How Clean is the Water at Your Beach?

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) publishes water safety ratings for a number of popular U.S. beaches.  Their system  awards up to five stars for exceptionally low violation rates and strong testing and safety practices.  A dozen beaches got this top rating last year:

     Alabama: Gulf Shores Public Beach
     Alabama: Gulf State Park Pavilion
     California: Bolsa Chica Beach
     California: Huntington State Beach, Brookhurst Street
     California: Newport Beach, 38th Street, 52nd/53rd Street
     Delaware: Dewey Beach
     Maryland: Ocean City at Beach 6
     Minnesota: Park Point Franklin Park / 13th Street South Beach
     Minnesota: Park Point Lafayette Community Club Beach
     New Hampshire: Hampton Beach State Park
     New Hampshire: Wallis Sands Beach at Wallis Road
     Texas: South Padre Island (Town of South Padre Island)

Conversely, some of the worst recent offenders (lowest rated) include portions of:

     California: Avalon and Doheny State Beach
     Illinois: Winnetka Elder Park Beach, North Point Marina and North Beach
     Louisiana: Constance, Gulf Breeze, Little Florida, Long and Rutherford
     New Jersey: Beachwood Beach West
     New York: Woodlawn and Ontario
     Ohio: Euclid State Park and Villa Angela State Park
     Wisconsin: South Shore Beach

Best Beach?

With the arrival of Memorial Day weekend, beach destinations are at the forefront of many summer vacation plans and Dr. Beach (Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman -- Professor and Director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University) has released his 22nd annual Top 10 Beach List.  Here are his rankings:

1. Coronado Beach San Diego, California
2. Kahanamoku Beach Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii
3. Main Beach East Hampton, New York
4. St. George Island State Park Florida Panhandle
5. Hamoa Beach, Maui, Hawaii
6. Coast Guard Beach Cape Cod, Massachusetts
7. Waimanalo Bay Beach Park Oahu, Hawaii
8. Cape Florida State Park Key Biscayne, Florida
9. Beachwalker Park Kiawah Island, South Carolina
10. Cape Hatteras, Outer Banks of North Carolina

Can Spot Alleviate Stress?

As I'm a dog-lover, a USAToday article about colleges using dogs to help relieve stress in students caught my eye.    Apparently, research shows that interaction with pets decreases the level of cortisol — or stress hormone — in people and increases endorphins, known as the happiness hormone.  Therefore, if you are feeling stressed, one of the best treatments available may be spending some quality time with your pet.

Poo Power

Talk about a cheap alternative energy source, each day visitors to the Cosmo dog park in Gilbert, Arizona, leave behind about eight cubic yards of dog waste, plastic bottles, bags and other trash.   Starting this month, however, that waste will be used to power a light at the park.  A team of engineering and technology students at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus created a "dog waste digester" as part of their iProjects program. Patrons can deposit their dogs’ waste into an underground system, though specially designed openings, where it will be broken down through a process called anaerobic (in the absence of oxygen) digestion.  Biogas (a combination of methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor and other gases) is produced as a byproduct and used to generate electricity for the light.

Band-Aid Beware

Penn State researchers may have created the truly "ouchless" bandage.  Food scientists have developed a process that spins starch into fine strands that can be combined and formed into inexpensive and environmentally-friendly paper-like mats similar to napkins, tissues and other types of paper products.  Starch bandages or medical dressings, however, have an important additional advantage.  Whereas current products on the market must at some point be removed (often with some associated pain or discomfort), starch bandages would simply degrade into glucose, a substance the body safely absorbs, eliminating the removal step.  They could also be cheaper and have less environmental impact than the cellulose and petroleum-based materials we are familiar with.

Online Movie Views to Surpass DVD and Blu-ray This Year

Fueled by all-you-can-view subscription services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, a recent IHS Screen Digest report, forecasts that, in 2012, Americans will watch 3.4 billion movies online.  This is 1 billion higher than predicted number of movies played using physical media like DVDs and Blu-ray discs.  Just last year, the order was reversed at 2.6 billion physical videos and 1.4 billion online viewings.  They also point out a corresponding change in movie consumption trending toward a more TV-like "sampling and snacking" behavior.  This is not surprising, given similarities to recent rapid changes in music consumption format.

The Energy Benchmark of Gasoline

While everyone acknowledges the need for alternative energy sources, I recently stumbled across an article pointing out just how high of a hurdle liquid petroleum sources set for potential competitors.  An ExxonMobil "Perspectives" publication points this out with the following fact:  all of the energy concentrated in one gallon of gasoline is enough to charge an iPhone once a day for almost 20 years.  The energy density of batteries and current bio-fuels can't effectively compete with that of petroleum fuels.

While on the topic of gasoline, the U.S. Energy Information Administration website posts fuel price statistics.  For those who might be interested in the breakdown for the cost of a gallon of gasoline, in March, 2012, they list the average price at $3.85 of which 67% ($2.58) covers the cost of crude oil, 16% ($0.62) covers refining costs, 6% ($0.23) covers distribution and marketing, and 11% ($0.42) goes to taxes.  Obviously, there must be some profitability in each of these components and this breakdown would be more interesting if it provided some insight into the typical distribution of profit for each portion of the product delivery chain relative to the ultimate retail cost.