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Just a quick little post about my favorite topic: Green. Well, kind of, at least everything in this post can be tied together under the Green heading.
First up, a website for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was hacked and loaded up with spammer links to sell Viagra, Xanax and the like.
It looks like only the pages associated with the blog were attacked and linked to other hacked pages from Westmont College (that or the Christian College is running a side business pushing drugs).
Looks like the hackers exploited a flaw in WordPress (a popular piece of publishing software) security. Might be time for us to up our own security here.
Read more »
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I know you all thought my ranting about the Green Movement (1, 2, 3 to name a few) and lack of sincerity behind it was just that, ranting. But look around now. After all the fuss that was made back in May and June about how important it is in this day and age to “go Green,” notice how much follow up there has been.
Every now and then you will see a poster up on a bus stop or in the subway urging you to switch to Compact Fluorescent Lights (which, by the way, I have no complaints about after 4 months of usage) and you hear about a run on canvas bags at Whole Foods (though, that was more because of the designer’s name than the idea behind the bag), but the steam behind the movement seems to have exhausted itself.
You may recall that I said this was going to happen, that the reason I ranted over all of these half-assed rushed articles is because they were pushing a movement that wasn’t strong enough to be pushed yet. Now, Green has become the buzz word of Summer ‘07. People can rest assured knowing that it will in no way influence elections in ‘08 and feel like they are doing their part for the environment by shutting off their lights when they leave their apartment (which, Green or not, people should do anyway; it cuts down on your electric bill and prolongs the life of your light bulbs).
Now, when the next group picks up the torch for the Green Movement people will be less receptive, it will be a reiteration of everything from this past summer and folks will just tune out. Kudos to sites like Tree Hugger that existed before the summer fad of going Green and will keep on keeping on.
Oh, and let me leave you with this tip–Just because a car company claims that they are doing their part by producing a plethora of Hybrid cars that are 40% better (for the environment) than their regularly produced cars, people still need to buy the hybrids for this to make a difference. It might help if the company stopped producing the gas-only version of the car or, think what this could lead to, stopped producing gas-only cars altogether.
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I don’t even know exactly how to tag this one- Is it “Green?” Maybe “Nostalgia?” Do we have an “Irony” tag?
I present to you Lehman’s Catalog, for all your non-electric device needs. Lehman’s was “Founded by Jay Lehman in 1955 to serve the local Amish and others without electricity, Lehman’s ships old-fashioned, high-quality merchandise all over the world.” Pretty much sums it up. He hoped to “preserve the past for future generations.” And, in doing so created a business that grew to a much larger business then it was.
They, of course, have an “Eco-Friendly” category selling push lawn mowers, hand cranked devices and even Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. But, mainly the focus is on niche nostalgia items. I could see a lot fo these things making fun gifts, but I don’t know that I’d have the patience to use too many of them… But maybe you do. Lehman’s has a toll-free number, a print, mail-order catalog, and yes, even a website (who knows, maybe they have a hand-cranked computer). Check it out, maybe you will find something you just need to have, just like your Amish mom used to make.
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Over at Simply Green, Danny Seo, the author of Simply Green Parties and Simply Green Giving, has endorsed one Compact Florescent Lightbulb above any other. For critics who claim that CFL’s are too harsh and don’t adequately mimic standard incandescent bulbs Seo recommends the GE Energy Smart Dimmable CFL bulb.
Also on the green front- TreeHugger has spotted a new highly efficient fan. Apparently Sycamore Ceiling Fans has discovered a new blade design for fans, reminiscent of the pods of Sycamore trees. The new blade shapes allows the fan to circulate the same amount of air at half the speed of a traditionally bladed fan, meaning you can cool your room with half the amount of energy.
(I said I was tired and uninspired this morning… I’ll aim for more quality over quantity, but no promises)
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Okay, so since I have posted “Oh By The Way” I have received a number of comments about compact fluorescent lights (CFL) ranging from drying out your eyes, to containing mercury, to not really being more energy efficient then incandescent bulbs because they use so much more power in their start up. Well, I am here to settle some of this. To debunk some of these myths I have hit the web in search of some “trust worthy” sources and also tried to find a second source when possible to back up claims. So, after the jump find out the truth about fluorescents… Read more »
