Happy New Year

Pacey and Penny Say:
All the best to you and yours in 2008.

News review of 2007

Penny Says: 2007 a year in review from me to you!

An astronaut in diapers, celebrities and socialites in prison, finally the cell phone that does everything (once you hack it), wars, famine, drought, and Mattel asks parents everywhere “would you like your toys with our without lead?”

Astronaut is crazy in love and wears diapers to avoid bathroom breaks on the way to murder the object of her affections new lover! NASA sure knows how to pick them - cream of the crop - Way to think it through NASA. Way to check those references!

Anna Nicole Smith died, leaving behind her rich baby and suddenly her baby has two daddies and then they went to court and we learned through the magic of DNA testing that babies only have one daddy. Now that Daddy has dead Mommy’s money and has to take care of a baby.

This year a pop star made millions of dollars, so she shaved her head, went to rehab at least twice, and despite having a personal stylist suffered multiple fashion mishaps that result in everyone seeing her gnarly bits. Oh yeah, and to top it off, Britney Spears had her kids taken from her due to parental incompetence! Soon after her sweet 16 year old sister Jamie Lynn Spears gets pregnant, all the while Momma Spears is writing a parenting book – yeah this is all going to end well.

Darfur – the search for water continues while the 2 million (give or take a million) people who have survived the genocidal slaughter are currently starving and living in refugee camps – in spite of the attempts made by Bono, who sang several songs on their behalf and some websites offer Do-It-Yourself Save Darfur kits.

Pakistan a military dictatorship began the year as a American ally helping the US fight terrorism. President Pervez Musharraf took a severe departure from the route to democracy and declared a state of emergency suspending human rights putting off democratic elections. Soon after their progressive Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was brutally assassinated days before the elections were to be held. She had a shown promise as a winner of the soon to come democratic and free elections. Benazir has fought her whole life to lead Pakistan to democracy alas extremist with guns win. Comforting to know they are a member of the nuclear club!!!!

North Korea (officially Democratic People's Republic of Korea) currently being run by Kim Jong-il is still showing us all how you can be a dictator and still use the word democratic to describe the people you are enslaving and starving. Yup you guessed it – nuclear club members!

Al Gore wins peace prize for raising awareness about the global warming (sorry now we call it climate change) movement that has little or no merit or science to back it up. But at least he made some sweet coin off of his scary movie. Meanwhile George Bush has been directing the money guzzling, life consuming War on Terror, a real life scary movie with no end in sight!

iPhone is hyped for months and when finally released people line up for days to buy the wondrous device that leads to 300 page phone bills. Then one day one smart kid hacks the phone allowing iphone users to change networks to one with out exorbitant fees. Suck it AT&T!

Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie both get drunk and decide to drive home – both get caught, both spend some time in the slammer, one finds God the other gets pregnant. Both swear to someone they are sober. Grand Pappy Hilton decides to will his fortune to charity.

2007 Writers Guild of America strike is still going strong. Most prime time shows have simply run out of taped episodes and switched to re-runs. But up in Canada home-made programming is going strong. The writers strike in the US may actually give Canadian writer Douglas Coupland’s JPOD a chance at making it past the pilot episode. Coupland is a fantastic author and JPOD is a great book - I am sure the show will be entertaining and insightful, but Canadian productions are just that – Canadian. Coupland’s 2007 release The Gum Thief is excellent book and a must read if you have ever doubted that love and life can be found in the most unlikely places.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper sets aside millions for research to take place in Canada’s arctic – just after the Russians noticed Canadians were not using it and planted a flag there! Polar bears suddenly feeling like somebody’s watching and counting them.

Happy December 25th Day!

Pacey says:

One of the most common features in human mythology is the rising of the sun on December 25^th. Ancient societies have mythologised the ‘birth’ of the sun on December 25^th for centuries.

The sun, of course, brings light, warm temperatures, and life to the planet, and worshiping the sun is the most common form of worship in humans. Humans have also tracked the stars in the night sky in order to anticipate the sun’s rise and fall over the seasons. One of the earliest maps of the night sky is detailed in the Zodiac (pre-2000 B.C.), where star constellations were given earthly qualities by humans. The signs of the Zodiac map the sun’s travels throughout celestial sky.

One of the earliest sun gods was Horus of ancient Egypt (~3000 B.C.) He was born on December 25^th of the virgin Isis. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, and at the time of his birth he was adorned by 3 Kings. He was crucified and was resurrected after three days.

In ancient Greece, the god of light Attis (1200 B.C.) was born on December 25^th, crucified, dead for three days, and resurrected. In 900 B.C., the god Krishna was born on December 25^th accompanied by a star in the east. Another Greek god, Dionysus, was born of a virgin on December 25^th in ~500 B.C. and was crucified. The Persian god Mithra was born December 25^th 1200 B.C., was dead for three days and was resurrected. In Israel, Jesus Christ, too, was born on December 25^th of a virgin, adorned by three kings, was crucified, and resurrected after three days.

The commonalities among these sun gods are compelling. The prevailing theory is that what these ancient societies were doing was mapping the lowering of the sun in the daytime sky in the winter which was resulting in shorter days. On December 22^nd, the sun was at its lowest point in the daytime sky, where it remained (perceivably) for three days. On December 25^th, the sun moved higher in the daytime sky, signaling the end of short, colder days, and the return of warmth, longer days, and the rebirth of plant life. Thus, the birth of the sun takes place on December 25^th after three of the darkest days.

The links between the sun gods and the constellations are also highlighted in other common details. When the sun god is ‘born’ on December 25^th, it rises into the Zodiac constellation of Virgo, thus the sun god was born of a virgin. On this day, the sun rises into the Southern Cross (Crux) constellation, and thus the sun god was crucified. This probably explains why Christians, Pagans, and followers of the Zodiac share the cross as their symbol, with the sun in the middle. A cute metaphor in Christianity is that their sun god had a “Crown Of Thorns”, which resembles sun rays.

Another interesting link between the sun gods is the trend of having being adorned by three kings under a bright star in the east. The stars of the belt of Orion was termed in the ancient world “The Three Kings”, and if you follow the three kings from right to left the next star in the sky happens to be the brightest star in the eastern sky, Sirius. If one follows the trajectory from the three kings through Sirius, they align with the spot on the horizon where the sun breaks dawn on December 25^th.

A deeper look into the commonalities between these ancient sun gods is the number 12. Many of these gods had 12 disciples, 12 virgins, 12 shepherds traveling with them. These 12 disciples can be traced to the 12 signs of the Zodiac, where the sun travels over the course of a year, or 12 months.

It appears that these ancient mythologies were mapping the sun (the son of god, the light, the risen savior, defender against darkness) in the sky and assigning elaborate mythologies to them, personifying the sun.

Thus, December 25^th day signals to us that summer is on its way. Whether you are celebrating the birth of Horus, Krishna, Jesus, Attis, Dionysus, Mithra, the Great Pumpkin, the sun itself, or Santa on December 25^th , we should all hold our loved ones close and feel happy about the longer days and warmer temperatures that are to come.

Pacey would like thank Penny for providing visual aids and conceptual consultation on this post.

Too bored to work?

Penny Says: why not go from drab to fab this holiday season

As budgets get slashed and companies economize the days of private decorated offices are long gone. But do you have to suffer the mind dulling gray of a cubical wall that as of yet has only inspired a coma.
According to this article you do not have to suffer any longer Wired cubical fixes .

There are great ideas ranging from grad student chic to sophisticated smoking jacket worthy cubical! I am guessing that not all offices will be happy with the new cubical look - but if you could find a few items to brighten your day like a faux window city scape, or a little coffee maker you might find your cubical can inspire you to do a good job and be a little happy about going there too!






I think this Zen cubical would make an office enticing even on a sunny day!

A home office could easily be casino themed! although for me it might be a bit over stimulating to have a slot machine where my printer used to be!!

If you are not into adding bling to your cubical why not add a pet? A little betta-fish would make good company and would not be too upset about being left alone on weekends. For a great quick guide to caring for your work pet follow this link to betta care by Mary Brennecke.













Ranging from a simple mason jar to fancy hanging aquariums betta fish can brighten up any workplace with hardly any fuss. But the pay off is you can watch your betta swim around and add colour to your day.

Why is there corn in my coffee

Penny says – Oh no! Is my coffee drinking habit destroying the planet?

According to several sources it might be…

To-go-coffee cups are often made from some recycled paper material but are lined with a plastic coating ensuring that hot coffee stays in the cup and not on your lap. This lining makes these cups non-biodegradable. To make things worse, plastic is traditionally made from petroleum (polyethylene) arguably a non-sustainable resource. Although this plastic is not biodegradable it is often used in single use products like cups, plates, and disposable cutlery. We use it once and through it into the trash, it ends up in landfills taking us space potentially forever.

I do not know if the landfills are filling up, nor do I understand what happens to thousands of kilograms of garbage in plastic bags over time as it sits in landfills (I imagine there are some seriously nasty smelling oozing processes underway but I can also imagine a child’s plastic toy still looking remarkably like its original form 40 years after being put in a landfill).

I am really in need of a cup of coffee so I will try to get to my point. If coffee cups and the like are going to be tossed out after one use – they should be made from materials from a sustainable source that is can biodegrade in a landfill or in a compost facility.

According to some sources – plant based plastics are the perfect solution. Corn based plastics are safe for cup lining and apparently biodegrade (http://www.greenhome.com/).

However it may not be as simple as that – in order to get these bio-plastics to breakdown they need to be in the “right” environment. A compost facility that has the specific heat and moisture requirements. These cups will not break down in your composter at home. But if every coffee cup was shipped to a compost facility they could be broken down. See this article for more info - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/plastic.html

An alternative that takes some getting used too – Baggase is the biomass pulp like material remaining after sugarcane has been processed to extract its sweet juice. Baggase is most recognizable to consumers as those brown trays that hold four to-go coffees.

Baggase is a sustainable, biodegradable re-purposed material. PERFECT – if only it could hold coffee? Well it can but the cups made out of it loose a bit of their rigidity when hot liquids are poured into them they will not leak just become a little more dynamic and potentially difficult to hang on to. My solution is to use a baggase coffee cup sleeve over the baggase cup to maintain rigidity when hot.

( http://dgs.greenhome.com/products/kitchen/compostableware/ ) To buy baggase products follow this link. Of course my perfect to-go coffee cup is not yet on the market but there are some close seconds and other compostable plastic products. But there is governmental support for those of you inclined to come-up with a solution to our to-go coffee cup quandary (http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2007/0709bio_e.html )

Eco- conscience coffee shops are using the pricey Corn-lined cups - but are these really any better than the polyethylene alternative if they end up in the landfill? Maybe just slightly but they are also more expensive than traditional cups.

OK so plastic that is made from a sustainable resource is a good thing especially when it is bio-degradable. The problem is that we usually through out our to-go coffee cups in the garbage bins on the street or in the office or even at home. These bins are lined with petroleum product – Polyethylene - plastic bags that are not biodegradable and yet super cheep and practical barrier between us and the gooey garbage. So even when you pay the extra money for the eco-plastics if you do not ensure they are going to the compost centre to biodegrade and be turned into fertilizer – are you really doing the environment any favors?

I am all for saving money and bringing your own mug offers discounted coffee prices (10 to 20 cents per beverage) but you are stuck carrying the mug long after the decadent coffee is gone. I say put the extra effort into buying a good reusable coffee mug that fits in your purse or briefcase or backpack when it is not in use. Why not buy a bio-plastic mug and be sure to return to appropriate composting facility when finished with it. For green products including the ladybug mug go to greenhome For an example of a composting facility

Bulk orders of corn-plastic mugs with low price points for you folks that own businesses that require branding see Fairware a Vancouver based company with lots of eco-friendly products.

If you have 10 minutes why not stop and have your coffee to stay - using one of the ceramic cups provided by the coffee shop. I know there are still detergents needed to wash these cups but hopefully the business you get your coffee from are using eco-friendly cost efficient detergents. Taking a break and actually resting for a few minutes while you enjoy a cup-a-joe will likely decrease your stress levels, increase your mental alertness and help you be more efficient at accomplishing tasks for the remainder of your day. That’s right I am telling you that taking a break and sitting still will help the environment and probably save you time.

For all of you gardeners out there – Starbucks has a bucket of coffee grounds that are for your garden – you just stop by your local Starbucks and pickup a bucket of grounds free of charge of course and I recommend you bring your own re-usable bucket!!! http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp

For a quick article on corn plastics see http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2007/07/11/corn-plastic/

For those of you who might have Corn allergies!! - http://cornfree.ca/index.htm I guess PLA coffee cups are too corny for some.