Bad Environmental Habits

I would like to say that I am more or less an environmentally conscious person. I recycle, I turn off lights, I try to use up every little bit of material I have when I make crafts...
...but I make a lot of bad environmental decisions too. I drive my car to and from school instead of taking the bus or biking or walking, I take showers that are way too long, and I tend to buy too much food that I end up throwing away.


Public opinion polls repeatedly show that most Americans identify themselves as "environmentalists," but these people are just like me - all for saving the environment, but then they make decisions that are adding to the harm. This is because we all have our vices. We get greedy, we get lazy, we feel that we don't have enough time. We do these things without putting too much thought in to them - it's all habit, really. And if we truly want to do significant good  for the environment - our biggest challenge is going to be breaking these habits.

 Each of us are little bricks in the foundation of our society. We are all in this together... it doesn't make sense to assume the foundation to change if the pieces within do not shift. Every great movement, needs its members to be passionate for the cause. If you want to see improvement, look within yourself and make the sacrifice. And do not get caught up in what everyone else is doing - if you feel strongly for your cause, then the failure of others does not absolve you from your own duties. Every little positive thing we do adds up. Let's try to make it a habit of doing much more good than harm, and just do without as many of our negatives contributions as possible, maybe then we will start to see a shift.

Salicylic Acid

Salicylic Acid is an effective astringent that you can find in a lot of acne products. It's also used commonly to eliminate the common wart or planter's warts - which is what I needed to it for recently.


While there are a variety of products that you can use for this affliction, I would have to recommend PEDiNOL™ sal-plant® gel. It's 17% and if you put it on you skin it you can see it immediately turn white and then start to peel the next day. Sweet!

Skull Flower

I don't remember where I found this image, but I do find it quite lovely for so many reasons.

Yo La Tengo - Green Arrow

And I find this song lovely as well. Good for a peaceful mood on a peaceful night... Where you are sitting around thinking of nothing in particular and just wanting to feel a sort of serenity about yourself.

Example

Just came back from a fabulous weekend in long island seeing some college friends. Love loved all the water time while I was there. Did however manage to be a fool and fall into a canal in my friend's backyard and totally bruised up my body and the bottom of my right foot. Tomorrow at work is going to be interesting...


So anyway. I was just compulsively watching a bunch of videos on youtube, as per usual, and then ended up finding this guy here. Definitely an interesting artist, although I can't claim to like all of his songs. From what I've seen so far, he tends to drift between electronic/dubstep, and hip-hop styling.

Example - Changed the Way you Kissed Me

Found the following artist because a friend of mine posted a song lyric and I chose to investigate. And very happy that I did, she has a beautiful voice. Kind of a sad artist, but that's something I tend to drift towards. This artist also sings with an accompanying band under "Emily Haines and the Soft Skeletons." Check it!
Emily Haines - Eden

Enjoy!

Musical Blast

By request of two of my good friends, I will not make any more super-dense science posts anymore. (light ones will continue) Although, you know, I was pretty proud of myself for retaining all that information.
Anyway. Had a best friend from college come stay with me in my humble abode this past week. Here are a couple of tunes that relate to her. ENJOY THE MUSIC!!!

Walk the Moon - Anna Sun
^ "This song is basically about me! Just change the name a bit!" 

Frank Sinatra - Blue Moon
^ I sing this to her, but change the words "Blue Moon" to her name
Tony Orlando - Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree ^ She sings this song terribly out of key
Angus & Julia Stone - Yellow Brick Road
^ We both love this band. But this is her current fav song by them.

Theo Twist

This artist is adorable and great for a nice, bubbly, feel-good mood! This song is also highly addictive if it happens to be your style ...

A Fine Frenzy - Electric Twist

This is a video I found on TED a while back. Theo Jansen is a dutch artist who makes quite the interesting kinetic sculptures. I love art and science, so I think his work is just fantastic.
TED - Featuring Theo Jansen

You can find other interesting talks on TED HERE  It has an eclectic grouping of materials so you can basically find anything that suits your interests.

Ibuprofen

So, I learned about this quite a while ago and I feel like it's worth sharing.
If you're ever in a situation where you need to pick Ibuprofen or Aspirin. Always go with the Ibuprofen.

Why? Well. Both of these pills work as inhibitors against the enzyme cyclooxegenase (COX). COX converts arachidonic acid to prostaglandin H2 (PGH2) and this is responsible for a whole SLEW of reactions that happen in your body which include:

•inhibiting blood clotting
•promoting blood clotting (yes, it does both --> yin-yang balance effect)
•uterus contraction
•mediating pain perception
•bronchoconstriction

The difference between these two drugs, however, is that Ibuprofen is a Reversible  Inhibitor and Aspirin is an Irreversible inhibitor.  So long after you are done needing aspirin for it's pain-killing properties, it is still working on the COX enzyme in your body, rendering this regulatory enzyme useless until it dies, whereas ibuprofen will eventually just release it and let your body carry on in its natural course.