Unbelievably Horrifyingly Funny (or scary, if they win)

Please forgive the poor presentation (I never did figure out how to insert video clips reliably). This pair of video clips is worth the awkward step of clicking on each link.

First, watch this Saturday Night Live skit of the Palin-Couric interview.

Now watch this segment of the real interview.

I had read that SNL used Palin's words verbatim...but I never imagined how many!!

"Windex" Lakes

These are the Joffrey Lakes, just north of Whistler, British Columbia, where we were recently hiking. Their color is so beautiful, but can it be natural? We kept hesitating to totally enjoy the "windex blue" color of Joffrey Lakes, just in case we came home and discovered that the blue color is caused by acid rain or something equally awful. But phew, the lovely color is caused by glacial silt, which is high in quartz.

Lower Joffrey Lake

Middle Joffrey Lake

Upper Joffrey Lake

Results 1 - 10 of about 6,240 for sarah palin tina fey

Ha ha ha ... and I thought I had an original thought!

Tulip Magnolias

I've been wanting to do this for years, and today was the day. I went for a bike ride to photograph these trees in bloom. As nice as they look here, they are even better in person.

Enjoy.

Mystery burrow

OK. Here's a challenge. Does anyone know who might have made this hole?

I found a bunch of them on a recent hike in Rancho San Antonio park, in Cupertino, California in early February. They were all over the hiking path. They must have been made earlier that morning, because the dirt was still moist. The hole is about half inch in diameter. Tarantulas, maybe?

Elephant Seals at Piedras Blancas

I took this photo the same day as my previous post. Piedras Blancas is a popular breeding zone for elephant seals, as you can see. I wish I remembered half of what the docent told us about them.

One thing I remember well, is the docent's grim prediction of how these new mammas and babies would fare if the big storm came in as expected. Not well. The next day, while the storm raged even stronger than expected, I thought of the elephant seals often. Tough life!

Road Trip

Just when even I thought I might have given up the blog,... I've been working on a community project to fight climate change, and I've been so busy with it, I haven't spent enough time enjoying the very planet I'm helping to save. Except for this recent road trip down Highway 1, through Big Sur. So big; so powerful; what a planet!

Just another nice tree

Found this photo while pruning the photo file. Just a nice view of an oak tree from a recent hike.

The Story of Stuff

Watch this video! It's in seven installments, which come up automatically when chapter one finishes. All together it takes 20 minutes, but I think it's worth it. Watch the first two chapters and then decide for yourself.

Warning: you might never go to a big box discount store again after watching it. But that would be OK, I think. ...unless it's to purchase LED Christmas lights, that is.

Green Holiday tip #2

I'm trying to have a green holiday season this year, and ... I just wish I knew someone who needs a new trash can! This one is made 99% of recycled tires.

But as 8yo pointed out, "What are you going to to WASTE one of the trash cans we already have so you can buy a sustainable one???" Good point.

Anyone need a sustainable trash can?

Green Holiday tip for procrastinators who put up Christmas Lights

This post was half-baked about a week ago, so now it is for serious procrastinators!

Hopefully, you've already heard about how efficient and long lasting LED Christmas lights are. I mean, it was on CNN! The only downside is the price, according to the CNN Report. The good news is, these LED bulbs are:

• 10x more efficient than incandescent mini bulbs


• 50x more efficient than incandescent traditional bulbs


• long lasting: they don't burn out for, like, 100 years (ok, maybe a little less than that) and they don't break as easily...they're strong plastic, not thin glass.

And...aren't they lovely?

They have an earthier, richer color tone that I like.

So, right. The price. Look for them on sale early next season (or maybe you'll still find some deals this year). I found a great price at...well, I don't want to name names or anything, but...two syllables: first one sounds like "lost", second one sounds like "low"

Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Here's one of my all-time favorite eco-tips, perfect for the day after Thanksgiving:

"...Kelsa says that instead of wasting plastic wrap or tinfoil, and in order to conserve the water and energy you would use to wash Tupperware, leftovers should just be placed on the floor for the dogs."

Woof.

Early Soccer Game on a Cloudy Day

Sometimes it's not so bad to have the first soccer game of the day...

Carbon Offsets Skeptics

I just got back from a trip to New York City from San Francisco and purchased carbon offset for my flight.

Here's how it works:

My round-trip flight contributed 3170 lbs. of CO2 to the atmosphere. The $34.55 carbon offsets I just purchased buy wind-generated electricity, which replaces electricity that would have emitted 3,170 lbs. of CO2 to produce. The wind-generated electricity company is only allowed to sell carbon offsets for that clean electricity once, and they are the only ones allowed to sell it. Otherwise it doesn't work.

Pretty confusing, huh? No wonder people tend to be skeptical about Carbon Offsets. My skeptical friends used to just frustrate and annoy me. But then I thought, maybe I can learn something from their reaction. Maybe there is a better way to describe Carbon Offsets that make them more intuitive and less "scary."

Here is my suggestion:

One day, I was thinking about the efficiency measures I’ve taken in my own home, and wondering what I could do next. I realized that I’ve addressed all the low-hanging fruit, and at this point, the investment of resources is big compared to the CO2 savings to be gained.

Then I thought of my friend, who lives in a poorly insulated, drafty house. I could save more CO2 by paying to insulate and seal her house than I could by spending the same amount of money on the next project in my house (never mind how socially awkward that would be!).

That is the concept behind carbon offsets.

After you’ve reduced your CO2 emissions as much as you can or are willing to do, you buy carbon offsets so that other people can reduce CO2 emissions. The bigger the pool of CO2-reducing projects to choose from, the more CO2 you can reduce with the same amount of money.

Of course, you have to trust the organization that distributes the funds to make good choices and not cheat (sell the same offsets more than once). Many of the large environmental groups certify offset providers, which gives you confidence that your money will be wisely spent on real offsets.

Try this on the next skeptic you run across and tell me if it works!

Boo!

Scary Tree

and my 100th post!

The San Francisco Bay Area

Here it is, as seen from "Windy Hill" (and yes, it was windy!).

40 days in the life of Emily

I'm late discovering this, but I'm glad I did.

Spend 40 days in the life of a Planned Parenthood clinic worker here. OK, it's actually written by a handful of clinic workers...why? To protect them. Read about what they face every single day work day (and some days at home, too).

Hello, world.

We're in the middle of something here at Planned Parenthood (where I work). The anti-choice people call it "40 days for life." I call it another day at the office.

Basically, the anti-choice groups have decided to picket more than 80 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country for 40 days. September 26-November 4.

I'm used to picketers. Planned Parenthood is used to picketers. It bothers me very much that the picketers aren't just picketing our clinics -- that they're really about making it impossible for women to get health care. But...we don't let them faze us. As for me, the more picketers there are, the harder I want to work.

So, I've decided to do something a little different. I'm inviting you come to work with me. Seriously. Every day, I'm posting to this blog -- some notes about my day, some photos, some video. I want you to know what it's like to work for Planned Parenthood. ... read more

Happy Autumn!

Went for a long hike on this crystal clear, 75 degree, fall day.

Hip Hop Violin

I don't usually (never, actually) link to music on this blog, but I found this and thought it was pretty cool.

I found this new (to me) blog, called Ancora Imparo ("I'm still learning"...in Italian), in a funny small-world way. A friend forwarded my previous post about water bottles to someone she knows in the U.K. That friend sent her a link to this post about water bottles. So here's introducing Ancora Imparo.

Evil evil bottled water

This not-so-subtly titled post is to encourage you to click on the Carbon Conscious Consumer badge to the right (or, right here), and pledge to stop drinking bottled water (if you make the pledge, you get a 25% discount on a very nice reusable water bottle…here’s the one that travels with me).

I’ve been aware that plastic water bottles have a high energy cost, both to create the bottles and to transport them, but I never thought of it in moral terms until I read this very long article.

Here are some excerpts:

“We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)

Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water.”

For a specific example, look at Fiji water:

Transportation:

“The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says “from the islands of Fiji.” Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji’s two-lane King’s Highway."

Pollution:

"The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity–something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.”

People:

“in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.”

You decide:

“Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it’s reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just “Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I’m about to spend?” but “Does the value equal the impact I’m about to leave behind?”

Simply asking the question takes the carelessness out of the transaction. And once you understand where the water comes from, and how it got here, it’s hard to look at that bottle in the same way again.”