Get your very own EMF Detector

This just in courtesy of Micah: Mr Ghost EMF Detector

EMF smog is invisible and this device will reveal the vibrational world!

The dangers of EMF and RF’s are becoming known and because we cannot feel or see the fields this is a handy device to alert us to the areas of high radiation as well as safe or quiet spots. The earth’s magnetic field is a very different resonance than the frequency chosen for digital equipment and more and more research is revealing the weakening and deleterious effects of these fields on our health.

SImply google EMF’s and you will find a slew of articles. Here is just one of 1,000′s that will clarify the basic thoughts about EMF’s.

Be safe.

Economic Impact of Local Businesses vs. Chains

 

 

Stacy Mitchell is a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and has compiled some key studies on local store vs chainstore impact on local economics.

Of interest from a study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Friends of Midcoast Maine, September 2003.: “Three times as much money stays in the local economy when you buy goods and services from locally owned businesses instead of large chain stores, according to this analysis, which tracked the revenue and expenditures of eight locally owned businesses in Midcoast Maine. The survey found that the businesses, with had combined sales of $5.7 million in 2002, spent 44.6 percent of their revenue within the surrounding two counties. Another 8.7 percent was spent elsewhere in the state of Maine. The four largest components of this local spending were: wages and benefits paid to local employees; goods and services purchased from other local businesses; profits that accrued to local owners; and taxes paid to local and state government. Using a variety of sources, the analysis estimates that a national big box retailer operating in Midcoast Maine returns just 14.1 percent of its revenue to the local economy, mostly in the form of payroll. The rest leaves the state, flowing to out-of-state suppliers or back to corporate headquarters. The survey also found that the local businesses contributed more to charity than national chains.”

And in The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study – By Civic Economics, May 2007: “Every $1 million spent at local bookstores, for example, creates $321,000 in additional economic activity in the area, including $119,000 in wages paid to local employees. That same $1 million spent at chain bookstores generates only $188,000 in local economic activity, including $71,000 in local wages. The same was true in the other categories. For every $1 million in sales, independent toy stores create 2.22 local jobs, while chains create just 1.31. The final part of the study analyzes the impact of a modest shift in consumer spending. If residents were to redirect just 10 percent of their spending from chains to local businesses, that would generate $192 million in additional economic activity in San Francisco and almost 1,300 new jobs.”

Make your own toothpaste

I’ve been on a break from posting. But these recipes caught my attention. Making your own toothpaste is so ridiculously easy, and cheap, I’m not sure I’ll ever buy another tube! You can adjust to your perfect intensity and flavor without the questionable use of flouride and preservatives.

We’ve been told since childhood the important benefits of brushing our teeth regularly which include avoidance of tooth decay, gingivitis and halitosis. Brushing removes plaque, food remnants and tartar (which forms plaque). Brushing too hard can cause problems with gums, so it’s about gently cleaning your teeth. We also know that flossing and regular visits to the dental hygienist greatly improve dental health.

Here is Vivian Goldschmidt’s  version. She is one of my favorite strong bone bloggers and authors.  www.saveourbones.com

Save Your Smile Toothpaste

Ingredients

2 tablespoons organic coconut oil. I recommend: Extra Virgin Certified Organic Coconut Oil – 54 fl oz

3 tablespoons baking soda
.

1/2 small (individual) packet of stevia. I recommend: Truvia Natural Sweetener — 140 Packets

20-25 drops of peppermint oil – you can adjust this to taste. I recommend: Vitacost 100% Pure Peppermint Oil – 4 fl oz

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and store in a tightly sealed container.

 

LuSa’s recipe is a bit more complex:

LuSa Organics Homemade Toothpaste

2 tsp Natural Liquid Soap (try unscented Dr. Bronner’s or similar. We’ve used our bar soap grated into water but it makes too thick of a toothpaste for my squeeze bottle.)

4 Tb Coconut Oil

1 Tb Water

2 Tb Xylitol (optional)

1/2 tsp Stevia powder

10-20 drops Peppermint Essential Oil

5-10 drops Spearmint or Sweet Orange Essential Oil

Boil a small pan of water. Measure out 1 Tb and stir into it Xylitol (optional). Stir to dissolve. Melt coconut oil and add to water mixture. Measure in soap and stevia and blend (a stick blender works well if you have one. Otherwise use your regular blender or whisk by hand like mad).  Blend while the formula cools enough to stay combined. Add essential oils and transfer to a clean squeeze or pump bottle. Cool completely, shake well.

Then smile at your self-sufficiency with those squeaky-clean teeth.

 

Motherwort Tincture

It is time to harvest and tincture one of my herbal allies, motherwort, Leonurus Cardiaca, also called Lionheart. This herb grows where she wants in my garden and I never know from year to year where she’ll show up – here is motherwort with the day lilies.

Years ago this tincture was recommended to me by Susun Weed to help me with sleep issues. Over the years I have used it to calm menstrual cramps, calm anxiousness. It can be dried and used as a smudge along with sage and mugwort. It makes a bitter tea- so sweeten with honey and use it for a stress-diffuser. Livestrong.com has a good article listing other uses for motherwort. Also, more good information at Herbalist.com where it mentions that motherwort is well-known and used in Europe:

The sedative (nervine) action of the herb, claimed by the herb’s historical use was demonstrated scientifically well enough for the Commission E, the official German herbal pharmacopaea,  to recommend it to the public………Older scientific data on the herb’s neurological and cardiac properties are based on studies by Chinese researchers of an extract called leonurin from Leonurus sibiricus, an herb very closely related to Leonurus cardiaca.   

Susan Weed has a wonderful 3 minute video on how to tincture this herb.

To tincture: you will need a jar with tight-fitting lid, scissors and vodka. Cut the top 8-10 inches of the flowering tops. Then cut the plant material directly into your jar. The flowers are prickly, be cautious. Put enough flowers and leaves to tightly fill jar, pour in vodka to very top. Put on lid, shake, turn over a few times to make sure most of the air bubbles are dislodged, maybe you’ll need to add some more vodka. Then label, leave in dark place for 6 weeks. Strain, put in smaller dropper jars.  Voila.

Strawberry Shortcake

Perfect treat for Father’s Day- I’ve just picked 4 quarts of organic strawberries at McEnroe’s Farm up in Amenia, NY. Tough picking because they’ve let the weeds grow up- so there were thistles to wrestle with (ouch) and slim pickings because this is only their first week of picking. So I was a bit early. Hope my dear friend, T, will go with me later in the week or even next week. No matter, I’ve frozen 3 quarts (for sorbet and the winter) and will use the rest for shortcake topping and for snacking. They are very sweet!

I have tried a new vanilla muffin recipe from food.com. It only makes 9 (really, I tried to stretch it but 9 it is) muffins/cupcakes so you might like to make more, these are going to go fast in my house. I also used a gluten free flour mix instead of all the separate flours. 22 minutes in the oven was perfect time. The recipe also has chocolate frosting. I am not going to make that. I will make strawberry topping, see below.

• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 1 hr
• Serves: 9, Yield: 9 Cupcakes

Ingredients

◦                                  2/3 cup soymilk

◦                                  1/4 cup canola oil

◦                                  3/4 cup agave nectar

◦                                  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

◦                                  1/4 teaspoon almond extract

◦                                  1 1/2 cups gluten free flour

◦                                  1 teaspoon baking powder

◦                                  1/2 teaspoon baking soda

◦                                  1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions (adapted from food.com):

Preheat oven to 325°F;

Line muffin pan with 9 Liners and fill 3 remaining muffin cups with a little bit of water.

 Mix together soy milk, canola oil, vanilla and almond extract and agave nectar.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt one by one and mix for 1-2 minutes. Mixture will be thin.

Fill 9 muffin cups approximately 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 1 hour to allow agave to set.

Serve with 2 cups strawberries halved and cooked with 1 T maple syrup or honey, 1 cup water and 2 T arrowroot powder on low flame, stir until thickened;

Garnish with fresh berries and whipped tofu cream topping (1/2 cake organic tofu, 2 T tahini, 1 T agave syrup (or to desired sweetness) , pinch salt, 2 T grapeseed oil blend until smooth and creamy.

The Seaweed Man

Living at the edge of the continent. This is how Larch Hanson, a seaweed harvester for forty years, describes himself. He has some powerful advice about including seaweed regularly in our diet. Here is his latest article as well as a link to William Spear’s article about protective diet in Huffington Post.:

Considering the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, it is important that you understand this article:Iodine in Seaweed Protects the Thyroid from Radiation Once upon a time, about a gazillion years ago, the animals in the sea with spinal cords decided to base their regulatory hormones upon stable Iodine 127. A bazillion years later, some of those animals decided to leave the sea and live on the land where Iodine 127 was not abundant. Land plants don’t contain much iodine at all. So they developed thyroid glands and blood compounds that would conserve scarce Iodine 127. All went well, until some near-sighted nuclear scientists started splitting uranium atoms and creating radioactive Iodine 131 which concentrates through the food chain (from grass to cows to milk to humans, for instance) and can end up in the thyroid, burning it out, leaving people unable to self-regulate their lives. You see, Iodine 131 has a very short half-life of 8 days. That means that within a period of two months, it emits most of its radiation. And if that iodine 131 happens to be situated in the thyroid while it is emitting its radiation, it will do great damage to the thyroid gland. 25% of the women in this country, for instance, now have clinical symptoms of thyroid imbalance. Why is this happening? Iodine is a member of the halide group of elements that includes bromine, chlorine, and fluorine. Compounds that contain these elements tend to displace iodine from the body. Modern people are exposed to bromated dough conditioners in commercially-produced bread, and bromine used in disinfectants (in hot tubs, for instance). Bleach in the laundry and at the swimming pool contains chlorine. Dentists use fluorides, and fluoride is used in toothpaste and drinking water. All of these sources of chemicals, and more, are exposing us to halides that displace iodine from our bodies. In the Southwest, the Colorado River system that irrigates the fields that produce 30% of the vegetables consumed in our country is contaminated by a lagoon of spent rocket fuel in Nevada that is leaching perchlorate into the water. Perchlorate is taken up by broad leaf veggies  like lettuce, and it gets into the body and blocks transport of iodine to the thyroid. If an air bag goes off in your car, your air is immediately contaminated with perchlorate released by the explosive air bag. There really aren’t very good iodine supplements available to the public. If you read a material safety data sheet for potassium iodide, you will understand the negative side effects of long term use. The best long term strategy is to integrate seaweed into one’s daily diet. Then your thyroid will always have adequate levels of stable Iodine 127 and will not take in radioactive Iodine 131. Digitata kelp has the highest iodine content, followed by kelp. Alaria has moderate levels of iodine. All of these are good sources of iodine, provided you don’t roast them, releasing the iodine to the air. Learn a water-based method that will work for you. Make soup and drink the broth at the same time you eat the seaweed. Then your body will receive the iodine. If you are a raw foodist, make a smoothie that includes kelp. Nori and dulse don’t contain much iodine, compared to kelp and alaria. Any commercial seaweed that is promoted as “tender” or “convenient” or “ready to eat” probably has been subjected to a heat process (parboiling, roasting) and thus the iodine content is lowered. Recipes for proper preparation of seaweed are available at LarchHanson.com and seaweed can be ordered direct from the harvester and his apprentices who use low temperature methods of drying at TheSeaweedMan.com.

Rest in the Light, abide in the Heart.Larch Hanson Maine Seaweed LLC Ph/fax: 207 546 2875

Richie Havens Singing the Truth

Where does he get that amazing energy. Richie Havens was a powerful voice when I was in high school in the late ’60′s.  His song, What You Gonna Do About Me, speaks to all the same issues now as it did then. We have come so far but there is so much more to do!

Will we speak loud enough for all the things we believe in for the future of our fragile planet? I believe that it is possible to create an eco-logically (make-sense for the planet) sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this earth. Do you? Who are you going to tell and what will you do?

24 Hours of World Aircraft Traffic

Where IS everyone going? This is an amazing video of air traffic crossing our earth! You can even see night and day traveling east to west over the 24 hour satellite compilation/simulation:

 

Hat Tip: Bill Tara

International Women’s Day/Meet Me On The Bridge

March 8, 2011 is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

WD is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women in the past, present and future. It is a day when women are recognised for their achievements, regardless of divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.

It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women.

I will be celebrating this powerful annual event by joining the WomenforWomen.org group walking across the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Sydney, Australia. You, too, can find a group near you and cross a bridge in solidarity for ending violence against women. Last year thousands of women and  joined together on 119 bridges to honor our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers who took such a strong stand for women’s equality 100 years ago.

 

 

Women in Need Often Need Most: Bras

Did you know that the single item of clothing women in need often need most is a bra? Soma Intimates is conducting their second bra drive and you can donate your new and gently used bras to any of their stores and they will pass them on to a woman in need.

“Bras are among the least donated but most needed items for the homeless and victims of domestic violence,” states Laurie Van Brunt, Soma Intimates’ Brand President.  “It sounds like a small thing, but donating a bra truly makes a difference to women who are struggling financially or emotionally, or both. We’re thrilled with the results of our first charity drive and wholeheartedly thank our generous customers.  Our original goal was to collect 10,000 bras, and we certainly exceeded our expectations more than two-fold.”

Based on the success of the event, Soma will continue this initiative in January 2011 through Valentine’s Day as a way for women to clean out their drawers at the start of the New Year and to give back to their local communities at the same time.

“The bra drive dovetails with the mission of Soma Intimates,” Van Brunt says.  “Soma’s goal is to make women feel wonderful from the inside out, and there’s no better feeling than helping women who are in desperate need of something as simple as a bra.  Each boutique is able to support local charities to build stronger communities, and we look forward to continuing this very special program.”

Last year, these bras were donated to local women’s shelters and breast cancer support groups in each region.  Bras that were not wearable were sent to The Bra Recyclers, a textile recycling organization that recycles bra components to ensure that no bra ends up in a landfill.  Soma also donated more than 2,500 new bras to Dress for Success, a non-profit organization that provides professional attire for disadvantaged women.

The Bra Recyclers is a division of Bosom Buddy Recycling, LLC based in Gilbert, AZ. They are a textile recycling company specializing in recycling bras and donating a portion of bras to deserving women in communities around the world. Established in October of 2008, The Bra Recyclers has expanded its supports to 19 organizations around the country by providing them with recycled bras. The Bra Recyclers does its part to impact the environment by delaying the amount of unused bras/textiles that go to landfills, thus reducing the pressure on virgin resources. For more information visit www.brarecycling.com

Since starting operations in 1997, Dress for Success has expanded to more than 100 cities in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the UK and the West Indies. To date, Dress for Success has helped more than 550,000 women work towards self-sufficiency. Visitwww.dressforsuccess.org to learn more.

Use this Soma outlet locator to find a store near you.