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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 13 of 13. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 9:41:51
Light years ahead of us. My understanding is they banned them this week!
I am guessing they don't feel like adding anything else to this......
Have you heard? Did you see? It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or Pacific Trash Vortex, among other awesome nicknames) and it's a staggering phenomenon indeed and after reading up on it, I fully believe we must now revise our master list. Because surely this thing must be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the grand sociocultural melting pot of our time. Except for the fact that it's, you know, revolting.
Is it not true? Is there anything more impressive than the idea that you can, say, toss away your little Calistoga bottle or your plastic Safeway bag or your meth syringe or old iPod case or cigarette lighter or DVD wrapper here, and it will somehow, through a miraculous combination of time and wind and wastefulness and the flow of nature's beautiful eternal pulsing rhythms, wend its way 1,000 miles out to sea and then, well, just swirl around, slowly breaking apart and poisoning all life surrounding it and joining with the mountains of other plastic crap spewed out from our friends and enemies and neighboring nations worldwide? Is this not, in its way, profoundly moving? You bet it is.
But oh holy hell, it certainly is impressive. At least 1,500 miles wide (give or take, could be much larger, no one's quite sure because it's a bit difficult to measure), 30 meters deep, 80 percent plastic, and 100 percent appalling. Truly, there is nothing else quite like it on Earth.
Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle
Posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 15:08:46
In reply to AUSTRALIA AND PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!!, posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 9:41:51
Maybe we said we would?
Maybe we will look into it?
Maybe sometime it will happen?
Our minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett is singing here with Midnight Oil about land rights for Aborigines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkGvk1rQBI
so you would think there would be hope (except they made sure he had nothing to do with climate change legislation).
My take is that Australia never gets beyond the appearance of management when it comes to politics, though once the USA does it we might.
Posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 16:57:36
In reply to Re: AUSTRALIA AND PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!! » fayeroe, posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 15:08:46
It was Bundanoon.
http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/banning-bottled-water-sale-in-bundanoon-2838761
The people of the town decided that they did not want bottled water and had a meeting where it was decided with only 1 vote against to ban bottled water from the town. This may contravene the section of the constitution that protects free trade, so there may be a court case, but then again there is not a lot of mileage in it for the bottled water companies to take a nice little local region's people to court; the industry might come under more scrutiny. They contented themselves with saying that bottled water was a substitute NOT for tap water but was rather in competition with soft drinks, just another way, IIRC, of 'satisfying our hydration needs'.
Posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 16:59:26
In reply to Satisfying our hydration needs, posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 16:57:36
In particular
>Bundanoonians also can't stand the sight and sound of large trucks rumbling down their country lane to a natural spring nearby. You see, a water company collects the precious, natural H20 from this spring, trucks it to Sydney, bottles it and then trucks it back to the Bundanoon shop shelves-where it's sold for three hundred times what costs to get the same water out of Bundanoon house tap.
Posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 17:14:55
In reply to Satisfying our hydration needs, posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 16:57:36
Posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 17:19:31
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs, posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 16:59:26
That is horrid. Does everything have to be a giant rip off?
"Pat, I think you know the answer to that and for asking such a stupid question, you can go to the corner and not come out until you've memorized the girl scout code. Or you could memorize the Hippocratic code......hmmmmmmmm, which should it be? hmmmmmmmmmmmm. "
At least it is better than the guy in New Mexico who got caught dumping sewage into the Rio Grande right above my house!
Posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 20:28:59
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs..oh no!, posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 17:19:31
The people of Bundanoon may have felt that since the water company was getting the water for free from their local supply, there was no reason they should have to pay 300 times as much to buy it in their local shops.
Damned hippies.
Posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 20:40:55
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs..oh no!, posted by Sigismund on July 11, 2009, at 20:28:59
> The people of Bundanoon may have felt that since the water company was getting the water for free from their local supply, there was no reason they should have to pay 300 times as much to buy it in their local shops.
>
> Damned hippies.Ingrates!
Turn your head for a second and there goes the company profits! Weasels......(you don't put weasels in your pants, do you? is that Englanders?)
Posted by Phillipa on July 11, 2009, at 22:28:08
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs..oh no! » Sigismund, posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 20:40:55
And I even e-mailed a Australian I know and he said uh uh. No banned water bottles lives in Sydney bet Sigi knows this chap. Phillipa
Posted by Sigismund on July 12, 2009, at 0:04:28
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs..oh no! » Sigismund, posted by fayeroe on July 11, 2009, at 20:40:55
I don't know much about weasels, except for the time in Vietnam when I could have eaten one stir-fried, and also the Frank Zappa album "Weasels Ripped My Flesh". We have no weasels here. I could be wrong, but I don't think there were any native animals to Australia which are not marsupials (pouches) or monotremes (echidna, platypus) except for those that came later, the aboriginal Australians and the dingo.
Posted by Sigismund on July 12, 2009, at 0:06:27
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs..oh no!, posted by Phillipa on July 11, 2009, at 22:28:08
They've got a long way to go in Sydney before they ban plastic water bottles. They're still worried about real estate and time management.
Posted by fayeroe on July 12, 2009, at 11:27:22
In reply to Weasels: The Short Course, posted by Sigismund on July 12, 2009, at 0:04:28
> I don't know much about weasels, except for the time in Vietnam when I could have eaten one stir-fried, and also the Frank Zappa album "Weasels Ripped My Flesh". We have no weasels here. I could be wrong, but I don't think there were any native animals to Australia which are not marsupials (pouches) or monotremes (echidna, platypus) except for those that came later, the aboriginal Australians and the dingo.
Two of my nephews served in Vietnam. I was ahead of the Frank Zappa time. Married to someone who tightly controlled what I listened to. (he thought he did..i smuggled Joe Cocker, J.J. Cale and Leon Russell in)
I was in quite the cheery mood when I asked you if you put weasels in your pants! I had been thinking about the antics of cats and how easily entertained they are......cheap dates, really.
I knew that you didn't run around with weasels.I had weasels destroy my flock of hens once in New Mexico. Mean little ba*****s. They kill and don't eat their prey. I re-enforced my fences (set the chicken wire in cement) and covered the pen to keep the bald eagles out and we went on, just like before. But without fear.
I researched "dingos" and found that they eat well over one hundred different mammals. From teensy to buffalo! I didn't know much about dingos until today. I still don't know much but I wouldn't want one around my cats!
Posted by fayeroe on July 12, 2009, at 11:38:15
In reply to Re: Satisfying our hydration needs..oh no!, posted by Sigismund on July 12, 2009, at 0:06:27
> They've got a long way to go in Sydney before they ban plastic water bottles. They're still worried about real estate and time management.
It was a good thought anyway. I came very near to passing out when my oldest bought a case of bottled water to take with us when we went swimming in the river. I didn't rear her to do that sort of thing! :-)
There are some superb rivers near here. This area is known for it's "swimmable" creeks and rivers.
Speaking of...creeks and rivers. I've never been much of a fan of the cyclist, Lance Armstrong. We have to live with him and read and listen to his self-absorbed rants about people trying to hurt him in France, etc. etc. etc......but what really sets central Texans off is the way he treats our water supplies.
Two years ago he moved so much earth on his rural property that he ruined a 100 year old swimming hole below him. He wasn't repentant and had to be sued and forced to repair the damages he had done. Didn't get it back to it's former pristine nature, of course.
The next thing is how much water his estate uses on a monthly basis. A city employee leaked this to the press and people went insane. We're in a drought that is our worst in 50 years. We can only water on certain days, don't wash our cars very often, you know the drill...shower with a friend..all of that......
His estate used 330,000 gallons of water in one month! And he wasn't all that bothered by the revelation. He has to keep his "estate" (that word again) up.......
Almost end of rant. His comeback seems to be affected by the Spanish cyclist. I can only imagine how angry Mr. Armstrong could get over someone outdoing him. We're actually tired of Mr. Armstrong, here in parts of Texas.
End.........
This is the end of the thread.
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