Census Bureau theorists are projecting the world population will hit exactly 6,666,666,666 on May 10 this year.  That’s just a few days away. 

Frank151 recommends you do everything you’ve always wanted (but never had the cojones) to do… by May 9. 

Just in case of apocalypse.  You understand.  

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This just in from the NY Times, via Frank fam ChinoBYI… you peep it directly on his excellent blog here.

“Sixteen nautical miles from the Indian River Inlet and about 80 feet underwater,a building boom is under way at the Red Bird Reef. One by one, a backhoe operator has been shoving hundreds of retired New York subway cars off a barge, continuing the transformation of a barren stretch of ocean floor into a bountiful oasis, carpeted in sea grasses, walled thick with blue mussels and sponges, and teeming with black sea bass and tautog.

‘They’re basically luxury condominiums for fish,’ Jeff Tinsman, the artificial reef program manager for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said as one of 48 of the 19-ton retirees from New York sank toward the 666 already on the ocean floor. But now, Delaware is struggling with the misfortune of its own success. Having planted a thriving community in what was once an underwater desert, state marine officials are faced with the sort of overcrowding, crime and traffic problems more common to terrestrial cities.

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Tomorrow night, from 12:55 to 1 am Eastern, there’s a movement on to unplug all electrical devices – most importantly lights.  

Just for five minutes.  Just to see what happens. 

If the response is big enough, the energy saved in 5 minutes could be massive (although it’s a Friday night, so the numbers might be a bit thin…)

Organizers say the goal is to give the planet 5 minutes “to breathe.”  We’re more interested to see what will happen if this goes down on a major scale.  The damage those 5 minutes’ worldwide blackout might do to energy corporations’ revenue could be devastating… which could actually have a positive impact energy consumption.

So tomorrow night, fight the power – light a candle.  Give it a try.  

Tonight was 2008’s only total lunar eclipse…

After the Earth moved in between the Sun and the Moon, there was still a thin circle of sunlight passing through our atmosphere – which apparently scattered the blue light spectrum so that we cast a red shadow across the Moon’s face.  People used to call it the blood moon.

This was the same kind of eclipse Columbus supposedly used to fool the first Americans he met into thinking he had the favor of the gods — which really set a benchmark for European honesty towards indigenous people in years to come. 

Regardless, tonight’s eclipse was real cool.  Hope y’all caught it.

UPPA / Photoshoot

(via: The Sun)

“The record melting of Arctic sea ice observed this summer and fall led to record-low levels of ice in both September and October, but a record-setting pace of re-freezing in November, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. Some 58,000 square miles of ice formed per day for 10 days in late October and early November, a new record.” (source The Daily Green)

“Although the site is not currently open to ongoing general public access, between the months of April and November, you can take a public bus tour led by the NYC Urban Park Rangers.”

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/fresh_kills_park/html/pick_date.php

But don’t get cancer.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/freshkills/fkl_p2.html

Legend of legends, Uncle Ralph McDaniels came through the Chop Shop today to get a cut, and simultaneously hip us to his new project On Fumes. Now, there’s little Frank can say about Ralph that hasn’t been said by every Hip-Hop great, and then some. Dude straight opened doors. To quote his bio:

“If Hip-Hop had a Hall of Fame, all of the inductees would be ushered to their rightful seats by “Uncleâ€? Ralph McDaniels. Known to the music industry as the original  tastemaker to the streets, he created the first music video show catering exclusively to an urban market.”

The Video Music Box was what every (proper) NYC teenager ran home from school to watch. Now, you can catch Ralph on his very own site filled with tons of classic and under appreciated videos alike. Do the right thing, and check it out.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour” is a feature length documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The 11th Hour documents the cumulative impact of these actions upon the planet’s life systems and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity.

The 11th Hour opens in Los Angeles and New York on August 17th, in select markets on August 24th, and nationwide on August 31st.
 

Save energy, use Blackle.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. “Image displayed is primarily a function of the user’s color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen.” Roberson et al, 2002

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

Blackle.com