Give me a home where the kids can go roam

This article by the UK Daily Mail gives an example of how kids today are given fewer opportunities to roam in nature than past generations. I know as a kid, I loved playing outside and didn't have to be driven 20 miles to do so. I could just go outside and play in my neighborhood, and was free to roam about until my mom called me home for dinner. Now, living in the middle of a major city, I rarely see kids outside playing, and I can't really blame them. There is nowhere for them to go, everything is paved, people don't seem to know their neighbors (I know we don't), yards are smaller than living rooms, and busy parents have to drive the kids to the nearest park for the kids to play.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=462091

Reusing receipts

My wife came up with a pretty good idea for making shopping lists. Just take your old receipt (grocery or otherwise), flip it over, and write your shopping list on the back. It saves paper, and can make for easy comparison shopping. It works well for us with grocery receipts since they are generally pretty long, and is a weekly occurrence.

Vitamins

I've often thought that I should eat some vitamin suppliments, since I'm not the healthiest eater in the world. However, I always end up forgetting to take them. Well with all the latest reports maybe I'm better off just going without them. Here's one take from the Boston Globe about some of the recent vitamin reports:
The fading allure of vitamins

ShiftHappens

Check out this really interesting slideshow describing globalization and the role of the U.S. in the 21st century.
http://www.slideshare.net/jbrenman/shift-happens-33834

Donation Meters in Denver

From Daily Good, an article about parking meters in Denver being used to collect change for the city's homeless. Sounds like an interesting idea, although I wonder why not just give the change straight to the homeless person? An interesting tidbit I got from the article is that the city is trying to eliminate homelessness in Denver within the next 10 years! A great thing for the mile high city to aspire to!

Kindness Meters

It's a Bird, a plane no a helirickshaw!

It's a Bird, a plane no a helirickshaw!
Originally uploaded by calamur.

Check out this rickshaw!

No Impact Man

I just came across this great blog by a guy in NYC who is trying to reduce his family's impact on the environment for a year. This means avoiding plastic, eating locally, no TV or movies, giving up cars, subways, new items in packaging, and even toilet paper! Its a bold experiment, and I'm sure they're learning so much from it. It reminds me of the book "Better Off" that I read last year, but they're in NYC! Definitely worth a visit!

No Impact Man

Pennywise Eat Local Challenge

There is an annual challenge put forth here in the bay area to try and eat foods that come from a 100 mile radius. This not only means eating locally produced foods, but even the ingredients should be local as well. I've heard many reports that eating locally has a stronger impact than eating organically. With the additionally "Pennywise" aspect, the challenge volunteers also agree to spend no more than $10/person per day. Sounds pretty tough to me! I didn't know that there is no locally grown flour, so that means no bread or pizza. Ouch! Here is an article from the Chronicle:
Eating locally for less

Earth hour

The aussies are at it again! First flourecent bulbs, now they banned together to turn off their lights for an hour in sydney. Great stuff! Maybe I need to move to Australia :) Sydney is one of my fav cities.

Best Green Cities in America

Country Home magazine ranked the major cities of the US on how 'green' they are.. makes an interesting list of places to live.
Here's the stie: Greenest Cities
Or if you just want the top 25: Top 25

NC State takes out Duke!!!

Ahh yeah! The Wolfpack took out Duke from the ACC Tournament yesterday! I can't remember the last time Duke has been eliminated from the tourney this early! Woohoo Go Pack!

Voluntary Homelessness

A young student in LA takes an interesting approach to getting out of his credit card debit. He gets a camper shell for his truck and decides to live in his truck for a year! Here's an article from the LA times: Story

10 lessons from the Dalai Lama

A list of 10 lessons from HH Dalai Lama and some brief interpretations of them.

Food not lawns

An interesting idea about our front lawns. We spend so much time, money, and water on front lawns that are kinda useless, what if we grew food instead? Here is a review of a book discussing that idea.. Food not lawns.

Greenbridge development

Check out this new community coming up in Carrboro, NC (near Chapel Hill). Its a housing community built with Green building practices and looks to be very nice.
Greenbridge

NC State upsets UNC!!!

This past Saturday the NC State Wolfpack had an awesome upset of the #3 ranked Tar Heels! Ah how sweet it is! Here are some great motivational posters a NC State student put together.. posters

Social networking for change

Check out Change.org a social networking site asking what you would like to change in the world. There is an interesting tag cloud showing what people want to change most.

Surviving on $12000 a year

Check out this post on MSN about a lady who has decided to go back to school at 48 and live on $12k a year. Although I'm not sure if I could ever get that frugal, I have to admire her spirit.

Terra Bite Cafe in Seattle

Check out this cafe in Seattle, practically another Seva Cafe!!!

Terra Bite

Cancel or Allow?

I saw this ad last night on TV, and thought it was pretty funny, especially being a Mac guy :)
Cancel or Allow?