"When all else is lost, the future still remains" - Christian Bovee
What have you lost? A house? A car? A loved one? Innocence? Hope? Faith? Happiness ... or maybe you have just lost interest altogether - in everything.
However painful or disheartening it may have been to suffer a loss, the good news is that "lost" is a past tense word. It's done. It's finished. Outside of playing it over and over again in your mind with dead-end, "what if" scenarios, you cannot experience the loss again. What you DO have is what is important, ad what you DO have is that most-important, unwritten, unpainted, blank piece of canvas that is your future. It remains, and it will be what you choose to make of it: that includes the next hour, the next day, the next week, or the next fifty years. Read more...
Theo Jansen unleashes his Strandbeest, ice shelves are melting in both poles, and we bring to you new Truly Useless Crap! Read more...
In Nigeria many are building up camps at gas stations so that they can buy cooking fuel. The situation is so bad that women and children may end up spending their whole day just queuing up to get the now expensive fuel. Most fuel stations sell a liter of kerosene at fifty naira Nigerian money but at the black market (that’s the situation where you buy kerosene at unauthorized sites in the country), kerosene is sold at three times the pump station stipulated price.
Because of this exorbitance and most often the non availability of the petroleum derivative, people in most urban areas have now resulted to using fire wood, coal, and other fuel derivatives as an alternative cooking fuel, despite the tedious routine of using firewood, most women claim that firewood and coal is a far cheaper cooking gas than kerosene which can simply fill the can of a China made cooking stove. Read more...
Calling all college graduates: this fall Idealist.org will host 16 Graduate Degree Fairs for the Public Good across the United States, where potential applicants can meet with representatives from graduate programs. Each event will also offer a set of workshops that will describe the various degrees, illuminate the application and financial aid process, and guide attendees in how to transition back to school.
At each of the fairs, you will meet representatives from 60 to 120 of the leading nonprofit-related graduate programs in the country, representing degrees ranging from MPAs and MBAs through Law, Social Work, International Relations, Urban Planning, and many more. Read more...
Over the past year I have heard numerous contemporary spiritual teachers, such as Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and Marianne Williamson, predict a profound shift in consciousness accompanied with an evolution to the next stage of humanity.
Where? When? How? I wanted to know. Could it be the fervor of an election year and promise of change? Could it be related to the intriguing prophecies of 2012 which predict a major transformation? Read more...
I'd like to suggest trying a one day "giving" experiment.
The idea simply would be for one 24 hour period to lay down all of our own desires, wants, selfish interests of any kind, and completely be unselfish, and do whatever would be helpful and beneficial to anyone we come in contact with during that 24 period. Read more...
The same day I began reading this month's Ode about energy generation and green energy I heard the most beautiful interview on National Public Radio on ethanol and other fuel alternatives.
The program was Science Friday and in it the host interviewed a biofuel advocate, David Blume (author of "Alchohol Can be a Gas"). I would highly recommend Ode put Mr. Blume on the short list of people to interview for future articles---if only to hear him paint beautiful pictures of a world where alternative fuels are promoted on a local grass-roots level and alternative fuel sources are plentiful and actually environmentally beneficial. Read more...
When I was a kid, which was conveniently during a time I lived in Hawaii, I became obsessed with starfish. What stunned me most was their ability to, rather quickly, shed and regenerate a limb. I wondered if it hurt to do this, or if it was some sort of everyday occurrence. I noticed the same thing about geckos and their tails and sea cucumbers that would vomit out their own internal organs. All of these biological feats are meant to be life-saving, so I imagine shedding a limb or spilling out one's guts isn't taken too lightly in the animal kingdom, but I cannot tell you how many quivering gecko tails wound up in my hands sans rightful owner. Read more...
BBC Journalist Christine Jeavans has challenged herself to give up plastic for a whole month. This is certainly a large feat when you think about all of the coffee cup tops, grocery bags, water bottles - not to mention babies diapers that people use everyday. Can it be done? Keep up with her challenge on her blog here.
Read full story:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7535500.stm
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