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closetofanxiety · 6 years ago

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Nitromare: Underneath the Barrel

Another week, another episode of Nitro from the Vince Russo era. This Monday is November 1, 1999, and we’re live from the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I went out to Minneapolis to see a wrestling show last year, and had a fine time. I don’t know if I’ll have as much fun watching this Nitro.

We open up with Bret Hart upbraiding Hall and Nash for interfering in his match last week. They don’t know why he’s upset, since they interfered on his behalf. “Screw you, Scott!” Bret yells.

Bret walks out to the crowd, on crutches, and tells people he thinks Bill Goldberg is the rightful U.S. champion. Sid Vicious, hair product spilling down the back of his leather vest in thick rivulets, comes out and beats on Hart. Hall and Nash come out to mock the injured Canadian hero.

We’re still in the midst of this nonsensical tournament to crown a new WCW world heavyweight champion. The brackets make me realize I’ve been misspelling Lash LeRoux’s name wrong for two straight installments of Nitromare. It’s in the spirit of Crash TV, bro!

One thing I appreciate is that the WWE Network has left in the commercials that are wrestling-themed, so there are some Randy Savage Slim Jims ads, and a lot of ads for WCW toys. It’s amazing how little ads for wrestling toys have changed since then. The medium is ripe for reinvention.

Some recap, some backstage nonsense, and we’re onto our first match: Vampiro vs. Berlyn, in a battle to see who is the top mall goth in all of WCW. It’s a pretty decent match, and then ... Oh God, it’s the Michael Graves-era Misfits running out of the back for some reason. “Vampiro is a musician as well,” Tony notes. I’ll say this: the Michael Graves albums aren’t as bad as people claim. Some decent songs on those, but people were just going to shit on anything that wasn’t Danzig, casually overlooking that “Earth A.D.” was terrible.

Ah, let’s see: ref bump, the Misfits take out Berlyn’s bodyguard, The Wall, with a chair shot, and then help Vampiro get the cheating win over Berlyn. The Wall has miraculously recovered from being knocked unconscious 15 seconds ago, and gives the microphone to Berlyn. “From now on, screw USA!” he says.

Backstage, Hall is reading a newspaper. Ah, the 1990s! He and Nash mumble semi-audibly to each other. In another part of backstage, the Revolution have locked a leather-clad Torrie Wilson in a cage. “She’s the property now of the Revolution,” Brain informs us.

The Revolution come out to the ring. Perry Saturn is wearing an outfit entirely composed of denim except for his leather Kangol. “You say you want a revolution?” Shane Douglas asks. No one said that, Shane. They let Perry talk for a while, which is a bold choice. Perry demands a key on top of a pole match, the key being the one to let Torrie Wilson out of her cage. Is this the first item on a pole match of the Russo era? I believe it is.

Dean Malenko takes the mic to call out Chris Benoit. “You’ve been nothing but a puss, old buddy,” he says. DANGEROUSLY EDGY.

Benoit comes out. All these guys are in street clothes, which hilariously means polo shirts tucked into jeans. They look like a bunch of office guys getting ready to cut loose with a game of touch football at the company picnic. Chris Benoit announces he will wrestle Dean Malenko in a cage, which for some reason causes Malenko to have some kind of psychotic break.

Backstage, the Filthy Animals are coming into the building, and a security stops them, demanding to see backstage passes. This makes a huge amount of sense. The Filthy Animals beat the security guy up, because they can’t be contained by your rules. Meanwhile, Mike Tenay is interviewing Kimberly Page, who is flanked by all the Nitro Girls. How many Nitro Girls can you name without looking it up? Was one of them named Sapphire? That’s about as much as I can muster. Kim tells the Nitro Girls she’s leaving the group. I never really thought of her as a Nitro Girl tbh.

Ernest “The Cat” Miller comes to the ring, and the fake music the WWE Network inserts over his entrance song is unbelievably bad. Seriously, go and watch this. It’s incredible. It sounds like a Casio keyboard has been sunk in a vat of pickle brine before being struck by hammer-wielding orangutans.

He’s wrestling Lash LeRoux. “Big future ahead for this guy,” Brain says. “I can see it. He’s going to explode.” He’s now a Christian cartoonist and illustrator, so maybe? This match lasts maybe two minutes. The Cat’s knee gives out and LeRoux picks up the win.

Backstage, Hart is raging about Nash and Hall. “These guys aren’t the bottom of the barrel, they’re underneath the barrel!” he fumes. Meanwhile, dissension in the Nitro Girls as they try to decide who will be the new leader. Elsewhere, the Filthy Animals are secretly videotaping Lex Luger and Miss Elizabeth. Eddie Guerrero is wearing a fetching Cosby sweater. The camera keeps rolling after they stop acting and then they show an actual behind-the-scenes TNT director. Everyone is cracking up. LIVE TV, BRO! Maybe that was deliberate? Maybe Vince Russo was out to destroy the fourth wall once and for all?

Now we cut to a remote segment with a shockingly subdued, normal Scott Steiner talking about a back injury to Larry Zbyszko. This is a totally different Steiner. No shouting, no babbling, just a guy talking like a football player about the specifics of an injury and surgery. Larry is wearing a colored denim shirt with the Nitro logo on the breast pocket. At last, a garment fine enough for me to be wed in. Was this an attempt to do a “shoot interview”? Russo pulling back the curtain - this ain’t Scott Steiner the character, this is Scott Steiner THE HUMAN BEING!

Now we’re back in the ring, and the Nitro Girls are dancing. I would like to read an oral history of this dance troupe. Get on that, Bixenspan. The dancing ends with some pushing and shoving, but before that can go anywhere, we’re backstage again, with Tenay interviewing Buff Bagwell. The Buff Daddy complains about “the writers” holding him back.

A series of vignettes show us Kevin Nash doing a Vince McMahon impression. What am I doing with my life?

Back to the Nitro Girls. More pushing and shoving backstage. Trying to turn them into workers was such a characteristically Russovian decision. And, like most of his ideas, it was terrible and obviously doomed to fail.

A crowd sign: “BUFF IS THE REAL PEOPLE [sic] CHAMPION”

Stevie Ray comes out and announces that “the powers that be” have determined there will be a strap match. “Who said that? The two writers in the back?” Buff yells. Yes, Buff. So now we have a strap match. It’s not a good strap match, and the two suited goons who work for THE DAMN WRITERS IN THE BACK run out because Buff starts to win. Why do Russo and Ferrara hate Buff so much?

We switch from the ring as the ring announcer is talking to Tenay interviewing Jeff Jarrett. “Don’t get slappy with me, Tenay!” he says. He drops some more insider terminology, because Vince Russo thought that was what normal people wanted.

Kevin Nash comes out, a vision of horror in putty makeup, as Vince McMahon. “The fans out here, they don’t even know who he is,” Tony says. Which explains why they’re silently watching this terrible skit. Less than three years after this, Nash would be working for Vince McMahon once again, and losing to Chris Jericho in a hair vs. hair match. Life comes at you fast, Kevin.

“I put anyone out of business until I was the only show in town,” Nash as Vince says, eerily predicting what will happen in less than 18 months. The crowd is restless and bored. He uses some insider lingo, as was the style at the time. Nash-Vince introduces Scott Hall as “the Trouser Snake.”

“He’s clean and sober!” Nash-Vince proclaims. This is grim. Fifteen years before this, a young “Magnum” Scott Hall was starting off in this very city, in the dying days of the once-great American Wrestling Association. How far we had all come.

Hall launches some more insider lingo and does a crotch chop aimed at “the boys in New York.” Seconds and minutes of my life, rushing by, never to be held again.

Backstage shit. Lex, Liz, Meng, Perfect. Ah, Perfect. The last great star of the Minneapolis-based AWA, a native of nearby Robbinsdale. What did Verne make of all this? I mean, Verne probably would have tried to put a 59-year-old Baron Von Raschke over Bret Hart, but I digress.

Hennig gets a good pop when he comes out. Brain points out Hennig’s father, the great AWA star Larry Hennig, at ringside. The ghosts of the 1970s are all around us. This is a match against Disco Inferno. This will not be up to the standard of one of Hennig’s matches in the previous decade with Nick Bockwinkel.

The crowd absolutely fucking loses it for Larry Hennig, chanting “LARE-EE! LARE-EE!” as he punches Disco Inferno. Ah, that does my heart good.

Of course, this has to be interrupted by the random appearance of some goober walking down the ramp from backstage. Disco Inferno runs out to talk to him, and they walk down the ramp to the back. The bell rings, and Hennig wins by contour. Larry claps at ringside while looking like he’s seen someone shoot a family pet.

Some backstage garbage. We come back to the ring for a “hardcore three-way dance.” The Barbarian w/Jimmy Hart, Meng, and ... Norman Smiley dressed as a baseball catcher. Two of the all-time legit tough guys and a star from the old British wrestling, in this goofy-ass plunder battle. This should have been a stiff, nasty classic. Instead it’s a slow, sloppy farce.

Crowd sign, evidently made by a lunatic: “PUSH DAVID FLAIR.”

In the ring, Meng and the Barbarian are chopping the shit out of Norman Smiley. THIS IS MORE LIKE IT. Smiley’s shoulder is sliced open, probably on one of those fake trash cans. He’s stretchered away from the ring for some reason. He jumps off the stretcher when he sees that Meng and the Barbarian have knocked each other out, and covers the Barbarian for the win.

Backstage, Jim Duggan is begging an unseen Vince Russo for his job. “I’ve been wrestling for 20 years, and I think I have more fan support than some of these guys out here doing the dropkicks.” Fancy, fancy dropkicks!

Russo, off-camera, sneers, “It’s all about ratings. Next!” He managed to keep his voice off TV for two whole weeks. As we know, the amount of Vince Russo time would only grow.

Jarrett comes out and demands to see Luger. Jarrett is mad that Luger accused him of beating up Miss Elizabeth two weeks ago. “This is not the WWF. We don’t abuse women here!” Luger comes out and apologizes for accusing Jeff Jarrett of hitting Miss Elizabeth with a guitar. This is exactly like “War and Peace.” But it’s all a ruse! Luger goads Jarrett into insulting Meng, who runs out. Jarrett flees, wisely.

Miss Elizabeth and Luger join Meng. Elizabeth thanks Meng, and then ... maces him. Luger pulls out a crowbar and beats on Meng. None of this makes sense. None of it has to. We are deep within the heart of the Nitromare.

Backstage nonsense. The Filthy Animals, who Mark accurately describes as “The Go-Bots version of DX,” come out for a good ol’ fashioned object on a pole match. The object here is a key that will free Torrie Wilson from a cage. If Eddie Guerrero wins, he will reunite Torrie with her crew. Perry Saturn implies that if he wins, he will have sex with Torrie, presumably against her will. Whenever someone talks about how great wrestling was in the late 1990s, I will remember this.

Perry Saturn is driving a forklift with the Torrie cage on it. I’m not sure he’s a licensed forklift operator. Also, I’m pretty sure the Target Center is a union shop. Could be a strike in the works here.

Tony: “It’s been a wild night.” Brain: “It’s getting better every Monday!” Only Tony is truthful.

Eddie vs. Saturn should be a good match, but of course it’s not. After about two minutes, there’s interference from Shane Douglas, and most of the action in the match revolves around attempts to get the key off the pole. This is the problem with object on a pole matches.

Sign in the crowd: “CONAN [sic] IS THE TACO BELL DOG.” This is a racist reference that may be lost on younger people reading this today.

Eddie gets the key while Torrie chokes Saturn. The Filthy Animals were, theoretically, a pretty good faction. It’s kind of a fun mixture of personalities, and their all-for-one mentality really helped them stand out. They were let down by the fact that Vince Russo was in charge.

More backstage shit, and then we’re back in the ring for a Filthy Animals match. I mean, we just had all the Filthy Animals out for the previous match, but here they are again. No way the crowd could possibly become bored by 25 minutes of the same people, right?

Kidman and Konnan, the tag team champs, are going to be wrestling Sting and Luger. We’ve also seen a lot of Luger tonight. This is WCW, but they’re running the show like one of those super local indies where everyone has to wrestle twice on the same show.

Some people in the crowd have Juggalo face paint, the second week in a row I’ve noticed this. Did the Misfits ever wrestle the Insane Clown Posse on a WCW show? If not, why not?

This match sucks, but Sting is still insanely popular. The crowd goes berserk at every Stinger splash. The match ends after three or four minutes via DQ, when Rey and Eddie jump Sting. The Filthy Animals were the babyfaces in the previous match, and they’re the heels here. Welcome to Vince Russo’s World of Moral Ambiguity and Veiled Rape References.

Sting is mad because Lex didn’t help against the Filthy Animals. Sting and Luger have quite the rocky friendship. Backstage, Sting knocks over an (empty) barrel of Surge, the none-more-Nineties soft drink.

We come to the ring, where Booker T is walking out. He’s jumped on the ramp by Jeff Jarrett. This is a fun, Southern-style match, or more like a hyper fast, caffeinated version of a Southern match. Naturally, it gets interrupted by the two besuited goons working on behalf of Russo and Ferrara, and Jarrett wins. Has there been a clean pin once tonight?

A remote piece from the set of “Slam,” which would later be renamed “Ready to Rumble,” the godawful David Arquette wrestling movie. Tenay interviews Goldberg. Goldberg sure doesn’t like the Outsiders and Sid!

A bunch of backstage garbage. Madusa, another AWA favorite, gets a nice reception from the crowd. She’s going to wrestle Evan Karagias. This is pretty much what people who don’t like intergender wrestling are thinking of when they talk about intergender wrestling. Madusa keeps trying to seduce Karagias rather than wrestle him. Madusa pins him and then makes out with him. Everything is awful.

Benoit and Malenko are wrestling in a cage. This should be a brutal classic by two of the best technical wrestlers of all time. “I can’t wait ‘til this match is over,” Brain says. I feel the same way about this episode, and this entire insane project.

The match is not a brutal classic. It’s over in 4:29. A few decent spots, but more like a highlight reel than anything. Perry Saturn runs out to try and help Malenko. It doesn’t work. Benoit wins with a diving headbutt off the top of the cage, which is insane. The Revolution gets into the cage and they beat up Benoit. The Filthy Animals have turned into babyfaces again, and they run into the cage to help Benoit. The crowd doesn’t know what to do, so they do nothing. David Flair, the least electrifying man in sports entertainment, shows up with a crowbar to attack the Filthy Animals. Now Sting comes out to attack the Filthy Animals. With any luck, we’ll get Meng out here to attack the Filthy Animals.

Instead, we cut to the parking garage. David Flair is trying to sneak away, but gets run down by someone driving a car. It’s Kim Page. This show is terrible.

Backstage: someone has beaten up Nash-Vince. Good.

Now the main event: Sid vs. Scott Hall. Why am I doing this to myself? How much longer am I going to be able to do this?

The match is bad. It lasts 4:53. For a second I have the horrifying fear that this is the match where Sid broke his leg, but then I look it up and see that it happened during the Sin PPV in January 2001.

There’s a ref bump. Second of the night. A referee was also attacked by Shane Douglas after the key on a pole match. Bret Hart comes out on his crutches. Hits Sid. Swings and misses with Hall. Hall gets the pin on Sid. Who cares about any of this? What is even happening in this show?

#Nitromare #show reviews #WCW #1990s wrestling

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jessicakehoe · 5 years ago

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16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Holiday Season

Christmas—despite its biblical origins and self-professed giving spirit—is an orgy of consumption. The holidays see more food, more drinks, more shopping, more gifts, more travel and more human-gatherings than any other time of the year. It also sees more garbage, waste and senseless squandering of the earth’s depleting resources. Tis the season, am I right?

This year, take a moment to turn down the Michael Bublé and think about the impact your festivities are having on the environment. From eco-friendly gift wrapping to sustainably sourced trees, there are plenty of ways to eat, drink, be merry and be a friend to the planet.

Photography via iStock

The Tree

Real and plastic Christmas trees are both evergreen, but they’re also both never green. Get it? That was a fancy way of saying that whether your tree was cut down at a farm or created in a factory, you’re increasing your personal carbon footprint. Which of the two is less bad is an age-old question, with studies showing that the difference it so small, it really doesn’t matter which you choose. Here’s what science has to say: the American Christmas Tree Association (this is a real thing) did a comparative life cycle assessment in 2010 (it’s 210 pages), and found that “the impact of the tree life cycle, for all scenarios, is less than 0.1% of a person’s annual carbon footprint and therefore is negligible within the context of the average American’s lifestyle.”

1. If you opt for a real tree, look out for FSC Certification. This will confirm that your tree has been sourced sustainably.

2. When the holidays are over and it’s time to kick your festive decor to the curb, seek out local council recycling schemes that repurpose or replant trees.

3. If a fake tree is more your style, try picking up a secondhand one from an Internet marketplace like Kijiji or Facebook.

4. Or, since Christmas is sort of an annual thing, you could consider investing in a high-quality artificial Christmas tree that will last a lifetime, rather than a cheap one you’ll have to soon replace.

Photography via iStock

The Lights

Your best bet: skip them all together and light a bunch of soy candles instead. But if you aren’t interested in being the single light-less Scrooge on your street, you can make these small changes to your yearly light set-up.

5. Use LED lights on your home and your Christmas tree. LED lights use about 80-90% less energy than traditional light bulbs, which means you’re doing your electricity bill and Mother Nature a favour.

6. Put your lights on a timer so that they aren’t wasting electricity when you drink too many rum and eggnogs and forget to turn them off before bed.

Photography via iStock

The Cards

A thoughtful Christmas card is the perfect way to show a distant friend or relative a little love over the holidays. But instead of sending a physical card in the mail—Think of the paper! Think of the delivery emissions!—

7. Design an e-card, write an email (add festive emoji!) or simply give someone a “Merry Christmas” FaceTime call. I promise they’ll appreciate the message just as much.

8. Save the cards you receive and cut them into holiday gift wrapping tags for next Christmas.

Photography via iStock

The Wrapping Paper

The easy answer would be to stop giving physical gifts all together. Instead of buying plastic toys and brand new pieces of technology, you could gift everyone on your shopping list a tree! It’s a charming idea—and at $4.00 a piece, you should consider it—but it’s not an entirely realistic goal for everyone. So if you’re going to to be wrapping gifts this season, here are some of the ways to reduce your waste.

9. Skip the wrapping paper. If you’re a parent, consider letting Santa leave small, organized piles of gifts for your children. They’ll start playing right away, and you can go back to sleep.

10. Buy something reusable — like this fabric gift wrap from Montreal-based brand La Petite Boite Co. — or consider wrapping your gifts in something reused, like newspaper.

11. Foil and glitter wrapping paper is pretty, but it can’t be recycled. If you’re going to buy wrapper paper, skip these options altogether. And also, it’s important to remember to remove all tape before tossing paper in the recycling bin.

Photography via iStock

The Food

Extravagant food displays are a hallmark of the holidays. Ensure that not a bite is destined for the trash by diligently planning and preparing the right amount—and the right type—of food.

12. Opt for turkey over roast beef. According to University of Michigan’s Centre for Sustainable Systems, for each serving of beef there are approximately seven pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents (beef production releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas). One serving of poultry, however, has just over one pound of carbon dioxide equivalents. Or, skip the meat altogether and try Lauren Toyota’s roasted cauliflower skillet, which comes basted with a savoury gravy and looks just as impressive as the real thing.

13. Let your guests serve themselves to ensure people only fill their plates with what they’ll actually eat. Bonus: you’ll end up with all the leftovers, instead of their plate scraps ending up in your garbage.

14. There are hundreds of things you can do with your leftover holiday food—and they aren’t all hot gravy sandwiches. Here are just 40 out-of-the-box ideas from Food Network Canada.

Photography via iStock

The Travel

Whether you’re escaping the Canadian cold or heading out of town to visit family, there’s a good chance you’re leaving home over the holidays. Here’s how you can avoid letting your travel plans spoil all the hard work you did to keep your carbon footprint down.

15. Carpool to family events and social gatherings. It cuts your carbon output, and makes the parking situation a whole lot easier.

16. According to The New York Times, “one round-trip flight between New York and California [generates] about 20 per cent of the greenhouse gases that your car emits over an entire year.” If you’re getting on an airplane, purchase a carbon offset to help balance it all out. Read more here.

The post 16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Holiday Season appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Holiday Season published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

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cryptswahili · 6 years ago

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Bitcoin to Rise 84% in 2019, Bitcoin ETF to be Eventually Approved, Abra Supports XRP for Buying Traditional Assets: This week in Crypto

A lot has happened in the industry over the week and like every other week, we have handpicked the best stories and summarised them for you just in case you missed any. Of course, the latest trending buzz is the market recovery in the last 24 hours that has gotten many talking and asking if it is the bull run the industry has been expecting. The following are other intriguing stories you wouldn’t want to miss.

Bitcoin

Charlie Lee says Bitcoin will hit 20k in 3 years

This week, Bitcoin got one of its first price predictions in 2019. Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin said the asset will reach $20,000 again in the next 3 years. Lee is known for several accurate predictions in the past including the 2018 crash following the bull run at the end of 2017. In fact, he predicted the crash of his own Litecoin which brought the price down by 90%. If Lee says it, it is likely to come true so if you want to take part in the bull market, you may want to hop on now.

Fintech experts predict Bitcoin will rise 84% in 2019

In another price prediction, Ben Ritchie, CEO of Digital Capital Management and Fred Schebesta, HiveEx.com co-founder have said Bitcoin will attain 84% rise before the end of 2019, placing it at a price of $9500. This may be in line with Lee’s prediction which places Bitcoin at $20,000 within the next 3 years. The rise will be slow and steady according to the prediction, but we will get there.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reveals he only holds Bitcoin

CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey has been speaking concerning Lightning Network and how it has become a great option for payments. Asked by one of his followers about cryptocurrency holding, Dorsey said he only holds Bitcoin among all cryptocurrencies. Although he didn’t reveal how much he has, Dorsey later revealed his choice for Bitcoin is because it is resilient, principled native to internet ideals and a great brand.

ETF

The subject of ETF approval by the U.S SEC has been much debated. While many expected approval at least for one of the applications submitted last year, there have been several postponements and it has become doubtful if any ETF will be approved any time soon. However, hope was re-ignited when the SEC published a solicitation for information on common blockchains to facilitate the ETF process. Further, a SEC commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr. recently hinted that the SEC will approve ETF applications eventually. The crypto community can, therefore, look forward to an approval in the coming months, hopefully.

Also concerning an ETF, CEO of Binance Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said that the cryptocurrency industry will grow with or without an ETF. CZ’s position is contrary to what many experts in the industry believe as they think an ETF is what will move the industry out of the current quagmire to the promised land. CZ believes wide adoption of blockchain is all that is required to grow the industry and take it to the expected heights.

Ripple (XRP)

A Twitter poll suggests Ripple will see the most gains in 2019

In a Twitter poll involving four cryptocurrencies Holo (HOT), Tron (TRX), Ripple (XRP) and Monero (XMR), 79% of 1,833 respondents said XRP will see the highest gains, followed by HOT, TRX and XMR in that order. Many in the crypto community may dispute the result though because many believe XRP has been pumped and will soon be dumped. See the full story here.

SBI to bring XRP, other assets to 23 million clients

Japanese financial giant SBI is set to launch its new cryptocurrency exchange VCTRADE, according to an announcement on the companies website. Being a Ripple partner, SBI has indicated it intends to bring many more customers to Ripple and other cryptocurrencies. Japan has been a very crypto friendly country which makes it likely that this launch will significantly promote cryptocurrencies as promised.

Also speaking of expansion, XRP payments has reportedly launched in thousands of stores around the world. This has created the need for new staff as Ripple strives to keep up with the growing customer base. The increase came when cryptocurrency payment processor CoinGate started supporting XRP, bringing it in touch with 4500 stores around the world which will henceforth use XRP to pay for goods and services.

BitTorrent

The vocal Tron CEO Justin Sun within the week said BitTorrent Speed is a game-changing blockchain based application. Sun said the application will reward BitTorrent users with the token BTT while allowing sharing of files and bandwidth with friends and requires no computers to process transactions. Sun believes this will change the face of data sharing.

Changpeng Zhao

Binance CEO says Amazon may issue own cryptocurrency soon

Cryptocurrencies are seeing more adoption as a means of payment. Binance CEO Zhangpeng Zhao said Amazon, a leading online retailer will soon launch its own cryptocurrency to be used for payments. This according to Zhao will encourage the use of cryptocurrency for payments and will make for easier access to Amazon’s products.

There something fishy going on with Quadrigacx

Zhao has also said concerning the Canadian exchange that lost its founder and CEO recently that something fishy must be going on. He said this during an AMA during which he was asked what he thought about the Quadrigacx story. The full story is here.

Co-owner Of Bitcointalk and Bitcoin.org says Roger Ver will soon Return to Bitcoin

Co-owner of Bitcointalk and Bitcoin.org has said in a Twitter post that Roger Ver, owner, and CEO of the Bitcoin.com website will soon return as a Bitcoiner as BCH is dying very fast. While Ver has been very much opposed to Bitcoin and all that believe in it, Cobra, as he is known on Twitter said he will be “welcomed with open arms” when he returns.

Buterin says projects with high TPS are a “pile of trash”.

Vitalik Buterin, CEO of Ethereum said blockchain projects boasting of high TPS are a pile of trash and centralized projects operating on few computers and not reliable and robust as they claim. He also stressed that a high TPS doesn’t equate to higher security but are rather prone to attack since the network only works with few computers.

Experts Predict Significant Surge for BNB, ETC, ADA, EOS, and TRX in 2019

Although the cryptocurrency community is looking forward to a bull run for the industry, experts have predicted a bull run for some specific assets including BNB, ETC, ADA, EOS, and TRX in the year. The experts including Jimmy Song, Craig Cobb, Alisa Gus, Fred Schebesta, Co-Pierre Georg, Brendan Markey-Towler, Joseph Raczynski, Ajay Kumar Shrestha, Genson Glier, and Sarah Bergstrand said the listed crypto assets will surge up to 250% before the end of the year.

Abra supports XRP for buying traditional assets

Also within the week, Abra announced it now supports Ripple’s XRP for use in buying traditional assets. This allows users of the Abra wallet to buy stocks using XRP. Abra has announced support for use of Bitcoin to buy stocks in the week as well, meaning stocks will soon be tokenized to allow for cryptocurrency holders to buy with digital currencies. This is expected to greatly enhance the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency among investors outside the industry.

The post Bitcoin to Rise 84% in 2019, Bitcoin ETF to be Eventually Approved, Abra Supports XRP for Buying Traditional Assets: This week in Crypto appeared first on ZyCrypto.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

#cryptocurrency

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lindyhunt · 6 years ago

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16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Christmas

This year, take a moment to turn down the Michael Bublé and think about the impact your festivities are having on the environment. From eco-friendly gift wrapping to sustainability sourced trees, there are plenty of ways to eat, drink, be merry and be a friend to the planet.

Photography via iStock

The Tree

Real and plastic Christmas trees are both evergreen, but they’re also both never green. Get it? That was a fancy way of saying that whether your tree was cut down at a farm or created in a factory, your increasing your personal carbon footprint. Which of the two is less bad is an age-old question, with studies showing that the difference it so small, it really doesn’t matter which you choose. Here’s what science has to say: the American Christmas Tree Association (this is a real thing) did a comparative life cycle assessment in 2010 (it’s 210 pages), and found that “the impact of the tree life cycle, for all scenarios, is less than 0.1% of a person’s annual carbon footprint and therefore is negligible within the context of the average American’s lifestyle.”

1. If you opt for a real tree, look out for FSC Certification. This will confirm that your tree has been sourced sustainably.

2. When the holidays are over and it’s time to kick your festive decor to the curb, seek out local council recycling schemes that repurpose or replant trees.

3. If a fake tree is more your style, try picking up a second hand one from an Internet marketplace like Kijiji or Facebook.

4. Or, if you plan on making Christmas an annual thing, you could consider investing in a high-quality artificial Christmas tree that will last a lifetime, rather than a cheap one you’ll have to soon replace.

Photography via iStock

The Lights

Your best bet: skip them all together and light a few soy candles instead. But if you aren’t interested in being the single light-less Scrooge on your street, you can make these small changes to your yearly light set-up.

5. Use LED lights on your home and on your Christmas tree. LED lights use about 80-90% less energy than traditional light bulbs, which means your doing your electricity bill and mother nature and favour.

6. Put your lights on a timer so that they aren’t wasting electricity when you drink too many rum and eggnogs and forget to turn them off before bed.

Photography via iStock

The Cards

7. Design an e-card, write an email (add festive emoji!) or simply giving someone a “Merry Christmas” FaceTime call. I promise they’ll appreciate the message just as much.

8. Save the cards you receive and cut them into holiday gift wrapping tags for next Christmas.

Photography via iStock

The Wrapping Paper

9. Skip the wrapping paper. If your a parent, consider letting Santa leave small, organized piles of gifts for your children. They’ll start playing right away, and you can go back to sleep.

10. Buy something reusable — like this fabric gift wrap from Montreal-based brand La petite boite co. — or consider wrapping your gifts in something reused, like newsprint.

11. Foil and glitter wrapping paper is pretty, but it can’t be recycled. If you’re going to buy wrapper paper, skip these options all together. And also, it’s important to remember to remove all tape before tossing paper in the recycling bin.

Photography via iStock

The Food

Extravagant food displays are a hallmark of the holidays. Ensure that not a bite of turkey is destined for the trash by diligently planning and preparing the right amount—and the right type—of food.

12. Opt for turkey over roast beef. According to University of Michigan’s Center for Sustainable Systems, for each serving of beef there are approximately seven pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents (beef production releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas). One serving of poultry, however, has just over one pound of carbon dioxide equivalents. Or, skip the meat all together and try Lauren Toyota’s roasted cauliflower skillet, which comes basted with a savoury gravy and looks just as impressive as the real thing.

13. Let your guests serve themselves to make sure people will only fill their plates with what they’ll actually eat. Bonus: you’ll end up with all the leftovers, instead of their plate scraps ending up in your garbage.

14. There are hundreds of things you can do with your leftover holiday food—and they aren’t all hot gravy sandwiches. Here are just 40 out-of-the-box ideas from Food Network Canada.

Photography via iStock

The Travel

15. Carpool to family events and social gatherings. It cut your carbon output, and make the parking situation a whole lot easier.

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kaylariviere-blog · 7 years ago

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Blog 2

Part 1: Field Day Assignment

On October 18 I took part in the campus clean-up. The trash picked up from litter on campus accumulated to four recycling bags, weighing in at twenty-three pounds, and two landfill bags weighing seven pounds. The following list are ideas of how we can reduce litter on the University of Manitoba campus:

1. Educate the population on campus about issues surrounding littering

2. Reduce our consumption

3. Reuse pieces when possible

4. Recycle items

5. Add more outdoor garbage and recycling bins

6. Invest in having garbage stations that separate the different types of waste and explain what types of items can go where

Photograph by the University of Alberta Recycling Program. Retrieved from https://www.ualberta.ca/vice-president-facilities-operations/service-catalogue/recycling

7. Market campaigns against littering with posters and advertisements

8. Administer annual major campus clean up sessions

The University of Manitoba should schedule campus clean-ups throughout the school year. This can be events that both students and staff can participate in. By having one to two of these events on the calendar per term, it will get people on campus to think about their trash. This will be an occasion where people across all faculties will come together to clean our campus. It will also be a social event where folks from different faculties can mingle about the issue of litter while networking and meeting new people.

9. Establish policies for students and staff to not litter

The University of Manitoba has many policies in place for its community. Such policies, for example, include academic integrity, and the process for grade appeals. The university should create a policy concerning the environmental issue of waste that both students and staff contribute to. Policies should enforce responsible litter practices while deterring non-environmentally friendly actions. Outlined in the policy should be consequences if one is caught ignoring the environmental policies put into place.

10. Create a common goal as a university to reduce litter

The University of Manitoba should set up a plan, that as a campus, we can all add to a positive environmental change on campus. Reducing litter by a set amount per year is something all community members can take part in. The university can establish that if we reduce our waste by X amount, the positive impact on our campus will be Y. The university can use its social media platforms to connect to both students and staff to update them on the progress of the goal. This is a way that the entire campus population can be involved in reducing litter.

Part 2: Read and Respond

Climate change came in tenth place on a survey taken by Canadians addressing what their concerns are (Attfield, 2017). Other topics that came before climate change in the results were health care, jobs, and poverty. Climate change has a direct connection with the economy. Canada’s economic future is faced with both challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The following are three challenges for our economic future in the face of a changing climate and environmental degradation:

1. Climate change is affecting the Arctic as the region is warming. When ice melts and seasons become shorter, the species who live in that region become at risk as they may not be able to adapt to warmer temperatures. This creates a negative impact for both the wildlife and for those (both animal and humans) who depend on those species for hunting and selling purposes.

2. Climate change influences both the intensity and occurrence of storms. This takes an economic toll on both those effected and the government. It is very costly to take both precaution of storms and dealing with the post-storm factors.

3. Climate change overall transforms nature. This changes biodiversity and the landscape. Farming and agriculture can be at loss when the land changes dramatically. This causes farmers to have financial loss, and fewer foods for humans to consume with a deficency in both industrial and sustainable agriculture.

Photograph by Luke Sharrett. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/conservatives-unveil-plan-to-fight-climate-change/

Three opportunities for our economic future in the face of climate change and environmental degradation include:

1. Creating jobs that will have a positive impact on the environment, which will help grow the economy. The example given in Attfield’s article (as quoted from David Miller), “In order to use fewer fossil fuels to heat and cool buildings, one of the solutions might be energy retrofits. You create huge numbers of jobs because that’s a very manual thing to do” (2017).

2. As a Canadian society, we must realize that our country can have a positive impact globally. It is known that Canada is an oil rich country. It is suggested by David Miller that perhaps Canada can have an extraordinary leadership role globally by improving our economy and energy use relationship (Attfield, 2017). Being a developed country, we have the resources to start using technologies to address our environmental problems. It is only when we identify what is hurting us, that we can change our ways to benefit economically.

3. David Miller believes that cities in Canada are the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions (Attfield, 2017). The reasoning is because of our transportation, electricity, and heating and cooling systems in homes and buildings. Canada can look at how other cities around the world are dealing with climate change caused by greenhouse gases, to apply new practices. The less carbon Canada uses, the better the economy will be by lowering emissions and energy globally (Attfield, 2017).

Source cited in this section:

Attfield, P. (2017, March 24). Its not the environment versus the economy. Retrieved December 07, 2017 from https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/its-not-the-environment-versus-the-economy/article27727251/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&

Part 3: Action

A. I evaluated a few of the personal hygiene products I use daily on http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ . The website by the Environmental Working Group investigated and then ranked products on their hazard score key. A 1-2 ranking represents a low hazard, 3-6 is a moderate hazard, and 7-10 at a high hazard. These hazards addressed toxic chemicals that could lead to health issues such as allergens, irritability, and carcinogens. I found the following products I use had been evaluated and scored accordingly:

1. Colgate Max Fresh with Whitening Toothpaste: 4

2. Secret Outlast Antiperspirant and Deodorant Clear Gel, Sport Fresh: 4

3. Urban Decay Makeup Setting Spray: 5

4. Joico Moisture Recovery Conditioner for Dry Hair: 5

5. Joico Color Endure Shampoo: 8

The shampoo I currently use is ranked at an 8, which falls into the high hazard category. This alarmed me, asking myself after investigating why it was ranked so high. The reason it presents a high hazard is was because of the chemicals used in creating the fragrance in the shampoo. The chemicals in the fragrance can lead to irritability, and organ system toxicity.

B. From November 29 to December 6 all my purchases were of beverages and food. I spent a total of $25.03 on food and drink for that week. The money was spent at Subway, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, and the Greenhouse Café at the University of Manitoba. Doing my analysis, I would say I spent my money badly. Each of these restaurants, with the exception for the Greenhouse Café, are large fast food franchises. As these restaurants sell tremendous amounts of food around the globe on a daily basis, the farming practices where the restaurants obtain their supply from are probably not the most environmentally friendly. These restaurants are wanting to make profit. The farming practices used are most likely industrial farming techniques, as they need high stocks while keeping their costs down. There is an incredible amount of field loss as it takes a lot to get the item from the farm to a person’s plate—or wrapper in this case. Costs for water, energy, processing, packaging, transportation, and food service must all be considered. As much food often goes to waste, this does not help the problem of overconsumption. I should have invested my $25.03 at the grocery store on much healthier, and organic items which are environmentally friendly. Being able to just “grab and go” is not heathy for me either on a regular basis.

C. Reusing and recycling are both options when discarding electronic waste. My electronic waste includes televisions, stereos, cell phones, and lap tops. Some items such as televisions and cell phones I have given to family members to use or have sold them to people when I am no longer using them. This reduces e-waste ending up in our landfill. Electronics may contain toxic substances such as heavy metals including Mercury (LeBlanc, 2017). This produces problems in air and groundwater pollution in landfill. Some electronic waste can also have toxins that could be potentially flammable (LeBlanc, 2017). For items such as lap tops, I have kept them but have stored them in a closet. In the future, I can dispose of my electronic waste if I no longer want to hold onto it, or cannot give it a way, I can take it to a recycling depot to dispose of it properly.

Sources cited in this section:

EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (n.d). Retrieved December 07, 2017, from http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/#.WimchLaZNmA

LeBlanc, R. (2017, July 1). E-waste and the importance of electronics recycling. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://www.thebalance.com/e-waste-and-the-importance-of-electronics-recycling-2877783

Part 4: In-class Blog Questions

Zoos

A. What role, if any, should zoos play in conservation/education?

Two fundamentals of modern zoos include conservation and education (McCance, 2017). Conservation is to promote awareness on a range of issues that includes safekeeping of species, resources, or habitats (McCance, 2017). Zoos can take a on a positive role in conservation. Education is about allowing the public to see various animals, read the facts, offer classes, and provide guides for visitors in order to learn about various species.

B. Is it ethical to keep animals in zoos? If so, what size/type of animal or zoo?

It is unethical to keep animals in zoos. No species should be locked up or be put in a confined space against their will. The UK Farm Animal Welfare Council came up with five freedoms that all animals should have. There are: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury, or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour, and freedom from fear and distress. The last two freedoms (expressing normal behaviour and fear and distress) are hard to attain in zoos. The reasoning is because taking species out of their natural habitats is not allowing them to express their normal behaviours. As for freedom from fear and distress, animals experience distress when not being able to live out their full life in natural ways as they would outside of the zoo.

Photograph by Wolfgang Kaehler. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151109-seaworld-captive-orcas-san-diego/

C. Do you enjoy visiting zoos?

I have visited zoos since I was little, and I remember going on field trips there. I’ve enjoyed visiting zoos because I get to be in close proximity to exotic animals, such as tigers. I appreciate going to zoos for educational and recreational purposes, which are both fundamentals to modern zoos today (McCance, 2017).

Food-- Consider your food system

A. What do you like about it?

Most of my food comes from industrialized farming. I like that the cost is low when purchasing and that how the foods I want. The foods are also readily available for me as they are produced in high yields including fruits and vegetables.

B. What do you dislike about it?

Since learning about genetically modified organisms (GMOs), I do not like that foods I consume such as corn, tomatoes and rice are essentially tampered with to get a desired characteristic. This makes me believe that my foods are not as natural as they should be, as they are essentially inserted with a mutated gene or a different gene from another organism (McCance, 2017).

C. Consider taste, nutrition, cost, equity, and environmental issues

As stated from question one, I can keep the cost of my food down by buying products in grocery stores that were grown through industrialized farming. Industrialized agriculture is able to produce high yields through the use of synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides (McCance, 2017). The uses of these farming techniques have a great impact on the environment because it depletes the soil, reduces biodiversity, and “has a huge reliance on water inputs” (McCance, 2017).

As for industrialized livestock production, these types of facilities confine thousands of animals in packed settings without access to the outside environment. This compromises an animal’s welfare compared to sustainable livestock farming, where animals are able to roam along with not being given any added hormones. Environmental concerns due to industrial livestock farming include producing huge amounts of waste, while increasing pollutants of air, water, and soil (McCance, 2017).

The nutrition in industrialized farming foods are not as great compared to those that are sustainably produced. As industrialized farming uses chemicals such as pesticides, this makes the nutritional value and taste of the food change compared to those without the use of chemicals.

Oceans

A. What are your primary concerns about the oceans?

My primary concern is with the great pacific garbage patch. The great pacific garbage patch is a gyre full of plastic in the North Pacific Ocean that was discovered between 1985 and 1988 (McCance, 2017). There are eight million tons of plastic that end up in the ocean each year (McCance, 2017). Since plastics are chemically bonded, they break down into smaller particles when in the ocean. Marine life will often ingest the plastic mistaking the particles for food. The plastic particles consumed makes the animal feel full, even though they are not (Bryce, 2015). This causes the animal to starve to death and/or pass the toxins up the food chain (Bryce, 2015). The contaminants within the plastic ultimately reach the top of the food chain, because essentially, “what goes in the ocean goes in you.”

Photograph by John Johnson. Retrieved from https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140414-ocean-garbage-patch-plastic-pacific-debris/

B. What, if anything, do you plan to do about it?

I plan to reduce my plastic consumption by using more environmentally friendly items. This includes, using a reusable water bottle, and using reusable bags. I can also share what I have learned about this topic and its issues to others.

Sources cited in this section:

Bryce, E. (2015, April 21). What really happens to the plastic you throw away [Video file]. Retrieved November 23, 2017 from https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-really-happens-to-the-plastic-you-throw-away-emma-bryce#review

McCance, E. “Animal Ethics.” 2017, October 23. Lecture.

McCance, E. “Food Systems.” 2017, November 10. Lecture.

McCance, E. “Oceans in Peril.” 2017, December 4. Lecture.

McCance, E. “Zoos.” 2017, October 25. Lecture.

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jessicakehoe · 6 years ago

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16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Christmas

Photography via iStock

The Tree

Real and plastic Christmas trees are both evergreen, but they’re also both never green. Get it? That was a fancy way of saying that whether your tree was cut down at a farm or created in a factory, your increasing your personal carbon footprint. Which of the two is less bad is an age-old question, with studies showing that the difference it so small, it really doesn’t matter which you choose. Here’s what science has to say: the American Christmas Tree Association (this is a real thing) did a comparative life cycle assessment in 2010 (it’s 210 pages), and found that “the impact of the tree life cycle, for all scenarios, is less than 0.1% of a person’s annual carbon footprint and therefore is negligible within the context of the average American’s lifestyle.”

1. If you opt for a real tree, look out for FSC Certification. This will confirm that your tree has been sourced sustainably.

2. When the holidays are over and it’s time to kick your festive decor to the curb, seek out local council recycling schemes that repurpose or replant trees.

3. If a fake tree is more your style, try picking up a second hand one from an Internet marketplace like Kijiji or Facebook.

Photography via iStock

The Lights

6. Put your lights on a timer so that they aren’t wasting electricity when you drink too many rum and eggnogs and forget to turn them off before bed.

Photography via iStock

The Cards

7. Design an e-card, write an email (add festive emoji!) or simply giving someone a “Merry Christmas” FaceTime call. I promise they’ll appreciate the message just as much.

8. Save the cards you receive and cut them into holiday gift wrapping tags for next Christmas.

Photography via iStock

The Wrapping Paper

9. Skip the wrapping paper. If your a parent, consider letting Santa leave small, organized piles of gifts for your children. They’ll start playing right away, and you can go back to sleep.

10. Buy something reusable — like this fabric gift wrap from Montreal-based brand La petite boite co. — or consider wrapping your gifts in something reused, like newsprint.

Photography via iStock

The Food

14. There are hundreds of things you can do with your leftover holiday food—and they aren’t all hot gravy sandwiches. Here are just 40 out-of-the-box ideas from Food Network Canada.

Photography via iStock

The Travel

15. Carpool to family events and social gatherings. It cut your carbon output, and make the parking situation a whole lot easier.

The post 16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Christmas appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

16 Ways To Minimize Your Carbon Footprint This Christmas published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

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