Earth Rated Products

Went to play Bingo the other night with a few hundred people that actually knew what they were doing. Bingo sure has gotten complicated since the 80s. Honestly, I’m not sure if its because of improved technology, or if people just got bored with the 5-in-a-row garden variety game.

The new games like Kite, Picture Frame, X, L, etc. require a lot more attention than 5-in-a-row and I could barely keep up with looking for the current number being called, much less scan my cards for the winning patterns. Considering that a majority of the players were senior citizens with worse vision and slower hands than mine, it was quite a shock how much faster than me they were at playing each number. Plus, they played the bonus side games that compliment the actual bingo game being played. Don’t ask for more details, I have no idea how the bonus games work. Couldn’t keep up with them!

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Today was THE day. After weeks and weeks of feeding our worms all the banana peels, coffee grinds, egg shells, lettuce, bread, tortillas, avocado peels, artichoke stalks, edamame pods, artichoke petals, and other miscellaneous scraps from the kitchen, it was time to spread the love! We were looking forward to this day ALL WEEK!

The plan was to take out the lower of two trays in our worm composting bin and use the castings to feed our outdoor plants, as well as to enrich the soil for re-potting 10 indoor plans I bought recently. (Click here to read more about our bin set-up.) To prep for this momentous occassion, we had added the second tray to the bin around three weeks ago and began putting the food in this upper tray in order to encourage our worm friends to migrate up.

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Four months into our experiment with vermicomposting it looks like we are doing it! We are Worm Farmers! But maybe I’m using the word “we” a little too liberally. After all, after setting the bin up with its original bedding and fresh batch of worms, I probably haven’t fed the little critters since the second week of the experiment. However, since it was my idea to buy the bin and gift it to my dear spouse as a romantic gesture of my love, I continue to take credit for its success. (more…)

Yes, its true! The geniuses at gDiapers have found a middle ground that helps make baby’s bottom a little greener - without all the extra work and nastiness of cloth diapers. Admittedly, gDiapers require a little more effort than disposables, but the extra effort is more than offset by the satisfaction that comes from seeing those dirties disappear down the toilet.

No mountain of disposables in the local landfill, no questionable chemicals next to baby’s bottom, and as an extra bonus, no more stinky diaper pails in your living areas! (more…)

OK. So I didn’t include Mr Gore on my original ecocrite post… I pretty much assumed that everyone already knew of his very public and blatant hypocrisy, and I didn’t need to waste the time/space/electrons repeating it yet again. However, after today’s revelation from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, I feel compelled to ensure that everyone is aware of what the TCPR found.

There are two specific points that really say it all:

1. In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.
2. In the wake of becoming the most well-known global warming alarmist, Gore won an Oscar, a Grammy and the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, Gore saw his personal wealth increase by an estimated $100 million thanks largely to speaking fees and investments related to global warming hysteria. (more…)

So, it turns out that having a Ford vehicle (Escape hybrid) entitles us to receive the Ford Magazine. As you might expect, the “magazine” is basically a blatant extended advertisement. However, surprisingly, it did have interesting news on their cars (the new Flex, a new plug-in Escape), some fun facts on eco-driving, as well info on a new site they’ve developed called Driving Skills for Life. Wonder if they got the idea for combining self-promotion with useful information from Costco Connection? Costco’s got the whole self-promotion-disguised-as-interesting-articles thing down to a science.

Anyway, let’s start with the eco-driving facts. They really did a good job of pulling together some interesting stats:

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While I applaud the plethora of high profile folks currently using their celebrity to bring attention to the importance of moving toward less carbon-heavy lifestyles, I still get a good laugh at what giant hypocrites the majority of them are…

• George Clooney - cuts back on CO2 emissions by driving a Prius. Seems that CO2 emissions only count on terra firma though. He still feels okay flying around on a Gulfstream. Somehow, releasing the pollution directly into the atmosphere makes it better. Even his lovely girlfriend, Sarah Larson, is confused by the contradiction.

UPDATE: About 2 days after Sarah’s interview was made public, news broke that George and Sarah had broken up… think he’s upset she outted his hypocrisy?

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Riding my bike to work I stopped at Fletcher Cove today (april-25).  A shark just attacked a thriathlon swimmer… the swimmer was on the back of a group training… it seems the other swimmers were able to take him to the shore but he died while he was assisted by the lifeguards.

Hello World! I’m so excited to get started that I don’t know where to start! Ironic, huh?

Our goal, at Earth Rated, is to share cool, interesting, and/or crazy products and ideas that we think have a positive impact on our lives on our lovely planet earth. With maybe a few random other topics thrown in just for fun. I’m not exactly an authority on how to improve everyone’s lives, but I’ve sure spent a lot of time these past few months, while in “pre-retirement”, figuring a lot of things out - mostly how to be a better, happier and lighter (in spirit, not in weight) person. As I don’t live in complete isolation, much of what I see as my improved understanding of a “good life” is derived from learning more about my surroundings, my world and my place in the grand scheme of things. Its all been very exciting!

We’re still not sure how to best define the various categories we’ll cover, but we anticipate that a majority of the posts will be related to eco-friendly products, human-friendly products, and health/sports topics. I invite anyone reading this to contribute topics that may fit into this stream of thought, or any topics that might just be a kick to discuss.

With that, let’s get go!

PS-

Look at me. Day #1, Post #1 and I’ve already resorted to plagiarism! In the spirit of full disclosure and on Washington & Lee’s Honor Code, I must admit that I stole the title of this Post from WordPress - its the title of the sample blog post they use when you set up your blog - but it just seemed so perfect that I couldn’t resist.