Water Shortage and Recycling

This summer, due to the lack of rainfall, many cities put out a water restriction bylaw.  This prompted many of us to ensure that we would not waste any of this not-renewable resource.   And the responses from the citizens of the bylaw are overwhelming.  Now like our good neighbors in our housing complex, many of us within good hygiene practice are taking shorter showers, flushing the toilets less, and even stopping washing cars.  The lush green lawn used to be a pride and joy of the homeowners.    Now it only attracts stiff fines.  And surprisingly to note, without any rain drops  in sight, it was reported on the news that  the bylaw did help the water level in many reservoirs stay at an acceptable level.  

And I would think garbage and water from our faucet got nothing in common.  But here at where we are, we are required to rinse-clean the recyclable containers before they are destined for the recycling bins.  Based on my personal observation, this rinsing and cleaning business consumes a lot of water.

I suppose for the sake of saving water,  maybe from now on, we should no longer  rinse and clean the garbage that are recyclable.  -  Ayee 

Cecil, A Beloved Lion

Based on what I saw in newspapers and on television, the dire living condition in Africa must be one of the many compelling reasons why Africans continue to kill the near extinct stock of wild animals for money.  But making a living at the expenses of innocent wild animals will never lessen the cruel reality of civil wars, national disasters and medical emergencies.  When we put the humanitarian belief aside, exploiting wildlife for profit can only worsen  an already bad situation.  Poaching wild animals does not make sense economically at all.  It will only drive the limited local fauna to extinction.  To me, a person who has not visited zoos, wildlife parks or circuses for ages, a live wild beast on display in touristy places is worth more than a severed lion head in someone's trophy room

It really does not matter whether it took place during a tour in Africa or in our neighborhood park.  It's save to say shooting animals with a camera nurtures a win-win situation.  But the act of shooting a defenseless lion with bow and arrow for "fun" is not only utterly cruel but also sadistic.

Now these days, African nations are cashing in on eco-tourism in their respective countries.  The on-going poaching activities in Africa made me wonder why anyone in the world would want to kill the goose that lays golden eggs?

On Cecil, the beloved lion, we mourn the loss of yet another precious life. We all know that no punishment, large or small, can bring this majestic animal and many like him back.  But I am certain justice will prevail and the poachers who are responsible for Cecil's untimely demise will eventually pay the price for committing such heinous and inhumane act to another living being. -  Ayee

Magnetized Bracelet and Gout

I am not certain if wearing a magnetized wrist band was the reason why I did not suffer much joint pains.  Years ago after I heard that magnet can help relieve arthritic pain, I started to wear bracelets strung with small magnetized beads.  This remedy to get rid of body pain seems to be somewhat unorthodox to me.  But I do find the bracelet helpful in alleviating my suffering when the gout in one of my middle fingers flared up.

As I can see that I suffered a mild case of gout.  The prickly pain used to reside in one of my big toes.  Lately, it moved to the joint of one of my left finger knuckles.  When the needling throbs returned to the mid finger, I would cut down my intakes of proteins like the ones from sardines and stop taking B vitamins for a while*.

In addition to watching what I ate, to make the disabling pain disappear, I also wrapped the  joint with   a home-made magnetized bracelet.

In a recent flare-up, my bracelet worked like magic.  Miraculously, the pain in the finger disappeared almost immediately.

  "Food for Thought - Sardines, Niacin and Gout," November 30, 2013

Food for Thought - Moldy Bread

Recently, we found a bread we like.  The bread from a local bakery tastes good with butter and cheese.  I do not know why the organic sprouted wheat flour would be better for us than the regular whole wheat ones.  But this one made with sprouted whole wheat and other organic goodies pleases our taste buds.  So we were looking forward to enjoying this simple pleasure for a long time to come.

Unfortunately, our relation with this newly found favorite was short-lived.

The other night, when I was ready for a piece of toast, I found green blotches on a fresh loaf that we had just bought a couple of days ago.  The mold on the bread made with organic goodies became very uninviting.  It can also  make me sick if I had ingested any of it with the fungal growth unknowingly.  So, I had no choice but threw the moldy bread into the composting bin.

This bread incident made me wanting to go back living in the old days when no one threw foods away.  -   Ayee

Generous Boss

Over the last few days, there  are a few pieces of encouraging news. As of yesterday, we had another billionaire to join Warren Buffet's club.  The member of the club must pledge to give half of their billionaires to charity.  

And yesterday, I   learned from the Nightly Business Report on PBS that one of American companies is prepared to pay colleague tuition for the kids of their employees.  The young Chieh Huang, CEO  of  Boxed, an online foods distributor, told the reporters that education makes difference in his life. 

Humbly speaking,  I totally agreed with Mr. Huang's thinking on education.  This is why I wanted to include this news in my blog.  As we all know, to most of us,  education is the power that leads to everything.  Let us hope more corporate America will follow the lead of Mr. Huang's good doing.  -  Ayee

     

A Tea for Two

Because it's so easy to make, I decided to include  this simple recipe  for ginger tea in my blog.   This recipe is illustrated  in the Pregnancy section of my reference book*.  It said the tea can help fight nausea.

Ingredients:
- A small chunk of fresh ginger
- Two to three cups of water 

•    Peel the fresh ginger and cut into 3 to 6 slices.
•    Simmer in a small sauce pan with water for 3 to 5 minutes.
•    Strain the liquid into a pitcher.
•    Drink  the liquid as a tea throughout the day.

-  Ayee 

*  Chinese Herbal Secrets, 1999 Edition by Stefan Chmelik

Mother knows the best.

Sometimes last week in Yellowstone National Park, a black bear with her cubs was seen chasing tourists on a bridge in the iconic park.  Maybe it was as the ABC News suggested.  Because her cubs were older, their dear mom did not bother unleashing her motherly instinct to protect the young. In this incident, thanks to that mama bear's good sense, the "chase" ended without anyone got hurt.

In additional to many other wildlife, we all know Yellowstone is a bear country.  The bears there are known for their keen sense choosing a particular-make car to break in.  Conflict between the beasts and men therefore is not an uncommon occurrence there.  Inconceivably, a few inconsiderate tourists would visit the bear country outside their vehicles.  Many of them  would  not  even follow the park ranger's instruction and risk the life of their own and possibly many others without their thinking cap on

Talking about thinking caps!   During the same time of this bear incident, there was a 15-year-old Taiwanese girl got gored by a wooly bison! Perhaps she was too close to this seemingly docile animal.   -  Ayee