Gimundo is one of my first virtual stops in the morning. It’s keeps me posted on positive news around the world. Today I found a great, very creative piece about something most of us consider a nuisance: junk mail.

Here are some great ideas the next time you’re fuming at your mailbox:

Utility

1. Burn in Place of Wood
Yep, you can do it, too. Stay warm in the winter by a fire made of all that junk mail. Just throwing it in the fireplace won’t be too effective, but by using a product like the Newspaper Brick Maker (about $30), you can make paper bricks that will burn like real wood.

2. Use as Packing Material
Sure, dehydrated mushroom mycelia and plastic pillows filled with air are both good green packing material options, but why not use your bounty of junk mail? Just run it through the shredder and use it to ship or store fragile objects.

3. Use as Animal Bedding
Avoid the cost of buying bedding for your small rodent friends by shredding your junk mail. It might also come in handy as bedding for your urban chickens.

4. Use as a Funnel
This works best with those return envelopes you get in the mail. Simply cut a small section of one corner of an envelope (for the bottom of the funnel) and a larger portion from its opposite corner (the mouth of the funnel). Use this to conveniently refill salt and pepper shakers. This idea is one of the useful ideas from JunkMailGems.com.

Gardening

For these gardening projects, make sure there are no toxic adhesives or inks on the paper goods you use.

4. Make Seedling Pots
Another clever product is the PotMaker (about $15). You can use paper to make seedling pots, which can then be planted directly into the soil and will decompose on their own. This way, you don’t have to buy plastic pots (which saves money and resources).

5. Garden Mulch
You can literally lay out junk mail or old newspapers on your garden as a mulch. This makes an excellent weed barrier and will have all the benefits of traditional mulch. But since this is a little aesthetically displeasing, you might also want to cover with a layer of leaves or other traditional mulch.

Alternatively, you can also shred junk mail or old newspapers first and then lay them as mulch. This will allow them to break down easier.

Read more tips at Gimundo!

Thinking outside of the box as far as trash and recycling is critical in this day and age. Repurposing is a term often used for pre-cycling - both suggest a way to re-use something that was considered junk prior to it reaching recycling stations. I repurposed an old scarf with a hole in it and used it a way to keep my curtain tied during the day…just one small example.

Read what this company is doing to deal with trashable items:

What can you do with a bag of garbage? While you might think it’s not good for much more than landfill material, Al Braun, co-founder of Better World Materials in Kearns, Utah, has other ideas: His company is converting waste products into building materials.

The company takes items that recycling centers often reject—milk jugs and cereal boxes, for instance—and uses machinery to grind them down into a woodlike substance that can be used for building materials such as railroad ties, foundations, and boards.

Braun began developing the process 20 years ago, after seeing how much garbage ended up scattering across his native Hawaiian island as debris after a hurricane. He’s spent hundreds of thousands on his mission, but he’s now developed a process that can convert most forms of rejected recyclables into building materials.

Currently, the company is focusing on railroad ties, but that will change soon: Better World recently signed a contract with TuffShed to produce planks that can be used for shed foundations. Better World is also aiming to build plants to convert trash into construction materials in 15 states. If that happens, the company will need a lot of raw materials to process—but the company’s CEO, Dalyn Judd doesn’t believe that should be a problem.

“Are we going to run out of garbage?” he asked the Salt Lake Tribune. “I don’t think so.”

Source: Gimundo

Look at me! I'm a railroad tie!

Repurposing is one of my favorite words. I love the idea that something can be used in a new and different way, saving the world of another “new” thing and maximizing our resourcefulness and creativity. Here’s a great example. Today, ask yourself what you can repurpose? What “old thing” could have a new and improved use?

Source: Environmental Graffiti [Great site - check it out!]

If you live on this planet, you pretty much see, hear and feel the effects of fossil fuel dependency on a daily basis.

But in Spain, they can celebrate a huge milestone, based on the power of the sun. Let’s hear it for alternative sources of energy. Let’s make the change now:

While Americans celebrated U.S. history on the Fourth of July yesterday, a company in Spain celebrated an historic moment for the solar industry: Torresol’s 19.9 megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power plant became the first ever to generate uninterrupted electricity for 24 hours straight.

The plant uses a Power Tower design which features a field of 2,650 mirrors that concentrate sunlight onto a boiler in a central receiver tower. The plant also utilizes molten salt as a heat transfer fluid that allows it to generate electricity when there’s no sunlight. Recharge News reported on the milestone:

After commissioning in May, the plant was finally ready to operate at full-blast in late June and benefited from a particularly sunny stretch of weather, according to Diego Ramirez, director of production at Torresol. “The high performance of the installations coincided with several days of excellent solar radiation, which made it possible for the hot-salt storage tank to reach full capacity,” Ramirez explains.

Torresol says that the plant will provide electricity for about 20 hours each day on average, with numerous days in the summer seeing 24 hours of supply. How does that compare with a similar-sized photovoltaic plant? The 21.2 MW Solarpark Calaveron in Spain generates about 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year. This smaller 19.9 MW power tower plant will generate about 110 GWh per year.

Yesterday’s news is a big milestone for Power Tower technology, which is still very nascent compared to the more mature parabolic troughs. There are only a few operating commercial-scale plants around the world, and Torresol’s is the only one with molten salt storage.

Stephen Lacey is a reporter with Climate Progress covering clean energy issues. He formerly worked as a producer/editor at RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

Years ago, I frequently attended a movement class in Philadelphia held by Manfred Fishbeck and Group Motion. He still holds weekly movement classes and they are pure transformation. Live musicians supply the rhythms while a group of strangers move and dance and laugh and express. By the end of the night, you feel free, light and back to your core self.

You don’t need to know how to pirouette or tap; you just need to know how to move. We all know how to, though we often convince ourselves we’re cursed with “two left feet.” The truth is, movement is there at your disposal at any time.

So turn on some music. Close the curtains. And allow yourself to express yourself through YOUR form of dance. It doesn’t have to be right or pretty, just authentic. It can be slow, it can be erratic. Just let your body do the talking. After 10 minutes, evaluate how you feel. I’m going to lay money on “better. Much better.”

Photo Source: Jessica Florence at Flickr

Music and space travel has gone together since we first heard 2001 A Space Odyssey. But this astronaut has her own tune to play:

NASA astronaut Cady Coleman has been giving her flute collection quite a workout in the past few weeks, more than 200 miles above Earth.

“I play the flute on the ground and it’s one of the things I love to do,” said Coleman during an interview with National Public Radio. “One of the things that I think is important to do is to try to share how amazing it is up here. I relate to flute players and I just wanted them to understand what a cool place it was and how many possibilities there were to play music up here on the space station.”

Coleman brought with her to the station four flute-like instruments in her small allotment of personal items. The collection includes two items from the traditional Irish music group The Chieftains - a penny whistle, which is similar to a recorder, from group-leader Paddy Moloney and a very old Irish flute from Matt Molloy.

There is also a flute from Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and her own personal flute aboard. “It is really different to play up here,” Coleman added. “I’ve been having the nicest time up in our Cupola. I float around in there. A lot of the times I play with my eyes closed.”

During the NPR interview she played Bluenose by Stan Rogers on her personal flute. She also played a tune for the following interview with Houston’s KHOU-TV. Other astronauts have flown flutes in space aboard the space shuttle. Ellen Ochoa, who is a classical flutist, brought her flute on STS-56 in 1993 and took a moment to play it during an educational event. John Herrington, who was the first tribal registered Native American astronaut, brought a wooden flute with him on STS-113 in 2002. The flute was hand-carved by a member of the Kennedy Space Center Native American Intertribal Council.

Must see video!

Source: Happy News

At Only Positive News, we’ve addressed the importance and power of physical touch. But it bears repeating. Why? Because in today’s world, we become increasingly distant from one another physically. We’re all too aware of personal space (which matters - don’t get me wrong!) but to a point where we don’t embrace…embracing.

What can you do today to improve your health and the health of loved ones? A simple hug may do the trick:

Researchers from the University of Carolina study also found that hugging instigates an elevated release of oxytocin, which is known as the “bonding” or “cuddle” hormone and prompts loving and caring feelings. Some studies have shown that it also reduces blood pressure. Another study that took place in 2000 showed that hugging babies while they were given blood tests made them cry less and kept their heart rates steadier. Both elevated levels of cortisol and high blood pressure have been linked to various diseases, including heart disease, so not only does hugging feel great, it’s good for our hearts, too.

Source: Gimundo

Its not much of a stretch to see that singing produces a sense of pleasure and happiness. And not to worry - you don’t have to be a pro to experience those same feelings! Many people stop singing as they grow up, usually because they had one horror story. “My choir director told me to keep quiet because I was ruining the song.” “My mother said I must have the same tone deafness as she does.”

These words stick and keep us quiet, sometimes for a lifetime. It’s unfortunate, because something as simple as singing can free our minds and our souls. It can release old pain and build our sense of confidence. Choir singing in particular can have multiple positive effects.

Here’s some facts to back-up this claim:

All types of singing have positive psychological effects. The act of singing releases endorphins, the brain’s “feel good” chemicals. Singing in front of a crowd, a la karaoke, naturally builds confidence, which has broad and long-lasting effects on general well-being. But of all types of singing, it’s choral singing that seems to have the most dramatic effects on people’s lives.

A study published in Australia in 2008 revealed that on average, choral singers rated their satisfaction with life higher than the public — even when the actual problems faced by those singers were more substantial than those faced by the general public [source: MacLean]. A 1998 study found that after nursing-home residents took part in a singing program for a month, there were significant decreases in both anxiety and depression levels [source: ISPS]. Another study surveying more than 600 British choral singers found that singing plays a central role in their psychological health [source: ISPS].

But why? Could you just start belting out a tune right now in order to make yourself feel happy?

It’s possible. Some of the ways in which choral singing makes people happy are physical, and you get them whether you’re in a chorus or in a shower — as long as you’re using proper breathing techniques during that shower solo. Singing can have some of the same effects as exercise, like the release of endorphins, which give the singer an overall “lifted” feeling and are associated with stress reduction. It’s also an aerobic activity, meaning it gets more oxygen into the blood for better circulation, which tends to promote a good mood. And singing necessitates deep breathing, another anxiety reducer. Deep breathing is a key to meditation and other relaxation techniques, and you can’t sing well without it.

Physical effects, while pretty dramatic, are really just the beginning. Singing causes happiness for other reasons that have less of a biological basis.

Source: Discovery Health

Bella Voce Choir in Brooklyn, NY

Perfection isn’t everything. Sometimes it’s too much! This beautiful choir embraces their imperfections and focuses on singing from the heart. And apparently, it’s really paying off. Today (and the rest of your life) venture into imperfection, embrace it. “Singing” from the heart is much more important.

They haven’t been nominated for anything, but the fifth-grade chorus members at Graniteville, Staten Island’s P.S. 22 are Oscar winners.

The chorus will perform at the 74th Academy Awards show, having been informed of the honor by co-host Anne Hathaway, who came to the group’s December concert to announce the news in person.

The kids are already YouTube sensations, racking up more than 27 million views to videos posted by their choirmaster, Gregg Breinberg. The chorus has performed at the White House, and Beyonce and Stevie Nicks are among its fans.

Breinberg leads his troupe of 10-year-olds through exuberant covers of songs from Eminem, Alicia Keys and indie faves the Freelance Whales.

“It’s an emotional experience, it’s a passionate experience,” Breinberg, himself a force of nature whose energy matches that of his pupils, told The Wall Street Journal. “There is a certain sound that you get by not singing properly, and I look for that sound. That’s a sound that I love.”

The 65-member chorus will sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the 1939 Oscar winner for Best Song, as well as another piece.

The invitation to sing on a broadcast watched by millions is multiple dreams come true — if a trip to Los Angeles to appear on TV weren’t exciting enough, many of the kids have never been on an airplane before.

“I was really happy because I never thought it would really happen,” chorus member Aisha Okeowo told the Journal. “I wanted to be an actor when I grew up, and I didn’t know it was going to be that fast.”

The Academy Awards will be broadcast at 8 p.m. EST Feb. 27 on ABC.

MUST WATCH VIDEO OF CHOIR!

Superheroes come in all shapes and sizes. Their superpowers, varied. Their strengths, many. We all have a superhero residing within, as this story relays:

Super Cooper cannot sling webs. He does not pilot an invisible airplane, communicate telepathically with sea creatures or leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Super Cooper does possess a guileless enthusiasm, a proper red superhero’s cape and an open-book approach to reporters not usually found in men of steel.

He readily told AOL News about his latest act of derring-do-good.

“We saw someone next door and we said hi. And we gave him flowers. And we tell him he could come to our school.”

Courtesy of Kristal Burns

Preschoolers at Missoula Community School in Missoula, Mont., perform weekly acts of kindness dressed as caped superheroes.

AOL News managed to extract the name of Super Cooper’s favorite fellow caped crusader, Eliza, before Super Cooper handed the phone to his preschool teacher and returned to his toys.

Cooper Spataro, 3, and his classmates at Missoula Community School in Missoula, Mont., are “superheroes of kindness,” performing weekly acts of good will that include cleaning school windows and delivering paper flowers to residents of an assisted living community.

Teacher Kristal Burns came up with the concept after discovering Laura Miller, aka Secret Agent L.

Miller, whom AOL News profiled in August, performs frequent small acts of kindness using her secret agent pseudonym, leaving small notes and treats in public places for passers-by to discover. She encourages others to embrace the random good deed and to share their under-the-radar benevolence anonymously via her website.

“I was intrigued,” Burns said. “We were talking about how wonderful it would be to teach the kids to do that. At the same time, we love superheroes and we want to be superheroes, but superheroes often hit and punch. Why don’t we be superheroes of kindness?”

The kids loved the idea, even after Burns explained that they would not be fighting bad guys; even after she told them that they could not “fly” on slick ice, only on dry pavement; and especially after a crafty parent fashioned capes for the entire class.

Burns’ students, who range from 3 to 5 years old, most recently took part in the mission Cooper described, an idea Burns concocted when a shop opened in the neighborhood.

“There was a new store that moved in called Upcycle that takes recycled materials and turns them into bags. We welcomed them into the neighborhood and asked them if they’d like to come in,” she said.

While the superheroes’ acts usually benefit those outside school walls, one of the primary goals of the kindness effort is to encourage development of empathy, sometimes in short supply among preschoolers who don’t want to give up their truck, their doll or their purple crayon.

Since the kids became superheroes, Burns has noticed a change.

“It has made a world of difference,” she said. Bickering is on the wane; helping is on the rise.

“We’re not telling them that they have to help someone who needs help, but now they just see it.”

Unexpectedly, the small superheroes have spawned adult sidekicks in their community.

“They’re getting these random letters from people. … Can we go on a mission with you?” Burns said.

“They’re not too small to make a difference. That’s been a really neat outcome of this. They’re just being their kind selves, and people are so thankful.”

Source: AOLNews.com