The New Dream Blog by New Dream, June 21, 2012 at 3:15pm Your closet is overflowing and it's time to clean it out. Instead of throwing everything in a box, why not host a clothing swap in your community? Clothing swaps are a fun way to declutter, refresh your wardrobe, meet new friends, and donate to a worthy cause. In this video, Suzanne Agasi of ClothingSwap.com shows New Dream how easy it is to host a clothing swap in your own home. The video is part of the Guide to Sharing, the first in a series of guides that New Dream is producing for our new Community Action Kit. The New Dream Community Action Kit is a creative, fun, and easy-to-use online Kit that promotes collective action and civic engagement to build more sustainable, healthier, and happier communities. Learn more about the Community Action Kit here.
8 ways to Save $$$$$$ on Your Gardening Habit 4 Flares Twitter 1 Facebook 1 4 Flares × Gardening is relaxing but it sure can cost some bucks when you need it least. I have put together a quick list with more to come. Both supplies and plants are getting more and more expensive as time goes on. Here are 8 ways to save money on your garden: Craigslist- I have found many things both paid for and in the free section on CL. I gave away my front shrubs. 20 year old really entrenched shrubs that would have worn me out when I was redoing the yard. Funeral Homes- Do you know anyone that works in a funeral home and do you need some nice vases, pots and plants. Yard sales- Best for yard tools, plants and pots and planters CHEEP! Dumpster diving- Yup I am a diver from way back. Fire wood places- I have a place a couple of miles from here that cuts trees that have been cut down locally into fire logs which leaves a bunch of really great mulch which they give away. Buy soil and compost in bulk- Back to that truck thing again.
How to get fresh water out of thin air Image Credit: MIT Fog-harvesting system developed by MIT and Chilean researchers could provide potable water for the world’s driest regions. CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In some of this planet’s driest regions, where rainfall is rare or even nonexistent, a few specialized plants and insects have devised ingenious strategies to provide themselves with the water necessary for life: They pull it right out of the air, from fog that drifts in from warm oceans nearby. Now researchers at MIT, working in collaboration with colleagues in Chile, are seeking to mimic that trick on a much larger scale, potentially supplying significant quantities of clean, potable water in places where there are few alternatives. Fog harvesting, as the technique is known, is not a new idea: Systems to make use of this airborne potable water already exist in at least 17 nations. Fog-harvesting systems generally consist of a vertical mesh, sort of like an oversized tennis net. Credits:
Going Green Heal Thyself! - Food Has Power Podcast #3 New Name, Contest, Shade , Announcements Things to Make you a Better Gardener The last big secret to a great lawn is to mow mow and mow every 5 days in high growth seasons Worm composting? It takes little space, it is less work, fast way to get compost, better soil than traditional It breaks down to compost and feeds and enriches the soil around your plants. Plant Zones or plant hardiness zones alone are not a good indication of whether or not your plants will do well! Watering restrictions are demanding that we select a more water efficient plants for landscapes. If you know a total introvert that is a gardener ask them about it. #amastergardener The Truth About Shade Select water conservative plants Green thumb Read books by local authors. I define a gardening region as an area with the same gardening factors attributed to it. Categories Latest tweets Loading tweets...
Welcome to SODIS Online course on water treatment at household level 10th of March 2014 – Fabian Suter On 7 April 2014, the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries (Sandec/Eawag), in partnership with the EPF Lausanne, is launching its first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), entitled “Introduction to household water treatment and safe storage”. The course is free, in English and has French subtitles. For further information and to sign up for the course, please go to: www.coursera.org/course/hwts. SODIS workshop in Benin 26th of September 2013 – Samuel Luzi In addition to effective behavior change campaigns, the long term application of household water treatment methods depends on the availability and affordability of HWTS products (SODIS bottles, chlorine tablets of solution, filters). Enabling choices 12th of August 2013 – Matthias Saladin A letter about SODIS from Neema Achieng 16th of July 2013 – Fabian Suter Neema Achieng is a pupil at the Ring-Road-Primary School in Kenya.
Journey to Forever Turmeric Shown to Cut Heart Disease, Diabetes Risk Research is lending even more reason to amp up spice use on a daily basis, with spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, and cloves normalizing insulin and triglyceride levels while boosting antioxidant defenses. Keeping triglyceride and insulin levels low effectively reduces your risk for numerous health conditions like metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and the number one leading killer — heart disease. Study conductor Shelia West found that the levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, decreased by approximately a third in a meal prepared with spices. The decrease even occurred when oily sauces high in fat were present. The research, published in the journal Nutrition, shows how extremely simple dietary changes can have such a positive influence on health. “Normally, when you eat a high-fat meal, you end up with high levels of triglycerides, a type of fat, in your blood…If this happens too frequently, or if triglyceride levels are raised too much, your risk of heart disease is increased.
Yolo County - Yolo County Simple tree branch filter makes dirty water drinkable To turn dirty lakewater into drinkable H2O, peel away the bark from a nearby tree branch and slowly pour water through the wood. According to new research, this neat, low-tech trick ought to trap any bacteria, leaving you with uncontaminated water. Okay, time for a little tree physiology. To get water and minerals up a tree, wood is comprised of xylem, porous tissue arranged in tubes for conducing sap from the roots upwards through a system of vessels and pores. Turns out, the same tissue that evolved to transport sap up the length of a tree also has exactly the right-sized pores to allow water through while blocking bacteria. As Karnik’s team finds, a small piece of sapwood can filter out more than 99 percent of the E. coli from water, at the rate of several liters per day. To study sapwood’s water-filtering potential, the team collected white pine branches and stripped off their outer bark. They tested their improvised filter using water mixed with particles ranging in size.
Kangouro Aspartame is, by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. It was discovered by accident in 1965 when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company, was testing an anti-ulcer drug. Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1974, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr. What Is Aspartame Made Of? Aspartic Acid (40 percent of Aspartame) Dr. How Aspartate (and Glutamate) Cause Damage Aspartate and glutamate act as neurotransmitters in the brain by facilitating the transmission of information from neuron to neuron. The risk to infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and persons with certain chronic health problems from excitotoxins are great. "It is prudent to avoid the use of dietary supplements of L-glutamic acid by pregnant women, infants, and children. Phenylalanine (50 percent of aspartame) Methanol/wood alcohol is a deadly poison.