You never quite know what’s going to land in your inbox.
Sometimes it seems like mostly spam and the enamel on the delete button wears thin. Sometimes it’s full of busy and takes longer than expected to chew your way through.
Sometimes you can’t even manage a nibble – you’ve had enough and avoid even looking at your inbox for as long as you dare. And sometimes there’s something there that involuntarily exposes all your front teeth in an unexpected grin and exercises your smile muscles at the same time.
Sometimes this is just what you needed. Today’s unexpected smile came under the guise of “Zen Teachings”.
1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me for the path is narrow. In fact, just piss off and leave me alone.
2. Sex is like air. It’s not that important unless you aren’t getting any.
3. No one is listening until you fart.
4. Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else.
5. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
6. If you think nobody cares whether you’re alive or dead, try missing a couple of mortgage payments.
7. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.
8. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
9. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
10. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
11. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
12. Some days you are the dog, some days you are the tree.
13. Don’t worry; it only seems kinky the first time.
14. Good judgment comes from bad experience … and most of that comes from bad judgment.
15. A closed mouth gathers no foot.
16. There are two excellent theories for arguing with women. Neither one works.
17. Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving.
18. Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
19. We are born naked, wet and hungry, and get slapped on our arse …. then things just keep getting worse.
20. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
This is what makes environmental campaigning all worthwhile – the planned mining on the sacred Indian Mountain the tribal land of the Dongria Kondh has been stopped, afte four years of protests by locals and environmental organisations.
Controversial plans to develop a bauxite mine on sacred tribal land in India have been cancelled by India’s environment ministry. The Dongria Kondh’s – an indigenous tribe who have lived since time immemorial around the mountain Niyamgiri in the Indian state of Orissa – demands have been met, and the area will remain wild, lush and sacred. Multi-national company Vedanta’s existing aluminum refinery in the area had polluted local rivers, damaged crops and disrupted the lives of the local tribe; and will now not be able to expand six-fold. This is a Dongria Kondh victory first and foremost.
The project has been delayed by four years because of the Dongria Kondh’s intense opposition locally – including the brandishing of bows and arrows – as well as from environmental and tribal rights group. Globally, a loosely coordinated campaign sought to persuade multi-national Vedanta’s shareholders and financiers to distance themselves from the company. This is their magnificent victory as well – for Survival International and Amnesty International, various celebrity activists such as Bianca Jagger and Michael Palin, and numerous other loosely affiliated affinity campaigns, including most recently from Ecological Internet working with the Rainforest Information Centre.
“Yet again global people power has come to the aid of small, intact communities battling the ecosystem destroying economic growth machine. The Dongria Kondh’s amazing efforts should be placed in the context of a global people’s power movement to protect and restore ecosystems, and wrest control of land from industrial and speculative capitalism,” asserts Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet’s President.
Lewis Gordon Pugh is probably best known for becoming the first person to undertake a long distance swim across the Geographic North Pole in 2007 and has come to be known as “the Human Polar Bear”.
He studied law at the University of Cape Town and Cambridge University and then worked as a maritime lawyer in London. He always wanted to be a pioneer swimmer and to swim where no-one else had swum before, inspired by explorers such as Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott, and Edmund Hillary
He has pioneered more swims around famous landmarks than any other swimmer and is the only person to have completed a long distance swim in every ocean in the world.
He is a passionate environmental campaigner who has used his pioneering adventures to draw attention to issues such as climate change and pollution, and now spends his time public speaking and campagning to world leaders to protect the environment.
On May 22nd 2010 he swam 1 km across a glacial lake on Mt Everest, with a water temperature of 2 degrees, an altitude of 5,300m and the fact that fresh water is less buoyant than salt water made it one of the most difficult swims he has ever undetaken.
Lake Imja was first seen in 1958 and is now nealy 2km long due to the melting Imja Glacier.
“These glaciers are not just ice. They are a lifeline. They provide a constant water supply to some 2 billion people – nearly a third of the world’s population. The peoples of India, China, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan depend on the melt water from the Himalayan and Hindu Kush glaciers. But they are melting due to climate change. And without a regular supply of water, there is a real risk of instability in the region.
This is a plea to every nation, to do everything it can, to put a stop to climate change. We live in a global environment. What happens in one part of the world will impact every other part. And when it comes to cutting carbon emissions, we must stop arguing about whether China, the USA or the EU should act first. Given the urgency of the situation every country needs to put in place every solution at its disposal. There is no time for delay.”
– Lewis Pugh –
“We stand at a critical point in the history of the planet and the steps which we take over the next few years will determine the future of the natural world and the sustainability of mankind.”
– Lewis Pugh –
“Conservation of the environment is no longer their problem or my problem but our problem”
– Lewis Pugh –
“Bodies heal themselves. What matters most is the state of your spirit.”
– Lewis Pugh –
Vedanta Resources, a British mining company, is set to destroy the forests, wildlife and way of life of the Dongria Kondh people. The Dongria Kondh have been struggling with all their might to protect their mountain but are being overpowered by the financial and political might of this multi-billion dollar company.
They have been protesting locally for years, and have appealed for international support for their campaign to keep their sacred Niyamgiri Mountain ecologically and culturally intact.
Follow the link below for updated information and for a chance to make a difference.
It is time for all our voices to be heard.
Don’t let them steal Our Earth.
Gardenia (Cape Jasmine) – Better than Barbituates …
It’s official – if you take medication to calm you, relieve anxiety and tension or help you sleep, it would be just as effective (and a lot healthier) to throw away those tablets and buy some flowers.
Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum led by Prof. Dr.Hanns Hatt in collaboration with Dr. Olga Sergeeva and Prof. Helmut Hass from the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, have discovered that the scent from the Gardenia “Gardenia jasminoides” has the ability to soothe, relieve anxiety and to promote sleep, with the same effectiveness as commonly prescribed medication (barbituates or propofol)
Newspapers and online articles have been covering this story over the past few days but because of a translation problem from the German universities which ran the scientific investigation the qualities are being ascribed to Jasmine, but are correctly referring to the flower “Gardenia jasminoides” which is known also as Cape Jasmine but is actually Gardenia rather than Jasmine.
The report appears in the online issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The researchers have been granted a patent for their discovery.
GABA Gardenia – Nature’s Own Healthy Barbituate
Sleeping pills, sedatives and relaxants are the most frequently prescribed psychotropic drugs with mild dosage having a calming effect and heavier dosage a hypnotic effect.
This class of substance includes alcohol, barbituates and opiates and are prescribed for anxiety and stress-related issues as well as being used as anaesthetics. They do have many side effects such as dizziness, hypertension, muscle weaknessand impaired coordination) and are potentially addictive.
These kinds of drugs (Benzodiazepines, barbituates and anaesthetics) work via adhesion on the site of receptors on the contact-points (synapses) of nerve cells by increasing the effect of GABA (gamma-amniobutyric acid)
The research included testing hundreds of fragrances to explore their effect on GABA receptors, and discovered that the two fragrances vertacetal-coeur (VC) from Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides), and the chemical variation (PI24513) had the strongest effect – increasing the GABA effect more than five times, thus equaling the strength of known prescription drugs.
The usual United States response will be a potential availability in ten years and the DEA will make jasmine illegal and jail people for possessing it. The creation of another banned substance will increase court backlogs, burden the already overloaded penal system, and create a whole new “flower underworld.” That is how it is done in the United States.”
A six-story statue of Jesus Christ in Monroe, Ohio was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving a blacked steel skeleton.
Insurance companies are calling it “An Act of God”
The “King of Kings” statue had become one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks having stood at the evangeliocal Solid Rock Church since 20004. The church and statue are next to the Interstate 75 highway in Monroe, just north of Cincinatti.
The statue was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, showing the torso of Jesus with upraised arms. It was nicknamed “The Touchdown Jesus” because the pose resembled a referee signalling a touchdown.
The same nickname is used for a famous mural of the resurected Jesus that overlooks the Notre Dame football stadium.
Lightning struck the statue about 11.15pm on Monday, setting it on fire – damage from the fire was estimated at $700,000 with another $300,000 damage caused to an adjacent ampitheater.
