JP told me about Friday cat blogging. I think it is a great invention.
Senator Jesse Helms (Repub, N.C.) died yesterday morning at the ripe old age of 86 years old. Jesse was known as one of the most powerful people in Washington. He was a senator for North Carolina. Yesterday was July 4, the "birthday of America". The ole conservative timed his death well. Jesse had retired a few years ago and paved the way for fellow conservative Republican Elizabeth Dole (yuck, the sound of her voice makes my skin crawl). He was suffering from dementia when he retired. Alot of people will mourn Jesse Helms' passing from this earth. I will not. This year of his death, I hope the passing of an era of conservativism will pass as well. With this era will pass racism, bigotry, sexism, and a greed that has sucked this country dry and left it flopping on the desert floor. Some of Jesse's claims to fame: Quotes from Jesse: "No intelligent Negro citizen should be insulted by a reference to this very plain fact of life. It is time to face honestly and sincerely the purely scientific statistical evidence of natural racial distinction in group intellect." "There is no bigotry either implicit or intended in such a realistic confrontation with the facts of life. "Those who would undertake to solve the problem by merely spending more money, and by massive forced integration, may be doing the greatest injustice of all to the Negro." "I've never heard once in this chamber anybody say to the homosexuals, 'stop what you're doing.' If they would stop what they're doing there would not be one additional case of AIDS in the United State." Some of these are actually funny in a stoopid kind of way: "The New York Times and The Washington Post are both infested with homosexuals themselves." "If God had wanted us to use the metric system, Jesus would have had 10 apostles." The only thing I admire about him is that he said what he thought and stuck to his guns (aka did not back down). That being said, well, he was a real jackass, and mayhaps, evil. Racism: prejudice with the power to enforce it. Jesse definitely had the power. Maybe Barack Obama getting as far as he has, was too much for the ole arse. Adios, Jesse.
JP told me about Friday cat blogging. I think it is a great invention.
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/bush_tours_america_to_survey?utm_source=onion_rss_daily
Thanks to Maura for word up.
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Once a month I will report on a tree species and its status, as well as the harvesting of it, and expose a company that is exploiting and decimating it. From Rainforest Relief: The majority of mahogany on the market today is taken illegally from rainforests in Brazil and Bolivia. Outlaw timber companies invade indigenous reserves, park and nature preserves destroying not only the fragile forests, but the homelands of indigenous tribal peoples. Tree poachers punch new roads into pristine forests, cut valuable trees, transport the wood to middlemen and exporters who in turn sell it to importers in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The U.S. is the world’s leading importer of mahogany. At least eight indigenous Amazonian tribes have had members murdered at the hands of mahogany loggers, prompting the campaign cry, “Mahogany is Murder”. Smaller volumes of mahogany are imported from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala and a few other Central and South American rainforest countries. The Brazilian intelligence agency has reported that 80% of logging in Brazil is illegal. Eduardo Martins, the head of the Brazilian environment agency (IBAMA), has been quoted on at least two occasions stating that the 80% figure is correct and that the agency would need four times its current budget to properly enforce illegal logging. Two agencies in Brazil have declared South American mahogany within Brazil (the largest part of its range) to be endangered. Caribbean (true) mahogany is commercially extinct from its native areas in the West Indies, driven to near extinction by overlogging to feed the British demand for mahogany in fine furniture. When we buy mahogany doors, paneling or furniture, we participate in driving forests, endangered species and human cultures into extinction. Overhead Door Company sells mahogany doors.
I am only just now writing about this because when I first heard of it, I was too sad to do so. Now I am ready.
On June 10, 2008, a large dolphin kill occurred off the coast near Cornwall, UK. The area is known as the Fal Estuary.
When they became stranded in the river, the tide went out. They were obviously confused and disoriented. A marine biologist stated they were young and healthy and well-fed. Some speculated they went there to feed and another that maybe an Orca was after them. But closeby another dolphin kill occured, 15 kilometres away. Then ten kilometres away another school was spotted unusually close to the shore.
26 dolphins died that day. Only seven were rescued.
When questioned about sonar testing in the area at that time, the Royal Navy denied any testing had occurred. On June 16, it came out that they had indeed been testing sonar then, in fact had emitted it from a Merlin helicopter. The technology is called the "dipper", and it hunts submarines by blasting (dipping) it into the water.
Sonar has been proven to damage the hearing in cetaceans, to the point of even causing permanent hearing loss. Cetaceans use their own internal sonar to navigate and communicate.
Just dedicate your sorrow
Here and now
To the soul of the sea.
(Heart)
]]>I was watching CNN this morning, and besides the usual death, destruction and disease they feed us there was something actually interesting and funny. (Fox news is way worse about, Be afraid!, though, and I do think Fox makes some things up. "Dude..." toke "..let's say the Spanish have a huge f*ckkin bomb they hid in Dali's house..."; "Dude, who's Dali?")
Newsflash: Watermelon is maybe nature's Viagra. What? Yep. Forget oysters. Apparently watermelon is chok-a-block full of the enzyme citrulline, which relaxes and dilates blood vessels, which makes your thingamabob get hard. Fourth of July picnic and your sister's annoying kids are being their usual spoiled bratty selves, mosquitoes are biting your ankles, your sister's husband is playing your least favourite and his most favourite band on the stereo, Rush, very loud (and singing to it) and presto, whammo, you're hornier than Ron Jeremy. "Honey, could you help me in the kitchen?"
Citrilline is converted by the body into arginine. Arginine makes nitric acid. Nitric acid dilates blood vessels. Thingamabobs thus stand up on end. (Many cases with thingamabobs not working are due to this not working right for whatever reason.)
Watermelon balls, anyone?
Yesterday was apparently Canada Day and you were supposed to post your fav Canadian. I choose to post a group that if you are too young to know (and technically I am, but hey, call me a 70s music girl), you should check out. They are masters of Southern Rock. They sound Southern even though they are Canadian. Not an easy feat if you are aware of the Southern accent and the Canadian way of speaking.
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Milk now costs more than petrol (aka gasoline). This is normally the case most of the time, in the US of A. However, with gas now at about $4 per gallon, that makes milk more than $4 per gallon, which is expensive, which is why it is in the news.
A combination of events caused this rise. The obvious is higher transport cost due to higher fuel prices. Milk is transported by diesel trucks, and diesel costs more than gasoline in the US. Another event is flooding. Add droughts to that too. Cows eat stuff that grows in the ground. When the crops they eat are disrupted, the cost of feeding the cow goes up. In case you are not aware (and if you are not, God help you), most milk comes from cows. (That, the most common kind, is the milk that is being discussed here.)
Costco, a US company that sells items (anything from Ralph Lauren jeans to vitamins to tomatoes) in "bulk", or larger amounts (like you have to buy twelve rolls of paper towels instead of one) to the regular person (anyone who buys a membership), has announced it will do its part to lower milk prices by its innovative new square plastic milk jug*. They say this will help with prices, because this enables them to tranport more gallons of milk on the trucks than would normally be the case. (Om...wouldn't weight be more of an issue, since the heavier the load, the more fuel the truck uses? So, if you could stack more jugs in a truck, wouldn't it cost more to move it?)
Costco apparently has the most intelligent rocket scientist geeks on the planet back there in the think-tank working on ideas for them (they snitched them from NASA with lures of chocolate chip muffins in dozen-count boxes and six-packs of Oil of Olay daily cleansing face wash with AHAs).
Newsflash** to Costco:
* Plastic is made from fossil fuel. If you want to use less fossil fuel, do not use plastic.
** Square things to put milk in were invented in 1932.
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Climate report:
Droughts in the southeast and the west, recrod rainfall in the middle of the country. same as last year and the year before. Result: massive flooding in the middle of the country. Widespread wildfires in the west. There have also been wildfires in the east. Lightning seems to be the main culprit.
Math lesson for Monday:
loads and loads of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere = global warming faster than would normally happen
runaway global warming = more severe storms, droughts, and / or flooding or more flooding than normal (aka climate gone bonkers, and those are just a few of the issues)
more severe storms = more lightning strikes
drought = dry forests
lightning strikes + dry forests = wildfires
massive flooding = dead crops, dead animals and dead people
CO2 + CH4 = R
R = a, b, c
a = x
b = y
c = we're f*cked
x + y = oh sh*t
R = Right. Not actually funny. It sucks. R is for reality check.
(last night we had storms in the southeast and the lightning was phenomenal. This after no rain for nearly all of June.I miss gentle rains; where did they go?)
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Home Depot, that great monument to environmental conservation, has announced that you can bring in your expired flourescent light bulbs to their stores for recycling.
They also state they will have flourescent bulbs in all their showrooms by this fall. (I am so not impressed. What if their stores were all run off solar power, and built with recycled marterials instead? And get rid of those frakking plastic bags.)
Other Home Depot green claims to fame:
Meanwhile, former employees Anthony Tevisch and James Robinson of Atlanta have been charged with conspiracy, accepting bribes, illegal wire transfers and tax evasion for selling Home Depot products to foreign customers whilst taking kickbacks including mucho cashola and a "luxury SUV" (apparently Jimmy didn't get the memo on Home Depot's new greener image). The two men worked out of the Atlanta store. Anthony was a store manager and James ran the flooring dept (how ya doin'? Tony da Tool and Hardwood Jimmy).
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