It is a deeply ironic tragedy, but sometimes people in the most polluted areas know very little about what is going on in the groundwater. I grew up in a farming community, but none of us knew about water pollution until it was too late. It wasn’t one of those places that you hear about, the cities where half the population is born with serious birth defects and most kids don’t live past the age of five. The effects were subtle and they took a long time to notice. That is why it took us so long to do anything about the water pollution.

I am sure that some of the big farms on the edge of town knew something about water runoff pollution. After all, they were the main culprits and they were the ones using huge amounts of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. By the time we found out about it, our kids had been exposed to it for years. A water quality laboratory came into town one day, tested the groundwater and found out that our aquifer was hopelessly contaminated. There was arsenic, lead, trace sewage, various pesticides and countless other environmental pollutants. If you have never been in the position of knowing that your water is polluted, you can not imagine what it is like. Water pollution problems are really devastating. Suddenly, you can’t even trust the water you drink or the food you eat. It really shakes your confidence in your own safety.

Most of the people in town had to pay for expensive water filtration, that wasn’t enough. Water pollution from fertilizers can be easily filtered out, but trace element pollution is a lot more difficult. Although we knew our water quality was better, no one was saying exactly how much better. Was it safe to drink, or would it still cause our children to develop developmental disabilities and learning problems?

Rather than sit back and watch the government do nothing, we got involved in clean water activism. We may be  a very rural town, somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, but we are not passive people. We care deeply about our community and we wanted to see it protected from the effects of environmental pollution. Although it took awhile, we made sure that the big polluters paid for cleanup of the aquifers. These days, we don’t have to worry about water pollution anymore. We’ve made sure that you can’t get away with polluting our water!

There are lots and lots of people who will not eat factory farmed meat, but I am one of the only people I know who will not eat farmed fish. It all goes back to one time when I was a kid. We went to one of those fish farms meant for private fishers. Basically, there are two kinds of fish farming out there. There is the fish farm industry which produces most of the processed seafood that you eat in your daily life. Fish sticks, fish and chips, and even the baked salmon you order at your local seafood chain probably come from fish farms. These places are supposed to be pretty sterile, but in reality they are massively crowded. The fish are stuffed into small pond of water, crawling around on top of each other amidst heavy pollution. How do I know? Because I visited the second kind of fish farm as a kid.

Your typical aquaculture farm isn’t accessible to the community, but many of these fish farms supply salmon, catfish, trout and other freshwater creatures to farm fishing lakes. Basically, these are places where dads who don’t know how to fish can take their kids to catch their own fish. At this kind of fish farm, the lakes are literally jumping with them. The one we went to had hundreds upon hundreds of catfish, all bounding for the bait in a feeding frenzy. There is no challenge to catching something at a fish farm. There’s no sport to it at all. You drop a worm in the water and three fish bite for it. They are probably just committing suicide to get away from the crowded conditions.

The water was murky, the fish was disgusting and the whole experience at that fish farm was so unpleasant that I never wanted to eat fish again. A few years later I would eat ocean fish, but it was years before I would touched a freshwater fish. To this very day, I won’t eat anything from the sea unless I know that it really is from the sea. Farm raised fish is right out, no matter how clean and sanitary the conditions are supposed to be. I figured that if fish farms are that disgusting when they invite visitors in, the ones that you don’t get to see are probably that much worse. The idea makes me feel queasy and sick to my stomach.

As the world heats up, people are starting to rethink their priorities. I have worked air conditioning jobs for about ten years now, doing everything from selling air conditioner units to installing them, fixing them and designing them.  I have definitely seen a shift in the consumer attitude. Back in the day, central air conditioning used to be a must have for anyone with the money to afford it. It was a great luxury to be able to cool your house to 60 degrees during the hottest weeks of the summer.

On the other hand, portable air conditioners such as window air conditioner units were a tough sell. You could sell them to students and people who lived in one room apartments, but anyone with more space than that would probably want central air. It is funny, as the temperature starts to rise, people are starting to buy less and less powerful air conditioner units. Nowadays, most people simply buy a window air conditioner unit for any room they are likely to spend a lot of time in. They will cool off the living room while they are there, then turn on a little bit of ac in the bedroom at night.

It seems like there are a couple reasons for this change. A lot of people see it as evidence that people are starting to understand how much damage our energy over use is starting to do and they have a point. Cooling the whole house when you are only using a small part of it is quite wasteful. Beyond that, people are trying to save money. The economy is in bad shape, and fuel prices are going up and up. This has made a lot of people nervous about rising electric costs. They buy smaller air conditioner units so that, when the big spike in electricity costs hits, they will still be able to afford to cool their houses.

This change in the industry has not been drastic or universal, but it is definitely a trend that has people interested. It seems like some of the central air heating and cooling shops are getting nervous and offering lower rates than ever so.  If you want to set up your house, this is a better time than ever to do it. Still, you might want to rethink your priorities too. The world is changing quickly.

Lightning can be a source of wonder and fear among any group of individuals. Once shrouded in mystery, the magnificent displays of nature’s power have been the center of awe and amazement for many, especially for those of us interested in the phenomenon of ball lightning. The major difference between traditional lightning and the latter is it’s form. The former moves quickly from one point in space to another, while the latter forms a sphere that hangs in the air for a relatively prolonged period of time.

The lighted orbs have been the subject of interest for storm enthusiasts and scientists alike. Nicola Tesla tried to explain ball lightning in 1904 and others have followed suit. The phenomenon remains an enigma among the scientific as well as the regular population. Some scientists believe that lightning can be reproduced in a lab, while others contend that it can not, simply by it’s nature. Fundamental differences like this could attribute to the confusion about the occurrence.

Part of the mystery lies in the rare incidence of ball lightning. Very few people have witnessed it and the ones who have seem to have very different experiences. Eye witness accounts vary greatly from report to report, making the strange occurrence puzzling to those who try to research the subject. Most encounters happen during thunderstorms. Many eye witness accounts claim that they have seen ball lightning without the presence of storms. Some describe ball lighting as oval in shape, showing three dimensions, while others maintain that it is circular in shape. It has also been described by some as being transparent while others argue that it appears solid in form.

Color is another object of debate when it comes to the lightning. It has been described as red by some and yellow by others, both of which are vastly different from the other. The orbs are also said to carry a fire or spark in some cases. The sparks carry a white to blue hue normally associated with traditional lightning that we commonly see.

Another thing that baffles sky watchers about the phenomenon is how the occurrence ends. Some assert that the orbs explode in the air. Others argue that it is absorbed into the ground or other element. Still others maintain that ball lightning simply vanishes into the sky. The only consistent contention is that ball lightning hovers for an extended period of time.

I don’t mean to be a bookstore snob, but buying used books was something many of us were doing before buying used books was cool.  That is, buying used books was once a habit that was a well kept secret of college students and bibliophiles.  They knew the visit to a used book shop would be much cheaper and would result in a pleasant experience.  Maybe with wine, coffee, some unobtrusive music.  A community cat or pup lolling about in the sweet dark corners of the lovely historical smell of heavy wood shelving and decades of ink and paper and thread.

Then buying used books became more difficult and more frustrating a task, as the big chains shoved the little independents aside.  So buying used books has become in one sense more of a challenge and in another sense an almost equally pleasurable.  We can now go online for new and used books.  I for one am delighted, for buying books online means saving time, still saving money.  For reclusive folks like myself, saving social interaction with noisy, neglectful people out there saves one’s sanity.

Let me clarify.  I go to XXX (well known, top selling bookstore in the city) brick and mortar store, which also has an online bookstore, but I am in a hurry.  I have driven in rain and insane traffic, have limited time and have a definite title.  I walk into the brightly lit store and head for the periodicals, seeking a magazine published in the UK.  Seven people are in the aisle I need to access.  Three are LAYING on the floor reading magazines they will not buy, but will instead gunk up with their fingerprints, wrinkle with their greedy paws and stain with their snot.  The other four are standing around, one on a cell phone and others scratching bugs out of their hair, giggling over nudies or just &$$#93%# standing…IN MY WAY.  When did a store become a place to hang out, groom in, furtively steal FREE reading pleasures from and impede actual shoppers with integrity in?  And further, where are the used books????

I hate the physical bookstore now and go with only the online bookstores.  Such vendors offer the same items they offer if they keep a physical sibling site, but also offer hard to find, hard to get at in the land store and hard to remember titles, usually used.  I probably do not have to name the said bookstores, the big popular ones, any more than I had to name the one with all the losers, slackers and nut cases.  If you need the best places for buying used books online, here are my favorites.

Powells.com- One of the world’s largest bookstores.  A city block long and stories high, when you go to the actual store in Oregon, which I wouldn’t mind doing.  They hand you a MAP…the store is so big and so full of millions of books.

e-Bay.com – Look for a title, using the search engine at e-Bay.  Or check out my favorite online bookstores, where vendors as far away as the UK ship within only a few days!  These folks are Dadoak1bookshop (dadoak1).

GreenAppleBooks.com – My favorite used and new bookstore in the Bay Area.  The antithesis of the nightmare chain bookstore I refer to above and therefore a true pleasure as a physical shop, but equally helpful, easy to access and affordable online bookstore, too.

Word Power - word-power.co.uk/about_us A completely independent online bookstore, receiving no state or other funding to advertise or sell, so check them out!

Shopping malls, drugstores and boutiques always seem to have the latest and greatest perfumes prominently displayed in or near their cosmetics sections or counters. And chances are, customers will be bombarded with a medley of conflicting scents and aromas. While this might be appealing to some, there are many people who are allergic to most perfumes and who tend to have an adverse reaction when exposed to them.

My sister and I are both very allergic to most perfumes and colognes. Our adverse reactions range from mild irritation in the throat to raging headaches and feelings of extreme nausea. We’ve noticed that in many public areas and places of work, signs are posted indicating that these are scent-free zones. These policies are difficult to enforce. Just ask anyone who suffers from adverse reactions to perfumes and colognes.

It’s really strange. With scented oils from natural sources, my sister and I seem to be okay. Products from the Body Shop seem to be okay, other than the scent of dewberry which seems to heavily perfumes. But any of the natural scents like satsuma, vanilla, mango or strawberry, seem to cause no adverse reaction in either of us.

The worst scents of all are the cheaper perfumes, especially those seemingly favored by older ladies. These heavily scented perfumes completely choke us up and render us virtually breathless and not in a good way. What causes these reactions is really a mystery. We figure it must be the chemical components found in less expensive perfumes, since the more naturally sources scents are much more agreeable.

There’s really not a lot we can do about this allergic reaction. People in society can’t be expected to give up their signature scents for the sake of the few allergy sufferers. At the same time, those who manufacture these scents could switch to more natural sources. This of course would cost them extra money though.  So it’s highly unlikely that they would give up their more economical man made scents for the sake of the few who suffer because of these chemical components.

All we can do is avoid purchasing scents and colognes that we haven’t tested first. We can avoid heavily perfumed laundry detergents and hair products and opt for more naturally sourced perfumes and scents in the hopes to keep our adverse allergic reactions to a minimum.  I definitely feel bad for people whose reactions are not limited to minor inconvenience and who can actually stop breathing if exposed to their allergic triggers. Thankfully, much research and development has been done in the creation of anti-histamines to control allergic reactions, so the problem is manageable at the very least.

Activated carbon filters are really useful for a large variety of reasons and uses. Activated carbon filters are made of one of the most adsorbent materials known to man. Molecules stick to the outside of activated carbon, causing it to be extremely useful in filtering water, air and many other things. You will find activated carbon filters in air filters, drinking water filters, groundwater filtration and a wide variety of other uses. An activated carbon filter can even be used to filter out odors from the air, as well as dangerous environmental contaminants.

One of the best uses for an activated carbon filter is if you have serious allergy problems or chemical sensitivities. Activated carbon filters are used in air purifier system to remove dust, pollen, dander, mold and a variety of other particles from the air you breathe, resulting in cleaner air and a healthier you. If you use activated carbon filters, you will notice that you will sleep better, have less allergies, be less prone to illness and that your room will even smell better and cleaner.

You can find activated carbon filters in water purifiers as well. These devices use the activated carbon filters to remove contaminants from the water such as dirt, mold and dissolved elements that can make your water taste funky. People often assume that buying bottled water is a useful safe alternative to an activated carbon filter, but this is definitely not the case. In reality, bottled water is often heavily contaminated and even less safe than drinking water, so you can do so much better by employing an activated carbon filter.

I used to suffer allergies all of the time. I would sneeze almost constantly, my head would feel congested and awful.  My nose would itch and my eyes would be puffy and red all day. Then I got my activated carbon filter air purifier with a hepa filtration system also included. It is kind of noisy, so now I have to sleep with ear plugs at night, but you wouldn’t even believe the difference it made in my happiness. All the time I used to go around for the first half of the day in a fog, with my head feeling like there was an ocean sloshing around in it, but not anymore! Now I feel in excellent health and even my asthma is gone. This means that I exercise more, which in turn improves my health even more, so it is clear that my activated carbon filter has really improved things for me.

There are more kinds of air freshener than you might realize. An air freshener is not just a little pine shaped stick of smelly wood which you hang up in your car.  Like all things, it has evolved to give you more options than ever before. If you want an air freshener for your office, you might get one of the automatic dispenser types. These plug into the wall and are filled with scented oil. They usually have either a heating element that heats the scented oil and causes it to float off into the air or else they have a mister that slowly sprays it out.

One of the most classic types of air freshener is the potpourri. This is a decorative bundle of different scented herbs and pieces of wood and bark, which you can put in your house to give it a warm, refreshing smell. And they look so great, earthy and crafty, that you’ll want to have one of these air fresheners in every room just to make your house smell and look lovely.

There is always the spray air freshener and this is the first one most people think of when they hear the term. These are to get rid of a bad smell, you just spray a generous dose of this aerosol air freshener into the room with the smell and it goes right away.  So many people keep these sprays in their bathrooms, as you might imagine!

Another popular kind of air freshener is the scented candle, which provides a warm glow as well as a pretty light when lit. It has scented oil embedded inside, which always gives a slight pleasant smell. When you burn it, the heat makes the scent waft into the air. These come in all kinds of fruity flavors – pumpkin, strawberry, blueberry, vanilla and the list goes on and on.

Similar to these, you can get an air freshener lamp. Basically, this is a small candle with a little glass or metal cup above it. You just put in the scented oil of your choice into the cup and light the candle, causing it to waft into the room. This has the advantage that you can use basically any kind of scented oil you chose, whatever fits your mood. Unfortunately, it has a live flame which can be dangerous if you have children around, but also can have a pleasant decorative effect.

We all have a dream house.  I mean, come on, think about it.  There’s that lingering fantasy that you harbor about a house with everything to your exact plan.  You know how big you want it, what color the rooms should be and how many bathrooms would suit your family.  You’re probably sick of living in homes that are just okay, but not designed with you in mind.  I know I am.  I do have dream house plans.  I can even hop online and figure out what they would cost me.

Dream house plans are certainly more viable than they were back in the day.  Things are just becoming more and more feasible these days.  Our technology is allowing us to dream up the craziest things and bring them to life.  If you don’t already have that house of your dreams, online is a great place to start your journey.  You can construct dream house plans on a number of websites.  Whether your ideas are simple and consist of a fairly basic two level home in an ideal location or you want the whole package, you can definitely have it your way.

My wife and I have recently became more focused on our dream house plans.  How many square feet we need, one story or two, what location is choice for our needs.  These are all things to consider when building that dream home.  One thing you want to remember is that you can have it your way when you build it yourself.  This doesn’t merely consist of the style and location of the home.  When you develop dream house plans, you virtually pick and choose every detail.  For example, we looked at log homes.  I have an idea of what type of log I want used, if I want some rooms to be drywall for painting, what type of floor we prefer in the kitchen, whether we want separate tubs and showers, what kind of light fixtures would suit each room and so on.  This is a scrutinizing process, but a fun one for sure.  When you design your own house plan, you know that it’s yours and yours alone down to the last brick.  It makes you feel proud.

If you check out the websites that offer dream house plans, you will get a better idea of what your price range is.  This way you can sort through what you need and what you may want to leave out.  The best part is that it’s totally up to you.  The ideal home in the ideal location is at your fingertips.  The beginning of your dream house is only a click away.

When you think of pest control, you are probably imagining hunting down that annoying housefly and swatting it with the nearest available weapon.  Actually, pest control refers to a whole lot more.  The sign that shows a dead cockroach on that truck you see with all the sprayers is not telling the full truth.  This industry is about pest control or management not eradication.  The idea behind pest control is to keep the numbers of the little critters to a comfortable few.  If that is not possible, the job is to at least to keep them away from us.

The current structure of pest control is much more complex when taken with the modern idea of manageable numbers or distribution management.  And it is not about coming up with a stronger pesticide or finding a way to apply it directly to their home base.  Managing the numbers is still a throw back to pest elimination through whatever means necessary, but now much more emphasis is put on eliminating them without eliminating us.  This is accomplished through such exotic methods as implementing bug ‘birth control’ and getting bigger, friendlier creepy crawlies to take out the less desirables.  There is also the idea that you are somehow to blame and we should not take it out on our fellow planetary inhabitants.  Take ants for instance.  We all know there are always going to be more of them than there are of us.

Taking them down one at a time with a hammer as they crawl across the floor heading towards your food supply is not going to work.  So, we need to employ professional pest managers.  These people no longer come out smelling like vile chemicals, but with something resembling organizational charts.  You cannot eliminate the ants.  You need to keep them out of your house.  If you cannot do that, steer them away from the kitchen.  If they breach that line of defense, protect the cookie jar at all costs.  If all else fails, consider changing from chocolate chip to a recipe that is less attractive to ants.

They call this “redefining and redesigning management systems that meet the demands of preventative management”.  Now that is real 21st century pest control.  But if you have ever had the local ant colony seeking a drier place to set up shop when three days of rain has turned their outside environment soggy, you know this kind of management might not be successful.  Your kitchen cabinets are fortresses that can always be breeched.  The experts are not going to desert you.  They will lead you through the design and management of systems that meet real needs.

This approach requires clarification of priorities, values, resource conservation and increased production.  In other words, if you can’t beat them, join them.  How bad can a cookie taste with a couple of ants anyway?  Besides, whacking a poor defenseless any with a hammer is barbarian.  Some us using prefer the ‘big toe’.