Astonish Me

Take a moment to watch this.  Whimsical and worth it.



For more unique, inspirational, curious posts, visit Brain Pickings.

Good Friday, Passover and Earth Day...Amen!

I believe honoring the earth is honoring God.  If we make changes individually, we'll make them collectively thereby honoring God's creation and Jesus' sacrifice which was for all mankind.  It's too easy to smear the blood of a lamb (or perhaps baby seals) on our doors to avoid retribution.  We have to work for it. 

Can you tell I was raised in the church? 

Do something, anything, GREEN today!

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. ~Elwyn Brooks White, Essays of E.B. White, 1977


Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature. ~Dennis Gabor, Inventing the Future, 1963


Take nothing but pictures.
Leave nothing but footprints.
Kill nothing but time.

~Motto of the Baltimore Grotto, a caving society



Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855


There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.

~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage


Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.
~Cree Indian Proverb

Doomsday in the Gulf

There is no making this go away.  The photos say it all and they are ugly, sad, horrific.

Our elected representatives have allowed this to happen by failing to protect the environment from those who seek to exploit it; and, by proxy, that includes us.

 I firmly believe we must put pressure on Congress and the White House to pass measures requiring all oil drilling companies to come up with fail safe plans for potential environmental disasters.  Tonight during her show,  Rachel Maddow listed the five most profitable companies in the world.  They are all oil companies and BP is #5.  Why shouldn't we require them to spend part of the billions of dollars they make on protective measures?   Why is the government allowing new drill leases to  be awarded?

Drug companies have to prove the efficacy of their new products.  They also have to go through rigorous testing for safety procedures.  Why don't the oil companies? 

These photos are flashing around the world.  They are on every television station, in every newspaper and all over the Internet .  From what I understand, what we'll see is merely a fraction of the damage taking place. 

Somehow the image of thousands of birds dying may set the wheels in motion for changes that really matter.

How we can help: http://www.tonic.com/article/how-you-can-volunteer-to-clean-up-the-gulf-coast-oil-spill/

Robert Redford, NRDC to Administration: Clean Energy Now

Redford always stands up for the environment. We need to stand up to our politicians. For more information, visit NRDC.

"Drill Baby Drill" ... How's That Workin' Out for ya?

Somebody please hold me back!



She actually had the gall to Tweet that her prayers are with the people of the Gulf today. Perhaps she should volunteer to help clean up the mess caused by doing something she so avidly advocates.

Earth Day 2010

I hadn't planned to post today but when I saw this tweet from Rachel Maddow (no, not to me personally, I WISH) I had to re-post it and follow up with the latest from New York Times.

Oil Rig Sinks in the Gulf of Mexico

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and LIZ ROBBINS

NEW ORLEANS — The oil rig 50 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana where an explosion occurred Tuesday night has collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico, a Coast Guard official said.

“We have multiple vessels on scene — all response vessels — and they are on scene there to help to mitigate the effects of the pollution,” Petty Officer Atkeson said in a telephone interview. He added that it was not clear how much oil had spilled into the ocean.
Nor was it immediately clear what, if any, environmental implications the rig’s collapse would have.

For more information, go here.