StumbleUpon | saltwatermatt's URL reviews

TH!NK ABOUT IT - CLIMATE CHANGE - european blogging competition

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:29:22 -0800

Excellent collection of blog feeds regarding climate change.

The Ecologist

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:26:53 -0800

An excellent magazine that I always enjoyed reading whilst at university.

Sadly not on the magazine rack at my local library. E-subscription is available, though!

The Food-Mood Solution

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:56:09 -0800

Well reasoned analysis of the contribution of diet in mood and personality disorders

The pH Nutrition Guide to Acid / Alkaline Balance page 0

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:14:41 -0800

Insufficient consumption of fruit and vegetable likely leaves your body a little too acid, according to this report. Osteoporosis (loss of calcium from bones) may result. Blood circulation may decline.

The following points are made:

• First, fruits and vegetables are rich in potassium salts, a natural buffer. Eating few of these foods deprives us of potassium, a mineral that protects against hypertension and stroke. According to Cordain's research, humans evolved eating a 10:1 ratio of potassium to sodium, and he regards this ratio as our biological baseline. Today, because of heavily salted processed and fast foods, combined with a low intake of fruits and vegetables, the ratio is now 3:1 in favor of sodium. That reversal, he says, wreaks havoc with pH and our dependency on potassium.

• Second, there has also been a similar reversal in the consumption of naturally occurring bicarbonate (such as potassium bicarbonate) in foods and added chloride (mostly in the form of sodium chloride, or table salt). Bicarbonate is alkaline, where as chloride is acid-yielding. Chloride also constricts blood vessels, and narrows blood vessels reduce circulation, Sebastian says. Because the whole body depends on healthy circulation, vasoconstriction contributes to heart disease, stroke, dementia, and probably every other degenerative disease.

• Third, eating large amounts of animal protein (including meat, fowl, and seafood) releases sulfuric acid though the metabolism of sulfur-containing amino acids, also contributing to greater acidity. This acidic shift can be offset with greater consumption of fruits and vegetables (rich in potassium bicarbonate), but again, most Americans eat these foods sparingly.

• Fourth, grains, such as wheat, rye, and corn, have a net acid-yielding effect, regardless of whether they are in the form of white bread, breakfast cereal, pasta or whole grains. "Grains are the most frequently consumed plant food in the United States," says Sebastian, and account for 65 percent of the plant foods eaten by Americans. "In addition to their acid yield, grains displace more nutritious fruits and vegetables,"

http://photography-by-ashley.blogspot.com/

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:26:31 -0800

random blog photo

Warrior Women - Mulan 1

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:21:41 -0800

Dramatic tv, blurry history. Story of Hua Mulan, mythical female warrior from China of 18th century, who eventually led a uprising of 100,000 soldiers. Her martial arts skills were honed as a street performer, her taste of inequity as the beggar daughter of a single mum during difficult times in China.

Cross bows and lots of sword fighting. Some nice landscapes, too.

One of a series of five 9 minute sections. Complete video comprising one of many in a series looking at women warriors.

The Omnivore's Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals & The American, A Magazine of Ideas

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:27:12 -0800

You'll need to read this to decide ...

Clive Hamilton - Articles

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:57:35 -0800

Good is the new bad....title of one of many stimulating essays.

The sexual revolution allowed us to discard oppressive moral codes, but it failed to
deliver on its promise of a world of uninhibited sexual pleasure in which we could find
and express our true desires. Sexual freedom became burdened with expectations it could
never meet. Pursuing sexual freedom as an antidote to boredom or as a means of finding
personal fulfilment was always doomed to fail. For many it became a means of avoiding
emotional intimacy and repudiating the metaphysical meaning of sexual union. The
ideology of sexual freedom did not recognise that, for all of its wonders, sex also has a
powerful dark side, one that often gives rise to feelings of betrayal, regret and emptiness.
I have argued that engaging in early and uninhibited sex was once a sign of rebellion
against an oppressive orthodoxy; now in a sex-soaked society, in which the imagery and
practices of pornography are seeping in to the mainstream, a new orthodoxy has taken
control, imposing a set of expectations almost as oppressive as those it replaced. In this
new environment, power is now to be exercised by resisting those pressures.
Temperance, even abstinence, can be an expression of self-control, of inner freedom.
Today the historic mission is no longer to attack and tear down, but to rebuild a moral
code. In affluent, liberal societies, the task is to understand that freedom cannot be found
in a moral free-for-all, but only in the careful exercise of restraint.

Casaubon's Book & Blog Archive & Barter, Baby, Barter

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:51:44 -0800

From the page: "But the thing about barter that I find true is that it brings out the best in us for the most part �" because it is never possible to full equate eggs with logs, because they are fundamentally not the same, in barter, you are never fully sure that the price paid is a fair one �" you can�t be. And what I see in barter relationships is a turning around of economic exchanges �" because we want fairness even in ourselves mostly, because few of us like to beholden, or to look cheap, we find ourselves feeling as though the relationship is never fully even �" at its best, both barter participants always feel that they got the better of the deal, that they paid too little, and thus, �oeowe” a little on next time. Instead of *getting* the best bang for your buck, barter becomes about *giving* the best bang for your time.

One of the things that worries me about our present economic situation is how very vulnerable we are in our total dependence on the formal economy �" and we are taught to look only there for our security. So when the formal economy fails us, it seems that there is nothing left, that all that remains is the empty rote of enacting participation that we cannot truly succeed in. I don�t claim that barter will save us from poverty �" it won�t. But it may save us by offering us a kind of livability that the formal economy when it cracks and fails cannot. What we may get back in this crisis, difficult as it is, is time �" and the chance to use time instead of money."

Peter Cundall arrested at pulp mill protest - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:26:26 -0800

From the page: "ABC gardening personality Peter Cundall has been arrested outside Tasmania's Parliament during a protest against Gunns' Tamar Valley pulp mill.

Mr Cundall was among 50 activists who were arrested at the rally organised by the group Pulp the Mill.

The 82-year-old told the crowd he had never been arrested but was willing to make a stand.

He was arrested after refusing police requests to move from Parliament's front steps.

"Did you hear the direction before?" an officer asked him.

"I did hear it," he replied.

"Are you refusing to leave now?"

"I'm afraid so, I do respect the law but I'm so sorry but I will be refusing to leave," Mr Cundall said."