If you eat potatoes, in any form, you’ve probably come across a partially green one.

Most importantly, don’t eat the green part — it’s toxic enough that you may get very ill, and it can cause death in rare cases. Secondly, it’s very bitter, so you’re not going to enjoy it. French fries and potato chips are also affected, so avoid the green stuff there too.

The green coloration is chlorophyll. Like many other plants, chlorophyll is formed with enough exposure to certain types of light. Of course, many green leaves are part of a healthy diet, so it’s not the chlorophyll itself that is the problem.

Exposure to light can also cause another reaction that forms a substance called “solanine.” It is not related to chlorophyll, but is often formed at the same time. Solanine is toxic. 16 ounces of a fully green pototo could be enough to make a 100lb person sick.

The green chlorophyll is a good warning about the presence of solanine, but solanine can form when chlorophyll does not. So, even if the potato looks normal, the bitter taste will serve as a warning.

Cooking a green potato will not help, it’s still toxic. But, a cooked potato cannot turn green since the required enzyme mechanisms are destroyed in cooking.

Bottom line: if it’s green or bitter, skip it.

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Photo: Selva / Eden (cc)

Sources: Purdue, Elkhorn

Every home has things that should NOT go in the trash. Yet, many people don’t know what to do with them or even what some of these items are.

Some examples are:

• batteries
• compact fluorescent light bulbs
• paints and stains
• pesticides and herbicides
• fertilizers and poisons
• cleaners and disinfectants
• car fluids
• medicines and prescription drugs

The main concern is that when many of these hazardous materials make it to landfills, they will eventually leech into our water supply and have potentially dangerous consequences.

Many large retailers such as Lowe’s, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Sam’s Club, Whole Foods and many others will accept certain types of batteries, Ni-Cad and Car Batteries being the most popular types accepted. Some retailers, like Home Depot and Lowe’s, will also accept compact fluorescent light bulbs.

For most other hazardous materials, you’ll likely need to go to your city’s drop off depot. Sometimes this service is paid for by your taxes, other cities charge a usage fee depending on what you’re dropping off.

A great site to help you find a nearby retailer or city depot to recycle or safely dispose of some of these items is earth911.com. You tell it what hazardous material you have and where you are, it will try to tell you the nearest place you can take it. I got really good results for everything I tried.

For medicines, check out this previous post: How to Dispose of Medicine.

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Sources: Oregon Live, Earth 911, City of Toronto

You should regularly check your medicine cabinet for expired drugs. Because, if you’re like me, it’s probably more like a time-capsule than a medicine cabinet. Yesterday, my wife excavated a teeth whitening kit of mine that expired almost 5 years ago.

When you come across unused or expired medication, you have two options: keep it or get rid of it. There is some debate about the safety and effectiveness of expired medication, but there is no debate about the risk to pets and children when they get into unused medication. Prescription medication can be extremely dangerous, in fact: the second leading cause of death in 35-54 year olds is accidental overdose.

The best way to get rid of old medication is to give it to an organization that can properly dispose of it.

Your local police department may have take back programs where you can return drugs and they will send them away to be discarded. Some local drug stores have take back programs and others, such as Walgreens, sell special envelopes that can be used to mail your drugs to a proper disposal facility.

If professional disposal is not available to you, the next option is to discard the drugs in your own trash. The FDA, and other experts, recommend putting the discarded drugs in a small Ziploc bag and mixing item with undesirable waste such as coffee grounds or kitty litter. This reduces the chance of pets and children finding them or being interested in them if they do find them.

The FDA also maintains a small list of medications that you can flush down the toilet, because they could be potentially dangerous to pets or children if found in the trash. Some of the common ones include demerol, percocet, oxycontin and morphine.

Although flushing these drugs is better than putting them in the trash, sending the drugs away for proper disposal is always the best option. Professional disposal reduces the probability that the drugs will end up in the water supply that we, and many other species, rely on.

You may also want to read this post: Most Medication is Still Good After the Expiration Date

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Photo: Sparktography (cc)

Sources: FDA, Tylenol.com, Smarxt Disposal, Walgreens.com, Sharps

In most cars, the air conditioner’s compressor is powered by a drive belt on the engine. When the air conditioner is activated, the compressor adds resistance to your engine. That extra resistance means your engine requires more fuel to turn at the same speed.

In other words, using your air conditioner burns more gas than not using it. Modern cars have very efficient air conditioners, but this truth still stands.

On a hot summer day, you have to keep cool. Does that mean it’s more fuel efficient to drive with your windows down?

Yes and no.

The Society of Automotive Engineers performed a study that examined this question in detail. They performed wind tunnel and track experiments comparing a car and an SUV. With the windows down, the car was half as efficient at 50 mph (80 km/h) than the SUV’s at 30 mph (50 km/h). It’s clear that driving the car with windows down has a dramatic effect on fuel economy, but it affected the SUV even more, especially when a 10 mph (16 km/h) crosswind was added in the wind tunnel.

Consumer Reports found that below 40 mph (65 km/h), drivers are better off with their windows down and air conditioner off.

Jason Toews from GasBuddy.com found at speeds above 45 mph (70 km/h), “wind drag becomes an issue.” He says, “Drive at speeds over 55 mph with windows down and you’ll decrease fuel economy by up to 20 percent or greater.”

Myth Busters has also looked at this issue on a couple occasions. The first time around, their methodology was flawed, so they tried it a second time. The second time, they came to the same conclusion as Consumer Reports and GasBuddy, that windows down are more efficient than running the air conditioner at speeds less than 45-55 mph (70-90 km/h) and the drag at higher speeds makes the air conditioner the more efficient option.

Of course, results vary by vehicle.

There are many factors other than windows and air conditioning that affect fuel economy: drive train, power-train, body aerodynamics and tire rolling resistance. If you want to know exactly how it affects your car, you might try experimenting for yourself. Some cars have a driver information center that displays fuel economy, otherwise you could order an after market product, such as CarChip Pro ($75-$85), which may help you get that data. If you’re interested, some of these are explored in more detail in another post, The Ideal Vehicle Speed for Best Fuel Economy.

If it’s hot outside, you should probably start with your windows down anyway. This gives your air conditioner a bit of a break by clearing the extremely hot air out of the car first.

Do prefer windows down or the air conditioner on?

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Sources: SAE (PDF), MythBusters (Ep 22, Ep 38), Edmunds, Bankrate, Consumer Reports, Missouri Gov

Photo: Tomás Fano (cc)

There is a belief that it takes more energy to turn a light bulb on than it does to leave it running. That is true.

But, in some cases it’s still more energy efficient to turn the lights off when you leave the room.

That’s because the spike of additional electricity that is used to turn on a light bulb, is very short lived. That extra energy varies depending on the type of light bulb.

For most bulb types, the extra energy is equivalent to less than one second of energy that is consumed while the light is on. That means, you’d have to leave the room and return within one second to save energy by leaving the light turned on.

The one exception is fluorescent tubes (not compact fluorescents), they require a lot more energy to turn on than they consume while running normally.

Depending on the source of the information, fluorescents use energy equivalent to 5 to 24 seconds of regular use, just to power up. Therefore, if you use fluorescent tubes, there would be times when it would be more efficient to leave them on than turn them off.

If you have a large room that is lit with fluorescent tubes and you were going to leave the room for a few minutes or less, it would be more efficient to leave them on instead of turning them off and then back on when you return. But, if you’re leaving for more than that, you should shut them off.

That said, turning lights on and off does cause wear and tear on the bulbs. LED “bulbs”, which are now available at most hardware stores, are most resilient to this type of wear and tear.

Incandescent bulbs are extremely cheap, so the cost of replacing these bulbs isn’t an important consideration, although the environmental impact may be. But, it is important to consider this wear and tear for more expensive bulbs such as compact fluorescents. It is for this reason that the EPA recommends that compact fluorescent lights are used in areas where they will usually be turned on for at least 15 minutes at a time. This will contribute to bulb lifespan.

Although I used a couple other sources for this post, Mythbusters did some great experiments on this subject and I’ve embedded the video if you’d like to watch it.

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Sources: Mythbusters, EPA, EnergyStar (PDF)

Although they have a limited history in America, foreign car manufacturers sell many diesel models in Europe.

Diesel engines are generally very efficient and that behind their new found demand. As diesel becomes more popular, you will likely see more diesel pumps.

This is good if you have a diesel car, potentially bad if you don’t. Diesel pumps present a slight risk to your standard gasoline vehicle — you do not want to put diesel fuel in a car that uses standard unleaded fuel.

Standard engines use spark plugs to burn the fuel, diesel engines use pressure and heat to cause a reaction in diesel fuel. That means standard engines will not burn diesel fuel. If you inadvertently put diesel in an unleaded car, the engine will stop very quickly. It’s not usually a total loss, the fuel system will have to be cleaned, filters will need to be changed and the whole process can cost as much as $600.

But, there is an easy way to avoid this costly mistake. First, diesel fuel dispensers are usually clearly marked with text and with a special color handle (the color varies by station).

Second, the nozzle on the end of a diesel fuel pump is slightly larger than a standard fuel nozzle. That means it won’t fit in your car’s gas hole, at least not that way you’re used to a pump nozzle fitting. If you notice that the nozzle isn’t going as far in as it usually does, check the pump, you might be holding a diesel trigger.

This same principle was used in the 80s when we transitioned from leaded to unleaded fuel. Leaded fuel nozzles wouldn’t not fit in unleaded gas holes.

Checkout some other gas related Broken Secrets:

• The gas arrow
• Locking the gas pump trigger (be careful)

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

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Sources: Answer Bag, WTSP, Dixon Nozzles (PDF)

Photo: teachernz (cc)

I’ve never been that guy with the greenest lawn, so I asked my lawn specialist friend Mike how to make my lawn greener.

He told me the most important factor was how short I cut it. He said, “the longer you leave it, the better. Set your mower on its highest setting.” I was hesitant because I always cut my grass short and I liked the way that looked.

But, longer grass traps more moisture and reduces the sunlight that gets to the roots, which can burn the grass and dry it out.

Grass reacts to the sun like your skin does. Too much sun without protection will burn it. When you have/had a full head of hair, you don’t put sunscreen on top of your head because your hair protects your skin. The same goes for long grass, it provides shade for the roots and soil.

Long grass also develops a deeper root system which makes the grass more fit for dry and less fertile soil.

I followed Mike’s advice and my grass still looks neatly trimmed, it’s also the greenest grass I’ve ever had. But, there are other reasons why your grass turns brown or yellow.

Water is an important element in healthy grass. Lawns typically need a minimum of one inch of water per week to stay green, although you will need more when it’s hot, sunny, dry and/or windy. You’ll need less when it’s cool, damp and cloudy.

Soil and other environmental factors, such as pets, can also steal the green from your lawn. If you cut your grass long and water frequently, but still have yellow lawn, you should have your soil tested for nutrient deficiencies and fertilize accordingly.

Otherwise, regular fertilizing in early and late spring along with early and late fall are often a good way to maintain a healthy lawn.

If you do nothing else, try setting your mower on its highest setting. I bet it will make as big a difference for you as it has for me and it might even save some water since you can water a bit less.

Check out some other lawn related broken secrets:

• Start Your Lawn Mower in One Pull
• How Baseball Parks Stripe Their Grass

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

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Photo: aussiegall (cc)

Sources: All About Lawns (watering, cutting), Scott’s (Fertilizing)

Indoor plants are really important. There are chemicals in and on almost everything you buy. If your air is not replenished with fresh air, it can be mildly toxic. But, with the right mix of plants, your air can be cleaned and oxygenated around the clock.

With as little as these three plants, you can have this perfect mix:

• Areca palm – (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)
• Snake plant or mother-in-law’s tongue – (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Laurentii’)
• Golden pothos or Devil’s ivy – (Scindapsus aures or Epipremnum aureum)

The “Areca Palm” removes CO2 and converts it into oxygen during the day. The “Snake Plant” converts CO2 into oxygen at night. The “Golden pothos” removes formaldehyde and other chemicals from your air.

Using these plants has shown significant oxygen level improvements in real world situations. Having these plants in your home can increase blood oxygen levels by 1% in 10 hours. They can reduce headaches, eye irritation, asthma and other respiratory problems.

These three plants are just a few of the many plants that are considered Air Filtering Plants. NASA has identified a number of similar plants in it’s Clean Air Study — an attempt to understand natural ways to purify air in closed spaces, on earth and beyond.

Read about the other plants or watch Kamal Meattle’s talk at TED for more info.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

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Photo: Leto A (cc)

Sources: TED, Air Filtering Plants

The ceiling of your upper floor also has the most insulation of any place in your home. It’s there because hot air rises — in the winter, you don’t want to lose that heat. It’s the same reason you put a hat on your head in the winter.

In the summer, that thick insulation in your attic is doing the same thing it does in the winter, trapping that heat on your upper floor. If you have a central heating/cooling system, it should suck hot air from the upper floor and mix it with cooler air. But, it’s not always running and it can’t always keep up with the hot air that is produced inside your home, from people, electronics and appliances.

A good solution is to run the ceiling exhaust fan in a central bathroom on the upper floor during the hottest hours of the day. To help, you can get an automatic timer control light switch; these can be used to run the fan and have it automatically shutoff after a certain amount of time — this might also be useful after somebody uses the toilet.

In some regions, it is even part of the building code that an on/off switch for the upper floor hallway bathroom fan is placed next to the thermostat on the main floor. It’s there so you can turn on the exhaust fan when you turn on the air conditioner (there is also a switch in the bathroom to control it from there). This is not a widespread building code, but it’s worth having a look beside your thermostat. If you’ve got a light switch there that doesn’t do anything, try it again and listen for the hallway fan.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

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Sources: MSU, About.com

Farmers cannot freely grow hemp in the US, but many companies import hemp products for resale, mostly from Canada and the UK.

The problem is that hemp is from the same plant family (genus) as marijuana. But hemp is not a drug, it is a raw material that is used much like cotton. We all know that cotton is great, we use it for making: t-shirts, socks, denim for blue-jeans, fishnets, coffee filters, paper and many other things. Considering everything we use it for, it’s a miracle plant.

But, cotton has some limitations. It can only be grown in areas that get a lot of sunshine, have consistent rainfall and long frost-free periods. Cotton also requires a lot of pesticides: 50% of the world’s pesticides are sprayed on cotton.

Imagine a plant with all the benefits of cotton, but it has even stronger fibers, could be grown anywhere in the country and doesn’t require pesticides or herbicides.

That plant is called hemp.

At the risk of sounding like a huge hippie, hemp is a perfect plant. Frankly, I am not a hippie — I only own one hemp product: hemp protein powder.

Hemp as a food source is one example of why it’s so perfect. The seeds contain all of the essential fatty acids and essential amino acids required for a human to be healthy. It also contains a lot of fiber, another essential part of the human diet.

When used as a textile, hemp is stronger and more mildew resistant than cotton. For that reason, hemp is an excellent material for making canvas boat sails, and it was used for that exact purpose by Christopher Columbus.

In fact, the word “canvas” actually comes from the 13th century Anglo-French word for “cannabis” — the plant family that it stems from.

In 1942, the US government made a short film called Hemp for Victory, promoting hemp growth to farmers. You see, during World War II, hemp was used for military uniforms, canvas, rope and other necessities.

Some great Americans also grew hemp for commerical purposes. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp on their farms. In fact, the Declaration of Independence was originally written on hemp paper (the final copy was written on parchment).

Benjamin Franklin started a paper mill that made paper exclusively from hemp. Henry Ford grew hemp on his estate, combining it with some other substances to create car bodies and fuel for vehicles. He was way ahead of his time since biofuels are now a hot topic for reducing our dependence on oil. Even modern diesel engines of today can run on hemp seed oil.

Then, in 1948, marijuana became a restricted substance. Although hemp is from the same plant family  as marijuana, congress exempted industrial hemp growers from this law. I guess they didn’t see a reason to lock up one family member, just because the other family member could cause some trouble. However, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped all cannabis together and the DEA continues to do so today.

It’s not known for sure why hemp was lumped together with cannabis, since you can’t get “high” from hemp. But, according to the 1985 book, The Emporer Wears No Clothes, the author Jack Herer states that DuPont played a key role in the criminalization of hemp. By stopping the growth of hemp, DuPont would have a monopoly on producing plastic and paper under their recently patented processes that used coal, oil and wood pulp respectively.

Today, there are a small number of states that have laws allowing restricted growth of hemp, mostly by government and educational institutions for research purposes. However, because federal laws prohibit hemp growth, they must receive permission from the DEA to do so.

Other countries that produce hemp include: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Great Britain, France, Russia, Spain and about 22 other countries.

I didn’t know much about hemp until researching this article, and I don’t think most other people know much about it either. Now that I understand its benefits, I hope the federal government catches up with most other developed nations and legalizes hemp production. Given the health, environmental and economic benefits of hemp, it hurts the people, our planet and our economy by restricting it.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

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Sources: Wikipedia (Hemp, Cannabis, History of Cannabis), NAIHC

New York has had palm trees in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden since the 1980s. Chicago has palms at the beach on Lake Michigan.

Although we closely associate palms trees with warm climates, there are a some palm species that can survive freezing winters.

Any variety of palm that can survive colder geographies that are not usually considered palm regions, are called “hardy palms.” Many of them are native to higher elevations in Asia and survive freezing weather with little or no damage.

The hardiest of the hardy palms is the Chusan Palm, which can been found in areas of England, Canada and Japan. It can survive winters as cold as -18 °F (-27.5 °C). There is also the Mediterranean Fan Palm, which is the only palm native to southern Europe. It’s hardy to 10.4 °F (-12 °C).

Another popular cold climate palm is the Needle Palm, it’s found in places such as New York, New England, the Ohio Valley and Midwest areas with hot summers. It will tolerate winters as cold as -9.3 °F (-23 °C).

If you’ve always dreamed of having a plam tree in your garden but thought your winters were too cold, may your dreams now come true.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

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Sources: Wikipedia, WGN, Sun Palm Trees

Photo: c. hall (cc)

If you reset this memory then you can keep printing until the cartridge is actually empty. Depending on the brand and model of cartridge, this reset is actually really easy. If you look above the small circuit board on the cartridge, there is sometimes a pinhole reset button, kind of like the paperclip eject hole on most cd rom drives.

Check out the following video to see a demonstration.

I should also note that not all cartridges can be reset in this way. Here are a couple of sites that show other methods of resetting some cartridges.

• HP
• Canon
• Epson

Doing a cartridge reset is also useful if you refill your own cartridges, since the cartridge may report that it’s empty even after you refill it.

I should also mention that laser printers have become extremely cheap. I rarely print in color, so a black and white laser printer is very cost effective for me. When I need to print photos, there are lots of drug stores or department stores that do a great job for a low price. If I need to print color documents, there are many great places to get that done at a reasonable price too. With a $100 laser printer, you’re often able to print thousands of pages of text on the toner cartridge that is included.

Big thanks to Derek Santos for sending the video and inspiring this post.

Broken Secrets | Written By: Chad Upton

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]]> http://brokensecrets.com/2010/04/16/extend-the-life-of-printer-ink-cartridges/feed/ 9 Broken Secrets http://brokensecrets.com/2010/04/06/increase-shower-pressure/ http://brokensecrets.com/2010/04/06/increase-shower-pressure/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:31:19 +0000 Chad Upton http://brokensecrets.com/?p=1947 ]]> There is nothing worse than a low pressure shower. Actually, 1000AwesomeThings said it best, “Not much affects your day every day as much as a good shower.”

In a lot of cases, there is something you can do about it. For example, if a nearby faucet has good pressure then you can probably improve your shower pressure in about 5 minutes.

Modern shower heads contain a flow restriction plate to decrease the amount of water you consume, which saves you money and ensures the city can produce enough clean water for everyone. It’s basically a rubber or Teflon disc that has a small hole in it. The smaller the hole, the less water can travel through it and onto your head. If you want to know what that restrictor looks like, click here to see a 10 pack of them on amazon (great if you own a lot of showers and have a problem with too much pressure).

Sometimes, these flow restrictor get clogged with debris, which reduces the flow further. Other times, they’re too small for your home’s water pressure. In either case, you can remove the restrictor, clean it and put it back in. If it’s not dirty then it may be too restrictive for your water pressure. If that’s the case, you can leave it out entirely or drill the hole so it is slightly larger.

If you want to try it, you’ll need a few things:

1. Wrench
2. Teflon Tape (plumbing department)
3. Paperclip

Here are the steps to remove and replace the shower head:

Use the wrench to thread the shower head off the support pipe that comes out of the wall. You should see two flat sections where the shower head connects to the  support pipe, the wrench should be used to grip those flat sections and turn. Some plastic shower heads will have a gripped collar that you can probably turn by hand.

When you take the shower head off, look into the back of it (where the water flows in). You should see a small disc, usually white, black or red and made of rubber or Teflon (the smooth plastic that is on the bottom corners of your computer mouse). This is the flow restrictor disc. In most cases, it will be the only thing you can see that is removable.

There is a chance that you don’t have one, especially if the shower head is fairly old… in that case, jump to the instructions for re-attaching the shower head (there is one step you will miss if you’ve never done this before).

If you followed my advice in another post and ordered a $2 set of dental tools, then use the dental pick to remove the flow restrictor disc. If you don’t have a pick, then use something similar like a paperclip or needle nose pliers.

Once you have removed the disc, inspect it. If there is any debris blocking the hole(s) then clean it. Otherwise, you might want to try the head without the restrictor to check the pressure. If it is more than enough pressure, you may want to drill the holes larger in the restrictor and place it back in the shower head to slightly increase the water flow. If you put the disc back in, put it in the way you found it.

Now, look at the thread on the support pipe. It probably has some Teflon tape on it (usually white), remove it by finding the end and unwrapping, or use a steal brush to get it off. Now, wrap the support pipe thread with new Teflon tape. Avoid covering the first couple threads and do 3-6 wraps (depending on the thickness of your tape). Teflon tape will give the connection a tight seal so it doesn’t leak. You can get Teflon tape at any hardware store and even some department stores that have a small plumbing section.

Now, put the shower head back on and tighten it (same as it was when you loosened it). Then try running the water slowly, if it’s leaking at the thread then you didn’t tighten the head all the way or you didn’t use enough Teflon tape — try those two steps again.

If it’s not leaking then you should have lots of water pressure. Keep in mind that your water consumption will increase and plumbing should only be attempted by capable people.

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While Chicago dyes the river green, many others will be dyeing their beer.

If you’re going to dye your own beer, pick a lighter colored beer for best color results. Because lighter lagers, pilseners and ales are a yellowish color, mixing blue food coloring will give you a rich dark green color — the color of a real shamrock. Using green food coloring will work too, but you’ll get a much lighter shade of green.

This is actually quite fitting since St. Patrick’s color was actually blue.

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Sources: DIY Life

If you can’t find a green shirt, go with a blue one instead. According to historians, blue was the original color associated with Saint Patrick. In fact, the 1912 dress code for Lord Chamberlain specified that the household of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland should wear St. Patrick’s blue.

The 1924 Irish Olympic football team wore St Patrick’s blue and the Northern Ireland team (known then as the “Ireland association football team”) wore St. Patrick’s blue jerseys from 1882 until 1931, when they switched to green.

Let me tell you why…

Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the fifth century. Although little is known about his early life, we know that he was kidnapped by Irish Raiders at age 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He said that God talked to him in a dream, telling him to flee from captivity and head for the coast where he could board a ship and return to Britain.

He did exactly that and upon returning to Britain, he studied to be a priest. He said he was called back to Ireland on a mission where he went as a bishop in the year 432. Apparently, he was very good at converting royalty, aristocracy and the poor. He was known for using the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity (the father, the son and the Holy Spirit) and the shamrock became his symbol.

People later wore shamrocks on their lapels during St. Patrick’s day. On St. Patrick’s day in 1798, Irish soldiers wore full green uniforms to make a political statement in support of the Society of United Irishmen — a political organization aimed at ending British rule over Ireland. Green became a symbol of rebellion and the famous ballad “The Wearing of the Green” was sung in the streets.

Because of this event, green eventually became the official color of St. Patrick’s day. It celebrated freedom from British rule and the shamrock paid tribute to St. Patrick himself.

St. Patrick’s day is a public holiday in Ireland, although it is widely celebrated in countries with large numbers of Irish descendants. It started as a feast day in the 1600s, a break during the fasting period of lent. We continue to indulge today, although that mostly involves green beer.

For this reason, I think the day after St. Patrick’s day would also make a good public holiday.

Related: Use Blue Food Coloring to Make Green Beer

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Source: History.com, St Patrick’s Blue, The Wearing of the Green, St Patrick’s Day

Photo by Dave Wallick

I was there in 1993 on a big family road trip and it was amazing. A building of this size seems like it should have a massive heating system to stay comfortable during winter months. But, the architects had a much more creative solution in mind.

The mall entrances do have heaters between the double doors for comfort, but the common areas are heated in three other ways:

• Solar Radiation (Skylights)
• Lighting Fixture Heat
• People

Yes, the skylights let in light which is converted into heat (think of it like a giant green house). The lighting fixtures give off heat, which is typically considered waste energy, but is an important part of heating the building. The people inside generate a lot of heat too. In fact, the guests generate enough heat during peak winter hours that the air conditioning system runs full blast to keep the mall comfortable.

Considering the age of this mall, this is a forward thinking concept — it reduces their need for energy, which saves money and keeps our valuable energy resources available for making lattes and watching The View.

Another little known (and ironic) fact: the Mall of America is owned and operated by Canadians.  The Ghermezian family also owns West Edmonton Mall, which is 30% larger than Mall of America, sporting the world’s largest indoor water park; an ice rink; 800+ stores; an aquarium and the world’s largest indoor amusement park with 24 rides, including the largest indoor roller coaster. A planned expansion to Mall of America will make it larger than West Edmonton Mall.

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Sources: Mall of America, West Edmonton Mall

Photo: Dave Wallick (creative commons)

As our economy tightens its belt and the value of our natural resources strengthens, there is an increasing focus on reducing consumption while reusing and recycling where possible. The Vancouver games were no exception and they hold the title of the greenest Olympics to date.

The Vancouver medals range in weight from 500 to 576 grams. In a 30 part process that included 9 strikings, 1014 medals were created for the games. Part of the metal used was sourced from cathode ray tubes from old TVs and circuit boards from other discarded electronics. In fact, 6.8 metric tonnes of circuit boards were used.

The story behind the medals is almost as amazing as some of the athlete’s performances. If you’d like to see the story, you can watch it here.

Regardless of whether you believe in global warming or not, there is no doubt that our planet’s resources are endangered. That fact is one of the driving forces in the constantly increasing price of precious metals, oil, gas and other types of energy. Doing your part to reduce, reuse and recycle is good for the planet and will help your pocket book now and in the future.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton

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Sources: Teck Resources, Scientific American

Photo: Torben Bjørn Hansen

A lot of factors affect the fuel economy of your car. Some of them don’t vary much with speed, such as the resistance of the engine pumps and accessories. Other factors, like the size of the frontal area and the drag coefficient create increasing resistance with speed.

The faster you drive, the more energy is needed to overcome the aerodynamic resistance of the car. Up to 40 mph, that isn’t really even a factor. So, if you’re driving a box then your best fuel economy is likely closer to 40 mph than 50. If you’re driving a teardrop shaped eco-car, then you’re likely closer to 60 mph. Of course, engine size and other factors are involved too.

If you’re in a hurry, then going faster than 60 mph (95 km/h), presents new problems. Getting above this speed, your transmission is starting to run out of gears, so the engine has to keep turning faster and faster without getting any mechanical advantage from the transmission — that burns a lot of extra fuel. This also hurts your ability to overcome the exponentially increasing resistance — your engine can only turn so fast. But, if you’re in a small car then your fuel economy at 70 mph is likely still better than a large SUV traveling 60 mph.

If your car has a fuel economy display, be sure to take notice at many different speeds to find the best speed for your car. If your car does not have a fuel economy display and you do a lot of driving then it might be worth getting a device that will read your vehicle data and calculate fuel economy accurately. Try: Car Chip Pro ($75-85) or ScanGuage II ($160).

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton

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Sources: ThinkQuest, How Stuff Works

It doesn’t shave as close as a straight blade or cartridge razor, but it does shave time off my morning routine. It’s an easy way to catch up when I’m running behind or anxious to get working earlier.

I’ve had the same electric razor for about 10 years. I got it as a gift and it has worked really well, but its ability to hold a charge has degraded significantly since it was new. When it was new, I could travel for a week and not recharge it. Recently, it has required a charge after every use.

A couple weeks ago, it failed to run for more than a few seconds. I charged it again, and had the same result.

The internal rechargeable battery had finally failed.

I checked with the manufacturer’s service department and they don’t service my model anymore, but they said a battery replacement service usually costs $60-80 (plus the cost to ship it to them). When a good electric razor starts at $70 (and goes much higher), they’re really telling you to get a new one.

The electric razor is assembled with tamper-proof screws, so the average person can’t open it. They do that because they’re hiding a very big secret inside.

Of course I own a set of tamper-proof screwdrivers. If you haven’t read it already, you should read my earlier post about acquiring a set of your own (click here).

It took me less than one minute to open the electric razor and discover: the rechargeable batteries inside are AA size! I easily replaced them with new rechargeable batteries and saved a bunch of money.

So, if you’ve got a rechargeable product, be sure to open it up and see if you can easily replace the batteries before you buy a new one or have it serviced.

When you get rid of your old batteries, never throw them in the trash — the garbage truck crushes them, then in the landfill the battery leaks into the water table and ruins our water supply. It’s easy to recycle them properly, Best Buy and Whole Foods both have free battery recycling containers in many of their stores. I have a small box of dead batteries that I keep beside my box of new batteries and when it gets full I drop it off at one of these stores.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton

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It seems like everything is made from plastic now. I did a bit of dumpster diving tonight to find out how much. I went through my recycling bin looking for things with the recycling symbol on them — I guess that probably doesn’t really count as “dumpster diving.” These numbers only appear inside the recycling symbol on plastic products.

Plastic is a petroleum product, meaning the raw material used to create plastic is oil. It’s no secret that oil is one of the most in-demand natural resources and for a variety of reasons oil prices have sharply increased over the past 10 years. It’s not just the fuel companies who have been hit hard by the increasing price of oil, but also plastic manufacturers. Both of these groups have to pass those increased costs on to their customers, and those businesses pass it on to their customers. Somewhere down the line, that customer is you and you’ve obviously noticed at the gas pump.

But, you may not have noticed the increase on plastic prices, at least not directly. Depending on where you live, you may have noticed a big or small push for you to use (or buy) reusable grocery bags. Of course these are great for the environment, but they also save the grocery store a lot of money on plastic bags, which have become significantly more expensive in the past few years. In some places, you even have to pay extra if you want plastic bags.

Oil is a non-renewable resource, once we run out that’s it — we’re out. Experts say we are getting closer and closer to the end of the crude supply and some of our oil now comes from alternative oil supplies, which are more costly and more time consuming to extract and refine.

Therefore, it is extremely important to recycle plastic. It costs money to recycle, but it helps reduce the price of plastic by minimizing the demand for and price of oil. Additionally, plastic is not something we want in our landfills since it does not decompose the way many other things do.

Plastic is very versatile, it can be made into a fabric like material for nylon windbreakers or grocery bags. It can also be a very hard material for outdoor furniture and decking, not to mention the products that fall between these soft and hard extremes. This diversity comes from the variety of plastic polymers that have been developed with these different properties.

The number inside the recycling symbol indicates the type of plastic polymer the item is made from. Because it is so important to recycle plastic, you’ll find this symbol and number on almost everything made out of plastic. The manufacturers want you to recycle because it helps them keep their costs down and our landfills clear of plastic.

Most of the time, you’ll also see an acronym below the symbol that matches the number. The cool thing is, in addition to the type of plastic, it will actually indicate if it is made from recycled plastic. You’ll see in this table, the plastic numbers and their corresponding names and acronyms. If these acronyms are preceded by the letter “P”, that indicates it is made from recycled plastic of that type.

From my dumpster session I noticed that all of the food containers were either PETE or PP and some other household products were HDPE.

Not everyone recycles, which is unfortunate. Most cities have a recycling program, even if you have to collect your things and drop them off at a nearby depot. Check with your city, they usually indicate which types of plastic they will recycle (many places only take 1 and 2).

Even if you don’t care about the planet, hopefully you care about your wallet. Please recycle as much as possible.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton

available on kindle

Sources: Resin Codes, Plastics

I went to my local supermarket yesterday to pickup a few things. Being Super Bowl Sunday, it was pretty much the worst day to go grocery shopping. Normally, I would just go another day but I needed some things for later in the day (like most other people there I’m sure).

All the cart bumping and line shoving could have been avoided if I just went early in the morning or late the night before. That’s what I usually do — try to go shopping around 8pm-9pm, that includes any stores that are open late (ex. Target). Many stores are now until 10pm and some are open 24 hours. I try to take advantage of these hours since I usually get the store to myself. It actually makes shopping peaceful and efficient.

You’re never bumping carts with anyone or waiting for them to pick the perfect type of soup so they can move their cart and you can get past. If you need help from a store employee, they’re usually available and easy to spot since there’s nobody else in the store.

Perhaps the two best parts of shopping off-peak: there are rarely lineups at the checkout, which is a big time saver itself. You also get a prime parking spot, really close to the door, which is particularly nice in the winter.

If you’ve never been an off-peak shopper, you are probably starting to see the benefits. But, there are some of disadvantages too. For example, the pharmacy, salad bar and meat counter are often closed after 7pm.

If you’re lucky, the night shift employees have the radio turned up so you can sing along and toss products into your cart from three point distance. If you’re unlucky, the night shift employees have brought their own music.

There are also times when you can’t avoid a busy grocery store and that why it’s awesome when the guy with a full cart of groceries lets you go ahead because you’re only buying one thing.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton | follow me on twitter

Photo by: timmenzies (Creative Commons)

They are a nearly perfect fruit. They taste great. They’re fairly inexpensive. They have their own protective skin and they contain many nutrients such as: vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

But, if I had to register a complaint about bananas, it would be their shelf life. Keeping them perfectly ripe is a fine art — one worth mastering.

The first trick is something my wife, Kristen, taught me: don’t buy all your bananas from the same bunch! Pick a couple green ones and a couple that are ripe/near ripe. Then you have some you can eat right away and others that will be ripe when you’re ready for them.

The interesting part is that those two bunches are likely the same age. You assume the less ripe ones are newer, but the food distributors control ripeness. They have large, air tight banana ripening vaults that give them very precise control over banana ripening. They’re usually divided into multiple sections, so bananas can be kept at different stages of ripeness. If they’re selling a lot of bananas, they can accelerate the ripening so they will be ripe when they arrive at the store. If sales are slow, they can slow ripening to avoid waste.

How do they do that?

Ethylene gas is used to induce ripening. In fact, bananas ripen themselves by producing ethylene and that’s why adding more ethylene to the air will speed banana ripening further. It’s really that simple.

To accelerate ripening at home, you just need ethylene gas. Luckily, tomatoes, apples, pears and bananas all produce it at an increasing rate as they ripen. If you put an apple or tomato in a bag with bananas, that will speed the ripening. Because bananas produce it, you can place the bananas in a bag to trap the gas and ripen them faster.

To slow ripening, you need to remove ethylene. You can’t remove ethylene completely, but you can slow its reaction by putting ripe bananas in the fridge. The skin of the banana will turn brown, which is normal, and the fruit inside is still good. You can keep bananas in the fridge for a couple weeks and they may not look good, but they still taste great. Do not put unripe bananas in the fridge, it will impede the early stages of ripening and spoil the fruit.

Some retailers also have “un-gassed” bananas; they aren’t as vivid a yellow color as the gassed bananas and are usually a mix between green and a muted yellow color, but the flavor of un-gassed bananas is generally better.

If you haven’t read the post on peeling a banana without the strings, click here to check it out.

Go bananas and follow me on twitter.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton

[available on Kindle]

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Sources: Ripening, Banana, Raw Food Health

I have a lot of great memories from those times and spending time in my grandmother’s vegetable garden is one of my favorites. She had a huge backyard, almost half of it was a garden.

I didn’t actually like vegetables back then, but she had a secret raspberry patch. It was tucked away in the back of the garden, behind the shed. I’m not sure if she was trying to hide it, or just keep it separate from the main garden — raspberry plants are locally invasive, they can take over your entire garden if not pruned.

I could spend the whole day eating raspberries, fresh off the bush.

Some days, I did.

It was nature’s 7-11, a store full of squishy red candy, at the right height and the right price for a child.

I wouldn’t dare say they were “free” since there was a price to pay — raspberry bushes are very prickly. There are thornless cultivars available now, but it worked out OK. The thorns slow you down enough to swallow one raspberry before you pick the next. I’m sure that’s why nature put the pricks there.

Raspberries never tasted better than that. Of course, there is no better way to get fresh fruit than to eat it right off the plant.

Depending on where you live, a lot of the produce you buy has traveled a long way to get there, especially if you have cold weather in the winter months.Transporting food is expensive, so farmers must have productive farms in order to make enough money.

They use pesticides, growth hormones and chemical fertilizers to grow the greatest quantity and best looking crops, as quickly as possible.

There is a fair amount of evidence that these chemicals are not good for us — I’ll share a couple examples.

In 2007, five Nicaraguan banana plantation workers won a $5.2 million lawsuit against Dole Corporation, for harmful pesticides that made the men sterile. There’s more info about the case in a link at the end. There is also a documentary about the trial called, “Bananas!*.”  Here is the trailer if you’re interested.

In 1961, the pesticide used in the Dole case was found to cause undesirable affects on human reproductive systems. It was also shown to cause liver and kidney failure.  But, it wasn’t banned until 1977, another 16 years later. So, that was over 30 years ago, we can’t be doing anything similar now, right?

Wrong. We’re still doing the exact same thing. A study published last month compared three types of genetically modified corn. One specific type of corn was found to contain pesticide residue. When they fed this corn to Rats, it caused organ failure. Guess which organs?

Liver and kidneys, just like the pesticide that made the Dole workers sterile. Considering your liver and kidneys play a large role in detoxifying your body, it’s no wonder they are damaged as they try rid your body of these chemicals.

The goal of organic food is: to produce food as naturally as possible, without chemical fertilizers, growth hormones or hazardous pesticides — the same way my grandmother grew her garden.

Organic food is gaining popularity, not because people have some wacky idea that standard food is bad for us, but because there is proof that the chemicals used to grow food in perfectly legal ways can harm us.

Some people also say that organic food is richer in taste, although that is hard to prove.

I should also note that organic food isn’t perfect either. In the United States, for example, the USDA allows many non-organic ingredients in “organic” foods.  Mostly, because the market for these ingredients isn’t large enough so an organic supplier does not exist or cannot meet production demands. This suggests that if organic food becomes more popular, more ingredients will be available in organic form and all organic products will be better because of it. I have an entire entry about non-organic ingredients in organic products here if you’d like to read it.

Broken Secrets

Written By: Chad Upton

[available on Kindle]

Sources: CBS, International Journal of Biological Sciences, Bananas!*

Baking all of these cupcakes was a lot of painstaking work, but my mom was a really hard worker. She always made chocolate cheesecake cupcakes, which the parents and teachers ate up, literally.

They weren’t covered in icing sugar, they didn’t have multicolored sprinkles or glitter and that’s exactly what the kids looked for: sugar. If you’re punny, you might say the kids had more refined palettes.

Some of my favorite cupcakes were the ones decorated with those tiny silver balls. It turns out the FDA now considers them inedible, due to the small amount of metal in them. Now, they’re sold “for decoration only,” except in California where they’ve been banned since 2003.

They were considered edible back then, but that still doesn’t mean they were food. I ate LEGO a couple times back then too. Again, not food.

Real food isn’t made in a laboratory, although laboratories do produce some really tasty stuff. In an earlier post, I talked about the differences between natural sugar and synthetic sugar made from corn (high fructose corn syrup).

Experts believe that your body can’t control its absorption into your bloodstream, in an attempt to control your blood sugar, your body quickly converts it into fat, which happens much slower with natural sugar. This could be extremely dangerous, and its addition to thousands of foods over the past 35 years could be partially responsible for the obesity epidemic.

Last month, a research paper was published, focusing on one genetically modified type of corn. This study shows that pesticide residue was still evident on this type of corn and it causes organ failure in rats. Genetically modified food has a bad reputation and it isn’t always bad, there are many success stories and it occurs in nature too (not just laboratories). But, this study shows a clear example of genetically modified food at its worst.

Because of these dangers, there are a lot of people who try to eat natural foods whenever possible. Food labeled “organic”  is one way to identify real food. Many food products contain a lot of synthetic ingredients, growth hormones, pesticides and antibiotics. On the other hand, Organic foods generally do not contain any of these.

At least, that’s what I thought. I don’t buy a lot of organic food, but when I do buy a product stamped with the “USDA Organic” logo, I assume that it’s entirely organic. The truth is, the USDA actually has a list (PDF) of non-organic ingredients that are allowed in products that carry the “organic” label.

Here is a very small sample of some non-organic ingredients and some uses for them:

1. Fish Oils (dairy, egg, sauces, jam, jelly, snack foods)
2. Gelatin (yogurt, production of tea and wine, thickening agent)
3. Orange Shellac (glazing or polishing organic fruits and vegetables)
4. Enriched Inulin (baking, nutritional bars, yogurt, cereal)
5. Whey Protein Concentrate (yogurt, protein supplements, baby food)
6. Carnauba Wax and Wood resin (chewing gum, candy coatings, juice, cosmetics)

The USDA has approved these ingredients (and many others) because the organic food producers that rely on them have filed petitions asking for approval. The petitions usually cite a non-existent or inadequate supply of that ingredient in organic form. In other words, organic food contains 100% organic ingredients when those ingredients are available as organic products.

Written By: Chad Upton

Broken Secrets

[Available on Kindle]

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Images: USDA,

Sources: The Daily Green, Dragee, International Journal of Biological Sciences, USDA Food List, HFCS

This is a cheap and easy way to give you a light boost without installing extra light sockets.

Now, it’s no secret that the beautifully spiraled compact fluorescent (CF) lights use less energy than their incandescent counterparts, which saves you money and ultimately reduces our energy demand. But, even if you don’t care about saving electricity, CF lights may still benefit you.

When you replace an old bulb with a CF, take a close look at the socket. There is usually a silver sticker that indicates the maximum wattage light that can be used in that socket. Typical light sockets will be limited to 40, 60 or 100 watts.

You can replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb with a 26 watt fluorescent bulb, which gives you the same amount of light while using 25% of the energy the old bulb used. But, if you use a 42 watt compact fluorescent, you’ll still be well below the 100 watt max and the light will output the equivalent to a 150 watt bulb. Because the compact fluorescent produces more light per watt, you’ve got a much brighter room.

I use two of these lights in my garage light sockets and it makes a huge difference when I’m working out there. I also have one in my basement, which makes a big difference compared to the 100 watt incandescent it replaced — especially since there are no windows in the area.

I’ll remind you that it is extremely important to check the socket or fixture maximum and be sure the compact fluorescent bulb’s consumption is equal or lower (although the “equivalent” wattage will likely be higher, giving you more light).

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Technically, modern vehicles do not require much warm up time before you can drive them; advanced lubricants and materials allow the vehicles to be driven shortly after a cold weather start. Of course, you may want to warm your car for your comfort and surprisingly, to reduce emissions.

This is not intuitive, unless you understand the emission control systems on modern vehicles.

The first system is called Exhaust Gas Recirculation, and it’s probably obvious from the name: it routes exhaust gases back into the engine. The vehicle computer system monitors and controls this process to lower the amount of Nitrogen Oxides, precursors to smog and acid rain, that are created in the engine and then expelled from the tailpipe. Depending on your vehicle, this system will not operate in certain conditions, for example: low engine temperatures.

Vehicles also have a component in their exhaust system that converts various pollutants into less harmful gases with various catalysts. That conversion occurs in the catalytic converter, and that chemical reaction doesn’t happen when the catalytic converter is cold.

According to WP, some catalytic converters can take up to thirty-minutes to reach ideal operating temperature. That isn’t to suggest you should wait that long before driving your car — there are countermeasures in many cars that make it effective long before that.

When your car is at idle, it uses less gas and releases less pollution than when you are driving it. Getting your emission system to an effective point before driving it helps reduce overall emissions. For my car, it take about 3-5 minutes before the exhaust is invisible and that’s about how long it takes to clear the snow anyway. It’s not an exact science and it varies by car and by temperature.

BrokenSecrets.com

Sources:  WP, WP, WP, EPA, GM

Photo: steveyb (Creative Commons)

For those who can’t watch videos, add your cream and/or sugar first, then add the coffee to mix the contents without a stir-stick.

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