Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Wednesday Updates

It’s a miscellany day as I dodge storms here.

The Breast Cancer Site
Matching grant success. The Breast Cancer Site reached its goal of 8 million clicks for the month of June. This enabled a $10,000 matching grant to fund mammograms for even more women without insurance coverage. Thank you to everyone who helped out!

Virtual Hawaii. Daily Mitzvah is included in the most recent Share Some Good Stuff post over at Skeet’s Stuff. (BTW, Ms. Skeet is currently whomping me in an online game of Scrabble!)

Can 1.3 billion people be wrong? TreeHugger has an update on China’s plastic bag ban, one month after free plastic bags at the grocery were eliminated (consumers have the option of paying for plastic bags or bringing their own). So far so good. They note that older people have gone back to traditional woven baskets (or just cloth bags), while younger Chinese are using this as a chance to be eco fashion forward. Read the entire article here.

Can rising gas prices improve upper body strength? Local TV news ran a spot today on the re-emergence of the push mower, which local home stores can’t keep in stock. Get buff arms, save on gas, and help curb gasoline mowers’ nasty emissions (an hour with a conventional mower creates as much C02 emissions as driving a car 200 miles, according to the broadcast). One Illinois city is even offering drop-off and rebate programs for residents who swap their gas-powered mowers for a push mower.

And that’s the news from here on a muggy, rainy Wednesday!


2 comments:

Hops said...

I totally clicked on the Breast Cancer site because of you! What an easy way to feel like I'm contributing - thanks!

I don't have a lawn, which is good because I couldn't mow a straight line to save my life. Somehow I always thought that old-fashioned push mowers didn't work very well. (Maybe it's the opening credits for the old Pete & Pete show on Nickelodeon that's still ingrained in my mind.) Do you know how they stack up against gas-powered mowers?

jen x said...

AG:
Who's laughing now, indeed. Good for you :-)

Hops:
Awww, you made my day! I like the click-to-give sites a lot, too. I hit a couple of them in the mornings when I log on; it's become part of my daily routine.

Re: the mower -- I have to confess I've never had a yard of my own. We grew up in a house, but since college I've only lived in apartments. I know the push mowers work best on short grass and one has to keep the blades sharpened -- but the quality is a mystery to me, too.