Human life throughout history has developed in alternating waves of migration and settlement. Navigating this duality between exploration and settlement, movement and stillness is a fundamental essence of what it means to be human.
In the aftermath of global wars and natural disasters, the world has witnessed the displacement of millions of people across continents. Refugees seeking shelter from disasters carry from their homes what they can and resettle in unknown lands, often starting with nothing but a tent to call home.
Designed by Abeer Seikaly, “Weaving a home” reexamines the traditional architectural concept of refugee shelters by creating a technical, structural fabric that expands to enclose and contracts for mobility while providing the comforts of contemporary life (heat, running water, electricity, storage, etc.)
Design is supposed to give form to a gap in people’s needs.
This lightweight, mobile, structural fabric could potentially close the gap between need and desire as people metaphorically weave their lives back together, physically weaving their built environment into a place both new and familiar, transient and rooted, private and connected.
Structural Fabric Weaves Refugee Shelters into Communities
In this space, the refugees find a place to pause from their turbulent worlds, a place to weave the tapestry of their new lives.
Imagine how hard just one bee works in a single day.
Bees tend to at least 2,000 flowers daily, with tiny wings beating 10,000 times per minute, carrying pollen, and dramatically assisting our food supply.
Sound exhausting? Bees get thirsty, and they need safe water sources. The problem is water is not always readily available.
Bees need very shallow water to drink from. However, shallow water evaporates quickly. Birdbaths are not the best option as bees tend to drown if the water isn’t shallow enough. As for river and lakes, bees risk their lives trying to get water in the presence of fishes, frogs, and other wildlife, not to mention the risk of being swept away in water currents.
To help hydrate our little pollinators, set up a bee bath by filling a pie pan with marbles and then water. The marbles give the bees a spot to land so that they don’t drown when they come to drink.
Now you have your very own Bee Bath and no more drowned bees!
Humans experience an array of emotions, from joy and severe depression and everything in between. Each one of these emotions create a distinct feeling in the body.
That’s why Power Poses can be such a great way to influence your brain’s release of chemicals.
That raises the question, what happens when we have negative thoughts consistently?
Positive or Negative Emotions, it’s All Perspective
Imagine yourself driving down the street when suddenly you are cut off, what happens next? Do you react in anger? Or do you simply apply the brake slightly and move on with your day.
The same experience can yield two very different results based on how we define our experience.
Tune Your Perception
With that in mind, we realize that positive or negative emotions are only defined as such by us.
This reminds me of a wonderful Zen Parable:
The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.
A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.
This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.
In great anger the parents went to the master. “Is that so?” was all he would say.
After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth – that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.
The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.
Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: “Is that so?”
The Mind Body Connection
The unseen connection between your mind and body is very powerful and the effects your mind can have on your physical body are profound.
Our emotions and experiences are essentially energy and they can be stored in the cellular memory of our bodies. Have you ever experienced something in your life that left an emotional mark or pain in a certain area of your body? It is likely you have residual energy stuck in that area of your body that you have yet to acknowledge.
It’s all a learning and growing process that we don’t have to judge nor fear. Positive or negative thoughts, the choice is yours!
The DEA is a police and propaganda agency, it makes no sense for it to be in charge of federal decisions involving scientific research and medical practice. – Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance
The report alleges that the DEA has repeatedly failed to act in a timely fashion when faced with petitions to reschedule marijuana. The drug is currently classified as Schedule I, which the DEA reserves for the “most dangerous” drugs with “no currently accepted medical use.” Schedule I drugs, which include substances like heroin and LSD, cannot receive federal funding for research. On three separate occasions — in 1973, 1995 and again in 2002 — the DEA took years to make a final decision about a rescheduling petition, and in two of the cases the DEA was sued multiple times to force a decision.
The report criticizes the DEA for overruling its own officials charged with determining how illicit substances should be scheduled. It also criticizes the agency for creating a “regulatory Catch-22” by arguing there is not enough scientific evidence to support rescheduling marijuana while simultaneously impeding the research that would produce such evidence.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has conducted about 30 studies to date on the potential benefits of marijuana. NIDA oversees the cultivation, production and distribution of marijuana grown for research purposes at the University of Mississippi in the only federally legal marijuana garden in the U.S. — a process through which the only federally sanctioned marijuana studies are approved.
Nobody should be afraid of the truth. There’s a lot of other drugs that have harmful side effects. Is the downside of marijuana a harmful side effect? Or is there a positive side that actually does help? That needs to be proven. – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).
The federal government’s interest in marijuana certainly appears to be growing. Since 2003, it has approved more than 500 grants for marijuana-related studies, with a marked upswing in recent years, according to McClatchy. In 2003, 22 grants totaling $6 million were approved for cannabis research. In 2012, that number had risen to 69 approved grants totaling more than $30 million.
The DEA has obstructed research into the medical use of marijuana for over 40 years and in the process has caused immeasurable suffering that would otherwise have been treated by low-cost, low-risk generic marijuana. The DEA’s obstruction of the FDA approval process for marijuana has — to the DEA’s dismay — unintentionally catalyzed state-level medical marijuana reforms. – Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Eight other states — Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin — have legalized CBD oils, made from a non-psychoactive ingredient in marijuana frequently used to treat epilepsy, for limited medical use or for research purposes.
A number of recent studies have shown the medical potential of cannabis. Purified forms may attack some forms of aggressive cancer. Marijuana use also has been tied to better blood sugar control and may help slow the spread of HIV. One study found that legalization of the plant for medical purposes may even lead to lower suicide rates.
Nadelmann said the DEA has “demonstrated a regular pattern of abusing its discretionary powers.”
We believe this authority would be better handled by another government agency in the health realm, or even better still, by an organization that is truly independent, perhaps something that involves the National Academy of Sciences. We will be working to encourage greater congressional oversight and also to call for reforms of federal law. – Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance
A three day fast can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly, scientists have found, in a breakthrough described as “remarkable.”
Although fasting diets have been criticized by nutritionists, research suggests that starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing more white blood cells, which fight off infection.
Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for those suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy. It could also help the elderly whose immune systems become less effective.
When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged.
There is no evidence at all that fasting would be dangerous while there is strong evidence that it is beneficial.
– Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences at USC
In trials, volunteers were asked to fast regularly for between two and four days over a six-month period. Scientists found that prolonged fasting also reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to aging and a hormone which increases cancer risk and tumour growth.
Pejacis a brilliant Spanish artist whose witty street art shines a light on social norms and inflexible societal constructs. His work is minimally intervening, but offers a maximum effect.
Much like Banksy or Dran, Pejac’s street art questions our absurd reality and its promised permanence.
The GMO Foods that are listed below are some of the most important to avoid.
These foods are linked to the most health issues and the effects of eating them are not fully known at this time.
10 GMO Foods to Avoid
Corn
Corn has been modified to create its own insecticide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that tons of genetically modified corn has been introduced for human consumption.
Monsanto has revealed that half of the US’s sweet corn farms are planted with genetically modified seed. Mice fed with GM corn were discovered to have smaller offspring and fertility problems.
Soy
Soy has also been genetically modified to resist herbicides. Soy products include soy flour, tofu, soy beverages, soybean oil and other products that may include pastries, baked products and edible oil. Hamsters fed with GM soy were unable to have offspring and suffered a high mortality rate.
Cotton
Like corn and soy, cotton has been designed to resist pesticides. It is considered food because its oil can be consumed.
Its introduction in Chinese agriculture has produced a chemical that kills cotton bollworm, reducing the incidences of pests not only in cotton crops but also in neighboring fields of soybeans and corn. Incidentally, thousands of Indian farmers suffered severe rashes upon exposure to BT cotton.
Papaya
The virus-resistant variety of papaya was commercially introduced in Hawaii in 1999. Transgenic papayas comprised three-fourths of the total Hawaiian papaya crop.
Monsanto bestowed upon Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore technology for developing papaya resistant to the ringspot virus in India.
Rice
This staple food from South East Asia has now been genetically modified to contain a high amount of vitamin A. Allegedly, there are reports of rice varieties containing human genes to be grown in the US. The rice will create human proteins useful for dealing with infant diarrhea in the 3rd world.
China Daily, an online journal, reported potential serious public health and environment problems with genetically modified rice considering its tendency to cause allergic reactions with the concurrent possibility of gene transfers.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes have now been genetically engineered for longer shelf life, preventing them from easily rotting and degrading. In a test conducted to determine the safety of GM tomatoes, some animal subjects died within a few weeks after consuming GM tomatoes.
Rapeseed
In Canada, this crop was renamed canola to differentiate it from non-edible rapeseed. Food stuff produced from rapeseed includes rapeseed oil (canola oil) is used to process cooking oil and margarine. Honey can also be produced from GM rapeseed.
German food surveillance authorities discovered as much as a third of the total pollen present in Canadian honey may be from GM pollen. In fact, some honey products from Canada were also discovered to have pollen from GM rapeseed.
Dairy products
It has been discovered that 22 percent of cows in the U.S. were injected with recombinant (genetically modified) bovine growth hormone (rbGH). This Monsanto created hormone artificially forces cows to increase their milk production by 15 percent.
Milk from cows treated with this milk inducing hormone has increased levels of IGF-1 (insulin growth factors-1). Humans also have IGF-1 in their system. Scientists have expressed concerns that increased levels of IGF-1 in humans have been associated with colon and breast cancer.
Potatoes
Mice fed with potatoes engineered with Bacillus thuringiensis var. Kurstaki Cry 1 were found to have toxins in their system. Despite claims to the contrary, this shows that Cry1 toxin was stable in the mouse gut. When the health risks were revealed, it sparked a debate.
Peas
Peas that have been genetically modified have been found to cause immune responses in mice and possibly even in humans. A gene from kidney beans was inserted into the peas creating a protein that functions as a pesticide.
The average American spends 90 percent of his time indoors.
Unbelievably, air pollution inside your home or office can be worse than the pollution outside, which is why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks indoor air quality as one of the top five environmental risks to public health.
To clean up the air in your home stop buying products made with toxic chemicals that pollute your living space. Products like air fresheners, vinyl flooring, pressed wood made with formaldehyde, and harsh solvents fill your air with nasty chemicals that harm your health.
Ventilating your home by opening a window, even if it’s for just a few minutes a day, will improve your indoor air quality.
Researcher Kamal Meattle discovered that three common houseplants used strategically throughout a home is a great way to grow fresh air and vastly improve the indoor air quality.
Areca Palm (Dypsis Lutescens)
Areca Palm is “The Living Room Plant.” It is a daytime oxygen factory and Meattle recommends having 4 shoulder height plants per person.
Mother-in-Law Tongue (Sansevieria Trifasciata)
Mother-in-Law’s Tongue is “The Bedroom Plant.” This plant is an evening oxygen factory and Meattle recommends having 6-8 waist-high plants per person.
Money Plant (Epipremnum Aureum)
Money Plant is “The Specialist Plant.” This plant is the filter that removes formaldehyde and other volatile organic chemicals from the air.
If you’re not satisfied with just three options, new research has identified five “super ornamentals” plants that demonstrate high effectiveness of contaminant removal.
These include the Purple Waffle Plant (Hemigraphis Alternataa), English Ivy (Hedera Helix), Variegated Wax Plant (Hoya Cornosa), Asparagus Fern (Asparagus Densiflorus) and the Purple Heart Plant (Tradescantia Pallida).
Of the 28 plants tested, these five were effective at reducing levels of a number of common household VOCs, including benzene, toluene, octane, alpha-pinene and TCE.
The healthier your plants, the more vigorously they’ll grow, and the better they’ll clean the air for you.
Despite popular belief, new findings from a team at the University of Minnesota suggest marijuana use at an early age may not be detrimental to cognitive skills.
Marijuana users were high functioning, demonstrating comparable IQs to controls and relatively better processing speed. – Research Team
The study compared the performance of 35 non-users with 35 daily marijuana users who began using marijuana before the age of 17.
Marijuana use during this age span has been most strongly associated with cognitive impairment. – Research Team
All participants were university students between 18-20 years of age, and were told to abstain from using any substances for at least 12 hours before the study.
Interestingly, the two groups showed no significant differences in tests of working memory and verbal learning.
However, contrary to their better performance on other tests, marijuana users scored slightly lower on tests of motivated decision making, engagement and verbal memory.
Overall, the team concludes that the study provides “a comprehensive cognitive profile of college-aged daily marijuana users.” But they also warn that the results suggest a few “discrete” impairments associated with marijuana use.
The researchers say more studies should be conducted to pinpoint underlying factors.
Research shows that those who eat less are generally healthier and live longer than those who eat more. Intermittent fasting is based on this principle. Basically, it’s a technique that incorporates a weekly fast into your routine. This method is great because it allows you to reap the benefits of fasting without leaving you feeling weak or deprived.
I can understand that this idea might not sound very appealing, but the fact is there’s ton of health benefits to fasting, and it really isn’t as horrible as it sounds.
Aside from removing your cravings for sugar and snack foods and turning you into an efficient fat-burning machine, thereby making it far easier to maintain a healthy body weight, modern science has confirmed there are many other good reasons to fast intermittently. For example, research presented at the 2011 annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans showed that fasting triggered a 1,300 percent rise of human growth hormone (HGH) in women, and an astounding 2,000 percent in men.
HGH, human growth hormone, commonly referred to as “the fitness hormone,” plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from the practice (as long as they don’t overtrain and are careful about their nutrition). The only other thing that can compete in terms of dramatically boosting HGH levels is high-intensity interval training. Other health benefits of intermittent fasting include:
Normalizing your insulin and leptin sensitivity, which is key for optimal health
Improving biomarkers of disease
Normalizing ghrelin levels, also known as “the hunger hormone”
Reducing inflammation and lessening free radical damage
From a fat-burning perspective, intermittent fasting is a powerful tool. When you’re in a fed state, the body has to produce insulin to keep your blood sugar at a safe level. Insulin’s main job is to shuttle excess glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream over to the muscle, liver or fat cells for storage. But insulin doesn’t only take sugar out of the blood – it also increases fat storage.
Now, if a person were to eat small, infrequent meals every day, this release of insulin would not be a big deal. The problem is many experts have led people to believe that eating five or six meals a day is the only way to eat for weight loss. Now let’s think about this logically for a second. Do you think the best way to lose weight is to cause your body to constantly release a hormone that favors fat storage? I didn’t think so!
Metabolism
Another rumor is that fasting and/or eating infrequent meals every day will slow down your metabolism. This simply isn’t true.
To make this point clear, all you have to do is think back to our primitive ancestors. They rarely (if ever) ate the same amount of food on consecutive days. Their caloric intake was dependent on what was available on that particular day. And they would be forced to fast intermittently because sometimes food was simply unavailable.
Furthermore, evolution takes, minimally, thousands of years, and even though our world has changed drastically, our bodies have not had time to evolve from this primitive lifestyle. As a matter of fact, it has only been within the last 50 to 100 years that our bodies have been exposed to a consistent caloric intake. The truth is, being in a consistently fed state is not natural to the body’s physiology. This is precisely why eating less leads to better health and a longer life.
Telomeres
So, how does intermittent fasting work? There are a lot of different things that happen in the body on a cellular level when you’re in a fasted state, but one I can single out has to do with the length of your telomeres. You can compare telomeres to the plastic casings at the end of a pair of shoelaces. Just as the plastic casings protect the end shoestrings, telomeres protect the ends of your chromosomes. The length of these guys is important. Basically, the shorter your telomeres, the shorter your lifespan.
It just so happens that intermittent fasting is a way to increase the length of your telomeres. Actually, simply eating less can also help your telomeres stay nice and long. Animal studies have shown that animals who ate about 30 percent fewer calories also lived about 30 percent longer than the animals that ate more. So the next time somebody says you should eat five or six meals a day, I suggest you think twice before following their advice.
Blood Sugar Issues
Now some of you might be thinking, “I have issues with my blood sugar, so I can’t fast.”
If you have issues with your blood sugar, you should first work on improving the quality of your foods before introducing fasting. Once you get your blood sugar under control by reducing the amount of refined sugars and processed foods you eat, you can try eating less to see how you feel.
How Long is a Fast?
I want to be clear about what I mean when I say “fast.”
The benefits of fasting come after about 18 hours, but this doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to go without food all day long. To give you an example of what a fast might look like, let’s say you stop eating after dinner at 7 p.m., you go to bed and wake up at 7 a.m. Right there you have already fasted for 12 hours. In this scenario, if you wait to eat your first meal at 1 p.m. you will have successfully completed an 18-hour fast. Not too bad, right?
Intermittent Fasting Calculator – It lets you plan your caloric intake with respect to a certain macro nutrient ratio you want.
But while research may still be evolving, it turns out that hemp seed has had a long history as a health food. Here are the most notable health benefits that hemp seeds may offer:
Dietary hemp seed oil has shown to improve clinical symptoms of atopic dermatitis.
A 2005 study concluded that its cholesterol and skin benefits were both due to “the balanced and abundant supply of PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) in this hemp seed oil.”
Finally, the American Chemical Society analysis concluded that the high levels of α-linolenic acid (an omega-3 fat) in hemp seed “may have favorable nutritional implications and beneficial physiological effects on the prevention of coronary heart disease and cancer.”
6. Beneficial in Degenerative Diseases
The same analysis concluded that the level of γ-linolenic acid (an omega-6 fat) in hemp seed “provides it with a high pharmaceutical value for degenerative chronic diseases.”
According to the authors, these may include atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, or certain types of cancer.
7. Reduces Inflammation
Hemp seed contains a variety of plant sterols and alcohols that are known to reduce inflammation, which is a factor in a wide range of diseases.
