3n + 1

Illustrations of fungi by Christiaan Sepp taken from Flora Batava ( first published 1800) by Jan Kops (1765–1849) .

www.BioLib.de

Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) :: Crow Resting on Wood Trunk. Woodblock print, ink and color on paper. (1880s) | src The Met

Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall, Japan, 1961

Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955)

A guide to the “10 Signs of Greenwash”:

Fluffy language: Words or terms with no clear meaning (e.g., “eco-friendly”).

Green product vs. dirty company: Such as efficient lightbulbs made in a factory that pollutes rivers.

Suggestive pictures: Green images that indicate a (unjustified) green impact (e.g., flowers blooming from exhaust pipes).

Irrelevant claims: Emphasizing one tiny green attribute when everything else is not green.

Best in class: Declaring you are slightly greener than the rest, even if the rest are pretty terrible.

Just not credible: “Eco friendly” cigarettes, anyone? “Greening” a dangerous product doesn’t make it safe.

Jargon: Information that only a scientist could check or understand.

Imaginary friends: A “label” that looks like third-party endorsement — except that it’s made up.

No proof: It could be right, but where’s the evidence?

AquaSonic

Project by FuturePerfect and the Between Music ensemble is music performed underwater in specialized water tanks designed for the musicians:

AquaSonic is the most ambitious project to date from Danish musicians Laila Skovmand and Robert Karlsson, in collaboration with members of their ensemble Between Music. The work presents five performers who submerge themselves in glass water tanks to play custom-made instruments and sing entirely underwater. Transformed inside these darkly glittering, aquatic chambers, they produce compositions that are both eerily melodic and powerfully resonant. AquaSonic is the culmination of years of research into the exciting possibilities of submerged musical performance, breaking barriers and challenging existing paradigms. The artists conducted countless experiments in collaboration with deep-sea divers, instrument makers and scientists to develop entirely new, highly specialized subaqueous instruments. These include an underwater organ or hydraulophone, crystallophone, rotacorda, percussion and violin. The team also perfected a distinctive vocal technique for underwater singing. The result is a concert experience completely out of the ordinary; a deep dive into a magical new universe of images and sounds.

(n.) cosmos is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It is, in a way, the opposite of chaos. It implies the deep interconnectedness of all things. It conveys awe for the intricate and subtle way in which the universe is put together. -Carl Sagan

We don’t we pay the “real” cost for most goods we buy, whether it’s iPhones or automobiles or skinny jeans, but that’s alarmingly true for food. In this clip, MinuteEarth takes an honest accounting look at the impact of eating meat.

This is an important video. It doesn’t tell you what to do, or what you should believe… but it will make you think about what you eat, and that’s the most important step. Because (Drudge Report news flash sirens) most people do not think about what they eat! Not beyond nutrients, calories, general tastiness, and the ability to get rid of hunger. 

We’re sadly disconnected from our food. It is raised in boxes, harvested by box-shaped machines, transported in boxes riding rails and wheels, thrust before us in rows of smaller boxes on box-shaped shelves in big box-shaped stores… and is there anything less thought-provoking than a box?

We can’t do anything about which food is right until we think about what food really is*.

Since someone will probably ask, I do eat meat. Like many people, I find myself conflicted about that choice (and it is definitely a choice). For me (and I must emphasize “for me”… your mileage will vary), the cultural and culinary value from eating meat outweighs the cost. I am privileged enough to be able to choose more expensive, more ethical, more sustainable animal products, but not everyone is in a position to assume a larger share of the true cost. Even then, in my house, we do minimize where we can. We definitely don’t do it perfectly, but we do it consciously, with eyes open to all the “messy business”† that extends backwards from our dinner plates. And as I sad before, simply thinking about food outside the box is the most important food thing a person can do.

Btw, don’t skip dessert on this one. If you feel yourself about to make a knee-jerk, emotional reaction to the question of whether people should eat meat, please watch Hank Green’s video “Why Are Vegetarians Annoying?” before you do:

†You should really read Michael Pollan’s thoughts on squaring the “messy business” of meat eating, he puts it far better than I can.

*This is one of the reasons I think people should learn how to cook. There are TONS of reasons people should learn how to cook, but stimulating a more direct relationship with what you eat is definitely one of them**.

i’ve been meat (and animal products) free for about 8 years now, and it’s the best decision i’ve ever made.