Running on Sun Juice

For the Over-Scheduled Friend: Solio Charger

Actually, wait. For YOU AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW: Solio Charger

This sleek little gadget IS the future. I love love love it. Basically, it soaks up solar energy, stores it, and then charges your iPod or cell phone anytime you want. Plus, it's pretty.

There are a couple different makes and colors available. Here's a black one:
Solio Charger, $80.00
http://store.solio.com/s.nl/it.A/id.790/.f

Generosity is Awesome

For the Baby: Zoo Cubes

How cool are these? They're stuffed animals, except cubes. I love cubes. The plushy creatures are handmade with reclaimed wool by a guy in Canada. You can get matching hand puppets and normal animals and art work too, but puppets are freaky.

Zoo cubes, $30.00

http://www.cateandlevi.com/

Keep Giving

And now, the next installment of...

For the Bro: Organic V-Neck

I mean, obviously. This one is by American Apparel and it's made of organic cotton. Suit your bro's personality with an exciting color such as Cinder, Galaxy, or Pomegranate.

American Apparel, Organic Fine Jersey Short Sleeve V-Neck, $19.00 http://www.americanapparel.com/2456org.html?cid=107

Tis the Season

Introducing...


Fa la la, it's time to be generous. Time to watch little Susie's eyes light up when she sees that Bratz doll, and to hear her sister Marlene crying in the bathroom because she couldn't fit into the size small jeans from Abercrombie. In other words, time to bring joy to the world and make it a better place for us all.

And when you're out looking for present, why not do the planet a good turn as well? Hmm. There are dangers. Don't be the guy who gives everyone a steel water bottle for Christmas. Can you spell r-i-g-h-t-e-o-u-s c-h-e-a-p-s-k-a-t-e?? Actually, those things are mad overpriced. But trust me, they won't be appreciated.

So we've decided to help y'all out a bit. By choosing a green gift for everyone on your list. Let's get started...

For the Republican: Biodegradeable Shotgun Shells


They'll be having so much fun shooting doves and other fuzzy/winged creatures that they won't even NOTICE they're saving the planet. These shells feature non-toxic steel shot and are 100% free of plastic wadding. You can google shotguns if you're confused. Except if you're a Republican and you support gun rights and you don't even know how a shotgun works, that's just sort of pathetic.

GreenLite Shotshells, $15/box
http://polywad.com/greenlite.html

Ten Hours to Green

Okay, if you're in New Haven like me, it's more like 9:21:16 hours to green. But it was a spin off of ten seconds to green, so I went with it.
Either way -- we're getting just under 9.5 hours of sunlight these days. In otherwords, 9.5 hours in which you don't REALLY need to have any artificial lights on.
Think about it. If you used only natural light for ONE day, wouldn't you feel like a ridiculously good person? And if you're going to do that, why not do it on one of the shortest days of the year? So genius.


Just for context: My room is lit by four 100-watt bulbs. If I turn that off for 9 hours, I'm saving 3.6 kilowatt-hours of energy. If I shut off all the lights on the second floor of my house, I'm saving about 25 kilowatt-hours of energy. If I shut off...you get the idea. It adds up, people. Now QUICK DO IT BEFORE THE SOLSTICE NOW NOW NOW

I Heart Cali Airports

Everyone knows that California is a) broke and b) mad eco-friendly. Case in point - the airports.
I was in San Francisco International Airport this weekend. For the first time in my life, I experienced the intense rage of being unable to find a garbage can...while surrounded by recycling bins. Weirdest, most guilt-inducing thing ever. But awesome.
The bathrooms have those fancy, high-tech hand-dryers that work in 12 seconds or less. I actually love them.
You can get to and from the airport by the BART, aka the coolest public transportation system ever. And then you can hop on a shuttlebus fueled by biodiesel.

They're cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions in a number of ways. Examples include minimizing APU jet fuel use (for starting the plane engines) and switching to a more eco-friendly type of refrigerant gas for air conditioning.

And wow, I just spent 20 minutes reading their sustainability report. I officially have no life.

One more thing I love about SFO International...it's so stereotypically Cali. Seriously, you walk into JFK and immediately this 200-pound drill sergeant is like EVERYBODY TAKE YA SHOES OFF, KEYS IN THE BIN, NOTHIN IN YA POCKETS, GET IN LINE, DO IT NOW!!

By contrast, security is much more fun in San Francisco. I'm walking through the metal detector...a security guard with a 3-foot ponytail notices my clothes, and the following conversation ensues:

Ponytail guy: So like...you're wearing Notre Dame sweatpants...and a Duke shirt...woooooorrrrddddddd.

GG: [in my brain: is this some kind of interrogation? does he think i'm a terrorist?] Yeah, I don't even know anyone who goes to those schools actually.

Ponytail guy: Niiiiiiiiiiicccccccccceeeeeeeeeee.

Loves it.

More Options...

So the classic A-Frame greenhouse isn't the sexiest thing in the world.
It's quite awkward looking, actually.


Then again, there are some people who just adore triangles. Whatever it takes, man. Basically, you have a V-shaped tunnel covered with plastic. Not too complicated. These greenhouses tend to be tall and steep, which is useful in New England winters.

Pros:

• cheap and easy to build
• snow slides off
• heats up quickly - good surface area/air volume ratio
• catches lots of light and heat in the winter
• allows you to grow tall plants
• good circulation - easy to ventilate

Cons:

• funny looking if it's not perfect
• plastic covering is ugly
• not much floor space
• hot air rises away from plants

Options

It's time to start designing our greenhouse. Before we draw up a blueprint, we need to choose a basic shape. As goddess and guru, we want to do something a little bit off the beaten track. That said, we don't want our baby caving in or blowing away or anything. When we first looked into DIY greenhouses, we stumbled upon some guy's alarmingly celebratory blog post: "Everything's going great!! Lots of wind last night, and the greenhouse only moved nine inches!!"
Wait. Your greenhouse moved nine inches overnight, and it doesn't, oh, I dunno, bother you a little bit?
Yeah, no thanks.
So. We need to find a balance between creative and functional. That's why we want to at least base our design off of a tried-and-true greenhouse. Here's one option to start us off.

GOTHIC ARCH

Pros:

• cheap materials (plastic covering, tubing or lumber)
• easy snow removal (slides right off)
• doesn't waste a lot of space
• very sturdy
• easy to extend - just add more arches

Cons:

• shape is attractive, but plastic covering is UGLY
• expensive to heat - plastic doesn't insulate as well as glass
• curved wood is hard to cut

Are you a fan? I am. I naturally gravitate towards High Gothic cathedrals. Romanesque is too stumpy, Baroque has too many cherubs floating around in frilly outfits, Byzantine feels ostentatious.
Gothic cathedrals are solemn and dark. They echo. While other styles strike me as showy and materialistic, High Gothic seems like a real tribute to God. Even though I'm Jewish, I find that the soaring arches inspire awe and humility. I feel like I'm allowed to feel religious. Which is ironic, because 1) synogogues don't really do it for me and 2) the people who built these cathedrals believed Jews had horns and tails and would probably have loved to burn me at the stake. Cute. Oh and FLYING BUTTRESSES. Such a cool word. Buttress buttress buttress. Okay, I'm done. For your info, on the left is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg, and on the right is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres.

It's a Secret

Shhhh don't tell, but

we've found our new location!

It's off-campus, which means we can make the greenhouse bigger, better and utterly more badass than anything we could have envisioned at Hopkins. No bureaucracy, no maintenance vehicles, no alumni. Oh yes. Stay tuned.

Slight Edit

Hello goats. Today, we bring you a small but important change in the nature of our club. As of now, we are the

Greenhouse Off-campus Agriculture Team

more exciting updates to come.

get pumped.

xoxo gg

...and here is a picture of gondolas:

Laptop Surgery

I love poking around inside my laptop. It makes me feel super hardcore/techy/hackerish, which is great because none of those adjectives really apply.
Anyways, my poor Dell Inspiron M1530's had it rough lately. Overheating, randomly shutting down, making dull roaring noises, stuff like that. From a goddessandguru standpoint, that translates into needless power drainage -- an unspeakable crime, obvi. (Note: the word "obvi" is used here to show, in an amusing way, how totally unqualified the author is to be writing a post like this.)
One cause of overheating in a laptop is the accumulation of dust, especially on the fan. Even though I know next to nothing about computers, I attempted a dissection in the name of science/goddessandguru/the greater good. Here we go...

Before you begin, protect your laptop from damaging static electricity by grounding yourself. Basically, touch a piece of metal.

Now. I found a screwdriver and got to work.

Oh dang, laptop innards. Time to zoom in a bit.

As I suspected, the fan was kind of dirty and nasty. The pictures are awful, I know.

A q-tip wasn't the ideal tool for this procedure...I think you're supposed to use compressed air or something...but for the laygoddess, it sufficed.

Ah, much shinier. Pictures of dust:

My laptop has been much cooler and quieter since the operation, and it's been running smoothly. Which is surprising, seeing as I assumed it would either blow up in my face or start processing everything in Cyrillic after I had my way with it. Score.

Oh, HAY-ELL No

Okay, I didn't post on Friday the 13th, but I still have conclusive evidence that the end is near...

These rings were made by an Australian silversmith named Polly van der Glas. She works with sterling silver and human teeth.

SAY WHAT?

Teeth. TEETH. Okay, cool, I get it, reusing resources. Teeth. Organic material. Teeth. Recyling. TEETH.

Oh, and hair too, actually.

According to the website: "Human hair is either locally donated or sourced from India and China. Teeth are particularly difficult to come by, so any donations are gratefully accepted."

Hard to come by. Shiver. I think there are laws about these things in the US. The puppets are delightful, too:Well, props for creativity. Enjoy being green while I stare lovingly at my molars.