Scary Tree
and my 100th post!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
40 days in the life of Emily
I'm late discovering this, but I'm glad I did.
Spend 40 days in the life of a Planned Parenthood clinic worker here. OK, it's actually written by a handful of clinic workers...why? To protect them. Read about what they face every single day work day (and some days at home, too).
Spend 40 days in the life of a Planned Parenthood clinic worker here. OK, it's actually written by a handful of clinic workers...why? To protect them. Read about what they face every single day work day (and some days at home, too).
Hello, world.
We're in the middle of something here at Planned Parenthood (where I work). The anti-choice people call it "40 days for life." I call it another day at the office.
Basically, the anti-choice groups have decided to picket more than 80 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country for 40 days. September 26-November 4.
I'm used to picketers. Planned Parenthood is used to picketers. It bothers me very much that the picketers aren't just picketing our clinics -- that they're really about making it impossible for women to get health care. But...we don't let them faze us. As for me, the more picketers there are, the harder I want to work.
So, I've decided to do something a little different. I'm inviting you come to work with me. Seriously. Every day, I'm posting to this blog -- some notes about my day, some photos, some video. I want you to know what it's like to work for Planned Parenthood. ... read more
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Hip Hop Violin
I don't usually (never, actually) link to music on this blog, but I found this and thought it was pretty cool.
I found this new (to me) blog, called Ancora Imparo ("I'm still learning"...in Italian), in a funny small-world way. A friend forwarded my previous post about water bottles to someone she knows in the U.K. That friend sent her a link to this post about water bottles. So here's introducing Ancora Imparo.
I found this new (to me) blog, called Ancora Imparo ("I'm still learning"...in Italian), in a funny small-world way. A friend forwarded my previous post about water bottles to someone she knows in the U.K. That friend sent her a link to this post about water bottles. So here's introducing Ancora Imparo.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Evil evil bottled water
This not-so-subtly titled post is to encourage you to click on the Carbon Conscious Consumer badge to the right (or, right here), and pledge to stop drinking bottled water (if you make the pledge, you get a 25% discount on a very nice reusable water bottle…here’s the one that travels with me).
“We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)
Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water.”
For a specific example, look at Fiji water:
Transportation:
“The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says “from the islands of Fiji.” Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji’s two-lane King’s Highway."
Pollution:
"The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity–something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.”
People:
“in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.”
You decide:
“Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it’s reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just “Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I’m about to spend?” but “Does the value equal the impact I’m about to leave behind?”
Simply asking the question takes the carelessness out of the transaction. And once you understand where the water comes from, and how it got here, it’s hard to look at that bottle in the same way again.”
I’ve been aware that plastic water bottles have a high energy cost, both to create the bottles and to transport them, but I never thought of it in moral terms until I read this very long article.
Here are some excerpts:
“We’re moving 1 billion bottles of water around a week in ships, trains, and trucks in the United States alone. That’s a weekly convoy equivalent to 37,800 18-wheelers delivering water. (Water weighs 81/3 pounds a gallon. It’s so heavy you can’t fill an 18-wheeler with bottled water–you have to leave empty space.)
Meanwhile, one out of six people in the world has no dependable, safe drinking water.”
For a specific example, look at Fiji water:
Transportation:
“The label on a bottle of Fiji Water says “from the islands of Fiji.” Journey to the source of that water, and you realize just how extraordinary that promise is. From New York, for instance, it is an 18-hour plane ride west and south (via Los Angeles) almost to Australia, and then a four-hour drive along Fiji’s two-lane King’s Highway."
Pollution:
"The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity–something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.”
People:
“in Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.”
You decide:
“Once you understand the resources mustered to deliver the bottle of water, it’s reasonable to ask as you reach for the next bottle, not just “Does the value to me equal the 99 cents I’m about to spend?” but “Does the value equal the impact I’m about to leave behind?”
Simply asking the question takes the carelessness out of the transaction. And once you understand where the water comes from, and how it got here, it’s hard to look at that bottle in the same way again.”
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Sent this today...
Dear Speaker Pelosi,
Congratulations on the progress so far in achieving job discrimination protection for all Americans. Please stick to the original principle of equality for ALL. It would be a net loss -- of equality and credibility -- if this bill were to exclude transgendered people. Imagine how abandoned you would feel if you were a transgendered individual and ENDA passed by leaving you out of its protections. I don't want anyone in our country to feel so neglected, and I'm sure you don't either.
Respectfully,
Me
Update: An end-of-day comment...wow, that is an incredibly polite letter. If she changes her mind, I'm sure it will be due to my good manners.
Congratulations on the progress so far in achieving job discrimination protection for all Americans. Please stick to the original principle of equality for ALL. It would be a net loss -- of equality and credibility -- if this bill were to exclude transgendered people. Imagine how abandoned you would feel if you were a transgendered individual and ENDA passed by leaving you out of its protections. I don't want anyone in our country to feel so neglected, and I'm sure you don't either.
Respectfully,
Me
Update: An end-of-day comment...wow, that is an incredibly polite letter. If she changes her mind, I'm sure it will be due to my good manners.
Monday, October 1, 2007
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