Vladimir: Greta, ahem, I embarrassment at this topic to discuss. Is not seemingly appropriate for our status as world famous bloggstar gnomes…

Greta: Oh Vladimir, you such prudish sometimes. Very important topic, now we are in spring and humans are strolling doggies outside by trees and shrubberies. Here in Amerika, 40% of humans not clean up after their doggies!

Vladimir: No, cannot be true! 40%?

Greta: Yes, but truly Female Humans more often to clean up after pets than Male Humans…and dog and cat together make 10 million tons of poop a year!

Vladimir: Hmmm, very productive…possibly I wonder to make energy resource from such products? Noticing now gas prices jump fast! read more...

By Karen Klinger read more...

Planetwalker, Dr. John Francis, will be speaking on Wednesday evening at the Cambridge Forum:

3 Church Street in Harvard Square
May 14 at 7:30 PM.

Come and hear this amazing man’s presentation followed by book signing.

What is a PlanetWalker?

Dr. John Francis founded Planetwalk in 1982 when he began his walking and sailing pilgrimage around the world. In the ensuing 26 years, he has covered the U.S. and South America (including Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina), and the Caribbean and Cuba.

He recently started a walk to study organic agriculture and sustainable development in Cuba, and is developing Planetlines, an environmental education curriculum for high school, college, and civic organizations based on his walking pilgrimage. read more...

On Wednesday May 7th I buzzed into Cambridge City Hall’s Sullivan Chamber to witness some of the 2009 Budget Hearings. Every Spring, the heads of City Departments - from Cable T.V to the Women’s Commission – make their plea to at least get level funded for the upcoming year. And what is the bargain – getting scrutinized by City Councilors.

By 10:30 am, Councilors Decker, Seidel, Davis and Brian Murphy were in attendance, politicking to & fro. But it was Councilor Craig Kelley who eloquently fired up “the Grill” peppering questions & comments towards Lisa Peterson, Commissioner of Public Works a.k.a. DPW. It was then that I was reminded why I voted for Kelley in ’05 & last November – He is a head-chef when it comes to dicing up the meat of matters dear to himself and his neighbors. Plus as a seasonal bike rider, Kelley’s eye is on street level yearlong and he is an expert at boiling down the ‘pessimistic potatoes’ of pedestrians, drivers & fellow bikers. read more...

When:
Saturday, May 10, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.,
Where:
250 Fresh Pond Parkway, Cambridge (rain or shine).

It's FREE!

Events for all ages

Activities will include walks for kids, a senior walk, nature and water facility tours, tree planting demonstration, bike rides, mini bike tune-ups, an interactive literacy display, dog licensing, ecology tours, energy conservation and recycling education, and a variety of other interactive events and information booths, etc.

About Fresh Pond

Fresh Pond Reservation, Cambridge’s largest public open space, was designed in 1897 by brothers John Charles Olmstead and Frederic Law Olmstead Jr.

Other famous Olmsted Brothers landscape architectural projects included the U.S. Capitol and White House Grounds, Acadia National Park, New York City's Central Park, and the entire park system in Boston. read more...

By Karen Klinger

As a teenager, Jerome Friedman was a talented painter who turned down a scholarship to an art school against the advice of his teacher to study physics at the University of Chicago.

It proved to be the right choice.

Friedman, an emeritus professor at MIT, shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics for research establishing the first solid evidence for the existence of quarks, building blocks for protons and neutrons--two main components of atoms.

In a talk at the MIT Museum during the Cambridge Science Festival, he reflected on his long career and his belief that with developments such as the recent completion of the world's most powerful particle accelerator, "I think we're coming into a new era of cosmology and particle physics and it's a very, very exciting time." read more...

Quick, where can you get good stuff FREE?

At the end-of-the-year FreeMeet at MIT hosted by Students for Global Sustainability:

When: Friday May 9th
From 10:00-6:00
Where: At the MIT Student Center (W20-491)
See map at
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=W20&Buildings=go

Everyone is welcome, and you don't need to bring stuff to take stuff!

Reduce waste, reduce consumption

Take some time in the next day or so to go through your “stuff” and see what you don't use. Someone else can give a second life to things that are still usable, wearable, readable, playable, etc. But please use common sense; don't bring animals, open food, dangerous items, broken stuff, junk, etc.

Instead of contributing to a landfill (bad), bring your stuff to the FreeMeet (good) and save someone the trouble of buying what you can provide for free! read more...

By Karen Klinger

MIT sociologist Sherry Turkle smiled as she recalled the conversation she had with a journalist for a leading science magazine who wanted to know why she opposed marriages between people and robots.

"He put me in the same camp as those who opposed marriage between lesbians or gay marriage," Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology, told those gathered at the MIT Museum to hear her and colleague Cynthia Breazeal discuss "sociable robots."

The man accused her of "species chauvinism," she said. "It made me feel sad."

The talk by Turkle and Breazeal, an associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, was sponsored by the Cambridge Science Festival, a nine-day, citywide celebration of science and technology. read more...