PriceGrabber.com was the clear winner, with results consistently among the cheapest and most accurate. It included everything from sales tax and shipping to an item’s condition and store availability.

(YAHOO Shopping was a close second, with excellent prices and a buyer protection program to protect users from merchant fraud.

Comparing the Comparison-Shopping Sites

Site	Features We Like	Performance
PriceGrabber.com	Earn $5 rebates by adding reviews for select products. Although it initially puts featured merchants up top, “Your Best Price” is clearly labeled.	Excellent. Its prices were among the best in every search, coming in cheapest in three categories and a close second in two others.
Yahoo! Shopping	Look for the buyer protection icon below partner merchant listings — it means your purchase is protected against fraud.	Great. Pulling from the widest range of retailers, it found the best prices in three categories and was competitive on the rest.
Shopping.compartner site DealTime.com	Broadens shoppers’ options by including eBay listings. Extensive reviews help users determine a product’s quality.	Good. It found the best prices in three categories. One hiccup: It offered us a Mintcraft Dancing Sprinkler when we searched for U-Dance.
NexTag.com	Price history tracks the item’s price over time, as well as the number of retailers carrying it.	Good. This competitive engine’s results were near the front of the pack in four of the eight searches.
Shopzilla.compartner site BizRate.com	Tweak results using the price range feature to weed out both too-expensive and too-cheap (say, used or refurbished) versions.	OK. It turned up the best prices in two categories. But its results weren’t always easy to negotiate almost half of its “Nights in Rodanthe” results were older, out-of-stock versions.
StreetPrices.com	Didn’t find the right price? Use links to find relevant listings on Craigslist and eBay. Or set up price alerts for notification of price drops.	OK. Its prices were among the best, but it failed to find the Legos, jeans or blender. (Spokeswoman Autumn Looijen says StreetPrices recently branched out from its focus on electronics and is working out the bugs.)
Pronto.com	Set price minimums and maximums to focus your search. Find the best deal by sorting among lowest base and total prices, as well as the highest store ratings by reviewers.	Hit or miss. It turned up some good prices, but found zilch on the videogame and the jeans.
Google Products	Refine your searches to pull up items by certain criteria, say a product within a set price range, from a certain store or bearing a good seller rating.	Hit or miss. It picked up a wider variety of stores than other engines, but sparsely detailed listings — no sales tax or shipping noted — made it impossible to gauge total price. (Google says the tool’s aim is simply to find products and point consumers to the stores that sell them.)
PriceRunner.com	Date verifications keep you apprised of the latest store prices and availability.	Skip it. It only found the iPod and the blender. “Pricerunner.com is competitive search engine,” insists spokesman John Ardis. “It’s in the top 25, and it didn’t get there by mistake.” He declined to comment specifically on the problems we encountered

It is a chemical known as triclosan. So make your own, for pennies at home. Recipe at  end of  blog.

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the safety of the chemical, which was created more than 40 years ago as a surgical scrub for hospitals. Triclosan is now in a range of consumer products, including soaps, kitchen cutting boards and even a best-selling toothpaste, Colgate Total. It is so prevalent that a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the chemical present in the urine of 75 percent of Americans over the age of 5.

Several studies have shown that triclosan may alter hormone regulation in laboratory animals or cause antibiotic resistance, and some consumer groups and members of Congress want it banned in antiseptic products like hand soap. The F.D.A. has already said that soap with triclosan is no more effective than washing with ordinary soap and water, a finding that manufacturers dispute.

The F.D.A. was to announce the results of its review several months ago, but now says the timing is uncertain and unlikely until next year. The Environmental Protection Agency is also looking into the safety of triclosan.

The outcome of the federal inquiries poses a significant risk to the makers of antimicrobial and antibacterial hand soaps, which represent about half of the $750 million market for liquid hand soaps in the United States, according to the market research firm Kline & Company.

Many of those soaps use triclosan as the active ingredient and say so on the label. Dial Complete is the fifth-best-selling liquid hand soap in the nation, according to data collected from most major stores (except for Wal-Mart) by SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm.

Richard Theiler, senior vice president for research and development at Henkel, the German-based manufacturer of Dial Complete, said there was no real evidence showing that triclosan was dangerous for humans. He also said that several recent studies had proved the effectiveness of triclosan in killing germs, and that those studies had been submitted to the federal regulators.

“It has been used now in products safely for decades,” Mr. Theiler said.

But as consumer groups have campaigned against triclosan, some consumer product manufacturers have removed it and substituted less controversial ingredients. Reckitt Benckiser removed triclosan from three face washes, for instance. And citing “changing consumer preferences,” Colgate-Palmolive replaced triclosan with lactic acid in Palmolive Antibacterial Dish Liquid, and its Softsoap liquid hand soap has been reformulated without the chemical.

Colgate, however, continues to use triclosan in its Colgate Total toothpaste because it has been proved to fight gingivitis, a claim approved by the F.D.A.

“The safety and efficacy of Colgate Total toothpaste is fully supported by over 70 clinical studies in over 10,000 patients,” the company said in a statement.

Scientists have raised concerns about triclosan for decades. Last year, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts, pressured the F.D.A. to write regulations for antiseptic products like hand soap, including the use of triclosan. The process of creating regulations was started more than three decades ago, but has been repeatedly delayed. In the meantime, Mr. Markey has called for a ban on triclosan in hand soaps, in products that come in contact with food and in products marketed to children.

The concern is based on recent studies about the possible health impacts of triclosan, which the F.D.A. said, in a Feb. 23, 2010, letter to Mr. Markey, “raise valid concerns about the effect of repetitive daily human exposure to these antiseptic ingredients.”

Several have shown that triclosan disrupts the thyroid hormone in frogs and rats, while others have shown that triclosan alters the sex hormones of laboratory animals. Others studies have shown that triclosan can cause some bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics.

Brian Sansoni, spokesman for the American Cleaning Institute, said the evidence against triclosan was hardly convincing and that the chemical had been used safely in consumer products and in hospitals for decades. He said there was no evidence that triclosan caused antibiotic resistance.

“You would think after heavy use in hospital settings over several decades it would have shown up by now,” Mr. Sansoni said. “This is one of those big urban myths that opponents of these products try to spread.”

Concerning studies that showed triclosan to be an endocrine disrupter, he said that the animals used in the studies were subjected to “levels that the rat, let alone us, would never come in contact with in everyday use.”

According to a lawsuit filed last year by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the F.D.A. first proposed regulating over-the-counter topical antiseptic drug products like triclosan in 1972, but the review has never been completed. In 1978, the F.D.A. proposed eliminating triclosan as an active ingredient in hospital scrubs and in hand soaps within a couple of years.

The agency issued a similar order in 1994, but again, nothing final was authorized, the lawsuit says.

The environmental group’s lawsuit sought to pressure the F.D.A. to complete its regulations of antiseptic soaps.

Triclosan is often the active ingredient in soaps that are marketed as antibacterial or antimicrobial, even though, in 2005, an F.D.A. advisory panel said triclosan-laced soap was no better at preventing illness than other soap and water.

“A lot of people mistakenly believe that if they buy something with a chemical in it that is antibacterial that it’s a plus,” said Dr. Sarah Janssen, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “I think the marketing of these far outweighs the statements on F.D.A.’s Web site, which most people don’t even go to.”

Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, the F.D.A.’s deputy director for regulatory programs, said its review was primarily focused on hand soaps but could extend to other consumer products if the agency determined that triclosan raised health concerns. He said that the F.D.A. had determined that triclosan provided a benefit in Colgate Total, by fighting gingivitis, where triclosan in soap did not.

“That is an important difference to us,” he said.

Indeed, several lawsuits have been filed saying that Henkel is making false claims in its marketing of Dial Complete. But Mr. Theiler, at Henkel, said he was confident that recent studies would vindicate triclosan.

“We note that the F.D.A. stated in their announcement on April 8, 2010, that the agency ‘does not have sufficient safety evidence to recommend changing consumer use of products that contain triclosan at this time,’ ” he said. “We concur with this position.”

EITHER WAY, make your own.  What have you got to lose?

60% alcohol (or vodka ….that will work as well)

40% aloe Vera gel

several drops essential oil or tea tree oil (optional)

a drop of vegetable dye (children like to jazz it up a bit)

Note:  This is more like a spray, so use a spray bottle

Initial artical written by Andrew Martin, New York Times

1.  Curtains, can block 20% to 60% of solar gain.

2.  Rolling blinds or operating shutters- Shutters shade the window while allowing ventilation as well as daylight; some hinged shutters can be manipulated with adjustable louvers. Hinged shutters generally block views from the interior, though, and are more popular for weather protection. They may also be more accepted in historic areas and condominium communities, where many new-fangled exterior attachments are not allowed.

3.  Awnings – can block up to 90% of solar heat gain. Tristan notes that they can also save your furniture and upholstery from ultraviolet damage. They used to be common on almost every house, with a service industry devoted to putting them on in the spring and removing them in the fall, so that the people in the home could take advantage of the solar gain in winter.

4.  Pergola – Architecturally beautiful and functional as well.

5.  Cupolas – are as functional as they are decorative. As warm air rises cupolas allow hot air to escape at the high points in the house while bringing up cooler air from below. They also create a steady air-flow even when there is no breeze outside. In some homes, cupolas provide soft, indirect sunlight that illuminates the home without bringing in the heat.

6.  Tune window openings – In the morning, gable windows on the top floor and basement windows can be opened. This creates a stack effect which exhausts hot air through the top floors and brings up cooled air from the basement. Closing the main floor shutters during the day keeps the main floors cool. The shutters are then opened in the evening to let in the cool night air. In winter, opening the shutters during the day can let the low, warm sunlight into the house. At night, closing the shutters helps keep the warm air inside where it belongs.

7.   Plant a Tree – A tree is as sophisticated as any electronic device around; it lets the sun through in winter and grows leaves in summer to block it.

8.  Plant Vines – It is wonderful how effective vines are at keeping a house cool. Vines such as ivy, russian-vine and virgina creeper grow quickly and have an immediate effect.

Climbers can dramatically reduce the maximum temperatures of a building by shading walls from the sun, the daily temperature fluctuation being reduced by as much as 50%.Together with the insulation effect, temperature fluctuations at the wall surface can be reduced from between –10°/14°F to 60°C/140°F to between 5°C/41°F and 30°/86°F. Vines also cool your home through envirotranspiration.

9.  Ceiling Fans – They come in all kinds of designs and work on the same principle, that moving air evaporates moisture from your skin and keeps you cooler.  Using them is one of our 25 Ways to Save the Planet, and they can save you some cash since they operate at a fraction of central and window air-conditioning units (and they can work great in tandem with your A/C if global warming has you sweating it out). As Energy Star reminds us, ceiling fans help keep you cool, rather than cooling the entire room.

10.  Paint your roof – In much the same way that more ice/snow reflects UV rays instead of absorbing the heat the way the oceans do (think: feedback loop that results from melting polar ice caps), cities are now giving white roofs a second look as a way to cool cities and fight climate change. The Los Angeles Times reports that the Climate Change Research Conference advised that if buildings and road surfaces in 100 of the largest cities in the US were covered with lighter and heat-reflective surfaces the savings could be massive.

11.  Get an attic FAN – A lot of people run expensive air conditioning when it is actually pretty cool out- after the sun has been baking a California house all day it can be cool in the evening but the house is still holding a couple of hundred thousand BTUs of heat. In more temperate parts of the country, just moving the air and having good ventilation could eliminate the need for AC much of the time.

12.  Cook/Grill hot foods outside when possible – There is a reason our ancestors built summer kitchens; those stoves put out a lot of heat and you didn’t want them in your house in summer. Outside summer kitchens are all the rage in the luxury house/ mcmansion set as well. It really makes no sense to run a stove inside, just to then spend money to run air conditioning to remove the heat again. So get a gas barbecue and grill your vegetables, take advantage of farmers markets to get fresh stuff, and eat lots of salad.

13.  Be smart about how you spend your hard earned money – When the weatherization contractors come to get you to insulate your house, (the most expensive thing you can do to save energy) you can show them that this makes no sense, only 7% of the cooling load is coming through the walls. A couple of hours with a caulking gun to reduce infiltration would do more.

When they tell you that you need to install expensive new low-e tinted windows, remember that an awning or a shutter is more sophisticated and flexible; you have the choice whether to let the sun in or not.

Tape up your ducts, turn off your computers and save your money. The simple, low-tech tried and true methods cost less, save more energy and work forever.

 

Recently ended up with a half gallon of milk, rather than the quart I usually get.  My daughter was not paying attention to my list, when she purchased it for me.  I thought, well bummer, half will go to waste.  Surprise, SURPRISE, it lasted twice as long and stayed fresh to the very end.

….and why?  It was a GLASS BOTTLE!