How to recycle compact fluorescent bulbs

The complete article is here with tips on what to do when it’s time to toss them.

The trace of mercury in CFLs carries some environmental concern. Green is good. Buy CFLs to replace your traditional incandescent bulbs. The Washington-based Earth Policy Institute estimates that a complete switch to CFLs in the U.S. could eliminate 80 coal-fired generating plants. A worldwide shift would expand that number to 270.

But here's the problem: CFLs -- like all fluorescent lamps -- contain a small amount of mercury, a persistent poison that can be water- or airborne and cause nerve damage. It is indeed a small amount -- 5 milligrams -- about one-hundredth of that contained in an amalgam dental filling. But multiplied by the numbers out there, it's significant.

Recycling programs include these three choices:

1. Ikea stores.

2. Municipal and special recycling centers. Local waste-management authorities, public and private, have set up varying capacities and programs to take back CFLs. The trick is finding them. Fortunately, a recycling portal known as Earth 911 does a decent job of identifying local facilities. You can enter "fluorescent bulbs" and tell it how far you're willing to drive.

3. Hang on to them. You probably won't have a lot of spent bulbs, at least in the near future. Some environmental advocates advise simply storing old bulbs until recycling becomes more widespread.

And one more IMPORTANT point: If you break a CFL bulb, experts advise not to vacuum the remains -- that will put mercury vapor into small spaces in your home. Use sticky tape or some other mechanical means to get rid of the pieces.

And if you do end up putting your CFL bulb -- broken or intact -- in the trash, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends double-bagging it in two small plastic bags.

Meanwhile, it's worth 15 minutes to check your local recycling options. If you have 15 more minutes, let your local retailers know how you feel about the lack of recycling for these smart green products. It can't hurt.

Sadly, in Las Vegas, NV, we seem to have no options for recycling CFL bulbs according to Earth911.

I would think Lowe's does though. Guess I'll call to find out.

What Should We Do About That Moon?

What Should We Do About That Moon?

A wine bottle fell from a wagon and
broke open in a field.

That night one hundred beetles and all their cousins
Gathered

and did some serious binge drinking.

They even found some seed husks nearby
and began to play them like drums and whirl.
This made God very happy.

Then the "night candle" rose into the sky
and one drunk creature, laying down his instrument,
said to his friend ~ for no apparent
Reason,

"What should we do about that moon?"

Seems to Hafiz
Most everyone has laid aside the music

Tackling such profoundly useless
Questions.

~ Hafiz ~
(The Gift -- versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

Tiananmen Square Massacre, China 1989

Photo Credit: Jeff Widener/AP

Tiananmen Tragedy: In 1989, students lead weeks of protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, calling for democracy and free speech, and protesting corruption. Crowds grow into the hundreds of thousands, and spark protests in other cities. On June 4, after martial law is declared in Beijing, the military moves in to crush the protests, killing hundreds.

Here, a lone protester faces off with tanks. Several years of renewed political repression follow the crack down and economic reforms stall. Many activists are jailed or flee the country. Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang, accused of using the protests to make a power play, is put under house arrest, where he remains until he dies in 2005. [MSNBC Picture Stories]

Wikipedia: Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989

Oh yea, China forced the Olympic Torch to the top of Tibet's Everest today. The road they paved (at lesser altitudes of course) is an ecological and Tibetan tragedy.



"The final torchbearer, a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo, stood silently on the peak with her torch while other team members unfurled small Chinese and Olympic flags," quotes the MSNBC article. "The 19-member final assault team was comprised of both ethnic Han Chinese and Tibetan members, underscoring another government theme — ethnic unity. The team captain and the final torchbearer were both Tibetans," it states.

I wonder if the included Tibetans had any say in being part of the climb? As if they could have declined? Interesting that Wangmo "stood silently." Possibly in horror and mourning for all that has become of Tibet in China's ungracious hands?

On another note, just to clarify, I don't dislike the individual Chinese population of humans. But I really think the Chinese government is lower than pond scum. I have nothing but compassion for the poor Chinese populace that has no freedom to disagree and protest against their government, let alone try and change it. And obviously, we all know how I feel about China's killing occupation of Tibet. Someday, this century, the Chinese government will invade America. They already own us by way of our debt. But, hey, don't stop shopping the Wal-Mart China-Product American Soul-Eating Cheap Train. China already has a foot in the door of our houses, our public lands and children within a few decades.

U.S. honey bee deaths on rise

Survey: U.S. honey bee deaths on rise: "Survey shows rise in U.S. honey bee deaths. 'Astonishing' 36.1 percent of hives lost due to disease, pesticides, enemies."

I feel fortunate to have seen a number of bees at the lake and in my back yard this year. But I know their numbers are dwindling. Sad. And very scary concerning our food supply.

Kiss the Polar Bears Good Bye

Newsweek Magazine: "Climate Change: Politics and the Polar Bear Debate"

From article: "You've written that climate change is not a human problem and that humans can't do much about it. What about the other science that says, quite bluntly, that humans can help and that time counts?

Regardless of what causes [polar ice melt], the answer should be to protect land-based habitat [instead of sea-based], because frankly it is implausible to think the world is going to turn around the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions when the leading emitter, China, wants nothing to do with it. India, an up-and-coming emitter, wants nothing to do with it, and neither does Russia. The stage is not set for a reverse of the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions. So no matter what you do with that, it's not going to have any benefit to the polar bear at all because it's not going to happen. [Those countries] won't be bound by our Endangered Species Act."

This is one of the many sad truths of our future no matter what we now do. I'll be placing a note to myself in my safe deposit box with this article to be opened in 2028 to see how many polar bears are left in the world. And see how many are left out on the ice....if there are any. That we can/will be able to count them....that is/will be a sad fact in and of itself.

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
~ Cree Indian Prophecy

Moon

Moon

The moon is full tonight
an illustration for sheet music,
an image in Matthew Arnold
glimmering on the English Channel,
or a ghost over a smoldering battlefield
in one of the history plays.

It's as full as it was
in that poem by Coleridge
where he carries his year-old son
into the orchard behind the cottage
and turns the baby's face to the sky
to see for the first time
the earth's bright companion,
something amazing to make his crying seem small.

And if you wanted to follow this example,
tonight would be the night
to carry some tiny creature outside
and introduce him to the moon.

And if your house has no child,
you can always gather into your arms
the sleeping infant of yourself,
as I have done tonight,
and carry him outdoors,
all limp in his tattered blanket,
making sure to steady his lolling head
with the palm of your hand.

And while the wind ruffles the pear trees
in the corner of the orchard
and dark roses wave against a stone wall,
you can turn him on your shoulder
and walk in circles on the lawn
drunk with the light.
You can lift him up into the sky,
your eyes nearly as wide as his,
as the moon climbs high into the night.

~ Billy Collins ~

(Picnic, Lightning)

20 Worst Foods in America

Link: Wow, a surprise!Just look at the calorie and carb load on these items!!

Knitting....Really!!!

STILL working on Ene. From Scarf Style: Innovative to Traditional, 31 Inspirational Styles to Knit and Crochet . Great patterns all around in that book.

I'm through the second pass on Chart 3. Fortunately, this shawl gets smaller as she goes. The color in this picture is pretty true to the yarn color. It's a gift for Helen. I'm a little late on it. Though I do try to get thru at least two rows a night....most nights I make it.





I am finally enjoying knitting Ene. I was having a hard time with the center stitch, but finally got a handle on how it works on the row. Since Ene is my 'brain' knitting, I do have another 'no-brain' knitting....something I can work on and talk or watch TV at the same time. It's 'Hunter.'

This is Rowan's 'Hunter' from the Rowan 'Summer Tweed Collection.'


Close-up of dropped stitches.


Hunter is a very easy knit. I plan on making a few more over the years. When this is one is done, it should look like this:


Additionally, I'm finishing a sweater for my Godmother. She knit it and I'm sewing it together for her. It's slow going because I have to do it at the knit shop, Gail Knits...because I sometimes forget HOW I'm supposed to be doing a certain stitch. Gail is great and will always get me started right.

Don't have much time for knitting, but I sneak it in when I can. Other than that, the only other news is Luna is still perfect. But I guess that isn't news. ;-)

Woot! My heart jumped when I saw the following!! Oh boy!! Yum!!! Prickly Pear juice!!!

Simply Recipes' "How to Cut and Prepare Prickly Pears"

Nothing is born, nothing is destroyed. Away with your dualism, your likes and dislikes. Every single thing is just the One Mind. When you have perceived this, you will have mounted the Chariot of the Buddhas.
--Huang Po, "Zen Teaching of Huang Po"

The Seven Of Pentacles

The Seven Of Pentacles

Under a sky the color of pea soup
she is looking at her work growing away there
actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans
as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.
If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,
if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,
if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,
if the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees,
then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.

Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half the tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: Make love that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,
a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us
interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:
reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after
the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.

~ Marge Piercy ~

(In Praise of Fertile Land, edited by Claudia Mauro)

Did We Forget? China Is A Communist Country!

Here's a blog relating to how China is harassing the non-China media and restricting entry to the country.

Mood turns ugly in Beijing - World Blog - msnbc.com

IMHO, Bob Griswold, Walla Walla, Washington, says it all, "Is any of this a surprise? Remember Tienanmen Square? Remember the rape of Tibet and the ongoing brutal occupation of that peaceful country? Just because greedy business people in Western countries may make money by dealing with China, doesn't change the reality that China is a brutal dictatorship that deserves the privilege of hosting the Olympics about as much as Myanmar and North Korea would."

I have been protesting ALL THINGS CHINESE buy NOT buying anything made in China, and am now also NOT buying products made by the sponsors of the 2008 Olympics.

U.S. sponsors are:
Anheuser-Busch
Coca-Cola
Eastman Kodak
General Electric
Johnson & Johnson
McDonald's
Microsoft
Sohu.com Inc.
United Parcel Service
VISA Inc.

Most of these 2008 Olympic sponsors have products that I can easily find a substitute for; my only voice in this is my dollar. So I'm doing my best NOT to support the Chinese government until Tibet is free. At this point, just saying that the violence has to stop is ridiculous. China must give up Tibet.

Incontinence drugs linked to memory loss

Nearly 80 percent of the study participants took one or more of a class of drugs called anticholinergics, including drugs for high blood pressure, asthma, Parkinson's disease and incontinence drugs such as Detrol and Ditropan.

The people who took the drugs had a 50 percent faster rate of cognitive decline compared to those who didn't take any. The researchers considered other risk factors for memory loss, such as age, and still found the link. The researchers found no increased risk for the memory-robbing disorder Alzheimer's in people taking the drugs.

The incontinence drugs were among the most potent and were the most frequently taken of all the anticholinergics in the study. That's why the researchers believe they are driving the memory problems, Tsao said.

Wow. Scary!

Sensation of the Mystical

Sensation of the Mystical

The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience
is the sensation of the mystical.
It is the sower of all true science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead.
To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists,
manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,
which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms -
this knowledge, this feeling,
is at the center of true religion.

~ Albert Einstein ~

(The Merging of Spirit and Science, cited in
All Things Give God Glory, ed by S. Rena)

The perfect night for spacing out

Saturday night is prime time for a SKY GAZING party, and all the better if it's a party celebrating our past and future in outer space

This year, Saturday night is Yuri's Night, which marks the anniversary of humanity's first ride into space as well as the space shuttle's first flight.

Organic foods Sometimes Don't Mean What They Say

This is one of the many places where our government and commercial marketing interests walk hand in hand to the detriment of the consumer. And what 'they' say/print needs to always be suspect.

In my humble opinion, food is either 100% organic or it is not organic at all. Food can not be 95% organic. It's then just food made with some organic ingredients to catch your eye and/or confuse you. Read the rest.......

Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious? - MSN Health & Fitness - Nutrition

....snip
Organic or not? Check the label!!!!!!!!!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established an organic certification program that requires all organic foods to meet strict government standards. These standards regulate how such foods are grown, handled and processed. Any farmer or food manufacturer who labels and sells a product as organic must be USDA certified as meeting these standards. Only producers who sell less than $5,000 a year in organic foods are exempt from this certification.

Products certified 95 percent or more organic display this USDA sticker.



Which does NOT MEAN THE FOOD IS ORGANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If a food bears a USDA Organic label, it means it's produced and processed according to the USDA standards and that at least 95 percent of the food's ingredients are organically produced. The seal is voluntary, but many organic producers use it.

Products that are completely organic — such as fruits, vegetables, eggs or other single-ingredient foods — are labeled 100 percent organic and can carry a small USDA seal. Foods that have more than one ingredient, such as breakfast cereal, can use the USDA organic seal or the following wording on their package labels, depending on the number of organic ingredients:

100 percent organic. Products that are completely organic or made of all organic ingredients.

Organic. Products that are at least 95 percent organic.

Made with organic ingredients. These are products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients. The organic seal can't be used on these packages.

Foods containing less than 70 percent organic ingredients can't use the organic seal or the word "organic" on their product label. They can include the organic items in their ingredient list, however.

You may see other terms on food labels, such as "all-natural," "free-range" or "hormone-free." These descriptions may be important to you, but don't confuse them with the term "organic." Only those foods that are grown and processed according to USDA organic standards can be labeled organic.

I think this labeling is deceitful. As I stated above, the 'organic' label does NOT mean the food is organic in my opinion. Again, food is either 100% ORGANIC or not. Having a 95% organic rating just means it has less crap in it.

100% ORGANIC or it's just regular crap. Don't fall for these marketing campaigns to 'reeducate' you to the government and corporate way of thinking. Don't let them dilute REAL FOOD in your mind and in your body.

The Olympic Torch and Freedom

April 9, 2008
The Torch and Freedom - New York Times
Editorial

After facing major protests in London and Paris as the Olympic torch made stops on its journey to Beijing, the Chinese government is said to be looking for a public relations firm to patch up China’s image before the 2008 Games in August. In the spirit of the Olympic ideals, we are prepared to help China — free of charge.

Here’s what you do: Stop arresting dissidents. Stop spreading lies about the Dalai Lama, and start talking to him about greater religious and cultural freedoms for Tibet. Stop being an enabler to Sudan in its genocide in Darfur. In other words, start delivering on the pledge you made to the International Olympic Committee to respect human rights — which, by the way, include the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly.

It is sadly typical of authoritarian regimes to presume that huge protests of the sort that have accompanied the Olympic torch are provocations instigated by devious foreign foes. It was the same when the United States and several other Western countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Since the Kremlin suppressed all dissent, it was beyond the ken of Soviet leaders to imagine that their actions could actually infuriate people and that they would then act on their outrage.

Just so, the Communist authorities in China have been fanning nationalist resentments among their citizens with claims that protests against their repressive policies are staged by hostile foreign forces bent on ruining China’s grand Olympic party. The popular anger then makes it easier for the regime to arrest dissidents, stifle the news media and blame a “Dalai Lama clique” abroad for the troubles in Tibet.

Since the Chinese government does not hesitate to whip up “spontaneous demonstrations” in favor of its policies, it’s not a stretch for it to presume that foreign “enemies” are doing the same along the route of the torch. Thus, the pathetic presumption that a P.R. firm can make the protesters go away. It can’t and won’t.

Nobody expected China to democratize overnight, and, given the country’s mighty economic power, nobody really wants to antagonize Beijing. But a nation that applies to host the Olympic Games also must demonstrate that it is worthy of the honor. China has only itself to blame for messing up its coming-out party.