environment

The Carbon Footprint of Carbon Bikes

The Carbon Footprint of Carbon Bikes:

“Right now, you can’t recycle the carbon back into a bike, but we’d love to see that happen someday,” says Bjorland. He says that completing the circle is still the holy grail, since obviously an aluminum or steel frame can, at least in theory, be turned back into another bike — and more to the point, can be repaired rather than junked post almost any crash. Carbon’s obviously never going to be as mendable as metal.

[At least people are paying attention… And all but one of my bikes are metal, and mostly have no paint. What little I can…]
Source: adventure journal

On the Impracticality of a Cheeseburger

On the Impracticality of a Cheeseburger:

Waldo Jaquith:

A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed,
post-agrarian society. It requires a complex interaction between a
handful of vendors — in all likelihood, a couple of dozen — and
the ability to ship ingredients vast distances while keeping them
fresh. The cheeseburger couldn’t have existed until nearly a
century ago as, indeed, it did not.

Love the Sagan quote at the end.

[While an interesting thought experiment it doesn’t ring entirely true. Sure there can be problems with the seasonality of vegetables, but cheese making would have been a continual pursuit for those who did it. And while animal rennet is certainly most common, there are vegetable used rennets as well. etc. etc. The truth seems closer to “it takes a village” than do it all yourself. Maybe you hot house something, trade for some cheese, and no doubt, pre-freezer slaughtering a cow or a sheep would require multiple families because a single (unless very large) family couldn’t eat the animal fast enough… I try and enjoy each season for what it brings in all senses. The weather, the food, the holidays. So I think the effort to completely raise the entire meal from the ground is cool, much as planting trees to turn into furniture later is cool. But that path is long, and life is fleeting.]
Source: Daring Fireball

Wunda’s World: Clarifying purpose

Wunda’s World: Clarifying purpose:

How can we do this? By understanding and buying into what we are creating and how we see it experienced. We can create a mission, vision and values to clarify and create distinction.

The mission statement is all about purpose. Its about the problem you are trying to solve, the information you are trying to share and/or the service you are trying to provide. Its about the long term goals.

On the other side, the vision statement is an abstraction of the experience. It can include words like fun, simple, quality, quickly, stable, reliable, responsive, etc. It does not include ideas like color schemes, mechanics, technology specifics or other implementation details.

Time can also be spent on value statements (users own their information, we strive to directly connect with and respond to user feedback, all user feedback is valid, etc)

Continue drilling down into these ideas until everyone knows what they are doing, are excited to work towards the goals and know in their hearts they are working on an effort they accept fully.

For new teams, taking time to manifest an understanding of team dynamics, quality and creativity with as much openness and honesty as possible can help ensure the best “good-enough” software gets created in a way that is enjoyable, sustainable and collaborative.

Finally, read these statements every morning. When discussions become long, unclear or hostile, refer back to them. Use them as a method to stay detached to what is no longer serving and focused on the underlying issues.

[Well said!]

Fresh Goods: Soul Poles Bamboo Ski Poles

Fresh Goods: Soul Poles Bamboo Ski Poles:

Everything old is new again: Soul Poles has gone back to one of the original materials used to make ski poles, bamboo, and there are compelling arguments in its favor, aside from the fact that the poles look bitchin’. The fledgling brand, launched by World Cup skiers Erik Schlopy and Bryon Friedman, makes the sticks by hand in Utah from sustainable bamboo and mostly recycled materials, including a recycled polypro strap, recycled plastic in the basket, and 80 percent recycled aluminum in the tip. SP is also a member of One Percent for the Planet and Protect Our Winters and good on ‘em for it.

$99-$295 LINK

[Bamboo is everywhere these days. Nice.]
Source: adventure journal

Why the Keurig K-Cup is the beginning of the end for great coffee « Muddy Dog Roasting Co.

Why the Keurig K-Cup is the beginning of the end for great coffee « Muddy Dog Roasting Co.: Do you think that vision is crazy?  Let’s see.  How easy is it to buy a Walla Walla onion?  Never heard of it?  I’m not surprised.  I grew up with them, but they’re already a thing of the past.  Hundreds of vegetable varieties have already gone extinct, solely due to our desire to homogenize, to have crops that ship well, regardless of how they taste.  Only 5% of US apple varieties that existed just 200 years ago still exist today.   Ninety percent of vegetable varieties have gone extinct over the last 100 years in the UK. The crimson flowered broad bean, the Champion of England Pea, the Bath Cos Lettuce, and the Rowsham Park Hero Onion are just a few examples of vegetables that are lost forever.  Hundreds of heirloom vegetable varieties are on the brink of extinction.  And there are all kinds of other foods that are falling victim to this same phenomenon. Try to buy a really great charcuterie today – Boar’s Head is as close as you’ll get in most places.  A beautiful creme fraiche?   How about Yoplait?  Great cheeses?  We got your Kraft, RIGHT HERE.  Don’t believe me? Go check out Slow Food’s Ark of Taste.  Oh, what’s that, you would like to have a nice meal at a cute bistro?  Sorry, all that’s available now are chain stores like Panera, TGI Friday’s or Appleby’s.  But you can probably score some Jack Daniels chicken wings, or some other ill-advised mess.  I can sum it all up in one word: Monsanto.

[And while Jim of Muddy Dog Roasting Company explains from his perspective. I think this particular paragraph worries me more (I’m not a coffee drinker) in that it is part of a larger problem, which expressed perfectly above. And in case it isn’t obvious the lost biodiversity is not just a loss of taste and experience. That’s bad enough. But it has become entirely clear that eating different foods is healthy for you, and having variations of each food makes that easier (you eat a tomato, but it’s a different tomato). The varying balances of the “ingredients” of a fruit or vegetable is a fundamental goodness. And the craft of growing and preparing food, where the results are not consistent at the “Monsanto” level and don’t try to be is also a fundamental goodness. It’s the same thing that is appealing about anything hand made. Sure, a dreadnaught style guitar has certain fundamental qualities. But each one is different. Hand build a bicycle and each one will have some personality even if you use the same measurements and tube set. That variation is good for us. And we need to be extremely careful that we don’t lose it in a chase to the bottom in the name of efficiency and money.]
Source: Marco Arment

Unprecedented Arctic ozone hole in 2011

Unprecedented Arctic ozone hole in 2011; a Florida tropical storm next week?: An unprecedented ozone hole opened in the Arctic during 2011, researchers reported this week in the journal Nature. Holes in the Antarctic ozone layer have opened up each spring since the early 1980s, but the Arctic had only shown modest springtime ozone losses in the 5% – 30% range over the past twenty years. But this year, massive ozone destruction of 80% occurred at altitudes of 18 – 20 kilometers in the Arctic during spring, resulting in Earth’s first known case of twin ozone holes, one over each pole. During late March and portions of April, the Arctic ozone hole was positioned over heavily populated areas of Western Europe, allowing large levels of damaging ultraviolet rays to reach the surface. UV-B radiation causes skin damage that can lead to cancer, and has been observed to reduce crop yields in two-thirds of 300 important plant varieties studied (WMO, 2002.) The total loss of ozone in a column from the surface to the top of the atmosphere reached 40% during the peak of this year’s Arctic ozone hole. Since each 1% drop in ozone levels results in about 1% more UV-B reaching Earth’s surface (WMO, 2002), UV-B levels reaching the surface likely increased by 40% at the height of this year’s hole. We know that an 11% increase in UV-B light can cause a 24% decrease in winter wheat yield (Zheng et al., 2003), so this year’s Arctic ozone hole may have caused noticeable reductions in Europe’s winter wheat crop.

[What a mess…]
Source: Dr. Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog

Winter’s first sneaux

The magnitude and ferocity of this storm is hard to describe. It started gently enough, but as we hit the main portion of the storm, it snowed as hard as I’ve seen it. It left five foot drifts in the back yard and the similar in the driveway. The strongly whipping winds piled snow high in some places, and left almost nothing elsewhere. The trees lining the driveway left a wind protected walkway that was very useful. The crows enjoyed the feast left on the ground from the winds. The next morning, the storm was still clearing out.

Looked a bit like Kodachrome

Crows

Waiting for summer

limbs

Afternoon peace

Morning's passing storm

64.4

I play a silly game in the car on my morning commute: Without making a traffic hazard of myself, how far up can I push the gas mileage? (3 minute minimum duration.)

64.4 mpg on the commute this morning…

#ifIcantbeonabike

64_4_sm.jpg

Nothing this large…

…should be outside my front door. That print’s about the size of my hand.IMG_1535.jpg

This is what happens when your tech doesn’t tighten the QR on your semi horizontal dropout bike (The wheel pulled to rub against the chainstay). Plus you get dropped by jackasses on what is supposed to be a slow training ride. I was better company anyway.IMG_0435.jpg

IMG_1539.jpg

The deer do so enjoy romping around my back yard.