Gosh, golly, shucks, gee whiz. German nudists say they don’t like being treated like animals. I wrote about just this thing yesterday. Beijing has 8 giant pandas that they brought in pre-Olympics for the purpose of attracting crowds to the capital. And, they came…1 million so far since June 5th.

The nude bathers say that Poles come in fully clothed from their side of the border to watch them, stare at them, use the binoculars to get a very close look. One bather said,  “You feel like an ape in the zoo. The Poles come with their binoculars, stare and swear.” Don’t like it, eh? Get it, do you? What makes you think that animals like being stared out any more than you do?

To be sure, we have no reservations about treating our furry friends differently than we like to be treated. Is there a problem with that?

Here’s the funny part. The name of the town is Swinemunde. Rearrange those letters and add a ‘T’ and an “H” and you can make Swim in the Nude.

I say we give the animals a break, take off our clothes and go to the beach. How about you?

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I am as surprised as the next guy. I didn’t think anybody could make Greenpeace content about anything. However, the environmental extremists have pronounced their blessings on Beijing for their 2008 Olympic Games preparations.

“We are glad to see that Beijing has improved its infrastructure in preparation for the Olympics,” says Greenpeace China’s Campaign director. It has made public transport more convenient, upgraded home heating systems, improved water treatment and, to some degree, reduced its reliance on fossil fuels.”

Greenpeace acknowledged Beijing’s

1. increased use of energy efficient technologies
2. use of renewable energy
3. use of geothermal heating systems
4. increased employment of wind and solar power
5. expanded public transportation system
6. cooperation with Coca-Cola and Samsung to meet specific environmental commitments.

“This is a huge leap from the polluting technologies currently used in the developing world. Beijing has shown that, when a concerted effort is made, change is possible,” Lo said.

Beijing missed out on

1. complying with internationally recognized timber procurement policies
2. use of zero-waste treatment

Can’t win them all. Greenpeace says the rest of China needs to learn from Beijing. Perhaps they would if the rest of the cities in China could take turn hosting the Olympics. All of Beijing’s advancements came with a price tag.

source

If you build it they will come. If you stage them, they will come. If you put the pandas on display, they will come.  Beijing has brought 8 Giant Pandas to the city and put them on display for Olympic visitors and elsewise. Since June 5th, more than 1 million people have come to see the ambassadors for sport, the Middle Kingdom and everything else China wants them to represent.

So, what about using animals for material gain or otherwise? Sure, the animals are cared for, but I don’t think for a minute that they are getting their share of the money spent by those one million visitors. What’s that 20,000 visitors a day, 800 an hour 13 each minute. Five second look at a panda…NEXT!!

I’ve never been too much into zoos and putting animals on display for the benefit of the keepers and all those around. How about you? Is this another human, um, panda-rights violation example? Where’ s those topless PETA protesters when you  need them?

Considering his visions, some say that Shai Agassi is Israel’s T. Boone Pickens. If the Texas oilman is trying to switch to wind power as the next big thing, the 40 year old Israeli software whiz kid, is obsessed with making his country the world’s leader in electric cars.

Agassi, has an Israeli government-backed plan that runs through his company Better Place, which plans to create an electric car program that will give subscribers access to a car, a battery, outlets across the country and garages to swap the dead batteries with fresh ones.

The program is somehow similar to mobile-phone services but instead of buying minutes each month, you get miles. Monthly miles.

Better Place already secured enough solar energy from Israeli companies - some 2 gigawatts over 10 years to power their whole fleet (~2 million cars), and the whole project is set to start with 500 prototype electric cars by Renault.

“Israel will have the world’s first virtual oilfield in the Negev Desert,” said Agassi.

His dream is to build the project and come up with a cheap and trivial electric vehicle, to the level where people wouldn’t even consider buying a gasoline car. And he could be right. We pay some $600 a month for gasoline in Europe, so if he can offer his car for $600 a month with enough miles included, no other costs for fuel, no extra charges and no CO2 emissions, like many others I will be in.

Trying to reduce the global warming effects and thanks to high oil prices, the energy revolution have just began and spurred researchers and investors to move into clean energy.

I’ll keep an eye on Shai Agassi and tell you what’s going on with his project.

Image courtesy of eirikso

The Critical Mass rides are no longer what they used to be, a protest against the bicycle unfriendly cities. Why? Because even though a New York City judge ruled that these people don’t need a special permit to ride, NYPD’s stance remains somewhat adversarial.

Here we have another violent episode of law enforcement excess, from last Friday (July 25), when a policeman kicked a cyclist off his bicycle at the curb at 46th street and Seventh Avenue. Why? No one knows, but we can only speculate. Maybe the guy didn’t have the required lights or maybe he crossed a red light? No!

A Times-up! representative said that the cyclist in the video, Christopher Long, was arrested and held for 26 hours for attempted assault. What am I missing? Who assaulted, who? Can you see the step back the policeman had to take, to “properly” pull the guy down?

Because of his recent behavior, the 22-year-old Patrick Pogan lost his badge and gun (relief!!), and was placed on “desk duty pending the outcome of a department investigation.”

I’m not a fan of crowds and I’m not sure if I would enjoy walking the streets when the mass comes by, but this is obviously the wrong way of law enforcement.

Toyota launched the HEYA Project in August 2007 for the purpose of inspiring innovative young adults to share and collaborate on ideas related to automobiles, design, the environment, technology, film, music and more.

They want to hear your vision for the future of transportation and make it come to life offering the platform to voice your opinion, work together on innovative new projects, and submit your personal projects for support and funding.

Together with the Quiksilver siteLA project, Toyota is currently searching for modern ideas surrounding the future of transportation in its program, “From Here to There: A HEYA Project.” From now through July 31, HEYA members can register at heya.toyota.com and upload their creative concepts of how to advance the future of transportation.

HEYA is the Japanese word for “room” and Toyota has opened the door to an online space where creative people can connect, communicate and collaborate on projects with each other and with Toyota.

Creators of the winning ideas will partner with a siteLA visionary who will build and expand upon the concepts for display in the opening night exhibit. The winners will be flown to Los Angeles for the final installation and grand opening of the event display.

Would you like to be one of the happy winners? Take a shot and let us know about it.

Check out the press release below for more info. (more…)

Playhouse Disney’s Playing for the Planet Awards have narrowed down the field to 10 celebrities/stars who have received nominations for the Greenest Star prize. The fans are doing the nominations, the stars are using their fame to promote environmental issues.

THE TOP TEN

Sienna Miller - raising awareness about global warming

(more…)

Bill Gates is a philanthropist. His wife and her staff have a full time job trying to spend all the money they made. And, they are not able to keep up. Well, Gates has another idea that he and Michael Bloomberg will spend $375 million on. Cleaner air. Cleaner lungs, too!

The two have pledged their pocket change to a global effort to stop smoking … the kind that humans do and don’t have to.Why doesn’t Gates and Bloomberg just buy all the tobacco companies and shut them down?

I know that’s not reasonable, but even $375 million is a LOT of money, I wonder how much difference it will make in the long run. It’s kind of like a church that needs a new building that costs $1 million. So, they raise $500k and try to make do.

As long as ther are people who think it is adult-like to huff and puff and blow out their brain cells, smoking will not stop, nor will it stop kids from wanting to be like dad and mom, or their big brothers or gang leaders. Losing battle? I don’t want to think so, but… How would you try to prevent people from pounding cancer sticks into their coffins?

source

I am serious now. I have got to come up with a plan that girls everywhere will protest against. Girls will go bare to protest bear skins. I could bear that. And others went topless to protest KFC. At least 15 celebrities posed nude for the planet(not really a protest.)

Well, here are some more girls, going topless and having blood (fake) smattered on their backs to protest bullfights.

Dang it! Why can’t I come up with something that girls will show up topless to protest against? Any ideas. I don’t cut my grass enough. I cut it too much. It’s not green enough. I use to much water trying to keep it green.

Help me out here. What cause can you think of to get girls to show up with no clothes on to fight against?

source

There’s a beauty salon in Virginia that is tapping into a natural resource to clean their clients’ feet … fish! The salon is using bottom feeders to suck on, nibble away at, eat at the dead skin on the feet of their customers.

This sounds like something that might come out of America. Too lazy to bend over and scrub their own tosies, the people apparently stick their tootsies into the fish tank (notice the toenail polish) and let the fish chomp away at the dead skin.

Yuck! Poor fish, indeed.

So, what about humans using animals to do their dirty work? This is not farming either. What do you think about using fish in this manner? What I am interested in knowing is, how in the world did anybody come up with this idea?

“Honey, I got so much dead skin on my feet.”
“That’s nice, dear.”
“Huh!? I said I have too much dead skin on my feet.”
“Why don’t you stick your feet in the fish tank?”
“Stick my feet in the fish tank?! Hmm, maybe.”
“Thank you, honey.”
“You’re welcome, dear.”

Seriously, how could someone come up with this idea?