(hat tip Diane Ravitch) The Dish posted this awesome video of a musical flash mob in Ukraine–the equivalent of our First Amendment (Freedom of Assembly) in action.
There’s just something about the defiance with music from the soul…brought tears to my eyes. If you recall, “Ode to Joy” was the only classical song my poor mother could get me to play, and until just recently, I could not play it, due to the mercury.
First, I want to say that I get no advertising dollars for recommending products…with that said…
I saw a bargain for some olive oil soap….3 bars for $3.99, so I grabbed them.
I had been looking up biodegradable shampoo because the Dr. Bronner’s, which I usually use, left something of a coating on my hair. And I didn’t like the idea of purchasing shampoo in plastic bottles, adding to the plastic bottle mountain heap. I saw shampoo soap and wondered about its efficacy. Memories of when my Mom used soap on my hair and the resulting mess came to mind…
So when I purchased the olive oil soap, I was planning on just using it for soap…but thought more about that shampoo soap, and decided what the hey, I’ll try it. I didn’t have anywhere to go that day, so no biggie if my hair turned into a mess.
I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was my hair clean, but soft, too. The castile soap had left it dulled somewhat.
So I think I have a new shampoo…without the bottle.
Now if I can find it without stupid plastic wrap around it…
Global News has this up on the April Fools pranks.
One of the best April Fools jokes I’ve seen was back in the 1970s when streaking was quite popular at sporting/public events.
The newspaper of the town I grew up in featured a front-page story of a marathon race. They went to the trouble of taking pictures of signs they created to make it appear on the up-and-up.
The story went that the runners were going to “streak” …and since guys were wearing their hair long in those days (ooh lala), the paper quipped, “The girls will wear pink hats and the guys will wear blue hats so you can tell them apart.” It when on to say there would be prizes awarded, etc.
In the end, the joke is revealed. Clever.
(hat tip to Diane Ravitch and Valerie Strauss)
The Onion has a hilarious take on the college admissions process.
Jared Leto has a link up to a video against oil drilling in the rainforest of Yasuni. You might recall the Huaroani tribe was featured in the book Savages by Joe Kane. He chronicled the indigenous tribes’ slowly being overtaken by the oil companies–their health, their land, and their culture.
Yasuni is home to over 130 globally threatened species including the giant otter, white-bellied spider monkey, golden-mantled tamarin, giant armadillo and jaguar. Extinction risks are high for all threatened species.
655 different tree species have been identified within 1 hectare of land.
For reptile biodiversity, it is the 2nd richest area in the world.
More insect species are found in Yasuni than any other forest.
There are more frog and toad species within Yasuni than all of North America combined.
Ecuador has the 9th highest mammal biodiversity, and over half reside in Yasuni.
Many species are endemic to Yasuni.
It is home to the 5th largest bat reserve.
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The petition to sign here. Please don’t think because it’s *there* that it doesn’t affect us in America. It does. Everything is connected and when a species (plant or animal) dies, it affects other species….a domino effect, if you will.
Given that bats are dying of a disease of unknown origin, (yeah, it’s probably caused by chemical toxins), we should sit up and take notice that this area contains the 5th largest bat reserve.
Here are some of the unique species to Yasuni.
It’s really depressing that Turkey has apparently supported the violence in Syria. More detailed report here. (hat tip to Jared Leto). I pretty much ignore the WSJ piece, given the bias of Rupert Murdoch. It starts off with the Canadian Ambassador for Religious Freedom protesting Turkey…and yet my blogs on the Canadian gov’t treatment of First Nations people smacks in the face of that.
For those who don’t know, the Armenians suffered through a massacre a hundred years ago. A survivor of the massacre tells her story.
Another tragic story of survival here.
French mayor pushes for Turkey to recognize the genocide. Others join in.
My past blog on Syria here and here. Bishop Desmond Tutu on Syria here.
Fred Klonsky’s blog on helping in Syria.
Scott Sewell has this up on how things changed when the gaming commissions came to town. A sly way to divide tribes, eh?
There is just something wrong with giving tribes two choices: nuclear waste or gambling casinos.
But the federal government says to Indian people, “I will recognize your sovereignty if you have either a nuclear or toxic-waste dump or casino.” That’s pretty much the only way you get your sovereignty recognized as Indian people.
Let me be clear about this: We are sovereign. I don’t care if the federal government recognizes me, my nation, and my people. That’s of little consequence to me in the long-term picture. The federal government, as far as I’m concerned, is by and large illegal. Most transactions are illegal. It’s like being recognized by a bunch of hoodlums. But under the law, they recognize your sovereignty in those two things, a dump or a casino. So Indian people are in an ironic situation, in that our choices for economic development are so limited.In Minnesota, I see two examples. I see a reservation like Mille Lacs. They have two casinos. They built schools, houses, roads, clinics, and community buildings. They bought land. Nobody was going to do that for them. No federal appropriation was going to be made for those Indian people to do that, although their land was mostly taken from them. The federal government is supposed to provide those things for them. That’s not going to happen, so they did that with their casinos, and that’s right. They’re making some long-term investments that are smart. They don’t think those casinos are going to last forever, but they’re doing the right thing.
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I have heard of folks willing their land to a tribe native to the area. Cool.
Here is the Native Harvest website Winona mentions.
And the Indigenous Environmental Network.
The grassroots people of Kul Wicasa oppose the development of the power line infrastructure planned by Basin Electric. The Lower Brule substation is to be located two miles from the Big Bend Damn. The thick, corrosive nature of tarsands oil (which in its natural state is the consistency of peanut butter) requires a constant temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit and necessary dilutants to liquify it enough to be slurried through the pipeline. This will require an enormous amount of power. Basin Electric stated at a public utilities commission meeting in Winner, SD “the pipeline apparently moves oil under 1440 pounds of pressure per square inch. If the line is to move 700,000 barrels of crude per day, each pumping station requires three 6500 hp electric motors running on 17 megawatts of power night and day. If the flow rate is increased to 900,000 barrels per day, five 6500hp electric motors are required. That would use 25 megawatts of power.”
This increasing demand for electricity forces the need for the additional power station at Lower Brule. Transmission studies indicate the current system has reached its load limit. Given the location of the Lower Brule substation, 2 miles south of the Big Bend Damn, it is apparent Missouri River water will be used to produce electricity.
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Soooo…..they toss a few crumbs with wind turbines…but what they don’t tell them is that the pipeline is going to require even more energy…and precious water to move the “peanut butter” through the lines…um-hmmm…
This is just stunning:
…the land isn’t even there now; it’s an oil mine; there was a lake there that was 200 miles long and 100 miles wide. Now, the elders are saying, for the first time, the shoreline is receding and the rocks at the bottom of the lake are exposed. Water is being taken from the rivers and lakes to support the destruction by the tarsands mine.
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It’s really hard to imagine that much water being used. It’s gone. No longer usable by humans or animals.
This pipeline would destroy farmland and jobs, contrary to Big Oil myth. The First Nations are trying to support themselves with the food production, but once again Big Oil has other ideas. If you know anything about history, the Native Americans were moved to areas out West…once oil was discovered, suddenly they were in the way and once again moved. This continued on…and now we have the modern day version of it–pollute the land so it is no longer inhabitable.
You would think that Rahm Emanuel would think twice before messing with Karen Lewis, but he apparently hasn’t been, um…schooled. (sorry, bad pun I know)
She once again delivers a smackdown of the mayor by calling him on the divide-and-conquer politics.
Be sure to click on the links to Fred Klonsky’s blog, which also gives some insight to what is going on in Chicago. What goes on there, is most certainly going on around the country. Bless Karen Lewis.
…but you wouldn’t have guessed them.
Here’s the nutrition data sheet on:
Black Beans (not pasta, mind you)
I was looking for the absorption rate of the protein because one of the issues that Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride- (GAPS diet) has with vegetarian diets is that the body does not absorb plant protein as well as animal protein. And then there’s the debate on how much protein we really need to be healthy. They make note that athletes and active people need more, but then leave people in the dark about their definition of “active”….is someone active who exercises two days a week? Three days? Is an athlete someone who exercises an hour every day? One bodybuilder site mentions that their standard is two hours a day (for bodybuilding). It would be easier if they could give more definite terms such as body weight, hours exercised, days exercised, and how much protein is required for those levels.
Lastly, what about the effect of GMO’s and food absorption? What about inflammation? If you are consuming beef that is fed GMO corn, how is that being absorbed? Since beef is more slowly absorbed, does it cause more inflammation than if one is eating organic vegetable protein? All of those factors need to be considered, too.
Eagle 
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