SKUNK?

You don't have to smell to save the planet

By Nick St Clair for tree.com

http://www.tree.com/health/blog-blog/archive-2011-04-05-shower-less-and-save-the-planet.aspx 

     Wake up, kill the alarm, slide out of bed and hit the shower. For millions of people across the country showering is a daily ritual that is almost as important to our early morning preparations as getting dressed itself.

     But is it really necessary? After all, do we really get that dirty when all we've done is sleep for 8 hours tucked up in a presumably clean bed? The truth is for most people it’s more of a ritual than a cleansing exercise, but as a direct result every day millions of gallons of fresh, clean water is flushed away. Water that billions of people across the world would happily drink. Or rather they would, if it wasn’t for the staggering amount of chemical pollutants that we unleash on ourselves every time we shower and bathe. Wash hair, condition hair, lather up with shower gel, then wash it all off using even greater quantities of water.

     To add to this chemical arsenal, we then spray on deodorants, perfumes and aftershaves before walking out onto the street surrounded by our own personal cosmetic cloud. It will come as no surprise to learn that the international market for soaps and toiletries is worth billions of dollars every year. The industry spends a small fortune fueling our belief that if we don’t invest huge amounts of our hard earned money on its products - we are ugly and we smell...

To read the rest of this article please go to:

http://www.tree.com/health/blog-blog/archive-2011-04-05-shower-less-and-save-the-planet.aspx

Hey! why can't I read the full text here?

Duplication of a site’s content has a negative effect on its popularity with Search Engines. So in the drive to provide my clients with unique, original (and entertaining) content, even though I wrote this I don't even reproduce it fully myself.

"GRRRR"

      Just waved goodbye to kids as they climbed onto the school bus and was heading up the path, when I saw a cat cross the road into the undergrowth and head up the hill toward my cabina.

      This wasn't your average moggy. It was brown and about two metres long from nose to end of tail, unmistakably a Mountain Lion or Puma*. I wasn't the only one who saw it, one of the local taxi drivers had stopped in the middle of the road and was pointing it out to his two passengers who both wearing a look which I can only describe as being a mixture of shock and awe. The taxi driver talked as if he saw them every day, while one of the passengers was cursing the fact that her camera was in the boot of the taxi (not that she would have had time to get a shot as the Puma shot across the road at speed.

      I fully admit to walking the rest of the way back home with a degree of trepidation, not that a Puma would be interested in chewing on human flesh, it's more likely that it was after my neighbour's chickens - especially as one of the chickens has just delivered a clutch of cute, yellow, fluffy chicks - crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch...

*There six species of big cats in Costa Rica: Jaguar, Puma, Ocelot (Manigordo), Margay Cat (Caucel), Jaguarundi (León Breñero) and the Tigrillo (Oncilla). For more information - http://www.nicoyapeninsula.com/wildlife/wildcats.php

REVENGE

"Don't seek revenge, let kaama have the bastards."

     
      This is a quote from Ajahn Brahm, a buddhist monk for the 21st Century

      Originally from the UK, he spent over 20 years training in Thailand and is now abbott of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia. Every Friday he gives a talk in Perth and it is downloaded onto Youtube and watched by thousands of people. Truly insightful, inspirational and an amazing example of an enlightened being, he is also very, very, very  funny.

      So sit back and relax (you don't need to be cross-legged), light some incense or natural oils to create a little ambience and enjoy...

      This is one of my favourites, a talk on tolerance. (check out the joke at 25mins 50 secs,  "A Jewish Rabbi, Catholic priest, Anglican vicar and a Buddhist monk discuss their personal problems...")

 for a full list of all the talks go to: 

http://www.youtube.com/user/BuddhistSocietyWA

INEBRIATED LEPIDOPTERA

A Morphos Butterfly (sober)

Most people compost in Monteverde, either by digging a pit or simply throwing waste vegetables and fruit into the forest. It's a mecca for assorted Agouti, Pisotes, Raccoons and Butterflies, especially the beautiful blue Morpho butterfly. I have to keep reminding myself to look before I throw the waste into my compost pit as when Morphos are feeding they put their wings up covering up their vivid blue wings and are much harder to see. Sometimes you can lob a whole bowl of waste into the pit and they don't stir.

The reason for is that if the fruit is rotten enough it becomes alcoholic. So when the Morpho sips this it can get a bit inebriated and just sit there on top of bit a rotting mango or papaya swaying in the breeze, too drunk to fly.

Gratuitous but nonetheless funny photo of drunk man

GOTCHA!

Chevron fined for Amazon pollution by Ecuador court

A court in Ecuador has fined US oil giant Chevron a reported $8bn (£5bn) for polluting a large part of the country's Amazon region.

The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, was accused of dumping billions of gallons of toxic materials into unlined pits and Amazon rivers.
Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased.
Condemning the ruling as fraudulent, Chevron said it would appeal.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadoreans, in a case which dragged on for nearly two decades.
more...  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12460333

MY LAST BLOG?

Solar flare eruptions set to reach Earth

      Scientists around the world will be watching closely as three eruptions from the Sun reach the Earth over Thursday and Friday.

      These "coronal mass ejections" will slam into the Earth's magnetic shield.
      "Our current view is that the effect of the solar flare is likely to reach Earth later today (Thursday GMT), possibly tomorrow morning," said Alan Thomson, head of geomagnetism at the British Geological Survey (BGS), before adding "We're all going to die! We're doomed, I tell you - doooomed!" as he ran screaming from the room.

 

NAT GEO

Courtesy of National Geographic

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/best-pod-october-2010/

VICTORY

Sea Shepherd activists halt Japanese whale hunt

 

Japan has suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt following action from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, who have been chasing the fleet's mother******* ship.

An official at the country's fisheries agency said whaling had been halted "for now" because of safety concerns.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12477398

GROUNDHOG DAY

      Today was Ground Hog Day in the US, which for me was immortalized in the film starring Bill Murray and Andy McDowell. For those of you who haven't seen it, the story is about an arrogant and cynical TV weatherman who is sent to the small town of Punxsutawney, PA to cover the ground hog ritual and finds himself in a time warp whereby the day keeps repeating itself over and over and over and over again...

      Sometimes, every day in Monteverde seems like a ground hog day. Heading into town I always seem to pass the same people, the same cars  with the same occupants at exactly the same point in the road.
Even when you hit the bright lights of Santa Elena (pop. 3,000) nothing seems to change. The cute Tica girl in shop smiles at me as I pass by, the town drunk slurs his request for money and the tour guide who is always standing outside his office greets me with a "Pura Vida" (literally Pure Life), the most common phrase in Costa Rica. Despite the fact that I have been living here for 3 years the taxi, (the same taxi driver) who sits in his car at the corner of the high street, never seems to acknowledge the fact that I pull up in my car and always calls out "Taxi? Taxi?" I smile and as always I hold up my car keys in the vague hope that he will acknowledge the fact that I own a car, but to no avail, tomorrow he will do exactly the same.
      Maybe it's because all us 'gringos' look the same, or maybe I am in a time warp.

      Today was Ground Hog Day in the US, which for me was immortalized in the film starring Bill Murray and Andy McDowell. For those of you who haven't seen it, the story is about an arrogant and cynical TV weatherman who is sent to the small town of Punxsutawney, PA to cover the ground hog ritual and finds himself in a time warp whereby the day keeps repeating itself over and over and over and over again...

      Sometimes, every day in Monteverde seems like a ground hog day. Heading into town I always seem to pass the same people, the same cars  with the same occupants at exactly the same point in the road.
Even when you hit the bright lights of Santa Elena (pop. 3,000) nothing seems to change. The cute Tica girl in shop smiles at me as I pass by, the town drunk slurs his request for money and the tour guide who is always standing outside his office greets me with a "Pura Vida" (literally Pure Life), the most common phrase in Costa Rica. Despite the fact that I have been living here for 3 years the taxi, (the same taxi driver) who sits in his car at the corner of the high street, never seems to acknowledge the fact that I pull up in my car and always calls out "Taxi? Taxi?" I smile and as always I hold up my car keys in the vague hope that he will acknowledge the fact that I own a car, but to no avail, tomorrow he will do exactly the same.
      Maybe it's because all us 'gringos' look the same, or maybe I am in a time warp.

      Today was Ground Hog Day in the US, which for me was immortalized in the film starring Bill Murray and Andy McDowell. For those of you who haven't seen it, the story is about an arrogant and cynical TV weatherman who is sent to the small town of Punxsutawney, PA to cover the ground hog ritual and finds himself in a time warp whereby the day keeps repeating itself over and over and over and over again...

      Sometimes, every day in Monteverde seems like a ground hog day. Heading into town I always seem to pass the same people, the same cars  with the same occupants at exactly the same point in the road.
Even when you hit the bright lights of Santa Elena (pop. 3,000) nothing seems to change. The cute Tica girl in shop smiles at me as I pass by, the town drunk slurs his request for money and the tour guide who is always standing outside his office greets me with a "Pura Vida" (literally Pure Life), the most common phrase in Costa Rica. Despite the fact that I have been living here for 3 years the taxi, (the same taxi driver) who sits in his car at the corner of the high street, never seems to acknowledge the fact that I pull up in my car and always calls out "Taxi? Taxi?" I smile and as always I hold up my car keys in the vague hope that he will acknowledge the fact that I own a car, but to no avail, tomorrow he will do exactly the same.
      Maybe it's because all us 'gringos' look the same, or maybe I am in a time warp.

      Today was Ground Hog Day in the US, which for me was immortalized in the film starring Bill Murray and Andy McDowell. For those of you who haven't seen it, the story is about an arrogant and cynical TV weatherman who is sent to the small town of Punxsutawney, PA to cover the ground hog ritual and finds himself in a time warp whereby the day keeps repeating itself over and over and over and over again...

      Sometimes, every day in Monteverde seems like a ground hog day. Heading into town I always seem to pass the same people, the same cars  with the same occupants at exactly the same point in the road.
Even when you hit the bright lights of Santa Elena (pop. 3,000) nothing seems to change. The cute Tica girl in shop smiles at me as I pass by, the town drunk slurs his request for money and the tour guide who is always standing outside his office greets me with a "Pura Vida" (literally Pure Life), the most common phrase in Costa Rica. Despite the fact that I have been living here for 3 years the taxi, (the same taxi driver) who sits in his car at the corner of the high street, never seems to acknowledge the fact that I pull up in my car and always calls out "Taxi? Taxi?" I smile and as always I hold up my car keys in the vague hope that he will acknowledge the fact that I own a car, but to no avail, tomorrow he will do exactly the same.
      Maybe it's because all us 'gringos' look the same, or maybe I am in a time warp.