For your reading/reminiscing pleasure, a few of my favorite posts from the recent past:
Friday, February 22, 2008
My Favorites
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Bike-sharing
BTW, this I LOVE! From Inhabitat:
(photo credit)
...the super-smart Velib Bike program is taking to the streets of London! 15,000 bikes, 1,000 stations and more than 7.5 million miles of combined biking later have already been implemented in London, and the new scheme will contribute £75 million and 6,000 shared bikes to the mass biking scheme.
The program will begin with 6,000 bikes, distributed across the city in and around London. The so-called ‘granny bikes’ are super sturdy, and have been designed and assembled for high-traffic use, and for low theft appeal. They may not be the sexiest of cycles, but that’s sort of the point...
Very, very cool... I was just thinking about a bike the other day..
Honda FCX... my take
A friend of mine asked me the other day, 'what's the deal with this Honda fuel cell car?" She read that it was coming to market soon, to which I replied, 'yup, it's on its way!"
This was surprising to her and it was surprising to the first person I told, a gentlemen I volunteered with at the alternative fuel expo here in San Diego (a fairly unfortunate but well-intentioned display). Neither one of them could believe that this car was on its way after years of hype and yet, it was.
I read about the impending release last year on the Car Lounge, a car forum site that I frequent (thought less frequently these days because it is HIGHLY addictive). Then I started seeing articles on Google News. I even wrote about it, seen here. It was coming, I knew it was coming, and it was about time.
It may not make sense to some people why this car would be released. There are very few stations in the US, under 100 (probably well under) and most of them are located in California. Also, there is still no "magic bullet" way to store the hydrogen (yet) nor a great way to create the hydrogen in a way that is energy efficient (yet). So why the heck is it happening?
I, for one, love it. If you've read this blog enough you know that I'm a pretty big hydrogen support. I'm also, however, a trained chemist and understand thermodynamics (for the most part). I don't agree with chasing after technology that isn't going to work (like ethanol from current sources) and I'm not going to just love hydrogen because that was the first alternative fuel I learned about and it holds a place in my heart. Please, give me some credit here.
The reason why I love this news has more to do with the scientific side of me than the green side. I want to see how these hold up in the real world. I want to know what the REAL efficiency is when real people use the cars. I want to see how safe (or un-safe) these stations are when knuckleheads like you and I try to use them. Are these cars livable? Are they maintainable? Do they work how they should? Would I want one?
It really ends up coming back to the chicken and egg logic: what comes first, the car or the stations?
Want to read more? Get it straight from the source at Honda.com.
In other news...
Please make sure you check out my lens at Squidoo, www.squidoo.com.joshisjosh. I'm about ->| |<- that close to launching this little business idea and I could use all the digital friends I can get. As soon as my web presence for JoshCanHelp is built and running smoothly (again, very soon), I'm going to move my green presence over there as well and write a few enviro-lenses. I really miss staying as up-to-date on sustainable transportation news as I have done in the past but it is still a massive part of who I am. Whether I end up an entrepreneur, a chemist, or an author, it will always, ALWAYS relate it back to sustainability. Even my JoshCanHelp Digital Coaching will revolve around getting more out of what you have instead of always throwing money at the problem (new computer at home not withstanding.
Thanks to everyone for your support and please spread the word!
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