I-Thou

The Green Hornet

2011-01-25T08:21:00.000-08:00

Will this kind of engine powered new prototype jet for US Navy fighter jet?
Used mainly ethanol fuel consist of crushed seed of flowering Camelia sativa, the Navy hope it will replace petroleum in near future

Photograph by Kirk McMenamin

When the Navy F/A-18 jet called the Green Hornet takes off over the Chesapeake Bay on Earth Day, it will aim to break a barrier that has proven far more durable than the speed of sound.

The twin-engine tactical aircraft is prepared on April 22 to make a supersonic flight on biofuel—its tanks filled 50 percent with oil refined from the crushed seeds of the flowering Camelina sativa plant. The test flight at the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, Maryland will be a milestone in the Navy’s efforts to reduce its reliance on petroleum, and perhaps, in the elusive search for an alternative fuel for aviation.

The event is meant to showcase the Pentagon’s efforts to increase use of renewable energy, not only as a climate change initiative but to protect the military from energy price fluctuations and dependence on foreign oil. When President Obama announced his offshore drilling and energy security plan last month at Andrews Air Force Base, he used the Green Hornet as a backdrop. As naval aviation’s biggest fuel consumer, the F/A-18 Super Hornet is a fitting test aircraft.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has set a target that half of naval energy consumption will come from alternative sources by 2020. A “Great Green Fleet,” to sail by 2016, will include nuclear ships, as well as surface combatants with hybrid electric power systems using biofuel and biofuel-powered aircraft.

But for now, the Navy is seeking only to certify its first blend of biofuel and petroleum, by showing it can be used for the Super Hornet’s full range of flight operations. That includes demonstrating that the alternative fuel can deliver the power needed to fly faster than the speed of sound (343 meters per second).

Petroleum Paradigm

“One of the challenges we’ve had is that everything we have ever used in naval aviation has been designed around petroleum-based fuel,” says Rick Kamin, the civilian who leads the Navy’s fuel program. “[The engine] is taking advantage of everything that a petroleum-based fuel provides. We’ve had to work to break down that paradigm.”

Case in point: Engine seals. They were designed under the assumption that the engines would run on petroleum jet fuel, which contains aromatics—certain very stable compounds—that cause seals to swell, preventing leaks. After months of testing, the Navy concluded that current engine seals still need a certain amount of petroleum.

“One of our primary objectives is that the fuel we approve from non-petroleum sources has to be a drop-in replacement,” Kamin says. “It has to perform the same as a petroleum-based fuel performs and require no modification to the aircraft. Our goal is that these fuels have to be invisible to the operator.”

One of the appeals of Camelina oil, in fact, was that despite the aromatics issue, the fuel made from it was remarkably similar to the military petroleum jet fuel called JP-5. The biofuel developed by Sustainable Oils of Seattle has the same energy density. Not only does it deliver the same power, but all the aircraft systems—including the fuel gauge, which reads energy density—can operate on biofuel just as they would on conventional jet propellent.

“All we’re doing is what nature does over millions of years,” says Tom Todaro, chief executive of Sustainable Oils. “Jets today are flying on biomass—it’s just that with pressure and time, the oxygen has been leached off the oil and replaced with hydrogen. All we did was, using molecular biology and chemistry, make that move at a much faster speed.”

Without the work in the laboratory, wild-growing Camelina would not easily squeeze out a type of oil with the oomph to power military flight. A member of the mustard family and a relative of canola plants, the heavily-branched Camelinalooked like a good biofuel source because it produces copious small seeds with high oil content. But Sustainable Oils and its two parent companies, agricultural science firm Targeted Growth and Houston-based biofuel producer Green Earth Fuels, spent a decade and millions of dollars breeding a strain of seed optimized for fuel production. The company won contracts valued at $18 million from the Defense Department last year.

Crop Science

The company is confident that it has overcome many of the disadvantages of the corn- and soy-based biofuels now in commercial use, like ethanol and biodiesel. Camelina is cold-tolerant, needs little water or fertilizer, and can be rotated in the northwestern United States and Canada on fields that farmers otherwise would leave fallow between wheat crops. “We wanted a crop that didn’t compete with food,” says Todaro. The company points to a lifecycle analysis conducted by scientists at Michigan Technical University concluded that the Camelina-derived jet fuel would produce 84 percent lower carbon emissions than petroleum fuel.

Sustainable Oils is just one of several companies working with the Department of Defense in the search for military-grade biofuel. Solazyme of South San Francisco, California has contracts to provide algae-based fuel to the Navy for testing in ships as well as aircraft. Houston-based Accelergy last month announced it has begun production of a synthetic jet fuel from coal and biomass to be evaluated by the Air Force.

For the biofuels companies, the Pentagon is a much-desired customer; it consumes 60 to 75 million barrels of oil per year in jet fuel alone. But some hope a military stamp of approval also will lead to commercial contracts. Sustainable Oils, now running a pilot plant in Houston, is working with partners to build a commercial facility near Seattle. In December, 14 airlines signed a memorandum of understanding with the partnership to negotiate the purchase of up to 750 million gallons of renewable jet fuel and diesel, an agreement that would replace about 10 percent of the petroleum fuel consumed annually at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Sustainable Oils is also working on renewable fuels for both ground-based and marine transportation. “But we chose jet fuels to start because it’s the hardest,” Todaro says. “We wanted to show it could be done.”

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100420-energy-biofuel-fighter-jet/

Yellowstone will explode same like "2012"?

2011-01-25T02:25:00.000-08:00

Remember the movie 2012?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUT8g8_Yd2Y

well, the scientist predict caldera beneath this park are active and may explode, wiping two third of US in near future

the end is near....

The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004

It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980.

Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.

Two-thirds of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave their homes.

Area of outstanding natural beauty: The Yellowstone caldera (circled in red) in Wyoming is the world's largest super-volcano

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1350123/Worlds-largest-volcano-Yellowstone-National-Park-wipe-thirds-US.html#ixzz1C2ckm7Vy

The city of the future: It's a story of camels, penguins and cars you don't drive, by NORMAN FOSTER

2011-01-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

The city of the future: It's a story of camels, penguins and cars you don't drive, by NORMAN FOSTER

The better city will have low pollution, low energy use, the smallest carbon footprint. Compare a tightly knit metropolis like Copenhagen with the suburban sprawl of Detroit. The Danish city has twice the population density – the number of people per square mile – but uses a tenth of the energy, despite having a similar climate. With everything closer, walking and cycling are possible.

High-density cities also offer more freedom and are often more prosperous. It is no coincidence that the areas of London with greatest population density – surprisingly, Kensington, Chelsea, Holland Park and Mayfair – are the richest and most sought-after.

Indeed, Manhattan, one of the most moneyed spots on the planet, also has one of the greatest concentrations of people in its skyscrapers. It’s also, of course, the place where every architect wants to build his tower. (Buckminster Fuller famously wanted to go one step further and cover the whole city with one of his geodesic domes.)
The good news is that my firm now has a tower in New York. The bad news is that it is a very, very small tower – only 46 storeys –but, I am pleased to say, it consumes much less energy than a conventional Manhattan block of its size. Bucky would have approved.

After 40 years working as an architect, it strikes me that what makes a city agreeable is actually not any one building. It is the way you get about, the public spaces, the streets, walkways, bridges, parks and squares – the things I would draw as I cycled about Manchester as a teenager, at a time when I didn’t even know what an architect was.

It was with this in mind that my firm started work on one of its most futuristic projects – Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates. To look at computer-generated images of it, you might think it was a fantasy from a sci-fi comic. The sort I read as a boy. But Masdar City, a university city and environmental technology park outside Abu Dhabi, is already being built.
To find new ways to build in the stultifying heat of the desert, we studied the way animals adapt to and exploit their environment. Just as penguins huddle together for warmth in the Arctic, so camels huddle to create shade in the desert. In Masdar City, tall buildings will crowd together to provide shade in narrow walkways, opening into courtyards with fountains.
In my spare time, I cycle, ski and pilot gliders. I need the silence – not to escape, but to reflect, think through solutions. Occasionally when flying I’ve found myself sharing airspace and thermals with birds. These creatures – displaying superior intelligence to the metal-encased human – achieve astonishing flight with minimal energy and effort. Similarly, Masdar City’s wind towers capture air currents high above, bringing cool breezes into the city. The temperature is 37°C, as opposed to 57°C in downtown Abu Dhabi.

Below the walkways is an electric public transport network complemented by small personal robot cars, quiet and pollution free. No railway bridges here.
Energy is provided by solar-cell panels. In most Middle Eastern countries, massive electricity bills are run up by air conditioning, but Masdar is efficient enough to be able to sell its surplus electricity to the Abu Dhabi grid. Water and waste are recycled

Masdar City is an experiment and in its early stages – building only began four years ago. A hundred students are studying at the university so far; there will be 800 when it is finished in 2018.

I know, of course, that this futuristic vision is not one that chimes with British tastes. Surveys often show people would prefer a detached house with a lawn and driveway to an apartment.

I understand this. It’s not my place to presume to tell people where they can live. But perhaps that dream will simply not be possible in the future. We have taken up too many green spaces already. The countryside must remain sacrosanct and open to all.

When talking about the future city, it’s all too easy to speak only of China and India. There is good reason for that. Britain and the West are in danger of getting left behind.

Of course it is easier to build the perfect city if you start with a blank canvas like the desert of Abu Dhabi and have oil money to finance it. Cities like London have evolved over millennia and cannot be changed overnight.

When the Great Fire of London destroyed most of the medieval city in 1666, Christopher Wren was invited to design a new one. Within days he had drawn up an elegant grid of broad boulevards leading to majestic squares, but it came to nothing – the existing landowners wanted things as they had been.

But in China if something is needed, it happens. The emerging nations are thinking big, taking the initiative. Businessmen and politicians act as one to get things done, as they once did in Manchester. Getting a project of national importance built in Britain requires time and inordinate amounts of patience. Worse, while we usually know what the outcome will be when we start out, it still takes years for an airport extension or a nuclear power station to be approved by public inquiry.

Did you know London is the only big city in the world that allows to planes fly right over the centre?

It infuriates people day and night. If a Chinese planner had been in charge of London, a new 21st-century airport would have been designed, approved and built in the Thames estuary by now. London’s current airport, Heathrow, would have been consigned to aviation history, perhaps becoming a new housing or a retail hub. Or, better still, a park.

Celebrities Up in Arms to save England forest!

2011-01-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

Celebrities in UK have signed a petition to halt a proposed plan to sell publicly owned England forest

The letter by the Save England’s Forests campaign said a Bill being debated in Parliament would allow the Government to sell the entire public forest estate to commercial interests on the open market.

It also expressed fears that access to public woodland would become limited and its protection eroded.

The campaigners wrote: ‘We are an island nation yet more people escape to the forest than to the seaside.

‘Our forests nurture countless species of native plants and wildlife. We have relied on them since time immemorial yet we are only a heartbeat in their history.

The signatories include Dame Judi Dench, Annie Lennox, Dame Vivienne Westwood, Ken Livingstone, model Lily Cole and Richard E Grant

IKEA, a maze to trap and snare your wallet!

2011-01-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

A-mazing: A route a customer took through a store. Professor Alan Penn said they are designed to stop customers leaving

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349831/Ikea-design-stores-mazes-stop-shoppers-leaving-end-buying-more.html#ixzz1BxqZMARP

If you are compulsive shoppers, don't set your foot in IKEA store, or you will end up buying unnecessary item.

A study by Alan Penn, director of the Virtual Reality Center for the Built Environment at University College London conclude that the strategy to keep shoppers inside as long as they can, while lost, they will impulsively buy any item place strategically along the way

'In Ikea's case, you have to follow a set path past what is effectively their catalogue in physical form, with furniture placed in different settings which is meant to show you how adaptable it is,' he said.

'By the time you get to the warehouse where you can actually buy the stool or whatever's caught your eye, you're so impressed by how cheap it is that you end up getting it.'

Top 25 Green Cities in US

2011-01-23T06:04:00.000-08:00

The Top 25 Green Cities in the U.S.

by Paul McRandle and Sara Smiley Smith

Photograph Courtesy Shutterstock Images

In recognition of the efforts of cities across the country to provide energy-efficient, least polluting and healthy living spaces, the Green Guide presents the environmental leaders, those cities whose green achievements set the standard for others. As The New York Times has reported, in the absence of federal direction, cities across the country are taking environmental stewardship into their own hands and reducing their burden on the planet.

We asked cities with populations over 100,000 to complete our survey and, in combination with environmental data we gathered from government sources, scored cities on an eleven-point scale. Our results are below and for more information about our criteria, see "What Makes A City Green?"

Highlights of the Top 25 Green Cities

1. Eugene, OR (score 9.0375, pop. 137,893)

- Sustainable business incubator

- Renewable energy supplying 85% of city's power

- Extensive wetlands program

2. Austin, TX (score 8.5325, pop. 656,562)

- Green Builder program

- Smart growth initiative

- Committed to solar power

3. Portland, OR (score 8.24, pop. 529,121)

- Green building

- Excellent public transport

- Smart growth

4. St. Paul, MN (score 7.805, pop. 287,151)

- Green space makes up a quarter of urban area

- Significant greenhouse gas reductions

- Affordable housing

5. Santa Rosa, CA (score 7.785, pop. 147,595)

- Green building program

- Clean air and water

- Bicycle paths and lanes

6. Oakland, CA (score 7.3675, pop. 399,484)

- Building local food production

- Green building ordinance

- Public transport

7. Berkeley, CA (score 7.285, pop. 102,743)

- Green building requirements for municipal construction

- Well used public transport system

- Community gardens

8. Honolulu, HI (score 7.055, pop. 371,657)

- Clean air and water

- Biomass power generation

- Green building standards

9. Huntsville, AL (score 7.035, pop. 158,216)

- Green space makes up one-third of urban area

- High public transport use

- Excellent public education program

10. Denver, CO (score 7.0325, pop. 554,636)

- Greenprint Denver, sustainability initiative

- Large hybrid municipal fleet and nation's largest light rail system

- Clean water and access to wilderness

11. Boston, MA (score 6.99, pop. 589,141)

- Green building

- Excellent public transport

- Smoking ban

12. Lexington, KY (score 6.785, pop. 260,512)

- Comprehensive growth management plan

- Clean air

- Smoking ban

13. Springfield, IL (score 6.7225, pop. 111,454)

- Clean air and good water

- Green design

- Green spaces

14. Irvine, CA (score 6.72, pop. 143,072)

- Comprehensive green building program

- Smoking ban

- Pedestrian oriented

15. Cambridge, MA (score 6.72, pop. 101,355)

- High rate of public transport use

- Green design

- High percentage of green space

16. Anchorage, AK (score 6.705, pop. 260,283)

- Excellent air and water quality

- Smoking ban

- High public health

17. Syracuse, NY (score 6.66, pop. 147,306)

- Good air

- Smoking ban

- Commitment to reduce greenhouse gases

18. San Francisco, CA (score 6.6, pop. 776,733)

- Municipal composting

- Green design

- High percentage of renewable energy use

- Very high public transport use

19. Minneapolis, MN (score 6.58, pop. 382,618)

- City-specific minimum wage

- Smoking ban

- High percentage of renewable biomass energy

20. Milwaukee, WI (score 6.5125, pop. 596,974)

- Green housing development

- Green space

21. Rochester, NY (score 6.43, pop. 219,773)

- High percentage of renewable energy

- Clean air

- Smoking ban

22. Albuquerque, NM (score 6.3475, pop. 484,607)

- Clean water

- Smoking Ban

- Wind power

23. Ann Arbor, MI (score 6.2875, pop. 114,024)

- High percentage of public transport and bicycle commuters

- High yard waste recover

- Green space

24. Seattle, WA (score 6.115, pop. 563,374)

- Large number of green buildings

- Very high percentage of hydroelectric power use

- Clean air and smoking ban

25. Kansas City, MO (score 6.055, pop. 441,545)

- Clean water

- City specific minimum wage

- U.S. Mayors Climate Protection signatory

MISTAKES OF THE MASTERS

2011-01-23T05:54:00.000-08:00

Mistakes of the Masters

Kathy Shorr

February 26, 2009

So many times you finish a house-building or renovation project thinking, "If only I knew when I started what I know now." It's the same with green construction projects, especially as new technologies and materials keep changing and being developed. If it's any consolation, when experts in the fields of energy-efficient and green building turn to doing their own houses, they often come away with lessons learned to carry forward to the next project.

Kelly Karmel, an architect and sustainable design and LEED consultant and founder ofdesign balance LLC which offer sustainable design and LEED consultancy: "I had to redesign the plans for the house three times before I built it—and one was a complete redo. I was pretty happy with it, but then I broke my left leg, was on crutches for nine months, and completely changed my mind. I put a bedroom on the ground floor and widened the hallway and stairway. The handles are all lever-style. We don't have grab bars in the bathroom, but I configured things to be able to add them and made the kitchen easily modifiable. Believe me, I have a whole new appreciation for the Americans with Disabilities Act. I've come to feel that truly sustainable building needs to include aspects like accessibility more. I try to design for being able to live in a place long term—and not having to repair things constantly."

Betsy Pettit, FAIA, principal of Building Science Corporation and an architect with over 30 years' professional experience: "In 1996, we renovated an 1850 New England Greek Revival farmhouse and later regretted not using higher R-value insulation in the walls and roof. It's expensive to add more after the fact. That's why we always recommend that if you're replacing siding, you add as much at that time as you possibly can." Betsy Pettit and her husband and business partner Joseph Lstiburek have since renovated two additional houses, both with significantly higher R-value insulation.

Jeff Rogers, owner of the first LEED for Homes platinum-certified project in Massachusetts and owner of New England Green (negreen.com), a green building materials supplier: "My mistake was not putting in an on-demand tankless water heater as a backup to the solar hot water in the coldest months. I had electrodes in the hot water tank, but the electric ran too much and prevented the solar from giving any benefit in the winter. So I've just fixed it. I turned off the electrodes and turned on the new on-demand. I haven't gotten an energy bill yet to see what it's saving. But in theory it should use about a tenth of the energy I was using before."

Frank Wickstead, owner of Wickstead Works, in Atlanta, Georgia, an award-winning remodeler and verifier for the National Green Building Program: "Things I regret about my 2005 home renovation—I made a list. I have a furnace in the crawl space and I need to bring that space into the building envelope and make it insulated (I still haven't and can't wait to). I would have minimized my half-acre lawn. It takes a lot of fertilizer and work that isn't necessary. And I don't irrigate, so it's brown now. There's a neighborhood nearby that has xeriscaping and uses native species and it's wonderful. Here's a big guilt: I put in Brazilian cherry floors. I had some leftover from a project, so I bought more. I know it was probably an illegally poached tree. The floor's gorgeous, but that's a real regret."

Jeffrey Zucker, a principal with the award-winning sustainable design firm Catalyst Architecture in Prescott, Arizona: "In 1993, I built a house which was as close to 'zero energy demand'as possible—air-tight drywall technique, low-e glazing, heat recovery ventilator, in-floor radiant heat, water harvesting, xeriscaping, earth berming, passive solar heat, blower door testing, blown-in cellulose insulation, 2-x-6 construction. My worst heating bills per month were about $50.

So, what was my mistake?

I sold it.

I built a house in the Prescott cohousing community that I founded and it has some efficiencies, such as community water harvesting for our organic gardens. But for some reason I forgot many of the lessons that I had taught myself in the previous house. Now I am paying heating bills for the same sized house of about $250 per month, rather than $50. Fortunately (or, unfortunately, depending on how you look at it)I am an architect, which means that I design and build a new house for myself at the slightest provocation. Next time . . . ."

Alas, most of us don't get that second chance to correct our design or to build another house. But try to remain serene and investigate ways you can improve what you have, accepting the missteps you can't undo. Then tell others what you've found out so at least they can avoid the same blunders.

ONE GREEN YEAR: WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS MONTH

2011-01-23T05:40:00.000-08:00

One Green Year: What You Can Do This Month
By Kate Hanley
January 21, 2009

Photograph Courtesy Shutterstock Images
In this third installment in our series of small changes that add up to big results, we survey what you can do during the next month to gradually green your routine. Breaking your efforts into smaller, more manageable tasks isn't a cop-out: By following this plan, each small step adds up to changes that will benefit the health of the planet—and, yes, even your own health—immediately and in years to come.
Food
Switch one staple of your diet from conventional to organic: eggs this month, milk the next. For the greatest impact, choose something you buy all the time, not something that's an occasional purchase, and don't challenge your budget by going all organic at once. Also this month, find a farmer's market near you where you can start buying food that's produced within a few hundred miles of your home, further reducing the carbon footprint of your diet by requiring less fuel for transport.
Transportation
Strategize and commit to a "green" commute one day a week: Either clear it with your boss to work from home, or carpool, take public transportation, walk or ride your bike to the office. Buy an air pressure gauge and make a monthly habit of checking the air pressure in your tires. Properly inflated tires increase gas mileage by about 3 percent, and according to Bridgestone Europe, improperly inflated tires cause an additional 12.3 million tons of CO2 to be released every year—just in Europe! Because tires can lose pressure as temperatures drop, check the pressure when your tires are cold, ideally before you start your car in the morning.
Energy
Set aside a weekend "green-the-house" day: Enlist the help of your fellow household members to tackle the simplest suggestions from your energy audit, such as wrapping your hot water heater or installing a programmable thermostat.
Everyday Purchases
As you use up conventional products, replace them with more environmentally friendly options—household cleansers that use essential oils for fragrance, laundry detergents formulated for cold water (which saves the energy normally required to heat the water), cloth napkins to replace disposable ones. You'll reduce your chemical exposure and trash a little less. In addition, you'll send a message to manufacturers to produce more environmentally friendly products. "When you vote with your dollars, corporations listen," says Trish Riley, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living ($16.95, Alpha, 2007).
For more in our green year planner, see:
"One Green Year: What You Can Do Today"
"One Green Year: What You Can Do This Week"

8 WAYS TO SAVE WATER WITHOUT SPENDING A DIME

2011-01-23T05:33:00.000-08:00

8 Ways to Save Water Without Spending a Dime

By Emily Main

October 1, 2007

Photo courtesy Shutterstock Images

1. Turn the water off while brushing your teeth.

2. Fill a milk jug with stones and place it in your toilet tank to displace water.

3. Dig up an egg timer from your kitchen and use it to cut showers down to 5 minutes.

4. Turn off the water while shaving.

5. Fix toilet and faucet leaks immediately.

6. Don't use your toilet as a trash can.

7. Collect "warm-up" water to irrigate your lawn and flowerbeds.

8. Conserve energy. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that .47 gallons of water are lost for every kilowatt-hour of power generated by coal power plants.

Green Myths

2011-01-23T03:20:00.000-08:00

Green Myths

By Paul McRandle and Mary Logan Barmeyer

Novemer 1, 2008

For everyone who tries to do a little good in the world, it seems there's a skeptic waiting to claim that those actions do no good at all. If you need a good comeback—or if you just need to reassure yourself—here are responses to some common misconceptions about going green.

"Recycling wastes more energy than it saves."

TRUTH:Typically, this myth comes at you in the form of “Sending out trucks all over town to pick up bottles and cans takes more energy than you'll save by recycling.” It sounds compelling, but it's wrong. For example, recycling aluminum cans cuts energy use and greenhouse gases by 95 percent compared with the energy needed to make virgin aluminum. In general, the energy used to manufacture new products from raw materials is at least ten times more than the energy consumed by curbside collection, recycling and transportation of recycled goods to retailers, according to a 2004 study published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

"Natural cleaners don't disinfect."

TRUTH:Natural cleaners are highly effective in the bathroom and kitchen, even when it comes to nasty food-borne bacteria like E. coli. Susan Sumner, head of the Food Sciences and Technology program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, found that all you need to wipe out Salmonella, Shigellaand E. colibacteria is a combination of household hydrogen peroxide and undiluted white or apple cider vinegar. Put the two liquids in separate spray bottles and spray one immediately after the other, in either order. You can spray it directly on fruits and vegetables as well as on surfaces, such as cutting boards and countertops, for an effective, nontoxic disinfectant that can be wiped right off. Household vinegar can also take care of mold in the bathroom, killing off 82 percent of mold strains. For tougher mold problems, mix two teaspoons of tea tree oil and two cups of water, spray on and then scrub off after 30 minutes.

"Plastics are safe in the microwave."

TRUTH: Unfortunately, reheating in plastic isn't your safest bet. Common food-grade plastics, such as yogurt containers, margarine tubs or disposable plastic plates, are FDA-approved but have not been tested for use in microwaves. If they are microwaved, they may release chemicals that can interfere with hormones into food—especially fatty foods. Furthermore, heated food can melt them, posing a risk of burns and scalds. Those plastic containers labeled “microwave-safe” won't melt or crack, and they havebeen tested under typical conditions of use to see if chemicals in plastic wind up in food. Any chemicals that leach into food appear at levels far below those shown to have any health effects. Still, even “microwave-safe” #7 poly- carbonate plastic should be avoided, since it leaches hormone-disrupting bisphenol A, especially when heated. And “microwave-safe” plastic can bubble, scratch or degrade over time.

To avoid all of these issues, microwave foods in glass or ceramic containers or on undyed paper towels. If you cover a food dish with plastic wrap, be sure it does not touch the food and leave vents for steam to escape.

"With China and India pumping out so much CO2, there's no reason for me to cut back mine."

TRUTH:Sure, China and India are overtaking the U.S. when it comes to carbon dioxide emissions. But “it doesn't hold a lot of water to say ‘someone else is polluting so we'll pollute too,'” says Kenneth Broad, Ph.D., National Geographic Emerging Explorer and University of Miami professor. And given that those countries have larger populations than ours, their citizens pollute much less than we do on a per person basis: The average American produces 3.8 times more than the average Chinese and 10.7 times the average Indian. Last February, China and India said that they would continue to keep their per person emissions lower than the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions aren't only increasing, they're accelerating. However, changes we make as in- dividuals can have a big impact. If every time we purchased a new car we chose the most fuel-efficient vehicle that met our needs and budget, this would keep nearly 30 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year.

"Keeping your heat on one setting is more efficient than turning it up and down."

TRUTH: “Setback”—reducing or turning off your heat when you're sleeping or not at home—is in fact more efficient (and com- fortable!) than keeping your home at a single low temperature all the time. The myth is that keeping your thermostat at a constant temperature uses less energy because, presumably, your heater would have to work harder to power up from a lower tempera- ture. But according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), you'd have to keep your home tem- perature four to six degrees cooler all the time (brr!) for the savings to equal setting it back the recommended eight degrees when you are at work or under the covers. Just don't turn off your heat completely in freezing weather since your pipes may burst. ACEEE says that with twice-daily, eight-degree, eight-hour setbacks, you can save 16 to 32 percent of your heating energy.

"Over its life span, a hybrid is less eco-friendly than a Hummer H3"

TRUTH: In 2007, a widely circulated study claimed that a Toyota Prius has a larger environmental footprint than a Hummer H3. CNW Marketing Research, the study authors, asserted that the energy consumed in the manufacturing and recycling of a Prius—along with what they assumed was a short life span—out- weighed its fuel savings. This study sharply contradicted previous scientific research from organizations such as the U.S. Depart- ment of Energy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which measured all aspects of a Prius's life cycle more accurately. A key mistake of the CNW study was underestimating the energy used in a car's operation, which actually accounts for 80 to 90 percent of its lifetime energy; the CNW research weighed this energy use as less than 10 percent. Although the production of a Prius involves energy-intensive mining for the nickel in its battery, its highly efficient fuel economy will send it quickly whizzing by the H3 in terms of overall energy savings.‘‘

Wood Furniture: FSC Certified

2011-01-23T03:11:00.000-08:00

Wood Furniture: FSC Certified

By David Wortman

With a growing population and demand for wood and paper, deforestation continues at alarming rates. Almost half of the planet's original forests, an estimated 7.4 billion acres, have been cut down, and 39.5 million acres of forest vanish every year—reducing plant diversity and wildlife, causing desertification and water pollution and harming the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

Because trees store carbon, their loss contributes to global warming. "If consumers are looking to make a better choice, they should consider the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)," says Bill Mankin, Director of the Global Forest Policy Project. FSC has been certifying well-managed forest products since 1993. It requires protection of ecologically valuable forests, limits logging of old growth and sets standards for fair labor and protecting communities and cultures. FSC has accredited both Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) and the Smartwood program of the Rainforest Alliance (RA) to certify that wood meets these standards and can bear the FSC's distinct logo. RA's "Rediscovered Wood" program also certifies salvaged or recycled wood.

In September 2003, Boise Cascade became the first large-scale wood and paper products company to embrace at least some FSC certification, announcing sweeping changes in company policy and winning praise from the Rainforest Action Network. Several specialty companies as well as home-furnishings giant Ikea offer wood furniture made from FSC-certified wood, from dining tables to office furniture.

A handful of companies also make furniture from salvaged or recycled wood, or from recycled plastic, another forest-sparing alternative:

For FSC bedroom, dining room, living room and office furniture, try:

If you want one distinctive piece, try Berkeley Mills' popular cherry Lambda chair with a low- or no-VOC finish. ($1,600; www.berkeleymills.com, 877-426-4557).

The Joinery's Thomas chairs, made of FSC-certified cherry, are built to order. All finishes are low- or no-VOC, and all furniture can be purchased unfinished ($625; www.thejoinery.com, 503-788-8547).

The Wooden Duck makes a variety of items from recycled teak and Douglas fir, including their recycled fir Dory table ($1,450/7 ft.; www.thewoodenduck.com, 510-848-3575)

Beyond purely ecological concerns, wood furniture can pose human health risks when made with glues or finishes that pollute indoor air. Formaldehyde, a carcinogen, can offgas from some conventional pressed woods, particleboards and veneers. To this end, SCS also certifies wood furniture that is formaldehyde-free or uses recycled or reclaimed wood. For a complete listing of FSC-certified companies, see www.fsc-info.org.

Gardening and save the planet!

2011-01-23T02:53:00.000-08:00

Greener Garden Supplies

By Diane di Costanzo

More and more people are choosing to garden organically. So it's somewhat troublesome that garden tools and supplies are often made of materials that are decidedly not environmentally friendly. Just try to find a composter, for instance, that's not made of a material like polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The wooden handles of garden tools and the fence and other materials we buy require trees, of course, to manufacture. And therein lies the gardener's dilemma: Must we contribute to environmental degradation in our quest to till the soil? The answer, happily, is no.

What to look for

It's not necessary—or even realistic—to avoid plastic and wood altogether when buying tools and supplies for the garden. In fact, the greenest gardeners search out recycled plastic products to support those companies who are actively saving plastic from its very long afterlife in landfill. And fortunately, recycled plastic garden products are becoming common.

Less readily available are sustainably sourced wood products for the garden, especially for small items such as hand tools. However, on many bigger-ticket items—when the amount of wood used really makes a difference—you will find the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label, on fencing, lumber, and garden furniture, for instance. Home Depot now sells more FSC-certified wood than any other retailer in America. If you don't see the FSC label, ask for it. Sustainable wood will only succeed in the marketplace if consumers demand it.

Another label to look for is from the SmartWood's Rediscovered Wood Program, which certifies wood that would otherwise rot, get chipped up or be carted to a landfill. Log ontowww.smartwood.org for product lists.

Materials from non-renewable sources may still be worth using if they're the lesser of evils. For instance, Stephanie Harris, long time president and a founder of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey recommends using row coverings for your vegetable garden bed even though the most widely available ones are made from polyester. The benefits of using floating row covers, she says, are 1) season extension with the protection of plants from frost 2) it forms a physical barrier between plant and pest, thereby reducing the amount of pesticide needed in the garden, and 3) provides for more even germination by preventing excessive water evaporation from the soil, reducing overall irrigation needs. It also protects seedlings from larger pests like rabbits, birds, and deer.

Recycle wood

2011-01-23T02:33:00.000-08:00

By Danielle Masterson

Republished from the pages of The Green Guide

"Recycled" and "reclaimed" are the new buzzwords in eco-friendly wooden gifts. Not only does reusing wood keep perfectly good materials out of landfills, it preserves endangered old-growth forests.

But certifications for responsibly gathered, recycled, and reclaimed wood are scarce, especially among decorative wood products. Currently, most certified companies, monitored by the Rainforest Alliance's Rediscovered Wood program, supply large construction and furniture businesses. Small businesses and artisans who can't afford certification usually find wood themselves from nearby forest floors and scrap piles.

Ryan Temple, director of the Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Partnership, says that recycled wood has an unusual appearance, which thwarts counterfeiters: "Reclaimed wood has a certain look to it—black spots where nails have been, grain characteristics in the wood. It's a difficult thing to imitate," he says. Still, to ensure that the wood hasn't come from older construction that utilized harmful resins or lead-based paints, it's best to buy from small artisans who have gathered the reclaimed wood themselves and can give you detailed information about its source and any work done to remove finishes.

Products:

Touch Wood Rings are handmade from wood scraps and naturally blown-down or bug-killed trees.
Uncommon Goods' Heart of the Forest Deep Forest serving block uses Scientific Certification Systems-certified reclaimed oak from the Great Lakes.
VivaTerra's Root of the Earth chip and dip server and medium bowl are carved from reclaimed Chinese fir tree root balls.
The Classic wooden toy tree house from Tree Blocks is made from reclaimed fruit and nut trees taken from end-of-productive-cycle.
If you prefer non-recycled wood, the Rosscarbery breadboard by Shackleton Thomas can be made with SmartWood-certified, virgin cherry.
Vivavi's square daisy clock is made from renewable bamboo.
The fairly traded Cinnamon Bark tea box made by women in Vietnam features the bark of plantation-grown cinnamon trees. Proceeds help street children attend school.

Hidden cost of take away meal....

2011-01-23T02:15:00.000-08:00

Two large, grease-stained paper bags; one small, foil-lined bag; two paper wrappers; four plastic sauce cups, with lids; three cups, one plastic, two wax-lined paper; a handful of crumpled paper napkins; and a receipt. That's what I was left with after cheeseburgers for two yesterday.

I'm sure you've had this experience too, of surveying the carnage after a take-out restaurant meal. Eating out is quick, delicious, and expensive--both in money (I paid $17) and in our impact on the world around us. All that paper and plastic came from the Earth, after all, and it's probably going to sit in landfills for decades before returning to the soil.

What to do? Well, you could stay home: Cathy Erway, author of the 2010 book "The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove," tried shunning restaurants. I spoke with her at the Austin festival South by Southwest about her experience and how buying restaurant food affects our planet.

As a self-regulated experiment, Erway completely avoided all carry-outs and restaurants for two years.

Seems rough, right? She suggests that once you factor in all the travel and waiting, it's not necessarily easier or faster to eat at a restaurant. "Going out to dine should be a luxury. Some people have it the other way around, where cooking something at home is this big production," says Erway. (For an easy at-home example, Erway suggests her Fresh Veggie Korean Pancakes.)

According to Erway, 77% of all meals "eaten out" aren't served on tables in restaurants; a surprising amount of our food comes from carry-out food vendors, like sandwich shops (or coffee houses). And a lot of it comes with Styrofoam, which takes years to degrade.

Or break-apart disposable chopsticks: It's a rare pair that's made from bamboo, believe it or not. Erway says that most are cut from the heart of old-growth trees, such as aspen, and that forests are clear-cut just to make them. (A 2006 Nat Geo News article and a 2001 Washington Post articleexplain more about the environmental impact of disposable chopsticks.)

One question Erway gets a lot is how to date when dinner-and-a-date is verboten. "Why did we get to a place where 'a date' means going to a restaurant together?" she asks. She suggests dinner-over as a litmus test, under the theory that if your prospect doesn't like it, you wouldn't like him or her. And there's always bowling.

Eating in also has its economic benefits. Erway says that, restaurant-free, she spent $25 a week on food in New York City. An "Opposite Week" experiment of getting all food from restaurants or carryouts cost her $200.

"The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove" is available in bookstores.

--Chris Combs

Tough Road to Getting LED Lights on the Streets

2011-01-23T02:10:00.000-08:00

By Josie Garthwaite

For National Geographic News

Published January 20, 2011

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visitThe Great Energy Challenge.

Power plants may not spring to mind during an evening stroll on a well-lit block, or when an overhead lamp burnout darkens a treacherous bend in the road. But power plants indeed provide much of the world 's nightly abundance of electric light, usually by burning fossil fuel and adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere along with the glow. And cash-strapped cities foot the bill.

According to the Clinton Climate Initiative, street lighting accounts for a staggering 159 terawatt hours of electricity use worldwide each year. That's more than the annual output of three dozen 500-megawatt power plants. And although street lighting accounts for less than one percent of all electricity use in the United States (it's about 1.3 percent in the European Union), this comes at a hefty cost for cities. In some areas, street lights command upwards of 60 percent of municipal electricity spending.

So in tough economic times, municipalities have begun to pull the plug on inefficient lamps in favor of long-lasting, highly efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology. In the United States, many of these projects have been supported by economic stimulus block grants for energy efficiency and conservation projects.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LEDs could help communities save more than $750 million per year in energy costs, while also offering benefits like more uniform light distribution. Around the world, LEDs are lighting streets from Torraca, Italy, to Toronto, Canada, and from Tianjin, China, to Sydney , Australia. Yet, in the big picture, the Clinton Climate Initiative report notes "negligible" adoption of new lighting technologies by cities. When cities do seek to cut energy costs by converting old streetlights—many of which are non-metered and owned by the local utility—they often encounter a rocky road ahead.

Not Just Screwing in a New Light Bulb

LED streetlights cost more up front than incumbent high-pressure sodium, mercury vapor, and metal halide lights. Partly because the technology is changing quickly, long-term performance in real-world installations is also unproven. "There are a lot of unknowns in terms of maintenance," said Ed Henderson, who runs a system of 200,000 streetlights in southeast Michigan as manager of community lighting for utility DTE Energy.

Whereas replacing a traditional streetlight in DTE’s network is typically as simple as unscrewing a dead bulb and screwing in a new one, said Henderson, LEDs can come in a variety of packages, and they're changing all the time. "Like cell phones and flat screen TVs, there's an obsolescence factor," he said. "When we put an asset up there, we want it to be up there a long, long time." The more "one-off" or specialty installations, the more difficult maintenance becomes for a utility managing streetlights on a large scale, he said.

Yet reduced costs for energy and, crucially, maintenance over the working life of LED streetlights (as long as 10 years for some models) mean they can "pay for themselves" in seven years or less, depending on factors like wattage, electricity rates, and labor costs. "As long as the warranty is longer than the payback," said Andrew Brix, energy programs manager for Ann Arbor, Michigan (map), which expects a four- to five-year payback on LED streetlights with a seven-year warranty, "I'm happy."

Ann Arbor has worked to iron out the kinks of LED streetlight installations over the past few years. Back in 2007, the city drew national attention with plans to become the first U.S. city to convert all of its downtown streetlights to LED technology. Replacing 120-watt bulbs with 56-watt LEDs that were expected to last a decade instead of only two years, the project was projected to shrink the city's public lighting energy use by half, cut maintenance costs by about $85,000 per year and save another $15,000 in annual electricity costs, according to Ann Arbor’s estimates at the time.

Two years later, however, DTE was still billing Ann Arbor at the old rates—as though the LED streetlights were using as much energy as their less efficient predecessors. Since the lights weren't (and aren't) metered, charges were based on estimates, which in turn were based on the older technology.

Similar issues halted an LED streetlight project in nearby Jackson, Michigan, last year. Having determined that installing LED lights will not cut electricity bills until the local utility, Consumers Energy, develops a new rate, City Engineer Jon Dowling said Jackson has for the time being dropped plans to pursue the technology.

In Washington, D.C., by contrast, where a $1 million grant from the economic stimulus program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will support installation of LEDs for more than 1,000 streetlights this year, the District's streetlight utility bills are based on the bulb's wattage. So according to John Lisle, spokesperson for the District Department of Transportation, D.C.'s selection of a 73-watt LED light to replace a 150-watt high-pressure sodium light, for example, will cut both energy use and costs by about 50 percent.

Low-Wattage Sticker Shock for Power Companies

Further complicating matters for ambitious LED streetlight supporters is the fact that many streetlights in U.S. cities (5,000 of Ann Arbor's 7,000 lamps, for example), are owned by the local utility, while the municipality pays for the electricity and operating costs. Because most utilities bring in money based on the amount of energy they sell, changing over to more efficient lamps would therefore reduce the utility's revenue.

This is where a policy known among energy and efficiency wonks as "decoupling" comes into play. In California and at least 12 other U.S. states, regulations have decoupled utility profits from electricity sales, creating a mechanism for utilities to make up for some of the revenue they would lose as electricity sales decline, and in some cases offering incentives for efficiency programs. California utility Pacific Gas & Electric offers rebates for LED installations and has established rates for different lamp types, a move that trade publication LEDs Magazine hailed in 2009 as "an example for utilities across North America."

(Related from National Geographic: "The 21st Century Grid")

In Michigan, the state utility regulator ultimately directed all Michigan utilities to put together a rate for LEDs. Today DTE Energy charges Ann Arbor rates based on the LED streetlights' expected energy use, under a larger category for experimental lighting technology. The utility credited the city for the lower energy use retroactive to the installation, and today Brix says the city has saved about $200,000 as a result of the downtown streetlight installation, combined with the first few months of additional LED streetlight projects throughout the city. "Getting billed properly for city-owned streetlights is important, but only accounts for one-fifth of the savings," said Brix. The rest comes from reduced maintenance costs.

Out of 7,000 streetlight fixtures citywide, Ann Arbor has about 1,400 LEDs, saving an estimated 350,000 kilowatt-hours per year—about equivalent to the amount of electricity used by 50 average Ann Arbor homes, according to Brix. Out of the 200,000 streetlights that DTE owns and operates throughout southeastern Michigan, about 1,000 use LEDs, said Henderson, noting a goal to bring that up to 4,000-8,000 (2-4 percent).

Back in 2007, the city approached DTE and said, "Hey, we want to do LEDs," Brix recalls. The utility "came back and said they needed to get their own hands-on experience with what was, at the time, still a pretty new technology," he said. "What has changed since then is that the industry is maturing and we have more standards and specifications we can rely on now, so that going forward we won't have to do those tests."

Much larger LED streetlight installations are in the works. San Francisco, California, for example, issued a request for proposals late last year to replace 18,500 high-pressure sodium "cobra-head" streetlights owned and maintained by the city and county. Looking to go beyond the basic benefits of greater efficiency and longer life, San Francisco envisions a wireless monitoring and control system being integrated into dimmable LED luminaires.

Henderson sees the capability for controls and dimming as an exciting part of the future of LED streetlights. Regarding late night and early morning dimming, he said, "Other parts of the world do that for energy savings," offering Paris as an example. "If people can get comfortable with that," electricity needs could be further reduced, and the LEDs would last even longer, he said.

For now, Ann Arbor still spends about $1.5 million annually on streetlights. Brix considers it "a big ask" to propose a new technology for utility-owned streetlights that would save the city money. "They need to be comfortable with it," he said. By the end of 2011, Brix said Ann Arbor expects to double its streetlight energy savings by installing 500 LED fixtures as replacements for high-wattage streetlights. And with a goal to bring streetlight costs below $1 million per year, said Brix, "we're just going to keep plugging away, putting in LEDs as soon as we've got the funding."

(Related from National Geographic: "Our Vanishing Night")

The Service Ecology of a City

2011-01-23T01:34:00.000-08:00

The Service Ecology of a City
By John Thackara

Milan has approved a new Territorial Government Plan (Piano di Governo del Territorio) in which public services, and the way they are planned, are at the centre of the whole project.

Since 2008, Id-lab has worked alongside the City Administration to change the way Milan thinks about urban development. Each of the city's 88 existing quarters, with its own characteristics and identity, is treated as a core element in the new approach. An ongoing conversation with citizens has elicited an understanding of which services are considered important for daily life — such as schools, kindergartens, libraries, health and social services.

From these 88 Environmental Atlase an understanding emerges of where service provision is failing. The new Plan does not fix which services will be activated in the future, nor where they will be placed. On the contrary, the idea is to enable a cyclical decision making process in which the identification of needs and action priorities is continuous. Unlike in traditional planning, the city never arrives at the moment in which its plan is finished. On the contrary: every six months a new process of reconnaissance, of “listening,” begins which updates the collective understanding of new needs and wants.

IdLab's vision is that these dynamic service ecology maps will act as a trigger that encourages entrepreneurs to develop new services when these emerging needs, at an ultra-local level, become evident. The map below, for example, identifies areas within each neighbourhood that lack close connection to a public transport route; one idea is that these gaps are spotted by minivan operators who move in to close the connection and remove the necessity for people to use private cars.

The same goes for maps which plot areas of the city where planting and food growing might be reintroduced. The role of the city here is not to grow food, but to highlight spatial opporunities and down the line, to remove planning and regulatory blockages.

A related project, Nutrire Milano (Feeding Milan) is also exploring the relationships between food systems, service innovation, and sustainable urban development. A project of the Slow Food Movement with Milan Polytechnic, Nutrire Milano also uses maps to highlight where there are gaps or blockages in the ways food is produced and distributed.

8 million ideas to redesign a city....

2011-01-23T01:27:00.000-08:00

Mayor Bloomberg is not one to shy away from new ideas. The 8 million citizens of New York City are famously opinionated -- for every problem, there are at least 8 million ideas on how to fix it. Give a Minute is a new model for urban participation, a 311 for new ideas that, "seeks to reinvent the public process for the 21st century."

The program engages the entire city with a single question, soliciting ideas and then connecting participants together in Action Groups. Groups are organized around specific solutions, and sponsored by anyone from a city-wide nonprofit to a neighborhood group or individual. Mobilizing resources like fund-raising efforts and city programs will help to actualizes some of these solutions.

As Mayor Bloomberg stated in his announcement, "This kind of open call for ideas -- or 'crowdsourcing,' as it's called -- has helped cutting-edge companies improve services and save money. And with more than 8.4 million people in our crowd, imagine what we can come up with." The program launches in April of 2011 in NYC but cities like Chicago and Memphis are already rolling out similar programs

12 Behaviour that drain energy at workplace

2011-01-23T01:09:00.000-08:00

Your exhaustion might not be due to your tasks or long hours. It may be the actions of your colleagues.
Jon Gordon, author of Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture, said, “While ‘work’ is a convenient scapegoat, the real culprit is often the negativity of the people you work with — their constant complaining, and the pessimistic culture that is the norm in a lot of workplaces.”
Gordon coined the term “drainer” to describe “people who suck the life and energy right out of you.” Here are his top 12 draining behaviors, with tips for how to change for the better:

1. The energy vampire. Gordon calls people who are never happy, rarely supportive and constantly nay-saying suggestions “energy vampires.”
What to do: Respond constructively when someone offers an idea. Even if you think suggestions are off the mark, hear them out. Let employees and co-workers know that when they bring ideas, they’ll be received with respect. Insist that others do the same. Negativity squelches creativity and initiative, but an encouraging attitude keeps creative juices flowing.

2. The out-of-control complain train. It’s a well-known phenomenon: One person’s complaint resonates with someone else, who adds grievances, prompting another to throw in her two negative cents and so on. Soon everyone is complaining, and any work that gets done is marred by a bad attitude.
What to do: Push for solutions. If a conversation heads for Complaint Central, ask the complainers how they would improve things. Turn employees from problem-sharers to problem-solvers.

3. The vicious voicemail (or e-mail). These critiques often seem more vehement than they actually are. Any communication sent electronically can last forever, a constant reminder of supposed shortcomings.
What to do: If you need to talk through a conflict, do it in person if at all possible. You’ll be able to ensure your words and tone aren’t misinterpreted, and you’ll be able to immediately have a constructive dialogue. By talking about ways to improve, you can end the conversation on a positive and encouraging note.

4. The loaded Monday morning inbox. If you’re getting a jumpstart on the workweek, it can be tempting to dish out details and to-dos as you think of them. But coming in to a mountain of e-mail on Monday is draining and makes folks feel like they’re fighting an uphill battle from the start.
What to do: Flag urgent messages so your teammates know which to tackle first. Combine as many tasks and questions as you can into one document. If you do fire off a multitude of messages in a moment of panic, a quick note acknowledging the unusual volume can change everything, Gordon said.

5. The busy bee bamboozle. Some workers confuse activity with progress. They seem busy but don’t meet deadlines or accomplish much. When teams are being formed, people hope this type isn’t assigned to theirs.
What to do: Set goals and hold yourself and others accountable for results. Goals should be things that matter and that are visible and valuable to your team. Make sure goals are crystal clear — they’ll be easier to accomplish.

6. The low-performer look-away. Low performers drag the rest of the team down. They create resentment and generate more work for others. If you allow them to linger, your best employees will move to more productive environments.
What to do: Don’t tolerate low performance. Hold everyone accountable for meeting goals and adhering to the same performance standards. If one person consistently misses the bar, take swift action. Let employees know you value their hard work and will not allow others to do less and get away with it.

7. The unclear communiqué. Poor communication can lead to serious mistakes and missed opportunities. When employees, co-workers or supervisors have to spend time pursuing clarification, productivity falls and creativity is stifled.
What to do: Make sure the right people are in the know. For example, if a client prefers to be contacted only by e-mail, tell all the appropriate people. You’ll set your team up for success and ensure clients get the service they deserve. Be clear about directions and expectations.

8. The disorganization drag-down. Disorganization impedes productivity. Accidents happen, but not being able to find a report for the third meeting in a row sets a bad example, and it depletes others of the energy they could be putting toward other work.
What to do: Keep up with tasks and responsibilities. If you can’t put your hands on what you need, don’t automatically ask others for help. Take a few minutes to try finding it on your own. Better yet, develop better processes than the ones you’re using (or not using) now. If someone in your office has a particular knack for organization, ask her for tips to help you

9. The hasty plate clear-off. There’s a lot to do, and you understandably want to get your tasks done so you don’t hold up others. But doing assignments quickly to get them off your plate can mean piling the work on someone else. Rushing is likely to cause mistakes, which isn’t fair to the person who gets the assignment next.
What to do: Get focused and take the time to do your best work the first time. Pay attention to details, double-check your work and ensure you followed the proper guidelines.

10. The chronic deadline dodge. Unmet deadlines throw everything and everyone off-track. Unexpected obstacles can prevent meeting deadlines, but those instances should be few and far between. Chronically missing deadlines is a sign that either people aren’t giving it their all or they’re truly overburdened. Either way, productivity suffers.
What to do: Set reasonable, clear deadlines, and hold everyone accountable. Unrealistic deadlines set folks up for failure.

11. The unattainable atta-boy or atta-girl. It’s easy to get so caught up in what’s ahead that you forget to acknowledge what’s happening now. When responsibilities give you to-do tunnel vision, you might skimp on the “job-well-dones.” That can discourage employees, especially if you ask about another unmet goal or push more work at them to try and make up for losses in other areas.
What to do: Express appreciation when appropriate. Employees don’t need a pat on the back and a round of applause at every turn, but they do need is to know that you can be satisfied. If employees feel no amount of hard work or long hours will ever garner approval, their energy and motivation will be zapped.

12. The blame game. Pointing fingers is a huge mistake. If others think you don’t shoulder your share of blame or are unapproachable when it comes to constructive criticism, they’ll start to shut down toward you.
What to do: Accept responsibility gracefully and humbly. Be open to suggestions and criticism. Nobody likes to be the one at fault, but owning up to mistakes, and learning from them are part of working together and being successful.

It's monsoon time

2011-01-23T00:53:00.000-08:00

Be careful driving during monsoon rain season.

Heavy rainfall follow by flash floods and occasionally landslide posed dangerous situation for drivers.

Be alert with latest news from local news agency and prepare for any eventuality.

Curry that kills cancer cell

2010-12-26T17:37:00.000-08:00

A spicy way has been found to kill cancer cells.

Scientists ave discovered that a substance found in turmeric, a basic curry ingredient, can kill cancer cells within 24 hours.

Researchers at Ireland's Cork Cancer Research Centre who treated oesophageal cancer cells with curcumin, a chemical found in turmeric, observed that it triggers lethal death signals in the cells.

The cells eventually digest themselves and die.

The results of the study were published in the British Journal of Cancer on Wednesday.

Curcumin gives turmeric (curcuma zangais) its orangy-yellow colour. The rhizome, a close relative of the ginger, is commonly used in Asian cooking as well as in traditional medicine.

Chinese and Ayurvedic medical practioners use turmeric as a treatment for many ailments as it has anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal properties and believed to lower cholestrol.

The results of the Cork Cancer Research Centre study were published in the British Journal of Cancer on Wednesday.

"These exciting results suggest that scientists can develop curcumin as a potential anti-cancer drug to treat oesophageal cancer," said Dr Sharon McKenna who led the study.

She said scientists had known hat natural compounds had the potential to treat faulty cells that become cancerous, adding they also suspected curcumin's possible therapeutic value.

She said medical researcher Dr Geraldine O’Sullivan-Coyne who had been looking for new ways of killing resistant oesophageal cancer cells tested curcumin on resistant cells.

"She found that they started to die using an unexpected system of cell messages."

"Normally, faulty cells die by committing programmed suicide – or apoptosis – which occurs when proteins called caspases are ‘switched on’ in cells."

"But these cells showed no evidence of suicide and the addition of a molecule that inhibits caspases and stops this ‘switch being flicked’, made no difference to the number of cells which died."

"This suggested that curcumin attacked cancer cells using an alternative cell signalling system," she added.

Oesophagus cancer kill more than half a million people in the world each year. The cancers are exceptionally deadly, with five-year survival rates of between 12 and 31 per cent.

The number of oesophageal cancer cases have gone up tremendously since the 70s and this is thought to be linked to rising rates of obesity, alcohol intake and reflux disease.

Source: Cancer Research UK

Published Oct 29 2009

Tree that cure leukimia

2010-12-13T16:43:00.000-08:00

Leukaemia inhibitor from tree extract can help fight cancer
By YU JI
yuji@thestar.com.my

KUCHING: A compound from the Aglaia foveolata tree, found in Sarawak’s highlands, has entered pre-clinical trials, showing positive results in inhibiting the growth of some forms of cancer like leukaemia.

According to scientists at the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC), which owns the intellectual property rights to the plant, experiments found an extracted compound called Silvestrol offered benefits not found in other cancer-fighting drugs.

“First, it seems to inhibit leukaemia growth compared with controlled tests performed on mice. Second, the tests show that it seems to bypass drug resistance,” said Dr Yeo Tiong Chia, senior research officer at the centre.

Dr Yeo, a graduate of the Washington University in immunology, said he was confident of the compound’s potential.

He added that if tests continued to be positive, then the next step would be to conduct clinical trials on humans.

However, as with all experiments, he added, outcomes were hard to predict and could go either way.

Dr Yeo was speaking to The Star during SBC’s annual open day at its headquarters near Padawan, here.

Meanwhile, SBC chief executive Dr Rita Manurung said the centre needed funds to speed up research.

She said the centre had submitted a development proposal of RM5mil to both state and federal governments.

The development included expanding its chemistry labs and having better facilities to attract more visiting scientists.

Dr Rita explained the urgent need for funds.

“Intellectual property rights are not forever. At SBC, we hold just one right, which is for the Aglaia plant.

“We acquired that right in 2004, but such rights usually expire after 15 to 20 years. As such, all research must be speeded up,” she said.

Another important role of the centre is documenting indigenous vegetation, with focus on those that have medical qualities not yet known to the scientific community.

The programme has been ongoing for almost a decade, with about 3,000 plants documented.

Bacteria that eat steel

2010-12-13T03:45:00.000-08:00

A new bacteria has been found in the wreck of the Titanic, growing in "rusticles," icicle-like structures on the ship's rusting iron, Canadian researchers say.

The previously unknown bacteria, Halomonas titanicae, was found in samples of rusticles taken from the Titanic by the Mir 2 robotic submersible in 1991, the BBC reported.

The ship sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City on April 14, 1912 with 2,227 people on-board: 1,517 died in the frigid waters.

Researchers from Dalhousie University and the Ontario Science Center in Canada and the University of Seville in Spain isolated the bacteria from those samples.

DNA sequencing showed them to be a new species of the Halomonas genus found in salt water environments.

The bacteria may shed light on the mechanism by which rusticles form and the "recycling" that such microbes carry out on submerged metal structures, the researchers said.

Such findings could have relevance to the protection of offshore oil and gas pipelines and the safe disposal at sea of ships and oil rigs, they said.

The find has been published in the journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Halomonas titanicae sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from the RMS Titanic

Cristina Sánchez-Porro1, Bhavleen Kaur2, Henrietta Mann3 and Antonio Ventosa1,4
1 University of Sevilla, Spain;
2 Ontario Science Centre, Canada;
3 Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

4 E-mail: ventosa@us.es

Star Motoring - Proton hybrid electric fleet for pilot run in January - Car news, reviews, previews, classifieds, price guides

2010-11-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

Star Motoring - Proton hybrid electric fleet for pilot run in January - Car news, reviews, previews, classifieds, price guides

The original ingredient of "Earl Grey" tea

2010-11-21T15:53:00.000-08:00

Beside tea leaves from Camellia sinensis, the British merchant in order to overcome shortage of tea, had create a combination of several plants leaves.

The scented tea were produce by combining (or adulteration);
1. Chloranthus inconspicuus
2. Jasminum sambac
3. Gardenia florida
4. Murraya exotica
5. Aglaia odorata
6. Orange and lemon leaves

This was the original combination of bergamot-flavored Earl Grey tea which now considered as 'great tea'

Source : Seed of Change, author by Henry Hobhouse

Deep Green Underwater Kite

2010-11-21T05:57:00.000-08:00

Deep Green Underwater Kite
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2010/best_inventions/bi_underwaterkite_1122.jpg
Swedish company Minesto's underwater kite resembles a child's toy as it swoops and dives in ocean currents. But since seawater is 800 times as dense as air, the small turbine attached to the kite — which is tethered to the ocean floor — can generate 800 times more energy than if it were in the sky. Minesto calls the technology Deep Green and says it can generate 500 kilowatts of power even in calm waters; the design could increase the market for tidal power by 80%, the company says. The first scale model will be unveiled next year off the coast of Northern Ireland.