Uber Composter

If you’re even somewhat ecologically conscious, you’ve probably heard of composting, the process by which we compile and compost food and other organic products into a usable resource. When you dump food out in the trash, it does nothing in landfills. Sure, it breaks down but the end-product is very little use to anything or anyone.

Now some schools and colleges are using these incredible composters (seen above) that help the environment and teach students about the food cycle:

Sending food waste to landfill is unnecessary, unsustainable and costly. Discussing the problem in an Exmoor pub one night were Richard Gedge – an ex-stockbroker who now runs an award-winning farm for its green credentials – and Dan Welburn, a former formula one engineer. Together, after experimenting with prototypes, they created the Ridan composter.

Capable of composting up to 400 litres of food waste a week, they have helped divert over 1,000 tonnes from landfill in two years, according to the company. They are proving popular with hotels, National Trust sites, prisons and even climbing centres.

Perhaps most importantly, colleges and schools are using them, not only to save money on disposal costs, but to help raise environmental awareness about the food cycle – helping young people to learn to appreciate food and think about prioritising locally sourced food. Food miles are usually considered with the distance from where it is produced to where it is consumed. But perhaps less often does anyone factor in the distance that wasted food travels to be disposed.

The ‘in-vessel’ composter is simple to use say its manufacturers, and it is suitable for all food waste, including cooked and raw, meat and dairy. The Ridan composting process requires no electricity and is carbon negative. Its design led to it being a finalist in the Devon Environmental Business Initiative (DEBI) awards in its first year. It was recognised not only for its sustainable practice in dealing with food waste, but also for savings in emissions. The process saves in combustion emissions through eliminating transportation, as well as reducing the methane from decomposing matter, which occurs in landfill.

“We are proud of what we have achieved so far and are now expanding rapidly. One day it will be standard practice for every catering facility to compost on-site,” says Dan Welburn. And his best moment since their system was launched? “Watching ‘I’ve got a brand new Ridan Composter’ sung by children at an assembly to the tune of Wurzels.”

Source: Positive News

If you’ve visited our site before, you know we’re huge proponents of the simple walk. A walk can break a bad mood in half. A walk can stimulate creativity. A walk is good, old fashioned exercise. A walk connects you with the outdoor world. Here’s what others have to say about something you should do today:

If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking.  Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk.  ~Raymond Inmon

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.  ~Paul Dudley White

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.  ~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.  ~Steven Wright

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.  ~G.M. Trevelyan

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.  ~Aldous Huxley

When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body.  I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.  ~Wallace Stevens

After a day’s walk everything has twice its usual value.  ~George Macauley Trevelyan

I dream of hiking into my old age.  ~Marlyn Doan

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning.  ~Cyril Connolly

Solvitur ambulando, St. Jerome was fond of saying.  To solve a problem, walk around.  ~Gregory McNamee

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.  ~John Muir

Thoughts come clearly while one walks.  ~Thomas Mann

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.  ~John Muir

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.  Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.  I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.  ~Soren Kierkegaard

Walks.  The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird.  ~Jules Renard

Author walking on beach in New Jersey.

Happy New Year, all! Both Nisandeh and I (Beth Mann) want to offer you, our reader, a hearty thanks for the success of this site. It truly has been a positive experience and continues to expand our idea of positivity with every post.

This is a recent post of mine, about the only New Year resolution that ever worked. I hope the sentiment spreads!

To Touch You More

_{My good friend Peter and I}

My New Year’s resolution made over a decade ago was to touch people more. To break that social wall that keeps our hands and bodies a safe distance from one other. To connect more physically.

I’m speaking of the non-sexual variety of contact. We all know when someone is touching us with sexual undertones. That may or may not be welcome. I wanted to offer the kind of touch that wouldn’t be misconstrued.

This was not easy at first. Not because people weren’t receptive; they were. People generally love touch. They bask in it. They appreciate it on a cellular level.

It was a challenge because I wasn’t sure how to do it. My German family is not the touchy-feely sort. Stiff, awkward hugs. Overly firm pats on the back. Touching others freely hadn’t been habituated into me, so it took some training.

But soon, my hands and body reached out to anyone in my world, whether it was via handholding or a quick massage or a touch on the cheek or a full-body hug or a head on a shoulder. Or I’d simply stand closer to people, trying not to invade, but simply enter, their space. I even began kissing some of my closest friends on the lips, which is incredibly sweet and rewarding.

How did people react? Shoulders would drop, breathing would deepen, gentle smiles would appear - people relaxed almost instantly. We so desperately crave human contact, but often aren’t even aware how hungry we are for it. And giving touch is akin to receiving it. I feel touched as well. Cosmic win/win.

Last month, while taking a bus from the Jersey shore to New York City, an older, fragile Indian man sitting across the aisle from me suddenly handed me his cellphone. I accepted it, confused and slightly nervous.

“Um…hello?”

“Hello, my uncle may be having a heart attack. He needs help. He doesn’t speak any English.”

I looked over at the older gentleman and he was grasping his chest and moaning. I went to the bus driver and explained what was happening. As I returned to my seat, the man had fallen to the floor, in the aisle.

The bus pulled over. Emergency help was contacted. Several passengers made suggestions but few had any medical training, myself included. So I resorted to my New Year’s resolution. I placed both of my hands gently on his face and began whispering in his ear, “Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.”

I then unbuttoned his shirt and placed my hands on his chest. He was very agitated and his heartbeat was frighteningly rapid, so it took some time, but finally his breathing resumed to somewhat normal. At one point, he opened his eyes to look at me and they were filled with gratitude. No clumsy words needed.

When the police finally arrived, they instructed everyone off of the bus. (Another was waiting to take us to our destination.) I was afraid if my hands left his body, he would become unwell again. The cop didn’t really want to hear my spiritual take on the situation, so I got up to leave.

Almost immediately, the man’s breathing became erratic and his eyes glazed over and looked filmy. I left the bus feeling a sense of peace regardless. Strangely, I could feel his essence on me for quite some time, like an energetic imprint of some sort.

Fortunately, the man was fine. (His relatives left me a lovely message the next day.) But it was then I realized that touching was something beyond “feel good.” We live for it. I live for it.

So that is my first (and only) working New Year’s resolution - one that would change my life on a level beyond words.

Celebrities often seem out-of-touch with the world around them, draped in excess and entitlement. But many are making sound contributions to their communities, such as Jon Bon Jovi, who opened up a “pay what you can” restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey.

Soul Kitchen is a new restaurant opened in Red Bank, New Jersey, by Jon Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea. The establishment offers a “pay what you can afford” payment model, and serves wholesome, gourmet food made with fresh ingredients grown in the restaurant’s garden, and other local produce.

On the website, they explain that Soul Kitchen is “A community restaurant with no prices on the menu; customers donate to pay for their meal. If you are unable to donate you may do volunteer work in exchange for your family’s meal.”

But as NJ.com reports, this is no soup kitchen serving up desperation and gruel. “The décor is upscale. Patrons don’t wait in line — they are waited on.”

Read more.

“You take things so personally.”

Perhaps you’ve heard that before. Or said it to someone else. Taking something personally is a rather natural thing to do - afterall, we can only see life through our own eyes and we’re feeling beings. But often just a moment of reflection can take the sting out of rude comment or action.

1. Understand projection. Projection is a psychological concept whereby someone holds you accountable or blames you for something he or she feels badly about feeling or thinking. (Research projection more if you want a more thorough definition.) The next time someone says something off-putting, remember that he or she may be feeling that way about himself or herself. In short, it’s not all about you.

2. Make room for bad moods. We tend to think of others as standalone players in our life. As if they hadn’t had a full day of work behind them or a rude word spoken to them. People are allowed their moods just as you’d like to be allowed yours. If someone says or does something that hurts a bit, take a moment to realize that moods are passing storms and not the ultimate definition of a person.

3. Think about the sky. Hurt feelings feed on themselves. They can have a snowball effect, gathering momentum the more we mull over how we were wronged. For a quick moment, think of something else. Do something else. Address another matter. Gently guide your mind in another direction, even if for a moment. You’ll be surprised how much that does to diffuse hurt feelings.

Whether you are for or against the Occupy Wall Street movement, one thing can be agreed on: people have the power to make change globally. If you believe in what these groups are doing around the world, help them in whatever way possible. Here are some suggestions.

We cannot go on expecting solutions to come from the political and economic elites who ride in limousines with security guards. They are not exposed to the impacts of their policies, so the feedback loop has been broken by the concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. This is why so many people are out in the streets demanding a transition from the dominant system (guns and money) to a new system that will give social justice and environmental restoration a higher priority than corporate profit-making.

By Kevin Danaher – Co-Founder,  Global Exchange

Who doesn’t like a good, rainy day? It offers you the ability to crawl under covers and watch and old movie. It encourages pensive thoughts and deep daydreams. It saturates our soul:

Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever.
Michael W. Smith

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
Robert Frost

A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.
James Dickey

A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won’t come true.
Ray Evans

A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.
e. e. cummings

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.
Gilbert K. Chesterton

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/rain.html#ixzz1bzoYaPKq

Who we are is reflected in the way we treat the animals we share the planet with. This story shows how good and respectful animal loving people compensate for the cruel:

LIBERTY, S.C. — A black Lab puppy is lucky to be alive after being rescued from the top of a train car after a journey that had a mysterious beginning.

No one knows how the puppy, who appears to be about 3 months old, ended up on top of the Norfolk Southern train that left Pennsylvania, and had already gone through Virginia and North Carolina on its way to Atlanta.Tina Parker, of Pickens, said she and her family were driving home Sunday night when they stopped at a red light by the Walmart store in Easley, S.C., as the train passed by.Parker said she spotted what she at first thought was trash on top of the train. But she said the “trash” started moving and she realized it was a puppy.Parker called 911 and then followed the train on to Liberty.

A Norfolk Southern spokeswoman told News 4 that they were alerted to stop the train. The spokeswoman said the train would have been traveling about 50 mph.The Parker family helped spot which car in the long train the puppy was on top of.”The only thing we can think is probably somebody put her up there,” Parker said.The Liberty Fire Department arrived and used a ladder to reach the pup on the top of the Hunter boxcar. The cars carried double-stacked containers, making them about 20-feet tall.

Read more: http://www.wyff4.com/news/29570990/detail.html#ixzz1bo1ciUeW

Anyone out there remember Wild Kingdom? Well, the host of that decades-old television show has taken it upon himself to make a worldwide difference to people in medical need. Kudos to this man and his flying-high medical organization, Remote Area Medical!

Letter From The Founder of Remote Area Medical Stan Brock

A half century or more ago, I was living in a part of the upper Amazon basin where health care was a 26-day march away on foot. I survived malaria, dengue fever, numerous wild animal attacks and various encounters with Longhorns and mustangs without the help of a doctor. Others were not so lucky and I buried a number of them. It occurred to me that designing an all-volunteer health and veterinary care program for such desolate places might make life easier for a whole lot of people. It took a few years to work out the concept, but in 1985, Remote Area Medical® was born. We have been called RAM ever since and in quite a few parts of the world, the appearance of a RAM Team means an opportunity for poor folks to get some real treatment free of charge from real doctors and veterinarians. But real doctors can’t do it without real help from nurses, technicians and all sorts of support people. In fact, over 26,000 of you have temporarily left your comfortable homes, jobs and families behind and signed up as RAM volunteers and about 300,000 patients are very glad you did.

Let’s take a moment of thanks and appreciation for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You don’t have to agree with them. But they are exercising their rights as US citizens and taking a stand and attempting to make a positive change.

What can you do today to take a stand, no matter how small? Make a difference in your own life first and the ripple effect will occur. How can you instill in others around you the importance of standing up for your rights?