Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.


I know I'm posting twice in one day, but this one I will only say one thing; I want to go back, soon.

S

Could you live in an 8'X18' home?

Shelves in the Weebee cabin

Tim Guiles was inspired by Tumbleweed, a tiny house company (as they call themselves).  They make a 102 square foot cabin for people to live in called the Weebee.  Guiles founded Yes Wee Cabins in 2009 to continue to educate people about living in small spaces and to present that as a possibility to people.  His house looks like a lot of fun, and both his little and the Tumbleweed cabins look beautiful on the inside, all wood and spacious ceiling with craftily designed shelves to use all the space not needed for walking around.  

Loft in the Weebee cabin

Tumbleweed sells their plans, the disassembled houses, or assembled houses on their website (the plans are in the $800 range) so Guiles followed that same model, selling a shell, an assembled cabin, or the plans (his plans are only $100 though).  

Guiles also paints his cabin pink, making it uniquely his, and adding to the cabin's charm.  He did an interview to discuss small home living (see video) where you can see how tall the cabin is and how easy it is to move around and live in suc a small space...remember they also had to fit all of the cameras in there to film the interview.

  

Guiles has property in Vermont where he has his little house, so I'm sure he spends most of his time outdoors, but even if you had to spend more time inside (for some reason) you could see that it would be just as good as where you live now, maybe even prettier.  Maybe one day I'll try living in a tiny space, probably right after college would be a good time, after moving so much I have been able to keep my possessions to a minimum.  Just don't tell my mom that I should bring any of the stuff that I left at her house (we'll figure that out later).

S

Parking, is it good?

To be blunt... no, parking is terrible. It's terrible for the city, it's terrible for drivers health, it's terrible for accident rates, it's just overall terrible. But it's also amazingly sweet to get that last free spot on the block. However, this article is literally the BEST article I have EVER READ about parking! It discusses "lot men" in LA back at the beginning and how parking has shaped the city, and made traffic congestion and life there that much worse. Comparing city requirements for parking in LA and New York is shocking, it amazes me that LA supports that much parking in the city, more than supports it, *requires* it!

The amount of open space used for parking in LA is outrageous, and the number of cars increases congestion way too much. If we could find a better/cleaner/safer way to use that space, we could maybe make the city more efficient. But parking is a very touchy subject, the article points out that parking enforcement people have been spit on, attacked, and even shot for issuing tickets (and they only make $35,000 to $45,000 a year). The idea of parking causing so much anger makes me wonder if we shouldn't allow parking at all. Not only that, only about 10% of the time people get a ticket for illegal parking, so we should accept our losses, as one of the few times when we are parked illegally, and maybe they should issue tickets more like 90% of the time to actually enforce the laws and make sure people know the true cost of parking (But we should also start paying meter maids way more money).

Anyway, Dave Gardetta does a much better job explaining this than I do, so please, read this article, and then stop driving!!

R

Solar Light - the cheap way

In 2002 there was a power outage and Mr Alfredo needed light in his workshop.  He "noticed" (the video says) that the water in the bottles refracted the light enough to make a 2-liter bottle act like a light bulb.  An electrical engineer even measured and the bottle creates as much light as a 50 watt bulb...during the day.  It's an automatic lighting system!

Now this invention is being used to light people's homes in the Philippines.  Their houses are really dark during the day (they don't have windows due to cost and privacy).  They do have electric lights, but they cost a lot of money and to have to have a light bulb on all day and night (except when they are sleeping) is too expensive for a poor family. With a lower electric bill they can spend the money differently, on more luxurious essentials, like education, and better nutrition as suggested in the video. They are installing the bottle lights in many houses to decrease electricity cost. Now there is an organization (Liter of Light) that is trying to bring light to a million homes in the Philippines, there are many more videos and links on their website with more information. 

I love the innovative use of the water bottle, and they answered all of my questions as to why they did certain things and how they prevented others.  When I first heard about this, I wondered why they would put chlorine in the water if it was sealed, and the video answered that, I also wondered how well they sealed them and if they were going to leak, and the video showed their sealing techniques (the Brazilian one is a little different than the one from the Philippines, but both seem like they would work). This is a really cool invention and a great solution to the problems they are facing.

S

Walking!

Many of you know that my family is full of "step monsters", as my uncle likes to call us. My mother, 2 of my aunts, my grandmother, and both of my sisters wear pedometers. While that may not seem totally out of the ordinary, we also keep track of our step progress in a shared spreadsheet on Google docs. Naturally, when an article is about walking I read it. These articles are not actually about walking as a health practice or anything related to pedometers, but they are still very interesting.

First there is an article about pedestrian patterns in the world. It is interesting to hear that cultures have vastly different behaviors in groups of pedestrians. This article, from "The Atlantic Cities" (one of my new favorite transportation related blogs), talks about how Indians slow down slower when approaching a crowd than do Germans, probably because of their smaller personal bubbles. The idea that 70% of people walk in groups is also very interesting from a pedestrian's point of view. I know when I'm walking, I usually walk faster than most people and get stuck behind groups of people all the time. I, of course, slow down as I get closer to them and find a gap to run around them (yes... I feel like I'm running even though I'm actually not most of the time). These groups of people definitely change my personal walking patterns, and I am sure they change everyone else's as well. I'm not saying that no one should walk in groups, I love walking with friends, and talking to them, but it does congest the sidewalk. However, the article points out that it is important to study these behaviors for safety reasons at large gatherings, and possible evacuation procedures.

The other articles I found recently brought memories back of a topic from a few of my classes last semester. Drunk walking, which is technically the right thing to do when you're drunk, is actually statistically more dangerous than drunk driving! The article in Good Magazine states that 1/3 of pedestrian fatalities happen when the pedestrian is drunk, and Levitt, a Freakonomics contributor, states that drunk walking is 8 times more dangerous than drunk driving, at least for the drunk person. While Levitt argues that drunks should probably drive because more people die from drunk walking, I feel that the issue is more about external costs rather than personal costs. You can risk your own life, but getting behind the wheel and risking the lives of others might be more harmful, however.. I've also never killed someone who crossed unsafely in front of me, which I'm sure also has terrible emotional effects. Both of these articles bring up an important point of safety in general. We need to be aware of the safety implications of our actions not only as drivers, but as pedestrians.


Similarly, I posted on my Google+ page an article about pedestrian safety signs in the city of Chicago. These seem to be targeted at pedestrians by placement but drivers by content. I think both parties need to be aware about the safety requirements of pedestrians in the city, but maybe we need to do a better job at reaching out to drivers.....

R