Archive for July, 2008
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Bicycle Mowers – The Latest in Eco-friendly Lawn Care
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on July 22, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Two great tastes that taste great together: Lawnmowers and Bicycles
Reduce your carbon footprint and increase your “I am a dork” factor by jumping on the latest clean & green trend: Lawnmower Bicycles. Back in my day, you had to push one of these things around with your hands. Now you can hook your Brill Razorcut Mower
Delia Derbyshire – Electronic Music Pioneer
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 21, 2008 by admin in Music
Monday, July 21st, 2008Little-known electronic musician Delia Derbyshire of the BBC was creating house beats and promoting raves 40 years ago.
Delia Derbyshire was busy being Bjork-like back when there weren’t no Bjork. Delia was told by Decca Records in 1959 that the company DID NOT employ women in their recording studios. This didn’t slow her down much; by 1960 she was working with the BBC as a trainee studio manager. This, at the age of 24, as a woman in the UK. Think about it. During her stint with the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, she anonymously created or was involved in numerous works, including familiar pieces like the much-covered Dr Who theme. She worked at various points with a stellar array of artists like Paul McCartney, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Martin, and Pink Floyd. As part of the organization Unit Delta Plus she practically invented the rave in 1967, and did an early version of scratching and sampling, only with reel-to-reel tape decks, for crying out loud. See a YouTube clip here. To this day she is covered and credited by bands like Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. Check out this clip of a Kraftwerk/House-like beat (which she describes as a toss-off) from the early sixties, or some of the eerie and textural soundscapes downloadable here. Rock on Delia – wherever your atoms went – you’re an inspiration!
There’s No Such Thing As Green Cocaine
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 20, 2008 by admin in Clean & Green
Sunday, July 20th, 2008The Colombian government’s ill-conceived environmentally conscious anti-cocaine program.
Okay all you liberal elitist, environmentally conscious cokeheads. If you really care about the environment, it’s time to take the money from your nose and put it where your mouth is. [No wonder our high school English teachers warned us about mixed metaphors – Ed.] According to this article on CSMonitor.com, Shared Responsibility, the Colombian government’s eco-conscious cocaine awareness campaign, is convinced that if you only knew how your cocaine usage affected Colombia’s environment, you’d stop using it. Nice concept, but I have a hard time imagining wealthy cocaine-snorting Americans caring about much more than the next line. For the record though, 43 square feet of forest are cleared to produce just one gram of cocaine, and coca growers have cleared nearly five million acres (an area the size of New Jersey) within Colombia over the past 20 years. You can visit the Shared Responsibility web site or view some of their PSA’s at AdsOfTheWorld.com for more info. By the way, that picture at left is not actually green cocaine, it’s Meryl Streep snorting the mysterious green powder in the film Adaptation
Eat Like a Caveman
[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 19, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Saturday, July 19th, 2008Forget Dr Atkins, forget South Beach, the latest hip diet lets you get in touch with your inner caveman.
Hey America: are you fat, lethargic, stressed out, and always suffering minor ailments? Well, stop thinking like a caveman and start eating like one. I didn’t realize it until a friend pointed it out to me, but except for massive amounts of chocolate, coffee, and cigarettes, I eat a Paleo Diet. And I feel great. Our friend George pictured here has it all wrong as usual. Lay off the corn, for starters. Otherwise, the basic idea is simple: we only started eating many common foods with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, and evolution hasn’t had time for our organism to adapt to the diet. Therefore, eat things like lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots and nuts, and don’t eat so many grains, beans, and dairy products. Also watch the salt, sugar and processed oils. For recipes and lots of links to other resources, visit PaleoDiet.com. Friends of mine who actually subscribe to the specifics of the diet say not to be obsessive about it; as soon as you start lowering your intake of grains and dairy a little, you actually start losing your appetite for these foods. The same friends also recommended The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat
Getting Joost
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 19, 2008 by admin in Popular Media
Saturday, July 19th, 2008Joost – a new way to watch TV and streaming video, from the creators of Skype and Kazaa.
As a media-addicted person who can’t stand conventional television (I shut off my cable service in 2004), I’m always looking for new ways to feed my film & video jones. For television programs that people recommend, I usually BitTorrent . For news video, I can usually find a decent stream somewhere on the web. For film, I rent a lot of DVD’s, and catch the couple of big-screen-worthy films released each year in an actual theater, usually at matinee prices. Yes, I’m a cheap bastard. That’s why I was intrigued last year when I heard that the guys who created Skype and the much-litigated Kazaa (Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis) were working on a project called Joost , a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer technology. Although I signed up as an early Beta user, the available content at launch time didn’t thrill me, so I waited until today to try it. If you want some television-like content on your computer, you HAVE to try this. After a reasonable download (11MB) and a very simple account setup, I was browsing an amazing variety of worthwile content. Media partners include A&E, PBS, National Geographic, CBS, BET, and many, many more. According to their site, 28,000+ shows and 480+ channels. You can download Joost here.