Stop wasting water in the shower! – Install a point-of-use tankless water heater

(image: Yahoo! Shopping)

A great technology for water conservation is available called the point-of-use tankless water heater. These small box-like devices can be installed underneath the sink in a kitchen or bathroom. They offer a simple way to avoid running cold water for minutes while you wait for hot water. For showers, the EPA says the average output is 2.5 gallons/minute and assuming a few showers a week that adds up 500+ gallons of water wasted every year.

In most houses this waste occurs because the water heater is located a significant distance from the faucet or shower. The hot water has to travel that distance to reach the user. The tankless technology shrinks the size of the water heater allowing you to place it right where it is needed.

One can imagine eco-friendly homes of the future skipping the central water heater altogether and placing point-of-use heaters wherever water is used. Not only would this save hundreds of gallons of water but also cut energy costs by 27-50%, according to the Dept. of Energy. For existing homes, like ours, we can place them in our heavy water use areas (i.e. bathrooms, where we use 50% of our water) as a supplement to traditional water heaters.

On a side note, replacing a traditional water heater with a tankless version can reap incredible energy savings, up to 30%. Traditional heaters keep 40+ gallons of water hot 24 hours a day, even though we only use it for minutes a day. A great waste of energy compared to tankless versions which heat water only when needed. However, if you want to conserve water then installing a tankless in the same place won’t work. You will need to put one at your point-of-use.

The heaters run $100-200 and are found at every major hardware store, including Amazon. They may need minimal electrical or plumbing work. I have not installed one myself but research shows it is not hard (depending on your skill level). I would recommend researching your situation before purchasing – intended water use, plumbing/electrical needs, reading reviews.

Point-of-use tankless water heaters are the ideal solution for water conservation. They cut out waste and don’t require a change in habits, allowing us to treat water like the precious resource it is and still enjoy our favorite comforts. Plus, as more people begin to install them the price should drop and make it easier for everyone to afford this eco-friendly upgrade.

 

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WordCamp – attend a WordPress mini-conference – #geek

With 17% of the web using WordPress it’s no wonder there is a WordCamp every week. More than that with 75 scheduled for this year. These ‘unconferences’ are informal gatherings of like-minded people from bloggers to developers to creatives. The content is based on those attending and has a heavy bias towards the local community.

From WordCamp Central:

WordCamps come in all different flavors, based on the local communities that produce them, but in general, WordCamps include sessions on how to use WordPress more effectively, beginning plugin and theme development, advanced techniques, security, etc.

 

Definitely worth attending for the networking and geekery alone. To find one close to you here is a list of WordCamps. I found mine and it is in Los Angeles on September 15, 2012.

I’m excited to attend, get my geek on, and learn a ton about WordPress. Hope to see you there!

 

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Julie Goldstein’s beautiful woodcut prints

 

A friend introduced me to Julie Goldstein’s art and I am totally blown away. I love the strong colors, proportions and simple iconic images.

From her bio:

Julie’s art practice draws inspiration from the natural environment, the sea, surf culture, and experience from her travels. In multimedia works on paper and fabric, she mixes lithographic and woodcut printmaking techniques with sewing embroidery, and other traditional “women’s arts” – the result is a hybrid, contemporary style with urban motifs and lively depictions of friends and family.

“I carry small blocks of pine and poplar with me wherever I travel – these serve as drawing surfaces on which to quickly record the changing environment around me. I relish the tactile process of incising and carving the image onto the wooden surface.”

 

It also says that she loves to swim and you can tell in every piece. Enjoy!

You can find her work:

 

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Majority of owners use electric vehicle as primary car

The plug-in epidemic is spreading:

Electric cars now primary vehicles

Nine out of 10 owners said plug-in vehicles represent their primary ride — though almost all had a second, conventional car, according to a survey with more than 1,400 respondents released this month.

Monthly mileage averaged about 800 — the equivalent of almost 10,000 miles a year.

These are not hybrids, but the plug-into your garage kind. Pretty awesome…I keep dreaming about the day I will own one!

 

#ZeroEmission
#EV
#NoMoreGas
#NoMoreOil
#TheFuture

 

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Research: nutrient levels in U.S. food supply are dropping

I’ve written a lot about the benefits of shopping entirely at farmers markets, the difference between organic/GMO/seasonal, and how food is more important than working out. These topics have interested many people with many asking for more data.

Here is one piece, possibly the most important in explaining our obesity epidemic. The findings reveal farming practices and seed choice that have led to lower quality food. Compared on a nutrient-nutrient basis it can be a 1/3 drop in nutrient level for some foods.

This means that the typical person will need to eat 3x as much to obtain the proper nutrients. If true, that would provide the ideal explanation for our overweight problems. It’s not so much our sedentary lifestyle or even our poor choices in food, but our simple desire to get the nutrients our bodies need.

The report is worth a read and I will be sharing several more like it over the coming days.

 

 “Nutrient levels in U.S. food supply eroded by pursuit of high yields” 

Full Report (pdf)

2-page Newsletter Summary (pdf)

“High yields and jumbo produce deliver more water, starch, and sugar per serving, but less vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.”

4-page Research Summary (pdf)

“Farmers have doubled or tripled the yield of most major grains, fruits and vegetables over the last half-century. They have done so by capitalizing on the work of plant scientists, crop breeders and companies manufacturing a wide range of inputs—from fertilizer to water, pesticides, sophisticated machinery and diesel fuel.

But American agriculture’s single-minded focus on increasing yields over the last half-century created a blind spot where incremental erosion in the nutritional quality of our food has occurred.  This erosion, modest in some crops but significant in others for some nutrients, has gone largely unnoticed by scientists, farmers, government and consumers.”

 

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The key to losing weight – the mindless margin

In writing the last post on WordPress development, I came across an interesting lesson on food. Here is Matt Mullenweg on the book, Mindless Eating:

“It’s not actually a book about food, it’s a book about people. About the human condition and human behaviors. I love food because it’s intrinsic to the human experience, it brings us all together. What Brian talks about in the book is the mindless margin. Most people who overeat don’t overeat by a lot. They overeat by about a 100 calories/day.

We’re talking about a cookie here, 1/6th of a Snickers bar. 100 calories/day over a year adds up to 10 lbs.

On the other end, less 100 calories a day is below the threshold for what many people notice. Over the course of a year it can cause a 10 lb weight loss.

This is what I thought of when researching WordPress development.”

 

I have not read the book but the idea is something I practice. In my daily habits I try to extend the time between meals and eat a bit less. If I can say no to even the tiniest amount then I feel like a conqueror, knowing I am losing some weight. It also reminds me I will eat again so no need to overload on this meal.

I think it’s those tiny, daily victories that make a big difference in weight loss. Again, from Mindless Eating, this time from Wikipedia:

The encouraging premise behind Mindless Eating is that the obesigenic environment that people have set up for themselves in their homes and at work can be reversed. Just as this environment has led many people to slowly gain weight, it can be re-engineered to help them mindlessly lose weight. Consuming 200 fewer calories a day would lead a person to weigh approximately 9 kilograms (20 lbs) less in a year than they otherwise would. The first sentence and the last sentence of the book are, “The best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on.”

Instead of deprivation dieting, Mindless Eating recommends a person choose three small changes in their environment that would lead them to eat 200-300 fewer calories a day.

 

I’ve already mentioned two of my small changes, extending periods between meals and eating a small amount less, and the third would be learning to only eat when I’m hungry. This means skipping the urge to snack in between meals. I think of it like this, “if I’m craving chocolate am I also craving a vegetable? If no, then I should wait until I’m craving the vegetable.” Every time I do so it works. The craving goes away and I eat proper food later when I’m truly hungry.

What about you, do you have any tips for small changes?

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Summary of Matt Mullenweg’s – State of the Word 2012

In early August, 2012, Matt Mullenweg delivered his sixth State of the Word, giving us an update on all things WordPress. An interesting talk because WordPress is the dominate platform for bloggers, it powers 17% of the internet, and is the software I use for this blog.

Unfortunately, there are no summaries of the talk, only the raw video, slides, and a live blog. Which is very strange considering how important this software is. Not to worry, I’ve included a summary below pulled together from personal notes and various blogs:

 

Summary – State of the Word 2012 – Matt Mullenweg

  • WordPress is 9 years old, 6th State of the Word
  • WordCamps – in 2006 there was 1 – in 2011 there were 52, and in 2012 there are 75 planned.
  • Single greatest change of the year – Plugin Headers – which are pictures on plugin pages
    • Matt talked a lot about how small changes are the most requested features
  • Forums linked to plugins allowing thousands of answered questions.
  • Improved rating system for plugins. Like Amazon, allowing readers to see individual reviews and authors to respond.
  • NUX – new user experience improved, welcome page might become permanent homepage – dashboard is too cluttered
  • WordPress 3.5 – coming Dec. 5
    • Matt wants updates to work more like Chrome (i.e. automatic and in the background)
    • Speed updates from 2/year to 3/year
    • 3.5 includes Retina Support – Matt says it’s the next big thing
  • Many topics about getting involved
  • Improve parity between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
    • JetPack.me offers all the best plugins from *.com for *.org users
    • 2.3 million JetPack downloads
  • Mobile
    • 5 million mobile downloads
    • On 6 platforms
  • Apps are the future
    • First 4 years blogging, next 4 years content management (CMS), next are apps
    • More people use WordPress for CMS than for blogging
    • App examples: running maps, interactive graphics
  • 20,000 people make $$ from WordPress (writing or developing) – in 2011 it was 13,000
    • Average cost to develop a WordPress site: $2,000 gov/non-profit – $2,500 small biz – $4,200 corporate

 

That’s the summary in 26 lines or less! If you’re looking for more WPMU has a minute-by-minute breakdown.

 

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“Our first attempt to take man to another heavenly body” – Neil Armstrong tribute

An amazing tribute video to Neil Armstrong composed of archival video and audio from NASA. From Science Friday:

Put together by Stephen Slater, is not just an excellent tribute to the first man to walk on the moon, but it’s also a nostalgic snapshot of the early days of America’s manned space program.

 

 

I think Neil should have been a poet. He had so many iconic statements:

“We the crew of Apollo 11 are privileged to represent the United States in our first attempt to take man to another heavenly body.”

“We came in peace for all mankind.”

“The eagle has landed.”

“One small step…”

Surf City Surf Dog event – Sep 28-30, 2012

Surf City is putting on an awesome event for surf dogs. Taking place over three days in September, 28-30, 2012, it includes a surf dog competition and other fun events, like a pet fashion show and dog toy expo.

The full schedule:

 

Friday 6 – 8:00 PM – The Shorebreak Hotel

  • 6 PM – Opening Ceremonies & Yappy Hour
  • 6:30 PM – Dog is Beachin’ Fashion Show

Saturday, 12 Noon – 4:00 PM – The Strand on 5th

  • 12 PM – 4 PM – Pets Love Toys 2-Day Expo
  • 12 PM – 1 PM – Doga (dog yoga)
  • 1:00 PM – Surf City Dog Costume Contest & Owner Look-a-Like Contest

Sunday, 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM – Dog Beach

  • 8:00 AM – Registration Opens
  • 8:30 – 1:00 PM – Pets Love Toys 2-Day Expo
  • 9 – 1 PM – Surf Dog Competition
  • 1 Pm – Surf Dog Finals & Awards
  • Immediately after the awards – Closing Ceremony at The Shorebreak Hotel

 

**Registration is open for all events.

**Follow on Twitter – Facebook

 

I will definitely be attending with my pup Jesse, and I hope to see you there!

To end with this funny line from the site:

Huntington Beach is going to dogs! The premier dog surfing competition on the dog surfing circuit.

The “dog surfing circuit” – lol

 

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Finding the best food – what do they really mean, organic, GMO, and seasonal?

There is a lot of confusion about healthy, high-quality food. Does organic mean high-quality? What does genetically modified (GMO) mean? What about fruits and vegetables in supermarkets?

The explanation starts with organic food. This is a farming method that focuses on the land, not food. Organic farming started in opposition to the use of chemical sprays, petroleum-based fertilizers and other harmful substances. That opposition continues to this day and is having a great impact on our land, waterways, and the health of farmers.

When it comes to food the great value is not in nutrition but avoiding health problems. Those with allergies have a hard time with the pesticides, bleaches, and other toxics used. Parents love it because they are concerned for their children’s health. Janitors love it because they get to use non-toxic cleaning supplies. I could go on and on, and this is what makes organic healthy, but it doesn’t mean much for nutritional value.

What does is the seed used to grow the fruits and vegetables. GMO seeds are modified to be low in nutrition. A great benefit for supermarkets because it allows food to stay on the shelf longer, look ripe earlier, and grow quicker. Not such a great benefit for us.

The opposite type of seed is an heirloom, which is used for high nutritional content. Some offer better flavor, others juicy cores, but all focus on the same thing – high quality. The side effect is that supermarkets won’t carry them because they don’t last as long as GMO.

Farmers markets do carry them, and are one of the few places to find them. These markets offer exceptional fruits and vegetables and are the best places to shop, hands down. Not only do they sell heirloom foods, but also seasonal items. Seasonal means grown with the right weather and harvested at their peak. It makes them amazing, gushing with juices, incredible flavors, and the most nutrient-dense food possible.

Seasonal organic heirloom fruits and vegetables are the kings and queens of the food world. They avoid the toxics found in non-organic foods and are not genetically modified to be low in nutrition, like GMO’s. This may sound like a lot to learn, but you can skip all that by switching over to farmers markets. Once there it’s not hard to find seasonal organic heirloom foods, they will be everywhere!

Good luck with your eating adventures.

 

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