America’s greenest cities

by Anna Brones on

If you live in Detroit, Philadelphia or New York City, you probably weren’t so happy with Forbes saying that you lived in some of America’s most miserable places. But instead of focusing on how bad places are, let’s take a look at the more positive list done by Popular Science which recently listed America’s 50 Greenest Cities.

The rankings were determined by using data supplied by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society’s Green Guide, which surveyed over 100,000 people in 30 different categories. The data was then compiled into four different categories: electricity, green living, transportation, and recycling and green perspective.

The top five:

1. Portland, Oregon
2. San Francisco, California
3. Boston, Massachusetts
4. Oakland, California
5. Eugene, Oregon

Makes me happy currently be a resident of the West Coast. But don’t worry New Yorkers, the Big Apple made it to the number one spot for transportation and number 20 overall; maybe not so miserable after all.

Steal this Wiki

by Justin Glow on

A long time ago, my Dad gave me his raggedy old copy of Abbie Hoffman’s iconic book, Steal This Book, which was the yippie-activist’s guide to things like rolling joints, making pipe bombs, and getting a free, live buffalo from the U.S. Department of Interior, among other things.

As a teenager, I wore that book out even further until the spine was cracked so much that pages began to randomly fall out. It finally met its doom a few years back when, after several apartment moves, the last bunch of pages came unglued and blew away in the wind.

I used it for purely for research purposes of course, and not too long after it was gone, I was already wishing I had another copy. Unfortunately mint copies of the book were going for as much as $60 on eBay (at the time; the price seems to have drastically reduced these days), and I was a poor college student.

But now there’s something even better: Steal this Wiki. An updated, Wiki-version of the book! It’s still pretty bare on information, but with your help, it can be the Steal This Book of today.

It even has my favorite section from the 70s version: Free Cities, which will (eventually) list major cities and how to live and/or travel free in them. Abbie Hoffman: a true pioneer in budget travel.

I’m still trying to figure out where to put that buffalo…

[Via Boing Boing]

Bananas, politics and the economy

by Jamie Rhein on

If you eat bananas in your cereal for breakfast and don’t refrigerate them because you were taught not to, there’s a reason. There’s a new book out called Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World that explains those habits, as well as how the Victorian era folks had a penchant for masking its shape lest it offend anyone. Most importantly, the book covers the politics of how the banana gained its fame, making fortunes for some and misery for others.

Terry Gross interviewed Dan Koeppel, the author of the book on Fresh Air yesterday. I caught part of the show and was fascinated. The story of the banana incorporates much of the world, offering insight into world economics and politics, particularly in Central America. The banana, for example, led to the overthrowing of the president of Guatemala in the 1950s and his exile.

During the conversation they also talked about the various types of bananas there are in the world and why they aren’t sold in the U.S. Buying various types of bananas overseas is a market going pleasure. I’ve found that the ones not much bigger than a finger are often the sweetest. There are these reddish colored ones, though, that are quite yummy. Reading this book, I think, would make a person eye those bananas in the grocery store in a different light. I do.

(Here’s the link to the broadcast page.)

Rick Steves on meaningful travel

by Jamie Rhein on

We’ve written about Rick Steves before. Neil hates him. (Not really, just jealous as all get out) and Aaron explored Steves’ guidebook writing know-how. Not long ago, Justin put some light on Rick Steves’ rap talents, or lack thereof. I catch Rick Steves from time to time on NPR and have some jealous pangs myself.

Recently, I came across this video of Steves on YouTube where he talks about the importance of traveling with meaning. Listening to him talk about what travel means to him provides insight into what motivates any of us to head to a place that is different from where we live. In Steves’ experience, there is an aspect of a spiritual endeavor in the travel he does. “Travel to me brings people together,” he says. “If you are an independent traveler, to me, it’s a spiritual experience.” To him, there is more than going from one tourist spot to another. Admittedly, I tend to agree with him, although I like the tourist hot spot travel from time to time.

I remember when I was in the Peace Corps I felt a bit harsh towards folks who I happened across in my forays to the tourist haven of Fajara, The Gambia. From my perspective, at the time, they were wandering through the world enjoying its bits and pieces without the drive to make life better for anyone while there I was assigned to a village with the mission to “help people help themselves.” I was probably in a whiny phase because helping people was a lot harder than I anticipated. What I really craved was a head of iceberg lettuce and a bag of pretzels, the two things not to be found in The Gambia at the time that I lived there.

There are certain moments in Steves’ talk where he teeters a bit close to the voice of judgment, similar to what I felt, about what motivates people to travel. His ideas are worth thinking about, although, as I’ve become older, I’ve become gentler in my approach. In my thinking, any time anyone sets foot across the border from where he or she resides into another culture, it’s mostly a good thing. One never knows which experience will be the one that changes a life. Plus, for folks who have only two weeks of vacation a year, there’s reality to deal with. Sometimes a person just needs some R&R in order to cope with slogging through life at home. But, perhaps, that’s the difference between travel and a vacation.

New England Patriots remain undefeated… in Nicaragua

by Aaron Hotfelder on

After this year’s Super Bowl, the victorious New York Giants immediately received their “Super Bowl Champion” hats and shirts, but they weren’t just printed on the spot. The apparel had to be preprinted, and of course, so did shirts for the “Undefeated Super Bowl Champion” Patriots. Except that the Patriots lost the Super Bowl, thus ruining their perfect season. So, the curious mind wants to know, what happened to the shirts?

Hundreds of them are making their way to poor children in Nicaragua, thanks to a humanitarian organization called World Vision. According to a Reuters story, “World Vision has links with the National Football League, or NFL, and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted “winners” shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl.”

I vaguely remember being given one of these erroneous championship-winning shirts by my lovely but clueless grandmother many years ago, who probably wondered why the item was so heavily discounted. My team lost, that’s why. But thanks for the reminder.

A spokesperson for World Vision said that the Nicaraguan children “don’t care what team name is on it. They don’t know about football. Some of these people have never had a new piece of clothing in their lives. They will wear them until they are threadbare.”