Everyone’s been talking the past year or so about global warming, going green, etc. In terms of housing, green construction standards (such as the US Green Building Council’s LEED) have been a hot topic in the U.S. and in other parts of the world (India’s wealthiest resident is building a 60-story “green” home in Mumbai). It’s all well and good that wealthy people like Al Gore are going green with their mansions, but what about the estimated 1/3 of the population that will be living in slums by 2030?
Architect Cameron Sinclair might tell you with a straight face that those people will make decent homes out of wealthier people’s “green” refuse. Sinclair, winner of 2006’s TED prize, started the Open Architecture Network to spread affordable housing throughout the world — a rather impressive goal. The projects in the network are rather interesting, to say the least. According to Sinclair, “Someone’s working on a $700 house. The Now House is a World War II retrofitted home that’s carbon-neutral… There’s a spinach-powered house, there’s a grow-your-own clinic, a clinic you eat. All of these projects have to be sustainable.” So even though the gap between rich and poor isn’t shrinking, it’s good to know that people like Cameron Sinclair are planning a future that’s better for everyone.
Having trouble figuring out which U.S. presidential candidate to root for? The USA Today “candidate match game” is an interesting way to resolve your candidate conundrum. Through a series of 11 questions, the game shows you the top three candidates for the next presidential election that best match your ideas and values. As you answer each question, colored bars change size to show which candidates match your position on key issues ranging from health care to the environment to the war in Iraq. At the end of the 11-question series, you’re given the opportunity to weigh each category on how important it is to you compared to the others. This might be the most interesting part: adding substantial weight to certain categories significantly changed some of my top contenders.
Unfortunately, none of the top three the game referred me to are even remotely considered true contenders in this tight race. Does this mean I’m vastly different from the average American voter/”caucus-goer”? Or does it mean that taking online polls isn’t a great way to find answers to extremely important dilemmas?
In the first episode of List-en up!, the Angie’s List podcast, Marion County, Indiana lead inspector Buddy Compton mentioned that store-bought lead-testing kits can be effective for testing surface paint, but they might not detect dangerous lead in deeper layers. The Consumer Reports on Safety blog tested several of these kits and posted their results here. You might find these results helpful before purchasing a kit yourself or deciding to have potentially poisonous paint professionally tested (hurray for alliteration!)
Just a thought. Heath Ledger apparently complained of sleepless nights while playing the role of the Joker in the next Batman movie, Dark Knight. Could playing such an insane psychopath actually drive someone over the edge and cause problems in their personal life? Many actors talk about “getting into the character” they’re playing so intensely that they feel as if they’re actually the person they’re acting as. To people like me who aren’t actors or involved in the film industry, it’s easy to watch a film and discount the emotional toll certain rolls take on actors. But given the amount of stress most people’s jobs cause them, I can see how playing a super-freak (I listened to Rick James the other day 
) could cause an actor to actually become one. But I guess I’ll never know, as I have no desire to act, nor acting talent, for that matter.
I wonder if Malcolm McDowell or Robert De Niro felt like they were minds were being negatively affected at any point while working on A Clockwork Orange or Taxi Driver, respectively…
I figured I should follow up to the wave of responses I got about yesterday’s post, in which I dared suggest that blogs are a waste of time (I actually didn’t get any responses… Surprise!)
I do realize that blogs serve some terrific purposes: they’re great for podcasting, marketing, and SEO (search engine optimization) (that last link actually has some great reasons to blog). But when every other link in a typical Google Search results in a blog post (seemingly half of which are useless), the very idea of blogs can become quite frustrating.
It also seems that with so many blogs (175,000 created a day, or 2 per second!), the internet will one day implode under the sheer weight of them all, like a black hole. But until that technological armageddon, I’ll gladly keep adding my two cents and hope someone decides to pick ‘em up.
I’ve written a few times about this season’s whale hunt by the Japanese, but have realized that the BBC’s Jonah Fisher is a much better source for it. He’s aboard Greenpeace ship Esperanza and is also keeping a journal of the events, so I’ll just link to his diary. Rather than me regurgitating what I’ve read elsewhere, you can go straight to the source.
That’s my problem with blogs: most of them are used simply for regurgitation of info that can almost always be found more easily and with better information elsewhere. This whole “news aggregator” phenomenon of Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, etc., etc., etc. often leads viewers/readers to blogs with summaries of other stories, so what’s the point? I guess blogs are good for diary-like entries; they’re good for friends and family to check out and stay updated; they’re good for illegally posting copyrighted content. But what else are they good for? My guess is absolutely nothing (UNHH - say it again!) Oh wait, they are good for one more thing: wasting time.
This is a little late (meant to post before the holidays), but good nonetheless.
Almost every time my wife and I take our three rather large dogs (Diva’s pictured, as puppy, to the left) to a friend or family member’s house, I grapple with whether or not I really want to deal with them (the dogs, not the people.) They can be a lot of hassle and work, but in the end, they usually win. So I try to be as considerate as possible to our hosts, though it’s not always the easiest thing to do. This New York Times article has some entertaining stories and tips about taking your pets on vacation with you, especially on holidays to friends’ or relatives’ houses. And though I do refer to my dogs as members of my family, I hope I’m not nearly as extreme as some of the owners in the story. An excerpt: Continue reading ‘Taking your dog on holiday/vacation? Some things to consider…’
A quick update on my post about Japanese whaling last year: According to the BBC, Australia has sent a large customs ship, as well as an Airbus plane, to monitor Japanese whaling activities and collect photos and video surveillance in preparation for a possible legal battle against Japan’s whaling practices. Go Aussies!
This CNN article is about my generation’s increased expectations from our employers. Apparently, we want more money, more vacation time, and better benefits than past generations. Who wouldn’t want those things?
My opinion is that the young people of my generation (why’s it called “Gen Y,” anyway?!? How about “Gen Thundercats“?) were raised with certain expectations, and we’re just following through on what was reinforced throughout our lives: in the US-of-A, a good education and hard work will land you a dream job, good pay, and good benefits for life. Unfortunately, even as corporate profits rise and the rich get richer, the economy’s taken some severe hits (recession, anyone?) that are affecting my generation’s ability to secure the jobs we once thought were ours for the taking. And with rising oil prices and the coming of peak oil sure to drastically affect the economy, the term “job security” might be going the way of Arctic Ice.
According to this Wired.com article, global warming might not only be causing extinctions, water shortages, and hotter days: it might also be causing depression. According to philosopher Glenn Albrecht, his fellow Australians have shown increased symptoms of depression as their country has changed for the worse due to global warming. Albrecht calls this “solastalgia”: a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home.
The article mentions that though many of us are modern globe-hoppers with all kinds of gadgets to keep us in touch with our family and friends at home, we’re still closely tied to where we live — we haven’t evolved that much.
I can see the effects of global warming, or at least its causes, where I live: polluted waters, warmer days, dirtier skies. And I know for a fact that these things don’t make me happy.
