Is it tajous? Yes it is! » environmental

Lard Is Good … Seriously

taj — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:56:36 +0000

Here is a lovely article by The Green Fooder James Temple (thanks to The Green Fooder in Colorado for pointing me to the article), extolling the virtues and busting misperceptions of lard.

Few food terms have become as loaded as lard, weighed down by the connotation of excess and enlisted as a prefix in the harshest obesity put-downs. But after a century of slander, the four-letter pork product is undergoing a reputation renaissance.

He gives a great rundown of the gorgeous dishes being made today with lard at some of the top restaurants in America, explains how it came to be so demonized (Proctor & Gamble and Crisco had a lot to do with it), and leaves us with some hope for a better world through better pigs.

Read James Temple’s Loving Lard on SFGate »

What’s the Walk Score in Your Neighborhood?

taj — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:45:35 +0000

See how walkable your neighborhood is with Walk Score.

Is Barack Obama’s “inflated tire” like “Jimmy Carter’s sweater?” Not even close.

taj — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:48:21 +0000

John McCain tried to make light of Barack Obama’s suggestion that to save money on gas we should inflate our tires. His mockery reminded me of the mocking of Jimmy Carter’s sweater. Ah, but…

After mocking Obama, McCain says inflate your tires on Anderson Cooper 360º

And I hear tell that the amount of savings in gas that would result from everyone inflating their tires properly would surpass the amount of oil we could recover from ANWR … and we wouldn’t have to wait 10 years for results; it’s instant!

Here are some more links from people smarter than me:

Department of Energy (DOE) fueleconomy.gov Web site

Report on vehicles with under-inflated tires (PDF) and the report methodology

View the slide presentation here.

See the interview data here.

Transportation Research Board special report on tires and fuel economy from 2006

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) did a study in 2007

Here’s what the California Energy Commission had to say about tires and fuel efficiency