Mr. Green Jeans

I have discovered if I really wanted to be fully green, and self sufficient, it would take a pile of the other green....money. That is something I don't have a lot of right now.

I don't currently have 40 acres and a mule, I don't even have five acres and a riding lawnmower. I just have a condo I rent with a small backyard. I may be able to grow a little of my own food back there but, feed myself...forget it. I am reliant on the local grocer for that.

I have electricity, natural gas, water in the pipes, the drains run into the city sewer, and the landlord takes care of any problems I have. In other words, I am dependent on the community. That is the good part.

The bad part of that equation is that if the community chooses not to be so green, it is difficult for me to be fully green. Portland area is quite green but the manufacturers of the products I buy are not. This, I think is the entire premise behind the title of my blog, "Least Footprint". Could I make a lesser footprint than I do now? Absolutely! Should I? Of course. Then why don't I? The answer is simple. I don't yet know how but I am working on it plus it is also true that there are few products anymore that meet the fully green status. Being fully green is not easy.

I sometimes wonder if someone who reads my blog; I don't think there are too many right now actually; came to my house, would they expect I would be Mr. Green Jeans with solar cells charging batteries in the attic, tubes circling the roof to fill my hot water tank, a large greenhouse in the backyard full of tomatoes, peppers, radishes and zucchini and a couple of chickens running in the yard. To be honest I would welcome that life, but as I said, that takes money. Money I don't have. It is a goal though. However not eating chicken any longer those hens would have a pretty good life.

I pretty much began the whole green thing with eating better and that somehow led to starting recycling. I think it is because I started going to sustainability fairs and my eyes were opened to what my lifestyle was actually doing to the planet. It took a while to get really good at recycling but now my trash cans see very little waste. I'd estimate less than 10% of what we throw away now ends up in the landfill. (Unless the recycle station has dumped it there, which I hear does happen.) I am an avid recycler of everything I can now and when I can't recycle something now, and have to throw it in the trash can, it actually makes me sort of cringe. I have a stack of Styrofoam in the garage waiting for someone to start recycling it. I would think they could just grind it up and make something new out of it but I guess not.

My next step, after learning to recycle better, was to reduce the amount of stuff I actually buy. Less purchase, less waste. I have been partially effective at doing that and I still want, I just don't buy as much. I'm still working on that line between want and need.

I think my next step in this process is to learn to eat with the seasons and locally. That is not going to be easy in the winter. September, as it so happens, is "Eat Local" month and so now is a good time to get started on the local eating program I think. I'll report back how it goes.

Green Tip: It is no longer necessary to make a decision on cloth or disposable diapers. g diapers from Australia have just been introduced in the U.S. and they are made right here in Portland Oregon. Kind of makes me wish I had a baby just so I could see how well these things work.

g diapers can be flushed or even composted. Were you aware that 50 MILLION disposable diapers end up in the landfill EVERY DAY! Average time to decay...about 500 YEARS. g diapers completely ends that problem.

For only $26.99 you can try them out. After that you just buy refills and flush. A case of refills is $52.00 for 128 diapers. You can also use cloth inside the g Pants during the day and use then use the flushable at night.

Want to learn more? Visit the videos.

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life." John Muir, 1898

I am taking John Muir's advice and will be communing with the birds, the bears and the trees in the Mount Adams wilderness for a long weekend. I call it "tree time" and it is a necessity for me to help maintain my sanity from living in the city. My heart lives in the hills and meadows of the backwoods, but my feet are still stuck in the city.

Note: My next post will be on Tuesday, September 4, 2007. Have a happy Labor Day. Get out in nature this weekend and show a tree a little love. You'll breathe better for it.

Oh yeah, check out my new "nature quotes" feed over there to the right. See, something new while I'm gone anyhow.

A trip to Ikea

When the Ikea store opened in Portland this last July the news harbingered huge traffic jams and the papers displayed  diagrams of how to avoid the traffic.  However, the biggest story, prior to the grand opening, was of those that camped out in line, some for a week, to be one of the first five-hundred in the door. I knew right away this was a place I wanted to avoid until things cooled off.

As it turned out there was not a single traffic jam, the ones who sat in line for a week, thinking they were going to get a free chair, simply got a coupon for a free hot dog in the cafe, and the doors opened on time to the sounds of Swedish oompah's by a brass band. I think there were a few dignitaries to cut the ribbon.

Well, yesterday, we finally took the light rail down to check the place out.  After all, if they build such a large cathedral to shopping it might be worth the time to at least step inside the door and find out what was doing with everything yellow, blue and square.  It was dizzying.  You are free to shop where you want but if you came with no specific plan they have conveniently put huge arrows on the floor to route you around the mouse maze interior. Ten-thousand different items made from wood,  plastic and paper in every form conceivable that is square.   They pride themselves on being square.  Appropriate for a store that resides in such a big box I guess.

Here is one big kudo to send Ikea's direction though.  If you want a plastic bag, they charge you a nickel.  They beg you with signs  not to use the plastic bags, or if you must they will sell you a large reusable bag for fifty-nine cents instead of the disposable.  They cite these facts in their plea:

The amount of plastic shopping bags that we all use once and toss is overwhelming:
-The average family of 4 accumulates 1460 plastic shopping bags a year.
-100-billion are given away each year in the U.S.
-It can take up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to break down in the environment!

The nickel they charge for the bags is routed to American Forests, reported to be the oldest non-profit conservation association.  Every dollar donated to American Forests plants a tree apparently.  I had never heard of this organization until this trip to Ikea but a quick look at what they do made them seem like a worthwhile charity.  They will plant trees in your, or another persons name and would make a nice gift.

Ikea also had several displays showing how to live pleasantly in very small spaces.  One display showed how a family of three could live quite comfortably in 580 square feet. Quite livable actually.

Well, that was my trip to Ikea for the first time. I'm not  in a hurry to go back.  In the end we bought six glasses made in Russia for $3.54. The old glasses in the cupboard, the ones we got free at Spaghetti Factory years ago are headed on to Freecycle today to be adopted by a new family. 

Shopping Junkie

Do you ever just wake up and feel like you want to run out and buy something? Do you think it will make you happy?  Do you walk into a store and pick up things that are "on sale" knowing you don't really need it but it is "such a good deal" to pass up?  Do you grab the Sunday paper and sort the ads out, so you can read them first?  Don't want someone else to see the ad first and take them all before they are gone...right!   

Hi, my name is Scott and I am a shopping junkie?   "Hi, Scott!"

It is commonly thought that "women are the "shop-a-holics" but I have watched and men are just as bad.  It's just that we are drawn to the electronics, sporting goods, hardware and expensive things like boats, cars, snowmobiles, etc.  Personally my draw is books and camping supplies. I love camping supplies.  It used to be electronics too, but I have much better willpower now, although I still look. 

No, I am not going to list off a twelve step program in this post. Instead I have a video that is just a few minutes long and gives all the instructions you need better than I ever could. You won't regret watching it.  It is so "American".

WATCH THIS VIDEO

What's wrong with reducing?

There was a day when I was motivated for another kind of green. Cash! Over many years I tried different "get rich quick" schemes and attended real estate seminars looking for the "easy life". You know, the one where I would just sit back on my pile of cash, with little care for what happened around me, as long as I was comfortable and had a good remote for my HDTV. This, I thought, is what would make me happy. It didn't work out too well, I'm still not "rich" and actually I am quite glad.

The "get rich quick" schemes I tried seemed devised to make sure someone else got rich quick, not me. That is, unless I was willing to enslave my friends and family to be my sales minions in my own little army of vitamin salesmen. They would then enslave their friends and families to be minions in their own little army, and so on. Once I got these dollar signs out of my eyes I realized I wouldn't feel right enslaving my friends and family for my own personal gain.

I also tried the real estate thing, attended seminars, and even signed up for two different mentoring programs. I got dumped by both of the mentors because I refused to be slick and dishonest when dealing with homeowners in my quest for a cheap deal I could flip fast for a lot of dough. Selling vitamins through my friends and family was one thing but selling my integrity to buy a cheap flip was something I simply wouldn't do. It didn't take long and those dollar signs faded quite fast for me. The people I spoke with called it "the New Gold Rush." Here is the statistics on the last gold rush, in the Klondike. One-hundred-thousand began the trip to the gold fields. Only thirty-thousand actually made it. Of those thirty-thousand, only about four-thousand actually found any gold. Of those four-thousand, only a small handful found any substantial wealth. (Source:National Park Service, Klondike Gold Rush Museum) Keep those statistics in mind if someone invites you to the next gold rush.

I believe it was these experiences that caused me to re-examine my goals in life, so they were not a complete waste. My search now is for a different kind of life and a different kind of green. I started this blog as a way to hold myself accountable for my actions. I have been schooled my whole life in consumerism and it is a difficult transition to live more simply and desire less stuff. It also requires a lot of reading, research and contemplation. Old habits die hard.

I believe our desire for personal comfort is really just a basic part of human nature and always has been. The problem we have now, in our day and age, is that technology allows us to consume so cheaply, easily and quickly we each have the potential, right at our own fingertips, to inflict great damage to the earth without much effort. Just the flip of a light switch, the push of an accelerator pedal, the spray of a can, the pull of a plastic bag from a roll, the quick purchase of an electronic gizmo is all it takes. Moments of our life that can cause damage that will take thousands of years to repair. When we do that over and over it is deadly to all life, including our own.

Some have devised a way in which we can offset our guilt by just paying money. I have been approached by several of these organizations over the last couple years asking me to "offset my carbon footprint". The plan is that by paying someone to find a technological solution and commit a positive act this would in turn "offset" any negative act I choose to perform and get me off the hook for my overconsumption. This never quite sat well with me when it was presented and while it sounded good on the surface, I kept coming back to the same question; What's wrong with just reducing instead? I'm sure the money generated from the "carbon credit markets" goes to quite a few good projects but if we all reduced what we used instead, would many of these projects even be necessary? Here is an example of one of these projects.

A few days ago I read an article about a plan to dump one-hundred tons of iron filings into the Pacific Ocean off the Galapagos Islands in an attempt to increase the plankton count, which would absorb more carbon, thus slowing global warming. The company responsible, Planktos, is seeking funding through a "carbon offset fund". Here is a quote from their website that states it well.

Our Market

Carbon credit markets are opening up around the world, including in the USA. These markets have been created by new government policies and regulations in response to growing climatic and environmental concerns.

The largest carbon markets are driven by the Kyoto Protocol, which is designed to annually reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 600 million - 1 billion tons. As part of the Kyoto Protocol, European nations began trading carbon dioxide emission credits in January 2005. And since emissions of CO2 are so extensive, the trading market is of substantial size and value, and growing quickly.

Because of the fast growth in the market, an increasing number of participants have sprung up to provide liquidity, trade exchanges, and financing. Beyond the public exchange floors, large market players conduct many private direct trades adding substantial volume to the trade. There are now also a significant number of investment funds established for the sole purpose of investing in CO2 credits.

When you read "since emissions of CO2 are so extensive, the trading market is of substantial size and value, and growing quickly.", you begin to realize there is a lot of cash being generated by "offset". I am not condemning offset entirely. I think offset funds are probably a good thing overall but not when they are used to absolve the personal responsibility to reduce. Reduction never seems to play into the goals of the funds.

In this example, the iron they intend to dump, at a cost of millions of dollars, will absorb the annual emissions of about five coal burning power plants. There are roughly four-hundred coal power plants in the United States alone, many more in the rest of the world. What do we do about the other three-hundred-ninety-five plants in the U.S.? How much simpler would it be to just reduce the amount of electricity we use?

Here is the link to the article on dumping iron in the ocean from the Wall Street Journal, no less. It's not very long and well worth reading.

Energy Roundup - WSJ.com : Upset About an Offset

BBC NEWS | Americas | Midwest awash after heavy storms

Perhaps Global Warming is not really real.  Perhaps all of these weather records being broken day after day is just a fluke of nature and it will soon all go back to normal.  But then, perhaps not.  Do we continue rolling the dice and hope for the best? 

BBC NEWS | Americas | Midwest awash after heavy storms

How to recycle your move

I believe boxes, like cats, should have nine lives. If you've moved recently you probably discovered boxes are just not very easy to come by anymore. In the olden days one went down to the local grocery and there was a bin right up front, just inside the door, where they threw all the empty boxes. The early bird always got the best boxes and most of them disappeared every day. Not anymore. Now the boxes go to the back stockroom, get shoved through a hole in the wall, are crushed, then are sent off to be remanufactured into a brand new box. I am not clear why that makes sense, economically or any other way, but it must because the stores invest major money in these huge crushing machines. Just another example of how our society has become geared toward disposability and not reuse.

Unless you know someone who has a cousin who knows a guy that has a sister with a boyfriend that works in the back of a store you are pretty much out of luck. I am fortunate to be married to someone that knows a guy in the basement of the hospital and if she went first thing in the morning she could get all the boxes we needed. Most I fear are not so fortunate though.

Here is an option some may not have considered. FreeCycle. After my recent move I posted my stash of lightly used boxes on FreeCycle. They were spoken for in literally five minutes after hitting the web. I was life two for the boxes and through Freecycle these boxes are now seeing a third life. Since this person intends to FreeCycle them when she gets to Boston these boxes will then have four lives and still be going strong. So, if you are moving and need boxes, post it on your local FreeCycle site. Have boxes you are done with? Post those too. It is a great way to recycle your move. Oh, you could also pass along any excelsior or bubble wrap you used as well. Reduce, REUSE, Recycle.

Afterthought: Don't stop at boxes. Put everything you don't want on FreeCycle. You would be amazed at what people are looking for out there. It may seem like junk but there may be an artist looking for exactly what you have. Freecycle.

Green Tip: Got a clogged drain? Forget the noxious chemicals. Boil a large pot of water. Add one cup of Baking Soda and once cup of vinegar all at once. Pour down the drain immediately. If your drain was fully clogged then let water flow until it clears completely. Cheap and effective. Try putting this concoction down your drains once a month to keep them cleared too.

If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror.
John Young, Apollo astronaut

OK, that one was cynical but realistic. Here's the positive one.

We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.

Donald Horban

Yeah, I like that one. It's a lesson I am still learning.

A correction

As I stood at the sink yesterday rinsing some dishes I noticed that the "Mason" jars I have are not Mason or Ball. They are Kerr. Who knew?

Mason Jars Don't Use a Secret Handshake

I love Mason Jars. Our pantry used to be full of plastic bins and bags. Now it is full of a standing army of Mason Jars. (Truth: There are still a few plastic bins and bags left but we are using up the contents and they'll be gone soon.) Anyway back to the main story.

We buy bulk now whenever it is available. Flour, beans, lentils, rice, oatmeal, spices, there are hundreds of things you can buy in bulk. It is always much cheaper and there is no packaging to throw away. I also like the fact that my food is in contact with glass and not plastic. Did mention that I hate plastic now?

I know some people are out there washing and reusing plastic bags, and I've tried it, but I could never quite get the hang of it. Mason Jars are so much easier and it's glass!

Some stores ( most stores?) will weigh your jar and note the tare weight on it so it can be deducted after you fill it. I don't bother with that, I just carry cloth reusable bags into the store,fill them up, then transfer the contents when I get home. The cloth bags can be easily washed then line dried and will last for years. Spices are the exception. For spices it is easiest just to buy it once in glass jar and then keep refilling that same jar over and over. No need to label as long as you don't ever run the jar through the dishwasher. (Don't forget to have the tare noted though before you fill the jar!) The bulk price of spices is a lot less than buying prepackaged stuff. Don't be fooled by the label on the big jar at the store that says it costs like $26.99 per pound. The spices weigh so little it usually comes out to only a few dollars when you fill the jar.

Mason Jars can be bought at most groceries, especially during canning season. Often in the off season they are piled on top of the freezer cases and require hunting down an employee with a ladder to get one down. I guess they just don't have the same appeal as candy bars which are always at hand level and everywhere. Here is another way to get jars though. Some products, like spaghetti sauce, come packaged in regular old Mason jars. Just buy the product, eat it, wash the jar, get a lid and you are set. "Free" Mason Jar.

If you decide to convert your pantry to an army of mason jars, here is a tip I learned from experience. I labeled the jars on the front....Wrong! Label the lid instead. It is much easier to find what you are looking for when they are four deep in your pantry. And don't forget, if you drop one and it breaks, don't throw it away, it still recycles. If the lid gets crusty you can recycle the lid in the metal bin. New lids can be bought separate from the jars in a little cardboard box but since you are not using the jars to preserve food (canning), they can get a little crusty or be bent out of shape and still be OK for pantry use.

I read the Fake Plastic Fish blog every day now and, as Beth has found out, it takes a long time to rid your life of plastic. I second that notion. I am on a much smaller campaign than Beth to rid the plastic from my life but so much comes in plastic now, I sometimes scratch my head at how it is really possible to fully eliminate plastic from my environment. Even the computer I write this blog on is made of plastic. Well, a lot of it anyhow. Slowly but surely I am ridding my life of as much plastic as I can. The Mason Jars (OK, sometimes they are Ball Jars) are a very good start and the way they look like an army of glass in the pantry is rather cool looking.

UPDATE: Beth at Fake Plastic Fish has come up with a great way to clean lids from spaghetti sauce jars. Here's the link to her post.

"It is not so important to know everything as to appreciate what we learn." - Hannah More (1745-1833; author, philanthropist,educator )

Green tip:

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLFS) are used in shampoo's, toothpaste, dishwashing liquids, soaps and many other products as a sudsing agent. There is evidence they are a carcinogen and also can inhibit eye development in children. These chemicals are absorbed quickly through skin and mucous tissues so ingestion is not necessary to be exposed. SLS is also lethal to fresh water fish and since it does not break down well in the environment any put down the drain stays around for a long time. Don't forget that what goes down the drain goes to the sewage treatment plant. The solids are then removed and are commonly pumped onto the edges of roadways and into fields as a fertilizer. The SLS and SFLS enters the environment again at this stage and can wash into fresh water sources.

The Materials Safety Data Sheets for SLS cautions workers to avoid body contact. But this same chemical is put into most body and hair care products. Is that weird or what?

ALWAYS READ THE LABELS! Avoid products with these ingredients.

Another freebie quote-I love this one

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."

The Sioux Indigenous Peoples

Moving is a pain

OK, I know I have harped on the moving thing a bit, but really, it was not my fault.  The apartment I lived in went condo and I had to buy or leave.  It wasn't that great of an apartment and an even less great condo so...I left.  Besides the empty lot next door, full of feral cats, was plowed under and turned into a subdivision of asphalt and concrete.  Really sad for the cats and I lost a great view of the natural world.  

Well, I am in the new place now and it is very quiet and rather peaceful. Boxes still strew the floor but it is getting there.  We sit back in the trees and lots of plant life. I love it.  It took a lot of looking to find the right place and being green topped the list.  Here are just a few of the green advantages of the new place.

1. We have gas...the natural kind. I mean for heat and water, not the umm other kind of um...natural gas. 

2. We are walking distance  to the store (1.3 miles), library (1 mile), bus (.3 mile), light rail (1 mile), and lots of other stuff. 

3. We have a backyard big enough for some raised beds and a compost bin.  Zero garbage, fresh peppers and winter greens, here we come.  (One advantage of the Northwest, you can grow lettuce and other greens year round. (sssshhh...keep that quiet though.)

I have been making good use of Freecycle and CraigsList to rid myself of stuff and so this move is taking a little longer as I carefully sift out what I really need.  If you live in Portland area and read my blog watch FreeCycle because I plan to make it very busy real soon with stuff large and small.

I do have a personal confession though and I will make it short.  No Impact Man had a blog recently about reality and optimism. I find his blog posts, and the comments that follow, fascinating and am usually inspired to write my own comment or two or three, plus the occasional diatribe. However after going back and reading my own comments and then comparing  it with others views I was forced to look in the mirror a bit. Staring back at me was (gasp)...a pessimist.  That was a little odd to me because I always considered myself an optimist.  How strange to find the real me.  It woke me up a bit though and I have pledged now to become a realistic optimist, if that is actually possible.   I am realistic in  knowing I will never change the world alone but I can certainly hold out hope and be positive about changing me and hopefully inspire another to change. After all I was a plastic devouring, can loving, junk food eating, electronic gadget junkie who loved to just get out and drive to nowhere for no reason and threw everything into the same garbage can and dump it into the dumpster with absolutely no thought for where it would end up and I saw the light.  I did draw the line at littering though before, there were fines for that after all. See my first confession.  In short though, I was a pig.

Well, I am sure I will still be compelled to yell a bit about this and that in my posts because I do still hate what is happening to the earth and it does upset me I can do nothing about it but, for my own sake,  I plan now to end each blog with a quote or a positive statement plus a green tip of the day.  So here is today's positive statement about mindless consumerism. Oops, was that a pessimistic statement?

Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have.

      Doris Mortman (No idea who Doris is, but I love her quote)

Here is the green tip for the day.  Want to get rid of junk mail?  Move...it doesn't follow you! Sure, that is drastic but it works.

A freebie quote

"Take everything you like seriously, except yourself."

- Rudyard Kipling

Why "the market" alone can't save local agriculture | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 16 Aug 2006

 

Why "the market" alone can't save local agriculture | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 16 Aug 2006

Why The Economist's recent assault on "ethical food" missed the mark | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 03 Jan 2007

 

Why The Economist's recent assault on "ethical food" missed the mark | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 03 Jan 2007

Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful - New York Times

 

Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful - New York Times

On the anti-bottled-water bandwagon - Los Angeles Times

 

On the anti-bottled-water bandwagon - Los Angeles Times

Co-op America: Summer 2007 CAQ: Corn Ethanol Isn't the Answer (A Co-op America Expose)

I need another day or two to get situated in my new place and then I will be back with my regular blogs.  In the meantime this is a great article on the truth of ethanol.  I was not aware it takes seven barrels of oil to produce eight barrels of corn fuel.  Interesting article. There are many other reasons this is not a solution as well; pesticides, land usage, food crop converted to energy crop, and much more.   In the end, the only solution is to reduce consumption of energy.  There is some debate now on whether global warming is even real.  Even if it is not, there are many other very good reasons we should all reduce our energy consumption.  

Co-op America: Summer 2007 CAQ: Corn Ethanol Isn't the Answer (A Co-op America Expose)

Nano_Sunscreens.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Nano, nano was funny when Mork said it to Mindy but when it is in your sunscreen and other products it is no laughing matter.  This is a sixteen page report but it is an easy read and  very valuable information.  

Nano_Sunscreens.pdf (application/pdf Object)

ilovemountains » Blog Archive - End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining » Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: King Coal Pillages Beautiful Land

I grew up in the era of John Denver and one of his most famous songs, Rocky Mountain High, contained the words:

Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land

The year he wrote those words was 1972.  I don't think  he even knew at the time how far we would go as a nation in tearing down the mountains. We literally scrape the tops off and discard the tailings in the valleys and hollows.  Below is a link with further details.   This is so sad to me it seriously brings a tear to my eye. Read it and weep?  Conserving electricity will help more...tons more!

 

ilovemountains » Blog Archive - End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining » Robert F. Kennedy, Jr: King Coal Pillages Beautiful Land

An Astronauts Perspective

Donald Williams, born February 13, 1942 became an astronaut in 1978 and logged over 288 hours in space on two separate flights before retiring in 1990. He had this to say about our planet.

"For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us."

We live together on a big blue marble breathing the same air, drinking the same water, sharing the same resources. Yet we act as if, should we mess this planet up and make it uninhabitable, we have somewhere else to go.

Perhaps we should all step back just a bit and look at our planet as Saturn sees us. We are that tiny speck of light, smaller than a pinpoint at about 11:00 just inside the faint outer ring. Can you see us? Has your perspective now changed as well?

Photo taken of the outer solar system through Cassini's cameras. Cassini is an unmanned deep space exploration craft on a mission to Saturn and Titan. At this time, Cassini was nearly 1.5 billion kilometers (930 million miles) from Earth. The earth and moon in this photo are not more than a few pixels across.

Your thoughts?

My stuff is calling and I'm on Hiatus

I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF A MOVE OF HOME AND OFFICE.  THAT HAS MADE LIFE BUSY.  I WILL RETURN ON MONDAY 8/20/2007 WITH REGULAR POSTS.  PLEASE ENJOY A FEW ARTICLES I HAVE DISCOVERED WHILE I AM AWAY.  OR YOU COULD JUST GO TO THE BOTTOM AND STARE AT THE WORLD CLOCK FOR A WHILE...FASCINATING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING.