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The Lighthouse, a portable indoor-outdoor fireplace, is the newest model from Planika, a Polish company. According to the manufacturer, it doesn’t produce smoke or odor — and doesn’t require ventilation. What makes it burn so cleanly, Planika says, is Fanola, a liquid bioethanol fuel made from potatoes that the company developed and sells with its fireplaces.
Just over 50 inches tall, the Lighthouse has a powder-coated steel top cut in an openwork pattern that rests securely on a hollow base. The top holds a glass cylinder and a fuel canister, which is lighted with a long-handled wand. Within five minutes, the small flame should grow to as high as 17 inches, but no higher, and should burn for three and half hours.
Available from Planika for $1,800...
I'd rather just eat my potatoes. Same thing with corn.
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When you watch the weatherman on TV, you often hear about the highs and lows of the day, humidity levels and precipitation. But sometimes on TV you also see advertisements for places to vacation claiming that their location has a hot and sunny beach climate or a cold and snowy location that is great for skiing. If climate and weather both describe temperature and precipitation, what is the difference?Got that Fox? Hope this little primer helps. Or just a little to complicated for you talking heads. Of course reality many times does not get the big laugh now does it.
Weather is "the conditions in the atmosphere in a certain place during a certain time. Weather is always changing [emphasis mine]."
Climate is "what the weather is generally like over long periods of time, such as years or decades in a particular area. A place that has little rainfall has a dry climate, and a place that has high temperatures has a hot climate."
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Oh how I wish the naysayers, the Hannity's, Limbaugh's, Palins, etc. would read this and understand.
map: MetOffice
One more to try to eradicate the 'it's snowing and cold so global warming mustn't be happening' meme: The UK's Met Office reminds us all that it's not only not cold everywhere in the world, but many places are currently seeing much higher temperatures than average. They sum up succinctly, 'The current cold weather in the UK is part of the normal regional variations that take place in the world, but many places are currently seeing much higher temperatures than average. They sum up succinctly, "The current cold weather in the UK is part of the normal regional variations that take place in the winter season. It doesn't tell us anything about climate change, which has to be looked at in a global context and over longer periods of time."
Really, let's all start reminding our friends, family and even random people on the street that weather and climate are not the same thing. This isn't even a question of is or is not the planet warming; it's basic terminology and education.
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...the agency has just announced it is proposing the strictest ever standards for smog in the US. Smog, or ground level ozone, is responsible for a slew of serious health problems, especially for children, and can result in premature death. The new measure would actively reduce the amount of smog in urban areas around the US.So this one was right. Doesn't make their mountaintop mining policy taste any better though.
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Will the "powers" listen? Not when their wallets are filled with coal lobby dollars.
The EPA may think that approving new mountaintop removal coal mines can be done, provided sufficient remediation steps are taken, but a new article in Science magazine by twelve scientists from institutions from across the United States disagrees. In the mildly-named 'Mountaintop Mining Consequences', the scientists basically say that there's no mitigation effort that can ever make mountaintop mining OK and the practice should be stopped...
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Six days into 2010 and the battle over mountaintop removal coal mining is set to start up again. Yesterday afternoon the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had found "a path forward on two coal mining operations in West Virginia." The two operations are both mountaintop mines, one in Lincoln County, one in Logan County. By early evening green groups, from the establishment to grassroots, denounced the EPA decision.
Not wasting any time, Bolvian president Evo Morales has announced that his nation will be hosting an alternative climate summit in the city of Cochabamba on April 20-22, the New York Times reports. Morales is calling on activists, scientists and government officials "who want to work with the people" to attend. Bolivia was one of five nations dissenting on the non-binding COP15 agreement:
Topics to be covered at the meeting include putting pressure on rich nations to accept the fact that they owe a climate debt to the poor nations of the world, the development of an international court for environmental crimes, a "universal proposal for the rights of mother earth", and technology transfer.
All these were prominent themes among grassroots groups at Copenhagen, even if only the last of them was really on the official negotiating agenda.
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The idea for this book came from a doctor--a couple of them, as a matter of fact. They had read my last book, "In Defense of Food", which ended with a handful of tips for eating well: simple ways to navigate the treacherous landscape of modern food and the often-confusing science of nutrition. "What I would love is a pamphlet I could hand to my patients with some rules for eating wisely," they would say. "I don't have time for the big nutrition lecture and, anyway, they really don't need to know what an antioxidant is in order to eat wisely." Another doctor, a transplant cardiologist, wrote to say "you can't imagine what I see on the insides of people these days wrecked by eating food products instead of food." So rather than leaving his heart patients with yet another prescription or lecture on cholesterol, he gives them a simple recipe for roasting a chicken, and getting three wholesome meals out of it -- a very different way of thinking about health.
What follows is a small sample of "Food Rules", a half dozen policies that will give you a taste of what you'll find in the book: sixty-four food rules, each with a paragraph of explanation. I think you'll see from this little appetizer that "Food Rules" is a most unconventional diet book. You can read it in an hour and it just might change your eating life. I hope you'll take away something you can put to good use, and maybe get a chuckle or two along the way. And do let me know if have any food rules I should know about. I'm still collecting them, at pollanfoodrules@gmail.com.
#11 Avoid foods you see advertised on television.
#19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
#36 Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
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Ho, Ho, Ho... More like Hops, Hops, Hops. This IPA is greener than the Christmas tree you'll find it under. Packed with Columbus and Cascade hops, it's what gave Santa a beard.Can't wait to try this in four weeks.
Easy to brew - not as easy as kombucha but I think I might like the extra kick. Now to come up with a label - hmmmmm? - Snow Shower IPA?
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Here are three simple gardening projects you can undertake, even in the middle of winter.
1. Grow Sprouts.
I love growing sprouts. It doesn't satisfy my need to dig in the dirt (since you only use water to sprout the seeds) but it does allow me to watch small green shoots emerging from tiny seeds, and, even better, to eat the results.
2. Try Winter Sowing.
You know all of those seeds we buy (or that form on certain plants in your garden) that are reliable self sowers? If you want a little more control over where these plants end up, and satisfy your inner gardener at the same time, you could try planting them up in a container (such as a milk jug) and setting them outside. Yes, right now! They'll sit there through the winter, and sprout at just the right time. Once the plants have their first true leaves in early spring, you can plant them wherever you want in your garden. And, yes, I like this method because I get to play with soil...
3. Grow Microgreens.
Is there anything prettier on top of a sandwich or frittata than a healthy sprinkling of colorful microgreens? These tasty little leaves grow very well indoors on a sunny windowsill, and can be harvested in as little as two weeks, depending on which variety you're growing.
Bonus Activity: Dreaming of my garden also helps pass the time quite a bit, so spend some time looking through seed catalogs and planning what you'd like to grow in the coming spring and summer. Winter will pass before you know it, and you'll be out in the garden again.
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"Going green," may seem like a new movement, but the concepts behind it are not. As we ring in a new decade today, we thought it would be fun to look at great green practices from the past. You may already have some green experts in your family, known to you as your grandparents. Those of us that had grandparents grew up during the depression, "reduce, reuse, recycle," wasn't just a way to care for the environment; it was the way to live. Check out nine ways that your grandparents were living green, long before it was cool.
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So you've begun your New Year's resolution list. Any of this sound familiar?
"This year, I resolve to never be late."
"This year, I resolve to exercise more."
"This year, I resolve to (insert anything about dieting, weight loss or eating right here)."
Since many a New Year's resolution includes something about dieting, we took note of Change.org's recent post on their Sustainable Foods blog: 5 Foods You Should Avoid in 2010. But this list doesn't simply offer avoidance suggestions to improve your body. By making better substitutions, you'll help put our global body on a much-needed diet, rejecting some of the junk currently gumming up the works.
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