A new logo! and some old ones

I am a member of at least 5 different Amateur Societies/Clubs which all reflects my hobbies.

Here are some of their logos, the first one is brand new, designed by me . The bug is a stinkbug, Graphosoma lineatum, which is called strimlus in Swedish. Our old logo looked like something copied on a blue-ink copiator in the basement, rather outdated.

The society Sörmlandsentomologerna. 

  The Swedish Garden Amateur Society, with linneas of course.

 The embroidery society, started in Täcklebo but now has members from all Sweden.

Södertälje ridklubb

My dear Horse Riding Club which is organizing competitions for the Swedish Horse Jumping Elit this weekend, the logo looks like this (below). I will be there all Friday and Sunday.

The Canoeing Club in Södertälje, I keep my canoes in their house.

And at last, not my club anymore, but in my heart since 1980 when I joined Fältbiologerna. We had two logos during my years in the club. I read on their web site they are discussing a name change. The first name of this old club was SFU. The club slogan is Youth Nature Environment.

This is the present logo, LS, did you vote for it back in the days??

The old logo, the scythe is added to the original image. The slogan was more down to earth then,

in the 1970´s. "Keep your boots muddy"

Listen to the sounds of Deep Ocean

I found a link to

They have recorded the sound of whales and now recently the earthquake in Japan. Listen!

It sounds like a deep rumbling thunderstorm.

It is a tumultous world recently...

In Egypt the people won over the dictator, and there are some great stories and photos here, for example. Dictators are falling like dominos, finally.

In Italy, the prime minister has to go to trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute and then trying to influence the police work. 

In Sweden, temperatures are back down in the minus 20 Celsius (that is 0 F). Keep warm!

In Ecuador, an oil company is fined 9 billion dollars for destroying parts of the Amazon rainforest through oil drilling. (The company, Chevron, says it won't pay and that the courts are corrupt).

and,
what was the headline on Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet today?  "New parasitic worm found in foxes in Sweden,  now you can't be licked by your dog and pick mushrooms and berries in the forests anymore" (paraphrased, but true).  Come on, Aftonbladet - it is like you are turning into the left-leaning fear-mongering Fox News of Sweden... (link to story in Swedish - it is no longer on the top news, but it was in the middle of today)

Alternative fuels...

In Scotland, the energy production might soon have a new scent:

"Using samples from the Glenkinchie Distillery in East Lothian, researchers at Edinburgh Napier University have developed a method of producing biofuel from two main by-products of the whisky distilling process – "pot ale", the liquid from the copper stills, and "draff", the spent grains." (link)

Those Scots, they are really ingenious!  And if they base it on Laphroaig, then they even have some smoke! Meanwhile, poorer people are burning cow dung and in America bad things are going on:

"Each year, American food waste represents the energy equivalent of 350 million barrels of oil, according to new research from the University of Texas."  (link)

BP = before present (oil spill and pink assumptions)

The oil is still gushing out from a giant toxic sludge sewer pipe, killing and poisoning, and BP is getting more and more disliked. There is a contest going on to redesign BP's logo to a more fitting one, from the green and yellow flower to something infused with oil, like these dead animals.There are many suggestions on how to fix the leak and the spill too...

On a totally unrelated note, I find that people who insist that baby pink T-shirts for women and green T-shirts for men (with no option to switch or choose) to not be a sexist thing to be very, very oblivious, uneducated and misinformed about gender roles and prejudice.  Let the men have some pink shirts if they like, and don't assume the women should have pink, please. This happened today at work, as part of a public celebration...  Pink is fine as a personal choice, but not as an assumption and expectation linked to all people with XX chromosomes.  (And don't get me started on pink toys and clothes for little girls... pink stinks even more there).

Stamp of the Day: Windy ways

We are having a very blustery day-after-Thanksgiving-Day here in New Jersey, but no rain so far. In Denmark they have harvested wind energy for centuries, and this stamp commemorates the wind mill in Askov. It has a really interesting history, involving patents and other things you can read about here. Denmark is a leader in wind energy and the US is lagging incredibly far behind, as usual, when it comes to sustainable, alternative energy.

Why I don't like some modern things...

The image on the left is from this article that is really worth reading.

When the computer, car, iPod, digital camera, router, squeezebox, fridge, freezer, microwave, gas stove, sump pump, bike gears, cell phone, battery charger, etc. breaks down I don't know how to repair them. Things have gotten too complicated and unexplanatory, and especially those things that have micro chips and data code in them are impossible to repair yourself.

Our battery charger died about 8 months after we bought it - I guess we have to throw it out.

Our freezer has repeated problems with water leaks, and to get to the drainage pan you have to turn off and defrost the fridge for 2 days, then remove the whole ice maker which include about ten parts and 40 screws, and then you see the pan. Bad design.

When our SAAB in the 1990s had some mice living in its engine while parked outside, they chewed on the cable that had the microchip in it, of course. It was the most expensive cable in the car to replace, of course. And no warranty to cover things like that. Who knew that rodents like rubber? I bet many knew, but didn't care.

Computer problems are the worst, at least if you work with Windows-based systems. We are all supposed to be anti-viral, spyware scanning experts, and fix all their problems. We have seven computers in the house (I know, overkill, but some are old and not much used), and the only ones that never have problems are the Macs. Printers - we have three, only one that work. What happened to making things that last, things that you can understand and fix? I can service my sewing machine, change a tire on a bike, and build a raised bed, but I can't do anything if my cell phone breaks down or if the printer stops printing. Things are getting out of hand, and I miss the simplicity of easy, well-made things. I think so much of frustration in society is because of this, the lack of power of things we use.

It is such a waste. I just ordered a recycling package for my old cellphone so it won't end up in a landfill and will be given as a 911 phone to some needy senior or woman suffering from domestic violence. But why aren't these things done by default? Why do we have to seek them out? Why doesn't companies in New Jersey need to recycle? Why aren't regular batteries recycled? Things are too cheap, it is not worth to repair and recycle, or things are not made to last if they are expensive. Slit-och-släng (Wear and throw away) is back again. That is my rant for today.

As PP says "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." (an expression from the Depression in the 1930s)

Frogs- an endangered group of animals

I´ve been reading up on Swedish frogs, and are alerted by the fact that many of the frog species are endangered. According to a report from the Swedish Environmental Goverment at least one third of the frog species (6000 in total) in the world are endangered because their habitats are destroyed.

Take care of the frogs!

Natural heat...

Ice storm outside and warm inside with the fire going in our furnace (värmepanna) in the basement. Here is one of our first wood fires ever in our combined oil-wood furnace, a great danish TARM firebox.

We have also bought the fantastic Swedish AGMA wood splitter to get the wood down to reasonably sizes. We also have a great ax from Sweden that my mom brougth with her in her suitcase a few years ago. No, not in the carry on :)

Now all we need is some solar electric power, solar hot water in summer and a heat tank, a diesel generator for emergencies when we have no power and the basement fills up with water, a new animal fence around our vegetable garden, and our Vermont Vigilant wood stove installed in the living room. Hmm, wouldn't all this be nice!?

How about some chickens for fresh eggs and a rabbit or two for rabbit stew? The best success this year in the vegetable garden was our chili peppers - we have never had so many before. They are now in Swedish Christmas sausage and homemade mustard, hot sauces, and pickles, and we still have lots of leftover dried ones.

Things to ponder from NY Times' recent writings

“A 2005 survey by the Center for a New American Dream showed that 78 percent of Americans wish the holidays were ‘less materialistic.’ At the same time, the average American spends about $900 on presents each year, according to the National Retail Federation.” (link)

"Mr. Lasn, from Vancouver, says the targets of the movement [Boy Nothing Day] are the wealthiest one billion people on the planet, “the 20 percent who consume 80 percent of the goodies in the global marketplace.” The goal, he told me, “is to create an economy and a culture in which it eventually becomes cool to consume less.”" (link)

"Since the 1960s, men have gradually cut back on activities they find unpleasant. They now work less and relax more. Over the same span, women have replaced housework with paid work — and, as a result, are spending almost as much time doing things they don’t enjoy as in the past. " (link)

"The holidays have always been an emotionally combustible time for families, bringing together a sometimes volatile mix of siblings, crotchety grandparents and ill-behaved children. But in recent years, a new figure has joined the celebration, to complicate the proceedings even further: the green evangelist of the family — the impassioned activist bent on eradicating the wasteful materialism of the holidays." (link)

"Sales rose 8.3 percent on Friday compared with last year’s day after Thanksgiving, the biggest increase in three years, according to ShopperTrak RCT, a research firm. But shoppers did not splurge, spending an estimated $348 each over the holiday weekend, down from $360 last year..." (link)

Any thoughts on this? My thoughts are whirling... Do you have the same trends in Sweden?

A sustainable chair for hot days

A designer made Dick Phillips has come up with a great idea - chairs made out of old skis.

Take a look, they are pretty, each is unique, and sustainable in the sense that they only used old materials. Of course the original wood was probably not harvested in a sustainable way, but I like how they look and how they are made.

Great Global Warming billboard

OK, I guess this is just one of those days that I will have to post a lot:

PP showed me this amazing web site: Running the Numbers - An American Self-Portrait
by Chris Jordan.

Check out images that:

Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.

Depicts 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day.

Depicts 29,569 handguns, equal to the number of gun-related deaths in the US in 2004.

Depicts 1.14 million brown paper supermarket bags, the number used in the US every hour.

Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.


It is very artsy, very scary, and makes you think...

Encyclopedia of Life (Livsencyklopedin)

Now, this is great! Scientists have started a project, headed by famous scientist E O Wilson, to catalogue all life (=species) on Earth, and make it all available on-line. All the work we and others do, can and hopefully will be made available to all only a mouse-click away. Today you will have to look things up in obscure books and journals, and websites are scattered over the web with no hub to connect them. This is funded by some foundations and science places for 50 million dollar so far. Just like governments are spending money on global warming research, I think they should spend money on this global issue.

Check it out here, make sure you watch the video, it is great. Extremely well designed!

There is a big discussion going on at the taxonomy listserves about this, all are positive, but many think that scientists should be paid to write up the species pages, to compensate them for time spent on this. Taxonomists have to eat and feed kids too. We will see how it goes. There are 1.8 million species known...

I hope that this can reinvigorate taxonomy even more, especially among insects and small critters, and fungi and such. Amateurs should be able to help out too - like all entomologists in Sweden :)

Electronic waste

E-waste
What happens to all the out of date electronic devices?

What a waste of wood

In our supermarket here in New Jersey they sell firewood, and not just any firewood, but 4-5 pieces of "Real Wood from Real Forests" from the brand "Estonian Forest" (with headquarters only 25 miles from here). Yes, it is from Estonia. Each package costs $8, which I guess is about 100 Swedish crowns or so. And it is not even enough for a real fire, just for dinky fires in rich men's McMansions over here. Think about all the energy it has taken to get the wood here, shipped on container ships across the world just so we can have Estonian wood. It is not like we don't have forests and wood here in America! :)

I am also afraid that Estonia's forests are being plundered by large companies and soon it will just be clearcut. Have you heard anything about this in Sweden? Is the forestry regulated at all in Estonia? Maybe in 10 years there won't be much forest left in Estonia, because they export not only to here but to many, many countries in Europe too. I know there are people that work hard against illegal logging, like the Estonian Green Movement.

Our mom would be rich if she could get 100 SEK for 5 little pieces of wood :)