Possible, Beneficial And Worth Doing

Like most people, I love the idea of getting something for nothing. It's the reason i am so into solar powered products and recycling.

So where would the first 'Zero Waste' town be? New York? LA? San Francisco? Some hippy commune in Arizona?

Actually, it looks like it might be a rural town in Japan:



So yes, it is possible, it is beneficial and it is something that we can all do!

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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The Ocean is Broken

I learnt about acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer in school back in London in the 1990's. Since then we have had genetically modified grain, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), Avian Flu and of course, Justin Bieber.

Now we have something even more serious that we just don't know about.

As a yachtsman explained after crossing yet another ocean: 

Exactly 10 years before, when Newcastle yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen had sailed exactly the same course from Melbourne to Osaka, all he'd had to do to catch a fish from the ocean between Brisbane and Japan was throw out a baited line.

"There was not one of the 28 days on that portion of the trip when we didn't catch a good-sized fish to cook up and eat with some rice," Macfadyen recalled.

But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two.No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all.

So where did the fish go? As the article goes on to say, a mixture of pollution, over-fishing and even more pollution. We're not talking about beer can plastic getting stuck around the necks of penguins or big fish getting caught in illegal nets, this is much worse, this appears to be the systematic rape of the oceans. And no-one seems to be doing anything about it.

Read more about it at the article The Ocean is Broken.

How the hell are we going to fix this one?

kthanxbai!

Jumblerant

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A Little Care Goes A Long Way

Due to honour, gratitude and a sense of belief in society, a strong tradition has grown in certain areas of  Japan to perform the 4th Movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

A beautiful piece itself, which I am sure you'll recognise, is performed below by 10,000 Japanese singers. Yes, 10,000!!

The whole story can be found here at Bayou Renaissance Man's blog 'I Daresy Beethoven Was Looking Down and Smiling'



I hope that your socks are as knocked off as mine were!

kthanxbai!

 http://jumblerant.blogspot.com

Formula 1 Blog

I've mentioned before that I am a Formula 1 addict. If you don't know what Formula 1 is, well, maybe you live in Swaziland, or are an American, well it is the ultimate in car racing. Not the ultimate in open-wheel, or 'The World Series' - but in the world.

Ever.

I watch races whenever I can, download those that I can't watch live, and listen to podcasts to explain to me what I miss.

There are 2 main podcasts that I listen to, Formula1blog.com and Sidepodcast.

Out of all the Formula 1 blogs out there, I only listen to these 2 - and why? Because they are run and presented by 'normal folk'. We can't really call anyone willing to wake at 2am to watch a car race 'normal'. Let's just call them, well, 'dedicated'.

Both of the podcasts sound like friends, sitting in a pub or living room, discussing the race.A discussion that is slightly too informed for me to join in with, but very interesting indeed.

In 2013 the USA will be hosting a race in Texas. The work started on the track a while back, but Formula 1 is about money, not being polite, or equal, but cold hard cash. They were waiting for the dosh to be on the table to tell the world that F1 would grace The Lone-star State with their presence.

Recently, Todd,  the main culprit (!) from Formula1blog.com has started writing for the Huffington Post in the UK and his writing is very interesting indeed. I highly suggest you pop over there and give it a look, I know I'll be following it very closely.


kthanxbai!

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White-out won't help here

Ever wondered what those Chinese lettered tattoos really mean? There are a few websites out there who translate these things for inquisitive tattooed individuals.



At Hanzi Smatters some of the questions and answers can be rather interesting:

from: David L.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 12:11 PM
subject: tattoo meaning

Hi, I'm called David Lopez.

I'm from Barcelona and I would like to know that it means a tattoo that I did to myself years ago.
I believe that it is Chinese and though I did it for aesthetics, now I am afraid of taking a meaning that I don't want.

My girlfriend and I would have a lot of interest to know the real meaning of my tattoo.

Thank you very much in advance. You will be of great help!

David


賈 means "buy/trade", 路 means "road, path", 卡 means "card".

賈路卡 sounds like a type of prepaid card that allows its owner to access public transportation. Typically it is called 乗車券 定期券 (short for 定期乗車券) in Japan and 月票 in China.

Some readers suggested this could be translation of "Jeanluc", but that is not correct. Jeanluc is 吉魯克.


Laugh? I nearly fainted.

kthanxbai!

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