A Rascal of Boys

The tradition of using collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals is at least 300 years old. More formally known as "terms of venery" these collective nouns were actually taught to the children of nobles and the ruling class as a means of distinguishing themselves from the commoners.

Sometimes the term used will apply to a group only in a certain context. A group of geese on the ground are referred to as a "gaggle" while, in flight, it is a "skein". Ironically, a group of Baboons is referred to as a "congress".

Some examples:

A mimsy of birds
A rascal of boys
A kaleidoscope of butterflies
A stumble of drunks

The coining of such terms is also a popular "parlor" or car game. So we're announcing a contest
today to come up with one or more terms for the following across three different websites. The prize for each is a signed Mindscape image from our Mindscape photo blog, valued at $295.

Please suggest a term for each or any of the following:

1. A gathering of [name of any public figure]____________ supporters.
2. A friendly gathering of "talking heads" on "Hardball with Chris Matthews"
3. A screaming, blathering group of disagreeing "talking heads" on "Hardball with Chris Matthews"
4. A group of expatriot Obama supporters
5. A gathering of Sarah Palin supporters
6. A group of Florida voters
7. A group of Minnesota voters
8. A group of Bill O'Reilly viewers forced to watch Keith Olbermann
9. A group of Keith Olbermann viewers forced to watch Bill O'Reilly
10. Add your own group!

Submissions may be by email or as a comment added to this or any related post. Winners will be announced February 14, 2008.

Natural Gas and Propane: The Difference

Propane is a natural gas but Natural Gas is not propane. Propane is a more highly refined form of natural gas with approximately 2 - 2.5 times the BTU power of natural gas. Propane combustion is much cleaner than gasoline combustion, though not as clean as natural gas combustion.

The difference between propane, or liquid petroleum gas (LPG), and natural gas comes down to their portability, compression, efficiency, and cost. However, there is generally no difference when it comes to performance in appliances for heating, cooking, or drying. The mixture of natural gas is comprised of propane, along with other gases like methane, butane, ethane, and pentane.

One difference in the physical properties of propane and natural gas is how easily they liquefy and transport. Propane turns into a liquid at —46° F (-43° C), so it's easy to compress and carry in a portable tank. You can buy compressed propane at many gas stations as well as agricultural feed stores like Agway. It's decompressed by a valve at the source of use, such as a barbeque grill.

Natural gas does not compress easily. Which explains why it is most commonly distributed via a gasline.

Propane is heavier than air which is heavier than natural gas. Both natural gas and propane will dissipate into the air if they are released in an open enough environment and both can pose an explosive risk if they concentrate enough and are ignited. However, because propane is heavier, it tends to fall to the ground, collect, and pose a greater explosive risk. On the other hand, because natural gas is lighter than air, it tends to rise and dissipate into the air, posing less of an explosive risk.

Wash Day is Fun Day

by Alexander Lee, Reprinted with permission.

Note: This is a snippet of a longer piece. Found here.

For Ma and other pioneer women, each day had
its own proper chores. Ma used to say,

"Wash on Monday,

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday,

Rest on Sunday."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

Since 1945, General Electric and other large appliance manufacturers have spun a myth that all new appliances will liberate you from the drudgery of housework and make your life easier.[1] Today, Americans work harder and take less vacation than any of the nations to which we normally compare ourselves.[2] Groups like the Center for a New American Dream and my organization, Project Laundry List, have been questioning this for over a decade and offering an alternative perspective.

 

An ad from GE (part of which is pictured here) tantalized women of the post-World War II era, "Wash day is fun day. In go the dirty clothes...and out they come, cottons ready for ironing; synthetics ready to wear!" One can imagine Rosie the Riveter stretching her feet out in a 1948 Levittown home and imagining that the long, grueling war of housework was finally over. Alas, this is not the case.

 

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that we view all sorts of gadgets as necessities which we recently regarded as luxury items—the microwave, the dishwasher, and home air-conditioner, for example. They found, "more than eight-in-ten (83%) now think of a clothes dryer as a necessity, up from six-in-ten (62%) who said the same a decade ago..."[3] These statistics are staggering and tell an interesting story.

---

[1] Town-builder Levitt previews the new 9 ½-foot wonder kitchen by General Electric, GE ad, http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/lg_jpegs/GE-ad.jpg (last visited October 30, 2007).

[2] Don Mekrund, Americans Work Harder and Go Without Vacations, http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0728-02.htm (last visited October 30, 2007).

[3]Pew Research Center, Luxury or Necessity? Things We Can’t Live Without: The List Has Grown in the Past Decade, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/323/luxury-or-necessity (last visited October 30, 2007).

Sharon Dugan, Basketmaker

NH Trees - Shaker Traditions
Green Gifts

Sharon Dugan is a nationally recognized black ash basketmaker who has been creating baskets for over twenty years.

Initially learning Appalachian type baskets from her mother, Sharon worked in reed and natural found materials. After discovering ash splint and Shaker design in the early 80’s she experimented with that material and in 1987 left the world of advertising and graphic arts to study with local ash basketmakers including the well known Martha Wetherbee.

In 1997, feeling confident enough with the quality of her work, she applied to and was juried into the highly respected League of New Hampshire Craftsmen where she is currently a member of the standards committee and a basket juror.

Sharon’s baskets have been exhibited in many competitions and exhibits across the country winning numerous awards including the Handweavers Guild of America Award for her piece “Fool The Eye” in the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild’s Fiber Celebration 2005 and Best Traditional Design for the piece “Pueblo Tapestry” in the Living with Crafts exhibit at the League of New Hampshire’s annual craft fair in 2006.

Consistently chosen to be included in Early American Life’s Annual Directory of 200 Traditional Craftsmen, Sharon is currently making Shaker and traditional baskets as well as more contemporary pieces with black ash on her own molds with her own birch handles and rims.

She strives, as did the Shakers, for consistent quality and integrity of design and construction.

Sharon Dugan, Basketmaker • 54 Oak Hill Road • Sanbornton, New Hampshire • 03269 •
603 528-5120 • sdugan@metrocast.netThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it • www.sharondugan.com

Hanging Out with Project Laundry List

Changing the World Through Clotheslines – One Household at a Time

Alex Lee is on a mission. A mission to restore the clothesline and to save the planet. Project Laundry List uses words, images, and advocacy to educate people about how simple lifestyle modifications, including air-drying one’s clothes, reduce our dependence on environmentally and culturally costly energy sources.

www.laundrylist.org

Project Laundry List Blog

The Eastern Larch

Most children learn that conifers are often called "evergreens" because they don't loose all their needles in the fall. However there is one beautiful exception to this rule. . . the Larch also known as the Tamarack. Every fall the Larch paints the landscapes it inhabits with a beautiful yellow as it loses its needles.  More

Purchase Larches & Geese Mindscape

Useful Links & Resources:

Picnik is an online photo editor. Picnik makes your photos fabulous with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart’s content, then get creative.

www.picnik.com

Shutterfly: Give unique, custom Photo Gifts for all occasions.

Shutterfly is an affordable, high quality and reliable resource for printing your images and all those extra cool things that you have thought about. Photo books, calendars, cards, etc.

About the Eastern Larch aka Tamarack

Botanical Lampshades

Nature’s Beauty Illuminating Your Home Let the flowers pick you with a Botanical Lampshade; handmade in Sandwich, NH for over 50 years. These one of a kind, hand-crafted shades with pressed flowers come alive with color when illuminated, brightening your home with nature's beauty for years of enjoyment. Jennifer Allen is the fourth “generation” owner of this extraordinary shop featuring technique and design standards that have been passed from one craftsman to another. Custom work is a specialty, and over 200 different sizes are available. Call 284-7468 for an appointment at the Sandwich studio, or visit the League of NH Craftsmen store in North Conway to see an excellent selection of lampshades and bases. Prices range from $28.00 for a nightlight, to about $100.00 for the largest sizes. Lampshades can also be ordered from their website.

More

Browsing the Web

ProduceGuru.com
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ProduceGuru is your portal to everything you need to know about fruits and vegetables. Here, you’ll find answers to all kinds of questions – from why you should eat more produce to how to prepare endive.

A handy fruit or vegetable pull-down tab at the top allows for quick navigation, or type the name in the search tool and voila!

Once you enter the world of your chosen produce item, you’ll find oodles of background and variety information, nutrition specifics, serving sizes, preparation ideas and care and handling tips.

Looking for a specific nutrient? Just use the search tool to locate the nutrient and the veggies or fruits associated with it.

ProduceGuru also carries a broad look at the ever-changing realm of news related to produce. There’s also answers to the great questions of life like “How do I get me son to stop feeding his peas to the dog under the table?” . . . well probably not phrased in that way but you get the picture.

Get started on your tasty trip by pointing your browser to www.ProduceGuru.com.

 

The World Wind Energy Institute

The World Wind Energy Institute (WWEI) is a unique educational network dedicated to renewable energy training and technology transfer. The network is comprised of seven existing specialized training and research centres on five continents. The WWEI offers a ten-month global education program in wind and integrated renewable energy technology for postgraduate students from around the world.

www.wwei.info

FINDSOLAR.COM

Since its launch Findsolar.com online directory has linked thousands of home and small business owners around the country to qualified solar energy system installers serving their area. The web site also provides assistance in estimating costs and output of solar systems for hot water, electricity, and pool or spa heating.

Findsolar.com is a joint partnership between the American Solar Energy Society, Solar Electric Power Association, Energy Matters LLC, and the U.S. Department of Energy. The site serves as a convenient, user-friendly means for homeowners and businesses to learn about incentives and the economics of solar energy and to find qualified professionals who can install and service systems. For no charge, listed installers receive instant email notification of sales leads that are targeted to match their company's capabilities and geographic area. www.findsolar.com

 

 

Global Perspective in Miniature.

The late Donella Meadows, widely acknowledged to have been the lead writer of the landmark “Limits to Growth” in 1990 proposed an exercise to put the world into perspective in the palm of your hand. In 1990 she published the “State of the Village Report” under the title "Who lives in the Global Village?" Her report was based on a village of 1000. She asked her readers and students and those to whom she spoke to imagine what the world would look like if it were a village of 1000 people. A few years later, according to Wikkipedia, “David Copeland, a surveyor and environmental activist, revised the report to reflect a village of 100, and distributed 50,000 copies of a Value Earth poster at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.”

Today this conceptual framework is employed as an ongoing educational tool by the Miniature Earth Project. 

According to the Miniature Earth web site, which employs the 100 people model: 74 people would come from Asia and Africa, while just 8 would come from North America. 30 people would live without electricity, 16 would have inadequate access to potable water, and 13 would be hungry or suffer from malnutrition. More than half of the population would live on less than US $2 per day.

www.miniature-earth.com

A Video depiction of this concept is also found on Youtube 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C-u6kdHuXE

 You can read many of Donella Meadow’s columns reprinted at: www.pcdf.org/meadows/

 

 

“The Road to Vegetaria”
The “Vegetarians in Paradise” web magazine is a very useful website for those thinking about making the switch to a meatless lifestyle. Their Vegetarian Basics 101 has been approved by the USDA as a resource for inclusion in its USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center Vegetarian Resource List. Also included in that resource list is their feature story The Road to Vegetaria.

www.vegparadise.com/basics.html

Incentives for Going  Green

DSIRE is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.

www.dsireusa.org/

Adagio Tea

The Boston Globe says: "Loose tea can be, well, cumbersome -- all that fussing with steeping and disposing of the leaves. Tea bags, an American invention of the early part of the last century, are much easier. Lucky for us, Adagio Teas is putting out varieties such as Dragonwell green tea, Ti Kuan Yin and Jasmine Pearls oolong teas, and Silver Needle white tea, along with Golden Yunan and English breakfast black teas. The tea comes in mesh pouches of loose leaves, enclosed in sealed foil packets. The mesh is triangular-shaped, making it easy to pull out of the cup without an unattractive paper tab."

Adagio Teas - Best Tea Online

Brando - Protect & Charge

Brando is a solar powered charge leather case for iPhone/iPhone 3G - not only do you get to fire up up your iPhone wherever you are but it also offers the protection you need for your investment. Retails for about $48.

Order Solar Products Directly from the Web

"Thinking Outside the Bottle"

Plastic Bottle Bans Pick Up Steam

Latest Science and Social Rumblings Spell Very Bad News For Bottling Companies

On the heels of a recent NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) report stating that less than 13% of plastic water bottles are being recycled and that the quality of tap water in the US and Canada is at least as safe as what comes out of a “far-from-carbon-neutral” plastic bottle, efforts to curtail or outright eliminate bottled water and sodas are gathering steam.

In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino has pledged to "Think Outside the Bottle," and will curtail and eliminate the use of bottled water whenever possible in city procurement. Joining with him are a growing number of cities and towns across the continent and a rapidly expanding number of private restaurants.

“This is one of the fastest moving environmental causes that we have seen in a long time,” said Wayne King, publisher of the blog Greener Minds. “It promises to sweep across the globe and those bottlers who are caught sucking their thumbs instead of acting are going to be in deep trouble.”

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King said that in the US and Canada alone this represents a multi-billion dollar industry. “Either these companies are going to innovate and get on board the greenstream or others are going to come up with alternatives that suck their profits dry. It represents an amazing opportunity for eco-entrepreneurs and a huge challenge for both the bottlers and the folks who make the product inside the bottles – who ought to be just as worried about this.”

King predicts the next wave of bans will be on college campuses where students will drive the changes. “A whole lot of colleges and universities have very lucrative “pouring rights” contracts with major soft drink manufacturers and bottlers. This will represent a substantial income stream for many big educational institutions and therefore a huge challenge for these institutions. But if the bottlers think that the big bucks are likely to buy them the support of the administrations, they should remember what happened on campuses when the anti-apartheid divestment movement took root.”

Recent News on this Topic

Restaurants Move Toward Bottled Water Ban

Boston Channel.com, USA - Apr 3, 2008

Turning off the tap for bottled water

London Free Press, Canada - Mar 22, 2008

Plastic bottles are made of fossil fuels and chemicals, refined and manufactured by big oil companies, the institute goes on to say.

NY county mulls bottled water ban

USA Today - Mar 13, 2008

One supporter, Neal Lewis, of the Long Island Neighborhood Networks, noted that the manufacture of plastic bottles consumes more than 17 million barrels of oil annually.

Despite the Hype, Bottled Water is Neither Cleaner nor Greener than Tap Water

by Brian Howard

E/The Environmental Magazine

Taking Your Office Green - 10 Tips

Its all about the triple bottom line. Embracing the bottom line in terms of economics, environmental, and social values.

Your Green offices will embrace all of these values and your boss will love you for it because in addition to making the company look good, it will save money too.

Work with a certified waste management company and ask them to provide you with advice for minimizing waste, and where possible gleaning some returns for your efforts. Many companies, notably Waste Management, Inc., have created special e-cycling programs for computers and electronic waste as well as

Buy post-consumer recycled content paper. Many of the big dogs in office supply are now offering recycled paper as an option including Staples, Office Depot, Quill, Target, as well as some of the specialty companies like Dolphin Blue, Monadnock Paper, The Green Office and others.

Use recyclable products in your bathrooms and kitchen areas.

Get an energy audit. In many cases the utility company that provides your electricity also provides programs for auditing your energy use. At the very least you can be sure that they can refer you to a professional in your area.

Institute programs to encourage carpooling among employees.

Institute programs to provide flex-time and telecommuting. Putting your company’s primary databases and working documents on the web using an intranet will allow your workers to work from any locale with broadband access. Several companies now provide low cost web-based intranet, conferencing and meeting software solutions: Webex, GoToMeeting, TalkPoint, Phase2 and others have some very affordable options.

Surge protectors do more than just preventing surges. If you have appliances plugged into surge protectors shutting off the surge protector or unplugging it entirely will prevent leakage that can really add up. At the very least, make it company policy to shut down computers, turn off lights and appliances after hours.

Look for EnergyStar rated appliances and office equipment.

Limit paper products in the company kitchen.

Purchase renewable energy credits for your office, and offset your air travel, gas mileage and more.

Carbon Offsetting

Carbon Offsets 

Carbon offsetting is the act of reducing ("offsetting") greenhouse gas emissions in one place to compensate for their production in another. In other words an individual pays for emission/carbon reductions elsewhere to compensate for some personal action taken. For example, when you travel by airplane somewhere the emissions generated by your action can be calculated. You can offset those emissions by purchasing carbon credits elsewhere.

It is important to note here that we are addressing carbon offsets, NOT emission offsets, which are governed by a strict legal framework. Emissions trading (see below) is an act that is legally defined and strictly regulated by various government entities. carbon offsetting is a voluntary act.

Purchasing offsets is also a good way to support the development of renewable sources of energy that have high front end costs but carry the promise of long term cumulative benefits to the environment. For example, development of a wind farm may have an initial cost that makes it uncompetitive in the current marketplace but with support from individuals purchasing offsets the cost can be voluntarily subsidized through conscientious consumerism.

Carbon Offset Resources - Be a part of the solution, offset your emmissions!

The Climate Trust - A nonprofit organization: The Climate Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit working towards a more stable climate. Their mission is to provide climate change solutions by purchasing high quality greenhouse gas (GHG) offsets from projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and advancing sound offset policy. 

CarbonFund.org: Carbonfund.org is leading the fight against global climate change, making it easy and affordable for any individual, business or organization to eliminate their climate impact and hastening the transformation to a clean energy future.

TerraPass: TerraPass is a company with a mission to put practical tools for fighting climate change in the hands of ordinary citizens. Recognizing their success, last year Ford Motor Company chose TerraPass in a first-of-its-kind partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now Expedia has picked TerraPass for another pioneering program dedicated to positive environmental action. 

Cool Products TripAlyizer

We haven't a clue where the name for this little piece of software came from but for iPhone and iPod Touch users it's a very cool add on. 

TripAlyizer assists you in saving gas at the pump by analyzing your driving habits and giving you an efficiency score. TripAlyizer takes advantage of the unique features of the iPhone GPS to determine speed, direction, distance traveled, cost per trip, time spent and an efficency percentage of each trip. TripAlyizer takes into account your driving speed, your rate of acceleration, your total idle time, total time spent within your cars "sweet spot" and number of stops to messure your efficiency. This application also provides a means to store your car information, like mileage, VIN number, scheduled maintenance, tire pressure (yes it does matter!), Insurance information e.t.c.

More information

Ibadan Dryer Mindscape

Clothesline Photographed in Ibadan, Nigeria

The image above was captured in a courtyard in Ibadan, Nigeria. It was digitally manipulated to emphasize the most important elements of the image and de-emphasize those less important. I call these images "Mindscapes" as opposed to landscapes or cityscapes. 

Purchase this image