9/18 is World Water Monitoring Day

What the heck is World Water Monitoring Day? It seems to have been or perhaps sort of still is some sort of cross betweeen a citizen science project and an awareness day. What's missing, imho, is the activism part where the participants, upon learning of their water quality issues, go an try to provoke the appropriate officials into beneficial action. There are/have been implementation and organizational issues, however. Can this event be revived? Should it? Here's da wiki:

World Water Monitoring Day was an international day established in 2003 by America's Clean Water Foundation (ACWF) as a global educational outreach program. The program, subsequently named the "World Water Monitoring Challenge" and "EarthEcho Water Challenge," aims to build public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by empowering citizens to carry out basic monitoring of their local water bodies.[1] Roberta (Robbi) Savage, ACWF's president and CEO created WWMD, and Edward Moyer was the first WWMD Coordinator.

A simple test kit enables everyone, children and adults, to sample local water bodies for a set of water quality parameters including temperature, acidity (pH), clarity (turbidity) and dissolved oxygen (DO). Information on purchasing low-cost test kits is available from the current sponsoring organization, EarthEcho International, and the results of monitoring events are then shared with participating communities around the globe on the sponsor's website.

World Water Monitoring Day was originally celebrated annually on September 18. This date was initially chosen to be a month later (October 18) to recognize the anniversary of the US Clean Water Act, which was enacted by Congress in 1972 to restore and protect the country's water resources. In 2007, the date was changed to facilitate participation in parts of the world where temperatures reach freezing conditions at that time.

In 2006, ACWF transferred the coordination of the event to the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the International Water Association (IWA). The collective goal was to expand participation to one million people in 100 countries by 2012. In January 2015 the management of World Water Monitoring Day was transferred to EarthEcho International.

2008 saw students from Indonesia to Arkansas taking part in water sampling to bring attention to the importance of water quality.

As of 2018, EarthEcho International encourages participants to conduct their monitoring activities as part of the "EarthEcho Water Challenge" during any period between March 22 (World Water Day) and December of each year.

It is also International Equal Pay Day, National Respect Day, and World Bamboo Day. Bamboo, fwiw, is one heckuva resource, if used as such. it is amazing how many types of products one cn make from this fast growing grass.

Then we get a portmanteau awareness day: National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (United States). Awareness days means "we don't give a shit about this", a two-fer speaks volumes about our attitude.

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On this day in history:

0324 -- Constantine the Great whupped Licinius at Chrysopolis, the dark ages became inevitable 1066 -- Harald Hardrada landed in England, unwittingly giving it over to William the Bastard 1618 -- The twelfth Baktun in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar began 1850 -- The U.S. Congress enacted the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Typical. 1873 -- The Panic of 1873 occurred, a cascade of bank bankruptcies that triggered a depression *** 1895 -- The "Atlanta compromise" speech 1927 -- CBS went on the air 1931 -- The Mukden Incident, which was used by Japan as a pretext to invade Manchuria 1945 -- MacArthur moved his command HQ to Tokyo. 1947 -- The USAF became an independent branch of the US Global War Machine 1947 -- The NSC and the CIA were created to further US imperial designs 1948 -- Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to the US Senate not completing someone's term 1977 -- Voyager I took the first photo of the Earth and the Moon together. 1982 -- Christian "militia" slaughtered hundreds of unarmed, imprisioned, Palestinians in Lebanon. 1988 -- Pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar stopped after a coup and mass slaughter 1997 -- Various non-US countries adopted the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention *** These periodic collapses are a feature of capitalism. The more pure and unregulated it is, the more frequent and severe they are. No known capitalist theorist has ever figured this out yet.

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Some people who were born on this day:

The observations, so numerous and so important, of the pendulum as object are especially relevant to the length of its oscillations. Those that I propose to make known to the [Paris] Academy [of Sciences] are principally addressed to the direction of the plane of its oscillation, which, moving gradually from east to west, provides evidence to the senses of the diurnal movement of the terrestrial globe.

~~ Leon Foucault 1819 -- Leon Foucault, physicist 1838 -- Anton Mauve, painter, influenced Van Gogh 1905 -- Eddie Anderson, Rochester on the Jack Benny show 1905 -- Greta Garbo, she wanted to be left alone 1924 -- J. D. Tippit, Dallas cop; "Officer Tippit" 1933 -- Jimmie Rodgers, singer, songwriter and guitarist; neither the brakeman nor the bluesman 1940 -- Frankie Avalon, singer and actor, Funicello's foil 1944 -- Michael Franks, singer and songwriter; of "popsicle toes" fame/infamy 1945 -- P. F. Sloan, singer, songwriter and producer 1945 -- John McAfee, computer programmer 1949 -- Kerry Livgren, guitarist and songwriter, co-founder of Kansas 1951 -- Ben Carson, animated matter, possibly biological, sentience unknown 1951 -- Dee Dee Ramone, singer, songwriter and bass player 1956 -- Chris Hedges, pundit 1961 -- Mark Olson, singer, songwriter and guitarist 1971 -- Lance Armstrong, cyclist and doper 1973 -- Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, Ltd.

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Some people who died on this day:

Logic is the foundation of the certainty of all the knowledge we acquire.

~~ Leonhard Euler 1783 -- Leonhard Euler, logician, mathematician, astronomer, physicist, engineer and more 1896 -- Hippolyte Fizeau, physicist 1961 -- Dag Hammarskjold, diplomat, killed by ?? 1967 -- John Cockcroft, physicist, atom splitter 1970 -- Jimi Hendrix, experienced singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1977 -- Paul Bernays, mathematician and philosopher 1980 -- Katherine Anne Porter, author 1997 -- Jimmy Witherspoon, singer 1998 -- Charlie Foxx, singer and guitarist, half of Inez & Charlie Foxx 2004 -- Russ Meyer, director, producer, and screenwriter 2014 -- Kenny Wheeler, trumpet player, flugelhorn player and composer 2015 -- James R. Houck, astrophysicist

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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness Day (United States) World Water Monitoring Day International Equal Pay Day National Respect Day World Bamboo Day

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Today's Tunes

Leon Foucalt

Jimmie Rodgers

Frankie Avalon

Michael Franks

P.F. Sloan