free stuff to use...like calendars etc. So that is what I've been doing. But in the meantime I have been reading and making notes of articles.Lately I've noticed more and

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-47868507543850813232007-08-19T03:38:00.000-06:002007-08-19T03:49:53.612-06:00

This is the 3rd day of cars being taken off the road. Approximately 1/3 of the cars are removed daily. Depending upon the plate number ending in an even or odd number. Taxi, government and service vehicles are not so restricted.This is my completely unscientific observations since I certainly don't know enough of weather patterns and pollution to have much credibility beyond my own observations.

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-69299047196492757342007-08-16T23:22:00.000-06:002007-08-17T01:12:50.588-06:00

Just a quick reference to an article from last week.Notice how the vendor (Rubin) blows off concerns that electric cars are basically fuelled by coal. I complain bitterly about this in previous posts about the Tesla. People will need to choose their car's energy source depending on what fuels their grid. In Edmonton Canada it is natural gas. I would go full electric there. In Beijing it is coal

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-43133669408277124162007-08-13T02:28:00.000-06:002007-08-13T02:50:27.536-06:00

Another beautiful pollution-free (appearing) sunny day in Beijing belying the fact that the Yangtze is probably now dolphin free.This article on Kos discuss where to get the bio part of the biodiesel? you think food prices are high now? Just wait ... because, just like what they did with Hemp, I'm sure they'll find some way to keep the best (cheapest, effective) biodiesel crops from coming into

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-13834332842953926902007-08-12T07:42:00.000-06:002007-08-12T07:55:25.036-06:00

From August 17-20 inclusive no cars will be permitted on the streets of Beijing. Violators will be fined. This has been described to me as a pre-Olympics test concerned with smog control. This should be very interesting to see the affect. I recall the day of 9/11 was the first time in modern history that all air traffic stopped and meteorologists for the first time had clear skies from which to

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-74871669906390226422007-08-12T01:39:00.000-06:002007-08-12T01:47:01.770-06:00

Check out blackle.com.The idea behind it is that a bit of energy is saved when a computer screen uses less power to show black rather than white. The site says that 750Megawatt-hours could be saved if Google changed its homepage to black.So heap media made this google entry page. Be sure to read the "about blackle" bit at the bottom.I just had a thought. HTML offers the ability to choose amonst

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-30041245719055411902007-08-12T00:21:00.000-06:002007-08-12T00:23:37.168-06:00

I just thought I'd mention that after weeks of smog and gloom Beijing is now on its 3rd sunny day in a row. Woohoo !

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33338409.post-55514753101749280692007-08-11T23:16:00.000-06:002007-08-11T23:54:31.853-06:00

I've been working quite deligently getting a new version of my game written so I haven't had anytime to write here. Here is a shameless plug before I hit the environmental stuff: 52-Pickup now lets you compare your scores online and is absolutely free to play.I need to learn more about solar power. This article talks about efficiency now at 40% with a goal of 50%. So I'm wondering...if you

Dereknoreply@blogger.com0