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"While The World Sleeps - you had better believe that somewhere there is a nature photographer getting ready to be in the right place, at the right time, for the right light."

John De Bord
Photographer on Redbubble

Redbubble is a forum and online are community where photographers and graphic designers place their best work. It might be worth a look. You can but your best pieces on the site for comment and advice from other amateur and professional photographers.

The Artists Forum, Inc. (AF) is a NY State not-for-profit, multi-arts service organization, specializing in events, competitions, and media for artists.  

We produce an array of programs designed to educate and enhance the careers of the under-served artist - programs that help artists structure sound business dealings, legally protect their interests, utilize new techniques and technologies, address healthcare needs, and provide accessible avenues to display their work. 

Along with a variety of juried competitions, showcases, web resources, online  magazine, and televised programming, AF further expands artists' opportunities by providing relaxed business building networking events for our members and supporters: musicians, writers, singers, actors, producers, dancers, filmmakers, visual artists, industry professionals and art enthusiasts.  

For more information, visit: www.theartistsforum.org, www.myspace.com/afnyc, www.twitter.com/afnyc, www.youtube.com/aftvnyc, http://current.com/people/AFTV, www.facebook.com/afnyc1

Previous posters posted a site... but I would only like to share the principals that I think everyone can follow whether you have the attunements for reiki or not, simply put:

Just for today, Do not anger
Just for today, Do not worry
Honor your Parents, Teachers and Elders
Earn your Living Honestly
Show gratitude, To every living thing

and one Quote: You must be the change you want to see in the world ~Mahatma Gandhi~

Mr. Blackthorne, I think you should check this out. With all the wonderful things you have on here for everyone to check out and the limited time you have to pop in and say hey on the guestbook, maybe what you need is a blog. I am on gaia.com, it is a social networking site without the share of freaks that other sites tend to have. The main goal of Gaia is for everyone to be spiritualy and environmentaly focused and it is so peaceful and positive. Please drop by my page and leave me a message that you were there! And if you do decide to join and start a blog, I will be your first friend request. Thank you for being you.

www.gaia.com

I might have seen this saying before, but just recently came across it on the back of a T-shirt. It is from our local, non profit, no kill shelter the Animal Resource Center:

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Ghandi

http://www.nokillarc.org

[I wasn't sure what section to put this - sorry! :-) ]

I read this book of Chinese short stories when I was a child and there was one about a starving king, dethroned and pursued, who runs into some paupers and they serve him gruel made of days old vegetables gathered from people's garbage. The king, after restored to the throne, remembered that taste fondly for ages. Finally, unable to palate the gourmet fare of the palace anymore he announced a reward for anyone who could replicate that meal for him and remind him of that heavenly taste. And, lo and behold, one day came knocking on the door who but the same old pauper who had once served him that gruel. Much to the palace kitchen's enormous surprise the old pauper threw away all their fresh produce and expensive cuts of meats and made the king's men go hunting for rotten vegetables off people's trash. Then he cooked it over slow heat, letting it fester and rot for days more. Finally, it was the day the king was to be served. A big crowd gathered in the palace – ministers and dignitaries and foreign princes and princesses. They sat, wild with anticipation, around the king's dinner table for they had heard much about this wondrous nectar. Finally the food came. The stench was unbearable. The taste was so foul that people were throwing up on the floor. The king was livid. He called the poor pauper and asked him to explain. The old man was surprised. After all, this was what he had fed the king all those days ago when they found him starving and wounded by the street.

I think the king had the pauper beheaded.

Moral of the story: don't cook rotten vegetable gruel for kings, Chinese or otherwise. I am kidding. The point is sometimes you don't realize the value of simple things until adversity forces you to pay attention.

I wish people would be nice, kind, respectful, tolerant of the world and each other without needing a reason for it but that is how it is. The good thing is that it is happening. Awareness, particularly in regards to the planet and going green, is incresingly mainstream whereas before it was the purview of the few and the dedicated. Sorry I have no link to add - there are many below - but, although the old man does end up in hot waters, to put it mildly, I always thought this was an uplifting story. Like so many things in life it is what you take from it and I hope that this can serve as an inspiration to someone someday.

Unless it is as an inspiration to behead people in which case I apologize.

http://venusreinvented.blogspot.com

Your local recycling provider may be cutting costs and services:

http://www.newstimes.com/latestnews/ci_11178418

This article is specific to my area but it may be an issue in yours as well.

If programs are cut, The Daily Green has a feature to locate other sources of services. This tool is also good for finding recycling centers that will take plastics other than #1 and 2.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/ (on the lower right)

I’ve been struggling with the idea of posting this link for a few reasons: First, my name is on 5 of the last 6 posts. I really don’t want this section to be subtitled “Sites Teresa wants you to see”. The second is a little more serious: I really didn’t want to post anything political. However, the main message in the article is the environment and that’s a political topic that can’t be ignored. It outlines the Bush administration’s errors (or ‘sins’ as the title has labeled them) and challenges Obama with corrective actions. When I first read it, it seemed very pro-Obama and I couldn’t abide by being perceived as an Obama supporter. (I certainly don’t have a t-shirt with his likeness on it…..) After reading through it again, however, I realized the same article could have been written regardless of who won the election. So… since this article is educational at very least, please take a look:

http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/11/08/bush_environmental_sins/inde...

Please note that you shouldn’t read the comments section if you’re sensitive to strong language.

The more I learn about R. Buckminster Fuller, the more I am in awe. His life and the work he created is inspiring. The folks at the Buckminster Fuller Institute are caring on the themes he worked for most of his life. One that comes to mind is that when people have their needs met, they will respond favorably to one another, with kindness and peace. You can check the out at:

http://www.bfi.org

Enjoy

A headline I saw this morning: "Automakers reserve hybrids for NYC taxi fleet: Three major auto manufacturers are promising to reserve 300 new hybrid vehicles each month exclusively for New York City as it replaces its entire fleet of yellow cabs." The link is: http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=689186282400

I was searching for a little bit more information and also found that the city agreed to new regulations on the black cars. (For those of you unfamiliar with that term, the black cars are considered "luxury personal transportation" as opposed to the yellow cabs.) Here's the link to that press release: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/press_release_04_17_08.pdf

I still think the subways are the way to go in NYC (or any city) and they don't charge you every 10th of a mile... Interesting tidbit: The Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn is 100% solar powered. I'd like to see more of those throughout the boroughs.

The story of a newly discovered uncontacted trib on the Brizal and Peru border will be reported on the news and in news papers. I found the story through MSN.com. There is an organization dedicated to protecting the 100 or more uncontacted tribes in the world. According to the article this tirbe is in danger because the logging in Peru is forcing other uncontaced tribes to move into their territory. To read more about this tribe and the efforts to save all uncontacte tribes go to http://www.survival-international.org/.

Until I saw this article I didn't realize that there were so many tribes that have not had contacted with "civilized" man. As we encroach on their territory we are forcing them to move and there is the risk of exposing them to diseases for which they have no immunity. To put it simply, if we continue destroying the areas where they live we can bring about the extinction of whole tribes.

The Department of Indian Affairs in Brazil made an effort to locate the tribe just so they could prove their existance and take steps to protect them.

The NY Times has a neat little section on eco-tourism with a bunch of interesting articles: http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/eco-tourism/overview.html

A site for locating environmentally friendly hotels was linked in one of the articles: http://environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com/ . I love their slogan: “Leave smaller footprints when you travel. Be conserving away from home.”

Hey there- I was recently introduced to "Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens" by Douglas Tallamy, a Professor and Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. It is a great book that will hopefully inspire people to use native plants in their gardening and landscaping. If people begin to use native plants, we can begin step-by-step to restore the ecosystems of the places we live. There was an excellent interview with him on one of the best shows on NPR - Radio Times, which originates in Philly. Unfortunately it is not available everywhere, but look for it at WHYY http://www.whyy.org/91FM/radiotimes.html

The in-depth hour long interview aired on 3/4/08 and is available for listening via the Radio Times archive.

Tower of Babel is the multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, recognized by the United Nations as one of the most important Social and Human Sciences Online Periodicals. Phenomenal site!

Ref: http://www.unesco.org/shs/shsdc/journals/humanities-culture-society.html

I stumbled on this while helping my cousin with a report on eco-friendly home products.

www.thegreenguide.com

From their website:

"Originated as a print newsletter in 1994, then expanded into a web site, thegreenguide.com, in 2002, Green Guide was acquired by National Geographic Society in March 2007, as part of NGS' global commitment to inform and inspire people to care about the planet. Dubbed the “green living source for today’s conscious consumer”, the GREEN GUIDE makes living in an environmentally-aware way easy, understandable, and practical. Intended for general consumers, GREEN GUIDE (in print and on the web) shows people how to make small changes that add up to big benefits for their wallets, for their health, and, of course, for the health of the planet. Not political or activist, the GREEN GUIDE is chock-full of simple, useful, ideas, broken down into achievable steps, that make going green a gradual and affordable process rather than an all-or-nothing plunge."

for those of us who need resolutions, here are a few to try out if you want to go green. some small things you can start with.
http://green.msn.com/articles/article.aspx?aid=310&GT1=10832

happy greening!

here is an article you might find somewhat useful in the ongoing war to go green. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,320207,00.html at least some tech companies are starting to think about wastefulness and power consumption.

http://www.parkeharrison.com/
Photography website

http://www.hermanleonard.com/
Another photography website. Also, if possible, check out the BBC/Sundance Channel documentary about Mr. Leonard and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, "Saving Jazz".

http://jazzicons.com/
I have not yet seen any of these DVD's but they are getting great reviews.

www.projectgreengift.com

One of my clients created this program. The following a breif overview from the "How it works" section of the website:

"ProjectGreenGift.com carbon dioxide offsets are being achieved through a tree-planting program undertaken by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai (CSK) Tribes in the State of Montana. The CSK Tribes are comprised of the Bitterroot Salish, the Pend d'Oreille and the Kootenai tribes. They currently reside in the Flathead Reservation which is made up of 1.3 million acres in northwest Montana but their ancestors lived in the territory now known as western Montana, parts of Idaho, British Columbia and Wyoming.

Each recipient will receive an Environmental Remediation Certificate from Sustainable Forestry Management Ltd. (SFM) certifying that trees planted will offset your CO2 emissions for one year".

The Global Intelligencer is published by Cate Montana. She works with the gang who gave us What the BLEEP Do We Know? and now has The Global Intelligencer site and newsletter.

She describes the site this way: "The Global Intelligencer is one small piece of the puzzle. Its mission is to serve as an information clearinghouse for topics concerning individual, social and global transformation, making it available on a monthly basis to a maximum number of people worldwide."

http://www.theglobalintelligencer.com

Who could possibly leave out that wonderful gorilla named Koko? I will never forget the picture of her cuddling her first little kitten. Koko is the amazing gorilla who has learned over 1,000 signs in American Sign Language and she loves communicating with Penny. They're working with her to help them find ways to save the rapidly declining gorilla population.

You can find out more about her and her fellow gorillas at:

http://www.koko.org

I warned you that I have a lot of sites that I check regularly! Here's another one.

The main purpose of this site is to keep track of events on the sun and let us know what to expect from there. In this age of increasing electronics and people flying through the air in numerous machines, it's more important than ever to know what might be heading our way. A giant Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) occurred several years ago and melted a transformer in Canada down to slag! It can interfere with satellite signals to your cellphone or TV and it can give you the equivalent of a number of x-rays when flying for a business meeting or if you pop up to the space station for a visit.

We're in a "season" of low solar activity in the cycle now, but it's interesting to keep track of, especially since we're more susceptible now that we're having issues with our ozone layer.

The site also keeps track of things that we see in the skies within our own atmosphere, monitors climate-tracking satellites, provides educational science materials for schools and the general public, has a wonderful database of aurora photographs, and will even help you track the space station or send you spaceweather alerts on your cellphone. It's very cool and keeps it all in very easy to understand terms.

www.spaceweather.com

This is an oldie but goody. I got into it by being one of the pioneers in the SETI@Home (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) program run through the university at Berkeley, California. I didn't really have a choice about getting involved. I was born in Roswell, New Mexico and you're pretty much required to believe in extra-terrestrial life if you're from there. When a UFO crashes in your backyard it's hard not to notice. ; >)

Anyway, SETI@Home started around a decade ago. You just signed up and got the software to help them process a portion of their tens of thousands of hours of data on your computer in the background or as a screensaver. They finish calculating and searching in less time and you contribute a little something to the endeavor.

It has been such a success as people from around the world clamor to join that other scientists decided to get in on the action. So new software called BOINC was designed to allow other science projects to use the computing power available in personal computers around the world. Now you go to the site below and it has links and directions on installing BOINC software on your computer. Then you can link to the SETI@Home project, the Rosetta Project, Climate Prediction project and many others. You can run more than one at a time. There are many different science projects that you can be a part of to help make the world a better place. BOINC runs in the background and/or as a screensaver with the parameters that YOU get to choose so it doesn't interfere with your computer use.

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/