this story pushed me over the edge
Sunday, May 14, 2006, 11:48 AM - General, Food
Last year I was listening to Earth Watch Radio , and this story is what pushed me over the edge to eating more organic veges. I finally moved my butt to find it, so I could share. The link at the bottom of the page, it is also interesting for more information.
A Helpful But Hazardous Harvest
Scientists clean up chemicals like PCBs with help from vegetables like pumpkins and zucchini.
By Richard Hoops
Earthwatch Radio
Some toxic chemicals that were taken out of production during the 1970s are extremely persistent and still linger in the environment. In North America, some places are still tainted by the pesticide DDT and industrial chemicals known as PCBs. Scientists are testing plants to see if they can clean up these places, and they say pumpkins and zucchini do the job pretty well.
Ken Reimer is an environmental scientist at the Royal Military College of Canada. Reimer is testing different kinds of plants as tools for cleaning up contaminated soil. He says pumpkins and zucchini are exceptionally good at dislodging chemicals that are bonded to soil particles. The plants pull the chemicals out of the soil and absorb them into their tissue. Over a period of time, they might be able to clean up some contaminated sites and make them safe to be used again.
Reimer says this use of vegetables is still experimental. But he says it's drawing attention from people who envision new uses for land that is now off limits.
"We've had a lot of interest from developers who are looking at buying brownfield sites -- former industrial sites that aren't being used right now -- and they're looking at long-term development, perhaps 10 or 15 years into the future. And so if they had a means of relatively passive remediation that may take that period of time but is not very labor intensive, not very cost intensive, this is ideal."
Reimer says this kind of garden variety clean-up would still require precautions to protect people and wildlife. The plants would need to be fenced off to keep anybody or anything from wandering away with zucchini and pumpkins that might be ripening into industrial-strength hazardous waste.
Script for Monday, October 03, 2005
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illustration friday :angels and devils
Saturday, May 13, 2006, 07:48 PM
Firstly, as I am still alone, and as I usually think about these things for a few hours, if not overnight, I have TWO today!
My first idea, I still had whales in my head from the whaless submission, I am not sure this is finished, but I'll post it in its state for now and muck with it more perhaps later:
*Oh! There's a monkey!
Then we have what I thought about after I spoke to my mother this morning. We didn't discuss the topic, but angels and devils came up somehow. That lead me to thinking about those dolls that people used to have, for example a little red riding hood doll, at the back of it's head, if you removed her bonnet, there was grandma, but if you turned her upside down, and flipped her dress over her head, there was the wolf, dressed as grandma... so that is how I got the devil sticking his little head from under his robes.
So this is an image loaded post.
I finally have, in my hot little hands, my postcards, that due to long holidays on the part of all parties, or too many people, seemed to take a very long time to finish. I have posted them on
My Blue House Store, so I am happy they are done. I also have a small pile already in the post or on the way to different people. I am sure they are generally familiar to many people, as I have posted them as illustration friday entries before.
;)
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donuts and cage beds
Friday, May 12, 2006, 08:25 PM - General
Someone just did a donut right under my window while playing loud douf douf music, as you can see from the photo, doing a donut here while it is full of cars double parked (including on the footpath), kids, animals and prostitutes... it really isn't an appropriate place to do that. (I sound old!) I thought they hit someone from the thud as they stopped.
Why was the BBC world service so depressing today, and yesterday. The highlight being the the report on "cage beds" still being used in asylums in Eastern Europe and how a 30 year old woman died in one recently because she ate her own faeces, (even though they are supposedly banned and not in use because people are generally left with no food, no water, no release). Revolting.
I spoke to the woman who runs the gallery down the road who has my work in it this afternoon, she has her own work in the gallery at the moment, it is really beautiful... they are having a signing tonight with Alain Buyse and another artist. Even though I know them, I am too scared to go alone. I don't want to answer any more questions about what I do for money at the moment.
I have already eaten two dinners: one at 6:30pm (to make up for the lunch I didn't eat) and second dinner at 7:30pm. I also put some strawberries in the freezer at 6:30 that I shall take out in about half an hour, and will blend with soymilk and a little maple syrup...
oh, such an exciting life!
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inspired! kind of...
Wednesday, May 10, 2006, 07:30 PM - Art/Design, Illustration
Last night I became automatically inspired for the sketchels.
So, considering I am completely enamoured by my dancing monkey at the moment,
I am going to reproduce him.
How will I do it?
I have just broken him up into various layers, not CMYK or anything techincal like that, but as if I was chosing particular colours to screen print him, (maybe that is a different type of techical?) I actually haven't finshed, because i don't want the marks on his body done by a computer pen.
I am going to screen print a couple on canvas (primed) and another 20 or so on paper, and send one to the sketchel people and sell the rest.
Why the hell not!
I wanted to print him for a while, so that is what I am going to do.
So there.
"The banshee" is screaming over the road, the joy of having the window open!
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a bit of sunshine
Tuesday, May 9, 2006, 09:23 PM - General, Relationships, Work (The Man)
So I thought I might add a little bit of Sydney sunshine from when we were there. This was taken
off the side of a boat, this is my man under the water, swimming just off Lady Jane's Beach (yes, the nudist beach)... nothing against nudists, but some of them do some strange stuff while prancing up and down the beach...
ANYWAY, I digress.
I drove, caught the métro and walked for a total of 3.5 hours today. It really wasn't nice, considering 2.45 hours of that was actually driving. AND considering I am not paid to drive to teach some bugger English.
Plus, to make it worse, I was horrified with the smoggy looking sky as I drove back to work to give them back their stinking car. It rained all day yeterday! How could it still look that bad!?
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