When hitting the road for a long stretch, pack your clothes in a large laundry basket in the car and keep just your pj’s, toiletries, and valuables in an overnight bag. Each night, put your next day’s clothes in the overnight bag to take into your hotel or tent.
It’s a lot less to lug in and out of the car than a full suitcase or duffel.
For ten years the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has funded social action, education and short films on environmental issues. The actor and environmentalist has a particular fondness – and concern — for the ocean as well as the global need for clean drinking water. Below, he speaks on his passion.
Consider this.
We live on a water planet.
Through the millennium the water cycle has supported all life.
Shaping weather, the seasons, and the climate, providing habitats for most of the world’s living things, and most of them including us are almost entirely made up of water.
Now consider this. Water is a finite source. A limited resource. Only a tiny fraction of the earth’s water is fresh.
It supports everything from agriculture and sanitation to aquatic ecosystems like rivers and streams. Water falls unevenly across the planet, while much of it is locked up in glaciers, permanent snow cover, ice and permafrost. Water is also stuck underground very deep in the earth and hard to reach.
To make matters worse, water is being threatened by pollution, overpopulation, climate change, mismanagement, and war.
Pollution is so severe that diseases are increasing in both humans and animals and habitats are being destroyed. Rain is turning into acid. So many chemicals flow into rivers and lakes that the actual composition of water in some places has been fundamentally changed.
Human encroachment is also drying out aquifers, diverting the natural flow of rivers and straining water supplies. Hidden in everyday consumption is the careless and unnecessary waste of water.
Dams displace millions of people and destroy whole ecosystems.
Global warming is altering the water cycle causing more severe and unpredictable flooding and droughts, ultimately shifting where water flows. Unregulated corporate privatization threatens access to water for the poor. Some governments fail to deliver water where it is needed most. These stresses have created military and political conflicts that will only get worse.
Ultimately, humanity is poisoning, squandering and overburdening water resources. The result is, that billions of people lack access to clean water. Millions of children die every year from preventable water-born diseases. Lack of clean water and basic sanitation cracks people in poverty. People are fighting and dying for it.
We are at a crisis point. We still have time to turn this around. We can conserve water and not waste it. Invest in smart water infrastructure and technologies. Increase environmental regulations from polluting industries. Tell government leaders to fulfill financial pledges for clean water Insure that water is not treated like a commodity.
But most important, we must recognize that access to clean water is a basic human right and the United Nations should adopt a global treaty for the right to water.
Water equals life, there is no separation. By protecting water, we can protect ourselves and this blue planet for future generations.
is it common that you associate with pilots when on layovers? Also after each leg of a trip, does everyone go to the bar? I can’t imagine this is a great family lifestyle for those married.
Just My Thoughts
Dear Just My Thoughts,
Do pilots and flight attendants spend time together on layovers? Sometimes. Depends on the crew. Also depends on the length of the layover. At my airline, the majority of our domestic layovers average 10 hours. Add a delay or a mechanical into the mix (they happen!) and that 10 hour layover quickly becomes a nine hour layover. That’s not enough time to do much other than sleep, eat and shower.
As for international flying, imagine you’re in a foreign country far away from home with twenty four hours to kill and you don’t speak the language. Now imagine yourself in a strange city several times a month – month after month, year after year after year. It’s only natural for people with things in common to spend time together. Would you prefer to spend all that time away from home alone? Now keep in mind that airline crews who do have time to meet up at a hotel bar for a quick drink are probably just too exhausted from jet lag to do anything other than take an elevator downstairs and sit on a stool. Not to mention, the majority of our layover hotels offer airline employees discounts on food and beverage. If there’s one thing crew members have in common, its we’re a frugal bunch.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, working for an airline is not just a job, it’s a lifestyle, a very unusual one. Not many people can handle it. Our schedules are always changing, making it difficult to create long term plans. We work holidays and weekends and we’re away from home for days at a time. A lot of that time is spent associating with coworkers – on the airplane and at hotels. This is why we need a significant other who is confident and loyal, a person who is independent and can deal with last minute changes. They also have to be able to make spur of the moment decisions that include back up plans A, B, & C – just in case something goes wrong, because when you work for an airline, something is bound to go wrong.
Because my husband is a frequent flier who travels over 100,000 miles a year for business, he knows what it’s like, really like, to travel. That’s why he doesn’t get worked up if I find myself exploring the city with a colleague of the opposite sex. In fact, we encourage each other to to go out and enjoy ourselves. The time spent away from each other actually does our marriage good. We certainly don’t take each other for granted and we always cherish the time we have together. If that doesn’t make for a good marriage, I don’t know what does.
Photo Courtesy of Gurms
Look, we all know that regional pilots don’t make big bucks. But for a pilot to start a business on the side designed to sell kits to help you pass drug tests seems like a real no-no. To make it worse, the kits were marketed to truck drivers, train engineers and other pilots.
The pilot, Stephen Sharp was selling his product through the web site “yourintheclear.com” from November 2006 till May 2008. During this period, he was flying planes for PSA airlines (flying as US Airways Express).
The product consisted of a powder that had to be mixed with cranberry juice, and promised a 100% success rate at beating the U.S. Department of Transportation drug tests – the same tests used to screen pilots.
During a massive sweep against people who sold products specifically designed to defeat federal drug tests, Sharp was caught, and pleaded guilty to “conspiring to defraud the United States”.
As soon as his employer heard of the case, they placed him on non paid leave, and after his sentencing, chances are he won’t be flying any time soon.
It was a late night for guests of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, as the hotel was evacuated because of rising floodwaters.
The torrential rains have stopped in Nashville, Tenn., but the Cumberland River continued to rise overnight.
Around midnight CDT, Nashville emergency officials decided to remove the estimated 1,500 guests from the hotel. Instead of spending the night in their rooms, folks wound up sleeping on cots at nearby McGavock High School.
The hotel sits on the banks of the Cumberland River, which was cresting this morning. So far, Gaylord officials say the Nashville landmark has suffered only minor flood damage.
A note posted on the hotel’s Web site advises that Gaylord has temporarily suspended reservations for the Music City property.
Fifteen people have been killed in the weekend floods. The three interstates that intersect in Nashville – I-24, I-65 and I-40, were all closed over the weekend. Officials say I-40 may be closed for an extended period of time because of flood damage.