Porsche Chooses China for Its Entry Into Sedans
Keith Bradsher, NY Times, April 19, 2009

Marijan Murat/European Pressphoto Agency

A dark gray Panamera rolled onto a stage Sunday night on the 94th floor of the 1,614-foot Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in mainland China, having been wedged nearly vertical into an elevator barely wide enough for the task.

Now that I would like to have seen.

automobile · business · china · economy · engineering · environment · porsche

Middle America, you can keep your McMansions (unless the bank takes them back, of course), I want a Tumbleweed.

Okay, to be perfectly honest, I’d prefer a small urban apartment and a subway pass. But doesn’t this look wonderful!

conservation · environment · green · house · innovation · right-size

Maine’s largest city OKs backyard chickens
Boston.com, February 19, 2009

Maine’s largest city has become the latest municipality in the state to allow residents to keep chickens in their backyards.

Portland officials said the council received 150 e-mails, the most it’s ever received on any issue, which came up as the recession has more people interested in locally grown food.

It’s a fantastic idea. Cut out the middle-man and get fresh eggs and meat while helping the environment by producing locally. Bravo, Portland.

chicken · economy · egg · environment · food · frugal · maine · pet · portland

Everybody knows what a lamp is, but how many have ever heard of a wamp?

For years I used one distribution of Linux or another as my primary operating system and mostly loved it. But Gimp isn’t Photoshop and I was tired of using my laptop to manage and edit my photo library. Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom are the programs I use most after Firefox. So I’m back to Windows XP on the desktop. *sigh*

I’ve been developing in Notepad++ lately and love it! The syntax highlighting and FTP functionality make it a wonderful environment. All I have to do is connect to the server, double-click the file to edit, make the modifications and save. The file is automatically uploaded back to the server and immediately available. It is wonderful.

(more…)

apache · development · environment · linux · mysql · php · programming · web · webdev · windows

People are actually starting to curb their consumption habits.  Whew!  It looks like, for now, $4 is a magic number.  People are driving less and automakers are taking notice.

Oil Isn’t Cheap Anymore
By Kevin Bullis, Technology Review, July 10, 2008

It’s about time!  Last week I heard an interesting advertisement for a local automobile dealership.  The sales promotion gimmick is that when you purchase a new car you’ll also be given a brand new scooter that gets 100 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.  Wow!

What we need is to continue on this path.  The federal government, as I’ve said before, needs to implement policies that will insure gas prices will continue to increase.  It’s like getting a shot; it stings for a little bit but then you start feeling so much better.

Poking new holes in the ground, as many would like for us to do, will only prolonge the inevitable.  The time to sacrifice and invest is now.

environment · green · oil

Saco (sock-o) was recently chosen as “the greenest city in Maine” by Going Green Magazine. Yippee. As such, it will host the Maine Going Green Energy, Building & Living Expo in September.

One of the factors in the decision was our two wind turbines.  The new train depot and city offices will be powered from electricity generated from a new wind turbine on Saco Island.  Anybody can visit the Saco website to see electricity production performance. Pretty cool, eh?

environment · green · maine · saco · turbine · wind · windmill

I read a brief article today in Foreign Policy Magazine (January/February 2008) that echoes what I’ve been thinking and talking about for a long time.  Politicians need to stop insisting that we have a right to cheap gasoline and instead push for higher gas prices.  High gas prices would not only stimulate public and private technology investment, it would have a transforming effect on our failing education system similar to the effects of the Manhatten Project in the ’40s and the Space Race in the ’60s.

By Kenneth Rogoff

The world believes that the only thing Americans care about is cheap oil. Prove them wrong.

Future historians will almost certainly regard the failure of the United States to lead in global environmental policy as an even greater mistake than the invasion of Iraq. The first thing the next American president should do upon taking office is to insist that the U.S. Congress pass a huge increase in gas taxes. To be more precise, the United States should implement steep carbon taxes that hit coal, heating oil, and natural gas. The tax should be enough to raise the price of gasoline by at least $2 a gallon. But unlike Europe’s consumer-oriented gasoline tax, it should hit everyone in the economy, including manufacturers.

No other specific policy action will be half as effective in changing America’s engagement with the world. No other presidential directive would so clearly disown the United States’ record of lamentable and self-centered head-in-the-sand energy policies. There is no way the United States can hope to persuade China and India to adopt more environmentally friendly growth strategies without first acknowledging its own responsibility—and then doing something about it. At the same time, a carbon tax might finally convince the rest of the world that the United States does not aim to invade countries to preserve cheap oil.

Such a tax would raise massive revenues that will help reduce current and prospective U.S. deficits. The revenues would help ease the pressure that excessive American borrowing is putting on international capital markets, pressure that is now contributing to a dangerous collapse of the dollar. Of course, some of the new tax revenue should be earmarked for scaling back other taxes and for providing subsidies to low-income citizens to offset the burden of the carbon tax. It also demonstrates the right way to provide the private sector with incentives to conserve fuel and develop alternative energy sources. It is far better than the complex and inequitable carbon trading schemes that Europeans are trying to implement.

Yes, oil-exporting countries will protest that a U.S. carbon tax is aimed squarely at them, and indeed, they will see a drop in demand for their product. Venezuela and Russia will have to figure out how to get by with lower oil revenues. But many poor developing countries will see huge cuts in their oil import bills as world petroleum prices fall. The effective transfer of wealth would be far larger than anything that private or public philanthropy could provide.

There is no doubt that there are many other symbolic gestures a new president can make, but a carbon tax would cut to the heart of what’s wrong with America’s place in the world today—politically, economically, and socially. Let’s not kid ourselves: Taxing gas and other carbon emissions will be wildly unpopular among American voters, at least at first. Many will say it is a political nonstarter. But that is precisely why children everywhere will be so grateful that a courageous American president will have finally put the United States back on its proper fiscal—and moral—track.

energy · environment · foreign policy · gas · oil · tax

Yesterday at Biddeford Pool my daughter found a seal carcass. In order to investigate and appease her curiosity she asked me if she could throw rocks at it. After hesitating to sort out my moral conundrum I gave her permission. Kirsten overheard an older lady nearby question why we would allow them to do such a thing.

brentdanley

Is there anything sacred about an animal carcass? Do we owe our hamburger respect while it’s being ingested? Kirsten and I both agreed that, aside from legal issues and respect for the family, we would NOT allow them to throw rocks at a human carcass. We don’t know why.

During our visit to the sanctuary at Biddeford Pool Kirsten said to me that we shouldn’t disturb nature. What does that mean? If I’m on a nature trail is it okay to pick a wildflower or should it be left for everyone else to enjoy? When a shark kills a seal it certainly is impacting the environment. Beavers harvest surrounding trees to construct their homes. What is acceptable human impact? I think we can all agree that our impact has been excessive but does that mean we shouldn’t pick wildflowers or collect sea shells?

I look forward to reading your comments.

animal rights · environment · ethics · nature · parenting