The Fate Chain

Back in my Sophomore year of High School someone gave me a paper that listed seven facts about water and soda that basically made me reduce my intake by quite a bit.  I got this somewhere between 1999 and 2000, but the information pretty much holds up today if not more so.  I can’t back up any of this data as it was printed exactly with what you see below, but I don’t really find it hard to swallow.  Water, not Coke.

Seven Facts About Water and Soda:

Water:

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.  (Likely applies to half of the world’s population).
2. Even mild dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
3. One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.
4. Lack of water - the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue
5. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
6. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
7. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

I lack any decent coding knowledge but have had an idea for an iPhone App floating around in my head for a while.  It would be an iPhone App that allows you to search for a generic product from Air Fresheners to Water Bottles (all the way to something that starts with the letter “Z”), and lets you know whether or not it’s safe to buy - safe to buy in the sense of non-toxic ingredients and no animal testing policies.  The App would work with a database that is updated regularly, similar to that of PETA’s Caring Consumer site.

With this “Safe To Buy” iPhone App, you will be able to:

• Search by Brand/Company
• Search by Item Type (Cleaners, Foods, Furniture, etc.)
• Search for Nearby “Green” Stores (such as Organic Food Stores, Farmer’s Markets, etc.)

I’m asking anyone out there with coding knowledge who is interested in helping to create an application like this to contact me in the comments section below.  It would be a voluntary effort, but you would be credited for all the work that you do for it.  As far as the graphical elements go, I would take care of that - unless there are others out there who want to chime in too.

More details of this iPhone App will be posted as it becomes available.

The App will of course be free.

Even if you don’t live in the great State of California, well, you should.  At least just long enough so that you can vote yes on Proposition 2.  In case you don’t know anything about the Proposition, here’s what it’s all about:

It will basically make it a law to end cruelty to animals on factory farms.  Why this isn’t already an enforced law is way beyond me, but it’s better late than never.  Animals in factory farms are kept confined in cages and pens their whole life, in areas too small to even stretch their limbs.  And for what?  After two or so years of that they’re sent off to be slaughtered for someone’s snack.

Instead of making vague comparisons about what it would be like for you to live in a small box for your entire life, here’s a video of what it’s like in the factories.  It’s disturbing in some parts, but you at least owe it to the animals who give their lives everyday for this sort of thing:

It’s disgusting that there are people in this world that do this sort of thing to a living creature, but it’s just about as disgusting as people who don’t even care.  Oprah did an inside report on factory farms and then later did a QA with Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society versus representatives of the Meat Industry and some others who don’t seem to care about the cruelty going on around them.  It’s definitely worth a look (and no, I don’t watch Oprah or even have a TV for that matter):

Oprah and Lisa Ling’s Report on Factory Farming

Julie Buckner’s argument is that passing such a law to end animal abuse would cause serious space issues because of the need for all the extra land due to free range animals.  She says,

Allowing chicken, hogs and cattle to have more space, Julie says, is a choice consumers can make already. “We can either buy animal products, if we so choose, and we can buy them at the cheapest, most affordable, safest cost, or we can choose to pay more for cage-free, free-range eggs and pork and cattle. And that’s a personal choice,” she says. “But there will not be a choice after this Proposition 2.”

Yeah, it’s not personal choice - it’s about what’s right or wrong.  How about we pass a proposition to relocate Julie from her home into a crate for the rest of her life?  I’d love to vote yes on that one.  It would also solve the “problem” of all the space we would lose giving the farm animals a place to move around.

I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t eat meat (I’ll do that in other articles), but I will tell you that if you ARE going to eat meat that you should at least be respectful to the animal who gave it’s life to you for a meal by voting yes on Proposition 2.  They’ll be able to spend their lives in freedom instead of in a cage barely larger than their bodies.

For more information and to support Proposition 2, please visit the Yes On Prop 2 website.

Edit: This is pretty much my first post on here and it was worded rather strongly before.  I toned it down just a bit : D

As the title suggests, The Fate Chain is in fact Brand Spankin’ New.  Ever since I started going Vegetarian about 4 days ago I’ve been really getting into the whole Green thing and opening my eyes to the world around me.  There are many terrible things that happen everyday that I was completely ignorant of and the aim of this site is to expose these truths to everyone.  The thing that bothers annoys me the most is all of the animal abuse just in the United States alone.  That and the Government.  I just turned 24 a month ago and became a registered voter for the first time.  The country that I love is corrupt and full of lies and needs a major overhaul.  Rather than just sitting back and being passive anymore I’m going to do something about it for once (well I shouldn’t say for once, I mean I did say the Pledge of Allegiance everyday for like 12 years).

I know that there’s already a flood of do-good hippie websites on the internet, but what’s the harm of having one more?  The more the merrier!

As far as the plans for this site go, right now I’m going to focus on content and then pretty it up later.  My girlfriend is going into the Web Program at Full Sail in a couple months so I’m gonna get her to help me with some of the more technical stuff!  This is my forth website right now and the other 3 are in dire need of help too.  I’d rather get this one up though just in case someone happens to stumble on it and get inspired to do good - someone who otherwise wouldn’t.  I’ll try to keep it from being too serious, depressing and lecturey but won’t make any promises.

Anywho stick around, I have a lot of plans for this bad boy.  Oh yeah, I’ll get into the etymology of “The Fate Chain” later too.  It’ll make sense once everything starts shaping up.