March 21st, 2008 Frank
One of the email newsletters I signed up for a while back is the one from Defenders of Wildlife. They organize letter-writing campaigns to Washington DC to make sure that the Senators and Representatives are kept aware that there are still people that are conscious of what US policy changes can and will do to our furry and scaled friends in the outdoors.
I only get one or two emails a week (maybe a couple extra when there’s an important bill being argued).
From their own website’s About Us page:
Mission
Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities.
Goals
We work to protect and restore America’s native wildlife, safeguard habitat, resolve conflicts, work across international borders and educate and mobilize the public.
Just tossing this one out there to see if we can get a little more support to keep the environmental conscience alive in Washington!
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March 20th, 2008 Frank
The Mercola website has a short, quick article on the marketing of organic foods that makes a nice primer about the recent explosion of organic foods from big corporations. It references the US market but can be applied to other countries as well.
Basically, the major food companies like General Mill, Kellogg’s and Heinz see it as a ‘market niche’ product, so they are just responding to market demand basically. Which is all fine and dandy in a corporate sort of way, but it doesn’t give any dues to the gardeners and farmers who’ve been on the organic bandwagon for ages.
The article outlines the major benefits of organic foods, like it gets more healthy stuff into your body, is better for the environment and has less toxins than modern pesticide-enriched foods. At least two (if not all three) of those reasons should be enough to get anyone eating organic.
Of course, the ‘organic’ label comes at a cost. Just like any manufactured, corporatized food becomes less ‘like what Grandma used to make’, processed organic food may be cheaper than fresh organic food, but you’re probably taking in less of the good stuff than when you’re buying fresh. On the other hand, fresh, local organic food can be pretty damn expensive! Even I have to hold off on blindly picking up the organic fruit and veg and compare prices - if those organic peppers or tomatoes approach 150-200% of the cost of non-organic…I have to take the non-organic and just remember to give it a good wash. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been really trying to grow my own stuff for the past year or so.
Because of the increased costs of organic foods and the crap that gets injected into other foods, I mentally rate the foods I buy on a list with the healthiest, local, tasty foods at the top and frozen microwave meals at the very bottom (so low, in fact, I never ever buy them). The basic breakdown, from highest to lowest, goes like this:
- local
- fresh
- organic
- fair trade
- refrigerated
- frozen
- ready-to-bake (bread or other stuff)
- canned/tinned
- microwave/ready meal
So by this sort of ranking, at the very top is local ,organic food from either my container garden or a farmer’s market - this keeps the money local, the petrol/gas charges down and the freshness pretty much guaranteed.
As I go further down the list, there’s more chemicals, more assembly lines, less hand-prep (by me or anyone) and less taste.
I dunno, maybe this is helpful or not to you, but this is what I use when I go shopping.
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March 19th, 2008 Frank
I’m not, but there’s a fantastic post on Zen Habits: 12 Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk that can help me (or anyone) live a simpler life. No magazine subscriptions or therapy needed.
They can be boiled down to (in the words of Thich Nhat Hanh): “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”
- Do one thing at a time.
- Do it slowly and deliberately.
- Do it completely.
- Do less.
- Put space between things.
- Develop rituals.
- Designate time for certain things.
- Devote time to sitting (or meditating in some way).
- Smile and serve others.
- Make cleaning and cooking become meditation.
- Think about what is necessary.
- Live simply.
Now, like the guy who wrote the post on Zen Habits, I have no desire to shave my head and live in a mountain fortress (unless I was training to be a ninja or something), but there’s something to be said for someone who can shut out distractions, get their tasks done, have time for relaxation and meditation every day, and go to bed relaxed and content.
I’m trying to slowly work my way towards this kind of thing, but obviously with a very modern twist. By automating some things and clearing out clutter, etc., it’s definitely easier to have a clear mind…the problem I have is that I have *so* many things that I want to do (spending time with my girlfriend, listen to podcasts, download things, meeting up for D&D, play console games, read websites, play computer games, read, learn guitar, write, archery, poker, play with my RC cars and quite a bit more that would probably bore you to tears) that by trying to multitask I distract full attention from what I’m doing.
Short of selling all my games and consoles, I won’t be able to cut down my extensive reading list (about 50-70 books waiting to be read - I’ve stopped myself from buying any new books AGAIN, until I cut the list way down); with spring coming up, and the time change plus longer days, archery will again take up at least one weekday evening per week - with poker taking up alternating weeks; I’m trying to set up a spare computer to act as a download/file server to take that task off my desktop so I can use it for more worthwhile things.
The idea I’ve got is to use the technology I am familiar with to make things easier for me (file sharing and downloading), listen to podcasts and such while I do my driving around and exercising, do my gaming once a week and every other week do some archery or poker (which I try to infuse with a bit of Zen-type thinking), and spend some time every day (at least half an hour or so) reading an interesting book. In between all that, some PC or console gaming, either on my own with with some mates.
Yeah…
I know it’s hardly the life of a reclusive monk, but I don’t think the robes would suit me 
The good part is, I’ve accomplished some of the things I set out to do a year or two ago. I consistently cook for myself, I’m more conscious of what I eat, I’m eating more vegetables and fruits that I’ve either grown myself (still building up the garden) or purchased fresh. I started this year well with the exercise, but then got sidetracked by a business trip and an extended illness - this will restart as soon as I am well.
The trick, I suppose, is to continue all this and work in a new, good, habit every month or two to slowly improve what I do and get closer and closer to how I want to be.
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March 15th, 2008 Frank
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/…ica/rights.php
…as Chinese soldiers are witnessed by tourists beating Tibetan monks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi…ic/7297248.stm
From the first link, the International Herald Tribune:
Quote:
| The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders denounced the move. “This decision was announced even as it was learned that some 100 Tibetan monks have been arrested and Chinese authorities are refusing to release activist Hu Jia and dozens of other freedom of expression advocates,” the organization said in a statement. “U.S. authorities are depriving themselves of yet another effective way to pressure China, without having achieved any good-will gesture from Beijing.” |
Further reporting from the AP: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080315/…as/china_tibet
All I know is, I won’t allow the digital TV box (which tracks viewer numbers) to be on the Olympics, and I’ll be more vigilant about not buying stuff made in China. This is ridiculous.
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March 14th, 2008 Frank
The company that brought us the wonders of Agent Orange and ‘Terminator’ seeds is trying to tell Americans that recombined milk (recombined being the little ‘r’ in rBGH, or recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, injected cows). Recent scientific test results have highlighted that recombined milk isn’t as healthy for you as plain milk. Naturally, Monsanto want to protect their bottom line so anything that ‘debunks’ this research will help their cause.
There is a growing call for raw (unpasteurized) milk in the US, and while it hasn’t hit the UK as powerfully (but some farms do sell it and actively campaign for it), I’m pretty certain that growth hormones aren’t as popular in the UK as they are in the UK. I know it’s much easier to find organic milk than it was in the US when I shopped for it a few years ago.
I first heard about the Campaign for Real Milk a few months ago listening to organic foods podcasts, but it’s certainly something I want to try and maybe something to look for. It certainly must beat the heat-treated, chemical-laden milk that most people have to settle for. It’s surprising what people will put up with when they don’t know what else is out there.
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March 13th, 2008 Frank
This is supremely disturbing. Don’t know the answer? Just put ‘God did it’!
“The Oklahoma House of Representatives Education Committee has just approved House Bill 2211.
“The bill requires public schools to guarantee students the right to express their religious viewpoints in a public forum, in class, in homework and in other ways without being penalized. If a student’s religious beliefs were in conflict with scientific theory, and the student chose to express those beliefs rather than explain the theory in response to an exam question, the student’s incorrect response would be deemed satisfactory, according to this bill.
“The school would be required to reward the student with a good grade, or be considered in violation of the law. Even simple, factual information such as the age of the earth (4.65 billion years) would be subject to the student’s belief, and if the student answered 6,000 years based on his or her religious belief, the school would have to credit it as correct. Science education becomes absurd under such a situation.”
From the Edmond Sun
And here I was, thinking it was Kansas that was the epitomy of backwards-ass thinking.
Oklahoma lawmakers have been getting some bad press lately…this bit of news was quickly eclipsed by a recording of one of the state’s representatives, Sally Kern, saying that the ‘gay agenda’ is a bigger threat than Islam or terrorists. She’s refused to apologize for the comments…probably sealing her eventual fate come re-election time. In the meantime, the son of one of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing (a terrorist act by a misguided Christian white guy) wrote Senator Kern a letter that has been widely publicized and should be read by anyone who thinks that gays are a threat to anything.
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March 5th, 2008 Frank
No, I didn’t enter this, but I wish I had the time and energy to devote to something like this! Every year the National Wildlife Federation has a competition to find the best and most innovative and fun wildlife pictures in various categories, and this year is the 36th year they’ve been doing it. I love wildlife photos, if you do too check out the rest of the winners.
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March 4th, 2008 Frank
I wondered a while back about what exactly happens to the recycling that people put out on the curb, and a troubling report that has just been publicized says that much of the council recycling (that is, the stuff picked up house-to-house by the recycling trucks) is just getting put in the landfill or burned.
No indicators WHY exactly, and only half of the town and city councils contacted for the government survey responded, but surely that’s not a good thing?
Where I live, the city council gave every household a new green bin (for plastics & glass) and a brown bin (for compostibles) in addition to the black bin (for regular garbage). At the same time, they reduced the collection times from every week to every two weeks, I’m assuming to force people to use the recycling and composting bins. Of course people grumbled about this, and in some places you have to separate the recycling before putting it in the bin. There’s also talk about the bins being inspected to make sure that the right stuff goes into the right bins. So there’s more talk about how the government is trying to control everything. Since it’s for the eco cause though, I don’t mind this so much.
But imagine what the grumblers and complainers will say when they hear that what they dutifully recycle may not even be going to a recycling facility?!
What a shame. There’s a way to lose public confidence, eh?
The Telegraph article.
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