Archive for January, 2011

U.S. Healthcare: Our Blind Spot

28/01/2011

By R. Richards, Founder,
Mountain Spirit Institute
[Don’t miss the chart at the end of this post]
Once again, I’ve crossed  the  U.S. border, and am back in New Zealand (by way of Australia) experiencing medical system the way it was meant to be – compassionate,  not based on profit over people. My wife is pregnant, and before we left, we decided to have an initial visit with a midwife in New Hampshire. Once in Australia/New Zealand, we planned to have further tests. We were traveling to Australia to be with family Christmas, not to have pre-natal tests.

After the Holidays, we returned to New Zealand and are now here on the South Island.  So, in addition to our holiday trip, we’ve also been on a medical tour, getting a sampling  three different medical systems, starting in the U.S. (more…)

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Posted in Health, Leadership, New Zealand, Room For Improvement | 3 Comments »

2 More Geoglyphs Discovered on Nazca Lines

26/01/2011

Japanese scientists find two new geoglyphs in Nazca

A New Face at Nazca

Scientists from Yamagata University have reported finding two new geoglyphs in southern Peru’s Nazca province.

The geoglyphs are located close to the Nazca Lines, one of Peru’s most popular attractions where tourist planes routinely fly over the ancient geoglyphs of monkeys, hummingbirds and spiders. The Lines are a UNESCO world heritage, created between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, and are among the world’s greatest archaeological enigmas. (more…)

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Posted in Archeology, Indigenous Wisdom, Peru, Power of Place, South America | 2 Comments »

Your Food Supply #29

26/01/2011

Jamie Oliver is on a mission to save America from itself. Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food. Jamie Oliver is transforming the way we feed ourselves, and our children.

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Posted in 1- Video Posts, Health, Your Food Supply | Leave a Comment »

Buying Palm Oil products hurts Tigers

24/01/2011

TIGER-friendly labels on products which use palm oil grown without destroying Asian jungles could help save the endangered big cats, according to Australia’s major zoos.

Palm Oil Products: Not good for tigers

I was at Sydney’s Taranga Zoo a few weeks ago, getting quite an education. Not only was I learning about Australia’s amazing wildlife, but also, about how the harvesting of palm oil is adversely affecting tigers and other animals in Asia. Below is an article from Australia’s Daily Telegraph. I shot the image of the tiger through a good-sized plate of glass.

By Malcolm Holland, Environment Reporter: Daily Telegraph
World demand, and prices, for palm oil has skyrocketed, sparking land clearing in the jungle homes of tigers in Indonesia and Malaysia. Land clearing was so widespread it had put Sumatran tigers “on the next step to extinction”, Taronga’s CEO Cameron Kerr said yesterday.

World demand, and prices, for palm oil has skyrocketed, sparking land clearing in the jungle homes of tigers in Indonesia and Malaysia.Land clearing was so widespread it had put Sumatran tigers “on the next step to extinction”, Taronga’s CEO Cameron Kerr said yesterday. Read more of this story
Learn more about the “Don’t Palm Us Off” campaign
Which has three main focuses:

Labelling legislation – The Truth in Labelling Bill has been reintroduced to government for consideration and you can help get it accross the line. Scroll to to top of this page to find out more.

130,000 petition signatures collected – This enormous public response will now be used as a catalyst to demonstrate the community’s desire to change food labelling laws in an attempt to weaken our region’s link to the palm oil crisis.

Truth in Labelling Website Live – Nick Xenophon’s Truth in Labelling website is now up and running. It contains information on the palm oil bill and ways you can express your voice on fair labelling issues. Visit: http://www.truthinlabelling.com.au/

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Posted in Animals, Conservation, Environment, MSI News, Sustainable Living/Communities | 2 Comments »

Intelligent Design?

24/01/2011

Gold coloured ants?

How can you make this stuff up? There must be intelligent design involved with this little creature.  Ants that look spray-painted gold can’t be real, but they are. I shot this one on a porch  railing at a Eungai Creek home, about an hour south of Coff’s Harbour in New South Wales, Australia’s east coast. The ant, shining in the sun, looked like it just came out of a bodyshop with a fresh coat of high-gloss gold enamel.  A quick Google search didn’t answer any questions as to how the gold colour helps this ant. Nor did I find anything on the ant. If you have any answers, leave a comment!

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Posted in Animals, Traveling | 2 Comments »

Your Food Supply #28

23/01/2011

On the Road in New Zealand
Is Monsanto in the Neighborhood?

Pioneer Seed Sign: Belgium 2009

We just arrived on the South Island, having driven through from NZ’s biggest city, Auckland, down Route 1. We saw some disturbing looking corn fields with little red signs on the side, saying Pioneer. It eerily reminded us of scenes in the U.S.’s midwest fields, but not on the grand scale of course.  Please see our earlier posts on how corn has crowded out the countryside in America.

How do you tell strange corn? It grows closer together than normal corn. It looks uncomfortably close together. And there’s lots of it, and of course the telltail signs at the edge of the field.

With a quick check on Wikipedia we discovered a connection with Dupont Chemical. Ykes. The mulit-national corp is everywhere. Of course, you knew that already. The saving grace, we think Kiwis have a bit more sense, and something to go on, seeing the disaster that has befallen the U.S. food supply with GMO, high fructose corn syrup, ad infinitum.

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Posted in 1- Video Posts, Conservation, Environment, Health, MSI News, New Zealand, Sustainable Living/Communities, Traveling, Your Food Supply | Leave a Comment »