I’ll be in the Washington D.C. area until Sunday or Monday.

I won’t be able to post from there, so hopefully I can get some new posts & pics up at the beginning of the week.

Have a great 4th of July!!

photo credit: RJS1322

Watch this and I guarantee you will smile.

The HD version is on Vimeo.

Check out his website, wherethehellismat.com, when you get a chance. Matt has journal entries about the countries he’s visited, great photos of various aventures, and videos of his dancing across the world in previous years.

Flying, walking, eating, sleeping… pretty much everything we do seems to add carbon to our footprints. And just as once industrious priests used to sell absolutions to erase our sins, some clever clogs have hit on the idea of charging us for exuding CO2.

They called it Carbon Offsetting and they’re laughing all the way to the bank.

via Holy Cows, Telegraph.co.uk

I’ve thought that ever since I first heard of carbon credits. How is one company buying another companies unused credits in order to offset their own polluting emissions doing anything to help the environment? They haven’t reduced their pollution. Quite possibly the company may have increased the amount of pollution they create because of the mindset that they can simply buy credits for what amount they exceed in order to meet the EPA’s standards.

…red and black antennae waving.”

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - “Ants Marching”

The picture was taken in my backyard. The shadow is from the flash being blocked by the housing of the zoom lens.

With Japan being the reigning king of vending machines, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to come across one that would sell you a SMART car. Although this vending machine is just an advertisement, it does demonstrate one of the top selling points of the SMART car. Its size. I’ve seen a couple of the SMART cars in Charleston, and it’s amazing to see how capable they are given the fact that you can park a couple of them sideways in one standard parking space.

I like the SMART cars, and I do hope they take off in this country now that they are finally being shipped. With the cost of fuel and everything else rising, I think drivers who would have once thumbed their nose at the tiny grocery getter will now start to seriously consider buying one.

However the SMART car’s current U.S. price point sits between 12k and 18k depending on what options you choose. That alone could outweigh any potential savings in gas that a buyer would reap in the first couple years of ownership. Why buy a tiny but efficent SMART car for $15k when you could buy a slightly roomier late model compact sedan with acceptable gas mileage at a third of the cost?

Perhaps if the SMART cars start to gain wide acceptance here in the U.S., we will see their prices fall, and maybe the Government will help out by throwing in a tax incentive to boot.

via - Treehugger -> CScout

photo credit: cscoutjapan.com