Google Shuts Off the Lights

I went to Google this morning, continuing my efforts to finish the paper for another class that has managed to consume my life, and the image that I saw slightly confused my only half-awake senses. It looked a little something like this:

Actually, it looked exactly like that, since that is a screenshot that I took. (And yes, I still use AOL at home. I know I'm the only one. I just can't let go.)

For a second, I thought that something really strange happened to my computer settings or something, and panicked a little bit because that would mean I might have to get dressed and go to ResNet. It turns out though, that the explanation was just a click away, as it so often is.

Google changed their display for a day in an effort to make people aware of a global conservation effort called "Earth Hour." Today, March 29, 2008, everyone around the world is encouraged to turn off their lights from 8 PM to 9 PM in their local timezones. (Also, Google says that making thier homepage black actually requires the same amount of energy as having it white. Thank God they cleared that up.)

I can definitely applaud this effort on Earth Hour's part, and I'm sure it will certainly help them that Google got involved and confused probably thousands of other half-asleep people this morning. However, this reminds me a lot of that "Don't Buy Gas On [DATE]!!!" message that gets passed around through e-mail and pops up on message boards once or twice a year, claiming that a national "strike" in buying gas will cause the government to lower the price of gas.

According to Snopes (and please take a moment to giggle at their headline,) that gas-out thing has never been successful and in recent years hasn't even drawn enough participation to be considered newsworthy. Snopes also says, "The premise behind all these messages is inherently flawed, because consumers' not buying gasoline on one particular day doesn't affect oil companies at all. The "gas out" scheme doesn't call upon people to use less gasoline, but simply to shift their date of purchase and buy gas a day earlier or later than they usually would. The every same amounth of gasoline is sold either way, so oil companies don't lose any money."

So, my question is, will Earth Hour be any different? Don't these things have pretty much the same premise behind them, and in turn, the same flaw? Northeastern has had competitions between dorms in the past to see which buildings could use the least power (although I halfway think that has more to do with Northeastern not wanting to shell out for the electricity bill than wanting to save the environment, but that's another story,) with the winning dorm getting a pizza party or something to that effect. But I don't remember ever hearing about the winner, or the event having high participation from students, besides the student group that organized it.

Also, in theory, the no-gas-buying-day kind of sounds like it would work better than the Earth Hour thing. At least the idea behind not buying gas is to not buy any gas. With Earth Hour, you're just supposed to turn off the lights, not all your power. So, I could turn off my lights for that hour and consider myself a participant at the same time as I'm watching TV, listing to the radio, charging my cell phone, heating something up in the microwave and on the Internet using my computer's AC outlet power. Hmm..

So, I wonder if this will really have any kind of effect besides to get peoples' attention. Granted, getting peoples' attention is a good goal to have. But it would be even nicer if this actually proved something to people, like that the lights they keep on in their homes actually do make a difference.

Local Photography on 9Neighbors

The site 9Neighbors.com is a great resource to help people in the Boston area feel more connected with their community. The news section includes interesting local stories and the site is searchable by neighborhoods or topic (such as Red Sox.) It has all the makings of a great citizen-based community networking site, but my favorite part of this site is the photography section.

People upload their photos taken around Boston to the site and share them with other viewers. I think that it's really cool because it gives residents, even those who aren't particularly artistic, a chance to notice and appreciate how beautiful this city actually is.

Some of the photos, such as this one of a snowman (I love the caption,) are funny, while others are beautiful sites that you might not think could be found in a city, such as this sunset overlooking the pond in Jamaica Plain.

This photo of the Swan Lake in the Common is one of my personal favorites, even though the quality isn't great.

I was really happy to find this section of the site, because I probably never would have looked for something like Boston photography on my own, but I'm glad that I saw it. I think that images like these can help you to really appreciate where you live.

R.I.P. Alpha Omega

Last week, I was walking through the Prudential Center and I spotted something a little out of the ordinary. The Alpha Omega kiosk was taken apart and the sign that had been hanging down from the ceiling was lying on the floor.

Thinking that it may have been an accident, and therefore possibly newsworthy and interesting, I snapped a few pictures of the scene on my cell phone.

There wasn't anyone around that I could ask about it, so I went home and after searching for a few minutes, found this article from the Boston Business Journal, which explains that the kiosk (and other store locations) are simply closing due to bankrupcy. (Of course, I should have noticed that all the cases were empty before I got all excited and assumed that something unexpected had happened.)

Alpha Omega is (was?) a luxury jewlwery retailer, which specialized in watches. I can't say I'm deeply effected by its closing (unlike the closing of all Jasmine Sola locations, one of which was also in the Prudential Center, earlier this year) having never actually shopped there myself, but I am curious to see what kiosk will take its place.

So, I guess I didn't really capture breaking news like I had hoped, but now we know the fate of the Alpha Omega kiosk.

"What I did over my spring vacation"

I spent my spring break in France. One of my best friends recently moved there, so I was able to go and spend a week visiting her. We spent five nights in the city that she lives in, Aix-en-Provence. It's a small city in the south with beautiful buildings and statues. I'm not sure what the people who live there actually do, but it seemed to me like their lives consisted of sitting at outdoor cafes, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. (I don't say that like it's a bad thing.) No one there ever seemed stressed out or in a rush.

My friend has been living there for about a month and a half, so she knew a couple of people who she introduced me to. For the most part, her French friends are men in their mid to late 20s. They were really nice to me, and with my barely comprehendible French skills and their basic English skills, I was able to get by in a conversation with them most of the time.

One thing that I thought was interesting was that more than once, I was asked by a person that I had just moments before met and could barely understand, "Barack or Hilary?" I thought it was interesting for a few reasons. I had always heard that people in other countries knew more about American politics than most Americans did. And for the week, at least, it was true for me! While I was there, I wasn't watching the news because I couldn't understand it, and I only had access to the Internet twice. I got my updates on the recent primaries from random French accquaintences of my friend. These people knew who each and every state had chosen up to that point in the race.

I also thought that it was interesting how open they were about their political leanings. I guess that sort of thing varies from person to person, but in the United States, I don't think that I've ever had someone I just met ask me which candidate I supported. I suppose I wouldn't mind if they did, but it's just not something that I think happens a lot here. Finally, no one asked me at all about the Republicans. Literally everyone who asked me about politics asked me the same question, "Barack or Hillary?" I thought about telling someone that I was going to vote Republican, just to get their response, but I decided that my very poor French skills were not really conducive to using sarcasm and then having to explain myself.

My friend and I also spent a day in Nice, which was absolutely gorgeous. I wish the weather had been just slightly warmer so we could have gone to the beach. Instead, we got our lunch at a huge outdoor market (cheese, baguette, fresh strawberries, wine) and walked to the top of a hill (mountain? I don't really know...) overlooking the city and the beach and ate our lunch there.

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After that, Carnival de Nice was beginning for the day, so we went and watched that for a while. It was basically a parade and a giant silly-string fight. We got into an epic battle with some little kids, spraying silly string and tossing confetti at each other (I'm still pulling the pieces of confetti out of my purse.) It was cool how informal the parade was. People could just cross the street and walk in between the floats. There were no barricades at all and the people on the floats were not at all immune to getting sprayed with tons of silly string. You could move around the crowd without knocking people over. The floats all looked older and more worn down. The whole thing was really different (and more fun) than something like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York. It was probably even less formal than the last Red Sox parade we had here in Boston (although that one was a lot of fun, too.)

And of course, what's a trip to France without a visit to Paris? Unfortunately, we only got to spend two nights there, but we saw a lot. I'm going to post pictures some time soon.

It's really nice to be back here and be around people who I can understand. I've been back since Saturday night and I still catch myself almost saying "Bonjour" and "Bonsoir" and more than once when I've bumped into people accidentally, I've said, "Excuzez-moi!" Language is really something that I used to take for granted in my every day life, but a week of not being able to clearly communicate with anyone besides my friend and her roommate, who is from North (or was it South?) Carolina, I definitely see how important it is. I couldn't even watch TV for a week!

For me, one good thing came out of not being able to talk to most people. I wrote, and wanted to write a lot more than I usually do. Probably because I felt like I had no other way to say the things I was thinking. Hopefully that's something that will stick with me!

I'm going to try and post my pictures sometime tomorrow or later this week. Au revoir!