Here at the beach house
Posted by Texas Betsy in Environment, Global News, News, Relaxed Politics
We only PRETEND to have perfect conditions year round.
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| From Betsy Beach House Splurge |
We would never actually waste the energy it might take to achieve that!
Dubai, on the other hand ….
Tags: conspicuous consumption, Dubai, energy, the beach house, wasteDubai plans to build refrigerated beach.
Dubai is planning to construct the world’s first refrigerated beach. A system of heat-absorbing pipes and giant wind blowers will “keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat.” Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace hotel that will be home to the refrigerated beach, said: “We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.” Critics have argued that Dubai’s design lacks regard for the environment:
Rachel Noble, of Tourism Concern, said: “Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so people can continue destructive lifestyles.” […]
The city’s continued expansion will also add to its huge carbon footprint. Each person living in Dubai has a carbon footprint of more than 44 tons of CO2 a year.
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Fake tree or real? The verdict is…
I guess we can ship our artificial trees to Dubai as they already have giant footprints.
I have a small artifical tree which you will have to pry out of my cold, dead hands. Spode design, from Teleflora a few years ago. Comes out of the box decorated.
still
here.
Yeah, I was a little disappointed in that verdict. I LOVE fresh trees, but the last couple of years, they just strike me as so wasteful. OTOH that bit about what it takes to produce an artificial tree versus a real one was interesting, along with just a six years (??) lifespan…Hrm…
My solution is increasingly not to have a tree at all, and just decorate using my local juniper trimmings.
Christmas tree farms are OK. Trim them every year (to make them full), then harvest at 5 to 7 years old. They process some CO2, and take minimal fertilizer (if any). Deciduous trees process a lot more CO2 and build the soil better, so an Xmas tree farm is usually not an optimal use of land, but it’s not harmful.
Haven’t done a tree in years. One year I took a string of those “icicle” lights and (carefully) thumbtacked them to the wall in a tree-like shape. That was pretty.
Aloha ya’ll! I just had to point out this little gem…
From Roads to Iraq…
Ruba Al-Husari on Syria of Tomorrow:
People go to Hajj to throw stones on the devil to be close to God, throwing shoes on George Bush works the same.
OMG, this shoe thing is really catching on. Just received the following e-mail from democrats.com:
“Please join CODE PINK: Women for Peace, AfterDowningStreet, and Democrats.com this Wednesday, December 17, 2008, in Washington, D.C., at Lafayette Square Park in front of the White House. We will have with us a large supply of shoes labeled with the names of Iraqis who have died in Bush’s war. We encourage you to bring your old shoes as well. Come rally with us in solidarity with the Iraqi people to demand an immediate and complete end to the occupation of Iraq.”
Rude Pundit was on it today also, urging folks to MAIL their shoes to the WH.
Strange bedfellows, again.
I am home, with a letter from my chiro saying that I should not be doing filing in the tallest or lowest filing drawers. Faxed the letter to my principal.
Staying home the rest of the afternoon. Looking for my back brace in case I end up having to do more filing tomorrow.
It’s muSHrOOming!
Question from a non-Christian —- why not just decorate the outdoor tree with lights and either a mantle place or a table indoors?
@muffin betsy at 3:16 pm -
Bummer!! Hope the spine is feeling better soon. Though getting out of filing is a win, in my book
We got a fake tree this year, as I was sick of vacuuming pine needles until Mardi Gras. We have a thing here where the parish collects trees after Christmas and they are used to catch silt and build up erroded areas along the coast. Hubby usually works it at least a few weekends after the New Year. The no tree option ain’t gonna fly around here, and besides, what would I do with my extensive ornament collection (and the memories they hold) if there was no tree to hang them on??
A refrigerated beach?? For reals? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Have these people ever heard of a beach blanket? That one places on the sand and then reclines upon??
Go look at Laura on the subject: Soleful Send Off
First Hurricaine Ike followup I’ve seen in awhile. (Mostly about recovery in Galveston.)
Found the brace. But don’t wanna go back to work.
Heh. Shoe thrower to be charged with throwing shoes in Maliki’s general direction.
Anyone care to offer that journalist a pair of soccer cleats?
The tree is from old Northern Europe solstice celebration. The longest night of the year, you bring the tree indoors, decorate it… You’re carrying life through the death of the year. Do it right, and the days will start getting longer again. Whether you’re Christian or not has nothing to do with it.
@muffin betsy at 3:18 pm – I don’t really have a suitable outdoor tree for this, plus the more delicate ornaments certainly can’t go outside anyway.
However, when I don’t have a christmas tree up, I simply hang decorations eveyrwhere else in the house. Since I have a beam that runs across the kitchen length, it’s particularly effective that way as well.
I haven’t followed through (on any of the articles), but it seems both Google and Obama have said the WSJ’s piece this morning (that they were edging away from Net Neutrality) is BS.
If you look around neighborhoods, you will notice the outdoor trees are lighted, lawn decorations abound (right, mm?), decorated trees peak from the windows, lights frame the house, Santa is lounging on rooftops, garland circles any railing. Excessive, of course. If there is a surface, it shall be decorated.
To not do this is part of the war on Christmas.
split infinative, I know, msmolly. 
Hmmm … I wonder if my spikes from running track in HS are still in a box at my parents’ place.
A very interesting essay over at the Agonist about Madoff and how what he did is not all that different from what a lot of companies have been doing for the last 20 years.
My alternate take on Madoff (and the Dreier story) is that once they’d picked the middle class clean, they had to start ripping off each other.
@sharonlee at 3:52 pm -
I think the dinosaur’s best line ever was about his fond childhood memories of making claymore mines out of brussel sprouts for the War on Christmas.
CT upstairs.
http://www.relaxedpolitics.com/?p=6335