MarkHealey.net

If you’ve been following the news surrounding the Bisphenol A chemical used to make popular plastic bottles, such as Nalgene, I’m sure by now you’ve upgraded — or thought about upgrading — to a BPA-free Nalgene or SIGG. But what to do with a pile of old, potentially-dangerous Nalgenes? Here are a few great tips from a friend’s company, Tuxedo Ranch:

1. Use them to store loose change.
2. Drill holes in the red bottles and use as hummingbird feeders.
3. Fill with dirt and plant flowers or use as a vase.
4. Store nails, screws, and more.
5. Recycle. Many recycling centers now accept these #7 plastics.

Absolutely classic:

The Herald newspaper has condemned Zimbabwe’s neighbours as “myopic stooges” for refusing to let a cargo of Chinese weapons cross their territory to landlocked Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe is… under attack from the former coloniser and its allies. As such, Zimbabwe probably needs to arm itself more than any other country in Africa today for the simple reason that it has been targeted for destabilisation by the traditional Western rabble rousers,” the Herald said.

From the BBC.

This month’s cover story and feature in Time Magazine. The most green companies, the greenest websites, the Pentagon and more.

Excellent stuff, especially the list of websites.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has announced the results of a recount in the first two of 23 constituencies. Just to keep it interesting and in a ridiculous attempt to give the impression they’re being fair, ZANU-PF said the opposition MDC retained one of its already-won seats.

More from the BBC.

Meanwhile, Zwnews.com reports:

Independent election monitors say they have seen significant irregularities, including the illicit opening of ballot boxes, that makes the partial recount under way of Zimbabwe’s election an exercise in “futility”. As the recount enters its fifth day, and with the election commission saying it could take many more yet, foreign observers have documented concerns in many of the 23 constituencies where presidential and parliamentary votes are being counted again.

A monitor with the Southern African Development Community, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, says she witnessed tampering in two constituencies that “points to a concerted effort to rig the result in order to bring about a Mugabe ‘victory’”.

In Mberengwa West they brought the first four boxes down for counting. Each box has two of the blue ties with numbers on it that are used to seal it along with padlocks. They had a whole set of duplicates of the blue ties, with the same numbers, on the other side of the hall. The keys to the padlocks are inside envelopes sealed with wax. All the seals were broken. I can only surmise that the keys were removed and the padlocks unlocked. Then they discovered that the protocol register, which lists how many voting books were used and the numbers, was missing.

Yesterday, approximately 30% of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s undergraduate population celebrated the day “internationally recognized” as the celebration of marijuana.

I guess it’s not like they had to cut a 4 p.m. class to go do it. People are not all that busy at 4:20 p.m. in the afternoon on a Sunday.
CU police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley

Big news is this town. Via The Daily Camera.

I just read that Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister has officially accused Morgan Tsvangirai, the man leading the opposition bid for president in the country, of working with the British to bring down the Mugabe regime. Tsvangirai is therefore guilty of treason (for running for president against Mugabe).

In case you hadn’t heard, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is recounting ballots in 23 constituencies this weekend due to “anomalies” during the original count — which, easily translated into English, means “rigging the vote.” Note the ZEC never announced any results to begin with, and Zanu-PF has been in possession of the ballot boxes since the election on March 29.

And in other news, reports that Zim’s economy isn’t slowing it’s downward spiral hit the wire yesterday. Officially, the rate of inflation in February was 165,000%. Nearly the end of April and it’s well past 200,000%.

I am selling a 2001 Subaru Outback wagon. Some details:

• 2001 Subaru Outback
• 106k miles
• Brand new all-season tires, December 2007
• 4-Speed Automatic Transmission
• 22-25 City/25-29 Hwy MPG
• Rubber floor and trunk mats
• Subaru factory-installed AM/FM/Single CD/Weather band radio
• All service up-to-date, including recent 100k overhaul; all records included
• I will have the car professionally detailed before transfer of ownership
• Asking $8,500, or best offer 
• Loads of photos available at Flickr

Interested? Contact me.

The BBC reports today that South African president Thabo Mbeki has “urged patience” for the results of the Zimbabwean presidential election held last month, adding further there is “no crisis” in the country. Mbeki, on his way to Lusaka for an emergency meeting of the SADC hoping to break the presidential election deadlock, stopped in Harare to meet with President Mugabe. It’s hard to believe these two aren’t in bed together. 

Mbeki, who replaced Africa’s greatest leader, Nelson Mandela, has praised Mugabe “who is widely blamed for condoning or instigating the worst political clashes here in more than a decade.” For Mbeki to say today there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe, it’s evident he is either deaf, blind (or both) or happy with Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s handling of his “terms” in office. Zimbabwe’s inflation has surged past 100,000% — the highest peacetime inflation rate in the history of finance, millions of Zimbabweans have fled into neighboring countries seeking refuge, and those who remain are starving, suffering, and literally dying for change. 

It’s tragic knowing that this emergency meeting of the SADC isn’t going to accomplish what it set out to do, especially since Mugabe vowed not to attend.

Mugabe came to power 28 years ago in 1980 at the moment of Zimbabwe’s birth. The country, formerly the breadbasket of Africa, is home to some of the continent’s most beautiful landscapes and wildlife. While its economy is widely recognized as being at rock bottom, it’s time for Mugabe to step down and return Zimbabwe to its people who have been patient for nearly three decades.

From a family friend of ours:

A gifted Zimbabwean, now American based pro photographer, Michael
Bowles (michaeljnbowles.com), is undertaking a small appeal to all
those he knows to ask for any form of a donation to help keep alive a
little African elephant - “Zamma” (as he as been named).

Zamma was found orphaned in the African lower Zambezi valley. Efforts
were made to reintroduce him back into a herd with no luck, as a
result Conservation Lower Zambezi was burdened with looking after him
at a cost of more than US$100 per day for food and a wage for Monday -
a dedicated and devoted young man (shown in the picture below) who
looks after Zamma’s needs and keeps a daily eye on him. The David
Shepard foundation helped setup an elephant orphanage in the Kafue
National Park of Zambia late last year where Zamma is now looked
after, with 3 other orphans. The orphanage is in desparate need of
funds as the entire operation had to be relocated recently due to
heavy rains and floods which destroyed the orginal camp.

Michael is offering a signed 16×20 print of “Zamma with Monday” to
anyone who makes a donation of $100 or more. Image offered attached.
It’s a small but worthwhile effort Michael is making in exchange for a
terrific image he really loves.

If you are able to help, please contact Michael via michaeljnbowles.com.

I’ve been reading No Impact Man’s blog since he started publishing in February 2007, and have always enjoyed learning from Colin’s research and experiments. Today, he published a compilation of ways to go trash-free, and I thought I’d share them here. 

The No Impact Man is not suggesting you drop everything and do them all today, but pick a few and start changing your life. After all, it doesn’t take much to start making the world a better place. Jude and I are actively doing about 90% of the items in Colin’s list below, and it feels great.

No Impact Man’s 42 Ways to Go Trash-Free

1. No soda in cans (which means we’re probably less likely to get cancer from aspartame).
2. No water in plastic bottles (which means we get to keep our endocrines undisrupted).
3. No coffee in disposable cups (which means we don’t suffer from the morning sluggishness that comes from overnight caffeine withdrawal).
4. No throwaway plastic razors and blade cartridges (I’m staging the straightedge razor comeback).
5. Using non-disposable feminine-hygiene products that aren’t bad for women and are good for the planet.
6. No Indian food in throwaway takeout tubs.
7. No Italian food in plastic throwaway tubs.
8. No Chinese food in plastic throwaway tubs.
9. Taking our own reusable containers to takeout joints (except that now we’re eating local so this tip is out for us).
10. Admitting that we sometimes miss Indian, Italian and Chinese takeout.
11. Hopping on the scale and celebrating the loss of
    my 20-pound spare tire since I stopped eating bucketsful of Indian,
    Italian and Chinese takeout.
12. Buying milk in returnable, reusable glass bottles.
13. Shopping for honey and pickled veggies and other goods in jars only from merchants who will take back the jars and reuse them.
14. Returning egg and berry cartons to the vendors at the farmers’ market for reuse.
15. Using neither paper nor plastic bags and bringing our own reusable bags when grocery shopping.
16. Canceling our magazine and newspaper subscriptions and reading online.
17. Putting an end to the junk mail tree killing.
18. Carrying my ultra-cool reusable cup and water bottle (which is a glass jar I diverted from the landfill and got for free).
19. Carrying reusable cloths for everything from blowing my nose to drying my hands to wrapping up a purchased bagel.
20. Wiping my hands on my pants instead of using a paper towel when I forget my cloth.
21. Politely asking restaurant servers to take away
    paper and plastic napkins, placemats, straws, cups and single-serving
    containers.
22. Explaining to servers with a big smile that I am on a make-no-garbage kick.
23. Leaving servers a big tip for dealing with my
    obsessive-compulsive, make-no-garbage nonsense, since they can’t take
    the big smile to the bank.
24. Pretending McDonalds and Burger King and all their paper and plastic wrappers just don’t exist.
25. Buying no candy bars, gum, lollypops or ice cream (not even Ben and Jerry’s peanut butter cup) that is individually packaged.
26. Making my own household cleaners to avoid all the throwaway plastic bottles.
27. Using baking soda from a recyclable container to brush my teeth.
28. Using baking soda for a deodorant to avoid the plastic containers that deodorant typically comes in (cheap and works well).
29. Using baking soda for shampoo to avoid plastic shampoo bottles.
30. Using the plastic bags that other people’s newspapers are delivered in to pick up Frankie the dog’s poop.
31. Keeping a worm bin to compost our food scraps into nourishment that can be returned to the earth instead of toxins that seep from the landfills.
32. Switching to real—meaning cloth—diapers which Isabella, before she was potty-trained, liked much better.
33. Not buying anything disposable.
34. Not buying anything in packaging (and count the
    money we save because that means pretty much buy nothing unless it’s
    second hand).
35. Shopping for food only from the bulk bins and from the local farmer’s market where food is unpackaged and fresh.
36. Forgetting about prepackaged, processed food of any description.
37. Being happy that the result is that we get to eat food instead of chemicals.
38. Giving our second-hand clothes away to Housing Works or other charities.
39. Offering products we no longer need on Freecycle instead of throwing them away.
40. Collecting used paper from other people’s trash and using the other side.
41. Using old clothes for rags around the apartment instead of paper towels.
42. Talking with humor about what we’re doing because
    making a little less trash is a concrete first step everyone can take
    that leads to more and more environmental consciousness.

Instead of printing this list, save it as a bookmark and return often to try something new.