The Spirit Level

The solar water heater is working well, lots of hot water. We are certainly pleased. In addition, the company that sells the heater, also sells a gismo, called ScaleWatcher. The water in this area is fairly hard; the water in La Floresta is not as bad as other areas, but still it can be a problem. Most water softeners use salt and require a lot of maintenance. This product involves putting a wire coil around the water pipe directly after the pump; the gadget then passes a current through the coil to create a magnetic field. It rapidly changes direction and fluctuates the frequency. This then changes the ionization of the calcium and magnesium molecules in the water so that they don’t stick and pass through the system. The effect lasts, so they claim, for about 48 hours, long enough for the water to go out and down the drains. It also claims that it will remove existing scale from pipes gradually over a 3 month period. I don’t know for sure, but the water does seem ‘softer’ and soap lathers very well. We don’t want the heating coil in the water heater to clog up with scale.

Well, the rain has started as about the 7th of June. That means that from Sept. 29th we had only 1 modest rain in April. However, we have had 4 rains now in June for a total so far of 3.5 inches. Most have been mild rains, but last Friday we had a really strong storm with high winds and 2.4 inches in less than 4 hours. The high winds drove the rain against our north facing windows and a lot of water came in under the windows as they are not designed to keep water out. I did some mopping and by morning the rest has dried out. Other people were not as lucky; some developers divert the drainoff channels and this causes some houses to get inundated in heavy rains. The temperatures are cooler now--most days in the high 70s or low 80s.

We have gone regularly to the Sunday morning forum called Open Circle. I had offered to do a presentation on the book, The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. It finally got scheduled and I did my presentation on Sunday, June 12th. The authors are British epidemiologists; they bring together the results of over 200 studies, the majority of which show that greater inequality in a society leads to worse outcomes on a number of health aspects (life expectancy, mental illnesses and addictions, obesity, children’s educational performance, homicide rates, imprisonment rates, etc 9 measures in all). What is astonishing is that in comparison with 22 other rich countries, the United States, the richest country on earth, comes out at or near the bottom on every measure. Average incomes do not seem to matter; it is the degree of inequality within each society that largely determines how well or poorly each country does. This in fact is a stark contradiction of the claims of laisser-faire liberals/neoconservatives that inequality is ‘good’. If you would like to read my presentation, use the link for MY WEBPAGE and then click on the link there.

We shall soon be making our trip back to Canada--leave July 7th & return July 24th. We are going to Toronto first to spend 3 nights with Faye and Keith; then to Nova Scotia. We shall be spending part of the time in the next 2 weeks at White Point Beach with Jeff, Tara & the boys the first week; then with Angie, Matt and Sam in the 2nd week. The rest of the time we’ll be in Halifax doing errands.