Happy Birthday Mother Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day ya'll! I'm hoping there will be some still awe-inspiring reruns of planet earth on the discovery channel when I get home tonight. Hands down, this is the best slow motion sequence in the whole series. The ocean off South Africa is effing scary (especially if you are a seal).



Speaking of Earth Awareness (shouldn't we be more aware of it everyday?) I fianlly got to experience the craze that is augmented reality.





Check it out at GE's Ecomagination website. The design and animation are amazing and to play with the AG application, you have to print out the form with the little black picture on it and hold it up to your webcam. Then voila!

It's really interesting but there's really no specific use for it in this example. It's just a cool techie gimmick to play with. I wonder what some other possibilities are...

carbon footprint

i found this quiz that measures your carbon footprint through an email i got from the earth day network today.

so all you do is create an avatar and answer some questions about your lifestyle. according to the website, this is how your 'carbon footprint' is calculated:
" Ecological Footprints can be calculated for individual people, groups of people (such as a nation), and activities (such as manufacturing a product).

The Ecological Footprint of a person is calculated by considering all of the biological materials consumed, and all of the biological wastes generated, by that person in a given year. These materials and wastes each demand ecologically productive areas, such as cropland to grow potatoes, or forest to sequester fossil carbon dioxide emissions."

because you can only choose the us or australia as your place of residence, i took the quiz based on my lifestyle in miami. i think my footprint is probably at one of the lowest points it will ever be since i lived in an apartment, used public transportation, didn't have a car, am vegetarian and i tried to eat organic/local foods. i only wish my stupid building had recycling.