Verkiezingen 2006: Groen!- kandidaat "Wereldrecordpoging folders bussen"

In de categorie: "onnozele politiekers die denken dat ze hiermee de kiezer een dienst bewijzen" gaat de prijs deze week alvast naar de hr. Diederik Vandendriessche. Dit prototype van een "Groen!" kandidaat heeft zonet het wereldrecord verkiezingsvuilnis bij de burger binnenkieperen verbroken... Hij spendeerde 25hr aan het binnensteken van verkiezingsdrukwerk en verbeterde daarmee het 24hr-rekord van zijn collega Groen! politicus "Tom Caals".

enkele opmerkingen:
- Groen! verkozenen zouden moeten weten dat verkiezingsafval het aantal bomen in de wereld serieus om zeep helpt
- als het nu nog zwart op grijs zou zijn, maw gerecycleerd...
- ik had vorige week nog 2 Groen!-kandidaten aan mijn deur: toen ik hen voorstelde in plaats van verkiezingsfolders uit te delen aan de ganse gemeente, aan iedere burger (stemgerechtigd of niet) een BOOM cadeau te doen om in hun hof te plaatsen, kreeg ik enkel een glimlach vol wansmaak te zien, maar geen goedkeuring.
- zie ook dit artikel: "

Boreal forests provide 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services like
reducing atmospheric carbon and water filtration, but which have gone
unacknowledged by governments and industry, experts say.

- je kan natuurlijk ook maar eens gaan kijken op

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reforestation om te zien of je ergens kunt helpen (maar print de pagina zeker niet af...)

Originele bron: via Radio1 "De Wilde Week" - en Politics.be: Verkiezingen 2006: Groen!- kandidaat Diederik Vandendriessche: Wereldrecordpoging folders bussen

How to Save the World (in 10 simple steps)

Below are some details on how you could make your life simpler. They may appear "sixties" and a bit over-the-top... but applying some of this stuff on small-scale could probably have some interesting impacts... Source:

currently reading: Lester R. Brown - Plan B 2.0: rescuing a planet under stress and a civilization in trouble

1. Building & Maintaining a Simpler Home: Buy or build a home that is designed for living simply. Follow the Japanese model (I love this!)-- movable walls, multi-purpose, reconfigurable rooms, and no wasted space. Use the roof as a permaculture garden, a solar collector, a meditation space, a water collector. Landscape with native species that don't need watering, herbicides and pesticides to flourish. Use simple, durable construction methods and learn to do your own repairs and preventative maintenance. Share your tools, know-how and time with others in your community helping them and allowing them to help you build and maintain your home.
2. Simpler Furnishings: Build storage into walls, so you don't need furniture for storage. Consider flooring (padded -- but not with chemical-laden carpets -- or cushion-covered) that obviates the need for seating. Make both seating and tables portable, adjustable and multi-purpose. Make them simple. Make them yourself, so you can repair and maintain them yourself. (I love this!, but not sure whether I'll be able to maintain everything myself)
3. Simpler Utilities: Insulate. Use renewable energy sources. Collect rainwater. Use graywater for irrigation and other purposes. Use compact fluorescent and LCD lights. Use timers and setback thermostats. Turn off heat, A/C and lights when you're away or not using them. Dress to be comfortable when it's 80°F indoors in summer and 60°F in winter, and set thermostats accordingly. (agreed!)
4. Eating Simpler: Learn to make meals out of simple, unprocessed, raw ingredients. Buy local, organic and fair trade products, and avoid processed and chemical-laden foods. Learn to cook simple, quick meals. Follow the French model -- learn about sauces, herbs and spices and how they simply make raw foods exotic and nuanced. Become a vegan (do not agree).
5. Dressing Simpler: Buy local, durable, hand-made clothing and personal-care products made from natural ingredients and free of slave labour, animal products and animal testing. Learn to make your own clothes, jewelery, accessories and personal-care products. Climate permitting, stop wearing clothes entirely.
6. Simpler Fun: Learn how to entertain at home, simply, creatively and inexpensively, instead of having to "go out" to have fun. Rediscover simple pleasures and share them with your community: sandlot sports, massage, non-electronic games (like cards and charades), meditation, making love, conversation, hands-on hobbies, playing with children and animals.
7. Simpler Transportation: Remember that every minute you spend walking adds three minutes to your healthy life, so it "takes" no time at all. Put a carrier and light on your bicycle and use it. Use virtual presence technology to reduce the need to travel. Carpool. Drive a hybrid. Avoid flying as much as possible.
8. Simpler Investment: Pay off your debts. Don't get into debt. Don't buy on impulse. Buy stuff that lasts. Invest your time and energy in things that will make you self-sufficient and resilient and which are recession-proof, like your own sustainable business, know-how and fitness. Donate cash you don't need to responsible causes you believe in -- they'll invest your money with more focus and care than you probably can. If you can, work less -- and recapture time that will save you nearly as much as you have foregone in income, that will simplify your life further.
9. Simpler Health Care: Take charge of your own health -- illness prevention, diagnosis and first-line treatment. Preventing illness is cheaper and simpler than coping with it, but it takes an investment of time. Learn how the system works, and when it works in the interest of the patient and when it works against it.
10. Simpler Education: Learn, and teach, how to learn. When you and those you love have acquired that, use it to acquire critical life skills, through self-education, collaborative learning and home-schooling.

Local elections coming up...

Just think about it... in Belgium the voting is compulsory...

Water Wars Loom - but none in the past 4500 years

Despite warnings about water wars in the 21st century, the last time that two countries actually went to war over water supplies was some 4500 years ago, when the Sumerian city-states of Umma and Lagash locked horns in what is now southern Iraq. The war (which Lagash won) was over the allocation of irrigation water. Since then, pointed out Professor Aaron Wolf of Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, thousands of international water treaties have been signed because people simply can't afford to risk losing such a vital resource. Executive Director Achim Steiner of the United Nations Environment Program agreed that conflicts on an international level were rare. Violence does break out over water resources within countries, however: two recent examples are in Sri Lanka and Kenya.

In the five decades to 1999, Wolf's research indicates there have been no wars and just 37 military acts over water between states -- 30 of them involving Israel and its neighbors.

Free Market Economic System is the best

A new poll of 20 countries from around the world finds a striking global consensus that the free market economic system is best, but that governments should also do more to regulate large companies. In all but one country polled, a majority or plurality agreed with the statement that “the free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world.” On average, 61% agreed while 28% disagreed.

The Write Stuff - Journalism & Cartoons

The Write Stuff - Journalism & Cartoons
Originally uploaded by wacondah.

Cartoon shown during a conference in Stockholm - August 2006. It's not only fitting to the craft of journalism, but could apply to most human "writing" activities... (Picture taken of a slide-show presented by Asit. K. Biswas during his acceptance of the Stockholm World Water Week Award)

5 things to eat before you die

check out what other people want to eat....
"the food-bloggers guide to the globe: the traveller's lunchbox"

here are mine:

1. Rammequin - Fried floating toast with melted cheese and whipped egg
2. "Tiger Balls" over a Canadian bonfire- an outdoorsman's favourite: melted marshmellows, peanut butter, peanuts...
3. Belgian Fries, hand-cut, double-fried - a true original
4. Sole Meunière, fresh-caught in the Galician surf, west of Santiago.
5. "Américain frites" from "Au Vieux Saint Martin"

Google-hack of note

those of you familiar with Douglas Adams' masterpiece, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" are well acquainted with the question: the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Type these worlds into your google interface and look at the neat answer