* Part 1 provides basic guidelines for promoting sustainability in your congregation;
* Part 2 provides a brief overview of the steps in establishing a baseline understanding of your energy consumption;
* Part 3 provides direction to a detailed resource for use in establishing your baseline and in making changes to promote reduced consumption;
* Part 4 provides direction to additional resources.
Working from the Volt's forty mile target range, it has been determined that a 400 lb. swing in mass only has a two-mile effect on range on the city driving cycle and only a one mile effect on the highway. While every mile and pound counts, this turned out to be much smaller than the effect of aerodynamic drag. Intuitively, most people expect that aerodynamic drag has an impact on the range and efficiency of a vehicle at highway speeds.
This of course is true with a forty count reduction in drag coefficient (for example going from .300 to .260) having a six mile impact on range at highway speeds. The impact at city speeds is the big surprise. Here the same aerodynamic drag reduction causes the range to increase by four miles, more than double the effect of a 400 lb. weight reduction.
]]>"It would be much easier to base any future deal on emissions at the point of consumption. That feeds into the equity debate in which poor countries will be allowed to increase their CO2.
"It's at the very least misleading for the UK government to claim reductions while we export our emissions. This is a problem no government wants to face.
"In emissions terms, we are constantly battling against increases of wealth. Every year, we don't even manage to improve our energy efficiency to keep up with wealth increases, let alone to cut emissions.
"There's a very fundamental problem here that no-one really wants to talk about."
]]>Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back, let ting go of the girl.
The biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A reporter has seen the whole scene, and addressing the biker, says -
"Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my
whole life."
"It was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little
kid in danger, and SOMEBODY had to save her."
"Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you
know", the reporter said, "and tomorrow's papers will have this on the
first page. What motorcycle do you drive?"
"A Harley Davidson."
The journalist leaves.
The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings
news of his actions, and reads, on first page:
BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH.
]]>A Primer on Paint Primers
First, let me dispel a very common myth.
Primers are NOT designed to "cover" dark or intense colors. I have seen this advice given so often on internet bulletin boards and even in magazine articles - I imagine the primer coatings industry loves it, but if you read the labels on just about any can of primer, nowhere will it suggest this as a purpose - with two exceptions I'll mention later.
So, if you have a dark red room you want to paint, say, light taupe, don't bother with painting an entire coat of primer first just to "cover." It will be a waste of time and money - just do two coats of your taupe. Even if you prime the walls, you will still have to do two coats of taupe over the primer.
And while I am at it, the term "cover" refers to how large an area your paint will cover. For the anal-retentive wordsmiths among you (and anal retentive wordsmith painters like me) the correct term for how well paint hides the underlying color is, well, "hide." As in "high hiding" paint or primer.
Most primers are low-hiding because they are not designed to hide.
http://www.gardenandhearth.com/PaintandWallpaper/PrimeronPrimer.htm
]]>Some people confuse drywall primers with sealers. It's important to differentiate between the two. Sealers do just the opposite of what primers do. With a high resin content and low pigment content, sealers create a barrier resistant to paint.
Choosing the right kind of drywall primer is important, as well. The decision lies on where the drywall is and how much moisture there is to be dealt with. Although latex primers are known to have enhanced "breathing" characteristics and to dry much faster, oil/alkyd primers penetrate the gypsum board easier and stick to it better than primers with a latex additive.
]]>For as long as I can remember, environmental issues have been near the top of my list of perennial concerns. And when it came to managing the planet, I used to believe that primitive simplicity was the way human beings could best coexist with the earth. And while I'm still sure that we need to keep focused on the essentials and do all we can to live happily with less, I've also come to a renewed faith in the value of innovation and conservation technology. My experiences with that woodstove and a brand new baby helped a lot to point me in this direction. Sometimes old technologies and approaches are the most wasteful of all. And with developments like SIPs, ICFs and radiant heating systems, we're one step closer to seeing what a sustainable future looks like.
]]>Owens Corning developed fiberglass in 1932, and since then fiberglass batts have become a standard feature of Canadian homes. The design and insulation of wall frames hasn't changed much in many years, so no one questions it. But the fact is, fiberglass is really a rather poor insulator when you look at its real-world performance. The open structure and low density of this material allows air to move right through, sapping energy performance enough to foster frosty walls and some pretty scary, real-world energy stats. To discover just how wide the discrepancy is between actual thermal performance and theoretical energy ratings of fiberglass, you need to take a look at two pivotal research studies.
The first comes from the Roof Research Center at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Scientists there discovered that fiberglass attic insulation delivers only 50% of its rated thermal performance at -28ยบ C. As cold, dense air makes its way into the vented attic space, it moves down through the fluffy fiberglass in a way that doesn't happen when batts are rated in the lab. And the colder the air gets, the worse fiberglass performs.
Another study is Canadian, conducted by Dr. Tony Shaw at Brock University. He analyzed the energy consumption of two nearly identical, new homes built side-by-side to code standards. The only difference between the two structures was the walls. One had 2×6 wall studs insulated with R-19 fiberglass batts, and the other had walls built with structural insulated panels (SIPs) rated at R-17. Under actual wintertime field conditions, the walls of the SIPs home delivered exactly what they were rated to - R-17. The internal, closed-cell foam insulation in these panels isn't subject to air infiltration, so thermal performance remained high and consistent.
The walls of the fiberglass-insulated, stud-frame home, on the other hand, performed at an actual level of only R-4 because of the inevitable air movement within the hollow wall cavities. Hard to believe, but true. You can put all the building wrap and siding you like around the outside of a house, but air still wafts through wall cavities, carrying energy with it. In the Brock study, the code-built, stud-wall home lost over 60% more energy than the SIPs home, while the SIPs structure cost less than 5% more to build.
]]>Among other red flags, the report's researchers found:
* Globally, forests have shrunk by approximately 40% in the last three centuries, having completely disappeared in 25 countries; another 29 countries have lost more than 90% of their forest cover.
* About 50% of the planet's wetlands have been lost in the past century, with increasing pressure in the last half-century to convert tropical and sub-tropical wetlands to alternative land use.
* Around a third of the world's coral reefs--which can have higher levels of biodiversity than even tropical forests--have been seriously damaged through fishing, pollution, disease and coral bleaching; another 25% are in immediate danger of the same fate.
* More than a third of the world's mangroves have disappeared in the last two decades; in some countries, the loss is up to 80%, via conversion for aquaculture, over-exploitation and storms.
* The Earth is currently undergoing its sixth mass extinction event, which has the distinction of being the only one that has been human-induced. The rate of manmade species extinction is estimated to be 1,000 times faster than the natural rate of extinction which is typical of Earth's long-term history.
The net effect is that more than half of the world's life-giving ecosystems, which operate in interdependent ways that are not fully understood by science, have deteriorated in the last half-century, primarily as a result of human impacts. In their introduction to the report, Stavros Dimas and Sigmar Gabriel bluntly assert that "we are, so to speak, erasing nature's hard drive without even knowing what data it contains."
Green Car Congress: Report: The Economic Costs of Deteriorating Ecosystems
]]>Stuart Derbyshire, a leading expert in pain based at the University of Birmingham, says it is certainly "desirable to live a long and healthy life" - but from Lindbergh's experiments to today's ethical question for longevity, he says there is also a "troubling" side to the "quest to live forever".
"Any life, long or short, is only worthwhile if it is lived towards some purpose. The zealous pursuit of health and longevity can too easily become a substitute for real purpose.
"Health itself becomes a quasi-religious crusade against the old sins of the flesh - gluttony, sloth, lust - with all the attendant odious associations of physical impairment or disease with moral turpitude or a bad life."
]]>In a departure from the usual video game setting a recent educational video game called "Cool School" was designed to teach kids peaceful conflict resolution. Unfortunately Congress has decided to slash the funding of this program that has been receiving rave reviews from the testers at schools in Illinois. "Cool School focuses on taking players through a school where just about everything (desks, books, and other objects) are alive and have their own personality. Over the course of ten levels and over 50 different situations designed by Professor Melanie Killen and then-doctoral student Nancy Margie (both of the University of Maryland). The primary goal of the game is to teach students how to solve social conflict through skills like negotiation and cooperation. During the title's development, Killen and Margie were able to work with some talented members of the video game industry, including independent developer F.J. Lennon and animator Dave Warhol." The game is now available as a free download and will play on both Mac OS X and Windows XP.
Slashdot | Congress Slashes Funding for Peaceful Conflict Resolution Game
]]>Diplomats from around the world are gathering in Dublin for a conference that aims to secure a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs.
The proposed ban has the support of more than 100 countries.
Humanitarian organisations say a binding treaty is now urgent because these weapons cause unacceptable harm to civilians.
But some of the biggest producers of cluster weapons, including the US, China and Russia, are against the move.
]]>step 1Assembling the contents
This emergency kit consists of:
1.) Jumper cables (aka booster cables)
2.) Multi-Tool (one of those pliers that have tons of tools in the handle)
3.) Map (local area or area you'll be traveling)
4.) First-aid kit
5.) Flashlight
6.) Rag
7.) Duct tape (because you can fix a lot of things with Duct tape)
8.) Rain coat (the folded $1 type)
9.) Emergency blanket (the folded $1 type)
10.) Folding shovel (entrenching tool)
11.) Fuses for fuse box
12.) Water bottles
13.) Protein bars or M.R.E. (meal-ready-to-eat)
14.) Reflective tape or reflective triangles (flares are hard to find)
15.) Old Cell phone, fully charged. Call customer service via the phone to make sure it works. Do not make test calls to 911 (Service is not needed to make 911 calls). Most modern cell phones and cell networks can triangulate your position, this is very handy in an emergency.
16.) Lighter or water proof matches, or flint rod.
17.) Compass
I'll address some of these items in the next few steps.
Emergency Car Survival Kit: Assembling the contents - Instructables - DIY, How To, ride, life
]]>Outside the church, three armed policemen sat on a park bench directly opposite the entrance to the cathedral.
They have become a permanent feature at Sunday services since Zimbabwe's Anglican Communion split last year, resulting in violent clashes between worshippers loyal to Bishop Nolbert Kunonga and his rival Bishop Sebastian Bakare.
Bishop Kunonga is a staunch supporter of President Robert Mugabe and once described Zimbabwe's leader as a "prophet of God".
He was dismissed by the church's regional leaders last year and says he is being persecuted by the global church leadership for his opposition to the ordination of gay priests.
But Zimbabwe's opposition says the government installed him to stop the church criticising human rights abuses.
]]>Even though the kids were poor, the school was clean and there was a lot of energy in the air. The courtyard had "life-size" paintings of different characters ranging from Mayan warriors to Winnie the Pooh and Fred and Wilma Flintstone. The combined 5th and 6th grade class had about 20 kids, including the class president, a girl who won the office because she had the best grades. The 3rd grade class was way more crowded, with over 40 kids. "This is the age when we start to lose them" Lorena told me. "Anything we can do to keep them in school longer will make a difference." She also told me that attendance had increased after the school had opened a computer lab, and the school was in the process of converting one of their buildings into new classrooms to accommodate the increase.
http://blogs.technet.com/jamesu/archive/2007/10/05/what-do-we-mean-by-sustained.aspx
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