Here is an easy cookie recipe to celebrate the Luck o' the Irish.
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This St. Patrick's Day famous landmarks from around the world will turn green to celebrate Ireland's culture and heritage. This is the sixth year that Tourism Ireland's marketing campaign has rolled out the Irish green across the globe. Nicknamed the "Global Greening Initiative" by the Tourism Ireland, the push to inspire countries around the world to participate in turning landmarks green is helping to draw attention to Ireland. March 2015 will see several new monuments and landmarks participating in the March 17th Global Greening including Rome's Colosseum and France's Sacré-Cœur Basilica. #GoGreen4PatricksDay
Giving back to the local community is an important value at Griff's Electric, Inc. Recently Kerissa joined other volunteers from southern California to install a project with the non-profit GRID Alternatives. Founded in 2001, GRID Alternatives trains volunteers to install solar PV technology on low-income housing. Its mission is to create jobs in the alternative energy industry while helping to reduce carbon pollution and provide free energy to the populations with the greatest need. "National Women in Solar" is GRID's latest initiative with SunEdison to increase the number of women that work in the solar and energy industry. This was Kerissa's first installation project.
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and the stores have begun stocking their shelves with overpriced stuff animals, heart shaped boxes of chocolates and cards galore! I can hear the cha-ching of cash registers everywhere benefitting from your pocketbook. Not only are the Valentine novelties pricey, they are not Eco-Friendly and hurt the planet as much as your wallet. Not to mention, the thought and the appreciation of these gifts are so fleeting, that they soon become dust collectors sitting on shelves in rooms everywhere! Therefore, I have taken the liberty to find some affordable and planet friendly Valentine’s Day gifts to show everyone in your life how much you care.
Sustainable ideas: ❤ Create a one of a kind chalk art card on the driveway, ❤ Stay in for a cozy night and make dinner together, ❤ Bring home a beautiful potted plant that will bloom for years to come! For more of the 21 Eco-Friendly, sustainable and affordable ways to say "I Love You" on February 14th check out http://www.postconsumers.com/education/eco-friendly-valentines/. Please be kind to your loved ones and the planet this Valentine’s Day as it provides to us all year long. Happy Valentine’s Day, from Griff’s Electric, Inc! Time to throw away the traditional incandescent and fluorescent light bulbs! It is the age of the light emitting diode, better known as LED light bulbs! LEDs are more accessible than ever and can be found everywhere from homes and appliances to cars, traffic lights and commercial buildings. Griff’s Electric, Inc. has been upgrading customer lighting to LEDs for several years now. Common areas customers look to install LED lights include parking lot signs and exit signs. The benefits of LEDs far outweigh traditional lighting and should be a priority for all engineering and building maintenance crews as well as residential home owners. The first benefit to the LED light bulb is ENERGY EFFICIENCY. Typical light bulbs waste about 80% of their energy in heat and only emit about 20% of their energy as light. LEDs on the other hand emit the majority of their energy as light with 10% of the energy wasted as heat. As a result LED bulbs are cooler to the touch. In addition, the high upfront costs are coming down and the bulb is much more accessible to the general public. Although, the cost of LED bulbs remains higher than traditional bulbs; spread over a bulb’s lifetime the cost is actually cheaper. LED bulbs have a longer lifespan of at least 100,000 hours of full brightness. That’s at least 2X longer than fluorescent lighting and 25X longer compared to incandescent lighting. There are also no fragile filaments in the LED bulbs, so they can easily withstand transit and storage better than their counterparts. LEDs energy efficiency + longer life span = cheaper than traditional lighting Let’s talk SAFETY about the LED bulb. I already mentioned there is no filament in the bulb. In addition, the LED bulb contains no mercury. The durability of their exterior is tough and rarely breakable. However, if you manage to send one crashing to the floor, there is a special coating that prevents the bulb from shattering into tiny shards of glass. COLOR ~ LED bulbs now come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and are even dimmable! When dimmed, the bulbs maintain their true hue and do not yellow. The colors are more vibrant and are maintained over time. They are instantly bright with the flick of a switch. No more waiting around for flickering bulbs to warm up and come on. It is amazing how the LED continues to be transformed and incorporated into all kinds of items we benefit from in our daily lives. For instance, the lighting on smart-phones, nightlights, bulbs in our cars, brighter lights in parking lots and even the lights in my refrigerator are LED! Due to their low energy use and versatility the LED light bulb will continue to infiltrate our factories, streets, shopping malls and homes for years to come. So, wait for your old bulbs to cool down and change them out with LED bulbs today for a safer, brighter and more energy efficient future! For more detailed information, please see the following articles: http://www.ecodirect.com/LED-Light-Bulbs-s/146.htm http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/technology/personaltech/cheaper-led-bulbs-make-it-easier-to-switch-lights.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 https://www.simplelighting.co.uk/why-switch-to-led/ Keep the season merry with this list of safety tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, compiled by Reader’s Digest. Lights, decorations and toys are a wonderful part of the holidays. But if you have young children, you need to take special precautions to make sure they're safe. Here are expert tips to ensure that your family's holiday season is happy, healthy and hazard-free. Bright Ideas for Lights
Trouble-Free Toys
Read the full article at http://www.rd.com/home/christmas-safety-checklist/2/ For a number of years Griff's Electric, Inc. has partnered with the Long Beach Women and Children's shelter Woman to Woman. Gently used clothes, toys and household items are collected and then donated to the center year round. During the holiday season Griff's Electric employees and staff raise funds to purchase turkeys for the families.
Fall has arrived and Thanksgiving will be here before we know it! Therefore, we must talk turkey for a moment. According to the National Turkey Federation, approximately 88% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving and an estimated 46 million turkeys will be consumed at Thanksgiving. The majority of these average 16 pound turkeys will be cooked in an electric oven. That equates to about 4 hours per bird, totaling 8 kWh (213 million kWh total) of electricity used for a total of $25 million dollars across the nation. This is just the electricity used to cook the turkey! Once we add in the potatoes, stuffing, green bean casseroles and pies, the amount of electricity consumed to cook a Thanksgiving feast is astounding and costly. And, we haven’t even gotten to the warming of the leftovers yet…the feast just keeps on giving and taking…. With all this being said, TXU Energy talks turkey about how you can save energy this Thanksgiving:
Statistics and Energy Saving Tips by: TXU Energy on 11/28/2013. It’s October! The time of year we pull out the ghosts, zombies and creepy paraphernalia we've collected over the years to decorate our houses. But, did you know that there are spooky beings lurking in our houses all year long? Yes, it is true! We all have phantoms, ghosts and even vampires living amongst us at all times. But, don’t fear, we can get rid of them quickly. No, I’m not talking about the creepy creatures we see in Science Fiction shows. The “phantoms” also known as “vampire load” or “ghost current” are the energy being consumed by our gadgets plugged in to wall sockets when not in use. We’re all guilty of grabbing our phones and cameras off the chargers and running out the door, leaving the chargers plugged in the wall. These plugged in chargers continue to suck electricity off the grid and omit energy even though their gadgets were removed. This phantom energy is estimated to utilize approximately 10% of an individual home’s electricity use. Pulling the plugs on your gadgets could save you the equivalent of one electricity bill a year. Now that would make a difference to the pocket book! Another way to combat the phantoms is to plug all the household gadgets into a power strip with an on/off switch. Simply turn off the strip once the gadgets are charged and you've saved electricity, money and kicked the phantoms out the house! For other information to alleviate the phantoms from your life: http://frugalliving.about.com/od/energyandutilities/qt/Have_Phantoms.htm http://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-one-hour-project-kill-the-electricity-phantom/ http://www.mnenergysmart.com/how-much-phantom-energy-do-your-electronics-use/ The “anti-vaccine” movement is wreaking havoc in communities across the United States. It seems that rumors on parenting blogs have played a role in the recent uptick in refusals to vaccinate. Some blogs site religious beliefs. Other blogs tout the benefits of an organic lifestyle’s ability to overcome disease. Parents choosing not to vaccinate should question what will happen when their child gets sick and needs to take drugs in order to survive. There is never a 100% guarantee for anything. Risking the odds of contracting a serious, possibly fatal virus by refusing to get vaccinated seems absurd in today’s high tech information age. Vaccines weren’t always so readily available. In fact, it was only 70 years ago in the 1940s that children were dying from outbreaks of measles, mumps and hepatitis B. Due to the invention of 40 different vaccines by Dr. Maurice Hilleman and better hygiene practices, over 732,000 lives will have been saved just over the past two decades. Current generations including Millennials, Gen Xers and Gen Yers appear to take disease free communities and longer life spans for granted. If these same generations had talked to their grandparents rather than browse online blogs perhaps this movement could have been avoided. Instead, we see the rise of diseases like Chickenpox, Measles and Influenza that can have serious consequences to young children and grandchildren. Not only is it important to think of the safety of our loved ones, but we must think of our communities and society as whole. A concept known as “Herd Community” focuses on the impact to entire populations worldwide. Because travel is so readily available, disease can spread farther and faster than ever before making it even harder to contain to a small population. If the majority of people are vaccinated, the community as a whole is more protected against a disease; as it is harder for the virus to penetrate the population and even the non-vaccinated people of the “herd” have a smaller chance of getting sick. Unfortunately, due to the “antivaccine” movement in the US, diseases that were nearly extinct like Whooping Cough and Polio have begun to appear. The sad part is the unvaccinated children will suffer the most, as they will be the ones feeling the full impact. There are many rumors and untruths related to vaccinations. However, the current facts showing the evolution of vaccination, demonstrate that vaccinating children is safe and effective. For example, in 1999 Thimerosal, the substance associated with Autism, was voluntarily removed from vaccines by the pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has substantiated that once harmful chemicals used in the 70s have been removed and vaccines are safe and effective. Should the anti-vaccination trend become more prevalent all of the people we come in contact with on a daily basis including family and friends will be at risk. Therefore, I urge everyone, especially parents of young kids, to research the current facts and statistical importance of vaccinations and then get vaccinated! Here are some articles to help get you started: LA Times: Sunday, September 7, 2014 front page, A vaccination heretic, by Paloma Esquivel http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/55944581/#55944581 http://vaccines.procon.org/#background http://www.health.harvard.edu/flu-resource-center/vaccines-and-your-health.htm http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/24/cdc-vaccine-benefits/8094789/ |
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