Archive for May, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

When you look to buying new furniture, do you ever consider it’s carbon footprint?

What comprises the carbon footprint of, say a couch? You have to consider each component of the couch from the wood for the frame to the metal for the springs, bolts and nuts to the foam for padding and the fabric that comprises the outer covering.

The wood that comprises your furniture is most likely going to have the largest footprint of the components second only to the foam padding. If the frame is totally interior to the couch, it’s more than likely going to be made of pine. Furniture with external wood showing is likely to be made of cherry, oak, teak, bamboo or walnut. Domestic woods (in the US) such as cherry, oak and walnut will have a lower footprint than teak or bamboo simply because the woods aren’t transported as far and also because US methods of harvesting wood is fairly efficient.

Woods that come from third world countries such as teak and bamboo not only have the distance transported comprising their footprint, but may also come from sources where human rights issues come into play. Some teak comes from Miranmar which has so much been in the news lately with the attempts by humanitarian aid groups to get aid supplies to those hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by the typhoon of nearly a month ago. And it’s the deforestation caused by the harvesting of teak that created some of the terrain that contributed to the amount of devastation experienced by the Miramese people.

Teak furniture is durable, beautiful and has many other properties that make it highly desirable. But at what cost to those who harvest it, to the countries that experience the issues surrounding deforestation of old growth forests. Before buying that lovely patio set, give a thought to those who are starving in Miranmar.

To read more about the teak trade, you may want to read TED Case Studies and to learn more about the carbon footprint from using teak, this article from Ask Planet Green “Can I Use Teak for my Hardwood Floors?”

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Today, it’s not just enough that you write a blog that has great content. If you want readers, and people to interact with you and your blog, you have to do some networking.

Fortunately, there are many others who think the same way, and have developed some social networks that, if used correctly, can help you get your blog read! Actually, there are so many of them now that it’s really hard to keep them straight as they each have slightly different goals and rules.

One of the oldest is Technorati. The original blog network, Technorati now boats having over 110 million blogs indexed. To use it, you create your profile, claim your blog(s) listing the keywords you usually write about and then when you write your posts, use those tags in them so they are picked up by Technorati. You can add tags to your list at any time and should periodically review your list in order to add or remove tags. Links from other Technorati blogs to yours help your authority.

StumbleUpon is another social network that has a little different twist from Technorati. You again create a profile, but you don’t claim your own site. Instead you choose subjects that interest you and when you find a site that has an article, photo or post that is interesting, you “stumble” it. If you’re the first who found it, a portal will open and you can write a review of the site which will be available for the next person to read. They can also add their own review. You can also click the stumble button on your StumbleUpon tool bar and it will take you to sites that have been stumbled by others that fit in your profile choices.It’s a great way to discover new sites that have articles or media of interest to you.

A relatively new guy on the block is Digg. This social network has proven to be one of the most viral of them all. People following the “new on Digg” sometimes hit a newly “Dug” article thousands of times, making you an overnight sensation. When you hit the “tipping point” on number of digs received, your article goes to the front page making it where it’s viewed by thousands of people visiting the digg.com website. Unlike the other two, Digg allows you to submit your own posts as it’s not just the initial submission that gets the attention, it’s all the subsequent “diggs” the article receives.

Generally speaking though, it’s not good to stumble, favorite or digg your own article. That’s why there are plugins that put the social bookmark icons in a readily available spot in your posts for your readers to click as they read your article and make that submission for you. Although the social networks frown on them, there are exchange sites on the web where you submit a link to your article and others subscribing to that site are supposed to stumble/digg/favorite your link and you are to return the favor. Not only do the networks frown on this practice, if you’re caught by one of them doing it, they can ban you from the network, so if you decide to participate, be aware of the consequences.

Now what does this stuff REALLY mean in to you with your shiny new blog? It means visitors who stay long enough to read your posts. It means getting your blog out to the masses. It means, if you’re trying in any way to monetize your site or blog, a higher chance of that visitor clicking on one of your ads and making you some money. Like fiberglass columns, these social networks provide a support mechanism for your website or blog that is not only functional and long lasting, but attractive as well. People coming to your site through these networks tend to have a preconceived idea that your content is timely, relevant and interesting. After all, you’ve gotten a big “thumbs up” from someone out there or your site wouldn’t be on the network to begin with!

There are many more social networking sites out there. They all work in similar manner to these main three, but if you get on one of these, chances are, you’ll be on those others as well.

Please note that I am far from being an expert on social networking. All this information is easily discovered on Wikipedia, or the website of the social network itself. There are also many others who have written articles about how to best utilize these sites, but many of them use methods that will get you banned from the network, so take them all with a grain of salt. One of the best written articles on StumbleUpon is written by DoshDosh and it’s titled “A Comprehensive Guide To StumbleUpon“. A great article on using Digg is written by Neil Patel titled “Using Digg and Netscape to get Traffic“. I couldn’t really find a comprehensive article on using Technorati, but “Ten Technorati Hacks” at least gives you some idea of the ways to use it to your best advantage.

Best of luck to you all with your new social networking skills and ….oh! don’t forget to Stumble/digg/favorite me, please!

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I’ve been complaining to Ken about the Dodge van not getting good gas mileage.

All the other Caravans I’ve ever had got pretty good mileage — usually around 30 mpg highway, but the best I’ve been able to squeeze out of this one is 23 mpg and, since my commute to work is 50+ miles, that’s not very good mileage!

We’ve discussed buying a car to just do back-and-forth to work and other short trips in, but after reviewing our budget, didn’t think we could afford one. I thought the subject was put to bed, but evidently, I thought wrong!

Yesterday, after eating breakfast and faking me out with a trip to Sam’s Club, Ken pulled into a Suzuki dealership saying he wanted to look at their cars and see what they had in the way of gas saving cars.

I HATE car shopping and he knows it! The last car we got, he did all the hunting, negotiating and so on - all I had to do was go test drive it and give my OK on it. I find car salespersons to be unprofessional, pushy and obnoxious. I resent having to spend hours just to buy a stupid car. It makes no sense to me that the process of purchasing a car in this country has to take 4 hours or more.

Well, the first car we looked at was a Reno which was rated at 28 mpg. Ken had them run some numbers and when they came back with them, they looked promising. Meanwhile, we looked around the dealership at other cars on the lot. Found this SX4 Crossover and loved it! I’ve owned a mini van for the last 15 years, so anything smaller seems claustrophobic to me, but this little car has lots of interior room. And, those numbers came back good, too!

As an added incentive, it’s rated at 33mpg highway!

So, I’m now the proud owner of a Deep Sea Blue SX4 Crossover, a gas card good for $1200 worth of gas, one of the dealership’s logo pens and a zero percent interest loan!

Now if I could find someone to car pool with, I would REALLY be saving the planet!

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You could argue convincingly that flowers are the jewels of nature, but I am of the opinion that birds more accurately fit that category.

I looked out my window this morning and like a sparkling ruby pendant, a male cardinal dangled from a low hanging branch in the fire bush in the front yard. His plumage rivaling any jewelry I’ve ever worn. He joined his mate at the feeder soon afterwards. I’m sure they have a brood they’re raising somewhere close by and I’ll be seeing those adolescents at the bird feeders soon. I never tire of seeing them and since they are year-round residents, they cheer me up when winter’s drab cloak is on the ground.

A little while later, a hummingbird visited the feeder hanging from the awing, his iridescent feathers glowing as fine as any opal. Darting in and out, he helped himself to the nectar I’m providing him and his kin. They are wanderers and only stay from March to September. We usually only see ruby throated, but occasionally, in the late fall, we’ll get a rufous and that’s why I leave my feeders out until December.

I’ve been treated lately to a couple of varieties of grosbeaks — a rose breasted and a blue. I had never a grosbeak visit the feeders before and had to look them up on the internet. Fortunately, they were not hard to find. I thought at first that I had an Indigo Bunting, but my photo didn’t match up to the ones on the web page I found on buntings.

I have two pairs of House Finches nesting on the porch overhangs. One pair is using an old nest that another pair already raised a brood in and the second pair has built a brand new nest using some cotton batting I put out for the birds to use. They fly off whenever I try to approach with a camera, so I’ve not been able to catch them except when they’re at the feeders. I do hope the cowbirds that are hanging around don’t lay any eggs in their nests — one cowbird egg would leave no room for any finch babies.

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