Melancolic Souls

Sometimes, somebody says it better than you ever could. Today (or back in 2001), that someone is Ian Frazier:

"I sat in my motel room for several days, getting gloomier and gloomier. Rain fell constantly. The month was August, and the rainy twilight lasted from four in the morning until midnight. Outside my window Bering Sea waves the color of wet cement landed on the riprap shoreline with thuds. To say that Nome, Alaska, is mainly mud with pieces of rusted iron sticking out of it is to be unfair to that interesting place, but so it appeared to me at the time. On my motel-room bed I read obscure books to the sound of the rain and the waves, taking occasional breaks to stare at the ceiling. I saw almost no one, never cracked a smile, and was as sorry for myself as I could be. After three or four days, completely bummed out, I went to the airport and flew home. I arrived pale, monosyllabic, and wonderfully refreshed."

Needless to say, I'm really really excited for fall to come, and with it Halloween!

Interesting Article Day

1. Farmer's hurt by rising corn and feed prices now mix M&M's and potato chips into their cow feed...YUCK!!
2. Wind energy thwarted by a lack of adequate power grids....get us some good leadership!
3. The "Anti-Restaurants" of upper New York...very cool.
   

Favorite Quote of the Day

"[Brinkley] speaks in the breathy, enthusiastic delivery of a librarian reading aloud to someone in the third grade, and she smiles almost constantly. She can talk through the smile—which reveals both top and bottom teeth at all times—almost like a ventriloquist." New York

One of the Sexiest Things I've Ever Seen

What happens when love and art mix? Find out here.

No Impact Man Impacts Me With His Writing

Colin over at No Impact Man, a writer who spent a year creating "net zero" waste with his family, never fails to disappoint with his informative, inspiring and hopeful posts. Below is from his post today.

"I talk so much about waste of resources here on this blog, but what's really important is not waste of resources but waste of life.

We'll waste a lot of life if we keep wasting so many planetary resources--climate change, oceans fished out, lakes dead from acid rain, children with asthma.

And there is waste of life that accompanies the waste of resources. Spending four work months a year paying for or driving alone in our cars strikes me as a waste of life and of resources. Spending time paying off credit card debt for Christmas presents instead of time with the kids strikes me as a waste of life and of resources.

But there is also the waste of life that comes from not having enough resources. Not having enough food or water is a waste of human life. Having to struggle to get by, without being able to pursue some of life's higher goals, is a waste of life.

Not having time or energy or health enough to sing is a waste of life.

So there is a balance to be struck, right? What is the balance that ensures we don't waste life through either overuse or underuse of resources?

Building another coal power station in the United States so we can crank up our ACs a little more or get 600 instead of 500 channels of TV is a waste of life through overuse of resources.

But strangely, not building the same coal power plant in a developing country where kids can't learn to read at night because of not having electric light is a waste of life through underuse of resources.

Because for all our talk of energy efficiency and renewable energy, don't we need to figure out what it is we're using all this energy for? When we're indulging and when we're helping?

As much as anything that will save us, I think, is the need to redefine the good life. It's not more stuff and endless energy. That's one thing.

But maybe even more importantly, if it's wasting life rather than wasting resources that we're worrying about, we need to figure out how to deliver that redefined good life to everyone.

Otherwise sustainability is nothing more than the luxuriant ideal of the elite.

Whatev.

I'm riffing. I'm at the beach in Greenport, NY at the beginning of my carless vacation and tomorrow I hand the draft of my book in."

Utne Exposes The True Cost of Leather

Utne recently posted an article that exposes the true cost of leather, a somewhat ubiquitous item found on the feet of most people, except, you know, vegans. But while most non-leather sporters tend to complain about the effects that leather production/popularity has on animals, surprisingly, the toll it takes on both the environment and the human workers toiling everyday to make these items seems far worse. It's surprising that more red paint's been thrown on fur (something usually found on the backs of those richer than most) than on something that almost all of us can claim to own.

For the future, if I ever purchase some leather I'm going to make sure it's recycled, either from a thrift store or from designers like this or this. Or maybe someday I can afford some of Natalie Portman's vegan shoes....probably not. :-)

It's Always About Oil

With the excitement of the Olympics and the impending election, it seems that no one has been paying attention to the recent Russian/Georgian conflict, myself included. A recent post on Dealbreaker.com, clears up any questions and provides a great run down on what's happening. Unfortunately, in addition to the leftover ethnic and political issues from the Cold War, another major factor in this conflict is oil. As it turns out, Georgia is a major pipeline, the only one, that connects the West to the East's store's of both natural gas and crude. Although all the commentators admit that Russia will by no means take drastic action to isolate the West, it's still interesting and frightening that oil has played yet another crucial rule in war, just as it has in Iraq. As one of my favorite science fiction characters would say, "The world has moved on." Sadly though, none of our leaders have. We can only hope that they will start to lead us in the right direction before it's too late. Photo taken from http://express.howstuffworks.com/