Tuesday, September 23, 2008

the gorgeous island of mykonos, greece

We finally arrived in Mykonos, after several airports and hours of flying and it was worth it! The island is amazing. I've been here before, and it seems even better this time. Even though the town is a maze of streets and shops I was easily able to find my favorite jewelry shop, Fetish Jewelry (http://www.fetishjewelry.gr/) and found a new and awesome piece to add to my collection from their unique line. The new ring features rainbow obsidian in a silver setting. I'll take a picture of it when I get back so you can see it!

We will be here a few more days and then head to Santorini.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

pdx magazine

If you live in Portland, you've probably seen (and love) PDX Magazine. This month the magazine featured my work in the article, "The Art of Adornment, Accessorizing Yourself For Fall" (By Hollyanna McCollom) and here's the excerpt about Cheeky B and my glass pendants.
If you are looking to lose that boring old hobo bag from last season, head to cheeky b (906 NW 14th Ave, 274-0229, cheekyboutique.com), where they have some of the hippest bags in town. We love, love, love the Queen Bee poppy-emblazoned “trucker” tote, which is made from waterproof (Yay, Portland!) vinyl. They also carry some locally made jewelry, like the super-cute fused glass pendants from Portlander Laura James. Her designs are exactly the sort of “statement making necklaces” you’re going to see around everyone’s necks this season.
Wow! Thanks Hollyanna...I couldn't agree more! To read the whole article click here.

Check out PDX Magazine at www.pdxmagazine.com

Thursday, September 11, 2008

make a difference - shark statement

You know how much I love the sharks, here's an artist that is raising awareness, so thanks Alice!

Artist to be hung on shark hooks

Performance artist Alice Newstead is suspended from a shop ceiling by shark hooks through the skin in her back
Alice Newstead is a former employee of the shop

A performance artist has had her skin pierced with shark hooks and been suspended from a shop ceiling as part of a campaign to end shark finning.

Alice Newstead has been hung from de-barbed hooks for 15 minutes in the window of the Lush cosmetics store in Regent Street, central London.

The stunt is designed to mimic the fate of sharks caught solely for their fins.

The process known as finning is where a fin is hacked off and the shark thrown back into the water to die.

Ms Newstead, who is a former employee of the London shop, was "hung" in the shop window at noon on Wednesday.

Shark fin soup

A spokesman for Lush said: "Alice's performance is very reminiscent of what happens to sharks when they are caught.

"When they are caught the sharks are pulled from the water, their fins are sliced off, and they are kicked back into the ocean, so they sink to the bottom and suffer a slow death.

"Fins are the most lucrative part of the shark, which explains the massive escalation in the numbers of sharks killed in the last few years."

The firm has also launched a new Shark Fin Soap - a blue soap made with seaweed and sea salt with a cardboard shark fin sticking out the top.

All funds from the sale of the soap will go to the wildlife conservation charity Sea Shepherd.

Consumers are also being urged to boycott restaurants that serve shark fin soup and not to use shark cartilage supplements, which are thought to improve bone health.

I've mentioned the shark situation before, to read the previous post, click here. To donate to the Sea Shepherd, or to learn more about them, click here.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

just in case we get eaten by a black hole...

...it was fun while it lasted!

World's Biggest Atom Smasher to Start-up


07 September 2008


After more than 30 years of planning, 14 years of building and $10 billion later, the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest atom smasher, is due to start up on September 10. Scientists predict collisions of sub-atomic particles produced by the LHC will allow them to get closer than ever before to answering questions about the origins of the universe. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva.

Project leader for Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Lyn Evans, left, speaks with Carlos Fernandez Robles, right, engineer, at the European Particle Physics laboratory in Prevessin, France, 02 Sep 2008
Project leader for Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Lyn Evans, left, speaks with Carlos Fernandez Robles, right, engineer, at the European Particle Physics laboratory in Prevessin, France, 02 Sep 2008
LHC Project Leader, Lyn Evans, has been coddling this colossal machine from the start.

"It has been 14 years. I think this is really a very long time for any scientific project and, quite frankly, I'm glad to see the end," said Evans.

The end is actually the beginning. But, as Evans explains, the start of this grand voyage into the unknown will not begin by pulling a switch to get the machine working for the first time.

"There is not a big red button as many people think, that the thing switches on and results come spewing out," added Evans. "It is a complex operation and we start by trying to get a beam just to go around the ring once. And, if we can achieve that on the first day, I will be extremely happy."

The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is the world's most powerful particle accelerator. The giant machine could revolutionize our understanding of the universe by recreating the conditions which were present less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang.

The gigantic ring-shaped device is housed in a 27-kilometer tunnel, which straddles the Swiss-French border near Geneva.

The collider has massive detectors that fill cathedral-sized rooms at intervals along the ring. Some 6,000 super-conducting magnets guide the beams. Evans says 50,000 tons of equipment will have to be cooled down to temperatures that are colder than that of outer space.

He says protons are fed directly into the LHC ring via two injection lines, one for each beam. He says the first attempt to circulate two proton beams all the way around the ring will occur on September 10.

"When these beams collide, then, of course when two particles collide, then they produce energy, which can convert itself into mass and if you got high energy than you can produce heavy objects," said Evans.

It will take a couple of months to bring collisions up to the desired energy. When the LHC gets up to speed, the accelerated protons will travel with nearly the speed of light. The machine will produce about 800 million proton-proton collisions every second.

CERN theoretical physicist, John Ellis tells VOA people should think of the LHC as the world's most fantastic microscope. He says the LHC will be able to look ten times deeper inside the structure of matter than any accelerator or microscope that has been built before.

"And, you should also think of it as being the world's most fantastic telescope because it recreates in some sense the conditions that occurred very early in the history of the Big Bang," said Ellis. "Not right back at the beginning, but a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang. So, in addition to addressing really fundamental questions about the structure of matter, what it is made of, what holds it together, it is also going, I think give us insights into how the universe came to be the way that it is today."

Emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, British Peter Higgs (File)
Emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, British Peter Higgs (File)
Physicists believe the LHC will lead to the discovery of a new particle called the Higgs Boson, named after the British physicist Peter Higgs. The Higgs is often referred to as the missing link in the history of particle physics. It is thought to hold the answer to why sub-atomic particles have weight or mass.

Ellis says the LHC is capable of unlocking other issues of equal or greater scientific interest. He says his particular passion is to probe Dark Matter.

"Astronomers and cosmologists tell us that something like 80 percent of the matter in the universe is invisible, the so-called Dark Matter that nobody has ever seen. We know it is there because it exerts gravitational forces, but it does not shine, so presumably it is not made of the same stuff as regular matter," added Ellis. "To my mind it is amazing that here we are in the 21st century and we still do not know what most of the stuff in the universe is made of."

As CERN celebrates its achievement, some people are predicting the LHC will create a mammoth black hole that will swallow up the earth. Several lawsuits have been filed to stop the LHC from starting up.

Physicists call these doomsday scenarios ridiculous. They say cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth and triggering collisions similar to those planned for the collider, since the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.

And, Physicists John Ellis and Lyn Evans note, so far, the earth has survived.

"There is absolutely no evidence that black holes are eating up planets thanks to these cosmic ray collisions. No black hole will swallow up the earth," continued Ellis.

"I do not expect to be swallowed up by," said Evans. "I think nobody in their right mind expects to be swallowed up by hypothetical black holes which are created in the LHC."

tip tuesday - digital box


I'm sure you've heard that your regular tv is going to need a digital box upgrade by next February, and there's a coupon for $4o off the $60 device. Get the coupon by visiting this website: https://www.dtv2009.gov/

The coupon is good for 90 days, so start doing your research now.

I purchased the Apex Digital Box from Best Buy and I am not loving the pixelated herky jerky picture. At least with the good old antenna it might have been fuzzy or staticy but at least there was some consistency there. I hate it when you're trying to hear something and it just freezes, and then after an unknown amount of time it might start again, and now you've missed the thing you wanted to know. It was also a total pain to set up. I'm pretty good with following directions but this was harder than it should have been. Check out the latest reviews before you purchase.

I'm already not a fan of this digital switch over, I don't know why we can't keep on with the way things were...you know, FREE television. So good luck with your digital switch over.

The one good thing...extra Public Television Stations! Love OPB.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

more new pendants



infomercials

I'm a night owl. I get a second wind when the sun goes down and I do a lot of work between 10pm and 2am. Last night the TV was on while I was working and the infomercial for Wen (hair stuff) and Cindy Crawford's magic face stuff was on (they did a side by side and she hasn't aged in 14 years of seeing the French face doctor...who doesn't want that???). I was tempted to order them both, like really tempted...why is that? Is it that at 1am a person is more susceptible to the repetitive selling slogan or is it the celebrity endorsements? I mean if Melissa Gilbert loves it, I will love it...if Dorthy Hamill says it's good, well she's trustworthy and I should get it. I am fascinated by the "need" that Guthy Renker creates, and how well they do it. If only I could tap into that marketing genius.

But of course I held myself back from ordering and am just going to live with my shampooed hair and my regular Aveda face products. I might not look as good as Cindy Crawford, Melissa Gilbert or Valerie Bertinelli (what isn't she endorsing?), but there's always another chance for them to get me tonight.

Resistance if futile!

Monday, September 1, 2008