dumb dumb spelling mistake

I just want to say that I have a terrible spelling mistake in the title of this page:

http://envirostuff.blogspot.com/2007/10/greenpease-videokids-rise-up.html

yet I still get a couple hits a month to it. It must be the glorious content.

Please vote...please...

The Family Guy character named Brian says "Undecided voters are the biggest idiots on the planet". I would agree except I know some really nice and smart people who are either undecided or simply think voting doesn't matter. So I won't belittle them. Here is what I say to them.

Have you ever smoked pot? Any of your friends or family ever do it? Well, one party will put them in jail and the other parties won't. If you can't find any reason to vote on your own, didn't I just give you one.

Normally single issue voting is frowned upon but if it gets some lingering doubter to the polls, then use it. It really comes to this: if people are too ignorant to see the differences in the parties for themselves you are just going to have to spell it out for them. Nail the hot button issues that are important to them. For example:

• pot
• abortion
• porn
• the environment
• unemployment benefits
• tax cuts for the rich

So, if you have a friend who doesn't see the point in voting, find a subject important to them, research the party positions on the subject, then spell it out for them. Offer them a ride to the polls while you're at it.

Good luck.

Greenpease video...Kids rise up

I like this video but I'm not sure I'm ready for the main streaming of Earth First style militancy. I also don't believe kids care about anything beyond their petty inflated egos. And finally, I have a conflicting feeling of "it's about f***ing time" this battle to protect the environment got kicked up a notch.

As an aside,
I hate hate hate hate the treatment of SUV torchers are terrorism. Torching an SUV is sabotage by definition. Compare it to the definition of terrorism and you'll see there is a big difference between torching vehicles and torching people.

China closes polluting factories

This is not uncommon, China closing factories for pollution violations. I haven't been keeping up lately with Chinese news but it is a regular occurance from what I remember of the business magazines I used to read daily.

Calculate your CO2 output

This carbon calculator ... well, does what it is titled. I like that it is based in the UK as I wouldn't trust a present North America government to produce anything truthful or accurate with regards to global warming.

Don't privatize water.

Privatizing water is just a stupid idea. Unless you are one of the rich who will benefit and you care not for your fellow man.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/

And there are 1000s of other articles about the subject if you Google it.

My point is this. Companies exist for the sole purpose of generating profit. It is their primary concern. Their concern is not what is best for people unless that directly translates into profit. So how can such a universally required resource be trusted to corporations? It is also noteworthy that these are usually monopolies in a particular area. So the question becomes "how can such a universally required resource be trusted to a single corporation whose primary concern is NOT the well-being of the citizentry?"

This usually works by one company being granted full rights to collect and deliver all the water requirements in a given region. Of course to maxmize profit the company will do it as cheaply as possible for the highest possible cost to the consumer. It is bound to lead to poor quality water and skyrocketing costs. What brand of kool-aid is a a public drinking when they allow their government to sell them out this way? What lies are they buying into?

How many times have you heard the worst of capitalists repeat the bullshit that if a company does wrong that it will suffer in the marketplace, therefore companies always do right? What a load of crap. How many companies did business with the Nazis that are still thriving today? Wal-mart once calculated that injury law suits were cheaper to settle than the cost of in-store safety standards. Ford once calculated that fixing tires on their SUVs would cost more than the lives of drivers. Time and time again there are examples of companies calculating for profit over the well being of their customers.

And our water is just too damn important to trust them with it.

I'm back

I'll try to be back continuously but that seems never to happen. I've been really busy with my other site http://upwithabang.com/

If you have a web site and could use help in developing it, that site has lots of how-to docs about things like style sheet div tags and html etc. It also offers free things you can put on your web site that my site will host, like calendars, directory listing, mail forms...things many sites can use. So check it out.

But anyways that should slow down now since the bulk of the work is done so I can get back into some daily environmental musings. And I've collected many articles worth commenting on since I was last here.

Bathroom taps

This article probably applies to kitchens too.

Notice how modern taps are lever style? Old style are the kind you turn. I call them "dials" but I don't know if that is the correct industry term.

Years ago I worked in an office tower that renovated. One of the changes were the dial taps were replaced with lever taps. Thereafter men hit those levers upwards and washed their hands with full blasts of water. With dial taps this never happened. Usually guys would stop at about a quarter turn and adjust the water flow to a comfortable rate.

Here is my technical analysis. A lever needs only move in one direction (up) in order to range the full force of water. And they are very easy to push upwards to 100% water flow. A dial tap needs turning. For example, one full turn might equal 100% water flow. Very rarely would anybody take the effort to turn a dial to full flow. It just doesn't happen because it is unnecessary and requires a little extra effort. I guess maybe dials are turn from 1/4-1/2 flow.

I wonder how much water is wasted on those stupid f****** lever taps. I'm raging again because it is yet another example of making the world worse off than better.

On the other hand, maybe the new faucets had better aerators.

If anyone knows of any water usage comparitive studies on this, please let me know. It'd be interested to see if water use goes up after a renovation in an office tower.

Diaper free babies

As far as I can tell diapers are used minimally here in China. Often to great comic affect. Around a year old (or even much younger) babies where Kai-deng-ku pants...which literally means "open crotched pants". There are no underwear or diapers underneath them so the little ones are just taught to squat to do there business where they are. Eventually they are led to do it in appropriate places.

I remember my first while in China I couldn't understand why I was seeing so many naked baby bums out in public. It was due to the pants. And the little kids know to run to a man hole cover or drainage grate to do their business there. Also in trees or bushes (even once in an atrium hahahahha.)

Some parents never use diapers and just develop a sixth sense for reading their kid's face behaviour when they need to eliminate. And actually when you see the little squinched up faces it isn't hard to guess. For peeing a cloth wrapped through their legs is sufficient protection since they don't really signal too strongly when they are doing that. And a cloth is very easy to rinse out and hang up to dry.

Now North American parents are trying these techniques. It is great for the environment. Oddly enough many other parents are throwing hissy-fits against the technique (rolling my eyes).

So it is good for the environment and here is a supporting website:

http://diaperfreebaby.org/

China pollution article

In case you missed it this is painfully sobering. The picture alone should make you cringe. Can you imagine living like that?