nicdarling

Searching for valuables in the flotsam and jetsam that washes ashore can be a tedious and potentially unrewarding task. It is much better to find an experienced beachcomber, follow them at a discreet distance and wait until they discover a treasure amidst the trash. When that happens a little blunt trauma to the back of said beachcomber’s head can make his treasure yours.

Well, consider me your beachcomber but instead of clubbing me with a conch shell, just look at this . . .

• Some people carry important papers in their briefcases, some carry small unmarked bills, but you could be the person transporting pure power in your sporty attache’.
• Alright, technically this isn’t “green” except in the way that it glorifies nature, but if you have ever seen cooler pictures of birds, I demand you explain why you have kept them from me. Well?
• For decades the citizens of Chicago believed their heritage was one of chilly discomfort, but it turns out they were merely overwhelmed with natural resources. One, big, blustery resource.
• The representatives of the South American Defense Council sit around a vast wooden table in the secret command bunker deep in the Amazon Basin. Despite the rules, a visibly shake Argentinean general lights a hand rolled cigarette. Nobody complains. A hopeless silence has decended on the proceedings. Despite days of debate and discussion, no one knows how to counter the devestating invasion of the mighty Chinook Salmon.
• There are good protest ideas and bad protest ideas. There are also activities that enhance ones enjoyment of the human form and ones that don’t. I’ll let you decide where naked biking falls in both those categories. Depending on where you work this might be one to save for the home computer.
• Well, we’ve broken the whole nudity barrier, so we might as well run with it. At least this commercial will probably be all right for work.
• Oh, and for those that may have missed it, look at me take it a bit over the top for the 100k House on the stage at Ignite Philly.

Now, typically I avoid politics as a topic unless I am writing for an overtly political publication. I don’t discuss individual politicians, candidates or policies and I’m not going to start now. I am, however, interested in the structure of our government and the influence its members have on the various policies that effect the things we care about. For this particular blog, I am curious as to what sort of power our elected politicians and their appointees have over environmental policy, particularly in terms of green building and conservation incentives.

So, my question is this:

How important is the environmental stance of the future president and why? How much power does the future president have to effect the course of our environmental destiny and is this power granted by law, tradition or some other, less concrete type of influence?

Please avoid a discussion of particular candidates for public office and try to stick to a simple discussion of the position itself. I know many people have strong feelings on candidates, but I can hear about those anywhere (whether I want to or not). I am more curious in your thoughts about the structure of the government and its effect on environmental concerns.

As with all editions of Educate Nic, I could have found more information on my own with a little research but I am lazy more interested in your thoughts on the issue. So, let me know what you think in the comments.

Wow, so many exciting green links have been ignored in favor of focusing on and recovering from Ignite Philly. Rather than the normal hump-day (that’s Wednesday and shame on anyone who thought otherwise), Look at This has been pushed all the way back until Friday. An embarrassing lack of consistency? Maybe, but we had a hell of a presentation on the 100k house instead, so you’ll have to forgive us. Don’t worry, I will definitely post somelinks to the video of the event when it becomes available, and you can judge. For now though, look at this:

• I’ve been a big fan of beverages in bags ever since I ripped open my first box of wine and enjoyed the novelty and increased portability of the silver sack inside. Now, apparently, I can get milk in a bag as well. Convenient, greenish and somewhat pleasantly udder-like . . . too much?
• As a kid I remember using bamboo for lots of things like swords, clubs and lightsabers. Admittedly, there is a sort of theme here, but still the stuff is pretty versitile. I just never realized how versitile.
• I enjoy cooking, and I hate plastic cutting boards. Turns out that for once my hate is properly directed.
• One of my greatest downfalls as an artist is my inability to draw a true circle. My stick figures lack the same expressive power when their heads are shaped like kidney beans. Well, apparently art doesn’t always require excellent drawing skills, and the world occasionally provides the circles for you. Tin cans, for instance, have a very pleasing circular shape, and tin can art is much more attractive than it sounds.
• This is about painting dead squirrels. Having once done an art film involving roadkill, I couldn’t resist pointing this one out.

That’s it for now, but I promise some more original thought fodder in the next couple of days.

It has been hot in Philly. Not the kind of hot where you slip on some shorts and sandals and make your way into the long absent sun after a cold, cloudy winter (love that kind of hot). No, this is the kind of hot where you stay as still as possible for fear of bursting into a terminal sweat. It is the kind of hot that feels like a damp, grizzly bear, fresh from some kind of long, sweaty, ursine 10k, is hugging you tightly for 24 hours a day. It is the kind of thick, wet hot that makes a walk to the store feel like 20 breaststroke laps in a bowl of steaming gravy.

Sure, some of you Southerners will claim that I don’t know hot, but I’ve been down South, and at least there you get an afternoon rain, a torrential cooling. Or, if you are reporting in from the desert, at least your heat is dry. Sure, it may be a cliche’ but dry heat is more comfortable. The air in Philly feels like rain that has boiled just before it hit the ground. It feels like a neck deep swamp.

But, I am not here to brag about Philly’s extremes of discomfort. This post is not meant to be a competitive statement. I am simply hoping to frame a question in the appropriate sticky, stinky, sweaty context.

This heat, similar (I imagine) to being inside a beached whale in Death Valley, leads Philadelphians to that predictable technological response . . . air conditioning. The hum of AC units becomes a part of the summer sound-scape, blending perfectly with the constant whining of those caught outside and the gentle sizzle of pigeons cooking on the blacktop. The light drizzle from thousands of window units falls gently on the pedestrians in the streets, and each store front doorway blasts welcoming cold on passerbys. Interior climate control is the sweet breath of modern civilization, but at what cost?

Air conditioning is definitely a significant sucker of electricity and it seems to be used with a kind of reckless abandon. It flows out open doors and windows. It runs 24 hours a day. Despite the increasingly prohibitive cost, nearly everyone seems to use it and use it and use it. Is this caused by  a loss of climate acclimation? Have we forgotten how to exist in the heat? Is it made worse by a lack of alternatives? How did we stay cool before AC and what will we do when the environmental cost of its use becomes too heavy to pay?

Chad is working on some alternatives for the 100k house, and I thought we would try to get a discussion started here as well. How much energy do we waste conditioning our air? What are the alternatives to AC? Is it possible to survive in Philly (or elsewhere) without it? If so, is it possible to be comfortable?

Talk it up in the comments.

Nic Darling actually enjoys this hot, stick weather. He is obviously a witch and will be burned accordingly.

It is Wednesday, or 4th day if the pagan references to Woden (Woden’s Day) offend your Quaker-esque sensibilities, and in celebration, we have yet another collection of interesting web findings to share with you. So sit back, relax and look at this . . .

• Just when I thought there were no more new things to do with my urine, something like this comes along. Boy is my fiancee going to be relieved.
• Some people say you can’t learn anything from a banana. Well, have I got a lesson for them.
• Now, I’m not one for drinking Heineken, at least not in The States. Skunky lager just isn’t my cup of tea. But, if I had some Sly Fox cans lying around the house I might be up for trying this beer friendly reuse project. I’m told it also works with soda cans, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
• What’s a Wednesday without dire portents of doom and destruction?
• The sea is full of terrible dangers. If you watched the Planet Earth series with the great whites leaping 6 feet out of the water, you would know this. Here’s a little visual of some of the most dangerous creatures in the Mediterranean.

If you have something else we should look at this week, put it in the comments.

Guest writing is often seen as its own reward. It is a chance to stretch the mental muscles, gain some exposure and practice that ancient and elusive art of writing web content. In addition, these guest appearances can be used to subtly promote sites and events in which the writer has some interest (not that I would stoop to such a tactic). Rarely, if ever, does a guest writer request remuneration. Rarely does he have the gall to extend an empty hand and ask something of his benefactor, the site owner.

This is particular true in my case where Chad, my friend and partner in many an imagined “thousandaire” venture, is the one for whom I am writing. Chad is generous with his ideas and with his beer. He is quick to offer advice and food. Begging further favors would be crass, uncouth, a faux pas of the highest order. And yet, alas, such ungentlemanly behavior is unfortunately in my blood. I will ask one more thing. In fact, I will state my request as a sort of challenge.

Lately, I have read about something called a “writing hut”. Apparently Mark Twain had one and so did George Bernard Shaw. Two great writers, both with huts . . . coincidence? Perhaps, but perhaps not. It could be that the writer builds the hut, but then it could also be that the hut builds the writer. Maybe it is the hut itself that bestows writerly genius. Maybe that small enclosed structure focuses some sort of cosmic energy that stimulates creative force and enables perfect articulation. Crazy? Of course, but worth a shot.

Now, I would never ask Chad to build or even design such a structure for me. That would be taking things too far, but I am sure that, in his memory and vast collection of links, he has a great deal of information about such huts. In fact, knowing the way ideas constantly form in that over-occupied head of his, I am sure he has some hare-brained plans for just the sort of structure I’m talking about. So, all I am asking (along with the continued beer generosity) is for a post here on postgreen. Just one blog post about writer’s huts.

So Chad, there is my challenge, my request. I am adding one more small item to that full plate you keep. Give me and the faithful readers here on postgreen (who I know care as deeply about writer’s huts as I) one post. What do you say?

Oh, and readers, you aren’t off the hook either. I have, after all, written for you. The least you can do is throw a couple of links to writer’s huts in the comments.

Nic is pretty sure that Chad is going to regret waiving his right to review these posts before they go up.

I can’t believe it. Wednesday came and went, and I forgot to point to cool stuff for you to enjoy. I feel terrible. I can just picture you all wandering the vast expanse of the Internet, destinationless, confused, unable to decide what to look at. I am deeply sorry. Please accept this late edition of Look at This as an apology for my terrible failure.

• If you absolutely have to drive at least have the ecological courtesy to use some high tech Korean parking.
• For the record, I am against blowing people up. It just seems like a heavy-handed way of getting your point across, and I don’t like it. However, if you are a country, militia or other military force that can’t be dissuaded from your self-destructive, homicidal tendencies, at least consider using an environmentally friendly munition.
• I love coffee, and I love elaborate chandeliers. If only there were a way to bring this two loves together . . .
• The first person to bring me an egg roll in one of these gets their picture on my wall. I will point the picture out to every guest I have and say, “this is the person who changed the way I eat food brought to me by strangers.”
• This is probably the most pressing issue of the day. I was so worried about it that I immediately forwarded it to my fiancee. I hope she will have the same sense of urgency.
• This is a little something for those of us who are too lazy or uncoordinated to bike everywhere. I definitely need one of these.

Well, I hope that did something to make up for my neglect. If you have any interesting finds I missed, be sure to let me know.

Well, we’ve talked about high gas prices, but it seems that the ceiling may be a bit higher than we thought. Based on the projections for crude prices, some are suspecting a potential rise to $6 or even $7 a gallon. We could see prices at the pump this high in the next 12-24 months.

Again, I am torn between my feeling that high gas costs will force a positive, increased focus on efficiency and conservation while I worry for families that are already struggling to get to and from work. We are trapped in the lifestyles and living situations that cheap fuel created and no one will suffer the consequences of a shift more than the lower middle class workers.

How can we reap the benefits of higher fuel costs (more bikes, more public transit, more efficient cars) without destroying overburdened families? Can our infrastructure adapt to a decrease in driving? Will our economy collapse without the cheap fuel on which it was built?

If you have a solution or questions of your own, use the comments. That’s what they are there for.

Nic Darling is a great believer in the power of failure.

Though I have often been called a know-it-all (a compliment I think), there are actually quite a few things I about which I am relatively uneducated. Pride tells me to ignore these things as beneath me or scan the internet for just enough information to seem up-to-date. Usually, being somewhat weak of ego, I bow to pride and slink off to Wikipedia for a dose of Internet knowledge. However, occasionally an issue seems important enough to actually ask someone, and that is what this post is all about.

What do you know about clean coal? I know enough not to trust the billboards, erected by coal companies, that tout its world-saving potential, but not enough to validate everything on a site like Coal is Dirty. I know that clean coal isn’t necessarily clean (come on . . . it’s coal), but are there potential benefit? Do those benefits outweigh the dirtiness? Can I use my years of saved Christmas stocking gifts to cleanly power my home? Basically, is coal redeemable?

Use the comments to educate me, or send me an email.

Well, I lost my computer this week. The hard drive burned out after 3+ years of reliable service, and I will admit . . . I shed a tear or two. Now, you would think that such a loss would limit my Internet appetite for the week, but it seems to have had just the opposite effect. Maybe this is just my way of dealing with grief, or maybe it stems from the fact that I absolutely love my new machine. Either way, I have plenty of fodder for this weeks Look at This segment. So, before I get bogged down in sad nostalgia and the joys of new love . . . look at this:

• Let the litigation begin. Some bold lawyers are attempting to bring suits against Big Oil that model themselves on those that hurt Big Tobacco. I have a great idea for a film tie-in . . . Thank You for Driving.
• Mmmmmm . . . glowing glass donuts. Let there be light. Delicious donutty light.
• I always thought that the solution to most of my problems involved less flying rodents. Turns out I was wrong. Hmmm, if bats can bring back our forests, what could snakes, spiders and clowns do? It might turn out that only our nightmares can truly fulfill our dreams.
• The Walrus and the Carpenter Were walking close at hand; They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand . . . sorry about the poetry (by Lewis Carrol for the illiterati out there), but it is true in a way. If you were a walrus, you would be pretty upset about a lot of sand too. Why? Because it probably means the ice is gone which doesn’t bode well for a blubbery fella like yourself.
• Greenvertising done well.
• I’ve never been a big proponent of garden art. If it isn’t growing, edible and or a talking scarecrow, I don’t want it in my garden. But, there was something about these recycled metal sculptures that changed my mind. Could it be the flying monkey and a chance to make two Wizard of Oz references in the same paragraph. Perhaps my pretties . . . perhaps.
• My worst nightmare is coming true. The sturgeon are gathering. It is only a matter of time before they rise up to take their rightful place as rulers of the Earth. Excuse me as I retire to my sturgeon-proof fortress. You can build your own sturgeon-proof fortress by constructing any structure that is 25 feet or further from the nearest water. Mine is a tent in the desert . . . impenetrable.