Crazy Lawsuit Game

I try and try to educate people. I've told you before that monkeys and apes are cute but are wild animals and need to live in a habitat or the outdoors. Yes chimps are my personal favorite but I also realize that one does not belong in my house. I'll spare you the pictures but please read here about the dangers, and this National Geographic article.

Also from CNN.com (like the first link up there) comes this list of 5 places to visit before they don't exist anymore. Global warming, changing weather patterns, over fishing are all blamed. But this sounds like lots of fun besides the fact that they won't exist anymore.

Writing is coming along. Bicycling to work was chilly. I love my wife, J.

Labels: bicycle, educating consumers, injustice, J, writing

Or VuhDeve, if you will. Since J and I are all super budgety and junk, I will be handcrafting her Valentine's Day card/gift. If you've never been to Instructables.com and like to create things by hand, then you are in for a treat.

Here are my suggestions for last minute Valentimes gifts made by you:
Kissing Cards by Helix the Cat
Glowing LED Heart Light by YoChuck (nice if Radio Shack is nearby)
Make a Cut-Out Valentine Card by fungus amungus
Etched Minty Valentines Candy Box by photozz (a tad involved since you're etching the metal candy tin with electricity, but what a science class demo!)

Some other awesome Instructables that are worth hanging onto:
High speed photography for beginners by Spl1nt3r C3ll (basically save up for a Casio EX-F1)
Quick and easy homestead uses for plastic bottles (#1, PET) by velacreations
Also be sure to check out Vela Creations' website for tons of useful and intriguing green ideas
In that same vein, you can watch and learn from Anna and Mark at Walden Effects about how they're living more simply and eating fresh fruits vegetables, eggs and the like. They also teach you how to track animals, which could come in handy.

For J's present I'm leaning towards the cut out card or kissing faces card. It should turn out really well either way.

Now for fashion news: Apparently androgeny is back. The NYTimes fashion blogger, Elizabeth Spiridakis, is enamored with 3 fashionistos (right? cuz they're guys) who are stepping up their fashion game. Bryan Boy, Yu Masui and Jean-Paul Paula are at the cutting edge of fashion. They see the influence that men's clothing has on women's clothing and wonder why that can't be a two way street. They all dress to make themselves feel good, which is what fashion really should be all about, and do so by pairing classic guy pieces with an accessory or shirt that would be traditionally called "women's clothes". Seriously, they're so fashion forward it makes my headspin. Check out Liz's piece "Boys with Birkins". I think my favorite look has to be this one from Yu Masui:

It challenges everything I've ever thought about clothing. The shoes, the headband, the top and clutch, and right there, smack dab in the middle of everything, something every guy has in his closet, a pair of khaki shorts. Unreal.

What’s your fashion philosophy? “Look ridiculous in the best designers’ clothes. I’ve never wanted to look cool in my life. My entire life is like a joke anyway. But I don’t like wearing costumes on the street. A costume is not fashion, and what I try to do is fashion.”

See? He definitely took the red pill of fashion and is not looking back.

I'm glad there are people like Anna and Mark of Walden Effect and Yu Masui out there challenging our "status quo".

I promised J and myself a camping trip once I'm done writing. I'm also thinking about using the space in the middle of my bike frame to advertise for Earth Hour, which is that new widgit thingie to your left that takes so long to load. Sorry dial-uppers!

Labels: Eat Locally, educating consumers, environment, fashion

Earth Hour is a global movement to turn off the lights for 60 minutes at 8:30 pm local time to symbolize that you are serious about saving energy and also about reducing light pollution. I wish I could be in Vegas for that; there will be so many stars out there in the desert! Check out the map and see if your city is taking part.

It's on March 28th at 8:30 pm local time. Break out the candles and board games!

Labels: Earth Day, educating consumers, environment

The seemingly never-ending Palestine Vs. Israel conflict seemingly keeps getting worse and worse. I don't have a good solution but I don't think bombing every building in sight is the answer.

Obviously America's party line is to support Israel in everything they do no matter what. They're the only "democracy" in the Middle East. I wonder how they enforce their first amendment?

In protest of Israel bombing Palestine and by the same accord Palestine bombing Israel, I will be boycotting all Israeli and Palestine goods. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for Palestine, they don't produce many (if any) so my boycott will mainly focus on Manischewitz, motzah balls, and probably anything else in the Kosher section of the local grocer. Although I did just see that Manischewitz is headquartered in New Jersey, so they're probably okay. Here's an Israli goods website. And here is the boycott Israeli goods website with a list of American companies who invest in Israel (and it's quite a list, Ben & Jerry's!) Here's another nicer boycott site.

I left my ski mask in Focus last night, J took it to work, and my face was freezing on the ride to work. It's only going to get colder in the morning, so I'm gonna need that back.

Labels: bicycle, educating consumers, inhuman, injustice, intruder

That was one of the card games Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) played with his grandmother on Tina Fey's show "30 Rock". It's really interesting watching a show on GE's NBC that features both brands so heavily. Most of it is really funny but I did notice during one of Tracy's trademark freakouts that he said he voted for Nader, Nader! Which the conspiracy theorist in me recognizes as further proof that Big Media doesn't want third party candidates to debate or get any significant portion of the vote because they might actually change something. I stumbled across this article written by the one and only Ted Turner about media conglomerates and how the FCC is squarely under their control. If you want to hear some more opinions and want an ACTUAL choice for the presidency, then by all means go to ThirdPartyTicket and put your name on the list (don't worry, I didn't pledge any money either). Look at Ralph Nader's comment on it also.

Okay, back to corporate sponsored sporting events: the inaugural Singapore F1 Gran Prix, oh sorry, the Singtel Singapore Grand Prix. One of the few street circuits on the F1 calendar and F1's first race at night under the lights. They race under the lights so the poor Euros don't have to wake up early to watch a race and so the broadcasters can charge primetime rates for advertisements. Us not important Americans get races no later than noon and no earlier than Japan's upcoming race that starts at 12:30 am. American viewers just aren't as important as European viewers, even though Honda, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota's biggest market is here. I also know that most Americans don't care because major network stations (CBS-Viacom and Fox-News Corp.) only carry 4 out of the 17 races. Sorry, 18 races. Nice. Don't even get me started about American's attitudes towards rally racing.

Enough soapboxing, let's get to race reporting. Qualifying was tough and exciting. Fernando Alonso (2 time world champ) had trouble in his ING Renault and qualified 15th. Ouch. The Scuderia Ferraris looked unstoppable and qualified 1 and 3 (Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikonnen respectively) split by driver championship points leading Lewis Hamilton in his Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel coming off his first career win at Monza qualified his Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari in 7th. Full Quali results.

It looked like a solid win and a driver championship were in Felipe and Ferrari's grasp.

Then the race started. Felipe is off like lightening! Lewis is in pursuit but falling back. Kimi is hot on his heels. Then, just as the first pit stops need to come, Nelson "Don't call me Junior" Piquet smacks his Renault into the wall which brings out the gorgeous Mercedes AMG SL 63 safety car (pace car) and also the awesome "you can't have it America" C63 AMG medical wagon. They close the pit lane but Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota) and Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) come in anyway and both suffer 10 second penalties (which is actually longer since they have to serve it in their pit stalls and with the slow 80 kmh (50 mph) speed limit, that's a long time). Nico takes his penalty after laying down some very fast laps and eventually finishes the race in 2nd! Great job Nico! They open the pits up and guys are running on fumes. Since the lap is so long (almost 2 minutes) most teams decide to stack their cars up and let the 2nd car wait while the first one gets gas and tires. Several teams do this, Ferrari being the most prominent. Felipe is in the pits from first, tires go on, he's getting gas, then he takes off! But they didn't unhook the fuel hose! He bowls down 3 or 4 pit crew and stops at the end of the pit lane! Kimi comes in, gets tires and fuel from the back-up fuel rig and then the pit crew runs down to help out Felipe. The fuel nozzle is stuck but they get it out and get him going but he dropped from first to 16th. Yikes. Looking at the replay he did get a green light from his pit stop light, so it was a team error or an electronics error. Not Felipe's fault. Scuderia Ferrari's dreams come crashing down. Tough break guys. I couldn't believe it when I saw it.

The rest of the race was just as exciting. The exact same thing almost happened to David Coulthard. He was in for his last pit stop and the guy holding the lollipop (the sign that tells him he can leave, they don't use lights like Ferrari) completely spaces out and lifts it up too soon! He luckily puts it down quickly and the crew is able to get him out after a couple more seconds of struggling. In the replay you can clearly see the lollipop guy's head look at the fuel hose, then he looks down at the front of the car and then for no reason decides that it's time for DC to leave. Aaaaaah! What happened Red Bull Renault lollipop guy?

Excellent race by Fernando Alonso, he improved 15 spots from his 15th grid spot to finish first! Great job Fernando and Renault!

Lewis hung on to finish third and get some much needed driver's points to increase his lead over Felipe Massa. David Coulthard finished 7th and his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel finished fifth. Full results.

Only 3 races left, the driver's championship is far from over with Lewis Hamilton having 84 points and Felipe Massa 7 back with 77. Robert Kubica is 13 back from Felipe with 64 points. The next race is October 12th in Japan, then Oct. 19th in China, then the last race is home turf for Felipe in Sao Paolo, Brazil on November 2nd. Who has nerves of steel to put the championship race out of the mind and just drive? We all get to find out in a couple weeks.

Labels: Big Media, educating consumers, F1, racing, Red Bull

Maybe Barack should change his middle name to Usain. I've never seen anyone that blindingly fast before. His 100 meter performance blew me away. He kept getting faster and faster. Way to go Jamaica!

I know what the 4 x 100 meter men and women's track teams need to work on for the next 4 years.

Congrats to Shawn Johnson and "Nasty" Nastia Liukin. They are absolutely the pinnacle of American gymnastics. Nasty was straight nasty on the uneven bars and Shawn was all over that beam. Great job ladies!

Also huge congrats to Togo on their first ever Olympic medal in the men's K1 whitewater kayaking final. Congratulations to Benjamin Boukpeti on his bronze medal!

I'm really looking forward to watching the Jamaica 4 x 100 relay track teams and the BMX racing finals also.

Have you noticed Red Bull's presence at the Olympics? Sure you've been beaten over the head with all the corporations sponsoring the Olympics, but by sponsoring individual athletes and smaller events, Red Bull still had a presence at the Games this year. The American Red Bull athletes are Amanda Beard, swimmer,

Other Red Bull athletes off to China include: Mike Day, who’s part of the first Olympic BMX team; Jill Kitner, who overcame two knee injuries to become the first American woman to participate in BMX racing; and Todd Rogers will partner with Phil Dalhausser in beach volleyball.

I also saw some international Red Bull athletes too. The Greek women's beach volleyball team had a very familiar silver and blue colored water bottles. Check out all of Red Bull's athletes who made it to the Olympics.

Also in Red Bull news, congrats to Scott Speed, former F1 driver, who is really coming into his own on ovals. He's #1 in driver points in the ARCA stock car series. Brian Vickers (#83)and AJ Allmendinger (#84) are doing very well in NASCAR with Brian getting the team's first pole position in their 2nd year at Michigan. If you don't want to actually watch them race around in ovals, be sure to check out the Team Red Bull blog, Stock Car Ticker, Red Bull Racing's blog.

Pics coming this weekend. Don't worry.

Damn, almost forgot. I ordered a pair of shoes online. They're Blackspots, from Adbusters and use an organic hemp upper, made in a union fair wage shop in Portugal and none of the money goes to the big shoe corporations. Plus as an added benefit, I'm now a stockholder and get to vote on future designs and what to do with profits. Sure it's just one pair of shoes, but it represents a lot more.

Labels: educating consumers, F1, Olympics, Red Bull

Recently I signed up for Dr. Housing Bubble's posts to be emailed to me. They're great and I feel like I'm learning about housing and economics in general. His post today was Part XVI in Lessons from the Great Depression: Items that Sold in the Credit Bubble. Before the Great Depression it was crossword puzzle books and before "whatever we're going to call what we're in the midst of right now", Crocs and Heelys were selling like hotcakes! Crocs publicly traded stock actually sold for $75/share! I hope to Mother Earth you sold at that price because today it's back down to $4.95 for CROX. Yikes. Also Heelys (those shoes with the wheels that the kids love) went from a high of almost $39 to $4.50 for a share of HLYS. I have really enjoyed his post, this one wasn't terrible but the one that gave me chills was this post on IndyMac's bank foreclosure. Gyah! I was shocked. That post is not for the faint of heart.

Okay, off to work so I can graduate and then wade out into this failing economy of ours. I wonder if Europe is hiring?

Labels: educating consumers, Europe, injustice

J and I have very similar political views. I like to think I made her a little more liberal and she made me a little more conservative, however we both have very liberal social positions. Basically we're libertarians and really believe in the freedom of the individual to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

She is particularly pro-choice. In fact, if you don't have a uterus, you shouldn't even have a vote in the anti/pro choice debate in J's book, which makes sense. The guy ultimately has a 3-6 second job in a 9 month process, okay, I'll bump it up to 15 minutes just to make it a bit more even, so a little math and that works out to: 15 minutes out of 388,800 minutes it takes your lady to actually grow that kid, which is a paltry 0.00385%. Yikes. Maybe that's why she feels guys shouldn't have very little, if any, say in the matter.

We both also believe that if you are pro-life then you should adopt some of these unwanted pregnancy babies yourself. Or at least adopt it until the mother can graduate high school so she can at least finish a basic part of her education before becoming a mother.

I think Obama had it right when he said he didn't want one of his daughter's punished because they were stupid enough to get pregnant. After all, who is the poorest demographic in our great nation? That's right, single mothers!

I've said this before, but abstinence only education is worthless. It's sticking your head in the sand and hoping for the best. With our nation having the highest teen pregnancy rates in the entire developed world, I think that's proof enough that abstinence only education doesn't work. I'm not saying get rid of it. It's a cold hard fact that the only way to guarantee not getting pregnant or STDs is to not have sex. Period. But we know that the majority of Americans choose to throw caution to the wind and have sex outside of marriage or a deeply committed relationship. And how is more education about a subject a bad thing? Dammit, I say give these kids too much info. Waaaay too much. The Miracle of Life will convince a few kids to wrap it up tight. A few graphic pics of the later stages of STDs (whoa, I will not be linking those pics, but search for syphilis in google images and be sure to have a trash can nearby) will convince a few more. So there's a few kids who will be much more hesitant to have sex because THEY KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES IN ALL THE GORY DETAILS!

Why is that wrong? Sex is gorgeous and a gift but it's also gross, disgusting, dangerous and possibly fatal. It's a huge leap in responsibility and has life altering consequences. We can't just gloss over that by proclaiming "Don't do it."

I hope you enjoyed my Thursday afternoon Soapbox. And remember, pro-choice people hate abortion too. We have so much technology to prevent pregnancies that ending the pregnancy is really a last ditch effort.

Labels: abortion, educating consumers

The only other time I shopped at Aldi was my summer in Germany, Mainz to be specific. They had very low prices, a decent selection and you had to deposit one deutsch mark(no longer German's currency thanks to the Euro) to use a shopping cart which you got back assuming you returned your shopping cart.

I finally got the chance to shop at Aldi again on Wednesday. There is one in Anderson, SC, just a 15 minute drive away. Let me tell you, this is no ordinary grocery store. For starters, you have to deposit a quarter to get a cart. The carts are all chained together and the quarter releases the chain on your cart and then you're free to use it. Once you're done loading your groceries into your car, you have to decide if it's worth $0.25 to return the cart and get your quarter back, or let someone else do it and make earn your money. I wanted my quarter back, after all, isn't that why you shop at Aldi in the first place, to save money?

So there are no stray carts in the parking lot and no teenagers shagging carts all over the place. I'm amazed that hasn't caught on at other grocery stores. Then you enter the store and there aren't traditional shelves. It's more like Sam's or Costco where the products are kept stacked in their boxes to reduce the time workers spend stocking shelves. Second you notice that you've never heard of these brands before. Fit 'n' Active? Appleton? Happy Farms? WTF mate? And if you are trying to figure out where this stuff came from, good luck, all the box says is that it's distributed by Aldi in Batavia, IL. But it's hard to argue with the prices. 16 oz. of cashews for $4, wheat crackers for $1.79, 3 lbs. of apples for $2.49. The lunch meat had way too many scary words like pressed, chopped, cooked on it, so I stayed away from the super processed lunch meat, but got some of their cheese to try. Not too much fresh produce. Costa Rican bananas at $0.44/lb., NY apples, at least 5 different types of apples, 1 type of pears, those and the bread were the only "fresh" produce in the store. Everything else is in a box or bag. Even the fruit was in bags. I wanted to ask where all this food came from but I figure I'll wait until my next trip to see if any of their products are local or if every single item in the store is trucked in from Batavia, IL, and before that who knows?

They did have some cool German products from the brand "Duetsche Kuche" which means German kitchen. I haven't tried the Bavarian sweet mustard but the pumpernickel with whole rye kernels is the most serious bread I've ever eaten in my entire life. No wonder there are only 6 wide slices in a package. I'm sure that's more than enough whole grains to give your colon a good cleansing.

I only saw 3 employees in the store. It isn't a big store but I think that's all they need. The check out lady (my receipt said her name was Rachel) was a blur. She pulled a cart around to the end of the aisle and flew through my groceries. Out came the debit card and $53 later I was on my way. Luckily I had a debit card because the lady behind me was trying to write a check(I'm still amazed people try to pay with checks, it's the 21st century!) and was informed that they only take cash, debit cards and food stamps. Damn, dodged a bullet there, I only had maybe 2 dollars on me and as I am poor, not poor enough for food stamps. But as I'm checking out I saw that they sell grocery bags. 5 cents for a super duty paper bag, 10 cents for a super duty plastic bag and 99 cents for a frozen items bag. Fortunately I'm trying to save the planet 1 grocery bag at a time, so I had our 3 reuseable grocery bags and put all my groceries in that, returned the cart and walked back to my car flipping that shiny quarter on my thumb, saving it for another day.

I just checked Aldi's website and I didn't even see an email address so it looks like I'll have to actually write a letter to get answers to my questions. Can the manager of the local store sell local food or is that against company policy?

On the same topic of local food, we've been enjoying Happy Cow Creamery milk for a few months now. J won't drink regular store bought milk but because this milk is chemical free and super fresh and local, she can't drink enough. They say even lactose intolerant people can drink this milk because it still has the good enzymes that milk is supposed to have. We also just picked up some of their butter (sold in a 2 lb. slab) and it is by far the best butter to ever grace our vegetables and frying pans. J told me that they also sell sour cream, cream cheese and cottage cheese at their store. Whoa, I'm sold. It's supposed to be nasty and rainy on Sat. morning so maybe that will scare some people away and the store won't be as jam packed as it is usually supposed to be on Saturdays.

Now it's your turn! Take some initiative, found out if there is a farm near your house or a farmer's market and go check it out! I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised and better yet, you'll be keeping your money in the community instead of sending it to, say, Batavia, IL or China!

Labels: Eat Locally, educating consumers

Prof. Farnsworth from "The Farnsworth Parabox" episode. It's a good one. Parallel dimensions and all.

I had some great discussions yesterday. My friend Tom in the 'Ham and I chatted on AIM and we discussed our plan to require birth control injections when you pick up your welfare check. He thought it was a good idea but it would never get passed. I disagree. We just need to come up with a way to spin it for each group so that they see the good in it. And as J pointed out the majority of the people who would be voting on this are old people and rich people and a handful of a melting pot of people who actually care. J pointed out that poor people (the people who are directly affected by this ruling) don't vote and wouldn't really have any say in the matter. Unless they got a job and got off of welfare, which should be the goal of every welfare recipient in the first place.

I was also telling J that she should read the editorial in Playboy this month (I resubscribed this year and I have truly missed it. I'm not lying when I say that even if they took out the naked ladies, I would still read Hef's mag). It's about how our democracy is run by "the market" and our capitalism run amok has now turned our government into a corporatocracy. And it isn't just Republicans that are in the corporations pocket, it's either 1/3 or 2/3 of the Democrats too. J was pointing out that with those jokers in power and getting their kickbacks and gifts, why would they change it? I didn't want to hear her pessimistic logic and rational thinking. I wanted what faint spark of hope that is hiding deep within me to remain intact and not be snuffed out. I have to believe that the system works and that one day enough voters will want an overhaul and do away with all of this and REALLY change things. I have to believe that, I just have to. If not, all hope is lost and I might as well leave right now cuz when it all comes crashing down, I won't want to be here. All the richies will have left to their resorts in Cabo or their private islands in the Caribbean and will leave the majority of the American people to fend for themselves.

The editorial was an interview with 4 economists and they mention some books that I'm going to have to read and educate myself on this topic so that I may educate others. I'll get you their names and the book titles tonight.

In the "educating consumers" vein, I found this post from the Anti-Advertising Agency. It's called shopdropping, the opposite of shoplifting. It is a grassroots effort by PeopleProducts123 to educated consumers about where the products they are buying actually come from. Sure Coke comes from the store but where does its ingredients come from? For example, here is the new and improved packaging for lightbulbs. Easy to do and not really illegal, so get out there and educate! The More You Know...

Labels: bad government, educating consumers, mandatory birth control