10 posts from June 2009

I just spent the weekend in Tahoe with some extended family and I can’t tell you how beautiful it is up there, I mean I now know why they consider it one of the ten most beautiful places in the world to take a vacation.  But this got the conservationist in me thinking, what if my unborn children won’t get to see this beauty because of the constant development going on all over the state and all over the country for that reason.  That is why I like the battle cry that they say up in Tahoe, “Keep Tahoe Blue.”  But I think this extends beyond just the lake, this is a rally cry for the entire country we need to keep all of our waterways blue and all of our pastures green to make sure that we protect this land for our children and our children’s children.

This has to be one of the most awesome displays of how nature can just take the world we try to create and just rip it to pieces.  Check out this video below of nature just destroying this road in a matter of minutes.

I didn’t think there were any town as crazy as SF and as liberal as SF, but apparently Seattle is trying to give the Bay Area a run for it’s money with the fun and liberating Fremont Fair.  Apparently it is a big party that has a huge naked bike run in true heathen fashion.  I ever been but I did see some interesting pictures on flickr…  Looks like it could be a lot of fun for some SF people to get up there and see if Seattle is starting to be more like the Bay Area…

Getting rid of plastic bags has been a great movement in this country and I applaud the efforts that people in the bay area and in select areas around the country are making, but it is not enough.  We all need to get organic grocery shopping bags like the one below to reduce waste in landfill and start getting people into the renewable mindset.  So get one of these cost-effective bags and do your part to start saving the environment.

100% Organic Canvas Grocery Tote Bag by GSquared
Make Bags with www.zazzle.ca

So according to this article from Discovery.com the Earth is losing atmosphere faster than Mars and Venus which is kind of crazy since our magnetic field is strong than theirs.  Of course this is nothing to be alarmed about since it will take like 15 billion years for our atmosphere to completely dissipate, but it is still an interesting thought.  We are really nothing more than organisms that found this plant while in transition from a hot gassy rock to a cooling rock to a barren rock.  Makes you kind of wonder what other civilizations have started, thrived and fallen in similar situations throughout time and space.

Here is the article:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/06/02/solar-wind-atmosphere.html

If you're planning a vacation to California make sure you add the Gilroy Garlic Festival to your list of must-do activities.  Its fun to enjoy everything from your normal garlic burgers to garlic ice cream and garlic cakes.  They basically do everything you can think of with garlic.  A tip for those that haven't been before.  Buy your tickets in advance, because it will sell out and show up at least 30min before it starts because the heat and traffic of the later part of the day is just unbearable.  I like going in the mornings and then going home to fall into a nice garlic nap for the rest of the day.  Trust me it is a festival worth checking out.

According to a new study from the University of Technology in Australia, printing can be just as bad for your health as smoking cigarrettes.  This is a shocker to me for sure.  Read the quote below:

"Particles have been shown beyond any doubt to be a health hazard," said study author Lidia Morawska, a physicist at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Inhaling fine particles can cause health problems ranging from respiratory irritation to cardiovascular problems and cancer, depending on the particle composition, Morawska said.

So why do we even need printing anymore?  I think we should get rid of the waste it generates and switch everything over to electronic.  Not only will that solve this obvious health hazard, but it will also save a few trees here and there.

This is what a 3rd world country is all about.  Extreme poverty next to extreme wealth.  It's not that the money isn't in the country it is that the money is held by the few and not given to the many.  If we don't wake up in the united states this is what our country will be like if it isn't already.

So Gavin only recently announced his bid to become the next governor of California and already artists are getting behind him to design cool t-shirts to share with the world and help support the campaign. Since I am a Northern California native, I love the world hella, so I hella love this t-shirt design for Newsom.

Newsom, a hella good governor by gavinnewsomtshirts
Browse more Gavin Newsom T-Shirts

Recently San Francisco was found to be the town that does the most recycling in the united states.  Go SF!  Gavin wrote an article for CleanTechnica.com about this improvement for the city by the bay.  It is a good article and you all should read it here (http://cleantechnica.com/2009/05/12/recycling-our-way-to-a-more-sustainable-future/), but there is one quote that i thought was particularly interesting:

A few years back we developed—along with the company Recology, our partner in recycling — an innovative program to collect food scraps and turn them into organic soil. Local farms and vineyards now use this soil to grow crops, which are then sold back to consumers in San Francisco. We close the loop locally.

SF is not just recycling the normal paper and plastic stuff, they are also recycling food scraps which is a great source of energy for growing plants.  It's this kind of innovation that we need to bring to the state and the rest of the country if we are going to turn this planet around.