Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming

See The 10 Suprising Results of Global Warming as published by Live Science.

Sometime I feel a little giddy because my grouchy "told-ya-so" Global Warming rant looks like it really is for real. In the 70's I read about the possibility of Global Warming on theoretical grounds in Scientific American, and "no" I do not remember which issue. I do recall that nobody wanted to talk about it or listen to me go on about the Earth's foreseeable doom. I believe that statistical tables were presented in that time, too. This is back when I was preaching on environmental and critter issues in general. I soon shied away from talking about Global Warming because others were talking about it enough to satisfy me. It is also too hard to discuss something that you cannot see, like gravity and evolution.

Species-populations in the wild came to be and is my thing since it is easy enough to see what has happened to critical species' habitat World-wide, including - - especially in Southern California where I was raised. I actually played in thousands of acres of wetland when I was between 6 and 10 years old. It is all gone now, of course. It is rare to see butterflies now, and I never see frogs, which were so common. I used to take "pollywogs" home to raise them, and never succeeded. These species are still to be found in rare places on our planet. I'm sure that the beautiful dragonflies are to be found elsewhere, but not in so many places like before - - 50 years ago. Frogs are definitely on the outs as the Sun's ultraviolet light cooks their sensitive mucus-like skin, which has more to do with the planet's Ozone depletion than Global Warming.

Anyway, Global Warming appears to be the real deal and I feel so giddy because I was so right about such a catastrophic, planet shaking hell-on-Earth process. Too bad for the following generations - - I told ya not to make those babies. Now see what you have done!

Perhaps George Bush will read these words and do something useful for the future - - for once.

So it goes.

Eddie Evans

Endangered Bird Crime Scene

Imagine an endangered species of bird poached from the Amazon and smuggled into a single-wide, new mobile home. I said "new" mobile home. Imagine the evil doer letting these birds roost and nest anywhere that they might throughout this entire home.

Kitchen cabinets, toilet, sinks, bathtub, and walls and floors were trashed by these poopy birds, endangered as they are. They even had a nursery from which I retrieved about twenty, tiny eggs, all white. It's been an interesting cleaning experience.

Crime scenes can go to the birds sometimes; Literally I've learned.

So it goes.
Eddie Evans

Mind, Self, and Society - George Herbert Mead

Here's another note to myself to write about the mind, self, and society as I was influenced by George Herbert Mead.

I know that few readers, if any readers, will care to read what I hope to write here. It does not matter. I write for my own purposes and I find this type of writing enjoyable and therapeutic. Giving clarity to my thoughts helps me get through the day as I watch the World tumble into mad chaos created by mad men and women armed with technologies that have no place on our planet.

I'm sure George would not greatly disagree with what I write.

Eddie Evans

HRC - High Risk Cleaning

I'm making a note to myself here to write about high risk cleaning, also known as HRC.

I will write more about HRC later. For now, I need to get the thought down on paper before it eases off into ether space.

I do little HRC, but I have done some. I have not become sick from cleaning HRC, and I hope that I will not become sick.

Anthrax cleaning is HRC, should anyone come across these thoughts. Hanta Virus cleaning is HRC should anyone come across mouse droppings.

More later.
Eddie Evans
So it goes.

Watch "Curriki" grow!

Curriki came out of Sun Micro and follows the Wikipedia model. It is a nonprofit. The difference is in the content. Curriki is a Wiki for curriculum. Give it time and each subject field will grow and become finely tunned to fit learners everywhere. If you have not seen it, check it out. There's something about free stuff, open source, that gives some hope for the future, damaged as it is.

Spanish sample for little ones.

Setting the Record Straight - Bleach - Sodium hypochlorite

Bleach gets a lot of bad press, especially from those in the business of selling decontamination chemicals.

Well, let me tell you, besides bleaching my pants here-and-there and keeping me in fashion, bleach is a terrific disinfectant. True, it's corrosive, but that's a small price to pay for a rather inexpensive, nearly all-purpose disinfectant.

Just setting the record straight here.

Eddie Evans

Going into the "field" for extended duty -

I expect to go into the field to clean a rather large and biologically hazardous environment. I expect to be away from my keyboard for weeks.

I'm sure my competitors would love for me to kick-off like a big bug. "What the heck, I'm a bio-man I always tell my wife." Besides, I'm 60 with a teen-mind. I've lived much longer than I have left, so I might as well continue to walk on the "razor's edge." I love it -- feel the adrenaline!

I'm off to that leap-of-faith into nature's man-eating turf.
Cheers!

Eddie Evans

Death Odor - Miasma

I'll be the first to admit that I do not know much about odor or how we perceive life's various gases. I know that the death odor which so many of us fear is called "miasma." Folks ask me to eliminate this odor from their home as fast as I can, and I usually succeed with the help of "professional" tools and chemicals. Some times, though, this odor has permeated fiber board, padding, jewelry boxes, and everything else!

Some people think this odor carries disease -- It does not.

This odor tends to upset just about everyone, except for the coroner's employees and morticians. Many of these folks simply wear paper masks (and clothes) while removing human remains and doing their other duties. Cleaners often enter the scene as if they are on a combat mission in a biologically contaminated battlefield. "Each to his own," I always say. Besides, the battlefield garb looks good for customers and insurance adjusters who also believe in the miasma theory of disease and more.

Getting back to my subject, the death odor will disappear on its own given time. Nature cleans its own; count on it. The issue is, how much time do folks want to give the odor to stop off-gassing?

Eddie Evans

The Drought - Does anyone care?

Apparently, the drought in the US grows more serious.
< Dry episodes have become so persistent in the West that some scientists and water managers say drought is the "new normal" there. Reinforcing that notion are global-warming projections warning of more and deeper dry spells in the Southwest, although a report in last week's Science magazine challenges the climate models and suggests there will be more rainfall worldwide later this century. >

I've already said my piece about the drought in Los Angeles and how we have added to the misery. I have also done my share of complaining about our government's lackadaisical efforts to help the future generations' survival in terms of global warming.

I know too that I placed a story here about a "Happiness Machine" that sure resembles what I am witnessing here at home in Southern California.

Is this drought really related to global warming? If so, is there anything that little old me and others can do about it? Does anyone care?

Keep these ideas in mind. There must be more to be done. Before procreating, give these ideas some serious thought.
Eddie Evans

Get in with the coroner's office if you can.

No kidding. If you want to do trauma cleanup, most of which is from suicides and unattended deaths, then you really need to get in close with the coroner's office. Otherwise, you will be on the outs along with the consumers.

I know about this. I used to get two or three calls about every month to 6 weeks from the Orange County Coroner's Department, but no more. The calls stopped over two years ago because one or more companies started giving kickbacks. I know, this is what I was told by one of the "successful" companies. The department spokesperson will not even consider the impropriety of these schemes. They don't care that government employees (under color of authority) benefit one private company over another, all to the publics' loss.

Can you imagine, your child or spouse dies. The coroner's employee hands you a list of 3 telephone numbers, which is the same list of companies handed out for the previous two years? You, as a consumer, are being set-up by your very own county police system! You and/or your insurance company are going to get screwed. There is no competition. This is Orange County, California, not Tijuana!

If what I say is not true, then how do we explain going from some work from the coroner's office every month or so to zero? We are not alone in this regard.

So I say, if you want to succeed in this business, grease the coroner's employees hands with those big $50.00 bills. It's too late for me, but maybe not for you!

Good luck!
Eddie Evans

I do not hire!

I do not hire!

There is not enough work to go around. Contrary to what the "schools" say, this is an

EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE

BUSINESS.

I am sorry that I cannot help you and the others that call me for work. I receive these calls everyday of the week from all over the USA and beyond. Everyday many people decide to come into the trauma cleaning business. Some of these people already have established businesses, which makes some of them very close competitors.

We live in a capitalist society. This means that everything is a "commodity," everything, including people. When we sell our labor we become "commodities," something bought. It happens that there are up-times and down-times. It now happens that our economy is based more on paper and electoric pulses. The creation of real wealth from the old-style factory system that did create real goods is gone and not to return.

It is all downhill, and I am sorry for you. If I could, I would help you, but I cannot. So please do not call for work. There is hardly enough for me to do as it is. Read, write, diversify your skills, and save your money.

Good luck!

Good Software - Get Right Download

Here's a link to a dandy piece of software for downloading files, large and small.

www.getright.com


Eddie Evans

Eve and HIV

Eve, the mother of Humanity, was victimized early on: The serpent tells the woman that she will not die if she eats the fruit of the tree.

As I wrote earlier, the ratio of women contracting HIV from men is about 1:15. I will list my source at another time since this figure is from memory. The point here is that more than a rib comes by way of men.

Men, many serpent-like beings, have manipulated and abused women since the beginning of time. Now women have become incubators for blood-borne pathogens like HIV.

More on these thoughts later. I'm incubating this thread.

Eddie Evans

Lawmakers worry U.S. giving water law short shrift

(To read my blog comment on Los Angeles and drought, tap here.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has failed to adequately fund or uphold a 2005 initiative to give poor countries access to fresh water, U.S. lawmakers and nonprofit groups said on Wednesday.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (news, bio, voting record), an Oregon Democrat, told a hearing that the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development misrepresented how they spent $200 million for the plan last year and have given short shrift to sub-Saharan Africa.

The State Department used most of the funds for reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States is waging wars, he said. In an earlier letter, Blumenauer wrote that it only spent $10 million for water in sub-Saharan Africa, where the United Nations says 42 percent of the population lacks clean water.

Nature Magazine's Free Pod Cast

Free Pod Cast at Nature Magazine.

Los Angeles, Shorter Showers, and Mindless Growth

LOS ANGELES residents have been asked to "shorten showers" and to otherwise save precious water. It takes a drought, the driest on record, to get some attention for nature's needs. Stop "throwing trash in toilets" we are told.

It is a little late for this message. Los Angeles has spread from San Diego to Santa Barbara and above; From Long Beach to Mount Baldy, Los Angeles has spread. In the 80's environmentalist called this megalopolis a "cancer." Drive from Los Angeles to San Bernardino, from Los Angeles to Ventura and the residential concrete sprawl will follow you. In the words of an environmentalist friend, "It doesn't matter where you go, Los Angeles will come and get you." He was right then (25 years ago), and he is right now.

What really hurts my environmentalist sentiments is that the growth reflects giant homes big enough to house a rifle platoon, each with its own dark, green, lush lawn. Beautifully manicured lawns cut by illegal immigrants on a weekly basis, and each lawn with its own set of automatic sprinklers, some working better than others, all wasting precious water, litter Southern California.

This "drought" is not new. It is part of living in Southern California. It happens that we have another additive, Global Warming, which may or may not have some affect here. What is new is the human environmental load on a finite area of semi-arid landscape.

< LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Los Angeles residents were urged on Wednesday to take shorter showers, reduce lawn sprinklers and stop throwing trash in toilets in a bid to cut water usage by 10 percent in the driest year on record. With downtown Los Angeles seeing a record low of 4 inches of rain since July 2006 -- less than a quarter of normal -- and with a hot, dry summer ahead, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city needed "to change course and conserve water to steer clear of this perfect storm." It is the driest year since rainfall records began 130 years ago.>>

Cain and Able

This is Cain leading Able to Death.
Tap for a larger picture.

What we might suspect about this homicide is that there may not have been a cleanup: "the voice of [Abel's] blood is screaming to [God] from the ground."

Head lice tomorrow!

Wonderful!
Tomorrow I clean a "black and white" police vehicle that is "full of head lice."
This is truly a new one for me.

From police cars I have removed blood, both police blood and arrestee blood, and broken glass.

I have removed tons of fleas and hound dog hair from a search and rescue vehicle that spent a little too much time in the brush. Then there was the time I got to remove poison ivy from a police car. I'll write the remedy that I used another time -- too tired now. I can say this, there was only one way to test my cleaning, and that was to do the last half of cleaning in cut-off pants and a tee-shirt. I don't expect to test for the head lice!

At this writing, I have no idea about how I will clean tomorrow.
So it goes.
Eddie Evans

Hanta Virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanta_virus

http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehsphl/factsheet/hanta.htm - Bleach

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hanta/hps/noframes/phys/technicalinfoindex.htm

Cleaning after a violent explosion - An Observation

The first thing to remember when cleaning after a violent explosion is to double the cleaning perimeter once it is established. Too often something turns up. The coroner's employees are going to miss matter, and they are not going to leave yellow sticky notes for everything that they remove. So count on cleaning and disinfecting way out there following a violent explosion.

Of course, the human remains and cleaning needs will depend upon the number of victims and their proximity to the explosion. Usually, at least one victim will be standing near-by the exploding object because they set if off, usually unknowingly.

If shrapnel is involved the debris field will have a more highly dispersed bio-load. Without shrapnel, say an exploding natural gas tank, expect the debris field to contain fewer cleaning areas, and larger object cleaning areas. If outdoors, expect insect life, especially ants.

Eddie Evans

Spelling Bee Champ

"My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together," he said. "And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes - and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization." Tap for story.

California's new spelling champ is home schooled and headed for a math camp this summer. Math and music are his thing. He will learn one day that the two have some relationships in rhythms and patterns. Poetry too will fit with these two subject areas.

For a little more than 20 percent of us, spelling is a headache and it has nothing to do with memorization. It's in the wiring. Memorize all that we want and there will still be problems with certain words because of the vowels. Stephen Krashen is my source, from a lecture he gave in LA, Callifornia, 1995.

The "rules" of spelling help some of us, thank goodness.

It is important not to scold the learner for poor spelling. Spelling can be checked by dictionary or spell checker. Content is the key, not the form.

Eddie Evans