Comments timdiller has made

  • Food for thought

    Wow, Lewis, thanks for the insights. I love hearing the other side of the story, especially in a forum like this.On Umbra on recycled vs. certified paper posted 1 year, 2 months ago 9 Responses

  • diapers...

    I, too, can't get past the diapers 15 years ago. Please tell us that either a) that was a "new math" lapse and really it was more like 25 years ago or that b) you skipped grades 1-4 and have a degree already and are precociously smart and savvy beyond your years... Maybe there is some other option c) that I haven't imagined.
    Now on to the content. Thanks for the well written guide. Any paper procurement policy should include directions for minimizing use in the first place. Some low-hanging fruits are using a print preview to eliminate pages with one or two lines (common on email printous) and printing double-sided. If there is a central printer, you might consider designating a 'scratch' paper tray where you load used paper with the clean side ready for printing. This can be used for printouts destined for markups and non-critical purposes. It's easy enough to select the paper tray from a print dialog.On Umbra on recycled vs. certified paper posted 1 year, 2 months ago 9 Responses

  • A Little bit of balance to the discussion...

    I also am a bicycle commuter and have worried about this some, and I understand the concerns. I also happen to be getting my Ph.D. studying engine emissions measurements and mitigation. I think that Umbra's response makes out automobiles to be terrible polluting machines, which is really just not the case, at least for cars less than, say, 5 years old. For gasoline powered cars, the air emitted from the exhaust pipe is probably cleaner than the air taken in at the front, due to the high efficiency of the combustion process and the even higher efficiency of the catalytic cleansing system.
    The real danger is presented by older diesel vehicles (the newer ones 2007 and later are held to the same standards as the gas-powered) emit a lot of particulate matter (you can see and smell it) and NOx, which are both lung irritants. It would be wise to ride your bike where the buses and big rigs don't go, but there's not much to fear, pollutant-wise from most of the passenger cars on the road.
    In the end, remember too that the human nose is incredible sensitive to hydrocarbons, and if there are any present, in even tiny quantities, your nose will tell you. Move out of the way, and the next breeze will clear the air, so to speak. As for NOx and ozone, these are usually only a problem in the hottest parts of the hottest days and concentrated near the highways where the big rigs run. Not taking your bike on the highway is always sound advice for more than air quality reasons...
    Here endeth the lesson.On Umbra on exerting yourself in traffic posted 1 year, 4 months ago 5 Responses

  • Driveshaft, anyone?

    I use a drive-shaft bike from Dynamic (www.dynamicbicycles.com), and pant cuffs are not a problem now because there's no chain to catch them. I'm sure it would be the same for skirts. Mine's a 7-speed (Crosstown 7) with plenty of range for hills and flats. Overall I've been pleased.On Umbra on biking in a skirt posted 1 year, 6 months ago 22 Responses

  • Thanks for the info

    Thanks for the very interesting article. Does the same thing go for all green covers? Do we really have to turn them under during flowering? I thought clover was a soil builder that did not require any intervention...On Umbra on soil health posted 1 year, 6 months ago 7 Responses

  • Carbon Monoxide?

    I thought the big danger about carbon monoxide was that you couldn't feel it coming and it gave no signs of impending death. Correct someone else if I'm wrong, but I would not list that among reasons not to buy/wear fur. There are plenty of other, good, reasons not to do so.
    I think I'm on the side of don't wear it, or at least not in public. I'm sympathetic to sentimental value, but I have problem seeing fur on people, and a lot of people probably feel the same way even though they might not say anything. Unless, that is, you hang a big sign on your bag advertising that it was inherited and you weren't responsible for its purchase. That might ruin your look, though.On Umbra on (inherited) fur coats posted 1 year, 10 months ago 60 Responses

  • Chill out Wolverine; This is a Good Idea!

    Any reduction in fuel usage is still a reduction in fuel usage and therefore a good thing. No shipping company is going to implement an emissions reduction device without either a carrot or a stick. IMHO, the carrot of savings in fuel costs is hugely preferable to regulation, which, as you point out, drive shipping to countries with less regulation.
    The fact is that shipping companies are not going to go away just to save the environment. In order to have a real impact, we have to keep a pragmatic head on our shoulders. Given that we will ship things around the globe, and given that there is a huge fleet of dirty cargo ships out there right now, a retro-fit solution like this that offers real, short-term financial incentives for implementation is a much needed market innovation. Kudos to the pragmatic SkySails that had the guts to bring this idea to market in a way that is likely to be implemented!
    My question is, will shipping companies use this device to save money on fuel or to decrease transit times? My guess is that rather than deploying the SkySail and throttling back to conserve fuel, the captain will deploy the SkySail when conditions are favorable to increase  ship speed. Is there a practical limit on ship speed determined somehow by hull or propellor design that would encourage use of the fuel conserving approach? In either case, it's hard to see a downside.On Cargo ship to use massive kite-like sail on trans-Atlantic voyage posted 1 year, 11 months ago 16 Responses

  • Power Units

    Why not just say it's an 8.3MW facility and throw in the average 1kW per household assumption to say "enough electricity for about 8300 homes"? MW-hrs/year seems a little odd to me...On Utility PG&E agrees to buy electricity from future wave-power farm posted 1 year, 11 months ago 5 Responses

  • Who's the bigger idiot?

    I'm not sure whether Rep. Camp's head in the sand or Mr. Ellis' lack of a spine is more impressive. Some nice PC on display... :-/On Feds apologize for encouraging employees to buy fuel-efficient Japanese cars posted 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

  • salt is still necessary

    Plain old salt is still pretty necessary, especially for a buckets o' sweat producing, bike commuting in the summer Texan like me. Our blood, sweat, mucus, and tears are naturally pretty salty, and we lose salt when we sweat, cry, etc. If our body's sodium level gets out of balance, we can end up in pretty bad shape with dehydration. Hence the salt tablets consumed by long distance runners. I'm given to understand that after a while, our bodies will adapt to a certain sweat level and reduce the salt content of sweat in a conservation effort.
    Also, my impression is that salt is not always the same, due to the trace elements found in it. Apparently, sea salt is a pretty good match for our bodies' trace mineral needs and is a better dietary choice than pure sodium chloride. There may be some benefit to the Dead Sea salt after all, depending on its trace mineral content.On Umbra on salt posted 2 years, 3 months ago 5 Responses

  • Watch out, though...

    We were all jazzed to join a CSA and shelled out ~$350 for a CSA near Austin. We got two and a half deliveries before the farmer had a health/nervous breakdown. We got a letter of apology from him describing his recent diagnosis of depression and a promise to make it up in the future. That was about a year ago, and we haven't heard from him since. I feel really bad for him, bad for our money that we gave him (we aren't exactly rolling in it right now), and feel that our experience really highlights the risks that small farmers take. He actually had to drive a school bus for extra money and pretty much lived month to month with triple digits in the bank only. I wish it could have worked out for him.
    This is all to say that one should do some research to find out how well organized the CSA is and how well the farmer communicates. Communication is vital since I think everyone involved wants to see it work would help out if given a chance.
    Just my 2c.On Umbra on community-supported agriculture posted 2 years, 3 months ago 9 Responses