Tag Archives: living

Friday Cat Blogging – 28 October 2016

by ParthenSnowden Posted on October 28, 2016

Mother Jones

Please let it be over. Please please please. I can’t take any more of thi—

Ahem. Shall we do cat blogging a few minutes early? Yes we shall. Here is Hopper doing her very best impression of a concrete rabbit. Not bad!

For more on our furry feline companions, check out “Good Thing Cats Are Adorable, Because They Get Away With a Lot of Crap.” It’s an interview with cat enthusiast and science writer Abigail Tucker to discuss her new book, The Lion in the Living Room. The title sort of reminds me of this tweet.

Visit site:  

Friday Cat Blogging – 28 October 2016

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Friday Cat Blogging – 28 October 2016

Good Thing Cats Are Adorable, Because They Get Away With a Lot of Crap

by Bettina2292 Posted on October 25, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Few creatures are as cute, cunning, or controversial as the common household cat. Despite their taste for blood, enigmatic demands, and unpredictable mood swings, cats have managed to claw their way into homes, hearts, and Youtube channels like no other domestic animal. While these stealthy creatures are much better at stalking than being stalked, it’s believed there could be anywhere from 600 million to 1 billion house cats worldwide. On the most recent episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast, Indre Viskontas sits down with cat enthusiast and science writer Abigail Tucker to discuss her new book, The Lion in the Living Room, and to explore the complicated role cats have in ecological systems across the globe.

Here are 10 of the best cat facts from our interview with Tucker. We’ve mixed in some adorable cat videos, because—let’s not kid ourselves—that’s the whole reason you clicked on this post. You’re welcome.

1. Cats are stalkers.

And they’re really good at it. Unlike their ferocious lioness cousins that hunt in packs to take down prey, domestic cats use a solo stalk-and-ambush style of hunting that requires more brains than brawn for calculated, well-timed pounces. It’s this stealth that makes them so efficient at snagging even the most deft of critters.

2. American house cats consume the equivalent of 3 million chickens every day.

#fatcat #cat #cats #anchorage #alaska #alaskacat #moose #pensivekitty #pensivecat #catbelly #sittingcat #redleather #hungrykitty #hungrycat #hungry #whitebelly #cutekitty #cutecat #catsofinstagram #catsitting

A photo posted by Moose E (@mooseyfatcat) on Oct 22, 2016 at 10:10pm PDT

3. The average Australian cat eats more fish than the average Australian does.

#catfishing #cat

A video posted by Paul (@fellhose) on Oct 23, 2016 at 10:41am PDT

4. More house cats are born every day than there are wild lions in the entire world.

If African lions could reproduce at the same rate as their domestic brethren, they’d probably have an easier time getting off the endangered species list. Lions typically only rear 2-3 cubs over a two-year period, but female domestic cats can become pregnant at just four months old and produce an average of 8-12 kittens a year. That’s a lot of kitty litter.

Snug as three kittens in a rug. â&#157;¤ï¸&#143;

5. Cats cannot live on rats alone.

While it’s common to find cats in alleys where rats are prolific, that’s not actually because the cats want to feast on the rodents. As Tucker explains, what’s actually happening is that cats and rats are feeding on the same resource: trash.

#rat #cat #catrat #ratcat #unlikelyfriendships

A photo posted by Dogs & Money (@dogs_and_money) on Aug 17, 2016 at 10:49am PDT

6. Cats don’t meow to each other.

They only meow to us. It’s just one of many ways they bend us to their will.

#SiLuxusRagdolls #ragdollkitten #ragdoll #ragdollcat #hungry #starving #starvingcat #nokibblejustmeat #meowing #loudkittens #gimmemyfood #haha #catstagram #catsofinstagram #ragdollsofinstagram #ragdoll_feature

A video posted by Tina Si’Luxus (@tina.si.luxus) on Oct 21, 2016 at 1:26am PDT

7. Cats are Native to West Africa and the Near East.

Today, however, they flourish on every continent except Antarctica.

#catstagram #catmap #map #cat #catsofig #power

A photo posted by Alexis Oltmer (@alexisoltmer) on Jun 19, 2016 at 1:33pm PDT

8. Your cat is probably carrying a deadly brain-dwelling, baby-blinding parasite.

Toxoplasmosis is caused by a single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that’s transmitted through, among other things, cat feces, and can cause seizures and severe eye infections in people with compromised immune systems. Cleaning the litter box, touching anything that’s come in contact with cat feces, or ingesting contaminated soil, fruit, or vegetables (you know your garden is just a giant litter box, right?) are just a few of the ways Toxoplasma can find its way into your system. While complications are rare (pregnant women and infants are at a higher risk), more than 60 million people in the United States may be infected—most don’t experience any symptoms.

#cat #cattoilet Focky

A photo posted by Silvia Campos (@silvia_cmcampos) on Sep 22, 2016 at 1:26pm PDT

9. Cats are classified as an invasive species.

As mysterious, brilliant, and fluffy as they are, cats have developed quite the wrecking-ball reputation. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Felis catus is one of the 100 worst invasive species on Earth. The list includes non-native species that “pose a major threat to biodiversity,” agriculture, and human interest.

#cat #cats #croatia #pag #otokpag #catinvasion #catparty #campingcar #hills #hungrycats #waitingcats #partycats #loadsofcats #instacats #velebit #catswarm #catcar

A photo posted by Volker von Choltitz (@grottenboy) on Oct 8, 2016 at 7:01am PDT

10. Love them or hate them, cats have mastered human-animal relations like no other species.

They have us wrapped around their paw and they know it.

Happy 7th birthday to Downey!!!! #catbirthday

A photo posted by Tiffany R. Bloom (@figglyboogles) on Oct 21, 2016 at 12:07pm PDT

To hear more about how Felis catus became what Tucker calls “the most transformative invaders the world has ever seen” (as well as America’s most popular domestic pet), check out the rest of the the Inquiring Minds episode.

Inquiring Minds is a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and Kishore Hari, the director of the Bay Area Science Festival. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook.

See the article here:  

Good Thing Cats Are Adorable, Because They Get Away With a Lot of Crap

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, OXO, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Good Thing Cats Are Adorable, Because They Get Away With a Lot of Crap

How To Take Eco-Friendly Living To The Next Level

by Melodee5461 Posted on October 25, 2016

You know when you buy a product that you really love and you end up raving about it to anyone who will listen? That’s kind of how going green feels. Once you do all the work it takes to minimize your carbon footprint, you find yourself eager to help others do the same. Unfortunately, it can be hard to push people toward eco-friendly living without coming across as preachy.

If you’re looking for a few simple, nonconfrontational ways to encourage friends, family and neighbors to join the earth-friendly movement, consider the following avenues.

Your Local School

Image credit: Shutterstock.com

If you have children, set aside some time to work with their schools. (Even if you don’t have kids, you can still volunteer in a nearby school to start an eco-friendly program.) You might begin by offering to help out with events and joining the PTA. Then, get a group of like-minded parents and teachers together and start putting forward some green activities and initiatives. You can engage the whole school community by:

Coordinating an International Walk to School Day. Walking to school not only promotes a healthy lifestyle, it helps reduce air pollution!
Encouraging the school to go digital where possible. Newsletters, field trip information, PTA meeting updates, volunteer requests, etc., can be sent home via email rather than being printed out and copied for each student.
Establishing a recycling club. Place recycling bins in classrooms, offices, the gym, music room, art room, cafeteria and copy room. Have student members of the recycling club collect and empty the bins during lunch and recess or after school.
Starting a compost pile. Kids will learn how food waste can be recycled into nutrient-rich fertilizer for their gardens.

Kids love to learn, and you’ll find so much joy in helping them look at the world in a new way. After all, the earlier we start educating children about how our lifestyles affect the environment, the easier it is for them to adapt to healthier ways of living on our planet.

Your Workplace

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Does life in the office make you feel like you’re taking two steps back? There’s paper everywhere, recyclable items going in the trash, and enough waste to drive a person crazy. It’s time to step up and institute a change!

Join 24,000+ Recyclers

Here at Earth911 HQ we’re all about living green and clean. If that’s what you’re searching for then you’ll love our weekly email!

Effecting change from the bottom up is often easier than heading directly to the CEO. Mobilize fellow eco-warrior team members and managers to help set in motion the following changes:

Standby power is a huge energy expense. Set computers to energy-saving settings and shut them down at the end of the day
Use natural light wherever possible.
Use compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) in fixtures. They cost 75 percent less to operate and last 10 times longer.
Turn off lights in spaces that are unoccupied.
Arrange an office carpool or encourage use of a car-sharing service like Flexcar or Zipcar.
Extol the virtues of working from home — and see if you can’t convince your higher-ups to let you do it more often. Not only are employees just as productive when working from home, the environmental effects of commuting are reduced.
Start an office recycling program. Cut back on the number of trash cans around the office while simultaneously adding more recycling bins.
Since paper use can’t be entirely avoided, ask your company to invest in recycled paper and envelopes that have been processed and colored using eco-friendly methods.

While these measures may not seem like much, each small step adds up to big energy and resource savings. Your co-workers are bound to feel good about doing their part to help the environment, and management is likely to see overhead costs go down dramatically. That’s a win-win!

Your Community

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Inspiring a change in your community takes a bit of legwork, but it’s well worth it. Start by establishing yourself as an engaged member of the community. Chat with your neighbors and get an idea of what’s going on around you, as well as what’s missing. Then, take your place as an eco-leader by organizing community lectures, roundtable discussions and book clubs related to green initiatives.

Coordinate environmental cleanups at neighborhood parks, rivers and beaches. Take part in the community garden — and if you don’t have one, get one going! Start a “buy local” initiative. Shopping locally conserves energy, reduces greenhouse gases emitted during transportation and keeps resources circulating in the community. And last but not least, organize an Earth Day celebration and plant some trees!

It’s also important to talk to your local government officials. Ask whether they have environmental efforts in place, and offer to volunteer your time to ensure change is actually taking place.

The time and effort you put into effecting green change is not only vital for the health of your community, it’s also incredibly valuable. If environmental conservation is your passion, consider making it a career path. The nonprofit sector is awash with employment opportunities, having grown 25 percent in just 10 years and currently employing 10 percent of the U.S. workforce. By working for a nonprofit, you can impact policy and procedures more significantly than you may have ever imagined.

Eco-friendly living at home is just the first step to a more eco-conscious world. To really move forward, we need to take it upon ourselves to get involved in our communities and be a force for change. So get out there and get moving — the environment needs your voice!

Ready to take your eco-friendly living up a notch? Get inspiration from the amazing women we featured in “Sustainable Living: 6 People Proving Plastic-Free Possible.”

About
Latest Posts

Liz Greene

Liz Greene is an animal-loving, history-studying, pop culture geek from the beautiful City of Trees, aka Boise, Idaho. You can catch her latest misadventures on her blog,

Instant Lo

.

Latest posts by Liz Greene (see all)

How To Take Eco-Friendly Living To The Next Level – October 25, 2016
What I Learned My First Year Of Container Gardening – October 13, 2016
What Green Makeup Means To Me – July 20, 2016

Join 24,000+ Earthlings

We’ll give you the latest green living news, share our DIY tips, and help you recycle just about anything.

Connect with us:

Recent Posts

How To Take Eco-Friendly Living To The Next Level
5 Freaky Ways To Have A Green Halloween
The Best Ways To Heat Your Home: Separating Myth From Fact
How To Find A Truly All-Natural Shampoo

Read

Connect With Us

Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
Google Plus

Advertise With Us

Copyright ©. 2016 Earth911. All Rights Reserved.

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter for exclusive updates on contests, new products, and more.

Create a Greener Home with the Earth911 Resource Library!

Member Only Cheatsheets & Offers
Exclusive DIY Guides and Resources
Free Printable Resources
x

earth911

View the original here:  

How To Take Eco-Friendly Living To The Next Level

Posted in eco-friendly, FF, GE, LG, Natural Light, ONA, OXO, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How To Take Eco-Friendly Living To The Next Level

Sorry, California, it’s looking like another droughty winter.

by EstelaLouque Posted on October 24, 2016

Miami Beach gets all the attention for its increased chronic flooding due to rising sea levels. But Miami’s poorer, inland neighborhoods on the other side of Biscayne Bay are also experiencing flooding from high tides.

CityLab reports on Shorecrest, an economically diverse neighborhood in northeast Miami that flooded during last week’s King Tide.

That’s just a sign of more frequent things to come. The Union of Concerned Scientists projects that by 2045, these sunny-day flooding events will increase from six to 380 times per year.

Miami has many neighborhoods across the bay from Miami Beach that are just as flood-prone but, being less wealthy, have fewer resources to deal with the impacts. Since all of Miami-Dade County lies barely above sea level, and sits atop porous limestone, even poorer neighborhoods farther inland are vulnerable.

Shorecrest residents complained to CityLab that they get less adaptation help from local government than richer neighborhoods. (Miami Beach is a separate, richer city from the city of Miami.) On Miami’s west side, predominantly low-income, Latino neighborhoods face flooding that could pollute their freshwater supply.

Florida and Miami need to get serious not just about climate adaptation, but climate justice.

See more here: 

Sorry, California, it’s looking like another droughty winter.

Posted in alo, Anchor, Everyone, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Ringer, Springer, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sorry, California, it’s looking like another droughty winter.

It’s 2016, and we’re arguing about the constitutional validity of Roe v. Wade.

by MargheritaApq Posted on October 20, 2016

According to a study by Australian researchers, adding very small amounts of a particular seaweed to bovine diets could reduce the amount of methane cows release by up to 99 percent.

The seaweed, Asparagopsis taxiformis, produces a compound called bromoform that disrupts the enzymes that make methane in a cow’s gut, the Conversation reports. And methane in cows’ guts is a serious issue because it escapes into the atmosphere in the form of burps (and to a lesser degree, farts). Livestock is a major global contributor to methane emissions, and methane traps 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time frame.

While this reduction in cow methane has only been demonstrated in the lab, if adding seaweed works in the field, it could be a big benefit to this ol’ planet we call home — and further evidence that seaweed in general may be the salty savior we’ve been looking for. Beyond its potential application in reducing cow burps, seaweed is also inexpensive, resilient, easy to grow, and improves aquatic ecosystems by filtering excess nitrogen and phosphorous from the watershed and reducing ocean acidification.

So while we are loathe to attach the term “miracle” to any food, seaweed might actually warrant it.

Visit site – 

It’s 2016, and we’re arguing about the constitutional validity of Roe v. Wade.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Ringer, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on It’s 2016, and we’re arguing about the constitutional validity of Roe v. Wade.

The stem cell burger is back, and this time it might even be affordable.

by FranziskaBachman Posted on October 18, 2016

It might, according to a report from Climate Central.

A landmark agreement to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas, was struck over the weekend in Kigali, Rwanda. Some 170 countries agreed to amend the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 treaty banning chlorofluorocarbons, to regulate HFCs, a coolant used in air conditioners and refrigerators. The agreement aims to reduce projected global warming by 0.5 Celsius.

The 1987 treaty banned CFCs in an effort to repair the hole in the ozone layer. The target this time is on fighting climate change.

It’s unclear if the Kigali agreement needs to be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate. Treaties do, but this is an amendment to an existing treaty. If the Senate’s stamp of approval is needed, the chamber would almost certainly block it. And whatever the outcome of this year’s elections, Republicans seem sure to hold far more than one-third of the votes in the Senate.

A State Department spokesperson told Climate Central she wasn’t sure if the Senate’s approval is required: “We will need to examine the content and the form of the agreed amendment, as well as relevant practice.”

Source – 

The stem cell burger is back, and this time it might even be affordable.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Landmark, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The stem cell burger is back, and this time it might even be affordable.

Sharing tractors? There’s an app for that.

by GretchenGatliff Posted on October 17, 2016

The company is reportedly focusing instead on developing software for driverless vehicles that could be used by other car companies.

The shift has led to a mass exodus at Apple’s secretive car division, Project Titan, anonymous sources tell Bloomberg News. Hundreds of people from the once-1,000-person-strong team have either been reassigned to other divisions, been let go, or quit, though some new people have also been added.

In 2008, after Apple released the iPhone, Steve Jobs talked with Tony Fadell, a senior VP at Apple, about taking on a car as the company’s next game-changer, and redesigning it from scratch. “What would a dashboard be?” Fadell said, describing one conversation. “What would seats be? How would you fuel it or power it?”

But those big dreams seem to have hit hard realities. Among other things, Apple had trouble getting suppliers to make small quantities of parts, Bloomberg reports. Ultimately, it’s very difficult for a company to get into the car manufacturing business — even an established tech behemoth. And for those of us who’d like to see more innovation in the transportation sector, that’s too bad.

Original post:

Sharing tractors? There’s an app for that.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Goodmans, LG, ONA, PUR, Ringer, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sharing tractors? There’s an app for that.

2.5 million exploding Samsung phones just got recalled. Now what?

by PenneyMaskell Posted on October 12, 2016

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton appeared side-by-side in a Miami campaign stop that framed the climate-change challenge in an unusually optimistic light.

“Climate change is real. It’s urgent. And America can take the lead in the world in addressing it,” Clinton said. She focused on the U.S.’s capacity to lead the world in a climate deal and as a clean energy superpower in a speech that mostly rehashed familiar policy territory.

Clinton ran down her existing proposals on infrastructure, rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and more, though she omitted the more controversial subjects, like what to do about pipeline permits, that have dogged her campaign.

Though Clinton and Gore largely framed climate change as a challenge Americans must rise to, they didn’t miss an opportunity to jab at climate deniers.

“Our next president will either step up our efforts … or we will be dragged backwards and our whole future will be put at risk,” Clinton said.

Besides Donald Trump, Florida’s resident climate deniers Marco Rubio and Rick Scott got special shoutouts.

“The world is on the cusp of either building on the progress of solving the climate crisis or stepping back … and letting the big polluters call the shots,” Gore said.

From: 

2.5 million exploding Samsung phones just got recalled. Now what?

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, Jason, LG, ONA, Radius, Ringer, solar, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 2.5 million exploding Samsung phones just got recalled. Now what?

As the largest storm in a decade makes landfall in Florida, the Caribbean starts to dig out.

by AdriannZIOM Posted on October 7, 2016

Six of the eight U.S. senators from Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas are climate deniers, rejecting the consensus of 99.98 percent of peer-reviewed scientific papers that human activity is causing global warming. The exceptions are South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Florida’s Bill Nelson — the lone Democrat of the bunch.

Here are some of the lowlights from their comments on the climate change:

-Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who does not understand the difference between climate and weather, arguing against climate action in a presidential debate in March: “As far as a law that we can pass in Washington to change the weather, there’s no such thing.”

-Back in 2011, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr said: “I have no clue [how much of climate change is attributable to human activity], and I don’t think that science can prove it.”

-In 2014, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis claimed that “the liberal agenda, the Obama agenda, the [then Sen.] Kay Hagan agenda, is trying to use [climate change] as a Trojan horse for their energy policy.”

-Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson offered his analysis  last year on whether the Greenland ice sheet is melting (it is): “There are mixed reviews on that, and there’s mixed scientific evidence on that.”

-Georgia Sen. David Perdue told Slate in 2014 that “in science, there’s an active debate going on,” about whether carbon emissions are behind climate change.

View post:

As the largest storm in a decade makes landfall in Florida, the Caribbean starts to dig out.

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, ONA, Ringer, Springer, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on As the largest storm in a decade makes landfall in Florida, the Caribbean starts to dig out.

Barcelona is kicking cars off many of its streets.

by Veola28Njffo Posted on October 4, 2016

According to a paper released Tuesday by former NASA director James Hansen, the landmark Paris Agreement is solid C-minus work — but when it comes to climate commitments, mediocrity is basically criminal. Slacker countries making only modest emissions reductions will lock future generations into dangerous levels of climate change.

The average global temperature is already 1 to 1.3 degrees Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels, according to Hansen’s group. That’s on par with the Earth’s climate of 115,000 years ago, when the seas were 20 feet higher than they are today.

Unless we phase out fossil fuels entirely in the next few years, Hansen told reporters on Monday, future generations will have to achieve “negative emissions” by actively removing carbon from the atmosphere. Seeing as we don’t even know if that’s possible, that’d be a helluva task for our progeny.

Hansen and his coauthors’ work, which is undergoing peer review, supports a lawsuit brought by 21 young people against the U.S. government. It charges our lawmakers with not fairly protecting the “life, liberty, and property” of future citizens by allowing fossil fuel interests to keep polluting.

But a solution is possible, Hansen explained, if we commit to a fee on carbon pollution and more investment in renewable energy.

Originally posted here:

Barcelona is kicking cars off many of its streets.

Posted in alo, Anchor, Citizen, FF, GE, LAI, Landmark, ONA, Paradise, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Barcelona is kicking cars off many of its streets.