We have a birds nest in one of our trees. The mom bird has been trying to keep the cats away from the nest, but tonight it didn't work. One of our cats brought two little baby birds.....sooo mean....they were barely breathing, and the cats were doing their thing....throwing it around, and trying to bring it in the house. - Karen Padham Taylor
So sorry to hear that. Ours have done the same thing. We have 5 or 6 nests around our house this year, but the cats have only caught 1 or 2 babies. It's sad but difficult to be angry with the cats when they are only following their instincts. - Anne Bouey
"According to the EPA, if all TVs sold in the U.S. met Energy Star requirements, yearly energy savings would top $1 billion and greenhouse gas emissions would drop by the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road." - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
"It's funny, though, because we have swimmers who come here at 6am every morning to do laps. It's still dark then and they mustn't have even noticed it was there." - Anne Bouey
i posted this photo a couple of weeks back, but the place i got it from didn't describe where it was. i wonder how much that piece of property is worth. looks lovely - Cee Bee
yeah... now we have a stronger dollar, both islands and the better side of the falls - Stewart Rogers
Wikipedia denies it: A popular tale among local guides is that the bigger part of Zavikon is in Canada, while the smaller part is in the United States, and the foot bridge between them is the "shortest international bridge in the world". However, this is not true as both islands are Canadian Territory. So, Citation needed :) - Nikhil Dandekar
"To achieve their goal they turned to Elevate Destinations (www.elevatedestinations.com), a philanthropic travel company based in Cambridge, Mass., that organizes luxury trips to locations with sustainable practices in place. Kate and Brian chose the African Honeymoon package, a two-week trip to Kenya, which included accommodations in a hotel where rooms were built on stilts made from salvaged wood, a luxury tent at a safari camp in the Masai Mara, and in their case (they customized part of the trip) a thatched banda on a beach in Lamu Island. Elevate donates 5 percent of the overall cost of each trip to charities in the host country. Other Elevate experiences include staying in an eco-retreat in a Honduran rain forest, a spiritual journey through India and a cruise down the Mekong River in Laos." - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
"The British couple chose the Hoopoe Yurt Hotel in Andalucia, Spain (www.yurthotel.com), where guests stay in handmade boutique yurts (all with eco-friendly private bathrooms). The entire camp runs on solar power, including the pool and the electric sockets in the yurts for charging cellphones and laptops." - Karen Padham Taylor
"The most common expression detected by the program was the rate of eye blinking. When students found the lecture difficult, or challenging, the eye-blink rate decreased, which is consistent with various psychological studies showing that the rate drops when the mental load is high." - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
I wish it was for a better reason, but every time Karen is looking for something on the internet and can't find it, she comes to me, and I do it in one Google search. Apparently working there for 4.5 years makes you really good at constructing search queries :) - Bret Taylor
Oh, I thought you meant Bret of Flight of the Conchords. - Akiva Moskovitz
I heard the Flight of the Conchords character was based on Bret Taylor... - Jim Norris
Even better if she's looking for something and you implement a search engine that can find it. Usually that takes more than a few seconds, tho. - j1m
hahaha. Priscilla and I have same thing going. In college, I was known for my search query prowess among my roommates. - Chad via twhirl
"With a principle focus of creating a balance between maintaining a fragile habitat for wildlife and using natural resources wisely, Finca Bellavista aims to implement sustainable energy practices such as hydroelectric and solar power, while operating a full-fledged recycling center and a common garden area for the community. This might make it an eco-utopia for some, but for others it’s a possible solution for dovetailing conservation with development.
As per Finca Bellavista’s guidelines on their website, treehouses in the community must be low-impact, stilt-built or arboreal dwellings that utilize a rainwater catch system to provide water for each unit. Waste that is generated is to be treated with “a cutting-edge technology found in biodigestors”. A “hydroelectric turbine system” will power the entire community. The power grid will run via a system of transformers and underground power cables installed along the horseshoe-shaped main access road that runs throughout the community, producing peak power o - Karen Padham Taylor via Bookmarklet
One of my dreams as a kid was to live a la Swiss Family Robinson. - Anne Bouey
anyone interested in timesharing this with me? Starts at $50k for 2 acres... - Oliver Deighton
