Advertising on SuperForest?

Good Evening SuperForest,

Jackson here.
I've said previously that I'd prefer never to have advertising on this site, for a number of aesthetic, moral, annoyance-avoiding reasons.

That said, SF needs to start supporting itself.

We have a good site here. We do good work. If there was a way that we could continue to spread the word about sustainable achievements and inspiration, and not let SF get cluttered with banner ads and pop-ups, I would happily consider it.

What I want to know is: What do you think?

Is it that big a deal to have advertising on a site? And if you say yes, what/who do you think we should advertise? If no, why not?

Could we avoid advertising altogether and use a Radiohead-esque tip jar situation?

Let's figure this thing out.

Either comment in the comments section at the bottom, or send an email to superforestnyc(at)gmail(dot)com.

Love,

Jackson

The Venus Project: Designing the Future

A very cool 13 minutes.



Sign us up.

T-Shirt Idea: Give War a Chance

Is good? You like?
If we sold, would anyone buy?

(Arrgghh! Superfluous comma! Our sincere apologies.)

SuperForester Spoon Presents: Amazing Image!

Spoon says:

Good Wednesday!

I love this picture/t-shirt...just thought I'd share it.

J: Awesome, Spoon! Very SuperForest.

Want the shirt the above image comes on? Here it is @ threadless.

Operation West Virginia: First Point, SuperForest!

We just received an amazing email from SuperForester Laurie Ann, who writes:

"Hi Jackson and Company:
Just wanted to let you know I did my part to help bring SuperForest to West Virginia. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Register-Herald in Beckley, WV. A copy of it can be found below. Oddly, now that you mention it, my own blog has no readers from West Virginia either. I wonder why? Perhaps there's a bizarre dead zone over the state that prevents them from receiving the internet. It could be all those mountains.
Anywho, keep up the good work and I will continue to spread the word--to West Virginia and beyond.
Have a great day!
Laurie Ann Miller
Hollywood


Hello Mr. Antolini:
Every day I read a wonderful blog--SuperForest.org. Today, the team posted about their worldwide readership and an interesting anomaly. They have no readers in West Virginia! How can that be? Doesn't West Virginia have internet access? Aren't West Virginians environmentally conscious? Don't they love art and nifty gadgets? SuperForest has it all along with helpful hints on how everyone can live greener and save our planet.
Our goal as readers of SuperForest.org is to spread the word. I'm doing my part; I'm telling you. Hopefully, you'll take a minute to check it out. Maybe it's not your thing, but chances are you know or work with someone who would enjoy this blog. Pass it on. And if your paper should run an article on being eco-friendly or "going green" this would be an excellent link to share with your subscribers. As Jackson and the SuperForest team points out, readership is 53 times higher in Malaysia than it is in West Virginia and you don't want Malaysia to get all the good stuff first.

Thank you for you time, Mr. Antolini. I hope you will share this link with at least one other person. West Virginia needs SuperForest and vice versa."

http://onthebuswithlaurie.blogspot.com/

Needless to say, Laurie Ann's letter made our day.

A huge thanks to Laurie Ann, (who runs an adorable blog herself,) and to Mr. Antolini, the fine fellow over at the Register-Herald.

Do you SuperForester's at home want to write Mr. Antolini a letter as well?
It's easy! Just click here.

Be nice to Mr. Antolini. If SuperForest is ever going to crack the impenetrable fortress that is West Virginia, we're gonna need a good man on the ground. Mr. Antolini could be that man.

SuperForest Projects: Operation West Virginia

What up, West Virginia?

Above is a screengrab from SuperForest's analytics page. SuperForest is read by folks all over the world and in every single state in the Union, with one exception.

West Virginia.

We must share the good news with West Virginia.

Seriously, our readership is 53 times higher in Malaysia than it is is West Virginia.

Our West Virginian cousins are missing out.

So, we hereby announce the beginning of Operation West Virginia!

What do you have to do to participate?

Tell someone, anyone, in West Virginia about SuperForest.

I just did. It went like this:

First, I wanted to insure that my message was received, so I googled "Vegan food West Virginia"

This lead me to the address and phone number of Mountain People's Kitchen in Morgantown, West Virginia. (304) 291-6131.

(Ring. Ring.)

Woman: "Hello, Mountain People's Kitchen?"

Me: "Hi, do you guys have a computer with internet access? Not for customers, but for you working at the store?"

W: "No."

M: "Do you have it at home?"

W: "No."

M: "So you don't have internet access at all?"

W: "Not poor people like me. Some folks have Comcast."

M: "So you don't email?"

W: "I have email, but I don't use it."

M: "So what if someone wanted to get in touch with you and tell you about something amazing?"

W: "They'd have to call me."

M: "Great, well I wanted to tell you about this amazing website. It's called SuperForest.org. Super, like superman, and forest, like trees."

W: "Oh yeah?"

M: "Yeah, it's really great. It's all about positivity and sustainability."

W: "Hmmm."

M: "Yeah, check it out if you get a chance. SuperForest.org."

W: "I will. If I can steal a signal, I will."

M: "Oh wait, you know what the best part is?"

W: "What?"

M: "There's no advertising. No banners or pop-ups."

W: "I'll check it out."

M: "Awesome! What's your name?"

W: "Ashley."

M: "Thanks Ashley. Have a great day."

Ashley: "You too."

(click.)

See! That was easy.

Ashley at the Mountain People's Kitchen was very nice and managed to sound genuinely sort of enthusiastic, which is way more than I was hoping for.

Tell someone in W.V. about SuperForest.

Tell 'em that the Malaysians are getting all the good info first!

Awesome.

Love,

Jackson & Team SuperForest

Oh, snap. SuperForest's on Facebook

SuperForest's got its very own facebook group.
Join up now and... uh, say you've joined!

Nice!

Click here to joiney uppey.

Facebook, fun.

Fabric From Corn: Ingeo

A company has figured out how process corn into FABRIC.

From Wikipedia:

"Ingeo™ is a trademark for the first commercially viable man-made fiber made from 100% annually renewable resources. The process to create Ingeo makes use of the carbon naturally stored in plants by photosynthesis. Plant starches are broken down into sugars. The carbon and other elements in these natural sugars are then used to make a biopolymer through a process of simple fermentation and separation. The resulting resin, called NatureWorks® PLA, can then be spun or extruded into Ingeo for use in textiles.

Like other synthetic fibers, Ingeo has a number of advantages over natural fibers. Examples are high strength, high dimensional stability, and high resilience. In addition, PLA is more resistant to ultraviolet light than most other synthetics. It has relatively low flammability and smoke generation. Because it is more hydrophilic than common polyester fibers, when blended with cotton and wool, Ingeo results in lighter garments that wick moisture away from the skin."

That's pretty sweet. After you've worn your clothes until their end, (and they were far too gone to go to Salvation Army, too gone even to use to sew a quilt,) you could COMPOST them.

Most synthetic fabrics are made with oil. Oil from who knows where.
Now we can make synthetics fabrics from renewable, domestic corn.

I like their mission statement: Change the world by not changing it at all...




Here's their site: Ingeo

And the site of a nice textile company that makes products with Ingeo.

Senate Blocks Far-Reaching Energy Bill

From the New York Times

Dudes,

Let get together on this one. We know there's big money to be made in prolonging the end of fossil fuels, we know that.

It's just that, every time I walk down the street and all I can smell is car exhaust, and I happen to think about how our cars mpg's have actually gone DOWN in the last hundred years, and then come home and read about The House or the Senate shooting down some bill to make cleaner cars, and ensure cleaner air, that's when I think: Thank heavens I live in New York and can enjoy this city's incredible public transportation!

You can fight against progress, or you can work for it.

Higher mpg's and cleaner air is progress.

Shooting down bills that would ensure those things is not progress.

It's Congress! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

So when you see things like this, down let it get you down, just go online and check out the specs on the Aptera, or read about Japan's Mag-Lev trains, or about Amsterdam's awesome public bicycle system.

Then think to yourself: "We should have all of those things here! We deserve the best and brightest. We deserve the cleanest, and fastest, and smartest!
We deserve these things because: We're America! Land of the free! Home of the brave! Defender of Liberty! Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses!
There's opportunity for all here in this great land of ours!"

Little by little, we scrape off the dead skin and emerge fresh, bright, and renewed.


Look out for one another. Keep each other safe.

Love to all,

Jackson

Scientists Cure Mice Of Sickle Cell Using Stem Cell Technique

From the Washington Post:

"Using a recently developed technique for turning skin cells into stem cells, scientists have cured mice of sickle cell anemia -- the first direct proof that the easily obtained cells can reverse an inherited, potentially fatal disease."
Washington Post article

Um,...



Whoah.

Color me impressed.
This article is like the antidote to the NY Times one.

Yay Science! (If you happen to see a Scientist walking down the street, why not blow them a polite kiss?)

Eco-Cities

Okay, I have two very important names for you to remember:

Ready?

Dongtan and Masdar.

What are Dongtan and Masdar?
Our planets first two eco-cities. That's right, carbon neutral, energy EXporting, green cities. Right here on planet Earth.

Dongtan is in China, while Masdar is near Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

This is such an exciting time to be alive! The end of the fossil fuel era! The dawn of the Solar-Electric era!
Living today is like living at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, but with better hair and less cholera.
No, I'm serious. With the rapidly evolving Global conciousness, and the incredibly exciting work being done with DNA and stem cells, plus the commercial exploration of space, the Earth is like San Fran at the start of the Gold Rush.

Alright, I'm mixing my metaphors here, but in ten years time you could move to and reside in a city that consumed no external power, had no waste, a city powered solely by the sun.

Life is sweet.


Masdar.
The Masdar Energy Co's site


Dongtan.
The Dongtan Dev. site

Wiki: Dongtan
Wiki:Masdar
treehugger article on Dongtan.
treehugger article on Masdar.

Self-Balancing Robot

Check this great thing out.

This robot automatically adjusts when it bumps into something, so you can't easily knock it over. In the video, it looks so human.





Get ready to bow at the feet of your robot overlords!

Here's the video: Self-Balancing Robot

And another article: Robot
(pics & video via newscientist.com)

Compost Song

from FiFi.

If you see something great...

Yo,

If you're out adventuring and you see something great, snap a picky and...

Send it to SuperForest!

superforestnyc@gmail.com


For Reals!!!

Great Building

This building is on Atlantic Ave. near my apartment in Brooklyn. It makes me smile every time I walk past it.

I wonder what they do in there? Hee hee hee.

Great Sign

I saw this at the corner of 1st Ave and Houston.

Corn Plastic Fantastic!

As a species, we are so smart.
When we realize that something is bad for our environment, we invent things to replace them.

Case is point, most cities are banning plastic bags, let's go one further, let's ban all non-recyclable plastic!

Instead, let's use products like these!


Hot drink cups from Ecowise.com.



Cold drink cups from KelseyPromo.



Vegetable packaging from EarthFirst Plastics.




Corn plastic shopping bags from Biobag USA

We can use these products for parties and such, then compost all of them at home, quietly and comfortably. Very green.

The future is looking a little less crude.

Ecowise, EarthFirst Plastics, Kelsey Promo and BioBag, you four get today's SuperForest Good Person award. Well done. (I know there are more companies making bioplastics, but we'll give them awards in due time.)



Curious what it is and how it's made? Check out wikipedia's entry on Bioplastic.

And also check out: Bioplastics24

Things I Love: My Compost Bin

Good afternoon all,

In my backyard stands this little beauty. Silent, super-productive, and virtually odorless, the compost bin means that pounds and pounds of organic material doesn't end up in a landfill. My upstairs neighbors and I are pretty religious about composting as much as we can, and in a year or two we'll have wonderful mulch to add to planter boxes, sprinkle on gardens, or use to grow saplings.
Sturdy construction helps keep out critters.


Thar she blows!


apple cores, tea bags, used tissue, coffee grounds; all should be composted.


Carry the future compost outside.


It's as easy as one!


Two!


Three! And done.

Since I started composting and recycling, I've noticed that all I ever throw out is non-recyclable plastic. Remind me again, why do we even make that? (When we could be using and composting this: corn plastic.)

If you've got a backyard, why not use a compost bin?

Here's a link to the NYC Compost Project's site: NY Compost

Or, if you'd like to build your own bin, which is both cheap and easy, here's instructions on how: Build Your Own: Compost Bin

Compost! Prove you love America!

Love,

Jackson

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Apparently, some folks are taking our rapidly changing climate seriously. Hence the construction of a seriously well thought out seed vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the town of Longyearbyen (population 1900) in the remote arctic Svalbard archipelago.

Think of it as a Noah's Ark for plants.

From wikipedia:

"The Svalbard International Seed Vault's mission is to store as many seeds known to humans as possible, under the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The goal is to prevent important agricultural and wild plants from becoming rare or extinct in the event of a global disaster such as global warming, a meteorite strike, nuclear or biological warfare, or gene pollution from transgenic plants. There are already over 1400 local seedbanks around the world, but many are in politically unstable or environmentally threatened nations. When this seedbank is built, the vault will be secure and isolated from much of the world's population."

It's nice to know it will be there. Let's hope we don't have to rely on it.
Wait a second, I think we should immediately begin construction of our OWN seed vault! We cannot allow a seed vault gap!

Here's their site: Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Balinese Dancers

This is so beautiful.

Thanks to my friend Alex for sending it.

Yayyyyy!

-J