Asha Anujeeva

I was reading a BBC.com website news story today about how 48% of the world’s primate species are facing extinction.  The article explains that a large reason for that was the deforestation of the world; people are cutting down and/or burning the forests that the primates live in.  That was depressing news.  But what really surprised me was to read in the article that the extinction is being exacerbated by hunters who are hunting the primates for food!  I did not realize that people considered monkeys as edible!  I don’t know why, I just never really thought people would eat monkeys.  That makes me especially sad, since I consider primates to be so closely related to humans that it almost seems cannibalistic to eat them!

According to an article dated May 29, 2008 in the LA Times, there is a company that is planning to use algae to start producing a crude oil that can be used to make gasoline and diesel fuel.  The production of the fuel uses carbon dioxide, which would help to clean up our greenhouse gases problem.  It can be refined in existing refineries and be used by the existing cars and trucks on the road.  It plans to reach full commercial scale in five years.  The company that is planning to do this is called Sapphire Energy.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful, getting oil from algae instead of fossil fuels!

Do you enjoy shopping online? As consumers find that their spare time is becoming more precious, many of us are turning to shopping online instead of going to the local shopping mall. Within just a few minutes, the consumer can order a wild variety of goods, like leopard print plates for a housewarming gift, bamboo strands for making placemats for a craft class, and a
God Bless Our Home Cutting Board, all while dinner is being cooked in the microwave in the room next to the computer.

Using the Internet to shop has opened up the entire global shopping market to everyone that has an Internet connection. Many companies now offer free shipping, and having the goods delivered to your doorstep, or if it is a gift they offer giftwrapping, a gift card, and delivery to the recipients address. How’s that for convenience?! And best of all, there is no worries about finding a parking spot, or locating your car in the parking lot after a long day at the mall! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy shopping at the mall from time to time, but sometimes the mall just does not have what I’m looking for, and sometimes I just don’t have the energy to deal with it.

Have you ever wished that your employer would provide a company uniform for employees to wear at the companies expense? And by that I don’t mean a vest to wear, I mean an entire outfit, shirt, shoes, pants, the whole nine yards. Life would be so much easier if I could simply obtain a work outfit from http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/ and have the company reimburse for the expense. Scrubs are both modest and comfortable to wear. If everyone wore a uniform to work, you would never be having to suffer the bad taste of the person who wears their skirts or shorts way too short and their shirts way too low in the neck.

I know that a lot of people would object, saying that they want the freedom to choose what they wear, to be able to express their individuality, but I think it would be a great benefit for people to not have to spend a lot of money on work clothes. It would be even better if the company had a uniform laundry service. My uncle used to work as an automobile mechanic in a well known shop and his company provided the mechanics with work clothes and even had them laundered. I think that would be a wonderful benefit to have, don’t you?

Thanks for the guest post by Susan Dorman

When my husband decided to surprise me with the birthday gift of one of those upright style commercial vacuum cleaners I exclaimed that it was the best birthday gift I had ever received, he looked at me quite skeptically. “It is?” he queried. “Well, yes of course it is” I replied. “When you give me a tool for floor care it means that you are going to take on the chore, and I can’t think of a better gift than for you to take on the carpet cleaning chore.

Well, what could the poor man say after that? He said “well, I wasn’t planning on taking on the vacuuming.” My reply was “then you should not have bought me a vacuum cleaner! I was perfectly happy with the cannister style vacuum that I have owned since before we met and the upright styles are too hard for me to push back and forth, so if you expect our carpets to be vacuumed with that, then YOU are going to be the one to do the vacuuming.”

Well he hemmed and he hawed and said that it was easy to use the upright vacuum, much easier than using the cannister style. So I told him that was great news because HE was going to be the one using it. Well, he tried to put on his best game face and he DID use it to vacuum the floors for about a month. Then he declared that it was, in fact, harder to use than the cannister style vacuum and he put in out in the garage, never to be used again. Until, of course, we broke up and I kept the cannister style vacuum!  And when it came time that my cannister style vacuum broke down I ended up buying another cannister style vacuum. The upright ones are just too hard to use!