All Your Green Blog

This is a fantastic little gem of educational history. Unlike some of the more politically dated war-time cartoons you might find, this one is as relevant today as when it was first aired a generation (maybe two) ago.

Watch it once, then sing along the second time!

So, Earth First, a blog I'm partial to, just did a bit on the human-motion-power devices by M2E, a Boise based-company. As cool as the device is, and as great as Earth First is... why am I mentioning it?

Well, it's a ridiculously small world, and a good friend of mine (my best man at my wedding, as a matter of fact) works for M2E. With as small as M2E is, the coincidence was too much for me.

So what do you care? You probably don't, but you can check out Earth First if you want something meaningful and well written. I'm just easily amused. Carry on.

Klean Kanteen makes a fine product. They're also upgrading their own site, and a couple of the photos really struck me as representative of the benefits of the Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottle line. First, is this one, which simultaneously shows you durability, ease of cleaning, and reminds you that there's no liner. It captures a lot of character of the product all at once. It's a masterpiece of merchandising photography.

Also, it's good to point out that you should always wash out any new bottles you get before using them, or residue from manufacture and shipping could make your beverage taste metallic. But look at this one... you know it's not going to contaminate anything.

There's another, which helps you realize how few restrictions there are on the uses of a Klean Kanteen. I never thought to put a smoothie in one. There's no reason you can't, I just never thought of it. Once that mental barrier was breached, a world of amazing stainless steel possibility opened up to me! I could put smoothies, iced tea, milkshakes, milk, orange juice, cottage cheese, M&Ms, peanuts, mixed nuts, ice water, sun tea, lemonade, chai tea, raisins, yogurt, granola, carrot sticks, honey, strawberry jam, delicious delicious gravy, soy milk, protein shakes, Tang, french onion soup, crayons, or pancake batter in it, and that's just stuff you might consume! Why, if you had a Blendtec blender, you could have them all at once. Now, these are neither particularly useful ideas, and many of them aren't even good ideas, but they're possible! Use your own judgment.

You could also use one to keep fragile or sensitive things safe! Instead of keeping water in, you could use one while camping to keep some cell phones (like my crazy-slim Juke) or documents safer from water if it's raining or you're fording a stream!

Maybe it's just me, but this blew my mind. Call me crazy.

Thinksport is the new line of stainless steel, vacuum sealed bottles from the same folks that make the ThinkBaby bottles. Both are 100% BPA-free, and non-leaching. We were excited when we saw these, as we don't yet carry a good container for hot beverages, and this one even had an internal strainer for icecubes or tea leaves.

Well, we order a few cases, and they arrive, and we open them full of hope. I slowly removed one of the bottles from the box, marveling at the elegant design and stainless shininess. I carefully grasp the cap to twist it off...

And there the fantasy ended. The top section of the cap has to screw off, but the plastic leash thingy does not turn. The attachment of the leash to the lid is so tight that you have to twist the cap as far as the leash will let you, then shimmy the leash around a quarter turn, rinse repeat, and in a few minutes... you can take a drink! Of course, then there's getting the damn thing back on.

We weren't impressed. However, maybe this one was a fluke. We tried another, which was slightly better, but not easy enough to use that I'd buy one myself. We tried the other box (which had another size bottle), and same thing. They were all nearly impossible to open and close easily. But what if they got easier over time, like had a break-in period or something? Well, that's not all.

In addition to the ridiculously difficult to use cap, the little rubber o-ring that seals the cap to the bottle ships with, but not in the bottle. I thought it was odd, but inserted it myself, and then started the above described drama. However, once I did manage to wrestle the thing back open, the o-ring falls right out. Every single time. There is no conceivable way that you could hang on to it for more than a few days before you lose it. And what then? Why, you spill your next hot, cold, or colorful beverage dribbling down your shirt. We had nightmares of coffee lawsuits, and decided to return the bottles, and spare you all the same madness.

The manufacturer worked with us on the return, and as I understand it, they receive high praise for their ThinkBaby line, and even some for this line, so I don't want to sound bitter. I merely wanted to let you, our customers, to whom we are responsible, know that not everything passes our QA process. If you encounter a problem with a product you purchase from us, please let us know, so we can take that into consideration next time we're preparing an order with that manufacturer.

Thanks to ThinkBaby for their cooperation, and hopefully these issues are resolved in the future.

Well, Dieter (aka TheGreenGir) has outdone himself. His electric commuter scooter (a Segway indoor/outdoor model) might actually have the range required for being useful. Just because my first and second attempts at electric commutation were busts doesn't make me jealous. I'm happy for him.

Ok, that's a lie. I want one now. It's kinda spendy (he burned $6000 that he seems to know how to afford using some accounting voodoo I couldn't follow), but the awesomeness factor is pretty high. It cruises at 12 mph, and has a 20 mile effective range (a claim that we haven't fully tested, but seems plausible so far). It's not running the same lead-acid batteries that starts your car or ran my scooter, but twin lithium-ion packs. For scale, that's a bit like running a scooter on several thousand cell phone batteries. It's pretty neat.

For those who haven't tried one, they're amazingly easy to get the hang of. The machine does all the tricky balancing for you, and all you do is lean where you want to go. It's really that simple, and with a little practice, you can drive it inside! It's based on technology originally built for wheelchairs and similar electric mobility devices, afterall.

Well, Dieter, you win this round of "who has the cooler toys." I'll just have to console myself with a 120 mph Tesla roadster sometime. Someday. I hope.

Enjoy your $1.20 per month commuting costs, you dog.

I recently received a great letter (not just because it was positive, mind you) from someone who was expressing how they enjoyed the quotes and product descriptions that we toil to create. Well, not 'toil'. Risk eventual carpal tunnel? Possibly - medical journals are still out on that - BUT I DIGRESS!

Amy at The Grocery Service wrote a great email telling us she did in fact enjoy our quotes. Thanks Amy! We try to make the products fun to read and easy to understand what you're purchasing. Oh, and easy to buy. Yes.. there IS an end goal in mind ;).

So! Lesson for today's blog post? AllYourGreen.com loves to hear from you! And buy from Amy's Grocery Service - she a great proponent of reusable bags!