A Roll in the Universe

Sailing out from Copenhagen, on the ferry bound for Oslo, we pass by a long line of wind turbines standing tall out in the water. As "green" as I am, I have never liked the looks of the modern three-bladed wind turbine. There is something about them that bothers me. When I watch them turn, I find that there is no evenness to their rotation; visually, it looks to me like three Barbie doll legs, one "falling" down after another. (I have rarely seen these things moving so fast you can't make out the individual blades.) Apparently, these turbines are not as environmentally friendly as we are led to believe. In the county of Rogaland in Norway, one array is noise polluting a nearby neighborhood. I have read that the maximum three blades on modern turbines is chosen because it makes a minimum of noise. Still, anything that big, rotating in the wind, will make some sound. Another array was put in a white-tailed eagle breeding area two counties north of where I l...

These last 18 months have led me down paths I wasn't expecting to travel. I'm basically challenging my own paradigms. Here are my thoughts about food: I have come to realize that no one can live well and healthy without animals, not even vegans. According to everything I've been reading and hearing about nutrition since I went low-carb in August of 2010, we need agriculture to continue to feed ourselves, but what we don't need is industrialized or petroleum-based agriculture. That type of farming is destroying our soil (which adds to global warming) and our health (lack of omega-3 in meat, for example, and lack of nutrients in vegetables). Organic agriculture preserves soil, plant and animal health, and in turn, our health. Humans are not in competition with animals for food. The logic that vegetarians (I used to be one) buy into is that it's better to give the grain directly to people, rather than feed it to cattle because it takes 6 (or 10 or 18 or even just 2...

I have been reading a lot lately. My latest read is a book by a Swedish doctor, Annika Dahlqvist, who was reported for malpractice a couple of years for advising diabetics to eat a low carbohydrate, high fat diet. She was found innocent of the charges as her advice was supported by studies. Lately, this nearly-vegetarian has given up her decades-long breakfast choice of rice milk and rolled four-grain mix and replaced it with boiled eggs and bacon. Butter is back in my cupboard. Meat and fish are finding their way into my home (if not in great amounts). Fruit is abandoned completely while nuts and vegetables are still favored. My beloved pasta is ignored, and I no longer eat bread or even oatmeal. This is the first time in years, lots of years, that I am not gassy and getting stomach pains on a daily basis. The discussion about whether or not you'll lose weight aside, the scary thing about reading up on diets, is discovering all the disinformation that's been fed us since...

Wordless Wednesday

I participated . I tunred off my lights, lit some candles and sat in my darkened living room for an hour, listening to a podcast. I'm sorry to say that I did not sit in a darkened neighborhood although my city was an official participant.

Normally, I have a plan, a desire for what I want in the new year. Not this time. This past new year's eve, I watched TV, surfed the 'net, enjoyed the fireworks my neighbors set off. I did not light candles to meditate to, write myself a letter, sum up the last year and think about where to head in the new. I didn't miss my usual new year's ritual. The world is currently wrapped up in worries about jobs, oil, food, global warming, wars. None of it matters in my daily life. Not yet. Never has, really. The US embassy has warned American citizens not to participate in any demonstrations, but I have never marched for peace or against war, anyway None of it matters, what the newspapers say. Ultimately, it's not about what others do. There will be no peace between nations if we all feel entitled to react in anger in our own personal relationships. There will be no clean air or water if we all feel our needs justify a number of gadgets that use electricity or that we...

I sometimes wonder if I should have become an architect, even though my spacial abilities are not much (in spite of getting an "A" in geometry). One of my favorite waste of times secret joys is to surf the 'net looking for cool houses. I am especially fond of Spanish style homes (which are typical of California) and Bauhaus cubes . (Whadyamean they have nothing in common? They have me in common!) One architect I admire is Frank Lloyd Wright . I am also fascinated by earthships , because I love the idea of environment-friendly architecture . Treehugger often has buildings (and furniture and interiors) that turn me on. ;-) My fascination extends even to RVs - and just because it's pr0n, I surf the luxury models. I am fascinated by the efficiency and creativity designed into a small space to make it a full-featured residence. Boats hold a similar fascination for the same reason. Not so much yachts, because they can deliberately build roomy. But efficient cabin d...

Tim's comment that the color of the wild roses on yesterday's post was soothing, got me thinking. The more I looked at the brilliant magenta of the roses, the more I realized that although the color is strong, it does not agitate. And that got me thinking about some other colors. There is some major rebuilding going on at work, opening up our office space to more cramped actual work areas by the windows, and with café-like socializing areas near the window-less entry area into each floor. This week, the temporary walls in the first floor came down and we have all had a chance to get a sneak preview of our new work space. All I saw were gray walls. And I felt like panicking. I guess each of us not only has a favorite color, but also a loathed color. When I take those personality tests based on which color you pick first and last, I always pick gray last. It comes after colors like brown, green and orange. Though I own some gray clothes, it is not a color I want to see in ...

I tripped over the car for me! It's a hybrid, in more than one way: It can run on either gas or electricity and can be recharged on the existing grid and it is both motorcycle and car! I can totally see myself in one of these things (room for a passenger, too). Speed and ease while being environmentally friendly. Now that you've watched that, go here and check out the video from the boys at Top Gear. I totally get their enthusiasm! It gave me a good laugh. (Tripped over at the Norwegian arkitekturnytt.no .)

I am one of those people who thinks 8 am is an ungodly hour and that being up and dressed and finished with breakfast by noon is early enough. At least on weekends. But since I had a coffee date with a friend at noon, I was up and dressed somewhat earlier and at the supermarket a little after 10 am. That was to make sure I didn't have to worry about making it to the store before they close at 6 pm. Mustn't rush coffee dates. 10 am on a Saturday is quiet and I had a peaceful walk to the store, which was almost devoid of people. Nice. On an earlier but recent visit to the grocery store, I met an English employee who showed me the stand where the reusable and foldable shopping bags were. (In spite of a stand as tall as me, the bags were amazingly easy to overlook.) One advantage, she said, was that the handles were so large, you could carry the bags over your shoulder. Good point. I bought two. Today I got that rare Norwegian check-out clerk who was both cheerful, smiling an...

I grew up in an era where there was a call of "back to nature" (the influence of the flower children of the 60's), where more and more humans stopped defining all the members of nature (from bacteria to whales) as having the quality of good or bad. We had embraced ecology and the awareness that our own value system has nothing to do with the natural order, and that the natural order is perfectly set up and not to be meddled with. So I ended up not hating the lion for killing the cute antelope, nor thinking the antelope was all that cute. Rather, they just are, and one can admire the grace and ability of each species to make the best of rather tricky and life-threatening situations without labeling. Ah, evolution... Also, when I was growing up, organic farming was getting (back) into fashion, and I never lost faith in it. Happily, I keep coming across all kinds of reasons for why working with nature as it is - rather than inventing and using chemicals and genetic modific...

The US is facing a possible agricultural disaster. Honey bees are vital to fruit crops because they pollinate the flowers of fruits and vegetables. But in 2006, hives were suddenly being abandoned. The bees themselves disappeared without a trace, leaving no clues behind, and no other bees came to take over the hives. The phenomenon is called colony collapse disorder . The mystery repeated itself in 2007, and now almond growers in California are very worried about their 2008 crop, since almond trees rely solely on honey bees for pollination. Other countries are reporting similar colony collapses. The theories about why honey bees are suddenly disappearing are several: New pesticides, a more virulent virus and even disorientation from wireless networks and cell phones. This last is illustrated by the comic "Mythtickle" : The cell phone explanation seems to be based on a misunderstanding . I am relieved about that because I just got a wireless connection for my computer ...

I keep telling people that one of the nice things about living in Norway is the country's ban on genetically modified (GM) food. I don't want to eat the stuff, and I don't want to encourage others to grow it or eat it, either. I have seen reports that suggest that the corn crops modified are destroying natural cousins and making corn risk extinction like the banana . Norway is the world's third largest importer of soy and imports 90% of its non-modified soy from Brazil. The soy is used primarily as animal feed. Unfortunately, Brazil is using more and more cleared land to meet the ever-increasing demand on soy. According to my local newspaper, Bergens Tidende, Brazil has increased its soy production by 157% from 1990 to 2005. Since last year, rising demand on soy has increased the price 84%. The related increased demand on already cleared land means Brazilian cattle farmers have to clear more land for grazing. And what they are clearing is rain forest. Part of the in...

It's nice to have lovely weather. We've now had such a long stretch of dry, sunny weather that the fire departments in all of western Norway are on special alert. It won't take much to start a fire with everything as dry as it is. Unlike my native California, everything's green and lush and we're not yet required to conserve water. And there's humidity. I can't remember Bergen being humid before, but with these odd weather patterns (or glitches - can't really say there's a pattern), Bergen has acquired that new quality when it's hot. Used to be it was hot and the sky was clear and that was that. Now it's hot and cloudy at the same time. And the clouds shut the heat in and humidity rises. Of course we are all enjoying the sunshine. After bundling up all winter, it is wonderfully liberating to be barefoot in sandals and never need a jacket. That is the advantage. The disadvantage is that it's too hot to move around in. At least for me...

Yesterday, right after work, my division had a meeting about the climate. Some of the questions were about how we thought the climate changes would affect our work. I can't really see any direct influence on my work as a graphics designer. Indirectly, there are heaps. The climate changes has made us aware of how humans influence even big systems like the global temperature. Now, I belong to the camp that doesn't believe that all the changes are solely due to people, but we do pollute. A lot. And I am happy that the climate is making people focus on pollution again. We had a quiz and I did very badly. I guessed that emissions, electricity use, waste, etc. were far lower than they actually are. For example, did you know that it takes 75 kg of materials to make one cell phone? (I guessed 15 kg and thought that was a bit much.) And 1000 metric tons of water? I wonder what it took to make my beloved Mac. I haven't thought about much more than that the machine is manufactu...

"What do I desire?" was the prompt on the prompt generator - and a good prompt it is. Last night's seminar has (happily) given me a lot of inspiration and - desire. Desire to look seriously at what I really want out of life and the faith that I can make my desires realities. But I have to first clarify what I want. I have never been concrete. I have never had definite plans. That whole business of writing down where I want to be in one year, five years, ten years, has never appealed to me. (Still doesn't, to tell the truth.) But in the meantime, where I am right now could use some tweaking. Life is good, basically, and yet there are little things that mar the goodness: My stomach , the situation at work , an increase in tagging on walls in my immediate neighborhood, making the place look trashy. These are things that can bring one down, if very slowly. I'd like to not be affected by some of the grumbling and stress I'm noticing at work. I'd like t...

The last municipality in Norway to get electricity was Røldal , on March 22, 1958. Our local radio station interviewed a number of elderly Røldal residents about what it was like to get "current" ("strøm"), which is the colloquial Norwegian for electricity. One woman described trying to get used to cooking with an electric stove. Baking bread certainly became easier with the stable heat of an electric oven. Fresh food became a first for them. They could get refrigerators and a long era of salting, drying, pickling or canning everything came to an end. Another woman's story of not trusting herself around with an electric washing machine reminded me of my grandma who preferred all of her contraptions to have just an on/off button. No such luck when it comes to washing machines. But Grandma figured out how to do laundry, and when the ladies of Røldal were asked if they'd ever go back to heating water, boiling clothes, rinsing, scrubbing and spending all day...