Category Archive for Environmental

“A model recycling Google Maps mashup”

The Google Maps mashup we developed for the City of Torrance, “Where to Recycle,” is featured today on Google Maps Mania. (The permanent link is here.) This blog is the “unofficial” authority on everything Google Maps. The review briefly explains how our mashup works and ends with a very positive statement, “In my view, this kind of mashup should be present in every city website!” We’d like to see that happen, too. As I mentioned before, the key motivation for developing the…

Where to Recycle, A Google Maps Mashup

Over the last two months, we’ve been working on our first Google Map Mashup using the Google Maps API. Our client has given us permission to release the site to solicit feedback. The application is (of course) in “Beta.” Where to Recycle in Torrance, California allows city residents to easily find recycling centers based on the items they wish to recycle. The concept is simple: the easier it is to recycle, the more recycling will happen. We conducted a card sort…

We’re a Climate Neutral Company

Last month we announced that we reduced our carbon emissions by switching our electricity over to 90% wind power. Today, Ideum has taken the final steps and have become completely carbon neutral. The process was relatively simple and inexpensive. As I mentioned in the last post, switching over to wind power for our electricity costs us an additional $10 a month, and it required a phone call to our electricity provider. To figure out our complete carbon footprint we needed to look at…

Chaco Culture on the Solstice

It was an amazing afternoon at Chaco Culture National Historical Park. We saw two performances of Hopi dancers and took quite a few photographs. We talked with the two leaders of the group, Bertram Tsavadawa and Ruben Saufkie. They are from Second Mesa, one of a number Hopi Villages in eastern Arizona. Ruben told us about the importance and symbolism of the dances and their impression of Chaco Canyon, a place that they (and other Puebloan people) consider an ancestral homeland. He also…

Wind Power

As I mentioned in our last post, a review on the book The Weather Makers, Ideum has signed up with our electricity provider to receive 90% (the maximum) of our power from renewable wind. The Weather Makers points out that power plants, coal burning ones especially, contribute significantly to global warming. This was not news to us, as we’ve been involved in helping to stop the development of a coal burning power plant in Nevada. Here in New Mexico, we have…

The Weather Makers

I just finished reading Tim Flannery’s excellent book, The Weather Makers. For those of you not familiar with Tim Flannery he’s a scientist, conservationist, a writer, and is the director of the South Australian Museum. A very busy guy. I read one of his earlier books, the Future Eaters, a number of years ago while in Australia and really enjoyed it. The Weather Makers outlines the history of climate change focusing on many high-profile weather events such as powerful hurricanes in the…

NY Governor uses “Alternative Fuels” design

This week we were contacted by Governor Pataki’s office about using graphics Ideum developed with California Science Center for a major speech yesterday. The graphics were developed for an interactive exhibit called Alternative Fuels which is in California Science Center’s Transportation Gallery. The exhibit is one of four that we developed with the museum in 2004. Although personally we tend to gravitate to other side of the aisle, it is nice to see our graphics being used for a good cause.

Earth Observatory and NEO

I just returned from Washington D.C. where I was involved in a series of meetings at the Association of Science-Technology Centers. In one of the meetings, I had an opportunity to meet David Herring from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He helps coordinate NASA’s Earth Observatory website. Launched in 1998, the Earth Observatory has been one of the best spots on the Internet for learning about our planet’s dynamic systems. The site is nominated (again) for a Webby Award as Best…

Nevada coal plant stopped! (For now?)

Just last year we designed the Website for the Nevada Clean Energy Coalition. Today’s Reno Gazette-Journal is reporting Sempra to sell interest in Nevada power project. This development was not completely unexpected as we posted a story that Sempra Energy had halted its federally required environmental study earlier in the month. Sempra is selling the development rights which means another company could step in and continue development. The company spokesman Art Larson… “We are selling development rights to Granite Fox and for…

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