whole family wellness

A great blog by my friend Jill, a talented doctor of Chinese Medicine and a great writer: Whole Family Wellness Blog. She specializes in Holistic Pediatrics, so if you have children (or are planning for them) it is especially interesting.

al gore's challenge remix

see the full talk here: Al Gore's Challenge to America

why berkeley moms are badass

Overheard while standing in line at the Farmer's Market, a mom talking to her 5 year old son:

Mom: Oh your dad really likes this bread, we should pick some up for him
Son: What bread do you like Mommy?
Mom: Mommy likes whole wheat bread because it's better for you.
Son: Why?
Mom: Well, to make white bread they have to take all of the good stuff out, the vitamins and fiber. Then the food processors sell this stuff to vitamin companies who try to sell it back to us. It's really the food processing industry that benefits, not people.
Son: ____ ... I like this bread.

can you guess what these ads are for?

click on the images to find out. be prepared.

"A man marries a woman because he loves her. So instead of blaming him if married love begins to cool, she should question herself. Is she truly trying to keep her husband and herself, eager, happy married lovers?"

organixxx not good enough

Industrial organic practices are generally unsustainable monocultures just like the rest. But here is just one more reason why industrial organic is not the solution:

jcarrot on the practicavore

Even if you aren't Jewish, jcarrot.org is a darn good read on issues of food and sustainability. The discussion about the emergence of the practicavore, or someone who grows their own food because the cost of food had skyrocketed, makes total sense to me because I pay Berkeley Organic Farm Fair Trade prices on everything, and have gone completely broke because of it. Potted tomato plants never looked sooo good and I am still trying to figure out how I am going to get all of those figs out of the towering tree next door. Read more: here.

california wage-enslaved have a new hero

California State Controller John Chiang has refused to comply with Arnie's executive order to reduce miminum wage for state employees to $6.55 an hour. I suspect that the Governator is trying to send the wage laborers packing from the Golden State. What do you think? How would you live on fifty-five dollars a day before taxes?! It seems to be a courageous (read: ethical) move by Chiang, who some are now calling a hero for pushing Arnold to court over this issue. Read the SF Chronicle article here: Controller says he won't cut workers' wages.

morning of movement

acroyoga founders jason & jenny showing off their artform:

maybe you've seen it

but if you haven't, it's worth seeing:

from the intergalactic bootyist

My dear friend Binahkaye shares some of her booty-ful wisdom on her blog: osadance.blogspot.com She is bootyliciousness at it's most profound and watching her body express itself is pure magic. Sharing her own self-expression with groups of women across the world, she inspires others towards their own sensual, sexy, self-empowered booty dance! Her latest blog tells the story of her challenges in teaching a group of women at a shelter... I am honored to share her with you! The clip below is a beautiful (and hilarious) example of how Binahkaye creates the space for movement wherever she is!

have a gay ol' day

schmeiser v. monsanto: agri-goliath gives up lunch money, goes home

Saskatchewan canola field and blue sky
Originally uploaded by scrapshot

This is great news that is a few months old. Percy Schmeiser has been fighting against the agri-chemical bully Monsanto for almost a decade! Serious props for standing up for environmental justice and working to create legal precedents that will affect us ALL.
"In an out of court settlement finalized on March 19, 2008, Percy Schmeiser has settled his lawsuit with Monsanto. Monsanto has agreed to pay all the clean-up costs of the Roundup Ready canola that contaminated Schmeiser's fields. Also part of the agreement was that there was no gag-order on the settlement and that Monsanto could be sued again if further contamination occurred. Schmeiser believes this precedent setting agreement ensures that farmers will be entitled to reimbursement when their fields become contaminated with unwanted Roundup Ready canola or any other unwanted GMO plants." For the full story visit: percyschmeiser.com

If you want to know more about how Monsanto threatens all I hold near, dear, and delicious visit Dr. Mercola's page: it's one of the best.

public fruit jam

Jam Making III
Originally uploaded by k1rsty

if you are in LA this weekend, check out the fallen fruit project. "What do you get when you mix L.A. sunshine, a collection of artists and an obscure state law?" apparently, the answer is jam.

this message has been brought to you by another revolutionary in favor of deliciousness.

tap water builds character, right?

The water source beneath one-fifth of Australia
Originally uploaded by Garry'

Some of you might remember this news story from a few months back: pharmaceuticals found in drinking water. Those who don't want us to care were saying things like "the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose" (AP) But even if we aren't getting medical doses of hormones, our little lock-and-key receptors are bound to be picking up whatever we are getting since hormones generally work in parts per million concentrations. And, seriously, this is only going to become a larger cause for concern as time passes.

Bottled water opens it's own can of worms. According to a 2001 report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are expended in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year. We also use an incredible amount of fossil fuel transporting water across the world to drink a bit of idyllic FIJI. Refreshing, right? (Probably only you subscribe to that obscure Christian cult that believes Jesus will return once we've trashed the place...in which case, bottles up!)

Phtalate used to soften plastic in bottled water production has questionable health effects as well. If you are feeling particularly granola and like to rinse and re-use your bottles, bad news, it looks as if more phtalate leaches in to the water. Microwave tupperware at your own risk.

And even if the fluoride conspiracy is totally wack which I doubt, this little tidbit should not go unnoticed: "During the 1990’s, research conducted by Harvard toxicologist Phillis Mullenix showed that fluoride in water may lead to lower IQ’s, and produced symptoms in rats strongly resembling attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Just days before her research was accepted for publication, Mullenix was fired as the head of toxicology at the Forsyth Dental Center in Boston. Then her application for a grant to continue her fluoride and central nervous system research was turned down by the US National Institute of Health (NIH) when an NIH panel told her that "fluoride does not have central nervous system effects." (website above)

Multi Pure is one of the best in-home water filters on the market. I highly recommend getting one.

working out the kinks

i had an entirely different post planned for today... but the picture is worth at least 10k words and i can't get it uploaded just yet. maybe i'll have it up tonight. instead... cheap laughs from jstew:

da-da-daily you say?

Yep, that's the idea. Daily news of an uncommon sort. Let's expound upon this a bit: "common" news is the depressing, catastrophic, violent, isolating, brainwashing, fear-inducing, empire-building type of goo that seeps through the tube. (Do you still watch that?) radiantlove daily is pretty much... none of that. I'll even go one better, it's inspired by the stuff they really don't want you to think about. Love is the number one threat.