It’s a couple of years old, but I finally had a chance to watch the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”. Nothing about the history of the GM EV1 surprised me, including GM’s destruction of the entire EV1 fleet.

The documentary includes mention of hydrogen fuel cells, which appears to be more of a stall technique by those invested in fossil fuels than the promising innovation that it’s often portrayed to be. It’s decades away and several times more expensive than gasoline or electricity.

Consumer demand is the only force that will result in plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles being manufactured in this country, and before you can demand it, you have to know that it is possible and already exists with today’s technology.

Here’s the trailer for the documentary:

The dumping of coal ash, also called “fly ash,” is unregulated by the EPA. The problem with calling reduced-emission coal burning “clean coal” is that the cleaner the air emitted by the coal power plant, the dirtier the ash becomes.

The ash contains toxic compounds such as arsenic, mercury, and aluminum which can cause cancer if they leach into ground water, and that’s exactly what seems to have happened in eastern Pennsylvania.

You definitely shouldn’t just throw them in the garbage when they burn out; they contain mercury. Until this week, options for convenient responsible disposal of CFLs were limited. Home Depot announced Tuesday that they will begin accepting compact fluorescent light bulbs for free recycling at all of their stores.

From the press release:

At each The Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk. The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.

[NY Times via EcoTech Daily]

Jay Rath of The Isthmus gave our Into the Woods a very positive review after our closing weekend:

Talk about “happily ever after”! Following a difficult year rebuilding its business side, Madison Theatre Guild closed the 2007-08 season with a giddy, charming, near-professional production of “Into the Woods.”
[...]
It’s hard to know who to praise most in Guild’s wickedly funny production, and there are too many fine performances to name. The cast is huge and absolutely solid, right across the board.
[...]
If “Into the Woods” is any indication, the reborn Theater Guild is a powerhouse that is going to significantly raise the standard for community theater in Madison.

I had a great time doing this show with a cast and crew without equal in my theatre experience so far.

A few weeks ago in the midst of my allergic hell I decided to give nasal irrigation a try. I picked up the NeilMed Sinus Rinse kit — basically a squeeze bottle version of a neti pot — and went to town.

I soon discovered that blasting your sinuses with fluid causes some of it to attempt to escape via your ears and tear ducts. Easy does it.

The instructions recommend using only their special pre-mixed packets and distilled water to make the 8 oz. of solution that fits in the bottle. I found that tap water works just fine…at least in Madison it’s not so nasty that I wouldn’t drink a glass of it. In larger cities I suppose I’d stick with distilled, or at least filtered, water.

I also tried mixing my own solution today because I had run out of the packets provided with the kit. A quick Google survey concluded that the proper mix for an isotonic (same salinity as your sinuses) solution is 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon baking soda per 8 oz. of water. The table salt I have in my pantry happens to be non-iodized salt, which is safe(-ish?), but I wouldn’t recommend trying it with the common variety. It dissolved fine and felt no more uncomfortable than the packet-based solution, and mixing it myself will keep me from having to pay $13/month for the little packets and all the paper waste they create.

Does it work? My allergy symptoms have been better since I’ve been doing this regularly — twice daily when the pollen count was high — and the concept of flushing out the day’s (and night’s) irritants that still remain captive in the nasal cilia and mucus seems sound. It seems like the only way, other than staying fully hydrated, that I can actively keep my breathing as free as possible.

For someone whose favorite cooking utensils are a phone and a credit card, this late-night improvisation wasn’t half bad. I was just going to have some eggs, and then I thought, “why not throw some greens in there…” and it wasn’t long before I had a decent bowl of what I would think is pretty healthy food.

• 1 large kale leaf (a bit bigger than my hand), chopped
• 4 egg whites (I put 1 of the yolks in there too)
• a splash of water
• a touch of sesame oil
• soy sauce to taste

Usually when I chop kale I just remove the center rib, grab all of the leaf pieces into a tight clump, cut across that clump as if to make strips, and then clump it back together and cut “strips” perpendicular to that.

I tossed the eggs and kale into a frying pan over medium heat, stirring often. It looked like it might dry out before the kale could cook enough, so I threw in a little water, probably a few tablespoons worth. I added the sesame oil just before removing it from heat and serving, and added the soy sauce once I tasted it and found it somewhat bland. Scrambled eggs are pretty rubbery to begin with, and the kale could probably stand to be wilted a bit more to reduce the overall rubbery texture of this dish.

It’s no masterpiece, but it should be fairly high in protein, calcium, and phytonutrients, and it can probably be improved upon.