Underwater...

While on the topic of water I spotted a rather unusual line of watches - U-Boat - and having trawled through their catalogue, my favourite is the one shown, the Thousands Of Feet AB - Y.

The watches are made by Italo Fontana and are based on those created for the pilots of the Italian Navy in WWII.

Maybe it is due to me recently sitting through Das Boot again (the film this time - I watched the 6 hour long, or so it felt like, TV series when it first aired in the UK).

They are not cheap timepieces but they look quite distinctive.

Whatta waste...

Stood in my local Starbucks the other day I couldn't help but notice the apparent waster of clean water going on behind the counter.
As well as the little rinse sink for the barista to rinse spoons next to the coffee making machine there was a tap continually running in the sink at the rear of the counter area.
I did a little experiment when I got home and figured out that the flow rate of water from the tap was about 4-6 litres a minute.
That works out at around 900,000 to 1,400,000 litres of water per year for one store.
For one tap.
This doesn't include the water used in the small rinsing sink.
Or for washing mugs and plates and other equipment.

Other coffee shops don't seem to follow this practice. As far as I have seen Costa do not.

If you take all the Starbucks stores worldwide then if they all follow this practice they must waste the equivalent of a medium sized ocean every year.

All this when some areas of the world don't have ANY water on tap.

I have written to Starbucks UK to see how they can claim to be socially and environmentally responsible with such a shocking waste of water.


2 April 08
Got a reply from Starbucks....
Thank you for taking the time to contact Starbucks Coffee Company.

We welcome feedback from our customers and I have shared your comments with the operations team for their attention.

It is not policy that the tap at the bar remain on constantly and should be turned off when not in use. As a company we are taking steps to endeavour to reduce water use in all our stores, including ensuring taps are turned off when no one is at the sink, using paper cups where appropriate to reduce the use of the dishwasher and continuing reminding partners of our commitment to the environment by minimizing water wastage.

Once again, thank you for sharing your feedback with us and for giving us an opportunity to improve our operations.

Yours sincerely
***** **********
Customer Care Specialist

BSW

Steve Sleeve...

I am not sure if this is good or bad....

Timbuk2 Steve Sleeve

A snails pace....

Humph, it is that time of the year when strange people exchange one large 'box' for a smaller 'box' on wheels, which they then drag across the country to some sodden piece of ground, through miles of tailbacks and gridlock, arriving just in time to turn around and drag their ambulatory abodes all the way back to where they started.

Just like the snail carrying its home around on its back and not getting anywhere really fast - apt that some of the caravanning world use a snail as their club logo...

Yep, it's a glorious British Easter Bank Holiday. It's lousy weather. It's miles of road works. It's trains cancelled or delayed.

It's time to stay at home...

Docktored dock...

The 3D look on the Leopard Dock bugged me.

Didn't like the fact there was no option in Preferences to turn it off but I never got around to fiddling in Terminal to kill the 3D effect.
I tried moving the Dock to one side, where the 3D effect is turned off, but I couldn't get my head around that at all.

Then I discovered that the utility tool Onyx has a setting under Parameters which disabled the 3D effect.
So now I have a 2D Dock where I want it.

Voila...

Modem to go...

In half a mind to pick one of these up - T-Mobile Web'n'walk USB modem (£99) - for those occasions when I find myself away from home and in need of internet access.

The cost of no more than £4 for any 24 hour period and no contract ticks the right boxes for me. I already use the contract free Web'n'walk on my mobile phone, which runs at £1 per 24 hour, so being able to use a similar set up on the laptop is appealing.

Claims that the modem can reach download speeds of up to 1.8Mbps certainly makes the current speeds I am getting at home look sloth like!

Bumper Sticker Wednesday

4-6-8...

Been trying to set up the Bluetooth system in my car today. It has a voice driven menu system and it has been driving me madder than a mad thing in Madtown.
Its inability to understand the basic commands had me scream "for fucks sake' in frustration as once again it failed to grasp the telephone number I was trying to store in the Contact List.
The ever so calm female voice piped up "4-6-8, say yes" - so there we have it ....

4-6-8!!!!!!