Standing in the way of control!

Awesome!

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Bottled water is a joke, one of the biggest consumer and taxpayer ripoffs ever. I applaud California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown who said recently that he will sue to block a proposed water-bottling operation in Northern California by Nestle.

Next, Attorneys General everywhere should require recycling of all plastic bottles and containers by requiring deposits to be paid to encourage returns, as is the case with aluminum cans. Not only do society and the environment pay an unfair price for this consumer hoax, but consumers are being hoodwinked. They are paying from 300 to 3,000 times more than the cost of tap water without any benefit.
Here’s an estimate by a University of Toronto geology professor Andrew Miall who took a picture of a grocery store skid of bottled water and calculated the extent of the ripoff.

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The scam
The water is usually not superior to “city” water or tap water, and is merely a big branding hoax by soda makers. In some cases, this “designer” water is drawn from tap water and labeled for suckers to buy as though it is a superior product.

Dasani in Britain was caught doing this. There are not regulations or proper labeling requirements governing bottled water as there is involving tap water. Some water may be contaminated.

Bottles of water are not fluoridated which has been created tooth decay problems among youngsters and adults who avoid tap water.

There are indications that the plastic may contain harmful carcinogens.

Bottles of water are mini gas guzzlers
One expert estimated that the amount of petroleum — used to make the bottles, transport, refrigerate, collect and bury them — would fill one-third of each bottle.

These plastic bottles are creating landfill problems worldwide, and are washing up on beautiful beaches around the planet.

What’s wrong with using filters, if people are concerned about local water supplies, and refillable bottles?

Another stupidity
A real estate developer explained the idiocy of ordering bottled water in restaurants. He said bylaws require special water filtration systems be installed so that their “tap water” is safer than any.

Of course, there’s always those who want fancy sparkling or soda water, but that’s another issue.
About the only justification for bottled water is in developing countries where water supplies are decidedly unsafe or untrustworthy.

The Huffington Post

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The Montauk Monster was discovered this week.

From Gawker: 

So that new picture of the Montauk Monster, you know the one from Newsday that makes it look a lot more like a dog? We say it’s bunk. The thing is in a completely different position, its little front legs aren’t bound, plus they claim the photo was taken on the same day as the original. And I’m no Bill Nye, but I’m pretty sure things don’t decompose thatstill a monster. The bigger question, though, really, is why are we and many other people so interested? What is it about the Montauk Monster that intrigues us so? I’ll try to provide some answers—in listicle form because it’s a fucking Friday—after the jump.1) We are fascinated by dead things
What did this creature know, where has it been? The odd thing is that, though we are still living, it knows more than us. It’s been somewhere we can only imagine. People are poking at this thing with e-sticks because we both fear and are fascinated by its morbid secrets. If we can discover the true history of this ruined life, maybe some tiny piece of life’s long puzzle will snap into place for us, for our silly existences.

2) Monsters are the world’s troubles made manifest
What with the economy and all. And gas prices the way they are. And no one can sell their house or pay their rent and everyone’s dying of cancer or their teeth are falling out or their plane got delayed or a kid they knew just got blown up in the desert. We walk around with these little walnuts of fear and worry and anger pitted in our chests all day, every day. And a monster—a terrible, gnashing, fleshy and physical thing—lets us release that valve in our hearts. Its little leathery paws pry that Pandora’s box open just a bit, just to relieve the pressure. It’s why we feel giddy and silly when we see it. Because something awful is just staring us right in the face, not shadowy and vague like the wretched and grim ideas of this modern world.

3) Everyone hates rich people
Montauk and its surrounding Long Island environs have long been the playground of summer wealth, of cold corn salads and hay-blonde hair and Thatchers and Kittys and twinges of gin sadness on sprawling porches. It’s the stuff of blousy green July dreams and most of us quietly hate it because we have never and probably will never have it. So a monster! A hideous hell beast washing up on their precious, opal-sanded shores? Hah! Serves you right, you twill-wearing, Saab-driving, piece of shit Andover alumni! I hope its family comes and eats your town and the last person left is a crazed Ina Garten wielding a shotgun she made from scratch, cackling into the humming, purple August evening sky.

4) We all love to share something
The world is a terribly lonely place. New York City especially, with its gray, echo-y corners and menacing towers sticking up like knife blades, piercing our beloved blue sky. Who among us hasn’t felt bewildered and lost in the rambling metropolis, in need of some sort of Poltergeist-like lifeline to scrape and crawl and pull ourselves back into the world of other people? And something like this, a funny monster mystery, is the perfect way to giggle and theorize with people, to send “WTF???” emails and joke at a bar on Smith street with a long lost friend from college. People are best at relating with one another, really, when there is nothing at stake. All we risk with Montauk Monster Mania is offending, perhaps, some avid dog lovers. And that’s not so bad.

5) Because we all knew, deep inside all along, that monsters were real
That creak in your closet? That strange thud and bump coming from the crawlspace when you were but a blankets-up-to-the-chin child? Monster. Totally a monster. Those strange shadow figures you see out of the corner of your eye? Monsters. Or, at least, Shadow People. We knew the real truth, somewhere in the mysterious and rarely-used rooms of our mind, long before the documentary Cloverfield made a noble effort to definitively prove it to the world: monsters are real and are everywhere. When we first saw Monty something just clicked on in our brains, a small switch flipped. There it was, all along, that ominous wicked knowledge. Whether we like it or not, monsters exist. And they’re coming for us.

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As citizen of Africa I am yet to experience the phenomenon of northern lights. By this time next year I hope to have experienced it…

Meanwhile Time reports:

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — Scientists have exposed some of the mystery behind the northern lights. On Thursday, NASA released findings that indicate magnetic explosions about one-third of the way to the moon cause the northern lights, or aurora borealis, to burst in spectacular shapes and colors, and dance across the sky.

The findings should help scientists better understand the more powerful but less common geomagnetic storms that can knock out satellites, harm astronauts in orbit and disrupt power and communications on Earth, scientists said.

A fleet of five small satellites, called Themis, observed the beginning of a geomagnetic storm in February, while ground observatories in Canada and Alaska recorded the brightening of the northern lights. The southern lights — aurora australis — also brightened and darted across the sky at the same time.

These auroral flare-ups occur every two or three days, on average.

A team led by University of California, Los Angeles, scientist Vassilis Angelopoulos confirmed that the observed storm about 80,000 miles from Earth was triggered by a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection. Every so often, the Earth’s magnetic field lines are stretched like rubber bands by solar energy, snap, are thrown back to Earth and reconnect, in effect creating a short circuit.

It’s this stored-up energy that powers the northern and southern lights or, in other words, causes them to dance, according to Angelopoulos.

An opposing theory has these geomagnetic events occurring much closer to Earth, about one-sixth of the way to the moon. More Themis observations are needed to resolve the debate, said David Sibeck, NASA’s project scientist.

“Finally, we have the right instruments in the right place at the right time, and it’s allowed scientists to be able to make the necessary observations to settle this heated debate once and for all,” said Nicola Fox, a Johns Hopkins University scientist who was not involved in the study.

At present, about 20 of these geomagnetic storms are being analyzed. Scientists hope to eventually learn, via this project, more about the bigger solar storms that occur about 10 times a year and can lead to far more expansive and prolonged northern and southern lights.

The five Themis spacecraft — a NASA acronym standing for Time History of Events and Macroscale Interations during Substorms — were launched aboard a single rocket last year.

I am in awe….

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So here I am just clicking away on the net waiting in anticipation to download firefox 3 in about an hour and a half. And then it hit me again…I hate to wait. Just this afternoon I had an appointment with my lawyer and as always I was there before confirming the appointment….I sat and waited trying out twitter and opera on my phone. After checking all my Google reader messages I became edgy since it was 5 minutes past the appointment just to be informed that the lawyer was still at court…Well, thanks to the friendly assistance from his PA I had no reason to blow my lid…

I am just one of those people who like things to start on time…maybe it’s because of my 10 years of working in a justice system that makes me particularly sensitive to this issue. Those days of waiting to be called to Court really gave me extra gray hair in an allready thankless job…And then of course the term African time has become the accepted as a norm rather than an excuse. I have personally never made use of it….maybe I just feel too guilty or maybe I just asbscribe to old school principles…..which sometimes reveal my closeted conservative nature….mmmm..now that’s something to ponder….

Don’t forget to try firefox 3…..

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