Human Slobs

[Dennis.G]

Most all soft drinks (other than diet versions) now use corn surup instead of sugar. Cheap alternative giving the poor taste.

The current curse world wide is packaging in plastic. The packaging lasts longer than the product it contains in most cases. That is just crazy. Paper bags, reusable containers, or no containers at all (many store want to put your six-pack of beer in a plastic bag ). There should be a tax applied to all plastic packaging to cover cost of hiring the under-employed to go out and collect it, and then have material recycled. Those that create the problem product should be held responsible for at least part of the solution.

[niel12]

Met up with a guy a while back said he was a Doctor of medicine that practised with natural medicine. He told me that plastic have some or the other affect on the food in the bag after a while, one should not store raw or coocked food in it at it all. Just how much and in what way is another matter. But charging plastic manufacturers a levy to create work sounds good to me! He also spoke against the foamalite holders.

[SaltyMonkey]

Plastic bottles raises BPA levels in food and drinks.

"Scientist studying BPA have found that BPA imitates the sex hormone estradiol (estrogen). It is well accepted that even small amounts of estrogen can induce profound changes in the body. This has raised a red flag and caused concern among the scientific community that even the lowest levels of BPA could have a negative impact on one?s health."

[niel12]

That's it Salty Monkey, the doctor i met told me that. Perhaps someone with the right connections should lobby with a politically strong senator to propagate a surcharge on plastic manufactures, it hold strong possibilities for job creation and keeping the coastline clean.

[zeehag]

smb--looove the new avvie
what is gonna happen?? --- we ALLLLL gonnaa DIE
but then we were gonna anyway--now is just a lot more crowded......is way too late for birth control to make a significant difference in our lifetimes. i did my part--i only had one kid. and many boats....recycled my plastic to others for sailing
recycle my bottles for more kayaks....and waxy plastic dinks.....

[SaltyMonkey]

Yeha! How can i recycle plastic bottles and make a fiberglass boat? How can I recycle aluminum cans and make an aluminum boat?

[avb3]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Few people realize that the banana was the product of early radiation experiments in the South Pacific in the late 1940's. ............
.
Pilot incineration programs have been launched, and if all goes well the non-degradable banana peels will have been disposed of by the year 2015.

Have you had that operation that removes your tongue out of your cheek yet??

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Few people realize that the banana was the product of early radiation experiments in the South Pacific in the late 1940's. These experiments were conducted on the Bikini Atoll, later the site for a hydrogen bomb explosion, and were conducted under the auspices of the Bikini Atoll Native Plantain Mutation Assignment, BANPAMA, in an effort to produce an edible fruit for the army, that would not decay or degrade with age. The Plantain was selected since it has a tough outer cover that provides protection for the fruit; unfortunately, it is not very palatable when raw. The BANPAMA project was not particularly successful, as the resulting fruits were found to bruise easily. However, they were still fed to unsuspecting natives and servicemen, where they became quite a hit. Introduced to the U.S. as "Banamas" in 1951, by former military scientists who saw there was more money in agriculture than in early attempts at genetic engineering, they immediately became something of a rage. By 1958, "Bananas", as they were known by then, were grown throughout central and south america to feed the hungry U.S. market.

This would be a happy story of a great new food, if it weren't for the sinister secret that was brought to light in 1978 in early studies of "Garbology" (the study of garbage) by scientists from the University of Arizona: the military's original project was not a complete failure after all---although the fruit of the banana was quite vulnerable, the peel contained enzymes that render it impervious to virtually all biological action. In short, every banana peel ever grown until that time was still in existence. This discovery by Arizona scientists led to a series of startling and bizarre revelations, including the fact that since the late 1950's the U.S. military, in a surprisingly successful attempt to cover up their introduction of this non-degradable peel, had a veritable army of specially trained Banana Peel Retrieval Specialists arrayed across the country. Using infrared satellite images to locate suburban compost piles, these commandoes would strike in the dark of night, removing banana peels and replacing them with degradable facsimilies made from wheat, soy, marigold petals, and corn silks. Army experiments to train racoons and possums to do the retrieval were fairly successful, and these methods replaced the manual retrieval method over much of the country by the early 1970's.

The 1978 revelation, and the accompanying outcry, led to a crashprogram by the Department of Agriculture to develop a "Green"banana. By 1981 the program was deemed a success, having produced a banana that degraded slowly but completely, and then-President Ronald Reagan was able to unveil the new banana to coincide with a meeting with heads of state from several Central American countries. Reagan's comment that "I love these things, and I consider myself a Banana Republican", was considered in poor taste and hushed up by the then-malleable press.

So, the answer is: yes & no, for the past 13 years banana peels have been biodegradable. Banana peels from before 1981 are not degradable, and most of them are still in existence, buried in huge dumps at Hanford, WA and Oak Ridge, TN. Pilot incineration programs have been launched, and if all goes well the non-degradable banana peels will have been disposed of by the year 2015.

Is this true?I aint never heard such a thing as this...bananas are man made?come on..were their not any bananas before bikini atoll?Im a little slow but this sounds ODD.DVC

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by tropicalescape

Is this true?I aint never heard such a thing as this...bananas are man made?come on..were their not any bananas before bikini atoll?Im a little slow but this sounds ODD.DVC

See the previous post, #115.

[tropicalescape]

Ive heard it said that if everyone in china came to the USA that their would be 365 people in every house or abode... can you imagine the trash ...and as far as birth control goes look at the china one child program..a total screw up from a social standpoint..such a big gap between generations lots of old people and very young people and the young ones are being spoiled by the old ones and if they turn out like our spoiled(USA)youngens God help'um.. IVE seen kids with tatoos all over their bodys and 38 earrings in each ear and in their butts and a total disregard for others and themselves and it makes me wonder if they will have any understanding of stewardship for this planet and for each other...hopeful that we will be ok but who knows.DVC...NOW IVE DONE MADE MYSELF SAD..PARDON ME IF I MADE YOU SAD.I JUST HATE LITTER.

[SaltyMonkey]

Its true! Ever heard of a banana problem? I know how to spell banana but I don't know how to stop.

[hummingway]

Everyone knows that bikini atoll is where bikinis were invented not bananas. More then one man has been known to slip and fall because of one.

[SabreKai]

Originally Posted by sarafina

my environmental engineer husband swears that the day will come when that plastic pit in the pacific will be like a gold mine....

He's absolutely correct. We convert oil into plastic which locks it in. When the oil become so ridiculously expensive to drill for then Plastic garbage will be worth it's weight in gold. Not only the gyres, but every land fill sight in the world, ever sheltered beach where it washed up. All will be valuable.

Sabre

[SaltyMonkey]

can any one say SOYLENT GREEN?

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by GordMay

. Army experiments to train racoons and possums to do the retrieval were fairly successful,
.

The way I heard it they trained cats.