What would happen if . . .

This morning I read a Guardian article where the columnist had tried NOT using Google for a week.
Of an age where he could recall life when phone numbers were mostly stored in his head and libraries were the go-to place for more generally unknown information, it made interesting reading. Especially the point that he finds it almost impossible to concentrate on anything for longer than a couple of minutes before something else occurs in his mind and a new search is started.
Of course I had to then look up - on Google what would happen if the Internet really crashed - the main premise of my post-apocalyptic novel.
I didn't actually get very far as after typing in 'what would happen if' I was fascinated to see the top searches appeared to be:

If everyone went vegan - I was pleasantly surprised by this one

If you didn't sleep

If Facebook was turned off . . . What, and what, what? That is more than worrying - 3rd question?

If the moon disappeared

If humans disappeared

If you hired two private detectives to follow each other . . . er, didn't expect that.

If America left Europe to fend for itself. Mm.

  rediff.com

Then lots more major concerns that humans might consider: what if the sun stopped spinning, what if the Earth stopped spinning, what if there was no moon, what if it really is made of cheese (not really) etc.
And a more in-depth one: What would happen if the sun suddenly became a black hole without changing its mass . . . think we could probably imagine what would happen.
And just for fun, and that I should be doing a job I want to put off, I just tapped in:
Supposing that, and the 3rd answer (the first two were to do with missing trains) and found:

Supposing that the rat weights follow a roughly normal model.

Enough Google for now, I think.

Present day conspiracies

Apart from all the stuff about Facebook, certain people in Cambridge rigging election campaigns, etc, etc; this is stuff on a smaller domestic scale but that also has a vast implications for us and our our planet.

Cleaning products.




Photo from: familiesagainsttoxicproducts.org

We, who like to think we are environmentally aware, have been happily (well, not happily - uninterestedly, perhaps) buying various cleaning products over the years thinking they are invaluable and necessary to the household chores. I have always, or certainly in the last few years, bought items said to be non-harming to land, water, flora and fauna - and that are also housed in 'recyclable' plastic bottles.
But why do we feel we need all this stuff? Adverts presumably, and that our parents used such things - actually, I don't recall my mother using anything at all other than a bit of washing up liquid, but then she was rather Quentin Crisp about cleaning - after five years the dust doesn't get any worse, I think he was quoted on saying.
Some years back a group of friends in our region got together and started growing, collecting and drying herbs to make into a general house-hold cleaning product; mixed with vinegar - a easily found by-product of the wine industry here - culminating in an excellent product called VAM. At the local bio store you can buy an initial bottle, then keep going back for the re-fills. It's brilliant for floors, surfaces, everything, especially used in conjunction with bicarb of soda - and you get an exciting little fizzing chemical reaction for added excitement.
Maybe it's not 'spring meadow' (chemical)-perfumed or not quite as mega-grime removing as some of the more caustic products, but how deep-cleaned do we all really need to be? Yes, maybe in a hospital, but probably not at home.
I once saw a program about anti-bacterial sprays where the crew went around an average house and checked out what was lurking in places that people usually get scared about - sinks, loos, et al, and nothing harmful was discovered. The program's maker also suggested we invite a lot of our own modern-day allergies through being over zealous with spays, air-fresheners and wipes.

Plastic

                               

Do we really need (thick) plastic cat-head crunchies containers - small cardboard box? 

                                

Violently-coloured, huge plastic drums containing body-building . . . stuff including calf's whey

Where to start? We all know from the zillions of films circulating about seas full of discarded plastic, and rubbish dumps as high as office blocks that we and our planet have a massive problem, but if we could all make small changes, the message to manufacturers would gradually, or possibly, rapidly, seep through.
Here's a picture of Mark's home-made ketchup (mainly tinned tomatoes, onions and tom paste) housed in the LAST ketchup bottle we will buy. And my attempt at home-made deodorant (lemon juice, bicarb and err, can't remember now) - perfectly effective on a day-to-day basis, although I might occasionally resort to something stronger for scary bureaucratic, bank loan situations, etc.

                                       

being connected

Do we sometimes forget the importance of being connected to reality, The Earth and just to ourselves?

I often 'forget' my phone when walking so that I can concentrate wholly on being 'in the elements' and being in THE moment without the umbilical cord of digital information. Yes, there can be inconveniences - like when I got stuck on a mountain a couple of years back and had 'forgotten' my phone. But actually it was fine and I met some friendly mountain inhabitants who kindly gave us (me, boy and dogs) pizza and towed us back down, which was probably far more interesting and possibly safer than waiting three hours or so for the insurance company to send out a rescue truck.
I was listening to a talk recently about the over use of phones/tablets, etc. The speaker suggested that we may be in danger of losing the capability and knowledge of how to be on our own - uncomfortable, restless; fingers twitching ready to scroll, jab, text, delete, like, and send visual information to anyone out there ready to receive our description of what we are doing, rather than just actually doing whatever it is and forming memories about it.
A most poignant example of this was a program I heard on Radio 4 where a professional balloonist was talking about the trips he organises and the behaviour of the people sharing the basket with him on each voyage. He said in nearly all cases people are so busy recording, photographing and sharing on social media, The Experience that they are not actually experiencing The Experience. Yes, they will be able to recall that moment on Facebook or Instagram but they won't have the actual, visceral memory in their heads.
It all has a place - social media, phones, computers, and it's all amazingly useful but perhaps not to the extent of forgetting our real connections.

Milestones

I think we passed one yesterday.
Ezra (son, just 18) has always been quite reticent about putting himself forward; not wishing to stand out in any way - black t.shirts and jeans, comfort above all, reluctant to make arrangements for himself . . . suddenly a certain confidence seems to have appeared in him - think I'll do this, then that, and actually why didn't I do this before . . .
The milestone was evident with his wonderful, manic, self-portrait in drumming mode which has been put onto Facebook.

Hello world, this is me!