Practical hands-on tips and projects to save energy

I'm writing to recommend this website, builditsolar.com, to anyone who is considering taking real life steps to stretch their residence energy dollar.  I like a lot of things about this site: the combination of practical instructions on what one can and should do to save energy, combined with great photos to illustrate the…

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“Here, have a bloated SUV, they say. Sorry about all your dead kids in Iraq”

If you're wondering why we "can't" buy electric cars (especially since 80% of Americans drive 50 miles or less per day), check out this review of an electric sports car.  The title deserves a special award of some sort:  "Lick My Silent Sports Car; How much has Big Auto lied?…

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Bicycling: bad for the environment?

Here's a provocative article about why bicycling might, in the long run, be harmful to the environment.  Here are the author's main conclusions: Human-powered transportation can substitute for trips by single-occupant automobiles. This substitution has a direct and immediate benefit of reducing energy consumption, even accounting for the latent energy content of…

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Al Gore has his job cut out for him.

Like so many other complex issues, Americans don’t seem to understand global warming. In a Gallup poll conducted in March, respondents ranked their level of concern regarding several environmental issues. When asked to rank their level of concern over global warming, 36% of Americans claimed that it worried them “a…

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Do unto thyself what thou wouldn’t let others do

Would we harm our selves in ways that we would never let others harm us?  Yes, actually.  We do this all the time.  This common occurrence has long intrigued me.

About fifteen years ago, I was trying to lose weight.  A diet book I was reading presented a hypothetical, which I have embellished:

Imagine that a gang of strangers repeatedly broke into your house.  Each time they broke in, they brought a large basket of food with them.  Each time they broke in, they tracked you down and forced you to eat food that you didn’t need or want.  “Stop that!”  You would yell.  “I’m not hungry.  Go away!”  Nonetheless, the strangers forced you to eat food that you didn’t want.  They returned every few hours and repeated his attack on you.  Every time you tried to exercise, the strangers appeared and made you sit on the couch to watch television instead. 

Over the course of months, the excess food the strangers forced you to eat caused your body to bloat larger and larger.  Your clothing stopped fitting.  It became difficult to get in and out of your car.  Most of your acquaintances gossiped about how you had become “fat.”  

And it got even worse.  You became diabetic. You got depressed.  You constantly cursed those strangers for making you obese and unhealthy.  You bought special burglar-proof doors and windows (but they didn’t work).  Because this gang repeatedly violated your rights, you even considered buying a gun to defend yourself from

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