Coolest summers of 21st century could be hotter than hottest summers of 20th century

Here in Southern Ontario, we've been having a heat wave (as has been most of North America). Yesterday it was 48°C (118°F). It's been in the 40s for the last couple of days. It's starting to cool off a little bit today, but it's still 37°C (98°F).
It got me thinking about an article I read a while ago: Coolest Summers By Mid-Century Could Be Hotter Than Hottest Of 20th Century. I have asthma, so when the temperatures get up into the high 30s with lots of humidity, I feel like I can't breathe, and like I'm going to pass out. I can't imagine having to endure 48° temperatures without air conditioning. It's the only thing that has made this heat bearable. I'm sure I would have either ended up in the hospital or dead if it weren't for air conditioning.
If summers like this become the norm, and a heat wave is when the temperatures get up into the mid 50s, I don't think I'd be able to survive it.

The end of the world on December 21st 2012

I don't believe anything significant will happen on December 21st 2012, but I'm starting to hope something will because I'm getting sick and tired of the way things are run in this world. I'm getting sick and tired of governments screwing over poorer people so they can give more money to rich people. I'm sick of political leaders making laws based on their religious beliefs. I'm sick of being at the mercy of employers for the money I need to have in order to have a place to live and food to eat. I'm sick and tired of money - period. Especially never having enough of it. I'm sick and tired of loans and credit cards. I'm sick and tired of banks and corporations wanting to take what little money I do have away from me.
I'm sick and tired of all of it, and I hope this fucked up system crumbles to pieces around the people in power.

President Donald Trump Would Keep Gas Prices Low by Stealing Iraq's Oil

So, Donald Trump's plan is for the US to "reimburse" itself for going to war in Iraq by taking Iraq's oil. Reimbursed for what, exactly? It's not like Iraq owes the US anything. They didn't ask the US to come over and bomb their houses and schools. That's kind of like painting your neighbour's house when they didn't ask you to, and then telling them they owe you $500 for the paint.

Secondly, this will not bring down the prices of gas. I believe that the prices of gas will never go back down. According to Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency, peak oil could hit as early as 2014. Taking another country's oil isn't going to stop peak oil.
What we really should be doing is beginning to use some of the alternatives to oil that scientists have come up with, instead of pretending that the oil we have left will last longer than it actually will.

Lasting effects of the BP Gulf oil spill

Just because CNN isn't reporting on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico anymore, that doesn't mean the story is over.

Dead Baby Dolphin Death Toll Rises to 60 Along Gulf Coast.

Each Dead Dolphin in Gulf of Mexico Treated As Potential Evidence Against BP.

50 Times More Whales & Dolphins May Have Been Killed By Gulf Oil Spill Than Officially Reported

No Makeup Week

I missed no makeup week, but I didn't really miss it, since I never wear makeup. Still, I wanted to write something about it, even though it's 3 months late.

I never had anyone tell me, as a teenager, that I should wear makeup. I saw other girls my age wearing makeup, so I decided to try wearing some too. The only makeup I wore when I was about 12 years old was bubblegum pink lipstick. It probably looked horrible on me, too. A few times, other girls would ask me if I was wearing lipstick, and I would say "yes". Another girl asked me what colour it was, and I told her. All of this questioning about me wearing makeup made me uncomfortable about wearing it.
I tried wearing lipstick and eyeshadow in high school, but I didn't like wearing it.
Before long, I stopped wearing it altogether.

There are a lot of reasons I don't wear makeup. Mostly practical reasons. I have oily skin, and when I wear foundation, it turns into a greasy gloppy mess on my face. I tried long wearing foundation a few times, but it felt sticky.
I don't like having lipstick come off on everything, and the long wearing lipsticks dry out my lips.
I don't like how stiff and crusty my eyelashes feel when I wear mascara.
When my face gets itchy, I like to be able to scratch it without getting a lot of stuff under my nails. I touch my face a lot, and I don't want to have to worry about smudging my makeup. (For this reason, when I wear makeup, I feel like a prisoner of my own face). I don't want to have to alter the way I do everything just so I won't disturb my makeup. I'd rather not wear any.
I don't look very different with makeup than without it. It's not worth the effort and expense, to me. There are also all of the questionable chemicals that they put into it. To me, it's unnecessary exposure to potentially toxic substances.

I don't like wearing makeup, and I especially don't like having to remove it.

I don't want to start wearing makeup and start liking my face with makeup more than without it. I don't ever want to get to a point where I can't stand to look at myself without makeup.

I never understood the concept of making your makeup look like you're not wearing any. Then why wear it at all?
I don't understand why slathering your face with chemicals means you're more serious about your job.

Sometimes I still get urges to start wearing makeup. But I realize that the only reason I would be wearing it is to cover up my large pores and uneven skin tone. Apparently, because I have minor imperfections like everybody else, I'm somehow unacceptable to society.

That's mostly why I never wear makeup - I'm acceptable just the way I am.

Cosmetic pesticides banned in Ontario Canada

On April 22nd 2009, the Ontario government decided to ban cosmetic pesticides. Since then, I've heard of people going across the border to the US to get them because they don't sell them here anymore.
The thing that people don't understand is that they didn't ban pesticides because environmentalists are big meanies who don't want you to have a pretty lawn. It's because the phosphorus and nitrates in the pesticides pollute drinking water.

When you spray pesticides on your lawn, they don't magically stay there. When it rains, the rain washes the pesticides off your lawn and into the storm drains where it goes straight into Lake Ontario - which if you're not aware - is where we get our drinking water from. Once pesticides are in the drinking water, they are very difficult to remove.


According to the EPA:
In general, conventional water treatment methods used at most community water systems (CWS) – specifically coagulation-flocculation, sedimentation, and conventional filtration – do not appear to facilitate pesticide removal and transformation in finished drinking water.

It also says:

• Certain treatment technologies appear to be ineffective in removing certain pesticides in raw water.
• Some treatment technologies appear to result in the formation of transformation products which may have toxicological significance.

Link: SUMMARY OF PESTICIDE REMOVAL/TRANSFORMATION EFFICIENCIES
FROM VARIOUS DRINKING WATER TREATMENT PROCESSES



In short - even though they have treatment processes that can remove most contaminants, pesticides are very difficult to remove. Some of them make it through the treatment process and into your glass.
It's much easier and cost effective to prevent contaminants from getting into water in the first place, hence the pesticide ban.

An alternative to chemical pesticides is Scott's Eco Sense Weed B Gon. The active ingredient is Iron, which will will kill the weeds, but not the grass.

BP oil leak finally capped. But for how long?

On Thursday July 15th, 2010, BP finally managed to shut off the oil leak. I'm hoping that this will finally stop the leak once and for all, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I knew that their "top kill" plan wasn't going to work, ("top kill", "top hat", "junk shot" - clearly they have some brilliant minds at work on solving this) and I'm suspecting that this won't work either. This is why I think it isn't going to work (or more accurately, why they don't want it to work) - I was watching CBC news earlier this week, and they were talking to an oil industry expert (whose name I can't remember at the moment), and he said that his theory about why this has gone on so long is because in the US, the EPA determines fines for environmental spills by how many barrels of the substance are spilled into the environment. (Whereas here in Canada, there is a set fine per incident per day. Each day that a spill goes on is considered a separate incident, and is issued another fine). He says that BP hasn't been trying to determine how many barrels of oil per day are spilling out of the pipe because if they don't know how much has been spilled, they can negotiate a lower fine.

This theory sounds plausible to me. They clearly haven't been in any rush to cap the leak, and clearly all they care about is money.

I think what's going to happen with the new cap they've put on it (that they're presently testing to see if it can withstand the pressure) is that it's either going to stark leaking because the pressure is too high, or they're going to say they have to remove it because the pressure is too high. With a cap on the pipe, it would be possible for them to measure how much oil is leaking from it, which I don't think they want, so I don't think they have any intentions of keeping the cap in place for very long.