the town of or

This was in our mailroom at work today. Nice tagline.

The following quote is being attributed to many different people, ranging from rapper JayZ to an elected official in Lousiana. It appeared on our blog a few months ago, but the following youtube video puts a whole new perspective on it. You must check it out!

When I was just a baby, my mother propped me up in my older sister's lap and snapped a picture of us holding a newspaper with the headline "Man Lands on the Moon!" Jake is only 2 and a half years old, and won't remember this week's election - but I felt it was worth capturing the moment for posterity. This feels like a really special time to me.

The following are a few of my favorite quotes, celebrating the occasion:

On the way into work today, I heard a story on NPR indicating that smoking of cigarettes is down considerably in China over the last few years - down to 350 million smokers! That's considerably more Chinese who smoke than the entire U.S. population (around 300 million). Apparently more than half of adult men in China are regular smokers. Zoiks!

On my way into work today, I saw several large gooey banana slugs. The weather's warm these days and, like us humans, our mollusk friends are coming out to play. Here are my favorite banana slug facts:

Some friends and I recently debated whether "supposably" is a word. Turns out, it's a word...but it isn't a synonym for "supposedly" in the way that so many toddlers use it. According to Webster's:

Supposable \s&-'pO-z&-b&l\, adj.

Capable of being supposed: CONCEIVABLE
sup·pos·ably \-blE\ adv.

I read something interesting today about the concept of "environmental amnesia" - check it out:

If one’s only experience is with a certain amount of pollution, then that amount becomes not pollution but the norm against which more (or less) polluted states can be measured at a later time...I have called this environmental generational amnesia (Kahn & Friedman, 1995).

Ben Cohen (cofounder of Ben & Jerry's) started an organization called True Majority. One of their earlier works uses stacks of Oreo cookies to show how much the U.S. spends on defense versus other programs.

OK, this is a little bit woo-woo, but it's pretty amazing if true. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist, has taken photographs of ice crystals formed from different samples of water. To do this, he uses a dark field microscope with photographic capabilities. Water from pristine sources shows the beautiful geometric and crystalline patterns...and water from nasty toxic water shows uglier distorted crystalline structures. Many believe that Emoto's work demonstrates the impact of our intentions on the world around us. Consider the following photographs of ice crystals from different water sources:

Fujuiwara Dam, before offering a prayer

Fujuiwara Dam, after offering a prayer

Some interesting statistics on World Population:

In the 19th century, global population grew by only 600 million, but in the 20th century it grew by 4.4 billion. There are twice as many people today as there were in 1960. One tenth of all the people who have ever lived are alive today. There has been more growth in population since 1950 than during the 4 million years since our early ancestors first stood upright.

World population reached:

The average life expectancy is 61, up from 40 in just 50 years. The numbers of people 65 and older make up 10-15% of the world population today and is expected to increase to 20-30% by 2050. If fertility remained at current levels, the population would reach the absurd figure of 296 billion in just 150 years.

Source: www.overpopulation.org