Gulf Dolphins Exposed to Oil are Seriously ill, Agency Says

There are still many consequences after the BP oil spill back in 2010 one of  the affect was that Dolphins in Barataria Bay off of Louisiana are seriously ill because of toxic substances from the petroleum. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) scientists performed physical check ups on 32 dolphins living in the bay during the summer and the results was that the dolphins tend to have a lower weight, low blood sugar, and some live and lungs cancer. The most common symptoms found in almost half of the dolphins being studied  have abnormally low stress hormones level, cortisol. Cortisol help regulate immune systems.

Scientist can’t confirmed the reason why the dolphins in the Barataria Bay are sick is the result of the oil spilled but there is a huge correlation for it. Since dolphins in the Florida coast didn’t experience the same problem. With 1,000 dolphins in Barataria Bay there are 180 stranded dolphins reported in February 2010 normally there will be only around 20 stranded dolphins in Louisiana.

How To Be Idle

This weeks book, How to be Idle, proved to be pretty interesting. There were many places where I found myself agreeing with Tom Hodgkinson, and other times I thought he was a little crazy, and had nothing better to do than write this book about being lazy.

His ideas about changing the time people get up and how better they may function was probably the most thought provoking part of his book. I personally as a college senior love nothing more than sleeping in and hate when classes force me to wake up before my desired time. I complain now about having to wake up most days at 9:45am for my 11:00am class but I hate even more to think that soon I will have a job that will force me to get up even earlier than 9:45am and be at work probably before 9:45.

As much as I love sleeping and sleeping until I feel like I’ve gotten enough sleep, I don’t know that I full agree with Hodgkinson that I would be more productive if I started work later or anything later than it might require. I think that if I still had to work the same amount of hours in a day that my getting up and getting to work by 11:00am, but still having to work say eight hours, would possibly make me more upset than getting up early in the first place. I think in the long run I would rather start my day, even if I am tired, and get the day rolling. It was an interesting thought on Hodgkinson’s part to propose all these ideas in his book.

At first, I was thinking while reading that this book was an interesting read, but I had no idea what it had to do with our class. To me there was nothing in here that would effect the environment, but the more I got to thinking about it it does relate to our class. If people took the time to slow down, enjoy life a little more than they do then this might actually also effect the environment we live in. Some people can think of this book as kind of a way to be lazy almost, but others could look at it as a way to slow down and live your life a little bit more to its fullest.

Algae Used to make Plastic

I read an article recently about making bio plastics, from algae.  As one knows most plastics in that we use are petroleum based, but using oil from algae to make plastics may soon be the norm.  Over the years there have been problems with using algae as an alternative, due to the fact that it is not yet as cheap as petroleum is, however the article speculates, that soon it will be.

This is a picture of a plastic disk made from algae.

The companies running at algal bio fuels today, must first find and cultivate a precise strain of algae from among thousands, harvest and dry the stuff, and then somehow extract oil from the plant.  From this the oil can be turned into diesel or jet fuel, and the waste biomass for the time being is fed to cattle.

Right now the biggest problem in this field is not the science behind it, but the supply of algae. However, it seems a step in the right direction to wean ourselves off of the nonrenewable facets of petroleum, and eventually lead to a sustainable, healthier way of living.

Robotic Jellyfish

A team at Virginia Tech are working on a robotic project and based the design and movement of the machine from the movements of jellyfish. The robot uses the same expanding and contracting of it’s bell shape upper body, made from memory shape materials, to mimic the movements of live jellyfish. The “Robojelly” as it’s called is powered by hydrogen, and it is planned to be capable of relying on a self sustaining energy system from interacting with the undersea environment. The researchers hope it can be used in the future for undersea rescue operations.

You can see a video of the Robojelly here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17444008

Chill Out

How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson is a book that bends the perspective of the fast-paced world we live in today. Hodgkinson states,

“This book seeks to recover an alternative tradition in literature, poetry, and philosophy, one that says not only is idleness good, but it is essential for a pleasurable life (Preface).”

Hodgkinson stuffs the book with historical events and figures who have defended the idle life throughout human existence. Since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, humans have naturally needed to cope with the stresses of the anti-idle life. Factory workers, who toiled all day in terrible working conditions, began the six o’clock happy hour tradition that still stands today. Cigarettes, according to Hodgkinson, blend the forces of idleness and usefulness into a powerful product of doing nothing, yet a form of nothing that still requires attention to doing something. Very Buddhist. The chapters are organized into the course of a day, each chapter represents an hour, and there are a total of 24 chapters. Chapter 1 is entitled “8 am: Waking Up is Hard to Do”, followed by “9 am: Toil and Trouble”. Hodgkinson also riddles his writing with jokes and satire.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The whole idea of hard work and labor being portrayed as the only path to success in the bible and throughout history, is put into question. I agree that hard work will bring success, however one may work to death and make millions of dollars, but their sanity and happiness will be sure to suffer. All in all, it comes down to whether you want to live a simple life of enjoyment, or a rich, successful life of toil and misery. The goal should be a relaxed and happy medium between both ends of this spectrum.

About Being Idle

I think what struck me the most from reading this book is how much I realize we’ve made things go. We get up, suffer through traffic, go to work, work all day, suffer through traffic again, and somewhere between checking the mail for bills and dinner try to find time to relax. I think what How To Be Idle helps us to see is how to slow things down a little but still maintain a productive life.

One of the chapters that did catch my attention was the one on napping. I know if I’m like anyone else out there in the world I loathed nap time as a kid and now wish I could have it back. I do think that having that set hour could make people more refreshed productive and perhaps even less irritable as the workday goes on. Why should we just restrict this until a certain age?

For me personally as well I love pubs. If you can get there at the right time they can have a varying atmosphere for how your feeling. In the afternoons they can be more quiet and welcoming. A nice place to sit and have some me time or a pleasant chat with a friend or two.

I think the overall message of the book and what the author is trying to convey is just take an extra minute or two and slow down. Our society is so driven to be productive and stay productive we seem to rob ourselves or what little sanity we possess sometimes. The message is that you can be productive and still not run at 1,000 piles per hour with your hair on fire. In the long run it may even be much healthier for you to cut out a little stress and be idle if not for a few minutes.

So drink up!

“How to be Idle”

My first reaction after reading the first few pages of this book was wow this is a whole new perspective to look at life. How one should live their life and knowing their values. The book is separated into each daily activities/hour within 24 hrs with things we normally do as a routine. Most people will tell you to wake up early so you will have a productive day and having a routine is good for you.  But it is different coming from Hodgkinson he said it is better for you to take your time and wake up when you have the sleep you needed this way you will be more creative. He gave an example of  Benjamin Franklin, he’s not an early risers. ” In order to have ideas and then to plan how to realize those ideas, creative people need thinking time, away from the desk, away from the telephone, away from the myriad distractions of everyday and domestic life. And morning snoozing is one of the best time to do this.”  There are different ways to be productive one can be productive laying in bed thinking about things. But as a norm people will think of you differently if you just lay in bed all day. Thats  why some people feel guilty of not waking up early and doing things with their life. I can relate to this chapter 8 am because it takes me forever to get out of bed in the morning and I will have plans for myself during the day but then I ended up waking up an hour or two after my alarm rang anyway. We rely on technology too much.

Another chapter that I can really relate to was 1pm The Death of Lunch back in High school my friends and I used to sit together for lunch everyday and relax and talk about our days and our lives. But when we grow older it is hard to find time to do so. Working adults tend to only have 30 mins to eat their lunch normally its a quick lunch eating food that is not healthy for them and then they have to go back to work. “Work to eat, not eat to work.”

After reading this book it makes me reevaluate my life so that I can be in control of my life and not be afraid to be different from the norm and let the society takes over me. To be able to do what I want to do and be happy about it. I think this book relates to our class theme the because sometimes we need to take a step back and look at things in a different perceptive.  The way we live our life also influence and impact our environment as a whole.

How to Be Idle

This Weeks readings were on the Book How To Be Idle by tom Hodgkinson. Basically Hodgkinson discusses that in the world today there is a hustle and bustle about things, and that people, especially people in the United States never take any time to just sit down and relax.  Everything just is work work work, and no one takes time off from working.

The book is set up by the hours of the day, and he begins with eight o’ clock in the morning and states that one should not get up at this time, and that waking early is in fact bad and that you should sleep in and it in fact makes it easier to think and makes you feel better, by the end of the chapter he simply says throw away your l alarm clock and sleep in.  From here he discusses things like lying in bed awake at 9 a.m. and taking a nap halfway through the day, and having elevenses and afternoon tea at 4 p.m..  In all these chapters he gives significant examples to support all of these practices one should do to be idle, and by the end of the book you have the tools to lead an idle life.

As I got further and further into the book I felt like all the things he suggests on doing are reflective of a hobbit, from J.R.R. Tolkiens  time-honored classic The Hobbit.  The way hobbits are described in their lifestyle coincides with Hodgkinsons rules, if you will, on how to be idle.

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

Now the similarities I find with these two books may be due to the fact that they are both by British authors, and several of the ideals of being idle it seems are practiced regularly or at least more regular in Britain than in the United States. In this I feel that Hodgkinson makes the effort to write how everyday life should not be treated only as a time to work, but also a time to relax once in a while, by no means do I think He is saying to be Idle everyday, in that no one would ever get anything done, but on the other hand he makes a strong case for idleness in that working all the time is not necessarily the healthiest thing to do either.

One thing that I felt that he did miss on was in the beginning of the book he says that christianity only stresses work, and never says to be idle and he gives quotes from the Bible from Proverbs 6, which talks more about laziness than Idleness, and he also fails to mention that the christian faith allots one day a week to idleness and its called Sunday, a day of rest.  This however is rarely practiced anymore, and there are numbers of people who work on Sundays.

This book in the end stresses that Idleness is a necessity for healthy living not that one should be idle all the time, but one should at least be idle a little in their life and get away from the idea that you have to work constantly all the time, but I do find myself working constantly and taking few breaks, especially in my geography classes.

Idleness

I thought that the bookHow to be Idle was a lot of fun to read.  It provided an very interesting and valid challenge to the way that we as Westerners/Americans live our lives, always and the go and never taking time to just be.  Being idle is something that we strive to avoid being and are ashamed of whenever it does occur. I know that during the week I feel guilty about not doing homework for any stretch of time in the evening.  This guilty feeling happens quite a lot as I often don’t start doing work till really late because I am simply hanging out with friends.  At the same time that I am kicking myself for being idle in the hours between dinner and 9-12ish, I am happy for  the times that have occurred here.  Nothing is getting done, we are simply sitting around talking, playing games, or halfheartedly doing work but the times are a lot of fun and provide a break in the busy day. It makes that day better and even though it means less sleep at night, because I always do the work just maybe not as well, I would not trade these idle hours.  They are what make the days bearable.  Even when life is crazy and you have so much to do just a little bit of idling time makes it all better.

I am graduating this year, and as much as it freaks out a lot of my extended family, I do not really have a definite plan.  As much of a plan as I have is that I want to hike the Appalachian Trail and then maybe apply for Peace Corps and perhaps go to grad school to get my masters in Fine Arts.  To them this is not a plan that is in any way productive or acceptable.  The fact that I am not planning on starting working right away scares them.  Our society is so geared toward work that it is expected of me to come out of college get a job and start working for the rest of my life.  Reading this book made me feel a little better of my plans/or lack there of plans.  Although it might not be super socially acceptable, I do feel more justified and confident that I am not crazy for being worried that I don’t have my life all sorted out by this time. I want to take time to figure it out, and will probably spend about the rest of my life figuring it out but that is ok.  As the book stated, if I am ok with not being super wealthy, or having everything that society says I need to have then I don’t have to be the crazy workaholic that I have been led to believe is what awaits my future.

Although I do not agree with everything that the book argues for, I have no interest in smoking, I think that overall it is something that would be good for a lot of people to read and then consider implementing some of the practices into their daily lives.  We are so controlled by work it is sad when one really thinks about it, we spend all of our lives slaving away and for what? It was a nice reminder for me at least, I have to do work but it is not the most important, what I will remember in years to come are the times I enjoyed with friends, the unproductive times that we did nothing but sit around and produce nothing. So now I shall sit in the sun and talk with friends instead of starting my next assignment….

Visions for the Car-Free City

Visions 2030 wants to make automobiles obsolete in UK cities by 2030. It is organized by universities of Leeds, Oxford, East Anglia, Salford, and Manchester. Their aim is to have at least 80% of the all travel done by bike or on foot. I think this is a big vision and people are resisted to change but if this work it will beneficial to the environment and bring good health to the citizen. Their plan is to submit their visions to city planners and also to discuss with city planners how they can encourage people to walk and ride their bikes more. Visions 2030 provided road maps showing how selected UK cities are becoming more walkable and bikable. The data shows that two thirds of all trips in UK are under 5 miles and 42% are under 1.86 miles these distance are manageable for walking or riding a bike. Other city in Europe such as Amsterdam people are more willing to walk and bike to places. The group was launched in October 2008 and are being funded by the EPSRC. I can’t imagine this will happen in the US any time soon since we rely on cars so much.