"Sometimes I feel like a farmer during a war, someone who doesn't know very much about it and carries on digging, hoping for rain. But just the last few days I've had this terrible feeling of... doom. It's a, er, biblical, kind of Old Testament feeling. I'm an atheist, but I was suddenly thinking of those stories of the flood and punishment. Because we've become unbelievably greedy and destructive." Helen Mirren interviewed by Simon Garfield, The Independent (London), 25 November 1990, The Sunday Review Pages, Pg 27

This woman is amazing- in so many ways.  and she expresses here a feeling that has been hanging over me for months.  At one point, I had to give up listening to the news and turn my head every time I  walked past a newspaper.  Some days I feel as if that's still my best option; I have to give something up or I'll have to give up my hope.  The more attention I pay to the state of politics, or the state of the planet, or the state of general human relations, the less I feel like trying.  I want to throw myself into a heaping pile of hedonism.  

I have to keep reminding myself, however, that doomsayers have been around as long as man has been around.  The difference is, they are now CONSTANTLY IN YOUR FACE... Screaming at you not from street corners, wearing rags and lice and sandwich boards.  Now they are on every every screen in every room in every house.  They are on our handhelds and the ones who scream the loudest (with the scariest messages) are the ones whose voices reverberate even in the digital universe. The echoes of our speech, every word we put out digitally, is read and re-read, and words that were said decades, centuries ago and now being dragged out into the light and tested for gravity.  In some ways, this is good.  In some ways, it is tragic, because no matter what the comment, everyone has something to say about it, and it's not always the original interpretation that carries across the web.  Even current events (perhaps even ESPECIALLY current events) are taken and repurposed before they're even digested.  Everyone is busy polishing shit and photographing it from a different angle, thinking a change in lighting or angle proves the original intent was different.  It becomes overwhelming.  And if we listen too much to the tragedy of miscommunication, we become doomsayers ourselves.  

Humanity has survived this long.  If we fail to survive this millenium, we do so of our own accord, because we failed to find our better natures, we failed to shut out the doomsayers.  We found comfort in avarice.  I, for one, am definitely hoping for survival.  I just need to learn to listen for the voices outside the doom.

A drop of 2% in our body's water levels can cause trouble focusing, reading small print (like on this screen) and problems doing math. That is because our brain is 95% water, and even mild dehydration can cause problems with the basic electrical functioning of the neurons. It can also cause fatigue, hunger, and causes problems with metabolism regulation.

According to www.freedrinkingwater.com about 75% of us (and by us I mean Americans) suffer from at least mild dehydration most of the time. Really? I have a tap, right there in my kitchen. I am a firm believer in drinking water and lots of it. But I am probably a little dehydrated as well. Right now I am thirsty, which is a sure sign of dehydration.

So, why, as a free country where water is readily available, do we avoid it so strenuously? We'd rather have a sugary drink, or flavor, of some kind. Some of us persist on coffee alone, or soda alone, while rarely allowing water to pass our lips unless there is absolutely no other choice.

Some people cite pollution. Others cite the cost of "clean water". These two arguments amount to the same thing. Some state they simply don't like it. "Why should I hydrate with water when I can drink Gatorade and hydrate just as well?"

The truth is, when you drink sugary liquids, it takes water to process the calories, which makes many of those liquids dehydratingas well as adding unnecessary calories to your diet. No wonder Americans have trouble keeping their weight down!

We not only need to drink more water, we need to make sure our water supplies stay clean. A great site (an fun to explore) regarding the necessity of clean water (and the methods we must employ to keep it that way) is Waterlife, about the Great Lakes and the terrible pollution causing one of the major water supplies for the eastern half of the United States to disappear.

A novel idea...

The trashpit...
A giant plastic monster (no, not Gojira!) emerges from the swirling vortex of plastic and sweeps across America, eating small children and demanding environmental reform...

Seriously, folks, this stuff takes longer to degrade than plutonium and is just an harmful to our environment as nuclear waste is to our bodies. Why are we choking our oceans? Oil spills, trash, how would we feel if the fish came flopping up onto land and started drilling for... whatever it is fish eat (they wouldn't be drilling for energy sources... some of Gaia's creatures are smarter than others) and dropping their refuse in your home? In your OXYGEN SUPPLY? What a sad, sorry state of affairs...

I am so tired. It is exhausting trying to run the world! And, as an American citizen, it is my duty to police what everyone else is doing, right? By providing our military might to these poor countries, we provide the opportunities for them to focus on scientific and philosophical advances, right? And because we saved them from whatever was threatening them, those advances belong in part to us, right?

Sounds like imperialism to me!

I support our troops; they are doing what they are told, they are doing their jobs, and most of them are doing just fine; they are not setting out to hurt anyone. But somewhere, up the chain of command, there comes a point where responsibility for actions kicks in. I'm not saying there's a table of evil men sitting around somewhere making these decisions; I'm saying this way of thinking has become indoctorinated. We never stop to think about what we're doing. In a country based on the principles of freedom, religious and otherwise, we set out to carry "our view" across the globe. We use everything we have to change the world around us to suit our needs; military might, of course, commercialism (have you READ some of the psychology that goes into the simple message of "ours is better than theirs?)our very words are designed to let us feel like we're doing the world a favor. Instead we spread a hyper-materialism and uber-Americanism that has edged our own populace to become a culture of drug-addled consumers while we gleefully eliminate anything we don't understand (how can they be HAPPY when they don't HAVE anything? Therefore they must not be HAPPY... let's make them happy) not understanding that we ourselves aren't happy... we're complacent.

We have a history in this country of criminalizing those things which bring us pleasure, and pushing those principles and economic theories which make our lives darker and more difficult. I don't know whether this is part of our puritanical heritage or simply the result of handing our lives, bodies and souls over to industry (who can't make much money off of pot, because, lets face it, anyone can grow it!)

I say, GROW IT! Tax it! Fund our medical system! Use it to help people who are depressed, Bipolar, in pain! Let people be playful, creative, use a drug which stimulates and relaxes and has no heavy side effects!

http://cloudfanatic.blogspot.com/

Another truly beautiful, yet horrifying spectacle of nature graced this fine planet today. The city of Sydney in Australia was blackened out by an incredible red/orange glowing sandstorm. Creating a thick warm cloud over the city.

Enjoy these stunning images that have been uploaded recently to the photo sharing website Flickr. If you click on any of the images it will take you to the photographer's stream so you can leave a comment or read their personal log of the 'event.'

This is something to pay attention to: what's been changing in your world? What's been changing in your neighborhood? This spring, here in Idaho, we had rains every day until the end of June. Felt sort of like the wet season in the Mojave, as a matter of fact. But this is not the Mojave. This is high desert, a completely different ecology. And it's changing.

http://thecommonstudio.com/index.php?/project/greenaid/

Lets lay waste to concrete! Let's re-create a world in which lush greenery and fertile imagination replace the stark, sterile darkness of modern cities!

Let's install one of these bad boys on every every street corner and label them "Earth Candy"- Let's see what evolves.