Today’s Thursday Thought considers family, marriage, and the annual cost of social programs:
“ACF spends $46 billion per year operating 65 different social programs. If one goes down the list of these programs… the need for each is either created or exacerbated by the breakup of families and marriages.” — Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families (ACF/HHS)
Maybe we need to work harder on protecting our families and marriages….
Why not help Grandma see? That’s what this 8th grader decided to do to help his grandmother cope with macular degeneration. His invention may just offer hope to millions of people who can’t afford the $15,000 pricetag on what’s available now but might be able to afford his invention at a fraction of the cost. Watch this interesting this short video.
[I’m in a whimsical mood today, so I figured I’d share this fascinating knowledge sent to me by Linda Younts.]
Subject: A “historical” look at toilet paper
1. The first recorded use of toilet paper was in 6th Century China.
2. By the 14th Century, the Chinese government was mass-producing it.
3. Packaged toilet paper wasn’t sold in the U.S. until 1857.
4. Joseph Gayetty, the man who introduced packaged TP to the U.S., had his name printed on every sheet.
5. Global toilet paper demand uses nearly 30,000 trees every day. That’s 10 million trees a year.
6. It wasn’t until 1935 that a manufacturer was able to promise Splinter-Free Toilet Paper.
7. Seven percent of Americans admit to stealing rolls of toilet paper in hotels.
8. Americans use an average of 8.6 sheets of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom.
9. The average roll has 333 sheets. (not any more)
10. Historically, what you use to wipe depended on your income level. Wealthy Romans used wool soaked in rose water and French royalty used lace.
11. Other things that were used before toilet paper include hay, corncobs, sticks, stones, sand, moss, hemp, wool, husks, fruit peels, ferns, sponges, seashells, knotted ropes, and broken pottery (ouch!).
12. 70-75% of the world still doesn’t use toilet paper because it is too expensive or there is not sufficient plumbing.
13. In many Western European countries, bidets are seen as more effective and preferable to toilet paper.
14. Colored toilet paper was popular in the U.S. until the 1940s.
15. The reason toilet paper disintegrates so quickly when wet is that the fibers used to make it are very short.
16. On the International Space Station, they still use regular toilet paper but it must be sealed in special containers and compressed.
17. During Desert Storm, the U.S. Army used toilet paper to camouflage their tanks.
18. In 1973 Johnny Carson caused a toilet paper shortage. He joked that there was a shortage, which there wasn’t, until everyone believed him and ran out to buy up the supply. It took three weeks for some stores to get more stock.
19. There is a contest sponsored by Charmin to design and make wedding dresses out of toilet paper. The winner gets $2,000.
20. There was a toilet paper museum in Wisconsin, The Madison Museum of Bathroom Tissue, but it closed in 2000. The museum once had over 3,000 rolls of TP from places all over the world, including The Guggenheim, Ellis Island, and Graceland.
21. There is still a virtual toilet paper museum called Nobody’s Perfect.
22. In 1996, President Clinton passed a Toilet Paper Tax of 6 cents per roll, which is still in effect today. Obama has tried to triple that but the House won’t pass it.
23. The Pentagon uses, on average, 666 rolls of toilet paper per day.
24. The most expensive toilet paper in the world is the Portuguese brand Renova. It’s three-ply, perfumed, costs $3 per roll, and comes in several colors, including black, red, blue and green.
25. The CEO of Renova came up with the idea for black toilet paper while he was at a Cirque du Soleil show.
26. Beyonce uses only red Renova toilet paper. Kris Jenner uses only the black Renova toilet paper.
27. If you hang your toilet paper so you can pull it from the bottom, you’re considered more intelligent than someone who pulls it from the top.
28. Koji Suzuki, a Japanese horror novelist best known for writing The Ring, had an entire novel printed on a single roll of toilet paper. It takes place in a public bathroom, and the entire story runs approximately three feet long.
29. When asked what necessity they would bring to a desert island, 49% of people said toilet paper before food.
30. Queen Elizabeth II wipes her royal bottom with silk handkerchiefs. Wonder if the royal chambermaid gets to wash those?
The results reported in the Psychological Review showing that anger and stress in Tweets correlate with heart disease and death made me, once again, yell “No fecal matter!” I’m frequently flabbergasted by expensive studies that show what common sense already tells us. I don’t know how much any of these studies cost, but here are 13 that have my “fecal matter” meter registering high:
Yes, these were all actual studies. You can read about them at LiveScience.com.
I want to do a study on the effect of gravity on scientists being dropped out of a tenth-story university lab. Let me know if you’re willing to contribute to this vital project.
The clothes dryer is out to get you. It pulls fuzzies off of socks, collects pet hair and threads, and gathers whatever else it wants in order to create…LINT! And more LINT! This seemingly harmless substance results in 30% more energy used and, therefore, your spending $40 or more a year (depending on what your utility charges) that could have been spent on something else (or saved toward a new washer/dryer). It’s also a fire hazard, because fires are started more often than we’d imagine by lint-clogged vents.
Show the dryer who’s boss…clean out its lint filter and vent (from drum to outdoor outlet) at least twice a year.
[For more easy, money-saving, Eco-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/ view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-tailer.]
PG&E is full of gas! A new PUC report shows that the utility decided NOT to spend $93.5 million authorized for improving gas lines.
According to that PUC report, between 1987 and 1999, of the money they were authorized to spend to upgrade old pipelines, they chose to spend $183 million less. Yes, they have made some upgrades , spending a little more than $2 million on that in the last 25 years. As they’re undertaking repairs/replacements now, I can’t help wondering at how much higher a cost, what with inflation and putting off the work that needed to be done. Note that PG&E spent $89.9 million more than they were supposed to 2000-2010.
Why didn’t PG&E use that money in the first place, before 1996, when most of their non-spending was going on? They’ve always claimed that public safety and a reliable system are their cherished goals. Yet, they put off what turned out to be critical repairs and upgrades They could do this because of utilities’ ability to oversee themselves and spend on what they deem important—or hold back the money for later. The PUC gives them this autonomy. The PUC claims they’ll start auditing PG&E more closely, but I’d bet that San Bruno residents would say it’s too late! Besides, it took the PUC two months just to get the spending data out of PG&E!
We’ve been paying extra for pipeline repair for some time and not getting it. I agree with the San Francisco-based consumer group The Utility Reform Network that PG&E should prove to us that they’re spending that money wisely and making significant repairs and upgrades…or GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK!
A new drug enters the market with a 20-year monopoly before a generic version of it can be sold. This is the time period in which the pharmaceutical company recoups the amount it spent in developing the drug. In other words, unlike your small business, they get to charge a high price for that little pill until they break even. If that’s the case, why don’t they drop the price after 20 years? The answer is simple: more profits.
Yes, a generic company can make a cheaper version and challenge the 20-year window through the FDA. It’s really a patent challenge, claiming that there’s a flaw in the patent or it isn’t valid for some other reason. Of course, the big-pharma company counter-sues leading to lengthy and expensive litigation. If they think they might lose or don’t want to take the chance, they just settle it all with an agreement that the generic company will drop the suit and hold off introducing their more affordable pill, and, in exchange, big-pharma will pay them a tidy sum. Everybody wins, right?
Wait a minute. What about us consumers who depend on the medicine, especially people who, because of the expense, must often choose between life-saving medications and food or rent? And doesn’t that also add to the high costs of our medical system? Mmmmmmmmm.
Stamp prices went up again, and I’m not convinced the hike was needed. It looks to me like the USPS hasn’t taken simple measures to economize. For example, we keep getting two copies of the USA Philatelic, probably because we’ve ordered stamps-by-mail under two different names. You’d think the USPS would have a computer program set up so only a single copy went to each household (money-saving tip #1). Or an effective way for us to stop delivery of it (Tip #2). Also, that magazine is printed on high quality, glossy paper, with plenty of colored pictures…an expensive proposition. It CAN be produced cheaper (Tip #3). Then there are the stamps-by-mail. They’re good for people who find it a physical hardship to go to a post office, they cut down on labor, and they save on fuel. However, when we order, say 50 Forever stamps, we get them in 5 packets that are backed by a piece of cardboard and sealed in cellophane. In the old days, when they came loose in an envelope, they weren’t damaged. I’d be happy not to have to deal with the extra packaging and add it to the recycle bin. Go back to the old days (Tip #4). And the envelope they arrive in is heavy-duty and fiber-reinforced–another cost-saving area (Tip #5).
All these are small savings that add up as they’re multiplied by the number of households in the U.S. My question for the USPS is this: if you’re not bothering to economize on the small stuff, what else are you ignoring? The cost of stamps and the USPS’s wasteful ways are driving me away from them and more toward electronics. I wonder if the USPS actually WANTS to stay in business.