The Copperbeech trees- some photographs

How Change Is Wrought:

First Through Education
By John Chuckman
A number of thoughtful American readers have asked what might be done about the problems I've described as disturbing the planet. This is a daunting request, because the problems are part of the warp and woof of a gigantic, complex society.

http://www.counterpunch.org/chuckmanchange.html

Is Protest Music Dead?

Music used to be the dominant voice against war. Now it's easier to shut up and get paid. What's really going on?

Opposing war hasn't always been a popular position, but it has created some great music. During the Vietnam era, songs like Edwin Starr's "War," Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower," Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain" and "Wars of Armageddon," Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam," Country Joe and the Fish's "Fixing to Die Rag," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" turned defiance into a raging, soaring, brave and melancholic gestures of community.

Read on http://www.counterpunch.org/changprotestmusic.html

A language of life

Medicine rarely looks at what really contributes to depression and the kinds of violence we have on the planet. My understanding is that people get depressed on account of how they are trained or educated to think. I try to show people how to transform that thinking into a language of life. — Marshall Rosenberg

(click the link to find out more about non-violent communication)

A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat

Oscar the Cat awakens from his nap, opening a single eye to survey his kingdom. From atop the desk in the doctor's charting area, the cat peers down the two wings of the nursing home's advanced dementia unit. All quiet on the western and eastern fronts. Slowly, he rises and extravagantly stretches his 2-year-old frame, first backward and then forward. He sits up and considers his next move.
In the distance, a resident approaches. It is Mrs. P., who has been living on the dementia unit's third floor for 3 years now. She has long forgotten her family, even though they visit her almost daily. Moderately disheveled after eating her lunch, half of which she now wears on her shirt, Mrs. P. is taking one of her many aimless strolls to nowhere. She glides toward Oscar, pushing her walker and muttering to herself with complete disregard for her surroundings. Perturbed, Oscar watches her carefully and, as she walks by, lets out a gentle hiss, a rattlesnake-like warning that says "leave me alone." She passes him without a glance and continues down the hallway. Oscar is relieved. It is not yet Mrs. P.'s time, and he wants nothing to do with her.
Oscar jumps down off the desk, relieved to be once more alone and in control of his domain. He takes a few moments to drink from his water bowl and grab a quick bite. Satisfied, he enjoys another stretch and sets out on his rounds. Oscar decides to head down the west wing first, along the way sidestepping Mr. S., who is slumped over on a couch in the hallway. With lips slightly pursed, he snores peacefully — perhaps blissfully unaware of where he is now living. Oscar continues down the hallway until he reaches its end and Room 310. The door is closed, so Oscar sits and waits. He has important business here.

Read the entire article http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/328

Note: Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscar the Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deaths of more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. His mere presence at the bedside is viewed by physicians and nursing home staff as an almost absolute indicator of impending death, allowing staff members to adequately notify families. Oscar has also provided companionship to those who would otherwise have died alone. For his work, he is highly regarded by the physicians and staff at Steere House and by the families of the residents whom he serves.
Source Information
Dr. Dosa is a geriatrician at Rhode Island Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University — both in Providence.

Why New Age Medicine Is Catching On

Critics, and that includes most conventional doctors, say the chief danger of alternative medicine -- aside from wasting money -- is that the patients get so carried away with unconventional cures that they dismiss regular medicine entirely. "The nightmare," says University of Chicago neurologist Clifford Saper, "is seeing someone who has a spinal-cord tumor who's been going to a chiropractor for years instead of to a doctor. You want to throw your hands up and say, 'If only I'd seen him earlier I could have helped him that much more.' " Doctors also warn about the risks of unregulated medicine, which is subject to both quackery and fads. A poorly trained massage therapist can do a good deal of damage. And some of the food supplements purveyed by health-food stores in recent years proved so harmful that they had to be pulled off the market.

Featured in the time magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974180-7,00.html

Totnes- A little secret..

Read more for another rather funny side to Totnes.

http://www.totnes-bsac.co.uk/misc/gulls.html

Upload your photographs CBL members

Hi everyone,
Please do upload your photographs and profiles. The blog seems a cold place without people. Atleast put up a little note about yourselves guys.
Harry Potter finally over..back to work

Vegetarian Is the New Prius

Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius down a peg when they turned their attention to another gas guzzling consumer purchase. They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels -- and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide -- as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

Read the entre article at http://www.alternet.org/environment/47668

"Ugly American"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American

This is a phrase that I just came across as I'm part of rather an active forum. Has anyone heard of this word/phrase. I realise this is a rather delicate subject to touch upon and there is absolutely no desire to start a political debate here but what the heck. Please go through the link and post your comments please if everyone has managed to finish sob sob the last Potter. All due respect to Americans on board.

From travel is where we can start to understand and appreciate other people's way of life, accept it without judging it, respect it and enlarge our own world vision.

The Difference Between A Bad Car And A Bad Driver

I did a double take when I read this article. No way man! this hybrid car can do 103 mph (i don't think my unhybrid car can do that). So break a few speed limits guys and test drive those hybrids. I'm waiting for them to arrive in India.


11 July 2007, 14:49:17 PY
Two electric and hybrid cars made it into the last week’s news top-list: Honda Civic and Toyota Prius. For rather contradictory reasons. Despite publicity electric and hybrid cars get, there’s still a lot to learn about them.
Toyota hybrid cars, Prius in particular, have gotten an unexpected promo campaign with Albert Gore’s son starring in it. Apparently, Gore’s kid had been pulled over doing about 100 mph. In his Prius. Normally companies tend to attract more or less positive characters to promote their products, and in case with GoreIII, drugs were found in the car. But who cares now that we know for sure that hybrid cars can do 100 mph! Toyota spokesman, Mike Michels, confirmed that Prius is even capable of breaking this speed. You can accelerate up to 103 mph without being worried about battery depletion. That was probably the most unbiased and resulting test-drive ever: the myth about electric and hybrid cars being underpowered was debunked.
The other hybrid-related issue was the story of a guy, who sued American Honda Motor Company over the mileage claims for Civic Honda hybrid. Mr.John True wasn’t satisfied with the mileage he was getting. Driving his Civic hybrid he averaged just 32 mpg (city/highway combined), instead of 49-51 advertised. Most hybrid and non-hybrid owners would agree that mileage of any car depends a lot on your driving habits.
There’s not much to add, for the case looks ridiculous. It’s just amazing how much is being told about electric and hybrid cars and how little people learn. Nevertheless, hybrid technology is gaining popularity. Managers of Toyota branches report the growth of sales of hybrid models. And even if customers don’t end up buying straight away they are willing to learn more about how Toyota hybrid cars work. The technology is quite easy to understand and average drivers don’t need to know a lot to get the most of their green-vehicles. All you need is just consult a few useful hybrid car articles before you're off to enjoy the ride.

Show me a miracle

The child whispered, "God, speak to me"
And a meadow lark sang.

The child did not hear. So the child yelled, "God, speak to me!"
And the thunder rolled across the sky.

But the child did not listen. The child looked around and said,
"God let me see you" and a star shone brightly.

But the child did not notice And the child shouted,
"God show me a miracle!"

And a life was born but the child did not know. So the child cried out in despair,
"Touch me God, and let me know you are here!"

Whereupon God reached down
And touched the child.

But the child brushed the butterfly away
And walked away unknowingly.

Ravindra Kumar Karnani

Ethical Shopping - Really?

A section on ethical shopping in Goldsmith's book advises us to buy organic, buy seasonal, buy local, buy sustainable, buy recycled. But it says nothing about buying less. Green consumerism is becoming a pox on the planet. If it merely swapped the damaging goods we buy for less damaging ones, I would champion it. But two parallel markets are developing - one for unethical products and one for ethical products, and the expansion of the second does little to hinder the growth of the first. I am now drowning in a tide of ecojunk. Over the past six months, our coat pegs have become clogged with organic cotton bags, which - filled with packets of ginseng tea and jojoba oil bath salts - are now the obligatory gift at every environmental event. I have several lifetimes' supply of ballpoint pens made with recycled paper and about half a dozen miniature solar chargers for gadgets that I do not possess.

read more

Cult of the Amateur

A warning from Andrew Keen in The Cult of the Amateur: "Our newspaper, magazine, music, and movie industries are being supplanted by an avalanche of amateur, user-generated free content.

Our newspapers' advertising revenue is being drained by free classified ads on sites like craigslist; television networks are under attack from commercial-free TiVo's; file-sharing and iPods are devestating to the multibillion-dollar music industry, and may soon undermine our movie industry; and Google's print-scanning technologies jeopardize the profitability of conventional publishing.

In a "cut-and-paste" online culture where intellectual property is freely swapped, stolen or "aggregated," royalty income is lost from the pockets of our artists, journalists, and creators..."

There must be a better way (?)