Petrol

Abo pointed me towards this page the other day.

From the page:

* If we raise fuel efficiency standards in American cars by one mile per gallon, in one year, we would save twice the amount of oil that could be obtained from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

* Raising it by 2.7 mpg would save enough to eliminate all the oil imports from Iraq and Kuwait combined

* Raising it by 7.6 mpg would save enough to eliminate 100% of our gulf oil imports into this country


So.. why don't we just make cars more freaking efficient? Wouldn't that be a lot less painful that going to war with Iraq, drilling in various reserves, and furthering global warming? (Oh, I guess it wouldn't make as much money for the administration..)
(Note, a 1992 honda civic gets about 45mpg on the freeway... we haven't come very far in fuel efficiency.)

The fox is guarding the hen house...(again)

The other day, I was driving through the beautiful green fields of Northern Idaho, and listening to a very disturbing report on NPR about the high levels of mercury used to keep vaccines free of bacteria and mold. What was especially alarming about this report was that, it has a huge impact on a very large group of people including me, and most everyone I know. Basically, if you have had a vaccine since 1931, you have probably been exposed to some level of mercury. Apparently some data and studies strongly suggest a link between these early doses of mercury and some of the odd neurological dissorders such as autism, hyperactivity, learning dissabilities etc which are causing a lot of trouble in schools these days. The mercury is part of thimerosal which is a preservative. It comes in the form of ethylmercury which one can read about here in the PAN Pesticides Database which says that it is a fungacide which acts as a developmental or reproductive toxin in humans. On this page there is a list of things which also contain ethylmercury. And on this page you can calculate how much mercury you have been exposed to from vaccines.
A good article covering the political aspects of this situation can be found here on Salon.com. If you don't have a Salon membership, you have to view an add to get access to the article. But, the article is WELL worth it. One of the more disturbing things it points out is that the CDC, FDA, and various pharmaceutical companies have known about this for a long time, but have made a pretty major effort to cover it up. This coverup was probably made possible by the serious conflict of interest on the part of CDC and FDA officials who are also heavily involved with pharmaceutical companies. This whole deal seems strangly reminiscent of the oil men and arms dealers running a war in Iraq. When will we learn that letting the fox guard the hen house isn't the smartest idea?

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fireworks 

 

I went up to Moscow for the 4th. Here are some pictures of a cool waterfall on Elk Creek. (Sorry Mike, forgot to turn off the date....)