what.

Watching some Food Network before Suss and I battle out some Jeopardy.  This comes pops up as one of their "green tips":

Fill empty space in your refrigerator or freezer with crumpled newspapers-- it improves cooling and saves electricity and money.

Perhaps the stupidest green tip I've heard this year.

My soap nearly killed me, but it's natural

As I have previously disclosed, last year I switched over to natural personal care/cleaning products to appease my unfounded cancer fears. This brings me to,

Exhibit 3:
This weekend, I bought the above soap. As most know, natural/organic/whatever products are usually a lot more expensive than their artificial counterparts. This soap was a bargain though (under $5), so I was pretty excited.

Last night, I grabbed my poofy soap thing and my new purchase. I tried to open the lid, but it was a bit stuck. Eventually I pried off the cap, but I guess in my concentration I forgot to blink when a huge spurt of natural goodness flew into my eye.

I yelped and whimpered like an injured puppy over the sound of my eye sizzling. Tears and snot streamed out of my facial orifices, and somehow I lost the ability to keep both of my eyes open for about thirty minutes.

While a product might be natural, please don't assume it is pure enough to dump in your eye.

"Yoga mom" makes me barf

Exhibit 2:

From the NYT,

Amy Chase started feeding Similac Organic infant formula to her second son,Amos, as soon as he was born in November 2006. “When I saw the organic at
Publix, I bought it, no questions asked,” said Ms. Chase, a self-described “yoga mom” in Atlanta. Like Ms. Chase, many American parents have rushed to embrace Similac Organic formula, even though it sells for as much as 30 percent more than regular Similac...Parents may be buying it because they believe that organic is healthier, but babies may have a reason of their own for preferring
Similac Organic: it is significantly sweeter than other formulas.

The article goes on to say that the organic formula is the only baby formula with cane sugar (sucrose) in it, which pediatricians say can lead to decaying teeth and childhood obesity.

Walmart catches on to green trend.

Sometimes I get a little nauseous when I see people being overzealous in their green efforts. While I support the cause, I try not to get too caught up in the trendiness of being green. Here is a series-ed rant on green things that annoy me.

Exhibit 1:

I saw this shirt the other day at Wal-Mart. They are notoriously 18 months to 3 years behind on trends. Now the environmentally conscious poor kids can fit in too.

A cure for vegans who crave bacon?

For a few years, I was a vegetarian. After expressing that I had thought about breaking my carcass boycot, a friend gave me a bag of beef jerky as a joke. I succumbed to temptation within a few hours.

The NYT is reporting that PETA is now offering a million dollars to the first person to come up with

...tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat.

Completely different than your standard tofu, this alternative is actually meat produced in vitro (cloned, I believe?).

This brings up new issues within the vegetarian/vegan community as no animals are killed with this product. Despite PETA's endorsement of the idea and the lack of harm to animals, many PETAers (and vegetarians otherwise, I'd assume) are still disgusted with the idea of eating this animal tissue.

This also comes at an interesting time as the organic section of American grocery stores expand and some people are pushing for the FDA labeling of cloned foods. I'm curious to see how consumers respond to this if a viable product can be made.

Eco-friendly bottles poisoning tree huggers everywhere

On Tuesday, Slate.com published this article "Why do we focus on the least important causes of cancer?". I am a poster child for this epidemic.

A year ago I substituted, among other things, my dish detergent for one made from coconuts and earth salt, and my shampoo for one made from soy and moringa pterygosperma seed extract (No, I don't know what that is but it makes me feel better). I know that it's unlikely that these products will kill me, but it's so easy to switch (and usually the products smell very nice).

Today, The Times published this article, which states:

Nalgene, the brand that popularized water bottles made from hard, clear and nearly unbreakable polycarbonate, will stop using the plastic because of growing concern over one of its ingredients...Some animal studies have linked the chemical to changes in the hormonal system.

I've used these bottles (ironically pictured in Brita's "Responsible Water" ads) daily for about four years, so here's to one more cancer concern added to my ever-growing list.

Global warming...or something?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how spring 2008 seems to be off to a slow start. I walk a few blocks both to school and work and I feel that the foliage is still at a March level. Don't trees normally have more leaves by April? Does anyone keep statistics on these things?