This quote is brought to you at the good folks who wrote Kung Fu Panda (Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Ethan Reiff, and Cyrus Voris). This quote is about thankfulness. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

“Quit, don’t quit. Noodles, don’t noodles.  You are too concerned with what was and what will be.  There’s a saying, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.  That is why it is called the present.”

- Oogway, Quote from “Kung Fu Panda” (2008), Kung Fu Master, Turtle, Fictional character

Are you a hypermiler?  Have you ever hypermiled?  Perhaps your dad is a hypermiler.  Maybe your mom?  Or this could be the secret that your Uncle Johnny has been hiding from the family.

From the Oxford University Press blog site, I provide you with this definition of hypermiling:

‘Hypermiling‘ or ‘to hypermile‘ is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

Earlier this month, the good folks at the New Oxford American Dictionary announced their 2008 Word of the Year (WOTY), hypermiling, and in the process, paved the way for scores of people to begin to embrace a method of driving that celebrates sustainability and natural resource conservation.

Calm down, don’t hyperventilate on me!  I know you may have discreetly pined for ‘carrot mob’ or ‘luchador’ (other WOTY candidates) to have claimed top honors, but the silver lining of this modest award is that many people now will have the opportunity to think about how they can drive their vehicle more efficiently, thus saving gas and minimizing the amount of fossil fuel they personally use.

Hypermiling is the DIY method of ensuring that you come close to, or even exceed, the estimated gas mileage sticker that the car dealer had emblazoned on the car you bought.  And the great thing about hypermiling is that, by practicing this unconventional driving style, you truly would be doing your part to curb global warming and to hone your sustainable living urges.  Much like the plastic bag at your supermarket is giving way to the re-usable cloth or mesh bag you’ve adopted into your consumer lifestyle to help make the world a greener place, the old way of driving above the speed limit and gunning your car out of a stoplight are yielding to more speed limit-adhering driving and stoplight-avoiding alternative paths to get you to where you’re going.

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is a list of common hypermiling acronyns and terms:

• FE - fuel economy
• DWB - driving without brakes
• DWL - driving with load
• FAS - forced auto stop, basically coasting with the engine off
• P&G - pulse and glide
• ICE - internal combustion engine
• PP - potential parking
• RR - ridge riding
• SHM - super highway mode
• SAHM - super Atkinson highway mode
• rabbit timing
• smart braking
• face out

So, what are you waiting for?  Go out and get your hypermiling in for the day!

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The Obama administration is not wasting any time is setting up the political structures needed to fight climate change.  One of his first actions will be to establish a federal cap and trade system to limit carbon emissions.

Two thumbs up to President-elect Obama’s actions to make good on his campaign promises.  Stay tuned for details on his energy policy as developed by his energy policy transition team.

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It seems that an experiment with solar panels on residential homes in a community in Japan is working out well.  Not only do all of the homes’ appliances run off of the solar electricity, but they are also able to sell unused electricity back to the utility.

It seems that Japan will be bringing back subsidies for consumers to install solar panels on their homes next year.  I can see that having this technology on a home will siginificantly increase the value of the home.  I can’t wait to see the cost of setting up these systems drop.  Or, perhaps, we should be embracing a new model where consumers don’t own the solar equipment, but rather lease out their rooftops to the utility.  I can also see another model where consumers lease their rooftops to a company that specializes in installing and maintaining these solar generation systems.  The future is oh so bright!

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Here are some great tips from the National Geographic Channel.  I really like their tip about adding sand or pebbles to your toilet to reduce the amount of water it uses each flush.  With water prices soaring, I appreciate any tips to conserve water and to save money on the water bill each month.

Feel free to add any tips you have discovered in the comments area below.

Geothermal energy is an abundant resource that has not been fully tapped.  Magma is usually located 25-40 miles beneath the Earth’s surface.  However, in some areas, it is only 4 miles beneath the surface.  Once the magma is reached (through drilling) a liquid, like water, is heated and turned into steam. The steam is then transported to a turbine above ground and released.  The steam rises and rotates turbines which generate electricity.  It is a pretty simple process, but it takes a lot of work to set up the plant to process the steam.  One key advantage of geothermal energy is that it runs 24 hours a day regardless of the weather conditions.

In fact, there is so much geothermal energy available that Google has committed itself to exploring the use geothermal energy in some capacity.  It only makes sense for Google to do so since it is such a large consumer of electricity.  (One of Google’s data centers alone consumes more than 100 megawatts of electricity. This is enough electricity to power a city the size of Tacoma, Washington or 82,000 homes.)  In fact, the CEO of Google recently spoke about his interest to exploit geothermal energy at a recent Commonwealth Club event.  The video of his talk about renewable energy is available after the jump.  (Warning: The video is about 45 minutes long. So, make sure that you have some time available to watch it.)

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