don't miss it

Fake UFOs – the hot new hobby

gnoble — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:55:11 +0000

I dunno if this can really be classified as something that is spreading, but it might after this article was posted on Gizmodo. Apparently, Linn Murphy has made a remote controlled flying object which intentionally is meant to look like a UFO. He flies it around during concerts, movie line ups, and public events just to freak people out. I thoroughly support anything that freaks people out.

from Gizmodo

sea lice land lice

gnoble — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:23:44 +0000

Just a great article by Rafe Mair about BC fish farming and government inaction. Definitely worth the read. Check it out at The Tyee.

eco-lucha libre

gnoble — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:48:55 +0000

In green news today, the environmental movement has gained a strong ally – El Hijo del Santo! The popular Mexican wrestler and restauranteur has joined ENGO Wildcoast to raise public awareness of environmental issues in Mexico. Son of one of the most famous Lucha Libres of all time, El Hijo is a perfect spokesperson to get disenfranchised youths interested in wrestling environmental problems. He’ll be fighting villains such as ‘ the Pirate who Stole Turtle Eggs ‘ and ‘Sewageman’ . Apparently turtle eggs are an aphrodisiac in Mexico, so I’d be a bit concerned about grappling with this a-moral pirate.

from Neatorama

scallop shells not salt

gnoble — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:30:55 +0000

For those of us who live in snowy locales, ice on the road and sidewalks is a bit of a pain; it wrecks the bottom of your car, eats your shoes, and is bad for the environment. The brainiacs at the Aomori Ecological Recycle Industrial Association have come up with an environmentally friendly way to get rid of ice on roads – use scallop shells and apple vinegar. Apparently it’s considerably less detrimental to soil. Not only is that a plus, but this finds a use for a previously useless item; if you don’t count scallop shell folk art. Plan is to process 6000 tons of scallops this year.

from Autoblog Green

on vacation

gnoble — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:37:42 +0000

Just moved back to Vancouver, have one week off then work starts and so do posts.

from the desk of gnoble

links~!

gnoble — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:28:42 +0000

DIY Pimp Cup – it’s easy to drink like lil’ wayne

What if Jack Bauer was a Environment Loving Lefty – Short episode excerpt by Simpson writer

Profiles in Carnage Vlad the Impaler - possibly the most evil man ever

from Neatorama

tire pressure problems perish

gnoble — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:25:08 +0000

Hmmm, sometimes I think I force the titles for these posts. Anywho, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is promoting a new safety feature for all new cars in 2008. It’s TPMS, tire pressure monitoring system – the name explains it all. When your tires are under-inflated a light will come on your dashboard and tells you to get more air in them.

Why the heck should you care about tire pressure? Well for every 3psi drop in tire pressure you can expect a 1% decrease in fuel efficiency. If an average Nova Scotian was low 2psi in each of their four tires, they would be using an extra 85L of gas a year, that’s about $100 and .2 tonnes of CO2. Even more staggering is that a recent pan-American survey by CarCare found that 70% of cars had at least 1 tire improperly inflated. If you don’t care about saving fuel, at least this’ll help you save your tires. Under-inflated tires will lose their tread about 15,000 km sooner and this system will also alert you as soon as your tire flat. Not a bad idea, but tire pressure gauges work pretty efficiently as well.

from Autoblog Green

green groups supporting anti-DRM

gnoble — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:47:52 +0000

An interesting link from BoingBoing (the most linked to site on the internet) about green NGOs supporting anti-DRM (digital rights management) movements. As a lot of you know and as I’ve mentioned before, CDs produce an immense amount of waste, something like 1kg of CO2 for every one produced. So in that sense, supporting downloading software and music instead of purchasing CDs has definite environmental benefits. Not only is the problem CDs, but new software that comes out, specifically Microsoft’s new Vista OS, requires a tremendous amount of processing power for essentially the same utilities.

Why is this a problem? Because most old computers absolutely can’t run Vista. If you want to have your computer up to date you have to trash your old one and buy a new computer. Obviously this causes a lot of e-waste to head to the dump and Microsoft has spent more than $500 Million on advertising Vista. That’s a lot of pressure on the average consumer to drop $1200 and update their computer. Greenpeace, the Green Party and Friends of the Earth have gotten on board and are supporting an anti-DRM petition. Creating open-sourced software that can be modified to run on inferior computers would help alleviate this problem, but there aren’t tons of easy solutions to this problem. People want faster, smarter computers but we shouldn’t be cattle-prodded into buying a new one.

from BoingBoing

eat less meat – fight climate change

gnoble — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:15:53 +0000

It’s pretty well known amongst environmental circles that meat production is an extremely energy intensive process. What I didn’t know was that global meat production releases more Green House Gases than all types of travel combined. This stat came from that recent UN report on Climate Change. What’s interesting about this is that many vegan/vegetarian NGOs are using this a platform for an advertising campaign. PETA is getting a guy to dress up in a chicken suit and drive around in a Hummer – poignant! However, Environmental NGOs aren’t jumping on this wagon. None interviewed by the NY Times were willing to make it a priority even though they all agree that meat production is an immensely GHG intensive industry. Carl Pope, the ED of the Sierra Club had this to say;

“We’ll encourage companies to make more efficient S.U.V.’s, and we’ll encourage consumers to buy them,” he said, “but we do not find lecturing people about personal consumption choices to be effective.”

Personally, I think that this is an issue that environmental groups should start supporting. Simply reducing one’s meat consumption would undoubtedly have a positive effect on fighting climate change and it’s better for you. The general populous just isn’t aware of the impact that meat production has. I love meat, but there’s nothing wrong, complicated or undelicious with having two or three vegetarian meals a week.

from The New York Times

too cute

gnoble — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:43:57 +0000

Nothing to write, just an exceptionally cute puppy from Cute Overload.

from Cute Overload!