Daily archives: July 6, 2005


Walking distance

Some stupidly large number of car journeys are less than two miles which, for most of us, isn’t that hard a walk. One of the gimmicks I wanted to use for How to Save the World for Free the TV series (if it ever happened) was going to be hammering a nail into a map where the subject’s house was and showing them just how much stuff was within walking distance. Now you can do something similar with Google maps. The Gmaps pedometer allows you to mark out a route on the map and will calculate the distance travelled. For instance this is my walk to work every morning, which comes in at just under a mile.

(Google maps now come with satellite images of the UK, though they’re a little out of date, because they still feature the old City ground. the last time I walked past it my comment was “So what used to be over there, where that huge empty space is?”)

via Lifehacker

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2012

2012
2012,
originally uploaded by spinneyhead.

I just heard that london won the olympic bid. Which is nice. I don’t have much else to say, because it’s not like the commonwealth games, where i was actually in the city and feeling the atmosphere. I’ve served my time in london and it’s unlikely i’ll ever want, or be able to afford, to live there again.
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Savonius Wind Turbine

For those times when you don’t need a lot of wind power, such as aerating a pond or powering a small motor, you could build a Savonius wind turbine. The shape of this little windmill looks familiar to me because Dad and the Alternative Energy group he was involved with in the eighties built a larger scale version using sawn up oil drums as the scoops. I used to sit in one of the top drums and spin round and round, but that’s another story.

via Treehugger

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