All posts for the month May, 2012
Albino Squirrel! #squirrels
Posted by Gillies on May 31, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/31/albino-squirrel-squirrels/
“You have to ring fence those and guard them against the cynicism of the world.”
I can’t embed this, but here’s a good snippet of a recent interview with Bruce Dickinson on the BBC. Iron Maiden is playing in Washington at the end of June. I’m still debating whether to go. If the show was at the Verizon Center, there’d be no hesitation. Unfortunately, it’s out at the Jiffy Lube Center, an hour outside of town. Tough commute.
Posted by Gillies on May 30, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/30/you-have-to-ring-fence-those-and-guard-them-against-the-cynicism-of-the-world/
Fuel Cell Buses
PostAuto Schweiz AG has become the first company in Switzerland to deploy fuel-cell technology for public road transport. Since the end of 2011, five Mercedes-Benz Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid models have been serving on routes in and around Brugg (in the canton of Aargau) as PostAuto vehicles. Over the next five years, PostAuto will test the fuel-cell drive, using clean hydrogen as fuel.
I’d like to see these sorts of buses rolling up and down M Street. At one point, we even had a hydrogen fueling station here in Washington. Not sure it’s still open, though.
Posted by Gillies on May 29, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/29/fuel-cell-buses/
Down Time
Regular blogging will resume next week.
Posted by Gillies on May 25, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/25/down-time-9/
A Step Toward Getting Rid of Plastic Chowder
The bad, from Garbology:
Tiny pieces of plastic, a trashy confetti too small to see from the ship deck, had swirled through the water into the net. The bits of plastic were all colors and shapes, jagged and smooth, flakes and pellets, making a veritable plastic noodle soup. A hundred similar trawls across the twelve hundred miles of ocean pulled up plastic every time…the ocean, [environmentalist Mary Crowley] realized, had turned to plastic chowder.
The good, from MSNBC:
By now, it’s hardly news when a city bans plastic bags at checkout counters — but an entire state? That’s happened in Hawaii, where Honolulu County has joined the state’s three other counties to give Hawaii a first-in-the-nation title.
Posted by Gillies on May 23, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/23/a-step-to-get-rid-of-plastic-chowder/
Utopia in 91 Words
An ample dose of good rough and tumble capitalism, with lots of safeguards against price-fixing, lots of creative destruction as new and improved technologies supplant the old . . . yes! . . . but all that tightly coupled with seriously progressive taxation, government investment in basic research and infrastructure, a “there but for the grace of God go I” safety net, and extensive — enlightened — regulation for a complicated world. (And a vibrant press constantly on the prowl for waste and corruption to root out; stupid or excessive regulation to revamp.) That’s my utopia.
Posted by Gillies on May 22, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/22/utopia-in-91-words/
Bus Shelter as Social Space
Human Transit writes on the “bus stop of the future,” as conceived in, where else, Paris:
Yes, it’s still a bus shelter, but the idea is to make it both more useful and more of a social space. People may come here for a range of things other than catching the bus, so that social interaction and the life of the street intermix with waiting to produce a more vibrant, interesting, and safe environment.
Posted by Gillies on May 21, 2012
http://gilli.es/2012/05/21/bus-shelter-as-social-space/
