margonaut.com
(formerly practicalhippie.com)
ARCHIVE
November 2004
Sunday, November 28, 2004killing the forest so you can wipe your noseThe Kimberly-Clark company (makers of Kleenex) are using ancient forests to make their products! If this bothers you, you can send a free FAX to the company. I strongly believe that increasing consumer demand for ecological products is what will ultimately make these types of changes in the marketplace... Thanks to those who participate! Kimberly-Clark and Kleenex: Stop Clearcutting Ancient Forests http://66.51.164.145/greenpeace/en/actioncentre.asp Kimberly-Clark is destroying ancient forests like the magnificent Boreal forest, to create Kleenex brand tissue products. Ancient forests are being flushed down the toilet or thrown away even though ecologically alternatives exist. Please help us convince Kimberly-Clark to stop destroying ancient and endangered forests and to start using more recycled fibre in their products. Please send this FREE fax to the CEO of Kimberly-Clark, Mr. Thomas Falk, and send a message to your friends asking that they do the same. I believe that making paper out of trees is completely idiotic. I'm going to be writing something in-depth on that subject soon as it's been FAR too long since I've added a new essay to the site... posted @ 01:04 PM PDT Thursday, November 25, 2004buy nothing dayTomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States and as a result has also been chosen as Buy Nothing Day. While I don't think shopping is necessarily a bad thing (it depends what you buy) I do support the work of Buy Nothing Christmas because the holiday has become so ridiculously commercial. If you don't want any gifts this year, download Adbusters' gift exemption voucher... posted @ 11:50 AM PDT Monday, November 22, 2004do your elected officials pay attention to what they're voting on?This story is both scary AND ridiculous! Frist: Tax-returns measure indefensible http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/21/tax.provision/index.html Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday that "accountability will be carried out" against whoever slipped a provision into an omnibus spending bill that would have allowed two committee chairmen to view the tax returns of any American. ... House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a written statement that "The Republicans' lack of transparency and willingness to abuse their power is undermining democracy. It should be of grave concern to all Americans that their privacy could be invaded by such an outrageous provision." Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the episode points up the problems created when Congress passes gigantic spending bills at the end of a session, before anyone has time to read them. posted @ 08:11 PM PDT Saturday, November 20, 2004beefy disasterMad Cow is finally becoming enough of a problem in the United States that they can't cover it up with PR anymore. In the book Mad Cow USA you can read about how this has been going on for quite some time (the book was written in 1997.) The entire book is available for free as a PDF download. I've learned that one can preach and preach about quality food, the real way to convert people to its merits is to feed them. Grass-fed beef is so different, and so delicious. Cows were meant to eat grass, not soy, corn, chemicals, and bits of other cows! In Argentina (a HUGE meat-eating culture) they can't stand the "conventional" American cut of beef. Mad cow results pending http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=2486 Despite the public message from agriculture officials that this shouldn't cause alarm, the news has already economically rattled the cattle industry, meat companies and hamburger restaurant chains. Thursday's announcement about the inconclusive test sent cattle prices tumbling. Shares of McDonald's, Wendy's, and other restaurant chains slumped, as did those of U.S. meat producers such as Tyson Foods. posted @ 11:55 AM PDT Thursday, November 18, 2004cause & effectI wish I could have seen some of these rivers before we started building dams and generally screwing with them. I like to imagine the Grand Canyon with the Colorado River pulsing through it in its full natural glory... Water pump in West primes earthquakes http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/15/earthquake.wellpumpin.ap/index.html A federal facility that pumps salty water 14,000 feet into the Earth's crust probably is associated with a magnitude 3.9 earthquake that struck the Utah-Colorado border this month, an official said. ... The facility has caused thousands of earthquakes in the area since 1991, but most have been too small for people to feel. The 3.9 quake, which struck November 6, was felt in Grand Junction, some 60 miles away. No damage was reported. posted @ 10:23 AM PDT Wednesday, November 17, 2004urban AmericaI get frustrated when people make generalizations about Americans, usually implying that we're all gun-toting, fag-hating, WalMart shopping types... The Urban Archipelago http://www.thestranger.com/2004-11-11/feature.html It's time to state something that we've felt for a long time but have been too polite to say out loud: Liberals, progressives, and Democrats do not live in a country that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico. We live on a chain of islands. We are citizens of the Urban Archipelago, the United Cities of America. We live on islands of sanity, liberalism, and compassion--New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and on and on. And we live on islands in red states too--a fact obscured by that state-by-state map. Denver and Boulder are our islands in Colorado; Austin is our island in Texas; Las Vegas is our island in Nevada; Miami and Fort Lauderdale are our islands in Florida. Citizens of the Urban Archipelago reject heartland "values" like xenophobia, sexism, racism, and homophobia, as well as the more intolerant strains of Christianity that have taken root in this country. And we are the real Americans. posted @ 12:04 PM PDT Tuesday, November 16, 2004thank Heavensmagic is sometimes simple for example great reward comes from giving proper respect to the way the Moon shifts in Earthˆ¢s shared sky  posted @ 05:23 PM PDT Monday, November 15, 2004dam wealthyThis is the best news story I've seen all day... Beavers Make Dam Out of Stolen Money http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DOLLAR_DAM?SITE=NNCO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT GREENSBURG, La. (AP) -- Beavers found a bag of bills stolen from a casino, tore it open and wove the money into the sticks and brush of their dam on a creek near Baton Rouge. ... Deputies had searched for the money for days before an attorney called with a tip: the money had been thrown into the creek. The attorney's client hopes to make a deal with prosecutors, Greensburg Police Chief Ronald Harrell said. They found one money bag right away. The second was downstream, against the beaver dam. After trying unsuccessfully to find the third bag in the deep water near the dam, Martin said, deputies began to break it down to release some of the water so they could search in a shallower pool. That was when they saw the dam's expensive decoration. He said they eventually found the third sack, which still had some money left in it. "The casino people were elated" to get the money back, even if some of it was wet, Harrell said. posted @ 04:07 PM PDT Sunday, November 14, 2004fun guysIt is mushroom season on Mount Elphinstone and when I'm out hiking I see giant purple ones, flourescent orange ones, frilly ones, and so many more! I am very interested in the study of mushrooms and fungi, or mycology. The way these creatures grow is so fascinating, they're not really plants or animals in my mind. I'm not confident enough in my knowledge to start eating mushrooms out of the wild, but I will be. I want to know how to tell the edible from the poisonous from the "magical." I took the photo below, which is slightly blurry & you can't really tell that this thing was the size of half a frisbee! It almost looks as if there's a face on it...  posted @ 05:10 PM PDT Saturday, November 13, 2004intellectual conflict of interest?The FDA is supposed to be responsible for protecting the American public from harmful foods and medicines. Unfortunately, more than half of the people working there have financial ties to the food and/or drug industries! Scientist Who Cited Drug's Risks Is Barred From F.D.A. Panel http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/politics/13fda.html The Food and Drug Administration has told a researcher that he cannot be part of an advisory panel that will meet early next year to review the safety of a class of drugs, COX-2 inhibitors, used to treat arthritis and pain. The reason, the agency said, is he publicly stated that he thought one of these drugs caused heart problems and that Pfizer, its maker, knew that and was covering it up. The scientist, Dr. Curt D. Furberg, a professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., was not barred forever from the panel, an F.D.A. spokeswoman said. Instead, Dr. Furberg was asked not to participate when it took up an issue in which he was seen to have an intellectual conflict of interest. posted @ 05:22 PM PDT Friday, November 12, 2004one way of dealing with the pain...I get a lot of email from Americans who are pondering moving to Canada and want advice on how to go about it. I personally don't put much stock in nationalism (people are people) but somehow I'm not sure if I would have been able to do the freelance thing in the USA due to health care expenses. Life isn't perfect here, but for me it's better. I still love America and may go back one day, but not during the current regime. official information about immigrating to Canada Humo(u)r website about marrying into Canada posted @ 11:17 AM PDT Thursday, November 11, 2004food colors and hyperactive kidsI was going through entries on the guestbook of my tartrazine page & found this... from Carolyn H. I am so glad that someone is spreading the word about yellow food dyes, and I wish that I could help spread it wider! I supposedly made a suicidal comment to my parents when I was 5 years old. They sent me to a psychiatrist who told my parents that I was a completely normal child, but that I should be sent to an allergist because of the dark circles under my eyes. They sent me to an allergist named Dr. Konetsky in Waukesha, WI, to whom I am forever grateful. He tested me for actual allergies, but then he went a step beyond, and tested me for "cerebral allergies," or chemical imballances, caused by food. He found that I had emotional/behavioral problems with F,D&C yellows #5,6. He tested my mom and sister as well, since these are often times genetically inherited. My sister did not have any food sensitivities, but my mom had the same food sensitivities (to both yellows)plus the same reaction from red #40. My parents taught me to avoid foods with yellow #5,6 ever since this diagnosis, when I was 5 years old. Frequently, this food sensitivity is confirmed, when I start to feel a certain way. I usually start to feel either extremely anxious and irritated, or easily irritated with rage, or horribly guilty feeling and depressed (I always feel this after taking my emotion out on someone- usually only my husband or mom). I then try to figure out why in the world I am having such a strong emotion, and I try to blame many different things, and then when I realize that I would normally never have such a strong emotion about such a small thing, I search the foods/toothpastes/lipstick, etc that I had earlier in the day, and sure enough, there it is. When I was in college for nursing, 10 years ago, ADHD was really being talked about, a lot. I swore that I felt like those kids acted (when I was a kid), and just knew that Yellow Food Dye had something to do with ADD/ADHD. I tried to research this, and did find some documentation that hinted at the possibilities, but nothing concrete. The corellation between these two, and possibly the corellation between food dyes and depression/anxiety attacks has been my lifetime soap box since then. Now, I have gotten to know my mom's aunt and her family very well. She most obviously has the food sensitivity as well. She completely denies it, although she becomes a terrible bear when she has yellow food dye. Her son was told that he had ADD, but when he was in high school, I was able to convince him to test the food dye theory, and he went from doing poorly all through grade and highschool, to doing very well in college. My sister (the one who did not have any allergies) also has a son that was diagnosed with ADHD. I convinced her to take him to an allergist, but apparently, her insurance would not cover Dr. Konetsky, so she took him to an allergist who subsequently poo-pooed the entire theory. My sister poorly monitors what my nephew eats, and he has now, for a few years, successfully become a zombie on some narcotic for ADD. How can we get the word out? People don't understand how a color could make you feel bad; it's like telling them that the air can cause depression! I once heard that ADD/ADHD is nearly unheard of in Europe. I can't help but notice that most of the foods made in Europe do not have F,D&C colors added... posted @ 04:11 PM PDT new home Here's a picture of my little cottage!  more pictures posted @ 01:12 AM PDT Wednesday, November 10, 2004setting up shopI now have Internet access in my cottage and can work, live, and sleep under a canopy of trees. This will be good for my health, happiness, and creative output. I truly feel that I can do better work here. I have several projects in mind for the next year, including my new research and informational writing consultancy, Informationdistillery.com. My professional expertise lies in finding, going through, organizing, and presenting information. Services include:
Please visit the website, as I am actively seeking new clients! posted @ 12:01 AM PDT Monday, November 1, 2004heading back to the WestIt's my last day in Toronto for awhile...  Bloor Viaduct (with suicide barrier that looks like crucifixes & "distress centre" sign) Then I'm back to the Coast...  kayaking on the Sunshine Coast posted @ 05:55 PM PDT
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