I can’t belive it is already time for Earth Hour again, the years are just flying by. Earth Hour is a world wide event where for one hour from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM  your local time you shut off all your lights to show your support for the Earth. This year the WWF is hoping for a billion people to participate and put in their vote supporting action to protect the Earth. They plan to present the results of how many people put in a vote to protect the environment  to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. Be sure to sign up at earthhour.org so that your vote is counted and to get more information.



Earth Hour 2009 by WWF – Sign up for Earth Hour!

Just before the Phoenix light rail started service I posted a video of light rail collisions from some other unnamed city. Three months in to our own light rail line here and videos and stories of trains hitting vehicles are already popping up. Here’s a video of the light rail hitting a truck and a car, you might notice that the 2nd car runs for it. I wonder if they were able to get his license plate number form the vid?

Here’s a story from a local blogger that was on a train that hit a car. My Phoenix light rail crash

KPHO also did a story about how drivers aren’t paying attention to the light rail signs. Drivers Not Following Light Rail Signs

The good news though is that light rail ridership is higher than projected. Seems it has become a popular form of mass transit here in Phoenix!

Self indulgence is not typically a very philanthropic activity, however, with rough economic times we all could use some extra TLC. This is a great way to give back to the community while pampering yourself and getting acquainted with a fantastic local business. From the strawberry hedgehog blog:

As you know from my last post I have been really excited about the Soap for Hope soaps I have available where 50% of the price goes directly to support cancer charities. The soaps are available online as well as at my favorite Mesa cafe/yoga studio, Inside the Bungalow, who just so happen to be hosting a super cool event on May 2nd to support the St. Baldrick’s charity. So, last week I went to drop off the fresh lemon-rosemary soap there but before leaving I checked their blog only to find that Inside the Bungalow’s massage therapist, is donating ALL of the massage proceeds to the charity!

I couldn’t resist this opportunity to pamper myself while giving to charity. What a fabulously rewarding combination! Melissa, the massage therapist, is incredibly friendly and talented. She sets you at ease the moment you arrive, has a healing touch and warm personality, listening to your concerns and adjusting to your preference. The prices are out of this world and with all of the proceeds going to St. Baldrick’s through May you really have no excuse not to go! :c) Their scheduling and online payment system is super simple and I highly recommend you leap at the opportunity as I did. I am so impressed with Melissa’s ability as a massage therapist and her huge heart, I cannot believe her generosity donating all of her time and energy to heal her clients and support finding a cure for childhood cancer. WOW!

Click here for more info.

This information is brought to you by Keith Woods:

ECYCLEPHX.ORG is run by the Boy Scouts (Troop 446) who organize the longest running computer and electronics swap meet in the southwest – the Scouts’ Electronicfest. scoutscomputerswapmeet.com

They are hosting their 3rd Annual Earth Day Electronics Recycling Event sponsored by Valleywide Recycling Partnership. To be held all day (11am to 7pm) Wednesday, April 22nd, at the Best Buy in Phoenix (at Camelback Road and 20th Street. All kinds of electronics will be accepted at this event (working or not), and proceeds will benefit local Boy Scouts. Donations may be tax deductible. For more information please call Keith Woods at 480-752-7410

Here are some examples of things you can bring in to be recycled:

EXAMPLES OF WHAT MAY BE DROPPED OFF

Computer Monitors CPU’s (Central Processing Units) Televisions with Cathode Ray Tubes and Flat Panel Displays Printers Laptops Cables Keyboards Mouses Telephone Equipment VCRs Word Processors Batteries PDAs

Answering Machines Camcorders Compact Disc Players Copiers Duplicators Electric Typewriters Fax Machines Hard Drives Mobile Phones Modems Pagers Printed Circuit Boards Radios Games (Video)

Microwaves Smoke Detectors Large Household Appliances (Refrigerators, Washing Machines, and Air Conditioners) Toasters Fans Vacuum Cleaners Lamps Specialty Cookers Remote Controls Stereos Tape Players Telephones

For more information on the Scout’s Earth Day Event visit this link: http://ecyclephx.org/earthday_2009.htm

This year’s Greener Gadgets Competition ended on February 27 where tons of awesome green gadgets were judged. The big winner this time was the Tweet-a-Watt, a modified Kill-a-Watt that tweets your daily power usage. A Kill-a-Watt is a great product that has been out for quite a while and tells you how much power you are pulling from a particular outlet. This is great to use if you want to find out how much power your devices are using while powered on or even while they are supposedly powered off. The Tweet-a-Watt goes step further and automates the process of taking this information, transmitting it wirelessly, and getting it online for you to monitor. Their modifications of the Kill-a-Watt are open source and free for anyone to use and modify. If you head over to the Tweet-a-Watt’s twitter page you can see how it works and how they track their power usage over time.

Here is more about how the Tweet-a-Watt works from the Green Gadgets Competition page.

Using “off-the-shelf hardware”, we have modified a Kill-a-Watt(TM) power meter to “tweet” (publish wirelessly) the daily KWH consumed to the user’s Twitter account (Cumulative Killowatt-hours). We are releasing this project as an “Open source hardware” project – in other words, anyone can make these, modify them and make a commercial product from the ideas and methods.

Here’s how it works: The modified Kill-a-Watt uses a “super-cap” to slowly recharge itself. Once there is enough power it turns on the Xbee wireless module which transmits the data to a nearby computer (or internet connected microcontroller, like an Arduino). Once the power usage for the day is recorded it uses a predefined Twitter account (it can be your own) to publish your daily KWH consumption for the day. Multiple units can be used for an entire household.

I’d highly recommend heading over to the Greener Gadgets Competition home page and checking out all the other cool gadgets that were in the competition.