Sidr honey sells for astonishing prices. And while cities across the Middle East are struggling with heat, drought, and disappearing biodiversity, the Sidr keeps doing what it has always done: surviving.

I first became interested in the Sidr tree while reporting on desert agriculture projects in the Gulf. Engineers were talking about desalination and AI irrigation systems. Some say the sidr tree can stop desertification. Farmers were talking about native trees. Again and again, one species came up: Sidr. The more I looked into it, the more it seemed that this unassuming tree had quietly become one of the Middle East’s most important plants.

1. It appears in the Quran

The Sidr tree is associated with the Lote Tree, or Sidrat al-Muntaha, mentioned in the Quran. For many Muslims it is more than a tree. It is a symbol marking the boundary between the known and the unknowable.

2. It laughs at drought

Some trees demand constant attention. The Sidr seems almost offended by the idea. It grows in some of the driest landscapes on Earth, sending roots deep underground in search of water. Long before drip irrigation and smart agriculture, the Sidr had already solved the desert survival problem.

3. Its honey can cost more than gold by weight

Yemeni Sidr honey is legendary. A small jar can cost hundreds of dollars, especially when harvested from remote valleys where beekeepers still work using traditional methods. Whether every health claim surrounding Sidr honey is true is another question. What isn’t disputed is its reputation.

4. It feeds more than humans

During flowering season, bees swarm its blossoms. Birds eat the fruit. Livestock shelter beneath its branches. A mature Sidr tree is less like a plant and more like a tiny ecosystem.

5. The fruit tastes surprisingly good

Known as nabq, the fruit resembles a small apple crossed with a date. Children throughout the Middle East have been climbing Sidr trees to snack on the fruit for generations.

6. People wash their hair with it

Long before expensive shampoos arrived in plastic bottles, people crushed Sidr leaves into powder and mixed them with water. Many still do. The leaves create a gentle natural cleanser that remains popular from Morocco to Pakistan.

7. It may help restore degraded landscapes

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman are investing billions in restoration projects. Not every imported tree can survive those conditions. The Sidr can. Because it evolved in arid environments, it is increasingly being used in reforestation and biodiversity projects across the region.

8. It has serious thorns

The Sidr is not a tree you casually hug. Its sharp thorns help protect it from grazing animals and have likely contributed to its survival over thousands of years.

9. It has been used as medicine for centuries

Traditional healers have used Sidr leaves, bark, fruit, and honey for everything from skin conditions to digestive complaints. Modern science is still investigating many of these claims, but the tree’s medicinal reputation stretches back centuries.

10. It might be the perfect climate-change tree

As temperatures rise and water becomes scarcer, native species suddenly look a lot smarter than exotic imports. The Sidr requires little water, supports pollinators, produces food, and thrives in difficult conditions. Not bad for a tree most people have never heard of.

The next time someone talks about futuristic climate solutions, remember the Sidr. It was solving desert problems long before humans started inventing apps to do the same thing.

The post 10 Amazing Facts About the Sidr Tree appeared first on Green Prophet.

For many people outside Islam, the idea of a vegetarian Muslim sounds unusual. (This is what a Muslim vegetarian looks like). Images of Eid lamb feasts, halal kebab shops, and giant Ramadan buffets dominate perceptions of Muslim food culture. But quietly, across the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia, and North America, a growing number of Muslims are choosing vegetarian or vegan lifestyles for environmental, ethical, spiritual, and health reasons.

And according to most Islamic scholars, there is nothing in Islam that says Muslims must eat meat. Islam allows meat consumption, but it does not require it. In fact, many Muslim thinkers throughout history promoted compassion toward animals, moderation in eating, and avoiding waste.

The Quran repeatedly calls humans “stewards” of the Earth, responsible for balance and care for creation. For some modern Muslims, that responsibility now includes reducing meat consumption because of factory farming, climate change, water shortages, and animal cruelty. Jews who normally eat meat on Friday nights are also part of the trend. 

Halal does not mean meat is mandatory

One of the biggest misunderstandings is the idea that because halal meat is permitted, Muslims are somehow expected to eat it. But Islamic dietary law mainly focuses on what is allowed and forbidden. Vegetarian food is generally considered halal as long as it contains no alcohol or forbidden ingredients. Read here why Muslims don’t drink alcohol. 

Most Islamic scholars agree that Muslims may choose vegetarian or vegan diets for personal reasons including health, ethics, spirituality, or environmental concerns.

Islam and compassion for animals

Animal welfare has deep roots in Islamic teaching. Prophet Muhammad taught kindness toward animals and condemned cruelty. Islamic tradition includes stories warning against overworking animals, mistreating them, or killing unnecessarily. Of course when we hear about horrific forms of animal abuse in Jordan, Hebron or Turkey where a million dogs were killed last year, that does not define a religion. That’s a human interpretation of it. 

Modern Muslim scholars like Basheer Ahmad Masri argued that industrial factory farming violates Islamic principles of compassion and humane treatment. Masri believed many Muslims would reject industrial meat production if they fully understood the suffering involved. Read here about the time when Daniella Cheslow got close to her meat during an Eid sacrifice. 

This debate has become more urgent as industrial meat production expands across the Gulf states and wider Middle East as more and more people earn greater sums of money for food such as meat. 

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are investing heavily in food security projects, including lab-grown meat, vertical farming, and plant-based foods. Dubai has even hosted vegan festivals and sustainable food summits as governments try to reduce the environmental costs of imported meat.

Young Muslims are changing food culture

Social media has helped create a visible community of vegetarian and vegan Muslims. On TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Muslim creators now share vegan Ramadan meals, plant-based iftars, halal vegan recipes, and discussions about animal ethics in Islam. (Reach out to us if you want featured on Green Prophet!)

A complicated issue during Eid

One of the biggest tensions for vegetarian Muslims comes during Eid al-Adha, the Islamic holiday involving animal sacrifice. For many Muslim families, meat is deeply connected to tradition, hospitality, and religious celebration.

Some vegetarian Muslims still participate symbolically by donating money for charitable food distribution rather than personally consuming meat. Others focus on the Quranic message behind the sacrifice: generosity, gratitude, and helping the poor.

The issue can become emotional because food is tied closely to family identity and culture.

In some communities, vegetarian Muslims face criticism or are told their lifestyle is “Western” or un-Islamic. But historically, vegetarian practices existed among certain Sufi traditions and Muslim spiritual movements for centuries.

The future of halal may be greener

The halal food market is now worth trillions globally, and companies are beginning to notice growing demand for halal-certified vegetarian and vegan products.

Plant-based shawarma, vegan kebabs, meatless biryani, and dairy-free desserts are appearing in Muslim-majority countries and diaspora communities alike. They are particularly visible in cities like Berlin, where every second shawarma seems to be vegan.

In places facing climate pressure and water scarcity, including much of the Middle East, reducing dependence on industrial meat could become less of a niche lifestyle and more of a practical necessity. For many Muslims, vegetarianism is no longer seen as rejecting Islam.

In memory of Green Deen Ibrahim Abdul Matin. To learn more about Christian and Muslim vegetarians in the Middle East, reach out to Lebanese Vegans. They offer free vegan meals to those in need. A sample menu is below.

The top image is of vegan Muslims via the Kampungvegan

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Shavuot is a holiday heavy with symbolism. While it marks the end of the counting of the omer, it also functions as a miniature jubilee. The fiftieth day like a tiny echo of the fifty year cycle. And in each of the seventh years during that cycle, acts of rest and liberation are performed, especially in the fiftieth year. And so it is before Shavuot, I find myself letting go of a love that I may not have had a right to claim, the love that I thought was the beginning of my life becoming better and happier. Instead I find myself grieving.

What many people forget is that grief is an expression of love. When my mom died, I had nothing to grieve since my love for her died when she stopped being a parent and became a neglectful bully when I was young. Yet my life has not been without grief, whether that’s grieving my childhood or grieving the adult years that followed. I have cried bitterly over dead friends and dead pets. Now I find myself grieving love itself, finally coming to understand that whenever I have loved someone deeply it has never been reciprocal. I have always only ever been the fool in love, and so the wisest thing seems to be to not love.

For nearly two years, I’ve carried and tended feelings of love for someone I’ve never met. And for most of the time I began to think that those feelings really were mutual. Maybe that was a delusion on my part, seeing signs of love and caring in symbolism and cryptic references the way we fool ourselves by looking for mystical meaning in the secrets of the Torah. Yet sometimes we see what we want to see and we don’t see things for what they are, just as sometimes we see things as we fear them to be and not for what they are. I don’t know if I’ll ever know if I was deluding myself or if I misunderstood and fumbled something good and true. Yet if I ask myself if I’m the asshole here, the answer still feels like a ‘yes’. And maybe that leaves me grieving my worth as a partner as nearly two painful years disappointing someone I both admired and desired. And since she doesn’t want my attention, then I have only guilt and shame for the hurt I’ve caused her by insisting on wishful thinking.

It’s necessary to write this to acknowledge how badly I’ve messed up. I have no one to blame for my heartbreak but myself. And I can’t blame the woman I’ve loved and whole I still smile thinking of even as I cry and scream into my empty bathtub, totally nauseated at everything. All I can do is apologize and give her the space and silence she wanted from me all along. And try, despite not wanting to, to remain open to the possibility that better times will come in my life even if I feel like ending it.

God commands us to choose life, yet I have never been good at obedience. I spent most of my life hating my own existence. This past year I’ve learned to see myself as slightly better than worthless, yet betraying someone I love by loving them despite that being one-sided is far from worthy. And so I find myself waiting for God to make this all make sense. And I remember that if it never made sense, I probably have to accept the absurdity of God’s choice without expecting it to ever make sense.

Already so depressed that I’m only showering weekly, the temptation to slide into further depression is irresistible. Food was already becoming a chore again, with neither eating nor cooking being easy. Isolation instinctually kicks in, my desire to find community inverted, drawn back into the cave of of pain and despair that I try so hard to turn others away from. And yet God commanded us to choose life, the same God I didn’t believe in for three decades of my life and the same one I struggle with to this day. As I live, I don’t find that faith to be dying. I just find it to be insufficient, another unsteady thing to retreat from while I writhe in heartbreak.

“If it’s not okay, it’s not over,” and somehow this is the least okay it’s been, since it seems like I’m back where I started except with more heartbreak and less sense of self. And I ask what the point of this is, why God should let me love someone and only detract from her life in the process that I’m supposed to trust yet only seems to be hurting both of us? Is there a lesson in it? Maybe, it seems like things went so wrong that something must be able to be learned. For my part, I’ve learned that my only worth is in my work and not in what I want despite what people on social media may say about worth. While wants may inform and motivate, wanting what someone else cannot give just hurts both people. Trying to understand ends up mattering less than simply accepting that mutual love may not be for everyone since it requires being able to show up fully. And I remember praying to God let me meet the one and that if it didn’t work out with her, to no longer want love in my life. Choosing life may simply be accepting that there is no choice, life continues even when we do not want to continue.

And so I question where I go from here as it continues, and how. While I may not want to live, while I may indeed want prefer the alternative to life and consider it strongly, I also know that if I am meant to continue living my decision in that will not matter. So my choice is really limited to how I live my life, however long it may continue to be. I have to admit that it’s unlikely I’ll be able to make aliyah without more resources and stability in my life, much less sustain myself in Israel. While I have to question the validity of my faith when I have no immediate faith community, I find myself unmoored as the hope that anchored my life seems to be drifting, and I find that my faith may have been misplaced and ungrounded this whole time.

May your Shavuot bring you the lessons that God needs you to learn. May the Torah teach you more wisdom than I have learned. And may you be free.

The post Signs of Shavuot: Grief, Love and Choosing Life appeared first on Green Prophet.

How many of us looked twice when we saw that South Korea has ordained a robot as a budd?

His name is Gabi, and he wears saffron robes, bows respectfully, and stands inside Jogyesa Temple in Seoul, headquarters of the Jogye Order, Korea’s largest Buddhist sect.

Unlike us, Gabi does not breathe, he does not suffer in the human sense and he does not have cravings or desires. He does not meditate under a bodhi tree while mosquitoes bite his ankles.

But he may do something equally important: he is making young people stop doom scrolling and ask what spirituality means in an age of artificial intelligence.

The robot, based on a commercially available humanoid made by Unitree Robotics, was only symbolically ordained as an honorary monk by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. The purpose here is not to replace monks, but to serve as an ambassador for Buddhism and a conversation starter about ethics, consciousness, and compassion.
Would Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, approve?

Perhaps he would smile because as his teachings go, the Buddha was less concerned with appearances than with intention. A shaved head does not make a monk, and neither does a robe or a computer chip.

Liberation in the buddhist sense comes from understanding suffering and releasing attachment.

A robot cannot awaken because it does not experience desire or pain. But if Gabi inspires a teenager to step into a temple, ask deeper questions, and sit quietly for ten minutes, then perhaps the machine is doing wholesome work.

Across Asia, monastic life has long been fluid. If you have ever travelled to Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia, many young men and even women ordain temporarily. They may spend a few weeks, months or a rainy season as monks before returning to ordinary life, marriage, and careers. Becoming a monk is a rite of passage, a period of reflection and service rather than a lifelong commitment. You can compare it to Muslims who go on Hajj.

Unlike Catholic priests or cloistered nuns, Buddhist ordination can be reversible and you can come to it from any previous religion. Leonard Cohen was a Buddhist monk and he was Jewish. Many books such as the Jew and the Lotus explain how these two worlds and spiritual approaches can stand side by side.

Gabi simply takes that principle into the age of robotics and if you are worried about a new class of Hare Krishnas or monks, Gabi will not walk barefoot at dawn begging for rice. In Korea, monks generally do not collect alms house to house and Gabi we expect will greet visitors, answer simple AI questions, and remind us that compassion can be, and she be! baked into circuits and code.

The post Robot Monk Gabi Takes Vows in Seoul. What Would the Buddha Have Thought? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Few family decisions carry as much weight as choosing an assisted living community. A good match protects independence, preserves dignity, and makes each day feel manageable. A poor one drains energy from everyone involved. Asking the right questions up front cuts through glossy brochures and polished tours. These eight questions help families judge what actually matters once a loved one moves in.

1. What Level of Personal Care Does the Community Provide?

Senior needs vary, so families must confirm exactly which services are built into daily operations. Those researching assisted living in Bullhead City often start by comparing how different communities approach daily care support. Certain communities focus on medication reminders and light help around the apartment. Others handle bathing, dressing, transfers, mobility support, and incontinence care with trained aides.

Request a written scope of services, including all pricing tiers. Clarify how often health assessments occur and whether care plans get updated as physical or cognitive conditions shift.

2. How Are Staff Trained, and What Is the Resident-to-Caregiver Ratio?

Caregiver quality influences daily life more than any amenity on the tour. Families weighing assisted living in Bullhead City should ask about caregiver certifications, dementia-specific training, and continuing education requirements for every team member. Smaller resident-to-staff ratios usually translate into quicker response times and more attentive care. Request the exact numbers for the morning, evening, and overnight shifts, as staffing often drops after dinner.

3. What Does the Monthly Cost Actually Include?

Fee structures rarely align neatly across communities. A base rate may bundle rent, meals, and housekeeping, while personal care is billed as a separate add-on. Families should request a full fee schedule covering:

• Community fees or entrance deposits
• Care level surcharges
• Medication management charges
• Guest meal or transportation fees

Transparent paperwork prevents billing surprises once a parent is settled in.

4. How Does the Community Handle Changing Health Needs?

A parent’s needs rarely stay static for long. Families should learn whether the community supports higher acuity care, memory decline, or recovery after a hospital stay. Ask whether residents can age in place or must relocate as care needs grow. Written policies matter here because verbal promises sometimes shift after leadership turnover.

5. What Do Meals, Activities, and Daily Life Look Like?

Quality of life grows out of small daily routines. Shared meals, outings, and hobbies keep residents engaged, social, and mentally active. Ask for a current menu, a weekly activity calendar, and permission to join a meal during your visit. Watch whether residents appear relaxed, welcomed, and genuinely enjoying themselves around the dining room.

5.1 Signs of a Vibrant Community

A healthy community offers varied programming, outdoor spaces, fitness classes, and resident-led clubs. Calendars stuffed with repeat bingo sessions often signal limited engagement.

6. How Are Medical Needs and Emergencies Managed?

Medical readiness can save a resident’s life during a critical moment. Ask how medications get stored, administered, and documented across every shift. Confirm whether a licensed nurse stays on site full time, visits weekly, or is simply on call. Families should also ask about hospital partnerships, emergency protocols, and how staff alert relatives when something happens overnight.

7. What Do Current Residents and Families Say?

Marketing materials present the most flattering version of any community. Honest feedback comes from people already inside the experience. Request contact information for current families willing to share candid perspectives. Online reviews add helpful context, though patterns across multiple platforms reveal far more than any single comment. Ask directly about responsiveness, cleanliness, dining quality, and how concerns get handled.

7.1 Questions Worth Asking Other Families

How fast did caregivers respond during a health scare? Did monthly billing stay predictable? Were tour-day promises actually kept after moving day arrived?

8. What Are the Move-In, Move-Out, and Refund Policies?

Every contract deserves careful review before pens touch paper. Families should understand required notice periods, refund rules for unused fees, and any conditions that could trigger a discharge. Ask whether deposits are refundable and how annual rate increases get communicated. A trustworthy community welcomes these questions and puts answers in writing without pushback.

Conclusion

Choosing an assisted living community gets easier once families trade assumptions for direct, pointed questions. Care scope, staffing, pricing, medical readiness, and resident experience all shape long-term satisfaction. Families who tour several properties, talk with current residents, and review contracts line by line usually feel settled about their final choice. A little extra preparation now creates a safer, warmer, and more rewarding chapter for an aging loved one.

The post 8 Questions Families Should Ask Before Choosing Assisted Living appeared first on Green Prophet.

Can Zara speak with their recently departed mother through fungal networks?

In April my mom passed away and I attended her funeral as a relative outsider in her life. Seeking some distance from her friends, I borrowed the Israeli custom of wearing sunglasses to her funeral despite being in the oft-cloudy Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It felt like I needed a reason to be there, so I brought my phone and videoed her funeral for my as-yet non-existant children who will never meet her. Doubtless her funeral wasn’t something I’d have been invited to while she was living, yet death is both a final estrangement and reunion. Due to our relationship in life, my mom’s passing was more relief and closure for me than it was grief.

Grieving Disconnection

In life my mom’s absence brought peace and a feeling of security, albeit with dread anticipation of her presence. Her presence brought chaos, instability, and unpredictability along an inevitable gradient to emotional abuse. Yet her absence and presence mutually denied me one thing: a parent capable of and committed to being a parent. No one else ever met the version of her that I knew, so totally different was her attitude towards other people.

As I grew up, I grew up without really ever seeing my home as a home. Not only uprooted, also disconnected from everyone and everything, especially my own Jewish family and heritage. Naturally this led to my ignorant lack of understanding and deep resentments that isolated me further. In that isolation I became kept, feeling more like a caged experiment that a mother’s child.

Finding Healing

After some terrible relationships and serious health problems, I took time to heal and grieve my upbringing. Healing is inarguably non-linear lifelong process, something our minds and bodies do, while we can intentionally practice healing deeply. That has been a painfully serious undertaking for me the past two years, though I have been on this path since 2021. And even before then I spent so much time learning embodied arts, to nourish my body, visiting both doctors and therapists. Still, the lasting sense of peace and sure knowledge of security only arrived as my mom passed.

As morbid as that might sound, the way she died was a death I’ve often feared for myself. Confronting that possibility for myself, I am grateful my mom died as she did and grateful for her teaching me something about life through her death. Looking down at her body empty of what was her, I felt an unburdening of that pain and less fear of mortality. Corpses have always haunted my mind and I’ve dreaded mortality since I was little. On some level I’ve always resonated with the idea that there is spiritual contagion in death. In Judaism, contact with dead bodies both human and other-than-human interacts with complex belief which parallel contagion.

Spiritual Contagion

While it’s true that literal disease can reside in corpses, mine was not a fear of some kind of plague. It was a fear beyond the rational in the deep ruminative spiral of my mind. Being released from that fear is the only gift my mom has given me worth carrying and cherishing. No physical gift could match the unburdening from that fear, so utterly crushing has it been.

I am also glad that she chose green burial instead of cremation or an even more ecologically impactful burial. I hope that someday the cemetary here will allow me to plant her grave with the native wild-flowers she loved, for her body to slowly entangle into over time.

Entangled Tales

I am not a physicist, yet I’ve read that heat destroys quantum entanglement, making cremation weirdly scarring, If there is a trace of what lived, even the trace of an echo, green burial grants continuity. Interestingly, another kind of entanglement persists in death, as I’ve been reading in Merlin Sheldrake’s book Entangled Life.

Fungi are often decomposers, built of ubiquituous microstructures called hyphae that combine like microscopic fibers into larger masses. Mushrooms are one such structure, yet hardly a universal strategy for fungi. Commonly hyphae weave themselves into lacy mycelial nets capable of moving nutrients and information. Fungi also love to interweave with plant roots or deeper still into plants’ own cells.

Not just plants, rather all life is within hyphae’s reach of the venerable fungi. In death fungi return our bodies to that mighty web of life, an undeniable connection to life’s cycle. In returning our bodies for our fungal friends to reunite with the Earth we enact a lasting stewardship, restful and redemptive.

Psychedelic Blessings

Judaism may have a place for fungal blessings in addition to curses, a connection I’ll explore more in anticipation of the Jewish month of Elul. As for the spiritual symptom of contagion of tzaraat often written about in the Torah, it’s as painful and destructive as any curse, yet that moldy affliction is not all fungi offer. Though Sheldrake references a folk medicine called “chamka” that is supposedly in the Talmud, psychedelics are the blessing he argues for the healing power of. While confined to being viewed with suspicion for decades, psychedelic mushrooms are now the basis of nearly-mainstream healing processes. Though Sheldrake describes some of his experiences with the eccentric Terrence McKenna, the science is serious and goes far beyond pioneering psychonauts.

Research has consistently shown that the fruits of these enigmatic lifeforms unharnesses our brains from controlling thought patterns. This in turn allows for a healing experience where one rearranges their mental connections. This rewiring often creates an experience I personally relate to being a single hypha in a vast interconnected mycelial lifeweb. It’s beyond a visceral or intellectual experience, a lasting reconnection to a sense of something universal. That experience is like a lifeline in a desert of despair, a door out of isolation, and peace with mortality.

Healing Eternally

Albeit eccentric, McKenna proposed that fungi could speak through our minds with mushrooms acting as messengers. And why not, given the complex chemical interactions that scientists have found? If hyphae carry information and people experiencing psychedelics journey through a spiritual death and rebirth, what if it’s a story of that endless cycle as witnessed by fungi? What if fungi remember through their entanglements with life and tell that story again and again inside human minds? While Sheldrake doesn’t delve deeply into the science of psychedelic experiences and understandably glosses over the details of how growing these mushrooms has become as easy as culinary oyster mushrooms, he perfectly describes this emerging field of medicine.

For many, the kind of healing one of my mom’s friends urged on me at her funeral, might be found in that same ancient fungal tale of death and rebirth. In Judaism, there’s a story about the Israelites dropping dead in their tracks and being returned to life, a story that may have a basis in psychedelic experiences more particular to Judaism. While that’s speculative, Sheldrake describes how psychedelic experiences helped McKenna and many other people through the deserts of their fears and the promise of community. That sense of connection breaks down the walls between people and helps them find connections through the substrate of their lives.

Similarly, my own experiences years ago helped me find the perspective to see my mom’s funeral as continuity, a return to universal existence. Despite wearing sunglasses and filming, I felt gratitude during her funeral instead of simply feeling disconnected. I find beauty that through slow decomposition hyphae record, retell, and remember her body’s story to pass onto roots via mycorrhizae and ever onward. I hope someday that story will ride the wind on the seeds of her beloved milkweeds, embroidered into their own story through those hyphae.

The post A Quantum Kaddish? What fungal networks teach us about grief, God and death appeared first on Green Prophet.

You don’t have to languish in jail to make Jailhouse Booze. It’s an easy, fun project you can make in your own kitchen, with fruit juice. Old-time jailbirds used to call it Pruno. We also have another, no-waste, alternative wine recipe: Pea Pod Wine.

It’s said that the merry prisoners used to save up their lunchtime fruit juice, float a slice of moldy bread on it (for yeast) and ferment it in a milk carton, or even a garbage bag. To hide it from the jailers, they’d stash it behind the toilet, and break it out at night for a soirée in the cell.

I doubt anyone makes Pruno anymore. Today’s jailers know all about it, and know where to find that milk carton or garbage bag bulging with illicit alcohol. But if you’d like to try, I recommend fermenting the juice in a clean glass or plastic jug. Stash it in a dark, cool place instead of in the bathroom.

To get that old-time feeling, keep it under the kitchen sink. Best, and most hygenically, make room in the pantry or garage for it.

Don’t make a lot. And don’t use moldy bread unless you’re willing to risk getting sick. (Or maybe inventing Penicillin.) Pruno’s pretty rough, and there’s no quality guarantee at all.

Pruno, Or Jailhouse Booze

Equipment

• A very clean plastic or glass jug of 7- cup capacity
  A long-handled spoon
• A funnel or large ladle
• A latex glove or a balloon, new out of the box
  A rubber band
  A saucer to put under the container in case of fermentation overflow

Ingredients

1-2/3 cup sugar
1 quart/ 4 cups/ 500 ml. fruit juice, any kind, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon baker’s yeast
1 small handful raisins or grapes

Dissolve the sugar in the juice, stirring well. Funnel or ladle the juice into the jug.

Add the yeast and raisins or grapes.
Fit the glove or balloon over the mouth of the container.
Tie the rubber band around the glove or balloon: fermentation will make it swell and possibly pop off the container
With a pin or needle, poke a hole in the glove or balloon. This allows fermentation gases to escape while keeping bugs and dust out.
Set the container on top of the saucer and put that bad boy away in a cool, dark place.

The Pruno will be ready when the glove or balloon deflates.
Pour it off the sediment, chill it, and enjoy.

Recommended: play Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock” as you sip.

The post Jailhouse Booze For Home Bootleggers appeared first on Green Prophet.

Abortion pills, often confused with Plan B (the morning-after pill), and historically referred to as RU486 (mifepristone), are part of a broader category of reproductive health medications that women have been using for decades. But they are not the same thing.

Plan B is emergency contraception used shortly after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy from occurring. Abortion pills, by contrast—typically a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol—are used to terminate an early pregnancy after it has already begun. These medications have become the most common method of abortion in the United States.

Related: scientist shows how her brain changes on birth control

While there are documented health effects if misused, these pills—both emergency contraception and medication abortion—have significantly increased sexual freedom and reproductive autonomy for women. And these effects catch on in the Middle East, where abortion is illegal for for the most part. Most women in the Middle East, and increasingly now in parts of America, if you can believe it, do not have reliable access to abortion pills or even Plan B.

Years ago, I worked with writer Loolwa Khazoom researching a piece for Vogue or Harper’s on an abortion boat, a Dutch-flagged ship that operated off the coast of countries like Spain when abortion was illegal. Women would be taken into international waters where Dutch physician Rebecca Gomberts could legally perform abortions on her floating clinic. She said, “I figured we would sail from country to country and help X number of women per day.”

It was a workaround that was creative, controversial, and telling.

Today, the workaround is digital and under threat.

I am not arguing here whether abortion should or should not be offered on moral or religious grounds. That is a private decision. But the fact that the United States is now moving to restrict the mailing of abortion pills like mifepristone means that some states that have outlawed abortion may end up with women’s lives on their hands.

A recent federal appeals court ruling has moved to block the mailing of abortion pills and require in-person dispensing, challenging long-standing FDA guidance that allowed telehealth prescriptions and pharmacy access. Medication abortion—often prescribed online and delivered by mail—accounts for the majority of abortions in the U.S., and about one in four had been accessed via telehealth.

Related: Turkish woman first to receive womb transplant 

US states where abortion is illegal

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• West Virginia

Like I said, there are a variety of reasons why women seek abortions.

In the Middle East, except in countries like Turkey and Israel, premarital sex is not socially accepted. Of course people have sex secretly and then deal with the consequences according to local customs and doctors who often work quietly behind the scenes. In Egypt, for instance, social pressures have led to practices like hymen reconstruction surgeries. These realities exist regardless of the law. Read here about the creative ways Muslims stay virgins in Arab countries.

In Turkey, many parts of the country are conservative and if you are renting a hotel with a man you do need to say you are married and use his last name. Honor killings still happen. In a shocking case, an 18-year woman Oya Budak was murdered by her fiance after he discovered she was pregnant by her rapist. She was raped by someone familiar to her and did not disclose this fact prior to them making an arranged married.

Women in conservative societies can face severe consequences for pregnancy outside marriage, including violence. The stakes are high. I know a doctor whose patient was killed after not receiving an abortion in time.

Restricting access to abortion pills does not eliminate abortion—it pushes it underground or across borders.

In the U.S., people are already finding ways around restrictions. Some travel across state lines to access care. Others rely on telehealth providers in states with legal protections, or order abortion pills online from international services operating in legal gray zones. Some use misoprostol-only regimens, which are widely recognized as safe and effective. Information networks, encrypted consultations, and nonprofit support systems have become part of the new infrastructure of access.

Restricting access to abortion pills will not stop abortions. It will only make them harder, riskier, and more unequal.

While I do believe marrying young and having children young might be a stable path for some (something I wasn’t taught), I will leave my kids with that decision to make.

If your are connected to the Palestinian cause, where abortions are not legal, maybe you can use some online warrior energy and help women EVERYWHERE get access to abortion pills. Here are the countries in the Middle East with access to abortion pills:

Middle East abortion access (updated)

The post Abortion Pills, Plan B and Mifepristone and what the new US mail ban means appeared first on Green Prophet.

The CFTC, FINRA, and NASAA have jointly warned retirees about precious metals fraud targeting retirement accounts. This checklist provides a structured framework for evaluating any company before transferring savings — and illustrates what credible providers look like across 7 measurable criteria.

Key Takeaways

• Precious metals fraud disproportionately targets retirees. The CFTC has pursued cases involving more than $500 million in overpriced metals sold to consumers over the past decade. A structured due diligence process — not a “best of” list — is the most reliable defense.
• The 7 criteria in this checklist are drawn from CFTC and FINRA investor advisories, BBB evaluation standards, and common patterns in documented fraud cases. Each criterion includes a specific action item and, where relevant, an example of a company that performs well on that measure.
• Among the established providers, Lear Capital (founded 1997), Birch Gold Group (founded 2003), and Rosland Capital (founded 2008) offer the longest operational track records.
• No single company excels on every criterion. The purpose of this checklist is to give retirees a repeatable, evidence-based process for evaluating any provider — including ones not named here.

The Checklist: 7 Criteria That Retirees Should Verify

1. Years in Business and Transaction Volume

Why it matters: Longevity alone doesn’t guarantee quality, but it demonstrates regulatory survival. A company operating for 20+ years has weathered multiple market cycles, changes in IRS rules, and the scrutiny that comes with scale. Firms that routinely defraud customers tend not to last decades.

What to check: Look for the founding year on the company’s website and verify it against BBB accreditation records. Ask about total transaction volume if it’s not published.

Example: Lear Capital has operated since 1997 and has served over 100,000 customers. Birch Gold Group has been in business since 2003 and has served over 39,000 customers 

2. BBB Accreditation and Rating

Why it matters: The Better Business Bureau evaluates companies on 16 variables including complaint history, transparency, and responsiveness. An A+ rating indicates compliance with BBB standards; it does not mean zero complaints. Complaint patterns — and how a company responds — matter more than the rating letter itself.

What to check: Visit bbb.org and search the company name. Review both the letter grade and the star rating (customer reviews), which can diverge. Read the actual complaints, not just the count. Look at whether the company responded and whether resolutions were reached.

Current ratings (as of early 2026):

Sources: Individual BBB business profiles. All seven providers currently hold the same top-level grade, which underscores why looking beyond the letter rating is essential.

3. Third-Party Review Consistency

Why it matters: A company with 4.9 stars on Trustpilot but 2.5 stars on the BBB’s customer review section warrants closer examination. Large gaps between platforms may indicate that positive reviews cluster around the initial sales experience, while negative reviews surface later — around pricing, buyback, or account management.

What to check: Compare ratings across at least three platforms: Trustpilot, Google Reviews, BBB customer reviews, and ConsumerAffairs. Read negative reviews specifically — they reveal the failure modes that positive reviews obscure.

4. Fee Transparency and Written Disclosure

Why it matters: The single most common element in CFTC enforcement cases against precious metals dealers is undisclosed or misleading fee information. A reputable company discloses all fees — setup, annual administration, storage, wire transfer, and dealer markup — in writing before you commit funds.

What to check: Ask every company you’re evaluating to provide a complete, written fee schedule that separates custodian fees, storage fees, and the dealer’s markup over spot price. If a company declines to put its fees in writing before you purchase, treat that as a disqualifying signal.

Example: Birch Gold Group publishes its full fee schedule on its website, including one-time and annual charges. Lear Capital also publishes an itemized breakdown of first-year and recurring fees on its knowledge base, including application fees, maintenance, and storage by type.Both practices exceed the industry norm. 

During research for this article, we attempted to locate published fee schedules on the websites of every company profiled. Priority Gold, Preserve Gold, Rosland Capital, and Noble Gold do not publish itemized fee breakdowns online; each requires a phone consultation for specific numbers. Augusta discloses its setup fee but directs prospective clients to a call for the rest. 

5. Custodian and Depository Partnerships

Why it matters: Your gold IRA company is the dealer — it sells you metals. The custodian holds the account; the depository stores the physical metal. Knowing who these partners are lets you independently verify their credentials.

What to check: Ask for the name of the custodian and depository before opening an account. Verify the custodian is an IRS-approved financial institution. Verify the depository is IRS-approved and carries adequate insurance. Delaware Depository and Brink’s Global Services are the two most commonly used across the industry.

6. Sales Process and Pressure Tactics

Why it matters: The CFTC specifically identifies high-pressure sales tactics and urgency-based messaging as hallmarks of precious metals fraud. A legitimate company gives you time to compare options and never implies that a market crash is imminent or that you must act immediately.

What to check: Pay attention to the initial call. Does the representative ask about your goals and financial situation, or immediately push products? Are they willing to send written information and let you call back? Do they encourage you to consult a financial advisor?

7. Post-Sale Support and Account Access

Why it matters: A gold IRA is a long-term holding. You need ongoing access to account information, responsive support for RMD processing, and assistance if you decide to liquidate, transfer, or add to your holdings years later.

What to check: Does the custodian provide online portfolio access? How are quarterly statements delivered? Is there a dedicated contact person, or will you reach a general call center? 

Applying the Checklist: A Step-by-Step Process

For retirees ready to evaluate providers, here is a practical sequence:

Step 1: Narrow your list to three companies. Request information from each without committing.

Step 2: Request written fee schedules from each remaining company. Compare custodian fees, storage fees, and — critically — the markup on specific products you’ve been quoted, calculated against the same-day spot price.

Step 3: Score each company across all 17 criteria. You may weigh certain criteria more heavily based on your priorities. An investor with a $25,000 rollover might prioritize low minimums and fee waivers; a retiree with a $200,000 account might prioritize long-term support.

Step 4: Consult a fee-only financial advisor or tax professional before finalizing a rollover. Precious metals dealers are not fiduciaries and are not licensed to provide investment advice.

FAQ

Q: Which precious metals company is best for retirees? There is no universal answer. Lear Capital combines the longest operating history (since 1997) with a $10,000 minimum, published fee disclosures, and a dedicated IRA processing team. Birch Gold Group offers the lowest entry point at $5,000 with transparent published fees. Priority Gold (founded 2001) earns strong marks for patient, non-pressured service and first-year fee waivers on larger rollovers. Evaluate each against the 7 criteria in this checklist.

Q: Should I worry about a company that has had BBB complaints? Not necessarily. Every high-volume company receives complaints. What matters is the pattern and the response. A company with dozens of resolved complaints over 25 years of operation and thousands of transactions has a different profile than a company with the same number of complaints over two years. Read the specific complaints to understand whether they reflect systemic issues or isolated incidents.

Q: Can I use this checklist for companies not named in this article? Yes. The checklist is designed to be applied to any precious metals company. The companies referenced here are illustrative examples, not an exhaustive list.

This article reflects publicly available information as of February 2026 and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Regulatory records, fees, ratings, and company policies can change. Always verify current information directly with the company and relevant regulatory bodies before making investment decisions.

The post Recommended Precious Metals Companies: A Due Diligence Checklist for Retirees appeared first on Green Prophet.

Teens as young as 12 are vaping in schools around the world. Devices are sold in the same places kids buy candy. They’re packaged with cartoon characters, bright colors, and playful branding that makes nicotine look harmless — even fun.

By 2019, youth vaping in the United States had surged to 20%, up from just 8.1% two years earlier. A generation of teens was being pulled into nicotine addiction through design, marketing, and easy access. Public health campaigns were trying to catch up, but they were competing with a fast-moving culture — social media, influencers on IG and Tiktok, and products engineered to appeal to young users.

Then something changed. Researchers from the University of California San Diego found that 2019 marked a rare and dramatic reversal in youth vaping, driven not by one factor, but by a convergence of media forces.

“What we saw in California between 2017–18 and 2019–20 was a rare, dramatic population-level shift in adolescent vaping behavior,” said senior author of the study, Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health professor. “A convergence of media forces — aggressive public health campaigns and frightening news reports about people being hospitalized with severe lung injuries — appears to have shaken adolescents out of complacency and motivated many of them to quit.”

On one side: aggressive anti-vaping campaigns from the FDA, Truth Initiative, and state programs, backed by over $100 million in annual spending. On the other: a public health crisis.

The EVALI outbreak which was a wave of lung injuries linked to vaping led to more than 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. News coverage was relentless, with nearly 20,000 articles published in less than a year.

Suddenly, vaping didn’t feel abstract. The dangers were real.

Among teen vapers: Quit attempts nearly doubled, from 28.8% to 53.2% Intentions to quit rose from 56.9% to 79.1%

Among teens who had never vaped:Interest in trying vaping dropped significantly

Perhaps most striking: awareness of the EVALI outbreak alone reduced interest in vaping among non-users — even more effectively than expensive advertising campaigns.

In other words, real-world fear, amplified by media, worked. EVALI was later linked primarily to black-market THC vape products, not standard nicotine e-cigarettes. Yet many teens came away believing that all vaping caused lung injury.

“Quit attempt rates on a population level almost never change this dramatically from one period to the next,” said first author Jijiang Wang, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, whose doctoral dissertation as a student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health focused on this topic. “When they do, it tells us something important about what is possible when the media environment shifts.”

The post Kids are vaping. The media shock that made them stop appeared first on Green Prophet.