That super-soft toilet paper you're fond of using? It's an ecological disaster, environmentalists say.
Millions of trees are harvested throughout the Americas -- including rare old-growth forests in Canada -- to sustain the United States' obsession with quilted, ultra-soft, multi-ply toilet paper, the New York Times reported.
The Times owns a lot of forest land used to generate paper pulp. Wonder if that is also wrong ...
Although toilet paper manufacturers could produce products from recycled materials at a similar cost, the newspaper reported, the fiber taken from standing trees are necessary to help give the tissue its fluffy feel. "No forest of any kind should be used to make toilet paper," said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist and waste expert with the Natural Resource Defense Council told the Times.
Some expert. Trees are grown specifically for this. Fast growing trees like poplar or pine are harvested. Saying that we shouldn't harvest trees is like saying we shouldn't harvest wheat ...
What year do they cover what "should" be in scientist school?
The United States is the largest market for toilet paper in the world, the newspaper reported,
That sounds about right. We've got a lot of assholes running around telling the rest of us how things "should" be...
but tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands. People from other countries throughout Europe and Latin America are far less picky about what they use to wipe.
Shed a tear of sympathy for the French when they poop...
No wonder they're so grumpy ...
"This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," Hershkowitz told the Guardian newspaper, which cited the chemicals used in pulp manufacturing and process of cutting down forests. "Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age," Hershkowitz said. "Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution."
Professor Heshkowitz no doubt keeps a supply of pebbles in his WC for scraping the leftovers from between his cheeks, like the Arabs are reputed to use. Periodically he has to call in a plumber at $80 an hour, minimum one hour, subsequent billing in half hour increments, to blast the pebbles out of his sustainable housing's plumbing.
However, hope is on the horizon,
Yes, Brethren and Sistern! A new hope! Paging Luke Skywiper! Luke Skywiper to the brown courtesy phone!
if Hollywood is any indicator. The Times reported the Academy Awards ceremony last weekend used 100 percent recycled toilet paper at the Kodak Theater's restrooms.
And since we all wanna be just like Gollywood stars we're gonna use 100 percent recycled bumwipe from now on, you betcha.
#1
However, hope is on the horizon, if Hollywood is any indicator. The Times reported the Academy Awards ceremony last weekend used 100 percent recycled toilet paper at the Kodak Theaters restrooms.
#7
Years ago when building a new bathroom in my home, I got a water-saver flusher, when installed it wouldn't flush, investigating they had put a 1 1/2 gallom plastic tub around the drain, and It would only use that small bit, hence no flush, a quick "Repair" with my pocket knife got the flusher working correctly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/28/2009 17:35 Comments ||
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It's obvious that this is a religion. Among other ridiculous things, they are complaining because some brands have a bit of lotion impregnation.
They also believe it to be more moral to fold your own squares instead of ripping off one that's already folded.
They won't be happy until we are forced by regulation to use only that shiny stuff you can read a newspaper through. The newspaper works better, actually. Expect there won't be any, sooon.
#1
My grandmother told me that, in her neighborhood in Brooklyn, people cut up sheets of the German newspaper for toilet paper. It seems that the ink was easier on the skin than the ink in the Harold Tribune or the NYT.
US OUT OF NEW ORLEANS!!!
NEW ORLEANS -- Three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, the National Guard is pulling the last of its troops out of New Orleans this weekend, leaving behind a city still desperate and dangerous. Residents long distrustful of the city's police force are worried they will have to fend for themselves. Sorry, folks. It's a quagmire. Gotta go...
"I don't know if crime will go up after these guys leave. But I know a lot more of us will be packing our own pieces now to make sure we're protected," said Calvin Stewart, owner of a restaurant and store. Looks like Calvin's ready. Calvin doesn't strike me as a Walther PPK type ...
New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley said his rebuilt police department is up to the job of protecting the city. "I think we're ready to handle things," he said. Yeah, upholding the proud history of the NOPD...
The National Guardsmen were welcomed as liberators when they arrived in force in a big convoy more than four days after Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005 and plunged the city into anarchy. The force was eventually 15,000 strong. The last of the troops were removed in January 2006 as civil authority returned, but then, after a surge in bloodshed, 360 were sent back in beginning in mid-2006 to help police keep order. As of February, only about 100 troops were left in the city. Was this New Orleans or Baghdad?
With Louisiana facing a $341 million budget deficit, state lawmakers were reluctant to keep the Guard in place any longer. The Guard was used to patrol the less populated sections of the city where Katrina's floodwaters left most houses uninhabitable. That included the woeful Ninth Ward, where renovated houses are outnumbered by moldy, boarded-up wrecks and weed-choked vacant lots. In their camouflage uniforms and Humvees, the troops were often a welcome sight.
"We don't have enough cops. It's not that they're bad, it's just that there's not enough of them. These guys are Johnny-on-the-spot when you need them," said 57-year-old Tom Hightower, who is still trying to get the mold out of his house. He added: "This is still a spooky place after dark."
The troops had full arrest powers but were required to call New Orleans police on serious matters. In their time on the streets, Guard troops were involved in only one shooting, and the district attorney ruled it justified. The Guardsmen answered lots of calls involving domestic violence, reported to be up in New Orleans since the hurricane, and handled car wrecks, house and business alarms and other problems.
"One of the biggest things we did was keep those places safe so people could rebuild," said Sgt. Wayne Lewis, a New Orleans native who has been patrolling the streets since January 2007. "People would put the things to rebuild in their houses and thieves would come along and take them right out again. We stopped a lot of that."
New Orleans had 210 murders in 2007, making it the murder capital of America, with the highest per-capita rate in the country. That number dropped to 179 in 2008. Nevertheless, "crime continues to be this community's No. 1 concern. Even with the lower numbers it is still unacceptably high," said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
Before the hurricane, the police force had more than 1,600 officers. But its ranks were reduced after the storm by more than 30 percent because of desertions, dismissals, retirements and suicides. (New Orleans has only about 70 percent of its pre-Katrina population of 455,000.) The department has climbed back up to about 1,500 officers, and hopes to add by the end of April more than two dozen Guardsmen who liked the work so much they signed on.
The Guard was supposed to leave on Jan. 1, but Louisiana lawmakers approved funding to keep 100 troops through February to give the police more time to recruit officers. The Guard's departure, which will take place after the final patrol ends at 3 a.m. Sunday, will be low-key. There will be no convoy, no bands playing. The last few Guardsmen on the street will check in their vehicles and head home for good.
"I don't think the city is ready for us to leave," said Lt. Ronald Brown, who has been part of Task Force Gator since April 2007. "I'd like to see us stay. I think we make a difference, but I guess it's a money thing."
#1
They should never have rebuilt it. Those parts of NO were a shit-hole anyway, a warren of generations of poverty and laziness and government dependency.
They should have just bulldozed some of those wards, then opened the levees to reflood the wetlands, and use the rebuild money to build new neighborhoods on the higher ground to the N, with proper hurricane proofed structures, a better city layout, proper policing, and mass transit into the city for jobs.
#2
Even if they didn't re-flood them, bulldoze those sunken neighborhoods and turn them into parks, etc. Put some green space in there. The rest done as you say.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2009 1:23 Comments ||
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#3
And kill every 3rd person in Colorodo to protect what ever shitass thing I don't like about Denver.
#5
..maybe because, in the end, we all ended up paying for it. It's the standard operating procedure now for government to ignore the warnings and when the problem blows up on them, it's expected everyone else has to bail them out. Then they turn around and repeat the same stupid behavior again. Since we can't stop it, we just bitch.
#6
Shortly after Katrina a number of planners and politicians advocated something very similar to Old Spook's proposal. It would have cost far less to rebuild, to protect in the future, and to rebuild again in the future when that protection fails. But people felt they had a RIGHT to go home and demagogic politicians fanned flames of racism around the issue, and of course governments at all levels saw it as a way to get their hands on a bigger pot of money to play with, so ..... here we are. Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it - hold on to your wallet, if there's anything left in it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2009 11:39 Comments ||
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#9
Here's a map of the New Orleans levee system showing where the Katrina breaches occurred and where the flooding occurred. Which levees would you breach? Which areas of the city would "reflood"?
Posted by: Matt ||
02/28/2009 12:04 Comments ||
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#10
I'd have shortened the effective levee lengths by shifting pumping to the mouths of the canals, which is sort of what they have done.
I'd have concentrated on rebuilding upriver of the Industrial Canal, and on strenghthening the protections of those areas. I would have sacrificed New Orleans East and St. Bernard (& Lower 9th Ward) and offered buyouts for all those properties instead of spending money rebuilding (and I'd have tended to base the buyout offers on their tax assessment valuation.)
#12
.5mt you are fucking stupid with that remark - or else you forgot to switch to one of your other sockpuppet names you asshole.
Who said anything about killing peopel, you drooling jerk? I advocated simply letting a horribly damaged area be cleard and relocate the people *with aid* to a better place with better homes. And you, like the room temperature IQ you are, decided to equate that with decimation? How stupid ARE you to think that can slip by?
Did you ever consider I did missionary work there in the 9th ward, so I *KNOW* the area, personally?
Did you ever consider I have friend in the Guard who told me how it was post-Katrina down there?
By God, that part of New Orleans is as bad as some parts of Haiti I saw in the Army, and thats BEFORE the hurricane.
And its not just me - my younger brother was there as well for missionary work for a lot longer.
So .5IQ, you wanna apologize for being a shit-for-brains and restract that bullshit of yours?
#13
i agree with old spook it was a shit hole and i called what would happen after Katrina, they migrated too such places as atlanta and continiued what they do best. sell crack and commit crimes
#14
Surprisingly enough, a fairly large percentage of the former residents of New Orleans don't plan to go home. I don't know if it's 25% or 30%, but those numbers are very close. That includes a LOT of people that relocated to Denver, Omaha, NE, Saint Louis, MO, Tulsa, OK, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and even some that moved as far away (more climate-wise than distance) to El Paso, Texas.
I've been to New Orleans many times. The school sponsored trips down there to see the port, the zoo (which was first-rate 45 years ago - don't know what it's like now), Tulane University, and other sites. That's where the MEPS station was when I first enlisted in the Air Force. A friend of mine's father founded the New Orleans Baptist Seminary there, and I visited several times. I shipped a car from New Orleans to Germany. I've never lived there, but New Orleans was a typical big city, with big-city crime problems, made worse by being the third largest port area in the US, and having a history of rampant corruption. It hasn't changed just because a hurricane destroyed half of it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/28/2009 18:08 Comments ||
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#15
Old Patriot, the zoo is great, and considerably better than it ever was 45 years ago (can't say it's quite back to pre-Katrina, but it wasn't really damaged much, so any minimal decline would likely be due to volunteer & funding limits.)
And yes, a lot of New Orleanians left for good. Unfortunately for New Orleans I think they were disproportionately the more desirable residents. But too many good jobs left, so the good workers had to leave too.
On account you never know when it might come in handy. Those jinns are pretty devious. There's also some guidance if you run across a efreet. For further study you should scroll thru the other publications on the right sidebar.
#2
I had a problem with jinn once. Couldn't get the cap off. A pair of pliers fixed the problem - no wait, that was gin not jinn. I got confused because both are demons.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/28/2009 9:31 Comments ||
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Unemployment in California shot up to its highest level in nearly 26 years in January, leaving more than 1 in 10 workers without a job.
Figures released Friday show that 79,300 jobs were lost in the state last month, bringing the total number of unemployed to 1,863,000, or 10.1% of the workforce. That's the highest since the rate touched 10.4% in 1983.
California unemployment rate reaches 10....Conditions are even worse in Los Angeles County, which saw its unemployment rate jump to 10.5% in January from 9.2% the month before.
The deep job losses follow a sharp drop in the gross domestic product -- the value of all goods and services produced -- in the waning months of 2008. Nationwide, GDP shrank at an annual rate of 6.2% in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was far worse than the 3.8% drop the agency had estimated, and the biggest decrease since 1982.
Paul Policarpio knew it was only a matter of time before he would be laid off.
In his final months as a sales associate at a Nordstrom store in Canoga Park he spent most of his time straightening out the piles of unsold clothes. A couple of weeks ago, the ax fell.
Policarpio's experience has been repeated across L.A. County, where retail jobs have taken the hardest hit in an ever-growing wave of layoffs and downsizing.
The outlook for Southern California is considerably worse than the national forecast presented by President Obama's budget team this week because the economy here -- usually considered resilient because of its diversity -- relies on sectors battered by this particular recession, said economist Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
L.A. County alone, his group projects, will lose 89,000 jobs in 2009, and Kyser suggested the unemployment rate could surpass 10.5% for the year. In the Inland Empire, the group predicts the unemployment rate will rise to 11.1%, while Orange County, which lost 41,400 jobs last year, is projected to see unemployment climb to 7.3%, the highest rate in 16 years. January figures for those counties will be released next month.
Los Angeles County lost a net 41,900 jobs last year and nearly all of them -- about 41,000 -- were in retail, manufacturing and construction, in that order. In January, retail shed 15,100 jobs, manufacturing lost 6,800, and construction, 4,800. The three sectors were caught in the collapse of the housing boom and recession.
To make matters worse, another key California industry -- the film business -- lost 22,300 jobs in January, leading L.A. County layoffs for the month.
Sally Wang found out she was losing her job the day she returned from a New Year's vacation.
The mother of one managed a high-end women's clothing showroom in the garment district in downtown Los Angeles selling wholesale to department stores such as Barneys and Neiman Marcus. She said 2008 started poorly and got progressively worse.
"First, very few people were coming in," Wang, 36, said. "Buyers stopped traveling so they asked us to send pictures. Then people wanted to return stuff because it wasn't selling. And then they started canceling orders."
Wang agreed to a $25,000 cut from her $80,000 salary before the winter holidays. But that wasn't enough to save her job. She was fired after four years with the company.
"It doesn't look like I'll be able to get a job in the same industry for the same salary," said Wang, who is concerned she'll have to scrap her plans to enroll her 5-year-old daughter in private school. "The only things available are very skilled jobs where you need lots of experience or $10-an-hour jobs."
Hollywood studios and television networks have been slashing payrolls as financing and revenue ebb. Although box-office sales are up 23% for the first few weeks of the year, other parts of the entertainment business, such as DVD sales, have been struggling.
Warner Bros. announced last month it would eliminate 800 jobs. Other entertainment heavyweights, including Viacom Inc., video game giant Electronic Arts Inc. and Hollywood's largest independent studio, Lionsgate, have also downsized.
Economic pressures have forced studios to scale back the number of films they are shooting, further eroding the number of available jobs.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/28/2009 21:40 Comments ||
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#6
When the money really does finally run out and the welfare/support checks are not in the mail, watch a big chunk of that sucking at the tit finally disappear from the area like fleeing cockroaches when the lights go on. Which raises the thought, what will cost more, bailing out CA or being stuck with the non-working class that squats on your community [with the associated other social activities they bring with them]?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
That super-soft toilet paper you're fond of using? It's an ecological disaster, environmentalists say.
Unemployment in California shot up to its highest level in nearly 26 years in January, leaving more than 1 in 10 workers without a job.
