20 years ago I used to buy cheaper, loose veg in the supermarket, but now it's difficult to find anything that's not packaged in plastic.
I've been getting organic veg boxes delivered for a while and my plastic recycling has plummeted. Some items are loose in the box, some are in paper bags and a few items are in compostable cellulose bags.
Here, paying for plastic carrier bags became mandatory some years ago, and whilst it's helped (there used to be carrier bags littered everywhere) I don't know why we haven't gone back to the paper bags we had in the 70's yet.
Maybe more people would walk to the shops if there were more innovative trolly/cart designs available. I use a baby buggy for transporting things, whether my youngest grandson is in it, or not.
What do you heat those coffee makers with? As gas is unsustainable, polluting and increasing in price, might your barista machine powered by a sustainable energy source be more frugal in the long run?
It's about taking control of our lifestyles in innovative ways, prioritising what is important to us and minimising waste.
Being financially frugal ties in with our impact upon the environment as we reuse, repurpose and recycle.
There are ideas already floating around the forums and blogs, from low energy kitchen appliances to reusing/recycling shoes. Perhaps we may inspire each other by posting our own tips for frugal living.
I stopped using my kettle when I realised how much electricity it was gobbling up. I swapped to heating water in a pan on my single induction hotplate. I use my kettle as a jug to water my small herb and veg garden.
If I could only keep one thing it would be that induction hot plate, for versatility and low environmental impact. I've even made toast by dry-frying bread on it.
Second in line is my immersion blender that I use for soups, smoothies, pesto, humous, dips, etc. I'm making a lot of carrot leaf pesto now carrots are in season, freezing it in cubes for later in the season. The carrot stalks make a nice addition to vegetable stock, which I also freeze.
I have a microwave and table-top halogen oven as well, both of which are low in energy consumption. I've not tried drying fruit and veg in my halogen oven yet, but that could be a natty way of avoiding food waste.
I moved just before the pandemic and didn't have time to purchase a conventional stove. I'm glad I didn't now.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is more prevalent amongst boxers and American football players than rugby, or soccer players.
Whether the use of armour protects American football players because of a different level of contact, or whether the armour facilitates it, there appears to be different levels of repeated head injures and concussion in the games.
The bits of Maxwell's court statement that I saw reported suggest she's blaming Epstein for her own behaviour, saying he was controlling, cunning and manipulative. I also saw a headline about Maxwell volunteering to teach yoga in prison.
I wonder if this is a precursor to an appeal based upon some version of battered woman syndrome. I wonder if the yoga thing is Maxwell carving out her position in prison - is it a productive contribution to prison society, or placing herself in a position of authority? Yoga can leave people emotionally vulnerable if tension has arisen out of holding emotional distress in.
My inclination is that Maxwell is controlling, cunning and manipulative in her own right. I'm not a great lover of prison, nor long sentences, but I think her release should be conditional on her genuinely accepting her criminal responsibility and only when she no longer poses a threat to others.
I hope she won't have access to vulnerable women in prison, especially young, vulnerable women. I hope she doesn't get released at the age of 75 into a life of luxury, power and control.
I suspect she'll only no longer pose a threat to others when she's too physically frail to do so.
Cleaning toilets is pretty vital to society, as is food production and other essential work highlighted by the pandemic.
In the last 200 years of industrial entrepeneurship we've destabilised the planet almost to the tipping point of our own demise. The previous 350 billion years of temperate climate might suggest value in stagnation, aka stability.
Another word for socalism might be co-operation, or perhaps community.
What is really vital to society and what is grooming narrative?
The intention of this thread is to examine divsiveness, not create it.
This isn't about Trump, but the dynamc of divisiveness in most societies regardless of political party and because of political parties functioning within the same divisive system(s).
Fox hunting still goes on in the UK despite being banned for 15 years. A vixen will deliberately and often fatally put herself in danger to draw the hunt away from her cubs.
Basic instincts aren't necessarily about attack. Any defensive martial artist will tell you the primary goal is to be in a position to run away from a threat. A release from a grab, or move to disable a threat is only functional as a means to disengage. It's why you don't back someone, or an animal in a corner - they don't attack if they have an escape route.
It works psychologically as well as physically. Internet trolls rely upon people thinking they don't have an escape route from their offensive attack and must act defensively to create one.
We still have our primal instincts, but new skills and self-awareness means we can adapt them to new threat formats.
Allergies are when the immune system overreacts to harmless allergens, that is, the immune sysyem treats pollen as if it's a harmful virus.
Autoimmune conditions are when the immune system attacks healthy tissue as if it were a harmful virus.
Neither of them involve a weakened immune system, but an over-active immune system. The medications for allergies and autoimmune conditions are immunosuppressant.
Do we add, replace, or a bit of both as we evolve?
I'm pretty sure my inner vixen surfaced when I became pregnant and still barely bubbles under the surface where my grandchildren are concerned.
I can thnk of many a time and situation where my most basic instincts have had value. Perhaps the trick is to know when to use them and when to override them. Adaptability is perhaps more about increasing the skill set, rather than changing, but keeping it narrow.
It occurred to me that allergy shaming and suggesting the root cause is psychological is tantamount to medical gaslighting.
It likely serves industry which pollutes, pharmaceutical companies who churn out questionable medications and governments who benefit from ignoring catastrophic damage in favour of profit.
So, men have shown their organisational skills and leadership qualities with women in societies, but women need to be isolated from men to be empowered?
In experiments, we compare like with like, so what method do we need to do this?
Following the genocide in Rwanda, the women's movement for peace and forgivenness has resulted in more women appointed to government that anywhere else in the world.
It's not the male perspectve, it's a male perspective.
Just like you think children are a sub-issue and I think children aren't second class citizens, nor disposable commodities.
My granddaughter once said something about her 'real' father. I replied, "Your 'real' father is the one who acts like it" and pointed at my son-in-law. She was thrilled to bits with that. He doesn't treat her differently because she's the only child who is not biologically related to him, he treats her differently because she's his only daughter.
A lot of people go through hell when relationships end and they have no access rights to non-biological children. I find it astounding that there are so many comments about Chen being righteous in his rejection of his daughters.
It leaves me wondering about attachment issues, you poor sods.
jac_the_gripper Forum Posts (5,363)
Frugality: Our Pocket and the Planet's
What will you do with them when they're too worn out for cycling, too?