earth related | tomorrow started

Hurricane Sandy: Lessons I learned from Hurricane Sandy

15 things to do and a few more not to for the next one… and there will be another… and another, thanks to the state of our planet courtesy of man (and a handful of women). here we go:

1- charlie don’t surf, and xy don’t diss no sandy.

2- don’t buy or rent an apt near the water. (in manhattan, broadway runs at the peak of the island and a good bet, further west or east and you’re lower and closer to the water.)

3- forget hamptons and that’s not just for the shitty crowd any more.

4- consider upstate. love trees but plant them far away from your roof.

5- if you own a car a) park it in the city for quick access when all other forms of transport will be down. b) make sure your garage doesn’t park yours on lifts or elevator access floors. in power outages your car will be as good as a brick.

6- keep bike within 4 floors off the street (smokers consider 2). mine was on the 11th floor with offices shut. who needs a bike on an 11 floors walk-up?

7- a skateboard actually saved my life… but just this one time.

9- no power = no water. if you are in a high building the water towers will run out within hours, and with no electricity to power the pump you’ll be out of water too.

10- fill the tub, not for drinking water, but to flush the damn toilet. this will be your worst nightmare in the event of water failure. your romantic candlelight camping vacation in your city apt will quickly turn into a sewer festival. a full tub can handle up to 10 flushes (based on recent research).

11- stock up on candles. in the event of non-emergency you will always have use otherwise. tearless pillars over tea-light candles any day.

12- forget flash lights. get a LED rayovac lantern for $29. i just ordered 3. a single one will light up a 1200 sq ft apt and will last for days on 3 x d batteries. you may want to get a few pocket lights for trips down the 18 floor emergency exit when elevators are down, either from fenix R5 series for around $50 or your standard mini maglite that doubles as a candle (lights up a small room) for under $20

13- invest in a generator if you have outside space to run it. for us apt dwellers consider a APC backup power for under $200 or a power inverter from black & decker for $60. this will allow you to charge up, if nothing, your damn phone.

14- get some cash and water but you can forget about food… you can always lose a few pounds. buy some nuts if you must.

15- when done move to sweden. hope this will be of help.. by dd

CATEGORIES: earth related, surf-skate

Hurricane Sandy: what a lame name?

the famous great wave off kanagawa

chief pontiac or ottawa

now watch i’ll get hammered for calling her lame, but what kind of lame name is sandy for a massive hurricane? i just cant take anyone with the name sandy that seriously. at least give it a 6 digit number like the japanese do with their typhoons (they get too many to give then names) or tap into the american indian vernacular to spark some imagination… like red cloud, little wolf, crazy horse, sitting bull, dull knife, he dog, or rain-in-the-face… and all those elaborate combinations are just all peoples names. and then we have sandy. i mean come on with your come on? by xy

CATEGORIES: art, earth related

“You Don’t Own Me”

in 2008 60% of voters were women.

alexa chung, lena dunham, tennessee thomas, karen elson, alia shawkat, mae whitman, tavi, zoe kravitz, and a pretty badass natasha lyonne, amongst many others, lip-sync to “you don’t own me” for womens rights. let’s rise up. our vote alone can win this election. a vote for obama is a vote for your health and your right to choose. by cp

CATEGORIES: earth related, fashion birds: women of style

moon: how the moon was created and why its not much different than earth in composition

the moon has remained largely unchanged during human history

for a long time it has been thought that the moon was result of an impact between the early earth and another planet-sized object, thea, 4.5 billion years ago. this is of course, way before god actually created earth in just three days leaving the other three for the heavens.

“but this theory predicts earth and its satellite, the moon, should have a quite different chemical make-up – but the data shows in fact they are very similar (the oxygen isotope, or atom type, compositions on earth are identical to that on the moon.). now, new modeling, explored in two papers published this week by the journal science, reveals that if the earth had a much faster spin before the impact, the theory fits the chemistry.

the giant impact hypothesis was first posited in the 1970s. it holds that the moon formed from the debris kicked into orbit by the collision of a smaller proto-planet with the infant earth. but the early models indicated that much of this debris would have originated from the impactor, whose composition would most probably have differed substantially from that of earth.

the new run simulations show that the early earth was rotating on its axis in just a few hours prior to the impact – compared to the present 24 hours. in such a scenario, the team could get debris material thrown into a moon-forming disc around the earth that had the right chemical make-up. in other words, it was substantial earth material from its mantle that was ejected in the collision.

after the impact, the gravitational interaction between the sun and the moon could then have slowed the fast rotation of the earth to the speed we now experience. a different team simulated a different route, their simulations involved larger impactors hitting an earth of comparable size and at comparatively lower speeds. again, the team was able to produce a moon with the same chemical composition as the earth. addressing the questions about the impact theory and why the compositions where so close.” from BBC by xy

CATEGORIES: clips, earth related

and the award goes to…(almost) an entire continent!

the nobel peace prize. it seems odd to me that a ‘prize’ is necessary at all, in other words, isn’t the mere notion of giving and encouraging peace rewarding enough? well, i suppose that’s besides the point, and SOMEtimes humans can be outstanding, but those individuals are few and far between. (gandhi never got one did he? and obama did, albeit prematurely…) anyway, this years’ nobel peace prize has been awarded to the european union, “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”. although, the last time i checked, the union has only been the union since mitterand and kohl established it as so in 1993. doesn’t quite add up to sixty years, but we get the point, we are talking about the origins in the ECSC and the EEC which is completely legitimate i suppose. i am truly trying to play devil’s advocate here; if you think about it, the EU has come light years from where they were decades ago. tumultuous wars, disintegrating world powers, ego fights of the most treacherous and monumental kind…and here we are. sure, there are still some serious economic difficulties and peril, but as much as it pains me to say, those things are often inevitable, especially in a world like ours. citizens in athens are up in arms about this award, where germans are happy and feel as if their work and struggle has paid off in a way. but now the $1.2 million dollar question—where is the check going to go, and who is it going to be awarded to come this december in oslo? this is when we will truly see the demonstrative nature of peace. by sv

CATEGORIES: earth related, read

lionel hun: dance of hope

you may have seen this but i like it as the movements are less literal and more liquid. a nice mixture of street and classical done well. here is lionel hun dancer/choreographer performing in tokyo during the tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. four days after he evacuated to macau where he decided to express his love for japan by making this performance. by kc

CATEGORIES: art, clips, earth related

wired for war…

and that’s the problem. 27% of our tax spending goes to the military, and only 2.5% to education. you ask about science? ah, give em 1%. i think we’ve all seen where countries with nominal education end up, usually praying to some god (pick one) to get ’em out of here and into some heaven. interestingly enough, according to a GE report conducted via 1,000 senior execs from 12 countries, the report shows that a strong majority believe that innovation will take on forms not yet seen in history, and it will be localized to specific markets and driven more by “creativity” than by scientific research alone. now chew on that mister 1% scientist. granted i don’t even see a 0.00005% funding for the arts on that chart. by xy

CATEGORIES: earth related