Monday 4 June 2008
Staff Solidarity – Issue 7!
W
to the 7 th issue of Staff Solidarity.
“Don’t blow it – good planets are hard to find”
From Sustainability.govt.nz
Northcote College has had a significant focus on energy usage within the school and energy reduction.
However, it might be a little easier to be more energy conscious at home than at school so here’s a few tips for the household.
Step 11: Turn it off!
Turn appliances off at the wall and switch off lights when leaving the room. Even when on standby, appliances use a surprising amount of energy. You can save up to $75 a year by switching appliances off at the wall when not in use.
Step 12: Use hot water wisely
Thirty per cent of the average home’s power bill goes towards heating water, so it’s important to make sure your system is efficient.
Check the insulation around your hot water cylinder – if it’s warm to the touch, it’s losing heat. Your hot water should be 50˚C at the tap and 55˚C at the cylinder. If it’s hotter than this you may need an electrician to adjust it. Also check the pipes around the cylinder for leaks.
Consider installing a solar water heating system or a heat pump water heater and save money on your power bills.
Step 13: Monitor your power use
Find out where your household uses the most power. Invest in a power monitor or get an energy audit for your home. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make savings on your power bill.
Step 14: Choose energy efficient products
Save power by using energy efficient products, such as eco-bulbs. These use only one-fifth the power of a regular light bulb for the same light output.
Look out for appliances with the Energy Star label – any appliance with this label is the best in its class – or refer to the appliance’s star rating.
Step 15: Draught-proof your home
Make your home easier to heat and keep the heat in by using well-lined curtains, draught stoppers for your doors and windows, and insulation.

Plastics #1 to #7 are now recyclable on the North Shore and possibly Auckland City.
Ever wondered what those numbers meant?
National Geographic have published this very informative article on how common plastics are categorised and even includes some information about ‘safe’ plastics and which plastics to avoid. http://www.thegreenguide.com/products/Kitchen/Plastic_Containers (copy and paste link into your favourite internet browser or hold down ctrl key and click link)
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The funniest joke in the world:
Two burglars broke into a house and stole a calendar. They both got 6 months.
Haha…
#2. Support your thesis with quotes from your DVD manual
#6. Write your paper by cutting out words from magazines and sticking them on the page, ransom-note style.
#10. If assigned a 2000-word paper, draw two pictures of what the paper was supposed to be about. After all, a picture is worth 1000 words, right?
#15. Write your history paper on parchment, using a quill. Say that you were trying to get the feel for the period.
#17. When writing an especially long paper, put a recipe for chocolate cake in the middle and see if the professor notices.
#26. Get a large piece of paper or canvas. Smear paint all over it and hand it in as your paper. Explain that the topic was such an emotional one for you, and that mere words couldn’t possibly express what you had to say.
#35. Draw pictures of your professor in the margins.
#36. Make your paper one long, never-ending sentence that goes on for pages and pages and pages; use a lot of semi-colons, commas, and other interesting, rarely-used punctuation marks [(for example), an interesting one: the colon_] but never ever end the sentence.
#40. Draw obscure connections between totally unrelated things.
For example, claim that abnormal amounts of neutrino activity in Germany caused the big bang, or that the
Roman empire collapsed because of a shortage of qualified botanists.
Fact of the day: Did you know five out of three people have trouble with fractions?
That’s all for now. Remember to recycle all those plastics and why don’t you try amazing your friends with those awesome facts such as that polypropylene yoghurt pots are #5 plastics. Guaranteed to make you the life of the party.