Posts Tagged ‘america’

Posted on May 4, 2009 - by Andrew

Chattanooga: The pothole battles between PETA and KFC

Fast food powerhouse KFC has donated $3,000 to the American town of Chattanooga to help repair potholes in the road. In exchange for the money the road repair crews use chalk sprays to mark the repairs as “Refreshed  by KFC”.

Until the temporary chalk logos wear off over time they act as advertisements for KFC. This has enraged the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who approached Chattanooga with a counter offer.

PETA offered Chattanooga $6,000 and vegetarian lunches for the road crew. In exchange PETA wished to chalk the repairs with a caricature of KFC’s Col. Harlan Sanders and the phrase “KFC Tortures Animals”.

The offer was used by Chattanooga offices. A spokesperson for May Ron Littlefield said in an announcement, “We are not going to place ourselves into the middle of an argument between PETA and the KFC Corp.,”

PETA’s demands were described as “awkward”.

Spokesperson for PETA, Nicole Matthews, responded, “We want Chattanooga residents to know what their road repairs really cost,” said Nicole Matthews, PETA spokeswoman. “It’s the lives of around 360 million chickens.”

It it estimated that the $3,000 from KFC will be enough to repair almost 500 potholes.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Are KFC taking advantage of towns with an offer like this? Or is this a healthy form of advertising where  every commercial message has to accompany an effort that builds the community.

What about PETA? Have they been treated badly b Chattanooga or did they expect this rejection? Was the rejection part of PETA’s publicity campaign?

Posted on April 10, 2009 - by Andrew

Clean Business Summit recognises Gillian Christie

The CEO and founder of Christie Communications picked up the Joe Nida Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at the Clean Business Investment Summit held this year in Santa Barbara.

Christie Communications describe themselves as a full-service agency offering everything from the strategic approach to the tactical. Their site notes there is nothing they can’t do.

The agency has worked with the South African Rooibos PK Limited and the Gourmet Garden HErb and Spice Blends company from Australia.

Jerry Knotts, the President and CEO of the California Coast Venture Forum, said, “Gillian has worked with unflagging enthusiasm, drive, and dedication to promote the principles of ethical, Clean Business for decades,” and “We are honored to acknowledge these efforts and salute her as an example of the power of Clean Business to improve conditions in society and build a better future.”

The Clean Business Investment Summit id designed to align the power of capital and clean business principles. The goal is to invest in clean tech, green, socially responsible and sustainable enterprises.

In Pure Spirit

A community agency won a prize designed to reward those investing in clean and green technologies as well as socially responsible and sustainable enterprises. Do you think they had a natural advantage over manufacturing firms?

Or can agencies like Christie Communications achieve great success for green causes by reminding the public of its importance?

Posted on April 6, 2009 - by Andrew

The Gypsy Robe

The Gypsy Robe is part of the tradition of the Broadway Musical.

The term “Gypsy” comes from the necessary travel that Broadway chorus members have to engage in as they move from job to job.

The Gypsy Robe is used to open the musical and given to the chorus member with the most credits to their name. The Gypsy Robe ritual has this chorus member work three times counter clockwise around the stage. Afterwards other members of the cast will touch the robe.

It is though that Bill Bradley, from the chorus of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, sent a dressing gown to a colleague performing in Call Me Madam in 1950. A feathered rose was taken from Ethel Merman’s costume, added to the robe and then passed on to an unknown chorus member in Guys and Dolls.

The original robe has now been retired and it, with others, is kept in the Lincoln Center library, Actor’s Equity and at the Smithsonian.

In Pure Spirit

Which thespian traditions do you know?

Posted on February 23, 2009 - by Andrew

India attempts to patent some yoga poses

Will your yoga classes become illegal? Let’s take a look at what seems to be happening.

India has created a team of Hindu experts and scientists to identify all of the older asanas or yoga positions.

The goal is to stop other people from patenting the positions and stealing what Indian calls their traditional knowledge.

The country has had to battle attempts by American yoga teachers attempting to patent positions associated with their classes. Yoga is estimated to be a $225 billion industry.

The Telegraph reports that up to 600 asanas have already been added to the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library.

However, the American system has granded more than 130 patents, 150 copyrights and over 2,000 trademarks relating to yoga.

In fact, India’s attempts to patent yoga poses is most likely an attempt to keep the poses and asanas free and widely available to the public.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Has India made the right decision here? Should the country patent yoga positions before the American system grants patents to individual yoga teachers?

Posted on February 7, 2009 - by Andrew

Yoga in the Georgia Aquarium

The world’s largest aquarium contains 8 million gallons of water and is home to more than 80,000 animals.

In an attempt to keep visitors coming in despite the incredibly tough economic climate the aquarium has combined two remarkable things; beluga whales and yoga.

Weekly yoga sessions are now held in front of large aquarium windows through which the graceful, smooth and apparenetly slow moving whales can be seen. Todd DeLaune, who leads some of the yoga classes at the aquarium, told CNN that he believes the belugas react to the practise sessions too.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think of aquariums? Are they a force for good, for bad or does it depend on the aquarium?

Would you pay a little bit extra in order to practise your yoga in front of some smiling beluga whales?

Posted on January 7, 2009 - by Andrew

Continental Airlines’ first ever biofuel flight

Today Continental Airlines demonstrated the first ever biofuel flight for a commercial aircraft in North America.

The plane in question was a 737-800 with CFM International CFM56-7B engines. The goal of the flight was not just to demonstrate that such a flight was possible but to record and analyse important data the unique flight generated.

“This demonstration flight represents another step in Continental’s ongoing commitment to fuel efficiency and environmental responsibility,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Kellner. “The technical knowledge we gain today will contribute to a wider understanding of the future for transportation fuels.”

However, this is not a true biofuel flight – not if you were hoping that the plane would be running soley on biofuel. In fact, one of the two engines on the plane will use %100 traditional fuel. The second engine will use %50 biofuel and %50 traditional fuel.

Don’t be disheartened by that relatively low percentage of biofuel as Continental Airlines engineers have calculated that this change alone will result in a significant decrease in carbon emissions.

Furthermore this strain of biofuel has  been designed so that acts as a ‘drop-in’ fuel. This means that neither the aircraft nor the engines need any special modification to use the biofuel. Many aircraft around the world could, in theory, be able to use the fuel.

Biofuels have become controversial since they are seen as taking away valuable food materials or even adding to deforestation. Many people argue that it is better to use food to feed the poor rather than convert it into biofuel to allow the rich to travel.

The biofuel in the Continental Airlines flight, however, is a second generation biofuel which avoids these problems. Second generation biofuels are often made from algae or jatropha plants taken from sustainable and managed specialist farms.

A company called Sapphire Energy was responsible for providing the improved fuel to Continental.

“The simple combination of sunlight, CO2 and algae to produce a carbon-neutral, renewable fuel source has the potential to profoundly change the petrochemical landscape forever,” said Jason Pyle, Sapphire Energy CEO. “Today’s flight puts us one step closer to moving away from fossil fuels and energy dependency, and with no impact on the transportation infrastructure, food sources or the environment.”

In Pure Spirit

Do you this today’s demonstration flight be Continental Airlines is a step in the right direction?

Is this a real effort to find an environmentally friendly sustainable fuel? Or is this just a publicity stunt?

Posted on January 3, 2009 - by Andrew

The mystery of the highway shoes and Soles4Souls

Rather intriguingly and to the annoyance of drivers on the normally busy Miami expressway; thousands of shoes have appeared from nowhere to block a lane and stop traffic.

In a truth can be stranger than fiction story the Florida Highway Patrol received the initial reports of a whole expressway lane being blocked by the discard shoes on Friday morning. A dump truck was employed to clear the half-mile stretch from where there has been neither accident report or spilt load report.

Charity Soles4Souls works to ensure perfectly good shoes are not simply dumped in landfills across America when there are so many people across the world in need of safe footwear.

The Soles4Souls team is on the way to Miami and is coordinating a relief effort to move the shoes to Haiti. The island nation is still hurting after a terrible hurricane season and the shoes are badly needed there.

Wayne Elsey, the founder of Soles4Souls, estimates that over 300 million people are in need of shoes.

“We hope people remember us as a simple recycle-and-reuse program,” Elsey said. “We can take any types of ‘gently worn’ shoes. There is no need to throw away usable shoes because we can find the person who will treasure your gift,”

In Pure Spirit

How do you think the shoes ended up on the expressway? Did a truck spill its load?

How important are niche charities like Soles4souls? Would you support one in favour of a larger and more generic good cause?

Posted on December 29, 2008 - by Andrew

The rain god Chaac and the 10 most important archaeology discoveries of 2008

The Archaeological Institute of America has published their top 10 list of the most important archaeological discoveries of 2008 via the Archaeology Magazine. Here’s the list;

1. Sacred Maya Blue – Chichén Itzá, Mexico
2. Wari Masked Mummy – Lima, Peru
3. Kuttamuwa’s Soul – Zincirli, Turkey
4. American Genes – North America
5. Oldest Oil Paintings – Bamiyan, Afghanistan
6. First European – Atapuerca, Spain
7. Earliest Shoes – Tianyuan Cave, China
8. Portuguese Indiaman – Namibia
9. Imperial Colossi – Sagalassos, Turkey
10. Origins of Whaling – Chukotka Peninsula, Russia

In Pure Spirit is pleased that the Maya Blue pigment made the list. Blue was a sacred colour to the ancient Mayans and associated with sacrifice and deities. In particular, blue was the colour of Chaac the rain god.

Unlike Chinese blue and Egyptian blue, Mayan blue is stable and retains its colour even after hundreds of years and weather conditions.

In 1904 the archaelogist Edward Thompson dredged the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá   he found a 14 foot thick layer of blue silt. This is now believed to be the gathered remains of Maya Blue washed off thousands of sacrificial objects. It is thought that sacrifical objects would have been heated by the ancient Mayans, then painted or brushed with blue dye before being thrown into green water.

Chaac

Chaac represented each of the four cardinal directions and each of the four cardinals had their own Chaac – a synchronicity common with Maya deities.

He was the patron of agriculture and carried a lightening axe. He was also associated with maize.

The rain is Chaac’s tears of regret.

In Pure Spirit

What do you think? Which is the most important of the ten discoveries above or would you suggest an alternative discovery?

Posted on December 6, 2008 - by Andrew

An Apache creation myth – The One Who Lives Above

There was nothing in the beginning; no earth, no sky, no sun and no moon. There was only darkness.

There was only darkness until a thin disc emerged. Sitting on the disc, which was yellow on one side and whote on the other, was a small bearded man. He was Creator. He was the One Who Lives Above.

Creator rubbed his eyes as if he was waking from a deep sleep and looked into the neverending darkness. Light appeared. Creator looked down and there was a sea of light. He looked to the east and created the yellow streaks of dawn. He looked to the west and fades of colours appeared everywhere.

Next, The One Who Lives Above mopped his sweating brow, rubbed his hands together and thrust them downwards. There sat a little girl.

“Stand and tell me where you are going,” said The One Who Lives Above but the girl did not reply. So Creator rubbed his eyes again and offered his hand to Girl-Without-Parents.

As she took his hand, she asked; “Where did you come from?”

“From the east where it is now light,” replied The One Who Lives Above.

The girl studied him again, “Where is the earth?”

Creator responded with a question, “Where is the sky?” Then he sang four times, “I am thinking, thinking, thinking what I shall create next.” Four was the magic number.

The One Who Lives Above brushed his face again and flung his sweat covered hands wide apart. There stood Sun-God. Once again Creator touched his brow, lowered his hands and there was Small-Boy.

Together the gods sat on a small cloud and thought. “This cloud is too small for the four of us to live on,” noted Creator and so he created Tarantula, Big Dipper, Wind, Lightning-Maker and Lightning-Rumbler to live in the western clouds.

The One Who Lives Above sung four times, “Let us make earth. I am thinking of the earth, earth, eath; I am thinking of the earth,”

The four gods shook hands, mixing their sweat so when The One Who Lives Above rubbed his palms again a small brown ball fell from his fingers to the ground.

Creator, The One Who Lives Above, kicked the ball and it grew. Girl-Without-Parents kicked the ball and it grew again. Sun-God kicked it and it expanded. Small-Boy kicked the ball and once again it grew.

The One Who Lives Above told Wind to rush inside the ball and blow it up. Then Tarantula spun a black cord, attaching it before quickly crawling eastwards and stretching the orb. Repeating this, Tarantula streched the ball by attaching a blue cord to the south, a white cord to the north and a yellow cord to the west. When Tarantula had finshed the once-small brown ball and grown huge; it had grown into the earth.

The One Who Lives Above scratched his chest and rubbed his fingers. Then there was Hummingbird. “Fly north, south, east and west – well us what there is to see,” said The One Who Lives Above. Hummingbird did so and returned to say that the earth was beautiful with water to the west.”

To stop the earth from rolling and bouncing up and down The One Who Lives Above forged four giant posts to support it; one black, one blue, one yellow and one white. Wind carried each of four posts placing them beneath the cardinal points of the earth.

When the earth was still The One Who Lives Above sung four times, “World is now made and now sits still”. He sung a song about the sky four times and twenty-eight people appeared. Together they made the sky and made it above the earth. Creator sung about making chiefs for the sky and for the earth.

Lightning-Maker was sent to circle the world. When Lightning-Maker returned he carried three creatures; two girls and a boy from in a turquoise shell. None of them had mouths, noses, ears, eyes or even hair, they had arms and legs but neither fingers nor toes.

Sun-God had Fly build a sweathouse. Girl-Without-Parents covered the sweathouse with four heavy clouds and placed a soft red cloud to use as a foot-blanket at the doorway. The three creatures entered the building for their sweat. When it was time to finish, they came outside, used the red cloud for a foot-blanket and The One Who Lives Above shook his hands at them granting each fingers, toes, mouthes, noses, ears, eyes and hair.

The three were named Sky-Boy, who became chief of the Sky-People, Earth-Daughter, who took charge of the earth and its crops and the last became Pollen-Girl who was in charge of the hearth of all the Earth-People.

At this time the earth was still flat and barren and so The One Who Lives Above created the trees, a hill and the animals of the land, water and sky.

Pigeon was sent to fly around the new earth. Four days later Pigeon returned with a warning, “the earth is beautiful but in four days time the water in the west will rise and flood.” The One Who Lives Above created a tall pinon tree which the Girl-Without-Parents covered in a framework of pinon gum to create a huge and hollow ball. When the flood came, four days later, The One Who Lives Above took to the air and brought his twenty eight sky helpers with him. Girl-Without-Parents placed the others in the hollow ball and sealed it tightly.

Twelve days later, when the water had receded and the ball was left resting on the hill top, Girl-Without-Parents led the gods out to the new earth. She took them up on her cloud until they where with The One Who Lives Above and his helpers again.

The One Who Lives Above welcomed them but said; “I am planning to leave you. I wish each of you to do your best towards making this a perfect and happy world.” He placed Lightning-Rumbler in charge of clouds and water. He placed Sky-Boy in charge of the Sky-People and Earth-Daughter in charge of the crops and Earth-People. Poll-Girl was charged with looking after the health of the Earth-People and guiding them and Girl-Without-Parents was left in charge of it all.”

The One Who Lives Above rubbed legs and palms with Girl-Without-Parents again, cast his hands downwards and this time a great pile of wood appeared. Creator waved a hand and the wood burst into flame sending great clouds of smoke into the sky.

Into this cloud of smoke did The One Who Live Above disappear. The other gods followed him leaving the twenty-eight helpers on the earth. Sun-God went to the west and to the Sun. Girl-Without-Parents went to the west and to the horizon. Small-Boy and Pollen-Girl made homes in the clouds to the South and Big Dipper can still be seen to this day.

Posted on December 4, 2008 - by Andrew

10 ghost animals in science

In this article we look at ten animals that have the word ‘ghost’ in their name. The world of the paranormal does have its influence on science and biology after all.

1 ) The Ghost Spider

The ghost spider (anyphaene californica) is a tiny, translucent arachnid that lives in the southern parts of the United States.

2 ) The Ghost Bat

Also known as the Australian False Vampire Bat (macroderma gigas) has extremely thin wing membranes which can give it an eerie glow when it flies. The large bat is a fierce predator and very common in Australia.

3 ) The Ghost Moth

With pure white wings the male ghost moths (hepialus humuli) will fight one by slowly fluttering upwards and dropping back down again.

4 ) The Ghost Lizard

The Ghost Lizard (eurycea spealeus) is neither a ghost nor a lizard. It is a salamander which lives its entire life in caves. Ghost Lizards are completely translucent.

5 ) The Ghost Frog

The Ghost Frog (helophryne genus) get their name from their habbitat – they’re found in Skeleton Gorge in South Africa.

6 ) The Ghost Crab

Ghost crabs (ocypode quadrata) is a member of genus Ocypode and can be found around the world from Australia to the United States.

7 ) The Ghost Fish

Also known as Glass Catfish, the Ghost Fish (kryptopterus bicirrhis) is entirely transparent – turning a milky white after death.

8 ) The Ghost Knifefish

The Ghost Knifefish (apteronotidea) are freshwater fish use EOD (electric organ discharge) to communicate.  There are a number of different sub-types of ghost knifefish with the black ghost knifefish and brown ghost knifefish being much more common than the others.

9 ) The Ghost Tiger Beetle

The whiteish coloured Ghost Tiger Beetle (cicindela lepida) and like other tiger beetles is fairly aggressive and well armed with mandibles.

10) Ghost Insects

Ghost insect is a fairly common alternative name for stick insects (phasmatodea). They mark good pets are they are easy to care for although some species are extremy toxic.

In Pure Spirit

How did we do? Are you aware of any other ghost animals in science?