Daily Dose of Common Sense

As a self-professed “black thumb” who loves eating garden-fresh vegetables (but struggles with the actual garden part), I was thrilled to discover the the square foot gardening concept.

Popularized in 1981 by Mel Bartholomew in his book (and subsequent PBS series) “Square Foot Gardening,” the concept is experiencing a resurgence in the blogosphere everywhere from home design blogs to of course, gardening blogs–many of which are dedicated specifically to square foot gardening.

The basic concept is just as it sounds: take a 4′x4′ plot, divide it into 1′x1′ squares and plant one type of plant in each square. Proponents claim that the square garden is space efficient (it can be as small as 4′x4′), outproduces conventional gardens, uses less water, is pestcide and fertilizer-free and reduces weeding to minutes a day. While this may sound a little too-good-to-be-true, the longevity of the idea speaks to its practicality and overall success.

Now, can a black thumb like myself pull this off? That remains to be seen.

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As flying gets increasingly more laborious, expensive (hello, outrageous extra baggage fees!), and just downright miserable, at least one regional airline knows what consumers want–less hassle.

SeaPort Airlines, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, offers regional flights within the Pacific Northwest and also within the Mid-South region. Started in 2008, their goal is simple: Provide quick and easy commuter flights at a reasonable cost.

A quick flight cost comparison with another major airline showed one standard SeaPort fare to be about $200.00 less expensive than its competitor. They also offer free airport parking and suggest you need only arrive 15 minutes before your flight–even with check-in bags.

Best of all? They tout themselves as a “TSA free airline.” Yep, you read that right. Since they are a regional airline and fly into smaller terminals they are exempt from full-scale Transportation Security Administration screening.

Now that’s how I want to fly.

Ok, not really. But, two clever guys did illustrate the ink usage of different typefaces and Garamond proved to use the least amount of ink.

In this quirky demonstration they drew enlarged versions of eight fonts with eight ball point pens and used the remaining ink in each pen to create a telling bar chart. The results are here:

http://flowingdata.com/2010/01/29/save-pens-use-garamond-font

Frankly, it never occurred to me that fonts had an ink footprint, but I know I’m not only one who thinks the price of ink cartridges is ridiculous.

And, who doesn’t want a way to stick it to the printer cartridge industry? I see a whole lot more Garamond in my future.

It’s water-proof, flexible, self-adhesive and dishwasher safe. And it’s taking the world by storm. In fact, many folks are calling it the best invention since Duct tape or Blu tack. It’s called Sugru.

Sugru is the brain child of Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh, a former product design student, who thought one day, “I don’t want to buy new stuff all the time. I want to hack the stuff I already have so it works better for me.” Aside from unleashing your inner inventor (C’mon, we’ve all had the “I could’ve made that better” thought), Sugru is the ultimate reduce-reuse-recycle tool.

But what exactly is it? Essentially, it’s a silicone based play-dough for adults that you can adhere to surfaces to improve, repair or hack them.  Scissor handles pinching? Use Sugru and mold a fix. Wish your mobile phone had a bigger volume control button? Make one.

Still a little confused? The Sugru website and blog do a beautiful job demonstrating its many uses. And as Jane says herself on the website “People are natural hackers, we’ve just gotten out of the habit of it.”

Watch more about Sugru here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJsH5WL9IE

In economic downturns, it seems like everyone is looking for a way to stretch a buck. Whether it’s cutting back on luxury expenditures or simply getting back to budgeting, we all appreciate a little more green in our pockets.

Enter AltUse.com. A relatively new website fueled by user-generated content, their purpose is to provide alternative uses for everyday products you most likely already have in your house. Suggestions range from using dryer lint to make firestarters (I’ve actually done this and it works!) to smelling coffee ground to alleviate car sickness.

While I won’t be wasting my Vodka stash to help my cut flowers stay fresh anytime soon, I might try the hangover cure.

So whether your goal is to go green, save green or simply experiment, AltUse is worth checking out.

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On August 28th,1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered one of the most powerful speeches in modern history. Commonly referred to as the “I have a dream” speech, King spoke bravely and wisely, and called for an end to discrimination.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, celebrated every third Monday in January, honors his birthday, which is January 15th. The day is one of only four United States federal holidays which commemorate an individual.

So, on this third Monday of January 2010, take a moment to listen again to (or reread) his iconic words spoken 47 years ago. The words are just as relevant and important now as they were then.

Read it

Listen to it

Photo: The U.S. National Archives

Get ready, folks.

Under an energy bill passed by Congress in late 2007, the incandescent light bulb will start being phased out in the US in 2012 and totally phased out by 2014. 100 watt bulbs will be the first to go, and by 2014 the 40 watt bulb will be the last.

But, why?

In short, the incandescent light bulb wastes energy. A lot of energy. According to an article by US News and World Report, 90% percent of the energy that an incandescent light bulb burns is wasted as heat.

Currently, the most widely available alternative to incandescent bulbs is the CFL (Compact Flourescent) bulb. While CFL lights seem to cost more at checkout–about $3.00 per bulb compared to .50 cents per incandescent bulb–the overall energy and cost savings to households is significant. In fact, most reports agree that CFLs last up to 5 years longer and use 75% less energy, which means a 12% decrease in your electric bill per year.

Many complain that CFL bulbs don’t have the same color effect as incandescent bulbs; however, in recent years manufacturers of CFL bulbs have started to offer a wider range of options. Besides, isn’t the energy savings enough to override those concerns?

Energy Star has offered these tips to choosing the right CFL:

• Light color is measured on a temperature scale referred to as Kelvin (K).
• Lower Kelvin numbers mean the light appears more yellow; higher Kelvin numbers mean the light is whiter or bluer.
• For a whiter light, look for bulbs marked 3500-4100K.
• For bluer white light, look for bulbs marked 5000-6500K.

So, what are you waiting for? Jump in and beat the ban while saving yourself some money.

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As few as 25 years ago, neuroscientists stuck firmly to the belief that as we aged our brains became fixed and static–hence the saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. However, new research is saying otherwise. Enter the relatively new concept of brain plasticity and the related practice of brain fitness.

In the simplest terms, brain plasticity is the brain’s capacity for continuous physical, chemical and functional change. Brain fitness is the purposeful exercising of our gray matter to keep it engaged and healthy.

And, while brain plasticity has bona-fide roots and application in the neuroscientific community, brain fitness seems to be a new ‘it thing’ for some quacky websites, books, training seminars, and even diets. The Wikipedia entry for brain fitness notes, “The term is virtually never used in the scientific literature, but is commonly used in the context of self-help books and commercial products.” But, if you wade through the brain fitness drivel, essentially the premise is use it or lose it. Moreover, how you use it is equally important.

One source lists the following the ideal components of brain fitness activities:

• They should teach you something new.
• They should be challenging.
• They should be progressive.
• They should engage your great brain processing systems.
• They should be rewarding. (My personal favorite.)
• They should be novel or surprising.

And there you have it. In order to maintain our brain health and take advantage of the newfound concept of brain plasticity, we need to continually engage our noggins in new and challenging ways.

Hmmm. I don’t think I need a website or seminar to tell me that.

We use water every day without thinking about it. In fact, we can’t live without it. As you’ve probably heard at some point, we can survive for a few weeks without food but only a few days without water. Although water may seem abundant to people in developed countries, globally speaking, potable water is an extremely limited resource.

In fact, lack of access to clean water claims 4 million lives a year–roughly the population of Los Angeles.

So while more fortunate folks don’t have to think about water consumption, just a few quick facts may provide the incentive we all need to think about water as a resource, and to use it accordingly.

• Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
• A five-minute shower in an American household will use more water than a person living in a developing world will use in a whole day.
• It takes over 2,900 gallons of water to produce a pound of coffee.
• On average, women in Africa and Asia have to walk 3.7 miles to collect water.

It’s unrealistic to think that few alarming factoids will immediately impact our daily water consumption.

Or, is it?

If every person in the United States chose just one way to save 1 gallon of water each day, we would conserve 307,183,727 gallons per day.

Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

To see water footprints check out this chart:
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/trans0309walkthisway.html

To educate yourself about the global water crisis:
http://water.org/

To find ways that might work for you to reduce your water consumption:
http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php

Photo courtesy of Flickr: darkpatator