7.20.2010

Beautiful Bottle Boats and the Flotsam Flotilla


Floating in the Pacific Ocean there is an island twice the size of Texas (potentially larger!), made of plastic and garbage. What can be done with this garbage, and the garbage you are about to throw away, it's garbage right? Wrong, it's a resource that can be used to do many things. Like what? Put a plastic bottle in a tub filled with water and what does it do? That's right it FLOATS. Look at what some people have done with not only plastic but that other environmental swear word, styrofoam (it takes 500 years for one cup to dissolve!).


"'El Padrino', the brainchild of recycling enthusiast Jesus Roman of Guaynabo, is a functional kayak made of 2 liter Pepsi bottles lashed to a PVC frame."
Created as part of an event to draw attention to the issues of the coast around San Juan Island, PR. Via Surfrider Foundation


"Balachandra Kurup, who used to work in a Gulf country, thought of a plan not only to reduce pressure on the environment from the PET bottles but also to put them to productive use. He used discarded bottles to fabricate a small rowing boat, in which he rows in the Paravur Lake."
He will build them for people with a three year guarantee and had ferried his own family across Paravur Lake. He states, "PET spares for the boat will always be in stock." via The Hindu


"A floating raft home, made of salvaged lumber and floating on chunks of styrofoam. In the early 1990's The Floating Neutrinos set off across the Atlantic using the only the wind and current to push their boat all the way to the coast of Ireland and then on to France."
via The Floating Neutrinos, log on for their latest adventures and news.

And the greatest of these is The Plastiki (please click and give a pledge!), at this moment still on the seas nearing their destination of Sydney, Australia. EDIT, PLASTIKI HAS ARRIVED!!! Read all about it here!


It is a catamaran made of plastic bottles.

(All the Flickr photos from Plastiki here!)

It just crossed the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco, USA. What more proof does anyone need to say, yes stop making more garbage and think of the amazing things it can do. You can also recycle and reduce your use of single-use plastics and say, let's make this a resource that will no longer be called trash but a thing of a different kind of beauty.

David de Rothschild creator of the Plastiki Expedition

EDIT, Thank you Plastiki! :)

7.19.2010

Hello, Kitty! You look like Hello Kitty!


Well kinda.. all the cuteness and bow are there!
Bonus! Find the Kitty! :)

7.13.2010

Pit Bull Hero, Thor, Saves Parents and Baby from Fire


When the parents realized it was too late to go into the back room and get their baby because their home was an inferno they saw.. Thor already had their baby girl safe by pulling on the ruffles of the bassinet and dragging her out of the room, at the door and ready to escape. Pit Bulls are an amazing breed- if there are "bad dogs" it's the bad people that abuse them, not the nature of the breed.

Read the whole story here.

You can watch the local news video here and get info on how to help the family rebuild. They lost everything but know those possesions can be replaced they still have the best things of all, each other and their baby and Hero Thor :)

Read about another wonderful Pit Bull here too!
Thanks Priscilla!

7.10.2010

Kickstarter, RooftopFilms and Park Slope Brooklyn last night

A great event took place last night on a rooftop overlooking Brooklyn, put on by my Lower East Side neighbors Kickstarter (very cool funding group for amazing projects! check them out!) and RooftopFilms.. nice for the combined reason it let me watch great film and eat Cowgirl vegan cupcakes! (These were so good btw!! Their Kickstarter campaign is still underway so check it out :))
Cupcakes!
I watched great artist's work on an amazing rooftop of an old factory,
Park Slope Brooklyn 3
and wandered my old neighborhood earlier in the eve!
Park Slope Brooklyn 45
I had not been back to in ages and it has greatly changed, but that's the way it goes. A great time was had by all :)
More pix on Twitpic and Flickr!

DSC01286 on TwitpicDSC01285 on TwitpicDSC01283 on TwitpicDSC01294 on Twitpic

7.04.2010

Happy Fourth of July!


How are those fireworks made anyway?? Have a great night! :)

EDIT! Here are some pix of our July 4th on the West Side Highway NYC! :)
DSC01250 on TwitpicDSC01248 on TwitpicDSC01249 on TwitpicDSC01252 on TwitpicDSC01253 on TwitpicDSC01255 on TwitpicDSC01254 on TwitpicFireworks Rick 2 on TwitpicFireworks Rick 1 on Twitpic

7.03.2010