eco-friendly home

-- Quote of the Day -- 

 “Perfect valor consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.” 

~ John Kennedy

-- Positive News -- 

Check out this amazing eco-friendly home: http://www.ecohome.net/news/latest/ecohome-s-kenogami-house-wins-home-year-award

The project apparently uses the latest of today's energy and water saving technologies and as a result barely uses any energy or water from the grid. I would contract someone to build us one of these in a heartbeat if I could.

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

We Really Do Matter

  

-- Quote of the Day -- 

 

“It is not enough to limit your love to your own nation, to your own group. You must respond with love even to those outside of it – This concept enables people to live together not as nations but as the human race.” 

~ Clarence Jordan

 -- Making a Difference --

Today I'd like to broach the concept of the individual's ability to make a difference... 

It really is surprisingly easy to have an impact every day, often several times a day. 

For instance, we can clean up litter when walking the dogs, visiting the parks, or taking our evening stroll. We can take some time to speak kindly, using positive energy, positive words with the elderly as we pass them by - simple things like just complementing their coat can really brighten their day. We can help shovel the driveways for those who are injured or elderly or busy in the neighborhood - not for pay, but just because. 

We can cut flowers and share those with people in the office, senior centers, neighbors, etc. Or share fresh cut herbs from the balcony containers, or harvests from the yard - with those who are unable to garden. We can donate our unwanted, unused items from around our home and storage areas or office too. We can share baked goods that we have made ourselves, or freeze some pre-made soups and meals for someone who cannot easily cook for themselves.

We can recycle at home and at the office... but also at social gatherings - which has a big impact on the people witnessing our actions. We can volunteer, we can donate our change or our returnable bottles to local charities and worthy causes in our city. ...We can make cards for the senior center, email people we care about, write letters to people we haven't spoken to in some time...

When you really think about it, we can do a great number of things that have a positive impact every single day. And we don't have to feel like we have to do all of these things at once, all of the time. 

I would like to challenge our readers to chose just one project or activity per week, and slowly increase that to one thing a day - and witness the profound change in your own life, and those around you. It really does matter - we really do matter - and our actions can make the world a better place. 

 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

Wildlife Jobs

*Mark Dotson, a 20-year Wildlife Veteran helps people interested in working with wildlife to fulfill their dream. Mark is the author of "King of Cages!"  and invites you to sign up for a regular e-newsletter about working in the field of Wildlife Management via: http://www.wildlifefranchise.com

Trading Your Day Job For a Wildlife Job

By Mark Dotson


Many people would like to chuck their day job and begin a career working with wildlife. Many people would like to, but few people ever get to. Why? Because many of the positions are filled before they are even posted by someone inside the organization. They may also be filled quickly because a tip was passed along to a friend about the upcoming opening.
So, you would think you are at a dead end, right? Not necessarily. Wildlife positions can still be found if you are clever enough to be persistent and patient.

But what if you want to work with wildlife and don't want to work for the government? Private industry has positions in the environmental disciplines. There are air monitoring technicians, waste water testing specialists and many other positions. But that still doesn't get you any closer to working with wildlife now does it?

Another position you should consider is that of a nuisance wildlife management professional. What's that? A nuisance wildlife management professional is actively involved daily working with wildlife! Yes...actually working hands on with wildlife!

Working with wildlife is an extremely thrilling career choice. The variety of wildlife and the unusual circumstances that a nuisance wildlife management professional finds it in creates a fun and varied work environment.

Wildlife managers are in high demand. As our countries population grows, wildlife managers will be in more demand. When humans and wildlife clash, the nuisance wildlife manager will be called upon to resolve this conflict. It's our job to return the wildlife back where it belongs...in the wild.

Do you need a degree to become a nuisance wildlife manager? No. A wildlife biology or wildlife management degree is helpful, but not necessary. Hunting and trapping experience is also very helpful but not absolutely necessary either. Training for this career is available and can transform you into a wildlife manager in a very short time!

With the proper training, equipment and knowledge, a successful career awaits you. A career that will be filled with challenges and one that you can't wait to get to on Monday morning!
 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

 

 

reusing plastic food boxes

-- Quote of the Day -- 

“We are not alone, there is a reason and a purpose for everything. …At the time of feeling these things and experiencing these things we fell like: ‘Why me?’ …When we look back everything that has happened in our lives have led us here including opening doors and new opportunities that would not have happened if we did not experience what we did in our lives. …of living in a way that is bigger than ourselves. …Writing a memoir – it is one thing to write in a journal and you put it away in a drawer, but it is another thing entirely to push that send button – it is scary. …We have to remember as humans we do care, we want to feel valued – you feel like you have done all this work and you feel sometimes not validated and that has to do with our own ego and our own expectations. …For those that are waiting for us to speak to them in this way they are thinking ‘That is exactly how I feel and I am so glad someone said that for me’ because not everybody has the ability or the channel to express what they are going through. …Find your greatest gift and what you really want for yourself, your life and the people around you. Find your passion and then try and map out a way to share your passion and live your purpose in the limited time we have in this world.”

~ Mali Phonpadith

Today’s quote originates from the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio episode that aired back on August 22, 2013… titled: Healing thru Business and Creative Arts

 (*Click on the title to access the full discussion)

-- Recycling Tips -- 

When shopping at the grocery store, sometimes we have no choice but to purchase items like salad, deli items, packages of baked goods or tiny grape tomatoes in plastic boxes. Fortunately there is hope - yes, they are recyclable so you can give them a good rinse, let dry and pop in the recycling bin. Stacked together or stepped on to squish them down, they will take up less room. However, what I've been doing lately is keeping all these various sized containers (clean and dry, stored in the pantry inside a large clean plastic bag to keep clean) and using them later on for a variety of uses. 

I might fill one with fresh baked cookies and give them to a neighbor or friend I really appreciate, or someone who doesn't cook for themselves or to someone who did something nice for us. Or I might pack a container with us for traveling so we have snacks on hand, and perhaps another of dog treats. Muffins, and other goodies would work in these as well. You can also easily store your home made sprouts in these - I line them with a piece of paper towel first to soak up any moisture. You can also use them to store and/or share fresh cut herbs from the garden or window sill pots. These plastic boxes can be reused many times before having to put in the recycling bin, extending their life and reducing waste. Use them to store various garden harvests, or share them with friends, family or donate to the food bank.

They come in very handy especially at Xmas time because at that time we tend to bake a lot of goodies (except the last two years, but I plan to again for the upcoming one) and so if you have a lot stored away, don't worry - they'll come in handy later on. All you need to do is print out a Xmas (or other holiday) design, or cut one out of an old Xmas card, and paste on the top to cover any old labels. A little bow and - voila - your Xmas food gift box is ready to go... saving you a lot of money in packaging and wrapping costs.

 Can you think of other reuse ideas for these plastic boxes? I can think of one more... if the plastic walls are thick enough you might be able to use them in your closets and RV for drawer organizers, storage bins, etc.

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

Garden seed order time

-- Garden Time --

I'm ordering several packages of heritage/heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds today from: 
http://SeedPotatoes.ca
http://FullCircleSeeds.com
http://TerraEdibles.ca
http://WestCoastSeeds.com

...and renewed my membership with: http://seeds.ca - Seeds of Diversity

Despite the recent wierd wind storm and 2 days of snowfall (unusual for our area this time of year) the garden is on my mind. I can hardly wait. I miss my old greenhouse (at our previous home) !

 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

 

Science of Poetry

Writing Science Poetry

By Susan Shaw is a freelance writer and web content writer. Her articles and web content appear online. Susan Shaw is an affiliate of The Book Store/The Science Library, [http://thebookstore.vstoremarket.com/index.htm] (For The Science Library, put "Science" in their search engine.)

Science poetry or scientific poetry is a specialized poetic genre that makes use of science as its subject. Written by scientists and nonscientists, science poets are generally avid readers and appreciators of science and "science matters." Science poetry may be found in anthologies, in collections, in science fiction magazines that sometimes include poetry, in other magazines and journals. Many science fiction magazines, including online magazines, such as Strange Horizons, often publish science fiction poetry, another form of science poetry. Of course science fiction poetry is a somewhat different genre. Online there is the Science Poetry Center for those interested in science poetry, and for those interested in science fiction poetry The Science Fiction Poetry Association. In addition, there's Science Fiction Poetry Handbook and Ultimate Science Fiction Poetry Guide, all found online. Strange Horizons has published the science fiction poetry of Joanne Merriam, Gary Lehmann and Mike Allen.

As for science poetry, science or scientific poets like science fiction poets may also publish collections of poetry in almost any stylistic format. Science or scientific poets, like other poets, must know the "art and craft" of poetry, and science or scientific poetry appears in all the poetic forms: free verse, blank verse, metrical, rhymed, unrhymed, abstract and concrete, ballad, dramatic monologue, narrative, lyrical, etc. All the poetic devices are in use also, from alliteration to apostrophe to pun to irony and understatement, to every poetic diction, figures of speech and rhythm, etc. Even metaphysical scientific poetry is possible. In his anthology, The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics, editor Timothy Ferris aptly includes a section titled The Poetry of Science. Says Ferris in the introduction to this section, "Science (or the 'natural philosophy' from which science evolved) has long provided poets with raw material, inspiring some to praise scientific ideas and others to react against them."

Such greats as Milton, Blake, Wordsworth, Goethe either praised or "excoriated" science and/or a combination of both. This continued into the twentieth century with such poets as Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, Robinson Jeffers, Robert Frost and Robert Hayden not to mention many of the lesser known poets, who nevertheless maintain a poetic response to scientific matters. Says Ferris, "This is not to say that scientists should try to emulate poets, or that poets should turn proselytes for science....But they need each other, and the world needs both." Included in his anthology along with the best scientific prose/essays are the poets Walt Whitman ("When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"), Gerard Manley Hopkins "("I am Like a Slip of Comet..."), Emily Dickinson ("Arcturus"), Robinson Jeffers ("Star-Swirls"), Richard Ryan ("Galaxy"), James Clerk Maxwell ("Molecular Evolution"), John Updike ("Cosmic Gall"), Diane Ackerman ("Space Shuttle") and others.

Certainly those writing scientific poetry like those writing science fiction need not praise all of science, but science nevertheless the subject matter, and there is often a greater relationship between poetry and science than either poets and/or scientists admit. Creativity and romance can be in both, as can the intellectual and the mathematical. Both can be aesthetic and logical. Or both can be nonaesthetic and nonlogical, depending on the type of science and the type of poetry.

Science poetry takes it subject from scientific measurements to scientific symbols to time & space to biology to chemistry to physics to astronomy to earth science/geology to meteorology to environmental science to computer science to engineering/technical science. It may also take its subject from scientists themselves, from Brahmagypta to Einstein, from Galileo to Annie Cannon. 

Science poetry may make use of many forms or any form from lyrical to narrative to sonnet to dramatic monologue to free verse to light verse to haiku to villanelle, from poetry for children or adults or both, for the scientist for the non-scientist or both. John Frederick Nims has written for example, The Observatory Ode. There are poems that rhyme, poems that don't rhyme. There's "concrete poetry" such as Annie Dillard's The Windy Planet in which the poem in in the shape of a planet, from "pole" to "pole," creates an inventive poem. Chaos Theory even becomes the subject of poetry as in Wallace Stevens' The Connoisseur of Chaos.

And what of your science and/or scientific poem? Think of all the techniques of poetry and all the techniques of science. What point of view should you use? Third person? First person, a dramatic monologue? Does a star speak? Or the universe itself? Does a sound wave speak? Or a micrometer? Can you personify radio astronomy?

What are the main themes, the rhythms? What figures of speech, metaphors, similes, metaphor, can be derived from science. What is your attitude toward science and these scientific matters?

Read. Revise. Think. Proofread. Revise again. Shall you write of evolution, of the atom, of magnetism? Of quanta, of the galaxies, of the speed of sound, of the speed of light? Of Kepler's laws? Shall you write of the history of science? Of scientific news?

What have you to say of the astronomer, the comet, of arcturus, of star-sirls, of galaxies, of molecular evolution, of atomic architecture?

Consider this:
What does poetry say to science?
What does science say to poetry?

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!

product review

 Jennifer Feliciano first approached me for doing a product review of the Tippy Toes Towel (http://www.tippytoestowel.com) back in Jan. 3^rd and while the company site is lacking in content I loved the concept. There are a lot of people with weight issues, flexibility issues and back issues that prevent them from drying their feet properly – which can lead to odor and fungal problems. Especially in the case of individuals with compromised immune systems or people with diabetes, the act of drying between the toes is even more important. My father-in-law has had these problems (above) and he was the first person that I thought of when I was introduced to this product – I thought it would be perfect for him.

The package arrived on January 21^st in a grey plastic (recyclable) envelope, encased in clear (recyclable) plastic, bundled with a paper ring that held the towel in its nicely folded shape for shipping.

This fluffy, 100% cotton, machine washable towel has 4 strips cut into it that are just right for fitting in between those toes comfortably. People can now easily dry the entire foot at once without having to individually dry each toe with a corner or edge of a towel. As such I think this product would save people time in the bathroom. The slashes seem to have been sewn well so fraying shouldn’t be a problem, but I do wonder if it would cause entanglement with other items in the washing machine or dryer.

My father-in-law tried the product out and said it worked very well for him – an overweight elderly gentleman who is unable to touch his toes. I hope that he’ll continue to use it regularly and that it will help with his foot fungus issues. I think that this product would work well for drying between the fingers as well. Perhaps beauty people would find it useful for manicures or nail painting too because it separates the digits so comfortably.

Despite doing a thorough Internet search, I couldn’t find any information about the ethics of the company (whether they are sustainable, act to create positive change in some way or have eco-friendly policies in place) and I was not able to find out if they work with or support any causes. I think the company might find that consumers would like this towel available in different colors, other than stark white.

Overall I feel the product serves a large number of people out there who have trouble reaching their toes, find drying their toes and fingers uncomfortable or who are too rushed for time to take the extra few minutes to thoroughly dry their digits. 

Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!