Encyclopedia of Life

Check out the Encyclopedia of Life here.

Earth (Every)Day

In celebration of Earth Day, I wanted to share a list of ways to make your life a little greener. Although there is no doubt that Earth Day is a wonderful holiday to spread awareness, one day of not driving your car or not buying fast food is not going to solve anything. It needs to become a lifestyle. And guess what? It's actually pretty easy! These little changes to your everyday life can eventually make a huge impact.

I found this list on the Worldwatch Institute's website and picked out the 5 easiest, most practical ways to live a greener life (but you might as well check out the list and just do all of them, right?).

1. Buy used.
• Whether you’ve just moved to a new area or are looking to redecorate, consider a service like craigslist or FreeSharing to track down furniture, appliances, and other items, rather than buying them new. Check out garage sales and thrift stores for clothing and other everyday items.
• Use your creativity in gift giving, including making homemade gifts, donating to a good cause, or even regifting. (And gift green, in general.)
• Your purchasing habits have a real impact, for better or worse. When making new purchases, make sure you know what’s “Good Stuff” and what isn’t.
2. Buy local.
• Shop at your local farmers’ market. Though the offerings can be more expensive, you can generally count on a higher quality product—and the entire purchase price goes directly to the farmer. Buying any goods produced locally saves energy by reducing the fossil fuels needed to transport food and other items across the country and around the globe.
3. Add one meatless meal per week. (or more!)
   
• While strict vegetarianism isn’t for everyone, even the most devout carnivores can cut back on meat consumption without cramping their style—and save money in the process. Industrial meat production requires huge energy inputs and creates noxious waste problems. The proliferation of factory farms is damaging the environment, and the global nature of the industry creates conditions that promote the spread of diseases such as avian flu, potentially costing society billions.
4. Think twice about new electronics.
• E-waste from discarded cell phones and computers is a growing environmental problem. Mounds of electronic refuse are being shipped abroad illegally for ‘disassembly’ by workers with little protection against the mercury and other toxic substances they contain.
• Keep your electronics as long as possible and dispose of them responsibly when the time comes.
• Buy higher-quality items and don’t give in to ‘psychological obsolescence’ marketing campaigns.
• Recycle your cell phone and support good causes at the same time!
5. Use your local library and other public amenities.
• Borrowing from libraries, instead of buying personal books and movies, saves money and printing resources. Consider donating the money saved to your local library.

Ambitions for My Next Life

After viewing Nova's program on cuttlefish, Kings of Camouflage, (thanks Ian!) I became conscious of a significant personal aspiration, something that could possibly alter my future well being: I want to be reincarnated into a cuttlefish (but not a Flamboyant one. Nothing against flamboyancy, I would just rather have a cuttle bone and perhaps be a bit bigger.)
I'm not sure if reincarnation is something you're allowed to have a direct say in, but if there is a possibility in any way, shape or form, I'm making it official today, here on G&C. Even though they are related to slugs, cuttlefish are without a doubt the coolest animal on Earth, or at least one of the coolest (I have a soft spot for anything that flies, minus insects). Who wouldn't want to have the ability to change color and texture on command? And in the blink of an eye? So many possibilities, it's mind boggling! They also have amazing eyesight.
Plus, it is comforting to know that I wouldn't be trapped inside a creature that is... how shall we say... stupid. Apparently, cuttlefish can learn. Quickly. And, I don't mean to boast, but as a cuttlefish I feel I could prove to be a rational, perspicacious little cuttlefish. I could help to influence the establishment of the first cuttlefish colony. I would revolutionize cuttlefish life as a whole!!
Although... they can only live for like, 2 years or something. I'm not sure if I can learn all that is needed in order to colonize an entire species in that amount of time. Maybe I'm being unrealistic.
But hey! At least I could hypnotize my food.

a little bad news... LOTS of Good News

There are a few issues I would like to address.
First, coming back to my post on words for snow in Inuit languages, it appears the future hope of putting an end to this misguided fact will simply evolve into something new, never actually being rectified.

A sad fact to come to terms with, but at least I am solaced with the knowledge that you readers recognize the truth of the situation.

Despite that, my spirits were lifted upon the discovery of LibraryThing. If you're a reader or if you want to pretend you are, this site is for you. It's like the delicious of libraries. Here, you create your own library, organizing books you've read or are reading, get recommendations from the site or other users, AND if you have a blog or website LibraryThing has a widget that will tell your readers what you're current reading interests are. (I plan on getting mine on here ASAP!)

My last two issues relate to recent artsy findings, the first being a music video by The Whitest Boy Alive. Just a few months ago I heard about this band through friends and have been listening to them quite regularly ever since. I never would have imagined their video to come out like this, but after seeing it, I feel that the music and animation fit together surprisingly well.



My other artsy finding is this really awesome Ukrainian graffiti. How wonderful it would be if all graffiti looked as outlandish and quirky as these masterpieces. Walking to school would be so wonderfully quizzical!

Oh, and of course my last bit of good news: HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN!

The Future of the Past

According to the futurologists of the 1970's, our current generation should be much further along in creating those self-contained cities. I just found Buckminster Fuller and Paolo Soleri's Sea City 2000 concept of 1979. What are we still doing living in houses, taking up all this space?? We're supposed to be living in floating cities!
I really liked the idea behind their concept, and wanted to find out if anything like it has actually been done or is in the works.
The most interesting thing I found was the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, a proposed project over Tokyo Bay. It's 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza and would house 750,000 people! Crazy! I hope to see something like this come into existence before I die.
I guess this just goes to show, you really can't predict what's gonna happen.