You are hereArchive - Nov 2009
Archive - Nov 2009
World Vegan Day & Vegan month: plant-based diet vs meat-eating diet, which way health-wise? Your choice.
November is US National Vegan Month, starting with World Vegan Day on Nov. 1st. So, turkeys may have less fear this year though Thanksgiving is around the corner. Why go vegan? Here are some alarming facts, or "tough reality", such as – fewer than 1 out of every 250,000 slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues; 55% of U.S. antibiotics is fed to livestock; 91% of staphylococci infections are resistant to penicillin in 1988; BAN is the response of European Economic Community to routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock while the response of U.S. meat & pharmaceutical industries is full & complete support. The world’s meat consumption was estimated to be 284 million tons in one year (2007), and it takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce a pound of California beef, compared to 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat.
Heart disease is number one killer, but one can reduce heart-attack risk by 90% just by eliminating meat, dairy and eggs from diet. In other words, 5000 gallons of water can be spared and risk of heart attack can be lessened when one eats one less pound of meat.
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NASA reveals secrets Moon's been holding for billions of years. Moon is not a dry, desolate place but has water!
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NASA scientists have been outlining their preliminary results after crashing two unmanned spacecraft into the Moon in a bid to detect water-ice. A rocket stage slammed into the Moon's south pole at 1231 BST (0731 EDT) Oct. 9, 2009. Another craft followed just behind, looking for signs of water in debris kicked up by the first collision.
The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.
Humor and Cartoons: "I may wear size of 7 shoe, but I leave a size 14..." "truck tires still not a match"
How far from awareness to action? Ice is now melting fast, sea level rising non-stop… When will pollution be decisively and extensively checked to reverse the wheel of climate change?
William Blake - "There's a smile of love/there's a smile of deceit/there's a smile of smiles/in which these two smiles meet.."
The Smile
poem by William Blake
There is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit,
And there is a smile of smiles
In which these two smiles meet.
And there is a frown of hate,
And there is a frown of disdain,
And there is a frown of frowns
Which you strive to forget in vain,
For it sticks in the heart's deep core
And it sticks in the deep backbone--
And no smile that ever was smil'd,
But only one smile alone,
That betwixt the cradle and grave
It only once smil'd can be;
And, when it once is smil'd,
There's an end to all misery.
8 Nov 1731 Benjamin Franklin opens first US library in Philadelphia
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November 8, 1731 - Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin opens 1st U.S. library
Most Americans in the 1730s had limited access to books. Books, in early America, were rare and expensive. There were no public libraries. Only the very wealthy and the clergy had access to large numbers of books. Even men of moderate means could not readily afford books. Enter Benjamin Franklin.
On July 1, 1731, Franklin and a group of members from the Junto, a philosophical association, drew up "Articles of Agreement" to form a library. The Junto was interested in a wide range of ideas, from economics to solving social woes to politics to science. But they could not turn to books to increase their knowledge or settle disputes, as between them they owned few tomes. But they recognized that via the Junto's combined purchasing power, books could be made available to all members.
So it was that 50 subscribers invested 40 shillings each to start a library. Members also promised to invest 10 shillings more every year to buy additional books and to help maintain the library. They chose as their motto a Latin phrase which roughly translates as "To support the common good is divine." Philip Syng, a silversmith who would one day create the inkstand with which the Declaration and Constitution were signed, designed the Company's seal. read more »
Canada to withdraw troops fr Afghanistan. Photographer's Personal Journey thru War: 'hell on earth' 'waiting' 'strays' 'grave'
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A Photographer's Personal Journey Through War
Like many of his contemporaries, American Peter van Agtmael felt compelled to cover the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I wish these pictures could convey more of what I experienced," van Agtmael writes. "They are harsh, despite the fact that I have great affection for many of the soldiers that I met as an embedded photographer. There is much that is left out, but I see no reason to romanticize war any more than it has been and always will be. If I found any truth in war, I found that in the end everyone has their own truth."
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