Twelve unorthodox but promising green technology innovations

 While politicians stumble to reach a consensus, researchers are pushing forward with new, if unusual, solutions.

From algae farms to wave energy, here are a dozen ecofriendly but odd ways to create clean energy. 

PHOTO - Don Long / Richmond Times Dispatch-AP

Inspirational Story: Boy’s $12 monster drawings help fund his chemo

 

Aidan Reed’s family has sold almost 2,500 silly, scary drawings to help offset expenses

Aidan Reed, 5, has always — always — loved monsters. Read his story here.

Hunt for value has taken stigma off Goodwill, store brands, fast food

If anything good has come from our Great Recession, it’s the fact that people are learning to become more frugal and to make do with less. 

“In the wake of the Great Recession, the stigma attached to certain consumer behavior has fallen away. What some people once thought of as lowbrow, they now accept — even consider a frugal badge of honor.”

PHOTO - The Paramus, N.J., store is one of 100 new locations for the nonprofit Goodwill. Many are in middle-class suburbs. The strategy: Attract not only people in need, but also the many Americans who are looking for more value.

Performance artists stage ‘Kaiju Big Battel’ for dedicated fans

Take Mexican Wrestling, add Japanese Monsters(!), mix in a lot of fun and you get Kaiju Big Battel (the misspelling is intentional, by the way).

The creation of Boston performance artists David Borden and Rand Borden, it's a chance for fans to root for everything from the heroic Atomic Trooper Robo to the nasty Call-Me-Kevin.

image credit: Brian McCarty, via)

(image credit: Studio Kaiju)

Fear doctors (mad scientists?) use tarantulas to terrify volunteers

When I was in grade school in La Puente my buddy and I use to catch tarantulas in the nearby hills. We poured water down a hole, they came up, and we scooped them into jars.

Then the fun really started. We’d  each take one to school with us and would release them in a classroom! Never got caught releasing them either. What an uproar they caused, especially with the girls!

I never considered tarantulas scary and would let them walk all over me to impress  friends (and foes). But it looks like a lot of people are afraid of the little guys as evidenced by this new story:

“To observe the brain’s panic-response network in full freak, British researchers asked 20 volunteers to lie inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. One by one, the scientists then had each person view a screen that showed a tarantula crawling closer ... and ... closer to the subject’s feet.” Read the rest here.

As It Stands–I’m 60 now and damned surprised that I made it this far!

I have no words of wisdom to share. I’m not sure if I should celebrate or grieve. Reaching 60 – six decades – is a milestone of sorts. It’s not as impressive as 70, 80 , 90…or 100.

I can tell you for sure I never thought I’d live this long. Let’s just say I’ve faced a few challenges along the way, but who hasn’t eh? I think it’s fair to say I try to enjoy every day.

I’m incredibly blessed with family and friends who support and love me. I live with the love of my life, Shirley, who’s always been at my side and is my bride of 35 years. I’m proud of all three of my sons. I love my five grandchildren. I don’t take my friends for granted.

I lead a very quiet life by choice. My pug Millie and I walk every day. I spend at least three hours daily researching subjects for columns. I’m happy…and 60 today.

As It Stands: Today in retrospect: Set clock back, read this column

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 11/07/2010 01:22:00 AM PDT

Make sure to set your clock back one hour if you forgot last night. Daylight Saving Time ended at 2 a.m. this morning.

Today is a special day for a lot of reasons. Every day is special to me, but just for fun, let's start by looking at some people who were born on Nov. 7.

If it's your birthday today, then congratulations, and may you have many more.

Polish chemist and physicist Marie Sklodowska-Curie, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics and in chemistry, was born in 1867. Fiery Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was born on this day in 1879. American evangelist Billy Graham was born in 1919.

Other Nove. 7 birthdays include Al Hirt, American trumpeter; King Kong Bundy, professional wrestler; Dana Plato, actress; Andy Houston, a NASCAR driver; and Dave Stancliff, newspaper columnist/blogger.

Next, let's look at some historic Nov. 7 dates, since you're still reading.

 * One of my favorite political wits is Thomas Nast, who drew the first cartoon depicting an elephant as the Republican Party's symbol on this day in 1874.

* The Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse made the first air freight shipment (From Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) in 1910.

* Woodrow Wilson (D) was re-elected president with a campaign slogan of “He kept us out of war” in 1916.

* Women in the state of Colorado were granted the right to vote in 1893.

* Herbert Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no previous elected office experience, in 1928.

* The first broadcast of “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” was aired on CBS-radio in 1932.

* Pennsylvania voters overturned a blue law that forbade Sunday sports in 1933.

* Cold War: The Gaither Report called for more American missiles and fallout shelters in 1957.

* Richard Nixon proclaimed, “You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore,” and quit politics on this day in 1962. Later, he ran for president and won two terms, only to be ousted after the Watergate affair, when he proclaimed, “I'm not a crook.”

* President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act establishing The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 1967.

* John and Yoko released their “Wedding Album” in the U.K. in 1969.

* A bomb exploded at the U.S. Senate building in 1983. It was set by members of a group claiming to be the “Resistance Conspiracy” in protest of U.S. military involvement in Grenada and Lebanon.

* One of my favorite basketball players for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson, announced he had HIV virus and retired from the team in 1991.

* The controversial U.S. presidential election took place in 2000 and was later resolved in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court Case.

* The USS New York, a warship built with steel salvaged from the World Trade Center, went into service in 2009.

Today is National Bittersweet Chocolate With Almonds Day, which is kind of a nutty thing to note, but someone thinks it's important enough to list on a holiday calendar.

Finally, the number 7 is thought to be lucky. So is the number 11. That makes today -- 7/ll -- special if you're into numerology.

As It Stands, perhaps most important, this day is the first day of the rest of your life!

Oh the Horror! What Makes People Pass Out at the Movies

“If you’re nervous about blood or claustrophobic, or if you commonly cover your eyes during a movie, then 127 Hours will feel at least twice that long to you.

The film is among this year’s top Oscar contenders, featuring a performance from James Franco that’s revelatory, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Franco plays Aron Ralston, the hiker who in 2003 was trapped for four days under a boulder and had to amputate his own arm with a dull knife to survive. At early showings of the film, between 13 and 16 people fainted, two reportedly became lightheaded, and three had seizures, according to a survey on Movieline.”

Read the rest of the review here.

Carl’s Corner: Happy Birthday Emily Rose!

Proud grandfather Carl Young snapped these pics of his granddaughter’s first birthday party recently. Grandma Charyl beams happily as Emily Rose takes in her surroundings.

As It Stands, may you have many more birthday parties Emily Rose! You cutie…

Daylight savings Time: How time flies! Where to see the world's clocks

Watching the hours fly by from London's Big Ben to NYC's Grand Central

Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends at 2 a.m. Sunday morning when we “fall back” to standard time by turning our clocks back one hour. As you reset the clocks on the microwave, the TV and the bedside alarm, imagine yourself watching time fly in one of these clock-worthy cities.

                                                    Iconic Ben Ben (right) is a London landmark.

New York City's Grand Central Terminal

• For decades, the clock over the information booth at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal has served as both easy-to-spot timepiece and iconic meeting point. Like all clocks at Grand Central, the 1913 four-sided, ball clock is set by the atomic clock in the Naval Observatory in Bethesda, Md., and is accurate to within 1 second every 20 billion years. But the information booth clock is not just accurate; it’s extremely valuable. “The ball clock has been valued at between $10 and $20 million dollars,” said Metro-North Railroad spokesperson Dan Brucker, “That’s because every face of that four-faced clock is made out of a precious jewel: opal.”

  Where to watch this clock: Grand Central Terminal

• The intricately carved bronze clock at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City was originally a gift from Queen Victoria to the United States for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

• Standing nine feet tall and weighing in at two tons, the clock has an octagonal base made from marble and mahogany and is decorated with animal sculptures, plaques displaying sporting scenes and portraits of Ben Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria and other historical figures. Chimes, identical to those heard at Westminster Cathedral, play every 15 minutes. And according to hotel tour guide and historian Karen Stockbridge, a copy of the French-made Statue of Liberty was added to the top of the clock by the hotel in 1897. “The English were upset that we put a French statue on an English clock and tried to ask for it back,” said Stockbridge.

• GO HERE TO SEE MORE