RTD Ecopass Discounts!!

Hey Boulder and Denverites!

Did you know you could use your Eco-Pass not only to take the bus all over (save ~$120 to the airport by not taking Super Shuttle), but also get discounts at local businesses?  Now it's an EVEN smarter investment. Here they are!!!

Alpaca Connection: 1326 Pearl St.
(15% discount) American Mountaineering Museum: 710 10th Street, Golden
(½ price admission and 10% off in Base Camp Adventure Gift Shop)

American Homebrewers Association:303-447-0816 or 736 Pearl St. ($5 discount on membership)

Barry Erdman, LCSW, DCSW: 1900 Folsom Street, Suite 203, 303 444-1404
($20 off first visit)
BeadforLife: 1143 Portland Place, Suite 1
(10% discount for purchases made at studio)

Belvedere Belgian Chocolate Shop: 1936 14th Street
(10% discount)
Berg's Small Moves: 1495 Riverside Ave
(10% off any move)
BJ's Restaurant: 1125 Pearl St.
(10% discount) Boulder Beer "The Pub": 2880 W Wilderness Place
(Happy Hour prices)
Boulder Cycle Sport: 4580 Broadway Unit B
(15% parts and accessories)
Boulder Financial Realty: 2961 Broadway
(At closing, a free appraisal for any buyer and/or free title insurance for sellers. One free month of management or discount management services for landlords)
Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra: Box office, 2995 Wilderness Pl., #100
(20% off regular concerts and 10% off of Nutcracker and Classical Mystery Tour - A Tribute to the Beatles)
Broadway Wine and Spirits: 2550 Baseline Rd., 303-494-0177
(10% off 1/2 case of mix & match wine - Sale items EXCLUDED. 15% off 1 full case of mix & match wine - Sale item INCLUDED)
Buyers' Slice Realty, LLC: 1942 Broadway Suite 314
(Buy property and add $200 to a large commission rebate)

Caffe Sole: 637R S. Broadway
(15% discount)

Ciana Grove Therapeutic Massage: 2346 Broadway, 303-443-4715 or e-mailThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
(10% discount)
Common Era: 1500D Pearl St.
(10% off)
Community Cycles: 2805 Wilderness Place, Ste. 1000
(10% off bikes, parts, accessories and 10% off annual membership)
Conor O'Neill's: 1922 13th St.
(20% off brunch/lunch until 3pm)
Copy Experts: 2835 Pearl Street
(10% discount on copy and print services)
Dagabi Cucina:3970 N. Broadway
(Sunday-Thursday 15% off bill excluding tapas and carry out)

eGo CarShare:1919 14th St, Suite 330D
($10 discount on membership, use Promo code "NECO2011")
Exquisite Life Wellness coaching:1035 Pearl St. Suite 314, 303-993-4359
(25% off private health coaching sessions; 15% off group health coaching sessions)
Farfel's Farm: 906 Pearl Street
(10% Discount on Everything)
Fresh Produce: 1218 Pearl
(10% off one item)
Full Cycle: 1795 Pearl Street and 1211 13th Street
(Tuesday Tube deal: 50% off one tube - one per day, one per customer)
Indra's Net: 303-546-9151
(10% off DSL and dial-up services)
Jacque Michelle II: 2670 Broadway, 303-786-7628
(10% off)
Jean Pierce, NCTMB: 303-931-7920
($45 for one hour massage)
Joyful Furniture: 2000 21st St
(Free Delivery)
Lindsay's Boulder Deli at Haagen-Dazs: 1148 Pearl St.
(10% off or $1 off food and ice cream)
Mercury Framing: 4692 N. Broadway, 303-938-0123
(15% off total service)
Moe's Bagels: both Boulder locations (2650 Broadway and 3075 Arapahoe)
(10% discount)
Morningstar Boutique: 2027 Broadway St.
(10% discount)

Moving Day Boxes.com
(10% discount on-line with all moving boxes and moving supplies. After you complete order and receive order confirmation-claim 10% discount HERE. Free shipping on all orders)
North Boulder Liquor: 3990 Broadway
(10% off liquor by the case and 15% off wine by the case, except sale items)
Old Chicago: 1102 Pearl St.
(10% discount)
Only Natural Pet Store: 2100 28th St. Suite 1C
(5% discount)

Paradise Bakery: 1207 Pearl St.
(10% discount)
Parasoft Paragliding: 4310 9th St. or 303-494-2820
(10% off first lesson)
Perry's Shoe Shop: 949 Walnut
(10% off)
Play it Again Sports: 653 S. Broadway
(20% off on Tuesdays, max discount $25, not valid on sale items)
Savory Spice Shop:2041 Broadway
(10% off)
Selden & Sons Automotive: 4593 Broadway C-116
(Free tire rotation, $9.95 oil change, free brake check and free 22 point seasonal inspection)
Sensorielle Spa:
(10% off any facial, massage or body treatment 60 min or more, wax and tint excluded)
Solaterra Health Enterprises: 303-641-3047
(10% discount)
Subway: 5280 Spine Rd in Gunbarrel
(10% discount)
Thai Kitchen: 4479 N. Broadway
(15% discount dinner only)
University Bikes: 839 Pearl St.
(25% discount off bicycle rental)

The Unseen Bean: 2052 Broadway
(10% discount)
Check back frequently for updated discounts.
*Discounts offered are provided by merchants, not RTD

Via this website: http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8877&Itemid=3010

Update - Nuclear News in Japan

Fukushima Daiichi Before the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on 3/11/11.

Wow, seems there's more interest in nuclear energy among my friends than I had thought. I have gotten all sorts of links and references so I thought that instead of editing my post from yesterday, I'd just write another one today.

First of all, I'm sure the thing that most people care about right now is the situation at the Japanese power plant Fukushima Daiichi. Now, I try not to get too much into politics because that is an environment (pun haha!) that I don't think I could pull my weight in, but I realize that my blog will move into hot-topic territory now and again and I'm going to be forced to address these problems from a position that's more political.

I guess this means that I'm going to have to get some things straight so as not to confuse my audience. I am, if it weren't obvious already, far more liberal on a lot of issues, maybe even most issues, and certainly on issues concerning the health of people and the environment. However, I realize that overly "liberal" people are just as bad as the "conservative" people they oppose, so I will try to at least be open to both sides of the argument.

Damage to Fukushima Daiichi after the earthquake and tsunami on 3/11/11.

Ok so...Fukushima Daiichi.A lot of media sites seem to be blowing it out of proportion and there are all kinds of conflicting reports. From a practical standpoint, I want to say that the situation has gone a lot better than it could have for the power plant going through a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami.

Here are a few articles that describe the nuclear situation as "better than it could've been":
1). http://tech.mit.edu/V131/N13/yost.html says:
"From the information we have, we can draw a conclusion anywhere between “the reactor is undamaged and being cooled” to “the reactor cladding and/or fuel has been partially damaged, but the damage is contained and the reactor is being cooled.” The question that should be asked now is whether the reactor has any future value as an electricity-producing asset. The widely-hyped possibility of some Chernobyl-like event is inconceivable without a new, catastrophic disaster. Coolant flow has been re-established and the public is in no danger. Given the magnitude of the precipitating event — a 9.0 earthquake — and the vast property damage it caused, the events at Fukushima are not a serious reason to re-evaluate our own nuclear policy in the United States."

An interesting thing I learned from this article is that the parts that blew off in the explosions in reactor 1 and 3 were the fourth "layer" of protection which was a drywall building not intended to actually contain anything. It seems like its job was to protect the workers from weather as they work around the containment vessel. So that means that the steel-and-concrete buildings could still be intact (the third layer of protection) and the steel container also (the second layer).


 

2). And http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/14/fukushiima_analysis/page3.html:
"Radiation health effects have been pretty much zero. At times there have been heightened radiation levels inside the plants from short-life isotopes in the steam releases – sometimes enough that an unprotected person next to a reactor building might have sustained a year's normal dose from background radiation in an hour. This is not particularly terrifying, really – nobody is scared at the prospect of living another year on planet Earth – but it is being reported under scaremongering headlines. Another thing the weekend reporters have missed was the fact that all but tiny traces of the airborne radionuclides (from the salt in the seawater coolant) were disappearing before they could even cross the street; there is essentially no health hazard to people living nearby. Precautionary evacuations and tests were just that: precautionary."

3). The BBC is also saying about the same thing as these two articles above so at this point I'm still feeling confident in nuclear technology.

Reactor 1 after the explosion 3/12/11.

Powering Our World - Environmental Impact of Nuclear Power

Hi Guys!

Sorry it's taken me so long to post something, I'm currently taking a C++ class that is sucking up all of my time. However, this crisis in Japan has gotten me thinking about creating power and how that affects our environment. This is probably going to be very basic as I don't know much yet about the different types of power, but we've gotta start somewhere in talking about what we **know**.

So...The first form of power I wanted to look at is, of course, nuclear power. It seems there is a divide between whether it's safe or not and the impression I get is that it's a pretty big divide. Fun Fact: the US produces the most nuclear energy making up 19% of all its power output and has 140 nuclear power plants. Not surprising as we Americans are used to having the most of everything. ;-)  However, France produces most of it's electricity - 80% - with nuclear plants. Ouch.

Pro:
The pro-nuclear stance , argue that nuclear power produces a very low amount of air pollution that leads to greenhouse gasses or smog. That also makes it sustainable. Another pro argument is that the risks of storing waste are small and even smaller in light of new technologies in newer plants.

And, to be honest, nuclear safety is a trending pretty high on the positive with the only really big disaster being Chernobyl (so far). Though, if this power plant in Japan becomes a bigger disaster, I think that would be slightly different because they did suffer a 9.0 earthquake. I mean, c'mon...they also had oil refineries blowing up all over the place too. I don't think much would be safe from this type of threat. Though luckily, it's a rare occurrence.

Con:
The anti-nuclear view, conversely, asserts that nuclear power does pose serious human and environmental health risks. Transport, storage and disposal of nuclear waste is toxic and the contents can sometimes still be highly radioactive. Some argue that disposal of nuclear waste cannot be achieved 100% safely - with careless disposal polluting lakes, rivers, oceans and land. Lastly nuclear power plants are expensive to build which trickles down to make the energy actually rather expensive.

At this point, I am torn between supporting and condemning nuclear power. I mean, I have seen visible proof of what coal does (did) to buildings in Europe and older parts of America. I can't imagine putting all that black stuff out there wouldn't hurt the atmosphere so the prospect of nuclear power producing virtually no emissions, is attractive.

However, big accidents are just as bad, if not worse, as slow rates of pollution. You know...I can't really make a case against nuclear power right now. I just don't know enough and I can't really come up with a good alternative without doing more research.

Please weigh in with your thoughts. =)
 
I wanted to post a video talking about nuclear power but the only one I've found so far is a Fox News one and I just can't stand behind the quality of their broadcasting. So, if anyone knows of a good one, please let me know!