Andrew Kim is obsessed with consumer electronics. He was delighted to discover that there was a profession for people for him. I got on the phone with Andrew and we chatted a bit about the very awesome re-design he did on the classic coke bottle. Design Fabulous is Andrew Kim’s design blog. He’s a student …
ATTN: Please don’t read this post if you are unable to think for yourself. 3.5 million gallons of crude (the approximate total amount spilled so far 06/09/2010) is less than 0.5% of our country’s daily oil consumption. The total amount of oil spilled is a tiny amount relative to how much we consume in the US …
This video does a great job of pointing out how green this apartment is because it uses natural light and has low energy appliances. But the savings from just taking up less space and the attitude of the family that lives there is ultimately much more important to the greenness of this Hong Kong apartment.
You know when you see a really good movie and you get all pumped up about it and can’t stop telling people about it? You say stuff like “No, seriously- you need to watch this” and “It’s really interesting.” I’m not going to do that. I try not to recommend things too often, but this …
This article is about carbon and how it moves around our planet. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe and the basic building block for all life. Carbon atoms are everywhere – the stone we walk on, the CO2 our bodies produce and release into the air, the backbone of polymers, and …
Sorry for not posting for a bit – I just got back home from 7 weeks of traveling. I’ll be back in the swing of things soon. AKB
What is crude oil? And what is all this talk about? Crude oil is a black, viscous slurry of different hydrocarbons, other organic molecules, and trace amounts of metals that can be separated and chemically changed into useful fuels and lubricants like gasoline, diesel, propane, jet fuel, and even wax. Before we can really understand …
In this final post on crude oil I’ll discuss why there’s so much controversy over oil. In short, using fossil fuels like crude has negative effects on the environment, economy, and therefore everyone. The organic material that is found in crude oil sometimes contain sulfur atoms which if combusted turns into SO2 and then into …
Now that we’ve covered where oil comes from, what oil is chemically, and how we refine crude, it’s time to get to the heart of the oil hype – consumption. The cool flow diagram below shows where the USA gets oil from and where we use it. From this diagram we can learn quite a …
There’s been a lot of backlash to the CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) movement recently. Why? Mercury. CFLs contain small amounts of mercury. When these bulbs reach the end of their lives (on average 5 or more years – 10 times that of incandescent bulbs), they usually end up in the trash. On the way to …
