Pickle’s Perspective

The grass is greener on my side of the fence. Spring has come, and all the neighbours have been getting their lawn mowers out. The smell of exhaust is in the air.

My wife and I made ourselves a promise that our next mower would be green. So, on Sunday when my old 1983 Briggs and Stratton powered mower didn’t start after a few pulls, I started tinkering. Within 5 minutes, I literally threw my tools onto the garage floor and belted out some colorful words, in a tantrum that to me is completely unheard of.

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I work around fairly intelligent people. I have fairly intelligent friends, but once in a while even the most intelligent make a blunder. When numerous people make the same blunder, I have to wonder whether it’s these individuals’ fault or not.

Yesterday I was sitting in my cubicle, working away. I heard a person near me say on the telephone, “Dress warm, it’s minus 50 up here.”

Presumably speaking to a contractor that is most likely coming to us from a warmer climate, this individual proclaimed that the temperature was -50 yesterday. I won’t argue that yesterday was bloody cold. -34 when I woke up. With the “windchill” it was -47. Herein lies the problem.

When I was a kid. Wind chill was measured in hundreds. For example. It was -30 with a wind chill of 1800. This meant that exposed skin would freeze in a minute or two. Since people found this confusing, the metric was changed to temperature. Now they’d say, It’s -30 and -42 with the wind. or -42 realfeel. either way they use another colder temperature.

What I’m noticing is that more and more people believe the windchill value is the temperature. I’ve heard a comment “Oh it’s minus 45 tonight, better plug in the car”, when really it was -30 with -45 windchill. Worse yet, some radio stations, tell you the temperature in such a fashion that it’s misleading. “It’s minus 46 out …. …. …. …. in the wind. -30 otherwise.” Like WTF. are you wanting to confuse people?

The temperature is the temperature. -30 with -45 windchill is still -30. If you put a slab of meat outside at -30 windchill -45, that slab of meat will not get colder than -30. If you’re car is outside in the wind, it won’t get to -45 either. So why -45? Well, simple. People just don’t get this, and I don’t know why; it’s not rocket science.

Let me try to explain to anyone that may be confused. If it’s -30 and -45 with the wind, the -45 measurement is trying to communicate that the wind will cool items down to -30 at a rate as if it were -45. Just as a fan blowing over your skin cools you down, the wind does the same. When the temperature is that cold, the cool down effect happens much quicker.

So -30 with windchill -50 is still minus thirty, but would freeze as fast as being in -50 with no wind. Hope everyone is clear on that now.

I wrote this article about a month ago for the newsletter that a car club I belong to publishes. My article was bumped by a similar official press release sent by PCNA (Porsche Cars North America.)

I figured I’d post the article on my blog instead.

Since 2005 there’s been talk about Porsche building a gasoline-electric version of the Cayenne. At the 2005 Frankfurt Auto Show, Porsche announced that the Cayenne Hybrid could become available by the end of the decade.

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That’s a question I asked myself not to long ago. We hear so much about global warming and climate change. We’re reminded daily that we need to change to make a difference. But realistically many people aren’t ready to scrap their gas guzzling SUV for a Smart Car. Many people go on with their lives believing that to live greener, you need to make significant changes.

So is it possible to lower your carbon footprint, without making any changes to your habits? Maybe not, but what if we make very small changes to our habits? Go ahead keep the huge SUV, Don’t car pool, Don’t take the bus, and still drive the V8 monster across town to buy milk rather than combining the trip with a commute.
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Leave the computer running, or shut it down in the evening; it’s a debate many can’t seem to agree on. Over the years I’ve changed my standpoint on the subject more than once. However, I think I now have a solid argument for shutting down your computer when it’s not in use.

My co-worker, recently loaned me an energy monitor-logger. This device will log the electrical usage of a circuit. Whether it be one item or multiple items on a circuit, no matter. The monitor stores it’s readings into internal memory. It then estimates a monthly electrical cost for the use of the circuit based on the readings in memory. The unit connects to the computer using USB, and the data can be downloaded from the device to analyse the usage of the circuit. So what does a computer use on electricity? (continue reading…)

While shopping during the holiday season, I saw a Brita ad on the front of a shopping cart. You know what I mean? Those poster holders at the front of the cage of a shopping cart. I don’t remember which store I was in, but that’s not important anyway.

This ad read, “You deserve better water than you mop with.”

This ad outraged me. I tried to find a copy of this ad to include in this blog, but I could not find it. Recently on the TV, I saw a Brita ad that showed a draining glass of tap water to which there was a sound of a toilet flushing.”

These ads are part of the “You deserve better Campaign” and I have a bone to pick with this campaign.

First off, We’re extremely lucky to live in a country where our drinking water is as safe as it is. We don’t need to worry about hepatitis in the water. And although we’ve had the odd e-coli scare in Canada in the past few years, our drinking water is still very safe. to compare our water to a cesspool or to compare it to dirty mop water. Yes, we pipe the same water into the whole house, but is this really a good idea?

Lets take the city of Winnipeg for example. Winnipeggers use an average of 400LCD (Litres per capita per day)1 To put this into perspective, If you are a family of 4, your household uses, per day an average of 1,600 litres of water. If you equate that into cans of soda, it works out to 4507 cans of soda every day, or 400 4Litre milk jugs everyday. 70% of this water is used, in order of most to least consumption 1. toilet, 2. shower, and 3. laundry1.

It’s no secret that we have a water shortage on a global scale. With pollution and climate change and other problems the world is running out of potable water2. So why do we waste water so much? Brita makes a very good point, but I see it differently. We shouldn’t be pumping the same water into our toilets and laundry rooms that we pump into our drinking faucets. We should be recycling water. Water run off that doesn’t come from our toilet; shower, sink run off, laundry, and rain run off could easily be reclaimed and pumped back into non-drinking water supplies. There are current systems that use sewage run-off, recycle it and use this water to irrigate crops3. Singapore uses this technology to supply some of their drinking water4.

So when I think of this Brita ad, I’m appalled. Simply because Brita is using the fear factor to sell a product. Furthermore, they’re corporation is doing nothing to further public knowledge. They want you go say “Ewwwww, I drink the water in my toilet!?!” and run out and buy a Brita.

In reality, we should be saying, “Yes our water is so clean and plentiful that we waste it by running it through our toilets.” Now think of the African kid that walks for miles each day to get contaminated drinking water each day.

Do we really have it so bad?

Should we look at re-claiming water?

At very least, shouldn’t we get ourselves informed before we buy into these advertising scams.

Stop, and think about things before you run out and buy.

Sources
1.http://www.winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/water/waterfront/howuse.htm
2.http://tinyurl.com/qohm9
3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclaimed_water
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWater