A Change From Qanon | North Star Newsletter (1 Viewer)

[Michael Knight]

Michael Knight submitted a new article.

A Change From Qanon | North Star Newsletter
Lest We Forget


Beyond Qanon


While writing previous articles about Qanon and all the bad stuff that's happening - leading to the good stuff of the future - I took a break to clean the chimney.

(However, there are some links to recent Qanon articles below, just in case

you missed them).

The chimney is a grand construction, built by a craftsman back about 1950.

These days it has a rather modern fireplace insert, but the chimney still needs attention from time to time.

And that's when I discovered that near the top, inside the bricks, there are a couple of major cracks - obviously...
Click here to continue on to the original article. (You can comment if logged into a transients.info Roundtable Forum account.)

 

[Snowmelt]

The one about use of plastic bags at the supermarket or smaller delis for packaging up your purchases has always irked me (for at least 40 years) and back in 1989 when living in Germany we carried small fabric shopping bags that folded up into wallet size and had a zip to contain their insides from falling out. The Germans are very innovative! At the same time they were very diligent recyclers, with different containers for green, brown or clear glass. However, I heard their processing centres at that time couldn't keep up with the German Hausfrau's diligent work of separating rubbish from recycling.

Here in Western Australia, we are about to get a ban on the use of freely provided plastic shopping bags in July, 2018 - and for many years I have been providing my own hard plastic carry bags (such as used in Thai marketplaces) and when offered the free disposable plastic bags never fail to mention that we may as well get used to doing it differently - ahead of the game.

I also made an unpopular shopping decision in this household last year - to stop buying canned tuna fish, as I know most of it comes from the Pacific Ocean, no matter the canner or distributor. I have had my teen beg me to return to buying it, but I just keep mentioning that after Fukushima, the world has changed, and we have to move with the times. I think she still gets her hit of tuna by eating at Subway sometimes.

 

[Lila]

Things do seem to be being shaken up!

Last week there was a group of skiers who were injured + 1 killed in an avalanche as the volcano they were skiing on erupted: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-23/avalanche-at-japanese-ski-resort-after-volcano-erupts/9353556
Link courtesy Bernie's unspun. Thanks, Bernie

This is a book I read years ago: "A Paradise Built in Hell" by Rebecca Solint.
It looks at various disasters throughout history (with an American bent) and examines their impact, socially and otherwise. The author brings up the resilience that a disaster can, and often does, bring forward in people and in society. Things that were riddled in beauracracy often become simple and straightforward during the aftermath of a disaster. Great social strides are made. Incredible bonds are formed between people who would never have reason to look each other in the eye on a 'normal' day.
Then, the author outlines how, time after time, the authorities came in and clamped down, took over things again and started 'passing out the red tape attitude', slowing down and snarling processes and interactions. She outlines how, each time, things got creative during and after the disaster and were never really the same again. Things got 'shaken up' in more ways than one.

Now imagine if we are entering a period of 'a whole lot of shaking going on'?
Perhaps there would not be enough officials around to hand out all that red tape and some of us might get away with living our lives in freedom and the bliss of escaping beuracracy? That sounds like heaven to me!
(I can't even seem to spell that darn word right now, lol!)

Happy shaking:

 

[Linda]

My family wonders about me because I neither eat, nor buy seafood from the Gulf of Mexico or the North Pacific, which pretty much is all there is around here. Like your daughter, I do miss a good tuna salad sandwich.

Recycling, composting, reusable shopping bags - all big issues in our city that wants to move as close to zero waste as possible. Several years ago, the city enacted an ordinance against single use plastic bags. There was a lot of grumbling at first, but everyone pretty much settled into it, and companies started giving away or selling the bags as a means of advertising. I have bags from all sorts of places, which I keep folded in one large bag that I take into the store.

When recycling got easier (big bin picked up every other week), we got used to it by putting a smaller bin in the garage that we dump into the big one outside.

Our neighborhood was in a pilot program for composting. This has been a little more difficult because I won't put food wastes in an outside bin as I do not want to attract critters. So, I freeze the compost materials in paper bags and take them out the morning of trash day. I shared this idea with my neighbors, and some were interested.

It does take effort, and sometimes I just want to dump everything in the trash. The thing that keeps me going is seeing a city landfill, which is an insane use of land - not to mention the hazards.

So, it comes down to being responsible for my actions, regardless of how small.

 

[Snowmelt]

Our local government (3 levels of government - federal, state, local) brought in differently-sized wheelie bins last year. All residents in this locale now have to manage a colour-coded bin regime - small liter red bin - for general waste - goes out once every week for front verge waste collection. Much bigger liter yellow bin goes out once a fortnight with recycled materials. On the alternate week, a bin as big as the yellow one but with a green lid goes out with green waste. Similar to you, Linda, when this was brought in, I purchased a tall round metal pedal bin for my kitchen to take only recycled. I suppose it's kind of pushy for a government to force a smaller general waste bin size on people - and there are some people on my street who continue to stuff overfilled plastic bags into their bins, going way past their capacity. But I find that by having my recycling option right at the point where the plastic packaging is being shed (in the kitchen) my general waste has decreased by more than half, and more than this if veg matter goes into the compost.

I'm pretty sure the ones with the red bin lids cocked up by bulging over-filled plastic bags find it still sitting on the verge when they arrive home later that night.

 

[Lila]

I find that by having my recycling option right at the point where the plastic packaging is being shed (in the kitchen) my general waste has decreased by more than half, and more than this if veg matter goes into the compost.

I have found this to be a must for 'buy in' from the family, so we have 3 kitchen garbage bins + responsible parties for each sot that they go outside when full.

Our area allows different sized bins for garbage, but you pay more for larger ones as added incentive.
Also, recycling + compost get picked up more often than garbage.
There are days for things like Christmas trees and various local recycling events for things like computer equipment.
You can take extra stuff to the dump anytime where you pay by the pound.
Hazardous stuff (all the 'cides' like pesticides, herbicides, etc), solvents, paints have their own regional centers where you pay extra.

Sometimes (during holidays or spring cleanouts) a portion of our extra household garbage does need to wait a while for a later pickup. This has been less problematic than it may sound

I find it fascinating to compare notes about what other areas do with their garbage
In another post, we'd mentioned some quotes to the effect that a marker of consciousness in a society is how they treat their women/most vulnerable members. I think one could make a very good argument that how one treats their garbage creation and disposal would make another excellent marker of consciousness