Medical Health

Don’t Let the Scammers Wreck Your Health

There are lots of complaints on the Internet about the www.000webhost.com affiliate program (see, for example, http://drupal.org/node/211166 and www.promojunkie.com/forum/affiliate-networks/21711-www-000webhost-com.html). Affiliate marketers and webmasters keep on saying that www.000webhost.com does not pay them the hundreds of dollars it owes them and does not answer their emails. They say that some time later they find their affiliate accounts have been deleted.

www.000webhost.com offers to pay affiliates five dollars for every free sign up, but I have not found anyone who was actually paid, and I do not understand why the major search engines have not banned www.000webhost.com from the search results.

From what I have read on the Internet, it looks like 000webhost.com owes its affiliates thousands (and maybe hundreds of thousands) of dollars.

Here’s another example of an alleged scammer that the search engines still index: According to http://www.imreportcard.com/other/ptc-wallet (and its members and contributors), most of the feedback about PTC Wallet (www.ptcwallet.com) is negative. PTC Wallet members and affiliates report that their accounts are either cancelled or they do not receive payouts. They report that PTC Wallet does not reply to questions, concerns, and requests.

The search engines often ban little webmasters (the ones earning less than ten dollars a day), yet these same search engines not only continue to facilitate big-time scammers (including the ones who steal money and labor from the little guys on the Internet), they also promote and facilitate the corporations and governments that precipitated the recent worldwide economic collapse.

Blogging With Windows Live

I just bought a new Toshiba laptop containing the Windows 7 operating system and the Intel i7 Quad processor, plus 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard disk. . . . Wow!

Since this machine comes with Windows Live Writer already installed, I am using Live Writer to write this blog post from my “desktop.”

We will see how it looks.

Update: Nice . . . I edited this post in Windows Live Writer and published it again. And I did not end up with two nearly identical posts. Live Writer was smart and just updated what it had already posted.

Petition to Save Arizona’s State Parks

Arizona’s politicians are set to close thirteen state parks. Here is a link to a petition to save Arizona’s state parks. You may sign this petition.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-arizona-state-parks

The organizers will send the petition to Governor Brewer and the state legislators on February 1st, 2010.

Also see the post The Grand Canyon State: Arizona Set to Close and Sell State Parks?

The Grand Canyon State: Arizona Set to Close and Sell State Parks?

The world flies in and takes a long look at Arizona, the Grand Canyon State. And soon after arriving in Phoenix, they fall in love with all the other gems Arizona has to offer: preserved yet accessible desert wilderness areas and wildlife refuges, such as the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction.

But now Arizona’s lawmakers are preparing to vote on budget cuts that could shut down the entire state parks system by July 1. And that vote in January 2010 might result in the sale of state parks to the highest bidders. That’s right: I’m hearing that once an Arizona state park is closed, it must be sold: Land speculators and developers will mutilate our public gems, our community wilderness. They will restrict access, and Lost Dutchman State Park will become a gated community or a private suburb, with lot and house prices starting at $700,000 or more.

Here’s a group of hikers who will show you how to protest the closure of Arizona’s state parks: visit the Take a Hike message board and web site.

BPA-free Biodegradable Plastic Bottles

We hear about how plastic bottles are filling our landfills and oceans, but bottled water manufacturers and consumers can solve this problem. We do have biodegradable choices, and biodegradable plastic may cost us a little more in the short term, but I’m sure the costs will fall in the future, as our health and our planet’s health improve.

See www.biogreenbottles.com and BioGreen Biodegradable BPA-Free Sport Bottle with Wide Mouth DuoFlow Lid (26-Ounce). These bottles are BPA, DEHA and DEHP Free, and they are made in the USA.

Tell the bottled water industry that we insist on safe biodegradable plastic.

Also see the post Avoiding BPA in Plastic.

Hiking in Ice and Snow in the Grand Canyon

On Friday December 11, 2009, I phoned the equipment rentals desk in the Grand Canyon’s South Rim General Store (Canyon Village Marketplace), which is located in the Market Plaza, Grand Canyon Village. Arizona’s north country had a huge snowfall last week, and I was wondering about trail conditions.

The employee at the equipment rental desk said the snow extends down 3300 feet below the South Rim, with ice covering the last few hundred feet (of the 3300 total). He said that the snow can be knee deep in spots on the maintained trails and that he would take poles and crampons on hikes. (He went on to say that the the non-maintained Grandview and Tanner trails require snowshoes: the snow is over seven feet deep in some areas.)

You can buy crampons and Stabilicers at the South Rim General Store (Canyon Village Marketplace), or at Babbitt’s in Flagstaff, or you can rent crampons from the Tempe REI (in the Phoenix area).

UPDATE: Ice and snow derailed the Grand Canyon train, but everyone survived without injury.

JANUARY 2010 UPDATE: A friend told us the Grand Canyon’s South Rim General Store (Canyon Village Marketplace) was sold out of crampons on Dec. 30, 2009. The Grand Canyon had fresh snow on Dec. 30 (and some of the roads were closed that day), but when we hiked the Bright Angel Trail on January 1, 2010, the snow did not reach all the way down to Indian Garden, which is located about halfway to the Colorado River.

40% Off Coupon for Ultralite Golite Gear and Apparel

Golite emailed me a 40% off coupon that is good for online purchases made on golite.com before January 1, 2010. At checkout on the GoLite website, use the coupon code BCORP09. I phoned GoLite and they said that it’s fine for me to distribute the coupon code: anybody can use it to get multiple bargains.

As an ultralite backpacker, hiker, and trail runner, I have bought quite a few GoLite products (as well as gear from Osprey and Vasque). GoLite sleeping bags and down jackets are usually under two pounds in weight.

The GoLite coupon code is BCORP09

I also do price comparisons using
Google Shopping, http://www.google.com/products.

Avoiding BPA in Plastic

For a good article on plastics and BPA (Bisphenol A), see this National Wildlife Federation Article. The authors identify the plastic products that contain BPA and they tell you how avoid them.

Healthy Dating?

Here is what I posted on a dating site:

I’m not looking for makeup and hairdos. Personally I think you’re foolish to post your photo on a free, open-access dating site that most likely attracts not only legitimate daters but also men and women from the slinky side of shady (if you know what I mean). I don’t want my photo mixed in with theirs.

Hiking Etiquette

If you join a hiking group you will, of course, meet people from a variety of places and backgrounds. And you will usually meet them early in the morning and then carpool to the trailhead, which is fine when your fellow passengers are courteous enough to refrain from riding along when they have bad colds or bacterial bronchitis. The morning doesn’t seem quite right when the stranger in the backseat shakes your hand, coughs repeatedly, talks about the antibiotics he’s taking and about how his live-in girlfriend died last month after a very prolonged illness that required multiple hospitalizations, how he is looking for a job because he has spent his savings after buying a 2700-square-foot foreclosed home and because his dead girlfriend’s social security checks have stopped coming.

Then later, on the trail, when he keeps sliding on loose rock (you don’t want walk below him), you see that the soles on his 20-year-old hiking boots are worn smooth — there’s no tread.