This section is devoted to the information that will be useful in the creation of a Kin's Domains.
The Home-Schooled Don't Just Stay at Home
By Jill Caryl Weiner
IN June 2010, Lenora Todaro was looking for ways to build on her home-schooled 8-year-old twin boys’ interest in knights, castles and other aspects of medieval history. “I thought of architecture,” recalled Ms. Todaro, who then reached out to the Center for Architecture, a public gallery space in New York.
In August, Ms. Todaro brainstormed with educators at the center’s foundation about a new class. “Students would build a scale model of a medieval European city,” she said of the course. Then she contacted other home-schooling parents online. “I posted a course description to the home-schooling Listservs, so other families studying medieval history could enroll their kids.”
The foundation offered to host the students on-site, at an off-peak afternoon time when its instructors would be in less demand at schools, where they usually conduct the foundation’s residency programs. The class began in November 2010 with 15 children and some parents observing, the first of several at the center arranged by Ms. Todaro.
As the number of home-schooling families grows, museum programs for them are springing up all over the country. Museums and the families are thrilled. It seems like a perfect match: treasure-filled institutions with an abundance of resources and slow, off-peak hours welcoming eager children with schedule flexibility.
But the relationship is not without challenges, or at least a learning curve. While parents are hungry for educational resources, they have varying philosophies, children with different learning styles and their own vision about the delivery of services. Some want an in-depth experience with a mixed-age group, entire families learning together and a large number of parents participating, while others seek different options. Some parents are of limited means with larger broods and need discounts to visit museums and participate in programs.
For their part, museums are accustomed to working with one organized classroom at a time, with systems set up by a teacher that usually require hand-raising and keeping questions to a minimum to move a lesson along; home-schoolers often value questioning and child-led discussions where students set the pace.
According to the latest figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, 1.5 million children were home-schooled in 2007, up from 1.1 million in 2003. The National Home Education Research Institute, an advocacy group, reported that 2.4 million students were home-schooled in 2010. Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback, and the children of Rick Santorum, a Republican presidential candidate, are among those who have been home-schooled.
At museums on the radar of the home-schooled, demand for programs has grown markedly. The Jamestown Settlement in Virginia began its “Home School Days” in December 2002 as a two-day, discounted field trip and attracted 632 visitors. By last September, the program, now a week long, brought in 6,358 for in-depth classes, tours and other entertaining educational activities.
The South Carolina State Museum serves around 200 home-schooling visitors a month. Many rely on “Home School Fridays,” a monthly program that includes two classes aligned with state educational standards, each an hour long, in subjects like natural history, science, art and cultural history. Families are kept together, and classes can have toddlers as well as teenagers. Teachers and docents have been trained in teaching mixed-age groups.
“This is a group with a high customer-service standard,” said Kit Wilheit, a director of youth and family programs at the Science Museum of Minnesota. “They want input into how programs are developed. They want really high-quality programs at a low cost and they want engaging teachers. All parents want this, but they advocate particularly strongly for their kids.”
Elizabeth Escamilla, the senior manager in the Education Department of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, said home-schooling families “will use a field trip to a museum as both an educational and an appropriate social experience.” The Getty puts no restrictions on the composition of its tours. “We can have 15 kids and 15 adults, a very wide range of age groups, but our gallery teachers that take groups through are well trained and make accommodations for differences.”
In Manhattan, the New-York Historical Society offers two series of classes for home-schoolers, one called “The American Musicals Project,” which combines musical theater with items from its collection to instruct pupils in topics like the American Revolution and slavery. Chris Whitford, a home-schooling mother on the Upper West Side, teaches the class of 11- to 14-year-olds and publicizes it through a newsletter for the New York City Home Educators Alliance as well as other home-schooling groups.
The Liberty Science Center in Jersey City is doubling its offerings for the home-schooled. Starting in July, the center will have four home-school field trip days a year, up from two; there will be eight multiday lab workshops instead of four. Educational standards in science can be especially difficult to meet in home-schooling. In focus groups, parents requested comprehensive classes in earth science and biology that meet state standards.
Elsewhere, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, uses online advance ticketing to plan home-schoolers’ lessons, prepare materials and organize staffing for them. And to elevate the quality of its program, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore changed its format from large-scale open houses to smaller monthly workshops.
Some parents, particularly those not trained in art, prefer the expertise and guidance that museums offer in their home-school programs, which by their very existence confirm that “home schooling” is an elastic term.
“There is no rule that says my child must be sitting at the kitchen table, reading everything out of a book given to her by me,” said Pia Williams, who home-schools her 11-year-old daughter, Erica, and started the Web site HomeSchoolLA.org. “Home schooling is really providing the most individualized educational opportunities for my child — no matter where that is, or by whomever I choose to have teach her. Museums bring the world to us.”
http://www.nytimes.com/
Images Copyright: http://kidsmusic.net.ru/;http://www.debotaniki.ru/
After Home Schooling, Pomp and Traditional Circumstances
By Tamar Lewin
MIAMI — The 26 young men and women, seated in alphabetical order, were nearly silent as they waited for their high school graduation to start. No giggles. No buzz. No camaraderie. And no wonder: they had met just once before, at the rehearsal two weeks earlier where they got their caps and gowns.
They had come on this muggy June evening to the Miami Zoo, past the flamingos and the tiger, for an hourlong ceremony that Grace Rodriguez, the organizer, proudly called “the very first South Florida home-school graduation ever created.”
Ms. Rodriguez’s “home-school class of 2011” had no prom, no yearbook, no valedictorian. Still, for these students who had sidestepped a traditional education — and especially for their parents — there was “Pomp and Circumstance” and shiny turquoise tassels to shift from one side of a cap to the other.
“I was getting all down when I didn’t think he’d have a graduation,” said Rebecca Doby, whose son, Hunter Fagan, was among the graduates. “I wanted to see him walk and have the cap and gown and the pictures.”
As home-schooling has grown to reach about two million children — or 3 percent of the school-age population, up from 850,000 in 1999 — it has become more mainstream. And just as more home-school families now join co-ops offering weekly field trips and chemistry labs or use the local public school for sports, band or a class, so too do many of them embrace all the trappings of graduation season.
Jostens, an academic supplier, has a “home-school graduation headquarters” where families can order customized caps and gowns, tassels and class rings. Several small Web-based businesses also offer graduation gear like honor cords and stoles, even “Proud of Our 2011 Home-School Graduate” yard signs.
“It used to be the only way to celebrate a home-school graduation was at home on your own,” said Sonnie Woodruff, a Cincinnati home-schooling mother who, a year ago, started offering the yard signs for $16.95. “But now, with so many more home-school co-ops and support groups, most people seem to do some kind of group graduation.”
Many large statewide home-school groups with Christian roots now hold graduation at their annual conventions. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Florida Parent Educator Association’s convention in Kissimmee offered a Saturday night dance, a Sunday ceremony where the governor spoke and a post-graduation luncheon buffet for 259 graduates. The same weekend as the Miami ceremony, the Home Educators Association of Virginia graduated 206 in Richmond.
“The parents line up so they are parallel with the graduates,” said Yvonne Bunn of the Virginia association. “And then the parents come up on the left side of the stage and the kids on the right, and the parents give their child a diploma, and the graduate gives back a yellow rose.”
Deborah Butler of Silverton, Ore., has home-schooled five children, the oldest now 31. “For our first child, we just did a little thing at the church,” she said. “But for the fifth, coming up this month, we’re doing the statewide graduation ceremony with cap and gown. There wasn’t anything like that until the last few years.”
Ms. Rodriguez, 41, who has been home-schooling for 15 years and runs a consulting business, Florida HomeSchoolHelp, saw a need for a local ceremony open to any home-schooling family. So she lined up the zoo, had the Miami-Dade public schools’ home education registrar spread the word that families could participate for $75 a graduate, plus $9.99 a guest, and quickly signed up the 200 people the zoo could accommodate.
With an “Amazon and Beyond” mural behind her, Ms. Rodriguez called up each graduate and read a description of the student’s interests and college plans. Her son David handed each a Certificate of Completion, then posed for the crucial handshake photo. Her daughter, Taylor-Marie, had made the programs, which were black with turquoise binding to match the tassels.
There were brief speeches from Ms. Rodriguez (“From this day forward, every decision you make should be a decision to honor your parent.”) and from Valery Neal, the zoo’s group sales coordinator (“Trust in yourself. Work hard to earn your keep.”). Nine of the graduates also said a few words, one reading an original poem and another a deep-voiced version of “The Reading Mother” by Strickland Gillian.
“What a voice!” said Ms. Rodriguez, whose easy warmth smoothed the ceremony’s rough edges. When Linoshka Suarez broke down at the rostrum, Ms. Rodriguez gave a quick hug, asked if she wanted help and read out her thank-yous.
Many of the students shrugged off the graduation. But the parents freely confessed that, for them, it was huge.
“My daughter, Vanessa, really didn’t want to do it, because it was all strangers, and she didn’t think it was a big deal,” Brenda Orr said. “But I thought she was incorrect, so I convinced her. I imagined her walking across the stage just like I did at my graduation, and I didn’t want her to feel she’d missed out on something.”
After all the caps had been tossed into the air, the graduates admitted that it had been meaningful. “I didn’t expect it to be so nice,” said Connie Giffuni, 18, who graduated along with her 16-year-old sister, Cinndy.
Their parents opposed the idea two years ago when the girls proposed home-schooling, but now they are converts. “We see how beneficial it is,” Soraya Giffuni said. “Once they started home-schooling, the girls said they couldn’t believe how much time they’d wasted in school.”
Some of the graduates had been home-schooled for a year, others all their lives. Some had chosen the path for religious reasons, others to flee bullying, peer pressure or boring classes, and still others for the flexibility to pursue a golf or tennis career. While some studied almost exclusively with a parent, others took classes or an entire curriculum over the Internet.
One family’s graduation announcement captured the landscape. “With great pride, we announce the graduation of our daughter Jessica Jeanine Foster from the following places. A Beka Academy (academics), Barbara Goleman Senior High (arts), Dade Christian School (sports) and Miami Dade College (Japanese).” The other side had Jessica’s artwork sandwiched between “Class of 2011” and “Boris Foster High School” (Boris Foster is her father).
Jonathan Blackstone, a Miami graduate who was home-schooled from the start, played on the Homestead High School baseball team for four years; a left-handed pitcher, he was this year’s most valuable player.
“I was the only home-schooler on the team, so there were a lot of jokes,” he said. “Like ‘Home School — who’s your mascot?’ ”
Mr. Blackstone, who plans to buy a silver class ring with a garnet and a baseball on it, said the ceremony allowed him to share a cultural touchstone.
“I graduated,” he said, “just like everybody else.”
http://www.nytimes.com/
Images copyright: http://www.dann-online.com/
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Unschooling. Bentley Family
Benefits of Sugar
Many Sugars, One Glucose
Sugar, honey, and the sweetness of fruit have components that become glugose. Whatever natural sweet you eat, including refined sweets and starches, can become glucose in your body. There are two big issues in the way in which sugar affects you. The main issue is how long it will take for it to become sugar. The second issue is what other ingredients come in that sweet.
Starches have to be converted into sugars before they can be used as fuel or as the basis for the production of glucosamine. Therefore, starches stay in your body longer time before you consume them. If you have consumed sugar and starch, your body will consume the sugar and store the starch. Unhappily, starch can be used to make fat, or to add to the production of fat if you also ingest fats. Therefore, if you eat sugar and starches, your body will use at least some of the starch to make fat. If you eat sugar, starch, and fat, then your body can use the sugar as fuel, to produce glucosamine, and store the starch and fat as fats. Therefore, there is no better recipe to become fat than mixing sugar, starch, and fat.
Consequently, what other ingredients come in our sugar should be a major concern to those of us worried about our weight. Therefore, even though we call so many things sugars, not all sugars are the same. Their common denominator is that all of them can be converted to glucose by our body. Their differences are based on how much effort it is to convert them.
Many sweets in nature, such as fruit and honey come with an array of other very important nutritional components. Fruits tend to include fiber, vitamins and minerals. Honey is also very rich in enzymes. But all sugars have one extremely important function: They become glucose, the fuel our body needs to survive.
What is sugar good for?
Sugar is sucrose that becomes glucose. Glucose is easily regulated by our body if we eat it regularly. If our levels are low and we get some glucose, the body does rush to consume it. But this is because glucose is so essential for us to live. Glucose is our energy. It keeps our body sustaining a regular temperature. Our brain thinks using glucose. The production of myelin requires glucose and its derivative, glucosamine. Collagen, the basic fabric of our body is made with glucose and glucosamine. Glucose contributes to transport monocytes. Diabetic people end up with poor defenses because of their poor glucose levels. Glucose and its derivative, glucosamine are essential for muscle formation. Two of our skin main components are collagen and elastin. Both need glucose and glucosamine to be formed. Without sugar our skin ages. In fact, without sugar our body ages much faster. Sugar is good for living, for thinking, and for the regeneration of our bodies. Yet, so many people preach against it.
Empty calories?
I keep reading that white crystals are empty calories. Where does it fit in a person's mind that the most important nutrient in our diet (glucose) is a zero. White sugar has sucrose which becomes glucose. And we have learned that glucose is essential for every metabolic process.
The way I see it, when I am eating sugar, I am having only the ingredient I want to have. I get the rest of my nutrition from other foods. Thus, sugar is not empty calories. Sugar is calories from glucose. A very good site that describes calories and what you need is:
http://www.all-creatures.org/health/carbo.html
The New Glucose Revolution
I just bought the book "The New Glucose Revolution". Its copyright dates back to 1996. In the introduction it includes myths about sugar and the corresponding facts.
"Myth 7: Sugar is fattening.
FACT: .... It's the total energy (calories) rather than the sugar in those energy-dense foods that may contribute to new stores of body fat."
I would add that some calories are much easier to convert into usable energy and collagen than others. The more difficulty your body has to make them usable, the higher the probability it will storef it. Sugar is very easily convertible into usable resources. Starches are more difficult to convert. Fats are even more difficult. Proteins, aided by sugar are much more usable than proteins without it.
I really recommend this book. I have not finished reading it, but I am finding it very informative. The strange thing is that the knowlege I am trying to offer in this blog had been published already more than 10 years ago. Why is it that so many people stay convinced that sugar is fattening? Is the result of a corporate campaign?
http://gramon1.hubpages.com/
Image Copyrights: http://www.epidemiolog.ru/
The Truth About Sugars in Fruit
By Susan Bowerman
It happened again the other day. I was teaching a class, and a student dismissed the health benefits of fruit because, as she put it, "it's full of sugar". This idea that fruit is somehow a bad thing to eat came into full swing with the low carb diet craze a few years ago. But the myth persists. Not a week goes by that I don't hear someone tell me that they avoid fruit because it's "all sugar" or "loaded with carbs". So, I'm here to set the record straight and come to the defense of some of the world's healthiest foods – fresh, whole fruits.
I'll tackle the "fruit is all sugar" statement first – because it's just plain wrong. Fresh fruit offers so much more than the natural sugar it contains – including water, vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients (those naturally-occurring plant compounds that have wide ranging beneficial effects on the body). Where else can you get a package like that for about 75 calories per serving?
The idea that fruit is "loaded with carbs" or is "full of sugar" needs to be put into perspective, too. It's true that when you eat fruit, the overwhelming majority of the calories you consume are supplied by carbohydrate – mostly in the form of fructose, which is the natural sugar in the fruit.
But that's the nature not just of fruit, but of all plant foods – they're predominantly carbohydrate (and that means not just natural sugars, but healthy starches as well as structural elements, like cellulose, that provide fiber). When you eat vegetables, the majority of the calories you're eating come from carbohydrate, too. But you don't hear people complaining that vegetables are "loaded with carbs".
Before dismissing foods as being loaded with sugar, or too high in carbs, consider not only the amount of sugar or carbs you're eating, but the form of the carbohydrate, too. There's a big difference between the nutritional value of the natural carbohydrates found in fruits and other plant foods – the sugars, starches and fibers – and what's found (or, more accurately, what's not found) in all the empty calories we eat from added sugars that find their way into everything from brownies to barbecue sauce.
Faced with a serving of fruit, how much sugar are we talking about, anyway? An average orange has only about 12 grams of natural sugar (about 3 teaspoons) and a cup of strawberries has only about 7 grams – that's less than two teaspoons. And either way, you're also getting 3 grams of fiber, about a full day's worth of vitamin C, healthy antioxidants and some folic acid and potassium to boot – and it'll only cost you about 50 or 60 calories. "All sugar"? I think not.
By contrast, a 20-ounce cola will set you back about 225 calories and, needless to say, won't be supplying any antioxidants, vitamins, minerals or fiber. You'll just be chugging down some carbonated water, maybe some artificial color and flavor, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 grams of added sugar – about 1/3 of a cup.
Now that's what I call "full of sugar".
http://www.discovergoodnutrition.com/
Image Copyrights: http://www.frontiernet.net
Sugar - Bone Loss to Brain Loss
The sugar found in raw, fresh fruit is not the problem.
Weighing, measuring, counting up servings of raw fruit is a
waste of time. Eat at least four a day. As much as you
want whenever you want. No one, No Body is fat from
eating too much fresh fruit.
The problem is the white stuff. Just for starters, there was
no diabetes before refined sugar. And the remains of
humans pre-refined sugar had bones much more massive
than ours. That much difference came with just fructose,
the main refined sugar until the mid 1970's. The new
synthetics are even more damaging.
Refined sugar triggers a gyroscopic mineral imbalance -
you swing from too little of one to too much of the same.
So many, so basic elements are thrown out of balance that
this covers the full spectrum of disease and disorder.
One or more of the many versions of refined sugar is
added to almost all packaged foods, from toddler formula
to table salt. Flavor is minor. The stuff has been clinically
proven to be as addictive as nicotine and cocaine.
Overweight and cavities is just the tip of the iceberg.
Besides diabetes and bone loss, refined sugar is linked to
a full spectrum of problems, from Alzheimer's to Autism,
Athletes Foot to acne to yeast infections. People have
eliminated all animal products, tried medication and still
have a cholesterol problem - until they get rid of refined
sugar and see the bad cholesterol plummet.
The good news is how quickly (a month) you can lose the
cravings and regain your original taste buds once you
eliminate refined sugar from your diet.
http://www.premiumfuel.com/
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SUGAR is killing you!!!
Levels of electromagnetic radiation we are exposed to today are billions of times higher than our ancestors
(NaturalNews) This is the claim of Dr. Kerry Crofton, PhD. She goes on to say, "We don't have to give up all electronic devices, but we do need to use them differently. First, we need to understand that the government standards we assume are protecting us are thousands of times too lenient, and there are biological effects from these 'safe' levels." The effects of these exposures are particularly an issue for concern for our children.
Some of these effects are thought to include:
- Unexplained headaches/nosebleeds
- Autism
- Insomnia
- Nausea/dizziness
- Anxiousness/ heart palpitations/other 'unexplained' cardiac symptoms
- Ringing ears
- Immune suppression
- Electro-sensitivity
- Children's leukemia
- An increased risk for brain cancer/neurological disorders
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Children are at a greater disadvantage than adults due to thinner skulls, smaller brains, and the potential of long-term exposure. The effects for children expand to include retarded learning and performance impairment.
David Carpenter, MD, Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment, School of Public Health, University of Albany, New York, believes, along with many other public health experts, the current scientific evidence shows there will be widespread cancers ahead as a consequence of using cell phones and WiFi without any restrictions.
Unnecessary Exposure
The Northside Independent School District in Texas is on the verge of utilizing a radio frequency ID system in two of its schools. This is another source of electromagnetic radiation exposure for children as this system emits dangerous radio waves. The hope is to implement the strategy to track kids at all of the district's 112 campuses covering approximately 100,000 youth.
Defibrillators in high schools?
Every school in Toronto has this equipment on the premises ready and waiting to use for life threatening cardiac events. Teenagers having heart attacks is not the norm nor should be accepted as such in the future. The focus needs to be on why there are defibrillators in high schools in the first place.
The Stewart Report from the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) offers some insight. The group warns that children's bodies absorb more electromagnetic energy from outside sources than adults. "A 5-year-old will absorb around 60 percent more than an adult."
Children are being increasingly exposed to chronic levels of electromagnetic exposure through the consistent and more importantly, long-term use of cell phones and WiFi in school and at home. These exposures are cumulative with the most harmful consequences manifesting years or even decades later. There is enough evidence to strongly suggest these exposures may stimulate changes in cell function which can lead to breaks in DNA and chromosomal abnormalities, the deterioration of neurons in the brain, increased free radical production, and early aging, as well as affect how the brain operates overall.
Viable options to protect children include:
- Wired alternatives
- Texting
- Headsets
- Limiting exposure with timed sessions
- Helping them develop interests outside technology
- Reducing use
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The fact that today's children are facing even more health concerns than current generations as a result of consistent, long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves calls for the scientific community and the government policy makers to step up. Children's exposure to electromagnetic waves must become a top priority. Industry needs to be regulated and limits established in order to protect children now and in the future.
http://www.naturalnews.com/
Image Copyright: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/
10 Ways to Protect Yourself from EMF Exposure
By Kevin Byrne
Electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure is linked to many acute and chronic illnesses and conditions, and electrical sensitivities are a serious emerging public health concern in which most doctors have no training. Everyday we are exposed to EMFs from a number of common sources that can be found where we live and work. Here are some tips to help you lessen or even avoid exposure:
The Office and Computing Area
1) Whenever possible, avoid working directly on a laptop computer by plugging in a secondary keyboard and mouse to help lessen your exposure (this is especially helpful if you are working on it for extended periods of time). I highly recommend to avoid placing a laptop on your lap, especially when it’s plugged in. Many laptop computers produce a strong EMF, especially when plugged in to an electrical outlet as they are charging a battery in close proximity to where you rest your hands or your computer.
2) When replacing (or updating) your computer monitor or TV, opt for a liquid crystal display (LCD). LCDs emit much less radiation than the old CRT style monitors that use a cathode ray gun to excite the phosphors on the screen.
3) Clean up the electrical power cords and transformers around your computer and desk and reroute them away from your feet and seating area. Transformers and power bars around your feet while you work can be a huge EMF exposure point, especially if you spend a lot of time on your computer.
Wireless Technology
4) Avoid installing a wireless network (wi-fi) in your home. In October of 2007, the German government advised its public to avoid using wi-fi because of the possible health risks they pose. Wireless routers emit electromagnetic radiation even when they aren't in use.
5) When purchasing a cordless phone, try to avoid one that uses DECT technology. In 2005 the German government also banned this type of wireless technology. The base station of these phones constantly transmits a strong radio frequency signal, even when the handset is just sitting idle in the cradle. If you have one, keep it turned off as much as possible. DECT technology is also used in some baby monitors, so be sure to phone the manufacturer prior to purchasing one to see this type of technology was used in its production.
6) Limit the time you spend talking on cellular and cordless phones and only let children under 14 use them for short periods of time (when absolutely necessary). Lately we’ve been hearing about the possible health risks associated with cell phone radiation. It is important to understand that cordless phones use electromagnetic radiation to communicate - just like cell phones - and radiation exposure is cumulative no matter what the source.
Electrical Wiring and Devices
7) Unplug all electrical power cords and devices that are not in use and limit the use of electrical devices in the bedroom. All devices plugged into live electrical outlets including innocuous lamps and clock radios emit an electric field. However, if an electrical device is unplugged, it will not produce an electric or a magnetic field. EMFs can suppress the function of melatonin, a chemical essential for proper sleep, so it is important to clean up the electrical cords and devices around your bed. One recommendation is to switch your plug-in clock radio for a battery-operated one instead.
Lighting
8) Avoid installing low-voltage (12 volt) halogen, florescent tube and energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting (CFL). Virtually all of these energy-efficient technologies can throw a nasty EMF from their ballast or transformer. But that’s not all: they can also create “dirty electricity” (high-frequency radiation that emanates from your home’s wiring). The good news is that cleaner LCD lighting technology is just around the corner so wait for it to develop and come down in price before you do major lighting upgrades.
9) Replace all the dimmer switches in your house with regular "on/off" switches. Even when turned completely on to full power, a dimmer chops-off part of the electrical current, then it discards in the form of a strong electromagnetic field - in addition to polluting the rest of your home’s grid with dirty electricity.
Dirty Electricity
10) The most important thing you can do to avoid ongoing exposure to EMF is to install Graham-Stetzer filters in your home and office to reduce the amount of dirty electricity in your electrical wiring and devices. In a number of recent scientific tests, many subjects’ health and alertness benefitted greatly when the filters were installed in their homes and schools.
Note: If you or someone in your family is demonstrating symptoms of “Electrical Hypersensitivity” you may want to consider having your home inspected for dirty electricity and other EMF sources.
http://www.naturallysavvy.com/
Images Copyrights: http://insidetechnology.ru/;http://www.prodetey.ru/
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Home Radiation Protection EMF and RF Prevention Tips
Bill Mollison
by Merian Ellis
Bill Mollison has been called the genius of permaculture, a guru, a living legend, a crank, and even a bombastic old bastard. But whatever you think of him, you'd have to be impressed that Bill's ideas have influenced the lives of millions of people all over the world.
Bill Mollison was born in 1928 and spent his childhood on the beach at Stanley, on the north west coast of Tasmania. It was probably the 'best place ever' to grow up, he reckons, dodging school to roam the rock pools with a bunch of mates.
Vinegar, Froggy, Wobbly Duck and me
Often used to wander down along the sea
Chewing on a limpet, eating a green pea
With nothing to remember and all the world to see
Bull and Frog and Vinegar
And me and Wobbly Duck
Climbing up the tea trees
Sometimes getting stuck
Catching wily tadpoles
Paddling in the muck
Nothing to write home about
No need of any luck...
Bill's father owned the local butter factory before building a bakery in Stanley. His spare time was spent supplying the family with fruit and vegetables from an acre of garden. Son Bill got into gardening seriously at the age of nine, starting with a crop of radishes that satisfied his appetite and the need for quick results.
During his secondary education at Burnie High School, Bill's main focus turned to cadets, and the prospect of flying a Spitfire in the second world war.
He clocked up 60 flying hours in a Tiger Moth bi-plane, but his plans came to an abrupt halt when US warplanes dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
The prospect of spending his life punching dough into loaves didn't appeal, so Bill went to sea, fishing the waters of Tasmania for the next decade.
Love lured him off the boats and back onto dry land, but when this affair washed up, Bill headed for the bush, working for the CSIRO observing wildlife behaviour. It was then that he started to become vitally concerned about the environment, and humanity's lethal influence on the world he was living in.
"As a child I lived in sort of a dream, and I didn't really awaken until I was about 28 years old," he explains. "I spent most of my early life working in the bush or the sea, and it wasn't until the 1950s that I noticed that large parts of the system were disappearing.
"First fish stocks became extinct. Then I noticed the seaweed around the shorelines had gone. Large patches of forest began to die. I hadn't realised until those things had gone that I'd become very fond of them; that I was in love with my country."
Bill spent the next decade studying possums, rabbits and wallabies in the forests of Tasmania, and started an external degree in psychology and environmental science.
Within a week of graduating, his career as an academic began, with a position as lecturer at Hobart University. Bill turned his attention from wildlife to humans, and how they behaved in their man-made jungle. This resulted in a new course at Hobart, called 'environmental psychology'. But after ten years of teaching, Bill was fed up and frustrated with the academic system.
"I sort of pulled out for a while in 1972. I cut a hole in the bush, built a barn and a house and planted a garden, gave up on humanity. I was disgusted with the stupidity of the University, the research institutions, the whole thing."
This break from the rest of the world gave Bill time to think, and resulted in a life-changing 'Eureka!' moment.
"I started to realise that I knew a lot about physics but wasn't applying it to how I heated my house. And I was an expert on ecology but wasn't putting that into practice in my garden. I knew that I needed to convert the principles of environmental science into directives for planning," he says. "And then the idea of permaculture came to me.
"It was like a shift in my brain, and suddenly I couldn't write it down fast enough. I felt like there was a roll of carpet tied up with string at my feet. Once I had cut the string, it just unrolled to the horizon and I could see forever, and nothing that has happened since has ever surprised me."
The term comes from permanent culture, and the concept is to create stable productive systems, both rural and urban, that harmoniously integrate the land and people. Bill saw permaculture as a positive solution to environmental exploitation.
One of his great achievements has been his success in spreading the word. He realised early on that unless you teach a thing, it doesn't go anywhere.
"So I wrote a two-week curriculum and started teaching. Since then I have had around 80,000 graduates from my permaculture design courses. In the first five years 500 became permaculture teachers, and now there are thousands of them teaching, as well as designing systems for farms and urban land."
Bill has visited and taught permaculture in almost every country in the world. He has never counted on governments for any support or funding, and his finances have largely come from sales of his permaculture manuals, with profits of around four million dollars being used for teaching programs in third world countries.
In many countries, permaculture has been accepted as a viable alternative to chemical-based agriculture, and its principles are taught in schools in Zimbabwe. The Vietnamese government was so impressed by the concept, they adopted it as their agricultural policy. Bill's permaculture handbook was translated into Vietnamese and 130,000 copies printed and distributed to every farmer in the country. He gave one design course in Botswana and now his students are out in the desert in Namibia, teaching the Bushmen of the Kalahari how to survive with the resources they have left.
His achievements have not gone without recognition. Bill has won the 'alternative Nobel Prize', the Right Livelihood Award, for his work on practical solutions to the world's problems. He was named one of Australia's Icons of the Millennium in the field of ecology, has received the Banksia Environment Award and been judged an Outstanding Australian Achiever. He was the first foreigner to be made a member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Science, and received the Vavilov medal for contributions to sustainable agriculture in Russia.
After 30 years of travelling the world, Bill Mollison has returned to north west Tasmania to live. Although he calls himself semi-retired, he still teaches design courses, writes books and spends at least a couple of months each year working overseas. He recently grew more than 40 varieties of potatoes in straw beds in his garden.
Bill's land is a permaculture island in a sea of traditional Tasmanian farms, a constant reminder of his long-held view of modern agriculture.
"Agriculture is one of the greatest contributors to the destruction of our environment. Forty per cent of the world's soil and water has been polluted by farming," he says. "The great challenge for sustainable agriculture is to produce the food and fibre needed, while maintaining fertile soils and clean water, and enhancing the health of ecosystems.
"The impetus for the work I do is to leave our children gardens, not deserts."
http://www.abc.net.au/
Images Copyright: wikipedia; http://greenconnections.files.wordpress.com/
Herb Spirals and Spiral Gardens
About a week ago, someone asked about our spiral garden. Ours happens to be a huge variation on the Herb Spiral. Herb Spirals are a cool way of taking a traditional row of herbs and twisting it up into a space saving, multi-micro-climate little herb garden.
Here is a design by Bill Mollison:
Not only are herb spirals pretty to look at if done well, but more importantly they create several different micro-climates for your herbs. The top of the spiral will have drier soil than the lower part as it drains through the day. The side facing the sun will be considerably warmer than the one facing away from the sun. The side facing the sunrise will warm earlier in the day and maintain a more even and gentle heat than the side facing the hot afternoon sun. Therefore, you can plant a great diversity of herbs in your spiral meeting their many varied needs. Herbs that like heat and well drained soil, such as rosemary, can be planted towards the top of the spiral facing the afternoon sun. Those that like things cooler and wetter and would bolt if exposed to too much heat can be placed accordingly. Bill's above example also includes a small pond at the bottom to grow water plants such as watercress and water chestnut. This also gives the added benefits of ecological diversity, reflected sunlight from the pond surface, more edge, providing a habitat for frogs which love to hunt pests, and a water source for many beneficial pollinators like bees and hummingbirds.
Herb Spirals are generally quite small (about 1-2 meters wide and tall), as they are designed to be space saving, user friendly and easily watered with just one sprinkler. Our spiral garden that I mentioned in Going Rogue is huge by comparison. But it is basically the same concept. It is about 10 meters wide and 2 meters high and has a gigantic Big Leaf Maple growing at the center. There are very large boulders along the tier edges as opposed the football-sized rocks generally used in herb spirals. We have yet to put in a pond, but it is in the plans. The design of our garden allows for cool loving crops to be grown on the shaded side all summer long. Not only is it facing away from the sun, but it is also shaded by the maple. And heat-loving plants do quite well on the sunny side because they get both the heat from the sun and the reflected heat from the large boulders.
Our spiral garden is home to many different perennial fruits such as raspberry, gooseberry, jostaberry, strawberry and fig. It also houses many annuals in the summer - lettuce, kale, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, summer and winter squash, etc. We are also sure to plant lots of annual flowers each year to attract beneficial insects and birds and provide pollen and nectar for the honey bees.
The spiral garden belongs to the kids. It is their experimental zone and they get to choose what goes in each year. We, of course, help direct them as to ideal placement, but for the most part, it's their thing. They get to design and learn all about different plants and micro-climates and, most importantly I think, learn from experience what works and what doesn't. They get to make their own choices, see what happens through the season, and learn from it so that they can improve upon it the next year. I don't want my kids to take for granted whatever some "expert" tells them they should do. I want them to experiment and think for themselves. Who knows what cool thing they'll figure out that you or I never thought of?
http://howlingwolffarm.blogspot.ca/
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Herb Spiral - permaculture
Using Earthbags as Ceiling Insulation
by Dr. Owen Geiger and Kelly Hart
There seems to be a general lack of interesting ceiling options using sustainable building materials. For instance, when touring otherwise beautiful straw bale homes one often sees sheetrock covering conventional industrial insulation. Instead of using fiberglass batts or even manufactured cotton batts to insulate a roof, it is possible to use earthbags that are filled with a variety of insulating materials. These materials include rice hulls, crushed volcanic rock (such as scoria), vermiculite and perlite.
Rice hulls are an ideal natural insulator with an R-value of about R-3 per inch. Typical sized (17" x 30") poly bags full of rice hulls provide 8" of insulation or R-24. Larger bags, which are readily available, could be used to increase the insulation level. Example: a 22" x 36" bag full of rice hulls measures 11" thick for R-33. Rice hulls are resistant to moisture and fungal decay, meet US building codes and do not readily flame or smolder. Staple the bags shut and add a small amount of borate (Borax) to each bag to deter mice and other pests. Don't overfill the bags or they won't rest snuggly against each other.
Both perlite and vermiculite have superior R-values as compared to EPS (expanded polystyrene) and tests show them to be around R-2.8 to R-2.3 per inch. They also have superior fire ratings. While the insulating value of scoria is not as high as any of the above, it is still a reasonable alternative that is completely fireproof. It is important for the aggregate to be crushed to about 3/4" to 1" size and screened to exclude most of the fines (which would just add weight and lessen the insulation).
Any of these bagged materials can be suspended and supported between rafters or ceiling joists with the use of wire mesh, which need not be very fine. In fact we have successfully used the standard 6"X6" wire mesh that is commonly used to reinforce concrete pads for this purpose. The mesh can be stapled to wooden rafters with ordinary fencing stapes or wired to the rafters using nails or screws driven into the wood to anchor the wire. If this is done sequentially with the insertion of the bags, the whole process can be done from beneath an existing roof.
After the bags are in place, they can be completely covered with other natural finish materials. One choice for ceiling material that can be strikingly beautiful are reed mats, which can possibly be combined with bamboo trim. Reed mats come in many different sizes, colors and patterns, ranging from very simple to very ornate. An Internet search will reveal the countless varieties available. The mats pictured above were made in Mexico and cost about $2.50 each.
Another example of a decorative reed mat from Thailand is pictured on the right. These mats can be attached to the ceiling in a variety of ways. One simple approach is to staple them up with a staple gun and appropriately sized staples. Another would be to tack them up with upholstery tacks, or even nails with large enough heads to keep them from pulling away. It is also possible to discreetly fasten them with thin gauge wire that is wrapped around the wire mesh above. Sometimes a combination of these methods may be necessary to adequately suspend the mats.
It is also possible to prepare a grid of 1" X 2" wood struts that are spaced to exactly match the size of the mats that you are using. Aligning the reed mat carefully along the edges of the ceiling will obviate the need for additional trim. Or the seams can be hidden with split bamboo trim pieces that are screwed to this same grid. Such bamboo adds an exotic touch and is complimentary to reed mats. Pre-drill and countersink holes to help hide the screws. Trim screws with small heads are less noticeable. Screws are recommended because they are easy to remove later, if necessary.
Building codes and fire safety concerns tend to diminish ceiling alternatives. In order to meet codes in many areas, materials with a 30 minute fire rating are required. For those in such code jurisdictions, reed mat and bamboo or wood trim could be added to a typical sheetrock ceiling after you've received a certificate of occupancy.
Suspended ceilings, as described in this article, have a number of benefits. They conceal the roof structure, plumbing, venting and electrical wiring, as well as improve acoustics and insulation. And they can also greatly enhance the ambiance or hominess of a room.
http://earthbagbuilding.com/
A Rice Hull Studio
by Rik Nelson
Mother-of-Thyme will soon be sprouting on the roof of Greg Spatz's backyard writing studio. This is by design. His wife Caridwen Irvine-Spatz's design.
The studio, which is now under construction, was Irvine-Spatz's brainchild. She wanted to give Spatz a place away from the household hustle-bustle (two energetic young boys, ringing telephones, honey-do's) where he could concentrate on his fiction writing.
Irvine-Spatz, who teaches fiddle at Holy Names Music Center, also saw the studio construction as an opportunity to pursue another passion - sustainable architecture.
"There's a logic and justice and need for sustainable architecture," she says. Further, this type of structure met her family's requirements for the project.
First, the structure had to be inexpensive. Second, it needed to be less than 200 square feet to meet code. Finally, it had to be sound-insulated so Spatz, whose third novel has just been accepted, would not be distracted when working there.
Using the Internet, Irvine-Spatz researched options, including one invented by Cal-Earth and used for shelters in developing countries. Then in collaboration with environmental designer Don Stephens, they chose a hybrid technique of Stephen's invention.
Instead of using earth-filled bags, the basic building blocks ended up being bags filled with rice hulls. Rice hulls are a problem agricultural byproduct. They have a high silicate content designed by nature to make them perfect shields for the rice kernels they protect. Consequently, they do not readily decompose. They are, however, insect- and fire-resistant and make good insulation.
Stephens procured from California enough hulls for the entire structure at a cost of only $300, including shipping. A roll of woven polypropylene material from which to fashion tube-like bags was purchased from Justus Bag Company in the Spokane Valley.
Irvine-Spatz began construction by digging a 3-foot trench to define the studio's perimeter. Remesh, a heavy wire grid, was set along both walls of the trench and rubble shoveled in. After an initial three tiers of earth-filled bags were laid down, hull-filled bags were stacked, tier after tier, with recycled barbed wire between them to act as "mortar."
As the wall rose, sections of remesh were added and cross-tied with wire to secure the interior and exterior remesh together.
To provide ambient light, Irvine-Spatz used wine bottles (donated by Mizuna restaurant) and Mason jars. She placed bottle-and-jar pairs, mouth-to-mouth, and sheathed them in used aluminum printing plates (donated by Garland Printing) to create "light tubes." These she tucked between tiers.
The studio's roof is supported by a central, hollow, rectangular steel beam purchased from Pacific Steel & Recycling for $40. The beam rests on a tree trunk Stephens salvaged from a clear-cut in Oregon and which Irvine-Spatz debarked using a kitchen pie dough scraper.
Radiating from the central beam are wooden 16-inch I-beams.
"You could park a Volkswagen up there," Irvine-Spatz says, about how sturdy the roof is.
The roof itself resembles a layer cake in its construction. First come two layers of plywood with tarpaper in between. That's topped with Mel-Rol, a super-thick asphaltic membrane backed with a sticky emulsion. According to Stephens, Mel-Rol was designed primarily for large industrial buildings with rooftop gardens. The Mel-Rol is covered by an old piece of second-hand carpet to help hold a layer of topsoil in which has been planted mother -of-thyme and sedum, too. Both plants are highly drought resistant, requiring little moisture to thrive.
Inside and out, the studio walls will be covered with stucco.
The studio floor will be clay sealed with beeswax and linseed oil. Finally, an old Chinese teak door, purchased from Main Street Antiques, will be hung.
And then the studio will be ready for the writing in solitude to begin.
"As a mom and a musician, I find as a soon as you do something, it's over," Irvine-Spatz says. "You cook and the food is eaten. Gone. You wash the dishes and 10 minutes later the sink is full again. You do a performance and pretty quickly it's over. That's all good and important work, of course, but I have a need to do stuff that stays here, too - like Greg's studio."
http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/
Images Copyright: http://www.myspace.com/
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Making Better Concrete With Rice?
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