Freebie Friday 03.04.16: How to Respond to FAQs about the Climate

The Climate Reality Project, the environmental advocacy group founded by Nobel Laureate Al Gore in 2006, sent me a really useful email yesterday — a link to a free e-book, The 12 Questions Every Climate Activist Hears and What to Say. The email promised “clear, understandable answers to these confusing questions.” I  decided to check it out and downloaded what turned out to be a 22 page pamphlet. The questions are indeed answered in a succinct, understandable way, accompanied by supporting graphics and links to additional resources.

The email requested that I share the book with a friend or two. Here is the link to get your own copy. 

The environmental movement needs committed advocates for climate solutions. This little book is a great place to start your education. To quote one of the book’s illustrations, “One person can only do so much.”

Freebie Friday 8.28.15: Explore the Great Barrier Reef without Getting Wet

Last week Google added Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the extensive list of modern and ancient world heritage sites that you can explore online as part of Google’s World Wonders Project.

That is correct. You and users across the globe can now travel through The Great Barrier Reef on Google Street View. Google partnered with the Catlin Seaview Survey, who used a special camera to capture the images. The Catlin Seaview Survey is a global study monitoring the health of the world’s coral reefs. According to the survey’s website, there has been a 40% loss of corals around the globe in the last 30 years. 

The images are beautiful, but the survey’s work could not be more serious. The Catlin Seaview Survey is “creating a baseline record of the world’s coral reefs, in high-resolution 360-degree panoramic vision. It will enable change to be clearly monitored over time and will help scientists, policy makers and the public at large to see and understand the issues reefs are facing and work out what needs to be done to best protect coral reefs now and into the future.”

The partnership with Google is helping to raise awareness of this problem.

The voyage starts here. 

TGIF. Have a great weekend. 

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, unless you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.

Freebie Friday 1.16.15: Fast Casual in the News

Carnitas lovers went into a state of shock this week when Chipotle pulled pork from the menu at hundreds of its restaurants. According to AP, it was the first time the chain stopped serving one of its toppings. 

Chipotle prides itself on serving “Food with Integrity,” a commitment to “finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment, and the farmers.” One supplier violated the standards and Chipotle decided to remove pork from the menu rather than offer a conventionally raised substitute. A spokesperson for Chipotle did not disclose the details of the violations, but he did state that “most of the issues related to the violations concerned housing for the pigs.”

This news should not keep devotees away from the chain. There is still plenty of beef and chicken for meat eaters. According to PETA, there are six ways to be vegan. 

And, what better reason could there be, for everyone from vegans to carnivores, to accept Chipotle’s special incentive to try Sofritas, the most recent addition to their topping menu, on January 26? Sofritas is a topping made with organic tofu sourced from Hodo Soy that is shredded and braised with peppers, chilis, and spices. The details of the special offer can be found here. [Note: The Sofritas are rather high in sodium, so when you build your menu item you might want to hold the salsa.]

Panera also introduced a new offering to its menu this week — Broth Bowls. They come in a number of variations, with a base of either soba noodles or quinoa, and toppings that include lentils, kale, and cage-free eggs.

If you are a Panera card holder, be sure to watch at least three of the short videos about the new bowls – “How to Eat Adventurously” – to receive $5 off any broth bowl purchase. If you watch all six, a bonus of a free beverage will also be added to your card. [Note: The videos are silly, but mercifully short.] These bowls look delicious and are lower in calories than many other Panera items, but they are still somewhat high on the sodium.

There you have it — one BOGO, one $5 off with an freebie for your patience, and two excellent reasons to venture out in the cold. Get moving!

TGIF. Have a great weekend. 

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, until you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.

Freebie Friday: Google Celebrates 15 with a Doodle

It’s been a while since I shared something free and fun on a Friday.

But, how could I resist this one? It even has a piñata theme!

Fifteen years ago this month, Google was launched by Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page in a Menlo Park garage.

In honor of this milestone, the Google Doodle for September 27, 2013 is an interactive game. Hit the space bar to whack the piñata. See how much candy you can get to tumble out, and share your score with your friends. 

That’s not all, folks. Type Google in 1998 in the search box, and watch what happens.

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, until you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.

Have fun. Have a good weekend, and come back again soon.

Early May 2011 News Roundup & Blog Updates 5.6.11

With all that’s been going on these past few days, there are a number of stories that came and went without too much notice. I’d like to take this opportunity to recycle a few.

NEWS from ALL OVER:

According to Reuters, Japanese engineers are still struggling to gain control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Two of the six reactors are now considered stable. Check out these Q+As for the latest on the progress. 

For a detailed summary and analysis of the April 25-28 tornado outbreak in the South, check out Dr. Jeff Masters’s blog.  If you scroll down the page, you will find a video of the Birmingham-Tuscaloosa tornado, which killed at least 66 and injured over 1000.

The threat of flooding along the Mississippi was so severe that the Army Corps of Engineers blew up the levee at Birds Point, Missouri (designed to be destroyed in the event of a record flood), intentionally flooding 133,000 acres of rich farmland. According to Jeff Masters, the levee was demolished once before, during the historic 1937 flood.

Yale Environment 360 reported that scientists at MIT have unveiled transparent solar cells that someday soon may turn skyscrapers into solar collectors. With perfection of this invention, the entire surface area of a building’s windows could be used to generate electricity, without interfering with the view to the outside. You can read more at the MIT site. 

Slow Food USA sent out an alert about Mark Bittman’s Op-Ed of 4.27 commenting on proposed legislation in several states that would make it illegal to photograph farms. According to Bittman, in Florida it would become a first degree felony to photograph any farm without the owner’s written permission. Slow Food is gathering signatures for a petition  and also requests that over the next few days everyone goes out armed with cameras and join their “farmarazzi.” Here is the link to the Slow Food Facebook page where farm photos are starting to appear. 

Santa Clara County joined the growing list of California communities banning the distribution of plastic shopping bags.  Customers without bags will have to pay 15¢ each for paper ones beginning January 1.

NEWS from NEW HAVEN:

Stop & Shop opened on Whalley Avenue and seems to be doing a brisk business. I’ve already been there a couple of times.

The Elm City Market solicited written good wishes for placing on the store’s dirt floor prior to its being covered with concrete.

I felt like Forrest Gump last weekend:

The Yale Institute of Sacred Music staged an elaborate Flash Mob at Union Station  on April 29. I was there but you’ll have to look really closely to spot me at 4 seconds in.

I rode in the third annual Rock to Rock bike ride on April 30, a benefit for 14 environmental groups in the community. It seemed everyone I knew came out of the  woodwork for a wonderful event on this sunny Saturday. This year more than 500 riders raised over $50,000. Those of us on the short ride were treated to a police escort and the thrill of zooming through the City on streets closed to traffic. The “Pot Heads” from the New Haven Land Trust were the winners of both the team spirit  award and the top team fundraising award. The group’s executive director Chris Randall won the highest individual fundraising award. The success of the event is a real boon for the City’s environmental organizations. As just one example, funding for the New Haven Land Trust’s community garden program in the proposed City budget is facing a $17,500 cut— from $25,000 to $7,500.

I was one of over 500 participants in Connecticut Food Bank’s annual WALK Against Hunger in New Haven on May 1. The WALK will take place in Bridgeport on May 15 and in Waterbury on May 22.

On Wednesday I discovered that at the tables down at Mory’s one can now enjoy a mean Vegetarian Green Tomato BLT. 

Brown paper still covers the window of the storefront on Broadway where it is rumored that an Apple store will open. Apple still has not made an official announcement, but on the Apple site, applications are being accepted for retail jobs in New Haven. Why does this matter? Broadway is a lot closer than Farmington or Danbury, which means smaller carbon footprints for local Apple addicts.

BLOG NEWS

I still need Mississippi. Someone must know someone there.

SPECIAL EVENTS:

May 7 (tomorrow)

Opening of the 8th season of the Wooster Square Farmers Market

Lettuce toss at 9 am. CitySeed  says special guests include Senator Martin Looney, Mayor John DeStefano, and Director of the New Haven Office of Sustainability Christine Eppstein Tang, who will bring along a few free compost bins.

May 1- May 8

Compost Awareness Week

Earth 911 has lots of information to up your awareness and get you started on making your own black gold. [more in my February 24, 2010 post] 

Now until May 31

Vote to bring fruit trees to New Haven. 

Friends of Edgewood Park have been nominated to receive a free fruit orchard. Help the Friends get to the next level of the competition. Vote for them once daily at the Edy’s Fruit Bars site.

Freebie Friday Returns!

In the spirit of my winter Freebie Friday posts I offer up this link to a A Google A Day,  a daily trivia game some of you may have seen in the New York Times. You are meant to google to get the answer, but to avoid spoilers, be sure to do it here. You can read more about the puzzle here.  Test out your search skills! Put your brain to work!

TGIF. Have a great weekend. And please come back soon.

Freebie Friday 4.1.11

Worthy Things to Do, Listen To, or View that Won’t Cost You a Dime 

Welcome to the April 1 edition of Freebie Friday. Cooking was my original theme. This week's tip is so awesome — NO FOOLING!— that I had intended just one tip for you today — Google Search with Recipe View.

Here’s how it works. Search for a recipe or ingredient using Google, then select “Recipes” in the left-hand panel on the search results page. You can customize your search by filtering your results by ingredients, cooking time, or calories. What a great way to turn what you have on hand into a feast or to find a way to turn that daring purchase from the farmers’ market into something wonderful. An illustrated summary of all the features is here. 

If you would rather have Google’s executive chef walk you through the process, you can watch a short video on YouTube:

I used this tool last week when I had a giant cauliflower in the fridge and was in the mood for soup. I entered “curried cauliflower soup” into the search box and then filtered for recipes that DID include honey (which I had) but DID NOT use butternut squash, ginger, or spinach (all things I did not have available). I also checked “less than 60 minutes” and “less than 500 calories.” I was left with this recipe from food.com which boasted a secret ingredient — an apple. It was delicious and deserves all the stars and great reviews it has received.

Give Google Search with Recipe View a try. You’ll never again have to resort to cold cereal OR make a last minute run to the store for a missing ingredient. Have fun.


It's my blog and I have the right to change my mind. It's April Fools’ Day today, and those Googlers love this holiday. I'm turning today back into a 3-tip Friday. I can't pass on the opportunity to share this year's Google pranks with you.


First up, the one with the video. Go to google.com and note the small print under the search box. [Hint: it begins with the word “new” in red.] Click the purple words which follow the red “new” and you will be taken to a video about an amazing new feature for Gmail. After watching the video be sure to click the box indicating you want to give the product a try, because I'm sure you will!


The second prank is for font lovers. Enter “helvetica” into the Google search box and check out your results. 

TGIF. Keep your wits about you today. Have a great weekend! And be sure to come back for a new topic on Meatless Monday.

FYI Why a piñata? Just like a blog link, until you open it, you won’t know what’s inside.