It looks like someone’s cycles are in sync!

First (thanks for the alert Cate!) gURL.com posts an historical overview of menstrual products. Then Grist posts about our contemporary options from an environmental perspective.

The two-part series contains irreverent product reviews from staffers. They test both outerwear and innerwear.

I appreciate that they report on the bunching factor. Um, and Anna? You’ll be glad to see they assess each product’s odor as well.

It’s awesome how 300 years later, homemade cloth pads are back in style. Oh, who am I kidding? As if they ever left!

Debate is brewing about whether or not coffee cups, plastic bags and water bottles should be banned. The coffee cup purveyors don’t think you could handle it.

“…the possibility of a ban or restrictions raises questions about whether consumers can break their reliance on non-recyclable coffee cups and disposable takeout containers.”
- from the Globe and Mail

Dirty Little Spoons à la Toronto’s Guerrilla Gourmet

The optimistic viewpoint would say that yes, humans of all stripes, even the spoiled ones, can waste less and survive. In fact — and try to stay with me — if we continue to waste as much as we do, we might not survive.

What’s your take? Do you always BYOmug? Are you motivated by discounts, like getting a Grande for the price of a Tall? (Or a Liatorp for the price of a Flarke?)

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Let’s face it – water is so dull. But vitaminwater, with its kaleidoscopic pinks, peaches and violets, is like Vegas in a bottle!

- NYU’s science line on “Is vitaminwater good for you?”

I’m in over my head here. I saw someone drinking a bottle of smartwater, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. So I Googled the company’s website.

Now I’m just thirsty.

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I just came across a rather alarming discovery, in Alan Weisman’s book The World Without Us. We all know that plastics break down slowly in the environment and are hazardous for sea animals, who swallow undigestible chunks of our garbage and either choke to death or die slowly of intestinal obstructions. Well, as it turns out, one source of nearly-microscopic plastic is coming from, you guessed it, women’s beauty products.

You know those facial scrubs that contain “micro-scrubbers”, exfoliants which are supposed to scrub your pores clean and leave your face soft and blemish-free? Clean & Clear Daily Pore Scrubber uses them. So does Proactiv Solution, which I’ve been using for about a year now due to two of life’s cruellest words: adult acne. Those “micro-scrubbers” are, I found out, made up of tiny spheres of polyethylene. Plastic. Tiny plastic balls which are sold to be washed directly down the drain, into our water system. And they’re so tiny that they are basically impossible to filter out.

Now, in the interest of avoiding lawsuits, I should say that so far no one has really raised the alarm about this, and there’s not a lot of hard proof out there that micro-scrubbers are killing off ocean life. I did find this article, which mentions that it may pose a “minor threat”. Thing is, plastic has been around for so short a time that we don’t really know its long term effects at all (though more and more evidence is cropping up lately). But it seems to me that millions of people inserting unmeasurable amounts of microscopic plastic into the oceans is probably not going to be okay.

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Yesterday I was at The Hillside Music Festival, “a celebration of music and community” that happens annually at Guelph Lake conservation area on an “island” connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. Hillside is a not-for-profit corporation, administered by a board of directors, a small year-round staff, and more than 1,000 volunteers, and it is unlike other music festivals because it doesn’t focus on corporate advertising in order to sustain itself. And speaking of sustainability, Hillside focuses heavily on reducing the impact of the event on the environment by doing things like reusing cups and plates, and incorporating solar power.

Did I mention that the music is fantastic? This year’s headliners included my teenage crush Hayden, The Cowboy Junkies, Hawksley Workman, The Sadies, and Broken Social Scene (I thought this song was an appropriate one to post):

Anyone who has ever attended the festival will attest to the fact that it is a haven far from commercialism, consumerism, waste, and, well, jerks. The entire event is a real testament to the fact that something can be (easily) done to protect and preserve and enjoy the world around us. We may have gotten rained on, but it was the good time I look forward to every year. I just wanted to shout out to any Shameless readers in attendance. See you again next year!

The upside to rain at Hillside.

What if you lived by the largest body of fresh water in the world but could no longer afford to use it?

In Liz Miller’s video documentary, The Waterfront, residents of Highland Park, a struggling community on the shores of Lake Michigan are shown looking with distress at water bills totalling between 3 and 9,000 dollars.

One woman sits on a porch with her children and grandchildren and explains that on a fixed pension she will be unable to pay her bill, and since the city has decided to attach water bills to mortgages she faces eviction and foreclosure on her property.

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I’m still in the United States and with limited access to phone and internet on the reservation. I’ve been out of the loop with several important events that have transpired in “Kanata” (the Wendat Huron word for Canada, which actually means settlement. Yes, we are on Native land) so I’ll play the catch-up game soon.

For now I want to leave you with one of the things I’ve been up to here. My partner and I decided that on my visit here in his territory of Oneida, Wisconsin we would only eat traditional food and do as many traditional things as possible.

What is traditional food you say? Well we are both Haudenosaunee, which in English means Iroquois, or 6 Nations. The 6 Nations are Mohawk (me), Oneida (him), Onondaga, Tuscarora, Seneca, and Cayuga. We have an ancient lineage of unity and one of the oldest forms of law called the Confederacy. As such, we have similar traditions, customs, and teachings. Corn and strawberries are some of our most sacred foods and we revere them more than just foods, they are life sustinence and you can do so much more than just eat them.

For us it means eating food grown on our territories, by our own peoples. Culture is such an important part of both our lives, and we want to honour our Mother Earth as much as we can. It has been a showing of solidarity across these borders we did not create, and also proof that youth can be part of the fight to get what we lost back.

We created a blog to record our journey here and we invite you to share with us as we go back2traditions!

Talk to you soon!

My partner DJ making some yummy traditional corn mush!

The buzz has been circulating for what will be an IMMENSE gathering of activists, front-line fighters, and allies alike for the protection of Mother Earth.
Starting this Monday, hundreds (hopefully thousands!) will descend on Queen’s Park in Toronto to stand up for the rights of Indigenous peoples to govern and take care of our own land.

I’ll be facilitating Wednesday, so I hope to see you there!

OFFICIAL INFO AND WORKSHOP SCHEDULE:
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I’m taking a break from videogames this week (though, like the weeds in Animal Crossing, they’ll be back). Turning instead to something ‘wired’ but entirely different…

With all of the noise about Ontario becoming a have-not province, and the apparent collapse of the Canadian auto manufacturing sector, it would be nice if there was some sort of significant innovation in this major market, with international appeal, with which Canada could become a global leader.

Oh wait. There is. A made in Canada electric car perfectly poised to step in as the standard in next wave urban driving.

Nah, let’s make more SUVs.

The best synopsis of this ZENN car (Zero Emission No Noise) is found here, courtesy of the Rick Mercer Report.

More on ZENN, and driving, after the jump.(more inside…)