Saturday Linkages: Pallets, Ladybugs and Portlandia

Brothers-in-Benches-by-r1-2-537x403

Street Artist Recycles Reclaimed Wood Pallets Into Mobile Pop-Up Benches in

Console Table with 3 legs – Outstanding – IKEA Hackers

Jailed for collecting rainwater:  [Update: A reader notes that there is more to this story than the headline indicates–looks like the person jailed may have been damming streams and taking water from his neighbors.]

Little chicks wearing muffin wrappers as tutus!

The Flight of the Ladybugs

The Portlandia Activity Book

World made by bigots

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5 Comments

  1. I read the link about rainwater harvesting with interest, but I think it is REALLY important to also read the comments – one reader points out that Mr. Harrington was not just gathering water from his rooftops, but actually damming streams that cross his property and contribute to larger watercourses beyond. He was, if the commenter is correct, actually keeping water on his property that belonged to people downstream of him. His “rainwater” collection was actually three ponds that resulted from building dams . . . not the usual rainwater barrel system.
    Ownership of water is a very interesting puzzle, created by greedy humans . . .

    • Cynthia,
      Thanks for doing the homework I should have done. Looks like I fell for click bait.

  2. I do think it’s important for all of us to start thinking about the ownership of water and water rights, though, so this is an important case to watch. One reason I try not to buy pre-packaged bottled water is that I don’t know whose well or stream it really came from . . . even the tap water here in LA is perhaps more rightly someone else’s water . . .
    I’ve been buying bottled mineral water that is sourced from Italy – this makes it a questionable choice because it comes from overseas. But if I buy Arrowhead water, I’m buying from Nestle, which I have heard is engaged in bottling and selling water in areas where the local populations need that water themselves but have lost their rights to it . . .
    Meanwhile my neighbors run their sprinkler every day and waste fresh potable drinking water on crabgrass in dead “soil”. Sigh . . .
    If there is going to be another big conflict, it may be over water rather than oil.

  3. I’m grateful for the information about ladybugs. I’ve been monitoring the ladybugs in my pesticide-free yard for years, and these year there weren’t any – even in the native plants they usually flocked to. I wondered whether their absence was caused by the same things that are decimating our bee populations, and why no one seemed to be discussing it.

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