NY city's Soda "Ban"

This post isn't quite environmental, but anyone in New York City or heading to NYC will be affected by the soda "ban".  I put ban in "quotes" because nowhere in the measure does it ban the sale or consumption of soda itself, just the size of the cup that is sold in.

According to the Centers of Disease and Prevention, about 1/3 of Americans are considered obese (obesity = body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 - calculate your BMI here). Obesity causes numerous health issues such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers just to name a few. Obesity is preventable and providing healthcare is costly. In the wake of America's fight against obesity, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to ban the sale of soda's that are 16 ounces or more is passed by the New York City's Board of Health, the first law of its kind in the country.

What does this law entail?

1) The law does not allow restaurants, fast-food joints, delis, movie theaters, sports stadiums, or food carts from selling sugary drinks in amounts larger than 16 ounces (~0.5 liters). Most places won't be allowed to stock cups that are larger than 16 ounces.

Picture taken from http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/brainwashing-starts-with-this-two-letter-word-7035/

2) It's not a ban on soda, it's a cap on the size of soda that you will be allowed to purchase. You are still allowed to drink as much soda you wish, the catch here is that you'll need to get a refill.

3) Fruit juices, beverages that are over 50% dairy-based, alcohol, and diet sodas won't be affected.

4) The law goes into effect in six months, March 12, 2013

I understand how people are against this measure because it oversteps our ability to make free choices for ourselves i.e. Big Brother is yanking our 16 ounce soda off the shelves! Who is to say that we can or cannot consume over 16 ounces of soda? On the other side of the argument, should we have to pay for other people's healthcare because so many are sick because of their inability to lose weight. And by putting a cap on how much soda one can purchase may deter them from drinking an excessive amount of sugar? I am going to remain politically neutral for this blog, so that argument is for you to decide and brew over.

More articles about the soda measure can be read here, here, and here.

*** Update 3/11/13

New York State Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling puts a block on the sugary drink ban in New York!!!! The soda ban would have went into effect tomorrow if passed.

Read more about it on CNN here

Composting Toilet Update: A Winning Way to Deal With Waste - ScienceInsider

An update on the first prize winner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge!! The winning toilet design goes to Michael Hoffmann and colleagues of Caltech in Pasadena. You can read about the details in this awesome article here: A Winning Way to Deal With Waste - ScienceInsider.

This state of the art toilet is equipped with an electrochemical reactor powered by solar energy. The waste is decomposed to make hydrogen gas that can be stored and reused to power the reactor.

Credit goes to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Science Insider

And a Youtube video mentioned in the article's comment section can be watched here:

Harnessing the motion of the ocean for electricity

I literally just heard this interview with Jason Busch, the executive director of the non-profit Oregon Wave Energy Trust, (OWET) on NPR's show Talk of the Nation.  He describes their wave apparatus which is the first to be built on commercial scale and placed in the shores of Oregon. I'm not doing much justice to the interview and you should listen to it. Marine energy capturing is a hot topic in renewable energy, but is not a new thought for the renewable energy field.

These two videos are brought to you by the Green Economy.

A quick summary of the first video:
The coastal region of Oregon is a prime area for a wave energy farm because it has good electrical infrastructure built by retired timber mills and has reliable wave energy potential. What Oregon Wave Energy Trust has done is to build a devise that converts wave motion into energy. OWET has likened it's harnessing apparatus to an upright submarine. A floating portion sits stationary on top of the water and moves up and down on the spar via a ballast.  The whole apparatus is fixed on a buoy keeping it upright. The relative motion caused by the wave can be converted into electricity using turbines or by good old fashioned magnet and coil.

This second video describes how they built the apparatus. The thing is huge and heavy! It is about 150 ft long, 40 ft in diameter, and weighs 220 tons. Wow!

Very cool technology!!

HowStuffWorks also has a list of other methods for harnessing wave energy that you can read about here.