Other Wikis about me, James Rounds, aka Econaut 2.0:

Original Idea sprouts... Leaves and shoots...

BlogoSphere Core Sample: James D Rounds

5/5/2008, Monday, 5am

My wife and son are away for the weekend, visiting a relative in Florida...First time we've been apart for so long! My schedule is so affected now - I fall asleep without making dinner (I almost always make dinner!), and wake up before dawn the next morning.

Nietzsche was anti-DOCTRine; which foreshadows his antagonism towards the medical establishment.

Just a strange thought such as those you might get when you fall asleep at 7pm on a weekend night! (And wake up before 5am on a Monday).
==================================
02/12/2007

I am somewhat saddened to report that I am leaving the residency at the Center for Sustainability. Due to a variety of factors, including the continued lack of financial support from the Center itself or outside avenues, as well as the impending transformation of the Center's grounds, it has become an impossible situation for me to manage the entire farm alone.

Instead, I will return to my previous role of primary gardening volunteer. I will keep up the gardens of the farm, and manage the rented garden plots. Thank you to everyone who visited, volunteered, chatted, or otherwise contributed to the Center for Sustainability. I have learned a great deal from everyone and am very grateful for the experience.

The Director of the Center for Sustainability has revealed that he thinks 1-2min podcasts will meet his expectations and that they should focus on energy. I think we have several podcasts ready in that case. I will unveil them soon and post them here as well as elsewhere!
Hey Jamie:

It's Lisa with the signs project! Here are the signs that I have made that need additional information:

-Aerating Windmill
-Fire Pit
-Rain H2O Catchment
-Greenhouse
-Solar Panels
-Organic Gardens
-Pump House
-Greywater Filtration
-Solar Kitchen
-Yurt

Maybe you can just talk briefly about each one. I'm looking for any processes that are going on with each. For example, what is it that the aerating windmill does? How does it do that (what's the science behind the windmill here)? Maybe for the Rain H2O Catchment explain what the rain is used for, and how long it takes to catch the rain. For the Solar Kitchen you might mention the different things that are being solar powered in the kitchen... the refrigerator, oven, stove, etc. How does solar power work? I hope this helps. Just a paragraph or so explaining what you think it important to know about each of these things would be great!!! I'll try and put them up by Tuesday evening. You can email me the information at lmj143@psu.edu if you like. Let me know if this is feasible for you! I don't want this to take up all your study time.

Thanks! Lisa ArizonaCitrus

Yo James, thanks for being on the show, it was a cool experience, and Mobius and both complemented you on being a natural spokesperson for all things sustainable. I would love to have you on again before the end of the semester ( and this time record it!). Yea, I'm a dumbass for not, but what are you going to do. Anyways, I look forward to having you on again if you'll willingly put up with the childish remarks from some of our listeners. I think the key to getting your and my message out is persistence. See you tomorow, thanks again.

What is Sustainability?

Space for a Budget

Video Saved the Radiant Star

Standards for Sustainability at Penn State

CoolLinks

Hey man, it's the Old Man, Brendan. I just wanted to ask you a few questions about the Center for the paper I'm writing in English 421.

-Brendan, sorry for being so late with this! I meant to talk to you in class after the Peak Oil vid but I missed you. I hope your proposal went alright without my responses to your questions, and I hope they're still useful to you.

1) When did the Center start, and or when was it officially sustainable?

The Center began in 1996 as a project under the guidance of the Science, Technology & Society department, and it was actually located on 25 acres of Circleville Farms. Shortly before the feasibility study mentioned in the linked article there, the Center was moved to its current site, which was just a hillside of grass and clay at the time. Thus, it has always been on the verge - read:precipice - of not being sustained. To be "officially sustainable", I'm assuming you mean self-sustaining a human resident. It is still only a movement toward that goal, but my ecological footprint measurements will determine the answer to that question. The average American requires over 20 acres of land a year (his/her Ecological Footprint), while the previous resident Dave Lettero managed an average footprint of under 10 acres. Ideally, we would all have a footprint under 5 acres. So! That's the plan Old Man: I strive to achieve an ecological footprint under 5 acres and thus demonstrate the Center's sustainability.

2) How much money does the university allocate to the Center per year?

The Center did receive funding from various Colleges at the University over the years, and secured its biggest grant from the West Penn Energy Fund, a Pennsylvania government organization, to the tune of around $150,000 to be distributed over three years. However, that funding fell short by the third year (this year), and the Engineering Department which has administered the Center since 2001 (I believe) also pulled its funding at that time. As we speak/type, the College of Liberal Arts, via the Rock Ethics Institute, is devoting at least $5000 to the Center's Residency program, while thousands more funnel into the Solar Decathlon project from a variety of University and commercial+industrial+private sources. Exact figures are hard for me to come by.

3) If given the chance to advertise on a large scale what medium do you think would reach Penn State students the most?

I don't know if constricting the Center's message to a single medium would reach more Penn State students than a multiplicity of channels; however, it seems that the classroom-instructor complex is most useful for actually bringing people out to the site or to the website. Beyond the classroom, I think web-based media, such as podcasts and emails and other news-feeds do a good job of exposure. At some point though, we want the Center for Sustainability to transcend the category of "News" and enter the category of "Place I want to go" or "Thing I want to do"

4) If given the chance to improve one aspect of the Center, what might you choose?

That's an excellent question. I am currently trying to improve the Center's performance as a locus for ecologically sound living, by meshing my own behavior with the infrastructure that already abides there. I also want to say "the volume of the Center's image" as an aspect to be improved, but everyone on the CfS team is working on that and I think it's well on its way. If you mean, what physical structure or system would I change, I think I would choose the water systems. Rainwater is collected at several locations on-site, but the extent and effectiveness of it could be greatly improved, so that grid-tied water would not be a necessity.

5) What are two practical but pivotal actions students can take that wouldn't scare an average student away?

The first action I would recommend is to buy local and/or organic foods and products. People like to buy stuff, so modifying their purchasing power is an easy way to send a strong message to the commercial sphere about what is valuable to us. Second, beyond recycling and throwing away your trash, composting is really the next-most necessary individual behavior that needs to become popular. And it's really easy...shamefully easy, actually.

Hope that helps Brendan!


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