Quote of the Week - 04.22.13

If you are too busy to laugh, you are too busy.

~ Unknown

If you are too busy to enjoy some Fair Trade chocolate, you are too busy.

~ Coco-Zen

VIDEO: "Sacred Economics" - A Short Film

Some quotes from the film...

"Economic growth means you have to find something that was once nature and make it into a good, or was once a gift relationship and make it into a service. You have to find something that people once got for free or did for themselves or for each other, and then take it away and sell it back to them, somehow."

"We didn't earn any of the things that really keep us alive, or that make life good. We didn't earn the air. We didn't earn being born... We didn't earn having a planet that can provide food. We didn't earn the sun... on some level, people have this inborn gratitude because, on some level we know that we didn't earn any of this, we know that life is a gift. Well if you know that you've received a gift, then the natural response is gratitude, the desire to give in turn."

"...the old world falls apart, and a new world is born. A child plays and develops his or her gifts, but doesn't apply them to their true purpose yet, and that's what humanity has been doing. We've been messing around, playing with our gifts of technology and culture and developing these gifts. Now we are coming into adulthood and it's time to apply them to our true purpose."

"Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth.

Today, these trends have reached their extreme - but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being."

Quote of the Week - 04.15.13

The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.

~ John Burroughs

The smallest piece of Fair Trade chocolate is better than the greatest that is not.

~ Coco-Zen

Stuff We Found Today - 04.09.13

Yummy PB&J recipes


Family, Kids & Health Stuff

• Top 10 Chemicals Most Likely to Cause Autism and Other Learning Disorders - (Inhabitots)

Food Stuff

• Tumors Linked to Genetically-Modified Corn - (Care2) "...severe effects of Round-up tolerant genetically modified (GM) corn, even when the pesticide Round-Up was not used."
• 13 New and Unique Ways to Eat PB&J - (VegNews) Some yummy recipes here!

Home Stuff

• Why You Need to Ditch Dryer Sheets - (EcoWatch)

Tech & Science Stuff

• Robotic jellyfish could stand guard over oceans - (TreeHugger) Cool.
• 2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid Debuts as Porsche's First Plug-In Hybrid - (Inhabitat) Got $99K laying around?
• SP:01: Detroit Electric Unveils the World's Fastest Pure-Electric Production Car - (Inhabitat) Or maybe you have $135K??
• New microbe makes fuel from CO2 in the air - (Mother Nature Network) Cool.
• 19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans - (Inhabitat)

Nature & Environment Stuff

• Exxon pipeline breaks spilling 84,000 gallons of Canadian crude oil near Arkansas lake [VIDEOS] - (Treehugger) Not Good!
• Mystery Malady Kills More Bees, Heightening Worry on Farms - (NYTimes.com) Uh...can we say pesticides (and Monsanto)???
• Record Dolphin, Sea Turtle Deaths Since Gulf Spill - (Discovery News) What more is there to say?
• Arctic Going Green from Warming - (Discovery News) "What's happening now in the Arctic is a faster version of what will be happening at lower latitudes..."
• EPA Declares More than Half of US Rivers Unfit for Aquatic Life - (Inhabitat) "Phosphorous and nitrogen, both key ingredients in fertilizer, have long been recognized as a problem in US water health, and this latest study found a lot of it."

Other Random Cool Stuff

• Even Doubters Want to Prepare for Global Warming - (Discovery News) "...even 60 percent of climate-change doubters favored preparations..."
• Crafts Made from Recycled Food Packaging - (Earth911.com) Fun projects for the kiddies!
• 10 Reuse Ideas for Takeout Waste - (Earth911.com)

Quote of the Week - 04.01.13

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
~ Buddha

Better than a thousand pieces of chocolate, is one piece that is Fair Trade.
~ Coco-Zen