globalbriefs
Silver Lining Cleaning Up the Cloud
The New York Times has reported that “cloud” data centers—which store YouTube videos, run Google searches and process eBay bids—use about 2 percent of all electricity in the nation. In some data centers, up to 90 percent of the energy is wasted. Now, an industry consortium called the Uptime Institute is sponsoring a “server roundup” and handing out rodeo belt buckles to the Internet company that can take the larg- est number of heat-producing, energy-hungry
servers offline. Many centers expend as much or more energy in cooling their facilities as in computing and transmitting data. Sharing best practices has become common among data center pros. Face-
book won the Institute’s Audacious Idea award last year for its Open Compute Project, which enabled both its server and data center designs to be open-sourced for anyone to access and improve upon.
Source:
Slate.com
Nordic Order Sweden Running Out of Garbage
Sweden’s successful recycling pro- gram ensures that only 4 percent of the country’s waste ends up in landfills, while the other 96 percent is reused. But this means incinerators that burn waste to create heat and electricity are running short on fuel. As a solution, Sweden has recently begun to import about 800,000 tons
of trash every year from other European countries, most of it from neighboring Norway, which finds it a cost-effective option.
Find details at
Tinyurl.com/SwedishWaste.
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Gas Saver Keep Bucks in Your Pocket at the Pump
When mass transit isn’t an option, drivers have many ways to save money by coaxing more miles per gallon (mpg) from their vehicle. It’s easy to adopt some simple driving and maintenance habits. Slow down. According to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), driving at 55 mph instead of 65 mph can improve gas mileage by as much as 15 percent. Reduce excess weight. An extra 100 pounds of nonessential cargo in a vehicle could reduce mpg by up to 2 percent, according to the U.S. Depart- ment of Energy. Properly inflate tires. The in- creased surface area of the rubber in soft tires meeting the road creates ongoing drag and a greater demand on the engine. Keep the engine tuned. Regularly
check and refresh fluid levels, espe- cially in colder regions where winter places additional stress on engine parts. While high-quality synthetic motor oil blends may protect the engine better than conventional oil, they don’t elimi- nate the need for regular oil changes, according to
JiffyLube.com. The Na- tional Institute for Automotive Service Excellence notes that one misfiring spark plug can reduce fuel efficiency by up to 30 percent. Avoid rapid accelerations and
braking. The EPA estimates that about half of the energy needed to power a car is consumed during acceleration, and fuel economy can be improved by as much as 10 percent by avoiding unnec- essary braking. Keep the engine air filter clean.
According to
AAA.com, a clogged filter strains performance. In some cars, the filter can be easily checked by the owner; or drivers may ask a technician to do so during regular tune-ups.
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