Can we insist that companies give details of their environmental impact? It pays to be transparent - a nifty marketing tool as we the people become more discerning!
“The World Debate asks whether companies, already forced to report on their finances, should also have to reveal details of their impact on the environment and society?“

“How transparent do we expect companies to be and can we trust them to come clean?”

VIVA! THE BBC VIVA!
Have just seen an enlightening debate between a impressive group of speakers presented by Nik Gowing, a brilliant journalist, that asks the questions we are all wanting to know the answers to.

“….
SHOWING TIMES - BBC WORLD NEWS
Saturday 17th May at 0710 GMT
Repeated: Saturday 17th May at 1510 GMT and 1910 GMT; Sunday 18th May at 0010, 0710, 1510 and 1910 GMT.

Speakers….

Alessandro Carlucci – CEO Natura
Natura Cosméticos S.A. is a leading player in sales of cosmetics, fragrances, and toilet products in Brazil. It was founded 40 years ago and is based near Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Gerd Leipold - Executive director of Greenpeace International

Maud Olofsson - Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Enterprise and Energy.

Sir Michael Rake - Chairman of BT [British Telecom] Former Chairman of KPMG International.

Alex Sink - Chief Financial Officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services
Chief Financial Officer of the Florida Department of Financial Services and (Former President of Bank of America) Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, responsible for monitoring the state’s fiscal health and managing more than $74 billion in tax revenue coming in and out of state government annually.

Bruno Prior - Director, Summerleaze
Summerleaze is a UK based renewable energy company. His company is a renewable electricity generator primarily from landfill gas, but with an increasing emphasis on anaerobic digestion.

Showing on BBC World News on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May. Chaired by BBC World News presenter Nik Gowing.
….”

Taylor’s understanding of a human being is that we are “…50 trillion cells functioning in purposeful harmony. The two hemispheres of our brain are yoked opposites: limit-setting rationality (time, judgment, ego) in perpetual interplay with the eternal and unbounded now. Together and only together, do these two halves of our awareness make our human destiny…..” - Dr J B Taylor web site

This morning I heard Taylor, a brain specialist, being interviewed on the BBC Radio’s Outlook program. I found it fascinating and shocking, Taylor’s experience of having had a stroke when 37 year old, resulting in loosing the use of her left brain and having the brain capacity of a baby – it took Taylor over a year or was it 4 - to understand that 1 + 1 is 2!
Taylor’s experience taught her that, “…deep internal peace is accessible to anyone at any time…..My stroke of insight would be: Peace is only a thought away and all we have to do to access it is silence the voice of our dominating left mind…”

You can listen to the interview on BBC Radio’s Website – Outlook program
Look for:
Thursday 15th May - Rebuilding My Brain

Available For Only The Next 6 Days – Ad Free! & Cost Free!

I’m not sure if you can download it as a podcast or MP3 file
I looked to see if i could find them but have run out of time
NB audio files chomp loads of broadband! [bandwidth?]
grrrrrrr - jargon challenged!

Taylor has written a book about her experience – …My Stroke Of Insight

Not available
@ Exclusive Books [not listed on either of their data bases - south africa]

@ 806 [internet time - 1000 = 24 hrs]
20:21 Cape Town - South Africa!

- competing with everyone for everything everywhere -
Peter Day of BBC radio 4, interviews, Arindam Bhattacharya, author of the book, “Globality” – the West’s big businesses had a learning curve to go through but Bhattacharya says the developing world won’t have to go through it, in fact the West can learn from them.

Download pod cast of the interview

You’ll see these things on the pri download page - click on it to read the blurb on the interview.

Statistics & facts! & WP Super Geek Team - courtesy wordpress.com - spot Maya the token women! [if you want to know their names go to Link]
“…

• 655,178,604 [655 million] pageviews on WordPress.com
• 4,903,485 logins
• 5,775,721 comments
• 63,730,680 [63million] pageviews in RSS feeds.
• 3,258,032 posts
• 1,330,355 new pages
• 240,494 blogs were created.
• 281,729 new users joined.
• 2,533,704 file uploads
• About 740 gigabytes of new files.
• 317 terabytes of content transferred from our datacenters.
• 1,063,538,044 [1 billion] pageviews total across blogs using our stats system. We broke a billion!!
• 884,208 active blogs, where “active” means they got a human visitor.
• 152,005,525 [152 million] unique people visited WordPress.com-hosted blogs.
  Random facts:
  • About 30% of pageviews go to blogs with their own domains.
  • 43% of pageviews to permalink pages.
  • 30% of pageviews go to blogs in languages other than English. The most popular? Spanish, Portuguese, and Indonesian.
  • 63% of our visitors were from outside of the United States.
  • About 93% of pageviews were to people not logged in.
  • People logged in somewhere using OpenID 84 thousand times.
  • Blogs using the Digg3 theme got 5.26% of total traffic.
  • There were 475 posts made via the Atom API (234,831 with XML-RPC).
  • We sent 3,761,059 emails.

…”Posted by Matt Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 6:25 am [GMT?] Filed under: Features, WordPress.com, Wrapup.

@995
00:54 Cape Town South Afrika

The age old issue, freedom of expression and speech, raises it’s ugly head again!

I have just read WordPress’ announcement re Brazil and the possibility of them being shut down.

Here is a link to a site which says it legally jumps in to protect online freedom of speech, among other things
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) they, “…continue to fight for the right to free speech. Our latest campaign revolves around the legal rights of bloggers and citizen journalists…”

Download A Blue Ribbon Onto Your Blog [PNG & animated GIF]
They ask that we bloggers, “ …Display the Blue Ribbon, to support the essential human right of free speech, a fundamental building block of free society, affirmed by the U.S. Bill of Rights in 1791 and by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights in 1948….”

“….When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defence…….and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights….”

Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

[I found this nifty widget link on a Greek blog!]

@597
15:20
cape town south afrika
.

BICARBONATE OF SODA [NaHCO3] SODIUM BICARBONATE
Marvellous, unpleasant tasting stuff!
It must be food quality – you can buy it in the baking section of any super market
It’s very alkaline so the microbes that cause the pong can’t live and multiply in it!
At least that’s what I’ve worked out

It’s a very effective deodorant – not as a sweat stopper!
Make it into a paste with a drop of water and apply to arm pits - shaving brush works very well - It does/can make a white mark on your clothes but it washes out

Toothpaste - put a decent amount on your tooth brush - it tastes awful – very salty? But remember it’s non toxic and cheap as chips! [much much cheaper – potatoes are very expensive here]

I think I picked this information up from Dr Hulda Clark - she’s the big expert on what toxic substances we surround ourselves with: thinners, paint, floor sealers carpets, benzene, cleaning chemicals, glues on and on and on, in her book called, How To Cure All Diseases, she is seen to be a tad on the extreme side and the pharmaceutical industry and food companies hate her as she keeps exposing the toxic chemicals that are in our foods and says we can cure ourselves of anything if we take basic steps [see her site] which means you don’t need to buy conventional medicines. She’s into de-parasiting ourselves in a big way! She says that parasites that would normally pass through us are now stopping off as we are such a great environment to live in! We just need to take the non toxic, ground up herbs that flush them out!
Here’s a couple of links of toxic lists found on her site to depress you futher!
The 5 Immunity Destroyers
Clean up your Home
• Freon (refrigerator, air conditioner)
• Fiberglass (drapes, open insulation)
• Formaldehyde (foam bedding, new clothing, newspapers)
• Vanadium (gasoline, leaking fuel, automotive exhaust)
• Asbestos (gym belts, dryer belts, hair blowers)
• Arsenic (pesticide used indoors, wallpaper)
• Beryllium (outside air pollutant)
• Strontium (outside air pollutant, water, corn, honey)
• Chlorine
• Tobacco smoke

@325
08:48 Cape Town South Afrika

Does it damage our central nervous system, liver and kidneys? Are women’s cosmetics contaminated with it? I would like more research to be done in analysing the products we put into and onto our bodies and all chemicals clearly displayed on all products we use and eat in large fonts so we can read it! I started looking for information on Wikipedia - It mentions that the ethoxylation process ‘might’ be contaminating “…deodorants, shampoos, toothpastes and mouth washes….the chemical is also used as a foaming agent and appears as an accidental by-product of the ethoxylation process in cosmetics manufacturing. It may contaminate cosmetics and personal care products such as deodorants, shampoos, toothpastes and mouthwashes…..It is suspected of causing damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys…”
Wikipedia [+ image]  - The offending molecule 1,4-Dioxane 1,4-Dioxacyclohexane– isn’t it graphic! They have such wonderfully seductive sounding names these toxic chemicals!

I’m always suspicious when the words, “may” and “possibly” are used - no one wants to take on the multinational multi billion dollar pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry! Its up to us to check out the information - if one can get hold of it! And this is why we need to insist that all the chemical contents are clearly marked on all products – being mindful of packaging of course!

Just in case you don’t go to the comments page…..
An expert on the subject, Stachy Malkan the author of, “Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry” has left a comment which is really shocking. Here is an extract….

“…Recent product tests found 1,4 dioxane in nearly half of 100 personal care products labeled “natural” or “organic.” According to these tests, nearly all products that use the ethoxylation process (in which highly toxic ethylene oxide is added to chemicals such as sodium laurel sulfate or PEG compounds to supposedly make them more gentle) are contaminated with 1,4 dioxane….”
[to get to the comment click on the title]

@373 Milliday Time
18:43 Cape Town, South Africa Time - late autumn getting chilly 14c to night

China arms ship unloads only cement in Angola-ITF
LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - “….A Chinese-owned ship carrying a cache of weapons originally destined for Zimbabwe has only unloaded construction equipment in Angola and not its consignment of arms, transport unions said on Tuesday…”
(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi; Editing by Jon Boyle)

“Did the weapons go through Angola?” 1.5.08
“For a massive ship that carries tons of ammunition and has its own cranes on board, the controversial Chinese ship carrying arms for Zimbabwe is about as easy to pin down as a cockroach in a dark, damp cellar. The An Yue Jiang is carrying three million rounds of ammunition for AK-47s, 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades and several thousand mortar rounds….”.
by Mandy Rossouw, Nic Dawes and Jason Moyo.
Mail & Guardian on line 01 May 2008

The Zim weapons have fallen off the radar screen – too much going on else where i guess. I want to know what has happened to them! Have they been delivered or have they returned to china? I want to move on!

LINK to the CIA’s take on Zimbabwe eg.
Life expectancy:
Female: 38.55 years
Male: 40.87 years
(2008 est.)

MAIL & GUARDIAN Search results for:An Yue Jiang

AUTO LINKS are dated from april 22nd to 27th [new york times][these appear when you click on the posts heading to leave a comment]

No more seconds but beats - 1000 beats = 24 hrs. Given all the time zones we are dealing with, internet time makes a whole lot more sense to me

BEAT time = a “….New time unit - the Beat
Instead of dividing the virtual and real day into 24 hours and 60 minutes per hour, the Internet Time system divides the day into 1000 “.beats”.
Each .beat is 1 minute and 26.4 seconds….”
Find out more about time and the beat problem @ time and date.com

I stumbled on internet time years ago and gave up using it as no one else was!
But this was before blogging!
We no longer have to be subjected to the ‘imperialist’ ‘super powers’ clock!
Equal time for all!

Imagine this - We can glance at the time and it’s the same time for everyone on the planet!
Bloody marvellous!
No more scratching of heads trying to work out who’s time zone we are looking at

A milliday might help us to think more as one people, one planet and move away from being nationalistic

It’s 870 [22:06 South African time]

Take a look at John Hynes’ decimal time site - Marvellous!

You can have internet time show up with your PC clock, in the start-up bar, by downloading this nifty program from SOFTPEDIA

You can NOT download a beat clock that sits on your desktop from swatch as they have removed it. The sods! [pls write and complain!]
I am trying to find one – will post it here as soon as i do

Numbering Systems & Place Values
If you love numbers you’ll love this site
created by John Knoderer [webmaster(at)Mazes.com]

Millions, billions, trillions, gazillions?
A million was quite a number not so long ago but now it seems so tame!

Zimbabwe has a 7,000% inflation rate!

China’s daily consumption of plastic bags = 3 billion +
Their population is 6 billion + [6,000,000,000,000,]

China’s supermarkets consume 1 billion + plastic bags a DAY!

“….Supermarkets give out 1bn [billion]plastic bags every day, while shops and restaurants use double that amount. Plastic packaging accounts for an estimated 5m [million] tonnes of crude oil each year…..” Jonathan Watts The guardian

South Africa banned plastic bags being given out for free 5 years ago this month - Not many if any countries have done so to date - I stand to be corrected

more on plastic bags

How much does our individual consumption of plastic bags effect the environment?

South Africa also banned smoking in public places with virtually no fuss at all in 1999! And recently in restaurants and pubs
I do feel sorry for those lonely souls standing on the streets outside their office buildings puffing away in all weathers
It’s really hard to give up
[I gave up over 20? yrs ago and i was smoking at least 30 a day]
non smokers were so tolerant in those days

THE ETHICAL CO-OP - I buy everything organic from them. Being ethical is really important to me - to find an organisation which has the word in their name and supply’s organic goods is just fantastic! What a boon.

I signed up – scrolled through the website – clicked on all that I wanted – paid via the internet - and its collected on Thursdays just up the road. I’m so fortunate…….Each time i get my veggie box and goodies in it, I feel like a kid at xmas time

If we don’t support our small farmers they will not survive - especially in these belt tightening economic climate times. To be sure “big business” is standing on the side lines rubbing their hands and chomping at the bit - ready to snap them up! No more organic foods - No more variety - no more tasty\non toxic\ hormone free\synthetic fertiliser free\ multi layered packaging free goodies….
.

Daisaku Ikeda

Watch them talk - download thier talk

TED – Technology – Entertainment - Design

Yochai Benkler on open-source economics
Amy Tan on creativity
Dean Ornish says your genes are not your fate
Brian Greene on string theory
Ernest Madu on world-class health care
Tod Machover and Dan Ellsey play new music
Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks
Jakob Trollback rethinks the music video
David Hoffman shares his Sputnik mania
Siegfried Woldhek shows how he found the …
Rokia Traore sings “M’Bifo”
Clifford Stoll on … everything
Christopher deCharms scans the brain in real time
Norman Foster’s green agenda
Neil Turok makes his TED Prize wish

WARNING! Very large files if you watch and/or download talks

http://www.ted.com/
http://www.ted.com/
http://www.ted.com/

image - fotosearch

“…Bisphenol A has been known to leach from the plastic lining of canned foods and to a lesser degree, polycarbonate plastics that are cleaned with harsh detergents or used to contain acidic or high-temperature liquids.[49] Studies by the CDC found bisphenol A in the urine of 95% of adults sampled in 1988-1994[50] and in 93% of children and adults tested in 2003-04.[51] Almost all exposure is through diet, and infants fed with liquid formula are among the most exposed. Infants fed canned formula with polycarbonate bottles can consume quantities of bisphenol A up to 13 µg/kg/day (see table below),[52] while the most sensitive animal studies show effects at much lower concentrations. Debate continues on what is the safe limit of this compound….”
Thanks Wikipedia!

“Identification in plastics
……There are seven classes of plastics……. When such plastics are exposed to hot liquids, bisphenol A leaches out 55 times faster than it does under normal conditions,………….
……..Type 1 (PET) and Type 6 (polystyrene) have unreacted phthalates and styrene, respectively, which could leach under certain conditions [68], but these resins do not use bisphenol A during polymerization and package forming.…..”
Thanks Wikipedia!

BPA FREE BOTTLES
No info on what BPA is so i looked it up on wikipedia
Careful of moulds growing in them if they aren’t cleaned properly
I was told years ago that the safest plastic is the one that is white opaque
And that does not smell of plastic!
Be weary of anything blue – dyzo dyes! TOXIC!
Look for 1 in the centre of the recycle icon usually found under the plastic container/bottle
Give me glass any day!

image - fotosearch

Designer and creator of remote unknown
To view close up click IMAGE