Stop buying farmed shrimp and start asking where your's is coming from
I want to apologize before hand for my last blog. I tried to get a video on here, but I'm not the most technologically smart person and have failed. At the end my rant I'll give the link to the website though and I hope you take a look at it.

So many of us love shrimp and it shows. Almost everywhere one can go out to eat there will be at least one shrimp dish. Now most of us do not think twice where our shrimp comes from, but for those of us who do know how we get shrimp, it makes it difficult to eat it. I took an environmental health class at Seattle Central Community College a few years ago and learned a little about shrimp farming and since then I have eaten shrimp maybe 5 times, maybe.

Shrimp farming is a lot like other types of fish/animal farming. It packs tons of shrimp into close quarters, uses an outrageous amount of water, pollutes the surrounding environment and can have devastating effects on the human populations around it. The video I wanted to post on this blog is by the Environmental Justice Foundation. It takes a look at shrimp farming in different parts of the world from Southeast Asia to South America. People are promised jobs when the shrimp companies come in, but many times outsiders are hired instead of locals. The local suppy of water is used to fill vast ponds for the shrimp to live in. THese ponds are man made and the ecosystems that were there before them are destroyed. Shrimp farms use a gross amount out antibiotics on the shrimp so they do not get disease from living in their own waste water and living so close to one another. These antibiotics stay in the shrimp for humans to ingest and also run off with the drainage water. In the video a local crabber is interviewed and he talks about before a shrimp farm was put near his village he used to get four times the amount of crab he gets today. These are just some of the impacts that shrimp farm have on people on the environment.

So what can we do. Well you can decide not to eat shrimp. If you can't do that try to find sustainably caught shrimp, even shrimp trolling boats can ruin the environments the shrimps live in. Look for pot caught shrimp. Share this videos with others so we can take a stand and stop shrimp farming.

Here is the link to the video.
http://www.ejfoundation.org/page211.html

Geothermal Well Construction Part 4

Each column well, once drilled gets connected to the building through a series of pipes. These pipes run into a mechanical room which will house the heat exchanger and pumps for the system.


There are seven pipes needed to be tied into the system. Each pipe corresponds to a specific well and are in a closed loop between ground water and the building.

CAMP!
Camps are a great way to explore nature, as well as a fun way to spend the summer.


FREE ADMISSION

The first 250 people to register and attend the event will receive a gift bag and be entered to win Camp Fairs Giveaways!

For more Information please visit -
http://www.blackboardcamps.com/register.php
or Call 212.894.5441

Such a bland diet
I think a great deal about the bland visual landscape of our young century. Although in American cities, new and exciting designs are being explored and utilized -- from the ordinary bike rail as sculpture, to the growing cultus of temporal, public art pieces - and importantly, clever, green architecture edging away from the constraints of past and poor templates, elsewhere, we are stuck in somewhat of a time warp.

The pre-green era blandscape continues to carry the cache of aggrandizement - living on with no twist of genius. This is vividly apparent when one drives up the commercial highways of rural/suburban America. Personally, I'm intrigued by these commercial roads - the Route 9s, Route 300s, Route whatsovevers that shoulder the big box economy. They continue to power up and define our public spaces.

In this new age of C21, progressive change is painfully slow to arrive on these commercial highways. Case in point -- new construction in the city of Newburgh, along the Hudson River. Its major commercial throughfare is Route 300, soon to be a new home to a Staples Super Store. A fragment of an apple orchard sits on this still undeveloped land. But, as soon as the construction project rolls out, this sweet orchard will be vanquished - swiftly. Rigid town planning, copycat developers and unimaginative municipal boards keep things this way. They work in perfect harmony to keep the visual status quo on these roads. The orchard could be an added perk for the harried Staples customer. Saved, its solid boughs could bear ruby reds for decades to come, providing a welcome depth of shade from hot summer sun, and hopefully a berth for a song bird et famille.

Considering that apples are the New York State royalty of the vegetative world, such a deviation from the Staples template to accomodate this coterie of fruit trees, would be reasonable and modern in thought. It would express compassion towards the assets of this Earth( thus backing away from the tenets of municipal environmental and visual amorality). And yes, would spice up the bland daily diet of big shop boxiness and black top.

Please leave a comment.

PORTILLA_silvia

CLASS AVERAGE DATA: HOW MUCH WASTE DO THE CLASS PRODUCE?

29-1-08
We have had another go at the multiplication grids for our target.

There is still some confusion for some children who need much more practice, and also some explaining. They may not be very good at explaining to adults how to do the method, but it is important that they try, so that they can work out which bits they don't get. (And then get them.)

So a large part of the homework is to explain and teach the method to an adult.

Here is a link to an Education Authority site: Try this page out.

What we are doing: multiply a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number (mostly teens numbers for the 2 digit numbers). The page does some good explaining.

Here's a video, without sound, of a child doing it. WATCH OUT: we are only working on TWO DIGITS by ONE DIGIT - no hundreds yet, though I daresay one or two Blues might have a go.

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Practice: 18 x 5, 15 x 7, 14 x 3; for the Blues 23 x 5, 26 x 6, 32 x 8.

An Interesting Week in NYC
Well, this week was not so interesting for me, but rather Mayor Bloomberg. First, he got bit on the hand by Staten Island Chuck on Ground Hog Day. Then, yesterday, he held a press conference announcing that the mystery of the maple syrup smell had been solved. What smell, you ask? How do New Yorkers smell it over the stench of urine and garbage? Good questions! It seems that for many months,

PROPOSAL

The 9/11 Memories Project culminates in a feature length documentary focusing on a handful of youth, ages 18-25, currently living in New York City. The movie will focus on their lives and environment, with the diverse subjects linked by their memories, reactions and opinions regarding September 11th.

I will focus upon a generation who came of age and budding maturity on September 11th, and who only clearly know the post-9/11 America. I will focus upon the generation whose world is most defined by that tragedy. The 9/11 Memories Project will explore both our individual memories, as well as the manner in which we remember, understand and integrate the large scale trauma in our lives.

The film will give a proper voice to a generation overexposed, yet often dismissed. Corporations fixate on us, yet their focus wanes when the subject strays away from our consumption habits. Our own attempts at vocalization follow the resources available to us; fleeting and disposable blog posts and YouTube videos.

I aim to transcend these problems of expression, and create a generational statement that goes deeply into how we think and feel, our opinions, loves and fears, that goes further than what we buy, or the ready-made nostalgia of social networking. I aim for a work that is timeless and lasting, that will examine and explore rather than exploit.

Septer 11th reigns as my generation's defining moment; our country's great tragedy occuring during my generation's most sensitive and curious development. I approach hallowed ground, and hope to discover the sacred heart of my generation; by tapping, perhaps, our most profound wound.

If you are interested in participating as a subject, feel free to send an e-mail to 911memoriesproject@gmail.com. While the main call is for 18-25 year olds currently living in NYC, I am interested in anyone with constructive ideas about any of the subjects related (9/11, consumption culture, youth culture, media culture, memories, mass trauma, history, etc.) or anyone who has a valuable contribution to make. Thank you.

From A2Girl!
Look at this interesting article I found about composting in Palo Alto CA. Looks like everyone is trying to figure out how to work composting into their lives on a larger scale....

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=10138