Pima and Maricopa Indians reach record settlement on water rights, hope to return to healthy lifestyle of past. The tribes hope a return to a more traditional diet will lead to a reduction in obesity and diabetes; the Pima have the highest rate of diabetes of any population on earth. And at over 650,000 acre-feet a year, the water should provide economic prosperity, too.

This especially caught my notice because Ira Hayes, of "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," belonged to the Pima tribe. So had he not drowned in a ditch, he probably would have lost his feet to diabetes by now. In any event, it seems like some small solace that the water has been returned to his land.

An update regarding my failed water cooler: I gave up on finding a home-filtered solution. There are some coolers available that will filter tap water, but require plumbing, which isn't available where I wanted to keep the cooler. I looked at home delivery, finding Sparkletts to be the best deal, at $30/mo. for 20 gallons/mo., including cooler rental. I was almost willing to pay that much for convenience, but a $20 set-up fee and two-year committment led me to decide to just buy a water cooler from CostCo, and get filtered water from the store by my old high school for thirty cents a gallon. The cooler was a tad expensive, but doing the math, I come out ahead after seven months (maybe eight; the five-gallon jugs were more expensive than I thought), and then I should save some twenty-odd bucks a month going forward. And the water from the store tastes pretty good; definitely better than what the Brita filter produced.

So I'm satisfied with the solution. I miss the convenience of the Brita water cooler, but filling up jugs every two weeks or so isn't so bad, and given that there is an improvement in water quality (it has got that oddly-too-clean, sterile quality to it, but that I don't mind so much), I don't mind a minor inconvenience.

In other water news, I got a notice in the mail that my water district will begin fluoridation next month, after having fought the move for years, going so far as requesting not to receive funding in order to avoid adapting fluoridation. But apparently Helix has given in, and the Communist attack on our precious bodily fluids takes another step forward.