Save the world? You gotta try....

To counter the pessimism of the past few posts, I thought I'd better do something positive - or at least a way that we could do something positve.

It's simple really.

Buy and install Compact Flourescent Lamps (CFLs) in your home. This article explains in very readable detail just how they could help you save money, but also save wastage of natural resources which would then lessen our impact on the environment.

From the article:
"Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity. What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads."

Interesting.

You can also read about CFLs on wikipedia.

While I'm not sure we could save the world so easily - at least we could delay the end... slightly.


picture used courtesy of wikipedia

Scary stuff (aka "First they came for my t-shirt")

In an age where you can be arrested in an airport for breathing the wrong way comes this latest stupidity.

A man was nearly arrested for wearing a t-shirt with Arabic script on it. Read the whole 'sad but true' tale here.

So what's next, eh? It may get to the point where we have to provide a complete transcript of everyone we know, have met, will likely meet, where we've lived, worked, travelled, slept, ate, drunk, and so on along with a DNA sample, blood sample and hair sample. Maybe that's the idea. Maybe it's already happening.

Basically I think it goes like this. If you're travelling in the USA, don't think and don't wear anything with any kind of design on it. Whoopie - it's Chairman Mao's vision all over again!

Groovy tunes for all....

I have to tell you about this guy, Chenard Walcker. He's a French artist, but don't let that put you off! He's a sound artist more than anything, although he does all his own artwork too. The music is a complete mashup (but he was doing it before 'mashup' became a concept) of jazz, funk, ethnic sounds and grooves, as well as anything else that happens to sound good.

Guess what? It sounds good!

The best thing is that all his CDs are available for free download under the Creative Commons licence. Basically you can download all you like - just don't sell it!

It's all over (pt. 2)

Web comic cum prophecy? Scary stuff from "Shooting War". There's something familiar about how this one is playing out. I'll be waiting to see how the writers involve the Asian sphere in their doomsday scenario.

If they aren't planning to do that... well... they should. Things could detonate as easily here as they could anywhere else right now.

It's all over (pt. 1)

We have until 2016. That's when the Greenland Ice Sheet slips into the sea and it rises seven (that's 7) metres. An authority no less than the U.S. Navy Survey believes this to be the case.

Read about it.

What does that mean for us that will be still alive? The article mentions five points:

1) "Most coastal cities would become uninhabitable for many...."
2) "Enormous areas of the most productive agricultural land would be underwater..."
3) "The eastern US and Europe may become hotter or colder or more storm-ridden...."
4) "Removing the weight of the ice cover ... will have an impact on ... quake and ... on volcanic activity..."
5) "... people, in their millions, will be on the move for survival....."

Sounds like fun. And people wonder why my wife and I don't have any children.

This book will change your life.

I'm officially giving up beef-pattie based hamburgers from all fast food shops and restaurants.

Many reasons, but I feel for the sake of my health, as well as my sanity, the choice must, and has been made.

The main reason is because I finally read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I must tell you that if you haven't read this book, you should. It could change your life - like mine. I won't bother to to give away what's in the book, since you should get it for yourself. Besides, there's too much in there to put up here without basically retelling the whole thing.

Now I've made this decision, what's the rest of the world doing? Well, the the U.S.A. is the home of fast food, as well as the focus or Schlosser's book, you'd think that it may have made some impact over there; Americans would be eating less fast food and more healthy varieties of nourishment, right?

WRONG.

May I present the BK Quad Stacker. It's from Burger King (Hungry Jacks in Australia) and is a monster 1000 calorie leviathan of a burger. Four patties, four slices of cheese, eight slices of bacon, creamy sauce (made from goodness knows what) and NO vegetables at all.

Of course, being America, there are bigger and errmmmm... "better" versions available.

As for me, if I do end up eating fast food, I'll be sticking to chicken burgers... perhaps. Or the rice burgers at Mosburger.


the picture of the quadburger is from mcchicken at flickr