What Would Jesus Buy?

Sho•po•ca•lypse [shah PAW kuh lips] n. The end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!

From the man that brought you Supersize Me... A harsh critic of the consumerism hysteria that comes about during the holiday season - What Would Jesus Buy?



This movie is definitely on my To-Watch list.

Top ten: News stories from National Geographic 2007

National Geographic recently listed their top ten news stories of 2007.

10. Meteor Crash in Peru Caused Mysterious Illness (September 21, 2007) Headaches and nausea in residents who visited the impact crater were caused by arsenic fumes from a rare kind of meteorite, scientists announced.

9. Jesus' Tomb Found in Israel, Filmmakers Claim (February 26, 2007) A tomb that once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth—and those of his wife and son—has been found in a suburb of Jerusalem, according to the makers of a controversial film.

8. Interspecies Sex: Evolution's Hidden Secret? (March 14, 2007) Hybridization is not only widespread in nature, but it might also spawn many more new species than previously thought, a new study says.

7. Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia (February 27, 2007) A giant blob of water the size of the Arctic Ocean has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, scientists report.

6. "Dinosaur Mummy" Found; Has Intact Skin, Tissue (December 3, 2007) Scientists announced the discovery of an extraordinarily preserved "dinosaur mummy"—a 67-million-year-old hadrosaur with much of its tissues and bones still encased in an uncollapsed envelope of skin.

5. Crater From 1908 Russian Space Impact Found, Team Says (November 7, 2007) Almost a century after a mysterious explosion in Russia flattened a huge swath of Siberian forest, scientists have found what they believe is a crater made by the cosmic object that created the blast.

4. Stonehenge Settlement Found: Builders' Homes, "Cult Houses" (January 30, 2007) A major prehistoric village unearthed near Stonehenge likely housed the builders of the famous monument, archaeologists say, and was an important ceremonial site.

3. Mass Plague Graves Found on Venice "Quarantine" Island (August 29, 2007) Ancient mass graves containing more than 1,500 victims of the bubonic plague have been discovered on a small island in Italy's Venetian Lagoon.

2. Monster Glowing Squid Caught on Camera (February 14, 2007) Monster-size, deep-sea squid that use their glowing arms to blind and stun their prey have been filmed in the wild for the first time off southeastern Japan, scientists say.

1. Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says (February 28, 2007) Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to a controversial theory

Dreaming of greener holidays

This year, I've made a personal commitment to making this holiday season a bit greener than the last. I've participated in the holiday season in the past, knowing that I'm having a negative impact on the environment, but ignoring the consequences. So, here's my plan...

1. Stay out of the malls! Shop locally and support the downtown community. I'm also going to go to craft-fairs and markets. This will mean that I will have to plan ahead to get all my shopping done early to avoid the last minute panic dash to the mall. (It's probably going to make me less stressed in the long run too)

2. No more useless gifts! I'm not going to by "stuff" for the sake of a present. I'm going to by thoughtful and meaningful presents. This might also mean that instead of buying a big item I'll buy tickets to a concert or restaurant gift cards. For the people on the list that I'd normally buy smaller gifts for, instead of giving a trinket, I'll bake some cookies or make Irish cream. Maybe I'll even knit something.

3. No more paper! I'm not wrap any of my present. I might put a bow or ribbon to dress it up a bit. If I get really ambitious, I might sew a gift bag out of scraps of material. So, if you get an unwrapped present from me this year, it's not because I'm lazy, it's because I love you.


Those are my three goals for this year. Nothing too extraordinary, or innovative. Simple stuff. There's lots of other things that we all can do this year too.

- serve local produced and/or organic food and beverages

- buy a Christmas tree that you can plant in your yard in the spring

- instead of buying gifts for people, make a donation in their name to a local charity

- use only LED lighting

- purchase carbon offsets for your extra emissions created over the holidays

Belated update on my trip to California

As you may or may not know, I recently went to the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference in Sacramento California.

The trip was an awesome experience. I headed out to the airport with my friend and colleague Jen at 3:30am Wednesday morning. We arrived in San Francisco and had enough time to do a bit of exploring and eat lunch. It was a gorgeous day, but we didn't have a lot of time to spend there before we needed to catch our bus to Sacramento. (And just a short note: the Greyhound in the US is not the same as in Canada... they're very very sketchy... but we arrived in Sacramento safely)

The resort where the conference was held was beautiful. The conference speakers and the sessions were very informative and useful for my thesis work. My poster presentation was well received, and I got a lot of good feedback. I made a lot of great professional contacts.

There were several key themes presented at this conference, including: the acceleration of technology adoption and appropriate use, climate change policies and programs, individual action and decision making, models of behavior, and media and marketing. It was interesting to see the focus on technology, a very capitalistic approach to the climate change problem. There was very little talk about the actual curtailment of energy using behaviour. Rather, the bulk of the conversations were about how to live our lives more efficiently - without having to change our core behaviors.

This conference had several big political connection. Governor Arie sent a letter to the conference attendees (actually, I expect that the reason that they held the conference in Sacramento was because they were hoping that he was going make an appearance.) And, the co-president of Al Gore's organization Alliance for Climate Protection gave an inspirational key note address.

I got to see quite a bit of Sacramento. I was treated to dinner in Old Sacramento with some of the other Canadian attendees on Thursday night after the poster session. Old Sacramento has an Old West theme and is quite touristy.

I got to see the rest of downtown Sacramento on Friday night. Jen and I, along with another grad student we met, went out to a fancy-ish restaurant for dinner and a drink. Afterwards we went for a walk and saw the the State Capitol and other important state buildings. It's a beautiful city, but a little sketchy... the state prison and court houses are right downtown... surrounded by many many Bail Bonds.

Unfortunately, the only day that I had to see San Francisco was Saturday and the weather didn't co-operate - it was pouring rain. However, I made the most of it by visiting with a friend I had met at the conference - a PhD student at Sanford - and some of his friends. We went out for lunch, and then went out for a few drinks before I caught my plane home.

The only thing I regret is that I didn't take very many pictures.... I didn't really have time between rushing to conference sessions, traveling and bad weather. Not a good excuse though.

That about sums it up!

A crude awakening: the oil crash

This looks like a really interesting film. Nothing really new, but it seems to portray the urgency of the energy crisis.

I encourage you to check out the website: http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/