Help Pass Senate Bill 1738 - The Protect Our Children Act

Our children are our future and their future's are being threatened by the thousands of online sexual predators out there. Even less encouraging, the personal contacts that children have within their families, schools, etc., is getting even more dangerous.
Unfortunately, if parents were more diligent in monitoring their children's accessibility on the internet, there would be fewer problems. But, that problem just becomes more and more common, as both parents work more or single parent households.
So, I see Senate Bill 1738 as a step in right direction for making funds more available for law enforcement to buckle down on these perverts!
Please, review the information recently shared on an Oprah episode, and then let your conscious be your guide.

The Eco-Builder

Bill Callahan is so cool. He provides some easy, common sense ideas on repairing and reusing used lumber. Here's a video with some of his suggestions on ways to enhance sustainability.

Nurses' Children, Cancer, & Birth Defects

The EWG (Environmental Working Group), has published a survey regarding substances that nurses' are exposed to, and how they may be asociated to health problems in their children. Here's a small portion of the article, but you can read the whole thing by clicking here.

Part of article:
Analysis of survey data shows that nurses' reported exposures during pregnancy to hazardous drugs, housekeeping chemicals, anesthetic gases, and disinfecting and sterilizing agents are associated with increased incidence of birth defects among their children.

Children born to nurses reporting high exposures to these chemicals (at least once a week for nine months) were up to two times more likely to be born with a congenital defect than children born to nurses with low or no exposures to these agents, and up to nine times more likely to suffer from musculoskeletal defects at birth. Of the hundreds of compounds in these exposure categories, for only one has the government set standards specifically to restrict nurses' exposures (the sterilizing agent ethylene oxide).

Green Goes With Everything

There's a new book coming out that sounds to have some very good common sense ideas on ways to go green. I haven't read it yet, but plan to. If, anyone gets the book and reads it before me, I'd appreciate your input on it.

Here's a YouTube video on it.

bisphenol A, BPA Is Still A "Concern"

Despite the recent reports from a governmental agency that there weren't any human health concerns from exposure to BPA, two new study's say otherwise.
Exposure to a chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), which is found in everyday plastics has been linked to problems with brain function and mood disorders in monkeys. This coming from researchers at the Yale School of Medicine.
This week's article in the Washington Post, summarizes the study done at Yale School of Medicine. The researchers are saying that there is "some concern" for humans, based on the results they documented with the primates.
The second report was published in Science Daily, and it finds a relationship between exposure to BPA and issues of metabolic syndrome. Left untreated, the disorder can lead to life-threatening health problems such as coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
That for me, is good enough reason to stay away from as much plastic as possible. The old saying, "Better to be safe, than sorry", is definitely applicable here.

Paperless Books - What Rock Have I Been Under?

Okay, I'm not sure how long "they've" been around and what the whole scoop is on "them" yet, but I've just read about "e-books"!! Did you know that you can purchase these electronic book readers, and elimate the clutter, paper usage, weight, etc, from your life?
Apparently, up to 200 books and periodicals can be downloaded to a reader, at any given time. And, better than that, it remembers what page you left off at reading, you can change the size of the text, look up the meaning of specific words. Holy Cow, it's AMAZING !
I guess you can preview chapters to books that you're interested in reading and when you do decide to make the purchase, it can be done almost instantly.
They also have found a technology that they call electronic ink, so the reader doesn't burn up a lot of power, but uses some when you turn a page.
How many trees is this going to save? Obviously, millons.
You gotta admit it, technology is WONDERFUL !

He Won The War / He Lived Well - Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch, lost his battle today with pancreatic cancer, but won the war on living well and a full life! Today's news release is here.

If, you hadn't yet heard of Randy, he was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who did two incredible presentations about life and what it meant to him, after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Sept 2006. An update on Randy's condition was posted yesterday on his website.

A quote from Randy Pausch:
“We don’t beat the reaper by living longer. We beat the reaper by living well, and living fully, for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is what do we do between the time we are born and the time he shows up. Cause when he shows up it’s too late to do all the things that you’re always were kinda going to get around to.”

If, you haven't seen Randy's presentations, or you'd like to view them again, I've listed them below.

God bless Randy's family and all who loved him.

Randy Pausch - Last Lecture - Achieving Your Dreams



Randy Pausch - May 2008 Carnegie Mellon Commencement ceremony

Cleaning Your Indoor Air

It's been no secret for a long time, that plants in a home or any building, can improve the air quality inside. I found this cool link with info on common plants that can help reduce indoor air pollution. It shares which plants help best with removing formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from the air.

Another method, which works a lot faster than plants and reduces more nasty stuff, is an air purifier. Here's information available on one air purifier, that is quite the machine! If, you become a member and place the order in July, the shipping if free. That saves you over $100 bucks!

This system suppresses mold and bacteria growth, reduces odors, and reduces VOC's (Violatile Organic Compounds). There are several PDF's on the webpage that explains the item in much more detail. Check it out if you're interested.

Easy Global Warming Solutions

There's more and more discussion on Global Warming these days and that's a REALLY GOOD thing! Even though there are many debates out there about Global Warming, the end result of the positive actions towards it's end, certainly won't hurt the planet or us!

What's it gonna hurt? Nothing is it? So come on, give it a try, it's relatively painless, ya know ;-)

Here's some of those easy tips on Global Warming Solutions at the National Wildlife Federation's website.

I'd love to hear back from folks, about how it's going on instituting these practical ideas. I mean, how hard can it be to inflate your tires a little more, or turn down your thermostat two degrees?

Hope you'll "Warm Up" to these Global Warming issues.

Recyling Cell Phones - A Win-Win

My "Church-Son", Riley Hoobery, is an awesome guy, who has a heart bigger than the State of Idaho. Riley is an active volunteer for usually one or two organizations at any given time.

For the last couple of years, he's been the an area rep for Cell Phones For Life, Inc. Riley maintains drop boxes at several locations in our local community and then goes out and retrieves the phones that are donated.

If, you weren't aware, even after an owner of a cellphone terminates his cellphone provider service, i.e.; Sprint, Verizon, etc., the cellphone will still work if the battery is kept charged and can be used to call 911, in the event of an emergency.

So, these donated cell phones are then cleared of all contacts, phone numbers, and any miscellanous information and redistributed to the disabled, elderly and domestic violence shelters. There is no record back to the original owner. The broken or non-reusable phones are recycled through Project KOPEG out of Boise, ID.

What a wonderful way to keep your unwanted or broken cell phone out of the landfills! And then, the cell phone's lifetime is extended to who knows how long, being used by someone who may have no other way to call for help, in an emergency situation.

For more information you can email or call Riley. His email is rhoobery@fmtc.com and his contact phone is 206/888-6582. Also, you can get more information on this organization via their website at www.cellphonesforlife.org

P.S. Your donation is also Tax Deductible.