Clipmarks | golden-slumbers's clips

Bottled Water is Bad for the Environment

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:45:55 GMT

Bottled water is not safer

The bottled water industry has created a misconception in the United States that bottled water is cleaner, safer, and healthier than tap water. In fact, both regulation and enforcement of bottled water safety is weaker than of tap water safety. Federal, state, and local environmental agencies require rigorous testing of tap water safety.

Bottled water is bad for the environment

Bottled water wastes fossil fuels and water in production and transport, and when the water is drunk the bottles become a major source of waste. It takes more than 47 million gallons of oil to produce plastic water bottles for Americans every year. Eliminating those bottles would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Bottled water is a waste of money.

Bottled water can costs $7.50 to $11.00 per gallon in the supermarket⁸ but tap water costs most customers only one-tenth of one cent per gallon.

Tags: environment, water

Environmentally-Friendly Clubbing

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:36:09 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.switched.com

Dancing all night can use up a lot of energy, or create it -- at least that's what a group of Dutch-researchers-cum-nightclub-impressarios hope when they're done with the Sustainable Dance Club (SDC). Based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the researchers and architects behind the SDC are working on creating a club that will use solar power, wind turbines, low-energy-using LED lights, and rain water and clubgoers' sweat (yes, you heard correctly) to flush toilets.

But the real innovation is to develop a dance floor that creates power out of the pounding feet of dancers. The dance floor would be embedded with sensors that would help generate electricity.

Already, clubs such as Worm in Rotterdam are using sustainable techniques

Worm is built out of 90 percent recycled materials -- door handles are re-used bike handlebars, walls are made of old real-estate signs, and the club's entrance-way is designed to suck in air that is then filtered up to the club's second floor.

[Video]

Tags: environment, energy, dance

HeadHoods?

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:28:27 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: davidreport.com

HeadHoods are currently being produced in a very small bustling factory located in Brooklyn, New York. Each and every HeadHood is meticulously hand-printed and one-of-a-kind and so HeadHoods are sought out as something truly unique. You know what they say “two heads are better than one” well, we think that “three heads are even better!”

Clip Source: www.gadgetcandy.com

Tags: fashion, bizarre

Baby Mammoth Found Frozen in Russia

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:14:35 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

A Russian hunter traipsing through Russia's remote Arctic Yamalo-Nenetsk region in May noticed what he thought was a reindeer carcass sticking out of the damp snow.

On closer inspection, the "reindeer" turned out to be a 40,000-year-old baby mammoth, perfectly encased in ice.

The six-month-old female mammoth is the most well-preserved example yet found of the beasts, which lumbered across the Earth during the last Ice Age, 1.8 million to 11,500 years ago.

"It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition," Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, told the Reuters news agency.

At 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and 51 inches long (130 centimeters long), the baby is the size of a large dog, Reuters reported.

Scientists are banking on the female—named "Lyuba" after the Russian hunter's wife—to reveal some of the genetic secrets of the prehistoric giants.

Tags: prehistoric, animals, environment

Ice Cream in a Bag

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:13:18 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.kidsdomain.com

This project is rated VERY EASY to do.

What You Need

1 tablespoon Sugar
1/2 cup Milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
6 tablespoons Rock salt
1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
Ice cubes

How To Make It

Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy!

Tags: recipe

Cube Architecture

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:11:29 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: very-bored.com

Tags: architecture

Reflective Art

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:05:50 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.techeblog.com

Tags: art

The Blue-footed Booby

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:58:42 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: hellishhumor.com

The Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxi) is perhaps the most comical and charismatic of the booby species. Who can fail to be amused by its incongruous bright blue feet and almost desperate courtship behavior? The famous blue-feet are important in their courtship dances, one aspect of which involves raising the feet up and down, so the whole bird sways from side-to-side. They also engage in dramatic sky-pointing, described below. Blue-footed boobies feed close to shore, so they're one of the first seabirds seen by Galapagos visitors.

Tags: animals

25 Alternative Uses for Olive Oil

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:04:12 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.curbly.com

Olive oil also has plenty of uses around your home, outside of the sauté pan. There’s no need to waste your expensive Greek or Spanish Extra Virgin for these tasks, just grab a bottle of inexpensive, domestic olive oil for around-the-house use.

1. Shave.

2. Wood Furniture Polish.

3. Fingernails.

4. Lubricate Measuring Cups and Spoons.

5. Control hair frizz.

6. Free a stuck zipper.

7. Care for your kitty.

8. DIY Lip balm.

9. Stop Snoring

10. Shine stainless steel and brass.

11. Exfoliate your face and hands.

12. As you bathe.

13. Remove makeup.

14. Cure an earache.

15. Remove paint from your skin.

16. Treat lice.

17. Stop a throat tickle.

18. Fix a squeaky door.

19. Shoe polish.

20. Personal Lubricant.

21. Soften your skin.

22. Easy clean up of garden tools.

23. Condition leather.

24. As a hair tonic.

25. Cure diaper rash.

Tags: tips, howto

Ever Feel Guilty About Pirating Music? Here's the Solution.

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 07:41:07 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.nuttersmark.com

Tags: internet, piracy, music

The REAL Firefox

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 07:32:54 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: strikerdiary.blogspot.com

Tags: internet, firefox, animals

Trash Shadow Art

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 07:06:35 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.pantherhouse.com

Tags: art, amazing

Teenager speaks for the first time in ten years

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:55:55 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.raisingkids.co.uk

A thirteen-year-old boy who became an elective mute at the age of three has spoken his first words for over a decade. Ben Grocock was just three-years-old when he threatened to stop talking if his parents brought him into hospital for a tonsillectomy. But he remained true to his word and didn't speak again for the next ten years.

The breakthrough came during a five-day self-confidence course run by the local fire brigade.

At the end of the course we had a passing out parade and Ben stood up and thanked everybody. It was the first time his grandparents had heard him speak in ten years; it was very emotional for everyone.’

Tags: news, parenting

Your Electronics are Energy Hogs

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 05:38:05 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

the Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants

“Some of the larger big-screen TVs consume as much energy each year as a new refrigerator,” according to Noah Horowitz, a scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Whatever machine you’re using, consider having it go into sleep, standby or hibernate after about a half-hour of inactivity. The shorter the period, the more energy you save. Graphic-intense screen savers can actually waste power.

Unplug unused external power supplies because they can draw energy even when they’re not connected to a device.

Consider buying a notebook PC, rather than a less-efficient desktop. Because notebooks are designed to run on batteries, they’re equipped with chips and drives that draw less power.

Tags: environment, electronics

The Sun's Journey Across the Sky

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 05:06:07 GMT

clipped by: golden-slumbers

Clip Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Explanation: If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis. The Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma during summer and at its lowest during winter. Analemmas created from different Earth latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. The analemma pictured to the left was built up by Sun photographs taken from 1998 August through 1999 August from Ukraine. The foreground picture from the same location was taken during the early evening in 1999 July.

Tags: astronomy