Smoking the green...
Reason #1 to legalize the green...
Carlos Santana wants Obama to legalize...
Even Ah-nold says we may need to legalize!
Oh hell...majority of Americans say legalize it...
Even TIME magazine wrote an article about it...
OK...just blame Canada for the abundance!
Reason #2 to legalize the green...
16 ways to go green for less...
Ways to discover JOY...
How to celebrate 4/20 at 4:20...
Nice water spout!
Stop drinking that fluoridated water people...
Terror on the golf course...
Mama pig feeds her tiger cubs?!
Most of what you eat is not real food...
Reason #3 to legalize the green...cannabinoids!
MJ potency surpasses 10%!
Mowing the lawn...
Anybody for some ayahuasca?
Compost 101...
The 10 least green companies on this planet...
Strange days...strange skies...
Seriously question those chemtrails...
Panorama of coral reef in Cali...
Make this super spice a part of your diet...
Topiary garden madness!
Reason #4 to legalize the green...
Planetophysical state of the Earth and life...
Today's astronomy pic...the Martian moon Deimos...
Be thrifty and save some green...
Say goodbye to farmer's markets?
The incredible power of mushrooms...
Tahiti Boy and the Palmtree family...
Reason #5 to legalize the green...
Above, Hemp for Victory, a 13-minute film produced by the US government in the 1940s which urged citizens to grow hemp during the war. During this earlier era of American crisis, farmers and 4-H clubs were encouraged to cultivate industrial hemp, the non-intoxicating cousin of what I like to call cannabis gettabis stonerus. And now, during our current American crisis, this same "non-drug" cannabis strain is the subject of a new bill put forth by Congressmen Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA).
They and eight cosponsors, both Republican and Democrat, hope to legalize the plant so American farmers can begin supplying fibers for a wide array of products, with the overreaching goal of opening a new sector in American agriculture.Reason #6 to legalize the green...
"Getting Out Of Your Own Way"
Each day in our lives, we hope and pray for a better day, that things should improve in one area or another. But all too often, all we do is hope and pray. That is not enough. We have to think, act and speak differently. If we don't change how we think, speak and act, we are bound to repeat the same problems or mistakes that gives us a situation we want changed. So how do we change things?
The hardest part of change is thinking differently. You have to challenge your own assumptions, including most delicately, the sense of who you are. You may not be who you really think you are. Never forget, we judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions. Yes, you meant to help someone with a project, you intended to give charity, you were planning on inviting your friends over for dinner, but if you didn't do it, in their minds you had no intention, and you are judged as such. So start correcting this error. If you intend to do something - DO IT. Don't procrastinate, don't delay. Stop making excuses. You want to improve yourself, get out of your own way.
Now find someone you completely trust, who has your interest at heart and who can give you constructive criticism. It is often better for a friend to be this person than a spouse. And tell the person to try to remove personal bias (of how you may have hurt them or been inconsiderate). It has to be coming from a place of true concern for you. Start with one area. Don't take on your whole life at one time. What you may realize is that you may not be perceived the way you perceive yourself. So work on correcting the balance and you will immediately feel more content and balanced inside.
This is Kristos reminding you that you can start changing your life for the better by starting to Think, Act and Speak differently!
by Lisa Jimenez M.Ed.
"It's an offer I can't refuse," I told Randy during one of the Mastermind Conference Calls. I was just offered a principal position at a local Christian pre-school and had all these wonderful visions of what it would be like...
I pictured the students, learning and growing under my direction. I saw myself giving a smile and a hug to each one as they walked into class every morning. I heard the teachers sharing their ideas with me on how we could make our school better. I felt the parents patting me on the back and shaking my hand in congratulations to a job well done...
My thoughts were interrupted with Randy's voice over the other end of the phone. "This isn't what you're supposed to be doing," he lamented. "You are a professional speaker." I replied with the strong argument that this might just be the time for me to get back to my first career, which was teaching, and use my degree in school leadership. I began sharing my vision of being a principal with him. It was a waste of breath. Randy wasn't buying it. When I told him I could do both, he went through an exhausting explanation of how I was just getting seduced by the dark side of a regular paycheck. After a couple of hours (actually it was only a few minutes), it was someone else's turn, and I closed with the promise to think more about it before making a decision.
That weekend, I was giving a presentation for the National Speakers Association on how to build their speaking businesses.
Something strange, almost Super Natural, happened at that convention. First, when I walked into the hotel, I noticed that there were two conventions being held that weekend. One was for the Speakers Association and the other for the Principals Association!
Through out my entire stay, my conversations were either with a speaker or a principal. The principals I talked with brought back memories of why I left teaching. I remembered the bureaucracy involved in the educational system. I was reminded of the mounds of paperwork and long work hours. (I guess I forgot that part.) It seemed that every time I talked with a principal they would ask me how they, too, could get into professional speaking.
The other altering experience occurred during my presentation. In the middle of my talk, a lady raised her hand with a question. "What do you do when you are torn between two careers?" she asked. "Do you think I can be successful in the speaking business if I'm working on another career?" Her question shocked me. (To this day, I think Randy must have set her up!) But what surprised me even more was my response to her. It was as though God was speaking to her through me and at the same time directing the answer - with great precision - right to my heart.
"You can't serve two masters," I replied. "One will always suck the energy from the other." The next thing I knew I was telling my audience about the principal opportunity and how I was coming to realize a liberating truth: I need to have the courage to let go of things that keep me from my ultimate good.
What about you?
How committed are you to your business? If you were to rate your commitment level on a scale of 1 -10 what number would you give yourself? And, are you happy with that number?
If not, then why not? What is keeping you from really jumping in with both feet and dedicating yourself to building your business?
What's stopping you from giving it all you've got and building the kick-butt organization you know you want?!
For the rest of the speech I spent time in deep confession, as both teacher and student talked about a tough subject. It's called pruning. Just like the gardener who must cut away dead, unproductive parts of a plant, we need to cut away bad habits, dead-end activities, negative people, and even tempting opportunities that keep us from our ultimate good.
These dead "leaves" in our lives block the "sun" from coming in and nourishing our true destiny.
Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your business? Then cut away some dead leaves like disorganization, procrastination, and even tempting opportunities that keep you from your ultimate good.
Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your key relationships? Then cut away some dead leaves like TV watching or a critical tongue.
Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your physical health? Then cut away some dead leaves like sleeping in too late or laziness.
Do you, like me, need more sun to reach your attitude? Then cut away some dead leaves like negative people and negative thinking.
Let's be honest, pruning, or cutting away, hurts! It wasn't easy for me to decline that principal position. It may not be easy for you to cut out your bad habits, negative thinking, critical tongue, or any of the other dead leaves that are blocking the sun from your success.
But when you have the courage to cut away parts of your life that drain precious time and energy from what's truly important, you liberate yourself by making room for abundance!
"Have the courage to let go of the things that keep you from your ultimate good."
I will not be experiencing what it's like to be a principal of a school. However, I'm having an outrageous time experiencing great success in my speaking career. I am truly amazed at the rapid success I've experienced since I've made the effort to get rid of those things that were holding me back. The bottom line, my friend, is all it takes to make it BIG in your business is all you've got. Give it all you've got today!
Lunar Oasis: Greenhouse on the Moon
The first Moon flower will become a reality when private lunar expedition partners Odyssey Moon and Paragon Space Development Corporation deliver a biological greenhouse to the lunar surface. Google Lunar X PRIZE contender Odyssey Moon partnered with Paragon, a Tucson-based firm and manufacturer of key components for NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. The lunar plant will be another space biology first for Paragon, having bred the first animals through complete life cycles in space, and grown the first aquatic plant in space.
Paragon Dive System
The Paragon Dive System isolates a diver in a "space-suit like environment", incorporating a Return Surface Exhaust design and upgraded materials, completely protecting divers from contaminants and hazardous materials present in their surrounding environment. The US Navy funded Paragon to redesign their existing surface supplied diving system because of the health risks posed to divers operating in contaminated water environments such as the USS Cole incident and Hurricane Katrina.
Constellation Space Suit
Paragon has received authorization to begin work on NASA's Constellation Space Suit System (CSSS). Paragon is beginning this work on the first major space suit redesign in over 40 years as part of a team led by Oceaneering International. Paragon has key responsibilities in the design and manufacture of the suit's life support and thermal control system. The first suits will support the debut flight of the new Orion spaceship that Paragon is also working on, currently planned to launch in 2015. With modifications, the suit will go on to be used exploring the surface of the Moon and Mars.
Food.com Searches Pretty Much Every Recipe Site at Once
Food.com's recipe search is worth getting excited about. It comes from Food Network founder Scripps Networks, but can pull recipes from Epicurious, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Gourmet, Chow.com—basically, any food site you've heard of.
Not only does it pull basic recipe links and descriptions from all those third-party sites, but it grabs the full ingredient lists, pictures, user ratings, and preparation/serving instructions, then categorizes them for search refining. So if you're looking for a Vietnamese dish to whip up tonight, but you don't want anything deep-fried, and you'd like the main ingredient to be chicken, Food.com can help you get there.
You can save recipes you find to your "Recipe Box" by grabbing them whole and dragging them into a little AJAX box at the bottom of your page view, and also add recipes to your box from sites not covered by Food.com's rather extensively searchy fingers, or upload your own entirely new text recipe. There's a toolbar to help with collecting and searching recipes (as if you didn't have enough already—where's our bookmarklet?), and the front page provides a history of your searches for quickly getting back to what you just found.
It's hard to believe it took so long for someone to offer a recipe search with this kind of breadth and functionality. The service is still in beta, so you'll need to sign up and log in to use it. From a first look, though, it's definitely worth it.
Diving under Antartic Ice
With the anticipation of summer, it's always refreshing to delve into sites that put a chill back in the air. What better place than under the Antartic! 'The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs sponsored an underwater photography team to dive out of the US Antarctic Program's base at McMurdo Station, on Ross Island in Antarctica.' The photos by Norbert Wu, a professional underwater photographer/cinematographer, are beautiful. Here's your opportunity to find out 'what is it like [to] scuba diving under the ice in Antarctica. Cold and dark ..... and an epic experience!' The good part is you can't dive too deeply sitting comfortably in your armchair while enjoying the adventure!
The words of God are not like the oak leaf which dies and falls to the earth, but like the pine tree which stays green forever.
--Native American Proverb
Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.
--Victor Hugo
Enjoy yourself; it's later than you think.
-- Chinese Proverb
Enjoy life: this is not a rehearsal.
-- Bumper sticker
CLARITY
"If you are clear about what you want, the world responds with clarity." -- Loretta Staples
"I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen." -- Frank Lloyd Wright
"Clarity is essential. Knowing exactly what you want builds your self-confidence immeasurably." -- Brian Tracy
"Know thyself." -- Plato
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 | Today's Quote If you want to be happy for a year, plant a garden; If you want to be happy for life, plant a tree. -English Proverb
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Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.
- Maimonides
MAKE TIME TO TILL
Gloom we have always with us, a rank and sturdy weed, but joy requires tending.
Barbara Holland
The soil will produce abundantly when fertilized well with elbow grease and good sense.
Jacob Kindleberger
Oh Say, Can You See?
Passengers on a small commuter plane are waiting for the flight to leave. The entrance opens, and two men walk up the aisle, dressed in pilot uniforms -- both are wearing dark glasses, one is using a seeing-eye dog, and the other is tapping his way up the aisle with a cane.
Nervous laughter spreads through the cabin; but the men enter the cockpit, the door closes, and the engines start up. The passengers begin glancing nervously around, searching for some sign that this just a little practical joke. None is forthcoming. The plane moves faster and faster down the runway, and people at the windows realize that they're headed straight for the water at the edge of the airport territory.
As it begins to look as though the plane will never take off, that it will plow into the water, panicked screams fill the cabin--but at that moment, the plane lifts smoothly into the air.
The passengers relax and laugh a little sheepishly, and soon they have all retreated into their magazines, secure in the knowledge that the plane is in good hands. Up in the cockpit, the copilot turns to the pilot and says,
"You know, Bob, one of these days, they're going to scream too late, and we're all gonna die...
Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?
Robert Slovak has devoted himself to the science of water chemistry and water treatment for thirty years. He and his brother were among the early developers of Reverse Osmosis technology.
In this video, he explains how attempts to disinfect your water may actually be killing you.
Some say that if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, they simply shouldn’t buy Monsanto’s GMO seeds. But it isn’t quite that simple. Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples, and then sues, saying they own the crop.
Meanwhile, Monsanto is taking many other steps to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of normal seeds:
2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible.
3. Monsanto is pushing laws that ensure farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops.
4. There are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA rules that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.”
Monsanto has sued more than 1,500 farmers whose fields had simply been contaminated by GM crops.
 | Dr. Mercola's Comments: |
There is a reason why I believe Monsanto to be one of the most evil companies on the planet, and this is in large part due to its activities relating to controlling food production through controlling the seeds to produce it.
For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for seed patents in a five-to-four decision, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply.
Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won at least 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company.
This is not surprising, considering they invest over $2 million a day on research and development!
But Monsanto is not only patenting their own GMO seeds. They have also succeeded in slapping patents on a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time -- again without a vote of the people or Congress. By doing this, Monsanto becomes sole owner of the very seeds necessary to support the world’s food supply … an incredibly powerful position that no for-profit company should ever hold.
How do they defend this blatant attempt to control the food supply? They write on MonsantoToday.com:
Farmers’ needs?
Farmers who buy Monsanto’s GM seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seeds or sell them to other farmers. The result? Farmers must buy new seeds every year, and they must buy them from Monsanto.
Meanwhile, these same farmers who Monsanto is claiming to help are being aggressively targeted and pursued for outrageous patent infringements on these same seeds.
The “Seed Police”
Monsanto employs an arsenal of private investigators and agents who secretly videotape farmers, snatch crop samples from their land and even fly helicopters overhead to spy -- all to catch farmers saving or sharing seeds.
As of 2005 Monsanto had 75 employees and a $10-million budget solely to investigate and prosecute farmers for patent infringement.
And until recently, Monsanto has even been known to sue farmers for GM crops growing on their land that got there via cross-contamination. In other words, a neighboring farm’s GM seeds blew over onto their land, and Monsanto slaps them with a lawsuit.
I realize this seems incredible, but it is true.
Have You Heard of Terminator Seeds?
Creating and promoting GM crops is, in my opinion, a major threat to public health. Patenting those same seeds takes it to an even higher level of evil. But there is another reason why I don’t believe for one second that Monsanto has the virtuous intentions they claim: terminator seeds.
Monsanto is considering using what’s known as terminator technology on a wide-scale basis. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to “self-destruct.” In other words, the seeds (and the forthcoming crops) are sterile, which means farmers must buy them again each year.
This solves their problem of needing “seed police,” but they are obviously looking the other way when it comes to the implications that terminator seeds could have on the world’s food supply: the traits from genetically engineered crops can get passed on to other crops, and often do.
Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops, making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile.
Not only would this mean that every farm in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply, but if the GM traits spread it could destroy agriculture as we now know it.
How Can You Get Through to Monsanto?
First, I urge you to get informed on the issue by watching The Future of Food. This in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind genetically modified foods is one of the best documentaries I have ever viewed. It will help you understand the very real threat that ALL future generations face as a result of genetic engineering.
Next, hit Monsanto where it counts … their bottom line. By boycotting all GM foods and instead supporting organic (and local) farmers who do not use Monsanto’s GM seeds, you are using your wallet to make your opinions known.
This means abstaining from virtually all processed food products (most are loaded with GM ingredients) and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic foodstuffs instead.
The True Food Shopping Guide is a great tool for helping you determine which brands and products contain GMO ingredients. It lists 20 different food categories that include everything from baby food to chocolate.
I’ve also compiled an excellent list of resources where you can still find pure, GM-free foods, and I encourage you to refer to it often and also share it with your friends and family.
Peace, love and happiness...until next time...
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