"Bag It" Documentary

Long time readers know I hate plastic even more than I hate CNBC. Check this great documentary about plastic shopping bags. Now if only they'd ban styrofoam...

BAG IT from christine giordano on Vimeo.

(h/t WSF)

Swine Flu Gets The Daily Show Treatment

You know you've made it big when you're on The Daily Show. Congratulations to Swine Flu!

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Micah Wolf, "One By One"

Normally, I wouldn't post such a gay video. I mean, shots of multi-ethnic types smiling capped off by a sing along with kids? Holy fucking shit man, can we make this any more hackneyed? But the thing is, as a surfer and a concerned citizen, it directly addresses a topic near and dear to my heart, plastic in the oceans. It's a fucking mess. Anyway, fans of Jack Johnson might also like the song...

The Styrofoam Cup

After a recent visit to my mother's house, Judy and I decided to get coffees to enjoy on the drive home. My mother lives near a nice, old-fashioned village with the type of Main Street you can't walk down without seeing friends and neighbors. I parked in front of the bagel place and opened my door.



"No, wait a second," Judy said as she peered out the passenger side window at red block letters reading, "HOT BAGELS." "I think there’s a slightly nicer coffee place on the other end of town."

I re-entered traffic, and after a red light and a couple of near "cell phone wrecks," I pulled into another parking spot near where she thought the coffee place was. But there was no obvious coffee shop, just a clothing store, a pizza place and a florist.

“Just get out and walk around a minute,” she said. “It’s there.”

I opened my car door and stepped out into the Main Street traffic. A woman driving a white Cadillac Escalade and, yes, talking on her cell phone, nearly ended my life. I made it onto the sidewalk, walked a few hundred feet from the car, found no coffee shop, and walked back to the car.

Through the windshield I saw Judy leaning over the front seat playing with our daughter who was in her carseat. When my daughter saw me approach, I ran up to the car door and smushed my face against the window making "farty noises." A woman walked by and shook her head in disapproval but my daughter went wild with laughter. Judy rolled down her window. I put my hand on the roof of the car, leaned close, and dropped the bad news, “I see the place you’re talking about, but it’s out of business.” "Okay," Judy said, "Just turn around and we’ll get it from the bagel shop.”

Now there are a couple of things in life that I am rather stubborn about. One is that I’ll never, under no circumstances, pull over to ask for directions. The other, is that I hate to retrace my steps.

“No,” I said. "We’ll find another place. There are loads of bagel shops around here.” Judy rolled her eyes.

Outside of the main village now, there was nothing but depressing strip malls, newspaper-strewn roads, auto collision shops, self-defense centers, gas stations, and chain stores. Everything was gray. I saw a flock of Starlings lined up along the top of a large green road sign and a flock of Pigeons roosting in the shelter of an overpass. I noticed sagging electrical wires hanging from their splintered telephone poles. A dog with three legs hobbled along the shoulder of the road, stumbled and landed on its little doggie face. A flock of crows watched hungrily as it struggled to regain its footing. A man in a wheelchair wept.

The situation appeared hopeless but I desperately wanted a coffee. It was time to make the easy decision and get on with our trip. Against all of my better judgements and instincts, I pulled into a Dunkin' Donuts Drive Thru and narrowly missed hitting a confused-looking old woman who was wandering around aimlessly in her pajamas.

"Get out of the fucking road, you hag!" Judy yelled from the car window.

"Damn Judy, chill." I said. She really has no patience for old people... Anyway, just then she realized where I was going for our coffees and her jaw dropped in amazement. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Nothing," I said. Keep playing with Chela. Chela chirped from the backseat, "What Mommy? What Mommy?" And then, "Mommy, why is that lady in her pajamas? Does her nose bleeding?"

I pulled up and a man’s voice, heavy with accent, crackled through the brown speaker of the Drive-Thru menu. “Hello! Welcome to Dunkin Donuts, may I take your order please?”


I ordered the coffees. However, immediately after I placed the order, I took a good look at the pictures on the huge menu. Cups of Dunkin Donuts coffee posed alongside various breakfast items... here with an egg sandwich; there, with a bagel. In each of these pictures the coffee was pictured in a styrofoam cup, with a little curl of steam, shaped approximately like a question mark, rising from the surface of the coffee. The styrofoam cups bothered me and my conscious stirred. I thought of a local wildlife refuge near my house and a display they have of certain items and how long it takes them to decompose.

The display is simple. It starts with an orange. A small white sign over the orange says, "Two weeks." Next to the orange is something that takes longer, like a chicken bone, and it says "Two months." To be honest, I don't remember how long it takes for each different thing to decompose, okay? But I do remember that the sign over the styrofoam cup reads, “NEVER.” Styrofoam never goes away. Not in this lifetime, not in the next, never...

I had yet to pull away from the window and I decided I had to act.

“Excuse me?” I said to the menu.

“Yes sir?” crackled the brown drive-thru speaker.

“Can you put those coffees in paper cups? Or do you only have styrofoam cups?”

An unsteady pause told me that taking this dude out of his normal transaction conversation was not a good idea.

“I’m sorry sir…" The man sounded impatient. "You ordered two coffees, correct?”

“Yes, I just don’t want them in sty…”

“Okay then sir," he interrupted, "please drive around.”

“No, wait," I persisted. "See, I don’t want the coffees if they’re in Styrofoam cups.”

“Okay sir, now you are saying that you do not want the coffees.”

“No, I want the coffees, I don’t want the cups.”

“I do not understand sir.”



At this point I stepped on the gas, tore around the drive thru, and gave the worker “the business” with my left hand. The man slid open the drive thru window and yelled, "Fuck you! Fucker man!" as I pulled back onto the depressing road.

Judy looked alarmed. "What the hell are you doing?"

“We'll find a place with PAPER cups!" I yelled in a sort of crazed tone as I swerved to miss a cluster of people protesting a larger cluster of hispanic day-laborers.

However, it wasn’t so simple. At this point, our options had become severely limited. We pointed the car towards the expressway and hoped to find some welcoming little shop that we had somehow overlooked on our many trips. In the rearview mirror I caught Chela's eyes. She was smiling and singing, "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music.

To be continued...

60 Minutes... The Price Of Oil

Here's an interesting video on the rise and crash of oil. They blame traders.

Melamine In Baby Formula

BUMP: More is coming to light about the awful situation in China. So again, FDA, why allow ANY melamine in baby formula? This shit isn't supposed to happen here.

How about 0 parts?

I don't know a thing about baby formula or melamine (other than it kills babies or makes them sick if they get too much) but why is it acceptable to have any in baby formula?

Probably another case of industry lobbying for loose standards. But should profitability stand above the health of babies?

Anyway, here's the article about the FDA setting limits... kind of.

They're not worthy of your trust. Eat healthy and breastfeed.

So Much For "Drill Baby Drill"

Buy Nothing Day

Yes, for most it's Black Friday, but for others it's buy nothing day.

I missed it, true, but you can make any day a "buy nothing" day. Go check it out.

T. Boone On The Daily Show

More about energy independence. Kudos to the Daily Show for hammering on this issue.

How about reducing our dependence on foreign oil by 30-50% in 10 years? Impossible?

T. Boone points out what we've been lacking... LEADERSHIP!

Thomas Friedman On The Daily Show

I'd like this guy more if he didn't fuck up his views on the Iraq war so much. Anyway, here he is on The Daily Show talking with Jon about our energy infrastructure and the "green bubble" that needs to form.

Al Gore's Op Ed

I've stayed away from the news for the last few days. The election is over, time to take a breath. Luckily however, I ran across Al Gore's recent piece from the NY Times. It reminded me why we should feel good going forward if we can finally get on the right path.

Below is an excerpt, click here for the full piece.

Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis.

Economists across the spectrum — including Martin Feldstein and Lawrence Summers — agree that large and rapid investments in a jobs-intensive infrastructure initiative is the best way to revive our economy in a quick and sustainable way. Many also agree that our economy will fall behind if we continue spending hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign oil every year. Moreover, national security experts in both parties agree that we face a dangerous strategic vulnerability if the world suddenly loses access to Middle Eastern oil...

...What follows is a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. It is a plan that would simultaneously move us toward solutions to the climate crisis and the economic crisis — and create millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced.

Down Goes The Dollar, Up Goes Oil

That's right... oil is up $14.50 on the DAY.



Thank you government bailout. Not only do you save the fucked up institutions that are costing taxpayers billions, but you're also helping to create a massive spike in the price of oil, since you're crushing the dollar.

Again, the little man is screwed.

New Orleans To Be Spanked By Ike?

Perhaps that "homosexual rally" that McCain supporter Hagee said caused Katrina is still plaguing the city. Damn homosexuals causing hurricanes left and right!



Watch those oil stocks.

Getting Closer...

While the shark has disappeared, the first storm is intensifying and moving due west, towards the Gulf. Expect this to become a topic of discussion on CNBC over the next couple of days if it develops into a hurricane.

Two Possible Hurricanes, One Gigantic Shark

2 potential hurricanes are forming in the lower Atlantic. While that news is bad, what makes it much worse is the presence of a gargantuan shark, following just behind the storm systems. Note the large, menacing fin.



Should these systems continue westward, they could confront and damage some of the oil rigs that reside in the Gulf Of Mexico. My theory (non-scientific) is that after injuring the rigs, the great oil shark will come and eat them, thereby sending the price of Natty Gas and Oil through the roof.

The Daily Show - "To Drill Or Not To Drill"

Classic Daily Show. They hit this one out of the park.

TD 5, Meet The Oil Rigs. Oil Rigs... Meet TD 5.

Looks like it's headed right for the oil rigs, shown below. Not sure what other storms those red lines represent... but not TD 5, which isn't that strong.

Et Tu, Obama?

Take a stand and stick to it.

The only way out of the energy mess we're in is, ironically, HIGHER gasoline prices.

Higher prices = less demand. Keep focusing on lowering the price of gasoline and we'll be dependent on it for another 30 years.

No thanks. Let's move on already.

UPDATE: Digging himself in even deeper...

John McSame

-John McCain, pictured here enjoying a swim, in 1978

A day after John McCain says that George Bush deserves credit for causing the drop in crude (from $140 to $125... let's forget about that rise from $40 to $140) it seems that the cause may be just another failing company.

When it goes back up to $140 in a few weeks, who will we have to blame? Obama?

The Future?

If we started getting rid of landfills, I imagine half of New Jersey would disappear. Or does it just smell like that?



Anyway, turning garbage into fuel may not be too far away anymore.