Solo Traveler's Holiday Gift Guide 2016: Enjoy the Savings

This list may inspire a gift for a traveler you know. Or share it with family/friends and point out something you'd like. Or how about a gift to yourself!

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Pac-12 Week 10 bowl projections: Washington on track to play Alabama

Pac-12 Week 10 bowl projections: Washington on track to play Alabama

The 38% Solution

Will 38 soon become 88? Image: wikimedia.

China and the United States have both ratified the Paris climate agreement. In Hangzhou, on the eve of the G20, China greeted arriving American President Obama with the announcement. Together, the two nations account for 38% of the world's carbon emissions. The Paris agreement's goal is to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit). Will Christiana Figueres, chief architect of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and her words delivered on 6 April 2016 to the University of Massachusetts Boston at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, inspire the world to build a better future?

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

 

Happy 100th, National Parks

 

“Crater Lake National Park, Wizard Island.” Jason W. Lusk, Photographer, with permission and appreciation.

Happy 100th birthday to the United States National Park Service. Celebrations included illuminating the New York City skyline, inviting the public to gather at Brooklyn Bridge Park to change the color of One World Trade Center's Spire as an iconic birthday candle. The 1916 Organic Act authorized the preservation of green space; the Second Century Commission recommended future approaches. One of the earliest green spaces created for public enjoyment might be the walking path of the New River of England, 1613; still in use, the route is recommended by the Ramblers Association. Boston's Central Artery Project created a greenway through the heart of the city. Costa Rica, world leader in environmental protection, set precedent with Law 7788 on Biodiversity. Perhaps Benton MacKaye launched the Appalachian Trail, authorized after the architect's essay in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects described the salutary effects of nature as “one of the admitted needs of modern times.”

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Tyler O'Connor's long wait almost over at Michigan State

Tyler O'Connor's long wait almost over at Michigan State

Olympic Feat

Olympic Gold medalist Michael Phelps, Beijing 2008. Image: wikimedia commons.

Olympic Games are paved with gold (and silver, bronze, and brilliance.) In Rio, Olympic Gold was won by Michael Phelps, crowning the swimmer as the most decorated Olympian, adding to eight golds awarded in Beijing 2008, four golds and two silvers in London 2012. During the London Olympics, a parallel Olympic feat, or perhaps one should say 'feet,' marked a milestone in energy and environment. The West Ham Tube station near the London Olympic stadium was paved with 12 electricity pavers, activated by a million footsteps. Renewable, wireless electricity, thus generated, powered 12 LED floodlights at the subway station during the Olympic and Paralympics Games. Laurence Kemball-Cook conceived the idea as a university student, at the age of 25, and soon founded PaveGen. Generative floors power only the immediate area, only when stepped upon, but that's enough to illuminate an LED street lamp. Or imagine a mall or hospital lobby where an average of 250,000 steps occur; that's enough to power 10,000 mobile phones. PaveGen technology grows stronger; over 100 locations worldwide, including dance clubs, shine. Will Fitbit readouts soon include energy generated? Kemball-Cook observes that “the average person takes 150 million steps in their lifetime, just imagine the potential.” Future goals: paving areas in Mumbai, where people currently lack access to electricity. More visions: universities, schools, sporting venues, hospitals, shopping malls, grocery stores, greenways and sportsways - places where many steps are taken - could add floors to their energy system. When Tokyo hosted the 1964 Olympics, a milestone in transport and energy was achieved: Shinkansen. Tokyo will again host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics; Beijing, 2022. PyeongChang is next, in 2018. The Olympic path has always been paved with gold; now, also paved with light?

Lawrence Kemball-Cook, TEDtalk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_vPbhYqg2k

“Green sidewalk makes electricity - one footstep at a time.” George Webster, CNN, 13 October 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/13/tech/innovation/pavegen-kinetic-pavements/

http://www.pavegen.com

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Philosopher's Stone?

Lapis philosophorum? Image of limestone, Missouri Department of Natural Resources: https://dnr.mo.gov/

Iceland: scientists pumped CO2 and water under the craggy ground of this island beloved by Vikings. Why Iceland? Same reason Romans made such good roads - volcanic rock. The experiment bet on the hunch that CO2 + Water + Minerals = Building Materials.  “Of 220 tones of injected CO2, 95% was converted to limestone in less than two years,”  reported Southampton University's Juerg Matter. Iceland's Hellisheidi geothermal power plant near Reykjavik helped to tag the CO2 used with carbon-14, leaving a radioactive trace as a check when testing to see if any escaped to the surface or leaked into nearby water sources: not a trace was found. Study co-author Martin Shute of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, comments it is possible to find “basalts on every continent.” From Harry Potter to Jabir ibn Hayyan, 8th century alchemist, and Albertus Magnus who wrote of the lapis philosophorum, the means of turning base metals to gold has long been a quest. Are we now witnessing an energy miracle of transmutation?

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

Spring review: Oklahoma State Cowboys

Spring review: Oklahoma State Cowboys

SEC spring preview: Alabama begins process of retooling

SEC spring preview: Alabama begins process of retooling

Watch: Clemson QB cluster in 2017

Watch: Clemson QB cluster in 2017

Early Offer: Three who just missed our recruiter rankings

Early Offer: Three who just missed our recruiter rankings