14 December 2009

Christmas Lights


  • Dec 14, 2009

Christmas Lights

So many people, when the subject of Christmas lights come up, they acknowledge they are nice, but go on to add "but they are a waste of energy".

As someone who feels strongly that American's use of energy and resources is morally unacceptable, I would like to be very clear about this:
Christmas lights are NOT a waste of energy.

That 80% of car trips have only the driver or a driver and one passenger, yet seat from 5-7 people is a waste of energy.  That we live, on average, 20 miles from our jobs is a waste of energy.  Uninsulated attics and unweather stripped doors and windows in houses and power steering and air conditioning in cars, all electric kitchens, and cars that weigh 50% more than they did 20 years ago and have 200% more power are all enormous wastes of energy.
Buying enormous amounts of crap that no one really needs and that get shoved into a closet or thrown out after a few weeks wastes energy in manufacture and transport.

Not one of those things provides any significant increase in quality of life.  None of them make people happy to be alive.  At most they provide a tiny increase in convince.  At worst they do nothing but cost money.  None of them create joy.



In a land where profit is considered the only motivating factor for nearly everything in life, filled with people who don't know their neighbors, where 50% of people can't be bothered to take the effort to use their turn signals, for a few weeks a year people do something with no financial benefit, no increase in comfort or convenience, no direct personal benefit.
You don't even see them from inside the house.  Everyone else passing by sees them.
They turn an ordinary neighborhood into a magical place.
They create joy.
Which makes them one of the few valid uses of energy in this country.
Because ultimately, making it enjoyable is really the only point there is to life. 

So go ahead and enjoy those giant flashy displays and don't for a second feel guilty about it.
Put up your own even.

You can get a strip of LED lights for less than $10 that use less than 5 watts of power, (far less than a single florescent light bulb).
I even found a set for under $5 that runs for days on just (rechargeable) AA batteries.

But LED or no, the lights are worthwhile and good.

A world without christmas lights is not a world worth saving.

11 December 2009

Last Day of Youth


  • Dec 11, 2009

Last Day of Youth

In less than a month, I will no longer be one of those people who are "in their 20s".
I'm driving slower, I own my home, I'm self-employed, and I have a credit rating above 800.
Defying all that makes sense in the world, I've been gradually becoming a responsible adult.
As of midnight Jan 9th of next year, it will become official.

Living to 90 is a fair goal.
If you chop life into 3 big blocks, 90 / 3, then 0-30 would be youth.  60-90 would be old age.  Which leaves 30-60 to be middle aged.
Wow.
Man.
Crazy.
I am a month away from middle aged.
I'm a divorcee who lives with 2 cats and is currently researching the tax affects of different types of individual retirement accounts.
I don't entirely understand how this happened.




I'm not one to throw parties.
In fact, the last time I hosted a party entirely on my own was - never.

On Saturday, January 9th, 2009, I will have my "Last Day of Youth" party.

Full Contact Spoons and Amtgard in the park (probably Ohlone in Berkeley)

Video games: Perfect Dark and Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart.
Like we used to play in high-school.  I've been playing against my 8 year old neighbor, so I don't suck as much as I did back then.

Hours of non-stop dancing starting at sun down (probably at my house - unless someone with more space than me and a kick-ass sound system wants to volunteer to host)
I went through thousands of tracks, one by one, and selected across multiple genres for maximum danceability, ordered them by beats per minutes, and have them beat-matched and cross faded by robot DJ (aka my laptop - nothing like the real thing, but about $600 cheaper). 7 hours worth of rock-a-billy followed by funk followed by hip-hop followed by "gypsy punk" followed by pop.

There are to be no presents or gifts of any kind.  Seriously.  I have enough stuff and enough money.  And not enough space.  This includes home-made stuff and things that would actually be useful to me.  Nothing.
(Edibles and sorbiles -cake, alcohol, whatever- would be appreciated, but that would be to share with everyone.)
Your presence is my present.
Playing spoons and dancing non-stop until my neighbors complain or we pass out from exhaustion is my present.  Might be a good idea to start an exercise program now to prepare...

Because I would like even my feeble friends to attend, I am suspending my usual rule that anyone who shows up to spoons has to play.

I can not think of a good way to end this

04 December 2009

The Wine Barrel (population and parenthood)


  • Dec 4, 2009

The Wine Barrel (population and parenthood)

The Earth has been around about 5 billion years, life about 4 billion.
Half a billion years for animals, 200 million for mammals.
200,000 years of humans.
For the first 192,000 years or so, the human population was under 10 million people world wide.
Increasing 10 fold took 6000 more years.
We rocketed from 100 million to a billion in just over 2000 years.
The next billion only took 120 years.
And then 30.
And since the 1950s, we have added a billion people every 13 years or so.

We are at around 6.75 billion people now.





Its estimated that it will hit 9 billion in about another 30 years.

That new 2 and a quarter billion people will be our children.



We like to point to the 3rd world, to Asia and Africa, but in the measure that matters, the US is by far the most overpopulated country in the world, as well as one of the fastest growing.



Population is only an issue because of the finite resources the Earth can provide.  If we had unlimited resources there wouldn't be any reason not to keep increasing indefinitely.

If everyone used the same amount of water, land, and energy, and caused the same amount of pollution as the average person in the third world, we would all be ok for a long time to come.  Due to lack of ability, what we call poverty, people in the third world tend to use less than their share of world resources.
The average person in the first world uses 5 times more than the overall world average.
The average American uses 20 times more.  Each of us uses about 20 times more water, 20 times more fuel and electricity, 20 times as much land to produce our food, produces 20 times more waste and pollution. 
Which means that in the big picture, each of us counts for 20 people.

So our 305 million population may as well be 6.1 billion, far more than China's 1.3 billion.  They would have to increase some combination of actual population and consumption per person by far before we could legitimately point the finger at them.

It also means that each child we have counts as 20 people, turning our fertility rate of 2.1 (already above the replacement rate of 2) into the equivalent of 42 per woman, 6 times higher than the highest rate of any third world country - and almost 17 times higher than the world average.



In the US alone there are 200,000 children waiting to be adopted.



It is one of the most basic and universal desires to reproduce.  How could it be any other way? Because if that drive weren't passed along genetic lines, our ancestors wouldn't have bothered, and we wouldn't be here to think about it.

There has been a widespread assumption that just because it is natural and universal, therefore it should be considered a "human right".

Our modern world does not resemble the savanna we evolved on. 
We also have biological instincts to eat whenever food is available just in case there is no food tomorrow - and the result is rampant obesity. 
Violence is natural and universal, but we agree as a society that the costs are not acceptable and make the conscious decision to repress it, both as individuals and as communities.
A good number of us make the conscious choice to go against instinct and manipulate ourselves in ways that take into consideration the reality of our world.  We don't eat everything in front of us, we repress violent impulses - and we make a conscious choice not to breed.
Because, humans can do that, we can think and make choices.


To make wine or beer, you start with grape juice or grains and add microorganisms.
For them it is an incredible feast!  Sugar and carbs as far as the eye can see, no predators, no competition, perfect weather.  So of course they have a really good time, girl fungus meets boy fungus, there's plenty to feed the babies and things just couldn't be better.  And then after a while they literally die from drowning in their own waste products as the population gets completely out of control.
(And then we drink that waste product, but that's another topic entirely)

Human beings, in theory, are a lot more intelligent than yeast.  Yeast don't even have brains.  As individuals we can choose not to have children.  But as a whole, an outside observer would not see much difference between the two species.  As a whole, we continue to breed at a rate related only to the resources available today, with little or no regard to how sustainable those resources are.

A great many people - including liberals and environmentalists and those who are childless by choice - become indignant when this topic is brought up.  Reproduction is considered by many to be a fundamental (God-given?) right, and suggesting otherwise brings to mind eugenics programs, or the murder of female infants when China first instituted its one-family/one-child program when sons were the only form of social security the society had.  Those are not inevitable outcomes. 

As a specie all societies choose to discourage some of our natural instincts in such a way that slight personal restrictions result in a far happier society over all.  It may be perfectly natural for me to want to punch some annoying person right in the face, but the government isn't going to give me a tax break for doing it.
Just the same, it is only natural that I want to have my own kids, related to me by DNA, but if it is going to end up making life that much more difficult for all of the people who are already here, perhaps a tax penalty is more appropriate than a credit.

Average cost for fertility treatment is $12,000, and 12% of US couples seek it.  In about 1/2 the states this is covered by insurance.

Given the 200,000 existing children who need homes, I find this immoral.  Think what medical services could be provided to people who are already here with that $4 billion.


Governments could, at the very least, encourage people to have less children simply by removing tax breaks for kids. 
I don't actually think that is going to happen.

But you and I can still choose on our own to act, even if everyone else isn't likely to fall in line.  It's been calculated time and again that simply having a baby has greater impact than all the imported GMO processed food and single-person commutes in SUVs one could ever hope to have.  From an ecological standpoint, it would be better to drive a hummer and eat at Mickey Ds but adopt your child then to live the hippy lifestyle in a solar powered yurt with a grey-water garden and create 3 brand new babies of your own.

And now we get to the real crux of the matter:

Being aware of this, just how much personal sacrifice are we willing to make?  I want the experience of creating a child.  I also want to avoid being an amoral  hypocrite.  (A moral hypercrite? Yes.  I aspire to be a hypercrite someday.) 

Like most people, I have developed a defensive rationalization to allow me to not feel guilty about doing what I wanted to all along, even though I really know better.

The way I see it, I personally can't be expected to be held responsible for or make up for the excessive consumption of everyone else around me.  I couldn't if I wanted to.  I personally have a sustainable ecological footprint (i.e. if everyone on the planet used the same level of resources as me, we'd all be set indefinitely).  If me and my hypothetical future partner have 2 kids, once we die, overall, the population hasn't gone up.  If we have just one, its gone down by one.  That seems like a decent compromise to me.  I'd like to have one, and adopt one.  (As a bonus, I can choose to have one of each gender, and more precisely choose the age spread).

Many people object to ideas around population control as an emotional response to implied guilt about already having children, and feeling defensive about kids that are already here.  A potential person has nothing in common with a real human being who is actually here.  Acknowledging that resources have a finite rate of renewal is not a personal attack on you. No one is saying your child isn't wonderful or that you made any "wrong" choices. All I am saying is, however many blessings you have, stop now.

Similarly some people in these discussions suggest that any one who advocates population control should kill themselves if they really mean it.  This equates the mere idea of a person, a hypothetical, potential person, with an actual specific person who is here right now, thinking and breathing and feeling.  We aren't talking about abortion here.  Not having a kid is not killing by any definition.  Any discussion about who a person who does not exist but might possibly is equally ridiculous.  That kid who could someday be is no more likely to become the next president than it is to be a serial killer who enjoys torturing victims. 

Bottom line is, having less children today will be much less painful than wars of dwindling resources some number of decades in the future.

23 November 2009

Status message, part 2




  • Nov 23, 2009

Status message, part 2

My last collection of status messages was way too long.
I wouldn't want to go through and click all those links.
But they were all very interesting!
For reals tho!

So I'm going to post the collections here a little more often.
Plus, then I don't have to write anything new.  Writing is hard.  And time consuming.
And it consumes a lot of calories, having to think so much.

Without further ado, the gmail status messages I have had between my last post and today (most recent at the top):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



parkour class = most fun thing ever
http://www.sfparkour.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2639

THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN

my legend builds... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kirsten-dirksen/when-hackers-took-my-vide_b_356801.html

The brain uses about 20 percent of the calories that we eat.

finally scientific confirmation that men are jerks http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/11/12/men-are-far-more-likely-to-abandon-a-seriously-ill-spouse/

large SUVs may be illegal on your street. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/hey_wait_a_minute/2004/08/californias_suv_ban.html

I am not off the grid. More like I sip and nibble at the edges, while typical Americans gobble giant gluttonous globs of grid.

Incompetent people more self-confident than competent people.  This explains SO much http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Incompetent-People-Really-Have-No-Clue-Studies-2783375.php

The best predictor of whether someone voted for or against Prop 8 was how frequently a voter attended a place of worship.

culture=conformity

2 hours by car, or 12 min by BART - the choice is clear; you might accidentally touch a stranger on BART.
BART ridership up 50%.  San Mateo bridge traffic up 300%.  Americans make me sick.

"the only difference between the good guys and bad guys is who's paying the bills" - Jacob Aziza, problem solver.

http://trackersbay.com/outdoor-adventure.php

I am down to 35 inbox messages and 2 marked unread

removing a quarter million single occupant commuters sure makes for a smooth rush hour

I get a perversely intense joy from the bridge closure

http://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/4/21/2912173/calvinhobbes

I have normal cholesterol, glucose, and blood pressure levels

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/01/fiscal-therapy

week 2 of gym membership.  intensity level mixture of almost crying and almost throwing up.  I will be in the best shape of my life, assuming I survive it long enough.

I've been thinking about mortality lately. I've decided to spend the brief time I have here being awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Chu

I am short, Black, and poor.  The three least attractive traits for single women, statistically.  I must be one hell of an amazing individual to have had the experiences I had dating this past year.

just because I agree with you once does not make you an idiot

The more charming a guy is, the less he respects her

not learning from your mistakes is the ultimate sign of living in the present

cats don't worry

"You don't make me feel guilty at all.  You inspire me."

white women are racist http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-race-affects-whether-people-write-you-back/

word hard, makes lots of money, die young: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/09/death-declines-during-depressions
perhaps government should be looking for ways to extend the recession

My home; clean. In 3D. http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=BFE455B7-3CC4-478C-9AD6-D51C2CF8393F

Vigilante coast guard turned pirates: robin hood or thug? http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/files/oct-feat-pirates_36.indd.pdf  OR  http://www.fcaea.org/aid=276.phtml

http://parkingday.org/

It is a luxury of the economically comfortable to cater to irrational fears

Research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is just as effective as anti-depressants.  Without any medical side-effects.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/journal.aspx?journalid=13
http://www.womensmentalhealth.org/posts/cognitive-therapy-versus-medication-in-the-treatment-of-depression/

"Green" too often today means "moderately less destructive version of something we don't need in the first place

Schools taking fingerprints of poor children before giving them lunch http://www.19actionnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2885663

So much for "large heavy vehicles are safe" http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/a-2009-chevy-malibu-destroys-a-1959-bel-air-literally/

New anti-capitalist rate structure http://biodieselhauling.org/Rates.html

1500

"Good taste is the first refuge of the uncreative."

Health insurance companies make over $1 million per employee http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/performers/industries/bangbuck/employees.html

lest there was any doubt the real reason medicines cost so much:  the money is going to profits.  Also note that air travel is highly subsidized, and neither environmentally nor even financially sustainable: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/performers/industries/bangbuck/employees.html

Math, Geography, and Reading Tutor

teacher = hero
I worked with a guy who is 70 years old
I told him I could handle the work, but he insisted on helping
I said I hope I can still do this work at 70
I asked him the secret
he said, kind of quietly, "lots of sex"

22 November 2009

THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN


  • Nov 22, 2009

THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN

I have not been writing much lately.

Spending my time with work, and new friends, and classes.

Work remains fun, after 3 years of doing the same things (compare to a record of 10 months max at any one job for the rest of my life prior), easy enough to be good at it, challenging enough to stay interesting. 
Just the past few days involved somehow fitting about 10cubic yards of random stuff into the truck for the largest hauling run I've had so far, installing drywall in an attic furnace room so the building could pass fire inspection, and careful deconstuction of the walls holding in the old biodiesel tanks at the old biodiesel fuel station so the lumber could be reused.

But far more important and interesting is the classes.

Little by little I add to my stable of random skills.


Expert in nothing, but my goal is for everyone there is, I can do at least one thing moderately well that they don't do at all. 
Maybe there is someone who does a little carpentry and electronics soldering and computer software troubleshooting and lockpicking and sailing and shooting guns and bow and arrows and swordplay and bicycle repair and auto mechanics and unicycling and gardening.
Just in case, I'm taking muy thai and jui jitsu and I just took a seminar on making fire with natural materials, another on edible wild foods of the East Bay, and today one on tracking animals, and also took my first parkour class.  Judging by the skill level of my classmates, watching YouTube videos and practicing on my own at the playground and on random obstacles I find walking around the city has been more beneficial than I realized.

I feel more and more like a character from an action/adventure movie, where the hero somehow knows how to do everything. 
And yet what strikes me continually is how much I still don't know.  Not even counting all the stuff I am not interested in learning, but the skills I still want, if money was no object, would take a lifetime to learn.
And money is an object.
So one lifetime isn't enough.

I have had debt for a few years, collected over a cross country trip/move and major vehicle failure, months of unemployment,  going back to college, buying a newer larger trailer, and having to buy my ex out of said trailer when she moved out.
I am getting tantalizingly close to paying off the last of it.

I decided once I do, classes take priority one.  Jobs will be fit around them, not the other way around.  I'm looking to work about 20hrs per week.
I am saying this publicly so as to have some accountability.  If you hear me say I am working too much come next summer, remind me I said this.
Thanks

02 October 2009

The Water Heater


  • Oct 2, 2009

The Water Heater

I had been looking forward to buying a tankless instant water heater before I had even moved out of mom's place.

Unfortunately, each place I lived had a perfectly good water heater already.
Besides, my 6 gallon tank was no where near as wasteful as the 80 gallon monstrosities in regular homes.

Then, last week, the tank began to leak.
I had my excuse.



I discovered that there is only one company which makes instant water heaters specifically for RVs. Having no competition, they price it around 5 times higher than others.
I decided to go with a small house/cabin unit instead.
I found the least expensive one online; it arrived quickly. It spent a week in the box as I didn't have the time to install it. When I finally did, turned out I hadn't considered the vent when I measured, and it wouldn't fit. Damn.

I sent an email asking about exchanging it for a smaller unit.
Within 15 minutes they called me by phone. They said they couldn't accept a return since I had already begun installing it.
I was ready to just sell it on craiglist and buy the smaller one, accepting that it was my own stupidity to begin installation without measuring, plus the website did clearly say the original box was needed for returns, which I had already recycled.
And then, without being asked, the guy offers me a 15% discount on the new smaller one I was going to have to purchase. He emailed a custom order form, with a price even slightly lower than what he had just offered over the phone.
Wow. Beyond expectations.
The only business I know with customer service like that is, well... my own!



If you ever need a water heater, seriously, this is the place to buy:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/gas_water_heaters/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25 [note - apparently they no longer exist]
And no, I don't get anything for recommending them. Come on. You know me better than that, don't you?

So, now it'll be a few days before I get the smaller unit and I can install it properly.
In the meantime, I was sick of being without hot water so I jerry-rigged the one I have into place. Between some parts from my old water heater, a flexible metal pipe I found on the street, a piece of wood 2x4, and a generous amount of tape, I have hooked up the water heater. It leaks a little where its attached to random-found-pipe, so I have to put a bowl under it while the water's running.

But as far as the heater itself goes...
you turn on the faucet, and within a second, the fire is blazing. You turn it off, poof, like that, its out.
It is much hotter than my old one ever was.
The total flow rate is higher too - its like taking a shower in a real house!!
I had gotten used to low flow showers. I had forgotten how pleasant being drenched with warm water while naked can be.
And it NEVER RUNS OUT!!!!
Well, I guess once my propane tanks ran out. In a few months.

As I was taking my 30 min long shower, I thought about how I am actually saving energy overall, compared to before. While before I was limited in the length of a shower when the hot ran out, the tank also kept the water hot 24hours a day, while I was a sleep, while I was at work, always.

The biggest unit they sell should be enough for a one bath house. For a really big house, if everyone wants to shower at once, you can double the capacity by linking two of them in series.
Or using with an existing tank heater, you could leave the tank at its minimum and have the output of the tank go into the instant, which would then raise the temp the rest of the way only when you turn on the hot faucet.
Way more energy efficient, endless hot water.
While an 80-gallon tank heater is anywhere from $600 to over $1000, a 4GPM tankless is only $325.
Why tank heaters even still exist, I really don't get.
Akin to American's rejection of the metric system and Dvorak I suppose.
Well, at least you know

26 September 2009

Spoiled: The Economic Downturn, Luxury as Necessity, and "Struggling" in the Modern Economy

  • Sep 26, 2009

Spoiled: The Economic Downturn, Luxury as Necessity, and "Struggling" in the Modern Economy

My original comment was not meant to imply I don't believe that there are tangible effects on people (most notably unemployment, which is certainly up compared to a few years ago).
All I said was that media and politicians largely made it up.  I think it is a self-fulfilling prophesy to an extent, where in people hear constant messages that times are tight, therefore they cut back on consumption, therefore retail markets fall, therefore manufacturers cut back, and employers start laying people off.  Which fuels the beginning of the cycle even more.  This is why business analysts track "consumer confidence".  In fact, to a large extent it is what the stock market is all about.  Its less a question of how well a company is doing and more one of how popular are they.  If people think its doing well, they buy, which itself drives the stock price up.  It works both ways, so if everyone is convinced the market is doing bad, they sell so they don't lose too much by waiting, and then companies don't have the capital to invest.

-


I think it is totally unreasonable to adjust what it means to be "poor" based on those around you.
If we did that, billionaires could claim to be poor if those around them are multi billionaires.  In fact, everyone except for the single richest person in the world would be "poor".
Clearly there should be some objective standard of poverty.
I think the only reasonable one is the point at which you have a reasonable fear of not being able to provide the basic necessities for oneself and family.  Food, shelter, clean water.  If you can afford so little food that it affects your health, you can claim to be poor.

It doesn't have to be a "big" car.  If you own a car, you aren't poor.  Period.  Never mind that most people in the world couldn't even afford the up-front purchase price of a car.  Much higher than that in the long run is costs for fuel, insurance, parking and tolls, maintenance, tickets...
For hundreds of thousands of years of human existence even the wealthiest people in the world could not buy cars.
Only in the US do people honestly believe that they are a "necessity".
All over the country people claim to be struggling who are paying for cable TV.  They eat out and buy $2 cups of coffee.  They have cell phones and internet connections.  These are things most people in the world can't afford.  They are not basic necessities.

Supposedly a person in the bay area needs 3 times the federal poverty level in order to live "comfortably"
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/17/business/fi-wages17
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-Bay-Area-couple-with-two-kids-can-t-make-it-on-2518301.php

They take it for granted that everyone needs a car.
And since when does every 6 year old need her own room?!
In the case of the 2nd article, I have no contempt for the person they profile.  She (rightly) considers herself middle class.
(Hopefully, after having been interviewed she doesn't change her own standards).
Now, going into collection, obviously a problem.  Thing is, that is another of those uniquely American things: living beyond your means.
The whole recession started because of people deliberately buying beyond their means with interest only loans.  The whole idea being, buy something you can't afford and assume that the market will go up enough to cover it.  Then, surprise!  The people who were living beyond their means defaulted on their loans.
Consider that the size of an average new home has increased 250% over the past half century.

Then banks didn't want to lend.  "Credit crunch".  Well, again - the solution to a credit crunch?  Don't live beyond your means. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-moroz/forget-the-squeeze-the-mi_b_263100.html

Thing is, poor people don't get lines of credit extended to them in the first place.  Because they are poor.  The people who go to Labor Ready for temp work, the people who live here in the trailer park, they don't get loans for houses or new cars.  They don't have credit cards.  Most of them don't even have bank accounts.  They pay rent with money orders and bring paychecks to check cashing places.

This is poverty: http://www.utne.com/Politics/Squatter-Villages-Tent-Cities-Informal-Urbanism-Economic-Crisis.aspx
And it was around long before the foreclosures on sub-prime loans started piling up.

In my line of work, between my low rates, and my green focus and good reputation, I end up having a huge range in terms of the incomes of my customers (hence the sliding scale idea).
I get students and people on SSI who genuinely can't afford more than me.  I get others who live in 6 bedroom 3 story houses in the hills.  I have been nonchalantly handed $100 tips on more than one occasion.

I also work with day laborer sometimes.  These are people who will work for pretty much whatever you offer to pay them, work incredibly hard, and never complain.  I ask them about work, about home, they invariably tell me: they are getting very little work here.  Very little.  But it is still better than the situation back home.  That's why they are here.  They work for less than minimum wage since they lack language skills and legal papers.
A customer yesterday mentioned her mother used to work for Nike in Vietnam.  The company ships the product clear around the world because the people will work for a fraction of the US minimum wage.  But she said it was a very decent salary compared to other options available to the people there.

The worldwide average income for an adult is roughly $7000.
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/MateNagy.shtml (note, this is over a decade out of date - the inequality has grown since)
That's including the 1st world; including the US.
This is in "purchasing power parity" - accounting for not only exchange rates, but what you can actually buy with a given amount locally.
$7000. 

Over 80% of the worlds population has an annual income below that rate.
The world median income is $1700.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/10/07/average_earnings_worldwide/

So, yeah, I do think that is pretty much just the homeless who have a legitimate claim to poverty in this country.  

There are plenty claims that the economic downturn hits the poor hardest: but then, they are putting people who own $290,000 4-bedroom townhouses in the category of "working class"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603605.html

The truly poor don't have far to fall.  A recession can not possibly affect them as much as someone who has tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of annual income to potentially lose.

-

The last thing I wanted to mention is about how profit distribution ties in to unemployment.
In this country it has always been accepted as a given by almost everyone that 100% of the increase per worker in productivity due to advances in technology goes to the owners of the company, and not to the employees.
For example, say someone invents a machine that allows a worker to produce 2 times more widgets per hour.
What happens is (since the market for widgets hasn't grown, so they don't need to produce twice as many) the company lays off half it's work force, produces the same amount of widgets, sells them at the same price, and increases its profit substantially (paying half the wages, but making the exact same revenue).

There is no inherent reason that they couldn't instead reduce all of the workers hours 50%, while increasing wages 100%.  Neither the employees nor the company loses any money.  They both make exactly the same as they did before.  The only change is the workers have half the work hours, and can use the rest of that time however they choose.
In the 2nd option no unemployment is caused.

In actuality productivity per worker has increased roughly 20 fold over the past century.
Over the same time (adjusted for inflation) wages have only increased 7 fold.  The entire rest of that increase has gone to profit  - ultimately to the upper class, who own the means of production.

Profit is after business expenses and costs and taxes, after wages, even after salaries to the CEO and upper management, often in the millions (even among companies that are losing money - even ones that got federal bail out money paid million+ salaries.)
Profit is what is left over after that.  It goes to people who do literally no work for it at all.
There are industries which make as much as 20% profit margins.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/performers/industries/profits/

So when companies claim they "have to" lay off workers because they are making less revenue, I say they are full of crap.  If they are making ANY profit, anything over breaking even, they have no justification for laying people off.  If they are paying upper management 6 digit incomes, there is no justification for laying off their lowest wage earners.
In many European countries (and Canada) that is actually illegal.  The government can (and will) sue a company for laying off workers unnecessarily.  In these places it is understood that the whole purpose of the economy is to serve the needs of the people, not to make people with investment capital even richer.

We could reduce unemployment to the minimum possible by having overtime kick in at, say, 35 hours a week.  Then to maintain current levels of production, companies need to hire 15% more people just to get back to the level they were at before.

There is nothing inherently good about creating wealth (or widgets for that matter) just for its own sake.
Going from multi-millionaire to billionaire will cause no overall long-term increase in happiness.

But instead of increasing the income of the destitute and struggling up to the level of secure in basic necessities, as a society we have been allowing - even encouraging - all of the increase in wealth to go to the top levels of society.  The ranks of middle class conservatives and libertarians push for this hardest of all: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090128071009AADfUVw
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/snapshots-tea-party

-

It's human nature to want more than whatever one has, and to want more than everyone around you.
And everyone wants to believe they earned what they have, no matter how strong the evidence against it, because its easier on the conscious than admitting being greedy and amoral.
Its what explains the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" myth.
You can see it in everyone who rallies against illegal immigrants.  They will insist it has to do with following laws for the sake of laws, but suggest making all immigration legal, and you find out its really about allowing them government benefits and taking American's jobs.  The only way to justify it would be to claim that some people "earned" being born in a first world country.  (People always have the "us vs them" xenophobic mentality that makes benefiting at the expense of others ok as long as they are "others")
I think that, just like with laws to discourage violence, or the use of birth control, discouraging some of our basic instincts is better for everybody; the desire to always have more, on a planet with finite resources, is what makes people who live extravagant lives in this country think they are poor.  I think that's not ok.

The economic downturn means that people who lived excessively unsustainable lives now live moderately less unsustainable lives. It's actually not enough, but its a start.
I think that's a good thing.





22 September 2009

Good News


  • Sep 22, 2009

Good News

A few days ago, coming home from work after dark, a neighbor came over to ask for a jump.
I took the alternator out of my truck, but the charger I use in its place has a quick charge / jump start option, so I brought that over.
While we waited for it another neighbor, someone new I had waved to but never met, came over to see if we needed any help.
Somehow we got onto the topics of being "green" and the recession.

The neighbor with the dead battery has been involved with a local semi-official flea market. The people running it are conscious of the fact that, along with being a way to make money, selling things second hand is also environmentally responsible. They are actively looking for ways to be more so, for example sourcing "plastic" bags made of plant materials. She had never heard of plastic island, but understood how it happened and the significance as soon as I described it.
The new neighbor talked about the house of cards credit schemes that led to our economic situation, about concentration of wealth, government and banks and the stock markets roles.
While I had plenty of my own to add, I found myself agreeing with nearly everything both of them said.



This in contrast to interactions with neighbors over the past couple years: the neighbor in the 10ft long trailer who blamed all the countries problems on "the liberals", the neighbor who couldn't see any possible reason to run bio-diesel instead of petrol when it costs more - even when I pointed out that even if he doesn't live long enough to see environmental harm affect his life his kids might, not to mention the narrowly avoided fist fight and the 3 year old who buried his dads meth needle.

Like I have written, its funny that global warming is the thing that finally got peoples attention - even though there isn't hard scientific evidence that human activity will change it in a significantly more dramatic way than the natural climate cycles already do - when we have known for many decades that our use of resources is totally unsustainable.
But whatever. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is better than not doing the right thing at all.

Now combined with economic changes, ideas I have been thinking about all my life are becoming more and more popular. What will life be like after the credit based economy has its debts called in, and we no longer have the capacity to exploit natural resources at an unsustainable level, (as is absolutely vital for the American way of life as we know it)?
Of course there were always others who imagined it coming someday, with varying levels of serious - movies like Six-String Samurai on the one end, cults and militias on the other.
But now I am finding it everywhere.
The Gubbins Experiment, a blog I read about a guy who has given up not only driving, but also accepting rides in any motor vehicle for a year, wrote his most pessimistic post ever. My boss, a small business owner with a contract with BART to run the BikeStation seemed to imply that the end of civilization as we know will happen within the next 20 years, and that it will hit dramatic and fast when it does. I met my most recent friend in part via (literal) dreams of a post-apocalyptic future.
And now, even here in the trailer park, people are thinking in global terms about sustainability and economics.

Contrast it also to discussions I have had recently with some single issue activists, who I found by and large narrowly focused on not just one issue, but one side of one issue, unable or unwilling to consider other points of view, ignoring historical and current contexts that don't support a pre-determined conclusion, and offering more criticism than real solutions.

Maybe I had it wrong all along.

Maybe it is the general public, the random ordinary everyday people in whom our potential salvation rests.
That is the most encouraging possibility I have come across in many years.



12 September 2009

Raise


  • Sep 12, 2009

Raise

I am considering asking for a raise.
A 33% one at that.
I am fairly confident I will get it, seeing that I am the CEO and majority shareholder as well as the sole employee.

It is not because I need the money.
Just the opposite.

I have too much money, not enough free time (well, maybe not "too much", but more than I need)

I am hoping that a moderate price increase will discourage people from calling me.
The decrease in work would be made up for by making slightly more when I do.

I justify raising my prices to myself in two ways:



1) I now have 3 years of experience.  I have all sort of fancy equipment.  I have moved hide-a-bed sofas, large potted trees, and several 600lb safes.  My repair skills are getting increasingly refined (as I get to practice on my clients houses).  I am gradually moving along the skill level scale from day laborer toward contractor.  That experience makes me more useful.

2) I am still well below the standard moving company rate.  Not long ago I got a call from someone who wanted to hire me to unload a U-Haul from a local move.  I pointed out that the cost of the U-Haul rental alone would be as much as my charge, and wouldn't include a laborer (me).  I priced the job at about $130.  She was immensely relived, and told me she had gotten several quotes, all above $500!
At the new rate, it would have been $160; still far below what she was told elsewhere, and in fact still competitive with renting a truck and trying to do it all alone, (including a dolly, blankets, and insurance makes a one way U-haul rental $155)

Wow.  I was on the fence when I started writing this, but after doing the math just now, and looking up U-haul's rates, now I am quite sure!

So, anyway... I'll leave my minimum where it is, at $50.  Going up to a more divisible number means I will be able to charge to the nearest 15 minutes instead of the nearest half hour.  And I'll be able to afford to make my no car discount $10 off per hour instead of just $5.
Also, I am instituting a sliding scale.  If someone genuinely can't afford even the discounted rate, I will add in an additional $5 per hour poverty discount.
I'll count that at $10,000 (approximately the federal poverty line for an individual) even though things are expensive in the Bay Area, because I don't really buy that things Americans have gotten used to calling "necessities" really are.  Granted, I don't have kids, but I did live nearly half my adult life on less than $10,000 a year - and pretty comfortably at that.  Of course, I will trust my clients on their word regarding income.
I'll also add something explicit on my pricing page about tipping for people above the median income for our area (about $50,000 for a family, $35,000 individual).
I had been excited for a while about having a sliding scale, but couldn't figure any reasonably simple way to institute it.  I think having a base rate, but with exceptions, will be the best way to accomplish it.

I'm thinking beginning of next month.
So if you need something moved, recycled, or repaired, you may want to schedule it quick.

28 August 2009

Status Messages


  • Aug 28, 2009

Status Messages

My Gmail-integrated-chat status message is sort of my version of twitter.  Character limited blurbs of what’s going on, interesting facts and quotes, links to various stuff.
For some reason there are still some people who don't use gmail as their primary personal email client.  So they don't get to see any of my status messages.
Not to worry!  I have been collecting them for about the past 10 months:


http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2008/11/green-dime

To pull a man out of the mud, a friend must set foot in that mud - Rabbi Nachman

"In my day, television was called 'books' "

Eat Drink and Be Merry, for tomorrow we die

if you can read this, thank a teacher


poor and happy

do you deserve to be a citizen? http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13442226/  or   http://usgovinfo.about.com/blinstst.htm

I want to cuddle her fucking brains out

I consider cuteness an unnecessary bonus.  Fucking jackpot, man.

Set Status Here

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51170

http://www.balkanbeatbox.com/

http://toomuchonline.org/

You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/15/world/fg-shoe15

No one can cut you off if you choose to slow down and let them in

http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/sf_examiner.htm

Dinosaur Rap

"I think presumptuousness and judgementalness are major traits of your personality"

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. - Georg Hegel

Spare The Air Day, Tomorrow September 5

I can not think of any clever or informative status messages

1/3 of Americans did not vote.

"The impact to the environment, human health, and animal welfare would be enormous if everyone would just cut back on the amount of meat they eat. If 5 people are each vegetarian 20% of the time the impact is the same as 1 person 100% of the time." (stolen from a customer's status message)

Buy Nothing Day, this Friday.  X-mas is about compassion and humanity (and Jesus), not buying lots of crap

Geekfest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A man is as young as (the woman) he feels

An enemy of socialism cannot write in our newspapers - but we don't deny it, and we don't go around proclaiming hypothetical freedom of the press where it doesn't exist, the way you people do - Fidel Castro (Playboy, 1967)

Lets allow love to kindle even when its a bad idea.  Maybe we end up burning the whole fucking house down and losing everything we own and having to sleep in the street.  Maybe.  I prefer the risk to curling up in the cold on the floor indoors because I'm too afraid to light the fireplace.

Bicycle!

Terror Experts Warn, Next 9/11 Could Fall on Different Date

One year left http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/01/one-more-year.html

http://www.utne.com/mind-body/Get-Radical-Get-Some-Rest-Vacation-Time-Off.aspx

They are starting to get desperate http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/14/us-usa-pilot-idUSTRE50D12320090114

The next President of the
United Stateshttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQGy7QIsFa0GL5stCOQtYsdTlKkSt0eMbr46CpU3snAa_7XjGvt1RlBKhIiEjhWJUVSNZpRm5Ev9Am51kBxbePR7K0i_qQxzMhJevEXJOdcRo9hixNiCAIh6e_STlUWuJ51gz7EbiQ7PQ/s1600/barack-obama-beach-450x688.jpg

How much you can do depends on where you believe your limits are. You can do a lot more when you don't know that you can't

I work hard, and I play hard.  Wait, no... I don't work hard at all

if jerks like us would start driving cars like normal people, maybe we could have 70 degree winters every year

"It's good to be open minded, but not so much that your brains fall out"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Militant Agnostic - I don't know, *and you don't know either!*

I wonder if penguins feel inadequate for not being ok without a partner in life?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/ethics/

solution to credit crunch: don't live beyond your means

Goodnight

I never give compliments. I merely make statements and observations of truth

I'm _far_ more humble than you motherfucker

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Is-Poverty-the-Problem-Or-Is-Wealth.aspx

In order to make a solar panel or wind turbine, you have to mine for the iron ore to make the steel, and drill for oil to make the plastic parts

But I was young and foolish then...                ...          I feel old and foolish now

I had to work 5 whole hours today!
No one should ever work 5 hours in one day

Good morning

The
island of Guernsey is less than 10 miles across, and nearly every adult owns a car.  http://gubbinsexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-to-do-about-parked-cars.html

Your lifestyle is excessive and unsustainable

A life not enjoyed is a life wasted

Work all day, party tonight, date tomorrow ;)

In a pure free market, if a comet is coming, everybody dies http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/global-warming-vs-fascism-or-why-nasa.html

$1/2 million cap on tax payer money to CEOs. Pobrecitos http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=3&

"so... due to your heroic deeds fixing our wiring, my roommate has insisted that i go on another date with you"

Large truck + sharp turn off of freeway + gobs of rain + people braking suddenly up ahead for no apparent reason = hydroplaning + fishtailing + adrenaline + a nice little test of my reflexes

Everyone is pro-democracy until the people vote for a law they don't like.  Overturning prop 8 in court = fascism.

11:34.  Guess I'll get dressed.  Good lord I love being self-employed.

http://inequality.org/inequality-data-statistics/

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2006/10/how_the_web_prevents_rape.html

I don't play devil's advocate.  I mean, I'm not playing.  I really _am_ the devil's advocate.  Seriously.  The devil is totally awesome.  You should check him out sometime.

I discovered the jelly bean machine accepts pennies.  Uh oh.  So much for rationing...

In
Texas, owning 6 or more dildos is a felony.  If you own 5 or fewer, you are merely a hobbyist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUl6x1YXpg

The net worth of
America’s wealthiest 1 percent now exceeds the net worth of the entire bottom 90 percent. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Inheriting_a_Legacy1.pdf

I was doored on my skates today for the first time ever.

"There are worse things in life than getting your heart broken. It sucks but it's a good honest kind of hurt. Makes you more human"

Censorship at its best:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJR7QlRhM4

I just got pulled over and given the breathalyzer for driving too slow!

Former BikeStation employee shot by Israeli military  http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_11907109

$450million from tax payers directly to the personal accounts of those most directly responsible for the credit crises - including $6.5million to a single AIG executive: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/16aig.html?_r=1

I do enjoy my job, but I don't like having to do anything for hours every week.  I'd rather do other things with that time, like, you know, talking to my friends.  I guess I could charge them... but then I'd probably have fewer friends.

4.5 Million Americans are on unemployment (the most in 26 years); only 1/3 of the unemployed receive benefits

21.75 MPG in the 5500lb truck!!!!


The comments after the article are from the generally progressive readers of Mother Jones; we really are going to go the way of the yeast in a beer barrel - drowning in our own waste because we are incapable of not breeding: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/03/tiniest-baby-booms-monster

"Because the typical farmers market is supplied by dozens of different farms, each transporting its crops in a separate van or truck ... locally grown produce might actually represent a larger carbon footprint than the same volume of produce purchased at a chain retailer, which gets its produce en masse, via large trucks." - http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/spoiled-organic-and-local-so-2008

"People are people, and I still love them (especially the women)"

"Big Brother is not only watching, he is recording it all for later.  And thanks to Congress, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it."

"Human kindness can be a renewable resource"
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1407952648?bctid=1657909722

"Prior to the 1980s, conservatives were fiscally conservative-  they were unwilling to spend more than they took in in taxes. But Reaganomics introduced the idea that virtually any tax cut would so stimulate growth that the government would end up taking in more revenue in the end. In fact, the traditional view was correct: if you cut taxes without cutting spending, you end up with a damaging deficit. Thus the Reagan tax cuts produced a big deficit; the
Clinton tax increases produced a surplus; and the Bush tax cuts produced an even larger deficit. The fact that the American economy grew just as fast in the Clinton years as in the Reagan ones somehow didn't shake the conservative faith in tax cuts as the surefire key to growth." - Francis Fukuyama

screw mutant fruit

"With just 5% of the world's population,
America holds nearly 25% of the world's reported prison population. Our prison population has quadrupled since 1984, and most of the increase comes from people being imprisoned for drug offenses--mostly minor and nonviolent."

Only 5 billion years until the sun expands and engulfs the Earth.
Make the most of them.

Gay animals even more common than we thought: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_gay_animal_kingdom/

Infant male prairie voles (a normally monogamous specie) which are injected with a single dose of chemical which disrupts oxytocin fail to ever bond with a mate as adults.

29 to 68% of the offspring of monogamous bird species are the results of feathered infidelities.

She's like the character in a movie who comes into the lonely/forlorn/nerdy/hopeless protagonist's life all of a sudden, and complete turns his outlook around, changes his life permanently.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-are-corporations-going-green,7598/
Happy 4500millionth birthday, Earth

"In any case, I need another installment of the soap opera  that is Bakari's all natural biodiesel dating frenzy. The Bold and the Biodiesel? General Handyman?"

24mpg http://www.instructables.com/id/Vehicle-efficiency-upgrades/

1100sq ft RV for multimillionaire trailer trash
http://www.andersonmobileestates.com/

Ty, your comment provided me the motivation to actually write this: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/03/gay-animals-social-sex-and.html

Total # of deaths from "swine" flu: 8                   
Total annual deaths from regular old human flu: 500,000               

"I have no idea why anyone went to the movie in the first place, let alone rent it." - Paul Haggis, writer/director of Crash, on its being Netflix's most rented video for the past 4 years

Average US passenger vehicle fuel economy peaked in 1987
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/energy/i/cafe_standards.htm

Yesterday I did some thing most unusual... Cleaned :)

War predates vertebrae http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9LNEJNrZs&feature=related

Females in more than 80 species eat their mates http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=ELahVSsrmA8

Slavery predates vertebrae http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=7jsX0_mwTX8&feature=related

% of Americans who believe in:                           ..   
Astrology - 40%
Creationism - 50%             
ESP - 60%                  
Magnetic Therapy - 70%

Bike-ari

lots of stuff to get rid of http://www.biodieselhauling.org/Salvage.html

me = tired


May is bike month.  Its not too late to sign up: http://www.youcanbikethere.com/user/register

Didn't meet my goal, but did better than last year
1:11:31 and am in MUCH less pain than last year! :)

"I saw your truck on 580 this morning as I was heading in to Instructables, and I thought, "I should check out that website."  Now, I'm reviewing entries in the efficiency contest, and here's your truck again!" - CEO of instructables.com

Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits reunion show!!! 

I think I have swine flu.  It is getting back at me for making fun of it on my blog.

Counter-protest http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/04/counter-protest-not-that-theres.html

"It would be zero emissions if it weren't for the tire smoke" http://www.commutercars.com/videos.html

*26.8 mpg* in a commercial truck!!!

"This is the reason your headaches didn't go away:  that's pronounced _analgesic_ not 'anal'gesic.  The pills go in your mouth."

Winner! http://www.instructables.com/contest/earthjustice/?show=WINNERS

The Obama Reality Show: http://www.hulu.com/the-obama-administration

conservative morality http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Walmart forces major manufactures to provide earth friendlier products, brings green to the lower classes http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25walmart.html

In a nationwide survey of Americans, atheists were ranked lowest of all groups in terms of trustworthiness, sharing America's vision of society, and approval of who their children marry - lower than Muslims, recent immigrants, and homosexuals.

http://journey.totheendofthenight.com/oakland

The human side of evil http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343

"sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one.  Like with pie." http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/101-5-mpg-my-2003-ninja-250-a-8686.html

goodnight everybody.  I'll put that link back up tomorrow in case you missed it

I just ate food which I GREW MYSELF!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etzs3Cc8pxI&feature=related

we parked 160 bikes at the first annual Uptown Unveiled festival

Haircut ordered by President of the
United States http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-collections/229295/colbert-report-adventure-quest?current_video=230466

The richest dozen Americans hold roughly as much wealth as the entire lower 50% of the population

http://blog.okcupid.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/BioDH

Downieville!!!!!!!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17372-gallery-domestic-robots-with-a-taste-for-flesh.html

Oakland has the nation's cleanest tap water.  Why are you still buying it in bottles?

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

A 7 year old told her mother that a boy in her class asked her to play doctor.  "Oh dear, what happened honey?" asked her nervous mother.
"Not much," said the little girl, "He made me wait 45 minutes, then double billed the insurance company."
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/07/cheese-eating-healthcare

She's so hot she's making me sexist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT5AQIlmM0I

I was probably the best dressed guy there.        
Imagine that!!!
ME!?!?!?!?!

I have $5 left in the bank.

"What happened?"             
"we grew up"                       
"but you're still playing it" 
"hmm... well... I guess _they_ grew up."

another instructables contest: http://www.instructables.com/id/Large-Self-Watering-Planter-made-from-recycled-mat/

Even I think other entries are better than mine... but vote for me anyway:

A "hands-free" cell phone contributes about as much to safer driving as a dashboard beverage holder contributes to safer drinking and driving.

NASCAR saving gas http://ecomodder.com/blog/dale-earnhardt-jr-hypermiles-to-victory-in-nascar-racing/

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/computerized-rat-brain-spontaneously-develops-complex-patterns

Notice any similarities? http://tiny.cc/hp2009  and  http://tiny.cc/hp1955         Where does it stop?

Old-school Bakari-style rant-essay: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/04/race-whites-still-winning.html

The number one killer of Americans under 40?  Car accidents.  Every time you get in a car, you may die.

people who should be natural allies against the elite, instead focusing on fighting each other: http://www.anarchistnews.org/?..q=node/8794

http://www.utne.com/Media/Tao-of-War-Photography.aspx

I do measure up to the myth though ;-)
http://www.salon.com/comics/..knig/2007/06/20/knig/index...html

Using a cellphone (even w/ handsfree) produces accident rate equal to DUI
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/19distracted.html?_r=1

My ex says I like to talk, and don't spend enough time asking questions. I think that's probably a valid criticism.

The average new car has around 250 horsepower.  For comparison, my 2.5 ton truck which is capable of hauling another 3 tons at freeway speeds and up
San Francisco hills has under 170 horsepower.

I just got home from singing Bohemian Rhapsody while wearing a bright blue sparkle shirt in Oakland's most famous gay bar and I wonder why people mistake me for gay

today marks 3 years of biodiesel powered hauling and delivery

Slow down http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/slow-down-my-philosophy-for-life-also.html
3 jobs, 4 truck problems repaired; long day - all finished now! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3n5LMNplE

BART strike Monday!! Which means no BikeStation either :( On the other hand, since traffic will be terrible, this is the perfect time to start riding your bike to work :)

Whole Foods CEO is campaigning against national healthcare http://www.alternet.org/story/141961/why_you_should_boycott_whole_foods        http://www.careerjournal.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Safeway, Lucky's, and Albertson's are unionized. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods aren't.

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/07/i-am-capitalized-and-you-are-not.html

Why does everyone think necrophilia is sick?  They didn't think it was sick beforehand.  When she was "alive"

Tap water standards are higher than bottle water standards, yet bottled water costs approx. 2000 times more. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/07/bottled-waters-can-you-taste-difference San Fransisco and the
East Bay have some of the nations cleanest tap water. 

"Of course, everyone - regardless of race and sex - will hit occasional bumps on the road. And everyone, white men included, has put out some sort of effort to get where they got. But when the folks on the smoother road go faster and further, let’s not pretend it’s because they’re better drivers."

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2008/02/top-7-reasons-to-learn-lojban.html

"Middle class people put a tremendous amount of focus on addressing issues of language and protocol, but addressing one’s racist conditioning is more about communication than language, more about self-awareness than protocol, more about humility than expertise." http://www.anarchistnews.org/?..q=node/9455

The future of transportation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=hdJrUuoU53s

If you are going to be stopped more than 1 second, it takes more fuel to idle than to start http://www.iwilltry.org/b/projects/how-many-seconds-of-idling-is-equivalent-to-starting-your-engine/
Shut your engine at every red light.

People are like elephants.  Some of them are just jerks.

http://laughingsquid.com/never-go-to-work-by-they-might-be-giants/

05 August 2009

Slow down. My philosophy for life also applies to the road.

Slow down. My philosophy for life also applies to the road.

I have been requested to post something positive.
In light of that request, I am putting a positive spin on what I was going to write anyway.

While I am generally good at pointing out problems and at complaining, I don't generally offer much by way of solutions.
This time I have a very concrete solution, which is within easy reach of ordinary Americans, with no risk, no cost, and a negligible amount of inconvenience.
It is something you, the reader, can do.


But first, a short history lesson:



In October of 1973 a group of nations got sick of the US “foreign policy” of military intervention, and, knowing we had developed a lifestyle totally dependent on oil, they all agreed not to sell us any more.
This caused massive and immediate affects throughout the US economy. Buying fuel, at any price, meant waiting in long lines – on those days you were even allowed to buy gas at all*

The government took steps to encourage conservation – which (unlike sourcing new oil) could be done immediately – such as banning Christmas lights.
Another major step they took was to enact a national speed limit of 55mph.

The reason for this is that at higher speeds air resistance increases exponentially** relative to speed. Going twice as fast requires 4 times the energy.
This is as true of modern vehicles as it was in 1973.
It will always be true, because it is due to fundamental physics.
All vehicles, small or large, gas or alternative fuel, use more energy at speeds above 45mph.

In fact, going from 55 to 70mph typically uses between 20% and 25% more fuel to go the same distance.***
25% is a massive amount more fuel to use – at our current national usage, that amounts to approximately 5 million barrels of oil every single day!
That’s 175 million gallons.

That just happens to almost exactly equal the amount we purchase from the Middle Eastern OPEC nations.
In other words, if we still had (and actually enforced!!!!) a 55mph national speed limit today, that alone would completely eliminate any need for importing oil from the Middle East.


Guess it turns out congress occasionally does something sensible, eh?



Next, a physics lesson:

Similar to the relationship between wind resistance and speed, kinetic energy varies with the square of speed.
Energy=1/2 mass X velocity2  ****

This means that if you are going twice as fast, it will take four times as much force to stop.

In other words, it will take four times the braking distance to stop in an emergency.
If it takes four times longer to stop, you are much more likely to slam into something full force which, at a lower speed, you could have come to a full stop in time to avoid hitting at all.

It also means that if you do end up in a crash, at twice the speed you will have four times the impact force.

At four times the impact, crumple zones and airbags can’t stop your organs from hitting your ribs hard enough to literally explode.

The energy in the previous equation dictates how hard you hit.  Whatever energy isn’t absorbed by the car and restraints, gets absorbed by you.
A lot of people focus on the size of the car or truck they are in, believing a large amount of vehicle mass will absorb more crash energy.
Look at the formula:  that’s half true.
Literally.
The affect of mass gets divided by two.  
But velocity is not only factored in fully, it is squared.  In plain English, this means that speed plays an overwhelmingly larger role in how bad a crash is than mass.


And incidentally, going back to the first point – a smaller car has a shorter braking distance at any speed, and so is less likely to crash into anything in the first place.  Ask yourself: Which would you rather do, crash and survive, or not crash in the first place?  This is why crash test ratings do not reflect safety – they only tell you if you will survive a crash, as though a crash were inevitable.  They aren’t.  And as it turns out, drivers of mid-size sedans actually do have less fatalities than drivers of full-size SUVs (along with all other sizes of SUV, all sizes of truck, and even heavier full-size cars.  All of these are statistically more dangerous than mid-size cars, which should be more than enough to dispel the myth that heavy=safe, if only people knew the statistics) .


Buying a big vehicle, and then driving it fast is like getting a diet soda with your super-sized burger and fries.

I realize that almost everyone actually feels they are safe when they are driving a car.
It is human nature to take anything which is commonplace for granted.  We tend to fear things which have an infinitesimally remote chance of happening but receive lots of news coverage but not think about things that really are likely to kill us, but which we don’t hear a lot about.

The number one cause of death of all young people in the US in car crashes. It causes more deaths among young people than murder, suicide, cancer, and heart disease combined. It is the number one cause of death up until age 40, at which point it is still in the top 3.

We don’t hear about it much in the news precisely because it is so common. There are roughly 16,500 accidents significant enough to be reported in the U.S. EVERY DAY. Of these, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 result in permanent injuries. Every 12 minutes, an American dies in a car crash.

Every time you get into a car, you may die.

The number one factor in causing all of these deaths and injuries? It isn’t alcohol. It isn’t teen drivers or cell phones.

It’s speeding.

Speeding is the single largest factor in injury and fatality collisions.

Contrary to popular belief, driving slower is safer even when other cars around you are speeding.*****
Here are two different studies’ conclusions on the issue, after compiling actual accident data:
“risk of involvement in a casualty crash, relative to the risk for a car traveling at 60 km/h, increased at an exponential rate for free traveling speeds above 60 km/h [37mph]” ***
"First, the probability of a crash is approximately proportional to the square of the travel speed. Second, in a crash, injury risk is approximately proportional to the impact forces on a person, which in turn are proportional to the square of the impact speed. These two effects can be summarized in a general rule of thumb: When travel speed increases by 1%, the injury crash rate increases by about 2%, the serious injury crash rate increases by about 3%, and the fatal crash rate increases by about 4% ” ***

And finally, a chart from the DHS defensive driving course:


So, ok, by now you are accepting the physics and the statics, and acknowledging that maybe there is a legitimate reason for speed limits, and a very real cost – environmentally, financially, and in lives – to breaking it.


“But… but…
I’m running late!!!!!!!!!!!”


The catch:

There is, of course, an obvious drawback to driving slower: it takes more time to get somewhere.

That is, of course, why people do it.  Who wants to spend more time than they have to sitting in a car?

Time for just a little more math:
Time = Distance / Speed

What does this mean for typical driving speeds? 
Here, I’ll do the calculations for you:

1 hour = (60min x 60sec) = 3600seconds
3600 seconds / 65mph = 55 seconds
It takes 55 seconds to go one mile at 65mph.

3600/55mph = 65 seconds
1 mile at 65mph= 55seconds
1 mile at 55mph= 65seconds
Difference = 65-55 = 10 seconds

Slowing down from 65mph to 55mph means it will take you an additional 10 seconds to go a mile.  Ten seconds.  That’s it.

Speeding up from 65 to 75 would only gain 7 seconds.  Going from 75 to 85 saves 6 seconds. 
The faster you go, the less time it saves.


Of course, going even one mile per hour over the posted speed limit is a crime.  This is not an opinion, nor is it open to interpretation.  It doesn’t matter if law enforcement chooses not to enforce the law, nor does it matter if “everyone else is doing it”. 
Speeding is, in addition to wasting money, natural resources, and human lives, also illegal, and is totally unacceptable.  Therefore I’ll limit the discussion to whether one drives as fast as legally possible, or slower than that.  Going 10 miles per hour below the posted maximum is legal in every state in the country (in states that specify a minimum at all, it is 15 to 20mph below the maximum).





But when you are tempted to go above the limit, remind yourself that the faster you go, the less time you save.  You can do the math yourself if you have trouble believing that.

A typical drive is 10 miles.  Over a 10 mile drive by driving at the legal maximum instead of 10 under, you will waste 25% more gas (increasing your gas bill by 25%), and increase your risk of death by 60-100%, all to save just a minute and a half
A minute which you may well end up losing again at a single stop light.  I’m sure you have been passed by a speed demon only to catch up to them a minute later at the red light they raced to (or are you always that speed demon?  Either way, you know what I mean).  I find that even at 20mph under the limit, the ETA estimates that Google Maps and my GPS unit give me are always spot on, if not slightly late.  Both systems assume I will drive at the speed limit, and calculate how long the trip should take based on that.  I often get where I am going sooner than they said I would, even though I drive slower than they expect.
Even on a long drive, say 350 miles from SF to LA, speeding the entire way only saves a little over a half an hour.
That half an hour meant using up more than an extra 3 gallons of gas, or almost $12.  According to the study quoted above, you also increase your risk of death by up to 100%.

But wait!!!

Here is a real-life story, written by "CBR Shadow":
" I recently took an 800 mile trip with a friend in my car [A Honda Insight] and we averaged 74mpg on the highway with some hypermiliing techniques (slow lane, try to get behind a truck, etc).  I got behind a full car carrier truck (the holy grail for hypermiling on the highway IMO) and stayed behind him for 50 miles averaging 94MPG!!!

The best part of that trip is that my brother ... drove his Nissan Xterra on the same route and left at the same time as us.  He laughed before the trip about how he's going to get there way before us because I'm such a penny pincher.  Ends up we beat him there by 5 minutes!  He stopped twice for gas and stopped for food twice, where we stopped for gas once (almost didn't have to at all!) and brought food in the car.  My brother spent $135 in gas for that trip, where my friend and I split a $40 gas bill :)" [Emphasis mine]

I am not asking you to give up your car and rely solely on bicycles and public transportation.
I am not asking you to buy an experimental electric or alternative fuel car, an expensive new hybrid, or even a smaller more efficient car.
I am not suggesting you go to the lengths I do and remove your power steering pump and alternator, or drive 45mph on the freeway.

All I am asking is that you slow down.  Never, ever, ever exceed a posted speed limit on a highway.******

Leave home on time so you don’t have to rush. It is not up to you to regulate everyone else, so stay in the right lane.  Don’t worry about people who pass you.  It is not a race.  On rural roads be courteous and use turn-outs; but don’t let obnoxious impatient people pressure you into risking a traffic ticket or fatal accident – just move to the right, put on your flashers, and encourage them to pass.  On a freeway there are always at least 2 lanes, so there is no excuse for anyone behind you not to pass if they want to go faster.

If you value your own money.
If you value the environment.
If you value national security and energy independence.
If you value the lives of those around you.
If you value your own life.

You don’t even have to care about all of those things. Any one of them of them is reason enough.
Leave the house 1 and a half minutes sooner, and slow down.

This will not, all by itself, save the world. But if we all do it, it will make a difference.
Thank you.

“No one can cut you off if you choose to slow down and let them in”





*hmmmmm... so maybe Soviet era lines for goods were not caused by the distribution system of communism, but by a plain lack of resources…

**Disclaimer for math and physics people: I know, technically the curve is parabolic, not exponential, but if I used that term no one would know what I was talking about

***You don’t have to take my word for it:


****Mass means the total weight of the car (plus passengers and cargo, etc). Velocity is basically a fancy word for speed.

*****The chance of an accident is higher if you go slower than traffic around you, because of the speed deferential. This is (unfortunately) even occasionally pointed out in some driving courses.  But the chances of a FATAL accident, or even an injury accident, go up with speed, as noted above.  Which would you rather avoid: a low speed fender bender, or death?

******Don’t speed on the streets either – you won’t save gas at 25mph, but you will avoid killing pedestrians and cyclists.  Traffic engineers put speed limits in place for a reason.  You aren’t a traffic engineer.  Trust them on what speed is safe.