random things from a random person
One day in 1895, while walking through the Ngoya Forest in Zululand, southern Africa, a botanist with the oh so suitable name of John Medley Wood caught sight of a tree. It sat on a steep slope at the edge of the woods and looked different from the other trees, with its thick [...]
A spectacular stream of meteors believed to be leftovers from Halley’s Comet is expected to streak across the skies this week, but a full harvest moon will compete for attention and may obstruct some of the show. The meteors, a junior version of the famous Perseid meteor shower, are called the Orionids because they appear [...]
Richmond, Va. – America needs to use its abundant natural gas to end its dangerous dependence on foreign oil, Texas oil and gas executive T. Boone Pickens told the Governor’s Conference on Energy yesterday in Richmond. America’s dependence on overseas petroleum puts U.S. dollars in hostile pockets, Pickens said, at the same time the country [...]
Inner Harbor’s no place to swim anyway, but now you can add another reason not to go in the water downtown: jellyfish. Softball-sized, milky white and bell-shaped, with long tentacles trailing, the gelatinous animals could be seen moving slowly about Thursday in the murky water by the Constellation. Scientists identified them as Chrysaora quinquecirrha — [...]
Virginians are creating piles of potentially dangerous waste. The problem is old electronics, or e-waste — computers, cellphones and other gadgets that people toss because they’ve found something newer and shinier. “It’s not factory waste but post-consumer waste that’s coming out of your hands, my hands or anybody’s hands,” said Jim Puckett, director of the [...]
Where are we going with this Green, Sustainable, Energy Efficient, Healthy Building Movement? I kind of lost some interest in blogging and tweeting the past few weeks. Main reason is I periodically get overwhelmed by the amount of daily information I am inundated with regarding Green Building. I have to constantly ask myself, “What are [...]
The following is a reply to a discussion started by Galouzi Makrem of the “Building Green-Sustainability Group” on Linked in. “Lets shelve the word Green. Let’s use a real world term–”Sustainable.” Any commercial building owner, meaning the building is theirs, lock, stock and barrel, has to look at their investment simply as initial cost, operational [...]
Over-Kill Solar Over the past 12 months I have taken the time to diligently re-educate myself about the practical use of Solar applications. I began in earnest with Solar 2009 held in Buffalo, New York. I went there specifically to get a handle on what is new or practical in the industry and what is [...]
The New York Times Article, “Don’t LEED Us Astray” seems to have stirred up a lot of thought provoking discussion. One statement that enlightened me was: “Put simply, a building’s LEED rating is more like a snapshot taken at its opening, not a promise of performance.” That bull’s eyed it for me. I thought it [...]
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