G. has been looking up some simply scrumptious sites about crocheting things with plastic grocery bags. I tooled around for a moment on Google but found nothing -- except, this lovely crocheted hat. You can get the directions here. Maybe G d G will create a quick post about the ways people from far-off lands are able to use old grocery bags because, man, we're drowning in them here.

In case you were wondering what to do with that old sweater you found in a thrift store but when you took it home discovered it had a stain on it:

Wonder Girl Knits: July 2005

After you're finished unraveling it and dyeing it with kool-aid, then you can teach yourself to knit:

Hello Knitty Learn to Knit Video Instruction

Okay, here's another reason to make your own clothes or clothes for all your friends and fam -- RFID chips--you know, the-no-bigger-than-a-grain-of-rice electronic devices used to control inventory but also a handy way to keep track of people. People were up in arms because Benetton was putting RFID chips in their clothing and three years later they're everywhere! Consumer Reports Online has a pretty basic article on the technology, and as soon as you read that Wal-Wart is telling their vendors to use the microcircuitry then it becomes just plain Orwellian. Two years ago, Wired online reported on a company who has created a tag to block scans of RFID tags -- the company, RSA Security, has an extensive section of its website devoted to RFID technology here and I wonder if they'll follow through with making this technology available to consumers.
The link to this photo and the blog it came from is Spychips RFID Blog.

While I don't want this to become a blog about crap (although, inevitably and without any coaxing, could inexorably become such), there was one last thought before the weekend that I wanted to impart. It comes from a passage I just read in the canonical text of the Zen school I belong to.

And Now, Your Moment of Zen...

Master un Mun: "Dry shit on a stick"
In many old chinese temples, the monks compost human and animal waste together for several weeks before using them as fertilizer in the gardens. The wastes have to compost together for a long time to eliminate toxic poisons. The monks pee and defectate in large buckets placed under wooden benches, and sometime during the day collect the wastes for composting. A long, flat paddle is used to mix the wastes together with ashes and remove them from the buckets. At the end of the day, the stick would be left leaning in the sun near the outhouse to dry. Then one day, the great Zen Master Un Mun had just relieved himself, and was walking out of the privy adjusting his pants. At that moment, a monk approached him and said, "What is Buddha?" While he was being asked this question, the Zen master's eyes simply happened to catch sight of the long shit-stick, leaning against the wall drying in the sun. "Dry shit on a stick!" Un Mun replied, and continued on his way. In that moment, the Zen master's mind was only dry shit on a stick. Dry shit on a stick was his whole mind.
-From The Compass of Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn

The World's Healthiest Foods

Okay, here's the site that everyone should be going to:

The World's Healthiest Foods

And then when you're done exploring this great site, buy the book which is about the size and weight of the Cleveland Yellow Pages. I saw it today during a playdate at "B's" house and witnessed its hugeiosity and found out that, get this, it is not organized a-z foods but by which foods are most nutritionally dense. Can you dig it? So things like mushrooms and olives come before things like rutabagas and carrots. It also has a groovy section on what "organic" means for fruits and vegetables as well as for meat.

I found another item on Metafilter that has to be related to environmentalism somehow, I just know it! Maybe it's, like, because of global warming or styrofoam or something. Anyway, it shows you why I love Metafilter (aka... the Hive Mind):

Where are the birds? Shouldn't they be having a feast out there?I suspect that quite the reverse has happened; that they overwhelmed the birds, covered the nests and are feasting on the young.Speaking of which... why are all those bikes there? Wouldn't children normally be riding them?...My god.

(Click where it says, "Parts of Sweden are overrun by caterpillars," wait, then scroll down to see... the bikes. You won't forget it!)