Green

Environmentally friendly, green ways of living

There are 363 posts filed in Green (this is page 24 of 37).

Roombas tend tomatoes

classbuildingthegarden_thumbpngI was running our Roomba vacuum around today for the first time in a while and noticing its battery is on its last legs. This has been the first real issue with our robotic friend since we’ve had it. I’m contemplating whether to buy a new battery or consider an upgrade to a newer model.

On a related note, a fellow Roomba fan alerted me to this interesting MIT project that uses souped-up Roombas to tend tomato plants. I thought it was an artificial intelligence milestone for the Roomba just to dock itself, but these Roombas not only do that but they also pick specific tomatoes on command. Amazing! Watch them in action here.

Now if I could just get mine to overwater my plants so that I don’t have to.

Greener by the minute

The total lack of sunshine this weekend has made things look darker than they usually do, but I swear this non-stop rain is doing more than that. I swear I can practically see the leaves popping out on the trees and bushes. I think last week’s warm spell coupled with this rain is waking nature from its long winter slumber.

Plensa’s “Sleep No More” … yawn

I drove by Durham the other night and saw the beam of light radiating from Spanish artist Jaume Plensa’s “Sleep No More” piece. I consider myself a “patron” of the arts, but this Highbeam To Heaven does nothing for me. I can’t stop thinking it’s just more light pollution blotting out the true beauty of the night sky.

Summer buzz

I’ve been considering the wet winter we’ve had and the prospect of the warmer weather bringing swarms of mosquitoes. This made me think of buying a mosquito trap such as the propane-based ones, which attract mosquitoes by producing carbon dioxide. As the world has enough CO2 being produced, I wonder if there isn’t a way to create a mosquito trap that doesn’t create more CO2.

It turns out we have a ready source of CO2, courtesy of our gas hot water heater. If I could somehow make use of the CO2 that’s produced by our water heater so that it traps mosquitoes, that would be the best solution. I wonder what it would take?

A leaky idea

wal-mart-case_less_milk_jugs-smallWe like shopping at Costco because it’s convenient and has great prices. There are occasions where an item we like to buy sometimes vanishes from the shelves but overall we can usually find what we need.

One staple that has remained the same (infuriatingly so, actually) at Costco is milk. Costco’s Kirkland-brand milk (as well as Wal-Mart’s) comes in containers that are by far the worst-designed I’ve ever seen. Rather than the traditional milk container with an angled spout, the Creative Edge Design Group-designed “milk pitchers” are squarish with a minimum of curves (so as to maximize their stacking ability). The result is a container that buckles when milk is poured, resulting in the milk running down the side. In all the many Kirkland milk containers I’ve used, not once have I avoided spilling milk all over the place.

I discovered a message now being stamped on the top of the milk. “Tilt and pour slowly,” it says. So, now spills are apparently our fault because we’re not doing it right.

Yes, the new containers allow big box stores to get more milk into their trucks and freezers. The downside is that the extra milk often winds up on the buyer’s table or countertop. So who is it really seeing the savings here? I’m all for making the process of milk delivery more efficient (and more green), but this container is too flawed to make it worthwhile. Back to the drawing boards, folks!

(I see the New York Times, Huffington Post, and various blogs have covered this. )

Replacable CFL parts

I had another CFL lightbulb burn out tonight. Once it went dark I was immediately treated to the unpleasant but all-too-familiar smell of a fried capacitor.

It got me thinking that there has to be a better way to design these bulbs. If the cheap electronics could be replaced without throwing the whole bulb away it would keep a huge amount of mercury out of our landfills (and air, and water supply, etc).

When an incandescent bulb dies there’s no choice but to throw it away, as the filament is gone and the bulb’s vacuum makes it almost impossible to replace it. There’s no reason a dead CFL bulb has to be tossed, however, as the electronics could be separated from the bulb while leaving the bulb intact. And the electronics are always the first to go on a CFL bulb.

Airplanes and smog

Since it has been a while since I’ve worked in RTP, I’m provided with an almost-new look at things. One thing I noticed was the cloud of smog that seems to hang over RTP. While I was driving down I-40 recently, I watched as an ancient McDonnell Douglas DC-9 took off from the airport, spewing a black streak behind it as it went.

That got me wondering. There have been many recent winters where drivers were forced to buy watered-down blends of gasoline to combat poor air quality, yet in two minutes one DC-9 can create more air pollution than dozens of cars.

While it’s true airplanes have become far more environmentally-friendly than they were when the DC-9 made its debut, there are still those who say the EPA should regulate airliner emissions. I think it’s worth looking into.

Commuting by bike versus car

Given a choice between commuting through I-40 traffic in my car and commuting on downtown Raleigh streets on my bike, I’ll take my bike any day.

Drivers on I-40 are constantly panicked that two miles ahead some massive accident will make them two hours late. Thus they drive like any minute now they’ll grind to a halt. Frequently it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Contrast this with downtown Raleigh streets. Most drivers know they’re only a mile or two away from their destination. They know that anything that blocks traffic can be easily driven around. And the speed limit is 35 MPH (and many one-way streets), so there’s much less kinetic energy involved. Not to mention wide streets that are friendly to sharing the road with bikes.

I actually feel safer biking downtown than I do commuting on I-40.

Cedar Waxwing!

Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing

I saw my first Cedar Waxwing this afternoon. What a beautiful bird! Rocket and I were romping in the backyard when I spotted the bird sipping from a water puddle just three feet away. It seemed quite trusting and lingered on a branch above me for a bit. I went inside for the camera but couldn’t capture it on film before it flew away.

Waxwings travel in large flocks in search of berries. There must be berries somewhere because I think our trees are full of these birds right now. Maybe I can get a picture before they’re gone.

Update: I wasn’t able to get a pic, sadly enough. The one in this post is from Ken Thomas, courtesy of Wikipedia..Thanks for sharing, Ken!