Archive for March, 2010

The Longest Urinal

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010


Photo by Dan Wood.

The longest urinal is 290 feet from spout to drain. It’s transitory. If you want to use it, run the New York City marathon. You, and hundreds of others, can whiz into it as to run from borough to borough.

The bridge is the Verrazano narrows. The photo is by Dan Wood, an artist who specializes in researching and documenting important historic toilets.

Do you know of a longer urinal? Have you used this one?

H2 Uh Oh: It’s never too late to celebrate

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010


It’s never too late to celebrate World Water Day, which was last week. This amusing video brings water issues to light and a great organization—Charity: Water. Watch it now.


World’s Longest Toilet Queue is in London with Gordon Brown in it!

Monday, March 29th, 2010


From c1Media, watch Gordon Brown interviewed while sitting on a toilet outside Parliament. He’s there with hundreds of look alikes. End Water Poverty sponsored the event.

To raise awareness of the plight of over 2.5 billion people who do not have access to clean water and basic sanitation, countries across the globe combined to attempt a Guinness World Record – the longest ever toilet queue! LYJA’s Cody, from St Hugh’s School in Grantham, was in the heart of London to report on an amazing spectacle.


A Success Story: Clean Water in Niger

Sunday, March 28th, 2010


This article and video from UNICEF TV tell a success story about villagers in Niger who can now get tap water in minutes. Over a year ago, the residents had to walk hours for fetch clean water. Find out more about UNICEF and NIger.

Under the theme, Clean Water for a Healthy Word, this years World Water Day, 22 March, aims to spur action on improving water quality worldwide. Here is a related story on UNICEF’s safe-water efforts in Niger.

CHINWAGHARI VILLAGE, Niger, 22 March 2010 Surrounded by a throng of other children, each carrying empty containers, Fatima Hamouma, 8, walked to the new, modern water taps in her village. In just a few minutes, she had filled all six of her containers. Just a year ago, fetching water from the old traditional well would have required at least three hours of hard work.

Its easy, Fatima said. Before, we had to queue for a long time to get the water. And most of the time, it was dirty.

The new water taps, which were installed a year ago, provide direct access to potable water for the 1,100 inhabitants of Chinwaghari village. Theyre part of a state-of-the-art, mini water distribution system set up by UNICEF, the Government of Niger and other partners. The aim is to increase sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation in the community, thereby reducing the prevalence of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea among children.


Removing Arsenic from Drinking Water

Saturday, March 27th, 2010


New drinking water guidelines lower the acceptable limit for arsenic in drinking water. The problem is more prevalent in the southwest and northeast part of the USA. Find out how water utilities remove arsenic to make your water safe.


Reclaiming Water

Friday, March 26th, 2010


It’s World Water Week! Celebrate by watching this video on reclaiming and recycling water. A water utility in Southern California uses a three-step process to clean water and send it back to the aquifer.


Help Your Favorite Restaurants Kick the Bottled Water Habit

Thursday, March 25th, 2010


Take Back the Tap has a guide with lots of actions you can take to help restaurants stop selling and serving bottled water. They also list restaurants around the USA that have taken a pledge against bottled water.

Take the pledge to take back the tap!


Bottled water creates trash. Photo courtesy of Take Back the Tap. Click to learn more about bottled water and the environment.

The Story of Bottled Water: What You Can Do

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010


This text and video from The Story of Stuff. Check out their great website. Contribute to help them produce more videos like this.

Bottled water is a problem in itself, but it is also a sign of a much larger problem too much needless consumption, too much unnecessary waste, and too much advertising to convince us we will be happier or better off if we just had a new (insert any consumer good here.)

The Story of Bottled Water, released on March 22, 2010 (World Water Day) employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.

Our production partners on the bottled water film include five leading sustainability groups: Corporate Accountability International, Environmental Working Group, Food & Water Watch, Pacific Institute, and Polaris Institute.


Download a Free Copy of National Geographic’s Water Issue

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010


Water, our thirsty world magazine coverDownload a Free Copy of National Geographic’s Water Issue

From the National Geographic website:

This single-topic issue of National Geographic magazine highlights the challenges facing our most essential natural resource. “Water: Our Thirsty World” is available for free download starting on World Water Day, March 22, and extending through April 2, 2010. This interactive edition of National Geographic magazine presents complete content from the print edition, plus extra photo galleries, rollover graphics that animate features like maps and time lines, video profiles of photographers who contributed to the issue, and other interactive features. National Geographic’s water issue is available in print on newsstands everywhere beginning March 30.

Is it wrong to swim with dolphins?

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010


I think so. The only reason they are putting up with humans is because they are captive! More and more studies show that although you might enjoy the experience, the dolphin is stressed out.

Read this in-depth article from the BBC News for details.

Swimming with dolphins may be sold as a life-affirming experience, but research shows that it can be traumatic for the sea mammals themselves. So is it time to stop?

It regularly features as one of those transformative experiences to notch up on the “things to do before you die” bedpost – swim with dolphins and discover the very essence of life.

Go to BBC to read the rest of the article.