Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Random Sight from the Bus

I didn't get a picture, as I wasn't on the right side of the bus for it, nor did I have my camera. However, I saw a man practicing tight walking in the miniature park next to the main library. He was clad in only what I'd call 'training pants' and his headphones and was practicing his balance about a foot and a half to two feet off the ground. I thought it was really cool and scary at the same time because there were trees all around him. Not a lot of other people around me seemed to notice though. I don't know if he's a student or a graduate student, or something else, but I think it was very neat what he was doing.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Today is Earth Hour!

At 8:30pm local time, I'd love for whole parts of the world to get dark, but I doubt that will happen, so it'd just be cool if whole areas went out for it. It's meant to be a call for action on climate change, but you can read more about at their site. I think it's really just very good idea for the lights to go out at night so that people can look up at the stars and planets. There's a lot of light pollution, and it's rather boring to look up at a sky with very few stars. I'll probably spend the hour reading by flashlight or something like that.

I hope that this is rather new and that it will gain more notoriety as the years continue. I'm going to add it to my calendar.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Carbonrally.com

This site is meant to help people accomplish goals which will reduce their carbon footprint. Whether there is global warming or not--I'm not a climatologist so I have no opinion on the matter--I think it's a really good idea to do things that are better for the environment because by using and reusing, we create less waste. Though less waste means less for future archaeologists, I think they will have plenty to pick through. We also will have everything a bit cleaner and aren't taking away our beautiful forests as quickly.

I'm currently participating in three challenges to make things better. They're economical, sensible, and nothing earth shattering. Some of it's easy because I live in a dorm, and some of it will my life easier in the dorms. Not using disposable things for meals is easy, but making sure that everything is properly sealed and remembering to turn my computer and electronics off at the surge protector won't be as easy.

I think it's a cool site, and I'm planning on emailing my "Office of Sustainability" at the University of Iowa and recommending it to them. No harm from it at least.