Sustain, a U.K.-based food and farming alliance, has shown that iceberg lettuce flown from Los Angeles to London requires 127 calories of fuel for every food calorie. Sustain also reports that countries often end up swapping food instead of importing critical items that cannot be produced locally. The U.K., for example, imported 126 million liters of milk and exported 270 million liters in 1997.
Researchers at Iowa State University have found that fruits and vegetables travel an average of 1,500 miles within the U.S., a 22 percent increase since 1981. [...] The transportation sector consumes nearly 60 percent of the world's oil and produces a quarter of all energy-related carbon-dioxide emissions. Oil use by transportation has almost doubled since 1973.
transportation calories
Arcade Ambience
"As a child of the 80s, I will never forget the feeling of walking into a crowded arcade -- the sounds, smells, excitement, etc. This page is dedicated to recreating the audio portion of that experience in the form of a long, non-looping ambient audio track."
But tell me more about the smells!
James Kunstler rants good
August 1999: Here we see the nearly complete metamorphosis of the two-family house into an industrial loading dock. Well, children in America are getting pretty large these days. Must be all those Cheez Doodles and Little Debbie Snack Cakes. I suppose soon they'll have to be forklifted into the dwelling by Soccer Mom. (She then becomes Forklift Mom).
June 2002: The sad little bench is deployed on West Avenue in Saratoga Springs, affording excellent views of four travel lanes plus one stacking left-turn lane and finally the Medical Arts building surrounded by its parking outparcels. The purpose of the bench is not rest for the weary traveler, for nobody ventures out here by foot. Nor is it a bus stop. It's there to provide the illusion that we are interested in a humane daily environment.
March 1998: Observe the lovely costuming of this building in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts. The argument has been made that Americans are not merely indifferent to the appearance of their towns, but are postively devoted to ugliness. This specimen has it all: the disruption of the original design, the revolting cladding material and color choice, the dedicated stretch of blank wall fronting the street, the utter lack of architectural dignity. This is a building perfectly suited to a culture of mental defectives. There is not enough Prozac in the world to cure this.
The Cosmic Ray Deflection Society of South America
"You won't look like a dork™"
A special sun block sleeve to protect motorists who drive with their arm out of the car window has gone on sale in Santiago. The Never Again sleeve is made with thermal isolator material and tin foil and, according to its creators, offers 100% protection from UVA and UVB rays.
Creators Raul Cereceda and Claudio Valtierra told Las Ultimas Noticias online: "You go to the beach and you see all these people with a tanned arm. They get a sun tan without protection."
Never Again is being sold in pairs at pharmacies and supermarkets. Mr Cereceda and Mr Valtierra say that they plan to soon be selling them all over Latin America. "We are confident about our product. We are confident we will sell 10,000 of them a month," they said.
