ecobites

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

George Clooney is desperate to get tickets to this year's (2012) Olympics in London.
The Ocean's Eleven star's schedule is booked up for the next few weeks as he attends a series of Hollywood awards shows, which come to an end after next month's Oscars ceremony, where he is nominated for a Best Actor prize for his role in The Descendants.

Once awards season wraps up, Clooney has set his sights on attending the biggest sporting extravaganza in the world, which comes to the British capital in the summer.

Chinese New Year 2012 brings in the Year of the Dragon. The Spring Festival begins on the first day of the first lunar month. This year it is January 23. It is on a different date each year as the lunar calendar does not have any connection with the solar calendar. Gung hay fat choy is the traditional Chinese greeting for new year. It means: Best wishes and congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year.

According to tradition, the dragon embodies passion, independence, and ambition.

According to an online poll of 2000 British drivers, 53 per cent of BMW drivers admit to using their horn at least once every journey, almost triple the national average of 18 per cent.

Other hornblowers are Jag drivers (45 per cent), Fiats (43 per cent), Audis (39 per cent) and Saabs (29 per cent), while, Nissan drivers are a quiet lot with 95 per cent saying they only use their horns in emergencies.

Inspires and empowers Australian communities to clean up, fix up and conserve the environment.

Every year Australia wide, hundreds of thousands of Australians get stuck in to help Clean Up their local environment by collecting and removing rubbish.

In 2011 an estimated 565,510 volunteers cleaned 16,454 tonnes at 7,479 sites right across Australia. Find out more information by visiting the Clean Up Australia Day Website.

4th March 2012

is on January 26 and commemorates the establishment of the first settlement at Port Jackson, now part of Sydney, in 1788. It is an opportunity for Australians to come together to celebrate their country and culture. There are reflections on the achievements of the nation and explorations of way to make the country even better in the future.

Debate is raging about whether the f-word has become "everyday" and acceptable - but it seems Toyota has come down on the side of the language wowzers. Toyota Australia's email system bounced back a request for a copy of the brand's popular "Bugger" TV ad - a wildly popular series of funny farm mishaps promoting the Hilux Ute , a few years ago the commercial drew some criticism from older people for repeating the word 'bugger' about 25 times in half a minute, on Australian and New Zealand screens. Toyota has now decreed the famous catchphrase as "unacceptable language".

The U.S. installed about 1.7 gigawatts of photovoltaic panels in 2011, according to GTM Research.

Germany installed more than 2 gigawatts of solar in the month of December alone.

Singer songwriter Debbie Gibson will appear on season five of Celebrity Apprentice, and has announced she will play for the charity Children International.

Celebrity Apprentice is a reality television show where celebrities compete in weekly challenges and donate any winnings to their personal charities. Every week, the celebrity contestants will work in two teams, each under the guidance of a designated project manager, to compete in business-driven tasks around New York City, using their fame, along with their proven business acumen, to win challenges.

New Year's Eve in New York City is more than just a celebration - it's a global tradition.  December 31st, 2011 carried a new significance as the Times Square Ball-the preeminent lighting symbol of New Year’s Eve- helped usher in a new era of energy efficiency in the United States.

Tennis star Venus Williams revealed she was suffering from an incurable immune system disease that threatened to end her tennis career. The former steak lover has changed her diet to raw vegan dishes which should help ease the inflammation on her joints. Her sister has shown her support by joining her in the diet.

The Californian city of West Hollywood has tentatively agreed to a ban on the sale of fur clothing within its limits, becoming the first city in the US to take such a step, which takes effect in 2013.

Via

Kate, has already been compared to her late mother-in-law in the fashion stakes, now the Duchess of Cambridge is following in Princess Diana's charitable footsteps, devoting herself to children, the sick and the drug-addicted.

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Priscilla of Boston, best known for creating Grace Kelly’s yellow organdy bridesmaid dresses, has closed it's doors. Many people are seeing red after dozens of brand new, bright white wedding dresses were draped over a dumpster in the parking lot outside of Priscilla of Boston in Edina, Minn. as two men sprayed red paint on gowns with price tags in the thousands. Could they not of donated the dresses?

Lots of website’s and companies are making their best-of-2011 lists, and Nielson’s no exception. Recently, the research company named Google as the “most visited U.S. Web brand” of 2011 beating out Facebook, Yahoo, and Microsoft (News - Alert).

An average of 153.4 million people in the United States visited Google sites per month from January to October; helping to make it the leading Internet brand in the country said Nielsen.

On New Year’s Eve, Tom Dennis will start his campaign to complete 700 marathons in 700 days to claim the Guinness world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth on foot.

Tom's journey will take him to every continent, except Antarctica, and more than 20 countries, but one location was a must for his itinerary – Monument Valley in the US where Forrest Gump ended his run.

It's being called a Christmas miracle: the South Pole, where temperatures this time of year (the southern hemisphere's summer) tend to be around minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit, set a record high on Christmas Day with a whopping 9.9F -- that's right, 9.9, not 99.

The warmth was only around for the day, and within a few days it was back to normal: minus 15F or so.