Recreational drug use is incredibly common around the world and it very often leads to disaster and crime. To resolve this, some people advocate a liberal approach to legalization, while others support a strong government police drive “war” on the sale and use of drugs. This list looks at ten of the most popular recreational drugs in use today.
10. Solvents
Solvents are an extremely distasteful class of abusive substances. Readily available from hardware stores, solvent abuse was popularized in the late seventies as the drug of choice of the Punk Rock scene. The industrio-chemical nature of solvents, especially solvent glue, was a strong representation of the Punk vision. Other solvent inhalants include aerosols, nail varnish, gas lighter fuel and petrol.
The general availability of these products makes them popular among poor or destitute children around the world. For the equivalent of 10 cents, a street kid in Casablanca, Morocco, can buy a small tube of bicycle inner tube repair glue, enough to take him out of the world that he inhabits and into a feeling of contentment and warmth. This is a familiar story all over the world and is indicative of the depravity that generally associates itself with solvent abusers. Often the glue is inhaled from a plastic bag, sometimes over the head, it is not difficult to imagine how often an unconscious user has died of suffocation in this process.
9. Psychedelic Mushrooms
For millennia, Psychedelic or hallucinogenic mushrooms have figured in society, culture and religion. There are more than 180 species of mushrooms which contain the psychedelics Psilocybin or Psilocin. They have a long history of use in Mexico and tribal societies and are currently one of the most popular and commonly available natural psychedelics. Psilocybin and Psilocin are the psychoactive ingredients responsible for the hallucinatory state or “trip” the user experiences some twenty minutes after consuming the mushrooms. The effect of which is similar to that of LSD but shorter lived and will be outlined in the LSD section.
Some of these “Magic Mushrooms”, are actually more poisonous than they are hallucinogenic, great care must be taken to pick the correct types. In fact it is a rule of thumb with users that you should never pick them without being accompanied by someone who has picked them before. In the United Kingdom, taking or possessing ‘shrooms, is legal, but preparing them including drying them or selling them is an offense under the misuse of drugs act. The Netherlands, in recent years, has made the possession of Magic Mushrooms totally illegal, which may surprise people who are aware of its relaxed laws on Cannabis. Magic Mushrooms can be dried, eaten fresh, cooked or boiled into a “tea”.
8. Opium
An age old drug, Opium has influenced the economy of nations, caused wars, inspired poets and brought the ruin of many. Derived from the collected sap of the Opium Poppy (Papaver Somniferum), it has been cultivated since Neolithic times. Used as a food source, the seeds have no narcotic effect but are used as spice, they have a mild nutty flavor. In contrast, the sap, collected from immature seed pods, has extremely powerful narcotic qualities. The plants are native to Greece and China, and were grown in Egyptian, Roman and Minoan civilizations. The sap is a highly addictive painkiller which can be smoked or eaten, and when dissolved in alcohol (commonly known as laudanum) it can be drunk.
Laudanum’s biggest clam to fame was its use by the romantic poets. Many of the Pre-Raphaelites (Among them Lord Byron, Shelly and others) were know to indulge. The image of the romantic poet, pale, morose, drunk on absinthe and laudanum is a common one. It was, in the Victorian era, freely available and somewhat cheaper than gin and became a working class tipple. It was liberally prescribed to children that were teething. Opium dens were popular in most 19th century cities. Patrons would lie on their side with long wooden pipes, the bowl upturned over a smoking ball of opium.
7. LSD
LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) is possibly the most powerful hallucinogenic drug known. It was discovered in 1938 by Albert Hoffman a Swiss chemist, whose actual purpose was to find a cure for the common cold. It has had a checkered history to say the least. Iconic public figures have, in the past, advocated its use: Hunter S Thompson, The Beatles, and Timothy Leary being notable advocates.
After 1-2 hours of ingesting the drug, visual awareness is heightened, sounds become enhanced, emotions and physical sensations are altered. The user’s sense of self and its interaction with people or objects, their concept of reality is generally brought to question. Strange visual stimuli, that may or may not be comforting or frightening overwhelm the user, there is a real risk of irrational fear taking over, paranoia, confusion or panic. Equally, some people have apparently wonderful experiences with none of these symptoms.
6. Barbiturates / Benzodiazepines
This is the first item on our list that is a prescription medicine. There is a vast range of medicines that fall in to the category of “downers” This being the street name which has passed into general usage. Barbiturates have been around since the 19th century, derived from Barbituric acid, there have been hundreds of derivatives over the years. In psychiatry and psychiatric hospitals it was frequently used to sedate violent or disturbed patients. They are a Hypnotic, and Anxiolytic, which is often used to make a patient unconscious before the true anesthesia is administered. They engender, in the abuser, feelings of calm and relaxation, physically and mentally, which creates a high level of dependency.
Barbiturates have largely been replaced by Benzodiazepines. A newer range of sedatives that was first introduced in the 1950’s as Librium. Valium soon followed with Mogadon Ativan, Frisium, and Temazepam. Safer than Barbiturates, Benzo’s soon gained popularity and the sedative culture as it was known was born. The withdrawal from Benzo dependency is extremely disturbing for the patient and recognizably bad for the doctor to witness. It has been said that it is worse than withdrawal from Opiates.
5. Amphetamines
Amphetamines are a group of stimulant drugs that work by affecting the amount of dopamine and serotonin in the brain. They generally create a feeling of euphoria, mental focus and resilience against physical fatigue. They have been used medically as an appetite suppressant, to treat ADHD in adults and children, and by the military in the Second World War. The most common street name for Amphetamines is “speed” because of the increased energy that users display. This made it extremely popular amongst young people in the 1970s at discos and then again in the 90s in the subsequent rave music culture.
It was originally widely available in America as Benzedrine, an inhalant medicine available without prescription, until its use was controlled by the FDA in 1965. Previous to this, the German military during WW2 used it recreationally and strategically, Adolph Hitler was daily injected with a compound of Amphetamines and vitamins.
4. Ecstasy
Closely linked to the use of Amphetamines (from which it is derived), Ecstasy, or MDMA, was originally used as a Psycho therapeutic drug. It is a Psychedelic drug that produces euphoria and a feeling of well being, decreased levels of fear and anxiety and a physical stimulant and sensational effect in users. It is illegal in most countries and is one of the most widely used illicit drugs in the world.
It is taken orally or sniffed as a powder. Users can have bad reactions to the drug and in the early years of its use as a recreational drug there were many instances of first time users dying without having administered an overdose. When users are exerting themselves heavily, there is a real risk of dehydration and death or illness resulting from it. Many of the “back street” MDMA factories use unclean processes and poor pharmacological techniques, and are a great danger to the people that make the drug as well as to the users.
3. Cocaine
Cocaine, derived from the Coca plant, has been used in one form or another for over a thousand years. Originating from South America, it has been chewed as a leaf by the Peruvian Indians for centuries. It is a powerful stimulant, appetite suppressant and anesthetic. In the Victorian era, many freely available medicines contained Cocaine for use with babies and children particularly when they were teething.
For the first twenty years of its production Coca Cola contained Cocaine but the laws controlling it in the early 1900’s prohibited its inclusion. It has generally through its social usage been a rich mans drug, although the use of Crack Cocaine, a modified version of the original powdered form is prepared as a “Rock” or “Stone” and smoked in pipes, has brought its usage down to street level.
2. Heroin
Perhaps the most insidious of all drugs, Heroin, or Diamorphine is a derivative of Morphine, an opiate, first used as an alternative to Morphine as it was thought to be less addictive. The name Heroin, is a Trade name for Diamorphine and was used by the Bayer pharmaceutical company in the mid 1800’s. It is an extremely powerful painkiller and users experience exhilaration, euphoria and a sense of well being. It can be smoked, sniffed or injected.
The withdrawal effects of Heroin are pretty dreadful, and it is virtually impossible to impart to a non-user how bad it really is. The symptoms of withdrawal are physical pain, nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea, shaking twitching and a very strong craving for the soothing effects of the drug. Very few people can cope with withdrawal and this drives people to commit crimes to fund their next drug purchase.
1. Cannabis
The most popular of all recreational drugs, Cannabis, or Marijuana, Grass, Hemp, Weed, Pot, Hash, Dope or a variety of regional names has been cultivated for thousands of years. Derived in various forms from the Cannabis plants Cannabis Indica or Cannabis Sativa, it is native to central Asia but its cultivation and use is global. It is a Psychoactive and a Psychedelic. It can be smoked as leaves or flower buds, it can be ground down to isolate the crystallized sap and then pressed into a solid, or the resin extracted by collection via contact with the sticky plant parts.
The effects are fairly immediate, a slightly drunken but euphoric sensation, it can be mild or strong according to the method of delivery and the strength and quantity of the dose. It is not generally debilitating unless as with anything else it is taken to excess, and it can cause some mental confusion that is mostly temporary.
Top 10 Most Popular Recreational Drugs
Nine Beers Americans No Longer Drink
After three years of declining sales, shipments of domestically sold beer are up by more than 1% in the United States this year. Sales of light beer and specialty beer, such as Budweiser Light Platinum, Shock Top, and Blue Moon, have been the driving force in the resurgence of U.S. breweries.
While sales of specialty, craft, and small-market beers have improved dramatically, many of the traditional, full-calorie beers that were once the staples of most breweries have fallen behind. In the five years ending in 2011, sales of Budweiser, which was once the top-selling beer in the country for years, have fallen by 7 million barrels. Sales of Michelob are down more than 70%. Based on data provided by Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the nine large — or once-large — beer brands with a five-year decline in sales of 30% or more.
While regular, full-calorie beer was once the mainstream, now light has become the primary beer of choice. Budweiser, once by far the most popular beer, has now fallen to third place in domestic sales, with 17.2 million barrels shipped in 2011, compared to Coors Light’s 17.4 million. The U.S. beer leader is, by a long shot, Bud Light, with 39.15 million barrels sold last year.
Budweiser did not quite make the 30% decline in sales cutoff for our list, but many other traditional brews did. Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee’s Best and Miller Genuine Draft have all lost 50% of their sales since 2006. Michelob shipped 500,000 barrels domestically in 2006, but sold just 140,000 in 2011.
While light beer has supplanted full-calorie beer in popularity, sales of most leading light brands have been flat over the past several years. In fact, many of the beers on our list with the biggest declines are light beers that either didn’t catch on or faded out of popularity. In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS executive editor Eric Shepard explained that it is specialty beers and craft beers — not light beer — that have eaten into sales of traditional full-calorie beer in the past year.
Shepard explained that like most major brand-centered industries, the beer industry has entered a period of aggressively marketing new brands and flavors. “I think that part of the reason that brewers felt we had three down years was primarily the economy… but it was also a lack of innovation, and so now you’re seeing [the beer industry] rev up these things,” he said. “The buzzword for this year was innovation.”
To combat the growing popularity of craft brews, major breweries such as Anheuser-Busch Inbev (NYSE: BUD) and MillerCoors have aggressively marketed their own specialty beer. Bud Light Platinum, which debuted during the Super Bowl, has been very successful, beating most expectations. Shock Top, also produced by Anheuser-Busch, sold 600,000 barrels last year, more than double the previous year’s sales. Another Belgian white beer, Blue Moon, which is sold by MillerCoors, was the 18th-most popular beer sold last year. Shepard expects the focus on nontraditional brews to continue at least through next year. This will likely further reduce sales of the declining brands on our list.
24/7 Wall St. identified the nine beers Americans no longer drink based on INSIGHTS top 50 beer brands with at least 500,000 barrels in sales in either 2006 or 2011 with sales declines of 30% or more over the same period. Sales for flavored malt beverages and craft beers were excluded from the analysis.
These are the nine beers Americans no longer drink.
9. Milwaukee’s Best Light
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 35.5%
> Brewer: MillerCoors
> Barrels sold (2011): 1.2 million
Milwaukee’s Best Light, according to SABMiller, one half of MillerCoors, is a “leading low-calorie beer in the near-premium segment.” Although the brand has been on shelves since 1986, in recent years customers have abandoned the beer. Sales volume dropped by more than a third between 2006 and 2011, versus a decline of just 4% for all top brands. Last year, Milwaukee’s Best Light sold 750,000 barrels, 5.8% less than in 2010. Meanwhile, sales for the top brands fell by just 1.7% during that time.
8. Miller High Life Light
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 37.6%
> Brewer: MillerCoors
> Barrels sold (2011): 390,000
Miller High Life Light was first sold in 1994 as the low-calorie version of Miller High Life, often referred to as “the champagne of beers.” But while customers have continued buying the original Miller High Life — sales declined just 3.6% between 2006 and 2011 — they have deserted the light version — which saw sales decline by more than ten times that number. In 2011, sales fell by 80,000 barrels, or 17%, from 2010.
7. Amstel Light
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 47.7%
> Brewer: Heineken
> Barrels sold (2011): 340,000
Debuting in 1980, Amstel Light claims to have been the first imported light beer available in the U.S. The brand, brewed by Heineken, is the only imported beer, as well as the only beer not brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev or MillerCoors, on this list. Neither of these brewers experienced a sales decline as large as that of Heineken between 2010 and 2011, when U.S. sales volume fell by 3.9%. One cause was Amstel Light sales, which fell by 13.9% — more than any other major Heineken brand.
6. Miller Genuine Draft
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 52.3%
> Brewer: MillerCoors
> Barrels sold (2011): 1.6 million
Miller Genuine Draft, marketed as having “the fresh taste of draft beer in a bottle,” has lost consumers’ attention in recent years. It was one of just six beers that had sales volume fall by half between 2006 and 2011. During this time, the total number of Miller Genuine Draft barrels sold fell by 1.7 million, more than any other beer on this list. Only one other brand bottled by MillerCoors — Miller Lite — had a larger decline in barrels sold over this time span.
5. Old Milwaukee
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 52.8%
> Brewer: Pabst Brewing Company
> Barrels sold (2011): 460,000
Old Milwaukee is brewed by the Pabst Brewing Company, which sold itself to C. Dean Metropoulos — described by The New York Times as “a veteran food executive known for corporate turnarounds” — in 2010. Last year, the Chicago Tribune reported that employees felt Metropoulos’ marketing plans were moving the company away from the philosophies and practices that made it successful. From 2010 to 2011 alone, sales decreased by 12.4% — worse than 80% of top brands.
4. Milwaukee’s Best
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 57.1%
> Brewer: MillerCoors
> Barrels sold (2011): 750,000
MillerCoors claims that Milwaukee’s Best is “brewed for a man’s taste,” and is “highly drinkable [and] highly affordable.” However customers have stopped buying — and drinking — the brand. Between 2006 and 2011, no major brand made by MillerCoors had a larger percentage decrease in sales. The beer is one of the worst-ranked brews on BeerAdvocate.com.
3. Budweiser Select
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 60.8%
> Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
> Barrels sold (2011): 775,000
Budweiser Select, introduced in 2005, claims to offer a “distinctively full flavor,” with just 99 calories per 12-ounces — roughly the same as Michelob Ultra. The brand has not sold well since its introduction, with sales declining by 1.2 million barrels between 2006 and 2011 — more than all but a few top brands. In 2009, Anheuser-Busch InBev also introduced Budweiser Select 55, which the company describes as “the lightest beer in the world with fewer calories than any other beer option currently available.”
2. Michelob Light
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 66.3%
> Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
> Barrels sold (2011): 425,000
From 2006 to 2011 shipments of Michelob Light fell by 66.3%, more than any other major light beer in the U.S. While sales of Michelob Light declined, sales of Michelob Ultra — introduced in 2002, with just 95 calories per 12 ounces — rose by 10.3% from 2006 to 2011. Anheuser-Busch InBev no longer prominently markets the beers on its websites alongside the better-selling Michelob Ultra. Between 2010-2011, sales of Michelob light fell by 19%, more than all but two of the top brands we reviewed.
1. Michelob
> Sales loss (2006-2011): 72.0%
> Brewer: Anheuser-Busch InBev
> Barrels sold (2011): 140,000
American consumers have abandoned Michelob — a lager brewed since 1896 — at a faster rate than any other beer. From 2006 to 2011, sales declined from 500,000 barrels to 140,000, with a 20% drop between 2010 and 2011 alone. No other beer on this list sold less than Michelob. The next-lowest selling beer, Amstel Light, still sold 200,000 barrels more than Michelob last year. The brand has not always struggled. According to Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS’ Eric Shepard, “the superpremium category — basically between Budweiser and the imports — Michelob pretty much had that to itself for many years.”
America's Most Popular Drugs
A narcotic painkiller tops Forbes' list of the most prescribed medicines.
The most popular medicine in the U.S. was prescribed 128 million times last year, even as a panel of experts called together by the Food and Drug Administration recommended that regulators ban it.
The drug is Vicodin, a 40-year-old addictive medicine that combines the narcotic hydrocodone with acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol; the prescription tally also includes numerous generic versions. It is emblematic of the trend that emerges from our look at the most popular prescription pills: the death of the blockbuster drug.
Forbes' list of the 15 most popular drugs comes from IMS Health ( RX - news - people ), a company that tracks sales at the pharmacy level for drug companies. The list shows how medicine makers are rapidly losing their grip on the average consumer. Only one drug in the top 15, Pfizer's ( PFE - news - people ) Lipitor, is a big-selling brand-name medication. The rest are cheap generic versions of one-time big sellers that have lost their patent protection and become commodities. Generic copies of Vicodin go for 30 cents a pill, compared to $4 per pill for Lipitor.
Vicodin is a drug that is crying out to be replaced. Vicodin has a supporting role on the television show House, M.D. because the protagonist, a Sherlock Holmes-like doctor, is hooked on it. It is particularly dangerous because when patients develop a tolerance for the narcotic they start taking too much. This can lead to liver failure from overdoses of the acetaminophen component of the combo. Most of the 400 deaths due to acetaminophen poisoning each year result from misuse of the Vicodin or similar drugs. Last June an FDA advisory panel recommended banning Vicodin. The FDA is still deciding whether to take this advice.
"People are taking this as if they're taking a strong Tylenol," says Michel Dubois, director of pain medicine at New York University Langone Medical Center. There's nothing wrong with Vicodin after a surgery or tooth extraction, he says, but it's being used too often by primary care physicians with "minimal training" in dealing with chronic pain. "It has been trivialized, and its wrong to trivialize this strong a pain medication," he says.
The failure to replace Vicodin is not for lack of trying. Pfizer once hoped its painkiller Bextra could be an alternative. But in 2005 Bextra, a chemical cousin of Merck's ( MRK - news - people ) Vioxx pill, was pulled from the market because it increased the risk of heart attacks and allergic skin reactions. Pfizer paid a $1.2 billion criminal fine last year for marketing Bextra for unapproved uses like dental pain. Other efforts to replace Vicodin have come up short. Vicodin-maker Abbott Laboratories ( ABT - news - people ) worked for years on a delayed release formulation but has not been able to get it through the FDA.
The second most popular drug in the U.S. is generic Zocor, or simvastatin. The cholesterol-lowering drug was once Merck's biggest seller, but Merck lost its patent protection in 2006. Doctors prescribed it 83 million times last year. One reason: It is proven to save lives, and it costs only $1 a pill, far less than Lipitor.
Zocor used to play second fiddle to Lipitor but became more popular after it went generic and health insurers pushed it as a cheaper option. Merck, Pfizer and others tried to develop new types of cholesterol drugs with little success; the cholesterol drug market is now dominated by generics.
Lipitor still wracks up $7.5 billion in annual sales, more than any other drug but only ranks seventh by popularity, with 51.1million prescriptions last year, down from 75 million in 2005. The second-biggest seller by dollar sales is the heartburn drug Nexium from AstraZeneca ( AZN - news - people ). But it is a lackluster No. 19 in popularity. Overall, only 8 of the 50 most popular drugs are still branded, compared to 20 in 2003, IMS says. 75% of all prescriptions are for generic drugs.
The third most popular drug, with 81.3 million prescriptions, is the blood-pressure-lowering medicine linsinopril, which used to be sold under the brand names Zestril and Prinivil. Overall, 6 of the top 15 most prescribed meds are blood-pressure-lowering drugs. There are so many good generic blood pressure drugs that it is difficult for brand-name drugmakers to improve upon them.
The No. 5 drug, azithromycin, is the generic version of Pfizer's popular antibiotic Zithromax. It tallied 53 million prescriptions last year. Like Vicodin, it's a much maligned medicine whose popularity was once blamed on overmarketing. It's not being advertised to doctors or consumers anymore, but it's still overused.
Brand name drug companies are inventing fewer drugs--a third as many were approved in 2009 as in 1999--and the ones they are inventing aren't selling. The last good year for new medicines was in 2006. Drugs launched that year generated $1.2 billion in first-year sales, says IMS. In none of the years since have drugmakers come close to this figure.
Companies are responding by trying to focus on medicines they can sell to small numbers of people at a higher price for rarer diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis and ultra-rare genetic diseases. Ironically, that may include the next big painkiller: an injected protein drug that blocks nerve growth. It is being developed by Pfizer and could hit the market in a couple years.
Indonesia Official, Divorces Via Text Message To Teen Wife After 4 Days
Aceng Fikri, Indonesia Official, Divorces Via Text Message To Teen Wife After 4 Days, Protests Follow
GARUT, Indonesia -- Hundreds of Indonesians rallied Tuesday to demand a district chief's resignation after revelations of his text message divorce to a teenage girl four days after their marriage sparked public outrage.
Aceng Fikri, chief of Garut District in West Java province, took 17-year-old Fani Oktora as his second wife in July. But Fikri, 40, quickly divorced her via a short text message, alleging Oktora was not a virgin when they married as he had expected. He said he spent about $26,000 on the wedding.
Students and rights activists in Garut spit and trampled on pictures of Fikri on Tuesday before burning them outside the local council building.
It was the second consecutive day of protests against Fikri, whose case came into the spotlight last week after a picture of the couple was posted on the Internet. On Monday, dozens of people rallied in front of his house and the council building.
Late Tuesday, the local council issued a recommendation for Fikri's dismissal, but the process will have to wait for a verdict by the Supreme Court.
Also on Tuesday, Oktora, accompanied by her lawyers, filed a complaint with police in the capital, Jakarta, accusing Fikri of domestic violence by holding her captive after the wedding and fraudulence for declaring that he was a widower.
A lawyer representing Fikri said they would file a complaint of defamation against Oktora, whom he said had signed an agreement saying she would not complain about the marriage.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly discussed the case with West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan on Tuesday during a visit to the province.
Some Muslims believe in an Islamic ritual allowing men to end a marriage by telling their wives they divorce them. However, divorce by text message is uncommon in moderate Indonesia.
Forbidden Password in Blackberry List With 106 Entries
BlackBerry 10 Packs Forbidden Password List With 106 Entries
RIM has long allowed enterprises to set a list of disallowed passwords or dictionary passwords for BlackBerrys through BES. Now it looks like RIM is extending this to BlackBerry 10 for everyone. RapidBerry spotted a forbidden password list in the BlackBerry 10 OS innards that is supposed to mimic and stay in sync with the BlackBerry ID settings. This means RIM can probably update this list at any time. I did not find the existence of the list as interesting as the actual passwords on the list. Let us know if you are guilty of using any of these!
# Forbidden password list – this is to be kept in sync with the PasswordService.properties file from the BB IdM server
1=123456
2=12345678
3=123abc
4=a1b2c3
5=aaaaaa
6=abc123
7=abc123
8=abcdef
9=amanda
10=andrew
11=angel
12=asdfgh
13=august
14=avalon
15=bandit
16=barney
17=baseball
18=batman
19=biteme
20=brandy
21=buster
22=butthead
23=calvin
24=canada
25=changeme
26=chelsea
27=coffee
28=computer
29=cowboy
30=diamond
31=donald
32=dorothy
33=dragon
34=eeyore
35=falcon
36=fishing
37=football
38=freedom
39=fuckme
40=fuckyou
41=gandalf
42=george
43=harley
44=hello
45=helpme
46=hockey
47=iloveyou
48=internet
49=jennifer
50=jonathan
51=jordan
52=letmein
53=maggie
54=marina
55=master
56=matthew
57=merlin
58=michael
59=michelle
60=mickey
61=mike
62=miller
63=molson
64=Monday
65=monday
66=monkey
67=mustang
68=natasha
69=ncc1701
70=newpass
71=newyork
72=pamela
73=password
74=patrick
75=pepper
76=piglet
77=poohbear
78=pookie
79=princess
80=qwerty
81=rabbit
82=rachel
83=ranger
84=rocket
85=secret
86=service
87=shadow
88=snoopy
89=soccer
90=sparky
91=spring
92=steven
93=success
94=summer
95=sunshine
96=thomas
97=tigger
98=trustno1
99=victoria
100=whatever
101=wizard
102=zapata
103=blackberry
104=blackberryid
105=bbidentity
106=playbook
23 tips for earth-friendly living
By Crissy Trask
Find green living tips to lessen your impact on the environment with small, easy changes you can make at home and at work.
In her book It's Easy Being Green (Gibbs Smith, 2006), Crissy Trask shows busy people that they can make a difference today and help the planet by making small adjustments in their daily lives. Try these 23 easy tips for changes at work and at home.
At work
1. Ask your employer to consider implementing a policy for compressed work weeks and/or telecommuting. Working four ten-hour days or working from home one or more days a week reduces commuting and traffic, leading to fewer automobile emissions.
2. Consider buying a laptop. Laptops use 50 percent of the energy used by a typical desktop PC when plugged in and just 1 percent of the energy when running on batteries.
3. If your copier, printer and fax have a sleep or stand-by mode, make sure it is selected. From the sleep mode, it will automatically wake up when you go to use it.
4. When using the copier at work, always make two-sided copies. If your printer also has a double-sided feature, use it.
5. If your office provides disposable cups for beverages, eliminate the need for them by bringing in extra glasses and mugs from home. Post a note in the lunch/break room requesting that your coworkers do the same. Keep the mugs in the lunchroom for anyone to use.
6. Use suppliers who will take back their recyclable or reusable products at the end of their life for proper disposal, recycling or remanufacturing.
Bathroom
7. If you have a nonconserving toilet (a 3.5 gallon flush or greater), retrofit it with a water-saving device. Fill a one-quart plastic bottle with water for each nonconserving toilet in your home, and submerge one bottle in each toilet tank. You will save one quart of water per flush and thousands of gallons a year.
8. Fix all leaks. To check for leaks, turn off all water in the house. Next, read your water meter, wait one hour (make sure no water is turned on during this period), and read the meter again. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there is a leak.
9. Take short showers. With water flowing up to five gallons per minute from a nonconserving showerhead, showers consume about one-fifth of water used indoors.
10. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Fill a cup with water and use it instead of running water. This applies to shaving as well. Partially fill the sink bowl to rinse your razor instead of running the water.
11. Buy a shower curtain that will far outlast cheap plastic ones; a shower curtain made of hemp will naturally resist mildew and is machine washable.
12. Use a strainer on all drains to catch hair and prevent drain clogs. If you do get a clog, use a metal snake to work the clog loose, not toxic drain cleaners.
Building and home improvement
13. Carefully dismantle rooms and buildings during a renovation to salvage reusable materials and fixtures. To donate or sell what you salvage, check your phone book under "Building Materials-Used" or "Salvage."
14. If you are building or renovating a home, check out salvage yards and antiques stores for used building materials and fixtures. They can be a great source of inexpensive and vintage items.
15. If you live in a cold climate, paint your house a dark color. Dark colors reflect as little as 3 percent of sunlight, thus absorbing more heat. If you live in a warm climate, paint your house a light color that will reflect up to 90 percent of sunlight and keep your house cooler.
16. Before discarding empty latex paint cans, leave the top off and allow the remaining paint to dry completely. Latex paint is not hazardous once it is solidified.
17. Use wool floor coverings instead of synthetic alternatives; they are more durable and easier to clean.
Energy
18. Clean refrigerator gaskets and vacuum the condenser coils twice a year. Your refrigerator will operate more efficiently and use less electricity.
19. Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket if it is located in an unheated space such as a basement or garage.
20. Use your microwave. Cooking and reheating with a microwave is faster and more efficient than using the stovetop or oven, thus reducing up to 70 percent of energy use.
21. Use a toaster oven for small jobs. It will use a third to half as much energy as a full-size oven.
22. Arrange furniture to take advantage of natural light from windows. Place desks and reading chairs next to windows to cut down on the need and use of supplemental, artificial light during the day.
23. Switch to fluorescent bulbs in areas where extended lighting is required. Though the initial price is higher than for incandescent bulbs, fluorescent lights produce four times as much light per watt, last up to ten times as long and therefore cost one-third as much to operate.
5. If your office provides disposable cups for beverages, eliminate the need for them by bringing in extra glasses and mugs from home. Post a note in the lunch/break room requesting that your coworkers do the same. Keep the mugs in the lunchroom for anyone to use.
6. Use suppliers who will take back their recyclable or reusable products at the end of their life for proper disposal, recycling or remanufacturing.
Bathroom
7. If you have a nonconserving toilet (a 3.5 gallon flush or greater), retrofit it with a water-saving device. Fill a one-quart plastic bottle with water for each nonconserving toilet in your home, and submerge one bottle in each toilet tank. You will save one quart of water per flush and thousands of gallons a year.
8. Fix all leaks. To check for leaks, turn off all water in the house. Next, read your water meter, wait one hour (make sure no water is turned on during this period), and read the meter again. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there is a leak.
9. Take short showers. With water flowing up to five gallons per minute from a nonconserving showerhead, showers consume about one-fifth of water used indoors.
10. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Fill a cup with water and use it instead of running water. This applies to shaving as well. Partially fill the sink bowl to rinse your razor instead of running the water.
11. Buy a shower curtain that will far outlast cheap plastic ones; a shower curtain made of hemp will naturally resist mildew and is machine washable.
12. Use a strainer on all drains to catch hair and prevent drain clogs. If you do get a clog, use a metal snake to work the clog loose, not toxic drain cleaners.
Historic French Chateau bulldozed by Mistake
Bungling builders bulldoze entire historic French chateau by mistake... after its millionaire owner told them to demolish a small outhouse on its estate
Chateau de Bellevue, near Bordeaux, once boasted 140,000-square-feet of grand reception rooms, ornate fireplaces, winding marble staircases
Then its new owner, a Russian millionaire businessman, employed a team of Polish builders to renovate the manor to its former glory
But the workers apparently misunderstood the instructions and pulled down the castle, leaving the outhouse completely untouched.
Blundering builders mistakenly bulldozed an 18th-century chateau in the heart of France's picturesque wine country - when they were only supposed to knock down an outhouse on its estate.
Chateau de Bellevue, 12km to the east of Bordeaux, once boasted 140,000-square-feet of grand reception rooms, ornate fireplaces, winding marble staircases and imposing granite balconies.
Then its new owner, a Russian millionaire businessman, employed a team of Polish builders to renovate the manor to its former baroque glory, including the removal of one small building.
But the workers apparently misunderstood the instructions and pulled down the castle instead, leaving the outhouse completely untouched.
'The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy,' said former owner Juliette Marmie. 'The whole village is in shock. How can this construction firm make such a mistake?'
Local media reported that the construction company misunderstood the renovation plans of the current owner, Russian businessman Dmitry Stroskin, to clean up and renovate the manor.
Stroskin was away when the calamity occurred and returned home to discover his chateau, a local treasure whose grand hall could host some 200 people, was nothing but rubble.
Stroskin, who works in Warsaw, told the local paper Sud Ouest: 'I didn't know the chateau had been destroyed, I'm in shock. Even if it was in a very bad state, I had wanted to renovate it.'
He told them he plans to build an exact replica of lost manor on the site.
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