Go Veg! This writer finally takes the plunge.

The Serious: Switching from a meat-based diet to a vegetarian diet does more for the environment than switching from a gas-guzzling SUV to a hybrid car.
(University of Chicago geophysicists, from Veg For Life)

The Silly: The Meatrix: "It is all around you, Leo Hamderson. Take the red pill and I'll show you the truth."

Think about this the next time you're about to order a steak. Livestock farming is super inefficient, using up 8lbs of grains to produce each pound of meat that appears on the shelf -- but meat doesn't have any nutritional advantages, so there isn't any good reason we persist in doing it, other than meat's comfortable position in the status quo (and on take-out and fast-food menus nationwide). Not only that, over 70% of American grain and corn is fed to farm animals, instead of people! That same amount could feed 800 million hungry people.

Switching to a vegetarian diet has broad health benefits: statistics on a variety of issues, from heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer to osteoporosis, meat-related proliferation of resistant "super-bug" microbes, and food-borne pathogens support cutting out meat entirely. More on nutrition here. The tragedy of livestock animals' short, pain-filled lives and the damage they innocently wreak on our soils and our waters is an epidemic. Personally, I have ignored it for convenience sake for too long, and it's time to make a conscious choice to stop. Recognizing the consequences of one's actions is a necessary step to being a conscientious citizen and to work toward changing for the better.

"I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives."
- Dean Ornish, M.D.

There are even more potential benefits of vegetarianism related to the state of the environment. Factory farming, the majority source of milk and cheese in the U.S., produces such concentrated wastes as to pollute the land beyond the ability to rebound naturally. Animal meat provides a very concentrated source of accumulated human-created toxins, which get stored in their fatty tissue. Eating the plants they feed on instead makes people less likely to suffer from ailments that have arisen as a result of our landfill-happy culture and the subsequent leaching of endocrine disruptors, heavy metals and cancer-causing agents that permeate the water that Daisy the dairy cow or that your Christmas ham end up drinking.

And let's not forget the fish. Overfishing has resulted in a complete imbalance of the oceanic food chains, and with the nitrogenous and phosphoric farm waste flows contributing to the problem, dead zones dominate once-vibrant waterways. Oxygen-depleting organisms have made waters even more uninhabitable for complex, higher organisms that work to keep smaller ones in check. Algal blooms (also known as a "red tide") are more common now than ever, and the drought will surely have an amplifying effect for the eastern United States (see notes from new hampshire for more on that). Farmed fish aren't any better; they consume 3 pounds wild fish, from already-barren oceans, to every pound produced.

My conclusion is that my meat consumptions stops, now. I will try to eliminate dairy products as well, but my primary priority is to start treating the flesh of animals like the sentient beings they are, and let them be. I'll leave you with a quote:

"Kindness and compassion toward all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves."
-Cesar Chavez

My First Week: A Non-Profit Primer

Here are a few amusing things learned my first week on the job at CHEJ:

• Celebrity is an important thing in the world of non-profits. It behooves an organization to be founded by or peopled by celebrities - everyone wants to be near to them in case some star power rubs off. But also important are celebrity donors, who flock to fancy donor events in big cities to show their support for the cause. Who would have thought my first staff meeting would include a discussion of who's networked with the likes of Brooke Shields, Ralph Nader, and even Hillary?

• Everyone does everything. I'm not just an intern, you know; I'm going to play toxicologist and organizer, too. This will probably be mostly good; first, I won't get bored from being boxed in too tightly, and second, I'll have a more well-rounded set of skills when I leave.

• Staff all seem to know someone who served in or who is currently serving in the peace corps. That means lots of good stories and advice for me! Best so far is my co-worker who built her own greenhouse and quit her PC job-function as an environmental educator to better serve the needs of the community. As she put it, "It's not like they would actually fire you."

• Environmental organizations take running a green office seriously. This means printing and copying with soy-based ink on recycled/reused paper, 100% donated and reused office furniture, a moratorium on paper, plastic, and styrofoam kitchen supplies, and a strictly enforced recycling policy. Needless to say, I'm pleased.

• Public transportation is marvelous. I can knit, I can read all manner of publications, I can mouth the words to old Juanes and Tears for Fears songs, and I can people-watch. It's a relaxing way to wake up or wind down, and not having to worry about terrible snow traffic is amazing. But, you say, this is not limited to non-profit orgs-- and this is true! But it's a first for me, so I say it counts.
  

Channeling that North American Alchemy

In A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise of Ecological Design, Nancy Jack Todd whips up an amazing how-to/history on practical solutions to ecological and social imbalances, focusing on key biological details to the same degree that Affluenza focuses on the theory. The forces behind New Alchemy's gaian Ark-home cum greenhouse and industrial strength wind-powered pond-scrubber are convincingly identified as none less than healing powers of nature. How did they get there? The New Alchemy Institute members started by asking the question, "Was it possible to support Earth's population over time while protecting the natural world? And if so, how?" and conclude with an outlook of great hope that bodes extremely well for the you and I, assuming that such great ideas could amass the necessary will to broad scale action.

The greatest accomplishments of the holistic approach detailed in the book are often achieved in the context of a naysayers (who ranged from amused to desperate) through the tireless and continued efforts of an ever-growing community of scientists, artists, students, and children. The community approach was probably as integral to New Alchemy's success as was the vision of their leader (and the author's husband), John Todd. Also present as supporters of the Alchemy Farm in its beginnings were such idealogues as E.F. Schumacher and Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who were both important for their work in the domain of philosophy of environment; at the Farm, these and all others who participated left their mark as a part of a beautiful synergy, much like the integrative work itself. Other books, like the Sierra Club's "Compost This Book!" impressed me with its practical and earth-friendly projects that solved challenging problems of equal ecological importance. However, New Alchemy leaves behind not just a nice mechanistic solution but an entire breathing biome, all its cycles restored and in harmony with living needs, including those of modern people.

Frightening fact: The World Health Organization estimates that 70 percent of cancers are caused by environmental factors. Cancer rates continue to rise despite Billions of dollars spent on research and treatment. Through ignorant or otherwise unintentional exposure to byproducts inherent in a corporate-controlled and economics-driven world, people are finally becoming a victim to what society has wrought. But Ocean Arks International, the contracting offshoot of New Alchemy's residual faith in natural efficiency, is working directly with these destructive entities and reclaiming unsightly waste pits as lush, abundant sanctuaries. They took stock of a sewage canal in crowded Fuzhou province and made it into a pond/walkway uniting bordering apartment communities, and they dared to transform the runoff from a Tyson, Inc. chicken farm into an energy-producing greenhouse replete with solar energy-storing fish tanks. No single person could have dreamed up the elegance of nature's own nutrient recycling program that drives these awesome solutions, but the Todd's have been imaginative enough to harness it for urgently necessary purposes. Their story comes to a close having learned and accomplished so much, and the timing is just right for renewed efforts by the next generation - yours and mine.

More Info:
John Todd's CNN Biography
John Todd and the New Alchemists on Design Outlaws

I'm happy to say my list of influential and important folks grows longer, along with great resources for further inquiry and exploration!

Luck strikes at the Ottobar; Friends I knew

You're at a smoky bar, seated on a simple bench by a wall, facing a band on a stage. Most of the patrons have already left for the night -- the second band obviously had the biggest following, and though the twenty-somethings had stuck around for the stunt, they weren't there for the music, really. You're bobbing your head to the beat and smiling to yourself about some clever lyrics when a girl walks by, turns to face you, and shows you a compact disc. By reflex, you put out your hand, experiencing an anachronistic moment like being sold something by a street hawker in China, maybe Spain. She again proffers it toward your hand and you hesitate, then accept, watching her walk out to the street, maybe to get a smoke, maybe on her way out. You wonder if you've just agreed to hold it for her or even to buy it, without really being able to hear over the poppy guitars, but she doesn't return. On second glance, the CD itself is something of a miracle - it's the new one, by that band you heard on the radio that you've been meaning to check out, just hadn't gotten around to yet.


That was my Friday night; and many of those patrons were kids from my high school home on break and in need of something to do. It's been absolutely awesome to be able to catch up with so many people after returning to the area and trying to re-establish some kind of network. Many of them have been people I only vaguely knew, but some of them are old friends cast aside that have been renewed under more mature, reciprocating circumstances. I'll just call it an unexpected benefit of having graduated and returned to living at home.

Some semblance of a plan

This update from the employment front:

I've been nominated to serve as a science teacher in the Peace Corps on an assignment departing in June (the earliest I could get)! My country hasn't been identified yet, but my recruiter has identified and placed me in a very large region of a developing continent in need of a volunteer. I contacted a former volunteer through a friend at CMU to learn more about her experience. Basically, she had an awesome time, falling in love with her [now] husband through letters during her service, felt she was an important and appreciated part of a community where she is still remembered, and she got in some all expenses-paid travel. By way of insuring that I'm pumped for my service opportunity, she pointed out some benefits of being a PC teacher that I hadn't thought of before:

• Teachers are very well-appreciated and given respect, as they are much less abundant; you know your work will have a positive community impact.
• Teaching is a well-defined set of skills that makes it easier to get a handle on what your job function is. Job satisfaction tends to be higher than other volunteers.
• You get the summer off, so you can travel far and wide, work on secondary projects of interest, or both!
• Your students will remember what you taught them long after you leave; sustainable learning and practices due to your efforts is virtually guaranteed!
  

Next steps:
Completing some very detailed health paperwork to get comprehensive clearance, and receiving my official invitation (equivalent to a job offer) to serve. Also, I'm going to look into attending some events with my parents to get them more comfortable with the idea of 27 months abroad, as well as getting them in contact with other parents of past/present PC volunteers.

In the meantime, for the next 7 months or so I'll be working as an intern on the BE SAFE campaign at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice in the DC metro area. I'm jumping at the chance to work at a Non-Governmental Org and to concentrate on something close to my heart: hazardous waste! The basic goal is to protect health via pollution prevention (P2) policy and publication work. I'll probably get some experience in relevant environmental policy (RCRA/TOSCA/etc) and have fun researching and learning all kinds of details about waste facilities and how we unwittingly (uncaringly?) harm ourselves when we 'just throw it away'.

Take home message: There IS no "away," folks. Except for when I get on a plane in June for 27 months service off the continent of N. America - that reasonably qualifies as 'far away.' But by no means will I discourage anyone from visiting.

Present Relaxed

If Bob Ross was a woman with a wonderful philosophy of self, he would be here now, in a cute youtube video.














[photo from dearcrissy.com]

Puzzles and Pursuits.. just don't call it sudoku.

Happy Hallowe'en! My glowing pumpkin...


and conceptually:
















As you can see, I went for a somewhat nerdy theme with my pumpkin. Initially, it was to be the constellation Andromeda. I imagined what might have been the inspiration for the arrangement of stars and so drew up the princess, chained to the rocks where she was left as a sacrifice to the sea monster, Cetus. It was her mother's fault she was there - she had bragged that Andromeda's beauty eclipsed that of the immortal maidens of the sea, the Nereids, and Poseidon would have none of that. Andromeda, whose name means ruler or guardian over men, was rescued from the cliff by Zeus' son Perseus after he was finished beheading Medusa. He then married her, which probably pleased them both [and her bragging parents, too].

I think next time, a Gorillaz pumpkin might be in order.

And recently... I read patterns in coincidental events while simultaneously reducing deforestation. Amazing!
After returning from the library with armloads or totebag-fulls of books, I keep finding myself opening up books and finding they're published by Island Press. Coincidence? I'm starting to lean toward No. Maybe this is a cosmic nudge to actively seek out their books - the many quite poignant, well-written, relevant, AND contemporary ones they offer.

The ones I've looked into so far are:
- The Guide to Graduate Environmental Programs
- The Complete Guide to Environmental Careers of the 21st Century
- A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise of Ecological Design

"This is my own trip, you understand..."

The colder weather is rolling in so I'm back to my hot tea-drinking habits. This palette of teas is pretty, no? Last night I enjoyed gazing into (and sipping) a beautiful scarlet tisane before bedtime. I think the infusion had strawberries and flowers in it.

Yesterday was a lovely Sunday afternoon bike ride around Elkridge. It's good to see that, over a period of 20 years, the routes where my Dad once rode to be 'in the country in the middle of the city' have mostly evaded suburban sprawl. The Patapsco/Rockburn park area has some great bike-riding roads, though the uphills were a bit brutal. Check out other rides listed under 'Elkridge' on Bikely for more ideas.

This weekend was also a good one for cooking, another cool-weather pastime! There's nothing like a warm, browned and fragrant something emerging from the oven. Of course, all the fresh veggies and fruits of summer are great, too - but they work more for lounging and crunching than for comfort.

Here's a recipe for a Spinach Chicken Wreath [tested and confirmed as yummy]:

Preheat Oven to 375 degF; serves 8.
Ingredients:

• 1 can/10 oz chunk white chicken (drained)
• 1/2 C red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 pkg/10 oz frozen choped spinach (thawed and drained)
• 1C shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 C mayonnaise
• 1t lemon zest
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/8 t ground nutmeg
• 2 pkg refrigerated crescent rolls (8oz each)

Directions:

• Flake chicken into a medium bowl. Add all ingredients except rolls and mix together.
• Unroll crescent rolls and separate into 16 triangles. Arrange them in a circle on a 13" round baking stone (wide edges should overlap in the center, acute-angled points toward the outside); leave a 5" diameter opening in the center.
• Scoop chicken mix evenly onto the widest end of each triangle, all the way around the circle.
• Bring the outside points up over the filling and tuck under the wide ends at center of ring; there will be filling visible through openings between crescent dough.
  
• Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. If bottom of rolls are soggy, bake a few more minutes on bottom rack of oven [to cook without over-browning].
  

And one more, for Milk Chocolate Florentine Cookies [also confirmed delicious]:

Preheat Oven to 375 degF; makes 3 dozen cookies.
Ingredients:

• 2/3 C butter
• 2C quick oats
• 1C granulated sugar
• 2/3 C all-purpose flour
• 1/4 C light or dark corn syrup
• 1/4 C milk
• 1t vanilla extract
• 1/4 t salt
• 1+ 3/4 C/11.5 oz milk chocolate chips

Directions:

• Melt butter in a medium saucepan, remove from heat. Stir in all ingredients except chocolate chips and mix well.
• Drop level teaspoons of mixture on a greased baking sheet, 3 inches apart. Spread them thinly with a rubber spatula.
• Bake 5-8 minutes OR until golden brown. Cool cookies completely on sheets or wire racks.
• After the first batch comes out, microwave morsels uncovered at 70% power for 1 minute; stir. If needed, nuke at 10-15 second intervals until you get an even consistency.
• Spread chocolate onto half of the cookies, on the flat side. Top with the remaining cookies with the flat side again contacting the chocolate.
• Cool and serve or store! See Néstle's website, the finished cookies looking scrumptious.

I started knitting again. I'm going to try a simple pattern from the Japanese website, ABCs of Knitting: the 'first socks,' which will be rendered in a bulky grass green. I love how precise and thorough their website is, and I think some warm socks will do me well to foster even more cozy, indoor activities. Maybe after that, I'll try knitting in color; how to pick between intarsia, fair-isle, or stranded color knitting? This may require some reading up.

PS. Who knows who said the quote in my title? Clue: a member of Kesey's merry pranksters. Yes, I'm reading the electric kool-aid acid test.
PPS. Awesome, easy-to-follow instructions for kitchener stitch (very important in making a comfy heel!) at Knitty.

Affluenza: Treatment

Here are some poignant quotes I wanted to share from the book that started from a PBS series called Affluenza. This particular quote is from a chapter entitled, "Political Prescriptions."

"What if Americans started buying smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, driving them less and keeping them longer? What if we took fewer long-distance vacations? What if we simplified our lives, spent less money, bought less stuff, worked less, and enjoyed more leisure time? What if government began to reward thrift and punish waste, legislated shorter work hours, and taxed advertisers? What if we made consumers and corporations pay the real costs of their products? What would happen to our economy? Would it collapse, as some economists suggest?

"Truthfully, we don't know exactly, since no major industrial nation has yet embarked on such a journey.

"...But as economist Juliet Schor points out, there are many European countries (incl. Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) whose economies have grown far more slowly than our own, yet whose quality of life-- measured by many of the indicators we say we want, including free time, citizen participation, lower crime, greater job security, income-equality, health, and overall life contentment-- is higher than our own. Such economies show no sign of collapse. And their emphasis on balancing growth with sustainability is widely accepted across the political spectrum. As former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, a conservative, put it:

'It is true that the Dutch are not aiming to maximize gross national product per capita. Rather, we are seeking to attain a high quality of life, a just, participatory and sustainable society. While the Dutch economy is very efficient per working hour, the number of working hours per citizen are rather limited. We like it that way. Needless to say, there is more room for all those important aspects of our lives that are not part of our jobs, for which we are not paid and for which there is never enough time.'"

A Progressive Extravaganza

The following is a non-exhaustive list of progressive organizations and entities (loosely categorized) I was, am, or could be interested in. I post it for two reasons:
a. I'm constantly misplacing the bits of paper I record them on, when they are recorded at all, and
b. because other people might be interested in them, too!
It also doesn't suit me to make my Launch Pad on the left much longer than it is now. I'll probably update this every so often.

In no particular order, other than the order they came to me:

Topics:
NY Times letters from Amory Lovins
Failure of the Appropriate Technology Movement [requires jstor access]
dcjobs.com, indeed.com, idealist.org, marylandjobnetwork.com, US Gov't Jobs

Movies/Documentaries:
Who Killed the Electric Car?,
The End of Suburbia
An Inconvenient Truth
Affluenza: The Epidemic of Overconsumption [recently added!]

Books:
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Affluenza
Not Buying It [recently added]

Organizations and Projects:
Maryland Conservation Corps [recently added]
The Post-Carbon Institute [recently added]
The Rocky Mountain Institute: Abundance by Design
The Society of Ecological Restoration
Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology
Redefining Progress
Design that Matters
International Development Enterprises
Engineers without Borders
Design Corps
KickStart: The Tools to End Poverty
Solar Electric Light Fund
Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore
Woods End Research Lab
The US Composting Council
Biodegradable Products Institute
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Design for the Other 90% Resources Page
Green Living, Natural Foods Links at Roots [recently added]

And here's a quote or two, just for fun:

"The new problems are not the consequences of incidental failure but of technological success."
Small is Beautiful
E.F. Schumacher


"In 1967, two-thirds of American college students said 'developing a meaningful philosophy of life' was 'very important' to them, while fewer than one-third said the same thing about 'making a lot of money.' By 1997, those figures were reversed."
Affluenza by De Graaf, Wann, and Naylor
and The Post-Corporate World, David Korten

Of Oxycodone and Compost

Waste not, want not.

A simple saying, but one that has led to the existence of, among other things, my very own compost heap (my frothy pile of joy!). Now, by the simple and naturally-occurring process of decay, I can return to the soil the abundance of nutrients and products I have enjoyed. My contributed nitrogen and carbon sources so far have taken the form of pits from juicy summer peaches and rich avocados, napkins that have cushioned many tea bags and wiped thirsty mouths, and some less savory things, like vacuum dust-bin whirls, shredded secret documents, wine turned to vinegar among other expired fridge remnants, and yard waste. This time of year, that means leaves.

By the way - I got my 3ft tall/3ft diam bin for free, and the compost it generates (after some 6+ weeks) works to fertilize and enrich the soil better than pricey chemical fertilizers. Just thought I'd put that out there.

Most recently, I got to wondering what really is the most environmentally appropriate way to dispose of something that most houses have an abundance of -- used pharmaceuticals. You can't fall off your bike without getting prescribed a passel of pills, and who's to say you'll need (or want) to take them all?

So, as with most curiosities, I asked the intarwebs if I could possibly compost my leftover happy pills. Note however, that this isn't just some hair-brained idea; while plowing through Compost This Book!, I was struck by the clever solution to an explosive situation in which the government inadvertently created a huge underground reservoir of TNT as a result of a munitions recycling program. Composting the enriched land with a carefully-designed recipe helped avoid explosions, and the resulting small organics were probably pretty nice for nearby plants, too. Those clean-up methods logically extend to pharmaceuticals. Most active ingredients have natural sources (remember the campaigns for saving the rain forests and their 'miracle cures'?), so the majority of them might be suited to decomposition the way that mother earth elegantly intended.
[Other medicinal additives (eg. binding agents, etc.) are likely biodegradable in some capacity; most are already water-soluble, depending on pH - you didn't think Pharma cleans their tanks with canola oil, did you?]

What I found was a surprising lack of instruction or publicly-available information about what to do with all those leftover synthetic substances lying around. That's dangerous - Big Pharma pumps out billions of pills per year, and much of it ends up in our environment through excretion and ways that water and biosolids are reused at industrial water sanitation facilities [see tox research @ USGS]. I did, however, find a nice Swedish course on environmental awareness with some cautionary words..

Excess prescription drugs also provide easy access for recreational abusers, because there isn't an easy, obvious way for Joe Consumer to clean out the medicine cabinet. E.g.: Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh's pain medication abuse has been in the news recently. Most government websites DO advise people to stop throwing most of their pills into the wastewater stream via toilets or sinks, but the only alternative suggested is the trash. Well, that's just not good enough - landfills are full, and concoctions of some vile stuff leach out anyway. We can't very well convert all the land left into landfills to put our stuff in; this country needs all the green space we can get to absorb CO2, and farming is already lagging behind in producing enough food for the millions (import/export imbalance --> national debt).

The EPA's plan for the next few years doesn't seem nearly as ambitious enough to me; action needs to be taken now. It IS encouraging, though, that they're showing an active interest in the behavioral factors contributing toward decision making that is envronmentally destructive. I believe their findings may come into conflict with industry, but what results from any such conflict remains to be seen.


Listening to CSPAN radio last night wasn't particularly encouraging for my own faith in the government's ability to make decisions for its citizens on a basis that is independent of market-driven factors. The Nuclear Research Commission badly wants a burgeoning "nuclear renaissance," and no mentions were even made of international political damage done by nuclear proliferation. But, alas.. that topic rests for another day.

Fall Trips, Foiled!

I've been out of commission lately after an impetuous tussle with a bike trail got a little too heated and resulted in 12 stitches in my knee, among other gashes. That was the second of two really excellent fall trips I had planned.

The first was a jaunt up to Pittsburgh for a memorial service for a professor of mine who died this summer. Even though the leaves weren't turning yet, I had a lovely drive out. It was kind of strange to be back at CMU whilst not enrolled as a student, but I welcome relations with my former professors that are on a more "real person" kind of level. Look Ma, I'm a real person now! I stayed for free [in exchange for manual labor and a list of favorite dinner suggestions] and checked out a Feist concert while in PA, too. Good times.

After that, I headed out on a 4-day biking and camping trip with a friend. We planned to bike along the C&O Canal from Washington in the direction of the Cumberland Gap (where a different trail picks up those on their way to Pittsburgh), where our only real goal was to reach Harpers Ferry. As fate would have it, we wouldn't even reach that modest distance! Although that probably had something to do with our road bikes' relative sensitivity to dusty, gravelly trails; the bikes with us and all our stuff strapped to them were just too unstable. Rubbernecking was the fatal step that sentenced me to a day in the hospital and at least a week of hobbling. I can't be thankful enough for the plentiful, gracious runners that shuttled us to the hospital and helped us take care of our bikes. Now, I'm pretty sure the best way to show my appreciation is to pass on the good karma.

Injuries aside, the trail is a really beautiful place to ride, walk, or hike! If only it were paved. The canal locks make some mini waterfalls every so often, and the terrain is almost completely level (except the gravelly hills at each lock) so it's not difficult. I can't wait to get back and try again - and maybe this time get some camping in.

NPR Story on Biofuel

Earlier this year, I got word of a new company that has the first plans to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia in 2008. Range Fuels plans to use waste products from corn production (and hopefully, waste products from other proliferative agricultural processes too) to make ethanol. More and more companies are seeing this time of environmental need as an opportunity to be innovative, and the news media is all over those kinds of stories, too.

Just today, I ran across an NPR Story from a March '07 Talk of the Nation (Science Friday) show about the viability of biofuels in which a Range Fuels CEO serves on a panel that addresses this particular method of weaning the US off its "fossil fuel addiction," including US enthusiasm over Brazilian ethanol. From my perspective, the reason this story is so great is that they go into the issue not only from a ChemE perspective but from a sustainability point of view.

One particularly keen question that came up is, how can we support corn-based fuels when they are one of the largest users of petroleum-based fertilizer in this country? That's one more very large reason for spreading the use of composting!

The loveliest of clichés

I received a well-traveled p!rated version of Paris, Je T'aime from a dear friend in India today. Note: he's not always in India, but he was when he sent me this postbox surprise. The movie is a lovely collection of vignettes by various directors that eventually come together at the end as you would want, but for me, it's not nearly soon enough. All in all, they are touching, funny, silly, and in love with love in the city thereof -- but the cliché is not even remotely sickening. Thankfully. Take a look at my blog entry on Paris if you want to know what I thought of the place.

I also got word of some new projects at Born magazine today - one is a Gatsby-inspired poem, The Smell of Roses at Night, that's put to the visual enhancement of transmutating roses powered by a finger-spun typewriter. When you read it, you won't regret the whimsical few minutes you spend. We can always use more than a single daily dose of beauty and poetry.

Small Design is Beautiful

Recently, I traveled to New York to visit some friends and to see an exhibit about the fruits of a movement to direct engineering, design, and architecture toward socially responsible, sustainable, humanitarian design. Design for the Other 90%, at the Cooper-Hewitt museum until September 23, 2007, is a small but important temporary exhibit at this branch of the Smithsonian museums. I enjoyed seeing the objects on display, but much more valuable are the ideologies spelled out and the stories behind the exhibits.

Again and again, the project leaders credit the concepts laid out in E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful; by designing on the more human scale of the intended customers (poor people included!), you eliminate waste and make the design enterprise more fail-proof. The kicker for me is that you can "design like you give a damn" and since you're operating on the level of the customer, which necessarily includes lots of feedback and hands-on, creative development, projects are almost guaranteed to have an observable beneficial impact.

Here are a few quotes from the second chapter, on peace and permanence (paraphrased from the writings of Prof. Leopold Kohr). They're rather long but they make some important points:

"Small-scale operations ... are always less likely to be harmful to the natural environment than large-scale ones, simply because their individual force is small in relation to the recuperative forces of nature. There is wisdom in smallness if only on account of the smallness and patchiness of human knowledge, which relies on experiment far more than on understanding. The greatest danger invariably arises from the ruthless application, on a vast scale, of partial knowledge such as we are currently witnessing in the application of nuclear energy, of the new chemistry in agriculture, of transportation technology, and countless other things."

"It is obvious that men organised in small units will take better care of their bit of land or other natural resources than anonymous companies or megalomanic governments which pretend to themselves that the whole universe is their legitimate quarry."

Some particularly demonstrative examples from Design for the Other 90% are the Fuel from the Fields project and IDE's Drip Irrigation system. Fuel from the Fields uses a variety of farming waste products specific to the intended customers to make cooking fuel that decreases damaging air pollutants and the demands on the females who usually have to go far afield to find wood, dung, or other burnable materials. The Drip irrigation system incorporates a way to store waters from monsoon season with a simple distribution system that is perfectly fitted to the quarter-acre size of the plots maintained by small farmers, allowing them to dramatically increase their output of high-priced produce in the dry season. Both of these projects incorporate equipment and technology that is low-priced and low-tech enough so it can be produced by entrepreneurs in the region. This means that such entrepreneurs can make a profit by enabling their fellow villagers a more healthy lifestyle and decreasing the harmful impact of deforestation in the case of the fuel, and by enabling an increase in profit and food supply for the case of drip irrigation.

Done with School, Snapshot of China

Every time I think of it, I can't help but marvel at how it is to be finished with the school system after 19 years of going to class, long hours with textbooks, taking notes, dealing with new teachers, and meeting classmates for work and play. After being in such a stiff and well-defined system, I feel a bit floaty out here in this world where there are a huge variety of possible choices one could make. It's great to be free enough to reconnect with friends in the area, though - and soon, I'll be across the country to see the California side of the family for a kiddie birthday party!

After such a preamble, I'm posting an excerpt from one of my PC essays, for entertainment and for show. This is one ingredient in one such possibility for the future. I write about my two weeks in China, which I visited five years ago.

"I learned to bring toilet paper with me, to tolerate trash on the streets and to remain (relatively) calm on chaotic highways teeming with bikes and rickshaws operating independent of any apparent traffic laws. It wasn’t a freewheeling kind of integration that my friend and I eased ourselves into, but more of a cautious one; awareness for my own safety seemed suddenly closely linked to my decisions. At the same time, I felt sympathetic toward the people who lived there—the old huotong neighborhoods seemed a tragic place to live if lung-crippling coal was the most widely-used fuel for cooking and heating available, and the ugly practice of land-reclamation continued to leave its mark on the local mountains, all in the name of low-cost capital development. The smog coloring the sunset gray was the suspect in the case of my own respiratory ailment that developed after only 4 or 5 days. Water was also a huge problem, as every bottle-toting tourist knows, but 300 million residents will never be truly adapted to a water table contaminated by human waste. Chinese behaviors were discouraging, but what I took away was this: there probably weren’t better options readily available, and my ability to recognize such inequities could be a means to help. In China, health risks and environmental deterioration have a real, tangible meaning in a way that’s more often talked about than experienced in the US."

Stuff, things, food on the table.

I'm back from Europe! There is so much to share about the experience. What a wonderful gift to receive. Now, to finish the blog (which is only currently halfway there!)...

Living at home again has been a rough adjustment. I'm just amazed at how much time two people can spend looking after their stuff - things that become their entire lives, instead of things that compliment and facilitate lives. There is a lot more to my parents than stuff, but maybe the transition from being a backpacker running on 4 sets of clothing for a month to stumbling through a house full of possessions and noise pollution has been harder than I anticipated.

Nonetheless.. one material possession I can appreciate is trip pictures! I just started printing some today, and even got high compliments from my Dad, buyer of many an expensive camera accessory. Now that I'm relatively adroit at keeping up with them, photos and journaling a great way to hang onto and share memories. I'm so thankful that I had a friend to borrow a camera from - Emily did me an amazing favor! It must have taken a huge amount of trust to let it go for an entire 6 weeks.

Now that I'm back, it's officially time to work on doing something productive to move toward winning my very own multigrain loaf. To that end, I just dug out an article I photocopied from the New Yorker about an innovative, green designer named Amory Lovins. He envisioned a different energy future in 1976 (Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken? pdf) and is the CEO of a company I would be excited to work for (!). I'm also interested in internships at Friends of the Earth, who are centered in DC. Lovins worked there before founding his own company; I'm sure reading more will lead me to other interesting opportunities. Excitement!

Edit-
3 websites for green jobs were recently e-mailed to me by a friend:
1. Young Professionals in Energy
2. Greenjobs
3. Renewable Energy Access

Un poco mejor

I'm feeling much healthier now, and breathing the Barcelona beach air this afternoon was wonderful. Europe, the land where the sun doesn't set until 10 - why can´t it be this way everywhere?
It was nice to have a day to myself. Oddly, I suddenly got the urge to knit after coming back from the beach; it would have been a great activity to do while lazing about in my enjoyment.

Also, I miss biking! That will be one of the first things I do when I get home (though not until it´s the cool time of the day-- July and August in MD are going to be scorchers as usual, I´m sure).

La chica enferma: diviertese?

I´m sick in Spain. I love the country and I love speaking Spanish here but I just want to sleep and get better. I wonder if it would be possible to delay my trip, to continue it later. I´m just not having that much fun, being too tired to go out all the time. I know that I should go to Granada because we just bought tickets; maybe there are flights available from Barcelona back to the states. We´ll see.

Europe Trip 2: London!

Update on Dublin: random people, czech. Cider, philosophy and religion, cocaine and E, irish jazz, check check. That made for a great last night, though missing trains and mass confusion made the next day a bit of a wash. Also: it's good to have British money when you get to Britain so you can eat.

And now... London has been quite exciting, if not loads of fun. Our hostel is out in the boonies but we've been doing as much as we can in the daytime. Met some people yesterday after we figured out the kitchen/movie lounge area was a good place to do that; but a few hours later, there was a stabbing which significantly brought down the levels of fun. No worries - I'm OK, but I'm worried for the mental health of young people (everyone, really) who end up out of their parents' houses and with big problems and no support network. Scary.

BUT, today was my b-day and we saw lots of cool stuff. By midday I had seen remnants of the dead sea scrolls, heard Seamus Heaney read his own poems, and saw the stamps that are a big part of American history: those of the Stamp Act of 1765. By tea-time I had traipsed all over Westminster to get the *real* story behind the uproarious religious herecies in Dan Brown's book, including:
-spotting knight's effigies in the knights' templar church that was consecreted by the patriarch of Jerusalem
-hearing the story of the origin of the Jolly Roger and the 1st traffic lights ever (that also exploded and injured the policeman who changed the color manually)

.. and was then seated for high tea at Kensington Palace. Tonight, I saw Avenue Q in Leicester square, which was great! Yesterday was a great design exhibit on the politics of modern design and the Tower of London.

Europe Trip, Entry 1: Dublin

I'm currently finishing up my 3rd day in Dublin, and it's finally NOT raining! You probably have no idea how huge this is. Dublin is a great, walkable, busy city full of independent shops and many native people with a very matter-of-fact way of being. They have absolutely no bones about writing biting opinions columns in the paper, and I have to say kudos to them for it.

Today I saw two acts of the world championship street performers; both were superb, and both were somewhat secretive about their identities (not unlike the way I've been about my American identity in a crowd; who wants to be that group they make fun of with the Iraq jokes? please). Last night was Int'l night at the Int'l bar (though the only non-Irish was a host from Perth, who was hilarious; will post his website after getting back) in Temple Bar. If you're ever in Dublin.. Temple Bar is a fun place to be. Can't say I've gotten to intimate with the people though, which is a shame -- these ones actually speak my language!

I think traveling with Alberto has a lot to do with *THAT* though. I function a lot better on my own when I don't feel like I need to ask permission to do every little thing. He also has this bit where he doesn't voice his opinion and is perfectly content to do exactly what I'm doing that really bugs me. I start to feel a bit like my ideas are carrying what we're doing and that'd be ok if it were just me, but with two people it begins to feel like a bit of baggage.

Nomatter though-- London is bound to be cool. It's London! Dublin is beginning to feel like a smallish town though, a little like Venice, and maybe my options in my current situation and getting a bit exhausted. It's kind of fun to be able to recognize neighborhoods I've been through a few times, though.

There was a great exhibit at the National Museum of Archeology on bog people - Ireland was once full of bogs! It's a great place to stash a dead body, that's for sure - and while you're at it, you might as well throw in his valuable possessions to hide the evidence. The Irish take on their past is refreshing. There's a bit of nostalgia of course, but why deny a little brutality and pagan practices when they're just facts of life?

Caitlin
Saturday, 19:36

More Baltimore

Since getting back from my first wedding* last weekend, I've been spending a lot of time in Baltimore, my home-city! It's the closest metropolitan-type area around, and was a big part of my childhood and high school years. Now that I can go out, my relationship to it is a bit different - in short, I'm loving it! Here's what I checked out this week...

The Golden West Café in Hampden. What a laid-back, eclectic, awesome diner. I can't say I've ever received a deal on wine (on Wine Wednesday, of course!) and had it be appropriate in such a place before going there. It was the perfect location for catching up with a camp-loving friend I haven't seen in ages. It's also cool to be old enough to know people living in nifty places like Baltimore's center of all things Hon..

I also hit up the Honfest, scoping out some B-more kitsch in the same quirky 'hood. There were hons abounding with freshly-fixed up beehives, leopard print stretch pants, and neon cat's eye glasses - the throwbacks didnt end at the pink flamingoes, thats for sure. They also had garage sales on the Ave, charm city-specific food, and cover bands playing Cash and Evil Ways (while I was there, anyway). And dancing!

Earlier in the week was a Volunteer Central info session-cum-café chat at Xando/Cosí in Charles Village. That's another excellent neighborhood, supported by the hard-working folk at JHU and home to excellent haunts like The Book Thing , many ethnic restaurants, and the Baltimore Museum of Art, among others.

Speaking of museums, I checked out a Walters Art Museum lunch'n'learn with my dear old mum. A materials science graduate lectured and was surprisingly science-y for an art event. Some of the pieces presented in the lecture on Thai pigments were really beautiful and ornate - I'd love to see more. Afterward, my mom and I wandered around the museum, picking up a half-price Patricia Wells cookbook on bistro cooking, which turned out to be a great buy. One of her (many) potatoes au gratin recipes made a delicious addition to dinner tonight. The Walters also has a quilting exhibit coming soon that I hope I'm around to see, as well as related workshops. I'm hoping my Mom will be motivated enough to go to some of them, as she was making noises about wanting to try quilting. I'm not holding my breath, though -- she did the same for knitting and all that came out of that was a scarf that's holed up in a closet somewhere. Oh well, more knitting needles for me.

I made it to a dance party and sushi but just missed seeing Paris, je t'aime at the Charles Theatre. Oh well, you can't win them all...

By way of a recommendation, if you'll be in the area in July (when I'll be off in Europe!) be sure to check out Artscape, which will be going down around Mt. Vernon. That's always a good time.

* Well, I've been to weddings before. I played the music for that of my cousins in CA a few years back. But now - my friends are starting to get married! This is huge.. and a little overwhelming / crazy. But way fun, too.

Save some energy, while you're at it!

It's no secret that I took Captain Planet to heart when I learned about the three R's: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse. To focus on a current buzzword, energy, saving money and reducing emissions is all about that middle one - cut down on your use! There are so many easy ways to do this. A few of the best I'm personally invested in are...

- Energy Efficient Computing!
This one is especially important. I wish more companies would get on the bandwagon with this; think of all the money wasted and gases created by leaving computer-centered offices on all night (not to mention clusters in Universities.. cough CMU cough). However, just as a public service announcement:

do *NOT* leave your laptop plugged in and charging overnight.

Also easy to do but worth noting is turning off and unplugging lights and appliances when you're done using them. I can't describe how many times a day I walk around and turn off things people have forgotten about. Also crucial are unplugging adapters that draw power when appliances are turned off. The point: the era of electronic thoughtlessness is coming to a close.

- Hybrid cars (much borrowed from hybridreview)
Some calculations indicate that, along with the well-known superiority in terms of miles per gallon of gas, costs for operating hybrid cars are now competitive with those of traditional cars, with only 3-7 years ownership (that's nothing -- I drove a 1992 car until recently). This means savings for the environment and for your wallet. That's a powerful combination!

Tax incentives currently abound for buying hybrid cars - one bill Bush managed to do right. Though some are diminishing as years go by due to sales, many still apply. See if the car you're thinking about using qualifies, then go for it! Sooner might be better.

- Alternative Energy and Fuel Technology
This one's a biggie; I'm considering of applying for jobs in this area. My biggest concern is the emissions of the new fuels; I have yet to hear of a new fuel that lives up to be a) non-oil derived and b) doesn't deplete our crops and c) emits less CO2 per mile driven.
I love the idea of using ethanol fuel, especially using cellulose as a source and genetically-engineered E. Coli to get the job done; it's cool, it's high-tech, and the government has already looked into it - but the infrastructure isn't there, not to mention what the actual environmental impact would be.. I have no idea. I will definitely be alert to news in this area.

Memorial Day BBQ!

As is normal with most holidays, my family had a little get together with a lot of food. However, in addition to the usual group of six, my friend Emily and her mom joined us! I'm so glad they came to hang out and celebrate, as their family is going through a lot of change right now.

Emily's mom Alyce and her dad Andy are moving to Germany for a position they've been hoping for over the past few years. Andy left yesterday and is busily finding a house there. It's awesome - and I'm so happy we gave them a place and a group of people to celebrate with. My parents and extended relatives (small group though we are, relative to *some* families) welcomed them and made it a nice afternoon. Here's what was on the menu (all from June's issue of Gourmet, save drinks and dessert):

Memorial Day BBQ Linnerdunch
- Blueberry limoncellos
- Grilled chicken breasts with North African spice paste
- Orzo with cinnamon brown butter and parsley
- Grilled summer squash and zucchini
- Arugula and radicchio salad with feta and dates
- Coconut brownie ice cream trifle


For those who have never tried limoncello, it's a great, creamy lemon liquor from Italia that goes great in mixed drinks. Check out lemon drops as well.. so easy, so delicious! I am definitely a big fan of tart drinks, though that one pairs well with the sweetness.

To see the world, in only a month

My friend Alberto and I are starting the summer off right with a (parental graduation-present) trip to Europe. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a private jet-owning Aunt to buy me tickets for a world tour like he does, but I can't say I mind being sent off to Europe for 5/6 weeks. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

We found a neat travel planning website, RealTravel, and have been using it to plan Our Trip. It's still under construction as far as the route, but this is the second or third iteration. It's just about time to buy plane tickets, so odds are the trip will firm up right quick.

Once we're over there, we'll probably try to use RealTravel to blog our trip, too. I'm getting pumped! Now that we're narrowing down the list, it looks like we'll have plenty of time to soak in the local flavor at many an awesome destination (and dare I say attempt to speak the language..?)


For example, we might see castles in Granada...

Or hike in Oslo...


Or check out some popular Saints' festivals in Lisbon...








And there are plenty of people to visit too. May this trip whet my appetite for much, much more!

Wind in my hair

.. Sun on my face! I just barely started biking in Pittsburgh before graduating from Carnegie Mellon (BS in Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering), so now I'm picking it up in and around Ellicott City. The fabled Seven Hills ride should prove challenging once I get to them.. but for now, I'm content to ride to the library.

I chose the central branch of the Howard County Library as my first destination for the following reasons: it's far enough away that I'm saving gas on going and having a good trip out of it, and they have things that my local library doesn't; namely, more novels in spanish.

There are reportedly 80-90 miles of trails in Columbia -- but the maps aren't available online, as far as I can tell. The Columbia Association says they sell them (for a small fee), but I didn't find them over at the Rouse Center. I might just explore trails on my own to find out where they go instead.

Edit: Trails in Ellicott City are much more fun, not to mention beautiful! It takes a while to get away from the traffic that suburbs bring, though -- major drawback.

Check out my bike route on Bikely:

Central Branch Library Ride

Bikely.com