The Courtyard Marriott is just a few weeks away from completing a top to bottom renovation … and they want the world to know what’s coming. The westside hotel is at 3462 Freedom Drive — and soon every guest room, the lobby and Starbuck’s coffee shop will be ready for their close up. They promise […]
IT Overflow
Posted inArts & Culture
Listen to the new music … online, urban
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m addicted to public radio news … and when I’m not listening to that I’m typically shuffling CDs in my car. I’ve never been inclined to dial up radio on my computer — but something crossed my desk earlier this week that made me think I just […]
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Energy-saving tips and tricks: Day Three
Tip #3- Unplug it! Living in a dorm introduced me to the wonderful world of power strips/surge protectors. I wasn’t concerned with saving my electronics from power outages as much as I was delighted by the opportunity to plug a million things into one old, tiny outlet. Since I moved away from home, I’ve lived […]
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Energy-saving tips and tricks: Day Two
Happy Groundhog Day, readers! Here’s an appropriately-themed card. Welcome back to Tips & Tricks Week! (Does that sound dirty? I don’t mean for it to imply prostitutes and dollar bills in g-strings. Maybe I need a new title.) On day two, let’s talk about home energy audits. While green building has become more and more […]
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Energy-saving tips and tricks: Day One
I’ll admit that I’m not perfect. The point of this blog is not to preach at you to hug a tree or save a penguin. I like to think that I’m a non-judging environmentalist. I enjoy saving the earth/whales/redwoods/whatever, but I understand that we’re all busy with our own lives and sometimes it’s hard to […]
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Green Links 1/28: Straight from the Horse’s …
I’ve been crazy busy lately, so I haven’t had time to post. I’m working on a longer piece about wildlife tracking and restoration in the Emiquon Preserve (about 1.5 hours northwest of Springfield, off State Road 97 near the Dirksen Mounds.) It’s been fun, but I’m glad my little city girl car could make the […]
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Get fit – without going to prison!
Exercise is not everyone’s cup of tea. You get sweaty, you get tired and many of us feel we have to go to the gym to get a real workout. But there are plenty of exercises that don’t require a lot of time, space or equipment. Lately, I’ve been doing the Prison Workout (here), a […]
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Conservation Consumerism: Sodastream
In Michigan, they say pop. Though with Central/Northern accents it sounds like PAHH-p. People in my state also keep their excess pop in the garage. Do you guys in Illinois do this? (Coworkers Pat and Amanda said their families do, but I need more opinions!) I’d never heard of this bizarre tradition until I moved […]
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Upcoming Events: Sustainable Springfield
Sustainable Springfield is hosting some great events in the next couple of weeks! Monday, Jan. 25 Solar and Wind Energy @ 7 p.m. Prairie Heart Institute’s Dove Center Sixth St. & Mason Mark Bauer, CEO of Bauer Power, one of the largest Midwest providers/installers of renewable energy, will speak about the potential for solar/wind power […]
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Green Links: 1/21
Today’s Campus Progress has a great story about how powerful campus activism can be. Coming from a university of 40,000 students, I am always interested in how influential schools can be in their communities. Students at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, managed to enact a moratorium on drilling for natural gas in the lucrative […]
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Hunters and Gatherers
“Garage sale!” My mom would shout into the back seat of our yellow 1982 chevy cavalier. She always said it like she’d just spotted someone famous skulking the streets of our suburb. No matter where we were headed, she’d pull over immediately to take a look. We’d venture into someone’s garage, driveway or backyard to […]
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Conservation Consumerism: Green Bags
I don’t make a lot of New Year’s resolutions, but I did stick to one this year: stop wasting food. As a busy undergrad sharing a refrigerator with four other people, I often bought produce and lunch meat and forgot about them, leaving my hard-earned money (OK not that hard-earned, I did data entry for […]
