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Hg.
What is Hg? Is it the onomatopoeia of a baby 's first attempt to communicate? Could be. A speech by former President Bush? Possible, with a few more vowels maybe: "Hag haga ga.". The anagram of the new sports clothing company High gear? Not. The sound of a fish about to choke on an overdose of mercury? Now we're getting close. Read on.
Hg is of course the chemical symbol for mercury. You know, the only liquid metal, the one that's in the old fashioned thermometers. A metal that, in high doses, can have serious impacts on cognitive thinking, memory, attention, language, fine motor and visual spatial skills to name a just a few (I got this info here, check it out, lots of interesting data: http://www.epa.gov/mercury/effects.htm), and that we used to carelessly stick in our mouths or little bottoms, the only thing seperating this poison from the body being a very thin layer of glass. Scary.
Good that this type of thermometer is being phased out, isn't it? Good and quite paradoxical too because at the same time we do absolutely nothing about the massive dispersion of mercury into the atmosphere. Which creates a far greater risk of contamination than the more concentrated but very localized, shall we say, mercury thermometers.
A study by the U.S. Geological Survey on mercury contamination was released last month that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country, found the toxic substance in EVERY fish sampled, " a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become" as stated in one of the many articles I read about the subject. About a quarter of these fish had mercury levels EXCEEDING what the Environmental Protection Agency says is SAFE for people eating average amounts of fish. That means that 1 out of every 4 fish or shellfish you eat is contaminated at a level that is considered unsafe for your health. Now that's what I call SCARY.
So please make sure you only eat the other three OK?
The main source of mercury to most of the streams tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants, which is also the second largest domestic contributor to carbon dioxide emissions in the USA ( more on coal and so called clean coal here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_coal_technology). The mercury released from smokestacks rains down into waterways, where natural processes convert it into methyl mercury, a form that allows the toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish, and you.
So what are we to do? Stop the coal burning power plants or stop eating fish? I have a feeling we're going to do neither. Scary.
But thinking about it, having mercury in fish may not be that bad afterall. First of all who can tell that fish don't actually LIKE heavy metal?
And then, there's a whole new market to develop. Because if we're able to get enough mercury in our fish, we could actually use THEM as thermometers.
A fishometer for indoor/ outdoor use
( inquire about our new minisize rectal version)
Just hang a cute fish bowl like the one above on your porch and you'll be able to tell the temperature just by checking how deep or shallow your fish is swimming.
Also available: our handy travel fishometer
And these fishometers could be much safer too: if the glass breaks, the mercury stays INSIDE the fish, all you have to do to is throw it away.
Or eat it.
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What does this have to do with custom framing , are you asking me this again?
Well, a good portion of the mercury that ends up in our fish "made in the USA" actually comes from China, the world's biggest consumer of coal. Mercury and other pollutants from China's more than 2,000 coal-fired power plants rise into the atmosphere and travel around the globe on what has become a transcontinental conveyor belt of bad air ( i love "cut & paste").
So, when we're buying stuff made in China, we're not only importing goods, we're also importing bads. That's ugly.
You may remember that a few months ago we were trying to get rid of all our moldings Made in China. Well, we gave up. We gave up because most of our suppliers have given up too. With a couple of exceptions they're importing more and more from China and other Far East countries. It has therefore been almost impossible not to buy chinese moldings.
But whenever possible we try to get domestic, South American or even European moldings, and if they do come from the Far East, we'll make sure they have some degree of "greenness", like our selection of readymade frames made with bamboo grass and not wood, or our sleek new line of black moldings made with wood coming from durian trees, a fruit bearing tree that stops yielding after about 7 years and therefore HAS TO BE HARVESTED AND REPLACED.
A Durian Tree
We invite you to try our ecofriendly lines of moldings and frames and will offer a
20% discount
on all "green" orders.
Offer valid all the time, we WANT you to think green!
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The Elusie Gallery invites you to discover
Frankie Montanez
Frankie Montanez is an emerging artist from Sprinfield who's career objective is to teach art to inner-city youth in a public school setting.
As he states in his artist statement: "my art is intended to educate, enlighten, stimulate and unify my unrepresented population.
Out of respect and admiration, my artwork is a continuation of the many dedicated artists of the Harlem and Mexican Renaissance movement, that used their art to bring social awareness and bring change among the unprivileged. Among the artists that have inspired me are Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiro's, who dedicated their lives to promoting social consciousness, cultural identity and unity among the people."
Join us for the
Artist Reception
this Saturday September 12, 5-8PM
part of
Art Walk Easthampton
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Bear Necessities lives on
The Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce has generously offered to host a selection of the Bear Necessities exhibit on the walls of their office at 33 Union St. This exhibit will stay up until the end of the Easthampton Bear Fest.
Bear Necesssities is the the Third Annual Fundraising Exhibit
of the Eastmont Art Fund
Proceeds from the sale of the original artworks and George Philllips's winning work "Bearly Existing" benefit the
To see all the entries of "Bear Necessities" visit the online gallery on the Art Fund page of our website.
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Speaking of the Easthampton Bear Fest:
You can take a head start and bid on your favorite bear before the live auction at the Log Cabin on October 15.
And
Easthampton City Arts will display the Bear Fest winning proposal designs in the Hallway Gallery at Old Town Hall. See the original designs from the Bear Fest artists. Reception will be Saturday, September 12 from 5 - 8 p.m.
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Thank you for reading,
Jean-Pierre Pasche
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