Mexican bicycle congress

A great video from the bicycle congress that just happened in Guadalajara Mexico. Other links for the Network of cyclicts in Mexico; BICIRED (Red Nacional de ciclismo Urbano y Cicloturismo).

If your going to be at the paseo Roserito-Ensenada, I'll be there on the Hogaza Trike with Grupo Pro Ciclo Va! today. (their blog, and facebook.

And finally, a great video of downhill mountain bike race in Mexico.

Putting Faith in its place

via onegoodmove

Afghan bicycle presidential candidate

There is something beautiful and inspiring about this Afghan presidential candidate, riding his bicycle and running his own campaign for president. Humble and inspiring! Good luck!!

Cut laundry water usage by 50%

Using the used rinse water from one load of laundry to wash the next load! A simple idea; DIY available as an instructible.

Electronic Hitch Hiking

Called open-carpooling, the idea is to find ways to locate drives willing to give a lift to other people. I think this is a great idea, altho it does bring up concern of crazies.. but I guess having a passengers credit history etc should help.. The best thing, is that this is to use existing infrastructure, with just an added communications system (that most likely could function as a phone app); devolped by the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems

via Gizmag

Goats to cut the grass

I've heard of using grazing to maintain grass.
Quoting from UofC


Weeder geese. Geese can often be used to manage grass weeds in vineyards. Geese prefer grass species and will eat other weeds and crops only after the grasses are gone and they become hungry. If confined, they will even dig up and eat johnsongrass and bermudagrass rhizomes, which they have a particular preference for. Both of these weeds can be especially troublesome in vineyards. Generally, about 4 geese per acre are needed. They require water for drinking, and some form of protection from predators (dogs, coyotes, etc.). Young geese are preferred, as they eat larger quantities of food, although having at least one older goose, helps to protect the younger birds. Consult the following Website for further information on geese: http://www.metzerfarms.com/weeder.htm. Other animals sometimes used in organic vineyards include sheep and goats. Sheep will effectively remove all weeds down to ground level. Goats are browsers and must be carefully managed to avoid damage to the vines. Both sheep and goats are generally used during the time when grapes are dormant and the chance of grazing damage is minimal.

Dwarf Goats

Apparently Google is doing this as well, bringing in goats once a year to cut the bush back.

Not allowed to close your eyes in the Ventana al Mar in Ensenada

That is right! While sitting on a picnic bench with my little lady after breakfast on Saturday I decided that I wanted to relax for a few minuets before we went to a meditation class. Not being interested in what my woman was reading I lied back on the bench and covered my face with my hat. The breeze was soothing, and everything was great.. until the security guard came up and told me that I was not allowed to lie down with a hat covering my head like I was sleeping. That sleeping was not allowed in the Venatan al Mar! I didn't argue too much; I mentioned that I would understand if this was Nazi Germany, and that I was surprised, but a second look at him.. with pants two sizes too big, and a really skinny "I get paid next to nothing" look in his face, made me think twice, and I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

What is worth the effort is that his bosses told him to do this, and that is a sad reflection on the city. Parks are made for resting. For afternoon naps and children playing. Once you start sending guards around trying to control how people behave, you've lost the point and are just wasting tax payers money. When we were in Toronto we had a lovely hour nap on the lawn in front of Queens Park (the Provincial Government building) without a single problem, I'd like to see that type of atmosphere here in Ensenada.

New blog for lab

While I'm hoping that CICESE will give me an internally based blog, I've taken it upon myself to start a wordpress page. It will be much more technically based than this one. I am also trying to write it is (poorly written) spanish. If your interested please stop by and comment.

Cheers

Blog de Laboritorio de Energía Alterna Sostenible Renovable de CICESE

General comments for CICESE

I was asked what general comments I have from my time at CICESE. I did like my time studying here, and if I wanted to improve the center these comments outline what I feel is missing;

CICESE esta falta cultura de ciencia. No hay comunicación entre departamentos. No hay platicas general por estudiantes de áreas diferentes a encontrarse. Los edificios son falta áreas común. No hay cocientes para preparar comida y lavar trasteas (se ve muy mal un investigador lavando su taza en el baño), no hay regaderas para gente que viene en bici, o que trabajan con materiales sucios. De cursos, hay gente dando lo mismo curso por muchos años, y la curso no es actualizado. No existe cursos por estudiantes de afuera de la departamento; e.g. curso de óptica por estudiantes de oceanografía. No hay cursos sobre comunicación de ciencia; los estudiantes, generalmente, no pueden presentar ni escribir muy bien. No hay cursos sobre filosofía de ciencia; muchos estudiantes no saben que es ciencia. Como extranjero, tuve muchos problemas con los requisitos de la escuela y la administración no estaban preparados a ayudar; los extranjeros siempre triar ideas deferentes y nuevos y pienso que muchos oportunidades pueden presentarse con mas ayuda por ellos.

If you can think of other comments leave them below, and I'll forward them on to the admin.

Cheers

The importance of the plastic liners in soda cans

I've recently started reading the CR4 discussions. One of their latest experiments was where they removed the plastic liner from Al cans before filling them with muriatic acid; it is a good example of focused curiosity. The discussion and youtube video outline their results. They wanted to see if the contents of the soda would eat through an unprotected can. They found that it did, but mold growth brought their experiment to an end. So to push the limits and get quicker results, they filled the cans with muriatic acid. The result; in 5 min, the three unprotected cans are completely eaten away by the acid while the unaltered can remains.

Oil rig to ecoresort

The idea of taking an old oil rig and converting it to an ecoresort is a great flip. Hopefully these rigs will become obsolete and this would make a great second life. As well, they would make excellent scientific base stations for ocean studies!