Wish List

Saw this post on Weird Asia News where this Chinese guy fitted his roof with empty beer bottles and hoses to make a solar heated shower for his family. I wonder how much my landlord would object to me hooking this up at my place. Guess it also has the added bonus of beer being a good hair conditioner.

Patriot Bucks for All!

An interesting idea presented on NPR this morning as a way to help contain campaign financing: an ATM card for every voter with $25 dollars on it to spend on whichever candidate you wanted to. The total cost to the American public $3 billion dollars, but a fairer way to support presidential candidates and spread out how contributions are made. I think it would go a ways in relieving voter fatigue and get Americans back into caring about how the election process is run. I know personally I feel disinfranchised how the big candidates seem to cater only to those who can give the most money to their campaign. Read more about Yale professor Bruce Ackerman's program at Slate.com.

I-I-I-kea

A shameful thing for a hard core simplist to admit: I am a huge fan of Ikea. Been so for years. While most might think of it as disposible furniture, (and a cruel joke of engineering as most pieces are designed for self-assembly) I am happy to say my selected Ikea pieces are still in use, some after 10 years. I bought a wood frame couch 10 years ago, and I keep holding on to it like it's a family heirloom. The cushions have had to be dyed after a number of years (off white upholstery lost it round the turn of the century) but no one seemed to comment on the change, at least not to my face. And while the foam cushions may be a little worse for wear, I've worked hard for that ass groove and I'm not ready to give it up quite yet. So needless to say when mother arrived last week and offered to recreated the cushion covers I gladly ripped them off and sent her home with them in hopes of keeping this $200 couch alive for another 10 years.

Doc Review: "An Unreasonable Man" (2006)

While it may be overstating a bit to say that without Ralph Nader, seatbelts, airbags, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and NIOSH would cease to exist, the truth is that without him, none of these campaigns (or the dozens of other consumer advocate campaigns he was actively involved in jumpstarting) would have left the starting gate. Unreasonable Man is an inside look at the man once revered for his "fighting for the little guy" but now known only as a pariah. The first half of the doc shows the viewer how Nader came to become disenfranchised with the two-party system—from campaigning vigorously for clean air and water to safety on the job, in the market and at home. The second half of the doc takes the turn onto the 2000 election Blvd. where in just days following the election Nader became the whipping boy for a campaign that really had no one to blame but itself. If only Nader had pulled out of the race before the election and told his followers to vote for Gore! There would be no Iraq War! There would be no global warming! 9-11 probably wouldn't have happened! Each a huge burden for any one man to carry on his shoulders or to follow him around for the rest of his life. (In reality, the 537 vote difference between Gore and Bush in Florida could have been made up by any one of the 3rd party candidates dropping their race and asking supporters to vote Gore). But the most notable point that the doc makes is that Nader could never drop out of the race, it would have gone against the very core of his being: he ran as an alternative to the 2 party system, he is not influenced by special interests, he is one of the few people to stand behind the convictions of his soul. What makes it an interesting documentary is that we do see an inside look at the person (much more so than with Gore in An Inconvenient Truth): we see former allies struggle with their personal relationships yet continue to distance themselves from him (or in the case of Michael Moore: completely flip flop on their convictions. That footage will stain my opinion of him indelibly.) Or in the case of The Nation reporter who practically compares Nader to Hitler for his 2000 Presidential run, come off as completely illogical. It's just odd how when you look at a list of Nader's beliefs (and thus his campaign promises) how much sense they make and when you look at his track record, you see a man who will not back down—isn't this what we all wish our politicians could truly be like?

Think the CIA could use a few hamsters?

Came across this idea by way of mental_floss and boing boing today: a hamster wheel-powered shredder that allows the shredded pieces to fall into the cage and be used for hamster bedding. Ingenius! Just a prototype right now by designer Tom Ballhatchet (more views of the shredder are on the site). Petco are you listening?

Reading List: "Field Notes From a Catastrophe"

Off on a mini-road trip to Tucson and back last weekend, and stocked up on some aural stimulation for the drive. Thanks to the good folks at the Burbank Public Library I was able to procure Elizabeth Kolbert's "Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change" read by the delightfully dulcet-toned Hope Davis. First off, it's not the book you want to be listening to in the dark hours alone on the open highway in the Arizona desert, lest you abandon all hope and decide to swerve into a ditch for fear that there is no hope for the planet. But it is a remarkable work otherwise. Similar in shock value (though the science is "sound" despite the U.S. government's reluctance to admit it) to An Inconvenient Truth, it contains information that must be heeded. We cannot look away from the truth of global warming any longer. The most difficult fact to swallow is that even if tomorrow we began to curb emissions, change fuel efficiency standards, and reduce consumption, the damage is done. Short on actual solutions for the casual reader, I'm hoping Al Gore has a big fat checklist to give us when "Live Earth" rolls around on 7/07/07.

I May Need Help...

Okay, so is fixing a 10 year-old pair socks frugality or just plain crazy? Not the greatest socks to begin with, but thought about it and remembered I had bought some thin elastic many years ago when I was thinking of making some bracelets ($7.95 is the price tag on it, for 25 meters it appears, of which I probably had used maybe 1m) and lo and behold, it appears that it makes a pretty good elastic cuff on a pair of old socks. If anyone had any doubt that I lived through the depression before, I think they've all been converted.

The Magic of Nature

So each year I plant some tomato seeds and get a little crop of scraggly plants that provide my meager existence with some produce. This year I didn't do any planting on my own, but let nature do its thing by just letting what ever came up out of the ground take root; survival of the fittest, the heartiest (or is it hardiest? can never remember) plant wins. So imagine my surprise when a few weeks back I notice, these are not cherry tomatoes which I've planted for the last 2-3 years but Roma tomatoes which I planted back in another apartment, in another part of town, at least 3 years ago. (and very unsuccessfully at that, I got maybe 2 or 3 tomatoes off the plant and they weren't very good at that) Where did they come from? These seem very hearty (or hardy again); there's about 20 or 30 of them on the vine right now. Seem to be taking their time ripening though!

The Ink-Free Office of the Future

Trolling around on mental_floss yesterday and came across this interesting idea: Apparantly Xerox is developing a printer (and subsequently a paper) that requires no ink or toner. Wha!? Kind of a crazy concept to wrap one's head around, but it goes a little something like this: the "printer" uses a "coating" several microns thick to put your printed information on to the paper. Within 24 hours, the image has magically erased itself and the paper can be reused again for up to 50 times. Granted the test images they're showing look a lot like the old mimeograph copies of my childhood math tests, but I'm a sucker for any creative new technology that changes the way we think about using so much paper. Click here for an interview direct from a Xerox innovator (by way of The Future of Things) Stay tuned...

Pretty Pinkies

I've got a little toxic secret: I love me a good coat of nailpolish. Back in the day, it was the wilder, the better. Greens, blues, white, silver sparkles, alternating my school team's colors, I did it all. Unfortunately commercial nail solutions are among the most toxic products that you can put on your body. Worse yet, each application can remain in contact with our precious fingers (or toes) for up to a week. Fingernails are not inpenetrable, which means painting them up causes the solvents and chemicals to be absorbed into the body. For the past few years however, I've stripped off the polish and let my nails breathe to make up for the years of suffocating I'd put them through. Chemicals aside, these solvents do strengthen and smooth nails which is why after 3 years I thought it time to get myself a new bottle of nail polish. I had heard rumors of non-toxic alternatives and my search led me to Honeybee Gardens. While not "safe-enough-to-eat", the polishes are odor-free and have no formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalates or FD& C colors. Best yet, is the fact that these polishes require only rubbing alcohol to be removed—no more nailpolish remover! I went for a simple pink but there are 15 other colors to try too.

Air Quality pt. 47

Trying to muddle through Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World by Daniel Imhoff (c. 2005, Watershed Media) but having trouble concentrating on all the tiny words when it's just too nice outside. One passage stopped me cold though (and I must quote directly in order to give the same impact) p. 22 "A physicist at Boeing once described the pollution from the takeoff of a SINGLE 747 like 'setting the local gas station on fire and flying it over your neighborhood.'" Woah. Seriously? As someone who lives within a half mile of a major airport, this claim is especially troubling. Why does everyone seem to ignore the airplane pollution? Why is it such a dirty little secret? SUV's bad, but DC-10 okay?

Bee gone?

Okay folks, I’ll admit it, I’m kinda nervous about this whole bee thing. In Europe, Canada and about 25 states in the U.S. have reported a 40% loss of bees. (Even the name is extra daunting: “Colony Collapse Syndrome”) Most people will say “Less bees, that’s not too bad. Bees bug me.” Au contraire, mon frere. Bees are the backbone of the agriculture industry. The US produces $15 BILLION worth of crops each year that rely solely on bees to pollinate. Even worse is the fact that scientists don’t know what is causing the bees to disappear. (It seems like it’s bees not being created since there aren’t great quantities of dead bees lying around). The killer remains a mystery and at large.

After yesterday’s news that Los Angeles was at the top of the nation’s air pollution list, I was feeling kind of bummed since I fall into the category of those especially vulnerable (those who exercise heavily outside). But today a resource for those wanting to check the air quality before heading out to exercise. Air Now allows users to search by location to check the air quality index in your area. (Only detriment for me is that “Los Angeles is lumped into only one area, while anyone who lives there knows that the air quality can differ greatly between the San Gabriel Valley and the beaches). Know that if the AQI is higher than 151 that it’s probably a better idea to hit the treadmill or indoor pool that day instead.

L.A. #1! L.A. #1!

Congratulations Los Angeles! You were named the U.S. city with the worst air pollution! Actually it topped all three pollution category lists: short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution.
Tell the good folks of LA what they’ve won Bob! These types of pollution can contribute to heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks, especially for the most vulnerable: children, senior citizens, people who work or exercise outdoors and people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Rounding out the top ten are:
2. Pittsburgh, PA
3. Bakersfield, CA
4. Birmingham, AL
5. Detroit, MI
6. Cleveland, OH.
7. Visalia, CA
8. Cincinnati, OH
9. Indianapolis, IN
10. St. Louis, MO
And bravo to Houston, often on the list in the past didn’t qualify this year… that could be a good thing or a bad thing...

New Power from Old Energy

I recently blogged about the energy that we all produce just moving around and the possibility that one day sneakers might be equipped to harness that energy and store it in battery packs, but then I came across this posting on my new favorite website: Mental Floss about a flexible ramp that Hughes Research has created that can be placed in roadways to harness energy to power traffic signals. Called the "RP190 Power Ramp" (the video can be seen here, enjoy it's wonderful cheesy industrial video-ness and rocking soundtrack). I think it sounds like a great idea, considering it seems like a win-win situation: it calms traffic down while providing free energy. Dissenters however think that maybe wind turbines that are built into freeway jersey barriers (like the photo) might be a better use of funding. I'm kinda jazzed about these new ideas and wondering why they aren't in place already...what's the hold up people!

Earth Day, the Day After

I've been a bad bad girl this year, I allowed both Climate Control Day (or whatever they were calling it) and Earth Day to pass without much fanfare on my part. I had grand ambitions of standing on an overpass with a banner with a slogan that said something to the effect of "Hey you, dumbass, your car is killing the planet." (or something much sweeter and more diplomatic, but I have little energy for either emotion lately). Sigh, I shall try to be more earth-conscious in the coming weeks. I did manage to ride my bike to and from work yesterday (remarkably 28.7 miles, according to the cyclometer... I think it might be a weeee bit off there) so that at least, was something. I have a couple plans to get back on track... most notably bringing my own food containers/plates and silverware to work. I need to be more conscious of how much paper products I use and throw away. When going through the catering line, I hardly ever think twice about taking the styrofoam clam shell container and chucking it 10 minutes later after scarfing about 15 lbs of catered meal. Earth Day, everyday is the mantra... let's see if I can make it happen.

Goals and Aspirations

So I'm not sure how this slightly over-ambitious goal popped into my head the other day, but I have decided that I am going to attempt to ride my bicyclettes 1,000 miles this summer. I'm currently at about 31 miles. Rules of this contest are few, but it's always good to have something to strive for. Looks like the distance between home and new job will be about 9 miles, so if I just ride my bike to work 55 days, I should be all set. Okay, unfeasible, but there are 147 days between now and Labor Day, so chances are I can get a good 20 or 30 trips to work in that timeframe. The financial savings will be fairly minor, since it only costs about .08 cents for me to drive a mile (in terms of gasoline bills) $80 isn't a huge monetary savings. The ecological savings will also be fairly minor, since I only give off minimal emissions as well. Where I'm looking for the most gain is physical- hopefully this will gain me some new strength... somewhere. So stay tuned for the Summer Biking Challenge...

Oh the air outside is frightful...

Here in my little nook of the world, (next to the 5 Freeway, the train tracks and within spitting distance of the Burbank airport, at the base of the Burbank hills) the air quality today is somewhere between 1967 diesel school bus exhaust and Pennsylvania coal mine. Made even more noticeable by how clear and beautiful it was outside yesterday. Alas, I shall have to dig the gas mask out of storage.

Wish List: Power on the Go

I have my next item on my wish list... a
travel solar panel to power my laptop! Considering the quantity of time I spend on my laptop... this could be cut my production budget in half!

Holistic Vet, the sequel

So Adventure Kitty's follow up at the holistic vet was tinged with a bit of ... how shall we say, "sassiness". Alright, he attacked me in front of the vet. We left many dollars poorer and with the phone number of a "pet behaviorist" in lieu of being asked to return to their services. But interestingly enough, in the week since the vet visit, he has calmed down considerably and doesn't engage in his usual aggressive tendencies as much. Could the power of my positive thinking have altered his emotional state? Was it really that easy?