Day: July 17, 2007

bookmark_borderSaving Energy

Posted on by PaulaO

From TreeHugger:

All-Nighter PCs Cost U.S. Businesses $1.7 Billion
by Jasmin Malik Chua, Jersey City, USA on 07. 6.07

Forcing your PC to pull another pointless all-nighter isn’t just polluting, it’s also a waste of money. Make that a lot of money. Nearly half of all corporate computers in the United States don’t get turned off at night, costing U.S. businesses $1.72 billion in annual energy costs and spewing 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year, according to a new report.

Let’s give those numbers some context: A midsize company with around 10,000 PCs wastes more than $165,000 per year in electricity costs for computers left on overnight, while contributing 1,381 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Giving those same computers a breather every night would have roughly the same effect as taking 2.58 million cars off the road, which is more than the number of autos zipping around the entire state of Maryland.

full article

Halifax to Vancouver in a Smart Car
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 9.07

6,158 kilometres or 3826 miles, from coast to coast, on only 337 litres or 89 gallons of gas in nine days. John Leblanc and his 14 year old daughter Olivia drove it across prairies and over the Rockies. “I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I was a little anxious about how the Smart’s minimal power was going to handle crossing the Rockies’ higher elevations.” and he was originally nervous about the big trucks and SUV’s on the highways,”but instead of counting on the vehicle’s crashworthiness to get us to the West Coast in one piece, I drove the Smart like I drive any car that’s not mine: look as far down the road as possible and give everyone else lots of room.” He concludes “Yet, other than crossing steep mountain passes, or keeping up with the reality of fast highway traffic, the 40 hp Smart never felt overwhelmed. For Olivia and myself, and a week’s worth of luggage, the ForTwo was more than capable as a way to travel the country economically.”

This just demonstrates the silliness of the American car manufacturers and their Washington poodles who can’t hit an average of 35 MPG in twelve years. Imagine: 89 gallons of gas to cross the entire country and you can do that right now in comfort and style

link to article

Note: that’s “only” 42MPG. The Toyota Echo (and other similar cars) gets about the same, if not more.

bookmark_borderSay What?

Posted on by PaulaO

Got this from an email list:

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
but the plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

##

Some reasons to be grateful if you grew up speaking English:

The bandage was wound around the wound.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
We must polish the Polish furniture. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
There is no time like the present, he said it was time to present the present.
At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

##

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quick sand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?

If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wiseguy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

If Dad is Pop, how come, Mom isn’t Mop?
GO FIGURE! That’s American English.