save gas money

CLICK HERE to visit a link for improved gas mileage.

We built a Solar Oven

Chloe, Lucas and I made a Solar Oven yesterday. It worked and was easy to make. If you want the directions, visit this page,
http://thecraftnanny.blogspot.com/2008/06/make-solar-oven.html

More pics from Justin - San Diego

funny effect of a clean planet.

Black flies surge in Maine's clean rivers

Citing environment's gain, state declines to curb the biting bugs

MILLINOCKET, Maine - Mainers call the black fly the state bird. Residents and tourists have long steeled themselves against the flies' annual warm-weather onslaught, sometimes duct-taping pant legs and wearing screened hoods to keep the deceptively small bugs from delivering bloody bites or crawling into seemingly every body crevice.

But there are now more black flies in more places in Maine, and the reason may be surprising: It's the success of the environmental movement.

Many species of the gnat-sized insects are sticklers for cleanliness. When Maine's rivers were filled with contaminants from paper mills and other industries, only the hardiest black flies laid eggs in them. Now, rivers and streams are progressively cleaner, providing ideal breeding grounds for the annoying pests.

It's an unintended barometer of good ecological health, but Maine officials are adamant they will not mess with nature in any way to provide relief.

"They can be so thick you breathe them in and they get stuck in your throat. They even get under your eyelids," said Julia Brilliott, an Eastport resident who showed off four lumpy red welts on the back of her neck after climbing Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park last week.

For the uninitiated, black flies are blood-sucking insects with a menacing reputation worthy of a late-night science fiction movie. Not all bite humans - some feed on other mammals and birds - but those that do are relentless daytime feeders. Even the nonbiting flies are often despised because they emerge by the millions in warm months and, lured by the carbon dioxide we exhale, swarm around people.

Here's Some pics from Justin in Colorado!

Funny Excerpt from an articlew in the Boston Globe

This is an excerpt from an article I read in the Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/06/21/green_screen/?page=1

TV's best-ever cautionary tale about promoting environmentalism arrived on an episode of "South Park" from 2006, long before the advent of Planet Green. Called "Smug Alert," the half-hour ruthlessly parodied the self-righteousness of chic environmentalists. Kyle's father becomes obsessed with his new hybrid car, called a Pious, and that leads to a plot involving not toxic smog but toxic "smug." As Ranger McFriendly tells young Stan, "When people drive hybrid cars they get so full of themselves they spew tons of self-satisfied garbage into the air. That isn't smog - it's smug. . . . You get enough smug in the atmosphere, you know what that leads to? Global laming."

Leah's 5 seconds of fame!

Hey, I was riding the bus today and got interviewed by local CBS channel 8. Here is the video link, you have to go about 1:30 minutes to my short scene. It was really fun. The videos don't stay up for long though so check it out now. I am somewhere in the middle for like 5 seconds, but he interviewed me for like 5 minutes.

CLICK HERE for video