So it turns out that the average American household consumes 70 gallons of water per person per day, which seems problematic and unsustainable even for those of us living on big islands still soggy
from spring. (Calculate just how much water you waste with your thoughtless ablutions here. Now for the last time, would you please turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth?)
That’s the bad news. The good news is that populist logisticians are at work on the problem. There’s an article in the NYTimes today about “the Greywater Guerrillas, a team focused on promoting and installing clandestine plumbing systems that recycle gray water–the effluent of sinks, showers and washing machines–to flush toilets or irrigate gardens.”
Interested? Get your hows and whys here.
Tracking back the links to the Don Dunklee scooter plans -we found Gary Reysa’s BuilditSolar.com site. This site has many descriptions of links to, and explanations of, DIY solar systems. Most seem plausibly built by competent DIYers - even without Reysa’s background as a retired aviation engineer. This is a great reference site for renewable energy projects; even if you’re not going to do it yourself - it’ll demystify some of the concepts.
We live in a 36-unit apartment building - and have just added a second compost bin; in New York City, we think that puts us towards the high end of the composting curve. Because of BuilditSolar.com, now I have some idea of how we could extract heat from the compost (metal coil that is inserted in the bin). Not sure yet how we could easily make use of the heat - but Reysa’s explanations are first-rate.
We
Don Dunklee of Davison, Michigan has tricked out his scooter so it runs on PV panels. Looks like  - unfolded - the scooter takes up a space about as wide as a typical automobile parking space.
Apparently his children - three, late teens and early twenties - are embarassed to be seen with him. We wonder if they’re also embarassed to take gas money from him.
 Via Wired Blog.     Here’s Dunklee’s how-to.
What is that thing that addicts do when they feel their addiction being challenged? Oh yeah, they go berserk. Check out this press release from Union of Concerned Scientists about the auto industry’s latest hijinks–or, if you really want a little blood pressure rush, skip right down to one of the two sample ads at the bottom:
AUTOMAKERS SUMMER PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICAN DRIVERS:
HIGHER GAS PRICES, MORE POLLUTION
INDUSTRY KICKS OFF MILLION DOLLAR-PLUS MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO
SCUTTLE STRONGER FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS, INCREASE U.S. OIL ADDICTION
WASHINGTON (May 24, 2007) - To kick off the summer driving season this
Memorial Day weekend, the auto industry has a message for drivers facing
record-high gasoline prices: Pay up!
Continue reading ‘Wowser. How apropos.’
We didn’t say current GOP President.
Eisenhower’s Chance for Peace Speech
Address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower “The Chance for Peace” delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16,1953. A CROSS OF IRON…Seeking some concrete way to dramatize the futility of the Cold War, President Eisenhower hit upon the idea of comparing peaceful expenditures with the expenditures both the United States and the Soviet Union were making for armaments. Then he capped the comparison with a brilliant allusion to William Jennings Bryan’s famous phrase “a cross of gold”.
In this spring of 1953 the free world weighs one question above all others: the chance for a just peace for all peoples.
Continue reading ‘Republican President: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”’
Our ambitions include profiling individual organizations across and outside the country - and to try to develop some comparative measures of risk and readiness. Our principal, and selfish reason, is so that New York area - and particularly Brooklyn emergency responders, can learn from each other. But we’re detemined to do it so cleverly that it looks like we’re providing information useful anywhere. For the moment - we’ll do this in an ad hoc way. Since the Barbecue Recipe heiress is, at the moment, visiting her folks in Lawrence, Kansas, I thought I’d look a bit at emergency response teams in that neck of the woods. (It’s my understanding of the terms of my marriage, and family tradition, that, once I’ve mentioned Lawrence, I’ve also got to say “Go Jay Hawks!” So there it is). Following is the logo of Rampart Search and Rescue - a/k/a Kansas-Missouri Light Rescue Team.
Continue reading ‘KAMOLRT - Kansas-Missouri Light Rescue Team A/K/A Rampart Search and Rescue’
Iran, according to CNN, has now arrested four Iranian-Americans on questionable charges.
Christine Levinson, according to CNN (this graf appears about halfway down the page), “recently traveled to Washington to meet with lawmakers and diplomats who are working on his case.”
Bobby has been missing since March 8th.
Last 6 posts in Iran, Levinson
(See below for 5/24 update) Â
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration - The New York State Public Service Commission.
According to their New York Pipeline Safety “Fact Sheet” - it’s the P.S.C.
But the P.S.C. may not know that. Or not think it important for anyone else to know it. One wants to be careful - when observing facts - to not carelessly draw inferences about intentions.
However, if you go to the Public Service Commission website - and look hard - you’ll not find any obvious link - I couldn’t find any, obvious or other - to that body’s regulatory responsibility for pipelines. Must not be looking hard enough. It’s clear from the headings 0n the front page - Electric/Steam, Natural Gas, Telecommunications, and Water - that the PSC has some responsibility for underground infrastructure.
Popular Logistics - please pardon the pun - has been of late digging into local pipeline issues - and, to quote Consolidated Edison - “we’re on it.”
5/24 update after the foldÂ
Continue reading ‘Who regulates liquid petroleum pipelines in New York State?’
The Atlas Ascender - is a powered rope or cable ascender/descender capable of, for instance,
- equipment hauling
- military special operations (rapidly and quietly scaling a building
- rescue operations (capable of retrieving casualty in litter and rescuer)
This image doesn’t do it justice. There’s a video clip on the Atlas site. The inventor was an MIT student when he developed this - reportedly as an entry in a DOD-sponsored competition.
From ToolMonger’s reporting from Maker Faire:
These people from GreeneMotor brought out a number of motorcycles and scooters that they converted entirely to electric power. They claim that you can ride 450 miles on a single dollar’s worth of juice — even at California rates. Thumb your noses at the Prius crowd — you’re really green now. At least you’d be the first person on your block with an almost totally silent ride.
From GreeneMotor.com.
Via Toolmonger. Maker Faire is a project of MakeZine, to which we subscribe.
The short version: Marine Corps officers in the field requested 1,000 additional bomb-proof vehicles in February of 2005. No substantial action was taken until November of 2006.Â
Please note - we’re talking about additional production of an existing technology - not the development of anything new.
Wired’s Danger Room has the story. See Noah Schachtman and Sharon Weinberger’s important and disturbing piece here.
An excerpt:
According to a Marine Corps document provided to DANGER ROOM, the request for over 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles came in February, 2005. A formal call to fulfill that order did not emerge until November, 2006.  ”There is an immediate need for an MRAP vehicle capability to increase survivability and mobility of Marines operating in a hazardous fire area against known threats,” the 2005 “universal need statement” notes.
Medgadget reports on a new portable water purifier.  At 50 liters per duty cycle, given a 30-day supply problem, 1 liter per day per person - this might be ideal in a go-bag - but we’d like to see larger non-electric filtration devices - gravity-fed would be nice - that could handle the water needs of small apartment buildings, perhaps.
A photo essay on the children of Chernobyl at Slate.
We’ll not reproduce them here; those who need reminding that nuclear power - and other complex systems - are accompanied by increased risk where increases in complexity are not accompanied by off-sets in safety - especially where the basic materials are inherently dangerous - should, of course, make a point of taking a look.
We suspect, however, that at firms which operate nuclear power plants - the link to this photo essay - if anyone is aware of it - is not being circulated to all employees with an admonition that they redouble their efforts to keep things safe.
Via Monkeyfilter.
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to a point where this is the preferred means of communications or cartography in a domestic emergency in the United States. However, Popular Logistics is committed to makings its readers aware of all types of systems, although we’ll probably drawn the line at squirrels. Here’s an image of a German World War I photo-taking pigeon, from PigeonBlog:
Link to concise article on this subject on PigeonBlog here.
Via Cynical-C.
