Mosquito

Apparently someone has finally figured out a way to keep loitering teenagers away using a high frequency sound device, called The Mosquito, that only young people can hear. Genius.

Green

One cannot help becoming more environmentally conscious living in this city.

A few weeks ago, I went to The Green Festival, essentially a trade show for environmentally friendly products and services. I definitely got the impression that these were mainly entrepreneurs, certainly with a profit motive, that targeted well-meaning left-leaning individuals as their primary market.

As I see it, if you're going to be in business for profit, there is certainly nothing wrong with keeping environmental preservation as a top priority. However, it seemed to me a bit like they were using people's tendency to support this cause as a way of digging deeper into their pockets. I was somewhat disturbed by that. Sigh. Always a skeptic.

I did learn one thing there that I found interesting and valuable.

Shannon and Michael, who are buying a boat soon, wanted to know how they might use biodiesel fuel in their boat. I had heard that these fuels burn cleaner than fossil fuels and are mainly vegetable based. So I set off to the festival with the mission of finding out.

I have seen various diesel cars on the road, mostly old Mercedes, with biodiesel stickers on them and have always been a little curious. I imagined some process of taking your car down to the local university to have some hippy grad students fit your engine with some kind of vegimatic machine like the DeLorean in Back to the Future. A fun science project to impress all the dreadlocked girls around campus.

As it turns out, there are no modifications required to burn biodiesel fuel. All you need is a diesel engine in your car, and you can pour the fuel right in to your tank with any mixture of fossil fuel you choose. That's it.

Now biodiesel gas is a bit more expensive than regular gas, currently about $3.65 per gallon at the local biodiesel co-op. But compared with the new hybrid cars that come at a several thousand dollar premium over standard engines, this type of fuel is a great way for people to do what they can for a cleaner, less oil-dependent environment, one dollar at a time.

I feel a bit sad that I found this out after I leased my new Jeep Liberty, which now comes with a diesel option. Oh well. The next car.

Convergence

I checked out a cool website today that took a relatively small amount of effort but delivers a substantial value. Housingmaps.com appears to be a mere hobby project for a clever programmer.

It combines Craigslist apartment listings with Google maps to give a visual representation of apartments for rent in San Francisco and other cities.

Small wonders.

Threads

I was struck yesterday by a contrast.

This week I got to take a tour of the new St. Regis Hotel, specifically the luxury homes located high atop the hotel high rise. I have to say that, for all the money rich folks must spend to live there, it didn't seem much more livable than any other homes I have been in. The views were certainly impressive, although I did feel a little woozy way up there.

One thing that impressed me was the doormen's uniforms. Each door to the hotel was manned by a large, hyper-polite man wearing a beautiful full length coat. They seemed to be made of some soft luxurious fiber. I wondered how much the hotel paid for each coat.

The very next day, I was walking in the financial district among many nicely dressed individuals when I saw a group of paramedics. They were also in their uniforms, only theirs were dark blue cotton, and they were very worn and unimpressive.

I considered the relative importance of each of those men's jobs. One opens doors, the other saves lives.

I wondered if there was any significance to this.. if it makes any statement about our world. Clearly the five star hotel is selling a product that cannot be tattered, while paramedics are out on the asphalt every day.

But somehow it still struck me.