Packing List

-hiking boots

-baseball cap

-sunscreen

-chapstick

-fleece socks

-lodge reservation

-little black dress

-heel-y shoes

-fancy earrings

-paperback novel 

-dinner plans

-ice skates

-ready, set...

Somewhere In Nebraska...

Thanks for the image, S

Post Holiday

M had the flu on Monday. Our post-holiday dinner plans were a no-go.

I broke the news, along with M’s apology, to N as we drove home from her tennis clinic. The hug I was also instructed to deliver would have to wait a little bit. We were in a moving vehicle. The seatbelts presented an obstacle. 

N took the news pretty well. She blinked at the empty landscape outside the car window and wondered out loud, “Well, who ~is~ coming to dinner?” 

It made me chuckle. Rather than the regular fall-out from Christmas candy sugar high, or the particular heartbreak of waking up to a morning without presents and stockings the holiday crash for this nine year old was an uncrowded dinner table.

The Bike Kitchen

Across the alley from me, in a house that lay dormant for a long, long time, sits The Bike Kitchen. It's a volunteer shop that welcomes people to bring their bikes and to learn how to fix them up. You can also get miracled by The Bike Kitchen by a fixed-up or rebuilt bike that has been donated. 

This Bike Kitchen is a departure from the pretense you'll find in some bike shops. They'll never snicker or roll their eyes at your curled under handle bars, your ancient ten speed, or tell you this bike isn’t a good enough bike to bother fixing. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone with the skill level or the cash from having the very best ride a bike can offer. I also believe biking's price of admission shouldn’t require a tricked out, custom-built, titanium frame. 

Growing up the rule in my house was that nobody got a bike before we were ten years old. At ten I got a baby-blue dirt bike with white rimmed tires and a banana seat. My mom found an ad in the Thrifty Nickel that said something generic like “girls bike”. We went over to the seller’s house, walked over to the side door of his garage while he wheeled the bike onto the lawn. He dusted off the seat and batted off the cobwebs from between the spokes. It was twelve dollars. And it opened up a wider world to me. Libraries, swimming pools, friends’ houses and flat out farther reaches of my neighborhood were within a short ride.

The Bike Kitchen has a broader field of vision than the semi-pro or racing enthusiast and sees people like me. Twenty-some-odd years after my banana seat dirt bike days I still ride. I’m not particularly fast nor accomplished as a biker but that was never my aim. Cycling is fun, it’s healthy, it’s environmentally conscious and a cheap way of getting around town.

The Bike Kitchen operates by a philosophy that anyone that wants to be biking should be able to for free. Yep. Free. No money is required. Financial donations are welcome. The more valuable donation, though, is your time. And the volunteer base that sprawls across the front lawn with wheels and pedals and wrenches in the air is pretty amazing. People volunteer their time helping others fix their bikes, or fixing up donated bikes to give away, or helping in the backyard vegetable garden.

I don’t mean to be coy about this so I’ll just say so out-right: The Bike Kitchen is a really great neighbor.

Peace on Earth

Ah. Coffee, slippers, pig-tails & a round or two of table-tennis. Quite a morning. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Champagne After

My friend, T, works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He works in a lab restoring armor.

A young couple was visiting the lab, and the fellow proposed to his fair lady. The ring was hidden inside a fifteenth century helmet. Boy was she surpised! I think she said 'yes' since everyone shared some champagne afterwards.

Brainiac

Green Roofs

ERIN DUERR /Journal Star file photo

It looks like Lincoln will have another green-roof  dotting the upper portions of the city. The Urban Development Department is working on a plan to build an 11,500-square-foot green roof on a building bound by by 13th, 14th, P and Q streets.


I'm a big supporter of finding a purpose for unused spaces. Fire escapes, alleyways and roof tops are the sorts of platforms that people glance at but largely ignore. Chicago made a concerted effort to green their rooftops a couple of years ago and found that green roofs last longer than conventional roofs, provide natural insulation and thereby reduce energy costs, create peaceful retreats for people, and absorb storm water.

On a wider scale, green roofs improve air quality and help reduce the Urban Heat Island Effect, a condition in which city and suburban developments absorb and trap heat. Remember the blisters you got as a kid when you who has walked across a scalding parking lot in the summertime? Your feet felt the effect of an Urban Heat Island.

One of the most famous American green rooftops, Chicago's City Hall, combines extensive, intensive, and the intermediary semi-intensive systems on one retrofitted roof. Under the Mayor's direction, the City of Chicago's Department of Environment City Hall pilot program kicked off a citywide push to support green rooftop systems with incentives and grants.

A survey of Lincoln's green rooftops is rather impressive, actually:

• The Arbor Day Foundation installed a 7,369-square-foot green roof
• Color Court installed a modular style green roof that covers about 20 percent of the roof
• The Prairie Building at the Pioneers Park Nature Center Prairie Building has a green roof planted with drought-tolerant plants
• The former Whittier Junior High has a small green roof that serves as a test plot for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Sandhills Publishing installed a 2,000-square-foot green roof on part of its parking garage last year.
• An 8,000-square-foot green roof has been planted on the new Assurity Life Insurance Co. headquarters

According to calculations by the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District  a 7,900-square-foot green roof system has the potential to capture, store and use nearly 100,000 gallons of rainfall and snowmelt annually that normally would end up in city storm drains.

In a town of this size I think that's a pretty impressive inventory. I'm glad to think we'll have one more to add to the list.
 

Read more: http://journalstar.com/news/local/green-roof-planned-for-catalyst-one-project/article_0fd707fd-643e-50a3-a219-7112193958cb.html#ixzz1i2JbDo3k

Canned Food Drive

Poster Artwork by V.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Prescott Elementary School's Roots & Shoots service project this winter. Our Canned Food Drive raised 377 lbs of non-perishable food donations for the Lincoln Food Bank. 

Since the average person eats approximately 25lbs of food a week Prescott's donation was roughly equivalent to feeding a family of three for five weeks. Wow!

Graph Slacker

At the end of every year I put together an Annual Report for my job performance. It's been a busy year. 

With EPA regulatory engines hitting overdrive and the features of a fossil-fuel limited world coming into focus - I had a lot to talk about. Mix those essential ingredients with my seasonal sugar-high and over-achiever tendencies and this annual report got a little out of control. I'll spare you the details but by running the numbers you'll get the gist:

23 Pages of Text

1 Table of Contents

17 Report Sections

3 Glossy Photos -- gosh, those were pretty

4 Data Tables

3 Footnotes

No comb binding, no color graphs. I know, I slacked on the graphs. But I have to leave room for ~something~ new next year. 

Sandhills Trip

N's Vacation Wish Was to Practice Tai Chi On A Rock

Compressed Air Energy Systems

Nebraska Public Power District continues to close in on compressed-air systems as a viable form of generating electricity. 

They've developed an innovative energy project which stores compressed air in one of the panhandle’s geologic formations 3,000 feet below ground, then uses the same pressurized air to turn a turbine and produce power. There are, maybe, two systems like it in the world. 

The salt dome geoformation outside of Big Springs , Nebraska was a natural gas reserve the oil and gas industry tapped in the 1950s & ‘60s. The same site was used for natural gas storage in the 1990s which means the rock formation is both sealed and breathable. In other words the rock lets the gas both in and out which indicates site provides sufficient pressure, support of the air injection process and produces good air with drawl rates. 

In October, NPPD’s board of directors approved utility staff to begin negotiating a lease agreement with the land owner and development of an Air Injection Test plan. Pushing some rough preliminary numbers the production of electricity from a compressed air system would cost NPPD $1,200 to $1,300 per kilowatt. 

It’s an exciting project. One I'll be glad to watch develop. To learn more, check out this powerpoint presentation.

Holiday Cut

Rewind a couple of years and land yourself at a Christmas occasion with me in our late-late twenties with my new baby.

 

So, with this rewind, I'm twenty-nine and N is in my arms for every holiday occasion. My bloodshot eyes sting from the cameras and the flashbulbs going off everywhere. Who knew my parents could lead a double life as members of the paparazzi? N was so darned cute, and my family so dear that the holiday was still a good time. 

Weeks later I clicked through the digital Christmas photo files on my mom's computer in one of those side-show type set ups. To show my parenting bias I must say that N was a stunner. Frame after frame she was just captivating. Blending together the best features of her mediocre parents and kicking it up a notch with her sweetness and...well...she is exquisite. Always has been. Not that I'm biased. I sat on my mother's floral print couch, cooing over photos of this gorgeous creature that is my kid and wincing at the pale, pasty-faced person with greasy hair holding her. 

Whoever you are, wherever you're naturally inclined to fall in the powder puff scale of personal appearance (whether you're well assembled and spotless every morning or the sort of person who gives your crumpled shirt a sniff-test on your way out the door) newborns will take you down a notch. Maybe two. My new parent personal appearance descent is excruciatingly well documented from that first Christmas. Tinsel sparkling in the background.

You can end the rewind on the tape there, thank you. For the record: I no longer own the shirt I was wearing. I should have given it more than the sniff test that morning.

N is nine years older and just lovely. I've had a little more sleep and also made a holiday habit of getting my hair cut just before the family gatherings commence. My appointment is this week.

Pre-Holiday Weekend Numbers Game

32: Chocolate-chocolate-mint cookies baked

2: Acts of the Play N & Co. Performed in Both English & Mandarin 

7: Christmas Ornament Crafts N Made with Sam & the Girls

90: Minute Hike in Wilderness Park with Ms. B

2:Christmas Trees Trimmed at Our House

8:Trips to the Grocery Store

3: Parlor Games Played

4: Chapters N & I Read of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Conserve...C'mon, Everybody's Doing It

You've seen those door hangers in the hotel bathroom, right? The ones that encourage everyone to reuse the towels? 

These door hangers will typically rely on the "Save the Planet" line of reasoning. The environmental benefits of electricity and water conservation. It's you're gut instinct, isn't it? Sell somebody on the merits of conservation, and they'll conserve.

Turns out there are a fair number of people for whom the "Save the Planet" message finds fertile ground. Hook, line, sinker. They'll reuse their towels.  But there is a larger group of people for whom the social norm argument is much more persuasive. 

Somebody, somewhere performed a hotel door-hanger study. There were two sets of text: one with your typical "Save the Planet" message, and another which mentions 75 percent of hotel guest reused their towels and asked this guest to do likewise. 

The research documented a 20 percent increase in towel reuse when the habit was more of a social norm than conservation effort.

Mulago Foundation

Each Holiday Season I'll gift a cause or charitable group. I figure if I'm finding enough money to buy trinkets and stocking-stuffers that might or might not be used by familiar faces I can certainly kick a little money toward world needs. 

Among non-profits there is a well oiled machine that makes holiday donations easy. Because my donations move around I'm on a lot of donor lists. This means I get a powerful amount of mail this time of year to comb. A lot of good work and inspiring stories find me and it's hard to select where or what or who to select each year.

What I like about Starr's presentation is that he tasks the giver with transforming their good intentions into community and world impact. To look past the theoretical potential of a cause to the actual outcomes. He provides a series of criteria to evaluate the impact potential of giving. I found this lecture both moving and helpful.

Starr heads the Mulago Foundation, a philanthropic fund that acts more like venture capital for upstart world-changers than a typical foundation. Mulago's Scalable Solutions Portfolio includes promising smaller development organizations like KickStart, Samasource, and the One Acre Fund.

...Boldly Go...

Thanks, J.

Green Job Growth

Despite perennial efforts to pit jobs against environmental regulations recent analyses would suggest the U.S. EPA's regulations are actually creating jobs rather than eliminating them.

The University of Massachusetts evaluated the job market impact projection from two rules which will force the power sector to make substantial capital purchases for infrastructure upgrades and pollution control equipment. Their findings indicate these two rules will  require about 1.46 million years of new labor to make those changes happen over the next five years -- the equivalent of 290,000 full-time jobs.

I would never dispute the real and sizable costs of compliance which would run in the ballpark of $200 billion. However, at this point, it isn't just the greenies saying these jobs would make a much-needed dent in unemployment. The clean energy and energy efficiency sectors are among the fastest growing segments of the nation’s economy. These job markets are putting people back to work and attracting new opportunities and investments to countless communities across the nation.

On top the jobs benefit, environmental regulation serves as a catalyst for industries to upgrade, innovate and evolve. To do so the nation builds a diversified and skilled workforce. The EPA also tasks industry with solving problems that markets ignore like environmental and public health.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, the EPA generates up to $551 billion in economic benefits every year. A 2010 analysis of rules passed in the prior decade,  calculates the benefits-to-cost ratios across various government agencies. The EPA came out on top with the highest ratios by far, with benefits from its regulations exceeding costs by an average of more than 10 to 1.

The net benefit of compliance boosts GDP in the long run by creating livable wage jobs and making communities both healthier and more productive.

Runs The Whole Show

N: Mom, you know I don't believe in God, right?

Me: Yep.

N: And that doesn't make you mad does it?

Me: No, faith is an extremely private matter. It's not up to me whether you believe in God or whether you don't. You have to find something that works for you on that score. 

N: OK. Because I don't think there is a God but I do believe in a Higher Power.

Me: Yeh?

N: Yeh. Here, I'll draw you a picture of what I mean. 

[She draws the night sky on 1/2 of a page of paper. Points to the seam between the stars and the blank page]

N: I think something lives on the edge of the universe. I call it a Higher Power. It isn't a person but it runs the whole show: the planets, the science, the seasons and traffic lights. It's made up of magic and dust.

Richard III

Now Is The Winter of Our Disco Tent

Thanks, C, for the link!

BSG Addiction

Academic Record

I was crouched down in the front hallway of L’s house, last week, zipping up my Calc III notes & textbook into the big mouth of my backpack. My brain was fogged up from the past 90 minutes going over the highlights of the course material and preparing for my final exam. 

At the doorway we were saying our good-bye’s and have-a-nice-holiday’s when L started fidgeting, a little awkwardly, and said…

“I want to congratulate you on completing this series of calculus courses. A lot of people would have started with a stronger background in math, had more recent coursework, or been handed less challenging material and they would have given up. You have worked exceptionally hard. I really admire how you’ve stuck in there.” 

It was, quite possibly, the highest compliment I could have received.

Xmas Tree Lighting

We went to the State Capitol for yesterday's Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. N was more impressed with the architecture than the celebration.

When grown-ups participate in a holiday sing along, we fail to jazz it up sufficiently for her. She took my camera and wandered around for awhile. Snapped this photo of the ceiling.

If I Had A Trilion Dollars...

Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reported last week that over a trillion dollars has been invested in renewable energy, energy efficiency and smart energy technologies since 2004.

Interestingly enough, the one trillionth dollar was recorded as the two-week long gathering of 15,000 world leaders stalled in their attempts to negotiate an international climate change agreement in Durban, South Africa. 

According to Bloomberg the investments made, any of which might have accounted for the trillionth dollar, supported projects like: the 77MW expansion of a biomass co-generation plant in Brazil; a 48MW wind farm in Fujian province of China; the 396MW La Ventosa wind farm in Mexico; and the development phase of a  125MW solar thermal project in Morocco.

According to BNEF, annual clean energy investment rose nearly five-fold in seven years. Last year’s $243 billion investment level is right about halfway to the yearly investment levels required to slow climate change.

Blago

McK: Am I the only one who thinks Rod Blagojevich looks like the lead character from A Clockwork Orange?

(Silence)

McK: So...that's just me who thinks that?

Me: Now that you've said so? No, it's not just you. Not anymore.

Winter Attire

She's Started Signing All of Her Schoolwork as "N, The Gryffindor, and PROUD OF IT!"

Morning Moon

Sigh. It was a lovely welcome to my job-site!

Facebook Find

Thanks, J.

Greening Lincoln

A three-day "Greening Lincoln" workshop focused on neighborhood improvements for an area south of the State Capitol began today at St. Paul United Church of Christ, 1302 F St. The program will brainstorm street design options to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety and comfort, add more street trees, and incorporate green infrastructure elements such as rain gardens to manage and treat stormwater runoff  inside a focus area along 11th Street from A to J streets.

Lincoln was one of five cities chosen to be part of the Greening America's Capitals program, an initiative of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which includes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation.

I'll admit it: I'm a public meeting junkie. But you don't have to be a public meeting wonk to show up. If you have a bike or pedestrian habit, an interest in city street-scapes, or an affinity for neighborhood or environmental issues I'd encourage you to attend or all sessions at St. Paul's church  free of charge.

Today's sessions were largely a series of listening sessions for neighborhood concerns and interests. Tomorrow is a design work session to mark up maps and street-scape sketches. Day three wraps up the series with a presentation of the workshop outcomes.

The three-day schedule is as follows:

Tuesday

• 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. -- Welcome and project overview
• 1:30 to 3 p.m. -- Breakout sessions on small businesses and new technologies; the environment and sustainability
• 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. -- Breakout sessions on history, art and culture; schools
• 5:30 to 7 p.m. -- Neighborhood association meeting

Wednesday

• 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. -- Open house and team work day
• 5:30 to 7 p.m. -- Public meeting

Thursday

• 11 to 11:45 a.m. -- Presentation of workshop outcomes

Saturn Storm Advisory

What first showed up as a small blemish on the face of Saturn about a year ago turned into a rager of a storm that has wrapped around the entire planet, covering around 1.5 billion square miles.

The storm, sometimes called the "Dragon Storm", marches through the planet's atmosphere and is recorded through a series of false-color mosaics from NASA's Cassini Spacecraft. The red and orange colors which show up in the Cassini images indicate clouds that are deep in the atmosphere. Yellow and green colors indicate intermediate clouds. White and blue indicate high clouds and haze. The rings of Saturn appear as a thin horizontal line of bright blue. Casini has been following the 9,000 mile wide storm as it moves across Saturn's surface, snapping some spectacular photos along the way.

This "Dragon Storm" is about 500 times larger than the biggest storm previously seen by Cassini. At its most intense the Dragon generated lightning flashes more than 10 times per second.

"Cassini shows us that Saturn is bipolar," says Casini team member Andrew Ingersoll. "Saturn is not like Earth and Jupiter, where storms are fairly frequent. Weather on Saturn appears to hum along placidly for years and then erupt violently." Evidently storms on Saturn are less like a weather events and more like a volcanoes. Before the storm erupts there is a build up of pressure under its placid exterior.

This event was a single thunderstorm that raged continuously for more than 200 days, affecting nearly 20 percent of Saturn's northern hemisphere. While the storm's active phase is over some of the clouds it created still linger in the planet's atmosphere today.  

Snow Bound

There was just enough snow to keep us inside yesterday. We watched the original Muppet Movie, spoke some Mandarin Chinese, and roasted a fresh batch of orange-pecans.

Thanks, MW, for the photo!