purl's journal

Funny and informative. Huh.

The New York Times has a good article on the Greywater Guerrillas and their new book Dam Nation.

From the story:

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Woelfle-Erskine stood in the backyard of the Haut House and explained how one of the half-dozen gray water systems there works. A pipe running from the house deposits shower and sink water into an elevated bathtub in the yard that is filled with gravel and reeds, and the roots of plants begin filtering and absorbing contaminants. The water then flows into a second, lower, tub, also containing a reedbed, before flowing into a still-lower tub of floating water hyacinths and small fish.

Scientific American has an article/slide show of 10 animals that won't exist in 10 years, unless drastic changes are made to protect them and their habitat. The biggest cause, as always, seems to be habitat loss. see the 10 animals

There's been an interesting new meme in the news recently, as a few politicians have been trying to bring into the spotlight the plight of people trying to survive on the $21 a week they receive in food stamps.

There's a really good article at the NYT by Michael Pollan (author of the Omnivore's Dilemna) called
Unhappy Meals. Its main thesis is that nutrition science, partly because of the influence of industry, has made us less healthy. Instead of concentrating on food, we now concentrate on Nutrients. So in 1977 an influential Senate Study came out and said we should cut down on red meat and dairy products because of their high saturated fat content. This freaked out those industries and they re-wrote the study to say we should eat meat and dairy products low in saturated fats.

Freddy is creating a free online comic adaptation of the favorite dystopian novel, George Orwell's 1984. Two chapters are up so far, its a really amazing work.

Excerpted from the Nation article by Earl Shorris:

...

In the film Apocalypto, which Gibson claims will make the Maya
language "cool again," there are many major roles. The lead is a

Santorum loses. Sweet!! Best moment of this election. Alas, Musgrave and Tancredo won.