Cate Blanchett Takes Recycling to a New Level

For some time now I have held a mild resentment toward Cate Blanchett. I am a big fan of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Like all other fans, I was thrilled when I heard of the Trilogy being filmed. I was curious about how each scene would be made, what would be cut and especially who would play whom. My reaction to each cast member ranged from satisfied to impressed, with one single exception: Galadriel. When reading of the beauty of Galadriel described in The Fellowship of the Ring, the Silmarillian and Unfinished Tales it was a tall order from the beginning. However, to me, Cate Blanchett's face (especially with the hair pulled back for the revealing of her elven ears) more closely resembles a horse's rear end than the Lady of the Wood. Other than this blight, the series was fantastic.

Drudge is highlighting a rather interesting fact about Cate. According to this eccentric portrait of Cate Blanchett in Style.com, the actress is taking recycling to a new level. The piece states:

Green before it was hip—she cites Al Gore and David de Rothschild as heroes and believes that leaf blowers "sum up everything that is wrong with the human race"—the couple are trying to make the ecological footprint of the home as small as possible, installing solar panels and even a filtration system that will allow them to drink their own wastewater.

My first thought was to note how committed to the environmental cause must be to take such a step. Then I thought, pretty much all the water we drink is recycled waste water. Take the big city of Chicago for instance. All the wastewater is collected, treated and sent back into Lake Michigan. Incoming water from Lake Michigan is treated and sent to our taps for drinking. We get treated waste from millions of people and fish. Is Blanchett's filtration system really green, or is it like many environmental actions that do more harm than good? If everybody had one, would it take so much more energy to use than a centralized system for everybody? Is this really a green motive, or does Cate not want to drink the filtered waste of the masses? I wonder what her friends will think when they come to her house and she offers them a drink of water?

Sign Me Up for an Air Car

Though the story claims we will never see this in the U.S., I say sign me up for an Air Car. This car runs on compressed air, goes up to 68 mph, drives up to 125 miles per "tank" and produces zero emissions. It is quite cheap costing just over $12K. It has a built in compressor that takes about 4 hours to fill the tank - about $2 of electricity. Not sure how loud it is filling.

The downside would be safety. It is described as an "all glue construction". You probably would not want to get in an accident with an SUV. Well it can't be much less safe than a mo-ped. I would ride the side streets to work for $2 a day to transport instead of the $8-10 I am paying now. Plus I would be really green.

Sorry folks for so little posting. Everything is insanely busy at work and home. I hope to ramp back up in 2-3 weeks. Until then maybe I will squeak out a post now and then.