by Umbra Fisk.
Dearest readers,
Ah, Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kickoff of summer—even
though we’re still rocking scarves and raincoats here at Grist HQ. To prep you for this glorious three-day weekend,
I’ve sifted through the archives and found these handy holiday-appropriate tidbits,
from flying the flag to drinking beer (both arguably patriotic acts). What’s
going on your grill this weekend? Can I come over?
Oh say, can you see?
So you want to fly the American flag 24 hours a day but are a stickler for
following the Flag Code, which requires the flag to be lit up when it’s dark out?
Easy peasy: Save the electricity and take it down at sunset. Too much effort?
Try a solar-powered, LED flag light! These are readily available on the interwebs; they make models that clamp directly onto the flagpole, as
well as ground-nesting lights. Get the
full Ask Umbra answer.
Boy meets grill.
Grilled veggie kabobs on the brain? Go with a gas grill to cook ‘em up (that
is, unless you feel adventurous and want to make
your own solar oven!). It’s far easier to control the temperature of a gas
grill (no more burgers burnt to a crisp), and gas grills produce about half as
much CO2 as charcoal grills. And you’ll save yourself the pain (literally) from
all those headache-inducing volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) that charcoal gives off. Get
the full Ask Umbra answer.
Take the sting out.
Wasps are actually quite beneficial to the
ecosystem as predators to other insects like caterpillars, which can wreak
havoc on a garden. But wasps can be a nasty addition to your holiday barbecue.
I found this handy video
on making your own wasp trap from a used plastic bottle and a coat hanger,
as well as some readymade
glass wasp catchers. Both lure wasps into a vessel with fruit juice as
bait. Once the wasps have succumbed to the fruit juice’s siren call, they are
unable to scramble out of the bottle. You just empty the container out when you
feel like you’ve got a full house in there. Get
the full Ask Umbra answer.
Give yourself a wedgie.
So you’re worried that the lime wedge in your beer bottle’s going to make the
thing unrecycable? Never fear! When you recycle your beer, the bottle is picked
up curbside by a hauling company, which brings it to a glass-cleaning plant,
which then ships it to a glass-manufacturing plant, where it begins a new life.
A “contaminant,” as your lime would be called, is either picked out
at pickup or removed during the cleaning. Get the full Ask Umbra
answer.
Get baked—or not.
Conventional chemical sunscreen can be
toxic to your body and the planet—from hormone disruption to coral bleaching.
Look for mineral sunscreens that contain titanium oxide and/or zinc oxide. And
if you’re going to be taking a dip in the ocean, choose a screen with
plant-based ingredients—we ooze 4,000–6,000 tons of sunscreen into our oceans
every year; scientists say we’re probably putting 10 percent of reefs at risk,
so choose wisely. Get
the full Ask Umbra answer.
Day-offly,
Umbra
Related Links:
Let’s Move needs to get real with the food industry
Ask Umbra on eco-fiction and hair donations for the oil spill
Kongregate, a web site featuring tons of Flash-based indie games that are free to play is joining the Froyo goodness with a new mobile site. It should a a good ay for those of you who are enjoying your 2.2 Android update can to waste some time. 
Based on the strength of its new models, Volkswagen predicts that 2010 sales in South Africa will rise twice as fast as the market.
The new Nissan Juke will go on sale in the UK this September. With a price that starts from £12,795, the Juke will directly rival the superminis, such as the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa and VW Polo, even if the Juke is larger and offers more features as standard.
As the European markets become unpredictable due to the incentive programs ending or being phased out, France’s Citroen (which is part of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen) is relying on the strong growth in China, Citroen managing director Frederic Banzet told Reuters.
That’s what 
