Energy Saving Tips From a Rocket Scientist (Really)

LearnVest — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:50:30 PDT

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

The Scene: A 1500-square-foot, mid-century modern house in Phoenix, AZ, home to Bob and Helen Winkel.

The Inspiration: After unclogging lint from their dryer tube and realizing they were saving $15 a month on their energy bill, they decided to tackle energy-saving around the house.

The Challenge: Cut energy bills in half. Yes, half.

The Story: Despite rising energy prices, Bob and Helen cut their energy bills by 50% last year, saving an amazing $1,300 a year. They used this money to fund a trip to Paris (next year: a riverboat cruise in the Ukraine).

The Mad Scientist: Bob Winkel has been an engineer for over 40 years, and is a Chief Fellow at Honeywell. “It wasn’t rocket science,” says Bob, an engineer who has patents for space shuttle and satellite components – OK, so maybe it is?

Over the course of two years, Bob hooked up smart meters to read energy usage on almost every device throughout the house, graphed data, crunched the numbers, and kept a big binder with all his energy use findings.

The upshot? We get his best tips, sans the meter-reading and number-crunching.

Helen did veto one of Bob’s energy-saving tweaks, though: turning down the hot water heater. “There’s one thing that I need,” she says, “and it’s a hot bath.”

Learn how you can use Bob's tips in your own home after the break!

Emily Blunt's Ballet Body in Adjustment Bureau

Self — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 04:00:08 PST

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Self here on FitSugar!

After letting loose in the animated Gnomeo and Juliet, Emily Blunt gets serious in the Adjustment Bureau as a ballet dancer attempting to thwart destiny. What's the deal with all these big-screen ballerinas?

Natalie Portman just won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as a dancer in Black Swan (she trained five to eight hours a day for a year, losing 20 pounds). Now, Blunt steps in to her pointe shoes as a contemporary ballerina opposite Matt Damon in the sci-fi thriller.

It's not the same kind of grueling dance performance Portman gives, but Blunt still spent six intensive weeks training for the role - and unlike Portman, who had previously studied dance, Blunt had "never bloody danced before". To prepare, the actress endured two-hour sessions of "boot-camp training" followed by two more hours of dance class. "It was exhausting, a real endurance test," Blunt told Women's Health magazine. "I looked like an aerobics teacher. My shoulders puffed out. My back looked like there was a barrel of snakes in it. I had an eight-pack!"

Ballet can be brutal (just watch Black Swan!), but there's a reason we're so fascinated by these athletes - ballerinas possess those long, lean muscles that convey strength without bulk, and they're always totally in control of their bodies. As we learned from Portman's trainer, Mary Helen Bowers, there are ways to incorporate ballet moves into your workout without devoting your whole life to the sport.

These three dance-inspired moves will stretch and strengthen your muscles using your own body weight, creating long, streamlined muscles.

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Energy Saving Tips From a Rocket Scientist (Really)

Emily Blunt's Ballet Body in Adjustment Bureau