This has me delighted, as it's my first successful foodie introduction. I had raved to Nancy about George Motz’ new festival, and during a lunch meeting with George last year, told him about Nancy. Looking forward to catalyzing many more symbiotic relationships throughout my just budding food career.

If you cannot wait until summer to see The Mighty Humble Blueberry at Water Taxi Beach, it is currently screening online, free through June 30th at Independent Features. It’s listed under the documentary category.

Read more about the project at Nancy’s blog About Blueberries.

Folks, the weather in California couldn’t be perfect-er. It’s been hot and sweaty up and down the coast. But this isn’t the first time I’ve brought the sun when I’ve arrived here. Thanks aren’t necessary. Sharing is caring as we well know.

Buen provecho amis du soliel..

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/environment?type=environmentNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B8dTgJxsl2aP4igJ50LB7l1&src=blogBurst_environmentNews&bbPostId=B4Hj78ZQkrFHCz48ED92G5hvRCz7RmtHsuvIGfCz5guqVXo8UoP&bbParentWidgetId=B8dTgJxsl2aP4igJ50LB7l1

Species are dying out at a rate not seen since the demise of the dinosaurs, according to a report published today – and human behaviour is to blame. Emily Dugan counts the cost. The world's species are declining at a rate "unprecedented since the extinction of the dinosaurs", a census of the animal kingdom has revealed. The Living Planet Index out today shows the devastating impact of humanity as biodiversity has plummeted by almost a third in the 35 years to 2005.

The report, produced by World Wildlife Fund, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network, says land species have declined by 25 per cent, marine life by 28 per cent, and freshwater species by 29 per cent. Scientists say the current extinction rate is now up to 10,000 times faster than what has historically been recorded as normal.

As nations meet for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, these alarming figures will cast a shadow over government pledges to make a "significant" reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010. In fact, the report's authors say that global inaction has already made such a goal totally unattainable.

"It's very damning for the governments that are party to the convention that they are not able to meet the target they set for themselves," said Mr Loh. "The talk doesn't get translated into action. We are failing, and the consequences will be devastating."

Tracking nearly 4,000 species between 1970 and 2005, the team has not only revealed the destruction of the Earth's wildlife, but also pointed the finger at the perpetrators of this devastation. Ben Collen, extinctions researcher at ZSL, said: "Between 1960 and 2000, the human population of the world has doubled. Yet during the same period, the animal populations have declined by 30 per cent. It's beyond doubt that this decline has been caused by humans."

The study picked out five reasons for species decline, all of which can be traced back to human behaviour: climate change, pollution, the destruction of animals' natural habitat, the spread of invasive species, and the overexploitation of species. At a time when America has finally added the polar bear to the endangered species list, it is emerging that the scale of species destruction reaches far beyond the headline animals. But as in the case of the polar bear, mankind's behaviour needs to be radically changed in order to stop this pillaging of the Earth's biodiversity.

Credit: Independent.co.uk

Dirty Laundry

In the midst of the global environmental crisis, the US is the single largest contributor to global warming. We need to start doing the little things to save the planet...like hanging our laundry. this is one of the cultural differences I've noticed as an American living abroad in Spain and it inspired to make this short.

But some people are so incredibly self-involved and pampered that they could give a rat's ass. Take this little treasure named "Tori" who writes:

umm you've got to be kidding me. as if
there is just NO way i'm hanging my clothes to dry so long as i have a dryer or money for one

excuse me while i run downstairs to put some more laundry into my supersized dryer

She's kidding, right? Right? Tell me she's kidding.

FUCKING ARREST KARL ROVE!

More than seven years too late, it appears as if a growing number of congresspersons are realizing that they are part of a co-equal branch of government. After allowing their institution to be disrespected and at times ignored by the executive branch, top officials in Congress are finally expressing a willingness to use their full power under the Constitution to rein in an out-of-control administration.

The current target: Karl Rove.

Rove has been asked by the House Judiciary Committee to testify about his involvement in the Justice Department’s prosecution and imprisonment of former Alabama Governor Don Siegleman. As Rove has so far refused to testify voluntarily, members of Congress have started sending signals that they are prepared to go to the mattresses over this.

Yesterday, Rep. Robert Wexler sent out a strongly worded E-mail advocating the use of “inherent contempt” against Rove, which would allow the House Sergeant-of-Arms to forcibly bring Rove to the House to testify.

Also yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers alluded to the use of inherent contempt. "We'll do what any self-respecting committee would do,” Conyers said. “We'd hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested."

It is time for all of us to let our representatives know that we support this forceful action. That is why I just sent an E-mail to my representative through the American Freedom Campaign Web site. I hope that you will join me. To do so, just use the following link to get started:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campai...

Together, we can restore balance in our system of checks and balances.

Thanks for taking action.

737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire

For maps, see

U.S. Military Troops and Bases Around the World

Global U.S. Military Presence (pdf)

With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.

The following is excerpted from Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan Books).

"The total of America's military bases in other people's countries in 2005, according to official sources, was 737. Reflecting massive deployments to Iraq and the pursuit of President Bush's strategy of preemptive war, the trend line for numbers of overseas bases continues to go up.

Interestingly enough, the thirty-eight large and medium-sized American facilities spread around the globe in 2005 -- mostly air and naval bases for our bombers and fleets -- almost exactly equals Britain's thirty-six naval bases and army garrisons at its imperial zenith in 1898. The Roman Empire at its height in 117 AD required thirty-seven major bases to police its realm from Britannia to Egypt, from Hispania to Armenia. Perhaps the optimum number of major citadels and fortresses for an imperialist aspiring to dominate the world is somewhere between thirty-five and forty."

See:

Exeprt from Chalmers Johnson's book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

Chalmers Johnson interview

"California Beaches No. 6" 2008

Copyright © 2008 Kevin G. Wong. All rights reserved.

The death toll now stands at 28,881 from Monday's massive 7.9 quake. Earlier on Saturday waves of people fled a potential flood zone near the epicenter of the first quake. While there has not been flooding the potential is there and if the river does flood it will inundate the town.

"I'm very scared. I heard that the water will be crashing down here," said Liang Xiao, one of the people fleeing on Saturday. "If that happens, there will be over 10 yards of water over our heads."

There are close to 11,000 still buried under the rubble in Sichuan province according to the regional government.

The United Nations just authorized a grant of up to $7 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to help those caught up in this crisis.

In Shifang, a city north of Chengdu there is a tent city serving as a home for 2,000 people. Tents though are in short supply.

Unlike other areas hit by disasters of this magnitude China reports that there have yet to be any major diseases or serious health care problems.

Here is how we did it.

1. Big stuff - when we replaced our refridgerator, clothes washer, dish washer.  We made sure to focus on energy/water consumption.  This save an almost $10/month right off the bat. 
2. Waste - we have always been good to shut lights off in rooms we are not using but didn't realize the benefits of using power bars to completely shut down - standby power.  Did you know that if you leave your printer, VCR/DVD, etc...anything with a clock plugged in but turned off you are still using electricity? Well it pays to put those items on a power bar and shut the power bar off when not in use.  http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca/news-nouvelles/20070723-2-eng.cfm#11
3. Too many electronics - what do your really need? It takes the same amount of time to open a can with a regular hand-held can opener than an electric one...so we gave our electric can opener away.  The added bonus is that this helps to simplify our lives by reducing the things that have to be maintained.  Do you really need 4 TVs? Doesn't say much for family time, does it!

I'm sure there are more ways to reduce...please share them.

Cheers,

Tracey

"Unless the barred owl threat is lessened, land management alone will not recover the owl," said Ren Lohoefener, director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific region.

The shotgunning of barred owls, a cousin of the spotted owl that encroached from back East on its old growth turf, to see if it improves spotted owl numbers is part of the final Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan released Friday by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Once again the tree huggers that have taken control of the Forest Service have come up with an incredibly stupid plan to save their meal ticket from extinction. There seems to be a pattern here. When they were sure the loggers were to blame, they got rid of the loggers. Now that the Barred Owl is a stronger species than their precious Spotted Owl, they need to take a more direct approach. Since they couldn't just take a shotgun to the loggers, they'll take out their revenge on the Barred Owl. And if that doesn't work? What's next?

You want to hear the Real Scary part?

By thinning forests in dry, fire-ready landscapes, the odds of a major wildfire wiping out swaths of owl habitat will be reduced, said Paul Phifer, recovery plan leader for the Fish and Wildlife Service. He said the size of the individual patches hadn’t been determined yet, but they would make up 30 percent to 35 percent of the landscape.

The same people that wiped out an entire industry, several small towns, caused numerous wildfires and ruined countless lives by not allowing any logging because of their bird, now want to thin the forest so a wildfire won't harm the Spotted Owl. They don't give a damn about the human lives lost, thousands of homes lost and millions of acres of forest burned because of their stupidity, but NOW, it might save their meal ticket, so it's O.K? I have a better idea for those shotguns.

One more quote that should scare the hell out of you.

That’s what made the spotted owl so controversial when it was first listed for federal species protection in 1990. In the years that followed, timber harvests around the Northwest were crimped for the sake of saving owls. As a result, sawmills around the West closed because a lack of logs.

The spotted owl is still listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Got That? Only a Threatened Species? Sound familiar?

There's much more for me to get fired up about, but I'll let you read the rest.

Related: How Lies Killed a Small Town

from the Ventnorian

for getting the first award on the Island from
the Campaign to Protect Rural England
as part of their Anti Litter Campaign.

Lesley has been doing a wonderful job keeping the area at the bottom of Spring Hill, Central Car Park and the little park opposite the Ventnorian clear of litter for months. It is brilliant to see her getting recognition for her hard work, which is a never ending job, picking up litter that people cannot be bothered to put in the bins.

Mark Compton-Hall put her up for the award as he like the rest of us was impressed with her efforts in making at least part of Ventnor litter free for the benefit of residents and visitors.


Lesley's Anti Litter efforts have been noticed before on Ventnor Blog.

I think we all ought to thank her by going and buying lots of things from her shop The Ventnorian, Spring Hill.

If you are not familiar with the shop which stocks beautiful wooden toys; some health foods; jewellery; locally made crafts; lots of organic, non-toxic toiletries and household goods. She sells the Ecover washing up liquid, fabric condition and washing liquid and you can take your empty bottles back to be refilled saving yourself money and landfill from yet another bottle. There are too many items to list, it is well worth a visit.

Lesley and Mark will be on the Ventbag/Ventnorian stall next weekend at the Big Green Picnic, stop by and say hello.

Please note it has been moved from Church Litten to the car park next to County Hall.

Southern Vectis will be offering discounted travel to and from the event. It will only cost £2 for a return journey from anywhere on the Island. To get your coupon for discounted travel, please either download it from the Big Green Picnic site or cut out the coupon in the Big Green Picnic County Press supplement on 23rd March.

LAHORE: The city government has started cracking down on large factories in residential areas, believing them to be a source of nuisance to residents.

District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zaman told Daily Times on Friday that there were almost 5,000 cottage industries in residential areas. He said that the city government would advertise in newspapers on Saturday (today) to tell the owners of these factories to get themselves listed with the government within 15 days. “The objective is not to discourage cottage industry, but to shift the larger ones away from residential areas,” he added. He also said that once listed, the government would check whether the factories came under cottage industry or not.

Das Rennrad hat auf einen Besitzer einen ähnlichen Effekt wie ein dicker Mercedes. Man fühlt sich schneller,härter,stärker. Und noch moralisch überlegen..
Tillmann Prüfer für NEON

Falträder oder auch Klappräder genannt waren bis jetzt noch kein Modetrend. Der Entwurf One zeigt wie das Konzept "Klapprad modernisiert und sich vom klapprige, zu kleinen, schlecht zu fahren, unhandlichen Rädern der 1970er Jahre leicht distanziert.

Das 'One' sieht definitiv nicht peinlich aus, bietet eine echte Lösung für die Probleme, die mit den städtischen Nahverkehr einhergehen. Mit all dem Staus, verstopfte Straßen, der schlechten Luft.

Im geöffneten zustand ist, 'One' ist ein komfortables Fahrrad das nicht nur gut aussieht, das Design erinnert mit seiner runden Form an das Honda Cub Motocycle-Konzept

Mühelos zusammengeklappt,wird das 'One' zu einem glatten, leichten und kompakt Fortbewegungsmittel das gut verstaut und gelagert werden kann. Es ist ein Fahrrad für Eco und Geld denkende Individuen gleichermaßen.
Designer :: Thomas Owen

TROPICAL storm Halong gained strength as it approached the northern Philippines and was expected to hit land late today, the government weather station said.

The storm was about 130 kilometres west of Iba on the main northern island of Luzon at 1030am local time and moving northeast at 19 kilometres per hour, it said.

It was expected to hit the coastal Luzon province of Ilocos Sur late Saturday and cross the northern tip of Luzon.

The storm was packing maximum winds of 105 kilometres per hour near the centre with gusts of up to 135 kilometres per hour, the weather station said.

The highest level of a three-step storm alert has been raised for Ilocos Sur and its neighbouring provinces north of Manila. Lower level alerts were in force over the rest of Luzon including the Philippine capital.

Halong has already brought unseasonally heavy rains to Luzon and the central islands, resulting in floods that left two women dead on the island of Negros and forced thousands to flee their homes earlier this week.

Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who is also head of civil defence, said it was unusual for a storm to hit in May and warned people to take adequate precautions.

Civil defence spokesman Anthony Golez said local governments had already been told to prepare for the storm and that coastal communities were being put on alert to watch out for storm surges or flashfloods.

Here are some images from a walk I took in the north end of Meadowbrook two weeks ago.

This map shows the relationship between Meadowbrook and the Falaise Saint Jacques, one of the 10 Ecoterritories on the Island Of Montreal, even if that is meaningless to the Tremblay administration. A = the south end of Meadowbrook and B = the west end of the Falaise Saint Jacques. As the crow flies this is no more than a twenty minute walk.

Some groups such as Les Amis de Meadowbrook and the Green Coalition, have suggested that a green link be made here as part of a larger network or green corridor that could surround the city. It would be particularly useful for cyclists. It is a great idea in any case.

The site features, among other things, the only still open/active section of the Little Saint Pierre river that flowed down and through Turcot Yards before emptying in the Saint Lawrence in Verdun. So there is a strong historical precedent for following this natural path.

Developing Meadowbrook is only about greed. You are talking building housing beside a very busy railyard where the sounds of shunting activities are already quite noisy for some residents of the east side of the golf course and uncertainty about the airport would make it a place for would-be homeowners to avoid. Still, developers seem to work on the principle that if you build it someone will buy it and actually move in.

I don't think so, things don't look so simple to me. What's more, i think the tsunami in 2006 which had a devastating effect was due to global warming. Of course, the direct cause was due to the crashing of platonic plates, however I think global warming played an important role in destroying the plague area. Why? Simpily because of the increase in sea water level, it may only seemed to be a few centimeters increase, but just imagine how much surface area - and the total volume of water in it. That's a tremendous amount of energy when collected during tsunami forming. That is why I think that global warming is the main destruction cause.

Now, what causes global warming? A lot of factors are considered to the cause of global warming. In short, we are wasting much more then we needed. We wasted paper as if it was from the air, some threw it away when they made miscellaneous mistakes on the paper. Some just simply used it in an obnoxious way like doing origami (its actually not that bad either). We use papers one sided only, totally took the second slide for granted. Green house gases emission level increased drastically, due to factories or even people (eg. religous). Most of us didn't care for the environment was due to troublesome in recycling, but if most Japanese are able to do it, why can't we?

I seek anyone who is reading this post, be it you like it or not, be it if I make any sense to you. Even you can't understand a single shit in the post, please I believe you can understand this, care for the environment. Love the Earth so that we will be loved, once the destruction has been made, nothing can slavage it and I really men NOTHING. The day when global warming settled down, no matter how we try to control it, everything is too late.

Recent disaster - Within the last 2 weeks - Myanmar, Cyclone.
                   -China, Earthquake. (20,000-30,000 killed), do not have
                                                                    direct link along with Global warming, but that doesn't mean we
                                                                    shouldnt care for the Earth.

Some little things you can do for the environment...
1. If you're a student, pass year papers or notes with any usable space and keep it for working - math or even sci.              (Re-using)
2. Before you sleep, do off your computer, leaving it on is extremly wasting electricity, be it u are rich or not. The Earth is not rich enough to give you electricity.

3. If you're doing spring cleaning, please separate the papers away from the "normal waste". Put it together with your newspaper for recycling.       (Recycling)
4. If its possible, try not to on the air-condition when not needed.    (Reducing)
                                    Together with all this 3Rs - Reduce Reuse Recycle
                                           We can make this world a better place.

19 minutes of brilliant ideas and real solutions !

The BBC's Paul Danahar has been reporting throughout the day of the stampede of thousands of people, whose nerves are shattered after a week of such upheaval. The fact that survivors still being dug out of the wreckage had to be left where they were, really adds a cruel twist to the terrible events of the week:

"Everybody just ran - rescuers, army relief teams, medical workers and locals - and people who were in the process of being rescued had to be left behind."

As the death toll of the earthquake in Sichuan continues to rise, time is getting shorter and shorter for the tens of thousands still buried; several people have been rescued on Saturday after up to 117 hours buried. The official total has reached 28,881, as of Saturday. So when all rescue efforts were suspended today, the delay could have been fatal for some of those still trapped.

Rescuers and residents have been returning to Beichuan, as the realisation that the rumours were a false alarm has reached them. Bob sincerely hopes that this delay has not cost any more lives.

At this stage there does not appear to be an speculation about the validity of the rumour, or the handling of the situation. Across the press and blogosphere both within China and internationally there appears to be wide-spread support for the Chinese authorities' search and rescue efforts.

Photosource: littlepaperplanes.com

According to recently announced 2007 data by the Organic Coffee Collaboration (a project of the Organic Trade Association), the organic coffee market in the US reached the $1 billion last year.

Participants in the Collaboration are: Dallis Coffee (New York City, NY), Elan Organic Coffees (San Diego, CA), Equal Exchange (West Bridgewater, MA) , Fresh Harvest Products (New York City, NY), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Waterbury, VT), and Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company (Vancouver, Canada).

The amount of organic coffee imported into the U.S. and Canada increased 29 percent from 2006-2007 from approximately 65 million pounds to approximately 84 million pounds, according to Mr. Daniele Giovannucci, author of the upcoming North American Organic Coffee Industry Survey. Most of the 84 million pounds of coffee was sold in the United States.

• The organic coffee market has grown average of 32 percent annually between 2000 and 2007 and shows no signs of decreasing.
• In fact, some large companies, such as Starbucks (who happen to be the largest purchaser of organic coffee) have not had enough supply to meet the demand.
• Organic farm conversion takes an average of 3 years to achieve, not to mention the significant human and physical capital required. With that said, it is suspected that over the next several years, the market will continue to increase as more and more coffee chains integrate organic into their coffee bean portfolio.
• Conventional coffee market growth pales in comparison to organic with an estimated 2 percent annual growth rate over the last several years.

What is organic coffee? Organic coffee is grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on the environment and must conform to strict organic growing and processing standards. For example, organic production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, avoid the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture. In addition, fair wage practices must be adopted. Third-party certification organizations verify that organic farmers use only methods and materials allowed in organic production.

*Organic coffee is grown in 40 countries worldwide, including the United States (Hawaii).

For more information on certification, see the OTA and the Organic Certification, Trade Association body, CCOF.org.

Organic coffee growing so often supports local communities and farmers from Latin America, to Asia and Africa. Finca Alta Gracia is one such farm in the Dominican Repulic, to learn more check out their farm.

Dr. Somner glared at Donald Rumsfeld. He was still very angry at him, but those of us who knew my English teacher well were aware that his mood was rapidly changing again. In another five minutes he would be a firm believer in whatever the Secretary told him.

            “Now to return to your original question,” said Donald Rumsfeld, “You asked me if I thought that the Romans were about to invade Earth? The simple answer is yes: I believe they already have. In fact, I have witnessed it first-hand.”

            “Now I hope you will all take the time to go back in your memory to the events of September. Up to that point no one in the President’s cabinet had a clue about any of the things we have just discussed. One or two FBI agents of course had heard about Dr. Somner’s research, but they had no professional interest in it. That all changed on September 15th 2001, when Roman spaceships contacted us for the first time.”

            “As you will recall, three major cities on Earth blew up on September 13th. At first we thought it was Al Qaeda, but Nasa soon told us that the bombs had come from high Earth orbit. That’s when we first began considering that it could have been an attack by extra-terrestrials. The truth, it turned out, was odder than we ever could have imagined.”

            “On September 14th our scans picked up several large foreign objects in orbit. By midnight there were about 20 of them. Some of them were 100 feet long. They varied in distance from 500-20,000 miles above the Earth. This was in addition to a few glimpses we caught of others orbiting the moon.”

            “On the morning of September 15th they found a way to contact President Gore directly on his cell phone. They told him that they were the descendants of Ancient Romans and that they had come to conquer Earth. It took them several days, but eventually they convinced us that they were telling the truth.”

            “What followed next was a month and a half of intense negotiations. We quickly realized that the Romans lacked the strength for a conventional invasion of Earth. They had about 600 men in a variety of 200 space craft in the general vicinity of our planet. The simplicity of space warfare favored our side, even though their technology was several decades ahead of ours. We could have blown them out of the sky with rockets and lasers if we wanted to. It was a simple matter of pin-pointing their coordinates.”

            “The reason we didn’t of course, was because of their nukes. They claimed to have up to 700 nukes in orbit spread equally among 90 or so space craft. They insisted that we surrender because we couldn’t destroy them all quickly enough. At first we acquiesced, but we soon discovered that their demands were too harsh for us to accept. They wanted us to inform the entire world that they were being taken over. Of course we would never do that. And so, in early November negotiations broke down.”

            “That was when they nuked us again. They blew up 7 cities before they stopped. We managed to take down the two ships that had fired the missiles. We hoped that they had been lying about having 90 space craft with bombs aboard. We hoped that the worst was over.”

            “But it wasn’t. In order to prove their point, they dropped 22 bombs consecutively on the lunar surface during a full moon. After that it was hard to deny that they had the capability to blow up Earth. And so we once again met with them to discuss their demands.”

            “The Romans appeared to be more reasonable this time. They said that the conquest would take place in phases over the next 20 years. They of course expect that we will be preparing our defenses in the meantime, but since there are so few of them so far from their home world, they knew that there was nothing they could do to stop us from planning. Nevertheless, they fully intend to win before it’s all over. I believe that even now they are massing huge armies on the other Earth for a future occupation force.”

            “Their demands in the meantime are not too unreasonable. For one, they’ve requested that the president go on the air after Christmas and inform the nation of the entire situation. They also have requested that space launches be suspended in the meantime, and that they be given the access codes that control our satellites.”

            The secretary stopped talking at this point and looked us straight in our faces. He was searching for any sign of fear that would give him an idea of how we were about to take the following news. We all knew that he was on the verge of telling us something we didn’t want to hear.

            “There was one other request that at first seemed quite minor compared to the others. They said that they wanted their first group of men—20 rangers from a combat vessel—to come down to Earth to do some reconnaissance. They want to be able to get to know us and understand our culture more. They said they wanted to intermix with civilians. That is why, presumably, they want to come here, to Tree-Point College!”

NUEVA VALENCIA, Guimaras – Frankie Aracan leads a pack of journalists through the rocky, winding trail on mountain bikes. He regularly checks if anyone is left behind or is having difficulty catching up.

A few hours later, Aracan gives pointers as they rappel down a 95-foot cliff overlooking the pristine beaches of Guimaras Island.

Aracan is not an expert mountain biker or rappeller although he has undergone training as a guide for adventure sports. On most days, he is on a tricycle ferrying passengers from the town proper of Nueva Valencia to the villages.

But like other residents of Sitio Guisi in Barangay Dolores, he is getting much needed extra income from a heritage tourist site recently launched by the Department of Tourism. He earns P250 to P350 for a day’s work as a tour guide of the community-based Guisi Discovery Quest – bigger than the average P150 he gets from his regular job.

(For the rest, click Guimaras grabs.)

"Picture Of A Typical American"

Almighty God demands that we perform some type of work. That can be mental or physical work, so long as its honorable. Sadly our nation is running away from Protestant Christianity and endorses lazy and worthless human nature.

Today people are more self centered than any time in history. One example is the lack of work people do on a regualar basis. Sure people might work for a living. However most just sit on the clock and draw their pay. These people should be fired and walk the street for a few months and beg for a dollar bill.

Other people work hard at their jobs but come home and sit on their rear ends and ride out the clock of life. Not keeping your property up and your kids disciplined is worse than dragging your rear end at your day job. Keeping things in order is the responsibility of every single human being.

Nothing can be excused.

This lazy nature of people has resulted in a down falling nation. The moral and racial purity of our nation is going under because mothers and fathers are to lazy to train their children to follow Jesus Christ our King Of Kings. Others like to chunk their trash on the side of the road because they are to lazy to toss it into a garbage can. These people are sub humans for their lack of care for God's green earth.

This worthless attitude is endorsed by our government because they to are lazy and could care less about living stadards. Now they even promote lazy nature through disability checks and welfare checks. This gives a person another reason to do nothing but get drunk and smoke dope.

The government and the liberal free market is the reason such personality is allowed. They have failed to correct this problem. They are failures. It's time for us to take over.

We as Christian Patriots will restore National Populist ways of thinking. That means that every single person must produce something or not be allowed to prosper according to economic and moral standards. This will correct the problem.

It's no secret I believe globalization is killing the planet. The gasoline used to transport goods around the world to ensure tomatoes are available in the cold of winter is hugely responsible for the fact I pay 4 bucks a gallon now. It defeats the purpose of walking or biking to the store in the first place; what good is saving half a gallon of gas when hundreds were used to get your purchases to the store? What about the chemicals used to grow or produce the product you're buying? If it is produced in another country, your country's environmental laws don't apply. Chemicals that were banned at home years ago could easily be used in abundance on the other side of the pond.

Beyond globalization killing the planet, what about our tomatoes? I'm not the only one to notice. Food wasn't meant to travel long distances, genetic modification has been used to alter the toughness, refrigeration used to increase longevity. There's no secret to this, tomatoes hate the cold. Repeat that with me, tomatoes hate the cold. This doesn't mean you necessarily have to go tomato-less come November, there's ways around the laws of the tomato. Grow your own and can what you have left over. Canned tomatoes are delicious and retain their nutrients unlike many other veggies. It's a win win, you can have your tomato and eat it too.

There was a recent term coined into the dictionary: locavore. The locavore is simply someone who eats food that was grown or produced within 100 miles of your home. The movement is huge and undoubtedly endless in environmental value. The movement started in San Francisco when a group challenged local residents to only eat what was local for the entire month. I don't think you have to be in San Francisco to try to do this. Why not check out your local CSA. The pesticides and gasoline saved alone say their worth. You'll have tomatoes that scream 'eat me,' cucumbers that beg to be pickled, fruits that will make your fussiest eater reconsider their fruit snacks. You must be aware though, once you go local, you'll never go back.

So, this summer, save your money on that hybrid and be an environmentalist. Make the first steps to a locavore lifestyle and start finding your food around town. Your planet and taste buds (and I) will thank you.

Dr. Carter was one of the best professors I ever had... quite a contrast to the very worst, who once allegedly said "a university is place where a professor can get a paycheck."