Author: Fee Writes

Fee Writes

A Bit of Red Seaweed Does the Trick

What do cows and red seaweed have in common? Don’t know? Neither did I until now.

I happened to catch a wee story about red seaweed the other day that made me shake my head … so I just had to put it under the category of WTF!!!

It appears that scientists have discovered that feeding this abundant red seaweed to cows will reduce methane by up to 90%! Of course they have! Scientists have been working on creating environmentally friendly cows for ages. God forbid if a person is denied the cow juice in their latte.

The seaweed is known as Asparagopsis armata, and it grows in N.Z. and Australian waters. (It may sound like asparagus, but it’s vastly different.)

My first thought was – ‘Truly? Are they going to harvest this seaweed and make another ecosystem suffer because of the love of cow’s milk?’

But then I sighed a bit of relief when I discovered that they would grow and farm it like any other crop.

As I kept reading the article, I discovered that this seaweed is good for fish farming too. Because it is a plant that feeds on the nitrogen produced by fish, fish farms could potentially increase the number of fish they farm.

Dr Meller (from this biotech company) said

“So, it is entirely feasible that a fisherman today in Southland could increase stocking capacity, decrease costs not having to move those pens around and have a third revenue stream of Asparagopsis that we would teach them how to farm, that we would buy back from them at cost, plus a margin of profit.”

He also said

“There are no environmental impacts from farming the native seaweed, and growing it helps in a small way to address ocean acidification.”

Maybe it is a way (shrugging my shoulders as I write) to help with the mess in the ocean??? I just hope the government continues to encourage reducing cow numbers and not make this an excuse to keep or increase the herd sizes.

I want to see ecosystems return.

You can read the article here: Seaweed

STAY IN THE LOOP

Fee Writes

Random

What Does A CEO Get Up To?

Even at the top of the pile a CEO needs to be on his game – in more ways than you would think.

When I’m at the gym, don’t laugh; yes, I go to the gym, but that’s a story for another day.

Getting back to what I was going to tell you. When I’m at the gym, I use the time wisely and listen to podcasts. I have several to choose from, and depending on the mood of the morning, I will pick one that I know will hold my interest long enough to make the time working out go faster.

The pods vary from sciencey style, animal activism, philosophy to comedy, wit and satire. Obviously, I have my favourites, and one is Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, and it was this that I was listening to that inspired me to write this post.

The episode title ‘A Good Walk Spoiled’ covers the elite sport of GOLF. I say ‘elite’ as one does need to have enough pennies in the bank to pay the membership, especially to the high-rolling courses around the USA.

It was a very captivating episode, and if you can get to listen to it, I suggest you do. But the one part that intrigued me the most was the amount of time that CEOs spend playing golf.

Surprisingly enough, if you know where to look, you can get the stats of different golfers’ scores. It appears they have high egos as they take great delight in posting their scorecards online. From this, statisticians have deduced that some CEOs can play 148 rounds of golf a year, which means, on average, they are out on the course one in every three days! (Some play even more).

Guess what? This puts golf into the addiction category. That’s right, this game, like many others, can and does become an addiction.

But another cool stat that showed up was the number of CEOs that get fired. The more golf they played, the more likely they were of getting the boot.

This doesn’t really surprise me because if the boss is out on the golf course, s/he is not at his/her desk running the show.

Mmmmm – this begs the question. How much golf did President Trump play when he was in office? Not at his desk running a country. I guess that’s why the majority of Americans yelled, “Your fired!”.

Fee Writes

Laugh! | Random

WE CAN RECYCLE ANYTHING!

What do you do with those umbrellas?

There is always something that I come across every day, that makes me laugh. And seeing cocktail umbrellas strung up along a pergola certainly tickled my funny bone.

I mean, talk about recycling! And how many cocktails did the owners have to have to get to create this remarkable string of fun?

As I continued my walk, more questions came to mind about these cute brollies.

Did they keep replacing them as the paper got ruined in the sun/rain?
How were they strung?
Maybe I could do the same? – oh wait, I don’t drink cocktails!
Where do you get them from?

[ss_click_to_tweet tweet=”There’s always something to giggle about if you look. Don’t take yourself too seriously. #laughaboutit” content=”” style=”default”]

Good thing I’d taken a photo of these little cuties because as I was telling my friend, I was able to pull up the pic and show her.

Imagine the enormous deflation I felt when she told me that they were little lights and one could buy them easily. However, search as I did, I only found one place that sold them, and that was on a party site, in the USA, under ‘Tropical & Luau’.

Guess I’ll just have to start having cocktails and save the wee parasols for stringing. Of course, I’ll have to make sure there is an excellent story to tell with each one!

Fee Writes

Animals | Random

A Night With Leo

I honestly can’t call myself a doggy person – but a night with Leo changed all that.

During my illustrious career as a house-sitter, my number one rule was “no dogs”. Now, admittedly, it did reduce the house pool somewhat, but I remained firm. That is until I met Leo.

I have long retired from being a permanent house-sitter deciding that I do prefer to have an anchor, somewhere to call ‘home’. Besides, I needed to get my stuff out of storage before it all became worthless junk, or the heirlooms got forgotten.

So I hung up my shingle and settled into my existing abode and only agreed to look after two cats for a couple who had become friends.

Then I met Leo. Leonardo di Corgio to be precise. Yes, a corgi who snuck into my life and tugged my heartstrings. This dog seemed to have the innate ability to ferret out my ‘don’t do dogs’ opinion, hone into my psyche and become an animal I enjoy being around. I have no idea how he did it. (I think I have a clue now as to why the Queen loves this breed.)

[ss_click_to_tweet tweet=”What is it about a corgi that just delights and captures the heart-strings? #corgisarethebest #corgilove #corgiworld” content=”” style=”default”]

The day arrived for me to dog-sit. And there he was, at the door waiting for me. He knows my car and is always at the door when I arrive unless he’s asleep!

He greeted me with exuberant excitement, racing around before rushing off to get his mauled blanket and deposit it at my feet.

Let me explain something about Leo. He loves to play fetch. He will bring you anything he can find and deposit it at your feet or on your lap in the slim hope you will throw it. These ‘fetch’ gifts can range from his blanket (as mentioned) to an empty toilet roll, a sock to a piece of bark from the garden. And he doesn’t tire of it. Seven socks ended up on the bench over the time I was there. And, I have no idea where he was getting them from!

So once I’d got settled in and made a coffee I told him we’d play ball. You’d think I’d given him the world as I went for the ball and throwing device.

He ran up and down the side path, skidding into the garden when necessary or banging into walls simply to retrieve the ball and bring it back.

Ears erect, eyes fixed, and brain focused. Nothing was more important than where that ball went.

Finally, I’d had enough. I’m quite sure Leo would have kept going until his little feet bled. But I had finished my coffee, my arm was getting sore, so I called “last one, Leo” and it was as if he knew because when he brought the ball back and dropped it at my feet, he went straight to his water bowl.

Naturally, there were a few more ball games during the day, and that night he jumped up on the bed with me and snuggled in.

I have looked after Leo again for a couple of nights and will be putting my hand up next time ‘mum and dad’ go away.

Nice to have a man in my life.

Fee Writes

Random

What Is To Come?

We can have a future if we put our minds to it. But it won’t be the politicians who make it happen.

At the first world food summit In 1974, Henry Kissinger famously said:

“We will end hunger within a decade.”

His statement seems pathetic now as we are close to 2 billion people facing hunger. And because of the impact from the COVID pandemic, we’re about to enter another hunger endemic due to the global recession and climate impact.

Doesn’t this say that on every level our economic system does not work? Decades of neoliberalism has taken us to the brink of disaster. It’s time to make changes – dramatic ones.

One thing that Jacinda Adern (N.Z. Prime Minister) got right is that she’s removed G.D.P. growth as an objective. We were the first to do this and quickly after both Scotland and Iceland followed suit. Costa Rica and Cuba are another two other countries primarily based around human well-being, social justice and solidarity. These are the areas that should be at the heart of any government.

[ss_click_to_tweet tweet=”All countries should focus on the well-being of their citizens and not make GDP the top priority. The old economic system has proven to be broken – let’s make a new one #economics #socialwellbeing” content=”” style=”default”]

Where the hope comes from is the grass-roots movements. Before COVID, we saw many massive protests going on around the world where people told their governments that they are over the selfish way, the failing economic systems and the inequalities. They want more done. Even last year, we saw many take to the streets crying out over the disparities in their lives. It is this swell of humans taking to the streets that make change happen. We’ve seen this in the U.S.A. with the new administration. It has listened to at least some of what the people want. The fact that they are going to invest two trillion in the environment is a great start. It will be interesting to see how much more will be achieved in the next four years.

We need to be able to describe the world we want, and in doing so, we will build the pressure and hold the feet of those in power in the fire, so they give us a different kind of community that works.

There is hope as more and more people worldwide are demanding a more inclusive system, a fairer justice and a cleaner world. And I see many within these movements as the movers and shakers who can lead us to a brighter future.

Author: Fee Writes

A Bit of Red Seaweed Does the Trick

What do cows and red seaweed have in common? Don’t know? Neither did I until now.

What Does A CEO Get Up To?

Even at the top of the pile a CEO needs to be on his game – in more ways than you would think.

WE CAN RECYCLE ANYTHING!

What do you do with those umbrellas?

A Night With Leo

I honestly can’t call myself a doggy person – but a night with Leo changed all that.

What Is To Come?

We can have a future if we put our minds to it. But it won’t be the politicians who make it happen.

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