Potpourri of News

Just to demonstrate that drunken behaviour is nothing new, take a look at the list  compiled in 1592 by Thomas Nash, describing the ‘8 Kindes of Drunkenness  -  1)  Ape drunke; and he leapes, and singes, and hollowes, and danceth for the heavens. 2) Lion drunke – and he flings the pots about the house, calls his hostesse whore, breakes the glasse windowes with his dagger, and is apt to quarrell with anie man that speaks to him. 3) Swine drunke; heavie, lumpish, and sleepie, and cries for a little more drinke, and a fewe more cloathes. 4) Sheepe drunk; wise in his conceipt, when he cannot bring foorth a right word.

5) Mawdlen drunke; when a fellowe will weepe for kindnes in the midst of ale, and kisse you, saying, “By God, captaine, I love thee. Goe thy wayes; thou dost not thinke so often of me as I doo thee; I would (if it pleased God) I could not love thee as well as I doo;” and then he puts his finger in his eye, and crye. 6); Martin drunke; when a man is drunke, and drinkes himselfe sober ere he stirre. 7)  Goate drunke; when, in his drunkennes, he hath no minde but on lecherie. Fox drunke–when he is craftie drunke, as manie of the Dutchmen bee, that will never bargaine but when they are drunke.  If you say you do not recognise any of these, then you must be a teetotaler.

It was International Women’s Day last week, and for those of you who sometimes pondered on how this got started –  this annual marking of – respect for women and their achievements – well German Marxist, and women rights activist Clara Zetkin marked the first Women’s Day in 1910. Her lover, who gave her two sons was an early Russian revolutionary, so the notion of Women’s Day, inspired by the socialist movement, was markedly political at the time. It was in the wake of the October Revolution that Lenin made the day an official holiday in the Soviet Union, since when it has spread worldwide.

Never let it be said that the authorities in Bellingham, Washington, USA, are not environmentally aware. So much so that the sidewalks in town are paved with discarded porcelain toilets – ground into a mixture dubbed poticrete, about 22 miles south of the Canadian border, and part of the Meador Kansas Ellis Trail Project.

This recycling project is the first-ever to be certificated by the Greenroads Foundation – a non-profit group advocating sustainable transportation infrastructure - The certification, only just bestowed, has 11 conditions representing significantly more sustainability than more -typical modern road projects.

This venture cost about $850,000 – about the same as the typical gravel concoction normally. the Bellingham authorities also used recycled asphalt along with and low-energy LED street lighting to cut power costs, all of the  crushed ceramic coming Bellingham Housing Authority toilets,  after the upgrading of three large housing facilities left them with 400 used toilet ranges.

Beginning in May 2011, the project took about four months to complete, the crushed ceramics tested to make sure the correct mixture would remain strong as a sidewalk. The upshot was that the toilets would not be taking up landfill space, and less gravel got taken from the ground.There are currently twelve projects pursuing Greenroads certification worldwide, so the drive for maximum recycling goes on, as it should.