This is quite something. Wheat.

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Lose your comb? Don’t worry about it. It’ll biodegrade. Buy wheat guitar picks. What an brilliantly cool idea. Browse the site and be amazed.

Posted in Solution | No Comments »

And over here…

Sunday, February 8th, 2009

Whilst waiting for Lynda.com to solve a glitch it’s having, I noted a couple of links I saved for review. (I’m strictly limiting myself; no more piles of crap to wade through, no no. Not for this girl. Tidy computer is a happy and productive one.)

First was a list of 10 disposable things you never have to buy again. To wit: bottled water {duh}, diapers, air filters, paper towels, wrapping paper, individually wrapped foods (ie: per-portion foods), take-out and lunch food, feminine products, furniture, takeout chopsticks {huh. hadn’t thought about that. will do}

The next was China’s top 10 music singles from 2008. I get a kick out of this stuff. I especially liked the “screw the corporate life, it’s messing with your mind, get back to the family and basics” riff from Jay Chou (”The Rice Aroma”) and I thought for a moment I recognized Zhang Liangying “Painted Heart” as it’s was from the movie “Painted Skin” but I’d confused that with the quite different movie, The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway).

Posted in Film, Musique, Solution | No Comments »

This drug war thing

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

This morning whilst taking a brief Twitter break between work projects I notice a Tweet:

The article is pretty comprehensive. Things you don’t think about. Like how did this whole thing with illegal drugs (because there are plenty of legal ones still around; let’s not kid ourselves) evolve? The article focuses mostly on marijuana. Turns out the reasons are mostly in the familiar strains (let’s hum that tune): race issues, corporate profit, manipulating average citizen’s fears.

Here’s my take. I think the whole drug war thing is a huge rip-off. It solves nothing. It’s going nowhere. It pads the pockets of a lot of people in a lot of places who have no interest in it ending because their paychecks would be gone then, too. It has precious little to do with angst over human misery.

Do I think illegal drugs are blanket, across the board okee dokee? Nope. But neither do I think that legally prescribable drugs bring no problems in their wake. And, hello!: alcohol and cigarettes? They’re legal. Why? I’ve had friends who’ve gone awry from getting out of whack with all three classes of drugs (illegal, legal, and the “non-drugs”, alcohol/cigs.)

I don’t have several hours to articulate my thoughts on this topic, and no rare visitor to these pages is going to take the time to read it in any case.

If I had to put it all in a nutshell, this would be it. What’s being done isn’t working and never will. There should be a measured move toward legalizing “illegal” drugs (and start with marijuana), and tax the hell out of it. And take those funds, a dedicated minimum amount, a generous dedicated minimum amount, and set up rehabs all over. There sure as hell aren’t enough resources now for people with problems that do want to quit.

People have been getting high since before Adam and Eve and aren’t going to stop any time soon. Some people don’t let it ruin their lives. Some people do. What idiocy and waste and arrogance to think that’s going to change.

Find what works. Do that. Repeat.

Posted in Health, Life, Solution, Urp | No Comments »

Playpumps – a simple great idea for a complex difficult problem

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Playpumps is the use of merry-go-rounds to power water pumps. Water-borne diseases are pandemic where clean drinking water is not available. Playpumps has the goal of installing 4000 playpumps in sub-Saharan Africa by 2010. Donations are accepted. Follow Playpumps on Twitter.

Posted in Solution | No Comments »