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Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Dirt is good for you!...NY Times
When my young sons were exploring the streets of Brooklyn, I couldn’t help but wonder how good crushed rock or dried dog droppings could taste when delicious mashed potatoes were routinely rejected.
Since all instinctive behaviors have an evolutionary advantage or they would not have been retained for millions of years, chances are that this one too has helped us survive as a species. And, indeed, accumulating evidence strongly suggests that eating dirt is good for you.
In studies of what is called the hygiene hypothesis, researchers are concluding that organisms like the millions of bacteria, viruses and especially worms that enter the body along with “dirt” spur the development of a healthy immune system. Several continuing studies suggest that worms may help to redirect an immune system that has gone awry and resulted in autoimmune disorders, allergies and asthma.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Praise Song For The Day...She Hears America Singing
.
Two American Songs
by Walt Whitman
I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as
he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning,
or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day--at night the party of young
fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer consider the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
We encounter each other in words, Words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; Words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
so, let's talk- video linked by nicholaspatten on twitter
<br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/">Nokia E71 - SHFT - Talking Heads</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/sermad">Sermad</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.
Monday, January 19, 2009
In the 19th century, people noticed that flowers didn't last long in rooms with coal or gas fires
It has long been known that fruits ripen more rapidly depending on what was in the air around them.http://tinyurl.com/79crc5
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Three days on the shore...
<br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/">The North Wind Blew South</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/keithloutit">Keith Loutit</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Music-Sleepy Town Manufacture - “O Nei”
<br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/">Music Video From Free MP3 Compilation "Intelligent Toys 5"</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/phlow">Phlow</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.
Whitehouse makeover
Michelle Obama's press office praised Mr. Smith's "family-focused and affordable approach," but I doubt even he can remember when he last accepted a $100,000 limit -- that's what is earmarked for the presidential family quarters -- unless that was the budget for window treatments. Private donations will subsidize this project; that's how Nancy Reagan got her $210,000 worth of Lenox place settings. The connection to Mr. Smith was made through incoming White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, a friend of one of Mr. Smith's important Chicago clients, realtor Katherine Chez and her companion Judd Malkin, an important Democratic Party donor. Mr. Smith is a national star. He makes classic rooms that look like their owners have inherited money and furnishings, and he mixes things up with tastefully hip pieces -- just as he wears Keds and John Lobb custom shoes. Were the economy in better shape, we might look for an uptick in sales of his signature scents ($55 for a 7-ounce candle, $110 for air fresheners), a relatively cheap way to get a whiff of society decorator. The Obamas made it clear during their campaign that they would not tolerate divas, another reason Mr. Smith is a startling pick, but he's smart enough to know when to respect protocol. Mr. Smith declined to comment. (more....)
One Type of Milk May Cause Diabetes. The Other Doesn’t. Which Do You Drink?
A1 versus A2 milk has been a media "fringe" story for much of this decade. The publication of Devil in the Milk and reports from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority last year placed it in the spotlight. The key question is whether this is just a beat-up, or are there really major public health issues relating to type 1 diabetes, heart disease, symptoms of autism, and general milk intolerance? The way to answer this question is to go back to the science and look at the evidence. The A2 story started in 1993 when Professor Bob Elliott from Auckland asked whether there was a difference between the milk the Masai people of Kenya drink and the milk drunk in Western countries. (more.....)http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/index.php?p=1837
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Realtime USAir Crash in the Hudson River from flickr this afternoon in NYC
Hudson river US Air crash from twitter: jkrums
24 Rooms Tucked Into One
This room — the "maximum kitchen," he calls it — and the "video game room" he was sitting in minutes before are just 2 of at least 24 different layouts that Mr. Chang, an architect, can impose on his 344-square-foot apartment, which he renovated last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/garden/15hongkong.html?_r=1
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As researchers unravel the biochemical reasons for most heart attacks, the advice for avoiding them is changing.
If last week's column convinced you that surgery may not be the best way to avoid a heart attack or sudden cardiac death, the next step is finding out what can work as well or better to protect your heart
It is not that the old advice, like eating a low-fat diet or exercising vigorously, was bad advice; it was based on the best available evidence of the time and can still be very helpful. But as researchers unravel the biochemical reasons for most heart attacks, the advice for avoiding them is changing.
And, you'll be happy to know, the new suggestions for both diet and exercise are less rigid. The food is tasty, easy to prepare and relatively inexpensive, and you don't have to sweat for an hour a day to reap the benefits of exercise.
The well-established risk factors for heart disease remain intact: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking,diabetes, abdominal obesity and sedentary living. But behind them a relatively new factor has emerged that may be even more important as a cause of heart attacks than, say, high blood levels of artery-damaging cholesterol.
That factor is C-reactive protein, or CRP, a blood-borne marker of inflammation that, along with coagulation factors, is now increasingly recognized as the driving force behind clots that block blood flow to the heart. Yet patients are rarely tested for CRP, even if they already have heart problems. (more.....)http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13brod.html
Owens has determined his cost of production is $18 to $19 a box, compared to about $8.50 for conventionally grown apples
When Anthony Owens started on the path to growing apples organically, he was part of a group of growers who decided to collaborate and take a shot at it.
Now, eight years later, he has about a hundred acres under the organic regimen, but he's the only one of the group who's still doing it.
"In the Southeast, I'm it," he said. "I'm not bragging. That's just a fact."
Along the entire East Coast, the number of commercial-size organic apple growers can probably be numbered on one hand. There are about 1,000 acres of organic fruit in the eastern United States.
Marvin Owings, the Extension fruit educator in North Carolina's Henderson County, said Owens in the largest producer of organic apples on the entire East Coast.
Owens makes no bones about it. If you want to grow apples organically, it's best to choose the nice desert environment in Washington state. Doing it on the East Coast, where diseases and insects flourish, is much more difficult. And the further south you go – adding more heat, higher humidity and a longer season to the equation – the more difficult it becomes.
By the time you get to Hendersonville, N.C., where Windy Ridge Organics is located, the challenges have weeded out everybody but Owens.
What keeps him going is strong consumer demand. A lot of people want locally grown, organic fruit and are willing to pay more for it. Owens doesn't store apples. He sells out as he harvests – in fact, before he harvests. Whole Foods is his biggest customer, but at Earth Fare he's the "poster child." His photo – the one with this story – poster size, graces the produce section. His apples, bearing the Windy Ridge Organics name, appear in stores "from Vermont to Miami," he said.
Since he started growing apples using organic practices in 2000 (his first certified organic acreage came in 2003), Owens has determined his cost of production is $18 to $19 a box, compared to about $8.50 for conventionally grown apples. He has to make two to three times as many spray applications as conventional growers because the spray materials wash off easily, do not have residual activity, don't have curative powers (most are preventative) or are just not as active. He'd love to be able to use a material like Guthion, where one spray application kills moth adults, larvae and eggs and lasts 20 days. He has to spray every five to seven days.
"You don't take summer vacations in this business," he said.
http://www.fruitgrowersnews.com/pages/arts.php?ns=1109
In the large towns and cities,the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. (HDT)
In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an annual tax for this outside garment. (HDT-Walden)
In the large towns and cities,the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. (HDT)
In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an annual tax for this outside garment. (HDT-Walden)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
My imagination supplies the green and the hum of bees. What a memento of summer such a hay cock!
My imagination supplies the green and the hum of bees. What a memento of summer such a hay cock! http://thoreauswine.blogspot.com/2009/01/jan_14.html
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
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