Photography with the Left Eye

BP has given us 100 days of what might be the worst environmental disaster to hit the US. They are on the hook for billions of dollars of civil liability, and enough information has already come out to suggest that there are people at BP who are also criminally liable.

Some people are reacting by saying we should boycott BP. Taking the long view, virtually every oil company is guilty of a big disaster. Exxon had the Valdez, Union Oil Company (now owned by Chevron) the Santa Barbara Oil spill…the list goes on. The only effective boycott would be to boycott them all. A good start would be buy way less gas and other petroleum products. Get out of your car, onto mass transit. Buy a much more fuel efficient car. And (even though your electricity is likely not generated with petroleum products) make your home and business more energy efficient.

Jade

For those of you just joining me, I was in New Orleans this past week. Amazing city. See below for musings about the feel of the city.

(sorry for the blur)

So while the city is a rich cultural experience, it is somewhat behind the times from an environmental standpoint. For example, while there I had occasion to get take out food a number of times. Without fail (that means every single time), this food came in a giant styrofoam clamshell container. Sandwiches, burritos…everything! I have not experienced that anywhere else. The amount of waste was astounding…styrofoam, especially contaminated with food waste, essentially is useless for anything else. Other containers can be composted or recycled (or reused). Styrofoam is just landfill. After an environmental disaster the scale of Katrina, you’d think that they get it. Nope.

Abby

I was out riding today, and someone in a minivan did an incredibly stupid thing. I was in the left turn lane (from one two lane road to another, which is the only safe and legal way to turn). A minivan came up on my right and started to turn left as well (until I screamed at it at the top on my lungs). That was a collision waiting to happen. And guess who would have lost that one?

This is about two months after an actual accident, when I collided with a car because the driver was too intent on his parking spot to pay attention to downhill traffic (ie, me).

I’d not had any accidents in over twenty years of riding, and now almost two in two months.

Motorists, even if bicyclists to stupid things, give them some room. Don’t be impatient. You will feel a lot worse when you have maimed or killed someone. Actually, try to get out on a bike yourself…it might help you be a safer driver.

Remember that post about the workshop with Lois Greefield? This is an image I shot of Josie Garthwaite and Dudley Flores (both dancing with Printz Dance) at the workshop.

Honda completely re-did its hybrid Insight, and I had the opportunity to rent one a couple of weeks ago. Here are my thoughts about it.

First, let me give you some non-information about its fuel efficiency. If I believe the starting mileage as given to me by the rental company, I got about 25 MPG for the 100 or so miles I drove the car. That does not seem right, but I also noted the gas guage dropping rather more quickly than I expected. EDIT: I have done some more calculations, and, depending on what I assume about how much fuel was in in when I got the car, it looks like I got between 30 and 45 MPG. Most of the other reviews I have seen ascribe fuel efficiency close to the EPA rating, so I will leave it at that until I can get better information.

But this is probably a good time for a small art diversion. I did not shoot Tressa, who you see below, during this trip (I rather attempted to shoot this model, who flaked on me…). Not only did Tressa show up for our shoot and make beautiful images, she also got herself there in a first generation Honda Insight, so I thought it appropriate to show here here.

Tressa

The Insight looks quite a bit like the Toyota Prius, down to the split window in the rear hatchback. It is a little bit smaller, but that mostly shows up in two places–cargo and the back seats. The front seats are very comfortable, at least as much as the Prius. The back seats are comfortable, but don’t have as much leg room as the Prius, where I, at 6′1″, could sit comfortably behind a six footer in the front. Not so in the Insight. Also, Honda provides a full size spare, which eats into the room under the back storage area. The Prius actually has quite a bit of space hidden there…not so the Insight.

The fit and finish is very good. Everything is very solid, and in some ways feels more solid than the Prius. The ride is smooth, and pretty quiet. It is definitely more quiet, especially at freeway speeds, than the Prius.

Ok, time for a little more Tressa, in color.

The driving experience was a bit odd–even unsettling in some ways. Like the Prius, the Insight gasoline engine turns off at time, but only at a stop. It turns on only when the brake is released, and the small pause can be surprising if you are not prepared for it. I also found that braking was uneven–as I slowed down, the car seemed to go through several modes of braking, so it was not a smooth experience. At times it seemed that there was bit of acceleration. I suspect both of these are things that a driver would get used, but seem to be poor design decisions.

I did find the overall experience to be better than the Honda Civic hybrid. I generally found it to be more solid and have better acceleration than the Civic, and in some cases better than the Prius.

The Insight has a driving mode that is called “Eco mode,” and a regular mode. I did not perceive a difference in the way the car behaved in either mode, and also could not really see a difference in apparent fuel efficiency (but see my caveat at the top).

Would I buy one? It is a bit less expensive than the Prius, and if I was sure that the advertised fuel efficiency was correct, I would, with one caveat. That is, would I need to have six foot tall passengers in the back seat more than occasionally. If yes, stick with the Prius; if not, the Insight is a worthy buy.

the last Tressa of this post.

Nukes have been increasingly touted as a big part of the solution to energy supply in a climate constrained world. Because the alternatives are too expensive.

I don’t think that’s quite right. Nuclear power is subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars, and has been since the first nuclear power was built. Here’s some information that I found compelling (attributed to Rep. Henry Waxman, but I can’t find the source….sorry)

Waxman has previously described nuclear as “already part of the mix” but said he does not support additional subsidies for nuclear power. “The problems with nuclear power is that for nuclear power to be successful requires subsidization by the government through legislation that we already have in place … therefore, may be more costly than the technologies that we will likely see for use of other alternatives to reduce the carbon emissions,” Waxman said at an American Solar Energy Society event in February 2007.

Other information from the same (lost) source:

Companies have submitted 19 applications to the Energy Department for $122 billion in loan guarantees, and say $18.5 billion would cover no more than three projects.

Did I say BIG money?