5 Ways You Can Improve the World

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Five ways you can improve the world with practically no effort on your part: http://www.cracked.com/article_20249_5-ways-you-can-improve-world-with-almost-no-effort.html

Well worth the read, and for those who can't be bothered to open the link, here's a summary:

Keep your cats indoors.
Sneeze into your elbow (not into your hands, not into a tissue).
Recycle your electronics.
If giving birth, donate your placenta.
Smile.

To learn why these are more important than you realize, read the article.
 
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I do always keep my kitty indoors. He has killed a few mice, who got in the house last year. I wasn't very happy about that even, as I was trying to catch them and get them outside.

I grew up sneezing into my elbow on account of learning to cook at a young age and growing up cooking. You can't always take your hands off what you are doing in order to sneeze into them and then wash them. I always turn away from whatever I am doing too, or away from whoever might be there in the line of fire. Though most of my sneezing while cooking is induced by pepper, not a cold. :p

I don't go through electronics at the rate some do. I still have a very outdated cell phone, a twenty year old telephone, a fifty year old telephone (which just stopped working. Probably needs re-wiring, which I intend to do one of these days), TV, VCR, DVD player, and stereos that are over ten years old. I gave away the ones I had before I got these, when I moved house. My brother got my last desk top to salvage things from it before he turned the rest in for recycling. He lives in San Francisco and that city has some of the strictest rules about waste now that I have ever seen. You pretty much have no choice but to recycle everything they demand you recycle, or they won't take your trash.

If I ever did get pregnant I would certainly donate my placenta. I'd donate my eggs for stem cell research too, if they would take them.

The smiling is an odd thing. I don't consciously smile. I get tons of people smiling at me, which sometimes startles me, and I figure I was either unconsciously smiling while daydreaming, because I kind of zone out when in crowded places due to a fear of crowds that I have mostly, but not completely, overcome, or the expression on my face when the sun is in my eyes looks like a smile. I remember once in high school, which I hated, some kid said to me "Why are you always smiling? There's nothing to be happy about!" and I was like "WTH? I wasn't smiling. I never smile. I hate it here!" :p
 
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:hmm: I was thinking about the indoor/outdoor cat issue today as I was looking online at the rescue websites (again :oops: ) and I thought that maybe the fact that I am making my cats indoor might prevent me from being a potential adopter of more rescue cats. Most rescue centres over here think it is cruel to keep cats indoors as they think they don't get enough stimulation.

I hadn't read about sneezing into your sleeve but I should do that from now on.:)

The very idea of placenta makes me feel ill. I think because quite a while ago I watched a British TV chef make a placenta-topped pizza on his show. I have no desire to give birth but that is interesting information about stem cell research.
 
Pickle Juice said:
I do always keep my kitty indoors. He has killed a few mice, who got in the house last year. I wasn't very happy about that even, as I was trying to catch them and get them outside.
Click to expand...

I used to have good luck with putting humane traps along likely mouse routes in the house in the fall (when there's always a big attempted incursion of field rodents), but with the number of cats I've accumulated these past few years, it's gotten more difficult. I managed to get two juvenile rats out from under the noses of my crew this fall, but the one mouse I had a chance to save, I didn't. He was under the bed, and I crawled under there, hoping to get him before the half dozen cats under there with us did. He darted toward the cats, and I got a good look at his face as one of the cats ran past me with the mouse in his mouth. The little guy had such a look of resignation on his face that I still feel sick with guilt that I didn't manage to get him.

Moll, if I had seen someone making a placenta pizza, I'd feel ill too. :yuck:

The sneezing into the sleeve is new to me also.

I know it makes me feel better when people smile at me, so I do try to make eye contact and smile. It's interesting (but not surprising) that studies have actually shown that people who've just been on the receiving end of a smile are more likely to help someone in need.
 
I always sneeze in my elbow, seemed like the most convenient thing for me unless you want snot on your hands.
 
Hey cats have a lot of utility besides covering for sneezes. My girlfriend's cat is so floppy I can also use her to mop the floor. Give me a few minutes, I'll make a video and put it on the pet thread lol...

Edit: Meh, she's sleeping. I'd feel bad about it. I'll try to remember to post it next week.
 
ledboots said:
I used to mop the floor with my mom's poodle. She held on to her play rope and I would sweep her around. :D
Click to expand...
Sounds fun lol.

This cat is so rag dollish she collapses and purrs if you so much as look at her, at which point you can flop her around, mop the floor, whatever you want. She loves it. The "keep your cats indoors" advice should include her picture. She wouldn't last 8 seconds outside.
 
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