Karavans

Parents Invade Facebook to Monitor Their Offspring

Friended by Mom and Dad on Facebook. Oh Noez!

Could Facebook be in danger of losing its cool factor? In a startling turn of events, parents have begun swarming Facebook daily by the hundreds for the express purpose of monitoring their children's activities at the notorious site. Facebook has gained a reputation over the past few years as the place online where college kids come to make everlasting fools of themselves. This is typically achieved by posting pictures of oneself passed out in a pool of vomit or worse. 

It's "creepy" being watched by older family members:

"It's really weird that nonstudents and parents use Facebook," said Emma Gaines, a Tufts University sophomore. "It makes me feel really uncomfortable that my older aunt has Facebook, because she says that she likes to check up on her teenage nieces and nephews and takes our pictures for her own use. That's creepy."

Facebookers are already mounting a counter-attack against mom, dad, and Auntie Bethany having access to the site.

The Facebook group entitled "For the love of god -- don't let parents join Facebook" has 5,819 high school and college-aged members who want to stop the growing number of parents who are joining Facebook, the massively popular social networking site, from "spying" on them.

This invasion does not bode well for Facebook.

How to Find Start-up Capital for Your Business in a Depression

If you are struggling to find the money you need to start a business in this recession / depression, take advantage of a free newsletter. How to fund your start-up.

Good luck.

Do the Right Thing, America

End the nightmare on November 4th.


Obama '08 - Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

"Investors suffer as US ethanol boom dries up" - Hey, who knew that less efficient, more expensive ways of making fuel from foodstuffs wasn't going to pan out?

Investors suffer as US ethanol boom dries up

By Kevin Allison in San Francisco and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

Published: October 21 2008 23:22 | Last updated: October 21 2008 23:22

Investors, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates, are sitting on billions of dollars in losses after buying into the corn-based ethanol industry that George W. Bush embraced as the ans wer to US energy woes.

Six of the biggest publicly traded US ethanol producers have lost more than $8.7bn in market value since the peak of the boom in mid-2006 and the beginning of this month, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. The boom followed a 2005 law requiring refiners to mix billions of gallons of the biofuel with petrol.  (source)

Who could have seen this coming?

Industry Aggregation: The Business Model for the 21st Century

People's Capitalism: A Business Model for the 21st Century

Entrepreneurs from all over the world are discovering the benefits of the Japanese keiretsu business model built on collaboration and cross-ownership.

Under the keiretsu model, which helped fuel Japan's “Economic Miracle” after WW2, a group of large publicly traded industrials band together with a bank to prosper together.

Under the new “Industry Aggregation” model small to medium sized companies band together in similar fashion to prosper together. The bank is replaced by a publicly-traded company which facilitates cross-ownership and access to expansion capital.

There are ten Industry Aggregation projects aggregating ten different industries currently including one focused on sustainable living and alternative energy.

You can find out more about Industry Aggregation here.

US Courts Turn to Solar Power

The "Courthouse in a Gymbag" Solar Power Emergency Kit

US Courts are starting to utilize solar power as a backup energy source in the event of an emergency.

When an emergency happens, preparedness can save the day. That’s been the AO Office of Emergency Preparedness mantra to courts ever since September 11, 2001. Providing key decision makers with “go bags” is one way to ready them to dash out in an emergency, well prepared with the grab of one bag. Many courts have chosen to prepare with this “go bag” approach.

At the U.S. District Court, they call their readiness kit the “courthouse in a gym bag.”
In it are:

-A laptop set up for instant access to the Internet, to the judiciary’s virtual private
network (VPN), and data voice-over IP;

-A secure thumb drive with all key data needed in an emergency, accessible only with
the fingerprint of the authorized users—usually the thumb drive user, the court’s
COOP manager, and an IT manager;

-A long-lasting solar-charged battery pack;

-A car charger device;

-An adapter that allows anything with a plug to run off the power pack or car as power
supply;

-A digital recorder for judges to record key information during emergencies.

“How could you provide people with these resources as an emergency or disaster strikes?” asks Melissa Muir of Washington-Western. “The answer is, you couldn’t, not unless you’re always at the ready.

Karavans is the exclusive supplier of choice to US courts of the "Courthouse in a Gym-bag." emergency kits.

Latest Human-powered Car

The latest in automobile technology: a human powered car.

Green Washing Machine: Lose Weight Doing the Laundry

Human-powered appliances: green washing machine.

Part of the obesity epidemic stems from all the "labor saving" devices most households are cluttered with. Imagine being able to get in 20 minutes of cardio while using this device to do your laundry.

Solar Charger Sale

Looking for a great solar energy gift for yourself or someone else?

Consider the PowerDock line of solar-powered chargers for your small battery-powered electronics. The PowerDock Elite comes with its own battery which allows them to store energy in addition to recharging your gadget's batteries. With its battery the Powerdock solar charger serves as a storage backup.

The Elite makes a great introductory product for people interested in trying solar energy.

Click for more info on PowerDock solar chargers.

The PowerDocks are the chargers used by individuals, businesses, and other organizations which need reliable backup in emergencies and remote areas.

Regular Gaiam price is $349 plus s/h. Click the button to see our special sale price. Don't miss out. This is the best price anywhere.

Carnival of the Green #96

First of all, many thanks to Green Style  for hosting last week's Carnival of the Green.

Here are this week's Carnival of the Green submissions in the precise order that they came in:

Doris Chua presents I'm Not A Plastic Bag! posted at Doris Go Shopping.

Lifegoggles has a new ebook 100 Ways To Save The Planet.

Beth Terry writes Some of my best friends are plastic bags!  Many people consider plastic bags to be evil and have discarded them in favor of reusable totes.  Which is fine.  But this article is about saving old plastic grocery bags and reusing them in place of things for which we'd otherwise have to buy new plastic.  It emphasizes Re-use before Re-cycling.

John presents Number of Threatened Species Increasing posted at A DC Birding Blog.

Melanie Rimmer contributes a piece titled Everything I know about environmentalism, I learned from Star Wars.

Vihar Sheth presents The Debate Heats Up: Vegetarianism & Climate Change posted at green | rising.

Tiffany Washko presents Eco Friendly Friday Tip posted at Natural Family Living Blog.

Howard Ditkoff presents Emotional Responses to the Andrew Meyer & John Kerry Incident: A Psychological Study in Issues of Power, Anger and Authority posted at SystemsThinker.com Blog.

Aaron Newton submitted The 4 Day Work Week
The clear fact that a 4 day work week would save such a precious non-renewable resource is just the first of 16 reasons why I think it's time to revive the idea of reducing the numbers of days we work each week.

Nick Aster takes a look at the strange Media Exposure an oil refinery expansion is getting.

Amanda Hanley writes on 7 ways to reduce your exposure to PBDE flame retardants.
PBDEs are everywhere, and there's some evidence connecting them to brain and developmental problems in animals and possibly even cancer. Exposure to flame retardant chemicals is ubiquitous, but there are things you can do to keep the concentration of PBDEs in your body as low as possible.

On Tuesday, Leila of EveryDayTrash spent a surreal evening digging through New York City garbage with a group of freegans and a Japanese cable access film crew.

Eric Michael Johnson presents Twin Towers on a Pale Blue Dot posted at The Primate Diaries.

Eric Michael Johnson presents The Dangers of Technological Adolescence posted at The Primate Diaries.

Eric Michael Johnson presents Primate Experimentation Under the Microscope posted at The Primate Diaries.

Don from evaneco.com is live-blogging a nation-wide Christian environmental conference at Vineyard Church, Boise ID. His posts are here and being updated throughout the day.

Allie from AlliesGreenAnswers.com has contributed a piece on parabens.

Adam Williams contributes two more articles by Joel Williams:

Why the tube strike was good for London and Environmentally Friendly Plastic Bottles.

Andy presents Car Gas Experiment: Regular or Premium? posted at Money Walks.

Lisa C. Baker writes on The current news from Jena, LA gives an opportunity to rethink the NIMBY-ism of environmental injustice.

10,000 Birds submitted Long-lining - An Old Problem That Needs Solving Now.  As you can might surmise, it's about the environmental hazards and dietary implications of modern fishing practices. The author is Charlie Moores of 10,000 Birds.

Harlan Weikle has written  a piece on wine titled As American as apple pie, burgers and Napa Valley.

Marie at Green Fertility offers a post on organic chocolate.

Marilyn Terrell presents The Carbon Diet: Final Results: National Geographic Magazine posted at The Carbon Diet.

Marilyn Terrell for Jeannette Kimmel presents Goats Cut Carbon Emissions posted at Intelligent Travel.

Marilyn Terrell for Emily King presents True Nature Country Fair posted at Intelligent Travel.

Marilyn Terrell of Intelligent Travel blog presents Green Car Congress: Study: N2O Emissions from Biofuel Crop Production Negates Greenhouse Gas Benefits of Using Biofuels posted at Green Car Congress.

Idiot/Savant presents Climate change: preliminary analysis posted at No Right Turn.

David from Goodhuman.com has submitted a piece called What are GMO's and why you should avoid them.

Aundi presents Complexity Theory and Economies posted at Queercents.

Sue Luxton offers us an article on the Green Party of England and Wales "Does the Green Party Need a Leader?"

Chris Baskind offer tips for saving energy and preparing for autumn A Dozen Tips for a Greener Autumn.

Mary Ellen from Blue Voice submits a piece on pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson author of Silent Spring.

The October 1st host for the 97th Carnival of the Green will be World is Green.