A drizzly night earlier this month, my friend and I went into LUSH after a wooonderful dinner at Buddha’s Belly. A lovely surprise awaited as I was invited to get a free facial!
Ready to start!
First layer, the face wash.
Having some fun with the fizzle they put in the water.
The final stage, a mask. Mmm, blueberries!
A few nights ago, I went to a screening of HOME, a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It’s a film that brings to light many environmental issues surrounding the planet. It has such spectacular graphics that sometimes it doesn’t feel real. Plus, you’re seeing things from a bird’s eye view (or, more accurately, a hot air balloon’s eye view), which is rather unique in itself. Such images are striking possibly purely because of the difference in perspective you get. Whatever the case, the beauty of the film is undeniable and the message it spreads is powerful. In fact, you should go see it yourself – it’s free to the world!
The bit that struck me the most was when it said that Dubai has just about as much sunlight as you can ever hope for, yet not a single solar panel. It’s not really something that I had thought of before, but it’s ironic, isn’t it? The great thing about films like these is that they not only inform you and teach you, they make you think. They don’t always have the answers for you, but they bring about certain issues that are important to consider. Just by starting conversations and getting people aware of things they should consider, they’re making a vital contribution towards the betterment of this world. In addition to learning that tidbit, the film also showed me an area (I believe it was in Germany) that has solar panels covering the rooftops. If a place like that with less sunlight can take advantage of the energy provided by the sun, why aren’t the countries closer to the equator and with far stronger sunshine following suit?
It’s truly a fantastic film that should be shared with the world. By making it free, what better way to spread it far and wide? That is his goal, and he has been traveling all over the planet to promote the film, answer questions at screenings, and generate the sort of momentum we must gather to turn the environmental movement into something that will truly change the world. We are changing for the better, but not fast enough. It’s not too late to right some of the many wrongs that have happened, but all too soon it could be. Hence, it’s important that we take action now, in a way that we haven’t been. Copenhagen was disappointing in the lack of unity between countries and that NEEDS to change. We’re the first and only species that has ever done so much harm to the very environment we live in. Are we set on self-destruction?!
I hope not. Which is why I appreciate efforts like these to get people to take charge of the future and make this world better, not worse. And for those who laugh and make fun of the environmentalists out there… well, you can be the ones to blame when our progeny no longer have a safe planet to live on. That’s just a lose-lose situation for us all. It’d be pitiful for a “great” population such as ours to contribute to our own undoing. So much for being superior. Ultimately, the film ended by saying that “it’s too late not to be optimistic” and I think that’s true. If we give up hope, all is lost and we destroy so much beauty and wonder. So, we have no choice but to put our hearts and souls into saving the future of the planet and believe that we can. I certainly believe we can. Now, will we?
photo credit: Chris Doolittle
Firefighters in California have adopted a fire suppression policy for over a century now, which works very effectively in the underbrush type fires of Northern California, but do very little to stop the brush type fires of Southern California. In fact, wildfires are still occurring increasingly year after year, with over 99% of the ones in coastal Southern California started by human activity. It’s not just an issue of how we fight the fires; it’s how we prepare ourselves to prevent the fires.
Much of the problem arises with urban sprawl. As our communities push further out into the undeveloped land surrounding us, we not only put ourselves at risk of being in the path of a wildfire, we are more in danger of starting them. Since fires are something humans feel they can control, more or less, there is often a misconception that we can just stop the unwanted ones from happening. However, that is not the case, especially since our homes are teeming with highly flammable materials, including the very palm trees swaying our backyards. Fires are bound to break out, whether caused by humans or nature.
So, we should follow Dr. Jon E. Keeley’s advice: think of wildfires like we do of earthquakes. We certainly don’t go around trying to patch up the San Andreas Fault, and neither should we try to stop all the brushfires from igniting. As a matter of fact, in a study conducted by Keeley and Fotheringham in 2000, they found that chaparrals (native plants in Southern California) need periodic wildfires to help their seedlings grow! It’s actually the smoke and chemicals from charred wood that allow the seeds of chaparral to germinate, otherwise they lay dormant.
Chapparals have adapted to the wildfires that swept the area every decade or two and now need them to continue to survive. That’s not to say that the increased frequency of wildfires is a good thing, though! When fires occur too frequently, native chaparrals die before they get a chance to recover and soon the hillsides are replaced by non-native weeds and dry vegetation. These new plants are far less resistant to burning, increasing the frequency of fires, which spread to kill off even more native plants. And thus the cycle continues, to the point that of the nine megafires (fires that burned more than 100,000 acres) in the past century, half occurred in just the last six years.
So how should we deal with the wildfires? Well, to start off with, it would be smart to NOT build homes and developments in high-risk areas, which experts have identified. Then, for those homes that are already on the fringe of wild land, clear out the vegetation in a 100-yard radius. Also, homeowners should be cognizant of the materials in and around their homes. Palm trees in particular are dangerous because they are extremely flammable. Embers flying from a burning palm tree in your yard could then ignite a fire on nearby structures. Finally, we should accept that wildfires are part of the cycle of life for our local vegetation and have a plan like we do for earthquakes.
To learn more, check out Dr. Keeley’s Oppenheim Lecture Series presentation.
Been a long day, so a quick post for now…
I showed it in my video awhile ago; now here is a picture for posterity. The wonderful cut I got from Panda. 😛
When the rains come to LA, it sure does dampen the place. Check out the dense fog that covered us for a week!
Visibility sucks and drivers get even worse than they already were.
I don't even know how much more of that hill there might be.
The world beyond is veiled...
Oh, dreary days!
As I was getting lunch at Kaya today, I noticed their chopsticks resemble the pair I have in my To-Go Ware set. It reminded me of the day when Panda saw them and asked me why they were warped. Months later, when another friend came back from grad school in the East Coast, he saw them and asked the exact same thing. -____- Whereas I and our other friend, a history major, saw them as artistic, they saw them as warped. Wow. A lesson in the differences between North and South campus majors!
See the gentle curving to give them more character?
Oh the funny things you find while driving…
Whatever was that for?
Good to know, in case I wanted to break in and have some of that...
Such a bright green color!
Check out some of the things I made with my BuckyBalls!
A snowflake.
A tube.
Pentagonal pyramid.
The pentagonal pyramid side view.
The underside of the pyramid.
That circle was just the right size for the pentagon!
216 balls means this hexagon was one ball short.
I decided it would be symmetric in more dimensions if the missing one was moved to the center.
I made myself a little tie to wear.
Unfocused lights make me think of the holidays. Warm and fuzzy lights.
My own creation.
A Bucky Ball!
I wanted to use up all the BuckyBalls so I made the ball a sidekick.
When I went to Vegas for Christmas, we went to see David Copperfield at the MGM and came across these lovelies. They aren’t in the best of shape for their kind, but they’re still fun to look at. Where are the males?! I was hoping to see some mane action, oh well.
She's just chillin' as people stand below her and gawk.
I'm sure they don't get as much exercise as the wild ones, which might explain why she kind of looks like a pig from here...
She's just stretching her aching muscles.
Aww look, she's a tree hugger!
The handlers mostly just hung out in there, occasionally handling the lionesses.
"Hey, you lookin' at me?"
This is what I call "walking all over each other." 😛
As some water comes down and hits the water stream being shot up, horizontal splashes form.
Check out all the shapes that appear and disappear in a fraction of a second.
And as the water falls down, it rains down in many droplets.
