Babel

Tag: Conscious Living

  • Gas Guzzling Gaffe solutions?

    Well first off I want to say that I’m no expert. Just an average gal who cares, like I said before. But I’m learning, opening and grasping lots of new ideas. Then sharing with you all this great stuff I learnt and liked. So hope you don’t mind this blog being a sharing rather than a teaching.

    That said, seems I’m suppose to continue with the transport subject again. ‘Cause all this week I’ve surfed and heard about more and more. So I stand corrected. Looks like there are lots of great minds worldwide thinking on this subject.

    Here’s one great change making incentive… “Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize (PAXP), is a $10 million contest that wants to eliminate our oil addiction and stop global warming.” Jay Leno did the opening to the event announcement that Progressive Insurance is the name sponsor of Automotive X PRIZE. Jay also took delivery of the the 1st production model Tesla Roadster July 2008 and he talks about it at Jay’s garage.

    Watched Neil Young interviewed by Charlie Rose on Thursday 7-17. Seems Neil is working with Jonathan Goodwin, owner of H-Line conversions to turn his hotrod 1959 Lincoln Continental into a 100mpg green machine and more. And he plans to enter it in the PAXP. ‘Live to ride, ride my green machine!’ Neil’s dream is ridin’ green.

    Heard a talk by Al Gore on Thursday 7-17 that was so motivating. About changing the way electricity is made with solar, wind, water, etc. instead of coal or fossil fuel. Gave us a goal of 10 years to make the change. Changes the scope, potential and feasibility of electric cars and their long term environmental impact. Timely… you’re blazing the trail Al… go, go, go!

    Went to APS’ website, our local electric company. They offer Green Choice Rates, electricity made from wind, water and solar power. Maybe your electric company offers green rates too?

    On 7-23 came across articles about a Minnesota dairy farmer who is using methane from his cows to power his car, farm and 70 homes in the area. And a California dairy farmer too. Dang! Phoot phoouel of the phoouture is a reality!

    So here’s more cool green innovative transport ideas.

    A few more electric cars…

    Phoenix Motorcars, Inc. – electric SUV & SUT

    phoenix-sutsm Phoenix Motorcars, Inc, Ontario, CA is releasing 2 new all electric vehicles a truck and an SUV. 100% electric. 0-60 mph in less than 10 seconds. Top Speed 95mph. Range 130 miles. Charge time with on-Board Charger 5 to 6 hours. With off-Board High-Power Charger under 10 min. to 95% SOC. Base price: $45,000. Release date mid 2008. Later in 2008 will have extended-range battery option for 250 miles.

    Aptera Motors – Super-MPG Electric Typ-1e aptera typ-1

    Aptera Motors, Carlsbad, CA initially sales of the Typ-1e will be limited to California residents only. 100% electric vehicle, 120 mile range. Top speed 85 mph. 0-60 in under 10 seconds. 3 wheels, 2 seats. Base price: $30,000 or less. Hybrid also available 600 mile range. Read more about it at Popular Mechanics.

    Here’s a webpage that lists 30 electric cars available now.

    And folks across the globe are getting on board too. Here’s one example: US-Based Company Helps Denmark and Israel Get Behind the Wheel of Electric Cars the idea is called Project Better Place introduction expected 2010.

    Air powered car???

    Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) – Air Car concept

    citycat-blue First air powered car will be produced in the U.S. by Zero Pollution Motors New Paltz, NY. ZMP is the U.S. licensee for MDI France who developed the Air Car. The CityCat (model shown) hybrid can travel 1,000 miles on a fill up. Top speed 96 mph. Zero to low C02 emissions. Seats six. Base price $17,800. Introduction to U.S. expected in late 2009 or early 2010.  Read more about it at Popular Mechanics.

    Engineair Pty Ltd, – rotary air engineairengine

    Angelo Di Pietro is the designer of a unique rotary piston engine that is powered by compressed air, called the Engineair. His company Engineair Pty Ltd is located in Brooklyn, Australia. He says it emits zero pollution, uses no petrol or batteries, takes minutes to recharge and has many applications like powering a car, boat, motor cycle and more.

    Here’s a video about air powered cars talks about Air Car by MDI and Di Pietro’s unique engineair.

    Water as a fuel continued???

    HHO a new clean fuel alternative?

    Water (H2O) turned into HHO gas through low voltage, something scientists once thought impossible is safe, cost-effective, and eco-friendly according to Denny Klein owner of Hydrogen Technology Applications, Inc. Clearwater, Florida. Aquygen™ HTA’s name for HHO is a combustible gas made through their Aquygen generator. The internet is buzzing everywhere with talk of HHO, other inventors and applications like Hydrogen on Demand as a fuel for vehicles. Amazing concept!

    So many cool and interesting new technologies. So much energy. So much happening. It’s just plain excitin’. Goin’ green and savin’ the planet. Yahoo!

    ~Bonnee Klein Gilligan

  • Hymn to the Sacred Body of the Universe

    A spoken word poem by Drew Dellinger. Is beautiful and awe filled. A lovely tribute to us and the universe.

    Hope you enjoy it.

    ~Bonnee Klein Gilligan

    Global Oneness Project.

  • Gas Guzzling Gaffe

    Gas just keeps going up and up. It’s crazy! What can we do? Grin and bear it? Eat less food to fill the tank? Not bloody likely. Won’t go hungry to feed that monster. Go to town less. Cut trips to once a month. Do everythin’ at once. A Band-Aid is all. Sure it’ll cut costs some. And cut pollution a little. But it’s short term. My little car already gets about 40mpg. Gotta find a better way to this Gas Guzzling Gaffe!

    All of it got me thinkin’. I’ve heard folks say, ‘That’s a scary thought… she’s been thinkin’ again, ah oh!’ Well, pppffffttt and raspberries to ya. Anyway we got a crisis as I see it. Ya’d think the great minds of the world who can split atoms, create starwars, go to the moon and back… for cripes sakes… could come up with an efficient, clean runnin’ engin’. That doesn’t use fossil fuels in any part of the process.

    Just read ’bout hydrogen fuel cells. Sure sounds good. Till ya find out that fossil fuels are used to make hydrogen, mostly. So we use fossil fuels (which we’re trying to moving away from) to make another potentially skyhigh fuel which runs clean. Got pollution in the makin’ and maybe a higher cost to boot. Don’t see a fix there. But fuel cells can run on any fuel even methane. There’s an idea! Refine and bottle cattle phoots. Recycle and reduce pollution too. Imagine the commercials for a new phootmobile. MG’s new FART – Fast Affordable Reliable Transportation. Runs on Phoots, the clean burning, recycled phoouel of the phoouture.

    Sure it’s funny but most methane is obtained from fossil fuel not cattle. So don’t think that’s a solution. Sigh! If there’s pollutin’ anywhere in the process it won’t work. Can’t use it to power anythin’. Or if there’s a limited amount and it’s not renewable or adds pollution. Can’t use it. Like oil, coal, natural gas. What if it takes land to produce that could grow food to help feed the hungry around the world. Is that a solution? It’s a quandary. We gotta think of all consequences…. long term.

    But what about right now? Been doin’ some surfing on transport. Found some interesting stuff. Short term… better fuel economy is a start. Small gasoline or hybrids for better gas mileage. But GAWD why isn’t the mpg higher. Here’s the top two fuel savers…

    smart  smartcar

    smart, a member of Mercedes-Benz Cars is produced in France. smart ForTwo, 3-cylinder, 1-liter gasoline powered engine is currently rated as the highest mileage car in the US. It is classified as an Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV). Ratings: top speed 90mph, 33-40 mpg city, 41-45 mpg highway. Base Price: $12,235. A 100% electric smart is currently being tested in the UK.

    Toyota Motors2008-Prius-Hybrid-9 Hybrid

    Toyota Prius (hybrid-electric) is currently rated as the highest mileage gasoline/electric hybrid. It is classified as an Advanced Technology Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (ATPZEV). Ratings: 48 mpg highway, 45 mpg city. Base Price: $21,500.

    Just heard that Toyota is having trouble keeping up with demand for their hybrid. Well that good, but it still pollutes and uses fossil fuel so how about a more eco-friendly solution?

    Maybe electric? There are some in the works. Here are two…

    Tesla Motors Electric carteslaroadster

    Now in production in USA at Tesla motors a 100% electric sports car. Fast 0-60 in 3.9 seconds,  Zero emissions, 220 miles per charge, 2-3.5 hour charge. Base price: $109,000. There is a waiting list for this car.

    Just read in the July 21 issue of Newsweek that Elon Musk cofounder of Tesla Motors said “Our second product is a sedan that is about half the price and will be produced in late 2010. We think we could either directly or in partnership with a major auto company actually get to a car that is under $30,000 in four years.”

    Th!nk GlobalThink-cityElectric Car – a green machine

    Now in production in Norway and coming to the US. The Th!nk City is a 100% electric vehicle, designed for city driving. Zero emissions, 95% recyclable, made of recycled materials. It can travel up to 110 miles in city driving, top speed 65mph. Th!nk City will be sold in Europe in late 2008 and in US 2009. US price expected to be sub $25,000.

    If we go all electric it’s good. But how is that electricity produced at the plant? Does it burn fossil fuel or coal? Even atomic power plants have serious long term pollution issues. If all transportation is plug in (electric) it means higher electric demand. Many power plants can’t keep up with demand now. With brown or black outs happenin’ on real hot or cold days… all over. What happens if we add transportation to the mix? Seems this mode of electric power transportation is only a short term solution at best… with lots of limitations.

    Unless perhaps the electricity to power the vehicle is self generated somehow. Through solar or water or something other. Here is a water powered concept car with interesting potential…

    Genepax Co, Ltd.  Water Energy System (WES) concept vehicle.WES water car

    Genpax a Japanese firm has developed a system that extracts electricity from water, Zero emissions. The H2O Power concept car (WES in Reva, shown) runs on water. Genepax hopes to partner with an automaker to produce WES powered vehicles. If interested here is a website on how it works.

    Pie in the sky or the next motorized carriage???

    How about a magnetic motor? Two Australian Inventors have developed a generator which they claim will run for years on it’s own power and make 5 times the energy it uses.  Can even power a car they say with zero pollution. The video is amazing and interesting. Such potential.

    There are a lot of ideas for free energy or zero point energy machines on the Living Web. Are they true? Don’t know, but sure are interesting and have great potential.

    The sky’s the limit… it’s only limited now by what we can imagine. Let’s do great things, ask lots of questions and make this happen for the betterment of ourselves, our children and the planet!!!

    ~Bonnee Klein Gilligan

  • Who am I?

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA This week I’ve had a series of thoughts and concepts present for a revisit. A friend mentioned Tolle’s book ‘A New Earth’ and said I might want to watch the review at Oprah.com. While there I surfed around a bit and came upon Dr. Wayne Dyer on Oprah’s Soul Series. Then one day on Twitter Paulo Coelho tweeted the quote below so I visited his blog. All week I’ve been pondering the concepts of ego, personality, pain body and now. And working  with present moment. It has been an interesting week. Thought I’d share with you some of my outer and inner workings.

     So I begin… When asked who are you? We often reply with a series of socially acceptable identifiers like, "I am ‘name’, I work for ’employer’, I live in ‘town’, I am ‘relationship status’." Are we that? A name? A job? A town? A relationship?

    No of course not. These are identifiers…. name, job, location, relationship. They are current points in time which can change. We get married/divorced, move, change our name and jobs all the time these days.  But if we aren’t these… what are we? 

    We also say, ‘I am a ‘man or woman’, ‘I’m ‘age’,’I’m ‘sexual preference’ . We look in the mirror and see ourselves. We think, "That’s me." But we can alter our body too. Change hair color, lose or gain weight, have plastic surgery and not look the same at all. We can even change our sex. If we make any or all of these changes are we still the same? We look different. No one may recognize us. But are we still the same?

    We describe ourselves as, "I’m ‘outgoing or introverted or other’. I’m a ‘habit (smoker, drinker, etc.)’. I’m ‘emotional state (happy, sad, thankful, etc.)’. " And other descriptive phases which talk about our emotional state or ego/personality. Are we how we feel or even what we think?

    Dr. Wayne Dyer gives this collection of ideas about ego…

    I am what I do

    I am what I have

    I am what others think of me

    I am separate from you

    I am separate from what is missing in my life

    I am separate from God

    "We are not our ego. When we see ourselves and the world from these ideas we are ‘Edging God Out’ (EGO).  We are already connected to all… have all, we just need to align and surrender. Become empty."

    "Oh Krishna, The stillness of divine union which you describe is beyond my comprehension. How can the mind, which is so restless, attain lasting peace? " ~Bhagavad Gita

    If not egoic thought, who are we? What is at the core? How can we know who we are? Where do we begin?

    "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." ~2 Corinthians 3:4,5

    "We need to forget what we think we are, so that we can really become what we are." ~ Paulo Coelho

    So ‘I will’ is akin to ego. Forget or surrender ‘I will’ or ‘what we think we are’. Give up beliefs about self which come from ego or personality. The concept is clear enough but how?

    "Be still, and know that I am God." ~Psalms 46:10

    "True self essence comes out of stillness. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.

    To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. I call it stillness, but it is a jewel with many facets: that stillness is also joy, and it is love."~Eckhart Tolle

    ‘Be still’. In the stillness we begin to understand ‘what we are’.  But we have a life to live, things to accomplish. How can we become still or empty and have a life?

    "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." ~Buddha

    "Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life." ~Eckhart Tolle

    Life can only be experienced Now. Not in past or future. Aligning self with the present moment aligns self with Life (God). But then how do we know our purpose? What we are to do?

    "At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want." ~Lao Tzu

    Being is focusing self on something other then brain grinding or mindless doing. It is Life. Breathe. Follow the breath. Still self inward by following stillness into through and around a flower, tree, plant. Becoming that stillness, quiet, peace. It enlivens. Follow it into the body, feel the buzz, hum or vibration of Life within you. Feel the Peace. Stillness. Joy. Bliss. Then you are fully present… NOW.  The fullness of Life can truly only be experienced now… end.

    The photo above of the glorious rose was taken by my beloved friend Light who made his transition. Now he works in Spirit.

    Hope you enjoyed my pondering.

    ~Bonnee Klein Gilligan

    For more on Eckhart Tolle see eckharttolle.com or oprah.com  to watch ‘A New Earth’ book review with he and Oprah.

    For more on Paulo Coelho see paulocoelho.com.br or read his blog.

    For more on Dr. Wayne Dyer see drwaynedyer.com

  • Cattle Cutting Cheese Catastrophe

    Cattle cutting cheese? What’s up with that? Most living creatures phoot. Why is that newsworthy? Just heard that cattle phooting is the second largest contributor to global warming.  Higher then transportation. It’s inconceivable!

    Massive numbers of ’em stockpiled. Force fed corn or soy. Hard to digest. Stomachs made for grass, so there’s massive upset. Creating voluminous gas. Now this isn’t just any phoot. It’s methane. It’s flammable. More toxic then CO2. And being released in incredible quantities. Ever driven by a stockyard? It’s a smelly mess for miles.

    The average American eats half a pound of meat a day. Twice as much as USDA recommends. So meat producers pack ’em in even more. 10,000,000,000 animals a year to feed our need. Which means more and more stinkin’ phoots pollutin’ the air. It’s a Cattle Cutting Cheese Catastrophe.

    But there’s more…

    Mark Bittman a food critic, discusses the current state of our food. Too much meat, too few plants and too much fast food is putting our lives and the planet at risk. Watch this entertaining and enlightening video to find out how. It’s funny, fascinating and firey.

    Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

    TED: Ideas worth spreading: http://www.ted.com/

    July 2, 2008 – BBC reports that higher amounts of fruits, vegetables, cereals and less red meat, plus more olive oil are a healthier diet. More…

    ~Bonnee Klein Gilligan