Climate Culture
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Umbra on children’s art supplies
Hey Umbra, I’ve got a niece with a second birthday coming up and I’d like to get her a present that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a computer or TV. So, I thought, how about an art set? What better way to get those creative juices going at an early age than some finger […]
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Foodie lessons from Dwight K. Shrute
A brilliant blogger has assembled a list of food and frugality tips gathered from Dwight K. Shrute, assistant to the regional manager at The Office‘s Dunder Mifflin paper company. Below, a few gems: DWIGHT SAYS: “My grandfather left me a 60-acre working beet farm. I run it with my cousin Mose. We sell beets to […]
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From Carols to Condoms
Jingle bells, clean coal smells Click here. Discover wintry-clothed, googly-eyed coal carolers. Hear frosty lyrics like “There must have been some magic in clean coal technology, for when they looked for pollutants there was nearly none to see.” Vomit. Repeat. Buckling under pressure On the heels of the economic downturn, seems NatPo’s vegan Mary Janes […]
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The light-related news keeps flooding in
On Thursday GE launched a line of CFLs that look like … wait for it … regular incandescent bulbs! At least one other company (competitor Philips) has tried the clever disguise, but GE says, “No, for real, this one is really small and it really does look like a normal bulb.” Or words to that […]
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Origins of cereal linked to religion, vegetarianism
The mental_floss blog has an interesting piece on the origins of cereal. Only a short bit of it is eco-related, so I’ll post that here (emphasis mine): Meat Is Murder (on the Colon) During the early 19th century, most Americans subsisted on a diet of pork, whiskey, and coffee. It was hell on the bowels, […]
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For some families, the holidays are all about the grub
This is the holiday season in just about every culture. I was born and raised a Unitarian Universalist, thus of the Judeo-Christian background, so in my house it’s Christmastime. For some folks, Christmas is about peace and good tidings. For others it is a joyous celebration of the birth of their savior. In my […]
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My father installed a solar system and radiant-heat floor in his barn
A couple of years ago, my folks retired. Pops ripped out the bottom of the barn on the old family farm, set up a woodshop, and got to work. Check out his stuff here. Nice, eh? I’m pleased to say that Pops’s pots are now solar heated. With no urging from yours truly, he installed […]
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Bob Lutz: Fuel-efficient cars, like global warming, a crock of sh*t
“At $1.50 per gallon, the American public wants sport utilities and large pickup trucks.” — GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, going off-message from his boss Rick Wagoner’s pledge before Congress to implement “a dramatic shift in the company’s U.S. portfolio” toward “more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers”
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Umbra on e-books
Dear Umbra, I have noticed that digital book readers have started to enter the market and wonder if they are more ecologically sound than conventional books. I am interested in buying one but suspect that they are full of metals that damage the environment in their production. Also, they would use up energy when in […]
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Food Fight snags documentary honor
For those of you who don’t get quite enough of my writing, you can see me holding forth on the big screen! That is, if the documentary Food Fight finds a distributor. I hope it does; I hear it’s good. (I do get quite enough of my writing, and I’m repelled by the idea of […]
