My Environmental Rant

Recently the environment has been getting a lot of press. Cyclones are becoming ever more frequent, dispersing more and more heat to earth's poles and the bottom of the oceans. Drinking water is losing the battle against bottled water as more and more fresh water is contaminated by local sewage and pollutants.

In Wuxi city, Jiangsu province, China residents are being forced to hoard bottled water, because the lake that normally supplies their tape water is contaminated. Residents say that the water is too dirty to bath in and emits an overpowering stench.
The water has been polluted for years, as factories move in to the area, but it is due to the recent lack of rainfall that has caused the water level to decrease, allowing for dangerous algee to grow at a hazardous pace.
Scientists say that the "draught" will last for at least 4 more months. With the ever increasing prices of water, due to a high demand and low supply, this could cause major problems for the city, and China.

Short of moving the local chemical industry out, and doing a rain dance there isn't much that can be done for that area at the present time. However, scientist are making improvements elsewhere to reduce the amount of pollutants and hopefully save the environment.

Engineer Guy Nègre has recently developed a car that will run entirely on compressed air. The car will not use gasoline, thus will use less fossil fuels than any other car on the market, and will not have a battery, which will, later, not be put in a landfill.
Sound like a win win situation right! Not quite. It is highly doubted that the car will pass US safety tests, and thus may never make it into the largest auto market in the world. However, it will be sold in India, Germany and South Africa. A decent start.
The car is built for city driving, maxing out at 68 mph. So, it probably won't make it out on those European highways, but when do you need to go over 68 mph in a city?
For all of you who want to get the most out of your buck this car may be your ticket. It costs only $2.00 to fill up, that's the whole tank not just a gallon with costs over $3. Those $2.00 will take you 125 miles. Not bad.

For those of us who may not have access to the AirCar here is a list of the top 30 environmentally friendly cars on the market.
Acura RSX
Chevrolet Aveo
Chevrolet Cobalt
Ford Escape Hybrid
Ford Focus
Ford Focus Wagon
Honda Accord
Honda Accord Hybrid
Honda Civic
Honda Civic Hybrid
Honda Insight
Hyundai Accent
Hyundai Elantra
Kia Rio
Kia Spectra
Lexus RX400h
Mazda Mazda3
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Nissan Sentra
Saturn Ion
Scion xA
Suzuki Reno
Toyota Camry
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Toyota Prius
Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen New Beetle

If you think all hybrid cars are boxy and/or slow check out the Mazda MX-5 Miata. It's a sporty hybrid that is cute and will take you anywhere you want at top speed (if you can't tell it's my favorite).

Well that's enough of me talking up a cause.

"Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places."
Henry Beston

A note to Mothers

So I may not be a mother. I definatly didn't go through that whole initiation period where you carry around a baby for 9 months and then push it out a very...very small hole, and therefore i would not call myself an expert. However, as a daughter, and a bystandard let me give you a piece of advise. Even if you have already convinced the father of not doing the thing that will make your child the most depressed being on the planet do not tell the child about the issue. I mean if it's all settled is there a reason to say "I didn't want to show up and hand you a dead cat." No there is NEVER a reason to say this. Especially if that cat has been with the child since it was a kitten. My mother did this to me today. I was shocked, mortified and disgusted.

That is my advice to all mothers.

oh yeah, and don't go into Borders and ask "If I become a member can I borrow books like at a library?"

Eat Shit and Die!!

A certain someone told me to eat shit and die today and it got me thinking... where on earth did that phrase come from. I imagine that eating shit is a pretty horrific experience. It is certainly something that I would never want to experience. As Greg mentioned earlier, it was probubly a form of mideval torture. Something that I would not be surprised about, but also one of the many accumilating reasons why I am thankful that I was not born into that time period. I may have grown up wishing I was a princess (with special powers) in a castle, but even as a princess I believe that the living conditions would be far below sub-par for my standards. People actually through their feces out into the streets where pedestrians were walking. Perhaps that is where the phrase eat shit came from.

However, this still does not explain where the "and die" part comes from. The only thing worse than eating shit is to die. Although if I had to actually chose between eating shit and dying I would probubly chose to die. So who put these two horrid acts together into one phrase? These curses alone are a face worse than death, and death so why combine them. I think that their combination is overkill. Whomever put these curses together was just showing off how harshly they could curse an individual. EAT SHIT AND DIE!

Now that I am examining this curse... why this has held my attention to this great an extent is beyond me... it doesn't really make sense. As I was saying before, the curse "eat shit" is a fate that I would consider worse than death, therefor if you followed a curse that is worse than death with death are you not alleviating the subject of your curse's pain? Is this not a contradiction? Wouldn't you want them to suffer continuosly, not briefly. I think the far worse curse is "live and eat shit," but that's just my oppinion. Maybe others would disagree.

The Excitement of a Twang

So I graduated yesterday! Yay for Me! The best part of graduating (besides never having to read about dead people unless I really want to) are the gifts. Cause as a college grad you need everything you can get. Well my bestfriend realized that now I would have a lot more free time so she got me a present to occupy my time. She bought me a brand new MOUTH HARP! That's right folks the harp that makes music by vibrating against your two front teeth. Well I was trying to make some sort of sound all yesterday and found it to be a very difficult task. Today I found my inspiration. I gave it one more try and TWANG a note echoed across the room (maybe anot an echo but a wisper, but there was still a note). I was so excited I stood up and immediatly lost my rythme (if you can call it that). I don't know what note it was, but it was my victory so I knew I had to immediatly share it with the world! I am a NOTE MAKER!

Watch the cake

Like every star wars fanatic, as a child (and still today) I dreamt of living on anouther planet. Today, thanks to some european scientist I am one step closer to achieving my dream. Ok so I know that in my lifetime I will never get the chance to actually step foot onto anouther plant, but I'm still totally stocked that they have discuvered an "earth-like" planet. 581 c is about the same size as Earth, orbiting a red dwarf star, and has the potential to not only have water, but a life-substaining atmosphere with temperatures between 30 and 104 degrees.

And so I leave you with this awesome news and my favorite part of the article that provided me with this info... "You could have a birthday party every 13 days because that's how fast this new planet circles its sun-like star. But watch the cake -- you'd weigh a whole lot more than you do on Earth."

Gemini

A disagreement doesn't have to become an argument. When you see things differently from someone else, you can even have a fun time debating your opinions and ideas. Very few things in life are strictly black or white -- and exploring the shades of gray can be very educational. Be open to hearing other people's viewpoints. If someone says something that annoys you today, don't just ignore it. Ask for an explanation.

Ok, I am not the horoscope type of person. I think the last time I read one of these was... well let’s just say a few years back. That's one of the reasons why I was so struck by my horoscope today. I mean this horoscope, which I admit is more obvious advice than horoscope, is the best advice anyone could EVER give me. If you don't believe me just ask my boyfriend.

Recently I have been trying to learn this lesson, I haven't really made any progress but I have been trying, and after all it is the thought that counts. Any who... Life isn't just black and white... the recent return of my love of Frisbee is an example of this. I used to LOVE playing Frisbee. It was my happy time; a place where I could vent out all of my frustrations, but I lost that for a while. Frisbee actually became a place that caused me more stress than school and family combined... I didn't think that was possible. Recently my boss invited me out to play with a new team. It was amazing! It was like freshmen year all over again. After the game not only did I have a tan, but I was de-stressed.

So what does this have to do with my horoscope... well... I guess I'm just saying that just because something doesn't go the way you want, you shouldn't give up on it. Time and patience can bring it around.

6-foot-tall blue cat with gold whiskers

I feel bad for the guy, I really do but this is just hillarious. A Man suffered injuries from being tackled by a 6-foot-tall blue cat with gold whiskers (aka the mascot for the Indiana Pacers). On one hand I have to laugh at the guy for having the funniest attacker EVER, but on the other hand I have to respect the guy cause he has the balls to admit to being hurt by a Fuzzy Wuzzy.