http://www.freerice.com
Go check this out. Go build your vocab, or prove to yourself how smart you already are. While you're at it, earn some rice to be donated by the businesses at the bottom of the page through the UN to feed hungry folks around the world.
Seriously, how many times in a week are you going to be able to so much, have fun doing it and still make a positive change?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Bee-ware
bees+ flowers = honey, fruit, other edibles
no bees + flowers = humans having to pollinate another way.....or starve
The fact that the European honeybee, an introduced species in this country, is being affected by some virus that is devastating its numbers is not exactly news. What may be news to some city-dwelling, ever-blind eyed humans is just how dependant the farming community has become on these little devastators for pollination of the massive number of crops we non-farming sorts consume every year.
What do I mean by calling bees devastators? I also said they were an introduced, i.e., not native, species. When honeybees were first brought here by Western European settlers, for honey mostly, but also because the groups brought their own fruit trees as well, the bees ended up making a real mess for the native pollinators: bumblebees, some wasps, a number of beetles, and a few bird species. We actually lost a variety of species due to lack of food availability, caused by the introduction of the dear honeybee. Our own North American honey bee species, not big honey producers comparatively, were crowded out, and no longer exist.
Strike one.
After taking the space meant for local pollinators, the European honeybee weaseled its way into the heart of the growing American public with its mild mannered ways, and prolific amounts of honey and royal jelly to sweeten our lives. Until sugar processing became more common, honey was a gift of the gods and to heck with the occasional sting. We humans got greedy though. Even with sugar on our table and in almost every food, it wasn't enough. We had to keep tinkering with genes and breeding and interweaving what we did not and do not understand and, voila! The Africanized honeybee.
Massively more protective of its territory, harder than heck to handle for domestic use, and violent and persist ant in its attack on any interloper, we shrugged off its appearance in our world. Yet...despite lessons shown, we failed to learn, and kept trying to interbreed where Nature did not intend it. As a result, humans have introduced a fatal virus to the simple honeybee which now devastates its populations, leaving niches throughout the country ready to be filled by the far more aggressive Africanized bee. It used to be rare for a person to die from bee stings- no longer.
Strike two.
Just saw a show about this situation, and realised how incredibly blind humans are still being. China managed to kill off its honeybees and other pollinators with pesticides, and now fruit tree farmers are quite literally having to pollinate their own trees, just so fruit will be produced. It is a back-breaking and unsustainable method. Humans screwed with the complex and fragile system Nature had created and humans will pay with starvation ultimately. (And just so you know, if a pear farmer in this country had to do what these folks are doing, one pear would cost you about $30. That's not by the pound.)
There are cycles like this popping up, and finally being recognised, all over the world. Our population is too big and the food sources are going to dry up, mostly due to our own stupidity. Humanity will not go out with a bang, but rather a whimper, from hunger, and maybe realization. We have done it all to ourselves, due to a lack of foresight. Killing off whales has lead to several other species being threatened with extinction, all because there aren't enough whales to keep the krill and plankton in check........and guess who's to blame for that?
What an irony. Nature made things in balance, a plan and a place for everything- even us at one time. Our ARROGANCE, our gluttony, our religiously-based idiotic belief that we are superior to all life and can use what ever we want,to whatever degree we want will be our own destruction. The cycle is started, and frankly, I can't see anyway to stop it. It isn't a matter of IF it will happen, that the whole of humanity will pass as did the dinosaurs......it is a matter of WHEN.
Strike three?
We're out.
no bees + flowers = humans having to pollinate another way.....or starve
The fact that the European honeybee, an introduced species in this country, is being affected by some virus that is devastating its numbers is not exactly news. What may be news to some city-dwelling, ever-blind eyed humans is just how dependant the farming community has become on these little devastators for pollination of the massive number of crops we non-farming sorts consume every year.
What do I mean by calling bees devastators? I also said they were an introduced, i.e., not native, species. When honeybees were first brought here by Western European settlers, for honey mostly, but also because the groups brought their own fruit trees as well, the bees ended up making a real mess for the native pollinators: bumblebees, some wasps, a number of beetles, and a few bird species. We actually lost a variety of species due to lack of food availability, caused by the introduction of the dear honeybee. Our own North American honey bee species, not big honey producers comparatively, were crowded out, and no longer exist.
Strike one.
After taking the space meant for local pollinators, the European honeybee weaseled its way into the heart of the growing American public with its mild mannered ways, and prolific amounts of honey and royal jelly to sweeten our lives. Until sugar processing became more common, honey was a gift of the gods and to heck with the occasional sting. We humans got greedy though. Even with sugar on our table and in almost every food, it wasn't enough. We had to keep tinkering with genes and breeding and interweaving what we did not and do not understand and, voila! The Africanized honeybee.
Massively more protective of its territory, harder than heck to handle for domestic use, and violent and persist ant in its attack on any interloper, we shrugged off its appearance in our world. Yet...despite lessons shown, we failed to learn, and kept trying to interbreed where Nature did not intend it. As a result, humans have introduced a fatal virus to the simple honeybee which now devastates its populations, leaving niches throughout the country ready to be filled by the far more aggressive Africanized bee. It used to be rare for a person to die from bee stings- no longer.
Strike two.
Just saw a show about this situation, and realised how incredibly blind humans are still being. China managed to kill off its honeybees and other pollinators with pesticides, and now fruit tree farmers are quite literally having to pollinate their own trees, just so fruit will be produced. It is a back-breaking and unsustainable method. Humans screwed with the complex and fragile system Nature had created and humans will pay with starvation ultimately. (And just so you know, if a pear farmer in this country had to do what these folks are doing, one pear would cost you about $30. That's not by the pound.)
There are cycles like this popping up, and finally being recognised, all over the world. Our population is too big and the food sources are going to dry up, mostly due to our own stupidity. Humanity will not go out with a bang, but rather a whimper, from hunger, and maybe realization. We have done it all to ourselves, due to a lack of foresight. Killing off whales has lead to several other species being threatened with extinction, all because there aren't enough whales to keep the krill and plankton in check........and guess who's to blame for that?
What an irony. Nature made things in balance, a plan and a place for everything- even us at one time. Our ARROGANCE, our gluttony, our religiously-based idiotic belief that we are superior to all life and can use what ever we want,to whatever degree we want will be our own destruction. The cycle is started, and frankly, I can't see anyway to stop it. It isn't a matter of IF it will happen, that the whole of humanity will pass as did the dinosaurs......it is a matter of WHEN.
Strike three?
We're out.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Gratitude
I am grateful for my health....for the roof over my head. For my family, blood and not.....For my friends and what binds them to me. I look in grief on my world sometimes, only to be reminded now and again by things outside myself that I am wealthy beyond words.
An acquaintance of mine, fellow fan of of one particular band, is facing his own mortality, and there is nothing anyone can really do. There is no cure for MS, only things to help one cope a little longer in this life. He has been writing things lately that make me think he wants to give up this fight of his, and it saddens me horribly. He has always been a feisty fellow, someone with a strong zest for life, even when faced with a shortened one.
We each must face death eventually, and most of us don't do it with a whole lot of grace. There is a certain level of fear in most of us about the unknown, and death is probably the biggest unknown there is. The only thing I can tell anyone is to hold onto whatever belief you have about the afterlife, because it is what can give you comfort as the time creeps closer....and it does, for all of us. Wondering if you are right matters not, because if what is there is truly oblivion, no one will ever know. If faith of any kind makes your life better here, as long as you harm none in the doing, then that faith has served its purpose.
I wish I could offer my friend more than just parables and condolences. Sometimes, one can do only so much. The walk must be faced alone at times. He has hit one of those times, and must find whatever path he will choose on his own. For myself, this is one of the times I find that words fail me. Nothing I say or do will make any real changes for him. Ultimately, he will be the one to change things.
I've said it maybe too much in this blog, but I cannot emphasize enough: appreciate what you have. No matter the darkness around you, you are far richer than you may think. When the world starts getting you down, look around with open eyes. A moment's pain can be waylaid by realising you have support all around you.
namaste
An acquaintance of mine, fellow fan of of one particular band, is facing his own mortality, and there is nothing anyone can really do. There is no cure for MS, only things to help one cope a little longer in this life. He has been writing things lately that make me think he wants to give up this fight of his, and it saddens me horribly. He has always been a feisty fellow, someone with a strong zest for life, even when faced with a shortened one.
We each must face death eventually, and most of us don't do it with a whole lot of grace. There is a certain level of fear in most of us about the unknown, and death is probably the biggest unknown there is. The only thing I can tell anyone is to hold onto whatever belief you have about the afterlife, because it is what can give you comfort as the time creeps closer....and it does, for all of us. Wondering if you are right matters not, because if what is there is truly oblivion, no one will ever know. If faith of any kind makes your life better here, as long as you harm none in the doing, then that faith has served its purpose.
I wish I could offer my friend more than just parables and condolences. Sometimes, one can do only so much. The walk must be faced alone at times. He has hit one of those times, and must find whatever path he will choose on his own. For myself, this is one of the times I find that words fail me. Nothing I say or do will make any real changes for him. Ultimately, he will be the one to change things.
I've said it maybe too much in this blog, but I cannot emphasize enough: appreciate what you have. No matter the darkness around you, you are far richer than you may think. When the world starts getting you down, look around with open eyes. A moment's pain can be waylaid by realising you have support all around you.
namaste
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Life Lessons
I wouldn't normally write about things like this here, or anywhere online, but I am kind of at a loss right now. My step mom Mary went thru surgery earlier this year to remove the top lobe of her right lung. Now, only a few months later, a couple of new nodes have appeared, and, well, survival odds from lung cancer is never very good.
Whatever this is, benign or malignant, it may not matter. She is not up to another operation, or any of the other standard approaches to cancer treatment. She has another complication: dementia that was compounded by the anesthesia from the last operation. To boot, she has always been slight, and has lost nearly 20 lbs since the operation. She will not survive. It doesn't take an oncologist to put it all together.
I have faced cancer now too many times, and people's grasping at straws is the really hard part. My dad truly loves this woman with all his heart, and to lose her is going to be a real blow. He is a very healthy active 86 year old, and I think I am more stressed out by what this will do to him than what I know will be Mary's outcome. Is that wrong?
One person's life is not worth more than another, but I think my step sister and I both knew pretty early on that her mom was going to be heading down a long road, and we all knew where it would end. How, and how long, well, are pretty much up for grabs at this moment. I am a firm believer that quality of life is far more important than quantity. Out of fear of the unknown, we cling to life as though it were some kind of great possession. Truly, I tell any with the ears to hear, dying is easy. It is stepping thru a doorway. Being here, in this illusion, trying to suss out how to work thru all the crap we put ourselves thru, that's the hard part.
Watching a parent pass over is rough. Nothing anyone tells you will prepare you for it, period. I think I am remembering a lot of the rough times I went thru with my own mom, and it is tainting how I react to this. I can't take my father's fear or pain away. I can only be there to take up the slack on the other stuff, so he can have time to deal with what matters most to him. I have managed to put myself in the fight-or-flight mode this evening, and get a headache out of it in the meanwhile.
I am going to go do something simple, for me, and try to forget for awhile that this journey is far from over.
You see? This is why we look for someone else to walk thru this world with. Things like this are so much easier when one has another to help share the burden.
How I survive this crap alone, I do not know.
Maybe I am made of kryptonite.
Whatever this is, benign or malignant, it may not matter. She is not up to another operation, or any of the other standard approaches to cancer treatment. She has another complication: dementia that was compounded by the anesthesia from the last operation. To boot, she has always been slight, and has lost nearly 20 lbs since the operation. She will not survive. It doesn't take an oncologist to put it all together.
I have faced cancer now too many times, and people's grasping at straws is the really hard part. My dad truly loves this woman with all his heart, and to lose her is going to be a real blow. He is a very healthy active 86 year old, and I think I am more stressed out by what this will do to him than what I know will be Mary's outcome. Is that wrong?
One person's life is not worth more than another, but I think my step sister and I both knew pretty early on that her mom was going to be heading down a long road, and we all knew where it would end. How, and how long, well, are pretty much up for grabs at this moment. I am a firm believer that quality of life is far more important than quantity. Out of fear of the unknown, we cling to life as though it were some kind of great possession. Truly, I tell any with the ears to hear, dying is easy. It is stepping thru a doorway. Being here, in this illusion, trying to suss out how to work thru all the crap we put ourselves thru, that's the hard part.
Watching a parent pass over is rough. Nothing anyone tells you will prepare you for it, period. I think I am remembering a lot of the rough times I went thru with my own mom, and it is tainting how I react to this. I can't take my father's fear or pain away. I can only be there to take up the slack on the other stuff, so he can have time to deal with what matters most to him. I have managed to put myself in the fight-or-flight mode this evening, and get a headache out of it in the meanwhile.
I am going to go do something simple, for me, and try to forget for awhile that this journey is far from over.
You see? This is why we look for someone else to walk thru this world with. Things like this are so much easier when one has another to help share the burden.
How I survive this crap alone, I do not know.
Maybe I am made of kryptonite.
Monday, October 08, 2007
From a Filter fan.....
If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?”
Wow. What a wonderful way of putting that. A kiddo on the Filter myspace site. Quoted, so obviously not his, but hey.....very intuitive. Think I will borrow it.
Wow. What a wonderful way of putting that. A kiddo on the Filter myspace site. Quoted, so obviously not his, but hey.....very intuitive. Think I will borrow it.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
self realization?
I have long wondered just why in this life I seem to be unable to find a relationship that I am willing to work at. I think in a moment of frustration, I have just come to an understanding about myself. I am too strong.
what I am looking for in this world is a man who is capable of giving me the same kind of love and support that he wants to get. Doesn't seem to be a really common trait in males. They all want to be mothered- or at least the ones who come to me.
I get tired of standing on my own and having to be the one who can face trial after trial after trial without falling down. I am really tired of doing it alone too.....
In the last week now, three different sets of friends, none of whom I would ever have turned down to help, have come to me. I have often described myself as a bartender- everyone wants to talk about their whoas, but no one offers to listens in return. If I served and charged for alcohol, at least I could make a living at it!
Seriously, every once in a great while I start understanding more of me. People see me as this tremendously vast reservoir of strength, failing to realize that even a reservoir must be refilled now and then. I do not seem, to me anyway, to get much back from what I give out. I have to wonder sometimes where it is I get enough of this to take care of me on top of it all. I guess that's why I am a bit of a monk. Time alone is the only regeneration tool I have.
Perhaps therein is the bigger problem. Not a whole lot of guys understand a woman needing time away from them. It feels like rejection to them, and it is tough to explain to someone how much of a drain the world is sometimes, without it sounding as though that person is part of the problem. Somewhere, there has got to be a guy strong enough to let me be the healer I am , able to let me be exactly what I need to be, and yet be capable of being there when the world crushes me a little too much. I've got a feeling he might have to be a saint......
(day or so later- sorry if I sound whiny. I was. Exhaustion can do that. I occasionally could use someone to make chicken soup for me too. Everyone does.)
what I am looking for in this world is a man who is capable of giving me the same kind of love and support that he wants to get. Doesn't seem to be a really common trait in males. They all want to be mothered- or at least the ones who come to me.
I get tired of standing on my own and having to be the one who can face trial after trial after trial without falling down. I am really tired of doing it alone too.....
In the last week now, three different sets of friends, none of whom I would ever have turned down to help, have come to me. I have often described myself as a bartender- everyone wants to talk about their whoas, but no one offers to listens in return. If I served and charged for alcohol, at least I could make a living at it!
Seriously, every once in a great while I start understanding more of me. People see me as this tremendously vast reservoir of strength, failing to realize that even a reservoir must be refilled now and then. I do not seem, to me anyway, to get much back from what I give out. I have to wonder sometimes where it is I get enough of this to take care of me on top of it all. I guess that's why I am a bit of a monk. Time alone is the only regeneration tool I have.
Perhaps therein is the bigger problem. Not a whole lot of guys understand a woman needing time away from them. It feels like rejection to them, and it is tough to explain to someone how much of a drain the world is sometimes, without it sounding as though that person is part of the problem. Somewhere, there has got to be a guy strong enough to let me be the healer I am , able to let me be exactly what I need to be, and yet be capable of being there when the world crushes me a little too much. I've got a feeling he might have to be a saint......
(day or so later- sorry if I sound whiny. I was. Exhaustion can do that. I occasionally could use someone to make chicken soup for me too. Everyone does.)
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