ferrousland.com - daily news archives
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
recycled sewage water - 08:06 AM
(filed under 'green living')
there's a big issue going on around queensland at the moment about whether or not recycled sewage water will be brought in as our only optoin for drinking water. there's a major drought on, & most of queensland's dams are only a third full. for those reasons, we're on major water restrictions in a bid to save as much water as possible.
in regard to the recycled sewage water issue, i think the people that are against it simply don't understand. firstly, many seem to not realise that we're wasting so much water doing everyday things like flushing the toilet with drinking water. it's a pity most houses aren't fitted with the ability to use grey water for things which don't need fresh, drinkable water. so we need to be reusing water wherever we can!
secondly, i don't think that they understand that the water we're drinking now from our taps is already full of all sorts of other crap (excuse the pun) which we probably shouldn't be consuming. as far as i understand (& correct me if i'm wrong) water that's recycled from sewage water would be far more purified than what we're currently drinking.
it seems to me that those that are against this are kind of like those that were against queensland having daylight savings when we had a referendum about it several years ago. some came up with reasons against it like "my curtains will fade" .. you know, because of the 'increased' daylight hours. *rolls eyes* they weren't joking. they really believed that by changing the clocks we would be creating more sunlight hours. that's just embarrassing.
when people who are against the use of recycled sewage water make comments such as "it's like having a gun with a few bullets in the chamber & hoping you don't get the bullet," & "i don't believe they can adequately clean the water, particularly harmful chemicals that are in common use", it makes me believe that they're uneducated on the fact that we're putting all of that stuff into our water everyday now, the same water which we drink!! what do they think happens to all the cleaning chemicals most people flush down the drain everyday? do they just disappear into the ether?
education. people need education. either that or we simply need to wait for the people who are too old & set in their ways to die off so that we can start doing things to the environment that make more sense. let's hope that happens before we kill ourselves with the terrible environmental habits we currently use every single day.
the elephant ride in thailand - 06:35 AM
(filed under 'general')
quite a while ago, i mentioned going for an elephant ride while we were in thailand. i said i'd tell more about it at some later stage, so here i am, finally doing that. this is going to be another long entry, so continue reading if you're up for it.
it was fun, but really quite scary. you sit right up on top of the elephant in a wooden seat. it's kind of like a bench seat, but without the legs .. it should have been built with seat belts, because being atop a rather large elephant that is going up & down sometimes rather steep slopes, it was really difficult to hold on.
we'd armed ourselves with drinks because it was kind of warm & the ride would go for one hour, so we thought we might get thirsty, but we'll know for next time that it's better to just leave our hands for hanging on for dear life! only ten or so minutes into the ride, i had to make the decision between falling off or being a terrible litterbug. it went against everything in me to throw my can into the beautiful bush, but there was no other place for me to put it. it was either throw it into the undergrowth or fall off the elephant!
i was the lucky one, because i only had to look after myself. shroom had smiley to hang onto as well. just as well he's a lot stronger than i am.
the views on the trip to the waterfall were quite lovely. on occasion, the man who was riding on the elephant's head & who was steering him with his toes, would let the elephant stop to pull out some grass to eat. i found it amazing how the elephant's trunk was so flexible & could already be holding a large 'handful' of grass, yet still go back to pull out more. i pointed out to smiley what he was doing, although he wasn't as amazed as me. when you get to ride on elephant when you're only three, i guess maybe you don't think it's quite so out of the ordinary to see one up so close. *chuckle*
fortunately, that morning i'd tranferred the neck strap of my video camera (which is way too heavy to hang from your neck for a long time) onto my normal digital still camera, so i could put that around my neck & leave my hands free to hang onto the seat thing on the elephant's back. we still had shroom's water (i was naughty & had bought a coke instead, which i was more happy to discard than water which is actually thirst quenching) which i was holding between my knees. what with trying desperately to stay on, a lot of the water got squeezed out & ended up going down my legs, but at least it wasn't sticky coke.
after a relatively short time clinging onto the back of the elephant i was kind of wishing we could turn back, but i'm glad the guy leading him couldn't speak english, because when i finally got used to it, i enjoyed the view & loved being able to have our picture taken in the waterfall. the elephant got some time to take a drink & cool down in the waterfall. i wondered for a few moments if we were going to end up under the falling water, but he just stood around in the water.
the trip to the waterfall was a round trip, so the way back wasn't as long & took a very different (& much less steep) path. i wondered, while i was up there, how the elephant felt about being ridden around. he didn't seem bored or unhappy & i'm sure the weight didn't bother him, because he was certainly big enough to handle more than just our relatively light weight. we saw a different elephant at doi suthep later on in our thailand trip which seemed to be unhappy. he was standing there rocking back & forth. he looked bored & very unhappy. the one we were riding on wasn't doing any of that, so i guess he found it interesting enough to actually want to do it. the man leading him seemed to be kind to him, didn't hit him or anything or speak harshly to him, so i hope that's a good indication that the elephants there were treated well.
i took some pics while we were in thailand, so if you'd like to see them, start here & keep using the 'next' thumbnail links. there are seventeen pics from thailand.
sitting better now - 05:44 AM
(filed under 'healthy living')
my legs are recovering since i wrote about not sitting right the other day. now that i have a proper computer desk, complete with pull out keyboard & mouse tray, i'm actually sitting properly. the chair still isn't the ideal computer chair since it's not padded (it's got a kind of woven wicker seat), but as far as height goes, it's actually perfect. eventually i'll get a rolling computer chair that can be raised & lowered, but that can wait for a bit longer.
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