A Matter of Perspective

The New Scientist has a great blog called “New Scientist Short Sharp Science” which is worth subscribing to. A recent post was about putting things in perspective, with a series of links of various things comparing their scale.

If I’ve confused you, take a look at this life size blue whale, or the relative size of the planets. There is an interactive nanotechnology guide, a superb drag and drop guide to the scale of sci-fi and real spaceships with buildings and, er, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man at a scale of 1 pixel per metre (there’s also a 10m page). Finally there’s this brilliant (though old) IBM Powers of Ten video.

Check out the New Scientist Short Sharp Science blog.

To The World You May Be One Person

But to one person you are The World.

Hanging From A Tree

The brilliantly named Hanger Network supply EcoHangersâ„¢ which are dry-cleaner hangers made from 100% recycled paper. They in turn are fully recyclable.

Apparently 3.5 billion wire hangers are thrown away every year, which is a hell of a lot. They’re not just environmentally friendly though, they carry advertising.

This means they can be supplied free to dry cleaners, whilst apparently wire ones cost about $0.08 each, so they make sense business wise as well.

Originally found via Springwise.

Some More Paper Art

Another weekly dose of some ‘nice things to do with a piece of paper’. Class.

10 Easy Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Your “carbon footprint” is a fancy name for measuring how much carbon dioxide you, er, produce. Whether or not you believe carbon dioxide is the cause of global warming or not, it is harmful to the environment and reducing your carbon footprint is a great idea.

Step 1: How Big Is Your Carbon Footprint?

Before you can reduce it, you need to know how big it is. The average person in the UK causes the emission of 13,000kg of carbon dioxide equivalent gases per year. The global average is 5,800kg, in India it’s around 1,300kg. There are various ways of measuring your carbon footprint. Usually they’re made up of a series of scores, such as Transport score, Energy score, Food score, and Waste score. Try this carbon footprint calculator, or this one, this one, or finally this one.

Step 2: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

1. Turn down your thermostat. Turning your thermostat down by one degree centigrade could save a typical home £49 a year.





2. Close and/or line your curtains to keep in warmth. Setting your heating to turn off one hour before you leave the house and come on half an hour before you get home could save you £51 a year.
3. Turn off lights. Switching off four unnecessary lightbulbs and you could save £32 a year.
4. Turn off standby. Leaving your TV and all accessories attached to it on standby all the time could cost you £46 a year.
5. Turn down and use the half load setting on washing machines and tumble dryers. Washing laundry at 40 to 60 degrees centigrade in your washing machine could save you £12 a year.
6. Don’t boil more water in the kettle than you need to. If you always boil the amount of water needed for one cup rather than boiling a full kettle, you could save £30 a year.
7. Fix leaks as these are not only wasting water but also energy if they’re from a hot water source.
8. Use energy saving lightbulbs to save even more money and energy.
9. Recycle more!
10. Fly less. Train travel is up to 10 x more energy efficient than plane travel. Of course, not travelling at all is even more effective…

Step 3: Save Money and Feel Smug

Other ideas welcome. If you want some other great suggestions, try our free 100 quick and easy ways to save the planet. If you have less time, try our top 10 tips to reduce your carbon footprint.

Sources: The Independent and Daily Telegraph

Plastic Bottles Can Be Reused

Previously I’ve written about recycling plastic bottles and mentioned it’s better to reuse them and refill them if possible. However they can be used in a different way.

Children’s Scrapstore is a voluntary organisation base in Bristol in England. Its aim is to take clean and safe waste products and reuse them as a creative resource for children’s art and play activities. Plastic, fabric, card and wood offcuts are on offer and members can take a trolley down the aisles and load up.

It’s a creative way to reuse plastic and other scrap and with a suggested donation of just £12 per trolley load - it’s a bargain too.

Why Don’t We Queue in the Pub?

The Home Office Guide “Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship” talks about pubs. It says:

“It is sometimes difficult to get served when pubs are busy: people do not queue, but the bar staff will try and serve those who have been waiting longest at the bar first.”

Whilst true, it doesn’t explain why. Why don’t we queue in pubs? We queue pretty much everywhere else, and you would think a place where people have consumed a large amount of alcohol is the ideal place for a bit of order and queuing. You don’t get a scrum at the front of the Post Office or HMV, each shouting at the counter staff in order to get served first. Starbucks would be a nightmare, with the caffeine deprived hoardes fighting out for their grande double mocha-hoca-choca-machino.

There are a couple of pubs that I know of that actually have queue barriers in place, I don’t know why it hasn’t caught on. You can even buy a pub queue management system with buttons on the bar that the bar staff can clear once serve in order, a bit like Argos. Until these do catch on, here’s some advice below.

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