So it wasn’t a supersized venti after all …
Few months back I watched a news report on how some counties/ cities are recycling sewer water to make it suitable for drinking. The water is then fed back for human consumption and sold to some manufacturers. The water supposedly exceeds drinking standards and is purer than distilled water sold by wholesalers.
It is probably very good filtered drinking water, something Bobby Boucher would be proud of … at least I’d like to think so (you’ll soon find out why). I can also see the huge costs savings benefits on recycling vs. buying distilled water. However, the gross factor is probably the biggest factor to overcome. It is for me, and believe it would be for most people.
I can’t bear the thought of drinking water that was once the same water mixed with other *stuff* flushed down the toilet and water from the sinks. It gets worse when you top that up with the images of it coming from hospitals, schools, and other commercial establishments.
My biggest fears were realized couple of days ago when I read the label of a bottled water bottle we frequently buy from our grocery store. It wasn’t a Dasani, Evian or other more popular brands but a cheaper grocery store brand.
It said (in really small print), “Made from manufactured water from the City of XXXXX, XX.”
So it turns out that I’ve been drinking “toilet to tap” water for months and it makes me sick to my stomach. Funny thing is that I did mention when we first started buying this cheaper brand that it tasted much better than the more expensive ones.
Our dilemma now is whether to continue drinking it or throw the rest of the fifteen unopened bottles we have in the fridge. One thing we are sure of, we won’t be buying that brand of bottled water ever again.
Here is a teaser/ illusion:
How many Fs are in the sentence below?
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS…
(look in the comments to see the answer - no peeking!)
The comic book world was rocked in the past couple of weeks when Marvel dissolved the Spiderman Peter Parker-Mary Jane marriage.
Titled “One More Day”, comic #545 sees Spiderman deal with a devil like villian Mephisto to save Aunt May (who was in a coma). In the deal, Mephisto wipes Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s memory, essentially making it look like their marriage never took place. So Peter Parker is now a 20 something bachelor living with his aunt (who is now alive and well). The deal with Mephisto also erased the part about Spiderman telling the whole world who he is (something Marvel shouldn’t have done that in the first place!).
Marvel comics had said they regretted writing the Spidey-MJ marriage plot. I guess the (dis)continuity of the Spiderman script is what spoils it for the fans (including me) — the writers should have thought about it more. In recent times, we’ve seen Peter Parker and MJ separating, MJ having a miscarriage and even a story line telling us that it was Peter’s clone is the one that got married. Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief then stepped in to say that the marriage just couldn’t continue as it was bogging Spiderman down as a superhero.
Says Quesada, “At the end of the day my job is to keep these characters fresh and ready for every fan that walks through the door … while also planning for the future and hopefully an even larger fan base.”
Bad scripts and storylines… come on guys, I think you can do better than that. It’s a fresh start but lets not screw this one up again. It would be interesting to see how they try to write MJ into Spidey’s life again. Reminds me of how DC’s Superman dying and came back to life again — pretty absurd.
(Update: Guys…. read the post properly! Instead of emailing me for the answer, please see the answer at the end of the article. It is bold, located under the “Link to the spreadsheet”.)
J emailed me this nifty way of making her students solve a math problem (with an incentive) i.e. the answer to the math problem is the password to open the (Microsoft) Excel file.
Lets see whether you are smarter than a 5th grader …
There are 7 girls in a bus
Each girl has 7 backpacks
In each backpack, there are 7 big cats
For every big cat there are 7 little cats
Question: How many legs are there in the bus?
The number of legs is the password to unlock the Excel sheet.
If you open it, add your name and send it on to see who else can unlock it.
This is a real math problem so don’t say that a bus has no legs.
Also assume that there aren’t any other person on the bus except the 7 girls (i.e. there isn’t a bus driver).
If you get the correct answer that’s the password to the spreadsheet (link is below).
Put your name in the column with the names and forward it on, if you were smart enough to get the right answer.
If you are really stuck, email me for the answer.
Update: Since I’ve been overwhelmed with people emailing me for the answer (more than 400+ people from over a 1200 downloads), I’ve decided to publish it. [Click here for the answer]. No cheating!
Saw this on FOX news yesterday… find your presidential candidate match.
# Play 20 questions to find your closest political match
# Dig deeper into the candidates’ answers, stances and news coverage
# Download a cool political bobble head widget
# Embed this quiz on your blog or site
“Breaking news, Britney Spears has been released from the hospital hours after she lost custody of her two sons to her ex-husband…”
It’s pretty sad when I turn on a news channel on the radio/ TV and they report on Britney Spears before the New Hampshire primaries, war in Iraq or any other national news. The war on Iraq, the New Hampshire primaries and other news worthy topics are relegated to less important secondary news. And to top it all off, we get camera footage of the hospital where she is in from a birds eye view closing in on the entrance where she actually was rushed through (who really cares!). And they play that “live” footage and still pictures of it from different angles (again and again) like the never ending Energizer battery.
There are more news worthy topics to cover than Britney and family. Yes, she has problems but we have heard it a thousand times from every possible angle. Heard that Britney’s parents are on Dr. Phil sometime this week (to get their 15 minutes of fame) and they are going to write a parenting book too. With Britney’s sister getting pregnant and being paid millions for pictures of her baby … is it ever going to end? I am so sick of it and I am sure everyone else it too.
Happy New Year to all my readers and friends! Here is to 2008 being a year full of joy and happiness for all of you.
A touching animated vid by Hanna Abi-Hanna.
Beneath the Rubber Tree from Hanna on Vimeo.
