Sustainability

Started by Sassy, March 20, 2006, 12:51:37 PM

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glenn kangiser

I'll have to research that one on some of my favorite conspiracy sites.  DOJ, Whitehouse, NPS sites - etc.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

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dail(Guest)

heh, checked out your trap, Glenn. My grandfather used to build those. He called'em "Possum Traps." (South Carolina)
One of the secretaries had a mouse problem here, at the office one time. Mouse getting into her 'goodie's drawer.' They tried several commercial traps, but to no avail. So...
I made one out of Bainbridge board. A heavy cardboard. Set it in her drawer over night along with some M&M's. Had'em the next morning. The women wanted to see him. I told them that wasn't a good idea. They insisted. So,
I opened  the trap door a bit, he grabbed it, flipped it open and shot out in to the air 5 foot off the floor at one. She screamed! Ran! Then they all screamed!. One jumped in to the arms of another who was 8 months pregant and they both stood and screamed. The mouse ran down the hall as fast as could hightail it. The men scrambled to get out of the way of the women, who were now running in all sorts of directions to dodge the mouse. Except the pregnant one, she was still holding the other and they were both still screaming.
I just watched the mouse hasitly disappear and quietly said, "well, I told you it wouldn't a good idea."....lol....d


glenn kangiser

#77
That sounds like it was a blast-- I'd love to have seen that.  My granddad also made a different version with the same paddle trigger but instead of the door it had about a 5 lb block of wood suspended.  It would really ruin a mouses day and they didn't jump out of the box.  It may still elicit the screaming though.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

dail(Guest)

heh, yeah it was a 'riot.' I work in a county courthouse. The screaming brought on tons of phone calls. Security, (sherriffs) and suppervisiors and managers all came running to see what all the commotion was about. I turned to my supervisor and appologised, but he motioned me to forget it. He was trying to keep from bursting out laughing. The sherriffs snickered when they found out. I'm suprised the press didn't pickup on it, as they usually were hanging out in reception.
I chose the live trap, as these secretaries didn't want to hurt him. (Go figure.) He never came back. So I don't know if he died of a heart attack, or decided he'd had enough of "women."........lol.....d

Ailsa C. Ek

Good grief, what a bunch of wimps.  We have mice here, and cats that are very good mousers.  My husband is very grossed out by partial mice, so dealing with mouseparts is my job.  My daughter and I also catch and transport live ones from time to time.

We live in darkest suburbia, but we have coyotes and fisher cats.  Nobody introduced the fishers, and those things are way eviller than coyotes could ever hope to be.  I worry about our one indoer/outdor cat constantly (OK, our old boy goes outdoors at times too, but his idea of "outdoors" is sunning himself on the deck and hissing at the dog).

I like living near the woods, though.  Next house is going to have an airlock door, we've decided.  Probably won't help, but it's a good thing to have anyway.


Amanda_931

#80
Fisher Cats?  Never heard of them.  

Until I ran a search--cousin of the Wolverine, one of the few creatures, aside from its cousin, who can tackle a porcupine successfully.  It sounds pretty formidable, and distinctly not cuddly.

http://home.mcn.net/~wtu/fisher.html



We've got the Coyotes--probably none of them pure-bred.  The outside dogs are called The Barkers because they have to answer the coyotes back.  Miss Cherty Pie Barker probably sounds pretty formidable to a Coyote.  Things have been really upset lately because of the logging on the other side of the hill.

JRR


Sassy

At Chico State, campus mantra is sustainable living

QuoteIf students strolling past the huge Trash Mountain on the Chico State campus last week missed its bulk, they most likely noticed its pungent smell.

"That's the grabber," Benn Davenport said of the mounded plastic garbage bags representing 1,440 pounds of trash discarded daily at the student center. "We need to think about ways that we can reduce our waste."  "It's more about stewardship, and the social and economic implications of what we do," Pushnik said.

"Sustainability isn't just environmentalism with a capital S. It's a focus on stewardship, on responsibility for future generations," Provost Scott McNall said.

go to the link for the complete article
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

Amanda_931

#83
Multi-page interview with pictures with Tony Wrench here (at least two of us really enjoy reading about him--and his low-impact round house.  I once wrote an e-mail to his member of parliament, asking why McMansions were considered as all-natural/blending in to the scenery/etc where his house was threatened with being torn down because it didn't}  And, oh, yes, after a whole year and a half, IIRC of not being threatened with eviction, it's on the table again.:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/06/in_pictures_life_in_an_eco_roundhouse/html/1.stm

First picture I tried to put up did not want to show.  I figured out what was wrong, but I think I'll post their toilet instead--probably one of the many reasons that the authorities can't wait to destroy their place.



Amanda_931

and two more green housing stories--I read about these in Hugg.

http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2006/11/22/green-houses-not-just-for-flowers.php

QuoteVan[ch269]áková's home is special: Warmth comes from a unique ventilation and insulation system that eliminates the need for gas or electrical heating. The family's energy bills are slashed 90 percent and its needs cause only a small amount of harmful carbon-dioxide emissions to be released into the atmosphere.

"I decided that if I wanted to build a house, I would at least build it so it is easy on the environment," says Van[ch269]áková. "The feeling I was doing something myself to make things better was more important to me than having nice tiles in the bathroom."

So-called green houses are finally catching on in the Czech Republic, though they have been popular in neighboring Germany and Austria for years. From 2000 to 2005, only 50 such homes were built here. But this year alone, another 50 have sprung up.

And from Brazil--I'd have quoted a bit but I kept getting a message that said "Este boton esta anulado"--at a guess, this button is annulled.  Their idea of what they wanted to do was pretty interesting:

http://www.temasactuales.com/temasblog/?p=102

benevolance

There is a major problem with all the advances that have been made to engines and aerodynamics... electronics...Batteries...Emission controls...etc.

For all the upgrades we have seen in the last 30 years we have not seen a huge improvement in the mileage per gallon on average.

Example...Yesterday I saw the 2007 Silverado advertisement...It is a truck that has 300+ horsepower and averages 20 miles per gallon

my 1981 Silverado has about 180 horsepower and gives  about 18-20 miles to the gallon...

Why Don't they reduce the power output of the new truck to a medium between the 180 and the 300+ and work on a full size truck that is capable of approaching 30 miles to the gallon?

I listened to that hour long lecture and it was informative...But the guy skipped over the obvious several times. He talked about biofuel being Carbon Neutral...Which is great and all...But one of the main points in efficiency is that the less fuel you burn of any type the less carbon that is released into the atmosphere

Without any major advances in technology or any new fuel sources being discovered the one way that is proven has been tested and works in efficiency is less equals more!

Meaning you drive a smaller car with less weight and power and you get more mileage....Less equals more!

a 1976 diesel volkswagon rabbit gave about 40 miles to the gallon with a diesel...It weighed less than 2000 pounds...I think 750 kg...The new Volkswagon diesels weigh 3500 pounds and are so much more powerful that they are faster than the 4 cylinder diesel from 30 years ago in a car that was 1500 pounds lighter...But the economy of it is not very far ahead of what they got out of the 1976 VW

The BLT thought process would work...It is not as great as the guy giving the lecture would have you believe... Simply forcing weight, and overall efficiency restrictions would cut the carbon emissions by 50% because 50% less fuel would be getting burned.

In other countries there are limits to the size of an engine and you paymore tax for a larger engine... Weight and engine restrictions would work in America

I had a Geo Metro that gave 50 miles to the gallon in Highschool and it  was a gas engine without any fancy valve design or modern fuel injection

Small engine, low weight...High efficiency....We went away from the compact pick ups from the early 80's...We now have massive SUV's and the compact trucks have quad cabs with 4 doors and V8 engines...

The advances to valve design, electronics, injection that have helped the diesel Engine become more powerful and efficient would allow a simplistic non hybrid car to achieve a realistic achievable 60 miles to the gallon....And it would not be estimated like the Prius and Honda Civic....A figure that was only achievable driving downhill in the city under optimal conditions... Independant road tests of the honda and toyota hybrids have shown that both fall well short of the advertised mileage per gallon...

One of my neighbors has a mid 80's Jetta Turbo Diesel 4 door it gives about 45 miles to the gallon..Has Ice cold air and all kinds of power and cargo space...It is not at all one of these 2 seaters that has no options.

Point is that take this car...Lighten it up with advanced aluminums and carbon fibver materials..And then make the engine slightly more efficient with better injection and valve design and all of a sudden it gives 60 miles to the gallon with ease.

Diesels do have problems with the Nitrous oxides...But if you are burning signifigantly less fuel due to incredible mileage..half the emissions battle has been won right there.... Plus they have decent emission systems for Nitrous oxides and particulate matter for diesels now...

I agree with the Lecture guy that the Ethanol solution is bunk...It would come at the cost of precious land, water and food resources.....There is no morality to take land water and food for a hungry world to produce gasoline!!!!!!!

I really like Plug in cars...And batteries are approaching the level where an electric car will have a range of 3-400 miles between charges....But we have to find a way to generate electricity more efficiently without burning fossil fuels...

If half the world owned an electric car and we all charged them up at night  the gasoline and diesel consumption problem would be solved....But we would need to double the amount of electrical generation plants throughout the world...And unless they are going to generate clean electricity we are creating one problem to solve another.

Heavy water fission shows promise...But why the world does not build about  500 solar towers is beyond me....They would generate enough electricity to curb all emissions and gases being released into the atmosphere...

The one constant in our solar system is the Sun! harnessing the suns energy is the only true way to power the world without all the problems of pollution, emissions, food land and water shortages.

Massive investment into advanced solar cells that are multi layered and approaching 40% efficiency is the solution.... Within the next decade they would replace coal as the cheapest way to generate electricity...The cost of solar cells per Watt has been dropping at a exponential rate..And the efficiency per cell has been increasing dramatically....It is inevitable that a time will come when electricity generated through a solar cell will be cheaper than electricity generated burning fossil fuels...


benevolance

We need to push hard towards getting solar electricity in line with fossil fuel electricity...When this happens We can truly be free of political influence for energy. Electric cars batteries and all of that will make perfect sense and we can use what petroleum we have left for plastics...avionics...etc

But in the meantime the less equals more would do wonders towards curbing overall consumption.... emissions and pollution worldwide.