March 27th, 2007
When you find yourself in a local Target examining the labels on toilet paper packs looking for one that has at least some recycled content. Bad news kids: there isn’t such choice (unless the producers don’t want to advertise the recycled content). You will specifically have go to a place like the Wedge,or else your royal behind will be enjoying the benefit of freshly cut down trees on a daily basis.
While our household normally uses Seventh Generation paper products, this week I noticed the critical shortage too late. Unlike the No Impact Man who is going TP-free, I had to do a Target run and ever so guiltily purchase a little pack of Charmin…
I admit it: I am not a true hard-core environmentalist. If I were, I would jump on my bicycle and make a mid-week run to the local co-op. Alas, the overall concern for the environment and a healthy dose of guilt are here but the time is not… The hubby must be happy too that I am not quite a militant hippie demanding to compost our kitchen scraps and limiting showers to special occasions only 
To those forests in British Columbia– I am very sorry!
Categories: Uncategorized |
3 Comments
March 19th, 2007
So I was looking back at my Imagine post, and noticed just how powerful the lyrics are naked, by themselves. The song is great, absolutely f’ing great, but looking at the lyrics alone, stark, alone, separate, you get a real sense of what it could be, what John really meant, was trying to say more than the lyrics said alone.
At least that is the feeling I get.
Categories: Uncategorized |
No Comments
March 19th, 2007
So, as you know, our travel plans for the weekend went bust, but we made the best of it, and celebrated St. Patty’s day with some good friends.
Seeing as I had Monday off anyway, I chose to take it, and enjoy a day off, not doing much of anything. And it was everything I thought it could be. I just enjoyed doing some research on topics I’m interested in, relaxed, chatted with friends, and tried not to think about work too much. I think I will head back at least a little refreshed, but looking forward to our next trip to Boston, and missing my darling, who is there now for work.
I don’t really have special links for this week, there have been so many, but here are a couple:
Beyond that, I have been thinking a bit about the web, and the power of social networking. It seems to me that while Digg and Slashdot.org have been hugely successful, along with Wikipedia that the best opportunities for social networking are travel sites and consumer product review sites. These are the places social media has the most power. I’ll use myself as an example, when I’m looking to purchase a product, the ‘reader comments’ or whatever doesn’t appear to be sponsored has a huge impact on my buying decision. Likewise, with travel, the user comments hold a lot of power on whether or not I will book with a hotel or tour company. And for these reasons I am more likely to offer reviews myself (thankfully G did most of the reviews - phew).
At any rate, I think the social networking/peer review/whatever you call it will continue to be an important phenomenon because people value it - especially if they know or think the reviewer is impartial and not paid.
Categories: Uncategorized |
No Comments
March 17th, 2007
This St. Patrick’s Day weekend was supposed to be filled with crazy fun at Kostja and Jamie’s new digs in Boston. Alas, nasty winter weather prevented our plane from landing in New England and the flight was turned around when we were more than half way there. Major bummer. Now we have an empty weekend in Midwest with nothing planned. The good news is that we’re headed back out East in April for a long weekend of driving along the coast and I will still catch a dinner with K & J on Monday as I rescheduled my flight for the conference I am attending there.
Other consolation for this missed opportunity is a fabulous 7 mile run I’ve shared with Genya, Annie, and Maggie this morning. While I was the slowest of the bunch, Genya did not leave me behind and we still finished in 1 hour 10 minutes which is not too bad for a slower waddler as myself.
I think I am just going to enjoy my empty weekend– the week is going to be intense. My flight to Boston leaves at 7 AM on Monday and I am not coming back till Wednesday night and head for the office on Thursday. Now what we need is the real spring!
Categories: Uncategorized |
No Comments
March 11th, 2007
Except for some of my friends like Genya who have a very good understanding of this new “super-fuel,” a lot of people here in Midwest seem to be in love with ethanol and think it’s going to save us from dependency on foreign oil, stop the global warming, and bring world peace.
Here’s an excellent article that offers an overview on the topic. Just some of the highlights include:
- Heavy agricultural subsidies are the only reason that ethanol is even remotely economically competitive with other fuels.
- It’s hard to consider ethanol truly renewable due to large amounts of fossil fuels and water that it takes to produce it, especially if made out of corn (think of pesticides used for the crops, irrigation water, gas for the tractor etc.) And what about coal-powered ethanol plants here in Minnesota! (not in the article but all over local media)
- Ethanol is more corrosive than gasoline meaning that it cannot be transported efficiently by pipes and has to be trucked or moved by trains.
- We don’t have enough arable land to produce enough ethanol to satisfy more than a fraction of overall fuel demand.
And don’t forget that ethanol-happy corn farmers have been able to hike up their prices which in turn raised costs of cattle farmers who use corn to feed the animals. Feel free to hit me up for a good tofu recipe if you’re feeling the pain at the butcher shop
Ok, I am off my soap box- I have been meaning to post on this topic for a long time now.
UPDATE 3/12 To make my original post a little clearer and to respond to Bob the commenter (who is probably paid to read blogs anyway but I am still happy to get the discussion going): I am all for decreasing our gasoline dependency and support investment in alternative fuels but corn-based ethanol is not a panacea and, in fact, one of the less-worthy options to concentrate on right now.
Categories: Uncategorized |
1 Comment
March 10th, 2007
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Categories: Uncategorized |
1 Comment
March 6th, 2007
I’ve been hearing a lot about Parallels for Mac, which allows Mac users to run a Windows virtual machine. After reading this article on installing Vista with Parallels and the companion installing Ubuntu with Parallels, the Coherence feature and learning that the friendly folks at Parallels offer a 15 day free trial I gave it a try with Windows XP. This is my story, from a sort-of-techie-but-not-so-much-anymore point of view. I use Mac because ‘it just works’ but can get around Windows and Linux systems with some level of competence if that is any indication of my skill level.
This may have been the easiest Windows install I have ever completed. The annoying habit XP has of rebooting 3 - 4 times during install is really not an issue with a virtual machine - I just kept going through my Google Reader and using my Mac as usual. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I installed build 3170 of Parallels, as of tonight it looks like build 3186 is available. I don’t know about the differences between the two, but I don’t think there is anything huge.
Installing Parallels was as easy as installing anything else on a Mac - takes two or three clicks and entry of admin password. Once Parallels was installed I launched the application and it immediately popped in to a wizard. There were pre-configured options for Windows XP and Vista. I’m not ready for Vista yet, but XP is a go - the wizard offered just a few options and the defaults seemed reasonable. After hitting ‘go’ we popped in to the virtual machine window and the (long) installation process began. Anyone who has installed Windows knows this part of the show takes about an hour of CD-ROM drive spinning and watching the progress meter slowly advance. Blah blah blah blah blah.
OK, done. A few ‘reboots’ in the VM and Windows is running in a nice little Window. I created a simple Notepad document and dragged from the Windows desktop to the OSX desktop - Parallels asked if I wanted to share files between the two - and clearly explained the implications of my choice. Easy. Then Coherence - really cool. Copy and paste between Windows and Mac apps (as you can see in the screen shot, sort of), no problem.
This worked amazingly well - I haven’t played with everything yet, but so far, so good. I’m running only 1 gig of RAM, and I think I’ll want 2 if I’m going to use this much. I think the $79.99 is a great deal for this software, especially for anyone wanting the rock solid and stylish Mac but still just has to have some actual Windows software. Now I just need to find some Windows software I actually want to use.
Categories: Science/Tech |
3 Comments
