It’s been nearly two weeks since the catastrophic 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, and people everywhere are moved by the tragic situation overseas. According to recent reports, more than 150,000 bodies have been recovered in the capital Port-Au-Prince alone, and the United Nations says it still does not know how many bodies remain buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings. Efforts are now shifting from searching for survivors to providing aid and shelter for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the catastrophic destruction.

A report at CNN.com indicates that medical teams are currently organizing to provide assistance, as an onslaught of doctors have answered the call for medical aid. Unfortunately nursing staff and safe space to provide post-traumatic care are at an extreme shortage. Healthcare providers currently in Haiti suggest that doctors and physical therapists who want to help should wait to volunteer in a few weeks or months, when thousands of amputees will need significant, specialized post-operative care.

Are you looking for a way to provide some assistance to Haitian earthquake victims?  Thanks to Mashable and additional research, we’ve compiled the following short list of authentic and reliable ways to provide emergency relief to Haiti. (Please click the “More” link to review the list.) » Read more

Each week, Jonathan Ross presents music and celebrity chat on his BBC television show “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.” In this entertaining video clip,  quirky Oscar-winning Hollywood anti-hero Christopher Walken reads a few lines from Lady Gaga’s hit song “Pokerface.”

I suppose we should be thankful he didn’t request “more cowbell!”

Click here to see Lady Gaga perform Pokerface. » Read more

It doesn’t matter whether you’re with the Chin or Coco, this entire situation has become an embarrassing mess for NBC, and EV-erybody has been talking about it.

Here it is in a nutshell:
Several, many, some, years ago, NBC made plans for Jay Leno to retire from his job as host of “The Tonight Show” and lined up Conan O’Brien to take his place. Conan took Lenos place in June 2009, and soon after NBC gave Leno a different show at an earlier time, put Conan (who was lovingly nicknamed “Coco” by some) into Leno’s old spot, and gave Conan’s old spot to Jimmy Fallon.

Just this week, NBC decided this arrangement isn’t working for them, so they’ve decided to muck with the lineup a little more. They want to give Leno a half-hour spot at 11:30, bump Conan back to 12:05, and move Jimmy Fallon later behind them.

According to Mashable,  Conan put The Tonight Show up for sale at Craigslist  though the listing titled “4 SALE: BARELY-USED LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW,” has been removed (thank goodness for screen captures, or this wouldn’t have been quite so funny). Over at Twitter, #teamconan is topping trending topics, and even the little Reddit Alien was sporting Conan’s hairstyle for a few days this week.

Jimmy Kimmel attempted to explain the situation by cutting a pie into pieces,  Rosie O’Donnell said she thinks Jay Leno “should walk away”  and  David Letterman has offered up his own suggestion as well–watch the video below to hear his take on it.

What do you think about all of this? Personally, I’m with Coco.  Please share your opinions with us at twitter.com!

Creating a living wall module from live plants.

Scott Hutcheon has a passion for turning creative ideas for sustainable environments and healthy living into reality. Growing up close to the ocean and being heavily involved in beach activities fostered his early interest in the environment, and after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University in 1998 with a degree in Landscape Architecture, he started his own landscaping business and soon set to work creating beautiful vertical wall gardens and green roofs.

Patrick Blanc was considered by many to be the "Godfather" of living walls and green roofs.

The first roof gardens and living walls were created by Patrick Blanc, who is considered by many to be the “godfather” of this creative form of landscaping. His beautiful plantings paved the way for a new form of landscaping artistry which also happens to be incredibly environmentally friendly! Living walls and roof gardens can expand the lifespan of the buildings they cover by protecting roofs and walls from the aging exposure of the weather, they insulate the building from sound and reduce the temperature of the interior of the building promising energy savings by as much as 25 to 50 percent, they help to reduce the urban heat island effect, and they naturally remove toxins and unhealthy contaminants from the air that we breathe. Functionally, they also create efficient garden space in places where room might not otherwise be available. Not to mention, that they’re quite beautiful!

Many living walls are outdoors on the exterior walls of buildings, but they can also be installed inside homes as well. They are typically irrigated using drip systems that water the plants from the top, and are usually not difficult to take care of. The most common systems available to consumers use modular plastic containers that allow the gardener to choose a variety of plantings depending on their personal interests and desired garden size. » Read more

I remember the first time I saw a musician do live music looping on stage: It was this amazing guitarist Newton Faulkner at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles last summer, and at first I didn’t know what he was doing. He was moving around on the stage, making a sound on one mic, then another sound with another instrument on another mic; a few moments later, I could hear the sounds building as each of his musical moments looped around and built upon the other create an amazing soundtrack that he created and then sang and played along with. It was fabulous!

While looping is commonly performed in the studio, It’s an amazing thing to watch as a musician employs this talent live. In this YouTube video, violinist Mark Russell rocks out, building a tune live, one musical loop at a time. Mark is also a composer and teacher who began studying classical violin at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. Find out more about Mark Russell at www.myspace.com/markrussellviolinadventurer.

Have a great week!

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans throw away more than 30 million Christmas trees at the end of the Christmas season.

If you want to make sure your cut tree finds an organic end, recycle it! In the weeks after Christmas, many communities offer curbside pick-up of trees, while others offer drop-off locations or wood chipping services. Make sure you know when these services will be offered, or your tree will wind up in a landfill where even the most natural trash is unlikely to decompose.

These services will usually chop and mulch your tree so that it can be used for weed control and water conservation in public areas and parks; sunk in lakes to provide habitat for fish; or turned into fuel at biomass plants.

Be sure to remove any tinsel, lights, and ornaments. Unfortunately, trees with artificial snow or flocking can’t be mulched, so next year, make your tree more earth friendly by avoiding such decorations. » Read more

When you want to find the phone number of a local residence, where do you look for the information? Do you haul out the white pages to “let your fingers do the walking” through the entries, or do you search online using one of the internet’s free directory services?

According to banthephonebook.org, as many as 5 million trees are cut down to create the white pages phone books that are dropped on our doorsteps each year. Additionally, taxpayers spend $17 million per annum to have these books recycled.

In rebuttal, a detailed Yellow Pages’ blog demonstrates the process of making paper for the Yellow Pages industry uses mainly woodchips and saw mill byproducts as well as recycled newspaper and directories.

Regardless of which data is more accurate, when you consider that today’s consumers most likely use online directories, social networks, and mobile phone applications to find the contact information they need, banthephonebook.org some feel it simply does not make sense to have the white pages phone books automatically delivered to us every year. » Read more