Pair Networks Goes Green

I've been thinking about changing web hosts -- not because I haven't been satisfied with Pair Networks, but because I felt the need to put my money where my mouth is and to go with a carbon-neutral service provider. Lo and behold, during a recent communication with tech support, I noticed -- at the very bottom of the signature file -- that Pair has gone green.

Why is Pair not touting this more heavily? There's no mention of it on their homepage and it's buried in the comparison of services chart. Hell, they went green more than a year ago, and I, an eco-concerned customer who visits their site regularly, had no clue.

C'mon, Pair marketing folks! Get on it! Make sure all the green sites out there know about you, so you can get on their lists of eco-friendly web hosts. What's the point of going through the trouble of going green if you're not letting people know?

A Day in Old Montreal (Montreal, Day 3)

Damn if my sister didn't come up with the best idea of the trip: dangling the carrot of zip-lining to keep the kids in line. With that in mind, I purposely planned that activity as the last of the trip (not to mention it's out of town and thus requires driving) and have threatened penalties of 10-15 minutes off trekking time for infractions ranging from stepping on my toe (still swollen from yesterday's trapeze mishap) to sassy mouths. As of right now, Carter has been penalized 25 minutes and Micaela 15. They're on their best behavior in the hopes of earning back some time before the all-important event tomorrow.

Our return to the hotel this evening has been incredibly serene, with each nibling trying desperately to keep his or her temper in check and to not, under any circumstances, make me have to repeat myself twice. They're both also trying to figure out just how this time penalization will work, but I'm purposely remaining mysterious. Aside from a slightly surly Micaela when I mention her homework ("Mom said I can do it in the morning and be late for school. Mom said."), it's been rather pleasant. I must think of a way to enact such a system more often.

The kids have even gotten into a little bit of Montreal's green spirit. They were fascinated when I pointed out the two buttons on the top of the toilet -- one of #1, one for #2 -- and they even agreed to reuse their towels more than once, as per the hotel's suggestion card. Only problem is, the Embassy Suites doesn't seem to be following its own guidelines, as we've found fresh towels in our room no matter how many we leave on the rack.

This morning we returned to Eggspectation, with visions of delectable breakfast goodies dancing in our heads. But our experience this time was quite a let-down. Our waitress didn't seem to understand French or English, and our wait was far longer than our first wonderful visit Friday. At least we knew it wasn't just us, because we heard other patrons around us muttering their discontent. But our meals -- once they finally came -- were delectable and left us full for our busy day. Plus the kids got a kick out of making fun of our incompetent waitress for the rest of the day. The old chestnut "I'll give you a tip: Don't eat yellow snow," had them in stitches. Even recycled jokes can enjoy a second life.

Our day's plans consisted mainly of Old Montreal and the quais, which all lay within walking distance of the hotel. First stop: Montreal Science Center, which had lured us with its exhibition of aliens. The main attraction turned out to be on the lame side, but all of us had a blast in the Science 26 area, a hands-on cavalcade that demonstrated the best of chemistry, physics, biology, and even telekinesis, the last of which was done via Mindball, a game in which you move a ball with your mind.

As impressed as we were with the ingenious games for demonstrating complex concepts -- a pillow bridge that demonstrated the strength of the keystone, a lever that lets you lift 113 kilograms (249 pounds), a mobile of space shuttles powered by the sun -- we were surprised by the lack of explanation. Just how do you move a ball with your mind -- and are you supposed to be pushing or pulling it? How do you get the vortex going? And why the heck is every third exhibit broken? The biggest disappointment was finding the tightrope bicycle closed.

Just a few wharfs away was the Labyrinth at Shed 16, an indoor maze set up in an abandoned hangar on Quai de l'Horloge. I'd read that we should prepare to spend at least an hour in there, maybe more, and we arrived with just that much time left in the day. After a rather poorly acted video introduction, we were set loose in the maze, which consisted of tarp panels for walls and the odd obstacle here and there. Four different rooms in the labyrinth contained riddles that, once solved and put together, would help us solve the overall mystery set forth in the video.

Carter immediately took charge, forging ahead and shouting to us whenever he encountered a dead end, then heading back and quickly finding a new trail to blaze. The three of us got stuck going in a circle for a good 20 minutes before one of the labyrinth's residents pointed us in the right direction.

I've never seen a maze of its kind. Even the Dole Pineapple hedge maze -- reportedly the large hedge maze in the world -- pales in comparison, both in size and difficulty. Aside from a few features that would leave them open to lawsuits if they were stateside, I'm not sure why there's nothing like this back in the U.S. Once again, Montreal succeeded in outdoing itself.

For our final night in town, we celebrated with a pleasant meal at one of the least touristy restaurants we could find in that part of town, during which I let Micaela and Carter in on a few little secrets and told them stories that might get me in trouble down the road but tonight made for a memorable evening of bonding. To get even more brownie points in their favor, they even indulged me in sitting trough a full-length screening of the 3D U2 IMAX film playing at the science center.

They're sleeping soundly now, as I too should be, as the alarm is set for the butt-crack of dawn so that we can get to the zip-line in time.


Day 1: An Egg-cellent Journée Dans La Ville
Day 2: Merde! Trapeze Drama
Day 3: A Day in Old Montreal
Day 4: Zip-Lining: Adventures in Trees

Wanted: Solar Toys

I'm in a predicament. I've fallen in love with two separate gadgets, but I only have room in the budget for one. Both are solar and, therefore, burying the needle in greenness, so that alone makes me covet them highly. But they're both also portable, which just goes so well with my highly mobile lifestyle.

Here's the breakdown, as I understand it, on these on-the-go solar recharging gadgets. You might even call this a "travel gear review," except I haven't actually physically tested either. All this is based purely on research and word-of-mouth.

Solio Classic Hybrid Charger
Let's start with the Solio, since it's the one I'll more likely get, if only because it's the more affordable of the two. At $99 ($169 for the Magnesium Edition, for the "serious adventurer"), it claims to be able to recharge all your handheld gadgets, and comes with several adaptors to make that promise happen.
Why I Want It: Besides the fact I don't even know of anything similar on the market, the Solio can also be charged the old-fashioned way (i.e., wall socket), so you can take your charge on the go. Plus, it's compact and light-weight enough to take on hikes.
Price: $99
Weight: 5.6 oz. (CNET claims it's more like 5.8)
Colors: Silver, Black, White
Sun Factor: One hour of sunlight (very direct sunlight, reminds CNET) provides 10 hours of cell talk time, or 40 minutes of MP3 music.


Voltaic Solar Backpack
When I saw one of these marching down Seventh Avenue the other day, I drooled. Seriously, with all the walking I do, I could charge half of Seventh Avenue myself. Voltaic makes several styles of bags -- backpack, messenger bags, converter (with water bladder for biking/hiking) -- all of which are made out of recycled materials for uber-greenness.
Why I Want It: The latest model can charge full laptops. No, that wasn't a typo. Crikey, I could head into the hinterlands for days and write my heart out!
Price: $249
Weight: 3.5 lbs., including battery and solar panels
Colors: Silver, Orange, Green, Charcoal (where's the brown???)
Sun Factor: 4-6 hours of sunlight to fully recharge a cell phone

Just something to keep in mind. Christmas/Hanukkah really isn't that far away.

How Green Is Your Destination?

I'm a sucker for quizzes, even though I know from the moment I click the very first improbable multiple-choice answer that I'm going to be disappointed. I'm going to rail against whatever idiot wrote the answer key that declares me so un-green I'm brown or so uneducated about the planet that I might have grown up on Mars.

So I was only slightly perturbed by the 75 I scored on the Sierra Club's recent "How Green Is My Destination?" quiz. How serious can you take a quiz when question 4 suggests that once you get to your destination you should "Go somewhere and stay put"? It's a travel quiz, people, not a stationary quiz. Not only were some of the provided answers questionable, some of the more pertinent answers weren't even on there.

How do you get to your destination? for example. In some parts of the world, it's much more eco-friendly to travel via train -- despite the distance -- than by boat, car, or plane. What about the country or city's penchant for doing green? Supporting sustainable destinations -- not just the hotel or lodging -- is just as important as how far they are, or whether or not you use mass transit once you get there. Conversely, if your transportation methods are questionable but your reason for visiting -- especially with voluntourism on the rise -- is entirely green, that too should be taken into account. But it isn't.

Ten half-assed questions ain't gonna cut it, Sierra Club. But read the quiz anyway, if you're so inclined.


http://www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/destination/

I Have to Give Up My Nalgene Bottle???

For the past several years, I've been touting the benefits of reusable plastic bottles, such as those made by Nalgene. I've been through several bottles -- lost some, left some on airplanes, broke one after it plummeted 35 feet off a waterfall -- and have loved their convenience and perceived healthfulness over their toss-away cousins. Now National Geographic Adventure's newest blog informs me that my health is at risk due to the presence of BPA (bisphenol A, a component of polycarbonate). BPA is so bad, in fact, that Health Canada has officially declared it dangerous to humans (and probably other critters as well).

I began using Nalgene bottles after my crunchiest of friends told me of the evils of disposable plastic bottles -- not just the landfill they create, but how they begin to break down over time and can leach chemicals into the liquid they contain. Ironic that the bottle that was supposed to protect me from these chemicals has been shown to attack me with its own breed of evil.

The good news is that Nalgene will begin making bottles without polycarbonate, but I haven't yet been able to find a source that says when this will happen.

The bad news is that many other containers -- including baby bottles -- often contain BPA. Looks like it's back to good ol' glass. It may cut you, but it's better than cancer -- or man-breasts.

More info:
Nalgenes Pulled From Shelves
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/04/30/nalgenes_pulled_from_shelves.aspx

What to do with your old polycarbonate bottles:
http://newsblaze.com/story/20080429080835tsop.np/newsblaze/NEWSWIRE/NewsBlaze-Wire.html

Virgin's Biofuel Flight: A Bunch of Greenwash?

He's done it. Sir Richard has come through on his promise to be the first commercial flight to use biofuel. It's only one flight, so far, but is it a flight in the right direction?

Naysayers claim the flight was just a load of PR propaganda, that biofuels are impractical on a wide commercial scale due to the massive amounts of land that would be needed to produce the fuel. Virgin counters that the flight was meant to prove that alternative fuels could be used, and it acknowledges that the coconut-based concoction used on the flight isn't what they'd use long term. For that, they're looking towards algae.

Hmm. Seems like a decent idea on paper. But has anyone come close so far?

Virgin to Go Green

When I read the headline that Richard Branson's Virgin airline would begin testing biofuel in early 2008, I thought, "Sure, it will. That's so far away, he's planning on us forgetting about it by then." Then I remembered that it is 2008 and that I have to stop writing 2004 on the two checks I now write a year.

Which means Sir Richard must be serious. So serious, in fact, that late February has been cited as the date of the planned London-Amsterdam flight, which will use 80% conventional jet fuel and 20% biofuel from an unnamed but supposedly sustainable source. (I vote they use Soylent Green. Hey, I'm not far off.) My question is, why only 20%? With over 50 billion people served at McDonald's alone, doesn't that give us enough excess french fry grease to power our entire air fleet? With the enormous -- and strange -- array of bio-diesel sources available to us, Sir Richard should be able to go whole hog on his promise. Twenty percent? Eh, I guess I should be happy someone's doing something. Unlike some people.

Why Brits Are Better Drivers

I don't even want to imagine such an intersection in LA. Picture it: a merge-phobic armada of SUVs attempting a living version of a theme-park teacup ride while chatting up their agents/au pairs/massage therapists on their cells as they try to navigate a perpetual eddy of interlocking circles. Hell on wheels, I say, but the Brits in Swindon refer to it as the "Magic Roundabout."

Traffic circles are quite common in the Northeast, and we even have a handful here in El Lay (Venice's Windward Circle comes to mind). But there's a reason that they never caught on in the colonies -- the very same reason that Michigan's jug-handle left turns never made it out of the Midwest: Americans are too damn impatient and self-centered to yield the right of way.

We need better traffic patterns in our nation's largest cities, something to quell the smog-producing, stress-filled intersections that are such a blight on our highways. But, as efficient as the Magic Roundabout may be, I wouldn't risk my life entering one on this side of the Pond. I've endured way too many attempts to merge on the northbound 405/101 interchange (the worst in the country, according to Infoplease) to think we're capable of that.

Vote! The 2007 Veggie Awards

It's that time of year again, time to fold your butterfly ballots, rip off the hanging chats, and stuff the ballot box to the brim with your favorite animal-friendly people, places, and foods. Not veg? Vote anyway. Great prizes, including a trip to Northern California, await. Hurry! Voting ends September 1.

2007 Veggie Awards

(Coming soon: Channel Islands trip, or How to Survive a Sea Lion Stampede.)

Never Heard of the San Juans? Pshaw.

It's been roughly four years since I read an article in National Geographic Adventure about the San Juan Islands, and the image the article painted for me was nothing like reality. Looking back, I don't know how I could have imagined such a darkly romantic locale existing in the real world; my imagination had conjured up some otherworldly realm that exists only in mid-century adventure serials, something akin to the Skull Island of the recent King Kong remake, only less violent and more bucolic. Oh, and without prehistoric vermin. Okay, very little like Skull Island, except in terms of cinematography and foliage.

During my short long weekend, I learned that the 700 islands of the San Juan archipelago have only one incorporated town, that being Friday Harbor, which also serves as the county seat. In just over 48 hours, I spotted at least six bald eagles, including one eaglet hopping about his aerie just outside the visitors center near the American Camp. I also learned that crime is such a rarity in the islands that few of the residents I met ever locked their doors; at least one claimed to not even own a set of keys to his residence.

Day 1: Escape From "Civilization"
Day 2: Water, Water Everywhere
Day 3: Farewell, Friday Harbor

I Heart Eartha Kitt

No, I'm not referring to the actress who played Catwoman on the Batman series from the '60s. I'm referring to my car, the Barcelona Red Prius who has come to mean as much to me as Dirk (my iPod, for those who don't already know). Like the Roomba before her, Eartha has made my life easier, more relaxing, thanks to her eco-friendly attitude and space-age features.

Eartha earned her name threefold:
1. My first car, a 1980 T-roof Firebird that was also red, had been named Bertha by my sister before getting handed down to me ten years later.
2. She's environmental (as much as a practical car these days can be).
3. She talks to me, a la K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider.

And now she lets me park for free. I could already benefit from the California HOV stickers by taking the carpool lane, even when riding solo, but now those same stickers are a free pass for any meter in Santa Monica. Who knew? I certainly didn't, at least, not until this weekend, and then only after plunking a buck fifty into a meter for half an hour of stop time. But at least I know for the future.

Considering the separation anxiety I went through upon trading in Coche (my unflaggingly loyal Honda Civic), I can't imagine what it would be like to give up Eartha. And now that Dirk has been resuscitated and has hooked up (literally) with Eartha to keep me in pure, commercial-free sound no matter where I roll, the thought of losing either makes my skin crawl. Toyota should have called the extended warranty a life insurance plan.

Technology Leaders: The Amish?

While I was away at college in Michigan, my family began a mass defection from Long Island to Lancaster County, PA, home to the second largest concentration of Amish in the U.S. (Ohio has the the first, lucky them). I've visited Lancaster (accent on the first syllable, unlike the California city of the same name, which stresses the second) several times, and I've watched as other out-of-towners gape at the horse-and-buggy brigade like archaeologists finding a living Yeti. Sometimes, when I get close to an Amish, I too find myself giving them a quick once-over, checking to make sure they're obeying their God-fearing ways and haven't slipped a zipper onto their clothing somewhere.

But the Amish don't eschew all technology. There are certain rules around what new advances they'll adopt, and how it will be adopted. For example, many -- if not most -- Amish have used a phone; they just don't have one in their homes, but rather share a communal phone. They've been known to rollerblade. And I even have a picture of a buggy stopped outside my mom's house while the driver consulted a Hagstrom map.

So, they're just a bit behind, you say. Kind of like the entire state of Idaho. Not so. According to Wired, Ohio's Amish community has the highest per-capita use of solar energy in the state. Considering I can't even get my condo to recycle, I'd say that's pretty progressive -- and smart.

I'm Cleaning My House With What?!

Check out my latest article. Then allow me to explain what prompted it.

Perhaps it's just what they say about growing old: Some of your personality traits tend to become accentuated -- the moody become downright grumpy, the frugal pinch even more pennies. I've become more environmentally conscious (amongst other things, but that's the trait I'm choosing to highlight here). What started with recycling back in the early '80s has turned into planting trees after every plane flight and, just recently, replacing almost every one of my commercial household cleaners with homemade, environmentally friendly versions.

Some of the concoctions -- I tried almost every trick I mention in the article -- were surprising, most notably the furniture polish made of lemon juice and olive oil, which looked more appropriate for that night's pasta than my precious wood armoire. But I was shocked how well it worked. Even my real-wood Ikea products look tons prettier. And the boiling baking soda trick worked such wonders in the microwave that several of my friends scurried home to try for themselves.

One of the sources I didn't mention in the article came from the UK Guardian, which I omitted due to the tendency of newspaper URLs to change frequently and, therefore, cause a dead link in my copy. Here it is, dead link in my blog be damned: http://environment.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,1994096,00.html. I'm actually quite impressed with the Guardian's Ethical Living section in general and am wondering if it's just the publication's stance or a reflection of the country's increasing environmentalism that prompted the addition to the paper.

What else have I been doing to reduce my carbon footprint? As much as I can, which I still feel isn't nearly enough. Sure, I bought a Prius, but I've doubled my commute, and I haven't cut my fuel consumption in half. I take the stairs instead of the elevator, have replaced most of my paper-towel use with reusable cloths, started practicing more-conscientious shopping (e.g., choosing items with less packaging, local produce, animal-friendly companies), etc. But what the hell else can you do, aside from dropping out of society and joining an island tribe (which I haven't entirely ruled out)?

I'd move, in order to cut my commute, but that would mean living in the Valley. And that's going too far, even for me.