live simply so others can simply live

happy earth day, readers.

the title "live simply so others can simply live" comes from a t-shirt that i bought in high school. there's a cute panda that goes with the slogan. i still believe it.

some of the most important resources we have are finite and to attempt to live simply is to attempt to leave some of those resources for others humans and other creatures.

on this earth day, with some environmental issues finally creeping in the right direction (e.g. epa finally allowed to report that greenhouse gases are bad for our health), i wanted to give a shout out to the individual efforts that people make to live simply. i heard a commentator on npr remark, that while recycling is often talked about, the phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle" should actually be thought of in that order. as in, first attempt to reduce, then reuse and then recycle.

anyway, here are some even more personal shoutouts:

to the Js, for air drying your clothes and not eating land animals (or fishies in JS's case)
to JA, for using cloth diapers
to YA, MC and NI, for still not buying a car and SL for making me think you don't have one since i never see it
to RK, never buying more than you need
to CR, for consistently getting groups outside to remind us how great the nature we have is
....
to my parents, for somehow getting into my head that there are many things more important than material goods

... these are just off the top of my head. please add shout outs in the comments to people you know (or yourself) for doing simple, environmentally-friendly things (and maybe tell us what they are ;) ).


5 suggestions from USN
and the new recycling rules for seattle-ites

Lets knock the kids out already!

I don't know how they come up with these ideas, but this may be one of the creepiest things I have run across in a long time. A doctor in Boston got paid $1.8 million dollars to create the PediSedate, a combo gaming device and sedation machine. It is meant to keep kids occupied while sedating them with nitrous. It even has a pulse-oximeter to slightly adjust the flow of gas in real time. While this is all fine and good, are you serious? The mask alone may be on the of scariest things I have ever seen. Can you imagine being a kid and having that thing strapped to your face? On top of which, why is it that video games are now the go-to thing for kids. Maybe we should be teaching them that sometimes they have to go through uncomfortable situations to take care of yourself in the long run, or for your future goals. If we are teaching kids that the only way to do things that they don't like is by distracting them, aren't we really doing them a disservice? I mean seriously, look at this thing:



Article about PediSedate

thank goodness for you, readers

so i was a little delinquent in my posts this week (missed one). but, one of our faithful readers sent me a great post idea. so here goes 2 posts with one stone.

hotstuff and i love love love that y'all are reading our blog. we are super happy for the comments we get online and the ones we get in person (aka on gchat). please keep them coming. a couple months ago, there was a lull in readership, during which the hotties consoled ourselves, saying we liked just having the writing practice and having a chance to work through and rant about our ideas. but, we were just making ourselves feel better. what we like most of all is having y'all reading our stuff. hehe.

so now i introduce to you a guest blog entry from a reader who has named herself hotsauce:

I don't know if you guys take requests, but if you do I'd like to make one:

article:
Women at War Face Sexual Assault

I'm not sure why this particular article made me so angry. But it might be because I've got 2009 on my watch and women are still putting up with the same shit my mom and her contemporaries put up with in the 70s. Women are fighting on the front lines of war next to men who simultaneously judge Iraqis as "backward" while sexually assaulting their own fellow soldiers. (I mean, if a woman in uniform who carries weapons and follows orders and trained in the military and signed a contract as a soldier actually qualifies as a "soldier".) What the fuck?

Fried skin for less breast cancer?

On my way to school every day I pass by a tanning salon named "Desert Sun" (for those of you in Seattle, it is at the corner of Stone Way and 45th). Recently this tanning salon decided that it was necessary to spend money on a banner that says, and I quote, "Vitamin D from UV exposure reduces the risk of breast cancer by 60%". Below is a picture of the salon and the very banner that I am talking about (sorry it is fuzzy, it is through a bus window). So seriously, WTF? First off, studies that talk about Vitamin D from UV exposure are not talking about the kind you get from a tanning bed. Second, what about the greatly increased risk of skin cancer from tanning? Or the plethora of other health risks with tanning beds, like skin fungus from shared beds? I may be wrong about this, but from my understanding, even with just a little sun exposure (like the kind you get from a five minute walk to your house from the bus) you get a lot of Vitamin D. There is no need to put yourself at increased health risks by actually going into a tanning salon and frying the hell out of your skin. Every time I pass this banner it makes my heart cringe. I mean seriously people, WTF?

You lost! Suck it up!

The Sentatorial race in Minnesota has been a mess since the night of the election. It was too close to call and there have now been multiple recounts and judge rulings. Finally, on Tuesday after yet another recount, a three judge panel was created to declare a victor. Thus, it was announced that Al Franken (Democrat) had won. But was that the end of it? Of course not! Norm Coleman, the Republican running against Franken, has proclaimed that he again is going to appeal the decision, citing that 4,000 absentee ballets have not been counted. And yes I recognize that all votes should be counted and every voice heard, but seriously, what month are we in? At this rate they are never going to have a Senator.

Additionally, the win has to be certified by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican. Gov. Pawlenty of course has stated that he will not certify anything until all of it is out of the legal system. Which could take at least a couple weeks, if not months. So where does that leave us? The recount led to more votes for Franken, the judges have multiple times ruled that Franken is the winner, and the loser, Coleman, with the help of his buddy Pawlenty, is just dragging his feet and depriving his state of a Sentator. I mean seriously Coleman, maybe it is time to bow out gracefully and let the state's interest come before your own!

Franken has the most votes

Another article on this debacle

why aren't my taxes going to healthcare, of the universal variety

ok 3 things
1. i'm doing my taxes (you know what those are, i don't have to explain)

2. i just saw sicko, the michael moore movie last night. i loved it (much more than i thought i would)
film trailer on film website

3. i broke my elbow on halloween last fall and am just now getting the round up of medical bills, post insurance assessment... a $13,000 surgery that i have to pay 10% of...
blog post about break with cool xray

why aren't my taxes going towards universal health care? it was heartbreaking for me to watch people from other countries explain to michael moore that they pay nothing for health care procedures. i already knew this, but watching those interviews just made me wish america would grow up already. i would gladly pay the thousand dollars that i'm sending the hospital this year to the gov't instead, if it meant that everyone of us could show up at a hospital without fear of what it was going to cost. i know i'm not alone, but i hope our current administration will fight (and beat) the cowboys, who think everyone should go at it alone, and the free marketeers on this essential issue.

Thank God for good friends and fun rituals!

Just like our wonderful president, a whole group of friends got together last night and celebrate the Seder together. This involved copious amounts of wine, whipping each other with green onions, and lovely roasted beef and lamb (on top of many other very tasty foods). So I just wanted to thank God for giving us many good reasons to get friends together to celebrate a good meal and each others company (and of course the freeing of the Jews)!

Wikipedia article on Seder

Article about Obama's Seder

And for those of you who missed the link to this in the comments of an earlier post:
Robot Seder