Saturday, December 13, 2014

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Free Things to Do in Amsterdam -- National Geographic

Free Things to Do in Amsterdam -- National Geographic

Free Things to Do in Amsterdam -- National Geographic

Picture of people on a canal in Amsterdam
Photograph by Miquel Gonzalez, laif/Redux

A couple enjoys the view of Amsterdam's canal.

The Dutch capital brims with art and culture, some of it pricey to experience, but much of it not, including the veritable living architectural museum that is the city center. Start by walking along the 400-year-old canals to marvel at the elegant, gabled townhouses lining them—or better yet, splurge on a bike rental (from around $9 at MacBike) to blend in with the locals.

Attractions

You'll pay admission at historical churches Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk but not at Westerkerk, whose signature bell tower has become a symbol of the city. Recently restored to its golden-age glory, the Protestant church on Prinsengracht is the largest in the Netherlands. Anne Frank, who lived nearby, wrote in her diary that she was reassured by the ringing of its church bells. Another claim to fame: Dutch master Rembrandt is buried here. Come on Fridays at 1 p.m. from May to October for free organ concerts.

You could easily miss the wooden door that leads from bustling Spui Square to the Begijnhof, a secluded courtyard surrounded by medieval buildings that for several centuries housed Beguines—unmarried religious women who banded together to form communities. Tour the oldest home in Amsterdam, and don't miss the chapel, where paintings and stained-glass windows tell the story of the eucharistic miracle of Amsterdam. Admission is free.

From a 16th-century woodcut map of the city to photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 "bed-in" at the Amsterdam Hilton, the Amsterdam Treasures collection in the basement of the (free) City Archives is a chronicle of early denizens, distinguished visitors, and more.

Visit the mod flagship of the Amsterdam Public Library (OBA), a ten-minute walk from Central Station. Peruse the books and music, lounge on comfy chairs to skim the papers, and take in a spectacular view of the city from the balcony on the top floor.

Instagram alert: A riot of colorful tulips and lilies beckons from barges on the Singel canal at the Bloemenmarkt, a floating market that harks back to the days when flowers were shipped from the countryside by boat.

Culture

Known for its rich trove of paintings from the Dutch golden age, including Vermeer's "The Milk Maid," the newly restored Rijksmuseum—and its brand-new Philips Wing—is well worth the admission price of around $22. Nonetheless, there are ways to experience the museum sans the steep cost: Roam its free gardens, which display sculpture exhibitions (past shows have featured works by Henry Moore and Alexander Calder) and architectural fragments, or check out the mini-Rijksmuseum at Schiphol Airport, which reopens in mid-2015 and features rotating exhibitions from the mother ship, gratis.

The Netherlands' civilian militias have been the subject of countless paintings (the most famous, Rembrandt's "The Night Watch," hangs in the Rijksmuseum). The Civic Guards Gallery (Schuttersgalerij), a free section of the Amsterdam Museum, is an enclosed alleyway dedicated to such portraits, which date from 1530 and include Matthieu van Bree's newly restored "The Entry of Napoleon in Amsterdam."

Catch a free lunchtime performance (chamber music, orchestra rehearsals) at the Concertgebouw each week (usually on Wednesdays) from September to June. Pipj district nightclub Badcuyp hosts the occasional free show, including Sunday night jazz sessions. And the Bimhuis jazz hall invites the public to an improvisation workshop on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.

Visit the indie art galleries in and around the Jordaan neighborhood, including the architecturally focused Radar and the contemporary KochxBos, where past exhibitions have featured works by illustrator Femke Hiemstra, known for her creepy fairy-tale aesthetic.

Families

Families with young kids love Vondelpark for its imaginative playgrounds, duck ponds, and free children's shows at the open-air theater in summer. At the largest play area, near Groot Melkhuis café, parents can sip coffee while keeping an eye out as tots climb, swing, and dig in the sandpit.

Children ages 18 and under get in free at the Rijksmuseum, which offers a multimedia tour with a kid-centric game in which participants must solve eight museum mysteries. Pick up an audio device at the museum's multimedia desk (about $3) or better yet, download the game for free from iTunes or Google Play.

The IJ channel commuter ferry is the ideal family diversion: scenic (get a great view of the waterfront), action-packed (watch cyclists rushing to make the boat), short (about five minutes), and free. Hop aboard behind Central Station.

Food & Drink

Amsterdam is crawling with street markets. The largest, Albert Cuyp (Monday to Saturday), sells everything from leather goods to syrup waffles. The Nieuwmarkt (Monday to Saturday) features an organics-only market on Saturdays. And the Sunday Market at Westergasfabriek—a former industrial plant—offers free food and drink samples in a lively atmosphere (open the first Sunday of the month).

You could fork over about $22 for a slick tour of the historic Heineken brewery or, for a fraction of the price, enjoy a pint fresh from the tanks at Brouwerij 't IJ, near the De Gooyer windmill in East Amsterdam. Tours in English, offered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 3:30 p.m., are about $6 but come with complimentary beer.

Outdoors

When the sun makes an appearance, locals vie for seats at the outdoor cafes in Dam Square to people-watch and enjoy the street performers.

Free guided walks leave from the National Monument in Dam Square at 11:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. daily. Reserve your spot by prebooking online for about $4 or just show up early. The three-hour tour takes in the Royal Palace, the Red Light District, the Anne Frank House, and more. Tips are welcome.

The Amsterdam Forest (or Amsterdam Bos) is the city's Central Park—three times the size of New York's—and features swimming pools for kids, a goat farm, an outdoor theater offering a full slate of performances in the summer months, and prime picnicking spots for watching planes take off and land at Schiphol Airport.



~A.

Saturday, December 06, 2014

480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

So happy to get to show you this beautiful little Kanga cabin that was built near Blanco, TX.

It has an extended open front porch, side screen porch, full bath, kitchen, sleeping loft, and an awesome living area.

The cabin measures 16′ x 30′ and it has an 8′ screened in porch in the back.

You'll also notice that it has a fantastic front porch that's perfect for a few rocking chairs. But first I wanted to show you the beautiful interior.

kanga 480sqft cottage 04 367x600   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

Photo Credit Kanga Room Systems

The layout is absolutely perfect in my opinion. To me this is the epitome of simple living for a couple, young family or anyone wanting to retire simply but not too tiny.

I encourage you to take the rest of the tour below:

kanga 480sqft cottage 02 600x303   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

Open Front Porch

kanga 480sqft cottage 03 400x600   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

I would definitely add some rocking chairs here.

Sleeping Loft and Clever Ladder Storage

kanga 480sqft cottage 05 400x600   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

I love how they used the ladder for storage in such a smart yet simple way.

kanga 480sqft cottage 06 400x600   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

Gourmet Kitchen in a 480 Sq. Ft. Cottage

kanga 480sqft cottage 07 400x600   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

The downside of many tiny houses on trailers is that if you enjoy cooking you may not enjoy it as much in a tiny house because of lack of space. Unless you are Andrew and Crystal Odom. Yes, it can be done. But in a home that's just slightly larger and on a foundation you can have much more flexibility for your kitchen. Which to many, is a very important feature! On to the bathroom..

Full Bathroom

kanga 480sqft cottage 08 525x600   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

Screened in Back Porch

kanga 480sqft cottage 01 600x400   480 Sq. Ft. Kanga Cottage Cabin with Screened Porch

Have you seen Kanga's 14′ x 20′ tiny home in the city that I featured earlier this year? If not, check it out here. They're also the creators of these two poolside tiny houses that you'll also probably enjoy if you already haven't.

For even more photos of this cabin/cottage click here. Learn more about Kanga here. Visit them on Facebook here.

If you liked this post you'll love our free daily tiny house newsletter!

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~A.

The Industry-Suppressed Budwig Protocol for Cancer - Healthy Holistic Living

The Industry-Suppressed Budwig Protocol for Cancer - Healthy Holistic Living

The Industry-Suppressed Budwig Protocol for Cancer

budwig

Written by Sarah C. Corriher

"I have the answer to cancer, but American doctors won't listen. They come here and observe my methods and are impressed. Then they want to make a special deal so they can take it home and make a lot of money. I won't do it, so I'm blackballed in every country."

— Dr. Johanna Budwig

Doctor Johanna BudwigDr. Johanna Budwig left us in 2003, at the age of 95. This German doctor was nominated six times for the Nobel Prize for medicine, which means that it would be wise to take her health work seriously. We call her a saint, but doctors-in-the-know thought of her as a god. She cured cancer in "terminally ill" patients; even patients which the establishment had surrendered to fate, claimed were "untreatable", and had given a death sentence to. She did not just cure specific or rare types of cancer. She cured all types of cancer, and she did it relatively quickly, cheaply, easily, and permanently; using only non-toxic ingredients, which had no side-effects. Her medicine actually made her patients stronger, and her cure rate was over 90%, including the worst terminal cases. Dr. Budwig's successes greatly contrast the fact that the life-long cure rate from standard procedures averages less than 4%, and that the standard therapies themselves are known to cause future cancers.

Dr. Budwig's secret weapons against cancer were quark cheese and flax seed oil. She quickly became enemy #1 to the pharmaceutical and nuclear industries. They have been so effective at suppressing her work, that for many of our readers, this will be their first instance of learning of her Budwig Protocol. Her bombshell findings were first published in the early 1950's. Yet they are still being censored today in most countries.

"As a chemist trained to interpret data, it is incomprehensible to me that physicians can ignore the clear evidence that chemotherapy does much, much more harm than good."

— Alan Nixon, Ph.D., Past President of The American Chemical Society

The Cancer Industry is Built Upon Lies

First and foremost, cancer is not merely an outbreak of tumors. The orthodox establishment apparently considers them to be the same, but it would be a waste of time and space to go there. For now, we shall simply state that endorsing perpetual treatments to create life-long customers is the overall agenda of policy makers, instead of curing. A dead patient is not profitable, nor is a healthy patient. The big money is made somewhere in the middle, in patients who are alive, but just barely. The reason why they will never find a cure is because they are not looking for one. Curing would eliminate the cash flow, and this industry is so profitable that it is the 5th leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Any researcher who found a cure would quickly find himself looking for another job, and at some level, all of them know it. Cancer is the most profitable condition in medical history, and the establishment intends to keep it that way.

Cancer is essentially a modern man-made epidemic from the food and chemical industries, which tend to be one in-the-same. There is some evidence that cancer existed in ancient history, but cancer was extremely rare in ancient times, except in cities with cases of mass heavy metal poisoning (again, man-made).

Cancer is expected to strike one person out of every three born, and this rate is rising rapidly. It is painfully obvious that there is something very corrupt about the industry, when cancer is supposedly treated by the three things that most reliably cause it: radiation, poison, and malnutrition. In fact, properly prescribed medicine is the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States according to the death census (not even counting the mistakes), and the treatments are responsible for most deaths which are attributed to "cancer", which is the 2nd leading cause of death. Doctors never discuss the real statistics, because in 96% of cases the treatments will greatly reduce a person's life span, and most patients will not live longer than five years. This data, which doctors keep private is why surveys show that most oncologists would refuse their own treatments if they had a cancer themselves. While well-meaning people continue to walk for the cure, the industry that they are supporting is still murdering their friends for profits. We are hoping to give our readers a greater than 4% chance.

The Unholy Trinity of Cancer

Toxins, radiation, and acidosis (from pharmaceuticals and malnutrition) are the unholy trinity of cancer. Acidosis is the final stage of this misunderstood condition. An astute reader will have noticed that these things are caused by the medical establishment itself, even in its supposedly valiant fight against cancer. When a person's body chemistry becomes acidic from the aforementioned factors or modern medicine, then his blood's ability to retain and carry oxygen is severely diminished. Healthy individuals have a blood oxygen level of between 98 and 100 as measured by a pulse oximeter, but cancer patients routinely show only 60. Oxygen is replaced in a cancer patient's blood by wastes such as carbon dioxide. The oxygen starvation caused by acidosis leads to the formation of tumors as cells must mutate to derive their energy from a fermentation process. Normal cells obtain their energy from oxygen respiration, but oxygen-starved cells must mutate for survival, in order to utilize a type of direct sugar fermentation, which is the body's self defense. This is not as biochemically "clean" as oxygen-based energy, and the waste products of fermentation build in the tissues causing even higher toxicities. This leads to even more acidosis and cellular oxygen starvation. Eventually, the entire immune system is debilitated by the process of cleaning the waste products, so that it can no longer cope with the removal of unhealthy cells. This allows the cancer cells to multiply even faster and to spread unchecked, creating the symptom of tumors, which is in the latter stages of the cancer process.

Otto WarburgAll of the above was proven by Dr. Otto Warburg, and he won the Nobel Prize for it in 1931. His findings were suppressed, and so most readers wil not have heard of this great doctor, despite him having won the Nobel Prize for medicine in an era when the Nobel Prize actually meant something incredible.

The secret to beating cancer is that life-giving breath of God: oxygen. Technically, it is not so simple but it is almost that simple. The real trick is getting the oxygen into the deep tissue cells, and getting the cells to 'eat' it again. Dr. Budwig's regimen is just one of many for stimulating this. Most cancer cures (not treatments) involve adjusting the body's pH beyond neutral, and into an alkaline state. In the alkaline state, human blood is especially rich in oxygen, and this same oxygen is poisonous to mutated cancer cells. Oxygen is, of course, harmless to people who are eating a healthy diet full of anti-oxidants. Whilst mocked by the cancer industry, the generalized anti-cancer alkalizing protocols have varying degrees of effectiveness, and merit further inspection.

Dr. Budwig found ways to oxygenate patients better and faster than other therapies. Her results were catapulted past those of other alternative therapies by utilizing a solution made from common flax seed oil and quark cheese. She discovered that the so-called "healthy" (fat free) diets were a huge part of the problem. Her regimen eliminated damaging fats and foods from the diet that cause cellular oxygen starvation, and replaced them with healing foods, and life-saving essential fatty acids. Along with diet, she emphasized the benefits of sunlight, the natural source of the anti-cancer vitamin D3, and the elimination of personal issues for stress reduction.

"Without these fatty acids, the respiratory enzymes cannot function and the person suffocates, even when he is given oxygen-rich air. A deficiency in these highly unsaturated fatty-acids impairs many vital functions. First of all, it decreases the person's supply of available oxygen. We cannot survive without air and food; nor can we survive without these fatty acids. That has been proven long ago."

— Dr. Johanna Budwig

When Johanna was promoting omega-3 supplementation, it was a new and novel concept. The mainstream establishment berated her theories and research papers about the omega oils. Mainstream promotion of the need for omega-3 only occurred decades later, toward the end of her life. She has now been vindicated, and that area of her research is now well-established.

The Budwig Anti-Cancer Regimen

There are two stages of the Budwig Protocol. One of them is a natural medicine, which is a blend of something containing high amounts of sulfur proteins, and flax seed oil to provide safe omega-3 in appropriate levels. Fish oil is avoided because there is a high risk of impurities, it requires heavy industrial processing, and it will dangerously upset the balance of the omega oils further. Fish oil is almost always rancid by the time it reaches retailers, which means that it is actually carcinogenic. Dr. Budwig discovered that the body will synthesize omega-3 from flax seed oil in the exact quantity that it needs, and in the proper ratio with other omega oils. This food-based medicine is normally taken orally, but in the most terminal cases, Dr. Budwig was also known to have given pure flax seed oil in enema form. The other stage of the Budwig Protocol is the special diet. Dramatic results are usually seen within 90 days, and sometimes within a week. Patients should continue the regimen for a minimum of 6 months, regardless of a lack of symptoms.

The Medicine

The primary medicine is mixed together, and taken orally once a day at bare minimum.  It should be stirred with a wooden or plastic spoon.  Wood is ideal, and metal should never be used.

  • 1 cup pure quark cheese. Make sure that it is not made with homogenized milk. Since quark cheese is not available for most people, see our suggestions below for alternatives.
  • 2-5 Tbsp. of flax seed oil, or about 10 supplement capsules, or 1-3 Tbsp. of freshly ground flax seed (a coffee grinder works fine and use enough water to make it soft). Note that the flax oil or ground seed must be used immediately after exposure to air.
  • little cayenne

Optional

• little garlic
• little red pepper
• little champagne (for the worst cases — always given in the first couple of days)

The Diet

  • SUGAR IS ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN. Grape juice may be added to sweeten any other freshly squeezed juices.
  • Avoid pure animal fats, such as lard, fatback, dripping, and etc.
  • No commercial salad dressings or toppings
  • No commercial mayonnaise (bastardized, radioactive, genetically engineered, corn, canola and soy oils)
  • No meats unless organic and preferably range fed
  • No butter, and especially no margarine or other artificial butters (Butter is normally extremely beneficial, but it will interfere with this protocol)
  • Freshly squeezed vegetable juices are encouraged, especially carrot, celery, apple, and red beet. All natural juice drinks are fine, with special preference to completely organic drinks.
  • Three times daily a warm tea is essential. Good choices are peppermint, rose hips or grape tea. Sweeten them only with honey. One cup of black tea before noon is fine.
  • Avoid all artificial sweeteners (including high-fructose corn syrup)
  • Entirely chemical free diet
  • Avoid all processed foods
  • Attempt to wean off of all pharmaceuticals
  • Avoid all soft drinks
  • Avoid tap water and bottled water, and use products free of fluoride
  • Eat all foods freshly prepared — no reheating and no leftovers

Additional Health Wyze Suggestions

  • Most people will need to use alternatives to quark cheese because it is unattainable in most areas. Goat milk cheese is the best alternative for most people. Yogurt, cottage cheese and other soft cheeses are less desirable, because they are made from homogenized milk. These should only be used if goat cheese is not available or it is unaffordable. It is especially important to supplement with vitamin C if a product that is made with homogenized milk is used.
  • The flax seed oil used in the protocol must be protected from air, heat, and light. It should always be cold pressed, and preferably organic. We recommend obtaining it in individually sealed capsules.
  • Avoid fish oil and non-flax sources of omega-3, except for baked fish. Avoid fried fish.
  • We suggest either spring water or water filtered through a Berkey water filter that includes the optional fluoride filters.
  • Green tea with honey and lemon juice. A pinch of cayenne may be helpful, too.
  • No microwaving food
  • Avoid hydrogenated oils
  • Supplement with chlorophyll
  • Drink the green drink regularly to ensure proper nutrition
  • Specifically eat an alkalizing diet
  • Use a nebulizer to inhale 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide mist for people with lung conditions
  • Take a large dose of Vitamin C daily that is purchased from a reputable health food store. Do not take more than 5 grams per day, because massive doses will cause kidney stress. This dosage could be problematic for patients with kidney or liver cancers, so use common sense.
  • Avoid sun screens, cosmetics, and the toxic lotions that are found at regular retailers
  • At least once a day, we suggest our lemon and pineapple drink, because of its ability to improve body pH rapidly.
  • Avoid white bread, white rice, white sugar, white salt, white flour, and anything else that is bleached with chlorine compounds.
  • Avoid "table" salt and get high quality unbleached sea salt from a health food store.
  • Delay detoxifying when a person is severely ill or unstable.
  • Delay detoxifying if it is liver or kidney cancer
  • Get a high grade water filter for shower water with the priority of getting all chlorine removed.
  • Do not use tap water in a vaporizer, because it will release chlorine gas.
  • Find safer alternatives to common soaps, bleaches, and detergents at health food stores.
  • Eliminate candida, which should already happen with the Budwig Protocol.
  • Avoid all vaccines
  • Avoid your doctor. Seriously. This could be the most important rule if you want to live.
  • Avoid soy products and canola oil.
  • Use iodine transdermally, but beware of povidone iodine. If a pill form is necessary, then supplement only with red marine algae capsules. Do not use any other type of oral supplementation for iodine.
  • Take a teaspoon of cold pressed organic coconut oil daily.
  • For deathly ill patients, see a specialist, such as a naturopathic doctor (N.D.), who can provide I.V.'s, including safe hydrogen peroxide I.V.'s if necessary.
  • Use Vitamin B-17 for bad cases, but avoid for people with impaired livers.
  • Use our oxygen drink several times a day

The Oxygenating Drink (several times a day):

• 8 oz. spring water
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1-2 tsp. of 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide (wait until all fizzing has stopped before adding, and be very gentle)

Books by Johanna Budwig

Only three of Johanna's books have been translated into English. There are six books that are still only available in German. The English books are listed below.

  • The Oil-Protein Cookbook (Ă–l-EiweiĂź-Kost) Sensei Verlag (2000)
  • Cancer – The Problem and the Solution (Krebs. Das Problem und die Lösung) Sensei Verlag (1999)
  • Flax Oil As A True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer And Other Diseases (Fette als wahre Hilfe gegen Arteriosklerose, Herzinfarkt, Krebs) 1972

Beware of the Fraudulent Budwig Center

We warn our readers about a fraudulent clinic in Spain that is calling itself, "The Budwig Center". It dishonestly markets that it treats cancers with the Budwig Protocol, and that it had a partnership with Dr. Johanna Budwig. We are fairly certain at this point that she never met these people, nor would she like them. We wrote a detailed report about this place, because of the unknown amount of harm that it is doing to people. The full report about them and their methodologies can be found in the article, A Warning about The Budwig Center.


Related Links

Video: 'The Cancer Report' documentary – A must see from Health Wyze!

Article originally published on Health Wyze Report republished with permission.



~A.

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Easy DIY Design and Build a Tubular-Bell Wind Chime Set from Tubes, Pipes or Rods

Easy DIY Design and Build a Tubular-Bell Wind Chime Set from Tubes, Pipes or Rods

Easy DIY Design and Build a Tubular-Bell Wind Chime Set from Tubes, Pipes or Rods

Tubular Wind Chime Design and Build CompendiumTubular Bell Wind Chime Design and Build Compendium 4.2 Meg PDF  The compendium duplicates the web site. Take it with you as a reference when you build the chime set. Also in the combo pack below.
Chime Build Combo Pack Zip 12.7 Meg, Includes the Compendium, calculators, support disk patterns, sail patterns and chime emulation software.
C9 Chord Chime Tube Calculator Zip, CEGBbD, 155 Kb   (Great for wind chimes)
Pentatonic Scale Chime Tube Calculator Zip CDEGA,155 Kb

All Musical Notes DIY Chime Tube Calculator (A=440) (Zip)
(Use this to select your own notes for base 440)
MS Excel TM  
Precalculated Chime Tube Dimensions  75 choices PDF
All Musical Notes DIY Chime Rod Calculator  Zip 155 Kb
Precalculated Chime Rod Dimensions  90 choices PDF
Wind Chime Support Disk & Striker Patterns  5.3Meg PDF, includes location markers for single point or dual point chime hang, 3-point or 4-point support disk hang, tube sizes from 1/2" to 2", size for both  a circular and a star striker, and generic patterns.
Wind Sail/Catcher Patterns  1.3 Meg PDF
Chime Support Suggestions  Single point or dual point for a soft or rigid mount.
Striker Design Suggestions  Includes traditional and non-traditional strikers
Wind Chime Emulation Software  Zip, 105 Kb original Syntrillium program from 1996 {Excellent}
Wind Chime Designer Software  Zip, 370Kb by Greg Phillips + Instructions {Very good}
In the rare case when you want tuning with a 432 Hz base use the chart below:
All Musical Notes DIY Chime Tube Calculator (A=432) (Zip) (Use this to select your own notes for base 432)
MS Excel TM



~A.

Tuesday, December 02, 2014

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The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

Help Us Give You What You Want

Do you really understand what the Worldwide Permaculture Network is all about?

In a world seemingly gone mad, permaculture is reinvigorating countless individuals worldwide - giving them hope by giving them tools (knowledge) to equip them to live free, secure, healthy and happy. The Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) is an outgrowth of this trend. Indeed, the WPN itself becomes a giant toolbox, where all the members' knowledge can be shared amongst each other!!

Scenario: Imagine if you're living in, say, a residential urban home, and are looking at ways to increase your resiliency and sustainability. Then, imagine if you could search a database of thousands of like-minded souls, filtering the results to constrain them to just people in similar circumstances as your own - i.e. 'urban', 'residential'.

Then, why not drop in a climate zone filter to get even more relevant results?

What if you have a rural commercial block, and you see the writing on the wall in regards to soil depletion and the spiraling costs of agricultural inputs, and you want to connect with others who were in similar circumstances, but who have since forged a more intelligent path you could follow? You filter accordingly - 'rural', 'commercial' - and see where it takes you.

After browsing what you find, you discover individuals you feel you 'click' with, and you start following their updates, so you can learn how they're doing things, and why. In a spirit of symbiosis, you also give back by way of sharing your own experiences with them.

Imagine you're looking to take a permaculture course. You search for 'Projects listing courses' and find an excellent course near you – and then you click through to check out the teacher's profile, right from the course listing, and then continue from there to view the profiles and activities of students he/she has taught.

What if you're looking for a consultant to help you transform your own yard? Well, you filter the people search by 'consultant' and add in a location keyword to find one near you.

Imagine you want to start a whole new kind of school - one that equips its students for the world that will be, and not the one that was. Of course you get started searching - filtering to 'school project' - and see what you can learn from others doing likewise.

You can do all this, and much more, on the WPN. It's literally the world map of permaculture.

The WPN can be a game- and world-changer

If it's not already abundantly clear, the Worldwide Permaculture Network (WPN) has enormous potential to be an absolute game-changer for those who want to leverage each other's work and infuse Joe Public with enthusiasm - just when Joe Public thought all was lost. Our educational systems, our economists and our politicians may all have failed us, but with the WPN we can help each other begin to rebuild the world from the ground up - no matter how far apart we are in distance. Whether you're in a high-rise apartment in Manhattan, or living in a rural village in India, there will always be other permaculturists in similar circumstances as your own.

The WPN is what you make it

The above is just part of the WPN vision. Many of you understand it, and have signed up as a result. Now, what the WPN will ultimately become, and how useful it can be, is largely up to you. Make updates, share knowledge, share enthusiasm and learn from others (and don't forget to thank them for it!).

But wait, there's more. There are many more capabilities that could be added to the WPN. Indeed, via our feedback form you're asking for features we've already had on our things-we-want-to-do list for a while! Why not help make the WPN all it can be?

Please help us give you what you're asking for!

Our developers are discounting their rates, as they are excited about the potential of this system also. Please 'Chip In', using the donation tool at top right.

The old saying has never been truer: "The world is what you make it."



~A.

Remembering Marina Keegan -- NYMag

Remembering Marina Keegan -- NYMag

Remembering Marina Keegan

A few years ago, during a stretch of workplace boredom, I added some Ivy League student newspapers to my daily web-reading routine. I did this because, at the time, I was reporting on young Wall Street bankers, and how better to peer inside the psyches of tomorrow's Masters of the Universe than by reading about their college exploits?

Unfortunately, not much turned up. There was the occasional labored op-ed about banks or macroeconomics in the Crimson or Dartmouth or Sun, but otherwise the papers turned up the same old – recaps of concerts and sports games wedged between earnest editorials about climate change and university governance. I thought several times about unfollowing the papers, but never got around to it.

Then Marina Keegan showed up on my screen.

I saw Marina's essay – "Even Artichokes Have Doubts" – shortly after it was published in the Yale Daily News's weekend section in September 2011. Holy shit, I thought. This is great. Marina, a Yale senior, wrote at considerable length about the way her peers at Yale marched inexorably to the financial and consulting sectors after graduation every year – to the tune of 25 percent of the student body. This struck her as not just aggravating, but sad:

What bothers me is this idea of validation, of rationalization. The notion that some of us (regardless of what we tell ourselves) are doing this because we're not sure what else to do and it's easy to apply to and it will pay us decently and it will make us feel like we're still successful. I just haven't met that many people who sound genuinely excited about these jobs. That's super depressing! I don't understand why no one is talking about it.

People don't write about Wall Street this way. When business reporters covered the topic of big-bank recruiting, we did it using statistics and year-over-year comparisons, not normative language meant to prod young people out of complacency. Marina's lament was so good, and so fresh, that I felt it needed a larger audience. I emailed her and asked if she would be willing to write a shorter adaptation of her argument for DealBook, the fief within the Times where I worked.

She did, and the piece went on to become DealBook's best-performing post in many months. Several weeks later, I took the train up to New Haven to meet Marina in person. I was well into my young Wall Street book at this point, and Marina – who was a writer herself, with New Yorker bylines, an internship at The Paris Review, and the ear of her mentor, the famous critic Harold Bloom – gamely offered to show me the work she was doing to create trouble for the finance-recruiting machine. Marina and her friends, many of whom were involved in the Occupy movement, had spent much of that fall and winter trying to stir up controversy around the issue of on-campus recruiting. They held demonstrations outside big-bank information sessions (one sign read "Morgan Stanley is boring!") and tried to talk their peers out of selling their souls to Wall Street.

It was a stormy Wednesday afternoon in New Haven, and Marina and I sat for hours with a small group of her friends in an empty classroom and talked about why Wall Street recruiting was so troubling. Marina was eloquent, passionate, self-aware. She knew she could come off as preachy for telling her peers to abandon J.P. Morgan and McKinsey and take up their real passions instead of laboring over Excel spreadsheets, but she plowed ahead anyway. To her, it was worth losing some friends if the result was a few more of her classmates following their dreams rather than doing what was expected of them. I was a few years older than Marina, but not many, and already she seemed to have the kind of conviction I was struggling to find in my own work.

That was the first time I saw Marina. It was also the last. We kept in touch sporadically throughout the fall, nearly saw each other on one of her New York trips, and emailed back and forth as I wrote her story into my book. Then, in May 2012, a week after her college graduation, I got an email from a mutual friend relaying the unthinkable: Marina had been killed in a car crash on Cape Cod, five days after her graduation from Yale.

I barely knew Marina and met her only once. But it's no stretch to say that she was an inspiration. Before meeting her, I sometimes doubted whether the topic of young Wall Street bankers mattered to anyone other than me. The afternoon spent at Yale, listening to the stories of idealistic juniors and seniors waylaid by the lure of finance jobs, was enough to set me straight, and spur me to finish my manuscript. Partly for this reason, I made her a central character (in the literal sense, too – her scene is dead-center among the pages).

Marina has a book of her own now. Published today by Scribner, it's a posthumous collection of her essays and fiction pieces, mainly written while she was at Yale. Its title, The Opposite of Loneliness, is borrowed from an essay Marina wrote in order to mark her graduation. It's the loveliest piece of writing I've ever seen from someone so young, and wrenching in its irony: "We have these impossibly high standards and we'll probably never live up to our perfect fantasies of our future selves. But I feel like that's okay," she wrote. "We're so young. We're so young. We're twenty-two years old. We have so much time."

It's odd and heartbreaking to read a body of work by someone who died far too soon. It's even odder when you take into account that Marina had no idea she was writing for posterity. She was in her late teens and early 20s when she wrote the material in The Opposite of Loneliness, and the subject matter feels age-appropriate. There are short stories about getting stoned, surprise pregnancies, blossoming romance. There's an essay about her old Toyota Camry, a jalopy inherited from her grandfather. There's one on her gluten allergy.

But nowhere in her work, even while assessing juvenalia, did Marina even remotely seem like she was still using training wheels. Her voice is steady and often very funny, her senses of character and pace are frighteningly good, and the flow of her prose is easy to get carried away by. She wasn't just college-talented; she was talented, period. Several days after reading her book, I found myself turning certain phrases of hers over in my mind, marveling at how she'd found the perfect way to describe a car ride, a song, the weather. If I'd been in her writing workshops at Yale, my jealousy would have surpassed all reason.

Sadness messes with our critical faculties, of course, and I'm sure I could find some nits to pick, if Marina were standing over my shoulder demanding them. (As could she; in the prologue to her book, her former writing professor, Anne Fadiman, describes sitting down with Marina to edit a piece she'd written for class; an hour later, they'd gotten through less than four lines.)

But why quibble? Marina was a writer with a gift. That she never got to expand or edit her first book into something more resembling a finished collection is a tragedy of multiple layers, and nobody's fault but fate. But her family and friends have done a remarkable job of preserving her voice, and the result is one of the most compelling books I've read all year.

In an an essay called "Song for the Special," Marina writes about how jealous she is of people who are deemed important by history, whose legacies will outlive them. She concludes:

Sometime before I die I think I'll find a microphone and climb to the top of a radio tower. I'll take a deep breath and close my eyes because it will start to rain right when I reach the top. Hello, I'll say to outer space, this is my card.

She never got to make that announcement. But she's made another one here. The Opposite of Loneliness wouldn't be nearly enough to capture Marina's full spirit, even at ten times its length and polish, but cruelly, it's all we have.



~A.

Monday, December 01, 2014

Design Your Habits 21-Day Challenge on Lift

Design Your Habits 21-Day Challenge on Lift

Design Your Habits 21-Day Challenge on Lift

In this plan, I will guide you in using the principles and tools of Behavior Design to sustain a new habit for 21 days. Check out my free 1-hour online class Design Your Habits to get started: http://designyourhabits.co. Start this challenge as soon as you finish the class, and put your newly designed habit into action. Checking in each day will unlock tips, prompts, and bonus resources, and you will be able to exchange encouragement and accountability with your fellow students. If you'd like extra support, I also offer 1-on-1 coaching through the app for $15 a week, a fraction of typical coaching rates: https://www.lift.do/coaches/224-tiago-forte My website: http://fortelabs.co Twitter: https://twitter.com/fortelabs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fortelabs Blog: http://www.fortelabs.co/blog/

What are your implementation intentions? Write them here (using the "ask a question" feature) as your public commitment to change. You can also ask if anyone wants to be your accountability partner. For a refresher on how to write implementation intentions, watch Lesson 5 above.



~A.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

How Important Is Oral Microbiome to Your Overall Health?

How Important Is Oral Microbiome to Your Overall Health?

Story at-a-glance +

By Dr. Mercola

Many people do not realize how their oral health can impact their total body health. But the truth is, it's very difficult to achieve high-level physical health if your dental health isn't effectively addressed.

Dr. Gerry Curatola, founder of Rejuvenation Dentistry, has over 30 years' experience in biological dentistry.

For Dr. Curatola, dentistry was a calling since childhood, but unlike most dentists, he really wanted to be "a physician of the mouth." So, after graduating from dental school in 1983, he enrolled in the country's first master's program in holistic health.

"My desire and my focus have always been to look at the mouth as the gateway to total body wellness," he says.

"Beyond that, I became very disturbed that I was a member of a profession—its organized component, the American Dental Association—that is still saying it's okay to put mercury in teeth.

In addition to that, all of the research that was emerging about fluoridation made it very clear that this wasn't the panacea for all dental problems. As a matter of fact, it's responsible for a lot of other problems that we're dealing with today."

How Your Oral Health Impacts Your Systemic Health

Thousands of studies have linked oral disease to systemic disease. Inflammation is well-known as a "ravaging" and disease-causing force, and gum disease and other oral diseases produce chronic low-grade inflammation in your body.

"This inflammation has very, very deleterious effects on just about every major organ system – from Alzheimer's to stroke, heart disease, and diabetes," Dr. Curatola explains.

Advanced periodontal disease or gum disease can raise your risk of a fatal heart attack up to 10 times. According to Dr. Curatola, if you get a heart attack related to periodontal or gum disease, nine times out of 10, it will actually kill you.

There's also a 700 percent higher incidence of type 2 diabetes among those with gum disease, courtesy of the inflammatory effects of unbalanced microflora in your mouth. But how does the microflora in your mouth cause inflammation, you might ask?

When the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease enter into your circulatory system, it causes your liver to release C-reactive proteins, which has inflammatory effects in the entire circulatory system.

"There's a very, very close connection. As I said, the mouth is the gateway to total body wellness. That is an accurate statement that's well-accepted today," Dr. Curatola says.

Rejuvenation Dentistry, founded by Dr. Curatola in 2006, was created as a model for the future practice of dentistry. The model recognizes that dentists often see patients more frequently than most other healthcare practitioners, and can play a much more significant role in people's health than they do currently.

"[Patients] come in for regular checkups and cleanings. And we should be screening... In the mouth, we can diagnose a host of systemic problems.

There are some estimates that up to 80 percent of systemic disease have manifestations in the mouth – everything from blood problems, even leukemia, diabetes, other fungal and bacterial infections that have systemic components," he says.

The Importance of Your Oral Microbiome

Part and parcel of oral health is attending to your oral microbiome. Achieving oral health is really about promoting balance among the bacteria in your mouth. And contrary to popular belief, antimicrobial agents and alcohol mouthwashes designed to "kill bad bacteria" actually do far more harm than good.

The oral microbiome, while connected to the gut microbiome, is quite unique. Most importantly, it has a protective component that protects you from deadly viruses and bacteria in the environment. The second function of the oral microbiome is the beginning of digestion.

"When we look at the oral microbiome, it's an essential component of the salivary immune system; it aids in digestion, and it even makes vitamins. We are looking at ways to promote oral microbiome homeostasis.

When we do that, we see amazing things happen, so amazing that you might not get the flu this winter... [I]mmune competence is a very important first line of defense, and that immune competence starts in the mouth."

Interestingly, probiotics do not work in the mouth, so it's not as simple as adding more beneficial microbes. As an initial step, you need to cease killing microbes in your mouth.

"[P]athogens have been redefined since the Human Microbiome Project (HMP) in 2002. Pathogens are now being recognized as resident microbes that are out of balance," Dr. Curatola explains.

"When they're under attack, they hunker down, they flick a switch... What we're recognizing is that the same bacteria that keep us alive can have a pathogenic expression when disturbed. I have been kind of tooting the horn about getting out of the 'pesticide business.' I'm also speaking about natural pesticides.

Not just triclosan, clorhexidine, and those synthetic types, but also tea tree oil, tulsi oil, oregano oil and other antimicrobial oils that, albeit they're herbal, they have a potent disturbing effect on the oral microbiome. 

In the mouth, you don't want to have a 'scorched earth policy' or nuking all the bacteria and hoping the good bugs come back.

What we found in our research is that good bugs basically have a harder chance of setting up a healthy-balanced microbiome when you disturb them, denature them, or dehydrate them with alcohol-based products."

My Personal Strategy

I recently had one of the leading experts in vitamin K2 visit me from the Netherlands and he reminded me of how important vitamin K2 is in carboxylating osteocalcin which prevents calcification of soft tissues like blood vessels and the plaque in your mouth from turning to calculus or tartar.  So I recently stopped oil pulling with coconut oil and replaced it with fermented vegetables made with your Kinetic Culture which is extraordinarily high in vitamin K2.

Nutrition and Homeopathy

So what are the alternatives? Certain nutrients are very important for optimal gum health. Vitamin C is one; Coenzyme Q10 is another. CoQ10 is a critical cofactor in the Krebs cycle, which is how energy is created in your cells. Bleeding gums, for example, often exhibit a deficiency of CoQ10. There are also a number of homeopathic tissue salts that can be beneficial for oral health, including: 

  • Silica
  • Calcarea fluorica (calc fluor) or calcium fluoride
  • Calcium phosphate
  • Calcium carbonate

Why Fluoride Is Not Recommended for Dental Health

Calcium fluoride should not be confused with the chemical formulation of sodium fluoride, which is toxic. Sodium fluoride is the kind found in toothpaste, which carries a poison warning. This stems back to the 1980s with the introduction of a popular bubble gum flavored commercial toothpaste that led to a 280 percent increase in child fatalities from fluoride poisoning. As it turned out, there was more than enough chemical fluoride in a full-sized tube to kill a young child.

It took 10 years, but finally in 1998 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated a poison warning be placed on toothpaste, stating that children should be supervised, and to limit toothpaste to a pea-sized amount. If more than that is swallowed, you're advised to contact Poison Control Center immediately. Fluoride over-exposure from toothpaste, fluoridated water, and other sources, has led to a virtual epidemic of fluoride damage. At present, four out of 10 adolescents in the US have fluoride-damaged teeth—a condition known as dental fluorosis.

"[F]luoride was promoted because it stimulates remineralization of teeth. What they didn't look at is what type of mineral is left in that tooth—it's a mineral known as fluorapatite... Fluorapatite is very hard. It's like a porcelain plate; I can't scratch it, but if I bang it on this counter, it would break in a million pieces... [Natural] teeth and bones are made of hydroxyapatite... We now have teeth and bones that are fluorapatite," Dr. Curatola explains.

"Skeletal fluorosis has also become a big concern. We have an exponential rate of hip fractures. A lot of doctors and scientists have been pointing to the fact that teeth and bones are less flexible as fluorapatite than hydroxyapatite. This is aside from all the controversy in terms of fluoridated water lowering IQ, kidney disease, and cancer..."

The Case for Oil Pulling

Dr. Curatola's clinical and experimental experience over the last 30 years suggests that most toothpastes should be avoided. As a substitute, you need to have a good nutritional program for systemic health, along with an oral rinse that specifically nourishes your oral microbiome. He also recommends oil pulling, using coconut oil, noting that: "If you don't want to use toothpaste right now and you don't have a good nutritional that promotes oral microbiome homeostasis, coconut oil pulling is great."

Coconut oil pulling has a lipophilic effect, helping to eliminate unhealthy biofilm from your teeth. And while it has a natural detergent effect, it doesn't do the damage that chemical detergents do. Coconut oil also contains a number of valuable nutrients that help promote oral health. Another tip: If you want a healthy oral care rinse, Dr. Curatola suggests rinsing with some Himalayan salt dissolved in water, as it contains more than 85 different microminerals.

Optimizing Your Nutrition Is Key for Oral Health

It's also worth noting that while probiotics do not have a direct effect on your oral microbiome, addressing your gut flora can indeed make a big difference in your oral health. I used to be severely challenged with plaque—so much so I required very frequent visits to the dental hygienist just to keep up with it. Once I started adding fermented vegetables regularly to my diet however, the plaque buildup was dramatically reduced.

"You have to think about promoting balance," Dr. Curatola reminds us. "We've looked at organic gardening and the environment around us and even eating organic foods. I'd like everyone to think about doing 'organic gardening' in the mouth. The way you do that is through a strong, healthy, and balanced nutritional protocol. I call it triple-A nutrition – alkalizing, antioxidant-rich, and anti-inflammatory. People should know what nutritional factors are inflammatory. There are inflammatory triggers, whether it's gluten, dairy, and a number of others. They can vary for different individuals."

In addition to an alkalizing, antioxidant-rich, and anti-inflammatory diet, he recommends eliminating detergent-based products such as toothpaste and antibacterial and alcohol-based mouthwashes. Again, it's important to remember that your mouth is an organ that protects your body from dangerous infections and disease—provided it's nourished enough to do its job. You can learn more about Dr. Curatola's New York City based practice, Rejuvenation Dentistry, on his website. The following links can also help you find a mercury-free, biological dentist who can help you optimize your oral health:



~A.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Clean Tarnished Silver Jewelry — Jewelry Making Journal

Clean Tarnished Silver Jewelry — Jewelry Making Journal

Clean Tarnished Silver Jewelry

© by Elena Zharina; all rights reserved.

If you've worn silver jewelry, you know how tarnished it can get in a very short time. We all know about silver polish, but few people are aware that polishing actually scrubs some silver off the surface of your treasured necklace or ring.

It can be especially detrimental for silver-plated pieces, where the layer of silver may not be very thick. Another problem with using silver polish to clean jewelry is that it can be hard clean all the nooks and crannies in your jewelry.

We have good news for you: We are about to share an easy method for returning the glow to your silver jewelry without causing any damage to it. Even better, you can use this silver cleaning method right after you finish reading this article!

Tarnished silver ring, before and after cleaning


The Ingredients You'll Need

  • water
  • salt
  • an aluminum plate (you can substitute aluminum foil)
  • water softener powder (you can substitute baking soda).

Procedure

1. Take an aluminum plate (or a regular plate covered with a piece of foil).

2. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of water softener powder (or baking soda).

3. Then pour some hot (but not boiling) water onto the plate.

4. Stir to dissolve the powders.

5. Now you can dunk your silver in the solution.

How long do you need to keep your silver in the solution? The results may be immediate, or they may take a few minutes. However, if an item is very tarnished, this cleaning method will not make your jewelry perfectly clean and looking like new. Additional polishing will still be needed.

Warning

We do not recommend this cleaning method for jewelry that has precious or semi-precious stones. Though after a little research we discovered that a lot of people (including silversmiths) have used this method for cleaning gemstone jewelry with no ill effect, we don't think it's worth the risk of damaging your stones.

Also, be aware that this method is not good for antiqued (oxidized) silver, as cleaning will remove the antiqued finish on the silver along with the tarnish.

How It Works

If you are interested in chemistry, here is what is going on when your silver jewelry is taking this little "bath":

Silver sulfide is the stuff that makes your silver look grayish over time. This process is called oxidation. When immersed in the baking soda/salt solution, the aluminum reacts with the silver sulfide, pulling the sulphur atoms out and "plating" them onto the aluminum as aluminum sulfide. The silver that remains from the reaction is redeposited onto the silver.


Author Elena Zharina of http://gem-fashion.com/ offers over 1,000 new styles of men's and ladies' fashion jewelry.

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~A.