ddrummer realtime: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

The Washington Post reports this morning on the bottled water marketing phenomenon, noting that “the bottled-water industry is engaged in an intense effort to convince Americans that the stuff in bottles is substantially different from the stuff out of the tap.“But empirical tests have repeatedly shown that they are generally the same. In blind taste tests, many people who swear they can differentiate between bottled-water brands and tap water fail to spot the differences, and studies have shown that both are fine to drink, and both occasionally can have quality problems.”And, the Post writes, “There is abundant irony in such marketing: The supply of clean drinking water across America and in many other countries is an underappreciated scientific and technological achievement that in many ways rivals putting a man on the moon. Trillions of dollars have been spent to get clean drinking water to people at virtually no cost -- and it is people in precisely these countries who seem willing to pay premiums of 1,000 percent to 10,000 percent for bottled water.“As the wealthiest billion people on the planet increasingly turn to bottled water, moreover, the poorest billion have no little or access to clean water.”And there are additional ironies. For example, in Fiji the bottled water business helps to fund efforts to develop an infrastructure that will bring better quality water to local residents. In many American cities, however, consumer preferences for bottled water over the tap variety means that confidence has been eroded in the local infrastructure that puts free water into the pipes.

MorningNewsBeat

Sunday, June 29, 2008

i look down at my hands, like they were mirrors.

Quote:Wed 25 Jun ∞ PermalinkFor those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.End quote.—Charles Bukowski (via Wikiquote)

i look down at my hands, like they were mirrors.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

i look down at my hands, like they were mirrors.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Saturday, June 28, 2008

11:00PM...still discussing diabetes etc.!

The 100 Thing Challenge - TIME

The 100 Thing Challenge, a grass-roots movement in which otherwise seemingly normal folks are pledging to whittle down their possessions to a mere 100 items.

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The Itch That Won't Go Away

A woman whose head itched so bad that she scratched through her scalp and into her brain... What it really means to itch.

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Friday, June 27, 2008

The Avant Gardener

With or without flowers, the floral designer Daniel Ost creates art.

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Albania Custom Fades: Woman as the Family Man

The sworn virgin is a disappearing ritual in Albania, as sexual equality and modernity have come to the country.

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Methinks roses oftenest display their bright
colors which invariably attract all eyes and be-
tray them, against a dark ground, as the dark
green or the shady recesses of other bushes and
copses, where they show to best advantage.
Their enemies do not spare the open flower for
an hour. Hence, if for no other reason, their
buds are most beautiful. Their promise of per-
fect and dazzling beauty, when their buds are
just beginning to expand, beauty which they can
hardly contain, as in most youths, commonly sur-
passes the fulfillment of their expanded flowers.
The color shows fairest and brightest in the bud.
The expanded flower has no higher or deeper
tint than the swelling bud exposed. This raised
a dangerous expectation. The season when wild
roses are in bloom should have some preemi-
nence, I think.

HDT