Fuel Saving Ideas

Question to Yahoo

Dear Yahoo!:
What's the ideal speed for maximum fuel efficiency?
Coasting on Fumes

Dear Fumes:
According to this chart from Eartheasy.com, the most fuel-efficient speed for your car is roughly 55 mph, or 90 km/h. Increasing your speed from 55 mph to 75 mph boosts your fuel consumption a stunning 20 percent!
You can boost your vehicle's fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent simply by keeping it well maintained and driving it correctly. Here are a few suggestions:

Avoid jackrabbit starts, tailgating, or pumping the gas pedal. Starts and stops increase fuel consumption dramatically.
Take advantage of cruise control whenever possible -- driving at a steady speed saves fuel.
Try to avoid idling your car for more than a minute.
Keep your tires inflated and switch to radial, if you haven't already.
Reduce drag by keeping your windows rolled up, removing unused bike racks, and emptying your trunk.
Optimal fuel efficiency varies from car to car, so check your manual for more suggestions. The best option, of course, is simply to drive less. You can do this by planning trips ahead of time to avoid peak traffic hours or doing your errands a little closer to home.

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BBC Junkies

BBC Will Let Programs Be Downloaded Sat Aug 27, 1:28 PM ET


LONDON - The British Broadcasting Corp. is planning a new service to let Web users download its television and radio programs up to a week after they have aired.
BBC Director General Mark Thompson, who unveiled the plans for the company's "MyBBCPlayer" at the Edinburgh International Television Festival Saturday, said he hoped the service could be active by 2006.

Under the outline he presented, Thompson said the player would let Web users download original BBC radio and television programming from its Web site for as long as seven days after it originally aired.

But complete details weren't released and any plan to make the material available for download would have to be approved by the government-owned broadcaster.

Also not disclosed was whether the BBC would charge users a fee for the downloads or how it would protect the digital rights of such programming.

Thompson said the plan is part of the BBC's efforts to expand its operations beyond traditional forms of media.

"I accept the premise that if the BBC remains nothing more than a traditional TV and radio broadcaster then we probably won't deserve or get license-fee funding beyond 2016," he said. "That is very definitely not our plan."

The dominant broadcaster in the United Kingdom, the BBC operates a pair of public television channels, a 24-hour news channel, and several digital channels, as well as national and digital radio networks.

___

http://www.bbc.co.uk

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McWeigh-in

People Try to Lose Weight at McDonald's
By VALERIE BAUMAN
Associated Press Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Inspired by the documentary "Super Size Me," Merab Morgan decided to give a fast-food-only diet a try. The construction worker and mother of two ate only at McDonald's for 90 days -- and dropped 37 pounds in the process.
It was a vastly different outcome than what happened in the documentary to filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who put on 30 pounds and saw his health deteriorate after 5,000 calories a day of nothing but McDonald's food.

Morgan, from Raleigh, thought the documentary had unfairly targeted the world's largest restaurant company, implying that the obese were victims of a careless corporate giant. People are responsible for what they eat, she said, not restaurants. The problem with a McDonald's-only diet isn't what's on the menu, but the choices made from it, she said.

"I thought it's two birds with one stone -- to lose weight and to prove a point for the little fat people," Morgan said. "Just because they accidentally put an apple pie in my bag instead of my apple dippers doesn't mean I'm going to say, 'Oh, I can eat the apple pie.'"

Spurlock, who turned his surprise-hit movie into a TV show on the FX network, isn't talking about Morgan or the many other McDieters who have criticized his film and found success losing weight by eating healthy foods off the McDonald's menu, said his publicist, David Magdael.

One person went so far as to make her own independent film about dieting at McDonald's. "Me and Mickey D" follows Soso Whaley, of Kensington, N.H., as she spends three 30-day periods on the diet. She dropped from 175 to 139 pounds, eating 2,000 calories-a-day at McDonald's.

"I had to think about what I was eating," Whaley said. "I couldn't just walk in there and say 'I'll take a cinnamon bun and a Diet Coke.' ... I know a lot of people are really turned off by the whole thought of monitoring what they are eating, but that's part of the problem."

As might be expected, McDonald's also objected to the impressions left by Spurlock's film. Walt Riker, the company's vice president of corporate communications, said Oak Brook, Ill.-based company is pleased -- but not surprised -- that some customers have lost weight eating only at the fast-food giant.

Spurlock's film "really spurred a backlash based on common sense," Riker said.

Morgan used nutritional information downloaded from McDonald's Web site to create meal plans of no more than 1,400 calories a day. She only ate french fries twice, usually choosing burgers and salads. Those choices are a stark contrast with those made by Spurlock, who ate every menu item at least once.

At the end of the 90 days, she had dropped from 227 to 190 pounds.

"It feels great," she said. "Because, the truth of the matter is that beauty is power, and if you're fat, or your overweight, then people don't really take you seriously."

Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, agreed that a low-calorie, McDonald's-only diet can help people lose weight but said it may not offer enough long-term variety. Whatever an individual does to lose weight, they need to do for the rest of their life, she said.

Morgan said she hasn't decided if she will stick with the McDonald's-only plan to reach her goal of 150 pounds. But she does have one complaint about McDonald's.

"If I could suggest anything to McDonald's, I would suggest the McMargarita," Morgan said. "Dine-in only, of course."

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Awesome

Monks run out of the world's best beer

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labor -- and beer-brewing.

A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.

But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer's sudden popularity.

"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone."

And the abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand.

"We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's Web site.

Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: "Outsiders don't understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery."

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The first little pig had it right, this Wolff says

Woman working on energy-efficient house of straw
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Michael Sangiacomo
Plain Dealer Reporter

Akron- Don't bother making a joke about a wolf living in a house of straw. Marcia Wolff has heard them all.

She'll be the one laughing this winter when her new energy-efficient home constructed of compacted bales of straw is kept warm as toast for less than what most households pay for a newspaper subscription.

She expects to move into her new home, built on a private road so far west in Akron that it's almost in Copley Township, by her 51st birthday at the end of October. When the house is done, it will be difficult to distinguish Wolff's home from many others in the area. The giveaway is the width of the walls - about 18 inches.

"It just means we have wonderful window seats at every window," she said, walking around the construction site.

Wolff, who runs Design Council, an Akron interior-design business, has been suggesting straw-bale construction to anyone who would listen. Building her own house using natural materials found in the area is just her way of putting her suggestions into action.

The frame of the house is typical wood construction. The difference comes at the point when most houses would have drywall installed on the inside, siding on the outside and insulation in between. She is putting compressed bales of straw, held together with bamboo poles and strips of wood, and will finish off the inside and outside with four coats of a thick plaster of mud, sand and clay. The sand and mud come from the woods on the 5.5-acre property.

The finished product is a smooth wall inside and out. Before she is done, she will use almost 15 tons of the plaster over the 2,600-square-foot house.

Christopher Fox of Fox's Natural Building Co. in Akron and his youthful crew of eco-conscious college students have been working on the house since May. It's an unusual collection of workers who come from several states and live in tents on the property. Instead of playing rock 'n' roll, they listen to classical music while they work.

"This kind of construction in the United States goes back to the early 1900s," Fox said. "But there are straw houses in Europe that have lasted for 500, even 800 years. If you make it tight enough, it's rot-proof. As far as fireproof goes, because it is packed so tight, it's much harder to burn than an ordinary house. It would be like trying to burn a closed Cleveland telephone book. As far as trying to burn through the plaster, well, that's like trying to burn mud."

Wolff learned how to build her house at workshops sponsored by the Cleveland Green Building Coalition. The first workshop taught how to construct the straw bales (which are thinner and more densely packed than normal bales). Other classes taught how to use the bales to build a house, and a last course taught how to make and apply the plaster coatings.

Wolff did her homework when it came to building the house. She salvaged antique doors from an Akron building about to be demolished. She bought cabinets from Habitat for Humanity. Because of her frugality, she believes her house will cost only a little more than a home that was constructed the standard way.

"I want people to see how a house can be built so that it is energy-efficient and still be elegant and rustic," she said.

For further information, contact Marcia Wolff at 330-258-1100; the Cleveland Green Building Coalition (for future classes) at 216-961-8850; Fox's Natural Building Co., Akron, 216-225-0753; or HarvestBuild Associates, Columbia Township, 440-236-3344.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

msangiacomo@plaind.com, 216-999-4890

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