Author Archives: Julie Plunkett

New Adventures in Book Blurbing

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Via Twitter, William Kramer points out something funny. Here’s a review of Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig’s The Bankers’ New Clothes excerpted by Amazon:

Maybe regulators will finally listen to Admati and Hellwig after the next financial crisis. (Kevin Drum MotherJones.com)

I’m perfectly happy for this snippet to be memorialized, since I know what Admati and Hellwig said and I happen to agree with them. Still, that sentence was written based solely on various internet conversations that were making the rounds a few weeks ago. As my post about their book said, “I haven’t read it.” Generally speaking, it’s probably best for publishers’ blurbs to be restricted to people who have at least pretended to read the work in question, no?

Mother Jones
Read More:  

New Adventures in Book Blurbing

Posted in FF, GE, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , | Comments Off on New Adventures in Book Blurbing

Keeping It Green! Six Easy Tips For Cleaner Energy Usage

Your home is your castle, but have you ever considered what is powering it? Green energy is a great solution that you can implement in your own home, in order to clean up the environment and lower your bills. Read on for some simple strategies that you can start using right now.

Going green means many things, including saving energy in your home. One of the easiest and best money-saving ideas is to insulate your attic. The recommended insulation level for most attics is approximately 12 to 15 inches, depending on the type of insulation you are using. Attic insulation can save you a bundle on your energy bill!

Make sure that all heating and cooling units and registers are not blocked by furniture, window treatments, or kid’s toys. If a piece of furniture must be placed in front of a baseboard heater, leave a space of two feet. This may seem like a waste of space, but this allows you to avoid wasting energy.

A simple and easy way to reduce your energy consumption and make your house greener is to thoroughly clean the lint filter in your dryer each time before you use it. Believe it or not, by doing this easy and simple act, you can slash your dryer’s usage of electricity by as much as 30%!

Windmills are capable of creating electrical energy without polluting anything. Purchasing your own windmill can be expensive, and there may be restrictions on putting one up where you live. If you can install your own windmill, you will be able to sell excess electricity to your local power company and recoup some of your costs.

Avoid using your clothes dryer whenever possible. Drying your clothes outside on a washing line is one of the simplest ways to save energy costs. The clothes dryer is the third-largest energy user in the home, accounting for almost 6 percent of yearly energy consumption, and costing more than $100 to operate.

If you can not afford to get new windows that are more energy efficient, be sure to invest in some good shades. During the summer months, cover the windows during the day to keep the sun out. In the winter months, leave the window covers open to let the sun heat up the rooms; close them at night though to help keep the cold out.

When shopping for new appliances, choose the ones where the energy star rating is in the most efficient range. Even if you cannot afford new appliances, you can choose new parts for your old appliances that are much more efficient and will help your old appliances save money and energy like new ones.

Invest in green technologies to ensure their proliferation. Consumers are a powerful group that can exercise that power by selective purchasing. If you want to encourage the use of renewable energy purchase products, vehicles, and electronics that utilize these technologies. If consumers insist on green technologies companies will produce items that use green technologies.

Heat your home with a pellet stove. Pellets are basically made of compressed sawdust: they burn without any emanation and are much easier to store and transport than a pile of wood. Before investing in a pellet stove, you should find a place where you can get affordable pellets first.

Look for Energy Star appliances. Many brands produce these, and they carry an Energy Star label. You could even get a tax break for buying these, so keep your eyes open for the Energy Star label the next time you go appliance shopping. This usually applies to refrigerators, ovens, washers and dryers.

A clean environment is key to ensuring that we continue to have the food and water that we need to survive. It’s up to each individual to play their part and a great start to that part is to use the ideas in this article to “green” your energy use. Start implementing what you’ve learned and reap the rewards!

In order to build your own surroundings you should utilize models like Comflor steel deck as well as Steel decking

Posted in green energy | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Keeping It Green! Six Easy Tips For Cleaner Energy Usage