Month: August 2012

How Much Water Do You Use a Day? GOOD.is Infographic

How Much Water Do You Use a Day? GOOD.is Infographic

Posted on by Kbaumlier

As I site here staring at my waterbottle, I wonder how much water I drink each day.  I seem to fill it up a few times a day.  Combine the water I  drink with the occasional shower, flushing the toilet, brushing my teeth, and cooking and I’m sure that I use quite a bit of water each day.

There is an interactive Infographic application on Good.is where you can learn about water use and estimate how much water you use each day.  Many people in the world exist on 3 gallons of water per day or less.  Most of us in  America use that amount in one flush of the toilet.

The water use interactive  infographic was created by Good.is in partnership with Levi’s, who is doing lots of campaigns lately about saving water.

I went through the interface twice and learned  that water can’t be created.  It is all recycled over and over, so we are using water that  has existed on Earth billions of years ago.

According to the site, the majority of water use is not from what we use but from the food and products that we use each day.  When I would choose a hamburger over chicken or pasta – the water used would increase by quite a bit.

I interacted with the site and determined that I use somewhere between 8 and 16 gallons of water a day.

How much water do you use?

 

Links:

http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1204/your-daily-dose-of-water/flash.html

 

This Sunday – Petroleum In Me and On Me at the Drake Well Museum in Titusville, PA

This Sunday – Petroleum In Me and On Me at the Drake Well Museum in Titusville, PA

Posted on by Kbaumlier

It has been my dream for many years to do one of my projects about petroleum at the site of the first commercial oil well, Drake Well, in Titusville, PA.  Well – it is coming true this Sunday.  I have not had much time to publicize the event, but it is Founders Day and the reopening of the museum so there could be anywhere from 500 to 1500 visitors.

I am going to be doing the My Petroleum (On Me and In Me) , an interactive live performance at the Drake Well site.  This piece explores how Petroleum is everywhere.

In a unique twist to the scavenger hunt, visitors are invited to check their clothes, bodies and purses to see what they have on them that originate from petroleum and to reflect on  the number of items that they may have used in the last 24 hours that come from petroleum.   People and their count of items are tracked  and every 30 minutes the person who used the most petroleum in a day gets a winning prize.

A visual list of the most used petroleum products is posted as a visual public pop-up graphic and also is available in printed, downloadable, and Google  map format. Participants will be encouraged to return with a larger item on the list  that they might have at home (like a cooler, pillow, or football) in return for a  souvenir/special prize.   The graphics and printed petroleum list has a design quality similar to graphics in the 1850s, the time period that the first oil boom occurred in Titusville, PA.

From the shoes that we wear, to the zippers on our  jackets, to the aspirin that we take for headaches. Lip balms, umbrellas, combs, dvds, eyeglasses, antihistamines, hair coloring, and many other objects are derived  from petroleum.  Oh, Petroleum!

I’m going to be busy this weekend – wearing two hats in a way.  A  Food Font activity in Cleveland on Saturday, and Petro In Me and On Me on Sunday, but it will be worth it!

 

Food Font at Shaker Square North Union Farmers Market

Food Font at Shaker Square North Union Farmers Market

Posted on by Kbaumlier

The Food Font event at the Shaker Square North Union Farmers Market went well on Saturday.
Lots of people stopped by and we made a food alphabet out of tomatoes.

The tomatoes were from:
Rainbow Farms
Middle Ridge Garden
Wooli Farms
Hamper Homestead Farms
Ridge Bridge Farm

I met a lot of interesting people including quite a few teachers who took the Food Font  resource packet so they could do the Food Font activity in their classroom this Fall.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

All the pictures are on the Food Font Flickr site and also can be seen in the slideshows below.

Here are some pictures from the event:


Pictures of People

Pictures of the Tomato alphabet (note: these are not edited yet)