Nature returns -- Re: Soul cookies -- Re: Gratitude - We are now living (at least some of) our sabbaths/ weekends, past taken by Sunday trading

[Zig the N.g]

All around the world, from the UK to India to the canals of Venice, dolphins appear, we can see clearly, nature is turning from muddy brown to azure blue, vibrant turquoise and "damn, we've been missing life in this world as it ought to be".

Seriously, if you are at home with little to do, contemplate on how to gently but firmly shift this world into maintaining this new beauty, this new cleanliness, the world as you would have it be.

Create your world,


   Murky Waters Around British Coastline Are Turning Tropical During Lockdown
   https://www.boredpanda.com/uk-sea-around-british-coastline-looking-tropical-during-lockdown/
   [wow! the British coastline is actually azure blue waters - including some "before" pics for stark contrast!]


   Venice canals run clear, dolphins appear in Italy’s waterways amid coronavirus lockdown
   https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/coronavirus/venice-canals-clear-dolphins-swim-italy-lockdown/


   Mom Creates Beautiful Chalk Drawings On Her Driveway, Incorporating Her Daughter Into Each Of Them (40 Pics)
   https://www.boredpanda.com/family-chalk-art-adventures/


   Meet Carrot, The Cat That’s Gone Viral For Giving His Owners Anxiety
   https://www.boredpanda.com/check-for-cat-fridge-carrot-the-cat/


   Clever Street Cat Leads A Woman To The Store And Asks Her To Buy Him Food, She Adopts Him
   https://www.boredpanda.com/stray-cat-follows-for-food-conejo-elgato/


   This Restaurant Is Winning The Funny Sign Game (35 New Pics)
   https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-restaurant-signs-el-arroyo-texas/
      .. "Give me coffee 2 change the things I can, and tequila to accept the things I can't"
      .. "Someone's therapist knows about you..."
      .. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions"
      .. "Make sure you're happy in real life, not just on instagram"



On Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 09:59:51PM +1000, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
> Time to start imagining a beautiful world - our world as it once was and as it is temporarily re-appearing, literally stunning nature:
> 
>   Himalayas Visible For First Time In 30 Years As India Lockdown Sparks Stunning Drop In Pollution
>   https://www.zerohedge.com/health/himalayas-visible-first-time-30-years-india-lockdown-sparks-stunning-drop-pollution
>   https://themindunleashed.com/2020/04/himalayas-visible-for-first-time-in-30-years-as-india-lockdown-sees-stunning-drop-in-pollution.html
>       For many residents, the sight is something which they have never witnessed in their entire lives...
>       For the first time in 30 years, India’s snow-covered Dhauladhar mountain range has become visible to locals as a result of plunging pollution levels resulting from measures taken to check the spread of the novel coronavirus.
>       For many residents, the sight of the Dhauladhar Range—which translates to “White Range” and forms part of the Himalayas—is something which they have never witnessed in their entire lives, reports SBS.
>       https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/himalayas-visible-for-first-time-in-30-years-as-pollution-levels-in-india-drop
>       Many have been eager to share their feelings about it on social media, including former Indian cricket player Harbhajan Singh, who wrote:
>           “Never seen Dhauladar range from my home rooftop in Jalandhar. Never could imagine that’s possible. A clear indication of the impact the pollution has done by us to mother earth.”
>           https://pic.twitter.com/laRzP8QsZ9  [and a bunch more photos "as of today", India as it was, and as it now is!]
>            — Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) April 3, 2020
>       While anti-pollution activist Sant Balbir Singh Seeechewal told SBS:
>           “We can see the snow-covered mountains clearly from our roofs. And not just that, stars are visible at night. I have never seen anything like this in recent times.”
>       .. No less than 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in the South Asian giant.
>       ..
> 
> 
> Stunning and beautiful..
> 
> Another "clean world" agenda is recycling - remembering that Sweden got so good at recycling they ran into the "problem" of running out of garbage to recycle that they started importing garbage from their neighbours - converting that trash mostly into energy, so i.e. paper, rubber and plastic trash:
> 
>   Why Sweden is Importing Garbage from Other Countries
>   https://www.generalkinematics.com/blog/sweden-importing-garbage-countries/
>     .. In theory, it’s entirely possible that the United States — which currently sends about 54 percent of its waste to landfills — could benefit from implementing a more extensive waste-to-energy program. Most statistics indicate that the average American produces about 1,600 pounds of garbage every year; in other words, there is more than enough WTE fuel spread across the nation.
>     ..
> 
> 
> There really is no reason, other than problematic gutless beaurocrats, red tape, and our collective will.
>   - To increase efficiency of say metal recycling (if this is needed for recycling plants to operate effectively, idk) we can encourage folks to wash out cans, bottles etc, before placing them in the recycling bin(s).
>   - Paper, plastic and rubber ought go to WTE (waste to energy recycling) - when done at scale, output can be energy, clean air and water.
>   - Existing mega sized landfills may well be minable - dredge up the metal, plastic and rubber, recycle; put some egg heads on figuring out %s of various metals etc in landfill waste dumps - some products like tin or tungsten are minable at around 2 to 3 % (by weight) in normal mines - some of these minerals may be significantly higher in waste landfills.
>   - Continue to move to electric vehicles, and invent a cheap, cleanable particulate filter to attach to exhausts of ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles for the transition to electric.
>   - Your idea here :)
> 
> 
> Folks we are now literally in a once in a lifetime era of peaceful change - embrace it, share it, pray for it, create it.
> 
> Live, love life..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 09, 2020 at 07:40:10PM +1000, Zig the N.g wrote:
> > Something to be grateful for - days off, a load off our shoulders, somewhat of a stasis in our respective countries, a calm and a time to contemplate.
> > 
> > Many years ago, weekends used to be a thing, in Australia from Saturday afternoon and through all of Sunday.
> > 
> > Then the large retail chains lobbied and stayed open all Saturday, then later, repeated this process for Sunday with some stores in busy metro city areas opening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
> > 
> > Our Sabbaths were thus taken from us.
> > 
> > We were complicit to some degree, most tacitly consenting to the oligarch's new regime, as we dutifully stepped up our hampster wheel trundling to a full 6, then eventually 7 days a week - working, schooling, shopping, working.
> > 
> > Most of the broader Commonwealth of nations essentially deregulated shopping hours from the early to the mid 1990s, often making this appear "ok" by having "govt. applications" and "licenses" to trade on the previously unsanctioned day(s), "most of South America by the 1980s" and throughout the '80s and '90s in most of the rest of the world.
> > 
> >   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_shopping
> > 
> > 
> > Let's take 1990 as a benchmark and ignore the loss of Saturday afternoons, but include every Sunday of the year:
> > 
> >   20 years is 52 weeks worth of Sundays = 1040 days
> > 
> >   1040 days is roughly 3 years.
> > 
> > 
> > Now I'm not suggesting we aim to lock ourselves down for 3 years straight :)
> > 
> > But we can use this grant of "slow time" according to our own wisdom:
> > 
> >   - We may do some of the indoor things we promised our children, spouse, self.  We may contemplate on the wonder of life, the universe, our existence, meta awareness ("I am aware that I am aware", "I am aware that I feel ...", "I am aware that I may think a series of thoughts").
> > 
> >   - We may contemplate the future and the type of world we might co-create with our fellow Souls - would we reclaim our "slow" days, be it a full weekend, an official sabbath, or something similar?  (And note that mathematically, and also if you consider steadily roaming around the Earth from East to West only, and also depending on which calendar system you choose to use, whether your Sabbath is Saturday or Sunday is on each of these grounds alone, truly a moot point).
> > 
> >   - Ought we have a global debt jubilee?
> > 
> >   - How might we balance our duty of care to one another on various vectors (health/viruses, travel, speech, etc)?
> > 
> >   - In what ways can we begin to hold our governments to account?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > May your catch up sabbaths be fruitful for you and yours...