Sunday, October 28, 2007

Disappearing bees—how will Colony Collapse Disorder affect your life?

We stand on the brink of a disaster that could make global warming look like a Sunday school picnic. Bees in Canada and the U.S. are disappearing fast, and scientists are not sure why. There are dozens of theories, but no definitive answer. Without bees there will be no fruits or vegetables, because bees do the pollination required to grow them. We must find answers soon, or many agricultural producers will face bankruptcy and consumers will have rapidly dwindling food choices. Watch The Importance of Bees video at the link below.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bees/impact.html

What can you do to help the bees?
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bees/help.html

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

How much fish should pregnant women eat?

The Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition recently recommended that pregnant women eat at least 12 ounces of fish per week in order to get enough omega-3 essential fatty acids. The group believes that the health benefits of fish outweigh the risk associated with the consumption of small amounts of methyl mercury. http://www.hmhb.org/oceanfishpr.html

Below is a link to a relevant article on the WashingtonPost.com website.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/19/AR2007101902609.html?nav=emailpage

Check out this site for a list of mercury content in fish:
http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/guide.asp

I was not surprised to see tuna on the “high mercury” list. Many veterinarians discourage cat owners from feeding tuna to their cats.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Now everyone can be a news reporter or journalist

NowPublic is a website which empowers everyone to gather and report news events from around the globe. The site enables contributors to upload text, photos, videos, and audio reports. Users of the site may view or submit news items in several categories, e.g. crime, culture, emergencies, health, sports and technology. Although the site pays for certain instances of reporting, most news is contributed by volunteer reporters. I find the concept fascinating—to be able to find out news before the major media outlets have a chance to send a news team to an event, or even to learn about events that conventional media outlets will not cover. News censorship may now be obsolete. Nonetheless, the veracity of reports may be an issue, and would be subject to fine tuning by other contributing reporters and the editors of the site, similar to the Wikipedia process.
http://www.nowpublic.com/

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Would you know what to do if your baby stopped breathing?

The Parents.com website has a section called ParentsTV which features six video channels. The Baby Basics channel contains a series of videos on topics like baby CPR, breastfeeding, massaging your baby, burping your baby, and childproofing your home.

Here is the link: http://www.parents.com/parentstv/

The site also has other sections containing information on toddlers, preschoolers, and teens.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Now you can add voice to your blog, website, online ads, and auctions using your telephone or cell phone

With Voice2Page, you will be able to add a voice recording to your blog or website, or even an online ad or auction, by using your home phone or cell phone to call a toll-free number. Simply follow the instructions to record greetings or change them, 24-7. The Voice2Page site provides the code; you cut and paste it into your website. This system would be an effective tool for people who operate real estate sales websites, for example. Prospective customers would hear your voice, and with this added human touch, might be more inclined to stay on your site to hear what you had to say. I used Voice2Page to try out a voice greeting on this blog. The 15-second message plan is free, but it’s possible to upgrade to premium services giving you longer message times.
http://www.voice2page.com/

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Find the Internet video you want with this site

Clipblast is a website which allows you to search over 4000 web video content provider sites and find the video you want. Suppose you wish to find a video about Bruce Springsteen. Simply type his name into the Clipblast search box and within seconds, you’ll get over 3300 video clips with thumbnail pictures to help you find the video you want. I wanted to find a video about fixing my bicycle, so I typed in “fix bike” and found several videos on the topic. This sure beats going to all the different sites and searching their archives.

http://www.clipblast.com/

New BlogTV video channel challenges YouTube

BlogTV is a new, user-friendly online video blogging channel that allows anyone to broadcast live video on the Internet. Users have their own page where they archive live webcam broadcasts and fans can subscribe and get updates as new material is added.

http://www.blogtv.com/ (the new U.S. site)

http://www.blogtv.ca/ (the original Canadian site)

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

The raw food lifestyle

I encountered this website when I was looking up the nutritional content of molasses. What I read on this site led me to immediately throw out the box of molasses I had in the kitchen cupboard. Apparently, molasses is full of toxic substances picked up during processing.
This site features a huge library of information on various health topics, e.g. reasons to eat raw food, vitamins and minerals, rest and sleep, the vegetarian diet, detoxification, overcooking food, reasons to avoid meat, value of fasting, dangers of a high-protein diet, feeding of infants, allergies, and hay fever.

http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/