Food Inc. More Like Horrible Inc.

Have you ever seen a chicken that couldn't walk because it's bones couldn't hold up its obese body? Have you ever seen a bulldozer pushing a cow to slaughter because it couldn't get up and walk for same reason? I'm betting most of you said no. Well if you get the chance to watch the epic documentary Food Inc. than you will see that and a lot more. It really opens your eyes to the awful thing farmers are doing to their livestock to keep up with the demand of meat.

Who doesn't love corn on the cob, or corn with Thanksgiving Dinner? As good as that sounds for us it isn't good for animals. The cows and chickens on most farms are being fed corn. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is. Cows are supposed to eat grass. Corn is bad for them and can give them e coli. Why would farmers do that to their animals??

Well the answer is that corn makes the animals grow fatter faster. The faster they grow the quicker they can slaughter them for their meat and get paid. With the chickens they keep them in dark 24/7, they are cramped together in building and feed constantly. They grow chickens from a chick to an adult in 49 days verses the normal 3 months. Because they grow that fast their bones can't keep up and they can barley walk by the time they are slaughtered.

I know when you have a plethora of cows and chickens on your farm you may not get too attached to them, but I still don't know how they could knowingly do that to their cows and chickens. I also know that is hard to be farmers in America today and that you need to make money, but it just seems so morally wrong to do that to animals. Some of them don't like doing it and wish they could do it differently, but they don't get a say. They need to make money. When they were filming the documentary they could have conversations with some of the chicken farmers, but they couldn't show them inside where the chickens were or they would get fired.

One question you may have is how is there enough corn for this? How can they have enough corn for us to eat and then corn for the animals. The big food packing companies are paying corn farmers to over produce the product. They also have clever ways to rearrange the corn. Each farmer will produce 200 bushels of corn a year.

They also discuss a child, Kevin, that died after eating a burger at a fast food restaurant because of e. coli in 2008. After dying his mother vowed to never let this happen to anyone else's child. They were trying to get Kevin's Law passed that would allow the U.S Department of Agriculture to close d
own plants that produce contaminated meat. This law never got passed. Versions of this law continue to be passed through Congress, but so far nothing has been passed.

They do say that sometimes it just takes one person to make a difference, but that doesn't seem to be case for changing the laws that allow the USDA to shut down meat plants. Granted children die everyday, but we can do something to prevent more deaths like Kevin, but apparently the big food companies have their claws in too deep with certain congressman. One would think that just hearing this story would make you want to do something. Apparently money is worth more than people today.

Another aspect they talked about in the movie was Soy Beans. I grew up in a small town in Upstate New York where there were farms, but nothing that big where the production of soy beans would have been a concern. In the Midwest this is a problem. A company called Monsanto is the leader of genetically engineered seeds. When farmers use other types of soy beans they are violating a patent that Monsanto has. Since the mid 1990's Monsanto has filed over 145 lawsuits against farmers for this violation.

If that is what this company is spending a lot of its money and time towards that is kinda sad. I mean I don't know how many farmer's would use their own seeds, but it would be better than us eating genetically engineered food. And most of us don't know we are eating it.

Overall this documentary made me want to pay more attention to the ingredients in my food and where the food and vegetables come from. The things that farmers are doing to animals and the way the government is controlling it is really disgusting. Sometimes I wish I lived in a different time when the government didn't run everything and people are more free to farm and do whatever they wanted. I really think we should look back in time and think about how our world looks today.

Yo Homes this is AWESOME x6!!!

Overall my thoughts on this class was that it was...freaking awesome!!! I have never really been into women studies, the environment, blogging, or websites so, taking this class was slightly random. I had heard really good things about the class, so I decided to take it and it changed my mind on many things.

I really loved going on field trips for class and watching amazing documentaries. I have to say my favorite class field trip was hugging trees. Not a lot of people can say they have done that for a class. I sucked at finding my tree, so I guess I didn't become "one" with the tree, but I really had fun. My favorite documentary was The Cove. It made me cry and I was horrified, but it made me aware of a awful, terrible and heartbreaking problem that most people aren't aware of. The man who was the head of the operation for the movie was a total badass and should recieve support for his cause. I made sure that I joined the cause.

For our website I really enjoyed the trips we got to take. I really enjoyed going hunting with my dad. It was fun to have Sarah and Amanda tag along. I wish I had been given a reason to go hunting with my dad years ago because I just realized at 21 that I might like it. Fishing was okay. I think it would have been better if the water wasn't so choppy and if it was warmer. Overall though it was an awesome experience.

The interview allowed us to meet a kick ass women. She was a competitive archer and owns a business with her husband where they offer bow lessons. She was really nice down to earth women and didn't care what other people thought of her. She also did her own tattoos which is totally awesome. She showed me that if you have a passion for something you don't give up on it, not matter what.

Building the website itself was the most difficult part. I thought I was pretty good at navigating things on the Internet and I had built a website for my India trip on Google sites, but I found out I didn't know as much as I thought I did. Thanks to guidance of Amanda who figured the website out we were able to create and amazing website.

I also didn't know how I was going to feel about blogging and figured I would do the bare minimum for each one. That didn't happen. Instead I found out that I actually had a lot to say about the videos and activities we did. A few of the topics I went on for a while about.

Overall this class was the right choice as my last class in my undergraduate career. I have recommended it to many underclassman and hope they enjoy it as much as I did! You rock Maluso!!

Ithaca Farmer's Market

We recently traveled to the Ithaca Farmer's Market. It was not what I expected. I expected it to be less put together. Farmer's markets that I have been to have just been in a field where people have their own tents and tables set up. Instead this was under a big pavilion with premade stands. They had a lot of vender's but I expected it to be more spread out. However, I did not expect there to be so much ethnic food. They had Mexican, Chinese, and Indian food being made and sold. You smelt many wonderful aromas while walking past all the booths.

There were the booths that I expected to see there such as people selling flowers, homemade cheese, and organic vegetables. Also there was homemade jewelry, quilts, paintings and wood work. We got the opportunity to stop and talk to some of the proprieties.

Sarah stopped and bought an item from Culinary Kiosk. They are a new business in Pine City, New York. They products that they grow are all organic. They keep their products local to help others in the community. Some other eco-friendly things they do is composting and using recycled packaging material.

Most of the booths there were all very eco-friendly. You could tell based on packaging and the things they had in the back of their cars that they all worked very hard on their products. They were eager to talk about the different ways that they were using sustainability in their business. The place where the farmer's market was had signs all over the place about recycling.

I think my favorite part though was a young boy showed up and started playing his violin. He was really good and it was nice to listen to him. 

Who's Zoomin' Who?

Cool, Fast and Sexy...that's what all Americans are looking for in car. But, what about a car that didn't run on gas, didn't pollute the air and was cool, fast and sexy? Wouldn't that be a car that every American would for sure buy? Apparently not! Between the years 1996-2000 800 electric cars were made in California. Who knew? I may have not been very old, but I don't have a recollection of them. Maybe I had briefly heard about it, but never seen a commercial. The closest thing I had seen to an electric car was in the movie iRobot. Apparently there was a whole industrial, political and personal issue going on surrounding electric cars that very few people knew about.

In the film Who Killed the Electric Car they discussed the rise and fall of the EV1. The state of California made a Zero Emission Vehicle mandate to help potential fix the air quality problem. Which made GM create the electric car aka the EV1. They made the cars and leased them to some celebrities and other California citizens. GM didn't want to make the cars and started fighting the California government and eventual got the federal government involved. They got the mandate revoked and started collecting the EV1 from the people who were leasing them. They did NOT respond well. They got really attached to these cars and liked what they stood for. After a long hard fight they ended up seeing the precious cars get crushed.
Why take them back? Why not let those people who were leasing the cars buy them? GM claimed that they didn't want other consumers to see the brand mark on the car and wonder what car it was. And then people might look into it and wonder why electric cars weren't being produced anymore.

GM also wanted to be able to put their money elsewhere like buying the Hummer because they knew that it would make them money. Oil Companies had issues with it because if the electric car started being bought we would end our dependence on oil. The federal government didn't want to see how his could effect our economy. Instead they endorsed the Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Even though the people who invented it said that it would be years before this could happen. The electric car was ready now.

The former leasers of the EV1s offered GM 1.9 million for the remaining 80 cars and they refused. Which was really sketchy. One of the EV1s made it into the historical car museum. And those people founded Plug in America. They are pushing to get a hybrid plug in car.

Some questions that I had throughout the movie were:
How would people fix the cars?
What the heck is Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles?
What happens if you have to park on the street? How would you charge your car?
Can you just give your car a quick charge and make it go further or once it dies it needs to be plugged in for the night?

I'm sure all these other questions could have been answered, but because the car companies didn't want to make the cars last none of them got answered. One question they did answer was that mechanics could learn to convert cars. This was an experiment that needed time to develop. Had the car companies properly marketed the vehicle and had it gotten time to take off, our world could be very different today. But because the GM wasn't making instant money off the cars they didn't want it to keep producing it. Time is money! But I don't think they were looking far into the future to see what this car could do for us. GM could have made a huge impact and made lots of money, but because they couldn't let themselves look that far into the future they lost out! Who knows maybe one day they will be blamed for it when instead they could have been getting praised.

Are You Flipping Kidding Me!?!?!?!?!?!

If you haven't gotten an opportunity to see the documentary The Cove you really need to. Not only has it won an academy award, but it is an extremely powerful film.

For those of you who haven't seen it here is a quick synapses of the documentary. The main focus is the  slaughter of dolphins in a cove in Taiji Japan. There, at this horrendous site is where dozens of dolphins are slaughtered daily from September to March. This hardcore, epic, totally awesome man has made it his mission to save these dolphins and get the word out about what is happening to these innocent dolphins in Japan. This awesome mans name is Ric O'Barry and I wish I had half the passion and courage that he does. Not only are these innocent animals being harmed, but these fisherman are harming the people of Japan. They are selling the dolphins to aquariums around the world, but for the dolphins that aren't chosen they are being slaughtered, cut up and fed to the people of Japan. This doesn't seem like a big deal because that's what every country does with any type of meat (but usually more humane) but it is! Dolphin meat is laced with mercury and by eating the meat sometimes unknowingly due to mislead labeling people are being poisoned.

The dolphins can be sold for $150,00 a piece and 23,00 dolphins are killed every year!!! That is flipping ridiculous!!

The cove where the dolphins are trapped and then sold or murdered is heavily guarded. The camera men were trying to film what was happening, but not only did the area have barbed wire and signs telling people to keep out they also had the fisherman and other people getting into people's faces with their own cameras and were blocking them and yelling really rude things. From their vantage point you couldn't see around the corner were the slaughter was actually happening instead you could just see the water go from a clear nice blue to blood red. 

Because I thought Ric O'Barry was a really awesome brave guy here are few facts about him. 

• He was the trainer for the dolphin in the TV show Flipper. After that he became and advocate for dolphins. 
• In the 1970's he founded The Dolphin Project whose main goal is to educate the public about dolphin captivity and when feasible to help them be released into the wild.  
• The government in Taiji know exactly who he is and make sure cops follow him when he enters the city. 
• He has released 25 dolphins from captivity.
• He is the director of the Save Japan Dolphins Campaign. 
• Co-author of 3 books
•  He has been arrested numerous times for his efforts.

The people involved in this movie should become Navy Seals. They did an awesome successful covert operation. Their main goals were to get cameras behind part of the rock that is cutting off part of the cove where the slaughter takes place. They also wanted to get cameras with sonar under the water to hear the dolphins. They did this mission at night hoping they wouldn't get caught. They were successful in planting all the cameras. Those people were extremely brave! They risked their lives for this mission. They could have been put in jail or even killed based on how the fisherman were reacting to them. I could have never done that.

I also found it really cool that Hayden Panettiere was involved in this mission. She paddled out on her surf board along with her mother and other surfers to hold a peaceful ceremony around the dolphins. On their second attempt out there fisherman came over and tried to hit them with the propeller of the boat and then attempted to stab them with spears. While this was happening you could see a dolphin struggling for its life bleeding into the water. It was heartbreaking to watch and I cried. Hayden is an advocate for the dolphins and for other animals. Not only does she play a hero on TV she really is one.








So, what is going on currently in Taiji?

After the documentary was shown the fisherman of Taiji covered the cove with an elaborate tent structure made out of wires, cables and plastic tarps. It almost completely covered.

Just a few weeks ago scientists and veterinarians analyzed the tape and say that their "humane" way of killing the dolphins is anything but humane. How they are killing the dolphins now is still horrible! It's about to get graphic. You may want to get a barf bag or a tissue. What they are doing to the dolphins is dragging them under the tarp by their tails, shoved into position while they are struggling and then a sharp spike is stabbed into their neck behind the blowhole. Does that sound humane to you? Is that even remotely close to what happens in normal slaughterhouses? NO! It isn't!! And not only do they die their family members get to watch them be slaughtered. Image this happening to you? Dying that way. Having to watch your family members slowly die that way. It's horrendous.

After watching the video biologists and veterinarians determined that they way they slaughter these dolphins would not be tolerated or permitted in any regulated slaughterhouse. Even after this evidence the Japanese government still claims what they are doing is no different than what we do to the animals here in America and everywhere else around the world. Have they ever visited a slaughterhouse in other countries? Because if they have there is no way in hell they could make that comparison.

Current statistics show that the amount of dolphins killed this year increased. Last year 2011-2012 around 800-840 dolphins were killed. This year it was slightly below 900. So not a huge increase, but still it should be going down not up regardless of how much the increase was. 247 dolphins were captured for captivity, which was an all time high seeings that last year only 50 were caught for this purpose. The only bright side of this is that more Japanese activitsts have become involved in the fight to stop the slaughter at the cove.

Hopefully with continual showing of this film to people and getting the word out this horrible, disgusting, inhumane slaughter of these poor, innocent, intelligent creatures can end. Not only should we be trying to stop the slaughter, but we should be trying to stop the captivity and no longer go and see dolphin shows or go swim with dolphins. A smile may be worth a thousand words, but what is really going on behind that smile is so much sadder and worth so many more words.

Help save the dolphins and stop this! Go to takepart.com/thecover for more info and finding out what you can do to help. You can also follow this blog http://savejapandolphins.org/.

Blue Girl Power!!

The record breaking film Avatar by James Cameron is not only a phenomenal film, but it is one of a few movies that show ecofeminism. For those of you who don't know what ecofeminism is here's a basic definition: ecofeminism is a feminist approach to enviormentalism. They use a framework that confronts issues of race, gender, class and nature.  Some ways that this film shows ecofeminism is with one of the main characters Neytiri, the Na'vi people, and the head scientist Grace.

Neytri is the chief and shamans daughter and is in line to become  the next shaman after her mother dies. A man, Jake Sully, who is in an avatar ends up getting lost in the forest and taken to the Omaticaya tribe. The tribe leader decides to let him into the tribe and for his daughter Neytri to teach him the ways of The People. While Neytri is teaching Jake the ways of the forest we see how much of an ecofeminist she is. Her and her people believe that everything is connected. The people, the animals, the plants, anything that is alive in the forest. All of it is controlled by their Deity Eyaw, which is a tree. They believe that you should not harm animals for any reason other than to eat them. They also they believe that all energy comes back around from the small animals, to the trees, the plants and The People. 

Based on the fact that Neytri teaches Jake all about the forest and how to not harm it, to take only what you are going to use makes her an ecofeminist. The only conflict that doesn't really apply to ecofeminism is that the women of the tribe weren't really suppressed, at least from what we could tell from the film. They could become warriors and hunt along side men, we really didn't see other women, but Neytri had a say in the way things went in the tribe. The only time she wasn't allowed to make a decision was when her father told her she had to teach Jake. Ecofeminists would classify the way the Na'vi people behaved under the race category and how that race was very respectful of the environment and women in the tribe. 

Grace was the women who was really oppressed in the movie. She was surrounded by marines and two of the main guys thought that she had to follow direct orders from them no matter what. They were really big jerks. Some of it had to do with the fact that she was a scientist and wasn't going into the forest and immediately telling the people to leave their Home Tree, so the Americans could get the natural resources that were under the tree. They were only in it for making money. They wanted results and Grace wasn't getting them fast enough. She wanted to learn about how the forest worked, how the trees were all connected to each other similar to the synapses in the human brain. She was constantly arguing with them to make peace with the people to learn the forest and see what other awesome things the planet had to offer, but they wouldn't listen. Had this information been coming from a man they may have listened, but we won't know. Grace did stand up for what she believed in and fought to the very end to try and preserve the forest and The People. Unfortunately one of the jerk wads shot her and she died.

I had never heard of ecofeminism before this assignment. It is something that people, male and female, should look into and support! If directors keeping make more movies similar to Avatar more people can learn about what ecofeminism is without even know it!  GIRL POWER!!!

Photos courtesy of creativecommons.com. All other information copyright of Logan Tallmadge'13. 

Where Them Squirrels At?!?

On Tuesday we went on a nice adventure to Tanglewood Nature Center. We had to go on a scavenger hunt around the trails. This was to be a contest and while we weren't told the prize I wanted GLORY!! In the infamous words of Ricky Bobby, if you ain't first you're last! And I wanted to be first!!

I had never been there before, but I have always heard good things, so I was interested to check it out for myself. We all got into groups and got our list of what we needed to find and take pictures or videos of. Then we were off!! The trails were very beautiful and well maintained and not difficult to navigate. We did have to go off the trails a few times to avoid the mud.

We did not have an extremely hard time finding most of the items on our list. We were really surprised that we got to see a few deer because one of the items on the list was an animals... and an animal in motion and because of the deer we got those checked off. We also realized that ants are REALLY fast!!! Trying to get those suckers in a shot was extremely difficult. Sarah got frustrated and just started snapping pictures where the ants were in hopes of capturing one... luckily we did get one :) We really tried to be creative with some of the tasks. For example we needed
to take a picture of something red. We did take a picture of a red sign, but we came across a red wood tree, so we took a picture of it and decided to use that as our something red. For our something blue, Sarah took a picture of me sitting on a fallen tree and used a certain filter that enhanced the blue in my jeans, so that was an option for our something blue. Even though my jeans weren't exactly a part of nature, we were being one with nature, so it was an interesting twist.

 A squirrel and a chipmunk were both on the list and we were having a really hard time finding ANY. There are always an abundance of squirrels on campus, but not a one was insight. So, I decided to use one of my many special talents to help us out. I have the lovely gift of being able to call squirrels and chipmunks without an actually call (I won a raffle one time because of this awesome skill). I started doing the call through out our walk, but apparently there weren't any nuts in these woods worth finding. We saw only TWO chipmunks the entire time and NO squirrels. We got a shot of one of the chipmunk, but we were squirreless.

I am REALLY competitive and wanted to win!! We couldn't find a few items on the list, so we decided to get creative. Sarah made sure that all our pictures had an artistic edge to them, so even if we couldn't find some items we would have an edge as to the quality of the pictures. One of my brilliant ideas had to do with a very odd item on the list. We needed to find a baby...that's all it said. We had no clue how to find a baby in the woods. At first we were thinking of a small child in the woods. I continued to ponder how on earth we were going to find this item. So, I thought why not take a picture of a small plant or tree that was growing. Technically that is a baby. For the other items we couldn't find we headed to the main building. Inside in the gift shop and in their animal exhibit we found our missing items and crossed off everything on the list!!! I could almost taste the victory.

We didn't have a chance to find out if we won because we didn't have class today :( While I love a good day off and sleeping in
I wanted that victory. I guess we will never find out who the championship group was or what the prize was, but in my heart our group was definitely the winner!!

If you are interested in going to Tanglewood some basic information about the facility can be found on their website, but here are some quick facts. It has been in operation for 40 years. It is free to walk the trails and to go into the museum and gift store. You can become a member of Tanglewood. Along with the hiking trails there is a pond, a pavilion, a nice garden and the building inside has lots of taxidermy and live animals for everyone to check out and learn more about nature!


Photos courtesy of Sarah Hammer'13 and creativecommons.com. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

Are You Fracking Kidding Me?!?

I always see signs in people's yards, or they have writing on their barns saying they are for or against fracking. I only knew the basics of what it was about, drilling for natural gas under the ground. I had briefly heard the pros and cons of each. The pros being that we would need to rely less on foreign gas and it would create jobs. The cons are that it is dangerous and is contaminating the water along with other important natural resources. I thought the signs were kind of funny using frack as a swear word, but never really looked into hydrofracking, so I didn't have an opinion either way. However, after watching Gas Land I don't think it is such a good idea for this country. Regardless of how much money they might offer you.

Before we get started let's go over the basics of what exactly hydrofracking is. Hydrofracking is a means of natural gas extraction. The gas is extracted by deep well drilling. The water is extracted from the well and then once the well is dried millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected to the well using high pressure. This pressure fractures the shale and    opens fissures that allow natural gas to flow freely out of the well.

The documentary Gas Land was about Josh Fox traveling around the country looking into hydrofracking and what it has been doing to the towns and the people living in those towns. He
initially started this documentary because his home town was in the Marcellus Shale. Which is the area along the east coast mostly in Pennsylvania and New York where there is natural gas available for drilling. The hydrofracking companies were coming into his town and going to people who had natural gas on their lands asking if they could drill there. They would offer money based on how much land they owned. This could be a LOT of money. Most people weren't thinking about the
consequences of what the hydrofracking could do to their land all they were seeing is dollar signs. Fox was offered $100,000 for his land (which would pay off my college loans).

Because he grew up on the land and truly loved it he wasn't so sure about allowing them to drill on his land without know all the facts. He went out West to Colorado and Wyoming, down South to Texas and Louisiana, to New York and his home state of Pennsylvania looking for information. He went around asking those whose land were being drilled on how it was effecting them and the stories they told him astounded me.

The amount of problems those people were having was awful and the side effects they were experience were heart wrenching. There were a whole host of problems, but the main ones people were having was that the water was making people sick, water would bubble and hiss, animals were losing their hair and loosing weight, people getting headaches, the water smelt like gas, people were loosing their sense of smell and taste, and to me the most shocking side effect was that people could light their water on FIRE!!! You really should not be able to do that! Not only was the water causing a lot of problems, but those people who had drilling on or around their homes were breathing in chemical toxins 24/7.

There were a lot of facts thrown around in the film and also a lot of legal acts that were mentioned. Because I was not already familiar with the topic I really had no clue what they were talking about. Two facts that I decided to look into were what exactly was the loophole in the safe drinking water act that allowed hydrofracking and what exactly the hydrofracking is doing to the animals.

The loophole that allowed hydrofracting to occur is called the Halliburton Loophole. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was passed by Congress in 1974 and ensured clean drinking water free from brutal and man-made contaminates. Because fracking can pollute people's wells thereby making their water undrinkable and dirty, fracking shouldn't be allowed. However, thanks to President Bush and Dick Cheney it was overrided. In 2005 they created a bill called the Bush/Cheney Energy Bill that exempted natural gas drilling from the SDWA. What's written in this bill to allow hydrofracking is that hydrofracking companies are exempt from telling what chemicals are used during hydrofracking. By not disclosing the chemicals the EPA can't prove that hydrofracking could pollute the water.


How is the hydrofracking effecting the animals? An article written in the Cornell Daily Sun looked at just that. The author Bob Hackett looked at a study done by a Professor and his wife. The professor teaches molecular medicine and his wife is a vet. They studied 24 cases of affected animals. Those animals were goats, cows, chickens, deer, horses, cats, birds, koi, llamas and humans. Together they were from 6 different states. The most common problem that all of the animals faced were reproductive issues. The animals were not producing offspring during the usual time period. Other symptoms that showed up in both the humans and the animals were burning of the eyes, upper respiratory problems, diarrhea, nosebleeds, rashes, vomiting, neurological issues and headaches (which people reported in Fox's film). They can't prove that any of the chemicals that they found in the sick animals and humans were the direct cause of hydrofracking because under the Halliburton Loophole the companies don't have to disclose that information. So, we can't tell for certain that the animals are being harmed because of the hydrofracking, but the evidence is pointing in that direction.

Basically nothing can be done until a law passes revising or overriding the Halliburton Loophole. I'm sure the minute that happens, if it ever does, hydrofracking will be attacked and the findings could be epic.

There was some footage of a congressional hearing where they were discussing hydrofracking and a couple of the senators were hardcore against the fracking and this one lady was a total boss and shut the congressman that was pro hydrofracking down! It was pretty funny to watch I wish I had been there.

I have discussed many of the cons of hydrofracking and I agree that hydrofracking is harming people and that something needs to be done, however there are some pros. Using natural gas is more green. It is better for the environment than burning coal and oil. The biggest factor that appeals to most people is that the gas is domestic and could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. And obtaining the fuel in America will help with the economy and jobs. However, if those people keep dying because of their constant exposure to hydrofracking that could cause a problem for us.

This is going to continue to be a problem for everyone in America. It is also close to home for me. They are discussing hydrofracking in my town. The property my
family lives on doesn't have natural gas on it, but the land across the street from my home does. If they decide to allow hydrofracking in my town this could harm my family. My father is on our town board and it is a constant topic during their meetings.

As for the rest of New York State...New York is in the Marcellus Shale, so hydrofracking companies want to drill here. It is still being debated. An article in the New York Times in January 2013 stated that Cuomo planned to allow a limited amount of fracking in the Southern Tier along the Pennsylvania border, however the drilling process has not yet received full approval. His analysis team's work showed that fracking can be done safely. There are many issues with the study that was conducted including the quantitative risk assessment of fracking. Basically the study doesn't attempt to look at the probability of various hazards because it would involve a lot of assumptions on the scenario-specific variables that influence the environment and people. So, it is really hard to find any data because it hasn't been done in New York, but if you look at what's happened to other states it doesn't seem too good.
 The assembly wants more research done on the health impact that will be due to congress on April 15, 2015.
 There will not be another vote on hydrofracking until May 15, 2015.

There is also talk that Cuomo might make propose that instead of it being a state decision it will be up to each town to decide if they want to allow hydrofracking.


Like I said in the beginning I really didn't have an opinion on hydrofracking, but after watching this documentary I do now! For writing this blog I did look up the pros as I wrote about above and they didn't outweigh the cons in my opinion. Until we can get the exact chemicals that are in hydrofracking there isn't much people can do. It is all just speculation and that doesn't fly in court. If there isn't anything wrong with what they are doing then why can't they just tell us what chemicals we are being exposed to?!? They claim that if fracking is contaminating the water then they will just bring more, give them a different water supply. They had to do that for a few people in the film after they suddenly could light their water on fire. This so far has only happened in 6 states, but what is going to happen as that number slowly increases? We are already concerned about our water supply. Other countries are looking into fracking as well, which is going to spread this problem across the continents.

Fracking right now seems like a shiny wrapped package under the Christmas tree. Everyone wants to get a look at it and guess what is inside. Some people open it and see something awesome. Other people open it and see through the haze to what can really happen. Until we can read the receipt and see all the ingredients it's still a toss up as to whether or not hydrofracking is a good thing or a bad thing. In my opinion right now it isn't looking so good and once everyone can read the receipt and see what chemicals are really in hydrofracking and how it's effecting humans, animals, water and other parts of the environment there will no longer be a debate and the evidence will speak for itself.

To see how much you know about hydrofracking take this quiz. And get more info about the film at http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/. This IS a factor this is going to effect us all. People need to educate themselves! It's time to give a frack!!!!

Photos courtesy of creativecommons.com. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

Thank God for the Claw

We went out and picked up litter around the campus and around town yesterday. It was not a pleasant experience. In preparation for the event I made sure I got myself some gloves and decided to bring my claw, which I am SO glad I did. I sure did not want to have to touch all that litter with hands even if I did have gloves on. The people in my group was Sarah, Casey and Cassie. Sarah and I decided that I would use the claw to pick up the litter and she would hold the garbage bag. The most litter that we came across was cigarette butts. They were EVERYWHERE! I have seen people all my life, including friends and family members, throw their cigarette butts on the ground or out the car window. I never really understood how much litter those tiny cigarette butts were causing.

According to cigarettelitter.org it is estimated that each year trillions of cigarette butts are littered! Cigarettes are the most littered item in America! And unlike most people think it takes decades for cigarette butts to disintegrate and they often cause fires. The non-profit organization mission is to educate people on the harm of littering cigarettes and how to reduce it.

We also found a lot of trash that people had tossed, such as gum wrappers, plastic wrappers and the like. The most interesting item we came across was a tooth. It was really large, so we don't think that it was human, probably canine. We also found a nasty tshirt near a bar in town. That was where we found the most cigarette butts, broken glass and beer caps. We also noticed lots of cigarette butts near a person's driveway. I'm assuming that they didn't smoke inside their house and instead smoked outside. Which is good you know, not smoking in the house and around others and all, but instead of throwing them in the trash when they are done they throw them outside. While smoking around others will stop second hand smoke and the potential for lung cancer. 69 chemicals in secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer. 3,000 lung cancer deaths occur each year because of secondhand smoke. Throwing the cigarette butts on the ground is not helping people either. So even though not smoking around others is good not throwing your cigarette butts on the ground is also good for other people. Let's not only give half our efforts.

After seeing all the litter that the rest of the class picked up in just two hours was pretty shocking. I have really been adamant about telling people that I know that smoke that they need to stop throwing their cigarette butts on the ground. Even though I used the claw instead of picking up the trash with my gloved hands it still had an impact on me. I never really littered before doing this, but I am going to make sure that I don't do it from now on and I am making sure I tell those around me to stop littering as well.

Photos courtesy of Diane Maluso and creativecommons.com. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

Divorce Attorney Wanted

We recently watched the documentary No Impact Man. It was based on a man, Colin, his wife Michelle and their daughter. The decided that they were going to attempt to go a whole year without making a carbon footprint. This was Colin's plan and he wanted to blog and eventually write a book about their experience trying to live this way in Manhattan. He made the decision that they were going to not buy any new clothes they could only go to thrift shops, make their own shampoo, laundry soap and dishwasher detergent, he told his wife she could no longer go to Starbucks, drink coffee and he threw out her makeup. Their goal was to make as little trash as possible, which lead them to have their own little compost box in their tiny apartment. They didn't buy any food at the grocery store, only at a local farmers market. They rode their scooter and bikes or walked everywhere they went. Because diapers are the second largest garbage category they decided to use cloth diapers on their daughter. He also made the decision that they weren't going to use toilet paper anymore. 6 months into the the year long study he decided to turn off the electricity and they would keep that off for the next 6 months.

How the wife made it for the full year I have no clue!

If my husband were to ask me to do this I would never personally do this. I agree with trying to lessen our carbon footprint, but to do what he was asking, no way Jose. I especially wouldn't have agreed to this when I had a small child. If I was a more green person, maybe I would have considered it. I also think the time limit was a little ambitious. Why not make it 6 months? If things were going according to plan you could extend the time limit.

The minute I would have told Colin I wanted a divorce was when he decided that the family wasn't going to use toilet paper. He acted like it was going to be no big deal to try and not use toilet paper, but he's a dude! It's a little different for a girl. Michelle should have gotten out an biology book and showed him that going to b
athroom isn't the same for males and females and that women also do this thing called menstruating. Mother nature comes knocking on the door and delivers her lovely gift once a month like clockwork. Clearly not having toilet paper would be much easier for a male than a female!

Another aspect that really irritated me was why on earth did he get to keep his laptop up and running when she had to get rid of the TV. I understand that he wanted to write about his experience and have people follow it and that was part of the project, but he just didn't seem to care that he was taking so many things away from his wife. I don't think he kept the vows that he most likely said in his wedding in mind during almost all of this experience. A fair compromise would have been him only being able to use the computers at a local cyber cafe. He did put in a solar panel solely for him to use it for his laptop after they shut the power off. Turning on the heat or lights for a short amount of time for a day would have been a much better and more fair way to use the solar panel.

He was just really selfish through this entire experiment, which makes me believe that he probably was already this way especially with the topic of them having another child. Michelle really wanted to have another child. She brought it up a couple times during the documentary and Colin did not want to give in he didn't want another kid. She was doing all of this for him and he barley listened when she wanted to discuss the possibility. Granted doing this experiment for a year verses raising another child for roughly 18
years is a little different. However, she clearly heard him out and decided to change her life dramatically for a year. They did get pregnant while on the show, but she ended up miscarrying, which he didn't seem to upset about. She also mentioned that he was putting energy into his dreams, but not into hers. My opinion on this whole relationship was that it was not very healthy. She even mentioned at one point that she was worried that if she slipped up she would feel his wrath...can you say unhealthy.

My overall thought on this is that it is a good idea, but the extent to which he took it and what it could have cost him was ridiculous.

First of all trying to do this in MANHATTAN was not the best idea. Being in a town where you had a back yard, a garden and could have kept the worms outside would have been a way better environment to do this in. Second, wanting to get noticed is something everyone wants. We get it, you want to be a name that everyone knows, if you are bachelor and are torturing yourself for this cause fine, but potentially putting your child at risk and maybe losing your wife is another thing. It doesn't seem worth the fame to me. Third, I think it was a little ambitious to think that this one experiment of a nobody in Manhattan was going to change the world, while it's a noble plan again all the risks weren't worth it.

I'm glad in the end that she stuck up for herself and said that the worms had to go. They decided to live as a minimal impact family verses a no impact family.

Making people more aware of the idea of making no impact on the earth and reducing your carbon footprint is a good idea. There are some carbon footprint calculator's out there such as the one I mentioned in a previous post. It's tailored to college students and it can give you some ideas on how to reduce your footprint. They also have a page on how to make a calculator that is more tailored to your college.

There is also a website called No Impact Project. It is a international, environmental, nonprofit project. It is inspired by the No Impact Man book, film and blog. They are trying to get people to reduce their carbon footprints everywhere. They give you tips and have a new experiment each week to try. They also give information on how to have your own no impact week at your universities, middle and high schools. communities and workplace.

Here at EC students have just started an Environmental Club and are trying to raise awareness about being more green on our campus. Maybe in a few years they can try a no impact project, just don't go about it the way Colin did.

Photos courtesy of creativecommons.com. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

CAUTION: Website Construction Ahead!!

If you are ever looking for a good laugh on the Internet go take a gander at www.webpagesthatsuck.com/. It kind of baffles me that some people created these websites thinking that they were awesome, because most of them really weren't. Some of them looked okay, but were not functional at all. Half of them I had no clue what they were talking about/trying to sell me and a few of them I couldn't look at because they could cause seizures. Why on earth would you make a website that 50 million people can't look at? Some of the websites I couldn't really tell what was wrong with them, but there were a few that I found pretty hilarious.

#1: highcallingcockers.com
 Reading the name of this website is horrible misleading. I would assume just seeing the URL link that it would some how be related to porn. Nope. It's a woman's website about her cocker spaniels. She uses the website to promote her cocker spaniels and gives you the opportunity to learn about upcoming litters and to contact them if you are interested. But that's not it. There is also a inspirational video about all the similarities between God and dogs, other than having the same letters. You can also read a lovely poem about what puppies dream about. It also has a page for songs from the heart. Some people may enjoy reading about all of these things and want to see her dogs, but there are a lot of design problems. Each time you click on a tab to the left it takes you to a new page with a different background. It would be very easy for people to click on that tab and then think that they are on a totally new website, due to the lack of consistency between pages. Most of the font blends in with the background, so it's nearly impossible to read the website. There is really obnoxious music in the background that cannot be turned off. There is a lot of disorganization on the pages themselves. There is writing and then pictures of the dogs and they have different backgrounds. It just looks really sloppy. While the dogs were nice to look at this website needs some work.

#2: http://www.serene-naturist.com/

This website has a lot going on and if you are under 18 you should not be looking at it. This one also has misguiding title. I assumed that this was going to be being one with nature, but no its about massages. There is annoying music on this website that you can't turn off. There are GIFs everywhere. Flying seagulls, butterflies, other birds, wiggling palm trees, lots of sparkles and words are scrolling all over the place. There is a constant changing of colors, there is some various hues of blue, there is some red, white and purple. Each time you click on a new tab the background changes. Perhaps the most shocking aspect about the website that they don't give any warning to is the amount of nudity. After realizing that the website was about massages I figured that there would be some pictures of people's bare backs being massaged, but I didn't expect to see bare butts and a woman with just her hands over her private parts and a man with just grapes over his private parts. There was no warning at all that you should be over a certain age to look at this site because of the misleading title it would be easy for someone younger to stumble across this web page. These pictures didn't have any rhythm or reason to where they were placed. There was also an interesting requirement for couple's massages. Only the women was allowed to make reservations. Apparently many men had called in to try and experience one of their fantasies, but this establishment doesn't offer those services. There was just too much going on and had I not been doing this research to blog about it I would have taken one look at this website and hit escape.

#3: http://www.burlingtonnews.net/burlington_ufo_center.html

UFOs!!!!!! This website is ALL over it! The overall theme for this website is UFO and Paranormal Research and Education. I'm not going to lie I do believe in the paranormal such as ghosts and spirits, but I find UFOs and aliens a little out there. There are so many things going on that if you were looking for something specific it's going to be a little bit before you find it. There are no tabs or sub tabs to open up as a way to organize the site, so that you can easily search for what you want. Instead it's just a hot mess. There are some dancing aliens, scary animated pictures of aliens and some moving lights. After looking at the website for a little bit to try and figure out what exactly they are trying to show their visitors the main topics were links to some books, movies about aliens and the paranormal, some study that is being done, conferences, a little section on did you know, some pictures of people looking for the paranormal and other facts and eye witness accounts. That is a lot of stuff for one page! They have a lot of color going on as well and some of the ads and words are overlapping as well as some grammatical errors. My notion that aliens don't exist isn't hindering my judgement on this. If I was a skeptic and wanted to know some information I most definitely would not believe anything that was being published on this website            

                                    So, what should we take away from these three websites? 

The first website had a very misleading URL, you want to make sure people have some general idea about what your website is about based on just the URL. Also you need to keep a semi-consistent background. You don't want to have viewers get confused and think they somehow switched to a different site. Also, you need to make sure the color of your font doesn't clash with the background color making it impossible to read.

The second website showed us that more is less. Maybe one or two GIFs on the website is okay and may add a little flair, but having them all over the place takes away from the actual content of the page. You also need to make it look a tube of glitter exploded all over your website. Also if you are going to have GIFs they need to be relevant to what the topic is about. Butterflies, birds and wiggling palm trees don't have a lot to do with massages. This website also had a misleading URL. The last two things to take away from this is that if you are going to have nude pictures there needs to be a warning and there also needs to be some rhythm or reason to where you placed the pictures.

The third website showed us the power of having tabs and sub tabs. Having all that information, whether it was factual or not, should not be all on one page. You can't navigate the website. If you were looking for something specific it would take a person a lengthy amount of time to find it, that is if they even bothered to look after seeing the website initially. Grammar is also important on the web page and discredits you some if there are multiple errors, spell check and proof reading are your friend!

All photos courtesy of Creative Commons and will be removed upon request. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13

Tree Huggers Anonymous

I never would have thought that I would look forward to a tree hugging activity, until it became an activity for class and then I couldn't wait! Mostly because how many people can say that they had to hug trees for class? So, I was really looking forward to this field trip and it did not disappoint.

Sarah was my partner for this and I had a feeling that there was a slim chance that I would be able to find my tree right away. I was right. We had to be blindfolded, so that we had no clue where we were.

Sarah lead me ALL over the woods. I decided that I would not cheat at this activity and would really try to find my tree based on instinct, bonding or whatever you would like to call it. Apparently I didn't bond well with my tree or I have really crappy instincts. 

Once Sarah placed me at my tree I decided that I would see how many roots were coming up from the ground, what the circumference of the tree was and if I could reach any branches. I figured that the three roots and the fact that I could reach two branches on each side of the tree would help me find the tree easily, it didn't. It did help me narrow down the search a bit, but I was still the last in my group to find my tree. I also thought that she lead me down to the hill that lead to the water because of the length that we traveled, I was wrong. In the end Sarah's excellent skills of disorienting me and my horrible sense of direction hindered me in this activity. 

At the end of the video you can see me in the purple scarf with my tree right next to where we originally started. 

I didn't really like being the last to finish and that everyone was watching me, even though I assumed it would happen from the beginning. I was close to giving up until Sarah was allowed to play the hot cold game to help me find the tree. When I finally found the tree it was right next to where we originally started. 

Not only was this activity about finding your tree and communing with nature, but it was also about trusting your partner. I am a really clumsy person and was afraid I was going to trip and fall. Luckily my partner was my roommate and one of my really good friends, so I didn't have any reservations that she would purposely let me trip. Had I been paired with someone that I didn't trust this may have been a more nerve racking activity. 

Below is me trying to find my tree. Enjoy :)

Leading Sarah around was a lot of fun. I knew that she wasn't very clumsy, so I concentrated more on trying to get a little pay back and really tried to disorient her, so she would have just a hard of a time trying to find her tree than I did. Leading her around was a little nerve racking even though I knew she wasn't clumsy. One of her 5 senses was cut off and that could easily lead to her being more inclined to trip. I didn't want her to fall and get hurt, so I had to distribute my priorities between getting her disoriented verses her falling and hurting herself. After leading Sarah back to the start and taking her blindfold off she easily found her tree, unlike me who was last. 

Apparently tree hugging isn't just a fun thing to do in class it can also be beneficial to your health. In the book Blinded by Science by Matthew Silverstone he proves that hugging trees can improve your health. Some health issues it can help with are mental illnesses, ADHD, concentration levels, reaction times and depression among others. So not only should we go tree hugging for one class we should do it regularly in all our classes to increase our health. Someone should try and bring that up with their other professors and see what their response is.

There is also a world wide project going on called The Treehugger Project. Their mission is to help people to re-discover their relationship with nature at a very personal and intimate level. They have people around the world create art on trees by using sticks, branches, vines and other natural materials. People all over the world are creating these. To see some of their awesome designs go to their flicker page.

If you want to have tons of fun and improve your health go out there and hug some trees!



All photos and the second video were courtesy of Sarah Hammer'13. The first video was courtesy of Diane Maluso. All other information copywrite of Logan Tallmadge'13