I bought peanut butter today.
Is that the most exciting opening line in the history of this blog?
I noticed two kinds of Kraft peanut butter side by side: the regular kind, and the unsweetened, unsalted kind. I had a look at the nutritional information and found that the big print really wasn't the whole story, but I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise. The unsweetened, unsalted stuff had more fat (including more saturated fat) and a few more calories than the regular stuff. Sure, it had no sugar or sodium, but the regular stuff only had 1 gram of sugar and 75 mg of sodium (3% of the recommended daily intake) per serving.
Unless you're extremely sensitive to salt or sugar, or you eat copious amounts of peanut butter, I don't think buying unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter will make much difference in your low sugar, low salt diet. And based on the number of calories, I'd say the extra fat more than compensates for the lack of sugar.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sweatshops
For a while, I've been wondering where I could find ordinary, casual clothing that wasn't produced in sweatshops. I can't just look for a "Made in Canada" label anymore because those are so hard to find (not that I did look for those labels when they were easier to find).
Recently, I got an email from Mountain Equipment Co-op saying they'd released their 2007 Accountability Report. I knew they try to get their products from ethical sources, so I decided to learn more by reading Chapter 3: Manufacturing MEC-Brand Products. The report comes across as an honest assessment. There are problems in many of the factories where they get their products, but they're working to improve things. And the Ethical Trading Action Group ranked MEC 2nd out of clothing brands in North America. Not too shabby.
Which company was in first place, you may wonder? Reebok. I was kind of surprised to see that. I expected MEC to have a high ranking because it's a co-op that isn't so profit-focused, but Reebok seemed like a pretty ordinary company with no big efforts to promote its ethical standards. I think I'll be a bit more likely to buy Reebok clothing in the future.
I ended up visiting the website where this ranking came from and I searched for "Reebok". In my brief search, I didn't find the full rankings, but I did see that Nike and The Gap ranked high too. I thought these were some of the worst offenders. Apparently they got decent marks because they are starting to report on problems at their factories and they're making efforts to improve things. I wonder if Reebok is in a similar boat.
Recently, I got an email from Mountain Equipment Co-op saying they'd released their 2007 Accountability Report. I knew they try to get their products from ethical sources, so I decided to learn more by reading Chapter 3: Manufacturing MEC-Brand Products. The report comes across as an honest assessment. There are problems in many of the factories where they get their products, but they're working to improve things. And the Ethical Trading Action Group ranked MEC 2nd out of clothing brands in North America. Not too shabby.
Which company was in first place, you may wonder? Reebok. I was kind of surprised to see that. I expected MEC to have a high ranking because it's a co-op that isn't so profit-focused, but Reebok seemed like a pretty ordinary company with no big efforts to promote its ethical standards. I think I'll be a bit more likely to buy Reebok clothing in the future.
I ended up visiting the website where this ranking came from and I searched for "Reebok". In my brief search, I didn't find the full rankings, but I did see that Nike and The Gap ranked high too. I thought these were some of the worst offenders. Apparently they got decent marks because they are starting to report on problems at their factories and they're making efforts to improve things. I wonder if Reebok is in a similar boat.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
It got published!
Several days before my last post, I sent a letter to the editor of the Edmonton Journal. It said basically the same thing as what I wrote on the blog, with a few parts left out (like the Stephen Colbert paragraph). Today I found out that letter actually appeared in the Journal on Monday. I'm still waiting for that royalty cheque.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Queer kids
I saw an interesting article in the Edmonton Journal a couple weeks ago about the hardships students face if they are gay. You can read it here (until they delete it from their website; I don't know how long they keep these articles posted).
For at least a few years, I've found myself caring more about what people go through when they find themselves attracted to people of the same sex, so I was glad to see the Journal give a voice to some gay students in this article. Because what I've learned over the years (mainly from reading, because I don't have any out-of-the-closet gay friends that I'm aware of), I do think our school boards need to do more to make sure sexual minorities aren't bullied in schools. This policy should probably include some teaching about homosexuality in schools. Like many Christians, I am concerned that such a policy would discriminate against people who believe homosexual activity is morally wrong, but I still think creating that policy is better than doing nothing.
At the very least, I hope all Christians could agree that kids should not be picked on and bullied for fitting gay stereotypes or for having gay parents. And I hope most of us believe that out-of-the-closet homosexuals still need to be treated with proper respect and dignity. Nikita Rowsell's old guidance counselors need to stop telling people they made a choice to be a target, and start standing up for the people who are hurting. I'd like to encourage other Christians to learn more about the experiences of homosexuals from homosexuals themselves, and support anti-discrimination efforts, with some reservations. I don't think this requires compromising our own morals on sexuality. If we just stand by and let others be persecuted because we're afraid to face some public ridicule ourselves, I don't think we're being very Christ-like. Yes, we probably will need to stand up for ourselves, but let's not let that stop us from standing up for people different from us
And since I don't have any out-of-the-closet gay friends, I'd like to start a search for a new gay friend, much like Stephen Colbert's search for a new black friend. Please leave your applications in the comments. (Just kidding.)
For at least a few years, I've found myself caring more about what people go through when they find themselves attracted to people of the same sex, so I was glad to see the Journal give a voice to some gay students in this article. Because what I've learned over the years (mainly from reading, because I don't have any out-of-the-closet gay friends that I'm aware of), I do think our school boards need to do more to make sure sexual minorities aren't bullied in schools. This policy should probably include some teaching about homosexuality in schools. Like many Christians, I am concerned that such a policy would discriminate against people who believe homosexual activity is morally wrong, but I still think creating that policy is better than doing nothing.
At the very least, I hope all Christians could agree that kids should not be picked on and bullied for fitting gay stereotypes or for having gay parents. And I hope most of us believe that out-of-the-closet homosexuals still need to be treated with proper respect and dignity. Nikita Rowsell's old guidance counselors need to stop telling people they made a choice to be a target, and start standing up for the people who are hurting. I'd like to encourage other Christians to learn more about the experiences of homosexuals from homosexuals themselves, and support anti-discrimination efforts, with some reservations. I don't think this requires compromising our own morals on sexuality. If we just stand by and let others be persecuted because we're afraid to face some public ridicule ourselves, I don't think we're being very Christ-like. Yes, we probably will need to stand up for ourselves, but let's not let that stop us from standing up for people different from us
And since I don't have any out-of-the-closet gay friends, I'd like to start a search for a new gay friend, much like Stephen Colbert's search for a new black friend. Please leave your applications in the comments. (Just kidding.)
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Miscellaneous thoughts
Two weeks ago, I reformatted the hard drive on my four-year-old laptop computer. (Don't worry, I backed up all my important files first.) I reinstalled a bunch of stuff and restored my documents, photos, music, and stuff. The computer is running better than it has in at least three years.
Last weekend I went camping in Banff. Camping can be a lot of fun even if it snows a bit. Fortunately we had one day of good weather anyway, and we spent part of another day at Banff Hot Springs, which doesn't need good weather. I posted some photos here.
A friend who I saw during the camping trip claims most of the people who contributed to the UN's climate change report aren't actually climatologists, and that most climatologists don't think humans are significantly contributing to climate change. I want to look this up and see if there's some evidence to refute that. But so far I've been too busy (having fun) or lazy. So do any of you know if this is true? And am I arrogant for thinking he's wrong about this (and some other things) even though he's more well-read and a more skilled debater than I am?
Last weekend I went camping in Banff. Camping can be a lot of fun even if it snows a bit. Fortunately we had one day of good weather anyway, and we spent part of another day at Banff Hot Springs, which doesn't need good weather. I posted some photos here.
A friend who I saw during the camping trip claims most of the people who contributed to the UN's climate change report aren't actually climatologists, and that most climatologists don't think humans are significantly contributing to climate change. I want to look this up and see if there's some evidence to refute that. But so far I've been too busy (having fun) or lazy. So do any of you know if this is true? And am I arrogant for thinking he's wrong about this (and some other things) even though he's more well-read and a more skilled debater than I am?
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