Some pretty amazing and haunting imagery from the Midway Atoll of albratross chicks by Chris Jordan.

Artist statement:

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

~cj, October 2009

via GOOD.

Ken Yeang and Ross Lovegrove show how nature can inspire our living spaces and cities by fusing efficiency and beauty.

via SwissMiss.

One of our favorite people, Michael Pollan has some things to say about this recent dispute over Whole Foods and healthcare. You probably already know but the CEO of Whole Foods John Mackey wrote an Op Ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing Obama’s Health Care Reform and saying people should simply buy and eat from Whole Foods.

Which lead many who support Healthcare reform to start a Boycott of the store.

While this is no doubt a pretty lame and thoughtless thing to say (since many people can’t afford to shop there and there’s still plenty of junky crap you can get there that would not necessarily lead you to good health), Mr Pollan says that the things Whole Foods does do to support local and organic agriculture make make it the best option regardless of the CEO’s opinions on health care reform.

Also it’s pretty hard to argue with this (from John Mackey’s article):

“Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat.”

This is certainly true. Simply eating right has a HUGE effect on the state of one’s health. As does regular physical activity. Often its these simple (though difficult for many people in the coutry to adhere to) solutions that work the best.

Both Carlos and myself practice a vegetarian and mostly-veg diets for these and a number of other reasons.

Pretty alarming (though not completely surprising) article on Medical News Today regarding cell phone usage.

Lloyd Morgan, lead author and member of the Bioelectromagnetics Society says, “Exposure to cellphone radiation is the largest human health experiment ever undertaken, without informed consent, and has some 4 billion participants enrolled. Science has shown increased risk of brain tumors from use of cellphones, as well as increased risk of eye cancer, salivary gland tumors, testicular cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia. The public must be informed.”

I would recommend highly getting that phone out of your pocket all day long and limiting time on the phone as well as using some type of headset or earbuds to get the actual device away from your brain.

Or just go all the way and get a pocket full of quarters and start remembering peoples phone numbers again like in the good old 20th century.

+++UPDATE+++

Here’s a link to the Environmental Working Group’s list and ratings for radiation associated with using various cell phones. Looks like the iPhone 3G I use is pretty high on this list. Might have to look into downgrading back to a Motorola Razr which is less convenient for email and gps maps, but will be less likely to give me testicular or eyeball cancer, which I could do without. o_o

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

. . .

You wanted big, fat, lazy “business.”

We want small, responsive, micro-scale commerce.

+

You turned politics into a dirty word.

We want authentic, deep democracy — everywhere.

+

You wanted financial fundamentalism.

We want an economics that makes sense for people — not just banks.

+

You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage.

From Umair Haque on Harvard Business. Seen it on Joyengine.

Really interesting film coming shortly from Lauren Greenfield exploring the culture of wealth and excess and it affect on children. The film focuses specifically on LA. Put out by Wholphin.

So last year saw the release of FLOW about water rights and the developing world, and this year we’ll see the release of Tapped, which it seems will deal more with bottled water and it’s industry and issues.

Also Good this issue is all about water. Some great resources and tips here.

Fun little article about some creative problem solving here in Los Angeles on Environmental Graffiti. Apparently the reservoir has a high level of bromate and chlorine and when exposed to light and heat, causes a chemical reaction that can then cause cancer.

So what do you do? Cover the reservoir with black balls to soak up the heat. Pretty clever. But do the balls leach chemicals in to the water?

Really interesting article in the Telegraph about the controlled demolition of Flint Michigan so the city doesn’t become involuntarily derelict and run down.

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

I think it’s pretty amazing that people and local as well as the federal government know and are already planning to deal with the unsustainable overgrowth of certain suburbs and developments.