Why I've given up on rechargeable batteries.

I feel cheated and betrayed.  For years I've made small efforts to be responsible in purchasing rechargeable batteries.  I wanted to reduce the number of batteries going to a landfill, I wanted to be responsible with money by not having to re-purchase batteries.  I wanted to do the right thing.    But I feel like the promises made and prices charged by battery manufacturers weren't genuinely intended to support the widescale adoption of rechargeable batteries. Its been a long process but for now I've finally given up. :-(

Google provides free phone calls from GMail to anywhere in North America. (reasonable rates for overseas)

Cyrus (+1)  and Lifehacker pointed out that Gmail has now allowed phone calls to be placed straight from Gmail.

Google announces it here (along with a cute video)

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html

I thought you would like to know about this. Here is an overview. 

http://www.google.com/chat/voice/

Rates

Free calls anywhere in North America till Dec 31^st, fair rates elsewhere.

http://www.google.com/chat/voice/compare.html

https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/rates

Review

• I used it for 2 hours yesterday and the quality was very very clear. :-)
• It is super easy. 
• It will dial people from your Google contacts list (accessed through Gmail)
• It integrates with your Google voice account if you have one. (calling credit, history, google voice # on caller ID etc.)

Requirements

• You need a Gmail account. (free fast good)
• It requires a browser plug-in that you would otherwise install for using Google chat’s “voice-chat” feature.
• It requires a speaker/headphones and microphone
• (um and an Internet connection)

Use

• In Gmail on the left were you see “chat” and your friends below your status;
• Rather than clicking on a person and starting a chat,
• you click “call phones” and it presents you with a keypad.
• Type the number you want 604-555-1212 etc… and it starts ringing
• OR type a contact from your gmail contacts.

UPDATE: Gmail has extended free North American phone calls for all of 2011.  Thank you Gmail.  I know this is one of many factors causing my friends to consider giving up their home phones.

Enjoy! I hope this saves you money and helps you connect with the people that matter to you.

Cheers, Greg

Say no to flyers and newspapers to save trees, reduce clutter and save money.

The experiment is a success.

Each year, our household saves 2.1 mature trees per year by refusing flyers and newspapers.

At our house, we have more time, less mess, less stress, the paperboy gets his route done faster and we save trees from being unnecessarily, cut down, transported, processed, printed and delivered to our door.

US Pollution Database Aggregates Public Polluter data

I just found this online resource for finding local information (including reported release of pollutants)

http://www.thisweknow.org/l/WA/Bellingham 

If we look at what Blaine, Bellingham, Lynden, Sumas Washington (which are the closest US Cities to British Columbia) are releasing it is quite surprising what is going into our air.  Without actually counting the numbers, it seems that the BP Cherry Point refinery is spewing the greatest variety of pollutants into our local air-

shed.  For those of you who are unaware, air quality in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia's "Lower Mainland" ia problematic, with local mountains creating a funnelling effect that seems to concentrate air pollution as it travels eastward. (The wind is normally gentle from the West) 

Despite the thickness of the black line on the map that marks our border with the United States, American pollutants continue to defy international law by illegally crossing our border without permission.  Seems that elimination of pollutants at source is the only option, since we realize our neighbours to the south aren't being malicious, and suffer as much as we do from the careless release of toxic chemicals.

Resources like this make the facts Open to the public and form a foundation for reasonable and informed grassroots efforts to improve air quality.

BP? what are you doing to my kid's health?

Now to bring balance to the force, we also need to see a listing of Canadian factories and pollutants.  If anyone reading this knows of a similar Canadian resource, let me know.  

Thanks,

Greg.

Cities designed to be "idle-free" - Strategies for Reducing Idling

Much of our traffic infrastructure is designed to facilitate a smooth flow of traffic, but other aspects promote idling.  Traffic lights where entire phalanxes of cars sit still with their engines running.  This is sad because it wastes petroleum which is a non-renewable toxic resource, creates unnecessary air pollution for my children to breathe, and it effectively syphons money out of people's pockets by causing them to get 0 mpg.  There are some very real savings that come from a reduction in idling


2 sources of idling have been addressed

• In cities, we are past the days were people would leave a vehicle running and go into the store thanks to concerns about car theft (who said it was all bad?).  
• We are past the point where people believe their car needs to run for several minutes to "warm up" before being driven.  Thankfully vehicle technology has made advances in that area, so we only have cars idling when they are likely to need to move forward again.

4 sources of idling still exist.

• When idling at railway crossings, traffic will typically be stopped for several minutes and this is an excellent time for people to turn off their engines.  Signage is beginning to be deployed to educate people about not idling their vehicles at railway crossings which I observe is having some effect.  For example the Township of Langley as part of its "Idling gets you Nowhere" campaign has deployed signage to reduce idling at railway crossings where Langley experiences mile long coal trains several times a day.   Railway underpasses and overpasses eliminate this source of idling at a greater initial construction cost.
• When idling in traffic at intersections with a stop sign or stop light we do idle, but it seems we're all thinking "what if that guy's car doesn't start.  Along these lines the BC idle-free website encourages people to eliminate idling except when "in traffic".  While some vehicles like the Toyota Prius will automatically turn off the car's gas engine when it is idling (solves idling for all the situations), most drivers aren't going to turn their vehicle off in traffic.  Effective creation of overpasses (the ones without traffic lights at both ends) can eliminate idling, as can right hand turn lanes which allow traffic to keep moving "around" an intersection without being unnecessarily stopped by the light.  Round-abouts are increasingly being chosen as an effective traffic control device which permits continued traffic flow rather than the stop and idle pattern offered by traffic lights.  The Cities of Abbotsford, Langley and Surrey are deploying effective traffic circles which are receiving growing acceptance among drivers.
• Traffic jams promote idling when the entire road is full, and the traffic inches forward and stops, inches forward and stops.  In this case, the entire freeway is idling.  If there was a culture of turning off your engine and letting the traffic ahead inch forward for a minute or 2 and then pulling forward and repeating the process this might eliminate a great deal of the idling.  Rebecca from BC's IdleFree program pointed out an innovation at the Peace Arch border crossing which uses traffic control signals and appropriate signage in order to do this exact thing. (Thanks for the link Rebecca!)  It's called "Greening the Border" and you can read about it here; http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/greening_the_border/greening.htm.
• Drive-thru services are the final place where I observe vehicles idling.  The drivers are waiting inside, they are caused to inch forward and stop inch forward and stop, and the properties have limited room to allow for vehicle queuing.  Whether this be the bank, the Costco gas bar line-up or the local Tim Horton's drive-thru, people are sitting in the vehicles waiting to move forward.  Not only does this create general air pollution and general waste, but it has a very direct exposure to the staff who must work in drive-thrus.  In Abbotsford BC, the Tim Horton's drive-thru on Sumas way is similar to most in that it has a constant line of 5-10 vehicles all day long and during peak periods it easily has 15 vehicles in line.  Because the line moves frequently, drivers in line must remain ready to move forward. With 5-10 small moves, drivers are unlikely to turn their car on and off that many times. What they need is a way to advance in the line without restarting their vehicle.

My proposal for a "Carbon Neutral Drive-Thru" design.
If the drive-thru lane sloped downward at an appropriate grade from the start of the lane to the drive through windows, customers could turn off their car, and simply take their foot off the brake when they wanted to advance.  Remember we are talking about a movement of 20ft at a time at extremely slow speeds (gravity power only) on a gentle slope. At these speeds, the assistance of power brakes becomes unnecessary for the average passenger vehicle.  This drive-thru recommendation is a development consideration with the long term return of potential reduced emissions for the life of the property.  it requires more planning than simply posting signs. It requires;

• Determine the best incline to overcome the rolling resistance for most passenger vehicles. 
• Publish information on this design concept to all cities and municipalities, for their use in supporting property developers.  
• Allow developers to adopt the plans .
• Grant recognition to those developers/ restaurants who adopt "carbon neutral drive-thrus".

Given the overall cost of development, grading the drive-thru lane is minuscule.


If every drive-thru in a city were developed to this standard, the potential for literally 1000s of cars a day to avoid unnecessary idling is huge.


Cheers, I hope this idea is helpful to you.
Greg.