Lead in Flint and other concerns...

I want to start off by saying this lead in Flint's water is horrible.  And apparently it is also an issue elsewhere in the US as well.   But the environmental fallout from it is also horrible.

If every household is using four cases of water a week (which I'm sure is a low estimate), mostly for cooking, but also drinking.  And what about cleaning? they have to bathe, they have to do laundry, they have to clean the floors and the dishes...

So they go to paper dishes.

And all the plastic bottles, and the wrappers for those.

And the plastic cups.

Or the TV dinners.

And this water is sourced from places like California, Maine, etc, so that is going to have an impact.

I keep feeling like I am going to wake up one day and see...

We lived in Paradise once.

We had hot and cold potable water from the faucet.

We could plant things outside.

Animals used to live in our oceans, on our prairies, in our streams..

We have residual lead in our paint, outside our homes, by the highways.

We have lead in our makeup.

Roundup is everywhere.

And it just keeps feeling like the corporations are winning.  That they are profiting from all these disasters.  That we are driving ourselves ever closer to the graveyard.  

Buried in piles of plastic.   Poisoned by lead.  

Science vs Nature... the dilemma that shouldn't be.

Here's the thing.  We are facing an apparent dichotomy these days between "SCIENCE" and "NATURE".  Let me explain.  I was on Twitter the other day, and someone tweeted about some truly horrific "naturopathy" practices.   I responded that it was horrible, but that this was the reason we needed laws and such about it.   Right now, "naturopaths" can claim anything.   There are no laws governing natural health, natural health practices, etc.    And some of the information being generated is genuinely anti-science, anti-health.   (Such as the idea that ALL VACCINES ARE EVIL).   Vaccines are wonderful.  And herbs, judiciously and carefully used, can be very beneficial.   Chamomile tea at night, or catnip tea for cramps.    My cousin's wife, who is a nurse practicioner, benefited from using fennel when she was breastfeeding.  Herbs and natural remedies can be gentler on a person than a scientific formula.  I know the only thing that ever got rid of my athlete's foot was tea tree oil.  

That being said, yes, there are some things that antibiotics truly help with.   But, unfortunately, due to overuse of said antibiotics, we are about to plunge into a post-antibiotic era.   EXCEPT.  Hey, there was an article a few months ago where they replicated a medieval formula which seems to kill off some of these antibiotic resistant things.  There is value in going back and looking at these older formulations, at some of the herbal preparations.  Many modern treatments do stem from herbal treatments which were refined and purified.    Digitalis, for one, is originally from a plant.

I live a balance, or try to.  I have endometriosis, for which the only effective "treatment" is surgery.   So I have gone to diet to try to manage it.   I use some herbs, cramp bark, for one, which are pretty efficacious for pain, and I don't run some of the risk that I do with taking too much Advil, for example.

But it isn't just herbs where we've gotten to this extreme of "MUST HAVE SCIENCE/MUST HAVE ALL NATURAL".  Its food too.   There's distrust of GMOs, which I understand.  It isn't the same as crossbreeding...crossbreeding has been done for millennia.   GMOs are spliced and manufactured to withstand poisons like Roundup.  Or are designed to carry poison within the seed.   But the problem lies that apparently there have not been long-term studies of many of these things.  The automatic assumption is that if it is "science" it must be safe.   But the opposite also applies...arsenic and lead are natural.   As I keep saying, balance.  

I just feel as if we have thrown ourselves into a very bad situation with the insistence on one side being better than the other.  The best is a balance.   We have toxins in plastics, products of science which are not going away anytime soon...   but there don't seem to be the eco-friendly products we need to go forward.   We need a balance.  We need doctors who are informed about science, but also herbs.  Not just the latest anti-depressant, but maybe awareness of sensitivity to food dyes.  

We need balance, balance, balance.  We need MRIs and chamomile tea.  Surgery and organic carrots...  we need to look to the past and to the future.

On White Fragility and Race in CT. And thoughts on possible solutions..

So I posted this article:http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-social-media-post-1220-20151219-story.html on FB.   And I suspect this fragile, pale, white woman goes to the church I used to go to.   Having gone to a mostly white church, and worked at the library in the same town... even though the town is actually more diverse than it appears, there is a real racial problem.   And it is continually perpetuated through the church, through the fact that the majority (if not all) of the town council are white.   The majority of the police force and fire department, from their pics on FB, all seem to be predominantly white...

Kids are bussed in from Hartford, but I would be genuinely worried about raising a brown child here.  

They get it from an early age.  They get it from being in an all-white church, which "sponsors" a brown girl from Haiti.   They get it from school, from the sanctification of MLK, and "the civil rights era which is over and done with".   They get it from reading books with white heroes/heroines, and movies with the same.

And I start to think, maybe it needs to change with the churches.   Maybe we stop letting churches be exempt from anti-discrimination.   Maybe we have to come in and stop letting churches preach "the other" and hate, and look through their CCD materials for racism and sexism.  

Maybe we need to integrate the churches.

Not just the schools.

But the lives.  

Because otherwise, the first real contact a "privileged" child has with someone of another color is in college.  And that does not always happen well.   And so there end up being bubbles in college, and no learning or exchange, or equality.  

I think we need to start with the churches now.  And if a church does not want diversity, it loses its tax free status and becomes a "hate group".  

Because I have heard hate coming from the mouths of churchgoers, and I stopped going.  If there is hate in a place that is supposed to be about love...  then how...  

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

This is for all the people who are solo at Christmas.  You don't have to be Scrooge, sitting looking mournful all alone.  I have never had much luck with Christmas open houses, as most folks I know have families they are spending Christmas with.   So I do my own thing.  I do buy a tree and a few decorations, and put out a crèche.  I make eggnog.  I try to go to at least one carol sing or seasonal show.  I bake.  Panforte, mince tarts, I'm planning on trying my hand at a gingerbread house this year.  

I plan a nice meal, and try to Skype with family.  I have a silly Facebook tradition of singing the twelve days of Christmas, starting on Christmas Day and ending on Epiphany.  Some of my friends join in, some don't.  Some get silly with it.  

You could get a live tree every year and plant it after the holidays, you could have a book you reread every year, my point is that you don't have to give up on the holidays or not have your own traditions just because you are single.   There are, of course, a lot of volunteer opportunities this time of year, but I prefer to volunteer at times when there is need but not quite so many people queuing up to feed the homeless.   

Use the good china, buy yourself a pretty plate setting if you don't have china, build a fire, have a spa day, watch silly movies.... But be good to yourself.   

What we need to do to fight climate change.

It is a big job, and the "Science is the future" motto of the 1950s played a huge part in creating the issue.  Places like Egypt need to start looking at solar, at using garbage to fuel electricity generation (in fact, more countries need to do that).  I've seen how much trash my neighbors throw out.   If you just used the trash output of Farmington....  you could probably have something that paid for itself.  

Solar in more places.  

Smaller farms, fewer manmade chemicals.  Bring back animal husbandry in the smaller farms for a richer ecosystem, because the poop, etc feeds the soil, most animals (particularly pigs) can take the leftovers/scraps/etc.    Its a circle.   And we are actually suffering from the lack of the circle because our gut bacteria are not as plentiful as they were.

A lot of the fertilizers out there that are used commercially are made from oil.  

Other things sourced from oil?  Mineral oil, vaseline, plastic.  Our roads.  Anything tarmac.   Plastic plastic plastic. styrofoam.

We have way too much plastic.

We need to go back to cardboard, paper, ceramic, glass.  Cloth bags.   Even the paper ice cream cartons are actually lined with a layer of plastic.   (it used to be wax, once upon a time).  Trying to figure out how to cut plastic is hard.    Even my fridge does have plastic in it, does have ziplocks.  

Everything is plasticized.

We need to stop covering new appliances with plastic that peels off and goes in the trash.  Everything I buy seems to come plasticized.  

And plastic is really only recyclable once.   So you can buy things made from recycled plastic, which is all well and good, but..   they still end up in the landfill, in the oceans.

I keep wondering if there is a way to use old plastic bags as pavement material.   There have got to be more solutions.  

We need to stop lighting up empty parking lots, roadways, etc.  Bring back dark skies.    We really don't need the Trader Joe's sign on when the store is closed.   Or all the lights on in empty hallways.  We have motion sensors, we have options, sensors in the roads, or cellphone signals or, or, or.    How many office skyscrapers are completely lit up when no-one is home?

We need to start building for walking.   And we need to figure out greener transportation.  Bike lanes.  Minibuses for off-peak hours.  I keep seeing buses with one person in them.  

We need to think outside the box, people.

I had a conversation with my mother the other day.  The traffic is so bad in Cairo that the guy who helps my dad has real trouble getting there on time.   I suggested maybe talking with some of the other residents of the building and seeing if they can organize some kind of community pickup/carpool of their servants.  And my mom was amazed, because that thought had never crossed her mind, or seeing if there was a community solution.    I doubt it will happen, but again, we need to think outside the box.

Steps that need to happen to save the environment and the planet.

1) We need a substitute for asphalt.    Seriously.   When you think of how much more asphalt we have in this country, and how much would be needed to repair all the potholes and everything?  Apparently old asphalt is used as fill and such, so it is reused to a certain degree...

2) We need real-world options for things like furnaces, to be environmentally friendly.   And plumbing systems should be revamped to allow for reuse of grey water to flush toilets/water gardens/etc.  Recycling of electronics, older and newer.   Stop building in planned aging for appliances, computers, tvs, etc.

3) No more plastic.   Just stop packaging cheap plastic in cheap plastic.   Start making glass refrigerator dishes again.

4) No cheap meat.  CAFOs are destroying the planet.   Cheap meat is not cheap in the long run.

5) Stop letting the corporations run everything.  As long as PROFIT is uppermost, the planet is doomed.

6) Even going "vegan" if all you eat are packaged foods...the rainforest is being cut down for your soybeans..sorry.

7) 'green' lawn alternatives.   Electric mowers, thyme lawns, look into your options.

I have to replace my furnace within the next year or so....

I also need to upgrade my computer, DVD player, and TV within the next year too.

And I get so tired of buying things that break instantly.   We have created such a throwaway society....

*sigh*

And that needs to change.

We need better public transportation.  We need better ways for people to walk.  We need ways for people to bike.  Technically I could bike to the Library and Post office and grocery store IF there were bike lanes/bike paths.  

Just in time for Thanksgiving, How to clean your Dyson Animal 41

I originally planned this post back in the summer, but then Life ran away from me, and I got slightly depressed.   So, last year I decided to clean my Dyson, I looked online, and found bits and pieces that kind of applied, but a lot of them seemed to be running water where it shouldn't go.   So I cleaned mine, and I could not believe the difference in suction, etc.    So now it is going to be a roughly once-a-year thing.  You will need some nice dishwashing soap/gentle detergent, a sponge,  a rag, maybe a long flexible brush/paintbrush, and patience.   It will take a couple of days for the filters to dry, so give yourself that time.  

Now, pictures, that should be self-explanatory.  A few tips.  Most of it comes apart pretty easily.   Do NOT run water through the brush attachment, that is what the rag/paintbrush is for!    But if you get the bottom off, you can get the hair out (Sometimes I am amazed at how much hair I shed).   You can wash the filters with a gentle detergent.  And I used it on the canister as well.  You can run water through the purple insert, and I tend to take the pole attachment off and wash that.   Unfortunately, the bottom hose does not come off, that I was able to figure out.   And you should be able to figure out from the pics how to take the brush section off.  Next time, maybe, I will have someone video me. :)   Please leave any comments or questions....