The chemicals used in dry cleaning are damaging to the environment and hazardous to your health. The main chemical that is used in dry cleaning is perchloroethylene, often referred to as perc. According to the EPA, the main effects of perc in humans “are neurological, liver, and kidney effects following acute (small-term) and chronic (long-term) inhalation exposure.” As terrible as it is, sometimes dry cleaning cannot be avoided. Chris Baskind on LighterFootsteps.com offers the following 5 ways to make your dry cleaning greener:
Find a progressive cleaner
Seek out a professional who offers non-perc dry cleaning. There are three well loved alternatives right now: high-pressure cleaning using liquid carbon dioxide; silicone-based cleaners (known as GreenEarth cleaning); and high-tech, computer-controlled wet washing. Of the three, Consumer Reports found that liquid CO2 performed even better than ancient-style perc. GreenEarth was close behind. CR’s testers were not impressed by the wet washing results. GreenEarth offers a convenient directory for locating an affiliated dry cleaner in your city.
Consider personal dry cleaning
Home dry cleaning kits – such as those manufactured under the Dryel brand by Procter and Gamble, and by Clorox as Fresh Care – are certainly not chemical-free, and you shouldn’t expect results identical to professional cleaning. But they don’t contain perc, and might be an alternative in areas without eco-friendly cleaners.
Opt for the washer
Modern washers with gentle cycles are often suitable for items you’d consider hand washing, such as cashmere. If you’re plotting to upgrade in your laundry room, consider a front-loading washer. They’re more water-efficient than conventional models, and the money you’ll save on laundering your own delicates will more than make up for the buy price.
Steam away dirt and odors
Sometimes a small is enough: Steam clean lightly soiled articles in your dryer. Place delicates in the dryer with a damp colorfast towel and a scented sachet (for freshness). Run a normal cycle.
Re-evaluate your wardrobe
The best way to reduce dry cleaning pollution is to stop buying clothes which require it. With the tremendous variety of low-care fabrics available these days, thoughtful shopping can pay-off in reduced cleaning costs – and a lighter environmental footstep. Get into the habit of checking marks in the store, and press online merchants to tell cleaning care requirements before you buy. Manufacturers respond to consumer demands – so be demanding when it comes to your clothing buys!
Source 1, 2, 3
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On Susty.com we found a fantastic link to RechargeAmercia.com. This site offers a Home Energy Saving Tune Up Kit, which includes a Detail Guide (check lists, tape on reminders and shopping lists) along with tools to help you spread the word. In addition to the RechargeAmerica.com website, Susty.com offers the following 10 steps to save up to $600 a year at home.
1. LIGHTING
Replace your five most used light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs to save $60 a year. And turn off lights whenever possible.
2. HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING
Set your thermostat to 66 heating/76 cooling when you’re home and 60/82 when you are away to save 30% on your heating and air conditioning costs. Replace air filters.
3. KITCHEN APPLIANCES
Set refrigerators to energy saving settings. Use the microwave for efficient cooking. Make sure the dishwasher is full before use.
4. WASHER & DRYER
Avoid hot water washing and save up to 90% of your clothes washing costs by using an indoor drying rack or outdoor clothes line.
5. WATER HEATER
Set your water heater to 120 degrees – no hotter. And if it’s more than a decade ancient, place an insulating ‘blanket’ on it.
6. BATHROOMS & FAUCETS
Save water AND energy with wise use and low flow showerheads and faucets. They are inexpensive and simple to replace.
7. HOME ENTERTAINMENT & COMPUTER SYSTEMS
You may be spending $100 per year to power devices in “standby” mode. Use power strips or turn them off.
8. AIR LEAKS & HEATING VENTS
Check and seal air leaks around windows and doors for a more comfortable home and even more savings.
9. IN THE GARAGE OR PARKING LOT….
Your car is a huge opportunity. Maintain excellent tire pressure, keep it tuned, and above all – drive efficiently.
10. SUPPORT RENEWABLE ENERGY
Check and see if you can buy renewable energy. Contact your representatives and tell them you want clean energy.
Take time to make these changes and save some money!
Source 1, 2
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This is a fantastic educational toy that also looks like fun. The Discovery Paper Recycling Studio teaches the paper recycling process and also allows the kids to make recycled paper at home. It’s never too early to teach our future generations to be green. This is a fun way to do it.
According to the item description, the features include:
- Recycle and craft paper that’s uniquely yours
- Learn how to embed objects and paint with pulp
- Learn the history of paper making
- Paper features six different shapes, fascinating textures and cool colors
- Get artistic, add color and small objects to paper
- Fun and educational
Source 1, 2
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Refrigerators are electricity guzzlers! To minimize your carbon footprint and save money on your electricity bill, we found the following 5 ways to “Green your Refrigerator” on HippyShopper.com:
1. Never place hot food in the fridge
Putting hot dishes straight into the fridge is the quickest way to place it into overdrive, using up more energy than you really need. Wait for food to cool naturally before chilling it.
2. Don’t pay too many visits to the fridge
A excellent one for your waistline, too! Opening the fridge door too often will mess up its cooling system and mean that it has to work extra hard to allow for all the heat you’re letting in. Try to take out everything you need in one go, and place everything back at the same time. Admittedly a hard one if you’ve got teenagers in the house, but remember you can always place drinks and other non-perishable items in a cool box to keep them chilled for an evening or so.
3. Defrost your freezer and ice box regularly
Dull, but necessary if you want your chiller to be working at maximum efficiency. One word of advice: don’t use the hairdryer and ice bucket method if you’re trying to be green.
4. Don’t over-fill your fridge
Putting too much food in the fridge will force it to work harder all the time, drawing on more energy. It is also all too simple to jam the doors open when a fridge is over-full, which leads to leakages. Go through your fridge regularly to see what you want to keep and what needs to go in the compost bin.
5. Use alternative methods where possible
Not everything we place in the fridge really needs chilling. Many fruit and vegetables are really better off kept at room temperature, and don’t forget that in winter you can always use a handy windowsill or cold spot in the kitchen for natural refrigeration.
Source
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Regardless of whether you have a gas or electric stove, the largest keys to green and efficient cooking are your cooking habits and the cookware that is used. On Planet Green, Josh Peterson offered 6 ways to green your cooking.
Turn off the Oven Early
There is no need to blast your stove on high the entire time your pizza is in there. You can cook the food in the oven’s residual heat. Turn off your oven about ten minutes early to save energy.
Bake Several Dishes at Once
Let’s say you have three dishes that need baked. Baking them all at once is a fantastic way to conserve energy. You can cook three dishes for the electrical or gas price of one.
Clean Your Oven the Eco-Friendly Way
Don’ t clean your oven with crazy, killer chemicals that can quash the quality of your indoor air. Here’s an eco-friendly recipe for an oven cleaner by Natural Blends:1/4 cup of borax, 1/4 cup hot water, 1/4 cup bicarb soda, 5 drops of rosemary essential oil and 5 drops of lime essential oil. Apply elbow grease as needed
Match the Pan to the Burner
According to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a 6 inch pan on an 8 inch burner wastes 40% of the energy produced by the burner.
Use Sturdy and flat-bottomed pan
A warped pan can use up 50% more energy than a flat-bottomed one.
Buy pans made of copper and cookware made of glass
Copper heats up quicker than other metals and reduce the amount of energy that you need to cook. Glass and ceramic cookware heats quicker than other materials in the oven.
Source
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The Nikkei reports that Toyota Motor Corp. expects group sales to fall to slightly more than 7 million vehicles worldwide next fiscal year, 7% less than the level forecast for fiscal 2008 and down more than 20% from the peak marked in fiscal 2007.
In December, Japan’s leading carmaker cut its current-year group sales forecast to 7.54 million units from an earlier projection of 8.24 million units. The sales figure includes those of Hino Motors Ltd. and Daihatsu Motor Co.
Because Toyota has a global output capacity of slightly below 10 million vehicles, the new sales outlook means the company faces a supply glut of more than 2 million units next fiscal year.
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Citing two unnamed Administration officials, the New York Times reported Sunday that President Obama will on Monday direct the EPA to go swiftly to reconsider an application by California and, by extension, 13 other states for a waiver to implement greenhouse gas standards on new light-duty vehicles (California AB 1493, the Pavley regulations).
Mr. Obama’s presidential memorandum will order the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the Bush administration’s past rejection of the California application. While it stops small of flatly ordering the Bush choice reversed, the agency’s regulators are now widely expected to do so after completing a formal review process.
In May, the California Air Resources Board issued an addendum to an earlier technical study that shows that California’s clean cars law (the Pavley regulations) could achieve 41% greater total reductions of greenhouse gases nationwide if implemented nationally compared to the recently proposed federal fuel economy standards by 2020. (Earlier post.)
The NY Times report also said that Obama will direct the Department of Transportation to finalize the rulemaking on Corporate Fuel Economy Standards for model years 2011-2015. Although DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had originally anticipated issuing the final rule prior to the end of year, the Bush Administration left office without finalizing the rulemaking. (Earlier post.)
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Nikkei. Global sales of new cars will likely drop 14% to 55 million units in 2009, Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said at the Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Worldwide new car sales dropped 9% in 2008.
Ghosn also predicted that it will take at least seven years for global new-car sales to recover to their peak level of 69 million units, seen in 2007. Ghosn said the current economic slump will drag on, forecasting that new-car sales will not start growing until 2011.
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(a) Schematic showing evenly spread out Sn
nanoclusters on a SnO2 nanowire surface. (b) SEM image showing a
network of Sn-nanocluster-covered SnO2 nanowires. (c) HRTEM image showing well-spaced crystalline Sn nanoclusters on the nanowire
periphery. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
Researchers at the University of Louisville (Kentucky) are proposing a simple, generic design for stable, high-capacity lithium-ion anode materials consisting of hybrid structures involving metal nanoclusters supported on metal oxide nanowires.
In a paper published online 21 January in the ACS journal Nano Letters, the team presented a study demonstrating the design concept using a tin and tin oxide (Sn and SnO2) material system. The design, they noted, can be extended to a wide range of metal oxides, nitrides, and other semiconductors such as Si (silicon) and Ge (germanium).
Nanowire-based systems show promise as Li-ion electrode material due to quicker charge transport, better conducting pathways and excellent strain relaxation. But, noted the Louisville team, the stability of nanowire based materials over cycling is either unknown or has been observed to fade rapidly.
After demonstrating high-capacity Si nanowire materials with excellent capacity retention over 10 charge-discharge cycles last year (earlier post), for example, Yi Cui and Stanford and his colleagues recently demonstrated a new core-shell design of crystalline-amorphous (c-a) silicon nanowires (NW) to enable higher power and longer-life lithium-ion battery electrodes (earlier post).
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| A schematic illustrating the reversible Li alloying and dealloying steps in the Sn-nanocluster-covered-SnO2 nanowires. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
The basic design principle of Associate Professor Mahendra Sunkara and his colleagues is that the metal oxide nanowires are covered with metal nanoclusters with regular spacing larger than the diameter of each cluster. The spacing accomodates the volume expansion during alloying, thereby preventing agglomeration. The quicker electron transport through the underlying nanowires is expected to allow for efficient lithium alloying and dealloying, while the exposed metal nanoclusters and metal oxide nanowire surfaces serve as lithium alloying sites.
Tin and tin oxide offer excellent semiconducting properties combined with high capacity (Sn, 994 mAhg-1 and SnO2, 781 mAhg-1) compared to that of graphite (372 mAhg-1). But, a number of recent studies have shown significant capacity fading with these types of tin systems.
Sunkara and his colleagues synthesized SnO2 nanowires and reduced them using H2 plasma exposure producing nano-meter sized Sn clusters on the nanowire surfaces. The Sn nanoclusters are spaced at ~1.4 times the
diameter of each cluster.
All systems in the study were tested using anodic measurements over a potential window of 0 to 2.2 V (versus Li/Li+).
The data using pure SnO2 nanowires showed a high initial capacity of 2400 mAhg-1 but severe capacity degradation occurred within the next 15 cycles leading to a reversible capacity of 166 mAhg-1 after 40 cycles…In comparison, Sn-nanocluster-covered SnO2 nanowires exhibited a reversible capacity of 845 mAhg-1 after 40 cycles…Other types of Sn/SnO2 composite nanowire systems (metal Sn nanoclusters distributed in between the SnO2 nanowire networks) showed an initial capacity of 2800 mAhg-1 with a final reversible capacity of 490 mAhg-1 after 40 cycles. This result is similar to that obtained in prior studies using Sn/SnO2 composites.
…The hybrid structures show an initial irreversible capacity of 413 mAhg-1, which accounts to a columbic efficiency of 74%, notably the highest reported until now in SnO2 systems. The columbic efficiency in
the subsequent cycles is shown to be over 98%. The capacity fading at a rate of ~1.3% for the initial 15 cycles and ~0.8% after the 15th cycle is considerably lower than that reported for other nanoscale SnO2 material systems.
—Meduri at al. (2009)
 |
| Capacity of the hybrid material over 100 cycles. Credit: ACS. Click to enlarge. |
Overall, the SnO2 nanowires covered with Sn nanoclusters exhibited a capacity of >800 mAhg-1 over 100 cycles with a low capacity fading of less than 1% per cycle. Post lithiation analyses after 100 cycles showed small structural degradation of the hybrid nanowires.
Resources
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Praveen Meduri, Chandrashekhar Pendyala, Vivekanand Kumar, Gamini U. Sumanasekera and Mahendra K. Sunkara (2009) Hybrid Tin Oxide Nanowires as Stable and High Capacity Anodes for Li-Ion Batteries. Nano Lett., Article ASAP doi: 10.1021/nl802864a
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Wenatchee World. The Port of Chelan County, Washington (in north central Washington) is seeking $15 million in federal economic stimulus money to modify 500 standard Toyota Prius hybrids to plug-in hybrids.
Ron Johnston-Rodriguez, the port’s director of economic development, said the port is working with the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Lab and Pacific Northwest National Lab in Tri-Cities to develop the project. It would include research on devices that would limit the time plugged-in cars draw electricity to only as long as it takes the battery to charge completely.
The vehicles would primarily come from government agencies from the Northwest, Johnston-Rodriguez said. Port officials hope the effort will entice a company that modifies standard hybrids to locate here. Last year, the port modified 14 Prius hybrids in a pilot project.
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In 2008, venture capital firms invested $680.2 million into US biofuel firms, including $437 million in cellulosic ethanol (64.25%), $175.9 million in microalgae (25.86%), $42 million in butanol (6.17%) and 25.3 million into systems and infrastructure providers (3.72%), according to a compilation by Biofuels Digest.
VCs invested $110.5 million in the Q4 economic slowdown, after $233 million in Q2, the high for the year.
The largest single reported investment was $166 million for Range Fuels from Khosla Ventures and an unnamed energy company. Sapphire Energy was second, with $100 million from ARCH Venture Partners, Wellcome Trust, Venrock and Cascade Investment. Amyris Technologies was third with $90 million from DAG Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, TPG Ventures, John Melo, Jeryl Hilleman, Kinkead Reiling, Jack Newman, Neil Renninger, Ralph Alexander, and Tamara Tompkins.
A complete summary of the 2008 transactions is available on the Biofuels Digest website.
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The Nikkei reports that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to require businesses owning 200 or more vehicles to fill at least 5% of their fleets with fuel-efficient vehicles from fiscal 2011. This is the first such proposal of its kind by a local government in Japan.
Both gasoline and diesel vehicles will be covered. Some 180 businesses in Tokyo—including trucking companies, taxi and bus operators, and banks—are believed to own 200 vehicles or more. Tokyo estimates that the requirement will lead to slightly more than 10% of their roughly 120,000 vehicles being replaced with fuel-efficient ones.
Fuel-efficient vehicles will be defined as those satisfying fuel economy standards set by the central government that automakers must comply with by fiscal 2015. These standards will require 2-liter-class passenger cars to be able to travel at least 16 km per liter of gasoline [6.25 L/100km or 37.6 mpg US].
Tokyo has set a goal of cutting CO2 emissions 25% from 2000 levels by 2020. The transportation sector accounted for 26% of total CO2 emissions in Tokyo in 2005.
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| Net energy yield (NEY) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction compared to gasoline from different types of corn-ethanol systems used as default scenarios in the BESS model. NEY includes ethanol plus coproduct energy credit minus energy inputs. A closed-loop biorefinery with anaerobic digestion (CL) reduced GHG emissions by 67%. Credit: Yale Univ. Click to enlarge. |
Direct-effect GHG emissions from corn ethanol are equivalent to a 48% to 59% reduction compared to gasoline—a twofold to threefold greater reduction than reported in previous studies—as a result of recent improvements in efficiency throughout the production process, according to a study by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).
The team of UNL researchers evaluated dry-mill ethanol plants that use natural gas. Such plants account for nearly 90% of current production capacity. An open-access paper on the study was published 21 January in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.
The direct-effect emissions assessment considered the energy used for feedstock production and harvesting (e.g., fossil fuels for field operations and electricity for grain drying and irrigation) as well as upstream costs for the production of fertilizer, pesticides, and seed; depreciable cost of manufacturing farm machinery; and the energy required in the production of fossil fuels and electricity.
Energy used in the conversion of corn to ethanol includes transportation of grain to the biorefinery, grain milling, starch liquefaction and hydrolysis, fermentation
to biofuel, and coproduct processing and transport. The study included energy used for the construction of the biorefinery itself, prorated over the life of the facility.
The research is the first to quantify the impact of recent improvements throughout the corn-ethanol production process, including crop production, biorefinery operations and co-product use, according to Professor Ken Cassman, UNL agronomist who was part of the research team. Previous studies, which found ethanol to have a much smaller edge over gasoline in GHG emissions, relied on estimates based on corn production, ethanol plant performance and co-product use as they were seven years ago.
| “Critics claim that corn ethanol has only a small net energy yield and small potential for direct reductions in GHG emissions compared to use of gasoline. This is the first peer-reviewed study to document that these claims are not right.”
—Ken Cassman
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More recently built and more energy-efficient plants now represent about 60% of total ethanol production and will account for 75% by the end of 2009. Also, many are located near cattle feeding or dairy operations, which allows efficient use of the co-product distillers grains as cattle feed. For example, the distillers grains don’t have to be dried to facilitate long-distance travel; drying uses up to 30% of total energy use in the ethanol plant.
Also contributing to corn ethanol’s GHG performance are improvements in how the crop is grown, including improved crop and soil management, and better hybrids that help farmers achieve a steady increase in corn yields without having to increase fertilizer or energy inputs.
Ethanol-to-petroleum output/input ratios ranged from 10:1 to 13:1 but could be increased to 19:1 if farmers adopted high-yield progressive crop and soil management practices, according to the study. An advanced closed-loop biorefinery with anaerobic digestion reduced GHG emissions by 67% and increased the net energy ratio to 2.2, from 1.5 to 1.8 for the most common systems. Earlier studies gad pegged the net energy ratio at an average of 1.2 to 1.
The range in the ethanol-oil replacement value, as well as the ranges measured for net energy efficiency and GHG emissions reduction, are due to differences in crop management practices and ethanol plant performance.
 |
Regional variability in corn-ethanol system performance due to differences in inputs to and outputs from crop production: (A) Net energy yield of the corn-ethanol production life cycle, given a new
natural gas biorefinery. (B) Greenhouse gas intensity of corn production (kg CO2e Mg-1 grain), and life cycle GHG reductions of corn-ethanol compared to gasoline (%), given a new natural gas biorefinery. Results were calculated with the BESS model. Credit: Yale Univ. Click to enlarge. |
Such improved technologies have the potential to go corn-ethanol closer to the hypothetical performance of cellulosic biofuels, according to the study. Likewise, the larger GHG reductions estimated in this study allow a greater buffer for inclusion of indirect-effect land-use change emissions while still meeting regulatory GHG reduction targets.
The research is a component of a regional, multi-university research initiative known as NC506, to assess the economic and environmental sustainability of the rapidly expanding Midwestern corn ethanol industry. This project is funded by the US Department of Agriculture and the North Central Bioeconomy Consortium. Other sources of funding include the Western Governors Association, Environmental Defense, and the Agricultural Research Division at UNL, and the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research.
Researchers used the UNL-developed Biofuel Energy Systems Simulator, or BESS, to make their calculations. This software is available for download online. BESS analyzes energy yield and efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and resource requirements for individual biofuel production systems. This “seed-to-fuel” tool quantifies lifecycle carbon savings and environmental impact of individual biofuel systems. It factors in energy use and greenhouse gases from crop production, ethanol conversion, co-product use, and transportation.
Resources
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Adam J. Liska, Haishun S. Yang, Virgil R. Bremer, Terry J. Klopfenstein, Daniel T. Walters, Galen E. Erickson, and Kenneth G. Cassman (2009) Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Ethanol, Journal of Industrial Ecology, doi: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2008.00105.x
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Biofuel Energy Systems Simulator
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ZAP used the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) annual exposition running in New Orleans, 24-27 January 2009, as the venue to introduce the Shuttle, a five-passenger, 4-wheel, battery electric van and the pre-production Alias, a three-wheel, battery-electric 2-seater capable of freeway speeds.
The ZAP Shuttle was designed for transportation around large campuses, to and from parking lots, and, because it produces zero emissions, through factories, warehouses and other indoor uses. For on-road use, the Shuttle conforms to US regulations for Low Speed Vehicles with a top speed of 25 mph limited to streets with a posted speed limit of 35 mph. It drives 30 miles on a recharge of its Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) Lead-acid battery pack.
The Alias is designed with a Li-ion battery pack and will have a 100-mile range and support freeway speeds. While ZAP has contracted most of its manufacturing to China over the past several years as a way to remain cost-competitive, the company will be building the Alias in the United States.
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The US stock car racing sanctioning body NASCAR has appointed Mike Lynch to the newly made position of managing director for green innovation.
Speaking during the recent 2009 NASCAR Media Tour, NASCAR chairman Brian France said:
…we want to do our part to be a better partner with the environment. And that’s not only vital to NASCAR but it’s really vital to our fans and they’ve told us that not only are they concerned about preserving the environment for the outdoors, but they’re also concerned about high fuel cost, global warming and energy independence. We recognize this must be one of our priorities moving forward.
Last June I chaired an internal committee meeting with former vice president Al Gore in conjunction with the event at Infineon Raceway. In that meeting, we discussed thoughts for what we can do as an industry to be greener. One of the recommendations was to have a point person to coordinate with the industry. As a result, NASCAR has hired Mike Lynch as managing director for green innovation. Mike is responsible for plotting and executing a comprehensive industry-wide green initiative.
Mike is in the process of developing an industry wide multi-disciplined strategy, green initiative, to include all NASCAR departments, drivers, teams and tracks.
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image from ukgermanconnection.org
Germans are being urged to say “nein, danke” ( no thanks) to wiener schnitzel. The government is urging people to return to their ancient pre-war habits of eating meat only for special occasions. Now it is considered normal to eat meat every day, indeed “for too many, eating meat is too closely connected with manliness.” The government is suggesting that a Sunday roast and more interest in the Mediterranean style of diet would be better for the population and the planet.
The Germans are among the largest meat eaters in Europe–getting 39% of their total calorie intake from it, as compared with the Italians who get 25%. …
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No more peanut butter and bacon sandwich’s!
Photo Credit: Inuyaki.com
Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, has released a report stating that tainted peanut butter products may have been avoided if the FDA had a quicker reaction rate towards food tainted outbreaks in general. Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives at Consumers Union, questioned the delayed reaction of the FDA with the recent peanut butter epidemic:
“When a plane crashed, we have a massive investigation as to how it happened, so that the problem can be corrected. Why didn’t FDA intensi…
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Photo credit: Pfala
First, The Terrible News
Pollution through our air, water, and soil is currently one of the leading causes of death in both men and women throughout the world. It is the blame for some 40 percent of all deaths. Scientists have warned that at our current rate of population growth, these numbers could rise significantly due to the formation of both new and ancient forms of disease, including 
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It’s not hard to design a suitably cold and moldy home for the family you despise. First, orient your mansion East/West. Make it narrow. This minimizes any chance that sunshine might pierce your Southern flank.
Then pick the stingiest windows you can find and instruct your architect to use them sparingly. Avoid any use of windows on the Southern elevation. One, at the most.
That will keep the sun out.
Sunshine warms homes for free. That’s socialism. Real men use fossil fuel for the daunting task of warming up a frigid family. There’s no free lunch. Tough sh*t.
And when the fossil fuels run out? It will never happen. Real men will dig more up from under somebody.
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I have just finished making an entire stack of freakin’ AWESOME Valentines for my Valentine’s Classroom Card Exchange swap over at Craftster, and the last thing I intend to do with them is stick them into a bunch of dull, mass-market, chlorine bleached, ancient-growth forest envelopes. And also? I made my Valentines weird sizes.
I am a crafty chick, but, and as my friend Autumn says, happiness IS recycling folded paper, so I’m going to take this atlas I found dumpster-diving, in which the Berlin Wall (Boo!) and Tibet (Yay!) are both alive and well, and I’m going to fold some pages into rockin’ envelopes to house all my many missives to all my many Internet sweeties (You out there, superhooker? Pumpkinbear says hi!).
Why don’t you give your own sweetie a smile and craft along with me?
Read more of this tale »
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Do you know how much energy and cotton it takes to make just one pair of jeans? Instead of buying new denim every few months, consider recycling your ancient jeans into a new pair.
There’s nothing better than broken-in jeans that you like anyway, right? One Buenos Aires designer is taking recycling to the next level. Give the company any pair of your ancient jeans and they’ll redesign them and send you back something completely new, cool, and made from your ancient pair.
If you aren’t plotting a trip to South America any time soon, you can also check out Junky Styling, a UK company that does something similar, or Hippnotik in Stow, OH. I bet if you do some digging, you can find someone local to you who can breathe new life into your ancient jeans too.
Picture via sunshinecity under the Creative Commons license.
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