Less Consumption

What is hydraulic fracturing? And why all the concern?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:50:00 -1000

Hydraulic fracturing, also referred to as “fracking”, is a method used to create many tiny fractures in underground rock formations allowing natural gas to flow into a well. Hydraulic fracturing allows you to get natural gas out of fine grained sedimentary rock like shale cost effectively. A major concern with hydraulic fracturing is the environmental and human health concerns associated with the hydro fracturing fluid and waste water used during the process. There is no federal law that requires companies to disclose what chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing. These unknown chemicals are of concern to those with wells near fracking sites that are worried about well water contamination. The oil and gas industry insists that the issue of fracking fluid chemical disclosure is best left up to the states. In this PDF, the authors make the argument states are not doing all they can in regards to ensuring the disclosure of hydraulic fracturing fluids. Another criticism with hydraulic fracturing is with how much water is used during the process. According to hydraulicfracturing.com, a typical Chesapeake Energy horizontal deep shale natural gas fracking setup requires an average of 4.5 million gallons per well. Disposal of the waste water after processing the well provides its own issues. Hydraulic fracturing produces waste water containing carcinogens, corrosive salts and radioactive materials. Here is a an interactive map The New York Times has put together with data collected from over 200 natural gas wells in Pennsylvania. The map lays out the well location in conjunction with levels of toxic contaminants that have contaminated the wells. Natural gas is often claimed as being a clean source of energy. It is true that natural gas does burn cleaner than coal and other fossil fuels, but the hidden costs of natural gas extraction might not make it as “clean” as we once thought.

5 not so unhealthy meal alternatives at fast food restaurants

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:56:00 -1000

After my previous post on 5 fast food meals with the most calories, I wanted to provide healthier options to those meals. To cut down on calories and save money you should drink water when going out. Tap water is usually free at fast food restaurants, and is a far better choice than high calorie, high sugar drinks like soda. You will notice that I don't list any drinks in the meals below. I am assuming you are drinking free tap water when going out to fast food restaurants.

Food Item	Calories	Calories From Fat	Grams Of Fat	Grams Of Saturated Fat	Grams Of Trans Fat
KFC
2 - KFC Snacker®, Honey BBQ	420	60	6	2	0
Green Beans	25	0	0	0	0
Mashed Potatoes with Gravy	120	35	4	1	0
Total:	*565*	95	10	3	0

McDonalds
Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich	350	80	9	2	0
Side Salad w Newmans Own Low Fat Family Recipe Italian Dressing	70	20	2.5	.5	0
Apple Slices	15	0	0	0	0
Total:	435	100	11.5	*2.5*	0

Burger King
Spicy CHICK'N CRISP  Sandwich	460	270	30	5	0
Garden Salad	70	35	4	2.5	0
Apple Fries	25	0	0	0	0
Total:	555	305	34	7.5	0

Sonic Drive In
Grilled Chicken Wrap	390	130	14	3.5	0
Tater Tots - small	130	70	8	1.5	0
Apple Slices	35	0	0	0	0
Total:	*555*	200	22	5	0

Steak n Shake
Homestyle Breaded Chicken Sandwich	420	150	16	2.5	1
Chicken Gumbo Soup	70	15	1.5	0	0
Apple Souce	90	0	0	0	0
Total:	580	165	*17.5*	*2.5*	1

Here is where I pulled the numbers for this post.

http://www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_nutrition.pdf

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/nutritionfacts.pdf

http://www.bk.com/page_templates/whopperbar/pdf/nutritional.pdf

http://www.sonicdrivein.com/pdfs/menu/SonicNutritionGuide.pdf

http://www.steaknshake.com/media/pdf/Feb2011_NutritionalFacts.pdf

5 Fast Food Meals With The Most Calories

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:49:00 -1000

I wanted to see what fast food restaurants had meals with the most calories. My definition of a meal is a main course, a side, and a drink. These meal combinations are pretty disgusting and have more calories in one meal than your daily caloric intake is for the entire day!

Food Item	Calories	Calories From Fat	Grams Of Fat	Grams Of Saturated Fat	Grams Of Trans Fat
KFC
Chicken Pot Pie	790	410	45	37	0
Potato Wedges	290	140	15	2.5	0
Manzanita Sol®* 64 fl oz	850	0	0	0	0
Total:	1930	550	60	39.5	0

McDonalds
Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon burger	800	350	39	18	2
Large French Fries	500	220	25	3.5	0
Chocolate McCafé Shake (22 fl oz cup)	880	220	24	15	1.5
Total:	2180	790	88	*36.5*	3.5

Burger King
Triple Whopper with cheese	1230	740	82	32	2
Medium French Fries	440	200	22	4.5	0
OREO BK Sundae Shake Vanilla 22oz	790	150	28	19	.5
Total:	2460	1090	132	55.5	2.5

Sonic Drive In
SuperSONIC bacon dbl cheeseburger w/mayo	1280	830	92	36	3.5
french fries w/ chili and cheese	850	380	43	14	1
snickers sonic blast - large 20 oz	1040	510	47	37	0
Total:	3170	1720	182	87	4.5

Steak n Shake
Chili Deluxe - Bowl	1220	670	74	39	1.5
Chili Cheese Fries	1170	600	67	22	3.5
Peanut Butter Cup Milk Shake	1220	440	49	31	1
Total:	3610	1710	190	92	6

Here is where I pulled the numbers for this post.

http://www.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_nutrition.pdf

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/nutritionfacts.pdf

http://www.bk.com/page_templates/whopperbar/pdf/nutritional.pdf

http://www.sonicdrivein.com/pdfs/menu/SonicNutritionGuide.pdf

http://www.steaknshake.com/media/pdf/Feb2011_NutritionalFacts.pdf

Top 10 Energy Consumption States Per Capita Across All Sectors Of The Economy

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:39:00 -1000

The full list of states with their rankings can be found here. I was having trouble explaining how Louisiana, Iowa, and Kentucky got onto the top 10 list. I could explain the other states based on their very cold average temperatures, and in the case of Texas, it's very high average temperature, but could not explain the others. For a list of the average temperature per state check out this post. By taking a look at how we use energy in the United States, I stumbled upon a clue that might explain their high energy usage per capita. You can check out a graph on how we use erergy in the United States here. After looking at the graph I noticed that over 30% of our energy is used for Industrial purposes. It turns out that Lousiana, Iowa, and Kentucky have a big manufacturing sector in their economies. For more information on the "state" of manufacturing in the us, check out this post.

Top ten list

Wyoming : 280103 BTUs per person per year

Alaska : 265958 BTUs per person per year

Louisiana : 219751 BTUs per person per year

North Dakota : 193665 BTUs per person per year

Iowa: 138187 BTUs per person per year

Texas : 133664 BTUs per person per year

South Dakota : 130071 BTUs per person per year

Kentucky : 127539 BTUs per person per year

Nebraska : 123953 BTUs per person per year

Montana : 123784 BTUs per person per year

Average State Temperature (Deg F) for 2009

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:01:00 -1000

I wanted to cross reference energy usage by state with average temperature by state to try and explain the huge range in energy usage between states. Below is a list sorted from lowest to highest average state temperature for the year 2009. The source of the data can be found here (ncdc.noaa.gov) You can view energy consumption per person per state here. I am going to do a little analysis and post my findings in my next entry.

in degrees fahrenheit..

NORTH DAKOTA - 38.51

MINNESOTA - 40.48

MAINE - 40.97

WYOMING - 41.79

MONTANA - 42.18

WISCONSIN - 42.47

VERMONT - 42.71

NEW HAMPSHIRE - 43.26

SOUTH DAKOTA - 43.63

MICHIGAN - 43.72

IDAHO - 44.46

NEW YORK - 45.47

COLORADO - 45.59

IOWA - 46.59

NEBRASKA - 47.48

MASSACHUSETTS - 47.53

WASHINGTON - 48.22

PENNSYLVANIA - 48.27

CONNECTICUT - 48.53

OREGON - 48.54

UTAH - 49.13

RHODE ISLAND - 50.03

NEVADA - 50.24

OHIO - 50.60

INDIANA - 51.17

ILLINOIS - 51.26

WEST VIRGINIA - 51.39

NEW JERSEY - 53.11

KANSAS - 53.17

MISSOURI - 53.88

MARYLAND & D.C. - 54.23

NEW MEXICO - 54.58

VIRGINIA - 55.03

KENTUCKY - 55.08

DELAWARE - 55.61

TENNESSEE - 57.27

NORTH CAROLINA - 59.03

OKLAHOMA - 59.19

ARKANSAS - 59.74

CALIFORNIA - 60.21

ARIZONA - 61.48

SOUTH CAROLINA - 62.33

ALABAMA - 62.84

GEORGIA - 63.11

MISSISSIPPI - 63.58

TEXAS - 65.43

LOUISIANA - 66.89

FLORIDA - 71.09

Total Energy Consumption per person per state

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:32:00 -1000

Below is a list of states listed from highest energy consumption per person to lowest. The values are in millions of BTUs per person per year. There are a few surprising values. For instance Alaska has very cold winters so I can understand a high number, but why does Wyoming having such a high value when it's climate is comparable to Colorado's climate which has a substantially lower value. I would love to get a hold of average house sizes, and average temperatures per state and try and find a correlation to explain the disparaties between state energy usage per person.

Wyoming : 280103.28

Alaska : 265958.12

Louisiana : 219751.87

North Dakota : 193665.62

Iowa: 138187.13

Texas : 133664

South Dakota : 130071.91

Kentucky : 127539.77

Nebraska : 123953.49

Montana : 123784.57

Indiana : 119772.45

Alabama : 118712.64

Oklahoma : 118526.42

West Virginia : 115157.14

Mississippi : 113123.67

Kansas : 112791.89

Arkansas : 107069.1

South Carolina : 101738.69

Minnesota : 100766.08

Tennessee : 99503.31

New Mexico : 97834.83

Idaho : 96576.66

Maine : 95873.43

Ohio : 92346.63

Wisconsin : 90481.31

Washington : 89303.32

District of Columbia : 89081.58

Missouri : 89055.68

Virginia : 88928.55

Georgia : 88078.78

Illinois : 86719.04

Pennsylvania : 84978.84

Colorado : 84863.85

Delaware : 84426.89

Oregon : 81756.24

New Jersey : 80689.76

North Carolina : 79725.06

Utah : 79513.27

Michigan : 79384.71

Nevada : 78591.58

Vermont : 74578.52

Maryland : 73641.28

Florida : 68005.97

New Hampshire : 67163.82

Connecticut : 65741.79

Arizona : 64699.4

California : 63603.59

Massachusetts : 63397.5

Hawaii : 61385.65

Rhode Island : 60776.19

New York : 57322.27

The source of the data is from http://www.eia.gov/state/seds/ it is for 2009

Meat sauce with Italian sausage in the potjie

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:13:00 -1000

This is my second recipe using the potjie. My first recipe was a chicken dish; I figured I would give my wife's meat sauce recipe a try in the potjie. For more information on potjiekos, this site has some great information - http://www.taste-africa.com/product_potjie.php. Making a meat red sauce in bulk and freezing it is a great way to save time during the week. It is easy to boil water, make pasta, and defrost your sauce for a quick meal.

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients.

2 lbs Italian sausage (I used 1lb sweet and 1lb hot italian sausages)

2 - 1lb 12oz cans of crushed tomatoes

1 - 6oz can tomato paste

4 cups of water

1 - carrot (absorbs bitterness, discard after cooking)

1 bunch of chopped fresh basil

1 tbsp chopped garlic

Pinch of sugar

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

Pinch red pepper flakes

2-3 bay leaves

2 tbsp olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the potjiekos)

The first step is to get a good fire going. Once you have some coals ready, move some hot coals under your potjie to heat it up. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of your pot and wait for the oil to heat up. Once your oil is nice and hot add your minced garilic and brown. Pay special attention to not burn the garlic.

After browning your garlic add your sausage to the pot and cook on all sides. You don't have to cook the sausage all the way through since they will cook when we simmer our sauce after adding our other ingredients.

Once you have cooked your sausage on all sides it is time to add our other ingredients. Add the crushed tomatos, carrot, chopped basil, sugar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and bay leaves. Don't add your tomato paste and water yet!

Slow cook the ingredients for about an hour keeping the sauce cooking at a slow boil. Don't let the sauce heat up too much and burn. I like to pull of the top and give the sauce a stir every 5 - 10 minutes to make sure it isn't burning. After slow cooking for an hour, add your tomato paste and water and cook for another 30 minutes. Keep making sure your sauce doesn't burn. Once done simmering, discard the carrot and bay leaves. Serve over your favorite pasta. Freeze any left over sauce for a quick meal later.

How to post jobs online and track applicants for free

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 14:13:00 -1000

I'm a software engineer and during small talk with one of my clients, he brought up that the need to fill a sales position within his company. I had recently completed development of an applicant tracking software tool called jobbered and knew I could be off assistance. He would usually post an ad in the local newspaper costing him around $300. In the ad he would give a fax number and an email address that applicants could use to send their resume. Faxes and emails are not the best way to track job applicants. For small businesses like his, jobbered is free and he jumped on the opportunity to use my free Applicant Tracking System. For those of you not familiar with Applicant Tracking Systems, they are software packages allowing for the electronic handling of recruitment needs. They allow you to track and manage job listings in one place without relying on saved emails and hard copy faxes. Here are the steps you can take to post a job listing for free and track the applicants that applied to your listing.

The first step was to log onto jobbered.com and sign up for an free account. No credit card information is necessary, and once you have clicked the singup link and submitted your information, you will be sent your login credentials. After receiving your login credentials , click the login link on the top right side of the screen and login.

Once you have logged in you will be taken to the home page. The home page contains two links, "Total Number of Postings" and the "Total Number Of Applicants" links are shortcuts to the Job Manager and Applicant Manager pages. To list your first job, click the "Total Number of Postings" link or the "Job Manager" link in the main menu to navigate to the Job Manager page.

Click the "Add Job" button on the Job Manager page to create your first job listing.

Fill out all the information for your job listing and verify the "enabled" checkbox is checked. If you want to require applicants to upload a resume, verify that the "Resume Required" checkbox is checked. The screen shot below has the "enabled" checkbox unchecked because I did not want to enable my example job posting online. You will want to enable yours. Click the "Add Job" button to finish creating your job listing.

After clicking the "Add Job" button, you will be navigated back to the Job Manager page. Your new job listing will display in the datagrid. Let's create a dynamic question we want ask our applicants during the application process. This question will prompt the applicant for their "Years Experience". Click the question mark icon in the action column.

Click the "Add Question" button

Select the "Numeric Text Box" radio button and click the "Next" button

Fill out the label, this is what is displayed to the applicant as a question. We want the default answer value to be 0 for our question. 2 digits is all we will accept for the answer, this will allow the user to add a value of 0 - 99. Since our question requires an answer from the applicant, make sure the "Read Only" check box is unchecked. Since we are going to require applicants to fill answer so make sure the "Required" check box is checked. Click the "Finish" button when you are done editing the properties.

After adding the "Years Experience" question you will be directed back to the questions page. Your newly created question will display in the datagrid. Click the "Job Manager" menu item or the "Cancel" button to return to the Job Manger page.

Let's post our job listing to our twitter page. You have unlimited options here, but for our example we will only post to Twitter. When listing for clients I like to use LinkedIn, Craigslist, Ebay Classifieds, and various other free listing services to get the maximum amount of applicants. Click the link icon from the Action column to display the "Generated Url" dialog box. Select Twitter from the dropdown box and click the "Generate URL's" button to generate two URLs. The first URL is the full length URL, the second is a shortened URL. Twitter only allows 140 characters so let's select and copy the bottom (bit.ly) URL to our clipboard. Log into Twitter, add a new tweet and include your job listing description with the URL generated. As a side note, by selecting a source from the drop down when generating your URL's, you can track where applicants are coming from after they have applied. This is helpful in determining what sites are most effective when posting jobs.

The following pages will be displayed to applicants when they follow the job listing link in Twitter, or wherever you post your job listing.

Once the applicant finishes the application process, you will see applicants start to appear in the "Applicant Manager" page.

To view the applicant details, click the question icon in the action column.

You can add notes for the applicant or click the floppy disk icon to view the applicant's resume. There you have it, you have created and listed your first job posting for free. In future posts I will go over all the search, ranking, and other features available to you in jobbered.com

The most fuel efficient car in America 2012

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:04:00 -1000

The most fuel efficient car in America is the Mitsubishi i, also known as the i-MiEV. It's rated at 126 mpg city and 99 mpg highway. It's an electic vehicle like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt. Unlike the Chevy Volt which uses a gas engine in conjunction with the electric motor to get more range, the Mitsubishi i is all electric like it's counterpart the Nissan Leaf. The Mitsubishi i has a range of around 68 miles per charge. I have read reviews and people warn against venturing too far out without calculating your trip to minimize the chances of running out of juice.

How to cook your first potjiekos

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:23:00 -1000

One way to save some serious money is to eat more meals at home. This is why I have decided to start posting potjiekos recipes on the site. Cooking potjiekos at home allows us to cut down on eating out and is a social activity perfect for a gathering with family and friends. For those of you not familiar with potjiekos, translated into English, potjiekos means "small pot food". Potjiekos is a stew prepared outdoors in a round cast iron pot called a potjie. The potjie was brought from the Netherlands down to South Africa in the 17th century and has become part of South African culture. For more information on potjiekos, this site has some great information - http://www.taste-africa.com/product_potjie.php

Below are the ingredients of my first potjiekos. It is my take on chicken Diablo and I have converted the recipe for cooking in a potjie.

1 red onion diced

1-2 jalapenos sliced

2 cloves garlic diced

2 lbs chicken breasts cubed

4 - 6 carrots pealed and cut into 1 - 2 inch chunks

Crushed Tomatoes with Basil, 28oz can

1 bunch oregano

2 beers ( I used Dales Pale Ale)

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp cardamom

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 - 2 tbsp grape seed oil, or a cooking oil of your choice like canola. I like grapseed oil for its high smoking point and light flavor.

Cut the chicken into cubes

Heat the cooking oil in a Potjie and brown the meat.

Remove the meat from the potjie.

Add the red onion, jalapenos, and garlic and cook until it is translucent.

Add the spices and cook for another minute.

Deglaze the potjie with the two beers, use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pot.

Add the crushed tomatoes into the potjie.

Put the browned chicken back into the pot.

Add the potatoes and carrots to the pot.

Add the oregano and put the top onto the potjie.

Cook the potjie slowly moving coals towards and away from the potjie to keep the cooking at a slow simmer. Cook for 40 minutes.

Once done serve over rice

For potjiekos, a cooking time of 40 minutes is considered very fast so this is a good beginner potjiekos recipe. Hope you enjoy!