Green Tea: The Greatest Drink in History

"There is no trouble so great or grave

that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea."

~ Bernard-Paul Heroux

The other day I was reading this article by the widely-recognized Dr. Andrew Weil. It was about the benefits of my favorite beverage, hot or cold,- green tea:

Huffington Post:
"A Life with Tea"

My family usually has coffee & tea after a Sunday dinner. I think in college is when I really started drinking green tea. That's also the last time I occasionally drank coffee, since I was always so hungover in the morning after partying with my roommates on the weekends- which was when I had to go to work.

Nowadays, I drink the Arizona or Turkey Hill green tea as my go-to cold beverage. Nowadays I have no desire whatsoever to drink soda or other sweetened drinks unless I'm mixing Jack Daniels or some other liquor. Every morning at the studio I also make myself a cup of hot green tea w/ honey. My usual choice is green tea w/ mint in teabags, nothing fancy. I should really brew vats of it like my Mom does for regular iced tea and chill it.

Besides the potential health benefits, brewed green tea is really a taste that I savor. Although I haven't actually drank tea in the manner of a fancy Japanese ceremony, just the experience of sipping a regular hot cup of tea is calming enough for me.

Green Technologies

This design now available at
The Monkey Buddha Bazaar
www.cafepress/monkeybuddha

Green has always been my favorite color. One of the reasons is that it is the color of the woods, nature, and plants. I was way ahead of the current environmental movement now known, of course, as "being green".

In light of my last post about the costs of the Iraq war I thought it would be good to show how that money should be used. I've come across some very interesting green technologies that I think have the potential to change human civilization in a major way if adopted on a wide scale. Click on the links to see the articles & the great illustrations.

Plasma Waste Convertor
• I posted previously about Joseph Longo's Plasma Incinerator which I read about in Popuular Science magazine. This is a machine that is as simple in concept as it is revolutionary in function.

Popular Science: "The Prophet of Garbage"

Algae Energy Harvesting
• I saw a show about green tech on the Discovery Channel featuring this development, that is as green as it gets! By farming massive amounts of energy-collecting algae, biodeisel and other products can be created. Perhaps the engineering concepts behind this article on vertical farming could also be combined with this method of algae production.

Popular Mechanics: "Pond-Powered Biofuels"

Solar Collector Sheets
• Just like e-paper, the cheaper this nano-solar technology becomes, the closer we are to having society transformed by its benefits.

Popular Science: "The New Dawn of Solar"

Magnetic Levitation Wind Turbine
• This is an example I'm amending to this post because it is a great example of how modern technology and insightful design can produce leaps in innovation.

Inhabitat.com: "The Super-powered Magnetic Wind Turbine"

Here's a few other green breakthroughs worth mentioning:
• BoingBoing.com: "Micro Generator Feeds off Ambient Vibrations"
• Neatorama: "MIT Students Create Electricity from Grass Clippings"
• BoingBoing.com: "Mushrooms as Insulation Material"

Green Lantern Fan Trailer

The Green Lantern is the superhero I've always considered have the coolest powers. My favorite color is green & black, so the Green Lantern uniform would work for me, too...

Being Superman would obviously be pretty awesome, but everybody knows that

Superman is a Dick

Anyway, this trailer for an unrealized Green Lantern movie was created from snippets of other movies, but looks pretty awesome:

Really Green Energy

Despite humanity's admitted addiction to petroleum products, there is a growing number of alternative energy solutions emerging.

Although the term "green technology" is used for more eco-friendly methods of energy production, there are many ideas for literally green fuels that harness power from nature's optimal process of photosynthesis.

Some ideas are already working concepts or products. Biofuel created from algae growth is, in my opinion, one of the best routes to living in a truly green world. The business of fuel powered by chlorophyll is already being pursued.

Popular Mechanics:
"Pond-Powered Biofuels"

I saw this prototype for an algae-powered lamp that may be a sign of things to come:

Inhabitat:
" Algae-Powered Latro Lamp
Transforms CO2 Into Light"

Going from the practical to the more fantastic, here are a couple REALLY GREEN concepts that are still way ahead of their time...

Architect Vincent Callebaut

Algae Farm and Bio-Hydrogen Airship

Then there's this totally crazy car that seems to double as a garden. I'm not even sure how you get into this thing. Maybe it's actually a car for plants to drive around in by themselves!

Inhabitat:
Photosynthetic Concept Car
is Powered Completely by Plants

Green Earth

Today is Earth Day, and it's a good opportunity to reflect on the importance of the living ecosystem that sustains life on this planet.

The Monkey Buddha Archives:

Earth

I love nature and being outdoors, so Spring is a time I truly enjoy. The return of animals, warm weather, and greenery on the plants & trees makes dealing with the winters of a temperate climate worthwhile.

The industrial age has wrought all kinds of havoc on the Earth, some of which may be irreversible- such as climate change and mass extinctions. However, I feel like we are finally entering a time where mankind will learn to once again live in symbiosis with nature, instead of trying to subdue it & exploit its resources.

People are increasingly looking toward nature-based solutions to approach technological problems.

The Monkey Buddha Archives:

Green Technologies

By working with nature and using design solutions based on living systems, we can begin to undo the damage from centuries of destructive human activity.

I made this graphic below to express the importance of maintaining a vibrant, living planet- in order for humanity to thrive, along with the countless other lifeforms that dwell here with us.

There are many items available in my Cafepress shop with this "Green Earth" design on it, if you'd like to check it out:

The Monkey Buddha Bazaar:

"Green Earth"

Green Lantern Trailer

I enjoy superhero movies more, now that the level of movie-making technology & CGI makes them more believable. Iron Man & the recent Batman movies were pretty cool.

Spider-Man was ok, but the underwhelming use of Venom was a disappointment. Even when I was a little kid, I thought the Superman movies with Christopher Reeves were kind of retarded because the special effects were fake-looking & it was so cheesy.

Obviously, Superman is still the most awesome hero ever. However, my close second choice of powers would be that of The Green Lantern.

I think computer graphics have gotten to a point that could do the character justice.
This trailer for the upcoming movie I saw on Fasthack looks pretty good. Of course, I would improve upon it- by adding more black to the suit, instead of it being all neon green.

Green Lantern Trailer

"White Lotus Flower" & "Under the Big Green Leaf"

I added a couple new items to the Photography section of my Cafepress shop.

The Monkey Buddha Bazaar:

Photography

They are both pictures I took at Longwood Gardens, which is full of amazing sights. 

The first is a radiant white lotus flower against the dark water of a pond. 

The lotus is a symbol of spiritual growth & enlightenment, emerging from the murky depths of our mundane physical existence.

White Lotus Flower

From Longwood Gardens, PA

The second photo is an abstract close-up, underneath a large leaf.

I really like the veins & the flowing texture inside the bright green areas.

Under the Big Green Leaf

Sun Chips Trashes "Green" Bags

Usually for lunch I eat sandwiches & chips, & Sun Chips are one of the brands I buy.

I thought they had a really great initiative in using biodegradable bags made from plant products.

Non-renewable packaging is a source of tremendous waste in our society. It's also something that can should be easily solvable given the many advancements in biodegradable materials & sustainable packaging. For instance, styrofoam should be outlawed & replaced with organic mushroom fiber fillers!

Packaging the Future:
Amazing Mushroom Packaging!

Unfortunately, the 'green' SunChips bags were unusually loud when they were crinkled or folded. Although it didn't bother me enough to stop buying them, apparently Frito Lay has stopped shipping them.

"Frito Lay Withdraws Eco SunChips Bags"

They are working on a quieter bag still made from eco-friendly materials, which is encouraging.

I think people are going to wake up soon & re-think all the materials that we use for different applications.

Sustainable is Good

Packaging Gateway:

"The Carton of the Future"

Green Earth @
The Monkey Buddha Bazaar

Google Goes Green

Right after I posted about the most promising developments in "Green" Technology, the current giant of the tech world, Google, announced an extensive renewable energy program...

I'm glad I have such powerful influence on these big companies, hahaha.

Google: "Powering a Clean Energy Revolution"

If any organization has the power & money right now to really jumpstart the process to wean humanity off the black lifeblood of Dick Cheney that we call 'oil', it is the company with the motto, "Don't be evil." This is, of course, the direct opposite philosophy of Bush, Inc. - "Be nothing but evil."

Yahoo - "Google's Green Initiative"

Little Green Bugs

In the summer I love being outside & spending time in nature. My backyard has an wide array of wildlife and insects. I'm always on the lookout for things that are interesting, but might be too small to see normally.

Here's a couple I got photos of recently.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

This tiny green insect was crawling through my leg hair, like it was an impenetrable forest. I didn't have my macro lens on me, so I got as close as I could with my iPhone camera.

My finger for scale:

I also saw this small green praying mantis hanging on one of our outdoor flower pots. Hopefully he goes after the beetles that are munching on our roses.

"Thor" Movie Review

I had a fairly eventful weekend. Sunday, I went with my brothers & one of their girlfriends to see the new movie about the Marvel character based on the Norse god of thunder- Thor.

Thor Trailer

Although I was interested in the mythologies of different cultures when I was a kid, the Thor comic book character was not really one of my favorites.
I collected titles like the X-men, Spider-Man, Silver Surfer, Batman, & Superman.

Playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance gave me a newfound respect for the Son of Odin. In the game Thor's given a deservedly superior amount of power to smash the crap out of enemies.

Rating:
The movie was a solid "7" in my opinion & I enjoyed it.
It would get a better rating if there was less emphasis on the silly love story revolving around a temporarily mortal Thor & Natalie Portman's character. It was just overly corny & took away from Thor kicking ass.

We were joking about how Portman ruins the heroes of all the movies she's in, like Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars.

The adaptation of Thor to a movie was otherwise pretty good. The special effects & sound were awesome. The visuals & costumes were all cool, too. I also liked the explanation of the viking realm of the gods, Asgard. as an advanced race with power over space-time warps & other crazy technology.

I'd recommend it, unless you're a weirdo who hates superhero movies.

Personally, I'm more interested in the Green Lantern movie coming out- though I'm not a fan of the choice for Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, nor the overly-detailed suit & bright green mask...

Green Lantern Trailer 2 (2011) HD

A.I. Architecture - Futuristic Green Cities

I have been dabbling in simple A.I image generation. I created pages on Facebook & Instagram under @ac_artificial_creativity.

I've been using the online program Stable Diffusion. I actually don't like the newest version, so I found the older Stable Diffusion v1.5. It's actually faster, & generates 4 images at a time. The newer version only generates one image (which is more "polished" looking), and is much slower. The one thing I like about the older version is the glitchy & weird images it could produce.

The explosion of A.I. generated art is still blowing my mind. There is now endless novel artwork being created, & I don't think we've full grasped the implications of this technology on human creative efforts. I look through my social media feeds of all this amazing imagery, thinking it's just overwhelming.

 I've also begun to use generative tools in my professional life, which is just as amazing. I couldn't find the right photo of a chocolate bar online to use for a food label, so I used A.I. to make one that I could plug into the design. On another project, I had to use a photo of a cheesecake with the end cropped off, so I used Photoshop's new "generative fill" tool & it completed the crumble crust end of the cheesecake perfectly. I just thought, "Holy shit, this is insane."

Anyway, when I first started generating A.I. images, one of the series I made that made me sit back and just feel totally awe-struck was of architectural illustrations. The prompt I used was "a futuristic organically inspired city with greenery and sleek rounded architecture". The results were so impressive & beautiful, I couldn't believe they were generated by a computer program. 

I think artificial intelligence software could help advance mankind in unimaginable ways, if it's not used to make a dystopian inescapable control system first. Even before the current proliferation of these programs, I've long thought we should get rid of human politicians whose self-interest & corruption fucks us all over, and feed policy problems into A.I. for the optimal solutions that benefit the greatest number of people. 

Here are some more more images depicting the potential green urban utopia that A.I. could help us to implement. I think they're absolutely fantastic:

 

Little Green Caterpillar

I've added a couple photos to my album of nature pics:

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

I saw this tiny green caterpillar with red spots & cool markings crawling on a leaf. I picked up the leaf and got in close with my iPhone to get some pics of it. 

My finger in the one photo to give an idea of its small size. It was about as long as my fingernail.

"Chakra Ascension" Series- 4 Anahata

In 2003, I created seven 3D images that I intended to be a series.

The images show a solitary, meditating figure in different environments. Each setting corresponds to the ancient metaphysical energy system within the body, known as "chakras".

I am not a chakra meditation practitioner, so I approached this as a metaphorical work of art. I've finally decided to post the "Chakra Ascension" series, for other people to contemplate.

I'll be introducing a new image every day, from now until the Summer Solstice- June 21, 2014.

*Now that it's complete, here is a link to the whole series. There's also a free e-book version that can be downloaded at this link :

"Chakra Ascension Series"

by Paul Micarelli

 Scroll down for the description of Chakra 4, Anahata.

 Click for larger images

From "Chakra Ascension" Series by Paul Micarelli

From "Chakra Ascension" Series by Paul Micarelli

••••••••••••••••••••

This image represents the 4th level of Ascension- the Heart Chakra, Anahata.

The color associated with this chakra is green, and its element is air.

Anahata is the seat of love and compassion.
First, one must learn to truly love and accept oneself- then unconditional love can be extended to others.

Found at the chest-level location of the heart, with its dense nerve center, this chakra is said to be the center of our "human nature".

This is considered the middle chakra, a bridge where harmony and equilibrium are cultivated by connecting the lower and higher energy levels.

Here the complex emotions of the lower, physical chakras are all assimilated, through selfless love for other beings.

Mindful compassion is the key to sublimating the base emotions into more noble intentions. Then, one can be free to ascend into the higher, more subtle realms of existence.

The Observer on his pillar rises above the physical world, and is enveloped by the clouds and the air element representing this chakra. Looking out onto the ever-changing world below, the lush green color also characterizing the Anahata chakra (and all of Life) can be seen.

The head of The Observer is emerging from the mountains of the womb-like Earth, symbolizing humanity's eventual escape from the confines of this planet.

Although still connected to the Earth & the lower realms, The Observer is continuing the ascent up through the atmosphere.

This symbolizes the process of transcending the physical world, to reach the higher planes of consciousness.

The next stage is the 5th Throat Chakra- Visuddha.

The Monkey Buddha Bazaar

I don't usually run ads, ask for donations, or try to earn money through this blog. This is something I do for my own enjoyment & creative release.

However, I do have a Cafepress store, with products featuring many of my own designs, photography, and abstract art. I appreciate anyone who purchases items from my shop, any time of year:

Cafepress Shops:

The Monkey Buddha Bazaar

Some of the designs have been featured in previous posts on The Monkey Buddha blog:

The Letter Clock™

Celtic Ireland Flag

Green Earth

Know Thyself

Under the Big Green Leaf

Meta Morphosis

Tiny Green Spider Macro Photography

I saw this miniature spider on my car, and used my macro lens to get a closeup photo. I love getting a more detailed view of the life all around us, but beneath our threshold of perception.

The spider was green, and it was so small that it was translucent! It's 4 front legs were longer than its back legs, & it had eyes that were black points smaller than a grain of sand.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

Here is my finger next to it, to get a sense of the tiny size of this arachnid:

 

Green Praying Mantis Macro

 

There has been a green praying mantis hanging out on the rose bush on our deck, eating any invasive insects that might have come its way.

 I took some photos using a macro lens, and also some video. I saw it eating a small fly, but by the time I grabbed my lens and ran back outside, the fly was already devoured & the mantis was cleaning off it's front grabbing legs.

You can see it's tiny black pupil looking back at me.

 Nature Photography 

by Paul Micarelli

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a video I took right after it ate a small fly:

 

 

2010 Delsea Car Show

This past Sunday I spent the afternoon at the annual car show held at my former high school. My Dad's had a green '67 Corvette Stingray ever since I was little. He brought it out for the show so most of the Micarelli clan came out. Even though I'm by no means a motor-head, I know enough to appreciate all the different cars there. Here are pictures of some cars & the fam (my nephew pretended to race "Pop-pop's" car for a good 1/2 hour & had us cracking up.) I'm partial to Corvettes, but there were alot of nice cars there.

2010 Delsea Car Show

My Dad's car won 2nd place in the vette category, so I got a picture w/ him & his trophy.

Dudes!

In my archive of scanned old photos, I found this old picture of me when I was about 3 yrs old, posing with Big Paul & the same vette in 1980.

I feel like I've lived 5 lifetimes since then....!

Classic

The Universe is Inside the Earth

I'm pretty well-versed in conspiracy theories & outlandish ideas of all kinds.

 "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; 

but stranger than we CAN imagine."

-J. B. S. Haldane 

Although all kinds of strange things may be possible, we still have to use our senses and critical thinking to understand our world as accurately as possible.

That is why ideas like the "flat earth" movement drive me nuts. It's just stupid. There's nothing about the reality that we experience that would make it probable that the Earth is a flat disc. Matter naturally accumulates into a sphere, as gravity pulls mass toward all other mass. Look at water droplets, bubbles, etc.

When looking at other celestial bodies it's clear that they have to be spherical in nature. This is self-evident, unless you believe that there is a massive conspiracy involving literally every space agency, astronomer, & anyone who's ever looked through a telescope.

As with so many things in today's interconnected world of limitless digital media, it's tough to tell who is a troll and who really believes this stuff. "The Flat Earth Society" is as ridiculous as a "Moon is Made of Green Cheese" society. Yeah ok, there is a infinitesimal chance it's true, & we've been fed a vast web of lies, but it's so unlikely & defies common sense that it's really just silly.

Then, there is a whole new level of craziness people take their theories to, whether or not it's something they truly believe or are making a joke.

I saw this funny approach to out-doing conspiracy theorists using the Moon, & the comments led me to the amazing image at the top of this post. The 'flat earth' theory seems plausible compared to that configuration. It illustrates the absurd notion that the Universe & the cosmos are actually inside the Earth.

It's a hysterically bizarre & unlikely view of the world. I refuse to accept that someone could actually believe that reality is organized as depicted in that image. It has to be a joke, right???

Oh, I guess not...

Flat Earth Must Decrease, LSC Concave Earth Must Increase 

Lord Steven Christ

However, the same the question arises in this model, as in the accepted scientific view of the Universe- What is 'outside' of the boundaries? The image at top depicts a hard boundary between the crust of the earth and... blackness? In actuality, the idea of cosmic boundaries may not even apply. I think the Universe is a fractal pattern, infinitely self-enclosed with no discernible edge. Our brain cannot formulate the idea of something without edges or definition.

That is why people come up with simple explanations of the way the world works- because the truth is so complex & unimaginable that the mind is powerless to truly envision it all.

Nokia Morph

E-paper & ultrathin displays are going to be the source of all kinds of amazing applications. I'm looking forward to the day when I can design motion graphics for e-packaging & other surfaces that will use this emerging technology.

I saw this awesome concept called Nokia Morph on a couple different websites. It is a glimpse into the exciting & innovative creations that are just around the corner. Everything is cool about this - the styling of it, the translucent green, the interface visualizations... it's like the iPhone of the future.

There is really no reason why this device can't exist right now. It's only the misuse and waste of our collective resources and potential that prevents the realization of such inventions.

Nokia - The Morph Concept

Youtube:
Nokia Morph Concept

Gizmondo -
"Flexible Cellphone: Nokia Morph"