Environment

The value of multi-modal trips

July 12, 2011

In transit lingo, "multi-modal" trips are those that use different modes to get to a destination. A common version is bike to bus/subway/rail, either taking the bike on the vehicle or locking it before one gets on. Today I had a wonderful trip that was multi-modal by accident. The "out" trip was planned as multi-modal: [...]

Read the full article →

Drive 55 MPH on Spare the Air days

October 14, 2010

With the batch of Spare the Air days in the San Francisco Bay Area in the last few weeks, I came up with an idea that would probably save a lot more gas than trying to get people to carpool and take transit (not that I'm suggesting we stop this, but I'm not sure how [...]

Read the full article →

"Progressive" thermostats to save energy

September 12, 2009

Sitting in my cold, air-conditioned classroom the last week, while it was 85-95ºF outside, a design for a new thermostat came to me. Currently, thermostats cool (or heat) a building to a desired temperature. My new design would create a floating target temperature, that moves up and down as the outside temperature changes. The goal [...]

Read the full article →

Great "raw" video footage from typhoon in China

August 9, 2009

The video below is just "raw" footage from CBS News. There is no narration, just a collection of images. I really enjoy this format, you can focus on the images and not on what the newscaster is saying. Powerful. Typhoon Slams China Sun Aug 09 11:26:08 PDT 2009 "CBS News RAW": Millions evacuated the area [...]

Read the full article →

200 people can commute in:

June 25, 2009

Great poster from Seattle demonstrating the space it takes on a street to move 200 people in various modes.

Read the full article →

Uprisings: The Whole Grain Bakers' Book

June 24, 2009

Update: December 2010: I have created a web site, uprisingsbakersbook.org, where I'm adding recipes and other pages from the book. I'm working on permissions from the publisher and bakeries, so I'm starting with bakeries that are closed. Look for weekly updates. In 1983, the Cooperative Whole Grain Educational Association published Uprisings; The Whole Grain Bakers' [...]

Read the full article →

The physics (and biology) of snake movement

June 12, 2009

Science Friday had a great piece on snakes slithering today. The main researcher in the video is Dr. David Hu from the Applied Mathematics Laboratory, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY. Turns out it's much more compicated than one would think. The scientists used smooth surfaces and even Jello to [...]

Read the full article →

The math in a hybrid car

June 2, 2009

For an end of the semester project in my physics classes, I posed the following question to my students: If you put 100,000 miles on a car, which is a better deal, a hybrid or a traditional car? Students were asked to look up a car they would be interested in buying, but the car [...]

Read the full article →

Free shoppping?

May 17, 2009

It's that time again. Time to wander the aisles of the college town "free stores." These stores don't pay rent, and the aisles move daily (if not hourly). The merchandise are the items the students don't feel like taking with them. Walk around student neighborhoods as finals and graduation come to an end, and you'll [...]

Read the full article →

The 15th Annual Bike to Work Day is Thursday, May 14th, 2009

May 8, 2009

The San Francisco Bay Area's 15th Annual Bike to Work Day will take place on Thursday, May 14, 2009. Bike to Work Day is the premier bicycling event taking place in all of Northern California with all nine Bay Area counties participating in the celebration. The event is just one day of many events taking [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries