January 31, 2008 at 3:44 pm · Filed under WTF?
I just saw this headline on Yahoo:
People Blamed for Water Woes in West
Um. No shit, Sherlock.
Human activity such as driving and powering air conditioners is responsible for up to 60 percent of changes contributing to dwindling water supplies in the arid and growing West, a new study finds.
I will not beat my head against my desk. I’m sorry, they needed a study for this? Years of logic couldn’t clue them in to the fact that if millions of people live in the desert where clean water is already scarce, the supply might dwindle? Diverting water from sources far, far away is not a good long term solution.
They found that most changes in river flow, temperature and snow pack between 1950 and 1999 can be attributed to human activities, such as driving, that release emissions including carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Sadly, there probably are lots of people doing their studies, and very few working on actual, feasible solutions.
January 24, 2008 at 3:45 pm · Filed under Random
I saw this on a blog, and the person had done it in 4 minutes, 24 seconds. I thought, I bet I can beat that. I was right, though I started to panic…I was going in a nice orderly fashion, then started to get all random and couldn’t figure out which three I was still missing. Plus, I couldn’t spell Massachusetts right. But I did it!
January 21, 2008 at 1:04 pm · Filed under Construction
The tarps are off today as the construction crew works to get the big beam up to the second floor. You can see the framing better now, and the shape of the room upstairs.
January 14, 2008 at 8:35 am · Filed under Family, Kids
I know Piplup evolves into Prinplup, and Prinplup evolves into Empoleon. But where does Piplup come from? In case you didn’t know, this little Pokemon starts from two balloons.
Yesterday was O’s birthday, and it was Pokemon mania around here. We actually had trouble finding Pokemon party supplies (which surprised us, because every kid O has come into contact with at school is Pokemon obsessed). I decided what the hell, why pay $10 in ‘oversized’ shipping for a lame pinata with Pikachu on it, I’ll make my own. Turns out, I have mad pinata making skillz.
You start with some balloons, strips of newspaper, and paper mache paste:
Let it dry between each layer:
After a while you can attach appendages, like wings, feet, and beaks:
Then you pop the balloons (which is just about the coolest thing ever, and if you have the time, I recommend paper macheing a balloon just to pop it and hear it), fill the body with goodies, and attach the halves together:
I got started on the decorating while the neck dried, as I was running out of time. Each layer needs 24 hours to dry, so while it isn’t terribly hard to do, it does take some advance planning.
After all the paper mache was dry and the string out his head reinforced, I finished up the tissue paper decorations:
Voila! One Piplup pinata, ready for service:
O was too enamoured with it to hit it to pieces, so we cut a hole in the bottom and shook out the treats. Piplup now hangs in his room. He gave it a hug before going to bed last night.
January 3, 2008 at 8:37 am · Filed under Better World
Portland just became the first U.S. city to ban hospitals from handing out free formula goodie bags to new mothers. Some hospitals had already banned them on their own already (I like that Kaiser Sunnyside banned them when they became more “baby friendly”).
“The bags are not free,” says Amelia Psmythe, Executive Director of the Nursing Mothers Counsel of Oregon, “we are all paying for them through the decrease in breastfeeding rates and associated increase in health problems. Mothers who want the free formula can request it from the formula companies, but hospitals should market health and nothing else.”
