Page 148 – Green Prophet

4 Hidden Sources Of Environmental Damage

Act

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May 21, 2021

gold dust graduation from Walmart — *The gold dust bought at Walmart may make your graduation photo pretty. But one blow and it’s forever cycling as microplastics that will get into our lungs.*

You are probably bored to death with doom and gloom news about climate change. Nevertheless, the fate of the human race and the entire planet is reliant upon the way we treat the earth. Scientists have been warning us for around 50 years that humanity is likely to have a dangerous impact on the climate of the earth. Unfortunately, we may have heeded their warning too late to avert serious catastrophe. Here are four hidden sources of environmental damage that may have passed you by. Try not to feel too overwhelmed.

Water Waste

Water is not an infinite resource. Water scarcity is a major concern both for the welfare of humanity and the preservation of the environment. Climate change is having some seemingly contradictory effects. Sea levels are rising thanks to melting icecaps, but deserts are spreading thanks to groundwater droughts and deforestation. Without going into the science behind these occurrences, it is worth mentioning that global warming is responsible for both.

Water distribution is an absolutely huge polluter, and that pollution is contributing to the disappearance of water sources – it is a self-perpetuating cycle. California uses 20 percent of its electricity to distribute water.

What can an ordinary person or business owner do to avert this slow catastrophe? For starters, we should be reducing water waste on a large scale. The real change, however, will come when governments impose stricter environmental controls on water distribution companies.

Microplastics

Take any water sample from a river or coastal area and there is a very high chance that it contains microplastics. Microplastics are tiny fragments of plastic waste less than 5mm in diameter. They are released into waterways during manufacturing processes or in solutions dumped down drains. Until recently, many hair products contained ‘microbeads’ – small plastic balls that took years to biodegrade and travelled into the water system via showers and baths. They might be small, but they are causing a huge amount of environmental damage. They clog up the gills of fish, and in turn make their way into the diet of creatures that feast upon said fish, including us.

Internet Shopping

In the internet age it is possible to receive imported products within days of making an order. This has been made possible by the proliferation of air freight. The problem is that aviation is a polluting industry on an absolutely massive scale. Jet fuel is very concentrated and burns off at a swift rate. Future generations are going to pay for our convenience.

Meat

Meat and dairy production is the cause of 14.5 percent of global greenhouse emissions. Cattle farming has an especially bad impact on the environment, as cows produce a huge quantity of methane. The transportation, feeding and slaughter of animals on an industrial scale has been a disaster for the planet. This is one of the reasons that veganism has become such a popular ethical choice for younger people, who are starting to feel the effects of climate change first-hand during their lives.

The 5 Best Eco-Friendly Destinations to Visit Around the World

Travel

Karin Kloosterman

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May 18, 2021

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Some countries like Iceland and Costa Rica are made for eco adventurers because nature is simply a prominent part of the nation’s being. Countries like America, which brought us super-size me and McMansions –– and Dubai’s towering skyscrapers –– less so. To keep our eyes on the prize, which is full nature immersion left, right and center, let’s look at 5 of the wildest places to visit for an immersive ecological and natural experience without having to look hard for an “official” eco-resort. Because by default nature and natural getaways should be a complete experience everywhere you turn, not a special package.

Retreats in North Iceland will pull you right into the heart of nature. Northern lights, endless fjords, volcanoes and natural hot springs with geothermal energy that produces vodka. There’s no better place than Iceland for your first eco-journey after Covid isolation. Activities include hiking in the wild, fishing, whale watching and singing like Bjork out in the wild. Being a part of the wild Icelandic landscape helps you find a bit more of the wild in yourself.

The midnight sun and warm temperatures make summer the best season of the year to visit Iceland. Hikers might think that July and August are the best months to visit Iceland –– but it’s actually February, March, September and October –– when you will have the best chance to see the spectacular Northern Lights.

The Northern Lights are by far nature’s most spectacular event and light show, also known as the Aurora Borealis. Don’t worry about missing them on your trip: they can be seen from purpose-built resorts from glass igloos to luxury suites. Or from the window of your tent. They appear 200 nights a year in northern Iceland.

Nipissing, Ontario, Canada is not a known eco-destination, except for but a few dozen people that moved there to escape the Vietnam War –– and then stayed. Some of the earlier settlers that started ecological communes in the area include Americans from Berkeley. It is a quiet understated place, full of raw water and natural springs, deep, dark forests and the occasional gnome sighting. Highly recommended. If you do get there, don’t tell anyone though. Let’s keep it a secret between us.

Costa Rica might be devoid of any exciting nightlife and its ancient cultural roots are all but erased, but it’s a place you can feel prana. Somehow standing in the sun in Guanacaste radiates your inner being like no sun I have felt on earth. Lush green follows you everywhere and around every turn there is some fascinating natural wonder and animals galore. Carpenter ants, howler monkeys and sloths are my personal favorites.

Finland is far from Costa Rica in many ways but similar in others. Finland’s forests are vast and wide and everyone and their cousin owns a sauna somewhere in nature. The big idea is to sweat out all your anxieties and then dash into freezing cold water in the lake a few yards away. Plenty of wild game will fill your table if you are an adventurous eater. Try reindeer or stick to your vegan palette. Those options are available too. If you visit in the summer you will never have to sleep as it’s about 23 hours of light – with the sun barely setting. More time for adventures!

The Atlas Mountains in Morocco. When you get out of your rusty, rattling local taxi cab from Marrakech and find yourself in the Atlas Mountains you will witness a people that has been living in tune with nature for hundreds of years. Simple hotels and resorts without any special vision can be found all over the place, but if you want more “class” then try the Kasbah Du Toubkal.

Run by a British family to oversee local philanthropy and sustainable eco-management of the region, the Kasbah is a refreshing way that eco-resorts and getaways interact with and connect with the locals. All the staff and meals are local and the building was constructed to embrace the natural sun and airflow from the Atlas Mountains above.

When I was there I took a donkey ride up a steep path that led up to the resort. That in itself is an experience I will never forget. Or the homemade yoghurt. Or learning about argan oil.

Rethink your backyard? Consider also that even if your city backyard is a transport hub like Atlanta. And your family comes to visit you can help them find the best hotels in Atlanta. It is known that the most ecological destination to travel to is your own backyard or hubs where many flights converge in one place. With no carbon emissions from flights or fewer emissions –– and no need to be part of the endless packaging waste cycle of meals on flights, staying home –– a staycation –– is widely regarded as the best kind of travel.

Consider also carpooling your friends and visit a nearby hotel and explore your local areas to invigorate local travel near you.

Then post-Covid – we will get there one day – you can share the joys of the wonders of your “place” with those you will meet on your next travels somewhere new.

Avocados, pistachios. A natural Prozac?

Food

Karin Kloosterman

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May 18, 2021

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A natural food supplement found in avocados, pistachios, walnuts and canola oil can reduce anxiety, finds a new study. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute found that the plant-derived substance, beta-sitosterol, was found to produce this effect both on its own and in synergic combination with an antidepressant known under the brand name Prozac. The findings could point the way toward the use of beta-sitosterol as a treatment for relieving anxiety in humans.

Anxiety is not always a bad thing. In fact, in evolutionary terms, feeling anxious about potential threats is critical for survival because it helps us mount an appropriate response. That’s precisely why developing anti-anxiety drugs is so challenging. The circuits for anxiety in the brain are closely related to those responsible for memory, awareness and other functions vital for handling danger, so scientists are on the lookout for compounds that can selectively suppress anxiety without causing unwanted side effects.

The starting point for the present study was research conducted several years ago in the lab of Prof. Mike Fainzilber in Weizmann’s Biomolecular Sciences Department. Dr. Nicolas Panayotis and other lab members studied the roles of proteins that shuttle cargoes into the nuclei of nerve cells, and they discovered that in stressful situations, mice lacking a shuttling protein known as importin alpha-five showed less anxiety than the control mice. The researchers then checked how these “calmer” mice differed from regular ones in terms of gene expression, and they identified a genetic signature of their “calmness”: about 120 genes with a characteristic pattern of expression in the hippocampus, one of the brain regions that regulate anxiety.

In the new study, Panayotis, now a senior intern in Fainzilber’s lab, together with colleagues, searched an international genomic database for existing drugs or other compounds that might mimic the same gene expression signature. He identified five candidates and tested their effects on behavior in mice. That was how the researchers zeroed in on beta-sitosterol, a plant substance sold as a dietary supplement intended mainly to reduce cholesterol levels.

In a series of behavioral experiments, mice given beta-sitosterol showed much less anxiety than the controls. They were, for example, less fearful than the controls when placed in an illuminated enclosure, daring to walk into its brightly lit center, whereas regular mice were careful to stay on the darker periphery, avoiding the stress of the bright light. Moreover, the mice receiving beta-sitosterol did not exhibit any of the side effects that might be expected from antianxiety medications – their locomotion was not impaired, and they did not refrain from exploring novel stimuli.

Next, the researchers tested the effects of beta-sitosterol on mice when given in combination with fluoxetine, a drug belonging to the class of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, and sold under the brand name Prozac, among others. The combination had a synergistic effect: Both beta-sitosterol and fluoxetine reduced the anxiety of mice at lower doses when given together, compared with the doses needed to produce the same effect when they were administered separately.

Bring out the nuts for micro-dosing

A great advantage of beta-sitosterol is that it is naturally present in a variety of edible plants, and it is thought to be safe, as it has been marketed for years as a nutraceutical. It is found in particularly large concentrations in avocados, but also in pistachios, almonds and other nuts, in canola oil, in various grains and cereals and more.

However, this does not mean that eating avocado can induce a calming effect, since it doesn’t contain enough beta-sitosterol. “You’d need to eat avocado day and night to get the right dose – and you would be more likely to develop digestive problems than relieve your anxiety,” Panayotis says.

The precise mechanism of beta-sitosterol’s effect on anxiety remains to be revealed, but the scientists did find that the expression of several genes known to be activated in stressful situations was reduced in mice given the supplement. They also found that these mice had changes in the levels of certain metabolites and neurotransmitters in brain areas involved in anxiety.

Since the study focused on brain regions and neural pathways that are involved in regulating anxiety in both mice and humans, it is likely that the findings will apply to humans as well. This will, however, require further clinical testing.

As Fainzilber points out: “There’s a need for a clinical trial to test the use of beta-sitosterol for reducing anxiety in humans. Until then, we recommend that people consult their physicians before taking the supplement for this purpose.”

Study participants included Philip Freund and Dr. Letizia Marvaldi of the Biomolecular Sciences Department; Dr. Tali Shalit of the Nancy and Stephen Grand Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine; Dr. Alexander Brandis and Tevie Mehlman of the Life Sciences Core Facilities Department; and Dr. Michael Tsoory of the Veterinary Resources Department.

Fortnite to save old growth forests

Bhok Thompson

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May 18, 2021

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Epic Games, the online games kids will do anything to play (you know the names… Fortnite and Rocket League) –– even if they need to line up and play at the library computer. This online gaming company has decided they will use company profits to help save an Old Growth Forest in North Carolina. This makes environmentalists everywhere proud.

The founder of Epic Games decided to donate 7500 acres of land in the Appalachian Mountains to be preserved as a haven for wildlife forever. According to press reports the donation includes the largest American Chestnut restoration project in the country, extensive boulder fields, rich coves full of biodiversity, old growth forests, six waterfalls, and a system of rare heaths.

In addition to overseeing Epic’s Fortnite and Rocket league goods franchises Tim Sweeney has decided to be a Green Prophet and a conservation philanthropist. The land he has bought and donated is considered “priceless”.

It is the vision of philanthropists who can have an impact on the planet for hundreds of years into the future.

“As we watch so much of our region get carved into sub-divisions, strategic acquisition of large parcels of land is increasingly important — and increasingly hard to accomplish. In twenty years this gift might be one of the few sites in Western North Carolina that still looks like it looked one hundred years ago, or one thousand years ago,” said aid Carl Silverstein, executive director of the land trust who will manage the forest.

“These parcels include some of the most sought-after conservation acres in the eastern United States, including over 100 miles of pristine creeks and streams. We really are honored to be entrusted with the responsibility to steward this vast mountain complex,” he added.

Philanthropists play an important role in land conservation in the United States and countries like Scotland where people with vision 100 or 200 years into the future or more – understand that if private individuals don’t take action by preserving big swaths of land, it will be divided up for private use ruining the “wild” in wildlife.

Welcoming biologists

“This project is a conservationist’s dream come true,” said Marquette Crockett also from the land trust. “Pristine roadless land that has not been timbered over is almost impossible to find in the Southern Appalachians in 2021, but this assemblage contains so much that we value, from old growth forests to high-elevation open areas in an undisturbed condition. My phone will ring off the hook from biologists who want to visit and study this unparalleled preserve. We look forward to welcoming them to the mountain.”

Multiplayer player video games can be violent and addictive but there are options for steering your kids towards games that encourage cooperative play.

Video games like crypto can also be terrible for the environment from the carbon emissions released by the servers that run the games –– well, for the air conditioners that cool the servers that run the games. While there are companies in Helsinki using “greener” solutions and companies buying carbon credits, donation land to land trusts like this is just as good or maybe even a better than a short-term solution. And I hope the game developers will show off this gift to their players. Because the real values in life are connected to nature and our place in it.

If you don’t love video games for your kids: games like Minecraft are based on multiple player interaction but before you go there there is a single-player Creative mode on the “Peaceful” setting, where there is no interaction with others in the game and therefore no conflict. But eventually as kids develop in the game, most kids will want to play with others, and multiplayer gaming invites some risks.

Best Universities For Environmental Initiatives

Green Prophet Guest

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May 18, 2021

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Best Universities For Environmental Initiatives

hanging out in a tree, woman on branch of large tree — *Dream of being an environmental activist or lawyer? These schools have what counts when it comes to eco education.*

One of the most discussed subjects in the XXI century is environmental issues such as global warming, water, and air pollution, and biodiversity loss threatens all spheres of life on the planet and leads to irreversible changes in the ecosystems and resilience. A lot of educational institutions support environmental initiatives in order to become the “green” and address all-natural problems with such valuable resources as energy, water, and materials as they want to build a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly society. Universities grow the new generation, and it is crucial to lay the foundation in the minds of young people and develop the feeling of social responsibility and value of natural resources. Many of them define these demands and invest in greener buildings, products, and ways of engaging staff and students. In this article, you will find 10 of the best universities that support environmental initiatives.

Arizona State University

One of the leaders in the environmental initiatives and research of the ecological situation and climate changes in the USA. ASU takes serious commitment through the usage of circular resources, optimization of food and water consumption, collaborative and personal action, and awareness. It is also one of the first institutions in the United States that generated over 25 megawatts of solar energy. ASU is making an effort to accomplish carbon neutrality and become the largest research university in the area with the help of students’ desire to participate in learning this discipline.

Colorado State University

CSU is committed to the environment and global sustainability. In 2008, on the base of the university, was created a campus-wide school that addresses environmental challenges through broad research and other initiatives that welcomes students who are ready to make their contribution into environmental research and get the better of such issues as food and water security, poverty, inequality, energy, climate changes, biodiversity, globalization, industrial ecology, etc.

University of Maryland

At the base of the University of Maryland was established the center for Environmental Science and created the Environmental Sustainability Council that provides leadership, advice, and assistance in the enhancement of environmental sustainability. The students can research to understand the consequences of environmental changes on the usage of natural resources and the rehabilitation of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

American University

The American University develops the culture of sustainability through a number of outreach and student organizations. With green buildings that incorporate energy-efficient technologies, conscious consumption that involves zero waste, usage of solar energy, and increasing environmental awareness. The role of students in establishing an eco-friendly atmosphere and researching the environment is crucial. A lot of students are writing research papers and developing projects on this matter. Sometimes, it gets difficult to outline the findings and it is better to go to custom report writing to get help from the professionals. A lot of students’ research works were used to engage the community in the green initiative and raise the consciousness of the new generation.

University of California, San Diego

The UCSD makes efforts with environmental initiatives in multiple ways. The main goals include achieving zero waste, carbon neutrality, deliberate water, and food consumption, LEED certification for all new and renovated buildings. The university designed programs to educate students and employees on ways to make their daily work and living practices more sustainable.

Cornell University

Cornell University pays a lot of attention to eco-awareness and provides a lot of courses that teach the environment and sustainability issues and help to obtain the fundamental understanding of environmental science and environmental studies perspectives. There is a number of students’ groups that discuss the eco problems, energy-saving initiative, efficiency of powering, food expenditures and waste diversion.

Furman University

The university strives to create a sustainable future and pushes action for a minimization of environmental impact with the help of infrastructure changes, research, and sustainable food practices using the complex and holistic approach to the problems.

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota at Morris includes a broad range of initiatives including renewable energy, zero waste, and sustainable construction and renovation. Students play a vital role in solving ecological problems and based on that, the activists established the Ecostation for education, research, and creative activities for investigating climate change, agriculture, and energy independence.

Appalachian State University

Sustainability in ASU is not a trend, but a habit because the university management is concentrated on giving the proper knowledge and developing the feeling of social responsibility in students, and broadcast these ideas via different communication channels such as Sustainability Podcasts, Sustainable Living Guide, Zero Waste Commitment, and University’s Strategic Plan.

Chatham University

One of the “green” universities that aim to initiate the students to launch the sustainability projects that will lead to carbon neutrality, decrease the total electricity usage and turn to renewable energy from solar panels, wind stacks, and turbines, eliminate the sale of plastic water bottles and change the transport to bikes.

The movement of being “green” is growing bigger and most educational institutions support the idea of being eco-friendly and grow the new breed of conscious people who are ready to re-think and change the planet for the better. Every university can become “green” with small steps such as using sustainable building practices, generating energy, waste disposal, and recycling, conscious consumption of goods and food, green transport, dissemination of information to increase the awareness of this subject. Our mission is to reconsider the attitude to the resources we have and make our small steps on the way to a greener planet.

Author’s bio: Paul Calderon works for ecology consultancy and writes articles for online resources. He also shares information about environmental initiatives within educational organizations. Paul participates in the volunteer programs as he really strives to learn more about climate and weather changes.

Top 6 Reliable Websites About Marketing Fundamentals

Business

Bhok Thompson

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May 18, 2021

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marketing climate change — ***If climate change had a better marketing agency we might have solved it by now.***

Textbooks are great, but they don’t tell the whole story. For example, you may think that the 4 P’s of marketing is the key to everything. But anyone who’s worked a day in the field will tell you: it’s not that essential at all.

So, why not learn from the actual professionals in the field? They know it down to the nitty-gritty, unlike some professors (unfortunately). Besides, most curriculums wouldn’t cover such topics as advertising on TikTok or Twitter Spaces.

Leave the homework to custom essay writing services and focus on getting real-world knowledge instead. Trust this: such an investment of your time now will pay for itself tenfold when you land that sweet job.

Recruiters always look for candidates that aren’t just well-versed in their theory but also stay up to date. Real-world skills are also crucial, even more so than your diploma.

Here are six websites run by real marketing professionals that know the ropes.

HubSpot

HubSpot is the leader in business CRM software. But it’s their promotion efforts that are a great case study in and of themselves, especially in terms of brand and content marketing.

The company’s blog is a testament to that. Its marketing section has plenty of guides, free templates, and infographics. Topics vary from how to do market research to low-cost advertising hacks.

It’s also a great place to learn about the inbound concept – HubSpot was built on that idea, after all.

What’s more, HubSpot has a bunch of online courses in 10 categories, fully free of charge. Most of them are short, so it shouldn’t be a problem to complete one even if you have ADHD. Just google HubSpot Academy and create an account – and you’re all set to learn!

QuickSprout

QuickSprout is like a big encyclopedia for future and current entrepreneurs. And since marketing is key in getting any product sold, the corresponding section of the website is enormous. There, you’ll find subsections with posts on:

Email marketing;
SEO;
Content marketing.

Apart from those, make sure to check their beginner’s guides for online and emotional marketing.

Dummies

This website has an even wider range of topics covered, not all of them even related to business. The principle remains the same throughout all posts, though: explain complex topics using simple language. (Hence, the name.)

But don’t be too quick to dismiss Dummies because of that. Posts themselves live up to the idea: there are WikiHow-style step-by-step guides, lists, infographics, and more. Every text breaks down key concepts in a way that will be clear for a total beginner.

The website’s marketing section has tons of posts sorted into seven fields. They range from data-driven to social media, inbound, and influence marketing. You can access those via the Business parent category page.

The Blueprint (A Motley Fool Service)

Residing on the fool.com website, the Blueprint is a project that aims to bring expertise-powered advice to entrepreneurs and business professionals of all kinds.

All of the posts are reviewed by a team of experts – and that’s what makes it a trustworthy source of information.

As for the topics covered by the Blueprint, you’re in for a wild ride. There are beginner’s guides, that’s a given. But you can also learn from in-depth how-tos, case studies, and interviews. Topics vary from affiliate links and promoting podcasts to using QR codes.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite itself is a social media management platform. It streamlines and automates many processes associated with it. Hence, their expertise lies in all things social media specifically – and it shows in their blog.

So, if you plan to get your hands dirty in this particular field, Hootsuite is the right one-stop-shop for you. Many of their blog posts cover particular social media features and how to make good use of them, from Instagram stories to Google My Business messaging.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel himself has plenty of accolades for his work, and that’s what made him a household name among marketing specialists.

His blog, which now has posts in five languages including English, focuses on promoting products and brands online.

What kind of posts can you find there? In short, everything from the very fundamentals to more specialized how-tos. Topics themselves vary from Instagram promotion to the ins and outs of PPC ads.

In Conclusion: How to Make the Most Out of It

Such blogs are a great source of real-life knowledge, but you might struggle with making sense out of the information. After all, blog posts are typically disorganized, and it can all be just too much.

Here are five tips to help you make the most out of your self-assigned extracurricular activity:

Start with guides

These posts may come under different names – complete, comprehensive, or beginner’s guides, – but they all have one thing in common. They’re meant to be your starting point in the very basic concepts revolving marketing as a whole or its subfields like email or SEO.

Focus on one or two fields at a time

Gaining a general understanding of all various fields of marketing wouldn’t hurt anyone. But remember: recruiters look for specialists. Job descriptions are typically titled “PPC specialist” or “content writer”, not “marketing specialist”, after all.

Make it a habit

Set aside 15 or 30 minutes every evening to scroll through your favorite websites. Schedule it in your calendar app or add it to your to-do list. This is how you’ll ensure you won’t slack after a couple of days.

Take notes

It may come off as too formal-education-like, but there’s a good reason note-taking persists. If you write things down – by hand, preferably, – you are more likely to retain this information in long-term memory.

Practice makes perfect

Don’t run into the same pitfall that formal education is struggling with – theory with little practice, that is. Instead, focus on putting this knowledge to practice in real-world (or as similar as possible) conditions.

How Environmental Lawyers Help the Community

Nature

Bhok Thompson

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May 18, 2021

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How Environmental Lawyers Help the Community

forest bathing, woman hipster contemplating nature in dark green forest — *She is a lawyer who speaks for the trees.*

You don’t hear that often about environmental lawyers. But they are out there, and they do a good deal of things to help the community. Environmental lawyers are often mistaken for people who do nothing else but protect natural parks. In reality, they can do way more than that, and they are an essential part of the law system. So, what are environmental lawyers and how do they help out the world?

What Is an Environmental Lawyer?

An environmental lawyer is someone who advocates for the environment. They do things to make sure they protect nature while making it possible to live a healthier and safer life as humans.

Apart from that, they are people who work with air quality, rare animals, and anything related to environmental issues. They are specialists in their area, and they know a lot about biological and geological systems, as well as law. On top of that, they are aware of the way humans impact the planet and know what could be done to reduce that impact.

If you already are an attorney, you can become an environmental lawyer too as long as you make sure to acquire enough knowledge in science and biology. You must also obtain the right credentials and licenses. For instance, William, who used to be a Springfield probate attorney, gave up on that particular path in order to become an environmental lawyer. Now, he is getting involved in a lot of actions that seek to help out the environment and the people living in it.

What Does an Environmental Lawyer Do?

Besides legal and court matters, an environmental lawyer will also handle several issues related to the ecosystem, wildlife, flora, etc. These might include:

Animal rights
Protection for different species
Air and water quality
Climate change innovation and laws
Use of sea and public land
Better ways to manage waste
Agriculture and farming problems
Proper hazardous waste disposal
Biodiversity protection
Wetlands preservation
Future green strategies
Clean technology

Environmental lawyers also have the responsibility to represent their clients properly and make sure they research, assess, and strategize cases accordingly. The attorney should be aware of the local laws, as these may be different from state to state.

Also, they may work with the Environmental Protection Agency. The most important environmental laws are The Clean Water Act, The Clean Air Act, The Montreal Protocol, The Endangered Species Act, and the Reformation Plan No. 3 of 1970.

Last, but not least, environmental lawyers can help with matters like feedlots and wetland regulation, selling or buying contaminated real estate, zoo animal preservation, and others.

The Bottom Line

Environmental lawyers are necessary because they are the ones working towards a better world – a world where we take care of nature and animals. They care about the ecosystem and also want humans to breathe cleaner air and have cleaner water. So, environmental lawyers are necessary as they work hard for every community.

5 Reasons Why Slow Fashion Is a Smart Idea

Fashion

Bhok Thompson

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May 16, 2021

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5 Reasons Why Slow Fashion Is a Smart Idea

The fashion sector is one of the most polluting industries on the planet; only airplanes are worse. Like the concept of an ‘eco-friendly jet,’ slow fashion may sound like a contradiction in terms. ‘Fashion’ is synonymous with ‘change,’ which strongly implies ‘wastefulness.’ So you’re right to wonder what it means, and if it’s just another gimmick to sell you something. But sustainable fashion is real. So long as you shop mindfully and check the credentials of the company you’re dealing with, eco-friendly apparel is more than just the latest hot trend. Slow fashion is the way of the future.

1. More Time & Space

Most of us are suffering from a shortage of time and space, both in our home and in our mind. Investing in sustainable fashion is good for the planet, and it makes sense for the individual too. Classic, quality pieces free up valuable real estate in your closet and your brain. Having less to wade through to figure out what to wear saves you time and brain space, making it a win all the way around. Shop designers who create sustainable, timeless designs that will wear well for years to come, like Eileen Fisher and Vivienne Westwood.

For versatile and eco-conscious additions to your wardrobe, explore options like long sleeve sun shirts for women that combine function with style. These pieces are ideal for layering, offer sun protection, and hold up well through repeated wear and washes.

2. Less Landfill

Once upon a time, sustainability was the fashion. Wealthy individuals aside, most people had a set of clothes for work and something special to wear for worship and holidays, and that was it. Ditto for jewelry. Items were passed down from one generation to the next and nothing went to waste. What happened? The fashion sector decided consumers needed to buy more. Rather than 2 seasons just 20 years ago, there are now up to 24 fashion cycles per year. Clothes are also designed to fall apart so you must buy more. The result has been a $1.5 trillion industry which is great for sales, but not so much for the planet. Clothing production has more than doubled over the last 2 decades. The more clothes we have, the less we wear them, and the faster they wind up in the trash. Textiles waste in landfills increased by 40% in the US in just the 10 years between 1999-2009. Currently, only about 15% of textile waste goes to recycling. We must do better. Buy sustainably, wear what you own, and try consignment, both as a buyer and seller.

3. Reduced Carbon Emissions

The way textiles are produced really matters, and the type of textile matters too. Apparel manufacture creates about 10% of total global carbon dioxide emissions. Polyester is found in about 60% of all garments and producing it releases 2-3 times more carbon than cotton. If you’re thinking a natural fiber like cotton is the way to go, the answer is yes, but it’s not that straightforward because the way standard cotton is produced is less than ideal and requires the use of large amounts of pesticides. By contrast, growing cotton organically requires significantly fewer chemicals, resulting in healthier soil, as well as healthier workers who must handle them. Look for labels like Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Oeko-Tex, Better Cotton Initiative, and Bluesign.

4. Cleaner Water

The fashion industry is responsible for an estimated 20% of water waste around the world. To produce a single cotton tee shirt requires the use of approximately 700 gallons of water. That’s about 2 1/2 years of drinking water for one person. Synthetics are responsible for some 500,000 tons of microfibers that end up in the ocean every year, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. Add to that the 8,000 different synthetic chemicals used in the dyeing process, most of which are toxic to humans, animals, and the environment, and it’s clear things need to change. In China, it is estimated that about 90% of the local groundwater is polluted. The best way to clean up our water is by buying less and seeking out clothes made using sustainable practices.

5. Healthier Planet

Fashion brands are well aware of the hard facts about the waste they’re promoting, but businesses exist to make money. In some cases, this has created the problem of ‘greenwashing,’ or the unscrupulous practice of making a product sound more eco-friendly than it actually is. But there are plenty of brands, both big and boutique, that are legitimately taking steps to combat the pollution problem. For example, Adidas is developing sneakers from ocean plastic. Levi’s is working toward 100% sustainably-sourced cotton and renewable energy by 2025. Cuyana offers single-origin, traceable cashmere right now, and is committed to using 100% sustainable materials as early as 2022. Veja is a certified B Corporation, meaning it meets certain standards of social and environmental sustainability. Stella McCartney was one of the earliest adopters of sustainable fashion and, besides using recyclable and renewable materials for her apparel, also employs renewable energy in the company’s stores and offices. These are just a few examples, and there are many more who are serious about their commitment to a healthy planet.

As consumers, we have the power to vote with our wallet. Be smart: do your research, think before you buy, and wear what you have. Small steps really do add up.

Cultivated Meat Likely to Make Up 40% of Future Meat Intake, say Americans polled

Food

Karin Kloosterman

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May 13, 2021

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Cultivated Meat Likely to Make Up 40% of Future Meat Intake, say Americans polled

aleph farms engineered slaughter free meat, man looking at a piece of it Consumers envision cultivated meat to be a significant part of the meat market; Study reveals compelling support among young Britons and Americans.

The research, published on May 11, 2021 by the journal Foods, affirms that cultivated meat is likely to make up a major part of consumers’ future diets. The study showed patterns of greater openness to trying such products by younger generational groups: 87-89% of Gen Z adults, 84-85% of Millennials, 76-77% of Gen X, and 70-74% of Boomers were at least somewhat open to trying cultivated meat.

Led by Keri Szejda, the researchers surveyed a large, representative sample of 2,018 US and 2,034 UK consumers, assessing indicators of adoption among the general population, and by generational segments.

The majority of consumers surveyed were not familiar with cultivated meat, yet upon being presented with a description of the innovation, the respondents, on average, imagined that cultivated meat could make up about 40% of their future meat intake, with conventional meat constituting around 60%.

Lab-grown meat on the market includes companies like Memphis Meats, Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms. They differ from meat alternative companies such as and which use plant proteins such as peas, to make vegetable-based meats that taste like meat.

Honing in on the findings of the survey, which segmented the participants by age and by degree of enthusiasm, 40% of consumers were “very” or “extremely likely” to try cultivated meat in both the US and the UK. This group of enthusiastic triers was categorized as the “early majority” group. Of the early majority group, an overwhelming 98-99% of them said they would consider welcoming it as a regular item in their shopping basket.

The vast majority of the early majority are omnivores (94-95%) who consume meat 2-3 times per day in a typical week.

“In order to turn this expected acceptance into actual consumption patterns over time, it is critical to develop the right products, based on the right solutions,” says Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, which commissioned the research.

“In the long term, Aleph Farms‘ vision is to provide a better alternative to industrial livestock farming, which represents approximately 70% of global meat production today.”

Younger generations — the early adopters

“The results suggest that cultivated meat is likely to be widely accepted by the general public, especially the younger generations and an eager group of early adopters who appreciate its benefits across a wide range of social issues.

These groups tend to embrace change and need little encouragement to try new food innovations,” notes Szejda, Ph.D., Founder and Principal Research Scientist of North Mountain Consulting Group. “Additionally, we observed an increase in support for the technology once consumers had access to additional information, underscoring the importance of effective science communication for consumer adoption.”

Sociodemographic analyses comparing the early majority groups to the general population suggest that the early majority are more often younger (Gen Z or Millennials), male, more liberal, and more educated. In the US and the UK, an average of 77% of Gen X and 74% of Boomers were open to trying it, in comparison to 85% of Millennials, and 89% of Gen Z.

“In contrast to the younger eager adopters, the older generations are more wary of change,” explains Toubia. “Social proof is important to them and they want to be assured that a product is safe, functional, and beneficial before they adopt it. This is why transparency and trust are cornerstones of our company,” concludes Toubia.

There are also great ways to substitute fruit and vegetables for meat while bypassing the laboratories.

The 10 Best Meat Substitutes for Vegetarian and Vegan Dishes

Jackfruit
Tofu
Tempeh
Lentils
Seitan
Canned Black Beans
Veggie Burgers
Chickpeas or Garbanzo Bean

Covid’s triple threat

Health

Karin Kloosterman

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May 12, 2021

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Severe symptoms of COVID-19, leading often to death, are thought to result from the patient’s own acute immune response rather than from damage inflicted directly by the virus. Immense research efforts are therefore invested in figuring out how the virus manages to mount an effective invasion while throwing the immune system off course. A new study, published today in Nature, reveals a multipronged strategy that the virus employs to ensure its quick and efficient replication, while avoiding detection by the immune system. The joint labor of the research groups of Dr. Noam Stern-Ginossar at the Weizmann Institute of Science and Dr. Nir Paran and Dr. Tomer Israely of the Israel Institute for Biological, Chemical and Environmental Sciences, this study focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms at work during infection by SARS-CoV-2 at the cellular level.

During an infection, our cells are normally able to recognize that they’re being invaded and quickly dispatch signaling molecules, which alert the immune system of the attack. With SARS-CoV-2 it was apparent early on that something was not working quite right – not only is the immune response delayed, enabling the virus to quickly replicate, unhindered, but once this response does occur it’s often so severe that instead of fighting the virus it causes damage to its human host.

“Most of the research that has addressed this issue so far concentrated on specific viral proteins and characterized their functions. Yet not enough is known today about what is actually going on in the infected cells themselves,” says Stern-Ginossar, of the Molecular Genetics Department. “So we infected cells with the virus and proceeded to assess how infection affects important biochemical processes in the cell, such as gene expression and protein synthesis.”

When cells are infected by viruses, they start expressing a series of specific anti-viral genes – some act as first-line defenders and meet the virus head on in the cell itself, while others are secreted to the cell’s environment, alerting neighboring cells and recruiting the immune system to combat the invader. At this point, both the cell and the virus race to the ribosomes, the cell’s protein synthesis factories, which the virus itself lacks. What ensues is a battle between the two over this precious resource.

The new study has elucidated how SARS-CoV-2 gains the upper hand in this battle: It is able to quickly, in a matter of hours, take over the cell’s protein-making machinery and at the same time to neutralize the cell’s anti-viral signaling, both internal and external, delaying and muddling the immune response.

The researchers showed that the virus is able to hack the cell’s hardware, taking over its protein-synthesis machinery, by relying on three separate, yet complementary, tactics. The first tactic the virus uses is to reduce the cell’s capacity for translating genes into proteins, meaning that less proteins are synthesized overall. The second tactic is that it actively degrades the cell’s messenger RNAs (mRNA) – the molecules that carry instructions for making proteins from the DNA to the ribosomes – while its own mRNA transcripts remain protected. Finally, the study revealed that the virus is also able to prevent the export of mRNAs from the cell’s nucleus, where they are synthesized, to the cell’s main chamber, where they normally serve as the template for protein synthesis.

“By employing this three-way strategy, which appears to be unique to SARS-CoV-2, the virus is able to efficiently execute what we call ‘host shutoff’ – where the virus takes over the cell’s protein-synthesis capacity,” Stern-Ginossar explains. “In this way, messages from important anti-viral genes, which the cell rushes to produce upon infection, do not make it to the factory floor to be translated into active proteins, resulting in the delayed immune response we are seeing in the clinic.” The good news is that this study was also successful in identifying the viral proteins involved in the process of host shutoff by SARS-CoV-2, which could spell new opportunities for developing effective COVID-19 treatments.

Study authors also included Yaara Finkel, Avi Gluck, Aharon Nachshon, Dr. Roni Winkler, Tal Fisher, Batsheva Rozman, Dr. Orel Mizrahi and Dr. Michal Schwartz, who are all members of Dr. Noam Stern-Ginossar’s group; Dr. Yoav Lubelsky and Binyamin Zuckerman from Prof. Igor Ulitsky’s group in the Department of Biological Regulation; Dr. Boris Slobodin from the Department of Biomolecular Sciences – as well as Dr. Yfat Yahalom-Ronen and Dr. Hadas Tamir from the Israel Institute for Biological, Chemical and Environmental Sciences.

Smart reason to like mosquitos

Animals

Karin Kloosterman

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May 11, 2021

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Can a protein found in a mosquito lead to a better understanding of the workings of our own brains? Prof. Ofer Yizhar and his team in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Neurobiology Department took a light-sensitive protein derived from mosquitos and used it to devise an improved method for investigating the messages that are passed from neuron to neuron in the brains of mice.

This method, reported today in Neuron, could potentially help scientists solve age-old cerebral mysteries that could pave the way for new and improved therapies to treat neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Yizhar and his lab team develop so-called optogenetic methods – research techniques that allow them to “reverse engineer” the activity of specific brain circuits in order to better understand their function. Optogenetics uses proteins known as rhodopsins to control the activity of neurons in the mouse brain.

Rhodopsins are light-sensing proteins – they are most known for their role in organs like the retina rather than in the dark inner reaches of the body. But the rhodopsins in the brains of Yizhar’s mice enable him to control the activity of specific neurons when he and his team shine a minuscule beam of light into the mouse’s brain. He is especially interested in communication between neurons: What signals are getting passed through the synapses, those gaps over which the brain’s signals move? “We can detect the presence of the various neurotransmitters, but different neurons ‘read’ those neurotransmitters differently,” he says. “Optogenetics enables us to not only see the ‘ink,’ but really to decipher the ‘message’.”

While optogenetic methods have produced a number of breakthrough results in labs around the world in recent years, they can be a bit finicky. In particular, the rhodopsins used for optogenetic studies tend to be imperfect when it comes to controlling the activity of synapses, the tiny junctions between neurons.

Yizhar and a large team of his trainees, including Dr. Mathias Mahn, Dr. Inbar Saraf Sinik and Pritish Patil, believed they could create a better version of the rhodopsins than those currently available. “We decided to look around and see what natural solutions exist out there,” says Yizhar.

And nature, it turns out, contains a multitude of variations on the rhodopsin molecule – not only in animal eyes but also fish, insects, and even mammals carry them in various body parts; some possibly for regulating their circadian cycles, others for purposes as yet unknown. Thus, the team started out with a long list of potential rhodopsin proteins, and their first job involved assessing which ones were most likely to fill their experimental requirements, which primarily included light-gated proteins that are able to modulate synaptic activity. Eventually the researchers winnowed their list down to two – one taken from a pufferfish and one from a mosquito.

It was the mosquito rhodopsin that turned out to be the most suitable. To evaluate the efficacy of the new mosquito-derived tool, the researchers tested their method against a drug that is known to reduce the strength of the communication between neurons in the brain. They found that the interference was just as effective, and much more stable with the mosquito rhodopsin.

More than that: Unlike a conventional drug that affects numerous parts of the brain and is hard to control, the researchers found that since only neurons that produce the mosquito sensor are affected by the light, the modulatory effect on the brain’s synapses can be precisely controlled in both space and time – just by switching the light on or off in specific brain regions. They then validated the utility of the new tool by using it to block the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine on one side of the brain only: Illuminating the hemisphere expressing the mosquito rhodopsin with green light led to a one-sided bias in the behavior of these mice. In other words, they had created a tool that was precise, selective, and controllable.

“One of the major advantages of the mosquito rhodopsin is that it’s bistable – that is, it does not need refreshing – and it is potentially very specific, so that we can control just the precise synapses in which we are interested,” says Yizhar. “This is a very exciting technology, since it will allow us to discover the roles of specific pathways in the brain in a way that was not possible before.

“We think this mosquito protein could open the way to developing a whole family of new optogenetic tools for use in neuroscience research.”

Car Detailing: Everything You Should Know About It

Transportation

Bhok Thompson

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May 11, 2021

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Car Detailing: Everything You Should Know About It

food truck coffee van — *Maybe you want to start a coffee van or a mobile business that is also eco. Car detailing is important for your brand.*

Unfortunately for many people, “car detailing” means simple car maintenance. But car detailing is so much more than ‘usual cleaning of your car’.

Detailing is a process to restore the vehicle to “as new condition” after the car has gone through daily wear and tear.

A professional car detailing process starts with various types of washing like:

Simple Washing: Wet sponge vehicle and hose off
Wash and dry: Washing with chamois dry-off
Wash and Vacuum: Washing, plus an interior vacuum

If you’re confused about car detailing and want to know how it can prolong your car’s life for good, continue reading this article.

Common Car Issues That may Require Detailing

Overspray: This can be visually noticeable or felt by running your hand over the bodywork and observing a sandpaper effect. This is usually caused by airborne paint residue settling on your paintwork and glassed areas.
Paint blotching: Usually an irreparable condition mainly caused by the breakdown of the pigment due to age and neglect. Normally rectification involves a repaint of the affected areas.
Oxidization (faded paintwork): Vehicles oxidize within 60 days of being painted. The Ultraviolet rays from sunlight cause oxidation. This is particularly noticeable when vehicles have not had regular maintenance and upkeep to the painted surfaces – they are basically sunburnt. Regular polishing puts back moisture into the paintwork.

Various Types of Car Detailing Processes

Polishing

This step involves hand-applied polymer in addition to simple washing. If not performed correctly, the finish can suffer from “swirl marks,” which are particularly hard to remove and detracts from the appearance of your vehicle.

It can be rectified but may involve a long process. A polish will only last 2 to 3 months, depending upon how the vehicle is stored/garaged.

Note: A Polish will not remove scratches. Retail polishes may contain fillers which temporarily give the illusion that the scratches have been removed. Still, after just a few washes, the filler is gone, and the scratches will reappear.

Machine Cut & Polishing

This is a 2 stage process with a multi-speed buffing machine (this takes years of experience). It is best recommended to be done by a car mechanic.

Some amateurs consider that maximum results can be achieved by hand application as they simply do not have the expertise, knowledge, or equipment to achieve a professional result (uniform results cannot be achieved by hand application).

This process removes dullness, oxidization, minor scratches, scuffs, and most forms of industrial fallout.

Using Protective Sealants

Protective Sealants are professionally applied glaze containing “Temperaflex,” a nonstick all-climate sealant with the ability to absorb ultraviolet rays eliminating oxidation.

Sealants are not polishes. They form a rock hard shield to magnify luster and repel foreign matter. Do not confuse sealants with paint protection, as most protections simply do not work effectively. In harsh climatic conditions, sealants help protect your vehicle’s investment!

Shampooing

This is the process for washing, cleaning, and extraction, removing all embedded dirt, grease, body fat, and many other natural contaminants from the seats and carpet areas by using high-powered professional equipment.

Do not confuse this with dry cleaning, which only removes surface spotting.

Note: Dog hair removal is a separate process, requiring a special appliance. Also, removing human and pet accidents is a different process requiring the killing of any resultant bacteria.

Detailing of Leather Upholstery

Cleaning a car seat’s leather upholstery involves removing most embedded soil, food stains, and other stains from virtually all car fabric. Conditioning moisturizes the leather and helps to maintain its soft luxurious feel, reducing its aging and cracking.

Final Word

Detailing is an important process to ensure your car keeps working in top-notch condition. You may also come across a damaged car part that needs immediate replacement.

Real life genie lamp found in Jerusalem

Karin Kloosterman

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May 5, 2021

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Disney makes genies sound like fun and games but genies, or jinns, in the Middle East are serious business. Especially if one has moved into your house and won’t leave the couch. Miriam has written some great stories on jinns and how to get rid of them.

Now, right out of the legends, archeologists in Israel discover a rare find –– one of a few of the world’s rarest existing genie lamps.

The bronze oil lamp, shaped like a grotesque face that is cut in half, was recently discovered in the City of David National Park.

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists, Ari Levy and Dr. Yuval Baruch, believe that the lamp, which was discovered in the foundations of a building built upon the pilgrimage road, was intentionally deposited in order to bring good fortune to the building’s residents:

“The offering of this lamp may attest to the importance of the building, which may have been linked to the protection of the Siloam Pool, the city’s primary water source.”

This special bronze lamp was deliberately buried in the foundations of the building, dating to the Roman Period, subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 CE (late 1^st-early 2^nd century CE). In the opinion of the site’s archeologists, the lamp was a foundation deposit (a ritual burial of an offering in the foundations of a building).

Foundation deposits (offerings) were prevalent in the ancient world, and were intended for luck, and to ensure the continued existence of the building and its occupants, and they were usually buried under the floors of buildings or foundations, explained the researchers.

In actuality, the artefact is half of a lamp. It was poured into a sculpted mold that was shaped like half of a face of a bearded man with a grotesque appearance. The tip of the lamp is shaped like a crescent moon, and the handle is shaped like the Acanthus plant, known as sea holly or bear’s foot. The decoration that appears on the lamp is reminiscent of a common Roman artistic motif, similar to a theatrical mask.

According to the archaeologists, “This lamp is a very unique find, and as far as we know, the first of its kind discovered in Israel. The uniqueness of the current object is that it is only half a face.”

Researchers are debating what this means. It may have been simply a practical matter. The lamp may have been attached to a flat object or wall, serving as a wall lamp, but the possibility that it was an object used in some sort of ceremonial ritual should not be ruled out.

Speculating over the meaning behind the lamp

According to archaeologist Ari Levy, director of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The building where the lamp was discovered was built directly on top of the Pilgrimage Road at the end of the Second Temple period.

The construction of such a massive structure in the period after the destruction of Jewish Jerusalem demonstrates the importance of the area even after the destruction of the Second Temple. It is possible that the importance of the building, and the need to bless its activity with luck by burying a foundation deposit, was due to its proximity to the Siloam Pool, which was also used in the Roman period as the central source of water within the city.”

After the bronze lamp was found, it was handed over for treatment and preservation in the metal laboratory of the Israel Antiquities Authority and put in the care of Ilia Reznitsky.

During the treatment, another exciting discovery was made – inside the lamp was its wick, which was unusually preserved. The wick, which is a very rare find, was submitted for examination by Dr. Naama Sukenik, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Upon microscopic examination, Dr. Sukenik identified that it was a wick made of flax. Future stages of research will try and identify any oil residue left on the wick, which will help determine whether the lamp was used, and if so, what oil they used to light it.

There was no mention if the lamp was rubbed and if magic genies popped out of it. Yet.

This sweet pea is smart when choosing bacterial partner

Food

Karin Kloosterman

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May 3, 2021

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This sweet pea is smart when choosing bacterial partner

Researchers have shown that pea plants are not only capable helping up with solar energy and making a good alternative meat burger like Beyond Meat but they able to help us with sustainable agriculture too. Scientists at Oxford have found that peas are selective with choosing symbiotic bacteria as partners. These are smart investment decisions say the researchers in a new report.

(And if you got here just because you love peas, read our pea pod soup recipe. It’s a killer).

The new research, published today in PNAS, shows that a plant weighs up the different bacterial partners, and then only provides sugar to the best available strains; cutting off those that are less good. This means that the plant must be able to compare different strains and invest accordingly: a strain that looks like a good investment in one context, might be a poor choice in another.

Annet Westhoek at the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, who jointly led the work said: ‘The bacteria only start to supply nitrogen once they have been in the nodules for a few days, so the plant has to wait before it can decide how beneficial each bacterial strain will be.’

Globally, the biggest factor limiting plant growth is a lack of nitrogen, which makes up almost 80% of the Earth’s atmosphere. But plants simply can’t make use of nitrogen gas in the air. For this reason, legumes – the plant family that includes peas – have evolved a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria called rhizobia, which convert nitrogen gas into a form that plants can use.

Pea plants host the bacteria in specialised root growths called nodules, but the bacteria demand sugar from the plant in return for the nitrogen that they supply.

The plant is usually infected by many different bacterial strains and some bacteria provide more nitrogen than others, giving rise to an investment dilemma. While it was already known that some plants stop investing in bacteria which provide no nitrogen at all, by cutting off their sugar supply, it hasn’t been clear until now how plants make more subtle investment decisions.

This study used a novel approach by engineering a bacterial strain that was intermediate in its ability to provide nitrogen. The plants treated this strain differently depending on which other strains were available. When the only choice was a strain that provided no nitrogen at all, then the plant invested in the intermediate strain. But, when a really good strain was available, the plant cut off investment to the intermediate strain.

One of the study’s lead authors, Laura Clark, a DPhil student at Oxford’s Department of Plant Sciences and Merton College, said: ‘This research shows that plants must have some mechanism to compare different bacteria and make smart investment decisions. We were really surprised that plants could do that, rather than simply supplying sugars in proportion to the nitrogen supplied.’

Dr Lindsay Turnbull, who co-supervised the research, said: ‘This is a key development as previous research in this area used naturally-occurring bacteria which may have differed in many characteristics. In this study, the bacterial strains were genetically altered to provide different levels of nitrogen, so we can be sure that changes in the plant’s response are due to differences in their ability to supply nitrogen.’

Currently, most crop plants are supplemented with inorganic nitrogen fertilisers. These are produced on an industrial scale by the Haber-Bosch process, an energy-intensive reaction which consumes around 1% of the world’s energy supply. Their use also leads to run-off into waterways, causing excessive growth of algae and leading to coastal dead-zones.

Professor Phil Poole, who co-supervised the research, said: ‘Understanding how plants manage their interactions with bacteria could help us select plants which are better at choosing effective bacterial partners. This could reduce the demand for nitrogen fertilisers and the associated problems that they cause.’

Prepping Lifestyle – A Complete Walkthrough

Lifestyle

Bhok Thompson

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May 1, 2021

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People who are not into the virtue of practicing a prepper lifestyle misunderstand this kind of lifestyle. Some would tag it as absurd, a waste of time preparing for a disaster that will not happen. If you have less to no idea about the prepper lifestyle, let this write-up walk you through the journey of a prepper.

What is a prepper lifestyle?

A prepper lifestyle is living a life anchored to prepare for unforeseen destructions and disasters. It is also called a “survival lifestyle” or “survivalism.” Every prepper has a different reason why they choose to be one. And, there is no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to prepping. There are different types of preppers since they differ in characteristics and the kind of disaster they are preparing for.

The level of preparedness about something also differentiates preppers from one another. Also, the kind of prepper a person depends on the place they live in; for instance, preppers in earthquake-prone areas mold themselves to be ready when an earthquake comes.

Reason Why They Choose A Prepper Lifestyle

In a world full of convenience and instants, here are some reasons why preppers still want to go out of their comfort zone and choose the prepper lifestyle:

1. To break the rat race cycle.

Some people are continually exhausted from their everyday routine. The rat race cycle goes from working yourself off, receiving your salary, and going empty-handed after buying all the needs and wants. It is like living today while leaving nothing for retirement.

Preppers want to break this dilemma. They bear in mind that they must earn money today to prepare for the future or for the disasters to come, setting aside buying unnecessary things that cannot help them survive.

2. To gain skills for survival and self-defense.

Preppers always prepare for the worst-case scenarios. They believe that there are crucial skills that they must possess to survive and stay alert when worse comes to worst. However, it is not shooting and jujitsu self-defense skills all the time. It also teaches them how to be frugal, has compassion for others, gardening, basic fix-it skills, home-keeping, and first-aid skills.

Being self-reliant is one of the topmost priorities of preppers. Strive to be the jack of all trades and gain holistic expertise with every skill that they possess because they believe that these abilities serve as armor in times of catastrophe.

3. For lower household expenses.

Even though transitioning to a prepper lifestyle is not simple, some benefits come along the way that contribute to the simplicity of life. Preppers usually live near their workplace, cutting off vehicle or gas expenses. Also, some of them choose to live a life resembling an off-grid one— growing their food, reducing electric consumption, and shutting down some parts of their houses when winter comes to save energy for heating.

Practicing this kind of lifestyle will give preppers a lot of savings for preparing and buying things necessary for the disaster they are preparing for.

4. To lessen the possible impact of an incident on life.

Preppers do not, and all the time, prepare for a zombie apocalypse or the end of the world. They think of how to lessen the harm that an accident, risk, or disaster might bring to the members of the family. They even plan and strategize how to handle financial difficulties, job changes, and power outages.

They even have ample food supply for the whole family if grocery stores are closed or when a lockdown happens.

5. To have peace of mind.

It is pretty scary to think of the possible untoward events that may come. It gives us more anxiety to realize how unprepared we are. It is one reason why preppers put everything in place even though they know nothing about the future. What is important to them is knowing that disasters and risks are a normal part of our lives, and coming prepared will lessen their anxiety and the negative impacts on their lives.

Prepping Must-Haves

Prepping for beginners can be overwhelming, but if you decide to be one, here are some of the things a prepper must have:

1. A physically fit body.

Everything you planned and prepared will be useless if you do not have a physically fit body. Your body will help you lift supplies and other heavy equipment, as well as run fast during a disaster. Through exercising correctly, your body can adapt quickly to strenuous working environments to survive.

Cardiovascular exercises help you strengthen your lung and heart muscles, and weight lifting will grow your muscles for lifting heavy. However, exercise is not enough to achieve a body in shape. Eating clean and healthy while incorporating superfoods provides enough nutrients to stay active for an extended period of time during the survival stage.

2. Batteries, matches, duct tape

Batteries, matches, and duct tapes are necessities; however, their importance is underrated in the typical home setup. In prepping, these things are essential; batteries can power up your flashlight and transistor radios during a power outage; matches are a source of fire, and duct tape is used to hold things sturdily.

3. Heavy-duty knife

Aside from your all-purpose pocket knife, it is essential to have a heavy-duty one. There are many ways to use your knife, such as in food preparation, self-defense, cutting wood and other materials, signal devices, digging, and shelter building. You can also use your knife to start a fire.

4. Cookware and camp stove

Preppers have cookware and stoves that do not need electricity; this lets them cook despite the power outage. Some of them use propane-fueled burners since they come in handy and fit in an indoor setup.

6. A month food supply for the family

Storing food is not enough. Preppers calculate their food supply according to the capacity of each family member. Also, they ensure that the food they hold is rich in nutrients enough to fuel them longer than junk or fast foods.

Stored water and water purifier

Without food, a person can survive for three weeks provided that there is water at their disposal. However, in events that water is scarce, an average individual can only live up to three days. Fluids compose 65% of our body, which explains why water is essential to survive and keep us from dehydration. There are instances where water sources during disasters are unreliable and can be contaminated. A water purifier can help preppers to clean and still use their water supply.

6. Strategic Survival Plan

A true prepper will not go to a war empty-handed. Strategic planning serves as a guide for preppers on what to do before, during, and post – disasters. Moreover, in a family, it is not feasible that only one member is a prepper. Everyone must contribute to their survival. In a plan, it is crucial to state and relay the responsibilities of every family member. Also, mentioning the proper tools used in every situation is a part of strategic planning.

Myths on Prepping

1. Preppers are selfish; they hoard supplies like food, water, and other necessities.

Expert preppers do not hoard goods way too much. The truth is they only stock and store the things they need. They believe that storing stuff for just having supplies will cause them more harm than good if the resources are not beneficial.

Preppers continually add minor additions to their stockpile, and they do not buy in bulk. If you come to think of it, it’s the non-preppers who do the panic buying.

2. Preppers want something terrible to happen.

Preppers only understand that major catastrophic events and crises in society are hard to evade and that people must grow awareness and readiness in themselves. Wherever you live, it is normal to experience natural and human-made disasters.

3. Preppers are heavily armed.

Some of the preppers indeed have guns and other firearms, but not all. Guns can not always protect your family, especially if you don’t know how to use them. Some preppers prefer to put their money on the overall security of their homes, like quality security cameras, locks, and doors. In times of crisis, it is more acceptable to look harmless and weak to stay safe than someone who uses heavy firearms to gain authority.

All in all, prepping lifestyle is grooming oneself to survive in a world full of unwanted surprises. Some people mock and scrutinize them until the Covid-19 pandemic happened. Preppers show how planning and preparation can aid in alleviating the effects of a disastrous event.

Now that you learn about prepping lifestyle remember that you cannot become a prepper in just a snap. The transition from a non-prepper to being a prepper is a step-by-step process that requires patience and discipline. However, if you try to think about the list of skills learned and the worthwhile experience gained, excitement and enthusiasm will fuel your desire to pursue this lifestyle. There are free prepper and survival kindle ebooks to guide you if you want to start being a prepper.

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Finance

Marketing

Politics

Strategy

Hot topics

Finance

Marketing

Politics

Strategy

HubSpot

QuickSprout

Dummies

The Blueprint (A Motley Fool Service)

Hootsuite

Neil Patel

In Conclusion: How to Make the Most Out of It

Start with guides

Focus on one or two fields at a time

Make it a habit

Take notes

Practice makes perfect

1. More Time & Space

2. Less Landfill

3. Reduced Carbon Emissions

4. Cleaner Water

5. Healthier Planet

Common Car Issues That may Require Detailing

Various Types of Car Detailing Processes

Final Word

What is a prepper lifestyle?

Reason Why They Choose A Prepper Lifestyle

1. To break the rat race cycle.

2. To gain skills for survival and self-defense.

3. For lower household expenses.

4. To lessen the possible impact of an incident on life.

5. To have peace of mind.

Prepping Must-Haves

1. A physically fit body.

2. Batteries, matches, duct tape

3. Heavy-duty knife

4. Cookware and camp stove

6. A month food supply for the family

Stored water and water purifier

6. Strategic Survival Plan

Myths on Prepping

1. Preppers are selfish; they hoard supplies like food, water, and other necessities.

2. Preppers want something terrible to happen.

3. Preppers are heavily armed.

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