Category: Interesting

Greenwashing the Green Spot

A nearby gas station called the Green Spot recently opened. The prior owners (when it was a Mobil) had gas prices well above market, so I appreciate that the new owners charge the same for gas as everyone else.

But I had to suspend my gag reflex after reading greenwashing in my local community magazine (pages 24 and 25 of this 19MB PDF–yikes!). According to a quote they got from co-owner Alvaro Garza, “our mission is to reduce our carbon footprint by offering an alternative lifestyle…”

Specific examples of where carbon footprints aren’t being lowered:

  • They sell biodiesel gas, which has several flaws. Even if you could argue that these flaws could someday be resolved, the fact remains that current consumption of biofuels almost certainly causes more harm than good. For example:
    • Several studies show that production and use of biofuels produces more carbon emissions than just burning plain gas. (link)
    • It takes more energy to produce biofuels than they save, which in turn increases carbon emissions, oil importation, and our trade deficit. (link)
    • Biofuel production increases prices of food, starving the poor. (link)
  • They sell organic goods, production of which require more energy (carbon!) and land than conventional foods. (link)
  • The article’s feature picture depicts a Jeep Liberty SUV. In addition to being an iconic member of a gas guzzling class of vehicles, it has the worst or 2nd worst fuel economy in recent Consumer Reports small SUV comparisons. (The diesel raised it from worst to 2nd worst; several gas-engined SUVs with higher overall ratings got better mileage.)

    (This image stolen from Advocate Publishing.)

And it sounds like a lot of what they sell are carb-loaded snacky foods. Ladies and gentlemen, refined carbs are refined carbs. The refined carbs from organic sugar cane and fresh fruit juices make you just as fat and unhealthy (and ultimately requiring more carbon-intensive health care services) as the corn syrup in Coke.

You may think I hate the Green Spot. I don’t. It’s convenient, gas prices are finally fair at that location, and they have neat stuff inside. I want them to succeed.

However, I was brought up in a home where the breadwinner toiled for and was employed by a nonprofit. I work with a couple of nonprofits. I value nonprofits. They deserve our charity; supporting them achieves a higher moral purpose.

I resent when for-profits steal altruism for their own personal gain, and that’s what’s going on with greenwashing the Green Spot. Support the Green Spot where they provide a value to you, but don’t do it because you think you’re fulfilling some higher purpose. You’re not.

Storm hits Plano. Both trees fall.

While our floors were being redone, I stayed with inlaws. (Hence the commuting piece.)

3:00 AM Thursday morning, an unusually severe storm hit Plano. The next morning, we found that my inlaws’ street had a lot of vegetation damage. Leaves and branches were everywhere.

The most stark damage was right next door where this medium-sized tree fell over:

My bedroom was on the corner of the house closest to this tree. I never heard it tip over, probably because of the pounding horizontal rain and the multiple lightning strikes each second.

Here’s what astounded me. Well after I drove away from their house, I saw this:

Yes, the wind turned my folding mirror against the car and pulled the mirror out! I have no idea how this happened; that mirror takes some force to move!

Fortunately, the inlaws found the mirror. It was on the pavement below the car. I am lucky I didn’t run it over!

The car is overdue for inspection, and this will unfortunately delay it further.

My nerd trophies

When I attended Groves Middle School (PNGISD), I competed in mathematical tournaments sponsored by the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association and local schools. The pinnacle was Texas’s University Scholastic League‘s Elementary and Junior High Academics competition.

My specialty was Calculator Applications. The test’s 80 questions’ difficulties progressed through high school-level problems. Most problems were complicated arithmetic, but 2 out of every 10 questions were word problems.

My “secret” was I could rapidly translate the arithmetic into a series of keystrokes on my TI-60 calculator. I mastered the exact position of its buttons and its order of operations. I also has to use scientific notation as only three significant digits were usually allowed.

Another secret is my TI-60’s slight warp, possibly because of pocket storage. It wobbled while I slammed keys, distracting other students with its rhythmic rapping on the table. Some of these students were already distracted just seeing me work in hyper-spaz mode.

The last few word problems always gave me trouble. I could easily do arithmetic-style problems like finding the cosine of (34+41.6)/23. But if asked the local angle given the adjacent and hypotenuse of a right triangle, I could not figure it out.

One time my father sat me down at our Groves, TX dining room table and tried to teach me these geometric concepts. My 6th grade mind neither “got” nor was interested in those high school concepts.

Once I got all the way through the test, I would return to the beginning and rework problems.

I always did well at the local practice and TMSCA events. In fact, I was first place in the entire state for TMSCA Calculator Applications in 6th grade in 1989. I spanked the competition at a local TMSCA tournament. All local tournament first place winners’ tests got mailed to the state office which then compared winners to determine state titles. I remember being shocked when the Groves Middle School science teacher (whose name I cannot remember–never took her class) broke the news.

I never did as well at UIL events. At regional UIL tournaments in Dayton, sharp kids from the Houston area–I think Pearland?–edged me out.

I sometimes tried Number Sense and Science tests. I did reasonably well at Science but was not state-caliber. I did poorly at Number Sense, which is where you do challenging mental arithmetic without calculator assistance and without writing anything except an answer. You were encouraged to use a pen on Number Sense because you were not allowed to erase or write anything but the correct answer. I liked calculators; why bother with the silly mental arithmetic? (I still say the same despite having a mathematics degree!)

Why did I write this article? It’s time for the trophies to go. They are taking up valuable closet space and haven’t seen daylight in 8½ years. I took pictures of all trophies individually, pried off the plaques, and placed the plaques them on a sheet of paper for long-term keeping.

Amazing electrical work in Amory, Mississippi

We stopped in Amory, MS during a post-Christmas family trip. While there, I saw amazing electrical work. Amazing as in, “How do they get away with this?”

The city’s main square was festooned with electric Christmas lights. These lights are fed from the square’s northeast side:

Look more closely:

This bird’s nest of wires is a safety nightmare of Romex, wire nuts, and electrical tape. Wire nuts and electrical tape are only to be used within small enclosures, like junction boxes. Romex is only used in dry, indoor areas where humans aren’t (attics, between walls, subfloors, etc.).

This stuff is in the open!

It gets worse. See the white wire running down the pole? That’s Romex running to the ground! And running along the ground to trees and other displays!

For example:

And along the ground, you see dandies like exposed wire nuts:

Sometimes they’re nice enough to cover it up with electrical tape:

But sometimes they don’t use electrical tape and leave off a wire nut!

Here the Romex terminates at a plug in outlet on a metal fence near their Frisco steam engine:

Sometimes they just left these outlets on the ground. No electrical tape, either:

I was shocked that a city of this size would allow such amateurish, shoddy electrical work in a pedestrian area.

Google Maps and Far East Dallas Neighborhood Associations

A few weeks ago, I used a spiffy Google feature for the first time: a map you can annotate and share. Click on the picture at right to see an annotated map of east Dallas and all its known neighborhood associations.

Using this feature is simple: go to Google Maps, sign in with your Google account, click on My Maps, and start annotating. The annotation buttons appear near the zoom slider. Be sure to save it!

I created this map to help me understand what areas of far east Dallas are represented by neighborhood associations.

I had an ulterior motive. The area just north of mine, called Lake Highlands (not to be confused with the Old Lake Highlands neighborhood, which is also north of me but not part of Lake Highlands), has an organization called Lake Highlands Area Improvement Association. This association supplements homeowners’ and neighborhood associations by coordinating communications and actions on issues that broadly affect the area. This association has reasonable success getting its message out to the public and government per Dallas Morning News’s search feature.

I envision a similar organization for far east Dallas, possibly called the Garden and Lakes District Council of Neighborhoods. This association would serve the area by providing the same badly-needed coordination of action and communications. I also envision it helping start up and sustain neighborhood associations in areas currently lacking one. An active neighborhood association can make a long-term difference in a neighborhood’s vitality.

Lake Highlands has pockets of dilapidated housing interspersed through its area, but its single family detached neighborhoods are pretty stable. Far east Dallas is different: several neighborhoods are turning into rental communities or ultra-cheap housing. Some of them are fighting this, and doing a good job at it, but it’s tough. Several neighborhoods have no active neighborhood associations, nobody to fight against creeping decline.

I want to change that.

I have emailed this idea to all area neighborhood association presidents, and the response was very positive. The next step is come up with a coherent plan and have a working meeting to put the plan into action. Today I met with a fellow neighborhood association president and an area business owner to discuss ideas on putting a plan into action.

It will be interesting to see how this works out. Sometimes I fear I’m getting in a little over my head, but at the same time, if you never challenge yourself, you’ll never learn new things.