Life is Healthy

Six Million Face Water Shortages In China
Long term drought in Guangdong Province, a symptom of global warming.

March 1, 2007


BEIJING - A severe drought in southwestern China is threatening the water supplies of six million people in the crowded metropolis of Chongqing, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

The city faces an acute water shortage in early March due to a continuing drought along the Yangtze River, the agency said citing a local meteorological expert.


"The city will be lacking at least 500 million cubic metres of drinking and irrigation water and about six million people will be thirsty," Xinhua quoted the local meteorologist as saying.

Official figures show that the amount of water stored in Chongqing's reservoirs is around 1.17 billion cubic meters, less than half the normal storage, it said.

The southern province of Guangdong said it was considering rationing water to industry, farms and residents to ease a drought there.

Last summer's drought was the worst to hit southwest China in more than a century, when temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104F) and about 18 million people faced water shortages.

Some parts of Chongqing -- home to some 30 million people -- had started limiting water supplies to residents and were drilling new wells to find underground sources, Xinhua reported earlier.

Also see:

Climate Change In Asia

World Water Day

News from Water Partners International regarding World Water Day for 2007 and the efforts you can join to commemorate this day and build a lifetime of commitment to solving the global water crisis.

The international observance of World Water Day (March 22) is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. It's goal is to raise awareness of the global water crisis that affects more than a billion people and claims the life of one child every 15 seconds, with water scarcity becoming a more prevalent crisis every year.

I encourage you to wear blue that day and to also pledge to conserve the amount of water you currently use, or you can offset water as you do carbon. Everytime you wash dishes, take a shower, wash your car, etc., fill a jar with a dollar. You will be amazed at how much money you can accumulate in even two weeks time that could be sent as a donation to a good organization like Water Partners International that provides potable water to millions who would otherwise do without this human right.

We take so much for granted in this country, especially our water. This is one day we can put aside to not only think about what we use but to also reflect on just what a miraculous life saving liquid water is. No one should die for lack of clean water to drink and sustain them. Doing all in our power with what we have to help see all have it should be a primary goal for all of us.

I will also personally be donating as a sustaining donor to WPI, and taking it upon myself to hand out flyers about the global water crisis that I will design. I am also just in the beginning stages of trying to lay out a slideshow on this crisis. The preservation of freshwater resources is a moral imperative and any small thing you can do at least on this one day to show your support makes a difference to the whole.

Water Is Life.

World Water Day

Jane Brody used to be a binge eater. Her binging started when she was 23 years old. She could eat 3,000 calories in one sitting and often did. She's written a helpful article in NYT about her experience.

About one in every 35 people is estimated to be a binge eater. That's almost three percent of the population. Yet unlike anorexia or bulimia, binge eating is not considered a formal diagnosis.

Daylight Savings Time normally begins the first Sunday in April but this year it will start three weeks early, on March 11th. It will also go one week further in the fall, instead of ending the last Sunday in October it will now be the first Sunday in November.

This is great news for all people who enjoy outdoor fitness activities. We can now get in an extra hour of tennis, golf, soccer or any other sport or outdoor activity we enjoy. It's also very good news for the many people who suffer from mood disorders and depression due to a deficiency of sunlight or daylight.

The main reason for the change is to reduce global warming as people will need less lighting for one hour and the change is estimated to reduce greenhouse gases by one percent.

Belly fat is the most dangerous kind of fat in terms of serious health effects. On the photo here you see what just five pounds of fat would look like on your belly. The excess fat surrounds the organs and forces them to work harder.

Dr. Gonzalez-Campoy says "It is not the fat under the skin that really matters. It is the fat inside the abdominal cavity that matters. If you put this (5 pounds of fat) inside of your abdomen around your intestines, that's the fat that we really want to get after."

He says liposuction is not the answer. Liposuction only removes the fat just under the skin. It doesn't get rid of the fat deeper inside the abdomen. And this is the fat that leads to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

See the interesting video and interview of Dr. Gonzalez-Campoy by Angela Davis here.

Everybody in the fashion industry is taking notice that one of the biggest department stores in London, John Lewis, has chosen a size 12 model to show off their summer swimwear collections on the catwalk.

The model is Lauren Moller. She is 5'8" and her measurements don't seem like size 12 at a 26 inch waist and 37.5 inch hips, but Lewis claims she is a size 12. She has a body mass index (BMI) of 19.8. Although they don't state her weight this BMI and height calculation would mean she weighs 130 pounds.

Apparently the typical catwalk model is 5'9" and weighs 110 pounds. That's a dangerously unhealthy BMI of 16.

This is the first time I've heard of a 130 pound 5'8" woman wearing size 12. I don't know much about British sizes but I am 5'9" (with big bones at that) and am quite sure that if I weighed 130 pounds like Lauren Moller I would be easily slinking into size 8 or lower.

Sarah Ferguson is now 47 years old. She is celebrating ten years as spokesperson for Weight Watchers. When she joined the Weight Watchers program in 1997 she was about '200 pound odd'. Weight Watchers has reportedly paid her millions of dollars per year since then. Ferguson says they saved her life. She first became fat at the age of 12 after her mother left the family.

Ferguson says that not only does she watch what she eats, she also does some exercise daily be it pilates, yoga, jogging or lifting weights.

She says "It's very, very difficult to keep focused and motivated. You have to learn to control the darkness in your mind. And you have to be honest with yourself about what your triggers [to overeat] are. Because if you don't, you'll choose food instead of anything else."

I had a lovely weekend in Derbyshire with my girlfriend. We packed a lot in, enjoying all the things that are different to London. So much so, in fact, that it wasn’t until we were halfway round one famous attraction that, with a massive déjà vu-like rush, I realised exactly where I was.

I was in a cave.

I was having an adventure in a cave.

I rarely visit caves. I have only ever been to two or three previously in my whole life – an average of perhaps once a decade. So what were the chances of me finding myself in one so soon after having transcribed and analysed the whole of Adventures In The Cave? It can’t be discounted that the prominence of the story in my mind meant that I had made a subconscious choice of which tourist attraction to visit, but the joyous surprise I felt at the sudden revelation made it feel that life had some kind of meaning.

I nearly laughed out loud at that moment – the guide certainly gave me a funny look as he was pointing out some fossils, and I was in a good mood for the rest of the day. I’ll never say that life doesn’t imitate art again.

In tribute, here is my adventure:

Salvadore and his girlfriend lived together. One Saturday, Salvadore’s girlfriend said “We’ve come all this way, let’s go out somewhere.” So they went.

At the cave Salvadore couldn’t find the way in. He picked up a sharp rock, but then the guide opened the door. So they went in.

“Wwwwhat is ththat” said Salvadore’s girlfriend, questioningly. “It can’t be a gosht” said Salvadore, doubtfully. “It’s a rock that looks a bit like an elephant” said the guide, in an explaining way. “Hi here’s a kind of ladder” said Salvadore. So they went up the kind of ladder.

“That’s a Tyranosawas Rex OK” said Salvadore. “That’s what’ll” said Salvadore’s girlfriend. “Tyranosawas Rex” said Salvadore. “This is a fossil of a brachiopod – a kind of shellfish” said the guide. “That’s what I meant” said Salvadore.

“This must be the way out” said Salvadore, pointing at a door that had not vanished.

“Yes, that’s the way out” said the guide.

So they went back to the hotel.

There is a good interview with Bob Greene on Bankrate. He tells the story of how he first met Oprah in 1992 when she weighed 237 pounds. At that time he didn't have a TV and he barely knew who she was. They hiked together at a spa resort that day and have been great friends ever since.

Fitness guru Bob Greene is the kind of guy who was reading nutritional magazines when he was a young kid. He remembers saying to his parents that they shouldn't be eating bacon for breakfast back when he was nine years old.

Bankrate asks him if Oprah is typical in her battle of the bulge. Greene replies;

I think she's typical of a fairly large majority of women and men whose major coping mechanism is food. When they're happy, they want to celebrate with food; when they're sad or feel a void in their life, food really fills it. They don't mistreat people. Everyone has coping mechanisms. You either mistreat people, you abuse alcohol or drugs or you overwork. We all have our thing that gets us past stressful moments, and hers is most definitely food. I think it is for a majority of people. It's the most socially acceptable.

Kris Robinson decided she wanted to lose weight this year. She has a history of diabetes in her family and felt it was time to begin moving her family's diet to healthier foods.

She started her diet and exercise plan on January 7th. She's lost 12 pounds already and would like to lose thirty more. She is working out on her new treadmill at home and has started to eat more legumes, nuts, brown rice and vegetables. She is trying to cut out the white flour and white sugar. Her family is eating whole wheat pasta for the first time.

In the process, she is already a size smaller and has gone out and bought a new pair of pants. This mom stopped wearing 'mom's jeans' a year ago;

I didn't know that there was a real distinction until I bought my first pair of 'sort of' low rise jeans. They weren't TOO low rise, just enough to sit below my belly button and look stylish. I have to admit, they were much more flattering than my other jeans. Then Payton (my 15 year old) said, "Cool, no more Mom jeans?"

"Huh?" I replied. What do you mean? "You know, those ones that come way up towards your chest, like Erkel? Those are Mom Jeans."

Smart ass.

Holy Crap! Had I become a Mom? Really, like an uncool Mom? Unbeknownst (?) to me, apparently, sadly, I had. I thought I was just resisting the trendiness in favor of a more classic look. How was I to know that the kids actually had something right this time with the low rise style? Like I said, they ARE more flattering. In the next several weeks I got more compliments than ever including "are you loosing weight?" Well, no, I'm just not wearing Mom Jeans anymore!

Here's a treadmill for swimmers. It seems like the ultimate luxury in terms of workout equipment.

It's a pool that is only 8 feet by 15 feet big. There is a current you can adjust to any speed or ability. At top speed, the equivalent swim would be a mile without turns in less than 20 minutes. It's advertised as being ideal for exercise, water aerobics or rehabilitation. The Endless Pool costs about $20,000 and another $3,500 for installation.

Well, this was certainly a wonderful weekend! Adam came down on Friday so after work went out for a few drinks, and he got quite drunk - result!

On Saturday we went into Camden Towns markets and wonderful streets to see what joys were to be had, haggled after the price of a watch for Adam, got it at a good price too, worth the haggling, then realised the batery didnt work, lol oh well - result No.2!

Then on to Leicester Square to watch HOT FUZZ! and wow was it cool so funny - worth the £26, well almost!!!! I thought at that cost they would have thrown in the DVD!

Then on Sunday we went to China Town again but this time to let in the Chinese New Year and what a spectacle, dancing dragons, sweet smelling food, crowds of people and I mean crowds, and fireworks! all in all was a great weekend.

It was good to catch up with Adam and share our lives once again, I only hope its not too long before we do it again - its amazing how quickly one day blurs into the next.

Well in case you missed it here are a few pictures I took, not brilliant and I found out I had the camera on the wrong setting as the shutter speed was too slow, silly me.
Also uploaded a video I took and quickly edited in some music etc, enjoy. http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u236/kinesis_2007/?action=view&current=newyear.flv

Oh well im off to get a cornetto, so jog on.

Cool Slideshows

Beth Ostrosky likes to walk her dog to stay in shape. She's a spokesperson for a Long Island animal shelter and they've partnered with Weight Watchers on a campaign called "Adopt a Walking Buddy".

Other than walking her dog, Beth Ostrosky probably works out on a regular basis. She looks fantastic at age 34. She's been a long term girlfriend of Howard Stern and he finally proposed to her this week. Howard Stern is quite a bit older than her, (53) but on the other hand he does make over $300 million a year. They've probably got a nice big gym with all the latest fitness equipment in their house and maybe even a personal trainer or two.

Jennifer Hudson was asked to gain twenty pounds for her role of Effie in Dreamgirls. She said she gained the weight by "eating ookies, cakes, and pies at all hours of the night. The trouble is, we were dancing so much, it was hard to keep the weight on. I'd lose an inch, and they'd yell 'You've gotta eat more chocolate cake!'"

Recycled water Rejected Out Of Fear, Say Critics

In the video I will link below, the people in it claim they wouldn't mind drinking recycled water... well, that is because they can still go in a store and buy a bottle of Evian if they so desire. They can say they would drink it only because they really don't have to drink it. And also notice in this video that not one person stated that they would work on conserving the water they use now for showers, etc. Just give them the quick fix so they don't have to bother about changing the way they live their lives. I don't know, perhaps they will change their tunes when their new water bills come in and they see how much those recycling plants are going to cost them, especially when they waste as much of that now as they are wasting the water they already have. The Howard government sure will be making out on this drought, won't they?

In my view, recycled water is a good proposal for industrial/commercial use, but for agriculture and drinking no way. However, if the people in Australia really do wish to have it, then how about shipping all of the Evian that is making corporations billions in profits to the people in Africa and other under developed countries who could really use it because all they have to drink is feces infected toxic water that is not treated? Let's see how many people change their minds about putting their lips to a glass of it when they have no other choice.

Video/Recycled Drinking Water, Anyone?

About Reclaimed Water

The reason this type of water is now going to be pumped into faucets is clear: It is cheaper and in the case of Australia in an election year, it makes Howard look good. However, the longterm health effects of drinking recycled water must be taken into account as well as viruses and organisms that can get into the water even with a filtration process. As always, conservation is the best answer now as is addressing the burning of fossil fuels that is in part causing the conditions for drought. However again, it doesn't seem as though human nature is yet ready to admit that it has any responsibility in what it is reaping by its own actions.

So, yet another weeks past, boy do they fly by.

Anyway what have I been upto? Well I dyed my hair a cool fiery red colour, and had it restyled. Woke up to a world full of snow! Funnier still woke Carrie up to show her then went straight back to sleep, lol.
Shame is it didn’t last long, global warming or just seasons falling out of sync? Who knows, maybe aliens?? Either way it was only around for a day and boy what chaos it caused; I can’t help but find it amusing, how we struggle to cope (we as a nation: that is). and they claim we've elvolved - doesn't look like it.


I’m busy working on a few projects right now, can’t say much all hush hush, but if they come to fruition all will be revealed.

Well we are without internet and knowing how broadband providers are I am guessing for some time, so this is being wrote on my laptop with a view to being posted when we have connection again, not holding my breath for anytime soon.
It’s funny because you get quoted 30 minutes to change providers, with full knowledge it’s more likely to be 2 weeks. Anyway lets see if they can prove us wrong. Personally I wouldn’t have changed as they are all as bad as each other, and not one really gives the service they promise to deliver, because we aren’t built to take broadband, they are just making the best of what they have, which isn’t much.

This weekend I’m taking a trip to Leicester to see you China and catch up with some peeps, which will be nice, Adam is coming down next weekend, so I’m looking forward to that, probably go watch HOT FUZZ; Simon Pegg rocks! It’s also the Chinese New Year that weekend, so probably go see what on offer, should be good.

Right now im listening to The Hours; the lead singer of Radiohead has formed a new group, and i must say the album is really cool. my favourite lyric is:
-= IF YOUR NOT LIVING ON THE EDGE THEN YOU ARE TAKING UP TO MUCH ROOM =- how cool is that?!

In the final part of this serialisation we will look at the book’s illustrations. Firstly, the inside front cover:



There is nice attention to detail here with Susan wearing the white knee socks that were fashionable in the 70s, and in her carrying the item that is first on the equipment list of any potholing expedition: a handbag. But my main observation is that if you are writing some kind of action-adventure thriller, the climax of which is the unexpected and shocking appearance of a long-dead monstrous creature, don’t put a picture of it on the inside front cover. It is like starting The Crying Game with the caption “Oh, by the way: she’s a bloke”.

Now let’s look at the inside back cover:



Again, nice crayoning, but it does rather support my view that Steve and Ian are somewhat indistinguishable. Not sure about the lesser known combination of brown trousers and blue shoes, but their black leather jackets look ace.

Finally, the back cover:



I have no idea why I drew this. It could be some kind of attempt at a publisher’s logo. Unless this is the gosht...

Montana Sues Wyoming Over Water Rights

Montana sues Wyoming over water rights By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Feb 1, 1:18 PM ET

BILLINGS, Mont. - Montana sued Wyoming in the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday over water rights in two shared rivers, which Montana claims are running dry due to Wyoming's overuse.

The lawsuit over the Tongue and Powder rivers, which flow from northeastern Wyoming into southeastern Montana, marks a sharp escalation in an acrimonious water fight between the states.

The lawsuit alleges Wyoming is ignoring Montana's "senior" water rights by taking more water from the rivers than allowed under the 1950 Yellowstone River Compact. That includes water diverted and stored for irrigation and groundwater pumped from beneath the surface during coal-bed methane production.

"We're running out of water," said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. "It's getting worse every year as Wyoming is using more and more water. ... Our farmers and ranchers who depend on this water for irrigation are having difficulty raising their crops."

Wyoming Attorney General Pat Crank rejected claims his state is taking too much water. "We believe Wyoming has correctly allocated water pursuant to the compact and will continue to do so into the future," he said.

The 1950 compact calls for disagreements to go straight to the Supreme Court for resolution.

Both states have suffered from a prolonged drought dating to 1999. Wyoming State Engineer Patrick Tyrell said that in recent years due to the drought, only a "small fraction" of Wyoming's water users in the Powder and Tongue river basins received the water they needed.

But Montana officials say their state is bearing the greater burden. Montana Natural Resources and Conservation Director Mary Sexton said anyone flying over the border region last summer would have seen a sharp contrast: green on the Wyoming side, brown in Montana.

Montana officials could not quantify how much water they believe the state is owed.
The lawsuit also names North Dakota as a defendant, but only because that state also is part of the water compact. Montana officials said the lawsuit seeks no relief from North Dakota.

Montana officials said they were forced into Thursday's legal action by Wyoming's refusal to answer prior requests for more water from the rivers in 2004 and 2006.In December, Montana took its case to the three-member Yellowstone River Compact Commission. But Wyoming blocked Montana's resolution on the issue, prompting the state to sue.
end.
~~~~
Reference:

Yellowstone River Compact 1950

These compacts made between states 50 plus years ago did not account for the affects of global climate change in regards to the economy and population growth. If a consensus cannot be agreed to, it might just be more amicable to rescind the compact and write a new one that meets the needs of the states more fairly taking into account 21st Century circumstances. However, looking at this from a moral standpoint, for Wyoming to have refused to give Montana more water when they are suffering through a drought just because of a piece of paper is in my view meanspirited. But then, that is what fighting over water does to people.

It's taken me a long time to get myself an iPod. But I finally went ahead and ordered one. The price is down to $79 now and you get twice the quality as a couple of years ago. They have a special Valentine's promotion where you can get it engraved with something and gift wrapped for your sweetheart. For me, I just opted to engrave it with my phone number in case I lose it.

There are so many interesting free podcasts out there now. I think it will be fun to go for long walks and listen to some of them. I'm looking forward to trying it out. Delivery may take up to eight days since I didn't pay extra for speedy delivery.

They have some new snazzy colors to choose from now, but I opted for the standard silver. Will let you know how the walking motivation works out with the iPod soon.

Previously on Adventures In The Cave: Steve, Ian and Susan heard a gosht, had an argument about proceeding and went up a kind of ladder.




The trap door closed. “Ha Ha” said a vocie. “HELP” cried Sue. “Thats Tyranosawas Rex O.K” said Steve. “That’s what’ll” said Sue. “Tyranosawas Rex” said Ian. “Hi here’s a trap door” said Sue. “It must be the way out” said Steve. “Oh dear they’ve discovered the way out” said a voice. “Here we go” said Ian. So they went down the trap door.
The End

OK, you were only six years old, but I have to say it: this is rubbish.

You seem to jump genres from supernatural horror (the gosht) to thriller (a human who has set traps and laughs at them) to sci-fi action (a dinosaur recreated in the modern world). Did you plan this at all before you started writing?

We should now be in the most perilous part of the story, with the stakes raised to their highest point, but your protagonists’ reaction to seeing a ferocious flesh-eating monster that should have been extinct for millions of years doesn’t really convey this. Steve says “That’s a Tyranosawas Rex OK” in the same it’s-a-bit-annoying-but-let’s-keep-cheerful way that one might say “That’s a flat tyre OK”.

You have set up an antagonist who can make doors vanish, who has created an intricate underground system of trap doors and kind of ladders, who has brought to life a long-dead reptile from the Cretaceous Period (note to self: check primary school’s Friends Reunited entries for M Crichton), and his reaction to his prey escaping is “Oh dear they’ve discovered the way out”? That’s it? Hasn’t he got anything else to throw at them? To have gone to all this trouble to ensnare children for presumably the sole purpose of seeing them be eaten alive suggests some major psychological issues, unlikely to be resolved with a breezy “Oh dear”. I can’t imagine Darth Vader saying, “Oh dear they’ve blown up the Death Star”.

A major question is left unresolved: Who is the antagonist and why does he want to do this? Picnic at Hanging Rock may have preserved its mystery intact, but this story is crying out for a scene where the meddling kids find out whose voice it is. The only other character mentioned is Mum – is she behind all this? Was this all to stop them pestering her to get the sleeping bags out of the loft again?

Antagonists should be scary. Alas, yours has fallen for every Bond villain’s fatal mistake of giving the hero a chance to escape, though in this case the cave system, obviously designed to trap people with a dinosaur, had an Achilles’ heel in the form of a clearly-labelled exit. Did he or she perhaps want to be caught?

I’m fairly sure that I can spot the exact moment at which your teacher said that the lesson was nearly over. Sadly this moment coincided with the exact moment when you realised that your protagonists were trapped underground with a carnivorous reptile, but no obvious means of escape. So before you can say “deus ex machina”, they find another trap door – both problems solved. This must have been the most disappointing third act ever till Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings movie ran out of money at the end of The Two Towers.

There is some expressive use of language in using CAPITAL LETTERS FOR SHOUTING, along with “That’s what’ll”. And it is a welcome reversal on the previous stereotyping that it is Susan who finds the trap door, even if it is Steve who works out where it goes. But it is perhaps in keeping with your newly acquired literary style that the last sentence is another “So they went...”

Next time: We take a look at the artwork that accompanies the book. They say that a picture paints a thousand words, but what if one of those words is 'gosht'?

The beer belly guy decided he was going to lose his beer belly. He started a blog about his progress at the beginning of this year. He's been at it for a few weeks. He is a tall guy, 6'2" and weighs 280 pounds. He wants to weigh 225 and have a toned belly to boot.

He says he's developed the beer belly over the last five years by sitting too long in front of the computer, drinking too many beers and eating fatty foods. He used to be in uber shape before that. But he's got a very successful internet business now, he works from home, sets his own hours and has developed a lifestyle which encourages beer drinking.

He typically wakes up at 10:00am and by the time he's had his coffee and cigs, it is past 11:00am. Then he sits down to work at his computer until about 3:00pm. After that it's the bustle of two little kids and dinner to make. Then he gets back on the computer in the evening, with his favorite beer in hand and works on the computer till almost 2:00am.

Initially he vowed to give up beer for a full month. But now his goal is to maintain some regular beer drinking but still lose the belly. He's got less of a challenge in this regard then some people who've let their beer bellies get quite a bit further out of control. Hop on over to his beer belly blog and give him some encouragement.

Less chocolates and more flowers would be the Valentine's Day wish for many women. Here's an upscale (and very expensive) floral arrangement via Los Angleles Florists. It's a tiny box of chocolates surrounded by a big box of roses.

Here via Anne Collins is the calorie count in popular chocolate treats:

Chocolate Calories
Milk chocolate, 1.5oz bar 220
Milk chocolate, 2oz bar 290
Cooking chocolate, 1oz 150
Chocolate Sprinkles (1 tbsp) 50
Carob bar or Carob chips, 1oz 140
Chocolate topping (2 tbsp) 90

Water Wars: Climate Change May Spark Conflict

The Independent & The Independent on Sunday
9 February 2007 20:52 Home > News > Environment

Water Wars: Climate change may spark conflict
John Reid warns climate change may spark conflict between nations - and says British armed forces must be ready to tackle the violence

Published: 28 February 2006

Israel, Jordan and Palestine

Five per cent of the world's population survives on 1 per cent of its water in the Middle East and this contributed to the 1967 Arab -Israeli war. It could fuel further military crises as global warming continues. Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan rely on the River Jordan but Israel controls it and has cut supplies during times of scarcity. Palestinian consumption is severely restricted by Israel.

Turkey and Syria

Turkish plans to build dams on the Euphrates River brought the country to the brink of war with Syria in 1998. Damascus accused Ankara of deliberately meddling with their water supply as the country lies downstream of Turkey, who accused Syria of sheltering key Kurdish separatist leaders. Water shortages driven by global warming will pile on the pressure in this volatile region.

China and India

The Brahmaputra River has caused tension between India and China and could be a flashpoint for two of the world's biggest armies. In 2000, India accused China of not sharing information of the river's status in the run up to landslides in Tibet which caused floods in northeastern India and Bangladesh. Chinese proposals to divert the river have concerned Delhi.

Angola and Namibia

Tensions have flared between Botswana, Namibia and Angola around the vast Okavango basin. And droughts have seen Namibia revive plans for a 250-mile water pipeline to supply the capital. Draining the delta would be lethal for locals and tourism. Without the annual flood from the north, the swamps will shrink and water will bleed way into the Kalahari Desert

Ethiopia and Egypt

Population growth in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia is threatening conflict along the world's longest river, The Nile. Ethiopia is pressing for a greater share of the Blue Nile's water but that would leave downstream Egypt as a loser. Egypt is worried the White Nile running through Uganda and Sudan, could be depleted as well before it reaches the parched Sinai desert.

Bangladesh and India

Floods in the Ganges caused by melting glaciers in the Himalayas are wreaking havoc in Bangladesh leading to a rise in illegal migration to India. This has prompted India to build an immense border fence in attempt to block newcomers. Some 6,000 people illegally cross the border to India every day.
~~~
Some statistics about real people worth repeating:
And these statistics were gleaned from the World Water International site. The comments are mine:

*Over 1 BILLION people worldwide currently do not have access to clean safe drinking water. They cannot just walk into a corner store and buy a bottle of Evian. They are politically oppressed, poor, sick, weak, and many times in need of proper sanitation facilities, pumps, wells, and water enough even for one day to sustain themselves ane their children. No one should have to live this way.

*Unsafe drinking water (or TOXIC water) will kill over 14,000 people today, tomorrow, and every other day this problem is ignored. Those who believe corporations should "police" themselves regarding the crap they dump into our water, should then also have to be the ones who drink it! I don't think I need to tell anyone reading this the amount of disease in untreated feces ladden toxic water. And people around the world daily HAVE NOTHING ELSE, or NOTHING AT ALL.

*11,000 of them children, will die because of lack clean safe water, and inadeqaute access to proper sanitation. Can you picture a village with improper sanitation and what it looks and smells like? Can you picture streams of feces ladden water running through your own town knowing that is all you have? Would you want your children playing in it?

*Women and girls (and that is an issue in and of itself regarding the gender that is required to do this work) will spend more than 200 million hours walking just to get enough of the polluted water that is available for one more day's survival. And in many instances, purified water (or what they say is purified water) is available, but you have to be able to afford to pay the company master to get it. And in many places such as Kenya, they take their own lives into their hands just by walking to get water for their families. Children and women have been raped, beaten, and killed just to take the water they worked so hard to get.

Again, NO ONE should have to live this way, and with climate change becoming a very important factor in the recession and evaporation of water in bodies of water like Lake Chad, Lake Victoria, and other bodies of water around the world due to glacier melt and drought, conditions will not get much better should the current scenario not change.
~~
Some of my other entries on this warning of what we are heading for if we do not pay closer attention to water scarcity in this world follow. We WILL fight for water and are already doing so. Would you kill for water? Perhaps the WTO and World Bank are banking on that as they work to privatize the world's water in the wake of these events and predictions.

Water Wars Are Here-We Were Warned

Killing For Water

War Over Kalabagh Dam?

Destroying A Himalayan Paradise

Israeli-Lebanon War Over Water?

These are but a few examples of tensions around the world regarding water rights, scarcity, and control and there are many more stretching from Montana, to California, to Texas, to Maine in this country, to South America, Canada, Mexico, Asia, to the Middle East(particularly Turkey and Iraq,) and now Australia, where PM Howard is determined to now use the worst drought Australia has had in 1000 years to puff up his political campaign by having the government take over the water supply with the people having no choice now that it has been allowed to reach dangerous levels.

And although there are areas of the world where accords are trying to be worked out such as in an attempt to share the Nile, the future predictions and scenarios do not bode well for a planet bent on wasteful consumption in ignorance of the fact that our global water supply is finite with an ever expanding population and increasing repercussions from our inability to truly reign in our selfish use of this most precious lifeblood while continuing our rapacious use of fossil fuels, with private corporations raking in BILLIONS exploiting this resource for profit while those in poorer countries literally die for a drink of waer.

That is why I absolutely believe that global water policy must be a part of any climate change talks to go beyond Kyoto, with the World Bank being told to keep its hands OFF our water which is a human right and which must remain a public trust.

I truly do hope for the future while dreading it as well. We surely are living in times where our moral will is being put to the test. How we react to that test will either bring about the world we can have if we truly want it, or plunge us into a scenario that until now was unthinkable. The choice is ours.

How can you burn calories and make money at the same time? There's probably countless ways but here's one idea that will also help slow global warming to boot.

How long would it take to replace all the light bulbs in your home? And how many calories would you burn if it took you two hours? We're talking about a potential piddly 300 to 500 calories depending on your weight and how much you'd have to exert yourself.

But the savings to your budget would be much more impressive. If you replaced all your regular bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs you would save 50 cents to 75 cents per month per bulb. That adds up to more than a few dollars over the year.

More importantly we would make a significant contribution to slow global warming. These bulbs use only about one third of the electricity as the regular bulbs in our homes.

It's been estimated that if each home replaced only one bulb, it would be the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road in terms of global warming impact.

See more about compact fluorescent lightbulbs here.

Look!!!

Look! Look! Look! Look! Look!!!

As if life isn't exciting enough already what with all the adventures going on in the cave, I have just been to the shop, along the route that in happier times would have taken me past the bath mat, and, despite nearly all the snow around here having melted, I saw a suspiciously large pile of snow right where the bath mat used to be!!! You can look back at Day 1 for proof - the bath mat spent its first weeks on the paving slab in the top right of this new picture.

Closer inspection revealed a carrot - the snow used to be a snowman! (It is a reflection on both the era and area in which I live that instead of lumps of coal for the eyes, grapes have been used.) But why would someone build a snowman on a narrow pavement? They are usually built in gardens or parks - there is a front garden immediately behind the wall and I have seen lots built around here in the past couple of days. But none on pavements. In fact, I am sure that I have never ever seen a snowman on a pavement, not even in the proper winters we used to have years ago when I had to walk through miles of snowdrifts to school, which makes it all the more amazing that one would be built right here.

The only explanation is that the spirit of the bath mat lives on in this spot, and given the first opportunity it had, it expressed itself in the physical world. Alas, the medium of snow is only temporary, and I clearly missed it in its full glory, but in this crazy mixed-up world it's good to know that an old friend is still around.

CarrotAndGrapesWatch, anybody?

Previously on Adventures In The Cave: The door that used to be in the cave had mysteriously vanished, so Steve, Ian and Susan threw some sharp rocks to break a doorway.




“That’s done it” said Ian. “Wwwwhat was ththat” said Sue. “It can’t be a gosht” said Steve. “It it is” said Ian. “I don’t like it at all” said Sue. “Don’t be a baby” said Steve. “I am not” said Sue crossly. “Let’s explore” said Ian eagerly. “Why not” said Steve. “I’m not going” said Sue. “You would’nt” “I’m not going and thats that so there” said Sue folding her arm’s. “We’ll leave you” said Steve. “All right then” said Sue. “Come on” said the boys. “I’m coming” said Sue. “Please do’nt dawdle” said Ian. “Here’s a kind of ladder” said Steve. “Why do'nt we climb it” said Ian. “Come on then” said Steve. So they went.

Your use of quotation marks is impressive, but I have to say that these two pages are somewhat dialogue heavy. In fact, you are telling the whole story through dialogue – not something that is recommended. You try to enrich this with modifiers such as crossly and eagerly, but as Stephen King warns in On Writing, the road to hell is paved with adverbs. The foregoing prose should tell us how an action is done – is there another way to respond to being called a baby, or to want to go exploring? At least your young mind has not yet been corrupted by passive verbs.

There is good conflict between the characters though, albeit somewhat stereotyped, with the boys teasing the girl for being scared. And some of the dialogue has inventive features, such as “Wwwwhat was ththat”, showing influence from undoubted masters of the style such as Scooby-Doo.

Horror and fantasy authors time immemorial have created fictional creatures – from orcs to zombies to hippogriffs we have been transfixed by these beasts. Your gosht is an intriguing addition to this canon, though I have absolutely no idea what one could be. It is true that the scariest things are always in our imagination, but a few pointers as to how we should imagine a gosht, and why the characters might be scared of one, would be welcome.

Looking at the crossings out in your original manuscript it seems to be very important that it is Steve and not Ian who says “Don’t be a baby”, and that it is Ian and not Steve who says “Please don’t dawdle”. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference between these characters. The only hint that Steve might be older is that his name comes first in the opening sentence – apart from that they are indistinguishable. In situations such as this I would suggest merging them to make a composite character, combining their personalities to make a protagonist who is capable of both throwing sharp rocks and recognising things that are like ladders. These kind of multi-faceted characters really come to life and leap off the page.

The good news is that you end this section with a sentence that is not dialogue. The bad news is that this sentence is another "So they went".

Next time: What is up the kind of ladder?

Previously on Adventures In The Cave: Steve, Ian and Susan decided to go on an adventure to the caves and that they would need food and sleeping bags.



“I know” said Ian. “We could ask mum for them now.” So they went. In the cave there used to be a door but it had vanished. “Whats happened to the door” said Susan in a frightened way.” Its vanished of course” said Steve. “We could throw some sharp rocks on it” said Ian. “O.K.” said Steve “get some rocks.” So they started throwing rocks. Steve and Ian got a big one and threw it which broke a door way.

Your decision not to use paragraphs and chapters adds a certain breathless pace to the story, but it is good to vary this from time to time. As you build to the climax, it is good to take your foot off the gas occasionally to give the reader space to reflect on events. Less is more – that kind of thing. What I am saying is that there is not enough red ink in the world to use on the sentence “So they went”. It is as redundant as Prince Edward.

The next sentence is more interesting, introducing an air of mystery, and also referring back to something that actually predates the beginning of the narrative. This kind of detailed back story roots the narrative in part of a larger world with its own complex history, a bit like Tolkien did with Lord of the Rings. However, it is unclear whether this vanishing is due to supernatural forces, or perhaps something more mundane like a rockslide. It might be a good idea to clearly foreshadow any supernatural elements here, and give the audience a hint of the genre that we are working in.

This sentence is also an example of a third person omniscient narrator, a style common amongst 19th century authors such as Austen or Tolstoy, but less popular since. Your attempt to start a revival in the 1970s was perhaps a little ambitious. But straight away you then use dialogue to tell the audience something that they already know – that there used to be a door, but it has now vanished. Either the narration or the dialogue is redundant. All the dialogue adds is more sexual stereotyping of Susan being frightened, and the boys being the ones with knowledge and ideas. Perhaps the vanishing door could be explained by a mentor or threshold guardian character. Could this character warn them off looking for the vanishing door and suggest instead coming to look at some puppies?

I must admit that throwing rocks is a novel approach to their predicament, and shows them to be the kind of wilful protagonists that readers like. The assured specificity of the rocks being sharp (flint?) shows good attention to detail, and the extensive geological research that clearly predated the writing was time well spent. Readers love having confidence in an author in this way and it helps them to suspend their disbelief and accept the fact that children could throw rocks big enough and hard enough to break a doorway in a cave wall. Perhaps the throwing of rocks could be linked back to a special skill that one of them has in the old world of their home life? eg Susan might be gifted at the shot put?

Next time: What is through the doorway?

Mushrooms are often overlooked in today's daily diet but they are loaded with nutrition and amazing health benefits.

One of the most nutritious mushrooms is the shiitake. (They are on the top left in the photo above). These mushrooms make great meat substitutes. You can eat them on their own sauteed with butter and garlic as a side dish or put them in stir fries and soups.

Shiitake mushrooms have been used medicinally by the Chinese for over 6,000 years. An eight ounce serving (at only 87 calories) will provide you with twenty percent of your daily recommended iron intake, and about ten percent each of Vitamin C, protein and fiber.

Shiitake mushrooms contain lentinan. Lentinan has amazing healing benefits. It boosts the immune system to fight infection or disease. It has been shown to be more effective than prescription drugs in fighting influenza and other viruses. It's also been shown to be effective at destroying cancer cells. And it lowers cholesterol levels in lab animals no matter what kinds of fats they are fed.

Nutrition is still a very young science and it was only just over a year ago that L-ergothioneine, an extremely powerful antioxidant, was discovered in mushrooms:

In research presented at the 2005 American Chemical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., an American research team revealed that mushrooms contain higher concentrations L-ergothioneine than either of the two dietary sources previously believed to contain the most: chicken liver and wheat germ.

Testing mushrooms consumed in the U.S., the team found that shiitake, oyster, king oyster and maitake mushrooms contain the highest amounts of ergothioneine, with up to 13 mg in a 3-ounce serving. This equals forty times as much as is found in wheat germ.

Of the most commonly consumed mushrooms, portabellas and criminis have the most L-ergothioneine, followed by white buttons. White buttons, the most popular of all mushrooms consumed in the U.S., contain up to 5 mg per three ounce serving-12 times as much as wheat germ and 4 times more than chicken liver. And more good news, L-ergothioneine is not destroyed when mushrooms are cooked.

Steve, Ian and Susan lived together. One Saturday Steve and Ian said to Susan “We want to go on an adventure.” “Yes” agreed Susan because we could ask mum for some food and three sleeping bags.” We could go to the caves” said Steve.

There have been some brilliant opening lines in literature: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, “Call me Ishmael”. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of them. At best its ironic understatement promises a look at the reality of a polyamorous relationship, at worst it is the dullest way imaginable of introducing three siblings. What about "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that three middle-class children in possession of sleeping bags and food must be in want of an adventure"?

The inciting incident appears to be Steve and Ian wanting to go on an adventure. What about if they don’t want to go on an adventure, but accidentally find themselves in the middle of one? That would give scope for dramatic conflict, of which there is none here. Susan immediately agrees (again, no conflict), and the location for the adventure is also decided upon straight away. What would be great is if we could spend a bit of time with the characters to begin with, then use suspense to tell the reader what the protagonists do not know.

There is also a lot of sexual stereotyping going on here. Firstly it is the boys who want the adventure, and it is Susan whose thoughts immediately turn to domestic matters. And from whom will she procure these household items? Mum, of course. You’ve got no excuse for this sexism as your own mother went out to work – she was the one who set this project for your class. Could they not live with a single dad? Or two dads? Alternatively, investigate the issues surrounding the fact that mum appears to allow her children to sleep rough, perhaps introducing the overriding fear of a social worker splitting the family up.

I like your self-styled “Master” honorific though. It's a nice gimmick, like JK Rowling or JRR Tolkien using their initials, and it subliminally gives the casual purchaser confidence in your literary skills.

Next time: They get to the cave...

While we're on the subject of girdles and shapewear, let's talk extreme girdles for a minute. These are the 'Brazilian waist cinchers'. They are girdles made out of actual rubber; the natural latex from the rubber trees of the Amazon. Contrary to the claims of the company who manufactures them - 'Squeem' - I can't believe they could actually be comfortable. But these Brazilian waist cinchers are selling well.

They are still much less popular than the big leaders in shapewear however. Spanx is still making the most popular shapewear today and another company whose products are called 'Lipo in a Box' is also showing surging popularity on Amazons sales rankings.

It looks like Katie Holmes wears a girdle. For special outings anyway. She's lost all her weight since giving birth to her first child, but maybe she is conscious of her stomach not being as flat as a board as it was pre-pregnancy. These photos are via the Superficial. They say you can tell these are not nylons if you look how they cut into her thighs and because her feet look bare.

Here's a comment from one of their readers;

Yeah, the Spanx. Not glamorous, for sure. Definitely less sexy than the old-fashioned Scarlett O'Hara-type corset.

But even movie stars have stuff that jiggles around and needs to be contained. Underneath those designer gowns that adorn celebrities at various awards shows is an amazing array of cantilevered underwear to keep each breast and butt cheek from moving independently. And the ubiquitous duct tape, of course.

Too bad Katie's Spanx made it into the photo. How embarrassing. She looks really gorgeous. I wonder if her hairstylist managed to find a way to camouflage that Scientology plug-in on the back of her neck?

Spanx (brilliant marketing name, not spelled as Spandx for Spandex) are the modern version of yesterday's girdles. They are one of several companies vying for our attention in the growing body shapewear market.

Another question that I am often asked is “Did you always want to be a writer?” The answer to this is an unequivocal no; it never occurred to me until I did an evening course at random in my mid-20s. Not a single English teacher ever read anything that I’d written and then tried to dissuade me from a default career choice of “I dunno – something in computers?”

But was there some hidden literary genius in my early compositions, cruelly overlooked by large, mixed-ability classes? Stephen King and William Goldman have published some of their earlier works for study, so for the next few days I shall join them and analyse the first and indeed only book that I have ever written: Adventures In The Cave. I shall examine it with the knowledge and craft that I now have, and offer my 6-year-old self some advice that, had he heard it at the time, might have taken his life on a very different path.



OK, let’s start with the title – it’s a bit bland, isn’t it? What about something simple like The Cave, or, if you’re going for something a bit tongue-in-cheek, The Amazingly Exciting Adventures in the Cave? What you've got at the moment is a bit literal, and dull, dull, dull.

The “adventures” gives the reader some idea of the genre, but all narratives are some kind of an adventure, aren’t they? Joseph Campbell’s works on comparative mythology posit that all stories are a form of quest, so to tell the reader that they are going on an adventure with the characters should be redundant.

The subject matter and setting should also perhaps be more obvious from the cover illustration. What you have at the moment is certainly colourful, with some neat crayoning, but I just don’t understand it. Are those arms and legs, and a nose and mouth at the top? Is this something that will catch someone’s eye in a bookshop? To be honest, I’m not really getting “adventures” or even “cave”.

Depending on where you are pitching this book (mass market horror? Literary fiction?) I would suggest just a dark cave entrance, leading the eye in towards something unknown. The brown background makes the text hard to read as well. What about trying silver embossed lettering? And you should always make your name as big as you can as you try to build brand awareness around it.

The binding is good though. I remember all the children having to take their finished pages up to the teacher, and those three staples have certainly stood the test of time. 30 years later, the pages are as secure as they ever were. So well done there.

But of course you should never judge a book by its cover, so next week we’ll take a look at some of the writing and find out just what adventures await in that eponymous cave.

Mike Huckabee lost 110 pounds in one year. He is now 51 years old and decided to change his lifestyle a couple of years ago when his doctor told him that his Type II diabetes would cause his entire body to deteriorate.

He turned around a lifetime of eating fried and sugary foods and began abstaining from these. He started an exercise routine by getting on a stationary bike each morning. He had been reading his newspaper each morning anyway, now he read it while riding his bicycle. He then started jogging short distances and has since completed four marathons. (His wife walked the complete marathon route of 26 miles on two of these). He was able to reverse his Type II diabetes diagnosis without the use of any drugs even though his parents and grandparents had also suffered from it.

He has become an advocate of the "culture of health" and is heavily involved with the Healthy America initiative.

We'll be hearing a lot more about Huckabee soon. He just announced he is running for President of the United States. He has been the Governor of Arkansas since 1996 and happened to grow up in the same tiny town as Bill Clinton.

Valentine's Day is in two weeks. For many people this conjures up a vision of roses, chocolates and red lacy lingerie. I've never gotten into this habit myself (and it's too late to start now) but for those who are into it, there are so many vendors offering plus size lingerie online these days. Here's a couple of samples.

The first pic is the Stretch Cargo Net Set for $29.99. The sellers say it's a very comfortable cargo net set (larger holes than fishnet) with great stretch to it. Even the hems stretch to fit. It comes with a G-string and fits 1X and 2X.

The second pic is a stretch lace dress for $52.00. The sellers say it is one of their best fitting dress styles and has a sheer stretch mess full skirt with flirtatious rhinestone heart gathering at the decollete. It's available in red or black, has adjustable shoulder straps and comes with a matching G-string. It's available in sizes up to 3X.

For those who who can't see themselves wearing lingerie, but still want something showing skin and cleavage, this sexy top costs only seven dollars, though you need to buy a package of six to get this price. It comes in sizes up to 3X and is made of 90% polyester and 10% spandex.

Well that last posting wasn’t true of course!
Dade just found a cool picture he wanted to use!

Though there was a little shark in the pool we got to chase around! In reality though we looked more like this:


It was great fun though! Basically it was a trial dive, to see what it was like and if we liked it, AND WE DID!!

I was (secretly) a little nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get the breathing under water thing right, but it was actually quite easy, though we both did come away with tense jaws from biting so hard on the mouth piece to make sure it didn’t come out!

We spent about an hour in the pool, descending and ascending, and scrambling around the bottom of the pool. I think we both got the hang of it reasonably well. Better than the other girl having a go who kept panicking and wanting to go back up.

It was a really odd sensation – very peaceful in that all you could hear was water bubbling around you and your own breathing – kinda relaxing until you starting thinking about what you were doing again! Oh, and although you can cough whilst underwater, it doesn’t pay to laugh, cos then your mask starts filling up with water, and water bubbles up your nose! Not good when every time I looked at Dade he made me laugh! The more I tried not to laugh the more he made me laugh!!

We both really really enjoyed it, so now have to start saving our pennies and become PADI qualified so that we can go exploring beautiful foreign aquatic paradises….

Narrated by Carrie

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