Well I finally finished my GIS project using the data from my directed study on the ecological footprint of BU. And we found some interesting facts.
We calculated the electricity use of 34 buildings on campus for 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006. We also looked at the enrollment information for those years.
In regards to electricity use, we concluded that:
The worst building on campus is 19 Deerfield Street because in 15 years the electricity use in that building has almost trippled.
The best building on campus is CGS because in 15 years the electricity use in that building has gone down by a quarter.
20 of the buildings increased in electricity use over 15 years.
7 of the buildings deacreased in electricity use over 15 years.
The university has increased its electricity use by almost 60 million kWh in 15 years, but the student population has only increased by 2000 students, therefore by calculating per capita use of the buildings we had, student use of electricity has almost doubled since 1991.
There are a lot of errors and factors that go into looking at these results. We didn't account for the change in usage of the building or the age of the building. We only calcuated 34 of several hundered buildings owned by BU, so the student usage is not completely accurate. The list goes on.
But the overall point of this study was to show how much BU is using and what we're doing about it. Currently, BU does not have any sort of green planning design. Policies and building strategies do not incorporate environmental sustainability. This is an expensive problem that the administration should reevaluate. Much can be learned by Tufts and Harvard, through their sustainability programs.
In the end, we hope that by publishing reports like this on water usage, paper usage, waste management, etc. the administration will begin to understand how much of an impact our institution has on Boston and on the country, and that it is possible to make positive changes that will benefit the university as a whole.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
A Hiccup Hiccup
Apparently, Jennifer Mee, a teen from St. Petersburg, FL, hiccuped for 36 days straight. She hiccupped 50 times every minute. The only time she didn't hiccup was during sleep.
Can you imagine that? For a whole month, you were hiccuping almost every second. How would you have a conversation? I don't think you could. It's like kind of being mute, but not.
I wonder if she tried any of those methods that are supposed to cure hiccups like drink water upside down, hold your breathe for 20 seconds, sing a song/pick your nose/drink water all at the same time (you know what i mean)? I'm sure she probably did. I wonder how many and how long she tried doing those before she figured out that she had a serious hiccup problem. I wonder what her doctor thought at first too.
What a bizarre occurance. I don't have too much to say on this one, but I thought it was an interesting situation and was worth mentioning.
Can you imagine that? For a whole month, you were hiccuping almost every second. How would you have a conversation? I don't think you could. It's like kind of being mute, but not.
I wonder if she tried any of those methods that are supposed to cure hiccups like drink water upside down, hold your breathe for 20 seconds, sing a song/pick your nose/drink water all at the same time (you know what i mean)? I'm sure she probably did. I wonder how many and how long she tried doing those before she figured out that she had a serious hiccup problem. I wonder what her doctor thought at first too.
What a bizarre occurance. I don't have too much to say on this one, but I thought it was an interesting situation and was worth mentioning.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Nap Time
According to Time magazine...
Everyone should take 3 half hour naps at work each week in order to lower the risk of heart-related death
Fatigue costs US businesses $150 billion due to lost productivity that fatigue
I agree, like in kindergarten, we should all have nap time.
In highschool, I sure as hell could have used one. From swim practice to school to choir practice back to swim practice to the hours of homework from my multiple AP classes, I barely slept those four years. Not to mention all the social aspects of life I was trying to become familiar with (which, at the age of 15, took a lot of work.) I think I would have been a much happier, more productive teenager with a half hour nap three days a week.
Today, I spent 8 hours answering phones from curious, irritated, or just down-right stupid customers wanting to know where their couch was or why we didn’t deliver on weekends or whether the ice in their drive-way would inhibit the deliverers from delivering her sofa set in a months time. I got calls from Canada to the Mississippi delta asking detailed questions about furniture I've never seen or heard of. As a part-time worker for CSN, I've taught myself that as a customer service representative, I have to tell them what they want to hear. I'm the front line of advertising and pr.
The issue arises when, at 3:30pm, I'm dealing with a particularly stupid or angry client and would prefer to drink 1/2 a gallon of milk in 10 seconds than continute to talk to this bored house wife with no one else to take her anger out on except me. Now, when I arrive at work, I'm quite happy to serve these peoples' menial needs, but after about I've been working for 5 hours already, I'm tired, fed up, and far less productive on each phone call. I, therefore, choose diet coke or some sort of stimulant to boost my energy. That MAY be why I have supraventricular tachycardia, a heart problem.
Everyone should take 3 half hour naps at work each week in order to lower the risk of heart-related death
Fatigue costs US businesses $150 billion due to lost productivity that fatigue
I agree, like in kindergarten, we should all have nap time.
In highschool, I sure as hell could have used one. From swim practice to school to choir practice back to swim practice to the hours of homework from my multiple AP classes, I barely slept those four years. Not to mention all the social aspects of life I was trying to become familiar with (which, at the age of 15, took a lot of work.) I think I would have been a much happier, more productive teenager with a half hour nap three days a week.
Today, I spent 8 hours answering phones from curious, irritated, or just down-right stupid customers wanting to know where their couch was or why we didn’t deliver on weekends or whether the ice in their drive-way would inhibit the deliverers from delivering her sofa set in a months time. I got calls from Canada to the Mississippi delta asking detailed questions about furniture I've never seen or heard of. As a part-time worker for CSN, I've taught myself that as a customer service representative, I have to tell them what they want to hear. I'm the front line of advertising and pr.
The issue arises when, at 3:30pm, I'm dealing with a particularly stupid or angry client and would prefer to drink 1/2 a gallon of milk in 10 seconds than continute to talk to this bored house wife with no one else to take her anger out on except me. Now, when I arrive at work, I'm quite happy to serve these peoples' menial needs, but after about I've been working for 5 hours already, I'm tired, fed up, and far less productive on each phone call. I, therefore, choose diet coke or some sort of stimulant to boost my energy. That MAY be why I have supraventricular tachycardia, a heart problem.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Modern Hero
According to Time Magazine...
Sir Richard Branson is giving $25 million to the first scientist who comes up with a system for extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Since I was a junior in high school, I've wanted to work for this man. To me, he's a modern day hero. The owner of Virgin Music, Virgin Airlines, and Virgin Mobile, he's a billionaire and a knight. However, he isn't my hero because of fame or honor, he's a modern day hero to me because he's a forward thinking, curious, and adventurous entrepreneur.
What first brought him to my attention was his idea for commercialized space flight. He presented a monetary incentive to progressive, independent space scientists, challenging them to create a private spacecraft for commercial travel. He then created a sub-sector of his giant multi-national to begin the process of creating a commercial travel business into space called Virgin Galactic. I thought that was ingenious. It's a fantastic way to increase aerospace knowledge and make a profit. It was such a successful concept that there's already a waiting list of millionaire's who would like to fly to space when the project becomes an active business.
His latest idea, though contradictory to the aforementioned fossil fuel-burning business, is one that will too benefit the science community. With climate change being the biggest environmental challenge to deal with to date, Sir Richard Branson, has agreed to establish yet another competition. For the sake of the planet, I hope these scientists do find a way to remove those chemicals from the ozone soon.
Oh Sir Branson, what will you do next?
Sir Richard Branson is giving $25 million to the first scientist who comes up with a system for extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Since I was a junior in high school, I've wanted to work for this man. To me, he's a modern day hero. The owner of Virgin Music, Virgin Airlines, and Virgin Mobile, he's a billionaire and a knight. However, he isn't my hero because of fame or honor, he's a modern day hero to me because he's a forward thinking, curious, and adventurous entrepreneur.
What first brought him to my attention was his idea for commercialized space flight. He presented a monetary incentive to progressive, independent space scientists, challenging them to create a private spacecraft for commercial travel. He then created a sub-sector of his giant multi-national to begin the process of creating a commercial travel business into space called Virgin Galactic. I thought that was ingenious. It's a fantastic way to increase aerospace knowledge and make a profit. It was such a successful concept that there's already a waiting list of millionaire's who would like to fly to space when the project becomes an active business.
His latest idea, though contradictory to the aforementioned fossil fuel-burning business, is one that will too benefit the science community. With climate change being the biggest environmental challenge to deal with to date, Sir Richard Branson, has agreed to establish yet another competition. For the sake of the planet, I hope these scientists do find a way to remove those chemicals from the ozone soon.
Oh Sir Branson, what will you do next?
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Top Coverage
The story of Anna Nicole Smith is a tragic one, filled with sex, money, deception, and death, something the media couldn't stop talking about. Just look at how much attention Anna Nicole received last week:
NBC's Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to the Iraq War compared to the 3 minutes and 13 seconds they dedicated to Anna Nicole
CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequnetly than it did Iraq, and that's less than MSNBC's 708%
And Splash News and Picture Agency bought the rites to footage of Anna Nicole's Death for $500,000
I agree her life was a tantalizing soap opera filled with tabloid headlines and red carpet photo opps, and its easier to talk about her life than it is to talk about the more depressing and dry topics like health care and the Iraq war. But is this really worth all that attention?
Yes this may be what people want, but the media has a responsibility to discuss issues that need to be discussed. We, as US citizens, are becoming less aware and responsible for what our country is doing. But the media has a responsibility to its viewers to provide them with information that will help them be more responsible.
I'm not saying that we should disregard Anna Nicole's death, but perhaps the media should balance the coverage and accept responsibility for the news.
NBC's Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to the Iraq War compared to the 3 minutes and 13 seconds they dedicated to Anna Nicole
CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequnetly than it did Iraq, and that's less than MSNBC's 708%
And Splash News and Picture Agency bought the rites to footage of Anna Nicole's Death for $500,000
I agree her life was a tantalizing soap opera filled with tabloid headlines and red carpet photo opps, and its easier to talk about her life than it is to talk about the more depressing and dry topics like health care and the Iraq war. But is this really worth all that attention?
Yes this may be what people want, but the media has a responsibility to discuss issues that need to be discussed. We, as US citizens, are becoming less aware and responsible for what our country is doing. But the media has a responsibility to its viewers to provide them with information that will help them be more responsible.
I'm not saying that we should disregard Anna Nicole's death, but perhaps the media should balance the coverage and accept responsibility for the news.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Happy Singles Awareness Day
My friend greeted me this Valentines Day morning saying "Happy Singles Awareness Day!" I got a good laugh out of it, because it's the truth! The odds for women at BU are not in our favor. But how bad are those odds?
According to the US Census Bureau, 89.8 million Americans are single, which is 44% of all US residents above the age of 15. And of that 44%, 53% of those singles are women. That means there are about 86 single men to every 100 single women. So the odds overall are already against us.
Analysis of the east coast makes it sound even worse. Many colleges are located on the east coast, which on average, boast a female population of 58%. So many of the major college towns have a female majority, like Boston, which has 24,000 more single women than men.
Within the BU student body, 60% of the student body is female. And, as many of us know, in comparison to most universities around the country, BU has a larger male homosexual population, reducing the already slim number of available men.
Ok, enough number crunching. My conclusion -- BU women are S.O.L. But although the odds aren't in our favor for dating, we're part of a small percentage of the US population that earn a degree and go on to receive well paying jobs. So to all you BU single women, Happy Singles Awareness Day, even though you are far from alone in this situation.
According to the US Census Bureau, 89.8 million Americans are single, which is 44% of all US residents above the age of 15. And of that 44%, 53% of those singles are women. That means there are about 86 single men to every 100 single women. So the odds overall are already against us.
Analysis of the east coast makes it sound even worse. Many colleges are located on the east coast, which on average, boast a female population of 58%. So many of the major college towns have a female majority, like Boston, which has 24,000 more single women than men.
Within the BU student body, 60% of the student body is female. And, as many of us know, in comparison to most universities around the country, BU has a larger male homosexual population, reducing the already slim number of available men.
Ok, enough number crunching. My conclusion -- BU women are S.O.L. But although the odds aren't in our favor for dating, we're part of a small percentage of the US population that earn a degree and go on to receive well paying jobs. So to all you BU single women, Happy Singles Awareness Day, even though you are far from alone in this situation.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
A Big Price to Pay
According to Rolling Stones Magazine, the average price of concert tickets has gone up from $47 in 2002 to $57 in 2005, ticketmaster fees have gone up 6%, and attendance has dropped 6%.
Well I wonder why its dropped 6%? Maybe because we don't want to pay for high priced tickets. I mean just last week I was looking at tickets for the Justin Timberlake show, and they were outrageous. Retail for a good seat was $60, but of course they were gone, and on e-bay it was more like $100. I mean he makes great musical and all, but I'm not spending half a pay check on 1 concert. There will always be those die hard fans who are willing to pay, but if they want to keep packing shows at big venues, they've gotta re-think these prices.
Well I wonder why its dropped 6%? Maybe because we don't want to pay for high priced tickets. I mean just last week I was looking at tickets for the Justin Timberlake show, and they were outrageous. Retail for a good seat was $60, but of course they were gone, and on e-bay it was more like $100. I mean he makes great musical and all, but I'm not spending half a pay check on 1 concert. There will always be those die hard fans who are willing to pay, but if they want to keep packing shows at big venues, they've gotta re-think these prices.
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